Meet Brenna Strawhacker | Video Storyteller

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

Hi Brenna, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
After college, I didn’t end up going into news like I had planned. Instead, I jumped into a multimedia production role where I did photography and videography for a large company in the Des Moines, Iowa metro. After nearly two years, I wanted something different; the content I was creating was not a good fit and I worried I wasn’t learning enough from others being the only one in my role. I left that job and changed directions completely, working in a donor relations role for a local non-profit I cared a lot about. Quickly though, I felt I was missing video. I still needed that creative outlet and wasn’t ready to give up on that little part of my career dream yet, so I started filming wedding videos freelance on the side. It wasn’t for the money or recognition, and I actually never planned to go full-time with the company – it was just a way for me to stay busy and continue to tell stories with video. Over the course of four years, my video production company grew into more than just wedding films and became too much to handle in addition to my full-time job. After a lot of consideration and calculations, I made the jump to full-time with my video business in March of 2022. It has proven to be an incredible decision I am so glad I made!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work is founded and driven through my passion for storytelling. Working with individuals and businesses to learn their story and then capturing and portraying it on screen to move others is what I do best. Telling the love story of a couple through their wedding day, motivating donors at a fundraiser, capturing the energy of an event…it’s all so special and impactful if done effectively. My passion for storytelling definitely comes from my background and education in broadcast news; sitting down to interview someone to then tell a story can go beyond news, as I’ve been able to prove with my work. It’s one thing to be able to film artistically and with high quality, it’s another thing to really create and share a story. That’s what makes me and my work differently.

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.
So I don’t actually live in Colorado – oops! But I was born in Denver and spent my first 4 years of life in Thornton before moving to Iowa with my parents and sister. A large majority of my extended family has continued to live in the Boulder and Lafayette area so my summers growing up were spent traveling to Colorado to spend days in the mountains, exploring Estes Park, walking Pearl Street, photos with Dinger at Rockies games, and more. Now that I’ve grown up and married my husband (who also happens to be a Colorado lover, thank goodness!), we’ve enjoyed traveling out to explore “new to me” parts of Colorado – Eldorado Canyon, Maroon Bells, Glenwood Springs, hiking 14ers, and more. The nostalgia that Colorado brings to me and the place it has in my heart is irreplaceable and something I will cherish forever.

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’m grateful to have a loving husband and supportive parents, sisters, and friends that all continue to cheer me on and help me reach my goals in life. I’m also thankful for the wonderful community of women in the Des Moines area that mentor, lift each other up, and refer like crazy – the reason my business grew was because one woman took the opportunity to connect me to a potential client, and then that person to another, to another, and so on. I feel like I am spoiled with not having to hardly work at gaining new business. I also would be remiss not to recognize how immensely blessed I am as a Christian; each time doubt creeps in or business ownership gets challenging, God steps in to show me He is there and supporting me. I put a lot of faith and trust in God when jumping full-time into this business and so far have seen a lot of fruit through that.

Website: www.rproductionsiowa.com

Instagram: @rproductionsiowa

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

Image Credits
Headshot + drone photo: Colby Campbell Photography Dress, tripod, editing photos: LE Photo + Design