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

Alright, Hunter thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

For me, while the industry of design and video production are highly profitable and sought after, it can be extremely difficult for an individual to be profitable. In these industries, it’s so competitive and oversaturated that all editors and designers are playing this game of musical chairs (the chairs being the clients) where once the music stops, editors and designers have to scatter and snag a chair before they lose out. Problem is I’ve been seeing a lot more clients underpaying editors/designers where they’re not getting paid their worth. So there are a lot more chairs now where it’s not worth chasing when the music stops, which gets filled instead by someone who’s willing to undersell their services or might be overseas where $200 for an entire feature film edit is worth spending countless hours editing.

So while this industry is profitable, there are a lot of downsides for us creators when it comes to finding something that actually pays us for our worth and will pay the bills.

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

My name is Hunter, I’m a video editor and graphic designer based in Phoenix, Arizona who has been freelancing since 2016. I went to Arizona State University-Polytechnic and earned my master’s in graphic information technology with a secondary focus in commercial video editing.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked with clients both locally and internationally, including Bayer, World Animal Protection, Matchroom, Melon 1, Solar Topps, The Ostrich and plenty more. I’ve had the privilege of producing commercials/promos, documentaries, trailers, social media content creation and more for many of these clients.

In 2022. I launched my designer/editor social media portfolio @designersaylor on Instagram in order to promote my design and video production services, which has allowed me to create content for creators/clients like Don Francisco, The Burkharts band, The Nile Theater, Patriot Hard Seltzer, the Undead Valley musical and more.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The term “starving artist” is a term that I fully have lived during my career at numerous points; that’s one of the downsides to being a freelance designer/editor. There are periods where business slows down where I can feel my finances constrict like a snake that has swallowed me whole. I’ve literally been at low points career wise where I’ll have $50 in my bank account that I have to figure out how to save for a few weeks while having bills to pay. It honestly sucks.

In these times though, it has pushed me to hunker down and just send out emails and messages to potential clients non-stop, putting myself out there as much as I can. There were times though where I got nothing but radio silence, nothing from anyone, which is definitely an encouragement booster when you’re limited on funds and looking for work. I just have to remember though that being self-employed and a freelancer, this is the way and that if I can survive through this, I can survive through a lot of things, and I have.

I’ve been doing freelance for eight years now and I love every moment of it. Even at its worst, I still love what I do for a living and it has taught me how to survive and how to not let stress get the best of me. In a positive light though, I’ve been getting more projects that I want to do and I have been getting more replies back whenever I apply or reach out to a client.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

While social media right now has really suffered, from algorithms pushing certain content out and stomping out creators who actually have quality content to platforms having more of a “pay to play” mentality (I’m looking at you Instagram), something that has really helped me is messaging smaller creators and creating content inspired by their work.

Here’s a story that didn’t necessarily help in gaining me clients, but it did help grow my follower count and get some bigger creators’ eyes on my work. There’s this artist on Instagram named Jonny Crickets who is known for his sort of macabre, fantasy, humorous 3D short film reels that I ended up designing a horror poster inspired by one of his films. I tagged him in my post and he saw it, sharing his appreciation and love for it as well as sharing it to his story. Immediately, had a lot of people looking at my work, sharing it to their stories and following me. Now, I’m not so focused on trying to increase my follower count for any fame reasons, but I look at it as if creators like Jonny, who he has worked with people like Alex Hirsch (creator of Disney’s Gravity Falls), are helping in promoting my work and that’s getting me followers, that could get the right eyes on my work and help me get future work with the kind of people I would love to work with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.designersaylor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designersaylor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/designersaylor