Let’s get to know more about our EO Melbourne Member Paris Thomson, Founder and Creative Director of SIRAP, a content-led creative production studio specialising in film and motion content. Paris has a Bachelor of Communications in Journalism, Media and PR from RMIT and then worked extensively in television in Australia. She is proud to be an Ambassador for Future Women.
Q: Can you give a brief background about you, your family and your business?
I was born and raised in Melbourne with very supportive and inspirational parents. During my time studying Media at RMIT, I also threw myself into every opportunity I could find for experience in the industry — from producing radio segments on RRR to writing for Streetpress publication Beat Magazine and working as a Production Assistant at Network Ten on 7 pm Project. During this time, I fell in love with moving images and the opportunity to marry creativity and commerce. I set up SIRAP from my mum’s kitchen table when I was in my early 20s while juggling jobs at Network Ten, in retail and early mornings rowing coaching, originally working as a one-man-band shooting, directing, producing and editing. And here we are eight years later — with a full-service creative production company, 12 full-time employees and a vision for continued growth this year.
Personally, my fiancé and I got married last month. After a few date changes (and country changes — it was not Italy as planned!), we finally tied the knot at Gimlet at Cavendish House.
Q: What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?
My mum and dad are both creative, entrepreneurial people and both had their own businesses. Dad was a successful commercial advertising photographer and my mum was in the rag trade – running her own amazing fashion agency. From a young age, I was consistently exposed to their working lives as they ran their own show and just made it happen. I never aspired to be an ‘entrepreneur’ per se, but I saw an opportunity to create something amazing in the content world that I didn’t believe was being done successfully, and the concept of running my own business was also an exciting prospect – so one thing led to another, and I guess I’ve come out the other side wearing the entrepreneur hat!
Q: What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur?
I love problem-solving, growing and nurturing a team, developing meaningful relationships with our clients and being my own boss, which means we can be dynamic and do things a bit differently. I love the freedom of vision it allows me to manifest – if we can conceive the idea as a team, the only thing really stopping us from achieving it is ourselves. It’s a pretty powerful proposition and an incredibly exciting way to approach each day.
Q: What are the biggest challenges you have faced as an entrepreneur?
As with the majority of businesses, COVID and the subsequent raft of lockdown has been the most challenging two years of my career. It really forced a whole step-change in how the business functioned in order to keep the team employed and our clients supported. Some innovations included ‘COVID Camera Kits’ where we would uber our talent sanitised camera equipment, FaceTime them on how to set up the film equipment themselves, direct them via zoom to shoot the content and interviews, then our team would edit the content from their remote edit suites in their homes. Directing remotely was also another adventure! We shot the entire production for the Lexus Melbourne Cup and Laminex campaigns via Zoom.
Q: Why did you decide to join EO?
I had heard many great things about EO from various connections and I was delighted to be able to join the organisation. As a business founder and leader, I felt there was much I could learn and workshop with other individuals in a similar position, which would, in turn, help the business and myself grow, as well as be able to share my own experiences and stories with the rest of the network, too.
Q: Can you share a golden nugget that you learned from another entrepreneur or mentor in the past?
Process equals result – focus on the pieces of the puzzle that drive you to success, rather than being distracted by the idea of the success itself.