We recently connected with Ryan Roehl and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

The story of my business goes way back to when I was junior high school. At the time I was really getting into photography, videography, and graphic design. I knew I wanted to do something within that field, but wasn’t entirely sure what the options were or what that totally looked like.

I was taking some classes on photography, videography and graphic design and really just enjoyed playing around with the different programs we used and learning how to use them even in my spare time outside of school.

It all really began my senior year when I start making commitment edits, which for those who do not know are graphics that high school athletes will post to their social pages when they commit to a school.

This is something that really interested me because I was a high school baseball player myself going through the recruiting process at the time, so making these graphics was something very relatable to me. Little did I know how big of an impact this hobby would have on me in the long run.

After selling a few of these graphics, I decided to make my own Instagram account and started to post some of my previous work onto that page and in turn, the gym that I worked out at at the time reached out to me asking if I would be interested in helping to run their social media profiles, and create some content for them based off my skill set

I worked at the gym for about six months and working there really opened me up to not only graphic design, but photography and videography as well which is what I mainly focus in today. The gym I work out at was primarily kids my age that played baseball so when I begin creating content for the gym, it allowed me to make tons of new connections with local athletes in my area that I had always worked out with, but didn’t really know personally until this job.

During the winter of my senior year of high school, I actually ended up having to get Tommy John surgery, which is a major procedure on my elbow due to a baseball related injury. That took me out of baseball for my senior season and I remember promising to myself that during the recovery time I wasn’t going to let myself waste away, and I had to find some thing that I was interested in that I would pursue when I couldn’t play baseball.

It was an easy choice for me to dive into the photography/videography space, simply because of all the connections that I made at the gym and my true passion for what I do .

I’ll never forget that first Instagram DM I got from an athlete asking me to come out to their game. I was just so stoked that someone saw my work and liked it enough for them to ask me to come out to their game

From there it was kind of a snowball effect and still is to this day. I started regularly, posting my work to Instagram, which allowed me to grow an audience, and gain more work.

So going back to the question of what I had to do to move beyond the idea and actually launch, it almost seems like a seamless transition from a hobby turned into an actual launch simply because it was a steady flow of me doing it for fun because I enjoyed it and then almost falling right into a business when I had to undergo surgery and find something to fill my time because of the connections I had made at the gym.

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

Like I said earlier, I got into photography and videography around my junior year of high school when I start taking classes on the separate fields and then eventually officially launched my business my senior year of high school after having surgery on my elbow, which took me out of my senior season of baseball leaving me with time I never had before.

I always had an interest for photography from a young age. My sister used to always make me take photos of her (whether I liked it or not) and something about it just kinda always sparked my attention and just made me curious about what there was to do within that field.

It felt like such a obvious choice for me to start a photography/videography business simply because it’s just something that I really enjoy doing and when I am working, it doesn’t feel like work at all. It’s one of those things for me where I can be working for hours and get into that deep flow state and just truly enjoy what I’m doing whether I’m creating content for one of my own pages or creating content for a client, it’s just something that brings me joy every every time that I do it. Not to mention when I am working larger scale events I get an adrenaline rush from trying to get quality content out in a timely matter throughout the days of the event, it’s so fun.

Currently, My main service that I provide is photo and video content to promote events, brands and businesses. I’m the guy people call when they need a lot of high quality photo and video content in a short period of time.

It can be a daunting task to create social content that performs well and also fits within today’s trends and that’s exactly where I come in. I am young (19), have a unique perspective on what people want to see because of my age, and I have the camera skills to bring that to life. In other words, for businesses, brands or events that market to anyone near the age of 20, I am either their target audience or know the trends within the audience they are trying to attract. So I have a better understanding of what people my age want to see.

Not only can I make content but I can bring a lot of it to life in a short period of time. Typically when I’m working events, lets say a 2 day event, I would pump out around 6 short form video pieces of content along with 200+ images all within a two day span completely by myself.

I think that’s something that really sets me apart from other agencies or creators is that I can show up to an event and create content as the event goes on for it to be posted throughout the day. Plus, I’m just one single guy which means less flights, food, rooms, and overall spend for a business owner to receive high quality content. So let’s say you have an event on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Over that span I can guarantee you that there will be 3 to 4 short form videos up each day throughout the day, along with one to two photo posts each day, and then a full photo album delivered to you within 1 to 2 days of the event. I pride myself on pumping out, high-quality content, fast, and in today’s day and age fast=good. So fast content is good content, but I can provide fast QUALITY content which is something I pride myself on.

Recently, I also have started to give back to the creator community, even if in a small way. I have began to put out educational style videos and free resources via my social media and website in hopes of inspiring or educating a creator who is maybe just starting out or looking for some sort of advice. I believe everything happens for a reason and I think that I am in the position I am for a reason. Part of that I believe is teaching others how to do what I do. I always leave my DM’s open for questions and am happy to help other creators along their journey. It brings a smile to my face when people trust me and come to me with questions to help them go for their goals. I hope that I can inspire or provide value to even just a small number of people, because I know how much I appreciated creators that were bigger than me helping me along my journey.

When people ask me what I’m most proud of I don’t mention anything about cameras or editing but the answer is that at a young age I decided to take action on something that I loved and I’m now able to turn it into a profit for myself simply because I decided to take that first step of actually starting. I think a lot of people have great ideas and great talents, but are held up on that first step of starting for years and years and never actually do what they wanna do so I’m proud of myself that at the age of 17 as a senior in high schoolI was able to take that step and go all in on what I wanted to do.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As of now I have around 10,000 followers total across all platforms combined. Most of my Followers are athletes or people that are interested in creative sports content since I built my business around sports and creative media.

When I first started out, I was simply just posting the pictures I would take and tagging those athletes that I was shooting for, and in turn their friends, family, teammates would follow me and slowly my audience grew and found more people with similar interests.

As far to give advice to someone that’s just starting to build their social media presence I would tell them to not overthink it and post what you want to post. At the end of the day, the reason that I’ve gained nearly 10,000 followers across all social platforms is because I posted the work that I enjoyed making and I enjoy sharing with others.

Especially if you’re just starting out just get your work out there and you’ll find the audience that’s meant for you. you don’t need to have 100,000 followers overnight to be successful.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Social media is gold when it comes to finding new clients as a creator.

I would say that 95% of work I have done has came through my Instagram page. My Instagram basically serves as my portfolio and personal brand all within one so when someone scrolls through my Instagram, they can get to know me and see all of my work in a one stop shop. This is super effective in driving people to my DM’s for inquires about what I can offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: Ryan-Roehl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanroehlmedia/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBb4HKMphhQTCoAgnIatrjw?app=desktop&feature=applinks
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanroehlmedia