Today we’d like to introduce you to Taurin Hurley.
Hi Taurin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story begins over 25 years ago. Ever since I was a child, I LOVED stories and art. I would sit for hours reading comics and watching movies. My mom would take me to the library regularly and I would spend so much time looking through art books and admiring the classical arts. As I got older, that love never died off. I got more and more into storytelling, and it became a part of my DNA.
I worked in various roles which allowed me to connect directly with people and learn their stories. In doing that I was able to help connect with them and offer guidance in life. I was a youth leader for a while in church while I ran the video production and live production side of things. I then moved to corporate America and was fortunate to work in a company that valued the strength of stories. I watched that business grow from a hundred or so people into thousands around the country when I left. I was able to travel to many states filming with individuals as well as internationlly to tell the stories of help and change through video and photography.
As I ventured out from that world, I worked with some smaller organizations and continued to learn a lot about marketing and branding but felt myself not being fulfilled. One day when my boss said “let’s look at the social media channels that are making us the most money and focus on those”, I knew I was done. I was tired of just making videos and taking photos to cover a bottom line. I wanted more out of my career and life. My, then girlfriend, who worked with me in a different part of the company felt the pull at the same time and we both cashed our our 401ks and started our own business.
We started Recalibrate Media, a digital production agency. We put storytelling at the forefront of our business. It is more than a buzz word for us. It is the foundation for what we do with branding and visuals. We want to help people figure out what their story is, how to connect it to what they do and how to share that message with others to grow their business or brand. Now, having over 25 years in my field and over 2 years as a business, Recalibrate is growing and taking off more than ever. As people out there being to crave more and more authenticity and not just viral trends, I feel that our approach is more important now than ever.
We also want to price things to be affordable, we don’t think that anyone should be limited by their budgets, we know what it’s like to be a small business. My joke is that my business plan is to win the lottery, only half joking. If I had no bills to worry about and money was not an item, we would still do this job. I would do it for free because I love people, storytelling, and creating so much.
Our tagline is “we don’t create content, we create connection”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
haha, not at all. If anything it has been a challenge, the first year we miraculously scraped by. We had no guaranteed income and somehow the bills were paid and food and shelter were always provided. Fortunately, having my girlfriend, who is now my wife and business partner by my side is what saved me. I would have quite several times if it was just me. But she told me, “there is no plan B, only plan A.” so we made it work.
the big thing is not knowing what you don’t even know. We never knew what it meant to run a business or the financial side of things. We didn’t know how to do contracts, quotes or negotiations. But we have bee figuring It out and making it happen.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in video and photography. We tell people’s stories, not just through words, but through visuals. With events, we want to capture the essence of an event, put you like you were there and make you want to re-live it or if you didn’t go, make it so that you don’t want to miss the next one.
We find unique ways to tell people’s stories about their business or craft and it not feel like a social promo. But feel more like a documentary. We want it to live beyond a quick scroll and last for a while.
What’s next?
We want to continue to grow, work with more people, travel around the world doing what we do.
We want to open a creative co-working space where we will have creative studio space for people to rent and work from as well as offices they can use. We also want to have a coffee shop in it so that it becomes a community hub for people to just hang out and have a place to be creative.
Pricing:
- All of our pricing is custom based on the project.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://recalibratemedia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recalibratemedia
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taurinh/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RecalibrateMedia
