We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cole Brummond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cole, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My great grandmother is my hero. The majority of my childhood and teenage years were spent living with my great grandmother, and over the years she taught me many life lessons. The life lesson that stands out more than any other has to do with love. My grandmother loved her people unconditionally. There is not a single thing she would not do to see a smile on your face. Every day she would drive me to school, pick me up from school, and attend all of my sports practices and games. As I would practice she would sit in her car, reading magazines, knitting, or simply just existing. I can’t recall a single baseball game she missed. This taught me from a very young age that if someone wants to, they will. Someone who truly loves you will do anything to make you happy, and I wish to treat others with the same love and dedication that my grandmother showed me.

Cole, 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?

My name is Cole, and I am a twenty one year old content creator living in the San Diego area. I am a professional photographer, videographer, and digital marketing specialist. I’ve created everything from the #1 voted best super bowl commercial of 2023, to photos for designer fashion brand Balmain Paris, Verizon Wireless, extreme sports, and much more! I take companies large or small, and provide them with ideas, content, and strategies to see growth and ROI via social media. My specialty relies on knowing exactly how to scale a sustainable business with social media. The ideas that I create, and execute provide brands with 50k, 250k, and often times upwards of 700k views on videos. Not only do I come up with the ideas, but I am also proficient in all forms of the process. I create the idea, film the video, and edit the video myself, thus making me a very well rounded individual. Where did this all start you might ask? Well, everything started in 8th grade when I got my very first camera. After saving up money for two summers I purchased a Canon 7d mark ii, and began pursuing the creative industry. Two days after graduating high school I packed everything I owned into a U-Haul truck, and made the sixteen hour trek down to San Diego in hopes to fulfill my childhood dreams. After many ups, downs, lefts, and rights I can finally say that it’s beginning to pay off.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

After moving to Southern California just two days after high school graduation I found myself in a serious pinch. Being on my own was nothing new, so fortunately for me I was well equipped for the struggles to follow. I was working morning shifts at a coffee shop, freelance/studio work during the day, and then once all of that was finished I would work night shifts for a moving company driving huge trucks packed full of heavy furniture. After finishing all of this I would get home just before sunrise, and begin working on the business and schoolwork, as I was in college. I made a goal that I would quit working “normal” jobs by December 31st of 2021, and little did I know this would just be the tip of the iceberg. After countless days of little or no food due to having no money, weeks on end running off of 2-5 hours of sleep, and living in awful conditions I did it. I quit all jobs, dropped out of college, and began the entrepreneurial journey that led me to where I’m at today.

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

I can’t stress this enough… BE PERSONABLE! No one wants to deal with a lifeless and bland corporate guy, wearing some nice clothes, with a fancy degree to back him up. Contrary to the societal narrative, people want a person who is going to brighten up the workspace, make the zoom attendees bust out laughing mid call, or someone to show up in some crazy outfit that definitely doesn’t match the professional criteria. The clients that I speak to on a daily basis want someone who knows the business, but more importantly someone who brings life to the business. I have clients hounding me to be friends outside of the workspace, simply because I love people. I say this all the time, and I think it’s single handedly the best trait someone can posses. That trait being curiosity. No one wants to sit down, and negotiate with you all day. Ask people questions about their childhood, about their hobbies, family, etc. Allow the person to go on a tangent about the time where they fell out of a tree and got their new school pants caught on a branch mid fall, leaving them dangling by threads 10+ feet in the air. Establishing human connection with every single person that I encounter has led to a huge increase in my reputation over the years, and has set me apart from others that fall short when it comes to being personable in the workspace.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cole.brummond/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-brummond-483a891a8

Image Credits
Cole Brummond