Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ian Ware. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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?

For the past 2 years, I have been able to earn a living working full-time as a video producer/videographer, and if you had told my college self that I would be a full-time filmmaker by the time I’m 25 I would have laughed in disbelief. At the time, I was studying Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego and I was feeling very disillusioned. I was very jaded with the whole higher education system in America and I was having a difficult time accepting my future in the field when a good friend of mine referred me for a web design position at a local film production company. 4 years and 4 feature documentaries later, I found myself neck-deep in the world of film and production. Although I spent most of my time in the editing room, as a part of a 3 person team I developed camera operation skills and a sense of the entire production process as a whole. From the moment I produced my first feature film I knew this is what I wanted to do, and I knew that I could excel as a filmmaker as long as I just kept at it and stayed consistent – and that’s exactly what I did. I was only working 15-20 hrs per week at that time, but when the pandemic hit in 2020 our workload doubled. Our largest client hired us to do more and more ambitious projects, which culminated in their offer to hire me on to produce for them full-time. Long story short, that was how I began working full-time in film. The job was kind of a nightmare, but it was steady. I knew I didn’t want to be here for long, so I began searching for other positions that I may now be more qualified for. Now I work for an amazing company with great people, producing really fun and educational content for YouTube. That’s what it’s about – keep adding yo your knowledge base, keep developing your skillset, and keep moving toward that next level up from where you’re currently at. If you keep consistently taking small steps in the right direction (which is whatever direction you choose to go), before you know it you’ll be light years beyond where you might have expected to be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I currently work for Epic Gardening, a gardening education entertainment company with the mission of teaching 10 million people how to grow their own food. I am the Video Producer there, responsible for conceptualizing, scripting, and filming all videos for YouTube.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey is driven primarily by my desire to share what I consider to be the most interesting, impactful and inspiring stories.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

by far the BEST source of new clients for me has been word of mouth.