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

Khalil, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Since 2015, I have taken on the risk of investing effort, time, finances and more than you can imagine to build up my media production company in NYC. We specialize in documentaries and promo videos about a variety of entrepreneurs, influencers and community leaders, mostly based in NYC. We have also been able to build up a medium sized following via social media content that provides mini-docs, archival content and history from around NYC’s five boroughs.

The risk of taking this on as an entrepreneur has had many ups and downs when it comes to scaling the company upwards, being that production is a very competitive and an expensive market. How I describe my experience so far is HOT and COLD.. When its good.. its great… clients and inquiries coming in rapidly (typically warmer months).. When its Cold.. its really slow and it provides challenges of where our next opportunity will come from (typically colder months).

Nevertheless, the need for minority content producers is at an all time high as it is important to have a diverse voice that produces the images we see via media. Certain nuances and understandings of minority and urban culture can only be understood from a producer that has lived the experience.

From 2015-2022, I was balancing my entrepreneurship with a variety of other jobs around production, marketing and communications. Some of those brands have been: MLB, Showtime, Disney, Variety of Non Profits in NYC,

I left my full-time job in the summer of 2022 to pursue the journey of finding stable clients and scaling up. Since then, the roller coaster has continued… however I truly believe that the risk will pay off soon and that we will be a more than successful media production company.

Next for us is to continue building our team up, partnering with other media companies and finding more long term production opportunities

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Khalil Perry and I am the owner of Persist Media, described as a production company that specializes in documenting NYC’s five boroughs. I got into this field after I graduated from Marquette University with a degree in Communications and Marketing. After moving back to my hometown of NYC, I have been on a mission to solidify minority producers and tell the stories that have been overlooked for a long time.

I am the father of a toddler son and he is my main motivation to continue building up the company in order to one day pass down to him as a vehicle to efficiently create for generations to come.

I love history, business and sports.. mainly basketball, baseball, boxing and fitness training

From Persist, I have had the opportunity to work along side a variety of entrepreneurs, influencers and community leaders, in order to visually tell their stories and how they got to where they are today.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner, Jarrett Wilson, is a long time neighborhood friend that I met while working a summer job in high school. We first got along by being two of few minorities in a non-minority setting. We then realized we lived close to each other and this started our journey of friendship; surrounded by unlimited memories pertaining to entertainment, sports, leisure and family.

After completing college, I decided to start the Persist brand and since then, he has believed in the progress and potential of what we can build and have already built from scratch..

If I bring the business and technical skills.. he brings the personality and diverse creativity..

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What has helped us build our reputation is having an organic approach to how we tell stories.. Where most producers are focused on the technicalities of production, we are more focused on the storytelling aspect and how it can connect to a wider audience. We like to ask the questions that most down and get the backstory and motivation behind whatever it is we are covering… Many producers are more concerned with the visual aspects and how it is shot more than the actual story…    

Contact Info:

• Website: Persistprint.com
• Instagram: @PersistPrint
• Facebook: Facebook.com/persistprint
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalilperry/
• Twitter: twitter.com/persistprint
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PersistPrintNYC