Knowing our backstory is a key element to understanding why we do what we do. At Reliant, we have brought together a caring, creative team whose diversity is as important as its expertise. Combine film school, education, psychology, and marketing, and mix in hearts for serving… that’s Reliant.
Mike Sukraw • CEO/Producer
The story above is actually about me. I sat down a couple of years ago and tried to count how many times I’d moved – 34 is the number of moves that I could remember between birth and the age of 23. No military. No job relocating. We were just always on the lookout for something “perfectly ideal.”
I’ve been conditioned to pursue the ideal in everything. When I let that pursuit get out of control, people (myself included) get hurt. But when used within proper boundaries, the pursuit of idealism is what pushes myself and the rest of the team to seek excellence. So that’s what I do. I try to cast the vision that allows us to reach our potential and to impact our clients in big ways.
So why authenticity? I’ll just say that I was impacted by people in my life who chose to maintain a false reality in order to manage their wounds. This deception caused me to crave honesty and transparency later in life. It turns out there are a lot of other people out there that crave the same thing – in relationships with people and companies. People don’t seem to desire fabrication as much as they used to. People want what’s real.
Kristin Sukraw • President
I was always a listener. Being an introvert who valued close relationships with my friends, I would often find myself tucked away at a coffee shop listening to someone’s story and trying to help them make sense of it. This natural ability lead me to pursue a Master’s degree in counseling, a field I continue to work in one day a week.
The rest of the week, I love to apply my psychology background to help organizations tell their stories through video. In essence, it is the same thing – listening, learning, asking the right questions, and guiding people to conclusions that will hopefully help change their lives (or their organizations) for the better.
I’m married to Mike, Reliant’s CEO, and we have a lot of fun building the company and working through challenges together!
Paul Vachal • Vice President of Strategic Partnerships
People often ask me how I made the “jump” from teaching to sales over ten years ago. I tell them, “Ever try getting a fifteen year old to read Shakespeare? That’s sales.”
In my role as VP of Friend-Making, I have the privilege of introducing Reliant Studios to organizations. But what I really do is learn as much as I can about them, what they’re passionate about, what gets them up in the morning, to see if our unique form of purposeful video storytelling could help their organization reach its goals. Typical answer: It can. See, there I go again.
At seven days old I was adopted, and both of my daughters are adopted. So the fact that Reliant has a true heart for serving so many cause and mission-based organizations makes me proud to be a part of the team.
Josh Brokering • Director of Production / Editor
I didn’t get into the world of video for the reasons that I continue to do it today. It just seemed like something new and fun at the time. But, over the years I’ve seen the impact it has on those around me, and even on people I’ll never meet. It seems like the more authentic our work becomes, the more people we reach, and the more passionate we are about it. This is why I do what I do.
Jared Staab • Director of Photography / Editor
So here’s the short version: I was born. I watched movies. Possibly too many. And now I work for a great company that lets people tell their stories in a cinematic way.
There’s never been a doubt in my mind that this is what I was going to do. I get excited each time I get to help tell someone’s story on camera, but I also get (even more?) excited when I know it looks cool enough that it would’ve grabbed my attention as a kid.
Calling what I do a “passion” isn’t enough but calling it my religion probably goes too far (…maybe). I guess I’m somewhere in the middle and that’s right where Reliant Studios is. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Levi Nelson • Creative Director
I love a good story. I’m thinking of those moments when you’re reading a book and you feel like you’re actually best friends with the characters, or when a movie makes you feel like you can take on the world.
The thing is, there are amazing (real) stories happening everywhere, all the time: authentic stories about real organizations, real people, and real lives. They’re just waiting to be discovered and delivered to the masses. That’s why I work at Reliant. I help tell these stories.
As Creative Director, my task is to not only point-lead the creative process on projects, but also to make sure our work stays true to our client’s original story and aspirations. I’m a firm believer in the idea that a product/service can be so perfect for its audience that it sells itself if packaged in the context of the right story. No slick or manipulative advertising is needed, just the genuine, real story of a product, consciously and purposely inserted into the audience’s lives. Delivering on that premise is what makes me excited to come to work every day.
Check out the work
