Hello. My name is Nathan LaValley. I’m a seasoned media professional and the founder of Bright Valley Media. Every business has a story. Here’s mine.

2010

Recorded My First Song

That’s me in the red with the guitar. I started on trombone in 5th grade and jumped to guitar a few years later. I loved music and was as involved with it as possible. So I wrote a cheesy love song and decided to record it. This was my first real moment working with creative media. Take a listen if you dare, it’s quite cringy.

September 2014

Recorded First Album In My College Dorm

I went off to Oklahoma Christian University on music scholarship for trombone. The first semester I was consumed with recording an album called “In a Sea of Darkness” and I did it all in my college dorm. I must have spent 100 hours on the recording and mixing of the 9 tracks. Although It doesn’t hold up well today, at the time, it was the best that I could do.

June 2016

Bought My First Camera

I was getting married and wanted to be able to record the memories my wife and I made as we began life together. I saved up $500 dollars and bought a Panasonic G7 and a Rode Videomicro. I started learning how to use my new camera.

October 5, 2016

Started my Youtube Channel

I decided to start a YouTube channel. I was going to make daily vlogs about being a musician. The catch was that I was going to make all of my own music for the channel. Each day I would vlog AND produce a brand new backing beat. I kept this up for about 50 days and then slowed down to making a video and beat every couple days. Over the course of a couple years, I produced 280 videos and about 200 individual beats. I grew the channel to about 5k subscribers and got over a million views. I probably spent about 3,000 hours honing my skills in media.

November 2, 2016

Made my First Viral Video

It’s not a particularly good video. And it took weeks to take off in the algorithm. But this silly little video got over 200,000 views on YouTube. I was spending hours each week researching and trying to understand the “algorithm” and my hard work was starting to pay off.

April, 2018

Graduated College and Became a Full Time Pastor

I graduated from college with a ministry degree and took a job as a full time Pastor. Playtime was over and I quit the YouTube channel. All that work with music making, graphic design and videography came in handy though. Each place I pastored, I worked with these types of media. I continued to hone my skills within the church.

February, 2024

Upgraded Camera and Doubled Down on Video

I had decided to begin a podcast for teaching teenagers theology. Long story short, I finally hit a hurdle that my old camera couldn’t jump. My trust Panasonic G7 retired and I upgraded to a $2,000 Sony A7IV. I doubled down and realized something: “I’ve gotten a lot better with creative media without even realizing it.”

August, 2024

Moved to Florida to Join a Church Plant and Start Bright Valley Media

We moved our family to central Florida and went all in on Bright Valley Media and a church plant in Daytona Beach called Alive Church.

“The Way You get good is you suck without QUITTING.”

Before and Now

Music

first song – “One and the same”

recent song – “The Plants Bite Back”

WHERE I WAS + 250 produced songs + 120 written songs + thousands of hours of practice + thousands of hours of classical music training =

Video

first video – cringy vlog

recent video – paid music video

WHERE I WAS + 280 completed YouTube videos + dozens of projects for churches + a bunch of YouTube videos + thousands of hours of research and learnings =

Graphic Design

first graphic design – thumbnail

recent graphic design – newsletter

WHERE I WAS + 280 completed YouTube thumbnails + Hundreds of projects for churches + designing a book and its branding + making logos and graphics for companies =