We were lucky to catch up with Fernando Reyes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Fernando, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Earning a living off creative work is challenging on a daily basis. We don’t rely on a steady paycheck at the end of the month, so the income you receive varies every month depending on how busy a month you had with projects. While this can be though on months with low work load, it is incredibly freeing being able to be your own boss and plan your life without having to ask anyone for time off.
In my case, earning a living solely off my creative work was done in small steps. I started working for a renowned studio early in my career, so I had an hourly pay from them. Later on, I found a established engineer as my mentor and I worked under him for several years, learning the craft and the business, and slowly building off my clientele and my business while still working for him and earning a steady pay. Eventually, I ventured off on my own and went fully freelance.
I learned that diversifying is important. While my main source of income is my music mixing work, I’ve been able to explote my talents and expertise in my field and generate extra sources of income. An example is doing workshops or seminars for people who want to learn from me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am mixing engineer working in the music industry for the last decade. Originally from Peru, moved to Orlando to pursue my education at Full Sail University. Later on moving to NYC to start my career where I worked for 8+ years. Currently I’m based in Miami since early 2024.
I started my career at the Jimi Hendrix-founded Electric Lady Studios in NYC. Later on, I became the protégé and right hand man of 7 time GRAMMY winning engineer Michael Brauer, who was my mentor, and eventually I decided to venture on my own and went fully freelance.
I’ve had the opportunity in my career to work with amazing world class artists such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Idina Menzel, to name a few.
I also provide a service called Dolby Atmos, which is an immersive surround sound format, which has been in cinema for many years, but only recently ported over to music and streaming.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I didn’t set out to build an audience at the beginning. But the music industry, (as all industries, I’d assume) is very active on social media as a way of networking and showcasing our work. Every time I’d work on a new project, I would share it on my socials and tag/repost everyone in the team. Slowly, people who admired my work started following to keep up with it and my audience started growing. It took me years of being passive on social media, just posting my work but not engaging to realize I was missing an opportunity. I eventually started posting stories talking about aspects of my craft and realized there was a lot of engagement to be had with my followers. That lead to creating a community, and it was a jump start for a new source of income, when I realized people where hungry for the knowledge that I had, so I started creating and promoting workshops where I could teach and share my expertise with those who are also building their careers.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I chose my career path because I truly love my craft. To have my hobby and my passion also be my job, and to be able to make a living off it is truly surreal. My main goal driving my creative journey is to keep collaborating with incredible and talented artists, and to continue making a name for myself in the industry, attracting more clients, and always striving to provide a better lifestyle for myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fernandoreyesdlc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fernandoreyesdlc/
• Other: https://bio.site/fernandoreyes