Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dean Vernon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I believe being successful is the result of having good personal habits. How well do you know yourself? If you don’t know yourself well, then you won’t know your strength’s and weaknesses. If you don’t know your strength’s and weaknesses, you won’t be able to hone in on what’s working for you and work on what isn’t. Maybe your strength is a skill you have, but your weakness is that you procrastinate learning to monetize that skill. Success comes from constantly analyzing yourself and taking action of working on yourself.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started making films because that is how I express myself to the world. I love nothing more than creating visuals that never existed before. I started filming for clients in summer of 2017 and shortly grew my business into something I could work at full time. I primarily film corporate videos and do weddings, music videos, and concerts on the side.
I don’t approve films with my clients until they are extremely proud of what they are seeing. Each video, even with the most industrial clients of mine, has to make the viewer feel something. If someone doesn’t feel an emotion from my films such as happiness, inspiration, or motivation, then my job is not complete as a filmmaker.
Since I was in high school, I spend virtually all of my free time learning new skills in the Adobe Creative Suite so that if a client wants something done, I can do it.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
I’m about to say something that most people drop their jaws at… I get 90% of my business from Craigslist. Yes, Craiglist.
When I was first starting to grow my business in 2018, I was looking for ways to advertise. I found out that you could post an ad on craigslist for 30 days for $5. So I posted one and expected absolutely nothing of it. From that post, I got a call from my long lasting biggest client. Since then, I have gotten multiple other gigs from having a simple Craiglist ad posted every month.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I was never a fan of school. When I started my business, I had every intention of dropping out of college. This decision was a risky one. I had to work harder than I ever had to continue to make money. If I didn’t make money from my business, that meant I had to go back to school. I would say yes to every gig that was offered. Even if it meant working for way lower than my ideal hourly wage. I don’t know if I would want to go through what I went through again to build this business. But it was all worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: deanvernon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dvproductionsfilms/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-vernon-93b59b13b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@deanvernon2484/videos
Image Credits
Dean Vernon