We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mason Conrad. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mason below.
Mason, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.
One really big change in my field (and many others, recently) is the introduction of artificial intelligence. One reason I love this field is because there’s a very, very high limit on learning capabilities. You could go your entire life practicing some form of media as your career path and still find new ways to accomplish a task. That makes the journey really important to me, almost more than the destination. Learning throughout the field
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Mason Conrad and I’m a freelance graphic designer and video editor. My passions began in 2012 when one of my best friends convinced me to start a YouTube channel. I fell in love with the process of graphic design and video editing as part of that endeavor, and set and achieved my goals set for my channel in 2019. At that point, I decided I wanted to help other content creators build their platforms instead.
Since then, I’ve been passionate about working in any and all types of content creation fields I can. I’ve worked with huge YouTubers turned Netflix stars, billion dollar corporations, and more, creating marketing assets, editing motion graphics and video for their social media or corporate use.
I’m very efficient with the Adobe Creative Suite and my mission has always been to “Tell Your Story”. I believe that everyone has something special to say. I just want to help you say it through whatever media channel they choose. Whether they want a video documentary explaining the process of putting together a pinball machine, to creating high-quality marketing designs that will bring new customers to your business or brand.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
When I was 13 I met one of my best friends in an online chat room on the internet I found on ClubPenguin.com. I was a kid bored of my Xbox, so I logged into my old account that led me there. This was 13 years ago, when we were kids blindly trusting that we weren’t catfishing each other, with no real way to verify our identity other than trust in that moment. He had a YouTube channel and convinced me that I should start one also. We were both super into Nintendo, so that’s what I focused my content towards.
One view turned to 10, 10 turned to 100, 100 to 1000. I kept consistent, but I had just one goal: Hit 10,000 subscribers. About 7 years later I made that happen, and then, just like that, I was done. I was ready to move on. One thing about my channel though that I grew to love so much, were two things. One being the community of people I had built to that point. The second thing is all of the things I learned in that process. Video editing. YouTube branding. Thumbnails. Networking. Storytelling. Don’t be fooled – the people you watch the most on YouTube probably work way harder than most people that you know. However, I didn’t want my work to just, go away. I’m so proud of where that channel got me. But, I was done working for my own channel. So I wanted to work with other creators on theirs.
But part of a business, as any one would know, is compensation. I would have wondered how to build the market to get myself a platform, but what I didn’t realize was for the past 8 years, I was doing just that. I was building a community, and I was networking, and 10,000 people were watching my YouTube channel, and the designs I was making for the thumbnails and the editing in the videos. So, I did the leg work without even realizing I’d want to freelance. I made a tweet the following day along the lines of, “Hey, I’m freelancing now! You’ve seen my YouTube channel and the quality of my work re: thumbnails and editing. If you want YouTube branding or thumbnails, reach out!”
Word of mouth goes a long way. One person I connected with years prior named Steve reached out to me about one of my very first “customers” (I hate that word), who was needing some YouTube thumbnails made. From then on, I hit the ground running. And I never want to stop.
Have you ever had to pivot?
During my teen years I worked at Taco Bell, then moved to a different town where I was closer to college, where I worked at a Jimmy John’s. I was also a full-time student, worked in the marketing department at my college, did video editing with a college in Florida part time, was trying to build my freelance business, while also having the YouTube channel in the back of my head.
Business started getting busy-ish in 2019 when I met one of my best friends, Ralph Ronzio, AKA Retro Ralph on YouTube. He reached out needing some design work done. I was eager for the opportunity. Little did I know, a lot of other doors would be opened from our newfound partnership.
I had a lot of irons in the fire at the time, but that’s how I always liked it. Jimmy Johns was never busy, so one day my phone rang while I was making myself a sandwich from one of my newer contacts I got through Ralph. Not condoning playing on your phone at your job, but once in a while, the call could change your life. I answered Justin D, a content creator and software engineer whose side-hustle was working on a cloud-based server for an arcade company called AtGames. I barely knew this guy, but he saw enough potential in my previous work I’d completed for him and for Ralph, that he decided to take a chance. I was 22 with a contract in front of me on my computer screen that night making 5x/hour what I was being paid at Jimmy Johns. All I had to do was sign it.
The issue was, this was a corporate world where I had very little experience. The contract was for a design position on Justin’s team. It wasn’t super long term, and if I didn’t do well, his boss would have fired me. I had two weeks to prove myself. I signed it. And from then on, I had to believe I was capable.
Two weeks later I quit Jimmy Johns, and the “Take a risk” phase of my life took effect. In those two weeks I learned to believe in myself more than I ever had before. Sometimes you just need other people to give you that extra push.
Since then, I’ve freelanced full-time for content creators on YouTube and have contracts with businesses doing their video editing and motion graphics. The money I saved from working with Justin’s project allowed me to take a year off to build my freelance business. And since then it has sustained.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mconradmedia.com
- Instagram: @MasNConrad
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-conrad-6b8167188/
- Twitter: @MasNConrad
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MasNConrad
Image Credits
Mason Conrad