We recently connected with Jimmy Lick and have shared our conversation below.

Jimmy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

I think the first dollar I made that was significant was when I booked our fourth wedding ever in Santa Barbara and not only did I get paid my normal pay, but also all travel expenses. I remember talking with my friend who was the photographer on the wedding and we both were humbled and honored that a couple would cover all those costs to have us there rather than hiring someone locally. Now being a destination videographer, this happens more often than not, but I’ll always remember that conversation and I’ll always carry that humility every time someone books us as their videographer.

Jimmy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jimmy and I have the honor of running our wedding videography business Rora Film Co. and Second Society, a new platform to help find second shooters in the wedding industry. I started filming weddings by working at my church as a videographer. One person asked if I could film their wedding and then another, and soon enough I had 6 weddings under my belt in 6 months and thought I could do this full time. That was almost a decade ago and we’re still running full force as travel destination wedding videographers.

We don’t look at our films as the product, but more about our service. I believe the films we make is a direct result of how we show up on a wedding day, pulling out emotion and bringing energy that creates comfort, trust and vulnerability.

As far as Second Society goes, we’re a year into business and we’ve already found that it’s been a game changer for hundreds. Finding Lead and Second shooters is one of the biggest pain points in our industry and we’re here to completely get rid of that pain point. Through our online education and podcast, we find out what matters most to the Top 1% of wedding photographers and videographers so you can become the best in your industry.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Second Society is a platform that’s built by developers. We’re filmmakers, not developers, so this was competely outsourced. After a year of building, we ran into several problems with our developer that was costing us money every month that we didn’t have. We had to make the bold move of hiring a new developer and starting from scratch. This was a 4 month process that had to happen behind the scenes while the original platform continued to be live. This was one of the toughest times of my life, running and managing 2 platforms while also running our wedding business while paying double the amount of expenses.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Our wedding business has become the biggest source of our funding. Four years ago we bought a condo and sold it 6 months later to use the equity as seed money to get our new business off the ground.

Contact Info:

• Website: secondsociety.io
• Instagram: @secondsociety.io
• Facebook: @secondsociety.io
• Youtube: @secondsociety.io