We recently connected with Jibril Washington and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jibril thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment I’ve made as a business owner right now is the amount of time and money I’ve put into this latest project, “It’s In You”. I saw this project as an opportunity to create a proof of concept and set the tone for Intrinsic Media Company and what I’m interested in as a creative. I took a chance and made the decision to turn down a contract extension from the NBA to pursue building a media company back in 2020. After a few years of figuring things out and putting out content, the 4th quarter of 2022 was nearing and I had to start doing something different to help the content. In August of 2022 I thought of an idea. A series about personal growth and career success. Then, I thought, I can also turn this into a creative service that is in line with the community I serve. So, I headed to my computer. Turned some music on and went to work on pre production. I spent time researching ideas, studying other short documentaries that fit the style I was going for, and talked to a few people who had different skills than I had. I figured that I needed to update my production value, so I traded in all my equipment and put it towards a new cinema camera and made a list of equipment I would need to rent to achieve the look. But i didn’t stop there, I reached out to a few people to be a part of the production crew as well. At the same time I was structuring my business plan and the marketing of it. I made a few mistakes in production, that I had to problem solve my way through. After we finished production and post the idea of a screening was brought to my attention. It was January at this point. I thought to myself “Another thing I have to plan out. great.” But I knew it would be well worth it. The process began of securing a space, creating flyers, social media posts, networking events to spread the word, making sure I was keeping everyone up to date on what was happening, it was a lot. But, now we’re here. in July of 2023 and things are coming together. I spent a few thousand that I really didn’t have bringing this together and that was an investment I had never made before on my business. The thing I had to do to even be comfortable spending that amount of money was change my perspective. Coming from an environment of survival, one tends to hold too tightly or too loosely to money out of fear of what comes with that decision. I was the one holding too tightly. On top of the fact that you tend to only see what’s directly in front on you. Which for me was the fact that I was sleeping on my mother’s couch trying to make ends meet. I was challenged with thinking about the long game. Something I was used to doing with certain things but not others. I asked myself questions like, “What doors can open up if I do this? How can doing this position me in the direction i want to go in? Is this something that can give me a return on my investment at some point in the future? Will this be beneficial to the community?” For every rebuttal I had in my head against the decision, there was always a rebuttal in favor of it. So, I opted for playing the long game of delayed gratification and ran the play. Doing what won’t give me the reward immediately, but later on. Dividends for the financial people reading this. Today, I can say that while some of those questions are still in the air, some of them are already being answered. It’s changed my perspective on expenses. It’s not about spending money, it’s about what I’m choosing to spend it on. Not only that, but I knew the amount of time I spent planning every detail of this project out was going to pay off from a content and impact standpoint.

Jibril, 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?

My name is Jibril Washington. I am a filmmaker and entrepreneur from Pittsburgh, PA. I operate throughout the country. I got into storytelling and cameras around 12 years old playing around with my cousins and watching movies. We would create storylines, plots, everything. I put it down in high school to focus on football but near the end of college I came back around to it. It was really a sports production class I took my senior year of college that sparked me into pursuing storytelling through visuals again. After school I landed a job with the Women’s/National Basketball Association (W/NBA) league office where I began growing not only as a storyteller and producer, but also as a curator. I seen the impact stories had on people around me and myself and I wanted a way to produce them without going through a heap of approvals. After some time there I was ready to dive into my own venture. Intrinsic Media Company, a place that uses storytelling to create impactful actions and reflect the BIPOC sports, creative & business community. We achieve that through our scripted and unscripted content and creative services. Projects like our latest one, “It’s In You” which you can watch on our website is a in house production that follows the stories of 3 black men in sports and the arts. In connection to media production, our creative services arm builds creative campaigns & strategy, direction, partnerships, creative video/photo, and sponsored content with other organizations and initiatives that align with our mission to community. We solve a few problems. When traditional thinking is failing you, we use creative thinking. When you need something engaging, meaningful & entertaining to watch, listen, or read about, we produce content. What’s most important to us is finding ways to serve our community rather it be with clients or in house. What I’m most proud of right now is the “It’s In You” project. I put my all into producing it and to see it scaling into a gallery display and event is amazing. To know the stories are so weighty and substance based is the icing on the cake for me. That’s also one of the coolest things about Intrinsic. We identify stories & concepts, put them on film, and scale them into something more. Articles, events, community initiatives, product releases. It’s cool.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There’s a book called ‘Reinvent Your Business Model’ that opened up my mind in terms of how to scale, how to adapt to industry changes, and how to penetrate other markets without starting another business or complete scratch. They take case studies form different companies and break down their white space. That being, the opportunity zone for growth and expansion. Definitely a lot of game in that book.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

If you hire or contract out a creative. Allow them to create and do what they are experts at doing. I think that when the creative process is met with tons of boundaries and confines, it no longer becomes creativity and it limits the potential of the work. That’s not to say you don’t give inspiration, or certain parameters like sending them mood boards, briefs, examples of work you’d like to mirror or take from, things like that. That’s what makes things helpful. After that, allow them to be creative and come up with something that you may not have expected. They literally create astounding work out their own exploration. It’s okay if things need to be changed from version 1 to 3 or 4 but they need freedom.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theintrinsicmedia.com
• Instagram: @theintrinsicmedia
• Linkedin: Jibril Washington
• Youtube: @theintrinsicmedia

Image Credits
Jibril Washington of Intrinsic Media