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

Alright, Zachary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I am not sure if this is supposed to be in first person or just a general insight, but here goes!

I started a small blog channel with a friend in 2019 with the hope and vision of becoming a full time filmmaker. I turned 30 years old that year and decided it was time to change everything up and chase after what motivated me and scared me. I packed my bags and moved from Mississippi to Florida with three buddies on a hunch and a prayer. I had no job, no car, and no money. I always loved films and film making, but never took the plunge to make it a career. Now I am four years into the journey and the mission through-line has always stayed the same, how do we help people tell their story?

We have it polished up a bit with our tagline Stories. Told. Well.

Another mission statement emerged from this journey. Help my creative community by giving the affordable access to the space, gear, and connections they need to create what inspires them. We aim to serve the creative community that operate on smaller budgets but have big dreams, but we are also capable of tackling large client work. The way we strike the balance is by focusing our digital marketing efforts on larger clients to secure retainers for full service packages and allowing local creatives to collaborate with us in as many ways as possible. So often we find that the people who are interested in using the space can collaborate with our team on bigger projects!

The creative community was so inspiring and scary to be a part of, that motivated me to make some major life changes. I went back to school for digital media/film making and packed up my days of working and hanging out in bars. I was oriented towards change and creativity. BUT, it was expensive. From buying gear, to studio space, college tuition and connecting with the right people, it was difficult.

I quickly learned that as my business was growing, the network of people who relied on me also grew. I was making a creative home in the heart of DTSP. As we shored up our processes and creative output, we always made sure to leave space on the calendar for people to create music videos, fashion shows, photo sessions, and whatever else was needed by the local creative community. We also host a monthly art show that is curated by our partner Stephanie Agudelo that has quickly become a landmark of the local artist community. It is so empowering and inspiring to see the work of local artists hitting our walls each month as the themes ebb and flow. We once had a week-long installment of balloons that covered every square inch of our 35k square foot facility. It was insane.

The last piece of the story for why I started Coastal Creative was comedy. My real mission in life is to bring humor into the hearts and dark little corners of us all. And my second love behind film is stand up comedy.

Coastal Creative was designed (By necessity partly) to be a multi armed business. Part digital agency, part creative studio, part event venue (Lots of weddings happen here), but always at the core I knew I wanted to open a comedy club on the weekends. 1-4 times a month we host comedians from all over the world. When I found our lovely warehouse studio on the corner of the warehouse arts district, the FIRST thought I had was, I am going to have all of my favorite comedians here some day. Two years later, and we have already filmed two comedy specials. (One for Bobby Kelly!!). Our mission for Coastal Comedy Nights is two fold, make an inclusive and platforming space for Tampa’s local comedians (Who are amazing) and pay them well, the second was to get recognized for our videography and production skill sets and offer that as a bonus service for famous comedians to come host their shows and live podcasts here.

It is a lot! But the whole team at Coastal Creative is aligned with the vision and we move together to keep the mission burning!

Zachary , 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?

My name is Zach Moore

I am the founder of Coastal Creative

I got into videography (Professionally) around 4 years ago.

I went to SPC when I moved to Saint Pete with a fresh start in mind. I never graduated college and had worked in various industries (Mostly hospitality) for over 15 years. From dishwasher to owner/operator, I had done it all. That also came with some unhealthy lifestyle choices that helped me decide it was time to stop working so hard at an industry that was going to either kill me or run me into the ground and start chasing my dreams.

I made some lifestyle adjustments and headed to Saint Pete on a hope and prayer and about $300.

Coastal Creative is a Creative Studio Space/Event Space/Digital Agency

We offer:

– Videography
– Full Production Services
– Photography
– Script Development
– Social Media Management
– Ad Placement/Spend
– Analytics/KPI reporting
– Graphic Design
– Event Planning
– Digital Marketing
– Website development
– Studio Space Rental
– Cyclorama wall
– Podcast Studio
– Podcast and Social media video production
– Comedy Shows
– Art Shows
– Wedding Video
– Gear Rental
– And so much more!!

We flex our creative muscles in a lot of ways and it is always paramount to us that we leave space in our month to month for local creatives to come in and use the space to serve their small businesses.

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

When I started Coastal Creative, there was an entirely different crew. My peers, friends, and mentors made up the original crew. Starting a business can put a lot of pressure on people that goes unseen, and often they are hesitant to announce true feelings for a multitude of reasons. It was very painful for me to see all of the people I had learned from and leaned on phase out. But the truth was, starting a start up is hard work, and when communication isn’t there it is easy to let the pressures of that responsibility become too much.

My entire founding crew left suddenly and I had to juggle over a dozen open projects, it was a tough spot. Luckily I had already connected with some really awesome people in my direct network, and when the flare went up, they were ready to jump on board, and that crew is still here today. Growing and showing that if everyone is focused and driven by the same code, all you need is communication to keep the train on the track. It was a very important lesson for me as the business leader.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Payroll.

It is my all natural alarm clock. It is what gets me up each morning.

Making sure the team is secure and taken care of is always my first thought.

When I first started, $2500 a month seemed like a mountain to hit for the part time payroll of the 1-2 employees that we had. That is closer to what I pay in payroll taxes each week now!

The world is alway uncertain, but covid certainly took a few licks out on us in the beginning. We didn’t get approved for any of the major financial safety nets during Covid for shuttered venues because we are a blended space, but the overhead of the studio mixed with payroll very nearly took us out in 2020.

Contact Info:

• Website: coastalcreativettv.com
• Instagram: @coastalcreative.tv
• Facebook: @coastalcreative.tv

Image Credits
All photos shot by coastal crew + @followtheequator