We recently connected with Cody Carpenter and have shared our conversation below.

Cody, appreciate you 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?

Creative work for me is more than just work it’s a blessing I get to live everyday. I came a long way sense my first days as a videographer and a photographer. MY journey started when I was in high school designing shirts and posters for theatre. Middle of my senior year I picked up a camera and just started taking photos of just food that looked good before I ate it. As I got better at food photography I found myself in a place I was happy and that was behind the camera. I worked so hard through the rest of the year to up my craft to get into a really good school with a good media program. I got a call from Full Sail Unversity saying I was accepted in there Media program. When I was in college I learned from the best of the best. I got to help film a US Food commercial, which led me to get a Creative Director award for my creativity and directing. Of course I got to do other cool projects in college but that was probably one of my favorite moments. After I graduated college I received my Bachelors in Graphic Design & Media. When I graduated the pandemic just hit, so it was so hard to land a job anywhere. So I just did Car photography for Martin City Marketing for their client Cable Dahmer. Around that same time I started my own business just to get my name out there and bring a new style of photography and videography in Kansas City. As times goes on My side business grew very quickly. Weddings, food photography, and little shoots here and there. Did some video contractor work with LTN Global. In 2020 I got a job offer at the Ambassador Hotel Kansas City for there Media manager position. The Ambassador Hotel has so many thing to offer for me to bring my style into play. I got to do a lot of food photography for there restaurant The American Reserve. They also have this amazing Jazz club called Lonnies Reno Club which is the #1 Jazz Club in Kansas City. I got to a lot cool videos, photos and content creation for Lonnies Reno club. Of course I also did a lot fun projects for the Ambassador hotel. My content for the hotel helped get the #1 Autography collection hotel for Marriott a couple times. After awhile with the hotel I met someone that worked with Pizza Hut Corporation and offered me a really sweet job to do content for Pizza Hut. I did a lot of social media work on employees and new pizzas that were coming up for certain holidays or other times of the year. I ended up getting let go from Pizza Hut because they wanted me to travel weekly but I didn’t want to be away from my family all the time. Luckily enough a week later I got a job offer from one of my favorite company’s I been following sense college and I always wanted to work for that is J29 Creative Group. I am their Digital Media Specialist. So far sense I been here I done so many cool video and photo projects words can’t explain how happy I am here. Also at this time my side business is still booming. Still doing a lot of wedding videos, product photography, product videos, recently been doing concerts. Things I learned in career so far is to take risk put yourself out there. People wanted to see how far you come no matter what it looks like. Do you think my creative came from day one. No! I worked 3 jobs at one time, editing until 3am and going to film the next day at 7am. Like I always tell myself you keep pushing yourself your hard work will pay off.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

How I started in my industry me and my friend Logan started our own Youtube channel. My craft really started there, realized I like editing videos and designing thumbnails and taking photos of behind the scenes. Also saw I was really good at it. Just let God lead the way of my career path. Sense then my craft has built so much bigger.

My services I provide are Product photography and videography, Videography for weddings, Content creation for brands. Of course in my services I ran into some problems like how fast can you get this out for me. I always tell my clients soon as I can. Because as a one man team I also have a family. Do I edit everyday no because then I would stress and my craft wouldn’t be accurate but I do edit 5 days out of the week. The thing I am most proud of is my type of editing. Detailed and I bring that wow factor to my work, I like my work to be different not the same style as someone else’s.

I want my potential clients to know that I am a guy that brings the creativity and fun to all my projects. I bring the unknown to life. Set me aside from the other creators out there, I bring a different kind of creativity.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What helped me build my market with my clients was just being myself. Could I showed off my work a little bit more of course I could. But clients really like the person behind the camera, who they are working with. That’s one reason why I been so successful at a young age.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing about being a creative is seeing their faces or getting that happy emoji back when they see their video or photos.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ccmedia.squarespace.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccmed.ia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067433181791
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/codycarpenter8