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

Hi Connor, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

My mom always reminds me of the story about my first time getting dropped off at preschool, let’s just say I was not happy about it. Something about a controlled classroom environment and being taught things I didn’t sign up for just got me anxious and annoyed. These feelings persisted all the way throughout my school life until sophomore year until I decided I had enough. That following Monday morning I walked into Vantage Point High school knowing I wouldn’t be back. I said thank you and gave my appreciation to my teachers at the time and told them I was moving on to follow my dreams. I had this vision in my mind of getting my GED, finding a job, and starting to pursue my newfound hype on photography. I failed most classes in school but pushed through to pass the GED test. After that, I snagged a pizza delivery job and picked up my camera any chance I got, which led to me going full-time with my business in 2018. Twelve years after making the move to leave high school I feel more and more thankful for the opportunity of designing a life I saw for myself, and not a life the system wanted me to have. I am not trying to diss the school system, but it’s not set up to bring excitement to learning. I may have failed in the system early on, but once I broke the chains of the norm I was utilizing my body and mind to much higher potential in this lifetime.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I simply got into my craft by accident, I never had any intentions of becoming a filmmaker nor did I see it as a sustainable way to make a living early on. What got me excited about it was action sports, particularly mountain biking. I always saw mountain bike videos or films that came out and I thought it would be cool to do that with my friends. I started making videos on my iPhone and quickly became obsessed with the process. I ended up turning that passion into a business that creates documentaries, commercials, music videos, and action sports films and media. What sets my business apart from others is that I am willing to take risks, dive deep into finding solutions, and travel across the world to tell stories. I am most proud of how I have been able to find work around the world and work with some of my dream clients!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I have always been a hands-on person, and I enjoy things that are tangible. This is probably one of the reasons I haven’t gotten into NFTs (yet). But I see the potential and I think this is an exciting movement for artists. I don’t believe the world will be changed with digital art in the form of an NFT itself, but the concept behind artists using their NFT profits to donate can absolutely make a change. I see the hype, I get it, but I will stay out of this realm and focus on what I understand in the foreseeable future in my career.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

The first-ever photography print I sold was basically a door-to-door sale. I was out photographing the city one night in 2015 and a huge lightning storm started brewing over the DaVita building in Riverfront Park. I thought this might be a cool opportunity to shoot lightning and I framed a shot of the building. I pressed the shutter button hoping to capture the storm, and let’s just say I almost got struck by lightning. I captured the DaVita building with a massive bolt of lightning hitting it. The following week I made a huge print of that photo and walked to the front desk of DaVita and presented it to them. The woman at the front desk wrote my number down and said she would be in contact. A few days later I got an email asking how much for the print, I ended up selling it for $250 and went to drop it off the next day. Now that photo is hanging in the top floor of one of my favorite buildings in Downtown Denver

Contact Info:

• Website: www.connortieulie.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/connortieulie
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConnorTieulieMedia

Image Credits
Leland Schmidt, Vince Camargo, Seth Beckton