Today we’d like to introduce you to Braiden Tinnell.
Braiden, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The formation of T!LT requires more time than we have. It’s a story to share over a drink or perhaps one to be viewed on the silver screen. The reason we’re here today is a result of baseless promises, deception, and greed – it’s a tale of three Executive Producers forced to remove themselves from a toxic situation and build a new beginning in their own vision. But if you’re asking how I got here, well, that’s a bit more romantic… I had always wanted to make movies. In college I wrote screenplays, I was in acting class, I had my eyes set on Hollywood glitz and glamour.
Unfortunately, at the time, I had no Hollywood connections and wasn’t financially able to move to LA on a whim and survive without a paycheck. So I took a job and moved to Dallas, TX where I learned the basics of relationship building, business development, and management at a Fortune 500 company. But I knew this job was not for me, so I formed the habit of contacting at least five Ad Agencies or Production Companies every day after work. Long story short, I made many fantastic connections but one stood out, and I connected on the phone with this particular Executive Producer who would eventually become my boss.
I moved to the East Coast, dragging my girlfriend with me under the assumption I’d be making commercials. I quickly learned my new employer did not make TV spots, but they did produce beautiful and award-winning video projects. However, they were in a market I never knew existed – corporate events. Or, business theater, as it is often referred. For those who aren’t “in the know,” if you imagine The Oscars or The Grammy’s, we produced live shows similar to those for big corporations – and a typical corporate “show” lasts multiple days with only a single awards ceremony but several business meetings peppered in over 3-5 days (still utilizing big, beautiful, dynamic sets which we build).
I feel like I’m talking way too much. Fast forward to today… How did I get here? I quickly rose through the ranks at my last employer from Production Assistant to Production Coordinator to Associate Producer to Executive Producer and began managing my own accounts and producing my own shows. But my vision of the future clashed with the leadership’s. I saw a need to do more than just set up a stage, produce the media, and deliver a kickass show. I saw an opportunity to immerse myself in the client’s organization, learn their business imperatives, better understand their people and their culture, and find out where they’re headed – what kind of organization do they want to be in three years, five years.
All of this had to be communicated in a more effective, engaging way. And it didn’t necessarily need to take place at a live event – although I’ll still argue that the most effective form of communication is face to face, and this is why our live events business is still our largest revenue generator. But anyway, long story…. long… T!LT was built out of the need to see and do things differently – with a tilted perspective if you will. Our primary goal is to deliver transformative experiences, and sometimes this happens at a live event, sometimes it happens at an individual’s desk, in a small group setting, or in a completely unexpected environment.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One of the main reasons I left my last agency is because they stopped paying me. That’s right, as a 40+-year-old agency they developed some… interesting… business practices over the years. There are a lot of details I’m leaving out, and I’m sure all of your readers are thinking “if they don’t pay you, then leave!” but it’s not that easy.
In the agency business, if you lose your clients, you lose your livelihood. I wasn’t in a position to leave even though I was technically working for free. I had to finish the projects in front of me because if I left my clients high and dry, they’d never work with me again. So I continued delivering award-winning projects knowing I wouldn’t be compensated – but of course, my clients never knew this – and when the time was right, I left.
T!LT was founded shortly thereafter. It took a while to generate an income, so my wife went back to work, we found a daycare for our 1-year-old daughter, we took money out of our savings account to get by, and we made it work. It sounds terrible. It was. No question, it was the most stressful time of my life. But we made it. We’re growing the business, we’re growing the team, we’re opening a new office in Los Angeles this March, and I learned a lot about myself, about starting a business, about hardship, and about what commitment and hard work really mean.
Please tell us about T!LT.
We’re an agency who tends to work in the shadows. We don’t flaunt our work. We don’t publicize what we do. We don’t even feature our client’s branding on anything we share on our social media. I’m serious, check out our website, www.thetiltgroup.com.
Our job is to creatively blast through the clutter and connect with our clients’ target audience. Sometimes we’re hired to inspire and excite internal workforces, but other times we’re tasked with elevating our client’s name to customers and consumers, amplifying their brands and/or products, their messages, etc. T!LT is a disruptor in the marketplace winning awards with outstanding media projects, delivering unforgettable live event experiences, and creating brand activations that yields millions of impressions.
We’re a creative agency focused on five key areas:
– Strategic Communications
– Live Event Design & Production
– Digital Experiences (think: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Gamification, Interactive Touchscreen Technologies, etc.)
– Brand Activations
– Experiential Marketing
What sets us apart from the others is our team, our approach, our brains. I’m proud that we’re thinking differently, strategically, and clients are loving it. We are able to sit with heads of businesses and heads of sales around a board table and in a matter of minutes walk out of a meeting with minds blown. When it comes to embracing challenges and identifying creative solutions that will generate maximum impact, you can’t find a better partner than T!LT.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing. Traveling this rocky road of uncertainty got me to where I am today and taught me more than any graduate course ever could. I’ve learned a lot and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thetiltgroup.com
- Phone: 888-511-TILT
- Email: braiden@thetiltgroup.
com - Instagram: thetiltgroup
- Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/thetiltgroup/ - Twitter: @thetiltgroup
- Other: https://www.linkedin.
com/company/the-t-lt-group/
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