What if you could peek behind the curtains of one of the most influential ministries in the world today? Welcome to another exhilarating episode of The Nonprofit Renaissance, where we sit down with the dynamic (and married) duo, Chris and Taylor Dobson, two of the creative dynamos behind Elevation Worship. Join us as we decode their day-to-day responsibilities and delve into the nitty-gritty of video production, studio recording, and project management.
Have you ever wondered about the driving force behind the creation of a record label? We discuss this and more, as Chris and Taylor unveil the fascinating journey of Elevation Worship's record label, their creative choices, and how they create and distribute music that touches millions of hearts. We also explore their secret recipe for producing successful worship nights, the intricate process behind creating worship albums, and the pivotal role of post-production in driving the art direction.
We're not just about the technical side of things; Chris and Taylor also share insights into the softer aspects, such as the importance of trust and faith in leadership, the power of collaboration in creative work, and their unique approach to harnessing the power of social media to further their ministry. In this revealing conversation, we also delve deeper into their philosophy of seeking revelation over inspiration in their work. So gear up to be enlightened, educated, and entertained, as we uncover the world of Elevation Worship from the eyes of Chris and Taylor Dobson.
Shownotes
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What if you could peek behind the curtains of one of the most influential ministries in the world today? Welcome to another exhilarating episode of The Nonprofit Renaissance, where we sit down with the dynamic (and married) duo, Chris and Taylor Dobson, two of the creative dynamos behind Elevation Worship. Join us as we decode their day-to-day responsibilities and delve into the nitty-gritty of video production, studio recording, and project management.
Have you ever wondered about the driving force behind the creation of a record label? We discuss this and more, as Chris and Taylor unveil the fascinating journey of Elevation Worship's record label, their creative choices, and how they create and distribute music that touches millions of hearts. We also explore their secret recipe for producing successful worship nights, the intricate process behind creating worship albums, and the pivotal role of post-production in driving the art direction.
We're not just about the technical side of things; Chris and Taylor also share insights into the softer aspects, such as the importance of trust and faith in leadership, the power of collaboration in creative work, and their unique approach to harnessing the power of social media to further their ministry. In this revealing conversation, we also delve deeper into their philosophy of seeking revelation over inspiration in their work. So gear up to be enlightened, educated, and entertained, as we uncover the world of Elevation Worship from the eyes of Chris and Taylor Dobson.
Shownotes
The Nonprofit Renaissance is Powered by Vers Creative. An award winning creative agency trusted by global brands and businesses.
Follow @collinhoke
Follow @heredes
Follow @vers_creative
Work with Vers
Well, hey, welcome to the non-profit Renaissance, where we help leaders of non-profits go further and grow faster. We're your hosts, I'm Colin and I'm H, and we are with some super, super exciting special people.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yes, they're going to get a behind the scenes. Look today at one of the really creative forces in our world today, and we're talking about Elevation, Worship, Elevation Church and the leadership there. And today with us we've got two incredible people. They've been friends. I've known them for a few years. We've got Chris and Taylor Daps, and all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina, Say hello.
Chris Dobson:Hello, what's up? Glad to be here.
Heredes Ribeiro:And they do so much and they have done so much. But in all things, video, film production for Elevation, Worship, studio recording, managing people, projects and figuring out what's next tomorrow, which I, you know there's so many insights in behind the scenes we're going to learn today and I'm not sure, if you're listening to the podcast, if you've ever heard of Elevation.
Collin Hoke:Worship. They're starting, they're starting.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, they dropped a single, I think, last week. Yeah, you joined the fight.
Taylor Dobson:you know, Incredible.
Heredes Ribeiro:Exactly Incredible impact around the world, global, in worship, in music, and they're highly involved, leading at a high capacity. An incredible team out there. But let's jump right in, guys, because we're excited to talk to you and help other nonprofits and churches explore, understand what you do, how you do it and how it's going. So let's get right to it.
Collin Hoke:Yeah, what do you guys do? Take us a little behind the curtain. So you guys' day-to-day responsibilities what's that look like?
Chris Dobson:Yeah. So, just for context, we've been here in Charlotte for almost five years now and moved four, four my job. I came on staff first and so, coming up on five years, it's been a wild journey. So much good and a little bit of frustration along the way, but mainly good. And then Taylor came on staff just a little over what? A year ago? A year and a half, yeah, Somewhere in that range. And so, man, it's so much fun being able to be part of this team together. We don't report to each other, we are neither of each other's bosses.
Collin Hoke:That's good.
Chris Dobson:That's good Not even like we're part of the bigger team together, but like slightly different responsibilities, and so it keeps everything cordial. We're not bringing home frustration toward each other.
Taylor Dobson:Neither of us can tell each other what to do.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, it's great.
Taylor Dobson:Or give each other work, which is very helpful. That's awesome.
Chris Dobson:Great. So my role on staff now on the label and I don't know if this helps at all, but just to know in case anyone's wondering like, elevation worship is fully part of elevation church. It's not separate entities. Our leadership would say elevation worship is a ministry of elevation church and so we refer to ourselves as being on staff at the church. But our role is 100% within our record label. So I don't know if that context helps, but my role is that I'm the lead film director for elevation worship records and I say records because, yes, there's elevation worship, but we have a few other artists on the label as well. So lead film director, and then I also lead our creative team.
Taylor Dobson:And then I am the studio manager. So I kind of manage the studio on a week to week basis like just overall space. Not just the record label uses the studio, so other teams from the church can book time in there. So I keep our calendar, keep it clean, all that good stuff. And then I also project manage the audio team for the record label and making sure that all of our projects are getting done.
Heredes Ribeiro:And it's full on music, studio right, sound engineering, the full shebang. Like how big can I put like an orchestra in there or just a big band, or yeah, it's like kind of like an explanation.
Taylor Dobson:We have three studio spaces. We have a big room called Live A. We can fit a 50 person choir in there. 50, 60 people choir, they'd be tight, they'd be in there singing and we can get a full band in there for a workshop, so a whole crew. It probably would depend on the size of the orchestra, but yeah.
Taylor Dobson:And then we have two smaller rooms that kind of mirror each other and those are studio B and C. Couldn't quite fit a full band in there. We use those for, like, if we're tracking, drums or a guitar couple, vocals or songwriting, songwriting, so yeah, but they're all fully like soundproof and everything you walk in and you hear it's like that dead sound. The room just feels really like like it feels like a bunker.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, honestly it's incredible and it's honestly the fruit of a lot of time spent like building the ministry over. It's. What is it like? 16 or 17 years we used to have an offsite studio that we technically rented that space, but it was about two. Two to two and a half years ago now we had the ability to kind of build this new studio on site and just make it permanent location and it's great that it's at our HQ. We can pop in, pop out, keep the day rolling. It's awesome.
Heredes Ribeiro:I love it. I love it. Are you guys in charge of auditions or like?
Taylor Dobson:No Auditions run through the other, let's say, were you were you.
Heredes Ribeiro:No, colin, I'm sorry because Colin came ready to audition. You know, he wrote a song and he wanted to perform it. It's an acapella song.
Collin Hoke:It's not so it's not you guys.
Chris Dobson:Well, you guys are recording this.
Heredes Ribeiro:So yeah, give us a little bit of a head for it, I just make sure We'll just clip it and send it on. Yeah, just if you have Patrick's email, just you know forward it to him.
Collin Hoke:I'm sure, send it right on.
Heredes Ribeiro:What's it called? Was it Rattle and Roll?
Collin Hoke:It's based around the idea of like rattling. I don't know if that's already a song or not Exploring that?
Taylor Dobson:that sounds like something we're going into.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, we've, chris. We've talked over the years actually since you started there and I think we had maybe the honor of working a week together maybe. But the myths and urban legends of working at whether mega church, small church, you've done both, you both have done both, you know, and our church kids and understand it. Um, help those listening understand a little bit of okay, what's, what's a day, a week, a month like in that department, in that team? Why, why even that department? Why do you need a record label? Why do you need a whole worship? You know, obviously, and answering to the cynics or the skeptics are like, yeah, it's all worship and yes, it is. But the resource that elevation worship has been to churches around the world. It's incredible. And how it got there? It wasn't overnight, you know. And and when maybe we think, oh, it's a million bucks, not necessarily. Or sometimes when we think, oh, that was scrappy and homemade, not necessarily Right, there's a whole side of that. Speak to that, if you may, and help our listeners understand.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, I mean, um, I mean, there's a couple of questions there, but what stands out to me is, like, you know, like, why have the record label right? Um, I would say like, okay, the mission of our church, right, so, um, so the people far from God would be raised to life in Christ. What's the mission of our record label? It's the exact same. So the people far from God would be raised to life in Christ. Um, the way that we do that, you know, looks really different than you know, this department or that one or this ministry, whatever, um, but ultimately, like I would say that elevation worship, you know, exists, one, because the people and leaders are there, right, like ministry is built around, like who you have in our pastor, pastor Stephen. Um, you know, he had a, he had a vision for worship and a record label that would have an impact on people in Charlotte, in the States, around the world, whatever God saw fit for it. But he had a vision to like resource the church, right, and so you said the word resource, that stuck, that stuck out to me. And so I think that elevation worship, you know, resources both churches and individuals, um, with the word of God, through um musical expression and through creativity. And, um, I think that we've been, uh, and I say we, so, first off, I say we, as an elevation worship, but we've only been here five years and this is going on about 17. And so, you know, like we're, we got the, the luxury of coming in at a very, very built ministry and our, our role is to help push to greater heights and be on the be on the journey, right? But, um, we weren't there in those early days and I know that there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that that went into building what we have, right. So, just a little context there.
Chris Dobson:But, um, I mean, I think that it's important that we resource the church with the gifts, with the talents, with, um, you know what God saw fit for this ministry. And so, on the creative side, right. So, like, I fully work on the creative side, not not on the music side, um, whatsoever, that's more so, taylor and her team, and then, of course, the band, um, but you know, creative has the ability to reach the heart, uh, before the mind. Um, it has the ability to kind of get you a feeling before even understanding what that feeling is. And so, um, the creative mission is. You know that we do our works at people far from God will be raised to life in Christ.
Chris Dobson:But we have the ability to kind of make that connection, uh, whether it's through, um, an emotion, through a visual experience, ultimately as a door and a gateway so that people can experience these songs and the message that we believe is true and right within these songs, um, that their heart would be opened to take that in, to receive it. You know, they might be on YouTube, watch it and who knows what, mr Beast, whatever, um and like, somehow a recommended post or a recommended video for one of our songs might pop up. They might click it and that's the door. You know what I mean. Um, even the thumbnail that we choose to use on on YouTube, we put a lot of intention into so that if someone's scrolling something about that thumbnail will hopefully just reach out and kind of grab them, you know, and so we see a lot of intention, um, in all of it. So I know it's kind of rambling a little bit, uh, help me.
Heredes Ribeiro:I love it. No, yeah, let me ask Taylor this and then call and jump in, walk us through, I know, the studio. Some of them are new, some of them weren't there, some of them were. You know you guys didn't start right off the bat with full develop studios and large teams. Um, and that's also helpful to to remember. Walk us through the process, taylor. How does it work? Like writing a song, is it's on an app game, and then you send it to Chris. Chris makes a video. And walk us through the whole shebang from conception to you know, distribution all over the world.
Taylor Dobson:Well, I think one thing to kind of clear up is we're, we're. The seasons are constantly changing. So I would say we've kind of come out of a really heavy writing season. Um, and you know, there were weeks where they were in the studio a few days a week writing, writing, writing, writing, um, demos were being recorded left and right, and we're kind of in a season right now where, um, that's not happening as much. But I think that you know it. Just, we're not always working on something.
Chris Dobson:We have ebbs and flows with it Like a major project.
Taylor Dobson:Yeah, like a major project. Um, I so when they, when they're in writing, you know it's very much. They they're book in a room, they're in all day. We have a lot of guests that we write with and they don't they don't always know what they're writing for. It might not be us, it might be for this other artist or this guest. Um, we have a lot of really great songs that are just hanging out, um, that might never make it anywhere.
Taylor Dobson:And it's just crazy to think about like that there's a lot of songs that it might be amazing.
Heredes Ribeiro:Can you drop? One Can share an exclusive here with us.
Taylor Dobson:Well, no longer have a job after that. Oh, it'd be worth it, though we can it's just crazy to think about that, that they are, you know, but I think it kind of frees them up to really write a lot of different things.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, taylor, and it sounds like there's a creative community collab like a fostering of that, nurturing songwriting right.
Taylor Dobson:Yeah, so it's not just, you know, the three same people writing over and over again, which I think is really cool. Um, Pastor Steven is very involved in the writing, and I think what's so cool is he's extremely gifted in that. And so, um him, Chris Brown, Tiffany, like they're some of our some of our in-house writers and our anchors and then we build a lot around that.
Taylor Dobson:When they're in writing sessions they kind of work between that and demo workshops and so once the song's written, if they want to kind of see where it goes, they'll bring the band in, they'll workshop it. Um, it's fun to see a song come to life. It's fun to hear that first demo from the writing go into like a full band and hear everything. Um, but from there we usually, like a lot of our latest albums have been built around live recording and so even then going from those in studio workshops to hearing a song on stage, um, we were talking about it a little bit this morning. Some of the songs from Can you Imagine that album um were written the day before the live recording or like finished up an hour or two before. The live recording been so good as one that um what didn't?
Taylor Dobson:have a didn't have a place on Friday morning and then by Friday afternoon they're like it's going into set tonight. So just thinking about those songs going, wow, that's like such a I love that song and knowing that it was so close to not even it almost didn't exist.
Taylor Dobson:It almost didn't even exist, but because they leaned in, because they believed in it, because they pressed in and allowed the Holy Spirit to give them the words, melodies, what they needed to do, um, it's really cool. And even for a song like that, you know, going into an idol worship, not having it fully figured out, after we do a live recording, there's a lot that happens after with like overdubs and tracking, and so our team will, you know, sit with the producers and go, okay, what are we cutting, what are we keeping, what are we? What are we scrapping completely? And so it's really cool to just see the, the minds working, but also just how much they are leaning into the Holy Spirit to say what do we need to do with this? So that's kind of an album, that's a very quick, okay album.
Heredes Ribeiro:I love it, I love it.
Chris Dobson:I love it. I have a little micro story just to share on, like that, that post process. I don't know if it fits or not, but it's funny to me because it affected our team. But so, like they'll, you know, a song will be written, we'll record it, and then somehow some songs remain in writing mode even after they record it and we truly do record them live. It's. It's not just a front. Yes, there's work on the back end. Of course we're cleaning up some musical parts, or if an ad lib is there that didn't really have the effect they wanted, they might take it out and modify it, whatever, of course, that stuff happens. But the song Same God, which has been amazing to see its reach over the couple years. But the third verse did not exist when we recorded it live. It didn't exist right, we have 15 or 16 cameras, however many, capturing that whole moment. Of course we edited the song and then I got a text saying hey, this is kind of crazy, but we wrote another verse for this song.
Taylor Dobson:And then can you add that in the video.
Chris Dobson:It's gonna be in the video and I'm like, but the video is already there. There is no video for it, so if you go on YouTube, rap music or whatever, if you go to the third verse, which is I'm calling on the God of Mary, you won't see the worship leader sing the word Mary, because I had to figure out and fragment these little parts and moments to make it look like it was. It was live, wow.
Heredes Ribeiro:It's like, you know it's it's.
Chris Dobson:We have to stay flexible. Like the song is the most important thing in the end of the day, and if there's a conviction from from whether it's Chris Brown, you know, our leader, or Pastor Steven or whoever that it's like hey, like this, this modification needs to happen. This verse needs to exist hey, instead of this word, we're going to re-record it with this word. You know it's like hey, we make that work and I love it. There's grace for it.
Heredes Ribeiro:But there's some other funny stories like that, but that's probably the that's great, I'm sure, that's the culture we've talked before, and other staff members are too the culture of of right, leading with the. Yes, it's possible, not letting the medium or the tool limit what God's doing or you know right, because you could say well, it's we, we record, it's rendering, yeah, right. So it's just and not limiting, and then sing with the song, do the same without it and just being obedient to what God has. I love that, yeah.
Collin Hoke:I mean, I'm on that point. I think you know there's probably a lot of people that would stop at the. Ah sorry, but I think you've got. You know, orgs like Elevation, that show, like when you, when you take that step and say, no, we're going to figure it out. So can we get a little bit? Feel free to be a little detailed here, chris. Let's take like a worship night. You know, when you, when you do like a live video, what does that take from a video and music Like what? Yeah, what does that take to put together, like just give a little bit of an appreciation, but then also like, if people are like, well, how do we do that?
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah Well, I'd picture the church down the street who's like, ah, we can just do that and we'll just hey record in the back and then I want it, you know, out by Monday.
Chris Dobson:Sure, well, I would say that, excuse me, I would say okay. So in our context we are generally not always, but for the most part, at least for our major albums we're recording in our primary broadcast space, right. So it takes more work to do a multicam recording in a different space. Right, because there's no infrastructure and we've done that and we've had a great time with it, love the results. But I'll just speak in the context of like using your own building, basically right. And so I think the least important part is like camera choice, like we could use a lot of different gear. We could use a lot of different iPhone 15 is pretty good.
Heredes Ribeiro:iPhone 15 is the way to go.
Chris Dobson:Let me tell you it really is. I picked one up and I'm getting out of it, anyway. So, on the video side of things, well, let me back up. Let me back up. So our team, we don't just handle the recording like, we handle the creative direction of the entire night. Like, what does the room look like? What does it feel like? What are people going to experience? Are people that are on the floor? Are they going to be in the dark? Are they going to be lit up? Is it going to be moody? Like, what emotion do we want to kind of advocate for? Right, you know, song to song. That has a little bit. You know, there's obviously some variance there. But, as, like a foundation that's, we spend a lot of time talking about well, as much time as we can talking about like, what is it going to feel like in there?
Chris Dobson:And if you watch albums before, graves in the Garden so Graves in the Gardens was 2020, they're like before, that was Hullie here below. Before that was there's a cloud and some other ones, and of course, those are amazing albums, amazing recordings, all of that. But you'll see a shift, if you like, compare those to Graves in the Gardens. And the shift was hey, let's make the whole ring bright, let's not, let's not lean into this separation of stage and audience, but like, let's, let's visually take the approach. But the whole night depends on both, like it depends on what's happening on the stage, also on the reaction and the reception of the audience, right. And so we said, hey, let's make it feel like one. You know, there has to be a stage, sure, because like stuff has to get recorded and there's technology and whatever. But like, let's blend those two worlds and not have a divide. And so Graves in the Gardens was very bright and we've kind of carried that into some other projects.
Chris Dobson:And so that's when I say the look and feel of it, like, like the worship leaders they want to see, they want to see the connection on the people's faces. If you look at you know a lot of older recordings. It's like if you see a big ring chat, it's like all the people are like almost pitch black and the stage is super bright. And so we start there.
Chris Dobson:What do we want to feel like? What do we want the lights to do? Do we want it to have color and chroma and a list of these different moods, or do we want it to be a little bit more raw, a little bit more punk rock and just kind of have just like bright lights blaring everywhere, you know. And so from there we say you know, how do we capture this emotion that we're chasing Right? And for us, for Elevation, specifically using that same God example, like there's a lot of flexibility, that has to happen in post production and for that reason we use a lot of cameras, as many as I can possibly squeeze into the budget and then prepare maybe a little more on how much why is that Chris Safety net opportunity?
Heredes Ribeiro:Is it just seizing the moment? Give me the. If you're trying to convince me what?
Chris Dobson:it's like what I don't want to happen is that we're in post production and Chris Brown, who's very involved in everything we're doing and reviewing and has his eyes on our you know what we're building he might say, hey, in this section, I think we benefit from seeing a lot more crowd. What I don't want to do is say we don't have more crowd. You know, I want to be able to say, yeah, we can, we can dig into that, like, hey, do we have, do we have a shot of like this base lick that happens in the second verse? No, because that camera was on drums, you know. And so, yeah, we miss, we do miss stuff, of course, like little nuances, like that, but I'm trying to minimize that as much as possible, right?
Chris Dobson:So we use a lot of cameras and with that, it dictates what we can use. Do I, do I want to be using Alexa mini LFs across the board and, like you know, our top option out there? Yeah, of course I do, but it's not going to be realistic. And so we, we work with what we have access to. I think lens choice is probably more important in the end than even the cameras themselves, Just the character of the lens and you know if there's going to be a lot of blur, if there's going to be a lot of bokeh, if it's going to be more like hey, everything's in focus, because this scene is really crazy and we want to see all the details, and so the average number, Chris, what's the average number of cameras for a live recording in your main?
Heredes Ribeiro:1616? Yeah, yeah, so I thought 60 for a second.
Collin Hoke:I'm like no, I'm sorry, you just you just give them out to audience members.
Heredes Ribeiro:Fire phones fire pros.
Chris Dobson:If you're familiar with the, with the song it's called Mike, get loud. We did have like 25 or 26. But a lot of those were like handicaps, so you have that more premium look, but then a lot of handicapped stuff. What I'm getting at is like the way I interpret it is like what are the songs speaking to us and like what, how can we best translate what we feel through the song to video? And I think maybe the bigger concept there that has kind of been something that stuck with me throughout our our time in ministry as a whole is like I want to be really familiar with where I'm trying to take people, meaning like like, if we want people to experience the presence of God, do I know what that feels like? Do I know where I'm trying to take and lead people? And have I let these songs speak to me? You know? Have I just sat with the songs and been a listener and been in, been in the audience myself? You know to where? Okay, this has had an effect on me and the trust of what I experienced through there. I want to carry that in a weighty sense in trying to bring that to the audience at large, right, the hopefully millions of people that see the video, and so I think the emotion and the empathy that that takes is is important.
Chris Dobson:For any creative, it's trying to translate a moment in their church to a greater and bigger audience, and so the camera camera choice is not that important. You know, I think using the light to shape the room and kind of create a mood and fit the song is very important. Collaboration is is everything. Like I'm not a, I can't go behind the lighting board and be like let me just, let me just do it. Let me just show you what I need, like I need I need to use my creative direction to translate that language to a lighting designer, into a lighting professional, and use that collaboration to make the product better, you know, and then just translate that across the board. You know, if I'm in the director seat, I need to trust my DP. I need to trust my camera assistants. I need to trust my camera operators. Yeah, I mean that's that's some of the stuff comes to mind.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, let me ask you a question on collaboration there. Tell me the involvement or the overlap with art direction. When does album cover slash? Does it fit the set? Does it fit the style of the videos you're creating, live or post? Lyric videos. Talk a little bit about that collaboration.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, so very, very interesting question. We've gone back and forth on this a lot. Graves in the Gardens was the last project we did where we knew that we were recording an album that night and we knew that it was be called Graves in the Gardens, so that was 2020. Since then we have held worship nights and it's very loose. There is not like a theme necessarily. We think you know. We often think we know like what songs based on how they've been going in Sunday morning and the response from a Sunday morning which, by the way, that's where you can get your leaks, that is where you are.
Chris Dobson:We often, you know, we make an attempt to know what songs we think are going to maybe drive a project. But we like okay. So the album Lion that we put out, which has the visual of the lamb, that was over two live recordings. And we didn't know that it would be two live recordings. We did one and we just didn't feel like we had a complete project. Some more songs were in the queue, Some more songs got written that week and it was like let's do another one.
Taylor Dobson:And then it's like now we have a project and so whereas, can you imagine, we knew within two days after that that that was going to be an album we all got it, but not before it, but not before it the thing.
Chris Dobson:So we recorded it.
Taylor Dobson:And then two days later it was like hey, we've got, we've got an album, so everyone kicks into gear.
Chris Dobson:So art direction is very heavily driven on the on the post production side. You know there's there's a little bit of debrief that happens after a recording to just like, how are we feeling? What did we feel that night? This song that we thought would would absolutely take off Didn't quite meet what we were hoping, and this other song was a huge surprise. You know what does that mean.
Chris Dobson:And so then we'll start chasing some themes, not have a couple different titles in mind, built around some different songs, whether it's the title of a song or, can you imagine, is a good example, because that's just one line within a song called more than able. And so we have an amazing art director his name is Jacob Boyles, who who chases a lot of that down and you know pools on resources of different designers within the church, maybe some contract people, and then he himself is making tons of options. We present probably 50 ideas and options to. Typically it would be Chris Brown to just say like what stands out here? Like what are you drawn to? Like what? What emotion do you experience in any of these?
Heredes Ribeiro:Okay so 50 styles, 50 cover, style covers 50 textures.
Chris Dobson:There might be like 20, like unique variation or unique ideas, but then variations with variations, yeah, and then it gets narrowed down, gets funneled down. And then, if we use Kenya, imagine as an, as an example, we got word of hey, let's see some images of the burning bush. Like what does that look like to interpret that in 2023, right, and we man, they burned a lot of bushes.
Taylor Dobson:And.
Chris Dobson:I feel like they were so marvelous. They're going to come after us, but we burned a lot of bushes to get some pictures.
Taylor Dobson:They just were all over the back of the church, Like if this walk by there'd be these charred bushes. Yeah, they're final.
Chris Dobson:It's like 1 PM on a Wednesday. We're like let's burn this bush now. Let's take some pictures. Let's do it with a slow shutter, let's do it with this background, let's you know. But even that album, it's a journey.
Taylor Dobson:That name wasn't finalized till, I think, we were getting ready to turn it in. We did an album listening party and I think we pulled the Chris like pulled the room. Hey, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And so even the name they still weren't sure on. Yeah so.
Heredes Ribeiro:Wow.
Taylor Dobson:Just no perfect process. I hope that's, what that all yeah.
Heredes Ribeiro:No, that's encouraging.
Collin Hoke:Yeah Well, I mean, that's interesting. I wonder if people would have you probably wouldn't assume that about like elevation worship, that I think maybe the assumption would be like everything is set and ready before they go in. You know this and this and this and this and this and this and this. But and I also imagine it could be somewhat freeing for churches or even non-prop organizations who are going to put on some type of event to know like we don't have to have all of that Figure it out. And Taylor, maybe on your side, because it sounds like you've probably got a hand in a lot of the background of things and kind of making sure all this stuff is set, you know, speak to that. Encourage leaders who are like I got to have everything, maybe. No, you don't Talk about it.
Taylor Dobson:Yeah, I think, first and foremost, you have to have a very secure relationship with God, and that's probably sounds very cliche, but I know that I could not do what I do without my own relationship with God. I can't rely on my leaders to do that for me. Just because I work at a church doesn't mean that I have that. I have to be pursuing that on my own. I know, like Chris says, we each have to pursue that on our own, completely separate from what we do for our jobs, for our family, everything. So I think that's the first step. Is, if you don't have that your own convictions, your own foundation that you come back to, you're going to waver Right Like you're going to wonder, you're going to doubt, and I think, if you have a place to take that, which is that relationship, that really helps.
Taylor Dobson:I think, too, having the trust of your leaders is really important and I think that both Chris and I trust our supervisors, we trust our team and we trust the people that are leading, specifically, our label and our church. Yeah, to say like we trust them. So when they're making decisions on the fly it's you can be a little stressful at times, but we always come back to that place of I trust what God's saying to me personally, I trust what God is saying to our leaders and so, because of that, we can trust the process, which is not perfect. It's not always the same. There's been weeks where I've come home and been like, hey, my week just blew up. I need you to like we got to figure out the kid's schedules, we're re-navigating all of the stuff. There's weeks where he's like, hey, I just got this email, this just we have a shoot in two days.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, At 5.15 pm, right, so I think we've just we've gotten more flexible.
Taylor Dobson:but I think when you, in order to get more flexible, you have to get more grounded in that relationship with God and just saying do I really trust the people that are leading me? Because if you do that, then no matter what decisions are happening around you, what isn't decided till the final hour, you can always come back to that place.
Chris Dobson:I think to that note. It's like there can be a lot of energy spent doubting and the trust in the leadership negates that potential loss energy. And so it's like building that relationship is is so important in our eyes. Right and one of my supervisors early on in my time at Elevation, the great Reverend Bishop Ryan Hollingsworth, who is the church's creative pastor. He we had kind of a staff and structural shift that happened within like maybe six months of me being at the church and he became my supervisor.
Chris Dobson:And what I learned from him the number one thing I learned from him is that he starts with trust. He didn't know me that well he didn't really at the time because we hadn't had tons of interaction like known my potential or lid or or anything like what my skill sets were. But he started with trust and it was you know, it was mine to lose basically. And so it's like, rather than being like, hey, you're going to have to prove that you're in the, to prove that I can trust you, he's like, hey, my choice is to trust you and what you do with it from there is kind of up to you, and I think that that set the tone for some really formidable and amazing years working together and and we're in separate departments now and like he's a great friend of mine, but he taught me a lot through that.
Taylor Dobson:And you, I would say you carry that on your team too. Like Chris, Chris starts with trust with his team too, and I think that that's from Ryan, kind of imparting that to him, like, hey, this is a great way to lead because you're kind of putting it on the other people. Hey, it's yours to lose. And I think a lot of arts have risen to that like standard.
Collin Hoke:Yeah, you say that's a, that's an elevator for people, not not put them down.
Taylor Dobson:Right People, right Like the right people will see it as like a. I can do that, Not as a down.
Chris Dobson:Guys, when the decision is made to, hey, we're, you know we've been working on this, but we got to change and pivot and go this other direction. Or like, hey, something came up and like we were supposed to have this Friday off, but in order to get this done, we got to put in some time. It's like that trust is already built so that there's not energy lost on like doubting or or being frustrated, but saying like, hey, if that's, that's what it takes, you know, we'll figure out the time on the on the back end, and maybe it's coming in a couple of hours later on Monday or taking the long list, whatever it is. It's like that trust is there and I feel like that has really carried us through some some tough days and some tough weeks and it's crucial, at least for our culture.
Heredes Ribeiro:Couple of questions. You mentioned the collaboration between both of you earlier that there's no direct reporting or line there. I was curious about that. Since you're in the same department per se, in the same wing and the same creative, it's not like you're in another campus. You know doing whatever you know, campus pastoring or kids ministry. Sure, the Taylor, you're also creative your photographer, your worship leader, your musician, and I'm sure you see every frame that Chris films and edits and colors corrects. Talk to me about that. Talk to me about that opinion collaboration.
Heredes Ribeiro:Anytime you guys fully disagree, like no, you should go this way, I like it this way. Curious.
Taylor Dobson:Well, I'll share one of my favorite stories. So before I came on staff, I I worked from home for a couple of companies corporately and so you know I was, I was involved from a staff spouse perspective but and I would come to like a live recording or I would, you know I would get to, I would see the videos right as they were, you know, being released and everything and. But my involvement was very different. But one of my favorite stories is right around COVID.
Taylor Dobson:Covid was happening blessing, they recorded at us and then we want to release it. We're just going to take the church recording and we're going to, you know, clean that up and we're going to release that. And so the video project came home that next week with Brisk, along with all three of our children because schools canceled or home, um, and it was so cool because I remember it was like a Tuesday or Wednesday. We're all home and I'm like I feel like my space has been invaded, because I was used to working in a quiet house with everybody gone for the day and I just remember hearing him working on the blessing video and I remember hearing the song just playing over and over and over and over again because he was editing. But it was so cool because when he finally uploaded it to YouTube to go live for the world, it was from the room we're sitting in right now.
Heredes Ribeiro:And so it was your fourth child, basically Fourth child.
Taylor Dobson:We've come to the world and there's so many people that go into that Like, aside from what Chris was doing in the video, there's audio team, there's the actual Sunday morning team, there's the band, there's you know, there's so many people involved in that process. So that is not like a. It's not a single thing. But when I think about that impact of like he uploaded the video from our house and it just got to kind of like wash over our house all week, that's cool. I always go back to that story when I think about like we will. We won't ever take this for granted. What we get to be a part of it's very special. I'm convinced we have two of the most fun jobs ever and I just I, I will always be grateful for that. And so there are whenever he's like, hey, can you come check this out? There are times where I'll say, hey, this one shot. Or he doesn't always take them and that's totally fine. I'm always like this is just like suggestion.
Taylor Dobson:I think what him and his team create is amazing. One of my favorite videos is the Hark video they just did. I think it is so cool. They've done some really cool stuff and I think what's amazing is, again, it's not perfect. There's a lot of things they have to decide on the fly, in the middle of a shoot, in between takes. There's a lot of things that he will plan for a live recording that mid day, the day of they're cutting from the room, or he's thinking of some painful decisions, but it's just on the. They have to make the call and so as much as I will watch a video and go and that one shot, I know that there's so much that has gone before that to get to the point where the edit is almost done, and so there's a lot of hard fought work that goes into a video or an audio project I would say yeah.
Collin Hoke:Yeah, tell us a little bit about that, because a lot of the stuff, especially the video content that I see coming out, is pretty innovative or pretty different from what a lot of churches are doing, even bigger churches. What's that process like, and even what's the vision and reasoning behind that? If you've got a church that says, well, no, let's just we can focus on doing it this way and keeping it sort of I don't know, vanilla or whatever, but what's the reasoning and what's the process of figuring out how you break those boundaries?
Chris Dobson:Fair. I wish there was an easy answer, I wish there was a formula, but it's certainly not. I mean, when the decision is made, whether it's our decision or some of our leaders, to say let's chase out a music video idea for this, our very first thing is like how many Taylor for like? Can we get the demo? Do you have a rough mix, like I don't know? You hear something.
Taylor Dobson:I give them away very freely to our team. I don't hold them or anything.
Heredes Ribeiro:Cassettes either cassettes or records Like vinyl, yeah.
Taylor Dobson:A burn it form onto a CD.
Chris Dobson:And so it kind of goes back to that idea of like how does a song make me feel? Like what is a song telling me? And then, whether it's a loose connection or a very on the nose connection, like how are we going to display this visually? And it starts with, like no surprise, like a brainstorm and a pitch process, we'll kind of get together Like what are we feeling? What's been sticking out to us? What have we seen lately, whether it's from a church or whether it's from Travis Scott, like I don't. It's like what is like speaking to us which is standing out? And we'll see if there's connection between the team.
Chris Dobson:As someone shows an idea, what is I'm listening for, that emotional response, whether it's like oh man, like that's awesome, or whether it's like okay, then I can kind of see it. Let's dive in a little deeper. Like what is that emotional response? And a lot of ideas we chase down are usually ones that start with a oh, wow, that's kind of wild. And I think that emotional response is having an effect on us, like maybe there's something there, maybe there's something that we can translate to how we want to interpret this idea. And just a quick caveat to that note I think it's like I think for creatives I would say both for like leaders that are leading creative teams and the creatives themselves like always be in taking ideas, always be processing, like whether it's YouTube or Instagram or another social media.
Chris Dobson:It's like if something stands out to you, save it, like build yourself a log, a mood board, a Pinterest board or whatever else on stuff that you can go back to later. You always think you can remember that, like, hey, if I need an idea in two weeks, I'll remember this video, but no life happens in those two weeks and you're gonna forget or anything like me. You'll forget and I do all the time. So I save stuff, you go ahead and surf.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, yeah. And so I think that like always be watching, always be feeling is like really important. And then we pitched those ideas. We kind of whittled them down. We try to not live purely in the hypothetical. We try to not pitch an idea unless we can understand its execution, and with its execution we have to understand the budget. And so we don't wanna get caught in the trap of like, look at this crazy idea, Mr Leader, Guy. And then it's like what's it gonna take to pull it off? Well, it's gonna take a million dollars. Okay, next idea. Next, we wanna be able to say like we have our head around this.
Chris Dobson:And that's been a process. We've pitched ideas that we were incapable of before and had to learn some hard lessons with that, and so, based on the resource of your ministry and based on the experience and the team of your ministry I keep that in mind embrace the limitation. I think that's really important for what we do and, of course, we have limitations, whether it's purely a budgetary thing or whether it's maybe a location thing. Hey, we don't wanna travel anywhere for this, we wanna kind of keep it a quick thing and stay in town. Okay, well, that definitely limits our options for locations. Just as an example Like embrace that limitation. I think that's like the key there. We pitched the idea. We assign roles and we chase it down. Maybe some of those roles are coming from in-house people. Maybe, like we lean on our AVL team a lot for the church and I go to the guy who leads all of that and I say I'm back again Like who do you have that could be available to help us rig, because we don't know how to put this thing in the air, but like we wanna lean on your expertise to do it and to make it safe and to like make something cool together, right? So like we have the idea, you have the experience, let's put those together.
Chris Dobson:And then I would say, probably the most important thing is, just, like a worship leader has to fully prepare for a worship set, at the end of the day, that's like 50% of the equation. Full preparation becomes 50% because the other 50% is the direction of the Holy Spirit in the moment, right, probably some of the best worship moments that you've been involved in definitely that I've been involved in are have come from some kind of spontaneity, something that was not planned or projected but that happened. Right, it took preparation to get to that point, but then it's the Holy Spirit leading and guiding from there to really like, really cause that impact. And so, if you take that idea and that analogy into, like what we're doing creatively, we are fully prepared and then, at the same time, we are fully prepared to change the day of if we have to.
Chris Dobson:So Taylor mentioned this music video for a song called a Christmas song called Hark, that we made a music video to and we knew what we wanted to do camera-wise. Then we get to it the day of, and then I asked the question, like would this look better on a skateboard? Yeah, and it was like, well, I don't know, let's try and find a skateboard that has really smooth wheels. And, almost starting off as a joke, it's like I just started riding around with this camera and it was like, actually like that's like fast and it's beautiful and it creates a lot of energy that matches the song and so, like, we shot this music video recently and probably more than half the shots are from a skateboard.
Heredes Ribeiro:So all those years, all those years paid off yes, I wish we could have had it.
Taylor Dobson:I mean it's wasted. God, this is everything.
Chris Dobson:I love that. I wish we could have had the budget for a 30 foot round dolly track, but that's not what we had. In this one we had a gimbal and a red Komodo and a skateboard and like, that's what we had and it was a great time. But it's like it was the decision the day of to say like, hey, is this better? Is it just different? Is it better? Does this elevate? We had two cameras, but do we even need to use them both? We had this person running the camera but, like, maybe because of this person's height or ability to change angles and pull focus at the same time, maybe they'd be better. We keep all of that with an open hand, even though we are fully prepared.
Chris Dobson:So I hope that makes sense.
Heredes Ribeiro:A question. Now to question and then first to pitch. I'm sure, knowing Pastor Steven, this has come up already, but if it didn't, you heard it here first.
Taylor Dobson:It's an on-proper.
Heredes Ribeiro:Elevation nights in the sphere Vegas.
Taylor Dobson:Oh.
Heredes Ribeiro:Would be awesome.
Taylor Dobson:That would be awesome. Cool Rock and roll.
Heredes Ribeiro:I'll just see the seat in the back.
Chris Dobson:I'll take a seat in the back just to wish you a long rest. The awesome, awesome, awesome petition to get enough signatures for it.
Heredes Ribeiro:Maybe some awesome things Done, done, done Right.
Chris Dobson:That would rock. Everything in the sphere has been so cool.
Collin Hoke:Yeah, so something really innovative, a zip line with past? No, maybe, not Maybe not, not at all Maybe we scratch that.
Heredes Ribeiro:Question. Let's talk to the leader at a church, at an organization, looking to figure out what would be a ministry or another lane or avenue to get their message, their mission out, to get their brand out. And they look at you guys and they say we're going to do it just like elevation. We're going to do elevation worship at our and one. We would never recommend that there's one elevation. God's given you guys a clear mission and vision and let's not try to copy that Now. It's inspiring and it motivates and it's contagious and the spirit of it and I think there's a lot to learn, like we are learning. But speak to that leader, what does it take? What would be your advice? What are some things that you've learned in your years there Seen it up close, seen it from afar and being, kind of like, inspired by it, and now being the source of inspiration and connected to God and the leadership there. What would you say to the leader?
Chris Dobson:Yeah, what comes to mind and I kind of hold these like kind of pillars or like major buckets of ideas in my head of like what I've experienced, at least just since being here, and I have like probably five or six like major pillars that I base a lot of decisions on, and one of them I feel like applies to this, and it's the idea of revelation over inspiration. That inspiration is vitally important for everything we do creatively. For anyone leading an organization you know, like a major company like uber is gonna was drawing a lot of inspiration from what apple did, like when they were building their company, and like Etc, etc. Inspiration is very important, but in what we do in the context of ministry, revelation has to be more important and it's it's staying in that constant place of, of course, seeking the Lord and letting the word of God be living and be active and in saying, like you know, I want to go this direction because it, it, it draws me and it, like it stands out to me, but, like you know, god is that. Is that what you have, or is there something else like speak to me? And so I would say like both are important, but the order of them is crucial for impact. And so, you know, for the leader that's looking to Express them, you know their, their ministry, and and and wrap some creativity around it and increase its impact. It's, like you know, seek revelation first, but then I'd say, practically, it's like you already have, arguably the best possible resource Through social media.
Chris Dobson:Right, and you've heard this before, I'm sure, but it's like you know, social media, it doesn't have to promote your ministry, it can be your ministry. Like what are you communicating? Like, how do you get your the heart of what you're doing expressed? Like to anyone that that happens to come across it. Like you already have that resource. And so you know, in my mind, a lot of our stuff we do Is through technology and do whatever. And so, like I'm drawn to that, I use social media all the time, sometimes to an unhealthy extent. But like, at the same time, like I'm I'm saving stuff into buckets, like whether it's a visual, whether it's a message from someone, whether it's even just an, an interview scene, or like a screenshot from a movie with really cool lighting. Like I'm saving that Because I want to be able to refer back to it later as inspiration. But I can't, I can't let myself start there. I want kind of going back to it.
Chris Dobson:We were saying a little like a little while ago where it's like, in the context of like how we express a song creatively, it's like what is it actually making me feel like, what is it, what does it mean to me?
Chris Dobson:We did this song called been so good, it's like what a friend you have been and it's like that's so comforting and we want, you know how we express this song, to have that comfort. So we might use a lot of warm tones, we might use a lot of, like longer shots in the, in the way that we do the certain video. Let's like, let's sit down and just kind of be comfortable, right, and so you know, I, you know, scale that down as as much as you need to like, embrace the limitation of of who you have as a ministry, but also don't be afraid to dream. You know, like, of course, dream, of course believe big, but be willing to start small, and that's totally good, because that just simply means that you are using the resource that you have To its full effect. And so I know that all of that is kind of like a theory. Oh, maybe at a top level if you see a way to maybe break that down practically that we could dive into, like, let me know.
Heredes Ribeiro:No, love that and we're gonna not. We're gonna encourage if your leader, bring your creative into this, bring that person that you're thinking about yeah, you just heard that and share this episode. Let them listen, want to be inspired, but to even understand. I love the inspiration versus revelation. So key, right, and what's unique? The revelation is gonna be unique to what God has, what the purpose is your mission directly, not just yeah the question.
Heredes Ribeiro:No, just going back to a little Insight. Taylor shared the blessing earlier and what that meant to you guys Personally, in a season that you'll never forget. That's such a cool, unique opportunity. Favorite song Can you pin one down? What's your favorite elevation worship song?
Chris Dobson:I mean right now, for me it's. It's that song been so good, yeah, which you know. Maybe the listener is familiar with it. Maybe not go listen to it. It's on. Can you imagine?
Heredes Ribeiro:Is it was the latest for you or no. There's an element to that. It's like the last thing you know.
Chris Dobson:There's a song called worthy, that is, I think, from maybe like 2018 or 19, that will, like forever be Such a meaningful and beautiful song. Um, for me and my own, my own worship, like we both play music, we both, we have a piano here and so, like just to sit down, sometimes like that's just the song I go to and it Is huge. But, uh, no, been so good is like Beautiful because of purely just simply what it is. But Taylor mentioned it earlier when the day that we recorded it, 24 hours before, it didn't exist and there was another song in its place that honestly, just kind of it was like the one song At least we felt was like like then we'll see how this one goes.
Chris Dobson:It got replaced just because someone sat down on the piano and they had written like maybe the chorus or like a part of it and just kind of played the hook and it was like hey, like maybe there's something here then for the next hour, just around this Nord, it probably like 11 pm. Um, that's just even tiffany, chris and another guy I just passed through and wrote the rest of this song and it was like hey, this we really think this might be something for tomorrow. Like let's put it in, see how it goes.
Heredes Ribeiro:And I love it, I love it. You'd sound for me personally, taylor. Is it blessing? Besides the blessing, what is it?
Taylor Dobson:Um, well, the blessing is not my favorite. One Great song, I know you can edit that out. Um, my favorite one is there's a king. I love them. Um, it's just. I like the simplicity of it. Um, I, I think it's beautiful song.
Collin Hoke:Colin, you got a favorite one, awesome, um Well, uh. Well, we mentioned rattle earlier. That's my favorite to play on drums, I'm a drummer and so I like that's a fun, that's a fun song to play because I'm a lot of fun songs to play, play on drums, well, but I'm at like the first. I think my intro to elevation worship was Uh, only king forever, um, you know. So so that that always takes out for me, that's just you know where. Yeah, I started it all and I'm a dancer, so I'm a dancer.
Heredes Ribeiro:So I'm more like like Echo, echo youth and all the Spanish stuff. Yes, because that's uh, it's the. I know this is a secret. Like you know, chris consults with me on the Spanish stuff he calls me up and I translate stuff Wow incorrectly most of the time.
Chris Dobson:We got something coming next year which obviously you know about because we've sung. There's gonna be some great resources coming next year on the Spanish.
Chris Dobson:Even in just kind of talking to those songs like this, this quick story came to mind and maybe it's useful, maybe it's not, but like it forever puts into Like mindset for me, like what we are uniquely a part of and it means a lot to us. But, like for any ministry, like what you experience on a day-to-day is unique to you and it should really mean something. But this story really sticks out where it was 2019 and we were traveling and our lead engineer was with us and he had said like hey, the guys, they wrote this cool song yesterday I'm just gonna play in the car on the way to the airport. What do you guys think of it? He put it on and it was the demo for graves in the gardens and it was like, oh, interesting, I had a different feel.
Chris Dobson:Okay, cool, like six a. It's a totally different like kind of we were writing at the moment and it was like, yeah, okay, that's cool to go from that and then fast forward to that song. That workshop, that song got put into church. We wrote the rest of a project around it, we live, recorded it and then a year later I was a passion with elevation worship and like 50 or 60 thousand people are singing this song because they all know it. At this point it was like I got to hear that song on like a guitar demo and Now I'm hearing it and Mercedes Benz, with all these people and they all know the words. Wow, it is feel like the trail and the impact was like so eye-opening for me and Mike, so special, and I think back On the hard days, not hard weeks, I think. I think back to that.
Heredes Ribeiro:I love that, I love that. What's it what I know? It's been five years. I'm familiar with kind of church and kind of ministry background. You guys have an experience. What's one of those things that when you got there you're like, oh wow, I had no idea this was like this. Anything up to mine, they could be the cafeteria food in the lobby.
Chris Dobson:It's the imperfection, honestly, because, like you know what we but we put out. We of course wanted to be Like across the church, like not, not like just referring to the record. They were anything. We wanted to have purpose, we wanted to be excellent, we wanted to have meaning and we fight for that and there's a lot of iterations of work we do that are not seen because it's part of the process of fighting to get it what we feel would be, you know, right, and there's a lot of imperfection in that process.
Chris Dobson:Sometimes it's chasing an idea all the way to the finish line and then saying, never mind, that's not it. I think that's the surprising thing that got you after however much work we put out across the board, like it's a small percentage of of what everyone collectively does day to day, because a lot of the journey is the creative process and that journey is an exploration and it's time spent making stuff, it's time chasing a Motion graphic and like is it this keyframe or is it this keyframe? Is this coming over that one? I don't know. It's trying all I Think. I think that was the surprising part. I thought. I thought it was like man, once we got the idea it's perfect, locked in, chasing it down, moving on, not so much.
Taylor Dobson:Mine. I'll say it and then I'll explain it. Like it might sound weird to say, but I was just really blown away by our I'll call them artists because under our label they are considered artists. I was surprised by how passionate they are about our church and how much they keep our like Sunday morning and our People as the primary focus.
Taylor Dobson:I think there's a lot of worship leaders or church, you know, staff that are just trying to be really big, and I don't think there's anything wrong with the platform, but I think that how you handle it and how you live it out is very important, and so just having the opportunity to have conversations with some of them, moments in the room where they are what they want to see, both why they're doing Even just watching how they interact with our church and what they do on a weekly basis there's a lot they do. That is kind of just your worship leader role and you know, you know, and I think that there's a lot to be said about them. These were two leaders first and artist, and so I've just really blown away by how grounded they stayed in our church and how they kept that. Like the primary focus.
Taylor Dobson:They're not perfect no one on our team but they have carried that Well and it's the perfect pitch, though.
Heredes Ribeiro:Perfect pitch right no. Autotune right no never, never.
Taylor Dobson:They all sing I'm going they remember the lyrics every time.
Heredes Ribeiro:They remember the lyrics, third verses no confidence monitor.
Taylor Dobson:They're just great people and I think that that's one thing that Chris and I were, you know, honored, humbled, thankful to work with worship leaders who love God, love their people, and then also.
Heredes Ribeiro:I love it. Now I haven't been able to visit and meet some of the team and know it's cool to see at the local church. Be it's a local church.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, it starts, there and it's still and it's massive and it's mega and the impact is global, but it still starts there and they stay there and that's the source. You know the conger, congregational and I love, even you what you mentioned earlier of lighting the room. It's a congregational effort, right, because the minute you do that, it's like we're all and I think that's reflected in the last couple of years, so it's amazing work. A couple of final questions that we're gonna wrap up this extended bonus here. We should have started here. But break down the teams so, like who you're leading the on-staff Contract agency support in, like seasonal, how does it break that down? For somebody who's curious on okay, I see the impact, I see the Grammys, I see the incredible songs that we sing. I see what is. What does it take? Break it down the team.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, that's, that's a great question because it's it's not easy to replicate simply because it's been 17 years in the making. Right, that's important. So our team has grown very steadily over time and then has, like, taken a dip and then rebuilt. But our record label is I don't know how many categories these are, but it's creative marketing, business, studio. Oh, special is marketing. I'm sort of creative marketing, studio, business to it. So five, but two of those categories are like one or two people each right, and so For the creative team or a team of eight, and when it comes to something like a live recording, we are, we are all calling, like every videographer it has the on staff and it's like please come help us, and then and then some and then some, and then no heartbeat.
Chris Dobson:Yeah, but for like a music video. We we have what we need within our team in most cases to to pull off what we need as far as a crew, and so Creative team is eight. The marketing team is handful, maybe four or five. Business is just a couple people tours just a couple people are in the studio team.
Taylor Dobson:We have a lead engineer who's been there. Yeah he started as an intern and then he is a lead engineer and then we have four engineers under him and I do not do anything with the new year process. I will clarify. They've tried. They're like oh, go to this vocal and I'm like you don't, you don't want me. I've said I'll learn and I might one day when we slow down.
Collin Hoke:I'm here to keep you on track. You make you sound good.
Taylor Dobson:I keep you on track right, you do work because I have your tasks.
Chris Dobson:So all in all I'm checking the math correctly at our Christmas part Christmas department party they're happy, around 20 people, 20 to 25, baby, and you know it's like they're on some way. You know it's so different man. Week to week can be so different. Next week we're gonna be in production all week and probably Other than one day like we won't even be at our desks or maybe even at our offices. But this past week was just purely like a post-production week. We're just there with head phones on all week. We need a break and go play, think-long, we get lines, we come back, put our heads on and then, like a live recording.
Chris Dobson:Week is usually met with some kind of like Team rally where it's like buckle up like drink water, drink coffee. We're gonna have some long days, but it's gonna be unforgettable, you know. And Another week might be just a bunch of like Staff evaluations, like hey, let's talk about our progress, our goals, our focus and not even be touching projects, and then the variety of all that is is a ton of fun. But that's about that's. That's how I describe the team.
Heredes Ribeiro:Yeah, love it, love it. And then outside you said contractors agency. I know there's support. It's outside of the weekend, right, because weekend elevation, church, creative, is a separate team. Yeah yeah, just to you know. Clarify that too. Amazing, amazing call any final court. I have one just technical, silly question and thank you so much. Thank you. No, tell me this just because it's all the buzz and all the hype and all the AI, ai, ai and elevation worship. Any overlap, any conversation, any are you editing with the?
Taylor Dobson:Other than we're convinced it's gonna take over.
Chris Dobson:But yeah, man, at some point I hope I can just type in a prompt that's like hey, there's a new verse, so make it look like it. There it is. But no, our Designers, our art director, have definitely incorporated, incorporated that, and it has to stay tasteful, it has to stay purposeful, has to fit. But we just put out a Christmas album and, apart from the main cover art, all the rest of the branding is very Like, extremely colorful, extremely bold and like abstract and in kind of wild, like I know this is random, but like, if you were like look at the lyric videos from from these songs, you would, you would see some of this branding and there is a lot of AI elements that that went into that. As far as just kind of creating these, these looks.
Chris Dobson:I definitely think it's here to stay and I'm terrified of it, not gonna lie. But but, as best we can, it's like, hey, this new tool showed up and it's providing us Something that we didn't have before. Why wouldn't we use it? Why wouldn't we Incorporate it? I don't think it's, you know, I hope, sure, hope, it doesn't take over the creative mind, right, and so it's like use it as a tool, not as a crutch. And so we haven't. We've tried a few things in video with it and it's just. Maybe it was just the, the application or the, the specific situation. It just like wasn't working and so hasn't quite branched into that for us yet. But hey, like we're keeping that as an option, we're gonna keep exploring.
Heredes Ribeiro:I think as our pioneers and innovators. So always curious. So listen.
Collin Hoke:I mean, you know when, when the worship team starts having like seven fingers on their hands.
Heredes Ribeiro:Well, guys, before we wrap up, talk to the leader that's listening, the nonprofit leader, the ministry leader. In your experience, what you've learned while at elevation and while leading at, you know, high level, working with leaders there Of all shapes and sizes and capacity, what's your insight and wisdom to them?
Chris Dobson:Yeah, sure, like one one thing that comes to mind that I have, especially as I've transitioned from like Someone that's purely just doing the work to someone that's like leading the work In the in my few years here, this has really been like a compass for me and it's what I believe is a truth, not from the Bible or nothing, but just from people that I admire mentors right, it's this phrase that the number one demoralizer in any organization is lack of clarity, and I want, I want the creatives on my team to create with a passion, to create with a, you know, an excitement. But there has to be, there has to be some kind of a box. I think we've talked a little bit on here just about like embracing limitation, but like give, give direction, be bold. Like Like define the parameters, that's okay. Like it is tough for a creative in some situations to just be like go make random stuff, like just the tables wide open and sometimes that's, sometimes that's good, especially on the early end.
Chris Dobson:But like defining Clarity I think is so important for what we do at least, and especially I mean what I would think would apply to any leader, like If we move on from here or part of a different department or part of a different organization. Like I'm taking that with me. I want to. I want to lead with clarity, because I think that it is such demotivator To not be clear and for someone to start their work with like a. I don't know if this is right, but like I don't have the opportunity to To like get their ear, to ask any questions, I'm just gonna hopefully go in this direction. It's just not not fun to have that doubt in the back of your mind. So for any leader, when clarity is Available, overcommunicated and more and more Lizer, I love it.
Heredes Ribeiro:No, chris, and it fits into everything we talked about, because I think if you see clarity, it will allow for flexibility, it'll create margin for the whatever comes your way for a third verse, for a fourth verse, if they got you know. And but the clarity of the purpose, the mission, the time, whatever has to be set, you know it'll build trust and, man, that's a great, great word, great. Drop the mic To wrap up, yeah.
Collin Hoke:Yeah, we'll close it out there. Thank you guys so much for joining. It's been it's been a great talk and thank you guys for listening as well. We will see you next time on the nonprofit Renaissance.
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