I studied Multimedia Communications with a specialization in Video Production. It was a great foundation for a lot of the skills that I have today.

This would be the start of a long journey that would turn into a consistent side-hustle. I've help full time jobs for most of my career and always did freelance work on the side. I still do today.

You could call this a dream job. I got to create videos and take photos of German cars for 3 years of my life. BMWs, Audis, Porsches, Mercedes...I got to drive them and create content about them daily. I worked in the marketing department and developed a lot of my marketing skills here. My Dad owned a German car shop growing up, so this role fit me well. The only downside...the entry-level salary. It was a great start to my career but I could hardly pay the bills. I also had to move to Ohio for this opportunity. After 3 years I was ready to come home.

During my 3 years in Ohio working for ECS Tuning, I had to pick up as much side work as I could. I was single and didn't have a family yet, so I had time. And I was hungry to advance in my career. I developed a lot of my skills as a freelancer during this time. I got into the wedding scene and shot about 15 weddings over that 3 year time period. I also worked with local business and did a lot of freelance video edintg work online. I wasn't getting paid enough from my full time job, so this was a necessity.

I had student loans to pay off, and I was struggling financially. Maxed out credit cards and a hefty car payment. I even used payday loans a few times during this time period. I was still living on my own in Ohio, away from my support system. And the full-time job at ECS Tuning wasn't paying enough. And while I did have some success freelancing on the side, I didn't know how to sell my service yet. So I usually undersold myself. And struggled to find consistent freelance work. So I started cleaning offices at night. I was so embarrassed that I didn't even tell my friends and family. You could call it a low point in my life. But looking back, it was hugely beneficial in building my caracter.

Landing this job and coming back home to Pittsburgh was a huge turning point in my life. It ended a chapter of my life that pushed me to the brink, and resulted in massive personal growth. It was bittersweet leaving what I built in Ohio, but I was coming home to bigger and better things. I spent 18 months working for UPMC in the Audio Visual department. Managing large in-person events in their conference center and supporting the entire hospital system with audio-visual equipment. I developed a lot of my customer service, management, and interpersonal skills during this period.

You'll notice a trend...I've basically freelanced on the side of a full time job since graduating. At this time I started a little media agency that I called KG Media. I would work on finding clients and hired a few contractors help me fullfuill the work when needed. I thought about going full time with this new venture but always loved the stability of that full time job. I was also still learning how to find clients and sell my services, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to find enough work on my own consistently.

I started with ClubCom as a Video Producer in 2015 and have been with them ever since. This is the position where I a lot of my professional growth has come from. I've been able to hone my skills in video working with the biggest names in the fitness industry. This is where I also started getting good experience working directly with larger clients and managing relationships for the company.

At this time, I reduced the amount of work I was taking from my little side agency KG Media, and instead focused my side work on a select few companies. With The Hormone Center being the main one. I've been managing all of their marketing since 2019, and I still do today. I build and manage their websites, run their Facebook and Instagram accounts, manage their Facebook and Google ads, print material, event promotion, you name it. It's a great company, and I believe in their mission, which is why I've been with them for so long.

During the Covid lockdown, I got laid off from my full-time job at ClubCom/GymTV and ended up finding this part time opportunity to keep me busy. Millennial Media Group is a social media marketing agency from Orange County, California. When I started with them, I began handling most of their video editing work for all of their monthly clients. This is where I really started getting into short-form content. Over the years, I've produced thousands of short-form reels for their clients.

Covid lockdowns are over, and we're all back to work. This time, we no longer work from an office in Robinson, the entire company went to a work-from-home model. After being with ClubCom/GymTV for over 6 years, an opportunity to advance in the company was finally presented. My manager at the time moved on to another role in the company and I was able to fill her position. As the Director of Productions, I handle all of our client relationships with our fitness club partners. LA Fitness, Gold's Gym, Crunch Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness. We provided in-club entertainment network for a large portion of the fitness industry. My team and I help our fitness club partners create video content to play on their in-club screens. With over 13,000 gym locations with our product, our content is seen by millions of gym goers every day.

At my current position here, I manage a team of video editors and graphic designers and still actively help create video content myself. I manage all of our client relationships and have really developed my customer service skills here. I currently work 36 hours a week at this role (we get half day Fridays!) and work from home (ever since Covid). This has given me back time to take on more side-work.

At this time I had been with the company for a couple of years and was getting more and more involved. We were consistently adding new clients and I began taking on a bigger role. I started managing the entire post-producing workflow. I hired a team of out-sourced video editors that I developed and trained within my own online paid community. We pump out hundreds of pieced of short-form content for our client's social media accounts each week. At this point, I'm really well versed how business and entrepreneurs can use the power of social media to become thought leaders and dominate their industry. I also started employing what I learned here for my own personal brand which I grew to over 4k followers.

After starting my personal brand, I get people on Instagram reaching out to me every week looking for a good video editor/content creator. The owner of this company reach out and offered me a position at the company. After reducing the amount of hours I was putting in at Millennial Media Group, I decided to join his team. Since then I've helped with all of their short-form and long-form video editing, all of their graphic design for print material and Facebook ads, and a whole host of other digital marketing tasks. It's been a fun company to work with and I enjoy helping a small company like this grow through the power of online content.