Meet Phat Le

Today we’d like to introduce you to Phat Le.

Phat, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
How I got into filming: I took two years off from college to be my grandfather’s full-time caretaker and after he passed away I decided to go back to school to continue on with my education. I only lasted a semester and then dropped out. School was difficult to get back into after taking all of that time off. I felt out of place and I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to study or become in life. Shortly after dropping out, I became depressed and lost in my own thoughts trying to figure out, “What is something I truly enjoy doing? What am I passionate about? What is my niche?” I didn’t have an an answer to that. I knew I had to do something with my life, so I picked up a full-time position working in the food service industry.

I’ve always looked up to my older sister, she’s a hardworking-independent woman who’s worked her ass off to get to the top without any help. My sister is a dually-licensed Attorney and a dually-licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of Colorado and in Florida. She’s the true definition of a Boss-Lady. My sister had always tried pushing me on going back to school but eventually gave up on that due to my stubbornness.

One day, my sister and I had a conversation about her wanting me to venture out and try new things that may spark an interest or passion that I could pursue in life. So my sister bought me a drone as a gift and told me I should get in the Real Estate industry and use that to market homes. I thought to myself “Ah, sure why not? Maybe it could get me somewhere in life.” I took the drone outside, launched it, and all I can remember was being mesmerized as I was watching the live-view on the monitor from my controller. I was immediately hooked on it and started practicing flying my drone everyday recording cinematic shots and posting them on my social media. Shortly after posting a few videos, a local fitness company liked my video on facebook and reached out asking if I would like to collaborate with them to film a Denver Broncos Player.

Without any hesitation, I agreed to help out. When I arrived on scene, Reese the fitness company’s Videographer handed me one of his DSLRs and asked if I knew how to use one of those cameras. I had little experience on the photography side from taking a class in high-school but knew nothing about filming on a DSLR. Reese kindly had the patience to teach me all of the basics with filming on DSLR. As I watched Reese edit the clips we shot together, I was in complete awe and quickly fell in love with process on how a professional video is made. After working with Reese, a spark within myself ignited. I started having creative thoughts and visions that I just wanted to manifest and bring to life. That’s when I knew I wanted to get into the filming industry.

I quit my job shortly after discovering my passion and went full on invested in it. I spent all of my savings and got a small loan from my mother to buy all of the equipment I needed to get started. Since I barely had any experience with filming and editing, I spent countless hours everyday learning everything I needed to know from google and watching youtube videos. For hands on, I filmed my friends to get my practice in and filmed with small brands & businesses for free just to get my portfolio going. My filming and editing skills were gradually getting better and better to the point I felt confident enough with my craft to start charging clients. At first my rates were cheap but as I started to become high in demand for my services, I learned to increase my rates because I started to learn what my value was.

How I got into professional photography: My main expertise was filming but I always had requests from friends and clients to take photos. I had basic knowledge with photography but didn’t really care much about it until I met a photographer online. Her name is Starling Hope, she resides in Texas, and she’s an extremely talented photographer. I remember checking out her Instagram and was fascinated by her gallery. I started asking her a lot of questions about photography so Starling became my online-teacher. She lended me her knowledge and gave me the tools on how to edit photos. Every week, I would take photos, edit them, and then she would give me constructive-criticism on my work. I wanted to perfect my photography and editing skills until Starling only had positive feedback to give me. One day, she was impressed by one of my edited photos and so was I. The angle, the lighting, the touch ups, everything was on point. It was a satisfying feeling to have my teacher like my work but also having my client super happy with the photo given back to her. Ever since then, I’ve became hooked on taking and editing photos just as much as filming.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely wasn’t a smooth road at all, freelancing is hard! As a freelancer, you have to learn how to put yourself out there and grind everyday. I was financially struggling at many points in life with my filming & photography career because business could be steady but then could be completely dead for a long period of time. I also worked with a lot of “Social Media Influencers” who are used to living off of free things because of their credentials, so they expected free content. My income was low and unstable. There were plenty of times when I wanted to quit my passion to find a 9-5 job that pays well and has good benefits. But I always reminded myself that I would rather struggle and keep pursuing my passion over being unhappy doing something I wouldn’t enjoy doing.

Please tell us about business.
Phat Le Media is the name of my business and I am a Videographer and Photographer. I do all sorts and types of filming/photography for small businesses, big companies, clothing brands, weddings, almost everything. I’m mainly known for filming real estate, fitness videos, and some portrait photography. What I’m most proud of as a company is being a one man army within my business and embracing the suck to build it to where it is today. I think what sets me apart from others is the vibes I give off. People would say I am very easy going and just fun to work with. I keep my work professional and I spend a lot of time making sure my clients are super-satisfied with the final product.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To me, success is – when you are truly happy with yourself, doing something you love or enjoy doing, and being happy with where you’re at in life. I’ve always cared about money, my career choice, and what others thought or had to say about me. Once I trained to protect my thoughts & block out those negative feelings, I became happy with myself and therefore I understood the true meaning of success.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 3039310346
• Email: PhatLe.Media@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Phat.So.Le

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.