We were lucky to catch up with Javier Reyes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Javier thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

For almost 5 years now I’ve been able to live off my creative work. When I first began I had no clients, and I had to create something that didn’t exist, and that’s people who cared and who was willing to pay for my services. I had to think about my brand, and the services I wanted to offer within the creative field of photography and videography. Once I understand what I wanted my brand identity to become I then had to do the work to attract those people. This process took almost 2 years to fully grasp what my calling was within the creative space. However once I knew wedding videography was my calling I began to implement my tactics to attract my ideal clients. A major milestone that allowed me to grow and scale was providing value to other businesses within my field of work. Not being competitive and comparing myself to others allowed me to build relationships that has helped my business flourish and create meaningful friendships.

Javier , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a wedding videographer based out of Central FL. While I was in college I took a photography class as an elective in my senior of college, and I became obsessed with it since, and ultimately led to me to fall in love with videography. I graduated in business administration and I knew that I always wanted to own my own business, but I had no idea it was going to be in the creative space. Sundial Creatives is all about documenting life’s most important moments so that our couples can relive it again, and again. To many times I’ve heard the big ” I wish I would have invested in a videographer for my wedding day”, we try to eliminate that by educating our audience on the importance of what it means. The most rewarding feeling is knowing that I’ll be apart of my couple’s legacy, and whenever they watch it I hope that I made such an impression that they’ll remember how much we cared about their day.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

when I first began my business I did anything and everything to survive. I had no plan. my only plan was to figure out how to make an income to survive using my skills. I quickly learned that I was not building a business, but I was a freelancer. My goal was to always build a business, and I needed to pivot. I learned that it’s important to take the time to plan and reflect what your truly skilled at and if there’s a market that is willing to pay for your services. Once you identify your solution, and market that is in need for it, you can then start creating the foundations of your business to grow on.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started with $8,000. I was able to raise the money with my previous full time job. I spent about $4,000 on a laptop, 2 cameras, and a couple of lenses. Then it was time to find clients. I started building my portfolio by doing a lot of free work to gain experience, build relationships, and to start consistently sharing my work to attract paying customers. Whatever income I first received I put it back in the business to get the gear I need for my projects. As I gained more experience, gear, and consistent work it allowed me to start raising my pricing to provide a living wage, and to scale my business. It took me until year 4 year to hit six figures, and now in year 5 I hit six figures in just 6 months. You don’t need a large social media presence to attract clients. You just need to do great work each and every single time you get an opportunity, and people will refer you. Lastly share your story, and tell others what you do as a living! People invest in people,

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Sundialcreatives.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sundial.creatives/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sundialcreatives

Image Credits
None I own them