Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Wonderlin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mark, appreciate you joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I feel very fortunate to have two amazing and loving parents. They supported me through all the peaks and valleys that is entrepreneurship, and they have really forged the person I am today.

I grew up outside of Chicago in the suburbs and saw my dad wake up every day at 3:00 am to head to work and come home close to 6:00 pm after his second job. I saw firsthand every single day what it meant to have a good work ethic. On the weekends, if he wasn’t picking up extra hours, he was at sports games, fixing anything that we broke and telling me the importance of having pride in what you do.

As a young kid, I really didn’t understand, but as I grew into adulthood, I embodied a hard work ethic and took pride in anything I did, whether work-related or not. When I did chores, my dad would say, “Are you proud of that? Is that something you could put your name on and say you did it?” I would have that voice in the back of my head with every video project I filmed, and every edit I was ready to send off to the client.

My mom is the ultimate super-mom. Growing up, she cooked, cleaned, worked, and was there every single day to take us and pick us up from school. She taught me patience, understanding, and love. She has shaped me into the person I am today and the way I interact with clients and team members.

Whenever my team or I am telling a story, I always emphasize the importance of “falling in love with our client’s client.” Because ultimately, that is who we are creating the video for The person watching the video. I order to be great visual storytellers; we have to show empathy and understand the person that’s watching the video.

Through my mom’s love, support, and caring heart, she showed me what that meant. She taught me both directly and indirectly by watching the way she interacts with people. That experience has helped shape who I am as a person, a professional, and a video storyteller.

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’m a Chicago native, I went to Eastern Illinois University and majored in corporate communications with an advertising minor. That helped land me a job with a company called, “Schutt Sports.” At Schutt, I got great exposure and experience in a variety of creative roles – photography, print design, website design, SEO, social media, print ads, video, packaging design, and pretty much anything else you can think of in the world of marketing.

I moved to Austin in 2016 with the vision of opening my own video company and taking my passion for creativity coupled with my knowledge of sales & marketing.

I was able to take my passion for creativity, as well as my knowledge of sales & marketing and create a production company that has grown significantly over the years and offers artistry with a marketing approach that I’m really proud of.

The name “Mosaic” came from the idea that a video when done well has all these different elements that come together (footage, music, sound design, graphics, interviews) to make something beautiful, just like a Mosaic.

Since 2014, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to 6 countries in Asia, Canada, South America, and Central America, and got to hang out with Richard Branson in Africa & Nectar island. All the while being able to help an array of businesses and brands throughout Austin & Texas.

For the past few years, I’ve built an incredible team of creatives who have helped me take the company to the next level in quality and the number of clients we can help.

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

When I first moved to Austin, I had huge aspirations for becoming a full-time videographer and building and amazing business. I took it one step at a time with relationship building, strategic partners, and putting everything I could into every single video I created.

After a couple of years, I was getting some great momentum with my video business, but my mentor and friend asked me to collaborate with him on a new venture. Where instead of creating business videos for clients, we’d be teaching other aspiring filmmakers how to create compelling business videos.

So, I completely pivoted to that, tossed my video business to the side, and pursued the training company. After a few years, I completely got burned out, but in the process, I was immersed in different marketing.

I came across an “Amazon Business” where I could create and sell eCommerce products online, and I could leverage my marketing and video knowledge to make more “passive income.”

To pursue & research that, I went to an intensive 3-day intensive, and this was going to be my next pivot. I would build on my marketing knowledge and leverage my video ability. However…… the conference had the opposite effect on me. I left with my head spinning with all the complexities of building an eCommerce brand and thought to myself,

“I could do so much more if I just go back to my roots and passion with video.”

So, I did just that! I pivoted or really went full circle back to my video production company and solely focused all my energy on it. I built my network, started marketing, hired staff and continued to build the company with a singular focus.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think as an entrepreneur, you have to always be resilient and positive. I often have to remind myself that “it’s not easy, if it was everyone would do it.”

For instance, I recently had a combination of bad circumstances that put a lot of toll on the company and myself, but being positive and resilient in the face of obstacles helped me pull through.

We had our weekly team meeting and on the phone, my director was walking up to the company van only to discover that someone broke in. He frankly looked through the van and saw that the camera, lens, drone, gimbal, and audio bags were all stolen. Literally, $15K in camera equipment is completely gone. But what about insurance – right? Well, insurance would only cover up to $1K per item and a max of $5K total. Each camera was $2,500 so they were not covered and it was debatable on how much insurance would actually cover. On top of that, we had a shoot the next day, no equipment and anyway, I looked at it, it was going to be a huge loss.

Then, to make matters worse, our marketing campaigns were not performing at all. Where we once were getting several leads a week, it trickled to only a few opportunities a week.

With a positive attitude, I focused on the things that I could control and prioritized the things that needed to be done to get back on track. I believe that as an entrepreneur or just being a human – LOL we’re all going to have challenges that come up and how you persevere over those challenges builds the person you are and will become.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://mosaicmediafilms.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_media_films/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mosaicmediafilms
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3186306/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mosaicmediafilms8230
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mosaic-media-films-austin