Source TEN: Telling the untold stories

By: ​Hailey Pitcher, MMAC Communications Intern

When Sandra Dempsey was young, she dreamed of being on TV. However, she instead attended law school in Mexico. After meeting her American husband and immigrating to the United States, though, her childhood dream became a reality. What began as travel vlogging videos eventually turned into her own video production business.  

Over one quarter of U.S. entrepreneurs are immigrants, and Harvard Business Review says their businesses are more likely to thrive as they create job opportunities and revive areas with new ideas. The resilience and unique skill sets often acquired by those immigrating to a new country are a huge asset to communities and the economy, and their businesses bring in billions of dollars.

​This series highlights Milwaukee businesses that are founded, owned and operated by immigrants. We’ve had the privilege of hearing their stories and backgrounds, as well as what makes them so valuable to our community. 

​“My dad is an entrepreneur; my grandpa is an entrepreneur. It’s in my blood,” Dempsey said.  
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Source TEN is a video production company that specializes in telling heartfelt visual stories for non-profit, government and commercial clients. The business enjoys connecting with their audiences and amplifying unheard voices, especially from Latino and diverse perspectives. They have won national awards, including the Paragon and Telly Award.  ​

“We give life to untold stories with artistry and care,” Dempsey said.  ​

Dempsey grew up in Querétaro, Mexico. She went to law school and competed as a power walker in track and field. She opened a corporate law firm, realizing that law was not her passion.  
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In February of 2002, she visited a friend in Ixtapa and ended up meeting her husband while he vacationed at the beach.  
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“In a period of nine months we were married,” Dempsey said.  
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She moved with him to the United States since she spoke English. They soon had children, and Dempsey worked in real estate and with her husband’s business. She described her new life as “building a network from scratch.” 
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“In Spanish we say, with one hand in front and one hand behind...You just come with nothing, with empty hands...but you have hands to work with,” she said. 
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She was connected with ESPN Deportes in 2012 as someone who spoke Spanish and could reach the Latino community, which saved her from returning to law school after her degree didn’t transfer from Mexico. She did sales support, sales, public relations and community outreach.  
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Dempsey then worked at Telemundo, where she was always one of their top three salespeople. However, she didn't feel like she was challenged enough, and still felt a pull to be on TV herself. 

“The hardest part as an immigrant is the fact that you just come with who you are at the core. The experiences you have accumulated, the learnings and the challenges, that stays with you...That’s kind of like your toolbox for what you’re doing next,” she said. 

Instead of being swallowed by the uncertainty of the future, Dempsey decided to reinvent herself. She contacted a friend from Querétaro who was a video producer, and who had also moved to Milwaukee. 
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They started travel vlogging in 2018, producing videos in Spanish about activities to do in Milwaukee.  
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“It made me feel so alive,” Dempsey said.  
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“All of a sudden, through that hobby, I became credible when it came to video production,” she said.  
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She produced a video for State Fair and for Marquette University’s launch of their Spanish website.  
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“My heart was in the storytelling, in communications. In two to three minutes, you can say so much visually and with words,” Dempsey said.  
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Almost immediately after leaving Telemundo, she met her first employee, a student at MATC who filmed for them.  
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Dempsey’s business launched only a few months before the pandemic, so she quickly had to pivot, a skill that has been vital to the success of her business.  
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“I turned my Facebook page into an informative page about COVID, but more from a holistic perspective, like what we need to do to stay healthy. I had therapists, I had doctors, I had healers...It was all for the Latino community,” she said.  
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In 2021, the business grew rapidly. Word was spreading, and they had built a good reputation. She worked with clients like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM), Prime Financial and MATC, producing videos in both English and Spanish.  
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She named the business Source TEN. In Mexico, ten is the number of excellence. It is also the Spanish word for handing over. Dempsey hoped to give of her business as the source of creativity and excellent video content.  

​Source TEN is unique because of its focus on diversity. They have the ability to reach unheard communities from the perspectives of a diverse team and a Latina CEO who understand not always being welcomed. 

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“We advocate for diversity, we live diversity and we create a lot of diverse content,” Dempsey said.  

“I am proud to say that a lot of companies have done their first Hispanic outreach thanks to the support that they have gotten from us,” she said.  
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As a video producer, one of the current challenges is creating material that consistently grabs the attention of an audience. It can be difficult to work in a creative industry where Dempsey must constantly produce new ideas, especially when not everyone sees the value of storytelling.  
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“We have to be really smart and strategic and creative and intuitive,” she said.  
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On the other hand, Dempsey finds it extremely rewarding to see the finished videos and share them with their clients after the hard work that she and her team put in to produce them. 

​“I still cry when I watch some of our videos,” she said. 

​Dempsey doesn’t think she would be in video production if she still lived in Mexico and appreciates Milwaukee for both its new possibilities and its similarities to her city, Querétaro.  
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“I don't see myself doing anything else but what we’re doing,” she said.  ​