What happens when the world hits pause—and you decide to press play?
In this episode of The Strategic Business Influencer, Paige Velasquez Budde sits down with Brandon Bloch, award-winning director and co-founder of Hometeam, a remote-first production company named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. Brandon has led campaigns for global brands like Apple, HBO, Samsung, and T-Mobile, but his most important work might be how he and his co-founders pioneered a new model for creative production during one of the most uncertain times in modern history.
Brandon shares:
- How he and his partners transformed pandemic constraints into an entirely new way of producing world-class content
- The mindset shift from filmmaker to entrepreneur—and what it really means to “work on the business, not just in the business.”
- Why Hometeam’s brand is about more than visuals—it’s about building trust, community, and purpose at scale
- His take on the future of filmmaking in an AI-driven world, and why real human storytelling will always matter
Whether you’re a creative, a founder, or a leader navigating constant change, this conversation will leave you inspired to see constraints as opportunities and to lead with values that stand the test of time. Below is the full transcript of our conversation!
Learn more about Brandon and Hometeam at wearehometeam.com.
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Paige: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Strategic Business Influencer, my new series. For leaders who know that in today’s evolving world, trust is the greatest competitive advantage. Today’s guest is Brandon Block, a creative force at the intersection of storytelling, brand strategy, and community building.
Brandon is an award-winning commercial director in brand marketing strategies. Whose work has helped shape campaigns for global brands like Apple, HBO, Samsung, and T-Mobile, just to name a few with more than a decade of experience and branded video content, he knows how to tell stories that move people and drive real.
He is the co-founder of Home Team, a remote first production company that solves complex creative challenges for brands and entertainment teams. Brandon leads marketing, growth, brand and community at Hometeam. Which was named a fast company most innovative company. With the global network of top tier crews, they are proving that world class content doesn’t require the typical overhead or geographical borders.
Brandon’s journey began in a public service working as a documentary filmmaker at the US Department of State during the Obama administration. Since then, he’s gone on to earn Cannes Lions, Webbys and tele awards. But more importantly, he is redefining what modern, scalable creative production can look like.
Y’all are in for a treat today because Brandon is one of the most brilliant and creative entrepreneurial minds I have ever met, so I am looking forward to diving in. Welcome, Brandon. I’m excited to have you on the series today.
Brandon: Oh, thanks for having me, Paige. I’m happy to be here and thanks for that intro.
It’s. It’s nice to hear it. It makes it sound like I have a very clean career. But of course, like every entrepreneur, there’s been all sorts of little detours along the way and but, but yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Paige: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And we are gonna dive into all of those detours along the way today.
And I talked about, of course, all the amazing things that you’ve done with Hometeam and what y’all are doing now. But I really wanna start our conversation by backing up to the very beginning of Hometeam. It was founded at a time when most of the industry had hit a pause in, in kind of the, the COVID era, I guess we can call it.
Yet y’all found a way forward by going local and going remote. So I wanna know what gave you the conviction to bet on a model that really hadn’t been done before? And how has that helped you just really stand out in a crowded production landscape?
Brandon: Yeah, it, it was a little bit of like, you know, they say luck is opportunity meets preparation.
And, and I think it was almost like in hindsight. A moment that we were preparing for our entire careers, myself and my two other co-founders. And what I mean there is you know, we had been myself and, and, and them too had been actively, you know, in the filmmaking world for close to a decade, probably before COVID hit in 2020.
And what, what we did over those, the course of our careers up to that point was just. Meet a ton of other filmmakers, crew up all over the country and all over the world and build this kind of massive peer network of, of filmmakers. And, and we had also done some multi-city campaigns with my partner Harrison’s previous company.
I was a director there, but we did multi-city global campaigns for Starbucks, for Google. For various hospitality brands. And so we were pretty fluent in this approach to production where you don’t need to fly yourself and a whole crew and all your gear hop on a plane, fly to where the shoot’s happening.
You could do a lot of it remotely. So we were fluent in the model. We had built the network and then when the constraint happened of not being able to travel to shoots in 2020, most people, and what I mean there is client side and crew side. Kind of froze up and said like, okay, I mean, take yourselves back to March, April of 2020.
And everybody’s like, mm-hmm. What? We’re gonna let this, we’re gonna sit and let this pass. And our attitude was like, well, we know filmmakers in every US state, every territory, and 150 countries around the world. Like it seems to us that the main constraint is being able to travel. But if you instead just shoot locally.
We could be anywhere we need to. And so very quickly we were able to offer that sort of network kind of like rally the whole crew community and offer that to, to our clients. And right away some pretty big names reached out to us you know, in the entertainment world and, and. Big tech brands and so forth, people, clients looking for answers, is how to move forward.
And so, yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I’d love to say, you know, also way before this, just the seed was always planted, growing up from my, from my dad. His, his, he had a saying that just is drilled into my brain of whenever, whenever life creates obstacles for you. Look how to turn disadvantages into advantages.
Mm-hmm. And so I’m just, I’ve always been a very creative person. I didn’t always consider myself kind of like an optimist, but it’s funny when, when like push came to shove and there was this big constraint in my mind, I just immediately got into like creative problem solving mode. And within a matter of days we had kind of ski, built this whole thing up, stood up as Hometeam and, and kind of like the rest is history.
Paige: Wow. That, that’s such an incredible story. And your dad is, is such a wise man. Yeah. To instill that in you. But what I love so much about what y’all did is it wasn’t just, you know, to keep brand campaigns going for, for businesses and companies. It also was, like you said, such a rally cry for your industry and you know.
Making sure that everybody kept work, especially during that time, and it’s now transformed into this new model, which is just so incredible. That y’all pioneered that.
Brandon: Yeah, that’s, that’s a great thing to highlight because you’re, you’re exactly right. Like, the motivation at the time was less of let’s package this up and sell it.
It was more like, I, I could tell you, I could take you back to like this exact moment I was. I was working at home. I had a home office at the time. The world is, you know, freezing up and everybody’s in just big question marks everywhere. And I would pull up my phone and scroll through my Instagram feed and it was like windows into the experiences My filmmaker friends were having like really talented dps, cinematographers photographers.
I knew for sure ’cause I know them. You know, they had $50,000 cameras sitting in their closet and they were like shooting. Still lives of their pets or, you know, whatever it is. We were all kind of just like sitting on potential mm-hmm. And not knowing quite what to do with it. And so it, it just felt really like, na natural and, and sort of like sort of optimistic and solutions oriented of like, Hey, y’all don’t just, let’s not sit around, let’s like do something.
The, we could stitch together a model. The technology has caught up in terms of being able to remote stream. On, you know, zoom and, and Google Meet and so forth. So streaming technology had caught up. And then, and then lastly, it was clients kind of willing to, and kind of, needing to mm-hmm. Take, take a risk.
And so, but yes, you’re exactly right. And I, I’d, I’d love to chat more about that, but. Really at the core of Hometeam is, is trying to prove like a, a, a better way forward in production for our crews. Yeah. And for the people on set and behind the lens. Like we see it as a win-win win. The, our company could win.
The client could win, and the filmmakers who do the work can win. You can actually have it all. And it, yeah, the, I think what we’ve built kind of proves that.
Paige: Yeah, absolutely. And I, I’m gonna get your thoughts too, just on, on the future of, of filmmaking production and branding as well, you know, later in the discussion.
But I, I wanna zero back in on the moment where, you know, you had, you know, over a decade of experience. With big brand campaigns to now launching your own production company, and I want to, I want you to just go back to that decision to go from creative, creative to founder. Yeah. You know, shifting into that entrepreneurial mindset, you know, looking back, what mindset or skill do you feel like was most critical to making that leap?
Brandon: It’s a wonderful, awesome question. And I say that because it’s something that I struggled with for a long time as a filmmaker and a lot of my friends do too. And what I mean there is, you know, for the first decade of my career and, and when I tell this about myself, I’m, I’m, I know it’s similar with a lot of my filmmaker friends.
You kind of are getting into this craft and you’re. The nature of our industry is a bit of, like, you have a lot of sole proprietors, you have a lot of freelancers. And so to do that, you in some ways need to know a little bit of how to run a business. And as you start to gain traction and success, you find you spend more and more of your time running a business.
Pitching, you know. Bidding, building budgets, talking to clients, shaping creative approach, hiring crews production insurance, scheduling, like all of these things like logistics. You know, 90% of the day of a filmmaker or, or the, the month of a film filmmaker is spent on everything but actually like filming, you know?
So you need to become pretty fluent on how to run your own small business. Now as a filmmaker, what, what I struggled with for the first decade of my career and, and a lot of my peers do, is like, at what point do you decide I want to like, kind of work on the business instead of in the business? Mm-hmm.
And, and at what point am I satisfied enough and, and feel like I’m ready to leave sort of my dreams as a craftsperson behind to become like a small business owner or, or, you know, an entrepreneur. It’s not an easy question for people to answer. And so I had a few kind of false starts earlier in my career of like, well, I’m working for some pretty cool agencies or brands, maybe I’m needing to hire a few people here and there fractionally.
I feel like maybe I should just run a business. And then, and then you look at yourself in the mirror a little bit and you’re like, well, I still have that like passion project I wanna make, or I still have some certain goals of what do I, I want to accomplish as a filmmaker. When, when 2020 hit, I feel like I had gotten to the stage in my career where I had checked off a ton of boxes of just what I set out to accomplish as a filmmaker.
Traveling the whole globe shooting, really like big sexy stuff, working on TV shows living in New York and kinda like going for it, right? Mm-hmm. And so with all that feeling really like satisfied about my career. When I felt like the need, what was calling, what I was being called to do was, was no longer like, you know, just sort of like prove to myself that I could do it, but instead help give a way forward to my friends and peers too.
It just felt like, yeah, I had to switch a little bit. And I’ll also say on the subject. It was, in hindsight, like a really awesome time to start a business in a state of like survival mode almost. Mm-hmm. Because I wasn’t, I, I may be prone to like, overthinking things sometimes and, and when, when you don’t have the time or the ability to do that and, and a pandemic is everywhere and you’re like, I gotta make a living and I gotta survive.
Mm-hmm. I think back and I’m like, wow, we scaled this thing really fast and like didn’t overthink. That much. Like, it was just like, go, go, go, go, go. Solve, solve, solve, solve, solve. And, and and like, then next thing you know, two years in we’re like, whoa, we built like a pretty legitimate business here. You know?
So, so that, that’s something I’ve thought about is, is, you know, sort of answering your question. It wasn’t like I sat down and said, okay, now I’m ready to make this transition into being an entrepreneur of a business that I’m scaling. It just like happened. And so that’s my story there. The one thing I should also add is I went to, in undergrad, I went to school at University of Maryland and went through their entrepreneurship program.
Oh, wow. So yeah, I had, I had won their business plan competition with a, a business idea about making videos for lawyers, which I ended up starting. And, and I was a business plan judge, and I always kind of had like entrepreneurship as sort of my origin story, so I can’t leave that part out. Right.
It’s like I, I wasn’t always just like a filmmaker. I was sort of, you might even argue like a creative entrepreneur who learned a lot about filmmaking and then with Hometeams sort of like. Blending it all together.
Paige: Yeah. I love that, that reframing there that you just said. And my, my next question was, you know, do you feel like at this point you’re digging in on the creative roots from filmmaking and then just applying them in a different way as an entrepreneur now that you’re focused on, you know, marketing and brand and growth for Hometeam?
Brandon: Yeah, I, I’ve somewhat put my like, filmmaking persona on a shelf a little bit. Yeah. What I, what I’m most excited about day to day is the branding, the positioning, the growth of Hometeam, the working on the business instead of in the business. And I’ve been fortunate the way I’ve been allowed to do that and confident in, in sort of switching my role is by.
Just being blessed to have like the, the best, most awesome team that we’ve brought on of executive producers and producers that are, you know, more talent than a, than I’ve ever, I could, could have been as a filmmaker. So it’s sort of like, it was also a theme in my career. It’s like, sure, you level up by bringing people on board who are like more talented, more excited.
Mm-hmm. More passionate about the thing. That maybe you were partly focused on, and then over time you’re sort of just building this all-star, all-star team. And so, yeah, I, I, I see myself now as somebody who’s very excited about building a Hometeam as, as a business. And I’m proud of the work we do, but in some ways I’m.
Maybe more proud of how we’re doing the work we do. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and kind of like the ways we’re helping our clients and our, and our crews accomplish like really big ambitious things.
Paige: Yeah. And I wanna talk a little bit more about the, the Hometeam brand that y’all have created. I think it’s such a unique brand.
You know, not only just the visuals, which of course are in incredible, but the, the messaging and the tone that you have as a brand and the trust that you’ve built, you know, with your network of, of peers and filmmakers, but also on behalf of, you know, the, these incredible clients that we named at the beginning that you work with and.
So, you know, if you, if y’all haven’t seen it, the website is, wearehometeam.com. But I’d love to hear just, you know, what was the thinking when y’all were creating the brand? And it feels like y’all are almost like to a point where you have your own swag everywhere and I, I love seeing it. So, would love to, to get, you know, what the creative process looked like.
Brandon: Yeah. I’ve just got a big passion for branding. And yeah, we, I think brand, the brand of a business and, and the brand I hope we’re building for Hometeam is a reflection of the business we’re building and, and the, the mark we’re making on the world. I say that because it’s very like, we’re making a very conscious effort to.
Align the visuals of our brand, you know, like our, our logo and, and then think global film local, like all of all of these things. But there’s a direct line between the brand identity and the visuals, and then like our core values and our mission and our position. Mm-hmm. And you know, we also, we work with really rad people to bring it to life.
You said trust actually our, our. Brand Identity Partners, trust design shop Trust Design Shop, or Trust Design Co in up in Fort Worth. And they, they’ve just become like we’re all collaborating together. Wow. The, what’s cool? So, so Als, I, I could spend the next half hour just talking about this, so stop me when, when I need to.
But but yeah, when you’re building a company that’s so project to project. And each project is like very different, different brief, different goals of the project, different clients. Hopefully the brand of Hometeam becomes sort of like the connective tissue, you know, between those. And and it’s like a shorthand way of saying who we are and kind of like presenting our, our spirit and our energy and our vibe to the world.
And yeah, we, we, it’s, another thing is when, when you work with so many different crews all over the world, I mean, there’s, in the, in the last couple years we’re, we’re hiring, you know, well over a thousand filmmakers, right? Mm-hmm. And so if, if you want to share in the, like, gratitude and thankfulness of a shoot, it’s, it’s a really awesome thing to be able to send like a box full of t-shirts and hats and stickers to all these folks who represent Hometeam out in the world.
Yeah. So it’s been like this kind of. A little bit of a banner that we wave for, for the, you know, 4,000 or so filmmakers that we represent. So, that’s, that’s a pretty practical way that we activate the brand. Yeah. What else do you wanna talk about? I could, I could go, like I said, I could go on forever about brand, brand identity.
Yeah.
Paige: No, I, I think that that’s really cool in terms of how y’all have activated that. And, you know, one thing that I wanna commend, commend you and your, your co-founders on is, you know, that all started with the trust that. That you all individually built in your careers, and then it’s multiplied, you know, as the company has grown, as the filmmaker network has grown.
And so I think that’s really unique about what y’all do. I I wanna open up a can of worms here probably and talk about the, the future. Of branding, the future of filmmaking and content. The thing that’s on everybody’s mind is AI in the creative world, you know, from anxiety to, hey, there’s opportunity.
And I think there’s probably a little bit of both. Right. What’s your take on where filmmaking and branded content is, is going?
Brandon: Yeah. Of course, you know, by the time somebody watches this, it’ll all be. Sure. Even accelerating further. So number one, it’s just been kind of eye-opening to see how quickly all of this is coming onto the scene and evolving.
As, as a company, you know, for Hometeam, we continue to believe in like the, the value and the inherently like ir, irreplaceable quality of real people storytelling. Mm-hmm. So us as a company, we’ve always, historically. If there’s something we do best, it’s probably documentary style and real people storytelling.
A lot of our stuff involves, you know, kind of like testimonials from real clients, you know, or, or customer stories or celebrities or musicians on camera. And those things those are human stories. They’re, yeah, they’re. The, the medium you’re using is maybe somewhat secondary. I mean, you’re actually just trying to connect with a human on the other side of the screen.
It’s the same thing as us recording this podcast. Mm-hmm. So to say, you know, can I be replaced on this podcast with. Something, gen ai, I think it would lose part of kind of like the purpose of what we’re doing. So we, you know, we see like our niche as a business is, is pretty well firmly planted and we, we continue to be busy and be hired to do real people storytelling.
We also as a business see a lot of value in. AI for processes and system. Mm-hmm. Systematization and pre-visualization, like all these really cool tool tools that also extend into post-production to streamline, to make a small but mighty type type of business. Be able to like, move faster, do bigger things expand our bandwidth and our capabilities.
So we are using and experimenting and seeing what is offered in those ways and putting that to use. The part we’re a little more hesitant is about, is like gen AI and, and just fully embracing that. Sure. I think us as a business to pivot into like a gen AI business would be quite a 180. We, you know, as we’ve talked about this whole, this whole time, we’re very much motivated by like the people our, yeah.
Our crew community as we call it. And so, we. We’re staying true to all of the crews and the, the value they bring and the talent and the, the, the sort of adventure of production that you can’t replace so easily. Um mm-hmm. And, and so yeah, that’s, that’s our current position. We’re, we’re continuing to just keep tabs on what’s going on.
We, you know, we do work for major tech brands. Where the subject matter is Gen AI and speaking to thought leaders and sort of telling the story of transformation of businesses that employ AI and the clients are the tech brands. And so we, we do a lot of that work. So we see a lot of like interesting developments and a lot of sharing of information.
Seems like a very exciting time to be an entrepreneur. And yeah, we’re, we’re interested, but we have sort of, I’m proud of us as a business. We have these sort of like clear guardrails Sure. To a degree of like, at the end of the day Hometeam, the core fundamental of like our brand and our mission as a company is more human led.
And so mm-hmm. We, we won’t be abandoning that just because we see a kind of shiny object pop onto the screen.
Paige: Right. Right. And I feel like, you know, from, even from the beginning of the company, you, you’ve been in a shifting, ever changing landscape, and this is just another one of those
Brandon: Yeah.
Paige: You know, shifts that is happening and, and y’all continue to, to lead and innovate through that.
But, you know, I almost think that what you’ll do becomes even more, you know, a novelty and highly sought after because it is such a craft that is hard to replicate. I I wanna talk a little bit more about the, the shifting landscape. What advice would you give to other founders or creatives that are trying to build something that is going to last in this landscape that just keeps shifting so quickly?
I,
Brandon: you know, I, I say to everybody, stick to your values and, and, you know, just really be confident in your positioning. Like, of course evolve and embrace innovation, but not at the expense of who you are mm-hmm. And what you set out to create. You know, there’s, there’s a lot of times where there are able to, as founders and as executives at our company look back to what’s our core mission and what are our core values, and it.
Sort of offers a way forward when there’s such, there’s such a lot of noise out there right now, you know? Yeah.
Paige: And it’s getting noisier.
Brandon: Yeah. And I’m, you know, I, I’m also, I’ve been through a few of these spikes in mm-hmm. Big trend transitions and, you know, big emerging tech and, and big disruptions and black swan events and whatever.
And it’s like. I, I’ve never seen the pendulum swing a hundred percent in the other direction. I think we always tend to get really excited and then it sort of equalizes in the middle. Mm-hmm. And so we, we are sort of like running a business. I think that leans into the fundamentals and goes at a sort of, we’re we’re taking things.
Through like a somewhat measured lens, I’d say sure. You know, I could, I can make an argument that like, there could be a counterpoint moment happening with gen ai and I’m seeing it already actually some, some luxury brands out there or doing a lot of work with, like illustrating the craft, showing the behind the scenes of how things get made.
Because if you start to follow. To a somewhat of a logical conclusion, we’re already seeing it, like pushback of the AI slop and people abandoning mm-hmm. Social net social channels social feeds that are just becoming sort of like polluted with just cheap content. Mm-hmm. I’m not convinced that like.
Adding to that is, is a way forward as a business versus like yeah, us standing our ground and doing something that’s really premium and special and human led. And I, and, and like I said before, there will always be a need for, for that type of content because humans want to connect with other humans.
Paige: Yeah. One of my, my favorite, you know, thoughts around this, and I think you said this really well, is, you know, in order to differentiate the best way to do that is to be more you.
Brandon: Mm. Yeah.
Paige: And, and, and really thinking of it that way. Especially I’ve been doing a lot of your company brand.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah. I’ve been reading a lot about that and, and doing a lot of thinking around that.
Mm-hmm. And that’s exactly right. It’s like in moments like this, it, it does. Force you to reflect on who you are and, and your unique perspectives and things like that.
Paige: Yeah, for sure. There are two questions that I want, I love to ask every entrepreneur. The first one is, who are you in addition to, to being a founder?
Brandon: Yeah. Well, I’m, I’m a dad. I’ve got, I’ve got two, two kiddos six and eight. And they, they keep me busy, you know, if I’m not working on a Hometeam, I’m, I’m working on being the best dad I can and, and building a family with my wife here in Austin. Not much room for hobbies these days. I don’t know.
The, it’s funny when, when your, when your hobby and your passion becomes your, your career that’s kind of, I mean, I think an example of that, like
Paige: sure
Brandon: picking up a camera for fun became what I did for vocation. And so, there’s a little bit of me wanting to figure out a little more of like, who am I outside of that persona?
The, the entrepreneur, founder persona. But overall I’m a creative. Hmm. I think that’s, that’s the constant whether I was, you know, sketching in the back of class in, in high school you know, pursuing graphic design, motion graphics, 3D animation filmmaking, building a business. I see them all as creative pursuits.
And so I think my persona, no matter what. No matter where I’ve come from, where I am now and where I’m going, it’ll always be creativity and the just like firm just sort of like driving belief that any, anything in the world can be solved through CRE creativity.
Paige: Hmm. I love that. That’s great.
Yeah. And, and Brandon, what’s the impact that you wanna have at the end of every day?
Brandon: Yeah. I, I think it’s related to what I just said. I, I think mm-hmm. Sometimes I, I’ve said this throughout my, my career when I was making things too more like, films and things. It’s like if, if you want a spark of inspiration.
Or motivation toward what should you be creating next? Look at the thing that bugs you or that you think needs to be fixed. And so it’s somewhat of this belief that we should all be problem solvers. Yeah. And it’s up to each individual to decide what the problem is. And, and which problem among all the many in our lives or challenges not, you know, problems, challenges, things that you pick at, that you think could be improved.
And it’s all toward just improving the world. And the way to do that could be you pick your medium. You know, it’s, is it art? Is it giving speeches, is it running for office? Is it building a business? Mm. And so that’s what I believe. I’m, I’m doing, with Hometeam, with all the work I do, and with whatever I do into the future.
Paige: Awesome. Well, thank you so much Brandon for coming on today and just sharing your story, your journey, lessons learned and just, you know, a little bit of insight into your, your creative mind. I know that, you know, anybody listening to this will gain so much from you, and so I’m just so grateful to have you on.
Brandon: I hope so. Yeah. Thanks for having me. And, and good luck and, and like congrats on starting this series and I’m excited to tune in to all the other awesome folks that you’re having on as guests. So, well, thank you for having you so much,
Paige: Brandon, and, and please share with our audience where they can find you.
Brandon: Yeah. Wearehometeam.com is the best spot and it’s got all our work and everything, our story and, and some. Some really fun design on there and, and our brand and all sorts of stuff. So, that’s, that’s like the storefront of our business. So check out wearehometeam.com and, and you’ll get a really good idea of what we’re up to.
Paige: Amazing. Well, thank y’all so much for tuning in and we’ll catch you next time.