Exploring Life & Business with Dan Gillespie of Purple Films

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Gillespie.

Hi Dan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My business partner, Jim Gall, and I met in fourth grade. We started making bmx and snowboarding videos when we were twelve. Our senior year of high school (2006) we came up with the idea of Purple Films with a goal of making short films and a long term dream of making movies.

Creating short films was challenging due to the lack of equipment and funding, so we sought out a way to get paid to shoot videos. That led us to making music videos for hip-hop/rap artists primarily in the Cleveland area.

Our reputation grew and we re-invested our profits into better equipment. Through our connections with the musicians, we were introduced to a number of business owners that elevated us into corporate video production.

To this day we continue to make music videos and corporate videos for many of the same people we started with and rely on word of mouth marketing to reach new customers.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a small business owner is difficult yet rewarding. You need to be prepared to make sacrifices with your time and money in order to achieve what you aim for.

The experiences we have and the people we meet are truly what makes this special, but the business constantly demands your attention.

Having to learn bookkeeping and tax preparation to managing your team, your clients, your sales funnel, marketing, and studio expenses are just some of the everyday obstacles.

A good circle of peers and the right books help guide us to make the right decisions.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m grateful that we have been able to run our business for over fifteen years and for the support we get from amazing clients that trust us year after year.

Being an owner-operated business sets up apart from many of our competitors by giving our clients a direct communication to the people running the sales to the team that produces, films, and edits their video content.

We have been fortunate to work with some of the biggest companies in Ohio and throughout the country which gives us an opportunity to continue supporting the art and music scene in Cleveland.

Like many other production companies, we produce tv commercials, product videos, and commercial photography, but our specialty is interview driven, documentary style brand videos.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Finding the right mentor can be difficult. They don’t even have to be in the exact same field as you.
As videographers, we found ours in a slightly different field, Commercial Photography. Mike Wilkes didn’t train us in making videos, instead, his insight helped us understand the world of corporate clients and advertising agencies.
He gave us valuable information into client relations, budgeting, and running our business. All the stuff we didn’t learn in film school.

Networking is also extremely important. For us, supporting the local art scene and musicians has been a way for us to connect with new people by doing what we’re good at. It’s not easy for us to go to an event and meet all the right people, but creating videos and photos for Cleveland artists has kept us part of the culture and strengthens our brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.purple-films.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purplefilms/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/purple-films
• Twitter: https://x.com/PurpleFilms
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Purple-Films