Why We Started 5Nine | 5Nine Creative Podcast Episode 1

What happens when filmmakers, photographers, and ministry leaders use their creative gifts to help share the gospel around the world?

In the first episode of the 5Nine Podcast, Evan, Katie, and Jeff share the story behind 5Nine Creative — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry that exists to amplify the voices of those sharing the gospel through visual storytelling.

We talk about how 5Nine began, why storytelling matters in missions, what it means to serve ministries through video and photography, and how God has opened doors for projects across the United States and around the world.

Whether you’re a missionary, ministry leader, Christian creative, filmmaker, photographer, or someone who loves seeing what God is doing globally, this podcast is for you.

Subscribe to follow field stories, behind-the-scenes conversations, and interviews with ministry leaders around the world.

Learn more about 5Nine Creative: https://5ninecreative.org


#ChristianMissions #VisualStorytelling #ChristianPodcast #MissionaryStories #NonprofitMinistry

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You know, a lot of people might say, Well, well you're not the ones doing the work. And they're like, No, we're not. We're we are finding the people and and God is revealing the people to us that are in the trenches. And we're there to help amplify their story.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Our foundation is not like business growth. It's about obedience. It's about not knowing exactly what we were doing, not us having all the things figured out, but just being willing and saying, okay, God, we are confident this is where you're directing us. We'll do it. And we'll, you know, God is through every step of the way.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome to the Five Nine Creative Podcast. I'm Katie. Every story has the power to change the way we see the world and sometimes even the way that we see God at work in it. Through our travels, ministry partnerships, and storytelling projects, we've had the opportunity to witness incredible things. And this podcast is where we unpack those experiences and the lessons that we've learned along the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Hey, welcome to the 59 podcast. This is our first episode. We're super excited about the opportunity to share with you about the things that God is doing through our ministry. We exist to amplify the voices of those sharing the gospel around the world through visual storytelling. So we are a 501c3. We operate as a ministry. We do video and photography, primarily focused on storytelling alongside uh ministries and missionaries around the states and around the world. And the reason we're starting this podcast is we really just want to share the stories of all the things that we've gotten to see from God at work around the world. I've got Jeff and I've got Katie here. Um, and we're here to just talk about some of the things that have been going on and kind of our heart behind starting this ministry. We're now three and a half years old, and we're now we started in 2023, and we're just excited about what's God, what we're excited about what God is doing, but we're also excited about the things that we are getting to do, and wanted to share some more of our story with everybody here. Thanks for joining us. And this is going to be a um podcast that kind of shares some field stories. So some of our episodes will be shot in other countries. We're shooting different episodes while we're on the road, while we're traveling, while we're filming in different locations. And so this setup right now is kind of hosted by the three of us. But as we go, one of us may be interviewing a ministry or missionary somewhere around the world. So we encourage you to join us, subscribe, follow the channel as we share stories, not only produce stories that we have on our YouTube channel and our website and everything like that, but also these kind of behind-the-scene conversations that we'll have with different ministry leaders around the world. So today we want to get started, and I'm gonna let Katie and Jeff kind of introduce themselves and give you a little bit of background about um themselves and the organization. Katie, you want to start?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Sure. Um, my name is Katie Winton, and I um am a uh full-time tech director at Woodlawn Church, and um then get to do five nine on the side, which is awesome. And um I am just so in love with getting to use my creative gifts for uh having gospel impact. It's just it's just the best. And um, I'm so passionate about it. And um, you know, there's been so many times over the years as we've um have done this type of work that had been meaningful, but honestly, the thing that kind of kick-started my um best understanding of how this work is impactful, and also the that really got me excited was um I used to be the director of a ministry called the ARC, and um, it had been a retreat center from the 70s um at in Panama City Beach. They'd kind of gone belly up and they were wanting to revive it with some different ministries. And so we um came in and we put a coffee shop in and we put in transitional housing and then also housing for um international students that were coming there to work. And um we had no money, we had rundown facilities, we had um it was just incredibly, incredibly hard work. And um one of the things that we needed was we needed people to hear what we were doing because it was such a new thing. They only knew us as the old version of the ark, they only knew um that um that things had really gone downhill and that there wasn't really anything going on. And so we needed some fresh life breathed into that. But I was drowning every day just trying to do the day-to-day ministry and fixing plumbing and then taking somebody in uh for a rehab and then running a shift in the coffee shop and just doing all these things that were so um time consuming that I didn't have time to figure out a marketing plan. I didn't have time to do fundraising, nothing, but that's what we desperately needed to be able to do our ministry better. And so at the time, Evan was working at Woodlawn with my job that I have now, and he put together a promo video for us. And it was absolutely life-changing for the that ministry because we had a succinct way to tell our story. We had um people who were involved in the ministry spoke in the in the video, and we were able to send that out to people in a way that we never had been able to reach people before. And so I on the receiving end of that was so incredibly grateful for um having that tool and that resource, and then now getting to take that same thing and give that to other people is just it's the absolute best. I just love it. And it's it's a I know firsthand what an impact that can have, and so I love being able to give that to other people.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

That's awesome. That's awesome. My name's uh Jeff Bush, and I have been a photographer, videographer for 20-ish years now, uh, and uh live in South Georgia, my wife and I with our three young kids, and um I've known Evan for probably about 20 something years now. Um, and he and I both, you know, when we met each other, neither one of us was in um really photography or video at that point. Um, but somehow we but we were both, you know, serving in our churches and had a heart for the Lord. And uh we're both in music at the time. We were both doing music, and we had we had gone on some mission trips with our churches and stuff like that. Three bands for three of us. First Southern Baptist Church of Hope Hole, Alabama, right? And that was a great event. But we we just made a connection together, and later on um he and I were both doing you know wedding videography really uh connected us, and we were talking about how do you shoot this, how do you do that, and have stayed connected through the years really close. Um and you know, he he would be doing some mission uh video work and you know, obviously working at church, and the same thing I was working at a church, and um it's kind of how I even got into video was they were I was an intern at a church and we were going on a youth mission trip, and they gave me a camera and said, Hey, here, film some stuff. And I'm like trying to figure out how it all works, and but loved it, you know, and um from the get-go, and uh so years progressed later, um, you know, and I say was working in a church doing a lot of videography work and got into the wedding space, and then um when I got out of um working full-time church staff, my phone just started ringing. I mean, it's like of hey, I'm going to Haiti. Can you go to Haiti? Uh, I need a videographer. Well, yeah, I'd love to go. Um, hey, I'm going to Tanzania. Uh, I need a videographer. Can you go with me? Yeah. I'd love to go. Um, and it's something that I, you know, I've always loved missions, come in on mission trips most of my whole life, um, both in the States and and abroad, but um I didn't feel that impact from the other side of like it's really fun to go somewhere and and tell those stories for people. And you know, I grew up I grew up in the church, so I we'd have missionaries and mission teams come through all the time, and as a kid, sometimes I was like, Okay, that's cool and everything, like, but the their presentation of how they're telling their story was not great at heavy board as a kid, and so I take that mindset of thinking, okay, hey, these incredible stories of these people in the mission field, how can I captivate an audience with them with visual storytelling? And um, so I've been doing that myself for for years, and I know Evan had been doing it for a while, Katie had been involved, and it's like, um how do we make this bigger? Like, there's got to be a way to make this better. Um, and along with with Blake Guffin, um, saying, How can we partner and do this like together instead of just somebody calling you and saying, Hey, can you go and I oh I can't go, so tough luck, find somebody else. Like, how can we do this as a as a team? That's really, I feel like, how you know 5-9 initially got started, and at least my involvement in it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

I uh my first thing I was working at the church, actually doing a get job that Katie's doing now. Um, it was a lot different then, but uh I set the groundwork for her. No, uh, she's doing a lot more than I was doing then. But um I was at the church and I'd we had some opportunities for some um testimonies and different things, and I was like, oh, I I'd done some like graphic design and things like that. I was like, I want to buy a camera and try to learn how to shoot some videos. So I bought one and I had the opportunity at the church because we just needed to create stuff I was creating, and I had a lot of opportunity to learn to use my camera. And uh we'd been there, I mean I'd been I'd had the camera a couple years, and it was 2014, and we had some uh folks at the church whose um family members were minister or missionaries in the West Bank and they were like, hey, we want to get some video how they're there to communicate with our supporters. And uh so I met with them on Sunday and they're like, hey, let's uh I I wanted to get with them and let's let's figure out a time to get together. And they were like, Why don't why don't we just bring you why don't you just fly over and spend a week with us in the West Bank? And I'm like, okay, that sounds great. And I had no idea what I was getting into. I mean, the West Bank is not the most tourist heavy uh visit tourist visited location. Um and they were working with um with people in in Palestine sharing the gospel um in different ways. And through that trip, that was the first I'd been on mission trips. I'd done one out of the country at that time, I'd done some in the country, but um through that trip, God really opened my eyes to how I can take what was just the beginning of my love for video, only a couple years old, and my love for ministry and my love for sharing the gospel and combine those two things. And so that was 12 years ago. So it's been a while. Um, but that one trip just kind of started a a stirring in me that God was working to um steer me towards ministry, and I was doing um weddings and other things, been been doing that stuff for years. Um but I was doing ministry projects in different countries all over the world. Um not a lot, but every year I was doing one or two, and so um there was this one trip to Ecuador, Katie and I, and then uh Blake, who's another one of our founders, we were all together on a trip to Ecuador and we were just kind of talking through things and we're like this is something that we should really like do more of and be able to do more as a unit instead of individually. And God just kind of got us thinking, and as soon as we got home, we looped you in. Uh, and yeah, it's been it's been a cool experience. It's a great like great ride the past three years. Um excited about the things that we've done. We've we've gone uh that was we were doing a uh we did a graphic like to show kind of what we were doing last fall, and we literally were on all the inhabited continents um doing some kind of work, and then we were also um in like three or four states. It was just all over the place. I guess we weren't in ha we weren't in Australia that it was the year previous. But anyway, we were all we were in Asia and we were in South America and Africa and multiple places in Africa and split up doing different things, and it's just cool to see how God has has grown the ministry and how um it's continuing to grow. The momentum is is great, and we we want to do like for the viewer or for the listener, the purpose of this is to share kind of how God got us, initiated this idea in us and got us in in motion to start something that we really weren't prepared to start or really weren't planning to start, and we don't even know what we're doing. Running the organization is a whole new thing. We know how to tell stories, but figuring out how to learn and run a nonprofit and to organize as a unit. We're learning as we go. We don't have all the things figured out, but we want to share the ways that God is using us. We want to be vulnerable with those things and just kind of be honest in the conversations that we're having.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Um Yeah, like one of one of the ways is we realize like, okay, we started this nonprofit. We need some we need some board members that are not creatives. Yeah, exactly. We need some people that work in the corporate world, in the corporate spaces that also love Jesus, that also have an appreciation for the work that we do as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

But they can rein as creatives in.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

But yeah, and then also have other ideas of like, well, hey, here's how these other organizations are doing things. And you know, we've all had work within you know church spaces and ministries, but um not always to that that degree. And so that's been incredibly helpful this year to have some other minds in it. Well, hey, have y'all thought about this? Have y'all thought about that? And um that's that's part of the growth of it, and it's so fun to be a part of.

unknown 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

I think um, you know, one of the most important things that we did at the very beginning was we established ourselves as a 501c3. And that was really important for us because we want to be able to make these projects as affordable as possible for um the people that we're doing them for. And there's, you know, as much as we would love to, you can't travel across the world for free. There's hard costs that are involved. Um, if we're gonna be doing this long term, we need to think about sustainability and um and finances and um having savings and all of that stuff. And so there are realistic costs that just are unavoidable. And so um, as much as we would love to just do it for free for everyone, that's that's my thing. I like I I have a dream that we would eventually get to where we have um, you know, grants or donors, so many donors that we can just say, hey, we would love to do this for free for everybody. We're not at that point yet. Um being a 501c3016 is the main way to really get there. Yeah, because that allows people to partner with us. It gives them a tax-deductible donate, or if they make a donation, it's tax deductible. And um, then it also provides um accountability for us, and um, we can make sure that we're transparent with everything that we do um with our finances and with our bylaws and all of that kind of thing. Um, so that that basically shows, hey, you're a trusted organization that has gone through these steps and people can have confidence in partnering with us.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

We're not a we're not a we're not just a Christian production media company that is out there to, hey, solicit the the highest paying commercial gigs. Like actually, that's the furthest thing from what we want to do. We're trying to help amplify the voices of those who are already sharing the gospel around the world with visual storytelling. And to do that, you know, it's we're we're not trying to become rich. We're just trying to pay the bills, and with that, has hard costs and doing the 501c3 was the best way to do that. And even that, we knew God was in it because typically it takes a long time to get that, and we were able to get ours really quickly, which allowed us to know, like it was kind of like I'd say, okay, yeah, y'all need to continue on with this.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

And as we were talking to people beforehand, before we when we first got back, and we were like, is this a thing? Can we really do this? Like, do we even would we even qualify for a 501c3? I talked to several people who I knew were um kind of in that space or in the business world or things like that, and they'd be like, I really don't think they're gonna approve you. Like, I I don't think that this is gonna be a thing, and boom, we got it super fast.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

I had a lot of questions too. People are like, why don't y'all do it as a business? Why don't you approach this as a Christian-based business? Because there are costs, it's a product, technically. It's a product, like the the the work that we do as a product. Um, and so you look at organizations that are publishing companies and other Christian organizations that are businesses that are founded on Christian principles, but they're businesses. And we just really felt like what we're doing we wanted it to be something that people could partner with us and could give towards it so that the burden was not completely on the organizations uh and they could fundraise themselves and then pay for it, but the things we wanted to be able to do, we felt like the 501c3 was something that really gave us a platform to encourage others to to partner and by being able to receive tax um deductible gifts that enables us to kind of relieve some of the burden on the organizations. There are there is there are costs, but we strive to make those costs as low as possible while yet while yet being sustainable. And we also don't want the finances to be the single barrier that like we wouldn't have to do. Everything aligns with everything we're doing and everything that y'all can do to partner with us to share our story. We just don't have any money. Where can where can we find the middle ground to make that there's there's creative things that we've been able to do and we're learning and we're growing and we're and we're expanding so that we can do more in those um for those organizations.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Well, that was uh well the great thing for us is you know and obviously God put this, I think, vision on us for a reason. It was something that we could do. The barrier for entry for us into this um was easy because we all had cameras. We you know, we didn't need a physical building. We didn't need to go to just start go raise a bunch of money so we could have a building to do that. That's not our what our ministry, our calling was. Ours is out in the field. So what it was was taking the gifts and the you know, the gear that we all already had personally um are able to use and put those things and steward them in a way to for the kingdom. And that's where I think being a 501c3 really shows because we're in in those essences, we're we're using our personal, you know, resources to help fund to help fund this, even when we're being paid for a project. Um but even then it still doesn't it doesn't cover that cost. So having the 501c3 and be able to people can partner with us so that we can do more than what we've been able to do, you know, the dozens of projects we've done the last couple of years, we can increase that as we've got.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

And as we grow, as we grow, we'll we'll expand and we'll have more, there'll be more, you know, things that we need gear-wise as we upgrade and we and things like that, as we shift. Our goal is to be able to shift our time. Um mine especially is shift our time from where previously in the years past I was doing my business side of things, and then like spending a little time in ministry as I could, but now shifting my work and my time to focus on ministry, and then I pick up a few jobs here and there for my business stuff too. But um, my goal is to shift into that because I really feel like that God has definitely given direction and that's where he's leading us, and I feel 100% confident that we're in the right space. And I mean where God's where God is leading. And I I've said this before, I just I just want to step through the door that he opens. And I don't know what next year, we don't know what next year looks like, we don't know what 2029, 2030 look like, you know, down the road, but we're excited about the momentum that God has started with what we're doing, and we're excited about where it's where it's taken us.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Um Christ said to take up your cross and follow me. Yeah, that's what and that's what we're doing. We don't know where we're going. Uh but that's not for us to determine. We're not, yeah, it's not for us to determine where we're going. We we know it's this avenue that he's given us and using um the skills and the abilities and the passion that he's given us to further the kingdom, and we're gonna let him open those doors, like you said.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

So the podcast is really just a us being able to share conversations with in our founders within our board, but also as we go and talk to people, uh On the, you know, people are there in the field, people that are doing the work, organizations we've partnered with, uh we'll we've got those stories that are going to be coming so that we can encourage other people. Um, sometimes it's less about the creative work that we're doing and more about the ministry, but how is the partnership working and how are we able to encourage others to learn more about that ministry and things? So there's a lot of things on this platform that we are going to be talking about, but this is not the thing we do. There's a lot of podcasts, we've talked about this, like you have a podcast, and that's kind of your that's your platform, that's what you do, that's your primary thing. This is a reflection of the primary thing we do, which is sharing stories. And so um our primary thing is to go and to partner with organizations, partner with ministries, department of mission, partner with missionaries, uh, whether that's an organization down the street or whether that's an organization or missionary on the other side of the world. Um, and so that's our primary thing. And Katie, Katie's got some details. We want to talk a little bit about kind of what we do as our primary thing, uh, and she's gonna talk a little bit about kind of like how that works and what that looks like, just so people will have an idea of the things that we're that we're involved in.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah, so if um a uh organization wants to partner with us, there's um, you know, sometimes that's we get contacted by word of mouth. Sometimes um we have people who have heard from a friend of a friend. Um, we have a place on our website where people can come and fill out a partner application. It's just a few short uh questions to kind of get us started, and then um we can go through and um set up a time to meet with folks and talk. And um one of the cool things is that we are um we have set ourselves up to be different than the industry standard. Um there are so many um organizations out there that do production and they do it on a huge scale or small scale or whatever, but typically the cost is can be astronomical. Um, if you are wanting to do um, you know, it can be upwards of tens of thousands of dollars for one video for an organization. And that's just not feasible for many organizations because it's really hard to look a person in the face and have them be hungry and need a meal and say, well, we're gonna spend ten thousand dollars on a video. It's just that the reality of that is is tough. And so um we totally get that, but we also understand the importance of having these marketing tools and these fundraising tools that not only do you get this video that can help um you get this high-quality video that is um able to tell your story well, but then it turns around and it can generate um funding and volunteers and things like that. And so what we want to do is try to make it um scale our costs to be as affordable as possible. And we ran the numbers last year and I was shocked, but we come in typically anywhere between 70 and 90 percent below the industry standard. So if you just went and hired a corporate company, um, you're gonna be paying, you know, tons more than you would be paying with us. And so we always want to try to keep that as affordable as possible. And a lot of that is us using um a slim-down um set of gear. We don't have the biggest cameras that are on the market, we have things that can pull double duty. We we are really always trying to look at things to make sure that we can be as resourceful as possible and then pass those savings on. And a lot of what we do is possible because we have donors that back us. And so we have churches that partner with us, we have individuals that partner with us, sometimes with a one-time gift, sometimes with a recurring gift. And that type of thing helps um sustain us. And then we can then turn around and say, okay, your organization, we meet with you, here's the cost that it's going to be. If they come back to us and say, we really can't come up with that whole amount, we've got almost all of it. What does that look like? Well, we may have donor funds that we can say, okay, we'll sponsor part of this and reduce that cost as much as we can. Because our heart is always to be able to tell the story and do everything that we can, leverage everything that we've got to be able to fill that need for those folks.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

I would say we're so confident that I've had this conversation a couple of years ago when we were starting with a friend, and looking at what God calls you to do, it takes, I feel like, little faith to say, God, provide and I'll do it. We're so confident in what God has directed us to do, called us to do, um, that we trust that God is providing on the back end. We do what He's called through obedience, and He will He will follow with provision. Um, and so we are thankful for the donors that help fund what we do. We couldn't do it without the donors that give. Um, the more we'll the more we're able to do, the more donors we have, we're able to do more stuff. Um the more organizations we can work with, the more burden we can relieve uh off the organization so they can focus on the primary thing they're doing. But like you were talking about, like it's hard to look at a person who's hungry and spend money on a video, but it's kind of one of those things like teach a man to fish or feed them a fish. Like, yes, feed that person. But we have seen that if you invest in storytelling, that that turns and recoupes the cost and then some because people are able to partner with what you know, see what you're doing and partner with you and give to what you're doing to feed those people. But if you don't tell them what you're doing, if you're not sharing with them the story of feeding that child or feeding those people or teaching those people who have never heard the gospel, if people don't know you're out on an island by yourself and you're um it's hard to have support when when missionaries go, they go to churches and they go to individuals and they and they raise support. Uh most often most missionaries have to raise their own support. And we've partnered with some who do, you know, we'll do a video for them to share with their people who are either they're going to get new support or they're sharing their um testimonies or their stories with the people that support them. And that continues uh the the keeps them on on my it keeps them at the top of the mind for the organization, for the church, for the individuals to say, hey, I'm sponsoring this person, I'm providing income for this person, and this is the impact they're making, and this is where my money is going to help to keep this person on the field. And so we see our ministry as a ministry, we see our work as a ministry. We don't just see it as an organization that's selling a product. We are gospel focused, our purpose is gospel proclamation. Like ultimately, we want to see the world reach for the gospel. Typically, we're not the ones doing the actual share. I mean, we would love the opportunity when we get to share the gospel and we get to talk to people, but typically we're not the ones sharing the gospel in those places. We're going in to uh we say amplify the voices because we're able to take their story and share it and make it even louder and and more more heard. Um, but we want to be um we want to be a resource for those ministries and give them the opportunity to do more.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Yeah, we and we want the when somebody reaches out, we want the answer to be yes. Yeah. Every time. And really the only time it's no is is cost pro you know prohibitive. Um and that's where you know we've been doing this a little over three years as five nine. We're really just getting started. And and I can't wait to see what what God has in store for for us because I like you said, I'm believing, have the dreams that um we're gonna have the right amount of partners that when everyone contacts us and they need our services, we're able to say yes, no matter what the cost is. You know, oh we we need you to go um like some of the trips last year, we need you to go to four different countries um to get all this um content for us and build these different stories for us. Oh yeah, we can do that. And we can and we can make it affordable while also not sacrificing any excellence. You know, we're still able to, you know, you said uh 70 to 90 percent, you know, below the market average for for cost, but but not 79% lower in you know quality. Yeah, yeah. In fact, maybe maybe better.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

And one of the things, speaking of that too, is like I had an organization I shot with, uh, it was in the States, it was out uh in Texas. I did a a video for an organization, and um they were starting a children's home. And the guy talked to me and was like, Hey, thank you so much for coming. We're excited you're here. Man, thank you for working with us on cost. We had another organization, just a local, you know, production company, not believers to just production company, and they just you know contacted them. And he was like, it was gonna be like I think four or five times the amount of money that we charged. But he was like, the thing was they just didn't get our vision, like they weren't they weren't Christians, they weren't believers, and so the story the the mindset of the story and this and the the heart behind the story was a harder connection point. And so when you're sitting and editing and when you're sitting and hearing stories and talking to people and asking and interviewing people or whatever we do, um not to utilize that gospel connection as a selling point, but to utilize it as a connection point. Um that we are our heart has the same heart as the organization. We just come in as like a shot in the arm and it's a boost. And we get to go in and experience a place for a short period of time as we capture the stories of things that are happening, but then we get to come back and just amplify that. Um it's a it's a really cool position to be in. It's it's uh it's it's encouraging.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Well, that's why I feel like for us, our b biggest advantage is that you know we want to work with gospel-centric organizations. And that being our primary you know, focus in trying to amplify amplify the gospel. I'm not the best videographer or photographer out there. I'm confident, like I feel confident that I'm gonna get the shot, I'm gonna and I'm gonna get a great shot. But what I feel confident is is knowing Christ and understanding an organization and what their goals are, and then being able to take that and amplify it in a way that maybe somebody that that got an incredible cinematic shot and they got a better drone shot than I would have got or whatever, but they didn't understand the story, and now the story doesn't connect and it's it's just out there, you know, it has no purpose. Um, I feel like that's one of our strongest suits is being able to work with organizations and see what they're doing, and then you know, God's instilled this calling in our life to be able to take that and then you know put a megaphone on it and and and send the message out there even further.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

So right, because every story deserves not to just have a camera pointed at it, it deserves care and dignity and respect um as we are moving through that filming process. We work with people, not just numbers. Yeah, it's uh you're working heart to heart with people, and so that's always at the forefront of our approach is um, you know, we want to be able to do it with authenticity, to um just be, you know, a lot of times when we're working with people at the very beginning, even if we don't have a relationship with them, one of the things I say is I want you to be candid with us, as candid with us as possible. If you're feeling like this isn't a good fit, if you feel like the cost is prohibitive, if you feel like the vision is going sideways, please be candid with us. And that has opened so many doors of people just being able to be like, look, we're struggling. I don't know how this is gonna work. And we can say, Oh, we know how this can work, let's fix this. And so we want to be authentic, we want to do things with excellence, like you said. That's um just a huge part of what we do is we're not just slapping up gear and hitting record and sitting back and letting people maybe fumble through trying to get, you know, uh through an interview. We really want to take our time, make sure it looks as good as possible, use the skills that's got that God has given us and the education that we've gotten over the years and how to use lighting and cameras and um audio to have the the best possible quality that we can. But then alongside with that is kind of helping coach people through so that we get a product that comes out excellent and um that they feel confident in and they feel good about sharing because it was they didn't feel like they were just floundering through the whole thing. And then the biggest thing is we want to partner with these people, we want to partner with the organization. Yeah, exactly. We don't want to just come in, work with them for a day and go. We want to have folks that we have long-term relationships with. Um, and we talk about this all the time. We have friends kind of all over the world, and there's people that are um contacting me asking for prayer because there's things that's going on in their family. They're having some kind of family emergency. There's a um a guy that we're working with out of a country that we can't disclose that um we've just stayed in touch and we're actually going to be doing a pastor training, a virtual pastor training with him in the fall. Um, and just some really cool stuff like that. That we are um you just don't expect that whenever you are working with a corporate organization, but we really want to live into that partnership and that kind of family mentality.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Because what we do is not just a cookie-cutter approach, coming in and just turning the cameras on and up, this is what you got. Like it's a more handcrafted, you know, and uh, I I think of like a scooped ice cream, huh?

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Like the hand scooped ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Yeah, yeah, like a hand scooped ice cream. I was thinking more pottery, like um, but you could go with ice cream, but it's it's more handcrafted, you know. Every organization is, you know, the look's gonna be similar. Um the heart's the same, but the heart. The heart's the same, exactly. And every, you know, the goals for each organization is different, you know. This group, you know, maybe, you know, they're working in completely unreached people group. So they're having hard, harder times than this group that has a Christian school, you know, that already has you know 150 kids at it. You know, their their goals and objectives are different, so they don't need the exact same um content that we're able to come in and capture and produce, but it has a hand same heart behind it, and we can handcraft it um into fit those organizations and understand who they are.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Yeah, and so one of the things um when we started, we were it's a unique position because we didn't start as a as a typical startup. Like a lot of times people are like, I've got this skill or I've got this thing that I want to do, I want to start this business so I can develop this and grow this thing. We really feel like the organization came as a natural step in the progression, but we had all been doing this stuff for years. Like I've been 2014 was that first mission project. I've been shooting stuff before that. You've been doing photography for longer than that, and you've been doing photo and video for a long time. And so uh, and Blake's been doing photography for a long time too. And so when we started, we didn't just say, Oh, this is an idea that we have that we can start something new. We basically said, This is what we're already doing. How do we work together and cooperate in our organizational structure so that we can do more? Um, and so we went back and forth, we started all these conver had all these conversations and different ideas of names and things, and we really um we decided with 5-9 creative. So 5-9 is from Revelation 5-9, um, which we used um as our framework because we really have a desire to, like I said earlier, gospel proclamation. The nation, we want the nations to know. Um, the Bible says in Revelation 5.9, um, that every tribe, every people, every tongue, every tribe, every language, um, that they'll all be gathered around the throne. That's actually on my own. It's on your shirt.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

You read it out of order, but I read it out of order.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Every tribe, every language, every people and nation. It comes from Revelation 5.9, and that is really our like that's our heart, is to see the gospel proclaimed to every people, every person on the planet. And so um that's where the name comes from. It's not a just a bunch of random numbers or something like that. It actually has a purpose behind the name, but that's kind of uh the the heart behind our ministry. And it's something that's um kind of the foundation of what we do.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

And and part of that is you know, a lot of people might say, Well, well, you're not the ones doing the work. And they're like, No, we're not. We're we are finding the people and and God is revealing the people to us that are in the trenches, and that they are taking his name to these people and these languages and these these nations, and we're there to help amplify their story so that they can get the more support that they need to continue on and to encourage others that maybe they're having a calling in their life to go into the mission field. Maybe we can be an encouragement to them to go out and them realize the need that is out there. You know, we're not we're not the hero. We're we're just an alongside that my dad has a ministry that he calls an alongside ministry. We're not coming up with the ministries that people are doing out there. We're just coming alongside them and trying to help, you know, propel them forward and help them, you know, especially in in this, you know, we're in 2026 right now, um, age of technology and trying to utilize those tools that God created and use them for his name and his glory versus all the negativity that's out there in those technological spaces.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Our foundation is not like business growth or like organizational growth and structure. Like, we're not on, we're not doing this this platform, the podcast platform, to tell people how to start a business or tell people how to start an organization or anything like that. We want to encourage you with our obedience, but really that's what it's about. It's about obedience. It's about God put this idea in our minds, in our hearts years ago. He gave us the desire to to capture stories, he gave us the skills of filming uh and photography while developing those skills. He started us with those skills, and then he gave us uh the desire to share those stories, and he gave us the the idea of you know creating and going with ministries and doing things like that. So it's just an obedient thing that God where we see God working through the whole process as we look back, and it was just about the obedience. Us not knowing exactly what we were doing, not us having all the things figured out, but just being willing and saying, Okay, God, we think and are confident this is where you're directing us, we'll do it, and we'll you know, guide us through every step of the way. So I think part of this is just encouragement to people. If you've got something that's similar that God has placed on your heart that maybe you need to commit to, maybe something maybe that's going um on a trip, maybe it's going overseas full time, maybe it's um you know doing something in your community, whatever that is, um just gospel centered, that um just following obedience into what God's called you to do. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Five Nine Creative Podcast. If today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or gave you something to think about, we'd love for you to subscribe and share it with someone else. Thanks for being a part of the journey, and we'll see you next time.