Hey, I'm Brady

Hey!  My name is Brady and I'm in charge of pretty much anything media related around here…  My involvement with Global Support Mission (and later Red Earth Trading Co.) began in the winter of 2006.  I was in college and was roommates with Travis Gravette when he told me of an upcoming trip he was planning to Uganda.  So after thinking and praying about it, I decided to tag along.  

At the time I was studying recording engineering outside of Nashville and I was trying to figure out how I could make myself useful and how I could use my talents to further the work of GSM.  Since I naturally gravitate towards all things media, filming ended up being a perfect fit.  So a couple months before we left for Uganda, we bought a camera.  Having rarely even held a video camera before, I started messing around and making short videos around town.  As terrible as most of them were(and trust me, they were terrible…), it gave me a chance to get more familiar with filming and we ended up with over 30 hours of footage from that first trip.  From that point, I was hooked.  

After that first trip, I decided that working for GSM was what I wanted to do full time and over the next three years I  worked towards that goal.  During that time I spent tons of time teaching myself video editing, animation, graphic design and web development.  By early 2010 I was able to stop working side jobs just to scrape by and this allowed me to put all of my energy and efforts towards Global Support.  

Later that year, we created a "Direct-Trade" company called Red Earth Trading Co.  It was something that was birthed naturally from GSM, through the relationships we built and the needs we saw on the ground.  

The way we've set up our operations at RETCo is truly awesome!   Through our sales, we are able to pour 100% of our income back into Global Support and therefore back into the communities that we work in.  This creates a sustainability piece for not only the communities we work in, but also for GSM as a non-profit.  In turn, this allows us to put an even greater amount of our donor's gifts directly towards pressing needs!

All in all, the past few years have been an incredible adventure.  I never could have imagined how difficult it would be, but the challenges pale in comparison to the joy of seeing lives saved and communities transformed!  I can't wait to see where the coming months and years take us!

Brady

You can view our latest RETCo video here.