Meet Stephen Pickering | Creative Director, Project Supervisor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephen Pickering and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephen, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I often joke about someday writing a book titled, “Oops, I fell into business.” I’m not a business person by trade, but for some reason I still wanted my own business and I fell into my current role of “business owner” because I have a passion for filmmaking. My dad has always been self-employed and I saw firsthand the stress and hard work it takes to sustain a business. But I always liked the idea of setting my own schedule and being accountable only to my clients.

I’ve always been a very creative person, wanted to learn everything I could and try my hand at everything I could. From woodworking, to drawing and painting, to movie-making, and really everything in between- I wanted to try it all! I found myself leaning more and more toward movie making with my friends, so after my girlfriend (now my wife and business partner) convinced me that filmmaking didn’t need to just be a dream, I began looking into film schools. Eventually I decided on Vancouver Film School in British Columbia where I focused on directing and cinematography. My goal was always feature film making, but getting married a few weeks out of film school and buying our firs home a year after that I found myself needing money and a “real job.”

I took a job at an office store where I eventually found myself managing the print center and working with customers, (sometimes the meanest customers!) where I learned customer service first hand. At the same time my wife and I had our wedding video business, doing a handful of weddings a year and putting that money toward new cameras and equipment. We also did video competitions which we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were good at and suddenly had a financial cushion to step away from our full time jobs (we also had a few kids by then :)). This certainly isn’t the path for everyone but I’m not a risk taker when it comes to family (or things that affect family- like money), so we never took a loan for the business. We’ve worked hard and saved hard, and been very blessed along the way.

Long story short, we no longer do weddings and do corporate and non-profit video work, from capital campaigns to broadcast commercials to training videos. We currently have a staff of 6 in the office doing some great projects.

I joke about my personality and me being a business owner. My personality is not the organized and process driven personality. I just want to be creative! But I am heavily driven by goals and customer service and I enjoy holding myself accountable for wins or failures.

Most people never see their passion become a career, and even though my passion now has the inevitable business management role I still get to be creative almost every day. I am genuinely blessed to get to do what I love. And as we’re growing we’re identifying the different people we need to sustain and continue to grow while not forcing me out of what I love and the reason I started my own business in the first place (which is a real danger for business owners).

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I likely already answered this in the earlier question- hopefully you’ll edit.

My wife and I own Drywater Productions, a video production and motion graphics company in Southcentral Wisconsin. We do video production for local, national, even international clients, from internal training videos in the corporate world to capital campaigns to broadcast commercials. We love what we do!

My wife and I both look back at a time when the business came to a dead stop when there was the “fiscal cliff” (I believe it was 2012). Clients stopped paying, stopped hiring, and even canceled productions. We tried getting out of our business and working for someone else. I didn’t have a resume except for working for myself and my degree was from a Canadian film school! I didn’t get a single interview. We remember standing in the kitchen with tears running down our faces wondering what God wanted us to do. We began talking to other people in the business community and were encouraged to get involved with the community (doing video work for fund raisers, campaigns, etc. to help the community and get more exposure). It worked, and the rest is history. We still think there’s more God has in store for us but it’s an exciting ride as we figure it out.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Downtown Janesville. There are sights and things to do, restaurants to eat at, boutiques to shop at, and cafes to sip coffee at.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m not sure there is room or time to include everyone here! So I’ll mention just a few.

My wife is the one who has stood by me as we made tough decisions and sacrificed time with friends and family, money, and so much more. She spent many late nights (even all-nighters) helping to meet deadlines and figure out this business ownership thing. She also homeschools our children which is another full-time job. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without her initial and now on-going support.

My parents taught me that nothing comes for free, to always work hard as if I’m doing for the Lord, to be thankful for every opportunity, and to stay humble. Staying humble has made me much happier!

Countless friends and family who have helped on projects as actors when we need them, even when there was little or no pay- they jumped in- those fun projects were the ones that won us money to go full time with our business.

Countless community members and mentors who encouraged us to get involved in the community. While we no do a lot of work across the country (even internationally) we still value our community above all else. This is where we want to retire and we have been blessed by the community and want to continue being a blessing back.

And so many others!

Website: www.drywaterproductions.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drywaterproductions/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/drywaterproductions

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrywaterPro

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drywaterproductions

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/drywaterproductions