We were lucky to catch up with Zachary Fleishman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zachary, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

As a creative in this new generation of a digital age, especially living in California, you oftentimes find yourself in a very competitive atmosphere in the industry. People will gate keep locations, techniques, skillsets, networks, and it can become a very toxic environment if you are not head strong with you, your work, and the name / brand you have achieved for yourself. You’ll meet hundreds of people who most of which will come and go. But you will also find people that stick.

The 3 years I have spent in the industry so far, it has been difficult for me to find a niched group of individuals around my age (19) who are out to genuinely support and lend a hand when needed. I’m, glad to say I have come a long way in this struggle I have faced, which leads me to my answer of this question; and to be honest, there is no one specific thing that someone has done for me that really sticks, but instead a compounding effect of smaller deeds that have shaped and molded me into the creative I am today.

I permanently moved to San Diego, CA in July of 2022. I packed my life into my compact sedan, and headed west in hopes of new opportunity and a fresh start in my career path. Previous months before, on a trip to Tulum, Mexico, I met a group of individuals who shared mutual connections and friends, and after sharing life goals, stories and ambitions; one of them offered me a couch at her apartment in San Diego.

Having 0 plan while driving, I gave her a call and took her up on her offer and ended up living on her floor in her studio for a month. This was a pivotal moment for me in my career as I used the opportunity of living on a floor to make myself vulnerable, put myself out there and grow a network of individuals who I know consider family, and who continuously push me in directions of uncomfort in order to see the next level of success for me.

During this time, I was still enrolled in University at San Diego State, and never had plans to finish out for a degree. School to me is trivial, and I would rather act on opportunity now, while school and the college education system will always be there if things didn’t turn out. I left School around November of 2022, and from July – November I was pretty tight on money, Through my network and a handful of individuals who saw through my struggles and right to my fullest potential, I was able to scrape by on their favors of providing me with shelter, food, and even money in situations I needed it most.

These recent moments, and actions of abundance by people I surround myself with I am forever grateful for, for seeing and taking a chance in me at such a young age.

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

I’m a 19 year old Creative Director and Videographer from Connecticut who moved across the country to San Diego to make a name for himself.

I attended San Diego State University as a stepping stone and opportunity to get out to California, where I currently permanently reside. I grew up and lived in the very small town of Oxford, Connecticut for the entirety of my life and started my endeavor in the creative industry when I was a sophomore in high school.

I started as any person would, just buying some random cheap camera and taking pictures of everything: flowers, portraits, sporting games at my school. I covered every niche at one point. The Instagram accounts of Sam Kolder, Matt Komo, and Jacob Riglin when their follower counts were only in the ten-thousands was the biggest inspiration for me to start creating and expressing myself through photography and videography. I learned to operate gimbals, audio, monitors, see how different focal lengths affected the emotion and mood of different shots through my high school career doing wedding videography. Working with weddings, I was able to put cash in my pocket and upgrade my gear. (Hopped on the Sony wave for those wondering what I shoot with). Upgrading my gear was the turning point of my work back in Connecticut. People realized I had reputation and professional gear to back my work. My photos started to improve and I learned the art of video shooting and editing through weddings.

Around this time, I also coded my own website in Adobe Dreamweaver after teaching myself a few programming languages and made a terribly designed portfolio. On the side, I would DM brands in hopes of getting free products to shoot in exchange for photos or videos of their products. To my surprise, as a senior in high school, a few brands responded with a ‘yes’ and I was on my way doing brand deals and promotional shoots. I soon graduated high school and all I was known as was “that kid with the camera.”. I now had enough cash flow from my work to buy a website provider and upgraded my website, turning it from a portfolio to a full-blown print shop, blog, portfolio, page to discuss myself and my work, etc. The summer before moving to San Diego, I backpacked a portion of Europe with that same close friend I shot weddings with.

We hit Greece, France, Switzerland, and through the entire trip we shot content for each other, photos, videos, reels. We named the trip as a content trip. One bag, all camera gear, and a few outfits for around a month of travel. It was a blast.

This leads me to where I am today. Sometime down the line, with countless people met later, opportunities taken, I currently market myself as a Creative Director and jack of all trades with anything in the digital space from Digital Social Media Marketing to Content Creation, with hopes apply the skills I’ve learned along the way to scale my personal brand and image on social media and build lasting relationships with clients through my work.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m actually going through the most pivotal time in my life in all aspects right now- and boy is it terrifying.

I was just visiting my girlfriend for the entire month of February in Florida to get my skydiving license, then came straight back to San Diego, moved out of my apartment, sold my car, and hopped on a flight to Mexico all in the span of 3-4 days.

I’ll be in Mexico for the greater portion of March before I move to Mo’orea, French Polynesia where I’ll be working with The Coral Gardeners for a few months. After that, I don’t know what will come next for me in life.

These pivotal moments are the moments that scare you beyond the means the body can handle. They are moments that will allow you to become closer to the truest form of yourself. I keep reminding myself that everything is temporary, the good and the bad, and to just trust the process, because the point of struggle is usually the moment before moments of bliss.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I believe that non creatives don’t understand the countless sacrifices made, countless hours spent dumping energy into our crafts.

a lot of being a modern day digital creative is leveraging social media platforms as outlets to express ourselves and our work. Showcases of what we value most. This is all usually face value. People don’t see the struggle or the behind the scenes of the industry, the strict deadlines the creative burnouts that can put you in waves of motivation less depression.

Sometimes, even fellow creatives can fall into these beliefs, where they don’t realize all other creatives struggle in this realm to some degree.

Contact Info:

• Website: fleishmanpro.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachfleishman