Brothers & Storytellers
This is a story about two best friends who realized their dream, and did whatever it took to accomplish it. Now, they’re doing it again.
For as long as I can remember, my brothers were by my side. It didn’t matter if it was sports, school, family trips, fights, whatever the occasion, we’ve always been a team. Despite being years apart, we grew up the same way, with the same friends, in the same house, with the same values. Brian was our older brother. He was good at just about everything, including enlisting in the United States Marine Corps at 19 years old. Seeing him walk across the floor at his graduation still gives me goosebumps. My brother was an American hero. Andrew was our younger brother, and we fought relentlessly. But as we got older, all I ever wanted to do was be with him. My brothers were, and still are, my heroes.
We had an amazing childhood, constantly outside and surrounded by friends. Through it all, we learned something pretty special about ourselves. We discovered what we wanted our lives to be about, and what we wanted to make out of them. It was pretty simple actually: we just wanted to tell a good story. We had both been avid camera junkies, producing short films around our neighborhood and in high school, and I realized this was the industry I wanted to pursue. Andrew loved the craft, but also had a passion for business. One summer, it hit us like a ton of bricks. We needed to start our own production company. In a few short months, we borrowed some money from our parents, set up our LLC and even booked a few small time jobs. It felt like we were off and running. Over the years, the business remained a side hustle, a once in a while money maker that provided far more joy and passion than financial stability. What did we care, we were doing what we loved, and doing it together! Our focus was on small local businesses, who we believed were in desperate need of storytelling to increase marketing efforts amidst a world turning to digital and big-box retail. That mission became our passion, but we never thought it would become our career.
At one point in college, I was chatting with my advisor about my next steps. What did I want to do after college, what was my path going to be? I thought about our experiences, I thought about all the amazing times my brother and I had growing up and starting this company quite literally in our childhood bedroom. And I realized I only wanted to do one thing: I wanted to work with my brother. I didn’t care what we were doing when it came down to it, the most important thing was doing something together. And I would do whatever it took to make that happen. That was my next step.
After college, I took a hiatus from our company to work in the marketing world for a global brand. I knew this would be a slight detour from our plan, but the opportunity for experience and to relocate to Los Angeles was just a little too good to pass up while waiting for Andrew to finish school and his NCAA lacrosse career. To be perfectly honest, I hated it, not all of it, but most of it. I hated the corporate culture, I hated the pressure of showing up and leaving when I was expected to, and I hated the fact that I was marketing a product I didn’t believe in, let alone perpetuating a story that simply was not authentic to who I was. But, it was an amazing experience, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thankful for it everyday. That’s the funky thing about those experiences, they are only “negative” if you perceive them that way. Maybe they sucked in the moment, but did you learn something from them that could help you live the life you want? Did they show you a better way to live? Did they bring you closer to your passion? If so, then that negative connection is really just a mindset. If you simply shift your perspective, that experience becomes far more powerful than you could ever imagine, and you can learn more from it than any positive experience you’ve ever had. That was the beginning of our mission.
On Christmas Day 2015, Andrew walked up to me with an envelope and said, “Merry Christmas buddy.” I will never forget the feeling of opening up that envelope and seeing a wad of $100 bills in it, and his words that followed, “Here’s my share of the rent. Let’s do this.” It was his way of saying we were ready to take the leap and go all in on our company, to bet on ourselves and our dream. We formed Foreword Films, Inc. that day over five years ago and I never doubted us for a second. I always knew we would thrive. Because we were doing this together, and that’s all that mattered.
I always thought there was a lot I could teach my brother. Although we were close in age, there were plenty of experiences I lived through that he hadn’t and I wanted to share those with him so that he could appreciate the good times and/or avoid the bad times. I just wanted him to be happy. But after working with him all this time, I’ve realized that he has taught me so much more than I could have imagined, and the role of educator I had carved out for myself had actually circumnavigated my responsibility and fell onto him. I felt like I was watching Andrew grow up, but had no idea I was the one growing up the whole time.
I love my family and my fiancé more than anything in the world, but the relationship I’ve built with Andrew is something truly special. The time I’ve spent working with him in Los Angeles will stay with me forever. But, I knew he was destined carve his own path, rather than walking beside me. So when he told me he was moving back home to North Carolina, I felt the normal weight of emotion on my shoulders, but I also felt the incredible strength I needed to let him go. I knew that was the love I had for him pushing my own selfish desires out of the way. I had always imagined if this day would come and here it was. “When do we leave?” That was on March 8th.
Over the next few months, we watched the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic slowly but surely infect almost every aspect of our lives and business. We slowed down dramatically, cancelled trips, postponed my wedding, and fell into financial uncertainty almost daily. We watched the communities we serve and the businesses we help stumble and fall. It was not the time to move home. I watched Andrew accept this hard truth and realize nothing was going to happen by sitting around and waiting. So one morning over coffee, we started blabbering about all the experiences we’d had with our business over the last five years. We talked about the good times, we talked about the bad times and the learnings we gained along the way. I left his house that day with an incredible realization: we know a lot more than we think. We all do, those are the experiences we have and the memories we store deep in our minds and tap into when we need them. We realized throughout the course of our business and our lives that we had gained insights that could potentially help others. And keeping our small business passion in mind, we knew we could employ those insights to get small businesses off the ground. So we decided, once again, to bet on ourselves.
Today, we are launching our new company, The Moving Foreword Company, aimed to help the good people like you and your business move foreword! Through consulting, workshops, podcasts, a video series, and our Small Business Playbook, we are determined to rise from this pandemic to create a better world using the same passion we’ve always had. And this story is our Foreword.
The Moving Foreword Co. Team
I am engaged to the most wonderful and perfect woman I have ever met in my entire life. She is my soul-mate and my rock, and her support of my dreams has never faltered. She’s as close with my brothers as I am, and there is truly nothing that makes me happier than all of us together. But I knew that one day, we’d be sending Andrew off on his own. Because he’s got his own soulmate to find, he’s got his own dreams to live, and he’s got his own passion to pursue. We don’t have to be in the same place to work together. As long as we’re both moving foreword, we will thrive. As long as we are doing what we love, we’ll always be together. I love you buddy. Good luck and God speed!
Your Brother,
Connor
The Buss Fam with Andrew at the helm…
*This article was published in the August 2020 issue of the Easy Reader Magazine Story Contest. It won an “Honorable Mention” award.