We were lucky to catch up with CJ Tobian recently and have shared our conversation below.
CJ, appreciate you joining us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?
This one has been a learning experience for me this last year. As my business has grown, I kept taking on more and more projects. I ended up taking on more than I could really handle because my editing got pushed back so far that I got to the point I had too many projects to work on that my clients videos and photos unfortunately had to be pushed further than I had hoped because I didn’t want to take the quality down just to get the projects done faster. This next year I plan to take on less projects and spread my workload out so I can keep the same or better quality while turn around is much faster in hopes to keep the excitement from their wedding.
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
My name is CJ Tobian. My job at every wedding is to capture and create moments that can help tell the story of my clients biggest day of their life. Some might say that it is too stressful and too overwhelming to even think about doing, because they would be afraid of messing up. But for me, I absolutely love the excitement each day brings to me! After only filming a few weddings I fell in love with the process of telling these stories and I became so excited every time I got to capture a new Bride and Groom’s big day!I’m really proud of how far I have come! Two years ago I wouldn’t believe just how many incredible opportunities I have been given to be able to live my life doing exactly what I love! I feel so blessed and I am so grateful for all the people that have given me the chance to be able to do that!
I love my job and I hope to continue finding more and more opportunities as 2023 comes around the corner here soon!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Just like everyone we all have to start somewhere. With photographers and Videographers we all need a camera. Over 2.5 years ago I went out and bought my first full frame camera. It was the Sony A7sii. I was lucky enough to land a few really amazing gigs just by word of mouth that helped me buy a computer to be able to edit on and a few lights to help with this series I was working on. With that start I worked really hard to build a website and start selling myself! Throughout the next two years I made goals and I actually spent everything I earned from weddings, corporate events and content creation on owning pretty much all of gear I need that can help me be as efficient and have the highest quality of videos I can. This in turn has helped me land more higher paying clients.
One thing I love about working so hard for all the equipment I own throughout a large timeline is that I had a lot of time to master how to use each piece of gear I bought every time it came in. And I have a lot of appreciation for it all. If I were to have just got it all at once, I wouldn’t know how to use most of it to its full capacity and I wouldn’t have taken care of it as well as I do now. So I’m grateful it took me years to build up to where I am now. But we all start somewhere so might as well start.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding thing would definitely be seeing the excitement of my clients after I have finished their project. After the wedding day there is a lot of work that goes into their video or photos. And when it’s finally done I’m excited and I watch it over and over but I find a lot of joy hearing the excitement after I deliver their photos or videos to them!
Contact Info:
- Website: CJTobian.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cjtobianproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CJTobianProductions
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/cjtobian_photo/