Two masterminds behind a camera and two men I have learned a lot from and respect. Chase Price and Cody Hughes have become more than business partners but a solid support system as friends (you can tell when one knows what coffee to order for the other). Within the last year, they've teamed up to create RedefineU Media. As familiar faces in the Charlotte community, they bring the beauty of this city to people's eyes. We spoke a lot about the past few months and how the community came together to help one another and I asked, "How are you doing?"
Cody stated, “It all kind of flows together, business and personal. Right now we are doing great. Ourselves and the company are doing well. I feel like my mental and personal happiness is so tied to this business, so the business is doing well so I’m doing well.” Chase added “We are just going with the flow. You need to just keep going. The biggest word we always talk about is momentum.”
“When COVID started, Chase pulled the numbers and hit us with a number that can be the number that could end this. Just seeing the worst-case scenario possible, I went home that night and just hoped that it would not be real but knew that it could be realistic — and then what? We were stressed for a minute. We kept thinking about things we could do to keep the momentum and business moving forward.”
During quarantine, the two created puzzles out of their photography that sparked a lot of interest. “This honestly was one of the best things to have happened to us. We kept bouncing ideas off each other and that’s what led to the puzzle idea. If it picks up momentum then let’s roll with it. We got support from so many companies and people. That was when we were the most scared and that was the most refreshing feeling and we knew we would be okay. We’ll figure it out and make it happen,” Chase said.
Cody added, “It’s a lot easier to fall and fail alone but when you have someone, in one of the hardest business times — it kept the focus to bounce ideas off one another and gain the confidence that drives through. It’s okay to ask for help, we are all going through personal stuff that happens behind closed doors. This is what community support is about. People don’t need to buy something from you, but people go above and beyond because they want to help and we got that local support.”
Chase went on to say, “You can’t be afraid to try. Use your resources and don’t be afraid to try new things. Put it out into the world and the universe will tell you real quick if it will work or not. But it will never hurt to try.”
I asked them how the Black Lives Matter Movement made an impact on them. Chase responded:
“We want to be on the right side of doing good. It’s an easy choice. We wanted to go document and we wanted to be part of this. Instantly we thought about how we could be a resource and how we can contribute to this because we believe in it so much. This is history and we want to contribute and be with our community."
“Something that I hope people took away from this is that if you don’t necessarily see someone helping, doesn’t mean they’re not. I knew plenty of people trying to contribute in their way. You don’t need to put it out there to be viewed as a good person. Let’s try to uplift the people that are doing the good.” Cody said.
As for their future goals?
“At the end of the day — when I’m retired from this if I can look back on it and say that we made a small impact on Charlotte, then that’s all I could ask for. We want to grow. We want to be able to do what we love to do on a bigger scale and make a bigger impact. We want to help Charlotte and the community — that’s a big win for us."
