We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Qadree Holmes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Qadree below.

Qadree, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Ironically, opening a business is a risk for anyone on that adventure. I often quote Steve Jobs “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” My adventure with Quriosity started in the middle of an adoption process for our child. Both were completely uncharted territories. I had the bright idea to open another video production company in what I would later find out is a completely saturated market. The technology was always changing and staying current with these changes would require solid creative talent that had a willingness and openness to change. I recognized very early on that there were very few production company owners in the space that actually looked like me. I was not seeing a large amount of directors, photographers, or editors in advertising that were from diverse backgrounds. So before it became popular/performative culture to work with minority owned businesses, I decided to open Quriosity. 10 years later I will say it was a great decision. I’ve realized now that sadly even ten years ago I was pioneering into an industry as a man before my time. When I first opened the business, I did not realize how great the cultural and racial divide was. At that time, many black Americans were feeling empowered by the first black president of the United States. This was a message that we could do anything. With that fighting spirit as I reflect back, it is amazing to be able to say that Quriosity is an award winning company given all of the awards we have received in the advertising space. None of this happens without talent, determination, grit, honesty, integrity and a little bit of luck! And today, we still fight the good fight in all sectors of business for fair and equitable inclusion. So yes the risk remains.

Qadree, 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 had successfully rose from intern to production assistant to line producer and finally to the Founder/Executive Producer of Quriosity. While line producing, I recognized a significant shift in the market. Brands and advertising agencies were seeking integrated creative talent options to represent the different social channels now available. These marketers did not want to sacrifice quality or production value because budgets were shrinking. There were very few if any women and minorities existing in advertising as owners. Today, we represent and shoot with directors, photographers, and editors both domestically and internationally. Ultimately, what sets us apart from others in the advertising industry is our ability to listen and effectively execute on a brand’s needs. We have a motto Minority Owned Always Diverse!

I am currently a board member for Emeritus Free Spirit Media, Association of Independent Commercial Producers National/Midwest Board, Chicago Advertising Federation Board, Illinois Production Alliance Board, and Shiny Awards Council. I have made it my specific mission to focus on organizations that help to change and empower diversity in advertising.

Quriosity’s advertising work has been featured in Ad Week, Ad Age, ShootOnline, Little Black Book, Time Magazine, Shots, Source Creative, The Washington Post, The Hill, Huffington Post, ReelChicago.com, and Screen Magazine.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I attended a conference years ago in Chicago and it was hosted by a gentleman that helped to create the AOL chat rooms. Many creative personalities consider a conference to be the last place that we will garner any level of inspiration. However, I learned a very valuable lesson. He shared with us that there will no longer be a difference between your personal brand and your business brand. In my mind I’m thinking clearly this is wrong. People want to see a company’s social media page. They want to see a personal social media page and those don’t cross over. Although I disagreed, instinctually I followed this rule. I started to meet with advertising agency producers that were discussing more and more things that had happened in my personal life vs my business. He was right. They had learned all of this from my personal social media pages. We all know now that these worlds are truly the same. It is important to know who we are working with and who we are working for. In a free market culture, we make choices based on those that share our same values. I often remind our artist that the google tool is used immediately once a brand has interest in working with you. In our ever changing world, marketers are asking for the artist to promote their work for their brands on their personal social feeds. So your personal social presence is more important than ever. Also understanding the difference between each platform is key too. Know the social media demographic that you are speaking to. They are not all the same.

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

I was trained on how to produce from a traditional broadcast standpoint. The advertising agency has an idea. They contact the production company representatives. The representatives seek out production partner. You make the cut and bid the job. Hopefully, you win! Immediately you start prep and pre-production and the train is moving. Today, I get messages on social media apps, via email, text messages, representatives, at networking events from potential buyers looking to work with Quriosity. They are looking for us to help with creative concepting or execution or even brand pitches or all of the above. We are discussing social media executions and experiential uses of the footage or images. Because of all of the ways to reach consumers, I’ve had to unlearn one way to do the work that we do. Part of the reason Quriosity has been successful is because we understand you must shift with the times. The industry will tell you who you are and who you need to be if you listen. Flexibility & availability can be the life and death of a creative business. Unlearning things has helped to create new types of work and frankly opportunities that have taken us out of our comfort zone which has been an exciting evolution.

Contact Info:

• Website: quriosityproductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quriosityproductions/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuriosityChicago/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/quriosity-productionsquriosity productions

Image Credits
Qadree Holmes Mark Conley Margie Ayala Kate Hammamoto Tia Marie Sheldon Candis David Gil Keith Rivers Kenneth Yoder