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

Markus, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Earning a full-time living from my creative work was fairly difficult initially. You are, in a sense, creating dollars with your brain! Although it may be more easily accomplished depending on your creative field the challenge often also lies in consistency as well as generation of capital. Starting out, living in a smaller city it was literally impossible to “make it” as a professional dancer. There was slim to no opportunity and even when opportunity knocked the coinage was extremely miniscule. Therefore, in a year’s times I began teaching in order to produce some type of living. Though not sustainable, it was something.
20 year old me: Ok at $25/hour teaching 8-10 hours weekly at one studio I can make about 800 buck per month. I should probably find a part-time job.
22 year old me: Ok at $40/hour teaching 8-10 hours weekly at one studio I can make about 1200 bucks per month. I should definitely teach at more places!
The key in this phase was expansion. I had the talent and creativity within, I had a knack for connected with younger dancers. Why not put my passion to work more frequently? The desire for more simply required more. Branching out, thus creating rapport with likeminded businesses and in turn granting myself an income solely from my artform with the byproduct of honing my craft.
I did however see beyond being a hometown dance teacher. I still wanted to pursue dance professionally. Moving to LA felt like the proper next step. Being so, I had to start the journey again; expanding, building a rapport with studios, develop the knack to teach my peers instead of younger dancers. The best difference this time was… I had a map. In addition, the opportunity was abundant in my new location. The process had its downs, its lulls and hardships but all in all, building community in my hometown was an important step that made success post westward migration more easily trekked.
Post pandemic I had encountered another period where maintaining financial stability had become arduous. My profession was completely on hold, as was life itself for some.
Pandemic year old me: You’ve done it before; you can do it again.
Against all maturity I guess I can say I’ve become a bit stubborn as far as “having a regular job” so most recently, I had to look at myself and review the skills I’d gained over the years. How my love for writing poetry had transformed into songwriting. How my need to cut music for myself as a collegiate competition choreographer has made me an expert music editor. How teaching and choreographing for both students and peers has proven me to be an effective leader.
After acknowledging a refined skillset, it was time to again expand. Flex my leadership skills to my talent agency in order to get more opportunity in choreographing and choreographic assistant positions. Create a business based around editing and producing music for choreographers, studios, colleges, etc. Reach out to performance artists and let my songwriting and music production talent be recognized on a larger scale.
In this review, allowing myself to see the creator I had become I was able to tap deeper into my potential thus expand my ability to again generate a full-time income with my creativity. Furthermore, the variety of skill promotes the aforementioned necessity for consistency.
Understanding our creative abundance can be an intricate process. We as creatives have a need to express but as humans, we have a need to survive. Meshing the two requires patience, trust in self and faith in the beyond. Outside of these components an important part of the journey will be expansion. Spreading your talents, skills and creativity into different areas in order to increase the capability of the utilization of your imagination.

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

Initially, I grappled with choosing just one passion: dance. My sister pushed me into a Black History Program at Ottawa Hills HS during my senior year, and I instantly fell in love. I also had an unspoken love for music production. Thus, my dance journey began, drawing inspiration from legends like James Brown, Michael Jackson, ’80s dance crews, and other iconic moments in dance history.

Recently, I’ve discovered my true calling as a storyteller, which has expanded my horizons. I’m a natural songwriter and music producer, and I dabble in poetry. As a music editor, I craft unique dance sequences and “trailerize” songs to help create epic performances for choreographers and music artists. As a choreographer, I’ve ventured into movement coaching, and my dancing skills have led me to modeling. I even design clothing with a narrative in mind. I refuse to limit myself to one discipline, as there are countless facets within the arts and storytelling.

Moreover, each branch complements the others. Being a dancer made me a natural in the model field, and my dance background allows me to understand choreographers’ needs instinctively. My love for poetry as a youngster and the musicality I’ve gained from years of movement training add vast dynamic to my songwriting and music production skills. I’m immensely proud to be a dedicated storyteller, whether it’s through choreography, songwriting, aiding artists and choreographers, or expressing my own artistic journey. I’ve had the privilege of sharing my stories with hundreds of thousands of people and I am looking forward to more roles in which to do so.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

A book that changed my life was Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. By the title it made it seem like there’d be something wrong with me if I read it. But the content of the book is more scientific than anything. It proves that our own thoughts are why we are where we are. It then grants tools and exercises (intense meditation at the end) to break any bad habits you’ve from. The main thing you will gain is awareness and that is the first step to manifesting the life you truly want. Highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to replace negativity with positivity.
Books of Honorable Mention:
The Kyballion
Ask And It Is Given
Think and Grow Rich

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

A resource I wish I knew of early? There are so many. I think YouTube began as a great tool for dancers/choreographers and still is extremely valuable being that it is a free place to store your visual resume. When I was coming up, I didn’t know it could work so well for me. I know everyone knows about YouTube but I do think people still sleep on its true power.

I have to mention A.I. as well. Though it’s still in its coming of age era, there are so many free tools to use as creators. Logo makers, logo editors, writing tools, art generators, content creators, design and visual creation platform, etc. Though I’d say I’m privy to the knowledge of AI, I just don’t want other readers to sleep on it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.markusshields.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/markusshields
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markusshields
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dasharkiest1/
• Other: Website – www.thronesunknown.com/exclusive Tik Tok – www.tiktok.com/markus.shields