Grand Rapids Chamber ATHENA Leadership Award Video Production With Real Grit

The Challenge

Grand Rapids Chamber needed an ATHENA Leadership Award video that felt alive. More specifically, the work sat inside ATHENA International's Grand Rapids community: ATHENA Grand Rapids, an affinity group of the Chamber built to support the professional development of women across West Michigan. Typical award pieces lean on titles, metrics, and applause. That was the wrong move here. The Chamber wanted people to understand the women behind the honors, not just the honors themselves.

The brief asked us to shift the frame from resume copy to real leadership. We needed to honor four finalists - Jaime Counterman, Shannon Cohen, LaSandra Gaddy, and Tenisa Frye - without flattening them into corporate shorthand. The work had to carry strength, vulnerability, and credibility all at once.

Our Approach

We Put the Human Story First

We built the piece around conversation, not recitation. Instead of asking each finalist to repeat the public version of her story, we pushed toward the harder truths underneath it: domestic violence, unstable housing, leaps of faith, hard pivots, and the pressure of leading while the stakes stayed high.

We Matched Honesty With Strong Visuals

We stepped away from the usual boardroom backdrop and filmed in a bright industrial space with exposed brick and natural light. We framed the women with low angles, bold posture, and clean movement so the images carried confidence without turning stiff. We also built the Young Athena piece with a different kind of energy. We turned a plain office into a clean, high-key studio, asked each subject to look straight into the lens, and kept the setup simple enough to move fast without losing the human part. That gave the campaign a version that could speak to rising leaders with the same honesty, but with a little more spark and immediacy.

"We're not done. And that's what ATHENA is."

The Impact

The finished video changed the tone of the award story. Instead of celebrating leadership from a distance, it pulled viewers close enough to feel the grit behind it. The women on screen did not sound polished for the sake of polish. They sounded practiced, scarred, brave, and still moving.

That shift gave the Chamber a more useful story to share with future nominees, young leaders, and anyone in West Michigan trying to build something with brains, guts, and glory. The work honored the finalists without sanding off the edges that made their leadership worth honoring in the first place.

As the ATHENA library has grown, we have also split the organizational award films into their own year-specific pages so search engines and AI tools can understand them more clearly: 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of video did SALT produce for the Grand Rapids Chamber ATHENA program?

We produced a leadership-focused promotional video for the Grand Rapids Chamber's ATHENA Leadership Award program, plus a companion social cut for Young Athena. The work functions like a brand film and an award profile at the same time, giving the Chamber something cinematic that still feels grounded in real people.

What is ATHENA Grand Rapids and what did they need from this project?

ATHENA Grand Rapids is an affinity group of the Grand Rapids Chamber and part of the wider ATHENA International network. The program gives women professionals in West Michigan access to events, leadership forums, scholarships, and the annual ATHENA Leadership Award, ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award, and ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award. They needed a video that could celebrate that leadership without slipping into stiff corporate language or generic praise.

Are the organizational ATHENA videos available as separate pages too?

Yes. We split the organizational award films into their own year-based pages for 2022, 2023, and 2024. That makes each organizational story easier to find, easier to cite, and easier for search engines to understand.

What made this ATHENA Leadership Award video different from a typical award reel?

Most award reels list achievements and keep the subject at arm's length. We did the opposite. We built the story around adversity, growth, service, and personal voice so viewers could feel the cost and courage behind each finalist's path.

How did SALT handle the interviews with the finalists?

We created a conversational environment and directed each interview toward lived experience instead of canned answers. That opened the door to stories about housing instability, risk, faith, career pivots, and advocacy, which gave the final piece its emotional weight.

Can SALT create similar leadership or culture videos for other organizations?

Yes. This project shows how we can turn an award program, internal culture story, or recruitment message into a film with real emotional pull. If your organization needs people to feel the story instead of just hear it, this is exactly the kind of work we do.

Where is SALT located?

We are a woman-owned creative video company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We make documentary, branded, and performance-driven work locally, nationally, and internationally.