We recently connected with Matt Ebbers and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

My journey learning photography and video production have been almost entirely self-taught because I never expected either to become my career. I always say that I graduated from the “YouTube School of Visual Arts”.

The one thing that would have sped up my learning process would be realizing earlier that producing visuals was my calling. I went to school for Audio Production, so visuals were always secondary in support of audio as my primary pursuit.

The most essential skill for learning any craft is the meta-skill of knowing your personal learning style. I was diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school, so from an early age I’ve always been self-aware of learning styles and how I can best set myself up to succeed in an educational setting. Another crucial skill when learning craft is pattern recognition. Being able to identify patterns in software functionality, camera UI (in my case), identifying key characteristics, the list goes on.

The single biggest obstacle that hindered my early development was fallaciously equating my skill level with my self worth. Because I was embarrassed of producing amateur work the net result was that I executed less. As a consequence I developed at a much slower pace and have created much less work.

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 bought my first DSLR at a local department store (Boscov’s in Binghamton, NY) when I was 14 and always loved taking photos as a hobby. I never thought of photography as a career-path, so I attended school for Audio Production. In pursuing music recording naturally began to incorporate video and photography into my projects. I was able to leverage my multimedia portfolio into a full-time Staff Associate for Video & Photography position at SUNY Broome. Today I still pursue music and audio as a passion, and maintain a multimedia production studio in downtown Binghamton for my freelance work.

The type of creative works I provide ranges from event photography/videography, product images, social media content, commercial video, headshots, voice-over recording, music recording, almost anything multimedia that you can imagine I’ve probably tried. The main thing that sets me apart from other creative service providers is probably my highly-generalist skillset. Because I spent so much time after college pursuing so many different interests I’ve been able to develop a fairly unique collection of complimentary skills.

The thing I’ll always be most proud of is being able to positively contribute to someone else’s journey. Whether it’s a headshot or a full-on ad campaign, the opportunity to help someone realize their vision and pursue their dreams is extremely special to me.

The main takeaway from my work is that I use my journey as a creative services provider as a means of self-development. I love what I do and through pursuing creativity as a career I’ve learned that my purpose is twofold:
1. Realize my full potential through creative pursuits.
2. Help others do the same through my creative practice.

I strive to learn and create with the heart of an artist, and the head of an entrepreneur.

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

From when I graduated High School in 2013 up to spring 2020 my main goal had been to build a career in audio. The main niche I had been pursuing was live event production and recording (essentially mixing a live band while multi-track recording each instrument to mix into media to distribute on the back-end).

I had found success in a growing live sound career, but when the pandemic hit in 2020 I pivoted back into studio production. I found a space downtown I had built out into a project studio for recording and mixing, but my side-pursuit of photo and video work had proved to be not only much more fulfilling but also in considerably higher demand.

So I found myself pivoting out of live sound production, into studio production, into photo/video production over the course of the last three years. Each pivot directly lead to the other, so it has been a natural progression and I’m immensely grateful for the journey.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Early on I made the commitment that if I valued my work and the sustained ability to pursue it, then I needed to pursue the business and mechanical aspects of creative services.

A pitfall that many creatives fall into is singularly focusing on the work without learning the best practices or economic factors directing their ability to maintain their practice.

Some of the books that have been integral have been “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, “The Dip” by Seth Godin, “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” by Blair Enns, and “The Laws of Creativity” by Joey Cofone.

The video and podcast content from Chris Do and “The Futur” has made the single biggest impact on my career as a creative service provider. Whether it’s pricing, client interaction, self-development, etc – they have multiple pieces of concise and effective content that educates creatives on how to build a sustainable career. The way I conduct myself and my business has been directly shaped by Chris Do and his team and I’m extremely grateful for the services they provide to the creative entrepreneur community.

Contact Info:

• Website: mattebbers.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m.e.creativeworks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/m.e.creativeworks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattebbers/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattebbers