Inspiring Social Change through Video Production with Erik Croswell of Bridge City Media

Kim Allchurch Flick: Hello everyone. Happy January and happy 2026. This is Kim Allchurch flick. And here with me today is Erik Croswell of Bridge City Media. Erik is a video producer and content strategist that runs Bridge City Media. A decade into his small business. His company has worked with hundreds of companies on creating promotional and informative videos with a specialized focus on social enterprises.

As a B Corps, he wishes to use the company to inspire positive change in the world. Erik, welcome. How are you? 

Erik Croswell: Doing well. Glad to be here, Kim. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Fantastic. It’s great to have you here. So what is, what has led you. So this place in time and Bridge City Media, what’s your story? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. I started Bridge City Media in 2016 with a friend of mine.

At the time we just didn’t quite know what we were doing. It was just a side hustle. We were both working at the same company and we’ve realized that we had complimenting, skill sets for video as well as marketing. And so we’re like, Hey, let’s start a little business on the side. And in that process we did a lot of wedding videos and music videos and web design and like all, all over the place, just anything that we would come our way, we’d just say yes to.

But over time we found that it was great to have more of a niche in working with businesses. For producing video content and when he chose not to move forward with coming into the business full time. And I did that’s what I continued to focus on. Since then we’ve produced hundreds of. Projects with different businesses.

Probably a few thousand videos at this point. And it’s ranged from explainer content, social media, videos, commercials documentaries a pretty wide array of things. And it’s been a really rewarding experience. It’s been amazing to connect with the city of Portland in this way as well as be able to travel around the US to other places to create video content as well.

And it’s been a nice blend of some of my own upbringing in working in marketing and that was my central focus in school as well as combining it with just being a passionate filmmaker. And growing up making short films with friends. So it feels like a good professional blend of flexing those creative muscles.

Kim Allchurch Flick: That sounds fantastic. And what is it about the social enterprise piece? 

Erik Croswell: How is that 

Kim Allchurch Flick: expressed? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, actually I think that you introduced me to that world a very long time ago. We were looking for opportunities for some case studies and we wanted to help some businesses out with, like running an ad campaign.

And so that’s how you and I originally met through a Facebook group. I would say maybe around seven or eight years ago at this point, 

Kim Allchurch Flick: yes. 

Erik Croswell: And. Yeah, we got connected with Benefit Corporations for Good. I had already been a bit a part of Conscious Capitalism. I just happened to read that book by John Mackey from whole Foods and got connected with a local chapter of that here.

And then meeting you, you connected me with Benefit Corporations for Good and then got introduced to the B Corp movement. I think it was just. Those values were already there, and it was awesome to get linked up to a few different groups that were trying to practice that. I didn’t really want to run a business just to make a lot of money.

I wanted to run a business to do what I wanted to try and live. And support myself by being an artist. And so money was never necessarily the draw for me, and I’ve always had a deep care for the planet, environmentalism social justice for other people, and plants and animals as well. And it’s been really cool to know that there’s a really thriving community of businesses in the Portland area that try to focus their central point of enacting certain types of social change as opposed to just pursuing consistent profit.

Kim Allchurch Flick: Yeah it’s interesting and I remember first meeting you and being so impressed and you are have a company that is also certified in both Benefit Corporations for Good and B Corp. And maybe can tell us a little bit more about, but I’m also interested in, as you’ve been in B Corp, benefit Corporations Benefit Company community.

How do you see clients and what they do in the world and has your lens about the general community at large shifted at all? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. I think that it goes both ways in the sense of like, when I meet companies that have been certified and when they meet us, there’s this. There’s this extra recognition of, oh, you’re taking your company seriously.

If we work together, maybe you’ll take my company seriously. And so I think that that’s nice from just generally a marketing lens for people who are considering going through these types of certification processes. But I know for myself, when I meet a company that has taken those steps to be certified, it tells me that, they’re more connected with what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. They’re having. Consistent challenging conversations. They’re trying to continue to get better. And I think because of all of those steps, they’re just naturally also just gonna be more function like high functioning, effective companies in the business that they do because they’re not necessarily running on autopilot.

They’re really paying attention to the work that they’re doing and the impact that they’re making. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And do you find that they’re, as they’re themselves getting deeper into a B Corps community, or even if not B Corps, social enterprise values, thinking, does their storytelling change 

Erik Croswell: and what they 

Kim Allchurch Flick: ask you to do for them?

’cause they have product or service, they’re B2B or B2C, but in telling the story. Do they want to resonate their values as well? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, I definitely find that companies that are in the nonprofit space or B Corp social enterprise type space they, we more frequently get asks for producing content that showcases their company culture.

They really like to show that off and they’ll typically use that as a means for recruiting. And that’s something that I pretty rarely ever see outside of those spaces. I we work with all types of companies. We have a little bit more of a focus in working with social enterprise, but but yeah, we pretty much never get asked to say Hey can you highlight our team culture if they’re not within that realm?

So they really want to use that to push. Like recruitment efforts. But on top of that, you can tell they’re just really proud of it and they know that it helps them stand out from their competition and they really want to flaunt it and show it off because it’s something they worked really hard on.

Kim Allchurch Flick: And as a creative, how does that make you feel when you’re asked to create content with them and for them that expresses that? 

Erik Croswell: Oh, great. I love working with, I love working with any company that genuinely enjoys what they’re doing and they care about what they’re doing and they believe that the impact that their company has is a good one.

And I especially love working with companies where you can tell that everyone works there genuinely likes their jobs. There’s a lot of really large companies that we’ve worked for. That I’ve been surprised that meet people all across like different levels within the company and like everyone is just super happy.

And then really small companies of course, so you’ll find that as well. So I think there’s something really cool about culture that isn’t inherently something that is diminished as a company grows. I think that. Companies of any size can take appropriate steps to ensure that everyone on their team feels connected and valued, and that people are able to live good lives by spending their time working at a company.

Kim Allchurch Flick: That sounds so awesome. And your company’s growing. 

How is it working in your recruiting to, to be Yeah. B Corps and Vision, vision and mission driven? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, definitely. I think it, helps build a lot of trust. I think that when you run a small company, you have to essentially ask people to compromise and say, Hey we’re small.

But if we all wear like a few different hats. For a while, then we’re going to be able to achieve this. And when we achieve this, we’re all gonna be able to get paid more. And then we will add these benefits. And, and you have to ask people to be a little bit patient as you build that process along.

And it requires a lot of transparency. And I think that being. Certified showcases that were a little bit more serious in that level of transparency. And the promise that we’re making isn’t just to this small group of people that are internal employees, but also to the greater community to say Hey, like everyone, pay attention to us.

We’re we’re trying to do. The right thing here, and we welcome you to audit us and showing that you’re taking those steps to your employees means that like they’re gonna be so much more likely to trust that you actually do have their best intentions in mind. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And the other thing I know about you and full disclosures to the listeners Erik is on my company’s advisory board, and that you have this very strong north about good business acumen as well for business health.

Like running a business so it is profitable knowing where the expenses are going. Yeah. Knowing how to read the p and l knowing. When to make a pivot or not. And you shared a lot of words of wisdom about that. And social enterprise and business fundamentals kinda need to go hand in hand because there’s people, planet, and purpose.

But profit being healthy is a good thing to do for society and also for companies that do have employees. They wanna keep those employees and keep them happy. That’s fundamental. Yeah. And you’re a good voice for that. I was wondering as you look at the community, you’re working in, the community in general and the community of clients, how are you seeing that balance, like how can companies be fiscally healthy and also live those values, express them, and and be able to still grow and move forward?

Erik Croswell: Yeah, I think that it’s so vital that those two things go hand in hand. I think I see a lot in the, especially the small business communities like very small business, they go into social enterprise spaces with a lot of big ideas of wanting to create great change in the world, but they lead a little too forward with that, and they don’t actually consider profit in a thoughtful way, and then they end up burning out.

And not really being able to survive past a year or two, and then they don’t actually are able to achieve the change that they wanted to see. So the profit aspect of it is vital in the sense of it gives you the consistent energy to continue to show up for your community and continue to create the change that you want.

Because without that it’s pretty much just wishful and it’s branding that doesn’t actually lead to impact. So I think it’s very important that people continue to tie those two things together. And then on the flip side, if you’re just pursuing profit it’s really difficult to even pull off, frankly, because unless you’re really skilled liar and you are the boss of a company, like people are going to catch wind that you don’t actually have any care.

For their wellbeing or the community’s wellbeing and they’re not really gonna want to get behind you and support you unless it’s built up as a nefarious type of company that is designed to make a lot of money over a couple of years and then end, which there are pretty plenty of those. But yeah, I think any business that wants to stick around for a while, you really need to find that balance between.

Consistent profit consistent growth, as well as continuing to ask yourself like, why are you doing any of this? And who are you helping? And like, why do you feel good about this? And how can you feel better about this? How can you help more? How can you make more money? How can you help more?

How can you make more money? And then just going on that back and forth is. The businesses that we work with that I see are really successful are just constantly auditing that and constantly asking those questions. Yeah. And changing them year to year. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Indeed. And that’s where some of the rigor comes with the certifications, right?

That they’re they’re rigorous on a either annual or every three year basis, but writing a benefit report once a year, all those things that can be, yeah. Difficult for some, just to have the time to be able to monitor all of that, to encapsulate it in a report, but also gratifying and that it’s a look back, it’s a look forward and it’s a proof point and it’s documenting progress with the receipts.

Yeah. That can be pretty amazing. And I think one of the things that pops into my mind talking to you is a statistic that. I loosely quote frequently, but it comes from Nielsen, and I think it was around 2014 when they published that two thirds of consumers globally are willing to pay more for products and services when they know a company has good values.

And then they studied millennials only and it was 73%. So my question has always been they’re looking, how are they finding, and that’s where a company like yours comes in. Helping a company really express their values as well as their product and service the marketing to feed into a plan that either helps their SEO or helps their expression somehow.

And that’s one of the things I think is the big tension, frustration between truly values driven companies and their people are in those two thirds and that 73%. How, where’s the connection? How do you get that line between two points? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And have you seen that and have you seen, what, when you do the videos and the marketing with a company that wants to express that years since, have you seen that it’s made a difference?

Erik Croswell: Yeah, it’s it depends on where a video like that lands in the decision making process of the consumer. Sure. So sure. I think there’s rosy thinking that people are going to make a big change in how they’re going to buy something based purely on some sort of value, but the likelihood is not, most of the time they’re usually looking for a specific service that can meet a specific demand and within a specific price point.

Those are the primary reasons that people are gonna make a decision on something. But depending on, especially for like larger purchase decisions and. Whether it’s like a larger type of product or especially in the B2B service world you’re gonna take a lot more steps for considering how you want to move forward with something.

And so I think that the type of content when you’re really pushing showcasing like what you’re doing as a company for the planet or your community or like how you’re treating your workers, I think those are the types of pieces of content that really tip the scale, but it’s gonna be a little bit later into the consumer’s decision making process.

Like people aren’t gonna go out and buy a car because a local car dealership one a, how like I, an award on how they treat their employees. They’re gonna go buy a car ’cause they need a car and they want to make sure that they can buy something within their budget range. But then if they’re looking at like four different companies and everyone looks like they’re gonna meet their demand, it’s gonna be within their budget, then they’re probably gonna make decisions.

Additionally, on top of that. On some values that they might see themselves in and they might align with. And everyone loves people and they want to make sure that they’re supporting something that treats people well. And yeah. And then some people have like different like niches of how they.

End up promoting some of that. You’ll have like companies, they’ll say that oh, we have some sort of specialized employment work with veterans or some sort of like specialized employment work of making sure we have equitable opportunities for bipoc employees within our company.

And I think that those are the types of things that tip the scale of someone moving forward with one versus another. And it’s really important to be careful about where you place that content. Because I think that if you place it a little too on in the process as like a first introduction to a company, it feels disingenuous and it can actually sometimes have the opposite effect of what people think it will.

It’ll make people. A little turned off in the sense of, okay, this company is like using this as some sort of like cheap marketing ploy as opposed to maybe it’s on a secondary page in a website, or maybe it is something that was shared in an email follow up after, like an initial meeting with someone.

We try to be really careful with the strategy with companies in that way. As well. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And I think that’s a very valuable statement, and I’m glad you brought it up. And for listeners knowing that as well as businesses, we also have to be true to our product and service. And it’s not about us, it’s about who the client is, who the stakeholders are, who the potential partners are, and trying to reach that balance.

And every once in a while a customer, Marie, like I said, just. Feels disingenuous and they have choices. And on the flip side, sometimes a company has a choice to fire a client or not hire a client in the first place. So in between all of that is do a good job, present well, do a good job, have a good product or service that they need, meet all that along the way.

And isn’t it wonderful that the company treats their employees well? Donates. Some here and there and how to express that. I always find that there’s no hard and set rules about that because every sector is different. Like consumer goods are way different than service providers in a lot of ways how the journey of the customer is very different, but somewhere along the way it helps to know, because Nielsen says two thirds of consumers, and I don’t even know if they’re willing to pay more, is the most important thing, but they’re looking.

For the good values. And maybe to your point, it’s not first all the time, it’s they’re looking for a product and if they have two choices and one of those companies has good values, that’s the way they’ll lean. And that hopefully creates a ripple effect so that more and more the companies that are getting their supplies are also looking at values-based companies.

And the companies that are using logistics are doing that. And we’re in this whole purchasing with purpose movement now, which is. Making me really optimistic that people are starting to recognize that as a decision point among all the others that can help frame how they make decisions. How and how do you see that?

Have you heard of the purchasing with Purpose and people in Planet First? 

Erik Croswell: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, 

Are the, are those, are you talking about like organizations? Or just the people And Planet First is a verification and Purchasing 

Kim Allchurch Flick: with purpose is the organization. So Purchasing with Purpose was created.

It’s it, this is all fairly recent. If you consider that B Corps is 20 years old, BCFG benefit Corporations for Good is seven going on. Eight people in Planet First and purchasing with Purpose are in the like two to three 

Years. So these are new things. And Purchasing with Purpose is a nonprofit that wants to gather members to see how literally purchasing is more than one step.

Looking all the way to who’s the supplier, who’s the packager, who’s the, what’s the logistics? And if it’s service providing, there’s still, it’s a network and creating a network of purpose driven. Communities and those along the way verify with the people in planet first. That creates more recognition.

And also make sure that there is that third party standard that says, yes, we’re trying to make sure that nobody’s greenwashing, that their claims are true, that they’ve proven that they’re documenting. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Which helps people make decisions. So it’s encouraging. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

I think, I think that, I think there’s a lot of consumer fatigue in the sense of not trusting what certain certifications might mean. I know that like when I talk to people who are in the small and the medium business space that live in Portland, Oregon, and you ask them what a B Corp is, they’re gonna be like, oh yeah.

Like maybe they can give you a destination, or at the very least, they’re gonna. Say they’ve heard of it. Most people who are outside of that just don’t seem to know still even after 20 years. And I think that like it’s. When you go to the store and you see the organic and the free range and the cage free and the, like all these like different stamps. I think that now people have gotten this idea that a lot of those stamps are just marketing and not necessarily some sort of genuine showcase of what something, like if it’s going to match the values that they’re hoping that it’s aligned with.

So I think that there’s an important aspect of education that’s still needed from the community to make sure people like, understand what a B Corp stand means, what what A-B-C-F-G certification is along with consumers taking the steps to make those decisions 

Kim Allchurch Flick: indeed. 

Erik Croswell: Make 

Kim Allchurch Flick: and indeed.

And you are here in Portland, but you also mentioned you travel for work elsewhere. And I do think Portland is in somewhat of a bubble when it comes to social enterprise and discussions, and yet there’s still a lot of people that I meet run into who say, what’s a B Corps and it’s an opportunity it’s a chance to have a chat with them about that.

But when you’re working outside of Portland what differences do you see and. Yeah. What kind of companies are you working with? 

Erik Croswell: Oh, yeah, no significant difference. I really think that the Portland market is so different than other parts of the us. We really value small business in such a cool way and we really value people working locally.

You’ll see that in a lot of like big cities here, but like the energy is so. Defined in Portland in a pretty significant way. I think a great example is that we kicked out our target and our Walmart. Like it’s very rare that like businesses like that have such a hard time existing in a larger metropolitan area.

But when we’ve worked outside of Portland, if we mentioned B Corp, people have not heard of it. You can tell that they really don’t care about avoiding making purchases from a larger chain. That they don’t really take as much of a time to consider aspects of their supply chain other than efficiency and cost.

I think that’s something that is really, really cool about Portland is like our culture here promotes. So much more of wanting to be consistently acting within these values and exploring that. And yeah, I mean you can say that for a few cities in like California and Seattle too. I don’t see Portland’s like severely different than those.

But when we work outside of the area, it would. Typically be for some sort of con company that’s connected to Oregon in some way, but they have some sort of factory that’s like out in Texas or out in like Idaho or Wyoming, something like that. And so like we might travel to a space to get some, like additional B roll or do interviews with certain executives that are spread out.

As we work on a larger project. But yeah I think that there’s this idea that all cities are the same. Everyone has their craft beer and their nice coffee and like some cool skyscraper that you can go to the top of and look at the city. But Portland really is culturally quite different and I think that.

You, I’ve noticed a significant difference in the B2B space. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Interesting. And do you work more with B2B or do you work with B2C as well? 

Erik Croswell: Typically B2B. It’s pretty rare. Usually B2C is gonna be a little bit. Staggered in the sense that we might be working with a larger agency that is hiring us as a video production solution for a larger product.

Kim Allchurch Flick: Okay. 

Erik Croswell: So we’re not typically like just producing content that is. Is like directly gonna be shown to consumers. It’s more so like video that is part of some greater ad campaign. That is like working with a much larger full service digital marketing agency. But for B2B, it’s like a law firm or a, like a local healthcare system they’re gonna be great to just reach out to us directly and say, oh, we, we want to create a series of videos to talk about, like the services that we offer or our team culture or like a simple ad that we’re gonna be putting on a few different mediums, things like that.

Kim Allchurch Flick: I, I hesitated to mention those two letters that go together a lot. Ai. But I think I’ll ask, because we are in, things change constantly. Things are evolving constantly. Yeah. And how do you see the inclusion of ai if a company wishes to go there? 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, totally. I think that there’s I am. I feel kind of neutral in AI in the same way that I feel about social media.

I think that like social media has opened up so many opportunities for so many folks and has brought things together and also created just this massive slew of problems that no one knows how to do, what to do with it. And AI is very much rapidly doing the same thing. I don’t think it’s, I wouldn’t advise companies to take a strong moral stance of never touching ai.

Because I think that’s kind of impossible because if they’re not directly coordinating with it, then they’re working with someone who’s directly coordinating with it. And the tools are integrated into every major software now. So Google is ai, all social medias use ai Adobe slack, like everything uses some sort of AI component at this point, just because it is made.

Like tools of certain software are just so much more powerful. And so I think that when you trust AI to make larger strategic decisions. You can definitely get into danger in a variety of ways. In the sense of it’s going to potentially give you a strategy that a lot of your competition is gonna be doing simultaneously.

And so it’s not necessarily gonna help you stand out. But then you’re also going to take away the morale from your. Company kind of actually for yourself as a decision maker, you can you’ll get soft in the sense of not really even thinking about what you’re doing anymore. And you’re just entrusting this system to make decisions for you. And then that, I think that really. Destroys your energy as a business owner or a decision maker in a company, and then also that can have that same effect within your team. People don’t feel like their decision is, or their work is really even valuable if everything’s being outsourced.

But I think AI is a phenomenal tool for rote tasks, for repetitive things that don’t necessarily take a lot of creative input or thinking and you’re like, I’m gonna use this to. Do this process. Like we, we use an AI systems, for instance, to take footage from three different camera angles and two different audio sources, and then just sync them all up immediately.

Okay. So like when we started the business 10 years ago, like that’s a process. That were, sync clips on a timeline. There is nothing creative about that at all. Like it is a tedious process and you’re just dragging things onto a timeline and you’re making sure that you’re not getting an echo and stuff.

And having the capability of using a tool to do a process that would sometimes take 30 minutes to an hour in a matter of seconds is. Like, awesome. And it opens up an opportunity for us to do things faster, which means that sometimes that means we can have a higher profit margin, but then a certain project and we can pay our employees more and or it allows us to just sell things for a lower cost, which helps us.

Build more opportunities for developing deeper relationships with our clients and being able to just give them more with the same investment. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Wow. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, I think that, yeah I think the world is gonna continue to change so, so fast and it’s important to pay attention to that. And, continue to use tools as they develop that, don’t take away your greater strategic thinking.

Kim Allchurch Flick: Indeed. And what I was also hearing is you got an hour back and that could be for your own creative process that’s an hour. For something for you or your employees, your teammates, 

Erik Croswell: yeah. To 

Kim Allchurch Flick: get back versus the, yeah. Really tedious, non-creative things. I can see where that would be of great value.

And yet it’s not making the video. Yeah, it’s not creating the content for the video and I think that therein lies a huge difference because we’re now starting to see things that are a hundred percent AI generated or partially, and it’s nice to see you really thinking about a balance of what’s still authentic and human and creative.

And yet in the process of creating it, the AI can make things so much better in the actual process of the creation of it. Yeah. But not the content. And that’s good to know. I think people wanna hang on to that and know where things are coming from and know who is the maker and what was the thought process behind it.

Yeah. It helps us. And what out. In your world and in community, do you see currently as like the downsides of things or obstacles that are in the way? 

Erik Croswell: I think just the constants of change. I know that there’s a lot of people in the video production space that feel sad about shifting the culture away from.

Doing a full day shoot with a team of eight people and like a big cinema camera and like really defined roles and multiple takes and things like that. I think there’s this, there’s a lot of this culture around that process and there’s a lot of like specialized roles that people who spent decades really refining and becoming experts in.

And I think that because of this. Because the barrier to entry to create content is so low now. Like you can get a really nice camera for very cheap, or you can use your phone, you can know, you can use audio tools online to get really amazing audio. Like mostly because of AI innovations. There’s so much less obstacles to enter that the demand for that type of content has just gone way, way down because.

Essentially you’re having to ask businesses to say do you want something that looks like amazing for like this much, or do you want something that looks like. Super amazing for 10 times that much, you know? And a lot of the time it just, it’s just the natural progression of people can’t justify going from amazing to ultra amazing.

They’re gonna settle for amazing because they need to make decisions that is best for the health of their companies as well. And so I try to be empathetic to that. While also honoring that there’s the right way to do things, there’s the right way to produce content. Of course you can always like take more and more shortcuts, but finding that balance of process efficiency combined with just genuinely creating an empathetic, thoughtful story that.

Understands business and tells a narrative that is connecting. I think it’s really important to find that middle ground. And I think that a lot of the hurt that I see within our industry is it’s both a combination of this rapid change in demand because of disruptive technology, but.

Also it is a big culture of people who are very defiant of it changing as well. Yeah, I think in any industry, like things are going to continue to change and it’s always worthwhile to stay critical of things while also not being, not being blind to a reality that, things are gonna continue to shift much and there’s, that’s gonna be outside of our control.

But just because things shift doesn’t mean that we have to forego our values. We can stay too true to our values and then just adapt the tools with how we use them. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Well, that’s beautifully said. And it’s also, the word content reminds me of a couple of other words that are, have become so ubiquitous that what does that mean?

Because there’s content everywhere. Any time of day we could get thousands of either reels or any type of content, whether we want them or not. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, 

Kim Allchurch Flick: and it sounds like you certainly see the value of really rising above noise. And still being able to. Cut out a portion of time for people to see a genuine, true, good story that is good for both sides.

It’s good for the company that is hiring you to create that and for those consumers to really understand and make that connection. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And that takes time, that that’s not done on a TikTok video very, very often. And, but it’s, it still, I think, brings it down to people in the end. I think do appreciate content that is meaningful when they’re looking for something or when they’re in that space in their head, when they need to find out more, am I gonna do business with, am gonna work with, am I going to support, am I gonna advocate am I gonna go this direction?

To have something that, that really makes them feel confident. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: So content is one of those words. And what makes you optimistic? 

Erik Croswell: I actually, I feel really optimistic about, I’ve noticed a shift in,

I feel like I’m seeing less fatalism in the community. And I think that’s something that’s very important is I think we’ve been through a lot of, like the last yeah, the last, almost 10 years now has been this mass, like just this insane influx of doom and surprise and dismay and, like this, almost like anti progression.

And I think that there was such, this like influx of, okay, well we’re all screwed anyways, so what’s the point? And I think that enough time has passed now that people have seen even through and through there’s a lot of cool things happening. There’s a lot of like great progress that’s happening.

There’s a lot of people showing up for each other and caring and innovating. In really meaningful ways, and that effort is so worthwhile and it shows that with. Enough time and with enough intention for helping others that like that impact versus this ideology that like, eh, whatever. I’m not gonna try anyway.

Like, we’re all screwed anyway. Like I think people at this point have had enough experience within their own lives of seeing the difference between one versus the other. That they feel more of a sense of being critical of the bad things that are happening in the world, while also saying. And let’s keep doing something about it.

I don’t know if that just happens to be something that I’ve noticed because I’ve just gotten older, and maybe that’s more so the community that I’m around versus when I was younger. But I really have noticed a shift in that narrative especially within the city of Portland. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And that encourages me too.

That makes me optimistic because.

It really is encouraging that we have longevity and that things will change and can change. And if we’re activist about it or at least optimistic about it and helpful about it, it can make a big difference. So that’s encouraging. What you don’t have to name a company, but if there was a. A company you’d really like to work with or a sector that you’d really like to work with, what would it be?

Erik Croswell: Yeah. I’d really 

like to work with, I like anything that I really like working with any type of company that is innovative with energy. So I think it’s really cool, like wind energy, solar energy just like geothermal energy any type of company like that. I think there’s so much progress that’s happened over the past like decade.

And it’s just been so cool to see how technology has shifted things in that realm. I strangely get really excited to work on like agricultural projects as well. Like tractors that can like, have high powered cameras and computing systems in there to understand exactly what type of care to.

Like a specific crop, I think there’s so much like innovation that we just don’t even think about or see. And so it’s really cool to go out to spaces like that with a camera and showcase that. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Oh I hope you do because I’ll watch. Yeah. Just for the fun of it. So is there anything else you’d like to say before we have you drop your website verbally and it is in the show notes.

Erik Croswell: Yeah. Yeah, I 

think that I’m always just like such a proponent for, I love small business. I love like the culture of believing that you can do something and you have a skillset that you want to bring to your community. I think that the Portland like benefit corporations for good.

Group is just so amazing. And B Corp’s very amazing as well. I think it’s such, it’s been such like a welcoming community and you can learn so much from people and I think if you just genuinely if you’re a small business and you’re just like curious about what to do next, like just asking people for some advice.

Like people will just want to give you advice. I don’t think you necessarily have to do all these really specific steps and hire a marketing agency and hire a coach and hire all of these things. I think that as a first step, just reach out and talk to people and say that you admire the business that they’re running and you’d love to just.

Ask them some questions about what they’ve learned and like what advice that they might have. You’re gonna get a lot of people that well, like that’s not an annoying thing to ask. You’re gonna get a lot of people who genuinely want to share those types of insights. So yeah and I’m, I always think it’s just, it’s so important to do things in a specific order.

You don’t necessarily need we like to say no to people a lot when it comes to video. They’ll come to us for a video project and we’ll say, oh, you need to like, think about your consumer a little bit more. And in the sense of if you created this video, how do you think this would actually like, connect with them?

Do you have your distribution channels like set up for this? Are, if you’re planning on. Editing your website six months from now, wait until after you do that to do a video. There’s all those types of steps, which I think are really important and I’m thankful to have a lot of that insight, but also there’s so many amazingly intelligent people in this community.

And they’ll be happy to share those insights with you as well. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: I think you’re right. And that’s going back to the first thing I said about your business acumen is so strongly about how pragmatic you are about things like that. And. The worst marketing is the expensive stuff that nobody cares about or sees or doesn’t connect with.

And yeah, so that ability to do all that groundwork and figure out who is the customer, what do they resonate with, where are they? And it’s not about us, it’s about them. And it’s not about what I think or the companies you work with think as much as it’s about how is that connection? And it goes back to those two thirds of.

Consumers are out there. And they’re out there for you and me and all the companies. So how do you connect that dot or, what’s the straight line between two points? How do you get to ’em? I think your videos are a big part of that, because you’re doing a good thing by suggesting the timeline, the sequence, and the acumen to do it.

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Otherwise. People waste a lot of money on marketing because marketing is intended to do one thing, and that is draw people in and if it doesn’t, it just is very expensive. Yeah. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, I warn people against marketing all the time as a marketing company. Yeah. I think there’s a lot of bad actors in this field, unfortunately that are after just quick bucks, but but the good ones stick around and I think that working with folks that are part of the communities that you’re part of I think that’s, at the very least, it’s a good place to be in the sense of you should have trust in the people that are in the community that you’re a part of because they want to have a good long-term relationship with you there. And, they’re, hopefully people aren’t trying to screw each other regardless, but I think they’re especially not going to, if, they’re like actually part of the same group.

Kim Allchurch Flick: And I concur with you. I think we both see and give and receive that kind of community support through BCFG. Be local and more, and sometimes just out there in the community and small business is super important that in Oregon small business collectively is the driver of the economy.

That’s, it’s a really big deal. I don’t 

Erik Croswell: believe that. 

Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: So what’s your website? 

Erik Croswell: Website is bridge city media.com. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Bridge city media.com. And I love the logo. It’s one of Portland’s iconic bridges. And the last question is. If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead up to a table or of four or individually, who would they be or who would that person be?

Erik Croswell: Yeah I would talk to four, including myself. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Yes. 

Erik Croswell: Cool. I would choose Jane Goodall, Steve Irwin. And Barack Obama, 

I think I’d love to be at the table with all of them. And yeah, I think I’d love to just have a conversation about ecology and pursuing what you believe in and living boldly while also being able to have the insight and lens of.

A leader who is in a was in a really tough position and has to make like sometimes really awful macro decisions on behalf of the world. And like, how do you balance like all of that knowledge and that insight while trying to do the right thing. So I think that would be a really cool.

Blend of perspectives. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Oh, wow. Oh those people are amazing. And thank you. I think I feel really blessed that one of Jane Goodall’s last talks was in Salem in 2025. And we heard that, and what a profoundly resonant human being. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: She started a lot, but another thing that really stood out to me.

She was talking about how the only way she felt she could really break through sometimes, especially in destructive destruction of the rainforest by large corporations, was to work with them. And she said she had a lot of detractors who’d say, why would you even talk to those people? And she said, because somewhere in there.

They have someone in there has a heart too. And if I can cross a bridge and get some understanding that they can still do things, run their company, and yet what would be the value of a stronger ecosystem, stronger villages, stronger humanity, where they’re working. And that really resonated because she had the wherewithal to see that sometimes.

You have to sit across the table from someone you don’t like. Yeah. Or someone with values you don’t like, or someone with methods that you don’t like and try to actually have a conversation. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Yeah. I love that you brought up those three people. That’s pretty amazing. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Well, Erik Croswell, you have an amazing heart of gold and also super talented and thank you.

I love that we’re in the same community. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, likewise make 

Kim Allchurch Flick: you make people smile. I think you make things better. Thanks for being, thank you, Kim. 

Erik Croswell: Yeah, 

Kim Allchurch Flick: thank you everyone. 

Erik Croswell: Thanks much.