We caught up with the brilliant and insightful TReal McCoy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi TReal, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Honestly, it was a mistake from a previous failed business that caused me to come up with the name. The initials of my old business was “TMD” so I bought this fat a** custom gold ring and about a year later I realize, “This business has no future. I’ve done everything wrong. Scrap the project…for now”. I’ve got a lot of ideas on the shelf by the way. One way or another, idea after idea would hit wall after wall. Then it hit me! I have “The Vision”. I’ve always had a unique perspective of the world and this uncanny camera ability. For whatever reason I suppressed my inner cameraman just to be a cameraman after failing at everything else haha Well, there’s still the case of this fat a** gold ring that says “TMD” so it took about 3 or 4 months of continuous thoughts to come up with absolutely nothing. So much wow lol Then I look at my hands and I see my tattoo that reads “The Real McCoy”( a tattoo dedicated to my grandparents) and I almost let defeat hit again because The Real McCoy is owned for sure and widely used many companies. In that instant I think “TReal McCoy Digital” and life’s been good since!

TReal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m TReal McCoy, founder and cinematographer for TReal McCoy Digital. I provide top tier photo and video services from product photography to short films. I like to say I failed my way into being a camera man but I truly believe it was meant to be. I’d talked about purchasing a camera for YEARS! Like people wanted me to shut up about it YEARS haha An impulse buy lead to a video shoot and I’ve been rocking since. Most of clients are local artists who need proper visuals without a million dollar price tag. So me and my clients usually work off the strength that I have that much faith in their work. Imagine my vision for their song sky rocketing them into stardom. No I didn’t get a million dollars upfront, but my life will certainly change tremendously. Just like the producer, the engineer, etc. And that’s what makes me different. I’m not in it for the quick buck, I’m in it to make great art and to build a catalog that suddenly erupts so I can my dreams a step further and hit the big screens. It’s also my first official year as a cinematographer and I’m not far from 100 projects in my rear view if I keep pace!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Certainly, because I’m definitely not supposed to be here right now. Alive, living freely, smiling and frolicking through life haha Just one of the many stories is me not seeing a cell for 15 years. What are the chances I know close affiliate of my hired lawyer? Who gives me a crazy discount to which I have that exact amount of money saved? Who also has proof that the DA on my case has a history of hiding evidence? Who went to high school with my judge? I don’t think I’ve gotten seriously upset since that day, almost 10 years ago lol But that prayer I said that day in the courtroom came with some serious restructuring of my life. It took about 2 more years but I got it haha And after one million and one other crazy events, I picked up a camera last year and I’m already on pace for 100 music videos. God must have saw something in me, because I didn’t. I understand now.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I took the same mentality I had from the streets right into camera work. Not in a negative way though. Most of my work is very fair priced or free. I’m able to work with artists other can’t because I understand the equal benefit for both us. I think businesses forget about all the sweat equity it takes to build long lasting clientele. I also treat all my clients like million dollar clients and that creates a free word of mouth marketing campaign that works as hard as I do. I have zero budget, I fund myself almost exclusively off my 9 to 5 yet I’m always busy and I now have paying return clients. “First one’s free”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trealmccoydigital/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TRealMcCoyDigital

Image Credits