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

Beau, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

So much of the video production industry in my particular genre is driven by “passion” and passion projects. From time to time, there are the commercial projects that pay well. Sometimes they allow and encourage creative thought. Ways to think and create something “out of the box”. Sometimes they don’t and there are guidelines to follow. But those are the projects that fund what we really want to do; Create our own stories, documentaries, movies, etc. It’s wildly difficult to come up with something “original” that people and companies alike will back financially. Along with that, we as a company have founded our core structure on paying people what they deserve to be paid. At the end of the day, a 10 minute documentary can quickly and easily reach budgets of 50k or more if everyone is payed fairly for their work. Not to mention everything else that comes along with video production. A lot of the time, our passion projects break even, while rentals and commercial work keep the lights on. I believe that the only way to truly become profitable is play the long game. Re-invest into your company, take only what you need to maintain a humble lifestyle and build your profile and assets overtime. There are the rare cases where a large investment could allow you to acquire a specific tool that sees a lot of rental demand ( example: Large format gimbals, camera cars, etc. ) OR, simply dedicate yourself to one specific trade of the industry and become undeniably great at it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The classic structure of school never appealed to me. Nor was I a great student. I went to school for Filmmaking because it was all I liked to do. After graduation, I saved enough money to buy a camera, ended up working in a camera store where I met locals in the industry. Eventually, one of them asked me to come on as a B-cam shooter for a wildlife project. The last ten years has been a mixture of freelancing, taking on large projects as a cinematographer, and working for action sports companies as a shooter and editor. The appeal of being able to travel and stay grounded in the outdoors through learning cameras was my biggest motivation to pressure this career. Now that I co-own my own production company, I am challenging myself with other aspects of the business such as playing heavy producer and director roles for multiple projects. We do everything from finding funding for projects, directing short documentaries, providing commercial assets for brands and companies, Filming, and editing. My Co-founder and myself have been friends since middle school where we played dungeons and dragons, listened to punk and hardcore music, participated in LAN parties, and of course skied everyday we could. We After high school we pursued similar paths filming and photographing the outdoors in the western mountains. After over a decade, we decided that coming together to make something for ourselves was the next logical step. Our principles are simple. Do right by people. We are rooted in the exchange of knowledge – a commitment in both sharing our expertise and learning from others. Embrace humility. Know that our vision extends beyond individual pursuit as we aspire to foster a vibrant community of artists with shared aspirations.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My Co-Founder and I met in 8th grade middle school. We became friends quickly, sharing passions for art, photography, dungeons and dragons, LAN parties, and the biggest of all, skiing. We were tight all the way through high school and collage, vowing that we would pursue careers out west in the outdoor industry. He early love for photography evolved into a full time career as an action sports photographer, while I pursued film and video production in Montana. After 10 years out of collage and living parallel yet separate lives, we came together on a ski film my company ( at the time ) was producing. She knew I was growing tired of my full time job as an editor / cinematographer and she had clients knocking on her door for video production services. Emily came to our world film premiere in Colorado that year, and simply asked the question ” Wanna quit and do our own thing “? From there, the rest is history.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There was a point in my early carrier where I had to step back and check myself. It’s not necessarily something I had to unlearn rather than a lesson that put me in my place. In my very early twenties I was lucky enough to be apart of a growing production company in Montana and came in at the ground level. Things formed quickly for us and within a year we were filming big budget nature documentaries with the latest and greatest camera gear on the market. Eventually, my ego came into play. Developing the skills I had so early on evolved into a superiority complex. I felt the company could not go on without me, I felt that the business side was being mis-managed, and that our assets were not being utilized to their full potential. I wore all this on my sleeve for everyone to see. It didn’t take long for new magnet to come in and quickly after that, I was thrown out the door. This confirmed two things: Management needed help, and I was not even close to the gift of god I thought I was. It was a major reality. A swift kick to a life of humbleness, respect for those surrounding me, and the knowledge knowing that this industry will be just fine without me. It’s humbling and set me on a path of humility, respect for the industry, respect for my superiors, my peers, and above all, the respect I have for myself to not be a complete self righteous idiot.

Contact Info:

• Website: 218xcreate.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/218xcreate/

Image Credits
Mike Goveia