We recently connected with Bud Burge and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bud, thanks for joining 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?
I create content for a local nonprofit and I love it. I produce videos, photography and animations that tell stories and show impact in my community. It’s a dream come true to do this as a full time job, but the path to get here was not a direct one. I studied animation at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. After I graduated, I veered career-wise and got into remodeling houses. I did that for years, working on creative projects in my free time. This was a great time to study, shape and develop, without the day to day pressure for these projects to ‘perform’. At a certain age, I took an abrupt leap of faith, tapped back into my degree and went out searching to find a new fit for my creative talent. I suppose I could have done that a little earlier, but the timing was perfect for what I could deliver. HTML 5 had just come out, and a lot of people were looking for video content to put on their websites. This got me a bunch of small gigs, from which I was able to build a portfolio of work, and most importantly, network and build relationships. If I had known the power of networking, I would have leaned into that much earlier. I thought my creative talent was enough, but it’s not, unless you find the right fit for it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
For my day job, I focus on community storytelling, mostly through video production work. For my personal projects, I have a wide range of productions, from how-to videos to developing a full-blown animated universe. I think what sets me apart is I have a problem solving mindset and I’m endlessly curious. At work, I bring ideas to life and synthesize complexity, and find a way to serve it up in a simple, engaging way. I’m an optimizer as well, and find myself looking at what exists currently, and thinking about how it could be even better. I’ve been told that I am an extreme collaborator, so working in a silo is not how I operate. My work is often shaped and influenced by others, which can sometimes be hard when you’ve made something and think its done and say, “Here it is.” I’m addicted to the creative process. From the daydreaming and idea phase, to the planning, producing, deployment and celebration phase. There is something about going through this process that is personally gratifying and rewarding. As soon as a project has wrapped, I’m motivated to get on to the next one.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Failure is an inevitable part of pushing your self-imposed limitations, growing, and being curious. The more comfortable you are with it, the more fearless you become. If you aren’t afraid of failing, you’ll do things beyond what you ever thought was possible. This has been one of my greatest mind shifts. I studied animation in school, but when I spotted an opportunity at work to grow our in-house video capabilities, I jumped on it. Not knowing how to even go about it. If I knew all of the decisions I would have to make, and that I might fail at a few things along the way, I may have talked myself out of it. But jumping in fearlessly has lead me down a path and I couldn’t be more happy to be on.
I’ve been pushing some personal projects as well. They haven’t necessarily hit it big, yet. But each failure has brought me back, and pushed me to grow even stronger. And as time has gone by, I’m thankful for the earlier failures, because I would never have arrived where at I’m at today. I’m very excited about a big personal project that is coming up soon. And I have ‘what didn’t work out’ in the past to thank for that.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, it’s the process. I almost always work in collaboration with others, from writers, to talent, to crew and deployers. This has always given me a sense of ‘team’, and we all have a role to fill and a part to play. It’s very rewarding to wrap up a project and think about what it took to get there. And most importantly, to celebrate.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://budburge.myportfolio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/budburgy/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/budburgy
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/in/bud-burge-a5672b103/
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/@channel/UC2gBnlxQF-oUKT2686lB-4Q?view_as=subscriber
- Other: Behance: https://www.behance.net/burgy13ee1a SIP*TV: http://www.youtube.com/@siptv6065 FIlm Freeway: https://filmfreeway.com/BudBurge