We were lucky to catch up with Travis Stillwell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Travis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?
It was 2007 when I started making a living as a creative, left my last job, and started my own business, Flux Mechanics. I had already been doing creative work as a music producer and graphic designer. I had finally reached a point where I had enough clients and traction to leave working for others and venture out independently. I was about 25 years old at the time. I was living in San Diego, CA. Up to this point, it had been a lot of work to have a full-time day job and continue to learn and evolve my skills as a producer and designer. I found it difficult to find clients. Looking back, what took a long time to develop was being comfortable charging clients and opening that type of dialogue with my clients. All of my design clients were in the entertainment industry. The biggest challenge I found with finding clients was learning how to network correctly. It took a couple of years to overcome the hurdles mentioned. In 2010 I fully publicly launched my company, Flux Mechanics, and started taking on employees for larger projects. Up to this point, I had released many music albums under my last name, “Stillwell,” in the electronic music industry, specifically focused on the Techno genre.
In 2013 I decided to move to Las Vegas and focus on the music and design business. I started growing my client base, learning new skills, and focusing on the Las Vegas entertainment industry. In 2014 I released my final music album and decided to return to school for visual effects and motion graphics. I finished school in 2017 and moved back to San Diego. I closed the chapter in my life of learning the aspects of business and the skills required to accomplish my goals. You always continue evolving and growing, but I had reached a point where I was no longer learning so much about developing the business and was now running the business successfully.
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 was born in South Carolina. My father was in the United States Air Force, and after a couple of years, we moved to Washington, DC, for his next assignment. My parents divorced when I was two, and my mother and I eventually moved to central California. Fast forward a few years, my mother re-married a fantastic man who adopted me. I went to a private Christian school up until high school, where I returned to public school. At the end of my sophomore year, we moved to northern California near Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe became a place that, to this day, I call my home. When I graduated high school, I joined the United States Marine Corps at 17 years old to become an infantryman and a Marine Corps aviator. After serving in the Marine Corps, I left and returned to civilian life. Once I was out, I returned to Lake Tahoe, California, and this is really where my journey began as a professional creative.
Asa kid, I learned percussion and how to play the guitar. I had always loved playing music, and it didn’t take too much time before I jumped into music production and focused on it and learning to DJ. I began playing at nightclubs locally and in nearby cities. I did this with some success and was making a living at it. Not a great living financially, but it was enough to live on, and being it was in Lake Tahoe, the quality of life was outstanding. In the summers, I would work as a boat captain on the lake and even spent some time living on sailboats in the summer. I did this for a few years playing the casino circuit in Nevada until 2007 when I decided I was ready to move to a larger city and work towards touring as a producer/DJ. I spent many years touring as a DJ while producing high-charting tracks. During those years is where I first got into the design realm. It started with creating logos, flyers, and marketing materials for the entertainment industry. I produced around 200 logos for other artists and hundreds of marketing materials for entertainment companies. This was when I started developing ideas for my own business. I had begun learning motion graphics and creating nightlife visuals for nightclubs and festivals. All of this had me working non-stop, and after I returned to school in 2014 in Vegas, my clients included Little John, Iggy Azalea, Lady Gaga, Activision, Blizzard, and Insomniac Events, the creators of the Electric Daisy Carnival, to name a few. I toured for years at different events and performed at live shows worldwide. When I stepped away from the music industry, settled back in San Diego, and just focused on my design business in 2019, the United States Air Force contacted me to hire me as a pilot content training developer. Though I wasn’t interested, the opportunity to fly in military aircraft was very intriguing as I had always wanted to do this when I was younger.
I decided to take the job. I moved to San Antonio, Texas, where I still reside and work. I still operate my business while working for the Air Force. I fly in all Air Force aircraft as needed, recording live VR/360 video and turning it into training content for pilot training. I also have learned to build custom VR training simulators. I have collaborated with some of the most significant military contractors in the world, including Lockheed Martin Co and Boeing, to develop the future of the United States Air Forces pilot training programs. I also became a civilian pilot to help me become better at creating pilot training. This has also changed the focus of my business from the entertainment industry to pilot training for civilian aviation. Today, I can make any version of pilot training through CGI or live video captured during a flight in any military and general aviation airframe. From fighters, heavies, and propellor-driven aircraft.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I don’t recommend paying for art school if you want to become a creative professional. Youtube seems to be the best in my experience to learn for free. YouTubers are more experienced than any teachers I’ve met in school. They also teach current industry standards and practices. I find that university teachers have spent so long out of the industry that their skills are far too far behind to hold any value, and they generally don’t seem to be successful in life. Go after internships.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Be consistent, and know your audience. Having a clear goal is very important. When coming up with your brand name, take your time. Find a name/handle that can be spelled the same across all platforms. Create your brand identity first before pushing your brand. Do not have a mixed account that is half personal and business. Learn how to use hashtags correctly. Pay attention to your analytics, even down to the times you post and the country you are in. It all helps or hurts engagement. If you’re going to put the work into making a post, then make sure you get the most return out of it. Also, it is very important to build a website with good SEO. Many people I know, no matter their industry, put zero effort into developing a solid website. Do that from the start. My business could function no different if I canceled all of my social media. Social media is just extra.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fluxmechanics.com
- Instagram: @fluxmechanics
- Twitter: @fluxmechanics
- Youtube: @fluxmechanics
Image Credits
All media included is my own, photography and CGI were created myself.