We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christian McGee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Christian, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I gained the most confidence from accomplishing things. I believe that confidence in yourself and your work only comes from achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself and building a list of wins. That’s how you prove to others (and most importantly, yourself) that you’re capable of what you say you are. That being said, there will always be a period of “fake it until you make it” in the very beginning as you build those experiences and wins. During that time, I believe it’s essential to invest in education and mentorship so that you can do your best and be as prepared as possible to move past any roadblocks/setbacks. For me, this phase lasted for about the first 4 months of my business. During that time, I was putting in anywhere from 12-16 hours most days between building my business and furthering my education with my craft/business.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m from a small town west of Nashville. I took a video editing job the Summer of my Junior year, which sparked my passion for videography. I began filming my travels, nights out with friends, etc. for fun and to practice my editing skills. Eventually, I wanted to start making money with those talents, as my job wasn’t paying me enough to leave my hometown. I started filming real estate, products for companies, live shows, and some promotional films. One day, I received an email from my college that someone was looking for a wedding videographer, and I decided to give it a try. After that wedding, I decided to focus on wedding videography. Something about weddings really stuck with me and gave me purpose. I recently introduced photography to my services (I majored in photography in college while starting my videography business), and I’ve really enjoyed that medium of documentation. They both serve their purposes, but I think videography tells more of a story with the audio and movement elements.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Consistency, sacrifice, and focus. Putting in the work to start a business takes sacrifice. These sacrifices can be long hours, not going out on the weekend, telling people “no,” being frugal with money so you can invest it in yourself/your business instead, etc. But I believe failing is nearly impossible if you’re consistently focusing on and executing the right tasks.
I once heard someone say that building a business is like a plane taking off. So much energy is put into the actual takeoff, but eventually, it gets to an altitude where it can cruise without using much fuel. Keeping with the plane analogy- that’s not to say that you don’t need to still make course corrections and keep an eye on things, but a business’s beginning/growth stages are usually the hardest. Once you’ve built your skillset, portfolio, and (most importantly) connections with the right people, it all starts to click and you reach a good cruising point.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I’m a huge book guy (I’ve read over 70 books since 2020), and I think the one that sticks out the most is “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins. I know Tony can get a bad rap for being woo-woo or whatever, but that book touched on nearly every topic of life. Topics include managing emotions, finances, exercise, nutrition, etc. I feel that it addresses it all and gives a good blueprint for success, personally and professionally. One of the principles in that book that sticks with me is that we avoid pain more than we seek pleasure. This principle can be applied to so many areas of life. For example, the fear of starting a business is rooted in the pain of failing, but what if you changed your mindset to “staying in my current position/job is painful, so let me avoid that by starting my own business and taking charge of my life.”
Follow-ups to that would be “The Richest Man Who Ever Lived” and “The Go-Giver.” Both of those are extremely great!
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