We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edgar Cortez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edgar below.

Edgar, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

It’s all about reinvesting into you or your company. All the money I would make through my “side” gig was reinvested into more equipment. Most people who get into videography or photography only invest into basic things and call it good. I would buy more equipment with profits, take a variety of classes to help me improve, take criticism and improve on them. A huge thing in content creating is learning and practicing to get better. There are too many people who want to skip this part and it shows in their work. Horribly composed, framed, exposed photos and videos will make you look amateur and I didn’t want that for me. Take on free gigs to help you practice is what I would do a lot and now I know I can deliver great quality content. So long story short reinvest in yourself whether its classes or better equipment.

Edgar, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started working a labor Job a long time ago and it paid really well but I was very unhappy there. After being with this company for so long I decided to ask for a raise and when I finally got the nerve to ask I was denied. At that moment I was so pissed but I knew I had to do something to change my situation. I had bought a cheap little point and shoot camera because I wanted to be a YouTuber at the time. I mainly focused on shoes and how you could find rare shoes at Ross dress for less. I gained a lot of traction and started making decent money off the channel. So just like most people I decided to invest into better equipment to film better videos. Then that’s when a lot of things changed because of the better equipment I had. Other people started to ask me for photoshoots and for videos, so I started making videos and taking photos. Just like everyone I sucked, when I look back at that stuff I cringe but at the same time I was learning and practicing. I tell people, “we all suck at one point” so you have to get passed that. Gig after gig I started to improve, I took classes and watched videos on how to improve my skills. Fast forward a few years I started charging people for photos and videos and that turned into a full time gig. Now I have a media company where we do the media for companies, weddings, anything media we can do it. I’m far from being a YouTuber and that was the initial goal. So I tell people all the time to just do whatever they love to do and eventually you can find a way to monetize it. I had no idea I would love to create all sorts of content. We have our commercial side and our event side of the company. Instead of taking luxury vacations or buying something fancy I always reinvest so I spent quite a bit to buy some photo booths that have been doing really well and have been a hit. So stay focused and keep following the dream and you’ll be surprised how far you can go.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I love my parents and the people who would want the best for me growing up. The one lesson I had to unlearn is taking financial advice from people who are not rich. I was always told debt was bad no matter what, taking out loans was frowned upon, buying everything straight cash was the way to go. It’s not always right. I learned the difference between good debt and bad debt by reading books and talking with successful people. Good debt makes you money bad debt doesn’t is the simplest way I can put it.

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

I love seeing or hearing the clients reactions to what we deliver to them. Even while editing I get imposter syndrome and think they will not like what we will deliver to them. Then their reaction is all I need to know that I am on the right path. I can never get enough of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.skarxfacevisuals.com
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