We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krystle Grandy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krystle below.

Hi Krystle, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

I would say in our industry some women are very competitive with each other, often tearing down other women or being unwilling to train and/or impart information on women coming up in the business. Due to this, I’ve had many great male mentors who have helped me along the way and taught me so much, but I always wanted a female mentor that I could more easily relate to, especially with the struggles I faced coming up in the industry pre ‘me too’. One thing I do differently in our film/video community in Pittsburgh is I mentor/help as many young people as I can, and especially young women. I want to be to them a strong , compassionate and unthreatened female mentor. I know that I am great at my job and I know there is no one who does it like me so I am not threatened in teaching them everything I know and helping them get a leg up in the industry. Many of the young women I’ve mentored have gone on to do great things such as working on shows like ‘Yellowstone’, and producing their own projects. I believe there is enough work to go around for us all and no need for us to be competition, instead if we support each other we can build a better, stronger video community in Pittsburgh and that is what I aim to do. As a member of Women in Film and Media Pittsburgh and the Vice President of the board, that is a big part of what I strive to do with my board efforts as well.

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

My name is Krystle Grandy and I’m a Producer at Brunner which is an awesome advertising agency with offices in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. I got into the industry because when I was younger I really loved the actress Vivien Leigh and I wanted to act like she did. Ultimately, I learned that I had terrible stage fright and enjoyed being behind the scenes more so I went to school in Orange county for Video/TV and Film at Cal State Fullerton. During my college career I got into the industry by condensing all of my classes to 2 days (Tuesday/Thursday) and I interned the other 3 days of the week, overall doing 8 internships during my college career to figure out what I really wanted to do in the industry. During my senior year I was offered the first ever Capitol Records music video production internship and an internship with E! News! I went with Capitol records and used my time on-set there to parlay myself into roles on set as a production assistant and then a producer’s assistant. From there I networked and found myself on scripted shows like ‘American Horror Story’, and so on and so forth to bring to where I am today. You can view my full bio at www.kgrandymedia.com. Right now I’m a producer at Brunner so I’m able to bring a project to life from conception through post-production and I love working with the Brunner team! I also freelance consult as a producer, etc. too! I have worked in so many different types of production so I’m able to take all of that experience and offer truly unique and innovative solutions to make projects happen! I would say I’m most proud of the fact that no matter how busy I am, I always make a point to give back and support others in the industry if and when I can.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that bosses/leaders aren’t tough and mean and overbearing. Bosses are kind and lead by doing and are human beings first. The backstory to this is I had a job where I was managing a small team for awhile and honestly the entire team really did not like me because I was the boss of the team and managed everyone with an iron fist as I thought that’s what I had to do to get respect. But being left out of lunches and what not was really lonely and it took me years of working as a freelancer after I left this role to watch how bad bosses ‘boss’ and how good bosses do and learn from those personal experiences. My current bosses at Brunner are a great example of great bosses. They’re human beings who see us as more than just a cog in the wheel. They also don’t micro-manage, I love that they trust me and hired me to do the job so they don’t micro-manage me. Honestly, I have learned how to manage well from them as well as from bad managers who I’ve worked for who taught me what I DON’T want to do and how I DON’T want to treat people.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe that all teams on a set should be as diverse as possible. When I see a set that’s all one type of person, it definitely makes me feel a certain way about the leader and the production company involved. I try very much so to make sure the sets that I hire for and manage are diverse, with many different people with different backgrounds and Ideas because I believe this makes for a better team and brings better ideas to the table. I think those in the Pittsburgh film market know that I am a champion for the underdog always and love especially helping women in our market succeed .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kgrandymedia.com
• Instagram: @Kgrandymedia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KGrandyMedia/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystlegrandy/
• Other: https://www.wifmpit.org

Image Credits

Professional Photo credit: Kaela Speicher Photography