Fearless Media is a small production company which creates engaging video content for businesses looking to bring a story to life, and was founded by Thomas Arnold in 2019. The name might sound familiar to you; Thomas is also a vlogger/YouTuber/TikTokker who produces skits and videos around UCD and Dublin. Having had a passion for videography from a young age, Thomas turned his passion into a business, all whilst remaining a Commerce student in UCD.
As I sit in his new office in the city-centre of Dublin, I wonder what got him there, other than hard work and determination. Thomas attributes his current position to consistently providing value to others. At 15 years old, having realised he could make money from videos, he began offering prospective clients a free video. If he did a good job, they would typically come back as fee-paying clients. Nowadays, he claims the quality of his work to be reliant on his passion for a project; the ones which he truly cares for and gets excited about will generate videos which exemplify this.
Thomas now has a part-time employee working to help him grow the business. He recognises his limitations, telling me he is not the best at filming and editing, and he plans to bring more people into the business to perform these tasks to a higher standard than he had been when he was working on the business alone. Clearly, and much to his benefit, he is not afraid to ask for help where needs it, something many of us shy away from.
Balancing college, a start-up and social commitments is a recurring point of discussion in this column. Thomas’s position differs slightly to that of others, in the sense that he is not aiming for a 2:1. In his words, ‘’all I need is a pass’’, which frees up some time for him. But, more importantly, Thomas attributes his attitude towards work as a key differentiator; he enjoys what he does and has no qualms with working long hours and weekends. He focuses on harder projects, such as creatively-difficult assignments and business admin tasks, in the morning. This is followed by a break from lunch until the afternoon, after which he will typically work a few more hours.
If there’s one take-away from Fearless Media and Thomas Arnold, as he put it to me when I asked him, is that your business can be an extension of yourself. Find who it is you are and what you truly want to do, and you can make it work if you put the work in.
Alex Lohier – Deputy Editor
