Who Doesn’t Like to WinN?

The Big Winn story is one about deep roots, big dreams, hard work, and divine intervention. Shane Michelli is the visionary behind Big Winn Studios. He and Stephanie are Baton Rouge natives with family roots in Northeast Louisiana. Over the last two decades, their family has lived all over the country, following Shane’s career as a CEO and investor. Shane is the founder and president of Blue Aqua Agency, a full-service consulting and marketing firm, as well as Big Winn Studios and his ministry, Sword and Shield.

During the Covid pandemic, Shane and Stephanie returned to Louisiana, settling on beautiful Lake Bruin in St. Joseph, and bringing with them ideas and influences from all the places they’ve lived. After their younger son went to college, they began to channel their energy into a new venture. First on the list was to find a permanent home for Blue Aqua Agency. Additionally, Shane wanted to bring skills developed working with Fortune 500 Companies home to Louisiana.

Their search led to downtown Winnsboro, Louisiana. A chance conversation over a cup of coffee led to an available building, which led to a home for Blue Aqua, and eventually to the creation of Big Winn. The building was perfect - and large. It didn’t take long to develop a plan to fill the rest of the space.

Also in need of a workspace was Sword and Shield, a ministry created in October 2020 in the heat of the Covid pandemic. Shane was moved during that time to develop a ministry aimed at encouraging others with the good news of the Gospel. Through this venue, doors began to open for Shane and Stephanie to merge their professional content creation skills with their ministry, which needed growing room. Sword and Shield would easily fill some of the space in the building. Some, but not nearly all.

A full-service audio recording and video production studio was a natural outcrop of the creative demands of marketing. So, Big Winn was developed in part to serve the creative arm of Blue Aqua Agency and Sword and Shield, while also operating independently as a boutique audio and video production company. Ultimately, the purpose is to combine creativity with technology and mix that with people to give life to all our stories.

Somehow this crooked road of deep roots, big dreams, hard work, and divine guidance has led the Michellis to downtown Winnsboro, to a vintage building on the corner, to pioneer a new, creative venture. And that, y’all, is what we call a Big Winn. (See what we did there?)