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

Madison Hadler, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Finding our name started with rebranding our business, and it was particularly tough to find something that would stand out, align with the new direction we were going, and be memorable. And, of course, we wanted the name to be significant and meaningful so that people could get a glimpse of who we were and what we stood for.

We tried many avenues to come up with this name. Since we are a queer-owned business, we went through many variations of names that hinted at our lifestyles, heritages, and values. From Greek gods to variations of our names, we looked through the whole rainbow before landing on Prisma. This is the Italian word for prism, a piece of glass or other transparent material cut with precise angles and other faces, useful for analyzing and relfecting different colors through it.. We don’t exactly remember how Madison went back into her memory to recall elementary school science and math to think of this shape. Still, we knew it was the perfect match as we do just what a prism does in our own way, using our lenses to put a magnifying glass on what’s already there and breaking it down to showcase its extraordinarity. The Italian part came because of Colette’s familial background and wanting to tie in more of our identity within the brand. It also makes it that much more interesting!

This name represented a new chapter of our videography, where we recommitted ourselves to finding innovative ways to reflect people’s light.

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?

It started with someone asking for a recruitment video when Colette was in college with her friend and business partner at the time, Leanna. They had never made one before, but why not start now? From there, it unfolded as they began to receive requests for wedding videos and small businesses in their college town of Maryville, Missouri. They decided to make it an actual side-hustle and promote their videography services to those who wanted to capture their special day, showcase their businesses, events, and more. Even after graduating and moving back to their hometown of Kansas City, they continued this business for seven years. When it was time for Leanna to transition out of the videography world to focus on her other business ventures (s/o Mazzeffe’s Merch!), Colette asked her partner, Madison, a social media specialist, to fill the role of marketing, second shooter, and administrative help. Together, we strive to capture everything our clients know and don’t know they need. For weddings, cinematic documentary is our style of choice, capturing raw moments that will become family heirlooms for years to come. For businesses, it’s taking your lifelong work and highlighting its uniqueness through trendy videos, client testimonials, and films telling the story of your brand so that more people can find your product.

In a world of consumption, it is easy to forget what makes the technology we have so special. With videos, we are able to easily convey emotion to mass audiences or capture the hearty laugh of your favorite person to live on in more than just your memory. We promise you that nobody has ever regretted hiring a videographer, BUT they have regretted NOT hiring a videographer.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

With any business, the initial struggle is “where do we begin”… We had minimal camera equipment, lack of experience, and no camera equipment. But our strategy has always been to “just say yes, and we will find a way.” This business started with what we had, our phones and our love for telling people’s stories. We generated enough capital to purchase our first camera by saying yes to events, working pro bono to establish connections, and entering video contests. They were sometimes long days and longer weekends, but all the hard work paid off when we had enough capital to reinvest in ourselves. In the beginning, everything we earned was put back into the business, and to this day, all of our equipment has been paid for by that same hard work and dedication that started this journey.

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

Colette and Madison met at their full-time jobs. Colette is a Senior Graphic Designer, while Madison is a Senior Social Media Coordinator at an AM 100 Law Firm. They have been working there for over 4 years, with Colette beginning there first. It has been a great time being able to work with one another in these different capacities and learn to navigate our business with full-time work. In our day-to-day, we focus on making corporate law interesting and captivating for the general public. These roles allow us to gain insights into the corporate world and obtain refined skills that elevate our creative work as Prisma Creative Media.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prismacreativemedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrismaCreativeMedia/

Image Credits

Erishyll Mae Photography