We were lucky to catch up with Luke DiCola recently and have shared our conversation below.

Luke, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

The risk I took was leaving a job I was comfortable at to start my company at the age of 25 without technically having a single client. I was 3+ years into my role as the in-house videographer, editor, and motion graphics designer at a higher ed marketing firm, which was my first “real” job out of college. I’d had an incredible experience to that point, but the routine was becoming a bit stale, and I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d outgrown my role at the agency. I put in my two weeks and mentioned to my boss and mentor that if there was any opportunity to freelance in the future, I would love to continue working with them in that capacity. They told me they’d consider it, but I wasn’t counting on it. At the time when I left the agency, I had a few shoot days lined up and a trip to Wisconsin for 3 shoot days, but nothing beyond that. Just days after my final day at the agency, the Wisconsin shoot was cancelled. I didn’t panic, but there was a bit more free time in that first month than I would have wanted. My family and friends were supportive, but I didn’t have a particularly detailed business plan other than, “I want to see what I can do on my own, and if this doesn’t work out, I can always just get another job”. Luckily, slowly but surely, work started picking up, eventually the agency got me back in the mix in a freelance role to handle filming and editing on a few projects, and I never looked back. 7 years later, I’m still working on several projects a year with the agency, and I couldn’t be more proud of the personal and professional relationships I’ve built there.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into my line of work through music. It all started when my sister, who at the time was a Pace University student, brought home a guitar from the West Village and instead of her taking to it, I did. I started with lessons immediately, working on theory and some rock classics, and eventually began recording myself play. This particular element opened up a whole world of possibilities, and when I was gifted a pirated copy of Ableton Live from the drummer of my band’s bus driver Stratos (please don’t get him in trouble, he was just trying to help our band!), I became obsessed with the art of production. When I would be falling asleep in history class in high school because I was up until 3am tracking, editing, and mixing in the home studio not so conveniently located in our mid-sized kitchen, I knew there was a love there that needed to be further explored. I ended up going to school for video production, minoring in music, and doing a bunch of recording work between my college band and music friends from school.

Currently, I do a lot of video production and photo work for beauty/fashion brands, a lot of that continued higher ed marketing work, and a mixed bag of weddings, music-related gigs, and audio/music production work. I would say I solve a variety of different problems for clients, which is what makes every day different. Some clients need more eyes on their brand, some want to convey a meaningful message about who they are to their audience, others just want to tell a compelling and authentic story from the heart, and I’m here for it all.

I would have to say I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve forged over the years. As I’d mentioned, the relationships with my previous employers still existing is huge, but that extends to so many amazing people who have started as corporate clients and have become not just friends, but family. I’ve always said that I attribute about 50% of my business success to simply being a good person and doing right by my clients. There’s a lot of people whose work quality lies somewhere between good enough and great, so I think what sets you apart is going the extra mile for a client and being nice to be around (also smelling good doesn’t hurt)! Nail the simple things, the rest will fall into place! I take great pride in the work I do and always do whatever I can to be prepared for shoots to set myself up for success. Good communication is an important ingredient to achieve that.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I get to work with some incredible creatives on the camera side. Creatives who are great friends as well, I feel so lucky in that way. When you’re going into the 13th hour on a shoot, it’s nice to be able to have trusted friends who are good vibes around you.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m sure the majority of humans are sick of hearing about it, but when COVID hit and all of my shoots were cancelled, it was either sit on the couch every day and watch Tiger King, or do something productive. I decided it was okay to be okay with the fact that I wasn’t working (what choice did I have?), and I started to assemble my solo album. I was quarantined at the home studio I had co-built a couple years prior, that was a 2 room setup, a control room that connected into a wood paneled live room, fully equipped with pre amps, microphones and instruments. I was able to pull in some good friends to play on the album, including a former intern of mine on trumpet, some former classmates I reconnected with on lap steel guitar and violin, and my dad on none other than the accordion. It was a 10 track rock n roll Odysey called Circus Of Dreams that was released in the summer of 2021. It got some radio play on WFUV and was a shining light for me during a dark and terribly sad time for the world.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My unofficial business partner was a member of an all male a cappella group I was in for 3 years of college. It was the best thing I ever did, and not just cause it inevitably led to me connecting with James on a business level. A cappella help me grow as a person, help me with team work, with my vocals, confidence in performing, reimagining music and notating and arranging music. I digress, James and I began work together on some projects after college and shot our first wedding together in 2015. He’s a monster of a videographer and editor and I’m super grateful for our partnership. I actually had the honor of capturing his engagement on camera a few months ago, so got to switch it up and have James in front of the camera rather than alongside me. We have a bit of a team we’ve been building, so it’s worth shouting out the rest of the gang as well, much love to the proddy boys who continue to kill it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lukedicolaproductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ldp_ny/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukedicola/

Image Credits

Photo of me talking to woman on set – James Fischer
Photo of 4 of us looking at camera – Clovis Bloom
Photo of live music shot – Taylor Weindberg
All other credits would be me I suppose, though they’re mostly iPhone BTS photos! :)