The First Brand That Took a Chance on Me

Big breaks often start as small bets.

Every creative remembers their first real break.

The one that made all the small gigs, the cold emails, the favors for friends and the late nights finally feel like they were leading somewhere.

For me, that moment came with two names that didn’t even sound real together: LEGO and Walmart.

Two titans of the retail and entertainment world - and somehow, they wanted to work with my still-young company, Momentous.

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🎬 The Project

LEGO was partnering with Walmart to test out a new format: shoppable live streams.

They’d have a Master Builder and a LEGO Masters host going live - building, telling stories, talking about new products, and interacting with a massive audience in real time.

By the end of it, over 4 million people tuned in and the stream was a hit - for both brands.

But what mattered most to me wasn’t the view count. It was the fact that they trusted us with something brand new.

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🧰 The Setup

I got the job because of my past work on live and live-to-tape multicam productions with Larry King. But this was definitely different.

We weren’t in a controlled studio. Quite the opposite.

We were flying across the country to Enfield, Connecticut, home of LEGO’s U.S. headquarters - to build a live studio setup inside one of their conference rooms…

We brought:

• Cameras, lighting, and teleprompters

• A full live-switching system

• Audio gear

• Our entire operation

…all packed into suitcases.

The budget was modest - this was a test of the format, and of us - so instead of renting, we traveled with the gear we already owned.

It was scrappy, sure. DIY, yeah. And a little insane…

We set everything up the day before the stream, tested every angle, every cable, every possible failure point.

And thank god we did.

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✈️ The Chaos

The night before our set up day, our connecting flight from Chicago to Connecticut was canceled.

We were stranded…

So, me and my friend (who was also directing the project), Trevor, rerouted on the fly - booked the last-minute flight to New York City, landed at 12:30 a.m., rented a car, and drove through the night to Connecticut.

We got there early that morning, bleary-eyed, barely caffeinated, with just enough time to get a tiny bit of sleep, and be ready to set up.

And somehow… it all went perfectly.

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🎯 The Outcome

The stream went off without a hitch. You can see it here. The client was thrilled.

And later, LEGO called us back for another one.

And then brought us on to produce other videos for the brand.

That job became the cornerstone of how Momentous began - the turning point where “creative production” became creative leadership.

This wasn’t the project that allowed me to “quit my day job”. But it was the project that led to the project, that led to the project, that allowed me to quit my day job.

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💡 The Lesson

That LEGO x Walmart job taught me something I’ve never forgotten:

Big breaks rarely show up looking like big breaks.

They show up as tests. As “can you pull this off?” moments.

When brands take a chance on you, they’re not betting on your experience - they’re betting on your preparation.

And when you treat a test project like a tentpole, you turn a modest opportunity into momentum that compounds.

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Every project since then - from global campaigns to storytelling series - has carried a bit of that same energy:

The scrappy, sleep-deprived, suitcase-lugging belief that if someone gives you a shot, you make it count.

Because you never know which “small” project will become the one that defines your path.

Cheers,

Alex