What's Your Passion?

I am always on the lookout for inspiration and motivation when it comes to leadership and business. I recently found a video on Ted.com of Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of Wine Library TV, talking about doing what you love and building a business on that passion.  Despite the strong language in the speech, what he has to say is really good and motivational.

Courtesy of Yourlifeyourway.net

Gary talks about how doing what you love helps you build your business because of the passion that you have will drive you to connect with your target audience and build what he calls, “brand equity.” The other point he makes is positioning yourself to succeed in your business. Vaynerchuk mentions that yes you are going to lose money in the beginning when you start doing what you love but to get to the point of making money you have to spend the time. He gives an example of already working a job but you want to start your own business. Gary says that you should continue to work that job, come home and spend time with you family, then start spending a few hours every night building your brand using social media and other avenues.

For Gary Vaynerchuk running the family liquor store wasn’t making him happy but making videos about wine does and in the process of making the transition he lost millions of dollars. But having the patience and the passion to build Wine Library TV he recouped the money that he initially lost and more.  Hearing his story is inspiring to me because on some level I can relate. I love working at the church that I am at but I know where my passion lies, having a company that can help many churches, schools, ministries, and corporations with their media needs. I am fully aware the time it takes to build my business and reputation that is partly why I started this blog as a way to put myself out there. I also volunteer myself out to other local churches that call asking for media help as another way to put my name out there.

I know it seems weird to talk about building a business on a blog that is about bringing media to churches but I feel that in a way the two relate. Vaynerchuk talks about patience and passion in his video and those are the two qualities that are imperative to have when working with media in a church environment. If you don’t have those qualities you will burn out quickly. Towards the end of his speech, Vaynerchuk says that you need to ask yourself one question, “What do you want to do or what do you like to do?” Basically, what are you passionate about and how can you build on that?

Vision can bring out passion and passion can build patience. The question I would like to end with is, what is your vision?

Watch Gary Vaynerchuk's video:

What Association Do You Belong To?

What association or associations do you belong to? That seems to be a popular question to ask on the job seeker sites when building a resume and I have always put "none" as my answer because I don't have memberships to any associations. That question got me thinking about what associations are out there that would benefit my career.

It's funny that the topic about associations had crossed my mind because lately I have been thinking that I really need to join one. The staff pastors at the church I work all belong to some sort of association or group where they attend monthly meetings, webcasts, phone conferences and conventions as part of their continuing development. I had thought to myself on many occasions that I wished I belong to something like that so I could get a few days off, just kidding. But seriously, I really thought about trying to find an association or group to join. I found that there are not many in the Christian realm but there are a lot in the secular one. Upon doing a Google search I found two Christian organizations that look to be of some interest to a Christian media professional. The first site is the International Christian Visual Media Association, which is a networking site for those who are involved in production and distribution of Christian visual media. In looking through the association's website, I find it to be a really good association to belong to. One of the benefits of being a member is that the association offers help in international distribution, which to me is amazing. The membership fee for International Christian Visual Media is $99 a year for an individual or $199 a year for a media organization. The second site is the Christian Media Assocation, which is also a great resource to have available to you. The benefits for joining this group are good but does not offer the international distribution help like ICVM. The membership fee is reasonable, it is $25 per year for an individual and $99 a year for a media organization.

I know as Christian media professionals you want to keep your ties to the faith but let's face it, unfortunately, the Christian realm tends to fall short in the technology side of things. With this in mind I believe it is good to belong to non-Christian organizations. In just being apart of the VideoMaker Community I have found a wealth of knowledge that I can apply to the situations that I face in church media. I have come to realize that video production and media is all the same whether it is in the Christian world or the secular one. With that said, I have found a few organizations that are worth checking into. The first site I found that I think is really good is the Association of Video Professionals. AVPro offers a lot of benefits including weekly conference calls and training sessions but is pricey in terms of membership. The membership fee is $99 a month, with a 15% discount if you choose the yearly option. The second site is the Digital Video Professionals Association. The DVPA offers a lot of information and benefits to their members. One of the benefits is the many discounts to companies like Dreamstime that makes effects and filters for editing systems like Final Cut Pro. The membership fee is somewhat affordable but worth it, depending on what package you choose. The DVPA offers four packages, individual, educational, user groups, and corporate. The individual package starts at $19.99 a month and the educational package starts at $15.99 a month. The other two packages are based on a number of people within a group that wants to join, for information on those prices check out their website.

We have all seen the PSA's that say, "The more you know the more you grow," well that is definitely true and one of those ways of gaining more knowledge is to surround yourself with those who are wise in their professions. So, what associations do you belong to?