Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Phil Bailey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Phil, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
Haha. This key detail of my business bothered my sleep for a few weeks straight. I couldn’t come up with anything! Things changed though once I stopped to evaluate my “Why” for wanting to go on this journey and grow a business. At the time when I decided it was right for me to move forward with this business, my daughter, Quincy, had just been born. When talking with my wife, Joey, one night, I said, “My ultimate goal is for this business to grow to a point that I’m able to teach kids how to use a camera, but also that Quincy might one day want to take part in it the same way your parents allowed you and your sisters.” That’s when it hit me. I want to do this ‘FOR’ Quincy. To go along with that, my wife and I both have tattoos of the Roman numeral for 4. Different reasons and not at all related, but both of our favorite numbers also happen to be 4. So I initially decided on 4Q Media, but after saying it to myself for 3 days, I thought it sounded bad and switched it to Q4. And after that, Q4 Media was born!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
If you are reading this, Cheers to you! I’m Phil! A dedicated father, loving husband, former athlete, coach, and diehard competitor. I list all of that because it’s all a part of the journey that pushed me into the phase of life that I’m in right now….a passionate entrepreneur. I am the owner of Q4 Media Solutions (Q4 Media).
When I started this company, I did it because I love having a camera in my hand. My Father-in-Law, Joseph, always says, “You just have to start moving and you’ll eventually figure it out along the way.” I took that to heart and have made it my mission to always get better at least 1% each day. I might not land a new client everyday, but if I wake up and commit to learning something new or talking to somebody new, I’ve grown a little more than the day before. Eventually the seeds I sow will come to harvest.
Real Estate media is where I started, but I would have never guessed that I’d be working with some of the brands or athletes that I see regularly on tv. I guess that’s life in a nutshell though, yeah? You might have a solid plan, but at some point you will inevitably have to pivot with grace. When that time to pivot came for me, I was lucky to have a few friends in the industry to lean on and partner with. Through this growth, I’ve been able to prepare myself for the next season with some of these people beside me.
Q4 Media is not only a Real Estate Media Agency anymore. We now work with multiple brands to help increase visibility and drive quality traffic. We are consistently working with many different businesses and individuals to provide video and photo coverage for events such as galas, charities auctions, luncheons and more. If you look hard, you might see us shadowing some of your favorite Seattle Seahawks while capturing content for their social media. But I personally have found extreme joy in working with families and high school seniors recently through Family Portraits and Senior Photos! Not only are we providing a high quality package of photos for our clients, but we are also capturing high quality video throughout the session. This allows us to not only give snapshots of special moments, but allows our clients to completely relive those moments. Nothing beats that.
As for the future of myself and Q4 Media? I honestly don’t know. I do know that I’m going to continue to wake up everyday and commit to 1% better. I’d really like to work with every single person and business in the world lol. But I’m a realist. If I’m able to work with individuals and businesses that are passionate about what they are doing and align with our values as a company, I’ll consider it all a success. “Let’s Go Be Great!”
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I’d like to think that my life shows resilience lol. In regards to my business though, the first 3 months were definitely one of the most trying times I’ve had to deal with. To set the stage; I’d discussed all scenarios with my wife and she agreed to give me 6 months to get my business off the ground and start making consistent money. Prior to this, I’d been freelancing with a lot of One-off projects and that gave me the confidence to move forward. (I get chills reminiscing on all of this because this situation put me in a really bad place mentally) To “pull the bandaid off”, after I registered my LLC and got all of the basics established, I didn’t have a single job or client for 3 months. An entire 3 months with no revenue at all.
The challenging part about this chapter is that I was literally walking into Real Estate offices and other businesses every single day to introduce myself and build relationships. I would walk into the first place by 8am and would finish about 4/5pm. When I got home, I was watching youtube videos till about 2/3am every night so that I could learn more about my craft. I did this relentlessly for the first 3 months, 6 days a week and received zero phone calls. I couldn’t figure out why.
At that 3 month mark, I was at the lowest I could have been. I was short tempered with friends and family, distant when around groups of people, and felt that I had lost my purpose. I’m not sure how fast I expected things to get going, but I definitely didn’t expect this. I went from sleeping peacefully, to staying up and questioning myself all night long. Each day, I was having an internal fight debating whether or not I was cut out for entrepreneurship or not and scared that I wouldn’t be able to provide for my family.
11 days into my 4th month, I got a call from a realtor asking if I’d shoot their property. Booked. The next day, I got another call from a realtor. Booked. A week later, I ran into former Seahawk, Cliff Avril, we had lunch and BOOM! Contract signed client. All within 2 weeks. Those two weeks are what I call my snowball. And from there, my snowball has been just rolling down the mountain and continuously growing. I didn’t know when I would get it going, or IF I would get it going. I just knew that I had full control over the work I put in each day. So I continued to show up for myself each day and prepare myself. The time came, and I was ready.
“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
When starting my business, my goal was to play with house money as long as possible. I had my newborn daughter and a wife that wanted a house lol. Though I 100% believed in myself and was willing to bet it all, my wife has a much more conservative view on life. Therefore, I started with a modest Canon T8i and a few kit lenses. I wanted all the work that I did to pay for any equipment I needed. I have friends that took loans to start similar businesses and etc, but I believed that until I maxed out my talents and knowledge of the trade with the equipment I had, I needed nothing better. So as the business has grown, my equipment has grown. All with the house money. The one piece of knowledge I’d give to anybody wanting to follow this route…Just start. Find used media gear and just start. There are plenty of people out there with cameras that cost 5x the amount of my already expensive cameras, but their quality of content looks like mine did with that Canon T8i. Don’t allow the lust for money to overtake your skills. Simply learn your trade and max out the talents and gear you have.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.Q4media.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/Pbailey24
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbailey24/
