Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryson Valencia
Hi Bryson, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in a little house in the forest of Santa Barbara, CA. In 2011, I was just a high school kid in California playing water polo. Trying to find my passion, I decided to start a YouTube channel.
I found out that creating videos could actually make me money… in the nerdiest way possible: becoming a gaming YouTuber. This was my first experience in entrepreneurship. By 2017, this hobby grew into a decent income for a kid. I quit my job at Geek Squad to chase YouTube full-time.
I moved to Corvallis, OR, in 2018 and got a job at a cell phone repair shop to help supplement my income. The channel grew to about 70k subscribers when Ubisoft invited me to Montreal, Canada, to partake in their event for a video game.
I was still doing YouTube but slowly losing my passion for playing games all day. I saw videos by Rory Kramer, who was a huge inspiration for me at the time. He was making videos on tour with The Chainsmokers. I eventually picked up a camera and tried filming things myself. At that time, I really wanted to tour with EDM artists and be their full-time videographer.
In late 2019, I dropped out of college and moved to Austin, TX, to pursue my dream of starting my own video business.
I started DMing and emailing every artist coming into Texas to try to shoot video for them. I would drive to Houston, Dallas, etc., to film for artists and deliver an overnight video recap. I knew that managers would notice work ethic over anything else. Since they deal with so many talented people, I knew I could outwork anyone. After a while, however, my savings were running low and I was barely profiting from music videography.
In late February of 2020, I got a job fixing phones again. Although not the coolest job in the world, I ended up becoming great friends with the owner and got to manage the small business. This taught me the ins and outs of running a company and what it means to be successful.
I eventually got a gig every Friday and Saturday at a small club on Dirty 6th as the in-house videographer. This is where I really improved my skillset. Since this was during COVID, artists were flying in from LA to play shows here, which exposed me to larger artists than that venue would normally book.
I worked at the cell phone repair shop Monday–Saturday. On Friday nights after work, I drove 35 minutes to the club to shoot from 9 p.m.–2 a.m. and would get home around 3 a.m. I had to deliver selects (a few photos and video clips) immediately. Then I would wake up, work cell phone repair for a bit, and go back to the club Saturday night and do it all over again. The full video recap and photos were due by the following Wednesday. It was a lot, lol.
That club started having financial issues and stopped paying me, so I had to leave after not being paid for a month. (They eventually paid me months later.)
Eventually, I established a relationship with Krewella, who booked me for my first tour in April of 2022. At the time, it was November of 2021. I wanted to see if I could go full-time and trust that I had future gigs (the tour), and that I could probably scrape by if I got another job.
I reached out to a wedding videographer and shot a wedding for free. We developed a great relationship, and I started second-shooting and editing for him. This was exactly what I needed to scrape by.
With $1,500 saved up, I took the leap to go full-time into video production outside of the music world and left my cell phone repair job.
Slowly, I built a network of clients and started charging more and more over time. This eventually led to more work than I could handle alone, and I needed help. I started putting together a team, and after landing some pretty big projects, I purchased my office space on E 5th St in March of 2024.
Social Cuts and the team were born. A vision bigger than just myself; this is the culmination of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
To me it’s all relative. It wasn’t a smooth road to me. But I like to compare myself to others less fortunate. I have a healthy body, I push myself physically, I have a roof over my head, etc. So what do I have to complain about?
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a creative agency specializing in video production. Over the years, it felt like many businesses stopped valuing ethics and moral principles, creating toxic work environments. Don’t get me wrong—we produce amazing work. But for me, the real difference is HOW you create it. I saw a chance to build an ethical business, founded on the old-fashioned values I grew up with, and that’s exactly what I did.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was was always a polite kid. I had absolutely 0 interest in school and always wanted to make people laugh. This didn’t always go over well with teachers lol. I was always very curious and loved to learn things I was interested in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.socialcuts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brysonvalencia/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bryson_valencia
