We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Mills a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jonathan, 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?
I have been involved in creative production since the early 2000’s as a musician and audio engineer. I focused solely on audio for 11 years until I shot my first music video in 2011. After combining sound, lights, and visual story telling… I was officially hooked. After that experience I began buying camera gear and seeking out avenues to expand my craft and become a professional filmmaker. I took a job as a creative marketer for a corporation where I grew my skills and began to integrate still photography as well. I worked as an employee for several years until I was laid off. And at that point I had to make the decision whether I was going to find another job, or be my own boss and launch my media company. I made up my mind and dug deep to muster the boldness to risk it all and launch Jonathan Mills Media. It was pretty lean for the first year, but with lots of favor, grit, and hard work I was able to support my family of 8 and grow my business. In the beginning I took whatever job I could find… Real estate photos, non-profit promotional film, senior portraits, cinematic wedding films, anything that paid money really. Then the next year in business I wrote down my goals and set a plan. I was going to make six figures and move into projects that I actually loved working on. I hired a mentor, joined a few networking groups, worked my butt off, and I did it! I cleared 6 figures as a creative in my second year in business. Here I am a little more than five years later doing the same thing. It’s still a grind, I still take a job every now and then that I don’t “love”, but I feel free, I create for a living, and I work with incredible people and companies every day. Could I have done it faster? Probably, but family, peace, and freedom have always been my motivators. I’m not one of those people that can grind it out just for a paycheck. For me, I don’t mind building a little slower in order to maintain my priorities. After all, my kids will only be kids once, and I’m committed to not missing that, even if it means saying no to a few opportunities to make more money.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My workload is heavily seasonal, and shifts a lot throughout the year. I produce a lot of Realestate media throughout the year which is supplemental income. That includes traditional listing photos as well as cinematic walk through videos and lifestyle photography for commercial spaces such as Short Term Rentals. While Realestate media is great money, I mostly produce story driven commercial video for companies and organizations. One way I try to set myself apart from the seemingly endless list of filmmakers and photographers is to employ Donald Miller’s Storybranding framework to every piece I produce. Anyone can snap a photo, or hit the record button on a video camera. I strive to engage the audience through story which humanizes an entity, causes buyers to take action, and creates brand loyalty that organizations need to grow. I love a good story, and I really love to pull out the gold in my client’s stories. I really enjoy producing pieces for non-profits to spread the word about what they’re doing in the world, and to help them raise funds to continue their work.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I responded to a request for help from another filmmaker in one of my networking groups. They were looking for skilled camera operators to join their crew for an event they were hired to film and produce a promotional piece for. I drove 2 hours with a truckload of gear to fill this spot on the crew. I shot video and stills throughout the day as well as recorded audio for seminars and spontaneous live interviews. I had shot hundreds of events just like this one so I was very comfortable with the assignment. The issue came a few days after the event when the producer kept sending me messages about how I had screwed up, and how unprofessional my work was… He had zero encouragement and only harsh criticism that poured in multiple times a day over the next few days. Keep in mind at this point I had been involved in production as a career for more than 15 years. I had been fully self employed for a little over three years, and I had already cleared 6 figures that year doing exactly what I did that day. I know you may be thinking “geez man, grow some thicker skin and take correction”, and part of that thought is right. I was being a little sensitive, my ego had been bruised, and there were other factors in my life at that time that caused this seemingly small event to hit harder than normal. However, it did hit me so hard I actually considered selling all my gear and getting a Joe job at some faceless corporation. Before making any rash decisions I decided to sit with my failure for a minute. I allowed it to wash over me like an acidic waterfall. I heard every harsh and critical word that had ever been spoken over me echo throughout my mind like a 9 millimeter slug bouncing around inside my skull. I got low… really low. And at the bottom of my frustration and pain I found it. I found what David Goggins refers to as the cookie jar. The jar of memories containing my greatest wins. The moments I had been at rock bottom and clawed my way out of the pit to bask in the sunlight again. That’s then the idea hit me… I’m going to produce a highlight film of every epic piece I shot that year. I will comb through the archives and celebrate all the wins over the past 12 months and send it out to my entire sphere of influence. And, I did just that! I fought back the haters and harsh criticism by digging out gold from my own journey. The piece was indeed epic. It received recognition and accolades, but more importantly, it stood as a visible reminder that I can do anything with the right mindset, the right team, and some old fashioned grit. As it turns out, the producer was actually mistaking most of my work for another person on the crew that day. While I never got even the slightest acknowledgement of that fact from the producer himself, I got something even better… another cookie to add the cookie jar.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I was raised by a father who consistently used repeatable mantras. It was his way to instill values in me that could be easily accessed when the need should arise. I am 40 years old as I write this and I can hear his voice reciting these phrases as if he’s standing right next to me. One of the phrases he said every time I left for work, school, or sports as a teen was “Work hard and please your boss”. Another phrase he said all the time was “Treat others the way you want to be treated”. I have found that those two phrases have been the building blocks for my business. Being the self employed entrepreneur I am, I don’t have a boss to please… I have hundreds. Every client is the “boss” I’m eager to work hard for and please. And the golden rule is wise and applicable in every situation. That’s why I believe my business stands out among the masses. I’ll work hard every time, and honor and treat others the way I want others to treat me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jonathanmillsmedia.com
- Instagram: @jmillsmedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathanmillsmedia
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mills-22
Image Credits
All images by Jonathan Mills (Me)