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

Alkiviades, appreciate you joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

The first time I earned money as a creative was selling my paintings. My friends told me to do an art pop up show and that’s the first time I sold to people I didn’t know. That’s the first time I would consider making money as a creative. Ever since then, I’ve been slowly selling paintings, prints, clothing, stickers, my music, and having DJ gigs. I’m a multi creative person who wants to create creative monopoly for myself because I’m my own niche.

Alkiviades, 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?

Ever since I was a kid, I was always drawing on and off through out my life. It wasn’t until college is where I put more time into my creative side. I didn’t realize I had a creative side until then. This is when I started painting and making art with mixed media.

During college, I wanted to pick ups music again because I was in band class, so I picked ups bass, guitar, and started producing beats on my laptop. I’ve playing both instruments and picked up piano a couple of years later. I switched to making house music on my laptop and started DJing to because I believe they go hand in hand.

My last year of college I picked up an intro to graphic design class and learned how to use adobe. I learned how to use photoshop, illustrate and premiere. So, I know how to use graphic design and video editing to my advantage. I didn’t know what to do with graphic design at the time. I freelanced for a bit and did professional contract work. I learned that I want to do graphic design for clothes and start making more content.

One of my most proudest achievements this year was hitting 18k subscribers on YouTube and getting more DJ gigs. I started just posting a bunch of mixes on YouTube and few of them have blown up. I took a little break as of recently, but I have a lot of ideas for the future and I want to start making content to help grow my business as a creative.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is the way to go nowadays for creatives. The one thing you have to do is stop consuming and wasting your time. You have take make content for yourself. You are your own niche, so start making content. I went all in for a bit and worked, but I have to start making shorter content. My plan was to make a lot a of content and store it on a hard drive, then just schedule all of the posts. My advice is to just start.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Society can help give us access to the tools when we are in school. Parents can help push their kids that direction if they see their kid having a creative side. In all reality this will help, but if the creative is not willing to learn or to put themselves out there, then they won’t get anywhere. something I learned as a creative is that you have to put in 99% of the effort when it comes to it. You can’t rely on other people to do everything for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://petridesalki.myportfolio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official.moumou/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrTt1O01BP8k_cQrmajPS-w
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alki-petrides
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4RBbykIRBnOyDLojLfuRko?si=V4rnSPjgT22W2ul9QfNKrA

Image Credits

@Connor.rr