We recently connected with Allen Tucker and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Allen, thanks for joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment ive ever made was investing in myself and going all in on my personal brand.

What I mean by that is, putting myself first in life and doing what I believe is best for myself and my business. Early on in a business is can be easy to get caught up in what others are doing around you. Being a creator specifically, makes this even harder because as much as we all like to pretend it’s not a competition, it usually is. You want to succeed in your craft and focusing on others that have “already” succeeded can make you want to replicate what has already been done.

Once I stopped focusing so much on what others were doing, my personal brand started gaining ground. I did what I thought was cool and experimented and people started noticing, commenting on, and sharing my content so much more than before.

It’s never gonna be perfect, and there is never gonna be the best time. Life is short, so invest in what you have genuine passion for and go all in.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Im a photographer and videographer who focuses on telling stories within Sports. Ive been shooting for about 4 years now and it wasn’t until 2023 that I went all in on Sports – the only regret I have is not doing so sooner.

Ive always been a pretty big sports fan, so after shooting all kinds of different things (portraits, music videos, product photography, etc) I realized I really didn’t like posing people. Im decent at it, but it made using my camera feel only like a job instead of something I enjoy and my creativity started to die. Last summer I reached out to some schools in my area and I was offered the chance to shoot a game for NC Central University. I rented a telephoto lens for the occasion and really focused on trying many different settings and angles throughout the game to get the most out of my time.

I truly was surprised at how well I did to be honest and that’s what made me realize that this is where im supposed to be. I believe I have. knack for anticipating plays which allowed me to get some great shots that, to this day, are some of my favorite pics. Im very thankful to the Athletic department at NCCU for giving me that opportunity. Without it, im not sure Id be where I am.

Fast forward to now, Ive been working the past couple of months with Shaw University in Raleigh doing Football, Soccer and Volleyball. It’s been a great partnership with the historic school – especially having grown up in Raleigh, it’s really cool to be working together with a school ive known about for so long.

Something im extra passionate about is giving back when I can. Some schools just aren’t in a place to offer the best media for their players. I dont think the team at Shaw will mind me using them as an example, but prior to me, they haven’t had someone dedicated to photo and video and more importantly, creating content for reels, YouTube, or in game highlights. After working with them for the past couple of months, the social media numbers are higher than they have ever been and lots of the players are getting exposure they haven’t had before. Ive had parents/alumni come up to me after games and thank me for the content. Some even said they didn’t expect their kid to get coverage like that.

It means so much to me to give back to these players, and even coaches, that work so damn hard. Especially when athletes are getting scouted so early now, and in a world ruled by social media, it’s a must.

What sets me apart, is capturing moments and story telling. Everyone wants the big play picture. The touchdown, the slam dunk, the goal, etc. But not everyone is able to capture the moments that bring someone into the stadium. I try my best to get the emotion in and around the big plays to make the audience get a stronger feeling of what happened.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I think a lot of peoples photo/video/content creation career started as a side hustle. Im one of those people.

I think one of the more important lessons I learned was that, just because it’s a side hustle, doesn’t mean that your “main” job is what people need to know you for. Even if my creative work was no where close to paying all my bills, I made it my personality.

If I met knew people and they asked what I did for work, my answer was not tech sales..it was “Im a photographer/videographer”.

This alone has helped me get more opportunities than anything else. It’s about who you know in life, and unless people know what youre passionate about, you aren’t likely to get many opportunities. This goes for different verticals within photography/videography as well. If you want to be a sports photographer but need to shoot weddings get stay afloat while you ramp up other opportunities..thats perfectly cool! But that doesn’t have to define you. – What sounds better if you want to be in a specific niche? Telling people you do that one thing, or telling people you do a variety of things but really like this one thing.. The former is the answer!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Just the struggle in general. It’s never just getting good with your camera. Yes, that is a large chunk of it, but doing this requires you to be an editor, social media manager, graphic designer, stylist, actor, etc. You really can’t get too many places just taking pictures or videos. It’s really what youre doing around the actual using of the camera that makes you go far.

and its a hell of a lot of work. Physically but more important mentally.

Make schedules, do what makes you happy, drink water, get some sleep and everything will be all right haha

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allentuckermedia.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/allentuckermedia

Image Credits
Shaw University Football Shaw University Volleyball NCSU Softball NCCU Football Riverside HS (River Shot) Purdue Softball