We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diego Oliverio. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diego below.
Diego, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
For me, risk has always been associated with opportunity. 3 years ago, I was faced with the decision to travel alongside a stranger I had never met before across 12 countries for 12 months as a personal content creator for this man. With the project starting only 2 days after I was given this proposition, the element of risk precipitated many uneasy questions and emotions from both myself and my parents. Who is this man? Is he a serial killer? Is he aware we’ll be traveling during this historical pandemic? My stomach was in knots trying to come up with a decision on my own and part of me hoped my parents, still a factor in my life decisions, would pull the plug so I would not have to come to terms with this unreal opportunity. 48 hours after the universe presented me with my “dream job” at the age of 20 I bought my one-way trip to Costa Rica to start the adventure of a lifetime. Fast forward 1 year, 7 countries, 33 episodes, and countless memories later, I am the hardened 21st Century Digital Storyteller I need to be in order to continue pushing the power of creative content in the ways I see fit. The story of this adventure is for another day, but the reward beyond the risk of this leap of faith proved to me risk is sometimes the necessary discomfort that unlocks opportunities to experience new things, advance your career, and experience the world from new perspectives. Risk is a flexible concept; it can take on various meanings and be approached with different levels of caution depending on your mindset, career, and position in life.
Risk continues to appear in my life and my career as new projects and partners ask me to take my skills and passion into new territories. Opportunities to grow are inherently risky, but it’s the reward beyond the risk that keeps me on the edge of every leap of faith that comes my way.
Risk in my life is best approached by preparing to be prepared and being trained for opportunity,
Diego, 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?
At its core, art is storytelling. Some choose to use words, brushstrokes, movement, and other expressive mediums. I find my way of storytelling best channeled through digital media (cinematography, photography, motion graphics, etc.). My foray into this space was a simple start; making videos to recap our family vacations around the U.S. with music and my best attempts at cinematic shots. My equipment and skills at the age of 12 were nothing impressive but my realization of the power of video and photo to freeze the emotion and action of a point in time took its roots. The next decade saw a continuation of self-documenting family travels but was also when digital media took a foothold in my educational foundation. By 7th grade, I was part of a program called the “Digital Learning Center”. The program’s curriculum essentially took all conventional topics and challenged us to showcase our understanding of them through any means of digital expression. Over the next 2 years, the foundational skills of video editing, graphic design, presentation skills, acting, and even crafting my on-camera persona solidified what would be the launchpad for my professional career. As industries began to see digital media, and increasingly social media, as a business solution I was able to naturally monetize this skillset so closely linked to my passion. The 4 years of high school marked my first dollars earned as a video producer, director, and content creator. In the 5 years since then I have been fortunate enough to exercise my passion for companies, cultures, and individuals seeking a voice in this digital age. Documenting 30-mile hiking journeys of some of the most perilous hikes in the US taught me how to create and channel a story too grand for words. Being sought out by Target as 1 of 4 students nationwide to act in their 2019 Back To College Campaign allowed me to articulate my enthusiastic voice as a spokesperson for a consumer-centric brand. Capturing every moment of a man’s mission to master 12 skills in 12 months across 12 countries as the sole creative forged my ability to carry content from production to publication all while traveling and working simultaneously. Cultivating personalities across all social platforms to drive business solutions through online communities proved to me and my clients social media is an effective business solution. The way my passion managed to creep into all these corners of industry and life opened my eyes to the flexible nature of storytelling at large. I often say everyone has a story, the hard part is telling it. I truly see myself as a conductor of many emotions and visions that lose their power in translation into the modern mediums this digital world demands.
I truly believe my value to any client, company, partner, or personality that I have the privilege of working with is bringing a full-stack approach to the modern ways of storytelling. Tactfully, this expresses itself through innovative social strategy tools, the marriage of my creative style with desired business goals, streamlined execution, and a speed I pride myself in continuously accelerating. At the intersection of luxury, adrenaline, and travel my skills thrive, but I will never waiver in the face of the opportunity to let my passion take me beyond my comfort zone. I am privileged that my passion for digital storytelling consistently returns my ambition to push its limits beyond what many think is possible, and I truly believe this dance is what makes any artist successful,
When you live life without capturing it, there’s not much to see.
So Capture It.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Brand is something that I will never sacrifice in pursuit of the success of my career as a creative. The perception of my work, its style, and its effectiveness can be quantified by many performance indicators: shares, saves, likes, comments, subscribers, followers, etc. However, before anyone gets to evaluate my work from those angles their first impression comes from my personal brand.
My personal brand is an adrenaline-crazy, media-obsessed, 21st Century Digital storyteller. People who know people who know me already know this because it’s the only character I broadcast to the world I am seeking to work with. Through consistent content that reinforces me as this character I buy myself a unique plot of real estate in people’s minds, so when it comes time to reference someone with my skillset and passions I have a unique advantage over anyone who allows their profession to drown out their passion.
Crafting one’s personal brand is more of a process of self-realization than active creation. Chances are you already have a personal brand and don’t even know how much it is already influencing the clients you’re attracting, the relationships you’re making, and the hands you’re shaking. Ask the 3 people around you most often how they would describe you in one sentence, and then ask the same of 2 people who are loose acquaintances. The intersection of those two samples is often the closest to your outward-facing personal brand. Fine-tuning and cultivating this persona in a way that aligns with your future business clientele will win you the pitch before you step into the room.
My passion is my brand. Storytelling has been and always will be the element that empowers the narratives of one generation to pass on to another. Ultimately, the greatest satisfaction I grab from my passion is the collage of life it creates when I look back at what I have created. The memories, emotions, and ideas of these points in time are embedded into the content I create. My dad always had the camcorder on my brother and me as we were growing up. Watching those home videos brings up an unreal high of nostalgia for me and the thought each video or photo I take in the present day can mature with that level of emotional potency keeps me on my toes when it comes to making it the most creative and well-executed piece of art it can be.
I would never say anyone’s road to success or career is easy. I’ve definitely had to make a couple of left turns when I was sure I was going right, but the ability to pivot at points along the path of passion fortifies my confidence in continuing to pursue a life and career of creative content and digital media.
When you live life without capturing it, there’s not much to see.
So Capture It.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
One aspect of being a creative that I even wrestle with is the concept of regularly producing non-uniform products of different forms that are supposed to often crafted to fit the same function. Where many other occupations or entrepreneurs can create, fine-tune, and mass produce the service or product that satisfies their perceived gap in the market, creatives are constantly tasked with the same problem but held to a standard that demands they manifest differently crafted solution.
As an example. A popular client request is to design a social strategy and content that will boost brand awareness and drive sales. For as many times as I have risen to the occasion of this request, rarely is it the same strategy or style of content that works for multiple clients. Beyond this hurdle, there is always the additional pressure that creatives have to create. Without a unique product day in and day out, there is no forward momentum and I think that escapes many non-creatives in their appreciation of out line of work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diego-oliverio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hastaluego.diego/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-oliverio-64ba03144/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcJRJLKFIgbz28JweCB74Yw