We recently connected with Grant Wiseman and have shared our conversation below.

Grant, appreciate you joining us today. 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?

I have a lot of interest in this topic because how amazing it is to make a living on your own. So many important notes on this topic and I will start with wasting no time thinking or worrying about others. Direct all focus toward your craft and path. All things take time and there will always be people further along than you but that doesn’t matter when you realize its all just a personal journey.

Something I personally believe with regards to creative work is to consider that if things aren’t working then change is required. This is not always true but for me it has been the strongest motivator and influence to improve my craft. With creative work I think both technical skill and creative capacity is required for success. If you are an artist or musician and nobody dislikes your work (exaggeration of course) then success is inevitable I think.

An important one is that you cannot be contempt with where you are when growth and adaptability is essential to creative work.

In general providing value is the exchange we make in business and if you let this perspective flow with whatever you are working on then it is more about what you are doing for someone else rather than yourself. This is interesting with art because it is often about creating emotion but what can you discover that is valuable for others.

The most important practical way to make a living with creative work is to figure out a way that your time is valued at its highest. Yes efficiency minded is very important to consider because if something makes this much and takes this long you can determine your financial efficiency lets call it. Asking yourself how can I do this more efficiently will allow room for more or you could spend longer and make something more valuable. In general its easier for people to buy things that are less expensive so I personally consider it a more difficult path to make a living when projects take longer to create.

Last thing and strongest personal Opinion I have is that creatives cannot afford to be close minded in any way. If laying naked in a field under a full moon could help create a living doing what you love then do it lol. I personally practice visualizations of what I want almost everyday and have for the past 3-4 years. Monitoring all thoughts during the day always, and doing my best to remove any that aren’t what I want more of are some of the strongest contributors I think.

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

It wasn’t clear at the beginning I just knew that working on drones (for fun during college) was important in some way. When staying in that space connections are inevitable and it is just a matter of when. I connected with a drone grad student where I would build the drones for him and the department. Down the line this led to my first job which was to film a student drone competition with a drone live streaming through the jumbotron.

Fast forward and I provide video production (shooting and editing) mainly in real estate filming luxury properties in Dallas and around the country. When it comes to real estate marketing one of the most effective strategies is to help people build an emotional connection to their future home and this is where I like to help provide.

The highest priority is to provide the best quality I can offer and connect to each property individually so a unique presentation can be created. I feel like each house has a personality and I let that guide the shooting and editing so a story is created.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Starting out I just wanted to fly drones without a strong connection to the reality of what it means to make a living with it. It needs to be about providing value. If I wanted to just fly drones I would have to be open to doing work I was less interested in (such as drone mapping, or documenting, things less creative) or being very specialized in different niche markets. I liked the idea of real estate video because it is consistent work and about nice cinematography. The reality was if I wanted to shoot real estate you have to shoot interiors because the purpose is to help sell properties.

To do this I had to take a risk and get a ground camera rig and setup not knowing if I would like it. Turns out I love it and is more important for providing real value to real estate agents in this field rather than trying to do everything with just a drone.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The most notable that started personal transformation was Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris. Basically it is a compilation of successful people in different fields each sharing their best tips that helped them get to where they are. There also is Tribe of Mentors that is an extension of the book as well.

Honestly filling my instagram feed by following a bunch of wealth, mindset or other successful people has done so much to shift my perspectives of money and providing value for clients. I’ll make a list of a few random pages I like. millionairetactics_ officialwarrenbuffett finance_fanatics riches wealth garyvee tonyrobbins bldinsilence thetrillionairelife jayshetty. I don’t necessarily want to be a billionaire but just seeing the perspectives is beneficial I think.

Last is the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. This is basically a course in developing creative potential. It is work and it has been several years since looking back at it but I it helped me alot back when I was doing music and no concept of video production in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: birdseyefilmandphoto.com
• Instagram: @birdseyefilmandphoto

Image Credits
Niall Morga Media