Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to James Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi James, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
A huge percentage of how I learned everything I know about videography is through Youtube, my own personal experience, and other content creators! Through my experience, the best way to learn and grow rapidly is to practice and sharpen your skills on your own time, and develop your own style of videography/content creation. The most essential skills that I learned as a videographer is not even the shooting the video part, its the business aspect behind JWFLIX. People are typically focused on the video/creator side of things which is great, but I see a lot of people often neglect the business side of videography. The business aspect of videography is THE MOST important asset you can have as a videographer. This includes marketing your work, marketing yourself, customer service, contract agreements, establishing your worth, negotiating compensation and deliverables, planning for shoots, researching, adapting to the market, learning about taxes, and investing into your equipment! An obstacle that stood in my way, and that I am still currently learning about and adapting too is “Work life balance”. I pick up my camera to shoot a video almost every single day of the week. I often work 60+ hours a week between shooting videos, editing videos etc, and on top of that, being a full time student in college. Did I leave some space for me to enjoy life? Did I carve out time to spend time with my girlfriend at all? Did I leave time to spend with my family? All of these things matter. Time matters. My father always reminds me that it’s very important to enjoy my life. When all I am doing is working and managing my business, I sometimes forget to leave time for myself to enjoy the important things in life. So work/life balance is an extremely important aspect when it comes to any business owner!
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.
Hey! My name is James Williams and I am the owner of JWFLIX Videography! I am 22 years old and attend Oglethorpe University graduating with a bachelor’s in business administration December 2023! I was first introduced to videography by a good friend of mine Cassius who is known professionally as “Counterpoint2.0” who is the best Director/Videographer out of florida. He shot a Youtube intro for my girlfriend and I back in 2019 and I absolutely loved the quality of the camera. After seeing his work, I was heavily influenced to go out and do videography on my own! I worked at Bahama Breeze as a table busser, and a host to save up for my very first camera! (Sony a7iii) After a few months of learning my craft and creating my own style of videography, I created JWFLIX Videography. “JW” is the initials in my name, and “FLIX” is like “flicks” or pictures. JWFLIX videography creates engaging, high quality videos for my clients to utilize for all social media platforms, websites, google ads, or for any general marketing they are looking to do. Most of my clientele are business owners/brands in which I enjoy creating videos for and helping businesses and brands with videos to help market and grow their business! It’s a win-win for me! I get to do what I love and help others in the process and build connections and relationships with amazing people. What sets me apart from other videographers/creatives in my opinion would have to be my style of videography. I strive to be different in my work whether it be camera movements, different angles and shots, as well as the trendy music and sound effects I edit the video too! At the end of the day, I am most proud of taking care of all of my clients who book with me and providing the best customer service possible. I want to be more than just “the videographer”. I want to be a person someone can ask for help at any time for, questions/advice on life, money management, and business consulting! Right now, JWFLIX is currently diving into the “cinematic” style of video and investing into more equipment to provide the highest quality of work possible. I am grateful for all of the people who have supported JWFLIX including my parents, my girlfriend, my cleints, my good friends, as well as fans online!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I had a life changing pivot in my career choice about a year ago. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do full time when I got out of college. At the time, I was looking to become a professional soccer player, but after I stopped playing my senior year, I needed to figure what I wanted to do in my life. I really enjoyed JWFLIX and it was always doing so well. I found myself consistently doing JWFLIX work and researching and fine tuning my business. After some deep thought and advice from my family, my girlfriend and close friends, I decided to run JWFLIX Videography full time! It was the absolute best decision in my entire life. JWFLIX changed my life. I am extremely passionate about it and I love what I do. It is one of the best jobs in the world! I meet so many people, and often get to work and meet with famous people/big brands and very successful business owners and it is just always a fun time when I get to shoot videos for different concepts and styles. I definitely had a plan in mind when deciding to do JWFLIX full time. I had to make sure I was making enough income to sustain my life. I am thankful to God not only for the opportunity to run JWFLIX full time, but for it to take of me in all of my aspects of living as well!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The biggest thing that helped build my reputation within my market is shooting for businesses and brands in the JWFLIX way and style. I try to help brands realize that when we shoot in my style of videography, its going to be engaging and different from what other brands are producing on their social media pages. Some of my favorite businesses and brands to work with are “SWAKE cosmetics”. A sweat proof makeup perfectly designed to last the 9-5 and beyond! And “Essential Aesthetics” a high quality lash service. These brands have allowed me to essentially have full creative control in our shoots and the videos that are produced from that are absolutely amazing!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/jwflix/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-williams-438ab2238?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BwZPRaiRBSi%2BLGdRBLlIZIQ%3D%3D
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jwflixvideography?si=-nDu2AI9yINot8R_