We recently connected with Matthieu Piriou and have shared our conversation below.

Matthieu, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

There’s a lot of items on that list I could have chosen. Being happy doing what I do, talking about meaningful projects or about how you sometimes have to take risks to take your whole career to another level, but I have a tricky answer for a story about that one : “the best boss I ever had”. Growing up and craving for independence, I did a lot of odd jobs, and had a lot of different people I called boss among these years. Then I started making music and acting, met a lot of people, learned how my experience of a young race driver and extreme sports addict could be useful as I started working as a stunt double, and ended up with a camera in my hands to shoot projects for other people as they needed someone to do it – Little stage whisper : I bought my first camera and lenses for $2000 as I only had $2011 on my bank account and did not pay my rent yet – taking risks…
All that made me learn one thing, which might for me be the best thing one can learn. Whoever you work with, or for, remember you work for yourself first. You are your own boss, whatever your position is. It could sound haughty or proud now that I actually am my own boss, leaving with nothing but the sky and the stars over my head, but it’s not. All along my (quite young) life, I never accepted any mistreatment from anyone at work, whether I was the target or not. And neither should you. You shouldn’t accept any situation where you’re uncomfortable, unless you have chosen it, AND you know why you did.
Yes we all need to pay rent and bring food on the table at the end of the day. But you should never forget that our bosses need us. Society tells us that we all are replaceable, but anyone putting his or her heart in doing what he/she does is not. Anyone who have been there for a while and knows how everything works out will never be replaceable with the first person coming along.
Trust yourself, have faith – sorry for putting a George Michael song in your head – and live every day being your own boss. Whatever you do, do it for yourself. But you gotta do it, it’s not an excuse to say “I’m my own boss and I decide not to do anything”, that won’t work. Do things with your heart, do things with your guts, stop seeking approval, seek happiness. Be the best boss you ever had.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I did a lot of things in a quest I assumed to synthetize in “understanding life and the way the world turns around me”, and they all made me who I am now. I worked in a lot of different fields, climbed up and down on a lot of different rungs of the corporate ladder, and made my way through this so that I ended up doing only the things I love, and got paid for it. I grew up in France, where people were born doubtful one can do more than one thing good, and now French people call me when they look for someone “able to do anything”. Basically, people tend to reach out to me when they look for someone able to adapt and find solutions to any situations. Whether they need an actor able to do his own stunts, or understand how tricky the situation will be on the other side of the camera and be a helping force of proposal ; or they need a cam op or a director able to conduct a crew against the clock… I like tricky situations, I like sorting out things, I like making things happen.
I currently am travelling the world, sometimes running and gunning my RED camera around all alone, sometimes making people smiling playing music, sometimes acting or doing stunts. I only value meaningful projects, and once I’m doing something, be sure I’ll be 200% with you (Which also means that if you’re preparing something and I’m still on something else, I won’t be able to adapt to your schedule – Which can be tricky but is capital to understand, know that I’ll never be 200% out and will always be there, ready as can be, on time when I’m needed.
If you have a project, or anything like it, and want to ask me if there’s a way it’s possible, please acknowledge that it is, and call me whenever you’re 200% ready to bring it to life !

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There’s definitely a lot of things required to live as a creator or an artist with a free mind. A lot of people grew up learning the seek for security, in all it’s forms. Performing well at school, being better than others, succeeding whatever you do to have the best job, the prettiest wife or husband… These are a few of the cards we’re all given through life by social standards. How can you never care about competing and, in the end, just say, ok, F. it, i’ll just do what I love and show it to the world, whether it pleases them or not, whether I end up living in the streets or in a penthouse at the top of a 5 star hotel. I don’t even think about security, or about saving money for my old years, I’m not at all into all these things. I’m into doing things, into taking part in projects with lovely people, trying to achieve something we are proud of, regardless of the impact it’ll have to the world, even if we will believe in the hugeness of that impact as long as possible. I’ve heard a lot of people asking me what my real job was when I told them what I do, as they could never believe I could make a good living, sometimes better than they can, out of it. Money isn’t important either, I just wish you all to have enough to live the decent life you want, and realize the projects you believe in. It’s about what we do instead of watching life pass by in front of our eyes without even trying to catch it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As a lot of people, I’ll say spring 2020. COVID time. No one could imaging living something like that before we surfed that first wave. And I don’t know about you, but I’m no Kelly Slater, I had to learn it the hard way. At the end of first lockdown, in Paris, France, I had €2011 left on my bank account, and a €1000 rent to pay. I was an actor and musician, there was no show to be put up, no movie or series to be made. A friend of a friend of mine was selling a great camera with lenses for a great price, which I bargained down to €2000. I had it totally paid off out of profits in less than two months, and directing videos has become my main source of income ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.matthieupiriou.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/mattyeuxpiriou
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattyeuxpro
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieu-piriou-4b0798b0?originalSubdomain=fr
• Other: vimeo.com/matthieureal

Image Credits
two are from the movie Eiffel (hanging), Two are from the play “inside opera” at palais garnier (yellow jacket and jump black suit), one is from the series “le monde de demain”, played on ARTE TV in france, others are different performances