I'm the owner and operator of Out The Box Media, a small photography and video production company. We specialize in weddings, but also create professional real estate and corporate commercial content. Out The Box has also had some incredible opportunities in the sports world, working with athletes such as Craig Porter, Jr. of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Max Clark of the Detroit Tigers, Gatorade player of the year and Duke commit Cooper Flagg, and various other elite-level collegiate and high school athletes.
Growing up, my siblings and I used an old family camcorder to make corny at-home movies with each other. We'd spend entire Sunday afternoons planning and putting together the perfect films just to torture our parents with a watch party at the end of the night. During my first couple years at Concordia, I took a couple of video production classes and really fell in love with the art. Then, in March 2020, when COVID-19 shut down school and gave us students a six-month summer break, I began using my iPhone to make a bunch of goofy YouTube videos in the backyard. The videos weren't anything special (and usually involved us using fireworks or a giant makeshift slingshot to destroy LEGO models or watermelons), but they helped me learn the basics of video editing and really grew my passion for it. However, it wasn't until the summer of 2021 that I began to think about pursuing videography as a career. A Concordia faculty member and family friend, Wendy Bentz, had a daughter getting married and reached out to see if I'd be willing to be the videographer. I think she had in mind that I would borrow one of Concordia's cameras and put something together but, to be brutally honest, I'd spent way more time in video class having sword fights with the tripods than actually paying attention and learning how to use a camera. I shot the whole wedding on my phone and had the entire thing edited in a day, and I was ecstatic. Thanks to someone at Concordia taking a chance on me, I now felt like I'd found a really viable career path. From there, things moved at an extremely quick pace. I graduated from Concordia in 2022 and used the money from my graduation party to purchase my first real camera. Again, Concordia continued to provide for me, offering me a summer video internship to practice my skills. I moved to Ball State University to get my degree, and was blessed to meet another video guy in a Bible Study who took me under his wing and taught me a lot of the more technical aspects of videography, as well as taking me to some high school basketball games to learn how to sell highlight reels to athletes. Throughout this time, a multitude of people from the Concordia community offered me video work, helping me build my confidence and skill. If it hadn't been for my Concordia family, I never would've been able to turn videography into a career. In the summer of 2024, I was blessed to have the opportunity to part ways with the busy college life and focus my efforts on running a business full-time. I still live in Muncie with all my college friends, and float between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis for work projects.
After Concordia, I spent two years at Ball State University. God richly blessed me in my work, and I had the opportunity to pursue videography full-time. I parted ways with Ball State with no degree, but as a freer and happier man.
I'll never be able to thank Concordia enough for the sacrificially-loving community it provides for all of its students. If you want a list of the Cadets who sacrificed their time and treasures to help me become the man I am today, I'd tell you to just go read the entire CLHS staff directory. Every single faculty and alumni in the Concordia circle is incredibly selfless and desires nothing more than to see Concordia's students succeed. Particular standouts were Chris Murphy, who since my freshman year has weekly asked me for prayer requests and with whom I still meet with for coffee whenever I come home, and Brian Loesel, who still makes an outstanding effort to maintain our relationship past my graduation. I also received incredible wisdom and advice from administrators Jacob Pennekamp and Patrick Frerking, especially during my summer internship with Concordia.
I would like to tell current Concordia students to not look at me as a success story! Yes, I've had an incredible opportunity to do what I love for a living but, at the end of the day, my career is only a means to provide for earthly needs. Please don't make your life's biggest goal to be successful in whatever career field you choose! God wants you to enjoy your earthly work (Ecclesiastes 6:9-13), but a life lived with career as the end goal is an ultimately empty life. Find a way to have an eternal impact, and you will have used your time on earth well. John 6:27 says, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life." Your purpose on earth is not to have a successful career; your purpose is to know Jesus Christ and make Him known to others!