Shadow Lion is an Emmy award-winning creative agency providing creative services to athletes, influencers, and organizations. Founded in 2017, the agency initially focused on co-founder Tom Brady’s off-field media presence assisting with his social media and his docuseries, Tom vs Time, before expanding their services and capabilities.
Shadow Lion currently works in three main areas: Original content, branded content, and social media content. To learn more about the agency’s current projects and opportunities (and to promote their attendance at our upcoming Virtual Internship Fairs), we connected with Managing Director & Co-Founder and Emerson alum, Gilad Haas ‘15.
What are some of the roles and opportunities you are hiring for?
Gilad: “We are always looking for talented editors. Obviously we’re looking for talented filmmakers in general, but we are always interested in bringing people on who love to put the puzzle pieces together in the edit room. People who love to sit down with hours of footage and work through the clearest, cohesive way to tell a story. Video editing is a role that we’re constantly looking for new people.
Beyond that, social media is a side of the business that we’re very focused on growing. We started with Tom Brady and we’ve since been working with a bunch of other athletes.
We’re looking for people who love to consume social media. People who want to participate in the digital dialogue that’s going on around sports. We’re currently looking for a social media director to join the team to help manage athletes’ accounts as well as generate new creative for prospective clients. There’s really an opportunity for growth in that position as we bring on more and more athletes.”
How would you describe the culture of working at Shadow Lion?
Gilad: “We’re creator and talent focused. My hope is that we can attract and retain really talented creators by providing them opportunities to work on fulfilling projects.
There’s a lot of flexibility and freedom. The culture is just kind of like, you get your work done and the how and when of doing it is your decision. As long as your work is done when it needs to be done, that’s kind of the motto here. Some of our projects are two day turnarounds and others might require two years, so as long as we’re producing quality work and meeting deadlines, there is always flexibility. We want to give talented creators the resources they might not have had previously to continue elevating their work and career.”
How are you currently working during COVID-19?
Gilad: “We have been remote, for the most part. Everyone has a home setup that enables them to do their editing, writing, graphic design, and whatever work they’re responsible for. As far as shooting, we’re having very stripped down productions with two or three of us or we might outsource if it requires extensive travel.”
What excites you the most about working for Shadow Lion?
Gilad: “I think what excites me the most is that we’re in an industry that’s just growing so fast. I don’t really see anybody providing a solution the way that Shadow Lion does, especially as it relates to athletes in the sports world.
Everybody uses the cliche of ‘content is king,’ but it’s true, especially with social media and these channels that individuals are building. So how do you take advantage of that? The answer is usually by serving your audience with compelling and relatable content and storytelling. I think we do a really great job of that and our engagement proves it. So I think what’s really exciting to me is we’re just skimming the surface.”
Do you have any advice for young professionals getting their start?
Gilad: “I think my biggest advice is to always prioritize long term over short term. Coming out of college I wanted to do everything and I wanted to do it yesterday, but something I’ve learned over the last four years of starting and growing Shadow Lion has been patience. If you prepare correctly and you do the work, it should instill confidence that you will succeed. It’s cliche to trust the process, but if you’re doing the work and you have the patience and you’re taking the time to learn and grow, you will succeed.”
Gilad invites current students and alum to reach out directly with additional questions. Students and alum may contact Gilad at: gilad@shadowlion.com
If you are interested in learning more about the company and its work, we encourage you to visit Shadow Lion’s website.
