We were lucky to catch up with Chad Wilson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chad, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

“The hardest thing in this industry is getting paid”, MTSU Recording Industry Law Professor, Circa 2006

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

At 21, I became the youngest Wildlife Officer in Ohio, with great benefits and all the toys to chase poachers. But as an extroverted, conflict-avoidant creative, my wife Rachel quickly helped me realize I had made a “terrible mistake” – Arrested Development reference.

By 25, we sold our house and moved to Tennessee so I could study Audio Production at MTSU. Determined to make it work, I tracked down the Assistant Chair of the Recording Department, Nathan Adam – only two years older than me – and poured out my story. With a mix of pity and respect, he agreed to mentor me. That relationship changed everything.

At the time, I was a step ahead of him in video production, having taught myself Final Cut Pro Studio on my iBook G4 (with its glorious 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM). He gave me opportunities to co-produce Learn and Master Guitar(a Telly Award winner later acquired by Gibson) and to edit his venture Multi-Platinum Pro Tools, carried by Sweetwater. Those projects connected me with Grammy-winning producers and gave me real credits on award-winning, internationally distributed content before I even graduated. Nathan’s yes to my anxious ask is still a gift I try to pay forward.

After graduation, Nathan introduced me to a production director at a local mega-church. With his recommendation and my resume, I landed a paid internship that turned into a full-time position on a 100+ member staff. For $35k a year, I produced services, events, and ran the recording studio alongside a lighting designer and the most talented audio producer I know to this day. The expectations were intense – often seven days a week with little time off – but I learned a tremendous amount.

During my second year there, my wife became pregnant with our first son. I quickly realized that my time and meager salary wouldn’t support our growing family. There were weeks when we worked all seven days. Sometimes my direct supervisor even spent the night in the office while overseeing the transition from analog to digital audio, video, and lighting systems. I was loyal and didn’t want to appear weak, so I followed suit – at the cost of my mental, physical, and relational wellness. I needed a raise and some time off, but with 25 people waiting in line for my job, I had little leverage. When I finally asked for a raise, it was a painful experience and I was challenged to be committed to the mission, and to store up treasures in heaven… While I was thankful for the opportunity to learn, It was time to move on.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I began quietly applying for corporate video jobs in the area, but they almost always went to folks 10 years ahead of me in the Nashville production grind. Meanwhile, my wife graduated with her PhD in Economics from MTSU and entered a national job search pool. I, of course, kept explaining to her why that wasn’t going to work for me — while juggling session work in Nashville with one of our award-winning producers. It was a “fun” season: she nursed our son, and I tried to keep myself together. In truth, it was the most dangerous season of our marriage. I watched co-workers’ marriages collapse under the weight of “giving yourself to the mission so you could store up treasure in heaven.” I felt like a failure — unable to earn a steady living and stuck in the sea of Nashville producers trying to balance it all. That professor’s words rang in my ears: “The hardest thing in this industry is getting paid.”

Eventually, my wife and I made peace with moving wherever her career would take us. I hoped for a music-centric city or at least our hometown of Springfield, Ohio. She reminded me that she had been willing to move her life to let me follow my passion, and asked me to be open to her opportunities too. I came to peace with that on the very morning she got a call from a small private college just 20 minutes from Springfield. Within the week, I put in my two-week notice. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do to make a living, but I did know two things: I had deep experience in church production and systems — and Ohio had plenty of churches that didn’t.

Over the next decade, I built a career helping churches upgrade systems, train volunteers, and design Nashville-style services. I eventually worked full-time as a Worship and Production Pastor, managing 85 volunteers for 208 weekend services a year. I used my multi-site production knowledge to help churches build livestream systems and launch new campuses. It was fulfilling work, and we enjoyed meaningful careers while taking advantage of Springfield’s low cost of living. I also began consulting with nonprofits, schools, and government agencies on events and production needs.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Cash is king. If you are working in a creative career, you better find a marketing partner that understands SEO, Paid Social Media, Ads, and Optimization of Websites.

In 2023 I started my own creative production company in Springfield Ohio, producing for dozens of corporations, nonprofits, and organizations. We won awards, made multimedia content, and even helped fuel a downtown revitalization movement that continues today.

But profitability was my challenge. Constant investments in gear, overhead, subcontractors, and insurance created a cycle of ups and downs. As my wife reminded me often: cash is king. My portfolio grew while cash flow shrank. Clients increasingly demanded ROI data while new, low-overhead video producers flooded the market. It became a race to the bottom. I realized I needed distribution partners — marketing firms who could complement my storytelling with reach. After three years of running my company, I decided to take a knee and put my name in the hat with a few marketing firms.

In January of 2025, I joined Big Fish Local, a firm with 10 years of full-service experience. I worked out a deal with the owner based on a concept I had observed in Nashville’s songwriting publishing models. He paid me a slightly higher base salary to help me get started in sales, with the agreement that I would recoup the difference before earning my first commission. I recouped in the first quarter and was feeling great.

Then came the great idea of putting tariffs on the world – and the subsequent blowback to local business owners and nonprofits. Everything came to a screeching halt in the second quarter of 2025, with digital marketing being one of the first expenses cut during uncertain times. I spent many of those weeks pondering my career journey. My boss, who is a great mentor, stuck with me and encouraged me to dive into sales research and countless networking opportunities.

By early August, several stalled proposals finally closed, and I was able to breathe again. The end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter look promising — but as I said at the beginning of this piece, the hardest thing to do in this industry is to get paid!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigfishlocal.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/springfieldusatv
• Other: https://www.belmont.edu/profiles/nathan-adam/ https://www.learnandmaster.com/guitar/?srsltid=AfmBOooSWEdPEJyXjMGB0VtMV7KvkDUQuAzohv0xo9KA8Vvvp4DllPTg https://vintageking.com/multi-platinum-song-production?srsltid=AfmBOopaUHKaDs9SG5C82CFi1EvWyQycZ06llbdkiW46P-t9ty62wFoI https://youtu.be/Brf0QHMYfKM?si=NcdbCfQn0HImjTNA