We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quincy Vagell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Quincy, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I worked at several different television stations earlier in my career. Most recently, I was a Meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Although it was a great experience, I decided that I wanted to be out in the field, chasing storms, rather than behind a desk 40 hours a week.

In the spring of 2016, I left that job and without a cohesive plan, I spent the next several months on the road, traveling and storm chasing. It was a great experience. My first major licensing agreement as a freelance storm chaser came with The Weather Channel in May, when I licensed footage from a close range tornado chase.

I officially moved to Oklahoma that fall and there has been no turning back. It is a prime location for storm chasing and if I hadn’t taken that risk seven years ago, I would not be where I am today with my career.

Quincy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a storm chaser and photographer with a degree in Meteorology. I travel around the country, most specifically the Great Plains, during the peak of storm season in May, June and July, documenting severe storms.

As a freelance storm chaser, I am not affiliated with any individual station. Instead, I license storm footage to various media outlets, such as The Weather Channel, CNN and The Washington Post, to highlight a few.

As a child, I was fascinated by weather from a very young age. Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel was an early inspiration. Later in life, I went to school to study and earn a degree in Meteorology at Western Connecticut State University. I was initially focused on getting into broadcast meteorology, as I worked at multiple television stations over the years. Over time, I became more fascinated with storm chasing out in the field. I left The Weather Channel to pursue this route in 2016. There has been no turning back, as I remain a freelance storm chaser to this day.

Since the storm season I focus on is only about 3-4 months out of the year, I find other things to do with my spare time. I have branched out with photography, as I dabble in wedding and model photography. As I travel, I also photograph landscapes, rural areas and have developed an interest in urban exploration.

Working for myself, I am not tied down to any individual station, market or organization. This gives me the freedom to travel where I want, whenever I want to.

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

When I left The Weather Channel to pursue freelance storm chasing, I may not have realized the financial risks I would face. Storm chasing is not always a profitable business. I found myself running low on cash by the end of the 2016 storm chase season, as traveling can be expensive. I accepted that I would need to find other sources of income aside from storm chasing, if I was going to stay afloat.

Branching out in photography has helped supplement my income. I am also able to balance my work and personal life in a way that is sustainable. I spend most of the spring and early summer months storm chasing. I still get to travel throughout the rest of the year, but I have learned to not solely rely on storm chasing for income.

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

I believe in organic growth. I started rather small in my following. I connected with other storm chasers, meteorologists and photographers. The network has opened me up to others of similar interests. Still, growth was rather slow in the early days.

Over time, I learned that consistent posting and engagement is key to building a larger following. Specializing in photography, I try to share interesting photos as I take them. In the breaking weather field, pushing photos and videos to social media is very time sensitive. The faster you can get them out, the better. As I document severe storms, I post footage to social media as soon as possible and this drives organic growth.

Since storm season can be quiet for weeks or months on end, I find other subjects to photograph and share during the down time. Not only does this keep my social media feed active, but it has connected me with content creators and creatives in many other fields.

It’s not always easy, but trying to respond to direct messages in a time manner also helps drive growth and engagement.

One last tip is engaging with your following in a way that helps you better understand what type of content they want to see. I regularly ask my audience for feedback and this has helped me curate my feed in such a way that targets the largest audience and keeps them engaged.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.quincyvagell.com
• Instagram: stormchaserQ
• Twitter: stormchaserQ
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWKCOfRf-Xi-Pdbfpco1VA

Image Credits
All of these are my photos.