There isn’t one “correct” reason to launch a company and that’s the magic of entrepreneurship. Think of it like a lump of dough: you decide what shape it takes.

That freedom, though, only pays off if you pair it with hard earned skills and a solid plan. A killer idea will crumble fast without both.

I’m Clayton Lindley, a country kid from the dirt roads outside Bushland, Texas. My dad, Roger Lindley, is the indie-film workhorse behind docs like The Kurdish Factor and the faith-driven feature Taken by Grace.

Thanks to him, I’d already logged hundreds of on-set hours, commercial and even snagged my first “role” at age two in a local ARNet commercial.

Ragtown Media, the company my father created in 2007. A name that tips its hat to Amarillo’s original nickname, Ragtown.

Watch for my fathers book, Greenlight Yourself: The No-BS Guide to Professional Indie Filmmaking, dropping this September. I’ll circle back with another article once it’s out, breaking down the biggest takeaways and day one tactics you can steal for your own projects.

The beginning

Before I began workin with my dad, I always was obsessed with cameras. My dad bought me a Digital Blue where I started making stopmotion movies with my LEGO’s and Bionicle’s. It was by no means any good but it was a good building block to learn how to work with a camera.

At 9 my dad let me use his DSLR around the house and our family ranch where I took one of my first photos. That photo won me a blue ribbon at the Amarillo State fair. That is where the love for shooting and taking photos.

Early YouTube

At 13, our class got a “suicide awareness” video project assignment. We took it a little too far, yet the teacher still stamped a 100 % for creativity. Around the same time the YouTube erra was just beginning, so my buddy Justin and I launched MrRandomEagle and JustClayTV, making over the top skits and backyard stunt edits straight out of the Jackass/Nitro Circus playbook.

Those pretty cheesy gold uploads taught me early how to shoot, and most important hook an audience before they clicked away.

Low views but start learning young right?

The evolution

At age 12 I began to help him as a grip, PA, 1st AD and editor. This helped me establish my skills at a young age to develop working on big and small sets. A few of those commercials earned me Gold ADDYs for Camera Operations for the “Ethid 747 painting” and Editor on “Taken By Grace” feature.

Eventually our YouTube hype dissipated, while my love for being adventurous, skating, trampoline, cliff jumping and scootering rose. The entire time I continued filming and taking photos of action sports and our daily shenanigans. Looking back I wish we would have kept making this content because the things we would do as a group was pretty wild.

This began a domino effect that led me into a professional freestyle scooter career. Yes you read that correctly.

I began touring and competing around the world where my name begin building with my tricks getting bigger and bigger, and the stage getting larger and larger.

California

After my career taking off, I decided to move to San Diego where the industry was thriving at the time. I live in Escondido California, where I met my best friend Will Cashion aka WhiteTrashWilly. He slept on my floor for a month where we decided to move in with each other.

Once roommates in 2016, realized we needed to make rent. Scootering wasn’t paying all that much, despite us having a decent following.

Will had 30k and I had 60k at the time.

We then came up with an idea to start promoting riders all over the world, mainly focusing on people in areas no one has heard of.

The YouTube had a goal of branching out and doing something different and something that was rare and needed at that time. It was the rise of vlogging, and we thought that was lame. We wanted to make skits, tutorials, building videos, fingerboard videos and anything else we thought was funny or interesting. That is where Undialed was born.

Undialed

Will and I traveled to 40 countries over the course of 6 years and began… a cult. Not really, but pretty much a cult.

We filmed 750 videos and spent 2 years posting a video to YouTube every single day. The consistent flow of film, editing and posting taught us A LOT. Everything from, lost footage, camera gear getting stolen in Barcelona, editing on trains, filming in hostels, sitting at Starbucks to get WiFi to post on instagram/ YouTube videos, and Traveling to a new country every other day while thinking of videos on the spot. This all became regular.

Stressful, yes. Eventful, absolutely. Regretful, not even a little bit.

Doing this taught us how to edit quickly, make shortcuts, workflows, Photoshop, Lightroom, camera settings, Instagram algorithms, YouTube algorithms, and maintaining a tight schedule and stay calm in the chaos.

https://www.youtube.com/@undialed

Transition

While Undialed is still running and in its transitional period. After 24 concussions, dozens of broken bones, sprains, torn groin, 5 fake teeth, broken nose, surgeries, stitches. Winning my biggest event in front of 30,000 people in Montpellier, riding with Nitro Circus and landing some never been done tricks. It was time to focus on more film.

The passion for docs flared up after one of my favorite Undialed videos being this video from Guadalajara, Mexico in 2020.

The Forgotten Community became my catalyst for filmmaking. The vision was originally a fun YouTube video, but became a short documentary.

The stories and mindsets these guys and girls told are eye opening. Seeing people murdered and living under the Cartels law would make the average person have a victim mindset. Not them, the story unfolded as a story of passion and friendship being their driving force, made them so happy and joyful.

In 2022 I got a call from my friend Ryan Parrot, a former Navy Seal who was setting off on a pretty insane feat, 7X.

7 continents, 7 Skydives, 7 Marathons, 7 Swims, in 7 days

This project was done in 164 hours, me being one of the 3 camera operators. I was lucky enough to be in the jump team. My job was to BASE jump and skydive with the runners to then follow them on the marathon on thier loop.

This mission had its hiccups, but it sure did make me hungry for more.

Ragtown 2.0

After this trip, my father passed down the Ragtown Media name to me. The company was rebuilt and the legacy continues.

Up until now has brought a broad range of work. 2022-2024 was filled with industries such as, finance, construction, real estate, luxury plane sales, ranching TV shows, consulting firms, powered paragliding schools, documentaries, and commercials.

2024-2025 Leading into “Barrett Jackson’s Path to Performance Docu Series” and working with RedBull, Swatch, Castrol Oil, Shelby, History Channel and more.

Closing Statement

The biggest advice I can give is to start creating. The times I’ve stopped cause there wasn’t a budget. That project never happened. When the initiative was made, almost every time it has benefited me. The benefit was more confidence, connections, lessons, slap in the face, or a big success with millions of views or 1000 views.

Most people are not doers, the way to start your company is to trust yourself and start. The constant excuses will never end until you can get used to failing.

”I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
— Michael Jordan

Now quit scrolling and make something.