We recently connected with Justin Giddings and have shared our conversation below.

Justin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was just a little kid, I loved to perform for my whole family by dancing to Michael Jackson songs. The dancing was meh, but I loved the attention! From there I moved into voiceover work and from the wee age of 7 I started working professionally and have never looked back!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After working as an actor in Los Angeles for a decade, I felt… stuck. It felt like I was always waiting for permission to be creative, that someone else was in charge of my career. So I decided to move into filmmaking and creating my own projects, but there was a big problem: making movies is expensive!

At the time, crowdfunding via Kickstarter and Indiegogo was relatively new and it had a terrible reputation for being a place where creatives would just beg for handouts. I needed funding, but I didn’t want to repeat the sins of previous campaigners. After researching, I discovered that the best campaigns really ran on solid marketing principles, rather than a “spray and pray” approach of just spamming your friends.

Well, I come from a family of entrepreneurs and took a TON of marketing courses in college (since I was a terrible waiter – the standard actor job – and knew I better have an alternative form of employment)! So I applied my marketing skill set and viola: I raised $100k over two campaigns for two short films.

This launched my filmmaking career, but I started receiving referrals and realized there was a real need for business and marketing principles in the lives of creatives. I launched The Kickstarter Guy in 2015 and, to date, I’ve helped clients raise $11 million with a 97% success rate! I eventually expanded my consulting in film festivals and high-level executive/investor networking by partnering with the co-founder of Slamdance and a former Silicon Valley VC consultant, respectively.

My company is now called Greenlight Yourself LLC and my small team serves thousands of filmmakers and creative artists through free trainings, courses, group coaching, and private consulting work! I’m proud to be a part of empowering creative voices!

Oh, and I still make movies: my first feature will be coming out in 2024!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I love reading and while I usually stick to fiction, there are a few books I recommend to every client:

The One Thing – Gary Keller’s book on identifying and leaning into “the one thing” that will have the most significant impact on achieving your goals is required reading, imho.
The Daily Stoic – Both the business and creative fields require an extraordinary amount of resiliency. I find the principles in TDS to be both practical and cumulative.
The War of Art – By anthropomorphizing the concept of Resistance, author Steven Pressfield offers both practical and philisophical insights on getting out of our own way.
The Alchemist – My favorite book, and allegory for living a life where the journey itself is the true destination

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe that artists act as the archetypal “shamans” of the human tribe. While we all “hunt & gather” – work – to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, we need emotional and transcendent experiences to provide meaning and joy and entertainment to our lives. This is where art plays a role; we experience catharsis, are intellectually challenged, and are enriched by these experiences. Artists play an important function to society, and I take that responsibility very seriously!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thekickstarterguy.com
• Instagram: justingiddings
• Facebook: justingiddings
• Linkedin: justingiddings
• Twitter: justingiddings