We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tyler & Jessica Driskill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tyler & Jessica below.
Hi Tyler & Jessica, really appreciate you joining us to talk about a really relevant, albeit unfortunate topic – layoffs and getting fired. Can you talk to us about your experience and how you overcame being let go?
In 2019 both of us were let go from our jobs within 2 months of our wedding date. We were left in complete disarray as we had just tied the knot, moved into a new home with higher expenses, and were starting our life together. We unfortunately did not have the support of our families, with one side even stating “this isn’t a life event” and essentially telling us to suck it up and work harder. The friends we told did not seem to care much, with our closest circle even “forgetting” what we had shared with them and acting as though nothing had changed for us. This was truly the beginning of some of the darkest years of our lives. With no choice but to double down in order to pay our bills, we ended up going “full-time” at our “hobby company” Driskill Films. At this time Driskill Films was essentially only a wedding company that shot maybe 5 to 10 weddings a year, bringing in nowhere near the income needed to support a family. In order to survive, we holed up in our home office for 16+ hours a day and we reached out to every single studio, motivational speaker, newly engaged couples, companies, etc that we could find until someone responded. At this point, it did not matter what they were paying, so in the early days, we took jobs that were severely underpaid just to get our foot in the door. But we decided having a foot in the door was priceless at that point and boy did it pay off. Within a year were were working contract jobs alongside some well-known studios in Austin. Some of the skills we picked up working those jobs, allowed us to move into the corporate space, adding more opportunity for our team than just weddings. Through really hard work, countless hours of dedication in honing our craft and skills, working underpaid jobs to make connections, and sheer will we dug ourselves out of that hole and have created a thriving business. In 2024 we officially rebranded as Driskill Studios, an award-winning full-service photo and video production company that has had the pleasure of working with many well-known brands across many different industries. We have content streaming on Tubi, Sony Crackle, and Amazon Prime and are excited to now be moving in the narrative filmmaking space. But we must say, at the end of the day, the most important thing that got us through these difficult times was our faith in God and our love, trust, and commitment to each other.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Beyond each other, Driskill Studios is our life, our love, and our ultimate passion.
At Driskill Studios we have a deep drive to create engaging story-driven content, whether our clients want to create corporate videos, music videos, commercials, educational content, documentary content or a narrative piece, we like to say “Story is King” and we live by that. We truly believe if the story is done right, no matter what the content is, the audience will have no choice but to be engaged. This is why at Driskill Studios, you get more than just a production team, you get a partnership. We dive into you, your company, your project, and your goals to understand them as though they were our own. We pride ourselves in being your outsourced, in-house team. Something that has been wonderful for our team to experience is recognition in the art community for our work including best directors, best music video, best documentary, and receiving distribution for our content across Tubi, Amazon Prime, and Sony Crackle.
One of our current projects we’ve just wrapped on was called Crossroads. A short film created in partnership with the Hill Country Pregnancy Care Center in Boerne, Texas. We were hired to write, produce, direct, and edit the film. And it will be making a festival run in the very near future. A hope that we have with this short film is to submit it to Angel Studios as a proof of concept for a feature film.
As a business, our goals for the future are to move from short-form content to feature-length content in the narrative world. We will be making a big push as a company not only to be doing documentary feature films but also narrative feature films. Our next project will be a sports documentary focused on a Hall of Fame award-winning coach and the impact he’s had on his community.
Something also very exciting that we wanted to announce is our company is now accepting the submission of scripts or concepts whether that be a music video, commercial, documentary, short film, or feature film. We want to eventually become a place where people know they can come to and their vision will not only be brought to life but taken care of as if it were our own. We truly care about people, art, and the freedom of expression.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Ability to fail and get back up
2. Faith/Hope – trusting in a higher power to lead and provide
3. Practice, practice, practice
In terms of advice for those early in their journey, most importantly – do not give up. But even more important…you must LOVE whatever it is that you’re doing. You will never put in the hours needed if you don’t LOVE it with everything you have and everything you are. You will need support, whether that is a supportive friend, family member, or spouse. No one will understand what you are trying to accomplish and why you’re putting so much effort into it. And don’t listen to anyone but you. You know what you want, you know what you need and you know what your dreams are.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Honestly, the most impactful thing both of our parents did was abandon us. It showed us what we were made of, it showed us how to recognize abusers and abusive patterns of behavior for future relationships, and it showed us that we are much stronger than we think. It helped us to further our faith and reach a deeper level with God and it showed us who truly loves and supports us. The best advice we could give is to take a step back take off the rose-colored glasses and truly evaluate those who are close to you and who you’ve allowed to whisper in your ear. Be honest with yourself and sort the people in your lives into two categories – 1) people that care about you and 2) people that don’t. This may hurt, but in the long run, eliminating people that don’t care about your well-being, will be one of the most effective strategies in putting you on the path to success. You would be surprised at how much healthier, brighter, and happier your life gets without having category #2 around. And it must be stated, this is AFTER you’ve tried many times to reach a healthy dynamic with whoever it is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.driskillstudios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/driskillstudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DriskillStudios?paipv=0&eav=AfYXu3GhtuZOJPkRe8O_Q0izEFrLWhI11sHbsbmZynEtSSGAfKl5a_NVZu3UnuNiG6o&_rdr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/driskill-studios
Image Credits
No need to credit unless you want to credit Driskill Studios. All photos are taken by Jessica Driskill and Tyler Driskill.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
