We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Montpetit recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, 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?

The risk I took was getting into the creative industry in the first place. Ever since I was a child, I was drawn to creativity and art. However, I never even considered getting into a creative industry. The common understanding when I was growing up was that you would never make any money as an artist / professional creative and my main focus was to be a good provider and, hopefully, husband and father for a family someday.

It is clear to me now, though, that there was no way I would be able to escape creative work. I’m simply built for it and I truly couldn’t deny my creative tendencies. I would draw in my notebooks far more than taking notes in school. I would come alive talking about stories and design choices in movies than I did talking about anything I wanted to pursue professionally. Even when I interned at a major advertising agency in Chicago on the accounts side, I would find myself frequently wandering over to the creative floor because it naturally drew me there.

After graduating from college, I was still restless. I worked a variety of different jobs from radio sales to waiting tables, assisting at a used book shop, working at Kohl’s, and managing a coworking space. It was the last job that not only affirmed my creative instincts, but that I could do something with them.

I lost my job at that coworking space, as well as a very meaningful romantic relationship in the same weekend that set the stage for one of the bigger risks of my life. It was something my girlfriend at the time said to me that broke the camel’s back. She said, “You know, I never understood why you got into business in the first place. Your creativity and your passion are what I love most about you.” It would mean a lot less coming from anyone else but her. However, as she knew me so well and deeply, her words had incredible weight and meaning to me. They had so much weight at meaning that I actually called her back the day after we broke up and asked if she could speak more to what she said.

At that point in the summer of 2012, I was faced with a crossroads decision. On the one hand, I could seek out a sales job similar to what I knew that would be safe with mediocre pay and would bore me out of my mind. Or, I could take a huge risk, start from the very bottom, and pursue the creative career I was made for.

I chose the latter. I was 24 at the time and able to scrap and starve for a while while learning an entirely new trade from the ground up. I can’t emphasize enough how little I knew as far as professional creative work went. I started with a wacom tablet my parents bought me, got a job waiting tables, and started learning Adobe Illustrator every night via Youtube.

After 2 years of waiting tables and some considerable side work getting clients and learning as much as I could, I went full time freelance. This turned out to be one of the hardest, most isolating and difficult times of my career. Even though I needed the extra time I could only get working full time in the freelance space, I still wasn’t making enough to even pay for myself. I maxed out all my credit cards, had almost no money, and barely ate or slept for those first 5 years.

Eventually, I got into motion graphics, figured out my business mechanics, rates, processes, etc and started making a real living for myself. In 2017, I got married and, on our honeymoon, a company reached out with a position they were trying to fill. The very first thing I did when I got back home was have an interview and secured my first professional creative job at a company.

I worked that job for almost 3 years, but felt the itch to go back out on my own. It turns out, I had grown accustomed to running my own business and enjoyed working with a lot of different people on a lot of different projects. I gave my notice on March 12, 2020. That monday, March 16, we closed our office to work from home because of COVID-19. I had made my decision almost half a year before anyone had even heard of the disease about when I was going to leave. You honestly can’t make that kind of timing up.

Though I was resolute in my decision to go freelance, the first couple of months were very lean indeed. I had no work all of April or May and only got my first client at the end of June that year. I was able to make it through April because we got our tax returns and the stimulus at the same time (I was able to make it through May because I had applied for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan early and it came through that month). I truly believe God provided for me in a very timely way during that harder period.

As hard as it was to get back into freelance with the pandemic, 2021 was the best year of my entire career. As it turns out, the risk paid off. I realize how important and effective it is to recognize and cultivate the authentic gifts and talents we are given in order to thrive in life, even if it involves taking a big risk.

Finally, it is important to me to acknowledge God’s role in my story. I truly believe it was His providence and working in cooperation with Him that lead to the success I’ve seen in my life. I also believe it is His inspiration that led me to consider taking the risk in the first place.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, seeing as much of the story deals with getting into the industry, I’ll focus more on where I’m at today.

I’m a motion graphic designer / animator that focuses mainly on 2D animation, but am developing my talents in the 3D space as well. I mainly stick to narrative and explainer videos, but also delve into promotional videos, video elements, and even some abstract projects.

I help my clients more effectively tell their story through motion. Honestly, I believe I provide much of what others in my industry provide as far as technical skills. Where I differ is the experience of working with me and the process we go through to more fully realize your vision.

You can find my work at https://www.andrewmontpetit.com/ or follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/andrewmontpetit/

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think there isn’t a specific story that illustrates my resilience, and I don’t want to answer this question in a way that is self aggrandizing. However, there were several times when I was starting out (and, honestly, even now) when everything go very overwhelming and I wanted to quit.

During those times, I would as myself a simple question: “If you could do anything you want to do in life as a profession, what would it be?”

My answer would be more or less what I am doing / was doing as far as creative work. The response that would come to me would be something along the lines of, “You’re doing what you would chose to do with your life, and this is what it means / looks like to do it. So keep going.”

Again, I don’t intend this to make me look good. However, it may hopefully help someone who reads this who finds themselves in a similar place

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I don’t know much about them and don’t care to know much about them.

The little I do know about them doesn’t impress me. It seems to have all the depth and substance of a get-rich-quick scheme or a trendy fad, and, I believe, will be remembered about as long as one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewmontpetit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewmontpetit/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmontpetit/

Image Credits
The People Picture Company, Bird + Bird Studio