Sam Small has been involved in business communication and product marketing since earning his BS in Speech Communication from Penn State in 1979.

At a time when television was almost exclusively done by the networks, local stations and advertising agencies (Betamax was just coming to market), Sam forged a career as an independent in non-broadcast TV using video to present complex messages in a palatable and interesting manner.

For years, freelancing in financial services marketing, Sam created video prospectuses for most of the major brokerage firms and insurance companies on products ranging from real estate investment trusts to thoroughbred racehorse syndicates.

Major corporate image projects for The New York Times, AT&T, Sony and Parade Magazine allowed Sam to define a personal directing and editorial style that told densely-woven stories using real-person interviews mixed with natural sound, relying on little or no narration.

Sam had the privilege to be hired to edit a series of videos for Gurumayi Chidvilasananda the spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path. Living in the ashram was inspiring and actually getting paid to work for a Guru was an honor.  “You must have extraodinary karma” the devotees all said.

In 1996 a long standing client, the director of marketing at Fidelity Investments, moved to Prudential where he proposed using Sam’s particular documentary style for their new national television advertising, against the advice of Prudential’s advertising agency Bozel Eskew. The success of the campaign triggered the release of Bozel and brought Sam “inside” as Prudential’s Vice President of Broadcast Services. There he built and maintained a broadcast production facility, directing and editing nearly 300 national spots in 8 years, twice airing on the Superbowl. Sam’s storytelling contributed greatly to the success of one of the largest public offerings in the history of Wall Street when Prudential Financial went public in 2002.

Getting paid to make videos for a guru had seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime event, but it happened again!  This time with rare footage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of TM – Transcendental Meditation, and most well know as The Beatles’ guru in the 70’s. No one before had ever been given access to the guru’s video archives so Sam again felt privileged to be paid to work with rare footage for an extraordinary purpose.

In 2005 Sam said “Aloha” to Prudential and moved himself and his production company Small Wonder Video Services from the island of Manhattan to the island of Maui.

Maui is the home of the spiritual teacher Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now responsible for introducing millions to the mysteries and delights of psychedelics and Eastern philosophy and practice.

The Guru thing happened again when Sam was placed on retainer to film and promote Ram Dass’s retreats. It’s a pleasure and again an honor to be paid to construct messages expressing the full range of human potential to the benefit of all beings.

Maui is proving to be a fertile environment and evolving with the medium Sam is doing extensive web-based marketing and is launching a new on-line music video distribution channel, mauiheartsong.tv.

Stay Tuned!