Hey there, I am Clayton Causer, and welcome to my first blog post. I am the owner of C3 Productions which is a videography business where right now I mainly work in real estate and with other freelancers but am working on getting some of my own clients under me. I thought a great first post would be to talk about The Dream a little bit. It is not something that I get asked often but it was something I was asked about more in the beginning stages of my videography career and to this day it's still something that I refer back to in order to make sure I am heading in the right direction. Now I will be honest, the dream has changed slightly over the years but let's talk about that.
Starting in 2020, I initially found my love for videography through my church who at the time was looking for people to help during the week to film the worship band and put something together to go along with the prerecorded message going out that week. If you are not sure why we were doing that well…. the infamous Covid-19 was at play during that time and churches were looking and exploring avenues to keep people from being exposed but still able to hold services and worship from the safety of their homes. I did that for about a year or so until eventually we were allowed to attend in person and then we switched from pre-recorded footage every week to building a livestream setup and live streaming every week. I was blessed with the task of organizing this and making it operational every Sunday and still am in charge of it to this day. Not to skip too far ahead there but going back to now 2022, I was working at Jimmy Johns and had just finally gotten my Associates Degree, which I had gone back to get, and I was looking for the next phase in life. I wanted to do something in video work but didn’t have the confidence to just quit my job and start doing it, not to mention I didn’t have any gear and really not a clue where to start. At that point, I really only knew how to point a camera and shoot it as well as basic editing in Premiere Pro. So I turned to Indeed.com and just so happened to find a company that contracts people for real estate photo and video work and lucky for me they were looking to expand down into Raleigh which meant that I would be the main person in the area and able to get more work. Long story short, today I still work for that same company but also have a larger network where I work with other freelancers around the area and offer my help and expertise where needed.
I gave you all a little bit of backstory there just as a basis as well as a look into how I formed The Dream that I have today but also just to share a little more about myself and how I got to where I am. Early on my dream was definitely bigger than it was now although with the right amount of time and diligence, I could still get there. Here it is, I wanted to build out a larger company where I could have many different teams or individuals who specialize in all different areas of photo and video. There would be a wedding team, a real estate team, a livestream team, a travel shoot team, etc. Basically allowing me to either hop around or to be able to take more of a backseat role where I can offer my talent whenever but also let the individuals flourish. Back to reality now… that dream is very overarching and honestly I thought I wanted that but the more I worked in this ever-changing field and the more I learned about cameras and creating, the more I just wanted to be successful on my own. I’m married now and have a child on the way, but I just want to be able to provide for my family but also be able to be there for them always. I also realized along the way that I love the process of creating. From the planning to the shooting and meeting people, to putting it all together in the end. Seeing a project from start to finish really gives me a sense of accomplishment and happiness especially when you see how people react to your own work.
If you have a dream, what is it? Have you thought about it in detail or just in passing? How do you plan on reaching that dream? My parents taught me that anything is possible through dedication and hard work. If that’s true, then what's stopping you from reaching your dream?
I gave you all a little bit of backstory there just as a basis as well as a look into how I formed The Dream that I have today but also just to share a little more about myself and how I got to where I am. Early on my dream was definitely bigger than it was now although with the right amount of time and diligence, I could still get there. Here it is, I wanted to build out a larger company where I could have many different teams or individuals who specialize in all different areas of photo and video. There would be a wedding team, a real estate team, a livestream team, a travel shoot team, etc. Basically allowing me to either hop around or to be able to take more of a backseat role where I can offer my talent whenever but also let the individuals flourish. Back to reality now… that dream is very overarching and honestly I thought I wanted that but the more I worked in this ever-changing field and the more I learned about cameras and creating, the more I just wanted to be successful on my own. I’m married now and have a child on the way, but I just want to be able to provide for my family but also be able to be there for them always. I also realized along the way that I love the process of creating. From the planning to the shooting and meeting people, to putting it all together in the end. Seeing a project from start to finish really gives me a sense of accomplishment and happiness especially when you see how people react to your own work.
If you have a dream, what is it? Have you thought about it in detail or just in passing? How do you plan on reaching that dream? My parents taught me that anything is possible through dedication and hard work. If that’s true, then what's stopping you from reaching your dream?