We were lucky to catch up with Mike Kukuris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

I was working an 8-5 at a place I was really unhappy at. I was helping increase sales by creating short commercials and advertisements to run for their products. Although I wasn’t happy there, I was good at it.

When Covid hit, I was quarantined and lost my job. During this time, I realized a work-from-home job would be more stable and began doing what I was good at. Commercials.

I created commercials in my own style for products that I already owned and uploaded them. Shortly after, the companies reached out to me directly and sent me more products to do videos over. I had to make my videos for free for a bit, but that quickly changed.

More and more companies wanted to work with me directly. About a year ago, I decided to make product videos and commercials full time.

Now, I’m driving more sales than I ever have working for any other company. Now, I’m able to bring opportunities to others and help bring them revenue making opportunities. All from the comfort of my home.

With the internet, affiliate marketing and social media, there are so many opportunities for people to work from home now. You just have to be willing to bet on yourself, and you can’t be afraid to work for free or minimal pay for a bit. If you are willing to learn along the way and you actually have a good idea, it will be seen. You can make a business that you’re passionate about for yourself too.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a filmmaker for as long as I can remember. Once I was strong enough to pick up my mom’s heavy VHS camera, I was filming home movies to play on our tv.

As I got older, I made free live music videos for bands that I wanted to go see. I did that for a while and then went to film school. During this time I made a few internet comedy series. One that I helped with “Which Die Is That Again” was placed on Amazon Prime. Some of our other projects won awards at film festivals and then I got introduced to commercial work.

I created videos for video contests for a while and won several of them, “lost my fair share too”. Then companies reached out to me directly to work with me.

This is where I found my calling and began the company “Need Want Buy”. Due to my background in music videos and short films, my commercials have a unique design and my clients seem to love it. I get requests every day from all over the world for new commercial work.

It’s definitely been a highlight building new connections and working on new films on the regular.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve been a filmmaker for a long time, but I have tried many different paths. I worked for talent management agencies and made training and education videos. I’ve made my own short films, series and film festival entries. I’ve created so many music videos that I will forget the old ones I’ve made. I even left the independent route for a while and took an 8-5 position making commercials for their sales department.

Each one of these routes taught me something new. I learned things I liked and didn’t like about each field. I was able to narrow down a niche that I’m good at. Now I’m able to do something that I enjoy and can be scaled into a business of my own that I can run my own way.

If I would have tried building my current company “Need Want Buy” 5 years ago, I would not have the experience and life lessons that each position I took taught me along the way.

In short, it’s okay to work a position you don’t see a future in. Learn what you can from each job and apply that to your own business that you can build in your free time. If you are patient, have a good idea and the time is right, things will work out.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

When I first began Need Want Buy, I had no connections or companies to collaborate with. Instead of waiting for my first client, I made commercials for free advertising products that I owned and liked. I put my contact information in the video descriptions and uploaded and tagged the companies.

Even though it was free work, I put 100% into the commercials and made it the best I could. It wasn’t long after that the tagged companies reached out to me directly asking me to make more commercials. The more commercials I made the more people reached out wanting one. This built my client base really quickly and built trust for me to ask for my standard rate.

Then I was able to turn my idea into a business and go full time.

So don’t be afraid to work for free and be able to bet on yourself if you have a good idea.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hype.co/@needwantbuy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/needwantbuyreviews/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeedWantBuyOfficial
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/needwantbuy

Image Credits
Mike Kukuris