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.
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!
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.
Allea Grummert • Production Coordinator
I’m that person who can make friends with strangers. Whether it’s the cashier at the grocery store, the barista at a coffee shop, or the helpline person on the other end of the phone, I am incredibly attracted to people. I think we all have a desire to connect with one another – to find something in common.
My degree in advertising and public relations has helped me to understand the value of authentic promotion as an extension of an organization’s brand image. By creating a video that truly represents an organization, we remove doubt while building viewer confidence in its message. We want people to know the mission and people of your organization as if you’ve just been chatting over coffee.
