From Homeless to Global Storyteller
Survival basis is real, and this is my success story from homeless to an assignment on all 7 continents.
Real quick, here is the definition of survivor bias if you don’t know what that is:
“The logical error of concentrating on entities that passed a selection process while overlooking those that did not. This can lead to incorrect conclusions because of incomplete data.”
In 2016, I gave everything up to pursue a life of storytelling and it worked. When I say gave up, I literally mean I sold everything and moved onto a bicycle with a few grand to my name and $60k in student debt without knowing what I was going to do.
Picking up odd seasonal jobs to make money, typically this was teaching outdoor education. During this time, I learned how to photograph and shoot video, but that was really just pushing a button. Over a few years of button pushing, the idea of storytelling started to come into play. Without knowing much about the business side of things, I had this fire inside of me to learn and make it work. But, I needed to get off the bike.
So, I moved into a car so I could move faster and see more places. Living on $500 a month, I started to see some success. An occasional article in a magazine. A print sale. A product shoot. A licensed photograph. Money started to come in sporadically, but I didn’t care. I was making enough to money to be homeless and enjoy the ride.
But, car trouble struck. Now, a need for more money.
Buckling down, I started to figure out how to make enough money to buy a creepy van while still maintaining the dream of shooting everyday in rad places. Then more vehicle troubles. Now, it was a time for some serious cash (maybe a few grand a month) and another new van.
With a tricked out van, student loan payments, and now car debt, I needed to make money from my creative work and fast. So, I went for an epic road trip!
Tossing in all my funds I headed out for a loop around the western United States to give this creative life “one last shot”. Going all in, I spent my money on gas and got after it. Shooting sunrise to sunset, setting up time-lapses through the night, rarely sleeping, and pitching potential clients daily.
It paid off!
Prints and Books For Sale
Landing a few clients, I had proof this system would work. But, it wasn’t going to be sustainable. At the moment, I didn’t care though. All I cared about was traveling and telling stories.
Fast forward to last year, I am privileged to say that I was so busy that I booked a dream client for an assignment on every continent and moved into a house (renting, not buying) for the first time since 2016.
Some of these assignments included photographing the Northern Lights, kayaking in Antarctica, snorkeling in Belize, visiting the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt while sailing down the Nile, skiing in Turkey, road tripping the west coast of Australia to photograph swimming with whale sharks along the Ningaloo Reef, the list goes on.
Now, feel free to take this as bragging, but that isn’t my goal. My goal is to share what success looks like for myself after 8 years of sacrifice.
To date, this is kinda the list of what success has looked like for me:
Homeless by choice for 8 years
32 TB of footage and images captured
Over 150 campaigns created for adventurous brands
1 Award winning documentary short
1 episodic travel series soon to publish on a streaming platform
1 episodic travel series in the editing bay
7 continents visit for assignments
I am proud of what I have accomplished since CARTWHEELING across the stage to get my diploma in 2016.
The journey isn't always pretty.
The process is painful.
But, living a dream you work your rumper off to create is no joke!
Thank you for reading ✌️
