 That's where I was like that's where I want to put my work and effort to bring something valuable So the content that I create is valuable for you for me and everybody else watching and I want to be inspired Not for my own content, but I want you also to be inspired from it and that mentality Completely changed my my entire like Johnny Q my entire self the mentality of okay You have to make it happen now. Okay, you have to set yourself up where you're not going to fail And if you do who cares if you fail because if you know me Man, I don't care if I fail I've failed so many times and I just don't even care But like those failures and those like pivotal moments in my life where I've quote-unquote have failed I've actually opened a different door and it's like whoa If I wouldn't have done the thing that I failed at this door wouldn't have opened and I would not be where I am today And so that's why we move to Sparta That's why I have this job because I chose to do more than just you know Be be okay with with with the life that I had No, I wanted to grab life by the horns and just like take the horns off I wanted to rip them off and put them on myself and be like I got the horns That's that's really weird analogy, but you get it So that's that's who Johnny Q is and from that from the vlogging to editing You know people at McPherson saw that and I was recommended through the grapevine through my mentor and people that I've worked with For free by the way, which that's a whole different Don't even get me started on this because people who say I need to be paid for everything that I do I Would disagree with you I have this job and this freedom and this flexibility and this amazing job and work environment Because I worked my butt off for free for years like I'm talking five plus years Okay, it was only my corporate job that I was like getting real money if you want to think like that the bass playing There's no money in music Again, that's a whole different thing that I'm gonna speak on in these episodes But yeah, like that's because I chose to work for free I got this opportunity and I'm in a way better place My family is in a way better place now than ever before and it's incredible So we're truly blessed and it's amazing. Okay back to like working hard. So yeah, like I worked My butt off to create this vlog and I think I vlogged daily for Oh man, I want to say What was it I think like almost 13 days I was just so obsessed with learning more Finding new ways to film the same stuff like finding Yeah, different angles of my of my wife and kid walking down the street getting Starbucks like how do I create a story? And that's where it kind of started learning my craft in adobe premiere and as a videographer now And I wouldn't call myself a videographer because I'm not I don't have an aria Alexa I don't have a red camera. I don't have all these, you know big things But then I realized it's not the gear that makes you it's you that makes you and so in that sense I was making it happen in the midst of people saying you're not gonna be able to do this You're a photographer. You can't do video. Why would you spend all your time editing when you know? You can do editing on photos and do weddings and all all the above but I thought no Like as human beings we should be able to push ourselves More than what we can handle obviously in a good and healthy way But this was a form for me to be creative and actually try to understand More than just one side of the creative social media platform, which is youtube I had no idea like how to start on youtube. I just did it And time after time like I just kept failing and then at one point I reached over a thousand subscribers And to be you know very not verified but to be like a partner with youtube And essentially to get paid on youtube to monetize videos. You need to cross the threshold of a thousand subscribers and I believe it's four thousand minutes watched so people have to watch all of your content at least four thousand minutes But uh at least four thousand minutes have to be watched on your video content And I surpassed that within oh man. I want to say Four five months and that's not like whoa, that's that's a lot. That's a world record because other people have Done way more in far less time. But to me that was like, oh I think I have something that people want to see or hear So why don't I continue to do this vlogging in youtube channel, but also Turn it around and actually make it about something I really do know which is photography And now video is becoming part of that And now because I did all the stuff in early 2018 the door opens for A whole new chapter to be moved to a whole different state to do the work that I You know have been kind of dreaming about but I had no idea how to do a year ago But now I get to do that full time and excel in it And Okay, sarah and I both went to the interview We kind of got to know the people at McPherson And that day I got offered a job at McPherson guitars as a social media content manager Which is I mean now evolved into like artist relations and doing a lot of marketing work with McPherson and A lot of cool stuff is happening. And so because I was You know not hesitant to Do the work up front which is getting into adobe premiere spending the money on a camera to make these vlogs If I hadn't You know if I was not able to do that in the beginning and if I was just scared None of the Rest of wisconsin would have opened up and I'm sure you know it would have in a sense where my mentor recommended me But I would not have the knowledge to do video So that's what i'm getting at so because I started video in 2018 and dove deep like I just I literally just dove in like this ocean without any floaties on and I'm like I need to drown so that I can literally rise And actually do this so that's what I did I mean you can ask my wife. I would spend hours editing I would go from Like four in the morning I would go Film do work come back spend time with the family go film another vlog come back at like 10 And then edit from like 10 30 to 3 4 in the morning. I mean it was Brutal, but I just wanted to learn like I was pushing myself to know more about video because I know in the future Video is going to be the thing like everybody's raving about video And if you're a good creator with video and editing dude, you can get tons of work So that's why I started it and because of that hard work and pushing myself and making it happen And mind you we were not in a good place financially Or no one a good place physically like as far as location in Minneapolis We had this rink-a-dink town home and it was just not that safe So it wasn't like oh, we were making really good money and I can just go do these things No, I was sacrificing time with my family Sacrificing time with my with my wife and kid like it's just it was not good But because of all that hard work all of that all that stuff that we went through It now has pushed us into a way better place