Julian St. Pierre - Genius Entreprenuer; Generous Mentor- Rest in Peace

This evening, my wife told me of very sad news. Our good friend from New Orleans, Julian St. Pierre (center picture) of Studio Vieux Carre passed away in his sleep. Julian was a special individual.

While I am unsure of the details of his passing, I am very sure of my admiration for this man. I met Julian 8 yrs ago when Julie and I were in our 2nd yr of business. We lacked aim and artistic direction for our work. We were holding a booth at The Houston Bridal Extravaganza. The show was a mild success by that point. We were about to call it quits when it occurred to me to pull back the curtain and meet the booth behind us. The booth behind us was "Custom Video by Terry", which now is known as Studio Vieux Carre. That one instant changed the direction of our business. That instant was meeting Terry and Julian. Terry's artistic talent and Juliannes marketing genius were what we modeled ourselves after. Julian was unusually generous with his ideas. I loved how confident, even "a little cocky" as he would say, that he was. He was such a great energy to be around. I will miss him.

In my life, I have a handful of mentors that I learn a great deal from. Julian is in my top 5 or 10 for sure. He taught me so much about marketing a small business, in particular wedding video business. He was talented. He was nimble. He was very smart.

The last conversation I had with Julian, was about 6 months ago. We talked for 55 minutes! We would try to keep in touch about 1-2x/yr. I always had tons of questions for him about how he marketed his business and many other aspects of wedding and event video. To me, he is the king of wedding and event video. His business model is the best around. And, amazingly, he always continued to improve it, evolve it. With the creation of Collaborative Organizations like "In Focus" . He was God's gift to small business, in particular documentary video. He helped all the artists make money and keep from starving.

http://www.infocusvideoevent.com/

Funny thing, in that last conversation, Terry had to pull him off of the phone. He just loved to talk about marketing, video, and business. What a passionate guy!


I would like to know when the memorial service is. I owe a lot to Julian. Much more than I ever got a chance to tell him. I'm sure there are many in the Wedding and Event Video Production business who could say the same.

Julie and I will be praying for God's peace on Terry, her son, Joe, and their family. Julian, thanks to your enduring generosity with your ideas, your spirit lives on. Thank you for being part of our lives. God bless.

Jack
www.perryvideoproductions.com
www.perry-photo.com

YES Prep YBlazers Studios Advisory & Mentor Board

It all began with one hard working student seeking to get more out of her YES Prep experience than the rest. This students name is Andrea Rodriguez. Based on the successful internship program Andrea held for 2 years with Perry Video & Photography, Yes! Prep Northeast has adopted her model of hard work to share with the other students. With the help of Craig Brandenburg, Mark DiBella, and Jack & Julie Perry, the YES Prep Advisory Board was created. The purpose of the board is to bring the best in local Houston video production business talent to the students of YES Prep.

The 2009-2010 year is the charter year of The YES Prep Y Blazers Studios Advisory Board of about 8 volunteer positions to work with the students at Yes! Prep. Yes! Prep has a video production and photography class and business that we will be working with to mentor and help them become knowledgeable video professionals. The structure of the Advisory Board is below.

The Advisory Board met with Mark Dibella and Craig Brandenburg from YES Prep on October 7th at Spanish Flowers Mexican Restaurant in The Heights from 5-7p. Each board member proudly wore their name tag with slogans like, "I love wedding video and kids!" or "I love motion graphics and kids!" or "I love legal video and kids!". The board has a lot of fun poking at each other. At the meeting, we introduced everyone on the Board, assign months for presentations to the students, and discuss future of board. The enthusiasm for this local business and student participation concept was outstanding! All of the Advisory Board is excited to begin this charter year to connect with the Yes! students. Currently, The Advisory Board has 2 programs:
1) Yes! Learning days
2) Yes! Internships during weekends and summer



The Advisory Board will base its involvement with YES Prep Northeast on these 2 programs. Additionally, The Board has discussed the potential for day long film festivals, during school internships, and other ideas to build on as the relationship with The Advisory Board and YES Prep matures. We are very excited to have such talented businesses share their expertise and experiences with YES Prep.

2009-2011 Advisory Board Members are:

Permanent Directors - Craig Brandenburg, Mark Dibella
Rotating Director - Jack Perry, Perry Video & Photography
Officers - Ken Kosub - XL Films
Trevor Brock - Legal Media
Pam Radford - Legal Media
Harrison Smith - Neko Neko Films
Mike Alderer - Title Safe
Scott Szabo - Szabo Sound and Music
Kevin Fitzpatrick - Brain Wavz Graphics

Just like Andrea Rodriguez trained and worked with Perry Video & Photography 2 years ago, more YES Prep students are eager to take advantage of these wonderful connections and learning opportunities with the Advisory Board Businesses.


Boiler Plate:
YES Prep Public Schools are Houston area Charter School nationally ranked for it's entrepreneurial approach to teaching high school students. At YES Prep Northeast Campus, they have a very unique video production program. In the past 2 yrs, they have even formed a business for the students within the school. All money earned goes back to the Video program. In 2009, The Advisory Board for YBlazers Studios was created to connect local Houston, Texas video production companies with the students for learning days and internships.