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

Hi Christopher, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
There is a misconception, at least in my experience, that hard work always get’s the job done. There is an expectation for entrepreneurs and business owners to pull 12 hour workdays most days of the week. This work ethic, or really lack thereof, get’s pushed throughout the entire company. If an employer is working the long days, the employees will be expected to as well. There’s no doubt that some situations call for the extra work, but simply showing up won’t get the job done. I have my best ideas when I’m not at work. If I leave for a walk around the block I’ll come up with solutions to problems that have been nagging me all day. It’s the same for my employees. Everyone needs room to function, if the job is all about punching the clock you’ll never be getting the best out of your team. Especially in the creative field.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I run ProductionCrate, LLC. We’re a resource for filmmakers, video editors and creatives. Since 2009 we’ve been making the best assets available online. Music, visual effects, 3D models, sound effects and more are all available on our library. We offer both a free membership and an affordable Pro Membership. Our userbase is over 850,000 users worldwide, and growing rapidly. I didn’t start the first version of the website with the idea that it would turn into anything more than a place to store and share assets I was making. It grew because the community requests continued to come in, and I continued to make the assets they were needing. My business partner joined me and really helped to get the functionality and interface as smooth as possible. Both of those founding concepts have been with us from the beginning, and structure most decisions we make to this day. We make what the community wants, and we make sure they can get it into their projects as seamlessly as possible. Everyone who works at ProductionCrate is incredible at their job. The old saying ‘Hire people that are better than you’ is one I have truly taken to heart. I love being impressed by those around me. We really have one of the greatest creative teams on the planet.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If someone was coming to San Diego, I’d insist they visit the HQ. We have our VR set up, we have props and toys, a green screen, powerful gaming computers which we use to edit on, and a massive TV. After that, we’d hit the beach! La Jolla cove is incredibly beautiful, and I love snorkeling. Taking friends into the water to show them the awesome variety of wildlife is a must. San Diego has some of the best food, so we’d of course hit up some restaurants in my neighborhood (North Park). And if they’re down for it, we’d get back in the water for some surfing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to the brilliant Sarah Stieber. She’s an incredible artist and entrepreneur, and is always happy to help talk me through ideas and projects. She also happens to be my girlfriend, completely fine when I take my work home with me or doing the same herself. Both us of run our own businesses and have a lot of parallels, I’m grateful to have someone so important to me be on such a similar path.

Website: www.productionCrate.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/productioncrate/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/productioncrate/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/productioncrate
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProductionCrate
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/productioncrate
Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@productioncrate

Image Credits
Adrian Jensen (redhead) and Niko Mokalis (Jon Snow looking guy)

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.