OurHistory

I grew up in LA, surfing, partying, writing music and playing in a rock band. At 21, my band got signed, and my path was set.

But after college (UCLA), I had a powerful faith encounter that changed my life. I retreated from the "world" and lived a monastic life for two years. It was amazing, and it led to a new calling: To share faith and values through media.

I started a youth magazine in my parents' garage. I had no money and no experience, but plenty of faith. The magazine took off and grew into seven languages. It spun off books, events, radio and TV production, and even an IMAX project. Faith was moving mountains, and again my path was set.

But then a phone call from an old friend would change my life...

He asked me to work on an indy film. It was a small, "faith-based" release, struggling to reach an audience, dwarfed by movies from big studios who showed no interest in our "niche" content.

We were doing $2k per theater, barely scraping by, market by market – like thousands of indies before us.

Until the "impossible" happened: we did $40k in one weekend, on one screen.

We had cracked the code. But how…?

The week before, one of the producers, Bob, showed the movie trailer at church. The pastor saw value in it, trusted the producer, and told his congregation, "We're all going to see this movie." And they did. 5,000 of them.

It was an "a-ha" moment. We didn't need a big studio. We just needed a movie that aligned with leaders' values, and we'd have a win-win scenario.

Over the next six months, I tapped into my knowledge of publishing, media, events, production, and marketing to write a 100-page business plan and build a database of top faith leaders. Then I launched Motive Marketing, Inc.

The timing was perfect. That producer, Bob, connected me with Mel Gibson and his team, who were producing The Passion of the Christ. I showed them my biz plan: "I think this is how you should market your movie." Amazingly, they gave me a chance. We assembled an amazing group of folks, and together with Mel and his team, we made history.