Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Stafford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kelsey, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?

Stafford Productions is an athletic highlight video company that started out as a hobby and became a business in a college dorm room on Instagram. I believe it was born into the remote work world from the beginning. We did not have employees or workers; it was only my boyfriend and me.

Since I majored in communications, I had an understanding of how to run a business via social media and decided that was the platform that would allow my business to reach its full potential.

I played college soccer and so did my husband; he now plays professional soccer. Due to this, we move around often as he changes from team to team. Anywhere we go we can run our business since it is all done from our laptops and social media. I think since we are both athletes we do not like to stay stagnant for too long; we love to go to colleges/universities and watch soccer games, meet the players and coaches while we build our networking

Kelsey, 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 Kelsey Stafford and I am the CEO and Founder of Stafford Productions. Stafford Productions is a media production company that specializes in creating athletic highlight videos for athletes. It started out as a hobby back when I was a senior in college and my boyfriend needed a highlight video of his soccer season. Being a soccer player myself and majoring in communications, editing, and film I knew how to create that for him.

From there we were just making these videos for the rest of the soccer team as a hobby. We were not charging any money. Doing it just as a favor for those who needed one.

My boyfriend, Julio, who is now my husband, suggested we create an Instagram page to post all of the content we were creating as a portfolio.

A few years went by and when COVID came around we were approached by another recruiting company that needed someone to fulfill its backlog of highlight videos for its clients. We partnered up with the business owner and turned our little hobby into a real LLC. Since then we have taken off. We have 6K followers on Instagram and 800K impressions on Youtube. We are still a small operation; just husband and wife. However, our work ethic and determination to put out content and help others are unmatched.

Our main service is recruiting highlight videos for athletes of all levels: highschool, college, semi pro, and professional. We also make photoshop graphics, digital editing, film, and athletic resumes or CV’s.

The problem we solve the most for our clients is being recruited for college. We offer the lowest price on the market with the most value. Why? Since my husband and I are both college soccer graduates, we have been through the recruiting process and know how challenging it can be without the proper tools. We create a product that is affordable and helps these recruits stand out. Due to our background in the sport, we know exactly what college coaches are looking for and how crucial the time frame is to be recruited. We offer a 24-hour turnaround time on our videos to help get recruits in front of coaches faster.

Since starting our company we have helped over 200 athletes be recruited and have achieved a 6M viewer reach via Instagram and Youtube. Not only do we have one of the best prices on the market, but we also offer the exposure a recruit needs for free. Clients are getting a professional highlight video and the recruiting exposure they would need included, free of charge. We achieved 30K views on an athlete’s highlight video.

The reason my husband and I started with business was to help athletes. My husband is an international from Brazil and went through the recruiting process alone and he couldn’t speak English. I just didn’t have as many resources that exist today. Because of this we decided that we wanted to be there for today’s athletes and provide them with the tools and knowledge that we have accumulated to help them excel in the recruiting process.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I played soccer my entire life. I have 3 older brothers and was always on the move. I played pretty much every sport there was and some I played at the same time.

As I got older I stuck with soccer and played at an elite level with a club team. I decided it was the path I wanted to follow through college and was recruited to play at the division 2 level. I was offered a scholarship and attended Lincoln Memorial University to further my athletic and academic career.

I played 2 seasons of college soccer and then I suffered a terrible injury to my spine. I had multiple MRI’s and doctor’s visits to learn that I had herniated 2 disks in my spine. My orthopedic doctor told me that it was not severe enough to need surgery but I could no longer play soccer and should retire.

Learning that I had to medically retire from the sport I was most passionate about was heartbreaking. I felt as though a piece of myself had been taken away from me. I stayed on the school team but could only watch my teammates and friends from the sideline. In the beginning, it was torture. I was depressed and angry that I was unable to play. Unable to contribute.

As time went on I learned to cope with the results and decided that I would turn the energy into something beneficial and positive. That is why I created my business. I am still in love with the game. The ability to stay in the soccer community and help others who are about to or have walked the same path I walked is fulfilling. It brings me great joy to help upcoming and seasoned athletes.

When God closes one door he opens another. My purpose may have not been to finish my college soccer career. It may have been to help others excel in theirs!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I work full-time in addition to my own business. I work for a marketing and advertising agency and have learned a plethora of tips and tricks for growing a brand.

I have never run a business via social media and thought it would be an impossible task to do so. Turns out that with consistency and engagement, you can grow a following on social media quite rapidly.

The first tip I have is that you are not selling your product/service – you are selling a solution. You want to show your target audience how your products/services can solve their problems and why it has not worked with anyone else.

You want to grow your community. Find the “Big Fish” in your industry and start engaging with their followers. Comment on their content and follow their followers who meet your target market. Message them introducing yourself and ask if they need any assistance. These are the methods we used.

Rome was not built in a day. Growing a social media brand is all about consistency and engagement. Providing value is more important than follower count. I get caught up with the number of followers we have, but have to remind myself that follower count does not mean money. You need to try to convert your audience into customers; not worry about getting new followers. Nurture the database who is already interested in your content and provide them the value you can offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.staffordproductionsllc.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/staff.highlights?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/staffproductions1?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelsey-stafford-b25564197
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/staff_pro1213?s=21&t=0ld-O5Xjo-vcokRQxyMl7A
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@staff.highlights
• Yelp: NA
• Other: Email: [email protected] Whatsapp: 678 521 5764

Image Credits
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