We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alex Romo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I like to believe life is made from the risks we choose to take. Now, I’d consider myself a risk taker with one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken being to go after this dream of traveling the world, telling stories, and making a difference all for a living/career. I’ve heard numerous stories similar to mine where people just take that leap and see what happens. I chose a different approach, which is why I believe I’ve had the success I do now. This has been the most calculated risk I’ve taken, given that it was a 6 year long side hustle at first. I started back when I was in college at USC. I was working 4 jobs my senior year (working for Red Bull, NBCUniversal, Shooting for the USC Football Team, and working at the Law Library, but still managed to cut out time to work on my videography/editing. From there I went on to work full-time at NBCUniversal, but still worked on video on the side. I’d work everyday from 8am-8pm, get home around 9pm, workout from 9pm-11pm, and edit from 11pm-3am. Then I’d do it all over again for 2 years straight. Now, I wouldn’t recommend the lack of sleep, but what this did was allow me to position myself prior to taking such a high risk. When the pandemic hit, I actually lost my job, but I felt as though it was all for a particular reason. That reason being it was finally time to take that risk and go for it. I had mitigated the risk to a degree by working so hard the years prior that when the opportunity finally presented itself for me to go full-time, I was able to take that leap with confidence I would succeed. Most people see the things you’re doing, the places you’re going, and assume these types of things happen overnight. For me it’s been a 6 year long journey. 6 long years of side hustling that has led me to chase after my biggest dream yet. A risk worth taking.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alex Romo and I’m a full-time travel filmmaker! Now, what that means is I’m kind of like a Swiss army knife and wear many hats. I’m a videographer, editor, but most of all I like to think I am essentially a full-time storyteller. I’ve created travel films, documentaries, music videos, brand shoots, you name it. Through my career I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of clients, such as Canon USA, Google, Red Bull, Viewsonic, DJI, and NBCUniversal to name a few! From all these projects and social media I have been able to attain the support of over 120k people via Instagram (21k), YouTube (1.5k), and Tik Tok (100k)! This support is what keeps me going and makes me continue believing in myself that this is the proper work I am here to do.
With my work, I like to think what sets me apart is my humanistic focus that I am able to intertwine. Whether I’m in front of or behind the camera, I always find a way to appeal to audiences on an authentic level. I find there’s power in vulnerability and try to remain as real as possible, which I truly believe viewers can feel through my art.
While the career is important to me, the main thing I’d like anyone to know is that my ultimate goal through all of this is to make a difference. I believe this starts on an everyday level in the way we carry ourselves and the daily conversations we have with others. It then grows into our lives and the work we share with the world. I am a firm believer in the idea that you can achieve anything in this life as long as you work hard and are a good person. I hope that through the client work, travels, and platforms, I am able to inspire the people around me to chase their dreams because if I could, there’s no reason they can’t either.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
So many books have changed my life in so many ways, yet one stands out more than the rest. This book is called The “Richest Man Who Ever Lived”. This book essentially changed my life. It’s based on the Proverbs and highlights the importance of being a good person each and every day, which I feel is key to becoming a successful human being.
The other side of the book helps you figure out what you’d like to do with your life and essentially break down your goal to the most minuscule task to accomplish on a daily basis. Incremental progress overtime will equal long term success. I started with my purpose being my most important goal. To my knowledge, I believe it is to make a difference on this earth. How? Through storytelling, evoking emotions in people, and essentially impacting their lives. I chose videography as the medium of choice and set out a goal of using social media to share my work. After breaking all this down, I continue doing so by hoping to make a video that would get 10,000 views, and 100 reshares on Instagram. I thought likes didn’t mean much nowadays and if someone shared something, they essentially resonated with it to a high degree. I broke this goal down even further by setting out to make a video every week. Not on myself, but on things I thought others would like. With it was culture related, political, etc. I wanted to highlight key societal events that people would gravitate towards. Within two days I made a video that got 50,000 views and over 500 reshares. I had achieved my goal in a matter of moments and knew this was just the start.
I continued reading the book which instructed me to seek out mentors (those in my field who I knew or didn’t, but was inspired by). A couple that I had written about were Rory Kramer and Sam Newton, two very talented videographers who were essentially doing what I wanted to do. I had no connections to either of them at the time, but knew one day I’d be able to be in the same room. I continued focusing on my goal and after another two days I tagged both of them on my story as two inspirational filmmakers I looked up to. Sam ended up seeing my work, reached out about potentially working on a video together, and we made one that went viral – The Influence Bundle. Sam and I ended up becoming best friends and now travel the world together working with companies like Canon USA, Viewsonic, Artlist.io, and a ton more. The day after the video dropped it also led to some other creatives reaching out and inviting me over to a BBQ where I happened to meet Rory. We ended up chatting more about life than video and I got to meet one of my biggest inspirations for picking up a camera. All because of this book that kept reinforcing the idea of being a good person, each and every day.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is having the ability to impact others in a positive manner. Not only is the field unlike any other, but you are essentially creating the things others will view and consume. I believe every artist should stay away from trying to gain the most reach, but rather focus on their work impacting at least one life. I had one video I made in particular that reminds me of this idea. I made a My Year 2020 video, where I had a ton of my followers submit clips of them doing something they loved during such a hard year. In the video I focused on this being the time I lost my job and found myself FaceTiming so many friends and family. This was vital, especially when we couldn’t see each other face to face. Long story short, I made this video and it did okay on social, but what I didn’t know was how much of an impact it had on some people. I had one friend reach out to me and told me how moved he felt from it. It actually inspired him to pick up his phone on his Grandpa’s birthday and FaceTime him, not knowing if he would know how to do it or not. This led to a 3 hour conversation they both said they would never forget for the rest of their lives. A few months later my friend informed me that his Grandpa had passed, so this ended up being one of their last special moments together. All in all, he thanked me again for helping make that moment a possibility. This showed me how much of an impact we can truly have as an artist or creative.
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contact Info:
- Website: http://alexromo.live
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexromo/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.romo.505/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-romo-13a603a1
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/romoakaswag
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHTAiMaEyKH5Kx_v1lcjUmw
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexromotravels
Image Credits
Raul Romo, Sam Newton, Chase Viken, Giulia Gartner, Matt Hartman, Jay Ford, Viktorija Gedrimiene