We were lucky to catch up with Trey Ford recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Trey, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

My first step into the mode of entrepreneurship that also requires you to be an employer was at 19 years old running a branch office for Vector Marketing, the entity that recruits and trains sales professionals for Cutco Cutlery.

One of the major factors that I had to overcome was the drag/friction created by people in my sphere of influence who thought poorly of the company and opportunity. Although there was a per appointment base included in the pay, this sales position was primarily commission based and thus it required performance for it to be worth driving from prospect to prospect to present the product. This created very high turnover which in all honesty is prevalent in anything that is challenging but when there is money on the line people tend to be very vocal about their distaste.

My role as the “owner” of the branch office would be to pay the lease on the office, furnish it, staff it with receptionists who would take on the calls of people looking for work, interview those people, train the ones I hired, and manage them with the goal of sales production as the office manager did not receive any base pay.

As I mentioned before I was 19 years old, only 2 years prior I was the one going through that hiring and training process, and I had only saved about $5000 going into that May of 2007, most of which would be allocated toward advertising the position and the office lease.

I took the risk because even though I was looking at an up mountain hike, I was in control of each of the steps. As a creative, I value autonomy and flexibility very highly and although this particular industry would probably not be regarded as a “creative” one it represented freedom for me to do it my way, with my style, on my time, on my dime while also providing a framework and guideline for success. The business model very closely mimicked a franchise and the experience would serve me later in life when I became the franchisee of a publishing company that specialized in targeted marketing to affluent neighborhoods (some of the same types of neighborhoods we tried to sell into with our expensive cutlery)..

I was NOT successful that summer in terms of financial gain. I was living in a week to week rent converted garage in a house with 2 other tenants, neither of whom spoke English. I was using groceries from training to eat when I didn’t have the money for a dollar menu at a fast food restaurant and even convinced the Chinese buffet across from my office to allow me to take home to-go plates. I experienced my first bout with depression. I experienced firing a single mother who no call, no showed to work and the guilt around doing so even though I felt it was warranted. I experienced watching others in the same role be successful while I struggled and the battle with imposter syndrome. And if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes because this catapulted my emotional intelligence, business savvy, communication skills, and more.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without that failure. The next summer I made $27,000 as the sales manager of the Jacksonville office headed into my senior year at University of Florida. The summer after that I was the #3 branch in Georgia in Savannah with one of the highest production per rep quotient in the region. Skills for life, no matter what industry the endeavor may be in.

Trey, 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 one of the co-founders of Black Films Matter LLC which is a film programming company that specializes in creating themed experiences for block busters depicting people of color in a positive light. Recently we have added the service of helping independent filmmakers profitably host their world premieres with the goal of using that to finance their entry into film festivals.

Getting into film programming was somewhat an accident (although we all know and have experiences that there are no coincidences). My business partner, Aaron Daye, and I initially were part of an investment club called Gainesville Black Wall Street. It was a group of young black professionals, upward bound in a multitude of industries that were planning to use group economics to start a business or invest in one. We had several meetings to create by-laws and discuss direction however the energy began to dissipate as people were busy with other things and no final decisions were made to move forward. One day some time in November of 2017, after what ended up being the final meeting, Aaron threw the idea out there to have a private screening and after party for the upcoming Black Panther movie, February 16th 2018.

This was another risk because at the time he was working as a photographer for the University of Florida and I was the owner of “Tioga Times”, a private neighborhood magazine for the residents of Town of Tioga. Neither of us had been involved in any form of event promotion recently, our background in that space primarily came from our time as frat boys in college, him at NCCU a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. And myself a member of the World Famous Zeta Kappa Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. To buy out an auditorium on opening weekend is typically the full price of every seat plus additional fees ranging from the lobby to technical support. That’s not where the expenses end, as we had to apply money to decor, an after party venue with its decor, marketing, you name it.

Our event expenses ballooned to over $10,000 before we knew it, for this one time endeavor. On the Wednesday before the event we both even took out payday loans (a big no no) to cover the rest of our costs, hoping to make the money back at the bar during the after party.

We did not, however what we gained with about a $2000 loss was name for ourselves as a unit, after never having worked together before. Initially we named the company Gainesville Black Wall Street and wanted to focus on using our skill sets to provide marketing services to first generation business owners but curating experiences specifically around film took the drivers seat because the demographic of our peers primarily was looking for places to engage with each other in fun settings outside of “the club”, and what we stumbled upon was one of the best ways to do it.

Not only that, business owners across multiple verticals want to reach this demographic of aging millennials of color., highly educated, motivated, paid, and starting families. We provide multiple ways for them to do that during the build up to the event, at the screening, and during the aftermath.

As fun as the themed private screenings for blockbusters like The Woman King, Judas & The Black Messiah, or Creed III are for us and our patrons, I am most excited about increasing the number of independent filmmakers we work with going into 2023 and beyond to deliver quality experiences for their World Premieres.

“Storytelling is one of the most potent forms of alchemy” is a quote that has stuck with me from a visual album called Kuongoza by poet, author, educator, Ebony Payne-English, which is also the first indie film we screened. We don’t want to, or need to wait on Hollywood to tell our stories whether fiction or historical because of the beautiful minds that exist across the country already doing so and doing it at a high level.

We are also excited about getting much more involved with the front end of film, from writing to production and have recently partnered with The Lit TV Network to facilitate more content to the end user who is at home. And next year our film programming expands from individual screenings into an Afrofuturism Film Contest ahead of our February ‘24 “Afrofuturism Film Festival”.

All possible from the seed of risk, and stepping out on faith. It opens the gateway for others to enter and realize their greatest dreams and highest potential.

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

When I think about the word “pivot” what comes to mind is the concept of “force vs flow”. To be able to pivot, or to be willing to do so means that you have a certain awareness and acknowledgment that the environment around you is shifting, and that an adjustment needs to be made. This is what we had to realize about 4 months into “Gainesville Black Wall Street” as a boutique marketing firm before it became Black Films Matter the film programming company.

When we threw that first screening, we did not have a plan for the aftermath. In fact we didn’t even form the LLC until after the screening was over and we “licked our wounds” from losing money. Aaron is a photographer and graphic designer, myself a copywriter, publicist, and orator with a sales background. Our thought process was to take our skills into small businesses to help them grow and to partner with someone skilled in our deficiencies, primarily structural and standard operating procedure based skills.

But that’s not what the market wanted, needed, or was receptive to us for, they wanted more well thought out opportunities to get together and have a good time without being around college kids. It took us a while to commit to that because we didn’t want to become “party promoters” and film screenings didn’t always make sense on a frequent basis.

Outside of a blaxploitation series at the Historic Hippodrome Theater in Gainesville Florida, we started with Sunday Funday brunches and the inception of the Fake Famous Comedy show during University of Florida’s Black Alumni Reunion. The comedy show turned into a tour and was the perfect outlet to sharpen our axe.

We didn’t do another blockbuster screening until Queen and Slim came out in the fall of 2019, which was our entry point into the Jacksonville, Florida market.

Failure to pivot will delay success. Always remember that rigidity breaks, flexibility bends and you can still achieve the end goal, if not realizing a better one.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Number 1 is, invest in it as often and with as much as possible, especially the artists you know personally, the creatives right in your back yard.

Number 2. Honest productive feedback that is encouraging instead of demeaning. And with that in mind, artists need to understand how to take the meat and leave the bones, as well as how to identify their true target audience as that is the feedback that is really most valuable.

It’s obscene to think that work in different forms of artistry is still seen as “dead end” from a financial standpoint because we consume some form of art as much as we consume food, air, and water. The greatest currency right now is attention, in everything we do we are seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting as it is the human sensory experience to be able to do so. Nature itself is our “free” art and it contains our greatest beauties and gratitude is our greatest investment in this instance, yet artists can’t pay their bills on gratitude.

The amount of time it takes someone to perfect a craft mixed with the time it takes them to complete an individual project should be compensated for.

It is to all of Earth’s benefit for artists of all modalities to be able to live off of their work, their contribution to society, as it makes life more enjoyable and worth living. Love is creation. Creation is Love.

Buy a print. Rent a film. Gift someone a pastry. Share someone’s album. Attend the event. And do it joyfully.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tentoesdownseries.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treysolo7
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyFordImpresario?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genetreyford
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/genetreyford
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Treysolo7
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/blackfilmsmatter http://littvnetwork.com/

Image Credits
Aaron Daye