We were lucky to catch up with Alex Mars recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alex, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?
Across the board, most of my tasks are related to media, management, and marketing. I learned how to design websites when I was in elementary school when my dad gave me one of his old HTML books (I kept saying I was bored), I started to work in Marketing in high school and went on to study it a bit in college, and with management – I had to figure it out because, in college, I was trying to do so many things at once and wanted to feel more ease of mind while balancing so many things.
Growing up, I was always heavily encouraged to pursue my passions and introduced to my parents passions which included technology and art. I think the skills they shared with me that I find I use nearly every day are trouble-shooting abilities and creative problem solving.
Alex, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I entered the entertainment industry my freshmen year of college, pursuing photography. I started to focus on concert photography because I was spending all my money on concert tickets, and thought it would be great to exchange photos for tickets. I loved capturing shows, so I started to shoot for some websites.
I enjoyed those experiences, but felt like I wasn’t finding what I imagined being a part of – so I figured I would try to make it myself. If other people joined, then it must be something more than I am looking for, and maybe it would turn into something. This is what led to the creation of my company, Glasse Factory.
I started out making a website with a couple friends and it kept growing. Now, Glasse Factory is a platform/publication (digital + physical magazine) that offers internships for young adults in the entertainment industry. Our goal is to provide support to artists based off talent + praise, push creative conversations forward, and curate a welcoming community.
We also launched Glasse Mainframe this year, which offers artist management services!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Do your best to be a conscious spender – what I mean by that is actually look for merch sales, patreon subscriptions, and things like that. Usually the creative/musician is offering some really cool content, assets, etc., but also it’s so hard for creatives to compete with bigger companies. If people were more aware of how much of a difference these little ways of support actually do make, I think they would do them more. Especially when most people will spend at least $7 per day on coffee, $5 or $10 per month to one of your favorite creatives should also make sense.
I feel like I see a lot of people saying things like “a career as a creative is a dead end” or a pipe-dream, then still don’t make any efforts to support creatives they consume from daily.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Grammy U’s Mentorship Program
Contact Info:
- Website: www.glassefactory.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/alexxmarss_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marssalexx
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/alexxmarss_
Image Credits
Helana Michelle Alex Mars