In this sponsored Squarespace video, filmmaker Levi Allen recounts the pivotal moment when a simple website helped him land his first paid outdoor filmmaking job and set the foundation for his career. He explains how curiosity led him to create bike‑focused videos, how putting those videos on a personal site acted as an official “signpost” that attracted a client, and how claiming ownership of his niche transformed his professional identity. Allen then shares concrete, actionable website strategies for creators: craft a concise niche statement (e.g., “We make adventure films for outdoor brands”), display bold messaging, include clear calls‑to‑action such as a prominent proposal request button, showcase past projects, and use hidden, password‑protected proposal pages and an online store. He highlights the speed and polish of building a site on Squarespace compared to his previous platform, and stresses the mindset shift of giving yourself permission to define your work. The video blends personal storytelling with practical advice, encouraging creators to experiment with their own sites to unlock new opportunities.
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The first time that I got to come up here was actually one of the first moments where I was ever paid to do what I love to do, to get paid to do outdoor filmmaking. And I want to tell you how that came about. I've got a concept that I want to share with you in this video, something that That means a lot to me because it's made a big impact in my career. Basically, the decisions that have ended up bringing me to where I am, where I get to lead a group of people out into my favorite place, sharing with them something that I care so deeply about, which is quality storytelling and making great videos. And I'll just get right to it. A big piece that has helped me enable all these new chapters of my life has been a simple thing like my website. And so yes, this is a sponsored video by Squarespace, but there's A theme here that I care very deeply about that I want to get you really excited about it as well because I think it could make a massive difference on the next chapter of your life. Let's go to the next waterfall. Back to being a teenager. It's very hard for me to remember what it was like being so curious on the idea of could I get paid to make videos? Not just any videos. Could I get paid to make outdoor videos? That's something that I wanted to figure out. It seemed like a dream. That was too good to be true. Like, how am I gonna pull this thing off? At this point, I'd gotten paid to make some wedding films. I'd kind of done some tinkering around here and there, but I didn't really know what type of videos could be the videos that I made. So for me personally, I honestly just followed my curiosity. I just made videos about what I cared about. And at that time, biking was one of the biggest passions in my life, so I just made films about biking. I mean, I would like to say it was on purpose, but I kind of just did it because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. I just made a website and put some of the videos on the website. And what I learned later is when you make a website for your videos or for your work or whatever thing you're trying to do next or are already doing but want to do more of, you're kind of just like putting a signpost in the ground and saying to other people that encounter that of, Hey, I'm open for business. This is a thing that I'm legitimately doing. Like, this is a thing that I do. It's not just an idea. It's not just a nice thought, but I've got a webpage. And that to me felt very official when I was starting out having my own website for this business that I still had no idea what it would look like. Next thing I know, through that website, I got a little contact on the email address there saying, hey, I've got this project. Can we bring you along? To me, I was like, how did this happen? How did you find me? Getting on the phone, I was able to find out that my cousin had met them at a party and they were chatting through video stuff and he wanted a mountain bike filmmaker. That brought up me. And next thing you know, I was on a boat to here to film some mountain biking just up on the hillside right over there. That was the first time I'd ever gotten paid to do anything outdoor related whatsoever. It can feel like, hey, people are going to judge us for saying, this is something that we want to do. This is something that we want to do more of. And we can get a little caught up on just waiting for someone to give us permission. And what I'm so grateful for learning early on when I just felt imposter syndrome and felt like everyone was maybe judging me saying, who gives you the right? I'm realizing that that permission might have never came if I didn't take ownership over saying, this is who I want to be. This is the kind of work that I want to do. And put that out there, boldly state it, and see what happens. It's one thing to just open up a social media account on whatever, whatever platform is popping off, but I think it's really powerful to do that extra work and have a website there that's gonna Specifically talk about what you want to make and who you want to make it for, or what type of person you are and what type of opportunities you're looking for and what types of companies you want to be partnered with. So I want to get a little practical here. I want to give you some, some straight-up tips on what you can start implementing right away. Maybe just give you some concrete ideas of what to implement now in whatever season of change you might be in. Okay, so my biggest tip, my biggest idea It's actually really simple, and that is just be really clear on your website so that way if anybody visits it, they can find out really, really quickly what you want to get hired for. You see, it's often really hard to be remembered if you're just being super general about what you do. At this point, everyone's a filmmaker. So if you're like me and a few years ago you just said cinematic storytelling for innovative companies, it's like— That's just asking to be forgotten. People don't know where to catalog that in their brains. So ask yourself what type of work you actually enjoy doing most. And this isn't about saying, hey, I'm not willing to do other types of projects. But one of the things you're battling in a noisy world is just being remembered at all. And it's been a process. It's been a 4 to 5 year kind of crafting and experimenting, seeing what resonates to end up at the current slogan I have on my website, which is We make adventure films for outdoor brands. And maybe, you know, 2 years from now we'll head over to that website and it'll say something different. But that's the coolest part to me about building your website on something that you can easily, easily change, rapidly prototype, update, get new images on there, change the text. And truthfully, I had originally built my website on a different platform, and I made the first jump as a customer of Squarespace when I was able to build a better looking website for myself. In about 15 minutes in a coffee shop than I'd been tinkering with in my previous platform for like 6 months. And when you're tinkering with stuff that don't necessarily reflect what it is that you're trying to communicate, you're basically, you're spending time on a lot of busywork. And those little details might be really important, but if we only spend time on those little details and don't really get clear about what our main message, what we want that to be, I think we're doing ourselves a big disservice. My next tip to get super clear on— you've got it big and bold what it is you do and who you want to do it for. The next thing I would suggest to do is make it really clear what you want someone to do when they arrive at your website. And for me, I often want my clients to request a proposal. They send me an email through this big green contact button right on my website. That's a very clear thing that I want them to do because the more emails I get, the more chances I have to basically evaluate, do I want to take on this project or not? Another thing I have on my website is just previous examples of different projects I've worked on. And I actually utilize my Squarespace website for a lot of different things. So I run my online store through it. I actually run my proposals for my clients through it, where I'll make a hidden page on my website with a password, with a page just for them. And it makes it feel really custom. So I would say don't underestimate the role that a website could play in getting you to where you want to go. So head on over. There's free trials. You can try it out, build something, see if you like it. And if you're happy with what you've put together, you can use my discount code for 10% off your first purchase, a website or domain. But I would say experiment, actually put this stuff into practice. For me, it's been challenging if I just stay in my head and just stay in that idea realm. It's been very practical for me to start actually taking action To getting towards where, where it is that I think I might want to go. And of course there's course corrections along the way, but actually taking steps forward I think is really critical for actually getting to where you want to go. Remember, life's better when you make stuff. For now, I've got some, uh, some other pressing matters to attend to.
