Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jay Schweid. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jay, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

When I started ephelants, I had no idea where it was going to go. I was looking to do something different as I was segueing from my previous business. What I knew for sure, was that I did not want another business with my name in it – ha!

We started doing events as I had been doing them for years all over the world as part of my Concierge Service, so it felt natural. From there, people started asking if we could do videos, then commercials. As I know a lot of photographers, we helped arrange (ie produce) photo shoots. Not long after, we started doing short films and branded content, which lead to feature films.

Marketing and Tech were always areas that I was comfortable with and had a good understanding of so people would come to us and ask for help and these services became part of our offerings.

I always saw us as an Entertainment Company as opposed to a Production or Marketing Company or Agency and I suppose that’s what made the evolution so seamless.

Jay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been in and around the entertainment industry my whole life, starting as a semi pro athlete (tennis), which led to my first business, which I started more to make enough money to go on tour full time than to start a business.

I dropped out of high school so I didn’t have any real education and had to learn along the way, which was certainly challenging at time, but the upside was I didn’t have any preconceived notions about how this or that was supposed to be done and could make most things my own. This enabled us to create our own way of doing many things and made us a leader in every field we were involved in.

That mindset has carried through to every business I’ve been involved with. While I always lead with respect and am a strong believer in structure, organization (a bit OCD personally) continuity and consistency, I’m also a rebel (with a cause), so I don’t follow of do things just because that’s the way others do, if it doesn’t make sense or we can find a better way.

Aside from our constant desire to do the best we can do and be better today than we were yesterday, we’re always looking for new ways to be helpful and push things to another level.

By offering complimentary services and having diverse team all over the world, we’re able to come up with different perspectives and ideas as well as execute globally which can not only raise the level and quality of service we provide, it can also be far more efficient and cost effective.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Making the world a better place for all is the main driving force for all that I/we do. We firmly believe that we can have an impact through storytelling and that mission drives us every day.

As we evolve as a brand, adding more services to help our clients and partners – existing and future, we’re developing a global platform for the entire entertainment industry to bring projects from concept to distribution, engaging creatives, fans and investors.

This will be a game changer that will include first time filmmakers, academy and grammy award winners, students and universities to studios and distributors. Combining technology and human interaction to bring the best stories to life that audiences crave and give investors solid returns creating a better ecosystem for sustainable growth..

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I’d say being honest, compassionate, empathetic and being there for others is a good starting point. Truly listening while continuing to be a fan of all those that create – whether that’s a business, a film, song, art, science, objects or businesses.

I’ve always been curious and it’s not to be an encyclopedia but to have knowledge and respect of all that I meet so I can do my part to share with and help others along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ephelantsz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ephelants
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ephelants
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ephelants/?viewAsMember=true
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ephelants
• Youtube: https://vimeo.com/ephelants