Meet Xavier Ray | Youtuber and Videographer.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Xavier Ray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Xavier, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk taking is something I’ve grown accustomed to. You can’t start a new venture or a business without taking a few risks. Nothing in this life is guaranteed, so if you want to try something and it doesn’t hurt anyone, do it.
You either succeed or fail. Nothing wrong with failure. It’s a teaching moment and sometimes it’s the best learning experience you can ask for.
With my career, everything I’ve done was risk taking. Making videos? There’s a risk of being judged or a video comes out ugly and unpresentable. My time filming in the Philippines? There’s always a risk of breaking my camera, or getting my gear stolen. Cause I did really dumb things like jumping into a ball pit with my camera or film in dangerous places in Manila.

Risk taking is an important part of my career. It’s kinda like a muscle. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. Weighing your options and outcomes start out as scary then becomes something you do everyday. The small risks become second nature and the big risks are still scary, but you know you can do it cause you’ve done it before and you reflect on some of the times your risks don’t pan out exactly how you wanted. But you remember that those failures were the times you learned the most and you’re still here today, still here and you got a little more experience than if you didn’t take that risk.

If it’s scary, do it. But plan it. You don’t want to take unnecessary risks, but calculated ones.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I make videos on Youtube. I review camera gear for people who want to start vlogging or start a Youtube channel. Basically low budget camera gear because not everyone has $600 dollars to drop on a specific piece of gear. I cater towards the people who are just starting out or the person who just wants to make their videos look a little better.

I started out my channel after experiencing my biggest professional failure. My friends and I made a Star Wars parody. We had voice actors and everything. We finished two episodes because it took about 6 months to produce an episode. When I was in the Philippines, my hard drive crashed and I lost all our assets and everything. We had to stop producing episodes and I was lost on what to do next. My best friend told me to start a travel vlog because I was vacationing in the Philippines.
From that time, I learned how to film, how to get better footage and just overall make better videos.
My goal for my channel was to make each video a little better than the last.

Now that I’m back in San Diego, I no longer make travel videos in the Philippines. I do gear reviews for new vloggers.

I get hired from time to time to film and I actually work for a company here in San Diego to make videos for their products.
I didn’t think that my failed Star Wars parody would bring me here. I’m grateful for my time with that project I learned so much and I worked with an amazing team. The failure of that project was 100% all me and not backing up our data in more than one hard drive.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If we’re hungry, I’d take them to my favorite taco shop, Tacos El Gordo. They have the best street tacos and hands down one of my favorite places to eat. If we’re in a sightseeing mood, I’d take them to Seaport Village and all over Downtown. If it’s Comic Con week, I’d take them SDCC and show them the best Comic Convention in the world. I’d suggest bringing a lot of water and wear breathable clothing cause it gets hot walking in downtown and for some reason this year, the ac was running pretty warm.
If my friends are fellow creatives and want to film in a studio, I’d take them to Picture Flicks Studio or Pixel Lounge. Great studios for filming or photography and even podcasts.

If my friends are from out of state or from the Philippines, chances are they’d want to go to Disneyland. I’d ask my friend CatnissRose (https://www.youtube.com/c/CatnissRose) to join us, because she knows all the tips and tricks of venturing to Disneyland. She knows the best places to eat, Best places to shop and best places to see inside Disneyland.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shout out the San Diego Youtube Community. I made good friends with everyone in the group and they’re all very supportive. I learned a lot from just being around them and they keep me accountable.

Website: https://youtube.com/XavierRay

Instagram: https://instagram.com/xavierrayyoutube?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xXavierRay

Youtube: https://youtube.com/XavierRay

Other: My Skillshare class on How to Vlog: https://skl.sh/3nA6iZP