We were lucky to catch up with Monica Paprocki recently and have shared our conversation below.

Monica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Cosplaying as a professional is both fun and challenging at the same time. There are only a few professional cosplayers that are consistently hired by companies and there’s not a lot of knowledge on how much people in our industry should charge for our services. Being somewhat of a new industry has left a lot of people second guessing how much they should charge for their commissions. And this has also affected on what customers expect us to charge them. Over time, I have figured out what’s best and fair for me and my customers. And this has not only created a great partnership with them, but I was also able to help out other cosplayers wanting to start growing their own business as well.

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

I am a Philippine-born, award-winning Chicago cosplayer. And I also the founder and CEO of geek news website called GeeksAGogo.com. My current cosplay creations highlighting the gaming and RPG industry include characters from Cool Mini or Not’s game called Rising Sun, Raging Heroes, and I am currently making convention appearances for Cephalofair Games, cosplaying as characters from their popular line of games. I am also a producer of video content, graphic designer and community manager at SheProp!. I was featured in the Chicago Tribune where I gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at preparing for and qualifying for 4 years in a row for the Crown Championship of Cosplay in C2E2. I was also featured in other publications such as The New Yorker, Interview Magazine, Cosplay Culture Magazine, Homewood- Flossmoor Chronicle and many more. I have been invited to speak in multiple events, panels and seminars both on-line and in person to discuss diversity in the cosplay and gaming industry, provide tutorials for beginners and advanced cosplayers, as well as discussing business-type topics in the field.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Focusing on my niche and what I wanted to be known for was the first thing that I wanted to establish when I finally decided to make cosplay a business. Once I figured that out, everything else just fell into place. It’s been said that sometimes you should stick to what you’re good at. I stuck to mine, did more research, and made it great. And from there, I didn’t want to stop learning how to improve. My work ethic and professionalism is also something that I want to show to not just my customers or future clients, but also to my peers. And this is why a lot of folks like inviting me back to work with them.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the beginning, I had a hard time convincing companies to work with me. But it never stopped me from asking around to see who would like to hire me to cosplay for them at events, or make props for their booth. I heard somewhere that, “If you keep hearing no. Then you’re asking the wrong person.”. This saying really resonated with me. At times when I wanted to give up, I kept asking anyway. And there is also a realization of maybe there’s something different I should be doing? And asking myself what these companies are looking for. What would make it hard for them to say no? I knew where my strengths lied, and it’s in finance (my other day job). After doing some research I came up with a proposal and handpicked clients after learning more about their companies and products. And most importantly only chose companies I would love to work with and aligned with my company ethos.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.geeksagogo.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/GeeksAGogo
• Facebook: Facebook.com/GeeksAGogo
• Twitter: Twitter.com/GeeksAGogo
• Youtube: Youtube.com/c/GeeksAGogo