We were lucky to catch up with Quashawn Potts recently and have shared our conversation below.

Quashawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge to profitability in my industry is increasing rates while still maintaining clients. As much as I love shooting weddings and helping create content for businesses, I have to value my quality of work. When I started this business, I worked for cheap and did free collaborations to get my brand noticed. In exchange for free collaborations, I would get a shoutout or tag on social media.That experience helped me develop and specialize my skillset. It allowed me to realize how much I love videography and challenged my creativity. As my skills and creativity grew, I started to realize that I needed to increase my prices due to the quality, time and value that I put into my work. Not only that, I needed to increase my prices so that I could buy more equipment and build a production company. However, I didn’t realize that increasing my prices also meant losing clients. That’s where the profitability becomes a challenge. I’ve realized that I would rather work with 3 high paying clients than spread myself thin working with 15 clients who are not willing to pay more for the quality of my services. It’s very important to understand that spreading yourself thin can create burnout, which ultimately affects your creativity. You need your creativity in order to show potential wedding clients or businesses what you can do for them and what you can bring to the table. .

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?

Hey everyone! My name is Quay Potts. Like many, I lost my job as a personal fitness trainer during Covid and had to figure out what I wanted to do. I had always had an interest with filmmaking and using my creativity to edit videos and photos. As a matter of fact, I created my own videos to help promote my fitness brand because I realized how costly hiring a videographer could be. I didn’t realize this at the time, but having the economy shut down was actually a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to shift my focus from fitness to filmmaking/photography. It allowed me to take that leap of faith and dive into a completely different field. For those of you that don’t know, I am self taught. I have never taken a filmmaking or photography class. Everything I have learned has been through watching Youtube videos and practicing at home. I would wake up at 5am and watch Youtube videos about editing, Sony cameras, lighting, studios, etc. Anything that captivated my attention or encouraged me, I watched.

Fast forward from 2020 to 2023, I now provide professional photography and videography services. My production company now shoots weddings, real estate, corporate events, podcasts, and content for businesses. As a business owner, I know what videos will attract and engage new and potential clients. I know and follow the social media trends. I provide insight and content for businesses that will help bring them to the next level. As for weddings, well I love story telling. I love creating a wedding film for a couple by telling their story using their own words in the best story telling way possible. It creates a more sentimental feeling from their most intimate day than just a basic highlight film. I try to do the most for my clients so that they too get value from the work that I create for them no matter the occasion.

The thing I am most proud of is how fast my production company has progressed in this short amount of time. I have been able to build a team by having my girlfriend talk to potential clients and by bringing second shooters out on a job with me. Divide and conquer has been a true motto to this growth. I want my potential clients, fans, and followers to know that Quayvision Productions appreciates the support. I want people to have the “wow” factor when we produce quality content for them.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting a business is hard. Maintaining a business is even harder. As an entrepreneur, you deal with a different level of stress. You have your high months and low months. High months where jobs are coming through left and right. Low months meaning there is no job currently on the calendar. Resilience is the key in business. Having a strong mindset gets you through the challenging times. There were times where I have had a low month and have wanted to drop my rates to get a client. However, in the end, it didn’t make me feel great because I wasn’t valuing myself or work. Instead of being down during the low months, I now utilize the time to go out on a golf course, spend time with my girlfriend, create videos, build my Youtube channel and work on content for my Quayvision Productions brand. I focus on the greater things that will come.

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

As much as I dislike social media, it is very important when growing your business. I started posting reels or past work from jobs that I had done. I try to post engaging content or content that is relatable. My biggest advice is to not worry about the number of followers or likes on your post. BE YOU and just POST! Be consistent. Don’t become obsessed with the numbers. Once you start to become obsessed with the numbers, then creating content for your business no longer becomes fun. You start to feel terrible if people don’t like your content or if you don’t gain a follower from a post. Remember, post for you and eventually you’ll start to attract followers and an audience. It takes time so enjoy the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: quaypotts.com
• Instagram: @quayvision
• Youtube: @quayvision

Image Credits
All image credits to Quayvision Productions