We recently connected with Alec Coutinho and have shared our conversation below.
Alec, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
I am initially from Fall River, Massachusetts. Born and raised. I started bouncing around when I turned 21 visiting all sorts of cities in the US. One of the first was Atlanta in 2019. I came to visit a hometown friend that had moved here from MA. I really enjoyed my time, it was the beginning of the Beltline development and the overall boom of the city. I was in love. The weather, the people, the surroundings. It all spoke to me a in a really special way. Fast forward to me turning 22, I did a massive road trip around the east/mid west United States. My situation was unique at the time, all my classes were online and didn’t really have much work going on because of the pandemic, so I just did my thing. My last stop before heading home was Atlanta to visit that same friend. It was wild how different the city was after just a few short years of absence. I couldn’t believe the growth of the city, and how fast it turned into something that was almost unrecognizable from the last time I saw it. Then and there was when I knew I was going to live in Atlanta, it was a really cool gut feeling. I just knew it was right.
The end of that weekend visiting the last thing I said to my friend Cain was; “next time you see me, it’s because I’m moving here.” I got back to MA and went straight to business. An opportunity with Porsche Design for an internship popped up and applied right away. I had told my family that I had a job lined up down here before I left, but in reality I had absolutely nothing guaranteed. I got here and the transition completely caught me off guard. I found the cheapest apartment I could find, it was at Westmar Student Lofts. To put it in perspective, I was paired with two random roommates. One was selling substances out of the apartment, and the other constantly had the wrong people around them and even firearms. It was crazy, but taught me a lot. A month into living here in ATL, I received and offer from Porsche Design for my internship. I was so relived.
Moving here to the city is the biggest gamble I have ever taken in my life. Never before this I took chances, I had a safe network and net in general back in Fall River. I wanted to change who I was as a person, and I got exactly what I wanted. A reinvented character.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started off within the automotive commercial space. Early in my career, I found myself working with companies such as Motortrend, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and others. I made sacrifices like everyone else in this world. I made shooting cars the only thing I thought about. I am profoundly passionate about it. I could write a novel about it, and one say I will! Today, I work with a diverse amount of brands. From running brands like Salomon, to Nascar. I am able to work with brands I genuinely have a connection with. What I bring to the table is that I’m able to deliver a commercial grade product that sticks out from the rest. How? I have a street feel to my work. You can look at my imagery and be like “Oh, Alec did that for sure.” I didn’t lose touch with what I came from, and I believe in ALL aspects of life you follow that. What problems does that solve? It diversifies your organizational reach. You’re not limited to a specific look with me.
I’m proud of my hustle/work ethic, I have been able to work with people and brands I thought wouldn’t even give me the light of day when I was younger. The people around me are what matters the most, they are able to recognize that I have good intentions, and I am passionate about my craft.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Something vital that transformed the way I think was replacing activities like going out with sport. I am an avid runner and run with a run club here in Atlanta called Balance Running. Observing the faster runners has helped me realize that I need to slow down to hang out with them. It’s the long-game. The harder I go on my body on short notice, the more damage I do and the less chances I have running with faster pace groups. The main lesson I learned is that I need to put my pride to the side to make things work the way they should. After that, it was like my third eye opened.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I rarely show-face on socials, and really only post the projects that I feel like in the moment. I don’t care about the numbers either, it gets into your head. Building an audience came by accident really, I work a lot with publications with millions of followers, so when they use my imagery and credit me people find me pretty easily. There are people that really hustle that kind of stuff, and good for them but that’s just not where my attention is really. I let it happen organically, because the follower/like count does not matter to me.
If you are going after thousands of followers, your work will do the talking for you. People will find you, and it’s a domino effect after that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aleccoutinho.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/aleccoutinho
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleccoutinho/
Image Credits
Photo of myself taken by Adib Zaidi