We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Curran recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

MQ Media is short for Matt’s Quality Media based on a suggestion a mentor of mine told me a long time ago to give a name to my brand. Originally, it was supposed to be a stage name for a show I would be hosting, but after that fell through, I decided to keep the name as representative of my brand. It is also meant to be short, sweet, and easy to remember. It is also representative of my desire to make any form of multimedia quality or unique in ways people can remember.

Matthew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started out learning about the industry after I graduated from the University of Houston. I joined non-profit organizations, independent entrepreneurs, and TV stations and worked on creating video content for them. With some nonprofits and independent entrepreneurs, I was able to create short documentaries where the subject pertains to their activities. One of these films was nominated and won awards in various film festivals. The film in question is about an origami master artist who makes life-size origami. I also have written as a contributor to magazine articles and have produced scripts I wrote for audio dramas.

Currently, I’m a freelancer and working on creating promotional content for smaller creators; however, I also have projects I am trying to promote, such as my audio drama series where the premise is urban fantasy, and an annual music cypher that I am collaborating with a music producer to create. I also worked with an artist and we are currently making a comic adaptation of my audio drama series.

With the combination of working with other brands and creators, while also doing my projects, I have stood out as someone capable of engaging in many multimedia projects, which gives MQ Media an edge in working with different mediums. I would like any future clients to see that we are flexible in working through any medium such as video, scripts, audio, and more.

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

Well, there were times I thought of stopping video editing or media production as a job altogether. Mostly, it comes from the stress that I don’t have much business, since Houston is not the greatest place to build a media business from scratch. Even so, what keeps me going are the mentors and people I have worked with in previous projects. They have motivated me to continue what I’m doing and remember that everything is a process. And despite the speed of the process, I’m still progressing and getting closer to my future goals. Success doesn’t get achieved overnight. It needs foundation and organic growth that one builds in relationship with one’s clients and audience.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Most of the social media audience are people I met in person, so I know a large majority of my audience aren’t bots or fake. It takes time to build a following on social media. The strength of my growth is that I go from person to person and interact with them which leads to a small relationship however small, which means they most likely will stay or be seeing my content. Though this method is slow, it’s organic and it is stable compared to buying your following through ads never knowing if they are real or not. My advice is patience and being out there in the world to meet with people. Some will definitely stick around to what you are doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mqmedia.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mqfilmandmedia/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-curran-190b07122/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProjectGnosis2
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjhjNiK5rLXYakwH_EdQWw
• Other: This is for a comic I produced with an artist: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/project-gnosis/list?title_no=922183

Image Credits
Project Gnosis Artwork: Adriel Chukwuebuka Photography: Hsiao-Wai Fu