Meet Russell Sun Eagle

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Russell Sun Eagle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Russell , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

For me, I believe my work ethic developed when I started doing Jiu Jitsu. I remember going to my first practice and being humbled very quickly. That first practice, I was being tossed around and submitted the entire time. When grappling for that first time it felt like I was drowning. It’s like how you just keep pushing yourself up enough to get some air to breathe, but it’s just always not enough because my training partners, had the energy to keep going and pushing themselves when I didn’t. After that first practice, I felt really bad about how I did and even wondered about coming back to next day. After practice, I realized what kind of community I was in. Everyone came up to me and told me good job and told me to keep coming back. They were all very encouraging and wanted to see me come back. So I did. I kept going back every day and it also helped motivate me to do even more to get better at jiu jitsu. I started running more and even started doing CrossFit since the gym offered CrossFit along with mixed martial arts. I did this for three years and during that three years that taught me a lot about myself about how to not give up, everybody fails, and to understand how far you can go when you don’t quit And believe in yourself. I still use this mindset daily. It’s not as tough as getting choked out or submitted, but I still have my days where doing media can be tough. When starting podcasting, photography, videography, sports commentating and anything else I always try my best. I always work hard. I always try to stay consistent with everything I do. This is where I get my work ethic from.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Russell Sun Eagle. And I am from Pawnee Oklahoma. As of right now I’m focused on media like photography and videography and even filmmaking. I started back in 2021 with Okie Podcast. Okie Podcast is a podcast where I bring on guests that specialize in, art, acting, photography, videography, writing filmmaking, podcasting, Business owner, musician, anybody out there doing what they love and continue to do it no matter what. After releasing my first episode, I told myself I would release an episode every week. This went on for two an a half years straight of releasing an episode every week. During that two an a half years, I networked and connected with a lot of great people. It’s helped me go in different directions from just podcasting. This is where Sun Eagle Media started. Sun Eagle media is podcasting, but it’s evolved into photography, videography, motivational speaking, Content creation and filmmaking. I’ve come to love everything I do and I try to do it with as much passion as I can and always do it from my heart. What’s exciting to me and special about what I do is I get to talk to people from all over. I get to hear their stories, their struggles and everything they had to do to get where they’re at today. I also love to take pictures at events, concerts, comedy shows or wherever I’m at. I love to get those reactions and those special moments captured for my clients. Even when speaking to students it’s special me that I get to share my journey and and how I got to be where I’m at today. Letting students know that they don’t have to take a certain route. There’s different routes to take and to find what you really want to do and to keep doing it. Recently, I made a short documentary film about our youth back in Pawnee Oklahoma joining a boxing class coached by Dennis Knifechief. Capturing their class and even getting to speak to them through interviews is something I haven’t done. It was such a great experience and a great way to give back to my community. I bring up the short film because it was recently entered into the Chickasaw Nation Holba’ Pisachi’ Native Film Festival. This is my first film festival to attend and it was everything I could ever imagine. We were all treated so well and I can’t wait till next year. The film had a great response with everyone that watched and it was so encouraging to hear. With that being said, I’m in the process of Writing out what’s next for upcoming film festivals. And also, I’m in the process of creating a clothing line called rugged ones. This is something I’ve been thinking about and wanting to do, but I’ve just been trying to do it the right way and do as much research as I can before I can fully launch rugged ones. That will be coming soon.

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?

For me, three qualities skills or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey. I would say consistency. I was told before that being consistent will help you stand out from the rest of everybody else. It will show people your true intentions on what you’re trying to do. Because we all know everybody is watching, but we don’t know who is watching. Being consistent can show them you have what it takes and after looking for that, they’ll see it right then and there. Another one is confidence. Growing up I had a lot of trouble with self-confidence. Becoming older and maturing a lot. I realized I had to let all that go, and not care about what people thought of me. I had to realize that thinking about what people thought about me didn’t make me happy. I had to find my way and understand that I need to make myself happy and To just do whatever it is, I feel like I need to do. And for me another thing was don’t talk about it but do it. Because it’s hard to get a reputation on what you’re gonna do. Last one and is also advice is belief. You have to truly believe in whatever it is your doing. You have to believe it’s going to all work out, and believe in yourself that you can make it happen. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. It’s up to you and your mindset of the grind, the hustle, staying motivated, networking, and getting better at your craft. Just stay the course and don’t worry about the numbers, or failing. Failure will always happen. It’s how we all reevaluate that failure to come back even stronger to become successful. And remember everything takes time so have the patience to keep going in your journey.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My wife has been there and has always been there. She’s the one that told me to just do it and to stop talking about it whenever I would bring up the idea of starting a podcast. She’s always encouraged me to go beyond what I thought was possible. She’s helped me so much and has been my true support system when starting okie podcast and now Sun Eagle Media.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @okiepodcast @suneaglemedia @spirit_talkers_podcast @russthemuss49
• Facebook: Russell Sun Eagle
• Youtube: Spirit talkers podcast
• Other: Tiktok: @spirit_talkers

Image Credits

Photos by Sun Eagle Media