We were lucky to catch up with Tony Pu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tony, thanks for joining us today. Over the course of your career, have you seen or experienced your industry completely flip-flop or change course on something?

I used to be a creative producer specializing in video production and photography, and of course a camera nerd who strived for visual excellence. In the “old days”, the production quality could go a long way in winning an audience, but now it’s not the case anymore.

With the rise of short video content, the barrier of entry for being a content creator is lower than ever, and production quality now is far from the priority — let’s face it, why would it even matter when you only get 15 seconds to appreciate it, right? Instead, content making now is all about being fun and engaging, and sometimes looking raw and organic is even desired and preferred to achieve that.

Luckily, I also made a change at the right time, and now I’m privileged to work at one of the major platforms as a creator manager, guiding creators to not only create great-quality content, but also learn to best leverage the platform for their success. So this U-turn in the industry also has been a pivotal point for my personal career path.

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 have always been very passionate about photography and film production, and have been pursuing this path for the majority of my career — both at agencies and in-house. Throughout the process, my thought processes have evolved from purely production-driven, to result-driven — the priority is to make productions that actually work, instead of those that only look nice (of course I still appreciate production quality).

Maybe it was becasue of this philosophy, an opportunity came and I was able to join a major video editing app that was growing like a rocketship as the first member on the US team, specifically to launch a creator program for the video template content platform. I’m a great fit for this role because I have an “eye” for content production from my previous experiences, but I’m also totally comfortable navigating various metrics for the performance, hence being able to guide creators from both qualitative and quantitative standpoints.

What really has made me proud is that I have helped numerous creators grow from non-creators, to now full-time content-creators making substantial and consistent income from template making on our platform, really achieving financial freedom doing something they love, which has never come across their minds before.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I grew up being an introvert. The lesson that was always told to me was I needed to “step out of my comfort zone” and try to be more extroverted, and the benefits associated with it. And it was not completely wrong, as I have developed many qualities such as leadership, public speaking, networking skills, etc throughout the years of trying. However, now I start to find that I’m only myself when not trying, and it makes me happier and more satisfied. Now I think being an introvert could be equally or even more rewarding for career and personal development as well, as it makes me a great listener who can better empathize.

I think many people have been in the same situation as me, being exposed to so many success stories and feeling obliged to push themselves to become another version of themselves. But I think instead of going after complementary qualities, most people would be much better off being true to themselves, staying consistent, and developing further and deeper qualities along the same direction; to me that’s the key to building a personal brand.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m a big fan of Chris Do and his YouTube channel “The Futur”. His videos and principles completely transformed how I view creative work. Most creatives only see the final deliverables — a logo, a video, a website, etc — and are trained to focus on the skill sets for those only. However, what they don’t realize is that makes their work transactional, and all they’re providing is just a service. What Chris Do has taught me is the shift in mindset from just the deliverable, to the purposes it serves and the business impacts it creates. It’s not about the craft, but more about knowing what actually works and using the craft to realize it. I highly recommend anyone in the creative industry to learn from this mindset, especially when feeling like hitting a plateau — because oftentimes, the skills are not the bottleneck.