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

Alright, Max thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

OVERVIEW I have been self-employed since college. Pretty crazy to think that was over 8 years ago. It’s very difficult to sum up the highs and lows over 8 years, going from cold-calling potential clients to maintaining client relationships and managing your own schedule. I remember taking the megabus or greyhound to the next state just to take a project. I remember buying my first car after saving enough money. I’ve mourned lost clients and missed opportunities and also celebrated landing big clients or projects.

TIMELINE

• While in college playing music, I was asked if I’d be interested in coming along and helping a distant colleague on his personal video shoots. This included setting up a DSLR, getting familiar with camera settings, recording settings, and working with all of the necessary equipment required to produce a quality video. This was my introduction into video production, although I had not considered this to be a potential career at this point.

• After sharing some of the videos I had helped create on social media, I had a woman reach out to me and ask if I would kindly help her record a video in honor or her son who had passed away. I agreed and quoted her $30. This was a lot of money to me as a college student. She wrote me a check for $130 ($100 above my asking price) and for the first time ever, I had started to consider turning this developing craft into a career.

• Throughout college I spent time creating videos for churches, bands, school events, class projects, etc, and really began to refine my skills in video production.

• In my Junior year in college, I had an opportunity to launch a production company with a few colleague’s but it would require me to leave school in order to be able to focus on this decision full time and have a shot at success.

• I decided to leave school and 2 weeks later I was on a flight to a remote village in Alaska to shoot our first documentary.

• From there, I have traveled to more than 20 countries all over Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America in order to produce engaging content and capture the stories of people around the globe.

• Since then I have established myself in Chattanooga as a wedding, event, and commercial videographer & editor, partnering with local and nationwide vendors in order to continue producing content we are proud to create for our clients.

Max, 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 think at the core of what I do, it falls more into the line of strategic planning. Executing a production that is professional, efficient, and productive isn’t as difficult as strategically planning why we are making this video, where it will be shown, and what we are trying to achieve for the client.

My craft is video production, but for someone else it can be photography, design, or a combination of each.

I am most proud of just being able to provide and sustain a lifestyle where I can control my work schedule while still making time for the things that I love and am passionate about like traveling, being outdoors, etc.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Ultimately my goal is to continue to grow as a self-employed creative, to continue evolving in my creativity as well as my craft.

Self-employment allows me to curate my schedule to my lifestyle instead of the other way around.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Early on in my career, my first venture included 3 business partners. I ultimately got burned from a professional standpoint. Ultimately, I ended up taking over the client and separating entirely, however it hardened me to the idea of working in a team or collaborative environment. I thought that the only way things would get done effectively and efficiently is if I did them myself. This ultimately led to burn out. Since then I have found a balance of working projects alone and working some projects as a group collective. There is so much to learn in team environments and projects and there is value in building a team for particular projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: maximsmedia.com
• Instagram: maximmospanyuk // maximsmedia
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maximmosp/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxim-mospanyuk-8830b436/