Today we’d like to introduce you to Rocky Walls.

Rocky, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

I got into filmmaking via a very winding road. I started out as a molecular biology major in college, though I left that to pursue full-time youth ministry, and ultimately became an entrepreneur. There’s a whole keynote presentation about how to focus on your purpose as you consider your career that I’ve given to middle and high school students many times, but the summary is that all along I had a passion for storytelling and just didn’t know it. That’s why I always tell people (especially students) to get out there and try as many things as you can. Until you test some things out, you’re not likely to discover your true calling.

When my cofounder, Zach Downs, and I started 12 Stars Media in 2007, the word entrepreneurship wasn’t even in our vocabulary. We just knew we both loved working with media, especially video, and that there might be some people out there willing to pay us to put those skills to work for them.

Fast-forward nearly twenty years and we’ve refined what we do a lot. We often share that the annual themes for our first three years in business would be aptly named “Do anything for anybody,” “Do certain things for anybody,” and “Do certain things for certain people,” respectively. I feel like that journey is pretty universal for entrepreneurs, whether it takes three years, three months, or thirty years.

Today, we work squarely in documentary storytelling. We like to say that we tell the stories of interesting characters who inspire communities to make positive changes. We do that in our independent work as well as our work-for-hire. And, more recently, we even work with other filmmakers and the public through a non-profit organization we cofounded – Hoodox.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

I don’t know a single entrepreneur who would say starting or running a business has been a smooth road, lol. What’s interesting to me, after nearly twenty years, is that there is a temptation that’s common to life in general that “if you just get through this current challenge, things will be smooth. ” In reality, there’s always another challenge, whether real or perceived, whether customer-driven, economically-driven, self-driven or something-else-driven.

For us, there were the earliest challenges sometimes as simple as making the commitment to stick things out when the business feels fragile enough that it could all fall apart at any time. Then, after bringing on our first employee (then another and another and another) the challenges became more about sustainability – the dreaded, “What if we can’t make payroll next month?” feeling that seems pretty universal to all entrepreneurs who grow their team.

Later, we were faced with the unexpected challenge of realizing we never stopped to consider how much growth was enough. In our capitalistic society, many of us are raised to believe, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” But, too often that growth is narrowly defined. What if growth isn’t in revenue or number of employees? What if that growth is measured in work-life balance, long-term equity in your company and its assets, and overall happiness? These were the questions that led us, from our tenth to our twelfth year to decide on reducing our overall staff, investing in the purchase of our office building instead of leasing office space, and further narrowing the focus of our services.

Today, our challenges continue to come and go, but we face them with a seasoned perspective. We know that challenges will do just that – come and go. We aren’t so quick to allow challenges to rule our hearts and minds or cause stress beyond what’s needed to move past them.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

At 12 Stars Media, we tell the stories of interesting characters who inspire communities to make positive changes. We do that, primarily, through documentary and docu-style storytelling.

I think what makes our approach even more specific and unique, though, is our focus on empathy. Documentary is a genre with nuanced sub-genres that are rarely considered as carefully as the difference between, say, comedy vs. horror in the narrative realm. Consider, though, a historical documentary film that features primarily archival footage and interviews with experts on a subject. This kind of film looks, feels, and affects completely differently than a documentary film that follows a person in modern day circumstances, with the story developing as the camera is rolling. Our work is more like the latter.

What sets our work apart the most, for me personally, is my firm belief that storytelling starts with storylistening. I love listening to others’ stories and I feel a great sense of honor and responsibility when I get to listen and then go on to shape and share those stories with the world through film. I often share a quote made famous by Mr. Rogers, but originating from Benedictine Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, ‘There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.'”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rockywalls.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockywalls/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockywalls/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9159697/