Meet Akshay Ravi

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Akshay Ravi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Akshay, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I always think about our purpose as the intersection of combining what we are good at with what makes us happy. In my case, I find purpose in telling stories and building / uplifting community, and I think that purpose permeates everything that I do in life on a professional level. Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved storytelling – whether it was making up fantastical worlds in the empty lot across the street, or acting like my side yard was a world famous baseball stadium, imagination and the narratives that I could create in my head have always brought me joy; and, as I got older and channeled that joy into creating art with like-minded individuals, and uplifting each other in the process, I learned to bring those together as the media maker that I am today.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have a couple facets to what I do – firstly, I consider myself a filmmaker – I direct and produce content, primarily in short form at the moment; second, I consider myself a community mobilizer through the work that I do in my non-profit; and third, I consider myself an entrepreneur, someone who wants to run a production company of my own. I run a small production company called Empty Lot Productions, geared towards ad, music video, and short film work that uplifts and represents underrepresented voices, in addition to my day job as an animation production coordinator.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three main qualities and skills that I have had to work hardest at cultivating are grit, adaptability, and oratory skills. I think grit, the ability to just get into the weeds and be able to do whatever it takes to get things through, is essential in the media industry, but being able to adjust the plan as I go along allows me to stay focused on an end goal but allow myself to make the necessary pivots that I need to along the way. Funnily enough, though, oratory, and the ability to think in a multi-faceted approach have also been essential for my growth – being able to look at the forest in addition to the trees and communicate those ideas to people in a convincing manner is what really helps mobilize teams and team members, and figure out how to uplift them while keeping a central throughline in our thinking.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it’s most important to be able to understand the languages of multiple skill sets, but not necessarily be fluent. I find the most success in my work and collaborations not by trying to do everything, but knowing where my shortcomings are and being able to uplift and work with people who complement those shortcomings in meaningful ways. The best work comes through collaboration, and effective collaboration is only possible if we bring on people who are better than us in different ways. That said, it is important to be able to communicate with someone on the plane of their expertise, but that doesn’t mean we need to be experts in everything – the best leaders can be self-reflective and fill in those gaps.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.akshayravi.com
• Instagram: @theakshayravi