INNER VIEW
Emma Fisher CBEI Student Research Assistant
There is something extraordinary happening at the Create Portage County workspaces. Located in the heart of downtown Stevens Point, Thousand Lumens Productions is bringing stories to life through beautiful and refined videos. In early March 2020, I had the opportunity to sit down for an interview with the owners of Thousand Lumens Productions to learn more about their small business. Co-owned by UW-Stevens Point alumni Zach Strenger ’15 and Jade Arnold ’15, Thousand Lumens Productions focuses on helping businesses tell their stories through beautiful videos that promote a loyal and thriving customer base. Truly a dynamic duo, Zach and Jade combine their expertise in media studies and English to create compelling marketing videos based around bringing company mission statements to life. By focusing on these mission statements as the basis for their content, each Thousand Lumens video is as much for the employee as it is for the customer base.
Thousand Lumens Productions has been producing marketing videos with a cinematic spin for numerous local businesses since its founding in 2017. A few of their customers include Stevens Point Orthopedics, Point Brewery, Great Northern Distillery, Ascension (St. Michael’s), Stevens Point Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and many more. Zach and Jade attribute authenticity as the root of their prosperity and success in their business. The videographer duo states that they “fall into the service of things, not the video wizard side of things.” The fundamental aspect of Thousand Lumens to which makes the business successful is their personability with clients and their interest in helping people tell their stories in an authentic manner. Their mindset is focused on “we” rather than “I” when it comes to creating their art – a mindset that builds their company success through both synergy in their internal production team, and reputation with their customers in the external context. The ‘we’ mindset contributes directly to the business philosophy of Thousand Lumens. In my interview with the videographer duo, they spoke about the path they took to find their place in the world of the videography profession. A major factor that is present in determining success in the videography is something that duo calls ‘finding your niche.’ “I think one of the things I’ve come to realize through school was that if you have a video production business - or a business of any kind - they always talk about finding your niche,” said Jade Arnold. A ‘niche’ is where your interests lie and how they are incorporated into your business profession. Thousand Lumens Productions has a unique identification of their niche, which is ‘focusing on people in business.’ Every successful business has not only a business philosophy but must set goals as well. For Thousand Lumens, they believe that “to be successful with goal setting, you must keep it reasonable but don’t be afraid to reach for the stars.” Maintaining achievable goals and
Jade Arnold
22
Center for Business and Economic Insight
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