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

Taylor, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

I’ve of course failed more than once. I’m always making mistakes. I could write a long list of all the mistakes and areas I wish I could have done better or hope to do better in the future. Today I wanted to share one of my biggest mistakes in business I’ve ever made, bringing on a partner. As of today, I’ve never shared this story on paper, only to close friends and family I know. I don’t want to sit and dwell on this mistake and beat myself up, but maybe I need to do a better job of reflecting and writing down what I’ve learned, and how I hope to be better.

After 10+ years of working late nights, coming home from my 9-5 I decided to jump into my full time video/photo/design agency. Fast forward another 5 years, I had hired our first two team members, we had gotten our first small 200 sq foot office and were hustling to stay in business! A long time client approached us and asked us to partner together and invest in our business. It was exciting and an honor to have someone approach our small business. I was flattered. Months later we partnered as a 50/50 partner. I’ll spare you the details. It didn’t work out. Big promises, big ideas, and lots of money invested in their partnership and other businesses they owned. Of course not all partnerships work out, business fail. To me, the biggest failure was realizing then I had trusted someone who would do anything to protect themselves. Our partner had hundreds of millions of funding and 30+ business, we had a couple hundred thousand and small team of 8. We almost lost everything and had to fight to keep ownership of the business and raise funding to remove the partners.

I don’t think my biggest failure was partnering. I think my biggest failure was not writing out every single detail of what happens if our partner needs out. What happens if threaten to liquidate due to problems of their own? What happens if they can’t pay their bills? What happens if money is tight for both of us. What happens if the hype, big promises, and future deals never happen? That was my biggest mistake. Take the time to not just talk through the prenub, write it down, be open, be transparent. If your partner can’t do that, maybe that’s your answer it wasn’t a fit in the first place.

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?

When I was 12 years old I began making wedding videos. Now 24 years later, I’m still trying to do the same thing but with our creative agency MODO STUDIOS who has a talented team of video/photo/design creatives.

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

I’ll keep this one short. After marrying my high school sweetheart I thought to myself “I better get a real job and do a better job making money/providing for my future family”. I almost gave up on the dream of making videos for a living and started down the pre med route. I became a CNA, changed my college track to pre med. After a year of trying, i was depressed and miserable. My wife sat me down, got me back on track, and said lets go for this! Do what you want to do.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Work with kind people.
Work with people who don’t have egos.
Work to have a positive attitude.
Work my hardest while realizing there is more important things than work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.modostudios.com
• Instagram: instagram.com_modostudios_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modostudios1/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-ballam-10827758/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiCgRY4uya-EuVLD1UUu2Nw

Image Credits

Family Photo by Jen Anderson Photography
All Others – Taylor Ballam/Modo Studios