We were lucky to catch up with Chris Young recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To be successful I think it takes a mixture of values. The first and most important value I would say is integrity. I think integrity is the key to living the most fruitful life. There will be times where you will get mistreated, doubted, thrown curveballs by the forces that be and even be challenged by your own vices, but always striving to stay the course and re-direct yourself when needed I think will yield the best results. Always strive to do your best for yourself and for others.

Other applicable values may fall under the umbrella of integrity, but some of them include fortitude, discipline, consistency, problem-solving and courage. It also benefits to be mentally, physically and spiritually fit.

Chris, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My work serves an inward and outward purpose. This all started when I was around 13 years old in the year 2004. I was passed down a digital camera, due to my history of being even younger going through several of those disposable Kodak film cameras and snapping hundreds of pictures. I figured out that this digital camera took video and I never looked back. My household was chaotic, so being able to shoot content and go into my editing bay was an escape for me that provided me peace. I felt like I could disconnect and dive into another world. At that age I would shoot whatever I could get my hands on (e.g. school projects, lifestyle videos, movie re-enactments, etc.). Fast forward many years, of which included a nice stint in college working with my first clientele shooting music videos, and I’m having the time of my life shooting almost any and everything. I have chosen not to niche down because I believe in my capabilities to excel in a variety of different avenues. This has been reinforced over the years as my passion turned into a business where I offer videography, filmmaking and sometimes even photography services to clients, who at times were the catalyst for me trying a new avenue. Some of my experience has included music videos, event recaps, modeling/eye-candy, weddings, business marketing, lifestyle, etc. So, my passion is now valuable to others, which brings me much fulfillment. I love others being able to utilize my services to receive valuable media to convey their message, market, entertain or preserve a memory.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Young Dolph reached out to me in my Instagram inbox before his passing. I was appreciative of this and it was significant to me for a few reasons. The biggest reason was because I thought it showed a level of genuineness for him to reach out to me himself. I have had opportunities with celebrities before, but it has not been uncommon for their teams to reach out to me. I’m not sure if this was his case, but I also am fond of individuals who maintain their own creative control. Another reason why this was significant was because I believe in the act of being consistent. I believe being consistent is one of the best ways to stay relevant and making sure your work stays in front of people. Business owners should not be ashamed of that. Another reason why it was significant was because he could have inquired with any other videographer, and maybe he did, but he came to me. I’m not the best out there, but I took it as a sign that I’m headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, I did not see the message Young Dolph sent me until 2 or 3 days later, due to Instagram’s knack of not always notifying me when I have a new message. From context clues, it looked like he was in town for a few days and needed a videographer. So, by the time I responded my response was probably irrelevant due to him most likely being able to be serviced by somebody else. Nevertheless, the fact that that all happened is inspiration for me to keep persevering.

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

This business started off as a side-hustle, but nowadays it’s almost on par with my other occupation (mental-health therapist) in terms of value-given, time allocated to it and profit. I’m not the 9-5 type, and even my other occupation is a 1099 position, so throughout life I see myself balancing the two almost equally or having phases where I focus on one over the other. By the time I hit college, which I went to for my mental-health career, I started taking on my first couple clients for music video purposes. $100 here. $200 there. We shot several within about a year. I borrowed cameras and taught myself Adobe Premiere Pro to get the job done. I started getting distracted from my studies and told myself I would put videography down until I graduated and obtained a career in the mental-health industry and that I would double back to videography when I was secure. Even then I still didn’t see the bigger picture of what I would be doing today, I just knew I wanted to make videos to keep exercising that passion, even if they were just for myself. For the longest I just had an iPhone, which I would use to make lifestyle videos, mostly of just my two other main passions (my girlfriends and I traveling and car enthusiast content). I bought myself a drone, several actually, before I even bought my first camera. That really changed things. Shoot, edit, publish to social media, rinse, repeat. Next thing I know, around 2019, people were inboxing me inquiring about shooting projects for them. With the exception of music videos, I would mostly show up with just my iPhone and produce a product that was better than what my peers were shooting with actually cameras. They said it, not me (…me too). Sometimes I’d shoot whole projects with just my drone. Anybody that knows me knows I love shooting with my drone just as much as my actual camera. I didn’t purchase my first camera until 2020. I stayed consistent with taking and publishing work and I’m happy for what that hustle has done for me up until this point. I did not see this coming when I was 13. There are some things I can improve on and many more goals to reach, but I’m on the right track.

Contact Info:

• Website: directoryoung.com
• Instagram: @chrisxyoung/@directorxyoung