Meet Nicholas Mayer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicholas Mayer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicholas, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I decided to pursue an artistic career because it’s somewhat in my blood. My grandpa and grandma were big on photography, my parents not so much, however I’ve always like taking pictures as a kid. Now that I’m a little older (25), I really grew into taking videos more than photos but I still love to take photos here and there and that’s why I have the camera I have now (Sony a7iv). Over time I’ve really fell in love with doing video work because a photo is worth a thousand words, but what is a video worth? Videos create and persuade emotion, you can do so much with video, instead of capturing a moment, you can capture many moments at a time. I honestly decided to go full time creative even though it wasn’t necessarily time to make that jump, I didn’t have the clientele to support a full time position in this field, but over time you meet people and by just getting out there and doing jobs for certain people you make connections and get the opportunity for other jobs in that process. I would definitely recommend having consistent clientele before you make the “ full time “ jump, but it definitely isn’t a bad thing if you have to work a job, and do photo/video work on the side until you’re able to support yourself completely on photo/video work alone.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Getting to where I am today was not easy, some might say it wasn’t hard but, I can say it is a grind. I’m still not really in a position I want to be in, in terms of being a creative/business owner. I do everything myself, I don’t outsource any of my work it’s all me, from reaching out and connecting, to editing, to shooting. A lot of people outsource their work, which is fine, if you want to grow as a business, you have to outsource or bring someone on to help out. You can definitely make a lot of money on your own, but if you want to scale and grow into the 6 figure earning bracket. You have to have a team, and systems to support the team, as well as to make things as easy as possible and efficient as possible. That’s the key to growth.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Downtown San Diego is full of cool spots. I like to have a good time at the bar so I would recommend Altitude sky lounge. Rooftop bar with a good view of Petco Park. Speaking of Petco Park, I would definitely recommend going to a Padres game! Always a great time, the food is good, the drinks are great. I would recommend going to the beach obviously, the beaches here are beautiful, wether it’s Coronado, ocean beach, mission beach, or pacific beach, always a great time taking a dip in the refreshing waters of San Diego. Balboa park is another good spot to go visit, there a lot to see there from the museums, to the flower garden. Old town is also another great place to check out. There are quite a few historic sites, good restaurants, and live entertainment to go check out. There’s so much to go do and see here in San Diego it’s worth a visit no doubt.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would have to give the biggest shoutout to Jose Alvarado, he was a big inspiration for me to keep going in this industry, he taught me a lot in the time that we worked together. I really appreciate him for giving me a shot to work with him and everything he did for me, he was a good friend, a mentor and more. Another shoutout I would like to give is to the artist Russ. He wrote a book called “ it’s all in your head “. I read that when I was just out of high school, that really helped a lot too. I highly recommend reading that book, it’s a great mindset book and really set a tone for me in terms of going after my goals.

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