We recently connected with Brandon Lavoie and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brandon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Yes, but it hasn’t come without its sacrifices and difficulties along the way. When I decided to begin working for myself as a director and photographer, I knew I’d need to find creative ways to supplement my income. I knew I would have to be frugal. And quite frankly, I knew the jobs that I might have the opportunity to take on in the beginning wouldn’t be that special. But I had to take the leap and go freelance because I knew very early on that working for someone else wasn’t going to work for me. I spent the better part of 5 – 6 years not making much of an income at all. I saw people I graduated from college and high school with starting to earn six figures, I’d find myself being worried about where the next job might be coming from. That was difficult. But something in my gut has always told me to stay the course — I think one of the most important things you can have as a creative is your intuition and I have always tried to stay true to mine. My stated “lack of income,” was also due to me reinvesting whatever money I was making into back into my passion projects. Something in my gut told me that investing in personal work, while being smart about it, would pay dividends down the line. Somewhere around the middle of my 6th year as a freelancer that proved to be true. I began getting more work and as began to display and showcase the work I was making it had this snowball effect of opening the door to new opportunities. In hindsight, I look back at how things have gone over the last 10 years and I wouldn’t change all that much. I think one big thing would be to tell me younger self to not be so outwardly overzealous. It’s one thing to look for opportunities where they’ve been earned, it’s another thing to be opportunistic. In hindsight, I wish I’d known that, but c’est la vie.

Brandon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the craft because I was a business major that was truly bad at math and disenchanted with the idea of not being able to contributing anything of emotional value to the world. I am a pretty emotional person – not in the melodramatic sense, but in the sense that I see a lot of value and opportunity in connecting with others emotionally. To me, there’s no better way to examine the depths of connection and empathy than through story. With filmmaking – whether it’s narrative, documentary or commercial – you are employing different narrative and dramatic techniques to connect an audience to a feeling. Same thing with photography – it’s just more of a visually dependent medium than filmmaking. I can only hope that the clients I work with have sought to work with me because they’ve been able find those feelings I am seeking in my work. It sounds a little selfish, but I think the first person that always has to be happy with a piece of work is the one making it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is having the opportunity to make things that can potentially impact the lives of others. Each new project is an opportunity to help someone feel something… Think about something critically … Possibly realize something new about the world themselves or another persons’ lived experiences. Maybe the work will simply give someone the opportunity to zone out and escape reality for a few minutes. Maybe it will spark something.

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

Everything starts with education. Society can champion the arts by making the arts more of a focus in educational systems from a very young age. Music and art shouldn’t be “specials” that kids take for 45 minutes or an hour, once a week. These are activities that should be a part of daily practice in the same way reading and arithmetic are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lavoiestud.io
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bylavoie/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonmlavoie/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/bylavoie