Meet Dr Teri Jory, Founder of Poise Productions

Dr Teri Jory was born and raised in Las Vegas before moving to Santa Barbara to earn her Ph.D in Political Psychology, Statistics, and Public Policy. She owns a production company, Poise Productions, that creates prizewinning educational and community videos – a natural progression from working as an award-winning news anchor and reporter.

As an entrepreneur, Teri brings an innovative-solutions approach of business acumen with empirical problem-solving techniques. These pragmatic leadership skills are balanced with Teri’s empathy and compassion toward the empowerment of those that are underrepresented in our community like survivors of human trafficking by serving on the District Attorney Human Trafficking Task Force and survivors of sexual assault where she serves on the Board of Standing Together To End Sexual Assault (formerly Rape Crisis Center). Furthering the empowerment model, Teri is a 4^th degree black belt and teaches a DFWM Personal Safety Workshop (DFWM – don’t F*** with me) empowering women and all genders around the world.

For Teri, life is a team effort, and therefore is driven by her collaborative skills of taking divergent views and directing them towards a common goal. She brings this collaborative approach as an entrepreneur as well as a community organizer which is reflected in her position as the President of Our Mesa Neighborhood Inc. in Santa Barbara. Among the community projects Teri has championed are:

The Jon Gathercole Heroes Island: Raised over $45,000 to honor our community heroes – essential workers who during CoVid-19 came to work everyday while “sheltering in place” orders were in place risking their health so neighbors could have their necessities. It is a successful partnership with Mesa Architects implementing an environmentally sustainable garden for residents to enjoy.
Arts Renaissance on the Mesa covering traffic utility boxes with local art.
Mesa Safe – Initially, a door-to-door campaign supported by the Fire Dept educating neighbors to be disaster prepared; currently Teri’s team of volunteers are making homemade masks for essential City workers, grocery store clerks, those with special needs, and seniors.
Cliff Drive Crosswalks and Pedestrian/Bikepath: Successfully advocated for Cliff Drive crosswalks and pedestrian/bikepath from Hendry’s Beach to Santa Barbara City College so our children have safe routes to school.
1000 Steps Beach Renovation – Instrumental in rallying community support for community safety.

Teri’s philosophy as an entrepreneur is that it is important to always learn, grow, and share to empower each other making our communities strong, safe, and productive.

Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is Poise Productions all about?

Poise Productions produces educational and community programs for television and social media. Our filming focuses on the heartfelt passion from the client’s perspective about their specific subject matter. Authenticity is key in any messaging across all media, so speaking from the heart, creates natural meaningful content. Being genuine makes it fun to film for both the client and the filmmaker resulting in a successful final product.

Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?

I believe communication is a pinnacle characteristic in society. As a young girl growing up in a pawn shop (my family had the first pawn shops in Las Vegas), I learned from the masters the art of communication. Our customers came from diverse backgrounds across a multitude of generations and lifestyles (from homeless to mafia bosses to members of congress). My father explained to me that the art of communication makes the entire world go around. A life lesson that was an evolution of sorts towards my now successful production company. Working as a television newscaster in Las Vegas, I went on to become an award-winning anchor and reporter refining the skills of communicating important issues to the public.

I am now a 4^th degree black belt and personal trainer with a PhD in Political Psychology where I have always created videos to communicate to my clients and students the art of being successful in their health & safety, and educational aspirations. Poise Productions was a natural progression bringing an innovative-solutions approach of business acumen with empirical problem-solving techniques supporting my clients in a successful outcome.

What are your plans, how do you plan to grow Poise Productions?

I’m proud to say that Poise Productions has and continues to grow by word of mouth: person-to-person as well as social media. The plan is to continue doing exactly what I’m doing – generating authentic and creative content. I enjoy learning about the people and organizations I film, and working with a great team!

What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?

I can honestly say that there were no major mistakes starting up. But I do believe that a successful entrepreneur learns new ways of developing their business on a daily basis. Businesses shouldn’t be static, they should continuously be evolving just like society. For my business, that means keeping up with the pulse of the community, as well as filming and social media technology.

It also means that during this pandemic learning to pivot to stay relevant. Poise created a television and virtual community program shining a light on issues in our community, and connecting people who may feel isolated. Our team’s goal was to give people the tools they needed to navigate through these challenging times, thus, “The Resource” was born.

How do you separate yourself from your competitors?

I love what I do, and produce original and creative content through the authentic voices of my clients. Each client has their own story to tell which I discover, then communicate it through creative and powerful content.

What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?

As an educational and community filmmaker, I keep in touch with the daily pulse of people, organizations, and important issues facing the community.

The Multi-Hyphen Life: Work Less, Create More, and Design a Life That Works for You – Emma Gannon
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Strategies for Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field – Suzanne Doyle Morris, PhD
Women Seen and Heard: Lessons Learned From Successful Speakers – Lois Phillips, PhD and Anita Perez Ferguson, PhD

If you only had $100 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?

I would rent or get whatever piece of equipment or merchandise (even if it’s only one) is pertinent to the business and do whatever it takes to get some inventory going. With my business, it would mean renting a camera to film. As capital increases, continuously invest those gains (small or large) to further the growth of the business.

You must be determined to be a successful entrepreneur whether you have lots of money or a little starting up. And it is possible to grow your business no matter what – in a good economy or even being in a pandemic with a bad economy. To be a successful entrepreneur, it takes patience, persistence, and perseverance.