We recently connected with Emmaus Vanderbilt and have shared our conversation below.
Emmaus, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
It’s very common in the wedding video industry to have a long turnaround time such as 11-12 weeks (Vowness, 2023). We strive to get couples their full wedding video back in 2-3 weeks as only 11% of wedding videography companies complete their videos in less than 4 weeks (Vowness, 2023).
Since our team has created an industry leading turnaround time (without sacrificing quality) our clients love telling all of their friends about us. Our Google Business page has over 75 5-star reviews with many of them raving about our turnaround time.
Emmaus, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Emmaus Vanderbilt and my wife, Hannah, and I run Silver Fox Productions. We love to travel, serve in our church on the worship team and with the kids, and overall just share the love of Jesus with everyone that we meet.
We created this company on Christian values of loving God, loving people, and having high levels of integrity in all that we do. We got married in 2021 and currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina with our 3 cats.
I started with just a tape camera and a vision at 15 years old. Over time I began filming weddings for friends and eventually it grew to a full time job. When I met Hannah in 2020 she started helping with social media, second shooting weddings, and editing. Now we both run Silver Fox Productions together as a husband & wife team where we get to travel the world and serve couples together.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
When I started Silver Fox Productions at 16 years old I obtained our initial capital by doing yardwork for my grandmother. With it being $25 for mowing the lawn or $50 for raking all the leaves (and trust me, there were a lot!) I learned to work hard and to tithe (give 10% to my local church) off of all the profits.
I started with a small $400 camera that I asked my family to pitch in for Christmas of 2016. I used that to shoot videos for $200, then buy a $1,500 camera and shoot $500 videos.
We have only went into debt one time and we would highly advise against it- but our next purchase was a financed camera for $10,000. We paid it off in 3 months and we will never go into debt again. The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7.
We don’t use any credit cards, lines of credit, or anything else that involves borrowed money. Just a debit card and cash and when we need a new piece of equipment we save up for it.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Word of mouth has always been our leading source of clients and revenue. People will not always remember what you say or do, but they will remember the way you make them feel.
Our philosophy from day 1 has been to love God and love others (Mark 12:30-31) and to view our clients as people, not just a number.
When you have people love the way you make them feel they will tell everyone about you!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.silverfoxproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverfoxproductions_us/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silverfoxproductions.us
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzc4J_hfCaczly5CqUu2Q4w
Image Credits
Silver Fox Productions, LLC