Kevin Peeples is the director of Like Arrows, and more. Last year he joined us on YouTube to share his unconventional journey to his career as a filmmaker – starting at the bottom, and the important lessons he learned along the way. Kevin has over 17 years of experience in the industry as a writer, director, editor, and cinematographer. He has written and directed multiple feature and documentary films, a successful Christian apologetics YouTube series, and countless commercials and music videos.
1. Focus on Your Ultimate Goal
Focus on what the ultimate goal of your life is, rather than just your goals as a filmmaker and make sure that those are lining up. Let that be your North star. If running this video company and growing thatss not really where your life trajectory is going, be willing to cut off the things that maybe aren’t going along that line. It’s so easy to have this extra baggage and be doing things that don’t actually bring you along that path.
2. Be a Servant
Be servant-hearted. Being a servant doesn’t mean not being confident, but it does mean not being arrogant. (At Motion University, there’s a really good book that we recommend to everybody called The Go-Giver). It really talks about reframing how you think about business into being a servant and how that ultimately helps you as a business person as well.
Being a servant doesn't mean not being confident, but it does mean not being arrogant. Click To Tweet3. Build Experience by Doing Work
Kevin didn’t go and ask to be on BTS with zero experience. If you do, the odds are that you won’t be put in charge of something like that. Do work that people can see and do it on your own first. Don’t wait around for other people to give you those opportunities. Find a way to have somebody to keep you accountable, and just go out there, do work, show your work , and let people see what you’re doing.
People will start to think of you as skilled in that area. Just be doing this stuff and taking those steps that are right in front of you. Ultimately, let God lead your path to the big things. You can pray for those things, but be faithful in the little and then he’ll give you more. I think that it’s so easy for us to always want “more”, but to be working for that “more” so hard that we forget to be faithful in the little.
Ultimately, let God lead your path to the big things. You can pray for those things, but be faithful in the little and He will give you more. Click To Tweet4. Family First
Family first when looking at family and work balance. If your family is well taken care of, not necessarily just financially, but being there for them, it actually helps your work and you probably become more efficient as a worker. That ends up helping you better provide.
5. Be Faithful in the Little Things
The more valuable you are as a person, the more likely you are to be hired, and the more likely you are to work up the ranks. You may start out at the bottom, emptying trash cans and stuff, and inevitably something else will open up higher, that if you have the skillset and you’re confident in doing something else, you have that value there. If you come onto set and you have this attitude of like, “why are they wasting my skills on emptying trash cans?” you’re probably not going to go anywhere, but if you’re faithful in the little things, taking that opportunity to be “the best trashcan emptier on the planet”, whatever it is, they’ll see that, and that creates trust.
It was great to hear Kevin’s story and this advice for all of us as filmmakers. For more about Kevin Peeples, visit his website at ProFamily Films. To stay up-to-date on upcoming YouTube Live interviews, subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
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