Latest / The MOOD Podcast / Breaking Barriers: A Filmmaker's Path in a Male-Dominated Industry; Julie Valentina, E061

Transcript

Breaking Barriers: A Filmmaker's Path in a Male-Dominated Industry; Julie Valentina, E061 · The MOOD Podcast

• 0:00
  Julie Valentina: Female filmmakers.
• 0:01
  Julie Valentina: That's like a thing that's pretty rare nowadays, Still, unfortunately.
• 0:05
  Julie Valentina: That's crazy.
• 0:06
  Julie Valentina: What is this girl doing here?
• 0:08
  Julie Valentina: She's not supposed to be on a film set.
• 0:11
  Matt Jacob: Being a female in a male-predominant industry.
• 0:15
  Matt Jacob: Tell me a little bit about what that's like and how you see things moving forward within that space.
• 0:23
  Julie Valentina: Oh God.
• 0:24
  Matt Jacob: What does creativity mean to you?
• 0:27
  Julie Valentina: It's pretty much dedicating yourself fully to the craft you're fully passionate about.
• 0:32
  Matt Jacob: How do we be unique?
• 0:33
  Julie Valentina: That's a really good question.
• 0:36
  Matt Jacob: Welcome to the Mood Podcast where, each week, we bring you inspiring conversations with top artists and creative minds from various fields.
• 0:44
  Matt Jacob: Bring you inspiring conversations with top artists and creative minds from various fields, exploring their personalities, purposes, processes and philosophies.
• 0:52
  Matt Jacob: Whether you're a seasoned photographer, an aspiring artist or simply someone who loves to learn and be inspired, this podcast is certainly for you.
• 0:57
  Matt Jacob: I'm your host, matt Jacob, and thank you for joining me.
• 1:01
  Matt Jacob: In today's conversation, we're joined by a remarkable young filmmaker, julie Valentina.
• 1:08
  Matt Jacob: At just 22 years old, julie has already carved out an impressive name for herself in the industry.
• 1:14
  Matt Jacob: After dropping out of university, she took a leap of faith, learned the skills of photography and filmmaking, packed her bags and started to travel, where she immersed herself in a valuable community of filmmakers.
• 1:27
  Matt Jacob: This bold move paid off when she won two major contests in the Colder Creative course, gaining her recognition and opening an array of doors to collaborations with big-name clients like Beautiful Destinations and Turkish Airlines.
• 1:41
  Matt Jacob: Now Julie is shifting gears a little bit to focus on personal branding, building an agency and exploring new business ventures.
• 1:51
  Matt Jacob: In my conversation with her, julie opens up about her experiences as a female filmmaker in a male-dominated industry, the unique challenges she has faced and how she has turned those challenges into opportunities.
• 2:03
  Matt Jacob: We discuss the importance of community in her journey, the role of self-development in her creative process and the paradox of being versus becoming, as she strives to stay present while continuing to grow.
• 2:17
  Matt Jacob: We discuss the most surprising and unsettling realizations she's had about the concept of success in the filmmaking industry and we touch upon her creative process, uncovering how she defines creativity and how it shaped both her work and her identity as an artist.
• 2:32
  Matt Jacob: Julie also shares her thoughts on maintaining authenticity in an industry driven by trends and social media, and how she balances commercial success with staying true to her artistic vision.
• 2:44
  Matt Jacob: So now I bring you Julie Valentina.
• 2:47
  Matt Jacob: Julie Valentina, welcome to the Mood Podcast.
• 3:00
  Julie Valentina: Thanks for having me.
• 3:01
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, it's great to have you here, nice to see a young, smiling, bright face in the studio.
• 3:18
  Matt Jacob: Thanks for having me and industry, I guess.
• 3:22
  Matt Jacob: Tell me a little bit about what that's like and kind of how you see things moving forward within that, that space so I I can only agree like female filmmakers.
• 3:35
  Julie Valentina: That's like a thing that's pretty rare nowadays still, unfortunately.
• 3:39
  Julie Valentina: But um, to be honest, for me personally it was never a problem to be a female in the industry.
• 3:44
  Julie Valentina: I think one of the main reasons why there's not as many females might be because there's not as many bigger role models.
• 3:51
  Julie Valentina: So, for example, in the travel filmmaking space, sam Colder has been a big inspiration for a lot of people, also for me.
• 3:58
  Julie Valentina: But I think you naturally associate yourself with people from the same gender, so I think that might be a reason for it.
• 4:07
  Julie Valentina: But overall it's never really been a problem.
• 4:11
  Julie Valentina: I never felt like I'm not equal just because I'm a female.
• 4:14
  Julie Valentina: I'd rather see it as like a benefit for myself, because you stand out way more than yeah.
• 4:22
  Matt Jacob: Why do you think?
• 4:23
  Matt Jacob: Do you think it's purely because there's a lack of role models?
• 4:26
  Matt Jacob: And is that something that you want to be for other females in that, in that area?
• 4:33
  Julie Valentina: I surely think that the lack of role models might be one of the reasons, of many, for sure.
• 4:38
  Julie Valentina: I mean, I think the number is growing nowadays and I'm happy that I get a lot of messages from people who are like telling me hey, it's super cool that I finally found someone who's also female in the industry who I can see as a role model.
• 4:51
  Julie Valentina: So, partially yes, but of course that's not the main reason why I'm like doing filmmaking.
• 4:56
  Julie Valentina: I'm truly passionate about it.
• 4:57
  Julie Valentina: I think one of the other reasons might be because it's still like really technical, especially filming, but to be honest, it's not really that much difference to photography.
• 5:08
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to figure out.
• 5:10
  Matt Jacob: I've been thinking about this for a long, long time, actually, since Julia, our friend Julia brought it up to me when I had her on the podcast because I wasn't quite aware of the discrepancy.
• 5:19
  Matt Jacob: But I'm also very concerned about not kind of making equal outcomes the agenda, but more equal opportunities right.
• 5:27
  Matt Jacob: So it got me thinking why I mean role models is definitely a thing in many industries.
• 5:35
  Matt Jacob: Females might feel intimidated.
• 5:38
  Matt Jacob: I guess that it's a male-dominated thing and, like you said, like for like, often you see role models as the same sex Often not, of course, every time dominated thing and, like you said, like for like, often you see role models as the same sex, often not not, of course, every time.
• 5:46
  Matt Jacob: But then you think about the technical aspect as well, where men's brains are slightly different than women's brains in that aspect.
• 5:53
  Matt Jacob: In terms of genetics, we're kind of more drawn to, you know, boys with toys, right, it's gadgets and cameras and stuff like that.
• 6:01
  Matt Jacob: But then women tend to be a lot more creative and tend to be a lot better with expression and emotions and stuff which, in you know, more collaborative, which in my mind makes them a much, much better candidate, shall we say, for a filmmaker or creative in in that space.
• 6:19
  Matt Jacob: I don't know where my question is coming from here, but let me know your thoughts on that.
• 6:23
  Matt Jacob: Is that something you actually see?
• 6:24
  Matt Jacob: I'm more interested in kind of your daily experience, especially doing jobs, going, traveling.
• 6:28
  Matt Jacob: What your experience as a female is like, do you?
• 6:31
  Matt Jacob: I mean, is it difficult to integrate, especially if you're with a team?
• 6:34
  Julie Valentina: I would say it depends on the country a lot like.
• 6:37
  Julie Valentina: I mean, I'm working in a lot of different countries and there are some countries that see men and women not equally.
• 6:43
  Julie Valentina: Yet, especially last year, I've been in one country like more frequently and one experience really sticked in my head.
• 6:50
  Julie Valentina: It was like a local production team at the shooting place walking past us and they were like what is this girl doing here?
• 6:56
  Julie Valentina: She's not supposed to be on a film set or on a video set.
• 7:01
  Julie Valentina: And I was like wow, that's actually that's like crazy.
• 7:03
  Julie Valentina: Or on a video set.
• 7:06
  Julie Valentina: And I was like, wow, that's actually that's like crazy.
• 7:07
  Julie Valentina: But, um, I think that's like about yeah, I mean having the confidence and and knowing why you're there.
• 7:11
  Julie Valentina: Obviously the production team wouldn't have to fly you out there if the team there would be competent enough you know, yeah, um, but yeah, overall, like this is just like small experiences.
• 7:23
  Julie Valentina: Overall, I would say like I still have like a lot of really good experiences.
• 7:26
  Julie Valentina: Last year, I directed a campaign in Panama and it was pretty crazy.
• 7:31
  Julie Valentina: I was 21 years old and I was the youngest person of the whole production team and the rest of the people were all 30 and mostly guys, and that's been like everyone was super respectful, everyone was like took me seriously, and that was an experience I learned a lot from, for sure.
• 7:51
  Matt Jacob: I'm sure you had.
• 7:52
  Matt Jacob: You had the thing of being young, which many whatever sex you are people think well, you don't know what you're doing because you're so young and you had the female aspect.
• 8:01
  Matt Jacob: It is talk about a challenge, but it sounds like it was a if you can reframe it as like a purely learning experience.
• 8:07
  Matt Jacob: Um, whether you've been doing it for one year or 20 years, right, always learning.
• 8:11
  Matt Jacob: But why for you?
• 8:14
  Matt Jacob: Filmmaking?
• 8:15
  Matt Jacob: What was it about filmmaking?
• 8:17
  Matt Jacob: Cameras, photography, creativity, what was it about that?
• 8:22
  Julie Valentina: that that kind of drew you in it's kind of funny because I started being more in front of the camera than behind the camera, so like modeling in Germany, and then I got super interested in taking photos just for myself for my own Instagram.
• 8:35
  Julie Valentina: I collaborated with lots of photographers and then I wanted to learn about like photo editing and in Germany I got like a lot of new friends who are also doing photography and filmmaking through that and at some point I just got bored by just still images.
• 8:51
  Julie Valentina: I wanted to create like actual stories.
• 8:52
  Julie Valentina: And actually one friend of mine who was already a successful filmmaker, he did like jobs for like bigger brands in Germany and I was like, wow, this is actually possible.
• 9:02
  Julie Valentina: And he studied, uh, media conception production it's called media conception production and I got super interested about the whole studies and what is it?
• 9:14
  Julie Valentina: it's like it's it's at university, it's like a course um studies.
• 9:19
  Julie Valentina: How do you say it?
• 9:20
  Julie Valentina: Studies, study, course, course, studies.
• 9:23
  Julie Valentina: It's like a whole, whole study and, um, yeah, you learn everything about post-production, about production, storytelling, and I started to study that and that was like the start of my filmmaking career, kind of how was the formal education experience in?
• 9:41
  Matt Jacob: in creativity, essentially, or production?
• 9:44
  Julie Valentina: so I quit after three semesters, but I would say it's been very beneficial for the network.
• 9:50
  Julie Valentina: So you're surrounded by a lot of people who are interested in the same thing and you also learn everything in location.
• 9:57
  Julie Valentina: So you're like you're kind of forced to to stick to it.
• 10:00
  Julie Valentina: But on the other hand also, like university has a lot of limitations and, for example, I've always been interested in travel filmmaking and of course, in university you don't learn anything about travel filmmaking, more about, like, productions in place and all the technicalities.
• 10:15
  Julie Valentina: But I did the course from sam colder um and that's been super beneficial for me, like additionally to the studies.
• 10:22
  Julie Valentina: That also allowed me to quit my studies because I got all the knowledge from there so you gained more knowledge from kind of non-formal education in terms of online courses.
• 10:35
  Matt Jacob: Youtube, I guess, played a big part in the self-learning process crazy, like I mean.
• 10:40
  Julie Valentina: Nowadays all the information are on YouTube, like there's nothing you can.
• 10:44
  Julie Valentina: If you want to learn drop, if you want to learn dropshipping, if you want to learn how to build an agency, a business, everything's on YouTube nowadays, which is super powerful and sometimes, I guess, also overwhelming because there are so many possibilities.
• 10:56
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, does that make it more difficult to stand out?
• 10:59
  Matt Jacob: I mean, if you're learning from the way other people do it or the way they teach right and therefore probably becomes more accessible to people?
• 11:08
  Matt Jacob: You know, more people have cameras these days, more people have the accessibility to YouTube.
• 11:16
  Matt Jacob: It's free, essentially, if you can deal with ads, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 11:19
  Matt Jacob: Have you sensed that you as a, as a young female coming through that process, have you sensed, like, oh my goodness, what the overwhelming part is, learning it, but also the competition and the industry.
• 11:33
  Matt Jacob: How do I make myself stand out?
• 11:35
  Matt Jacob: How do I make myself different?
• 11:36
  Matt Jacob: Is that a battle that you've had or is, if you just kind of shut out the noise and found your own way through it?
• 11:42
  Julie Valentina: I think I started pretty early stage when all this travel content creators started to come up.
• 11:47
  Julie Valentina: That was like two and a half years ago or even four years ago, but like more frequently two years ago, I feel like over the last couple of years it's been an insane growth in content creators, especially in the travel space, and in the beginning I was, for sure, struggling, but I think the biggest chance for me was Colder Creative, because I did some of their contests and that gave me a lot of recognition in like the travel filmmaking space.
• 12:14
  Julie Valentina: That's been amazing, and also like networking, like I feel, like the personal relationship with the people who are already successful in what they're doing.
• 12:22
  Julie Valentina: That's what helped me the most actually.
• 12:31
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, interesting to people who are already successful in what they're doing.
• 12:32
  Matt Jacob: That's what helped me the most actually.
• 12:32
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, interesting, colder creative as in sam colder's online platform.
• 12:34
  Matt Jacob: Tell us a bit more about that because that's interesting.
• 12:35
  Julie Valentina: A lot of people go through that.
• 12:36
  Julie Valentina: So it's basically an online learning platform and they also give you the opportunity to do like contests where, for example, every year they host a my year contest.
• 12:44
  Julie Valentina: You can do like a recap of your year.
• 12:46
  Julie Valentina: The first place gets to go on a trip with him, second place gets a cash credit.
• 12:50
  Julie Valentina: And then other contests like the.
• 12:52
  Julie Valentina: We did a one plus contest where we got sent to different locations, like one team was in tokyo, the other team in costa rica and the third team in I forgot the third location, but yeah, pretty much like super cool challenges where they allow you to put your name out there and they have a big platform, they work with big clients.
• 13:12
  Julie Valentina: So it's amazing.
• 13:14
  Matt Jacob: And was that competition part of it, the point where you've realized, oh, I can do this or I've got something here?
• 13:21
  Matt Jacob: Do you feel like that was a recognition point in your life For?
• 13:24
  Julie Valentina: sure.
• 13:25
  Julie Valentina: So I think when I came to Bali for the first time two years ago, it's been super changing for me, like just the perspectives, what people are doing, like people are able to live out here, to create content and, yeah, just have a lot of freedom, which was incredible, and that was the first stage.
• 13:43
  Julie Valentina: And then, when I came back, I got the opportunity to go on tour with DJ freedom, which was incredible, and that was the first stage.
• 13:45
  Julie Valentina: And then, when I came back, I got the opportunity to go on tour with DJs, which was also crazy, was like the next step, I would say.
• 13:50
  Julie Valentina: And also, when I came to Bali, I got to know a friend of mine who was working for Beautiful Destinations and I didn't even know that it's like an agency that flies you out and shoot for tourism boards, and then that was like the next goal and I intentionally took part in the Mayur contest to win it, to become part of Beautiful Destinations, because I knew this opportunity was there.
• 14:13
  Matt Jacob: Right, okay, and was that where your travel bug started?
• 14:16
  Matt Jacob: Or you'd always, always been interested in travel, and if so, why?
• 14:20
  Julie Valentina: I've always been traveling.
• 14:21
  Julie Valentina: I always loved to travel, like ever since I was at in school, even like with parents on vacation and then when I was studying, and yeah, always I love traveling do you do much personal work on the side, or is it a lot of just client brand stuff that takes you to these places?
• 14:39
  Julie Valentina: over the past year it's been mainly client brand stuff.
• 14:41
  Julie Valentina: Actually I didn't do a lot of personal travel at all, but now I'm kind of working on different ways to have a little bit more freedom and not like just be dependent on the on the client shoots to go to places yeah, how do you manage the travel side of it?
• 14:55
  Matt Jacob: I mean, from someone who's getting old, uh, and who's been traveling most of my life as well, I'm just so tired of it, as maybe someone who's got age on their side.
• 15:06
  Matt Jacob: But do you find, do you find, different strategies that work with the travel side of it?
• 15:12
  Matt Jacob: Because I mean, for those that don't know, travel filmmaking, travel, photography, they are fucking long days it's.
• 15:17
  Matt Jacob: It's tough, tough work.
• 15:19
  Matt Jacob: You've got to be really like up for it.
• 15:22
  Matt Jacob: How do you manage that?
• 15:24
  Matt Jacob: Do you have some kind of routines or strategies that you take with you?
• 15:29
  Julie Valentina: So, to be honest, over the last year I didn't have any routine, which was insanely bad for my health, and it feels like every new place you're going to you're a new person, because every new surrounding changes you in a certain way and all the people you're surrounding yourself with.
• 15:45
  Julie Valentina: But for me, journaling was really beneficial, and meditating it's like the mental peace you get every single day for like 15 minutes.
• 15:55
  Julie Valentina: Do you journal or meditate?
• 15:56
  Julie Valentina: Both?
• 15:56
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:57
  Matt Jacob: I only found them in the last.
• 15:59
  Matt Jacob: I've been meditating on and off about five years, last couple of years, like it's been a big part of my life.
• 16:05
  Matt Jacob: Journaling was introduced to me about yeah, about two years ago as well.
• 16:10
  Matt Jacob: Um, I don't, I, I, I don't mind it, I don't really use it as a diary.
• 16:17
  Matt Jacob: Maybe I think that's more of a cathartic experience if you use it more like a diary.
• 16:21
  Matt Jacob: I don't know, you can tell me, but uh, it's definitely helped my mindset for sure yeah, what do you write down like daily recap?
• 16:30
  Matt Jacob: I actually have a.
• 16:31
  Matt Jacob: I have two journals one we bought, my wife has the same.
• 16:34
  Matt Jacob: We have um, what's it called five year?
• 16:37
  Matt Jacob: It's a five year one where we log a day every day, like a.
• 16:42
  Matt Jacob: You know four or five lines, what happened today or what's gonna happen.
• 16:44
  Matt Jacob: What are you looking forward to today?
• 16:45
  Matt Jacob: Whatever comes into your mind?
• 16:47
  Matt Jacob: Just a little sentence every day of the year and it's got five years for it, so hopefully we look back in five years and just interesting to see.
• 16:55
  Matt Jacob: It's kind of a long journey, but the the other ones the one I'm using at the moment is manifestation journey, that journal, just because, um, I don't know, I'm interested to see how powerful that can be, but it's difficult because it kind of guides you every day rather than just I.
• 17:11
  Matt Jacob: I do have a third journal, which I use less, which is basically just a notepad wow three journals, but that's more of like an inspiration book rather than a journal, like something ideas come up, or if I want to write something I'll write in there, rather than a guided question by question type thing okay, you know, and there you go, the manifestation in the sense of you've already accomplished it, so you write it down no, the other way, kind of what, what do you what?
• 17:36
  Matt Jacob: what do you want to visualize, what's going to help you get towards your goal?
• 17:39
  Matt Jacob: Just to reinforce what your goals are, splitting them, them down into day by day.
• 17:44
  Matt Jacob: And then the journal asks you different questions every day.
• 17:48
  Matt Jacob: So it's just the best bit about that is you get asked questions that you didn't think about before.
• 17:53
  Matt Jacob: So it makes you think.
• 17:54
  Matt Jacob: But I don't love it that much.
• 17:56
  Matt Jacob: I'm going to go back to more of a gratitude journal, I guess after that one's finished.
• 18:03
  Matt Jacob: I'm just experimenting, I guess Meditation on the other other hand is life-changing.
• 18:07
  Matt Jacob: It is, yeah, it is yeah, I feel like journaling is just like a little tool.
• 18:10
  Matt Jacob: Meditation is more of a you know lifestyle change and um, yeah, that's been really really powerful what kind of meditations do you do?
• 18:19
  Matt Jacob: um for Pasana.
• 18:19
  Matt Jacob: So I focus on mostly breathing.
• 18:22
  Matt Jacob: Every day I throw in some breathing exercises, uh, before, before I kind of settle down.
• 18:27
  Matt Jacob: It helps me get a lot more clarity.
• 18:28
  Matt Jacob: I'll either do unguided or guided, depending on how I feel that morning.
• 18:35
  Matt Jacob: If I do guided, I listen to Sam Harris' Waking Up app, which is super cool.
• 18:40
  Matt Jacob: Purely mindfulness, nothing too spiritual, nothing um esoteric, just being conscious of everything that's going on at that time.
• 18:54
  Matt Jacob: So, um, which is which is actually going to lead me on to my next question.
• 18:58
  Matt Jacob: For you, it's really um, really highlights the difficulty of being versus becoming.
• 19:05
  Matt Jacob: I being present, enjoying where you are in life or in that day and in that moment, but also having goals, having something you want to become towards or go towards it.
• 19:17
  Matt Jacob: You know you have the whole life in front of you, essentially in an exciting career that you're doing really well in, and probably the sky's the limit.
• 19:25
  Matt Jacob: Do you get distracted by that?
• 19:27
  Matt Jacob: Is it difficult for you to kind of just okay, I'm here, let's just enjoy what's coming up at the moment?
• 19:33
  Julie Valentina: Embrace the moment.
• 19:34
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, it's really hard for me.
• 19:36
  Julie Valentina: I have big goals and it's really hard for me to not work on them, because I've already seen the potential in so many things Like, for example, filmmaking was such a big dream for me to not work on them, because I've already seen the potential in so many things like, for example, filmmaking was such a big dream for me.
• 19:49
  Julie Valentina: For me, and over the last years, everything has changed and like I've grown in so many ways and now like seeing more opportunities and challenges, especially with, like the whole YouTube inspiration, like so many entrepreneurs are sharing their life online and it's super inspiring for me.
• 20:04
  Julie Valentina: So I kind of have these big goals which are constantly adapting and it's hard for me to to not not work on them and just focus on.
• 20:13
  Julie Valentina: I'm grateful to be here right now because I just see how much potential is still out there yeah, it's really difficult.
• 20:21
  Matt Jacob: Um, it doesn't go away.
• 20:22
  Matt Jacob: It's just kind of compartmentalizing both, I guess.
• 20:25
  Julie Valentina: I know, I know tell us a bit about your goals, what you know, without giving too much away, but tell us kind of what, what your goals look like over the next few years and beyond so over these past couple of months my goals actually changed a lot, because the last year my biggest goals were always like work with bigger clients, get more travel, jobs and be able to sustain a living, and I feel like I never set a goal for what comes after.
• 20:51
  Julie Valentina: So like once you achieve that, I just got to keep going, do more jobs, keep traveling, or like what's the goal after, and I feel like I kind of accomplished this like the goal I set for myself, like a year ago.
• 21:07
  Julie Valentina: And now it's more about like giving it back, so like starting to build a community, have some more freedom and what I do and like where I go to travel, and we also just started an agency.
• 21:17
  Julie Valentina: So it's about like scaling that, having a bit more operational side of things, giving other people the opportunity to do the same thing and, yeah, awesome, yeah, it's uh.
• 21:29
  Matt Jacob: When you talk about goals, there, it's um.
• 21:32
  Matt Jacob: It's very difficult to always be focused on desire.
• 21:37
  Matt Jacob: Desire is often the cause of many people's suffering.
• 21:40
  Matt Jacob: Right, you always want something, want something, and then you get it.
• 21:43
  Matt Jacob: You know it.
• 21:43
  Matt Jacob: It's like the Olympic.
• 21:44
  Matt Jacob: We just had the Olympics.
• 21:45
  Matt Jacob: A lot of these gold medal athletes will be like, will be falling in, sad to say, but some will fall into depression over the next year Because it's like what, what do I do next?
• 21:54
  Matt Jacob: Like I've achieved my life's goal, now what?
• 21:57
  Matt Jacob: Right, it's start again, or do something different, or pivot.
• 22:00
  Matt Jacob: Pivot always have being that purpose, I guess, which is which is difficult to kind of have clarity over.
• 22:09
  Matt Jacob: Tell us a little bit more about if you have.
• 22:10
  Matt Jacob: You feel like your purpose is now to give back a little bit and balance the two, so you'll continue kind of chasing the dream in terms of the jobs, but also agencies and other stuff on the side.
• 22:22
  Matt Jacob: Is that correct?
• 22:24
  Julie Valentina: for sure.
• 22:24
  Julie Valentina: I think the the big end goal is always going to be freedom.
• 22:27
  Julie Valentina: So in whatever you do like, for example, the travel jobs are super nice and for me when I was like going to university, that was my imagination of what freedom looks like.
• 22:38
  Julie Valentina: But now I've I've done that for a year and now my way of freedom looks a little bit different.
• 22:44
  Julie Valentina: So, like, for example, I define where I'm going to be and I'm getting more selective with the jobs I'm kind of doing, because before my only income stream was these like kind of travel jobs I had to do and I had to travel.
• 22:59
  Julie Valentina: But now I don't want to have to travel.
• 23:02
  Matt Jacob: Is that English?
• 23:03
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, it's good.
• 23:05
  Julie Valentina: But I want to choose if I want to travel.
• 23:08
  Matt Jacob: Not because I have to.
• 23:09
  Matt Jacob: What a great position to be in.
• 23:10
  Matt Jacob: I'm trying.
• 23:10
  Matt Jacob: How did you get there?
• 23:12
  Matt Jacob: Tell everyone.
• 23:14
  Julie Valentina: I think it's just a process of everything, but my life changed so much over these last two years and me sitting here saying this right now is actually still.
• 23:24
  Julie Valentina: It's very crazy to me that's awesome, congratulations.
• 23:27
  Matt Jacob: I'm super happy for you.
• 23:28
  Matt Jacob: Tell us a little bit about what else kind of was in the equation, what else was in the formula for you to get to this point and I'm thinking more inspirations so you mentioned sam cold or anyone else in the space that you really kind of leveraged your skills off.
• 23:47
  Julie Valentina: I think it's a mixture of everyone I spend my time with, because every single creative has different sides of seeing things and learnings they can give you.
• 23:57
  Julie Valentina: So I think it was about people that already accomplished what I wanted to accomplish and then people who were motivated to achieve the same thing, and these two things kind of pushed me to achieve that kind of goal, but I can't tell you exact names.
• 24:12
  Julie Valentina: It was just a mixture of everyone, and I started reaching out to people on Instagram who inspired me and ask them what they were doing, if they could bring me on a job, and I feel like that's such a powerful way to attract these kind of things, just like reach out, because I feel like everyone in the space is super supportive and if you're really interested in learning and are talented and eager, then I think nothing can stop you.
• 24:38
  Matt Jacob: Hi everyone.
• 24:38
  Matt Jacob: Just a really quick break in the podcast to tell you about something that's been a game changer for my own work.
• 24:45
  Matt Jacob: You know I'm all about creating content that's impactful and visually stunning, and a big part of that is thanks to Artlist.
• 24:53
  Matt Jacob: I use Artlist for all the dramatic cinematic music you see in the trailers and that brings all my other videos to life, and their massive library of high quality stock footage and sound effects is honestly a lifesaver.
• 25:06
  Matt Jacob: Whether you're a filmmaker, content creator or photographer, artlist has everything you need to take your projects to the next level.
• 25:14
  Matt Jacob: What I love most about Artlist, though, is how easy it makes finding the perfect asset.
• 25:18
  Matt Jacob: I'm super lazy, and their platform is super user-friendly, and the quality of their music and footage is just top-notch.
• 25:26
  Matt Jacob: It doesn't matter if you're working on a big project or just something small.
• 25:30
  Matt Jacob: Artlist certainly has the range and the quality to make your work really stand out.
• 25:34
  Matt Jacob: Plus, everything is royalty-free, so you can use it however you like without worrying about the legal stuff.
• 25:40
  Matt Jacob: And because I believe in sharing the good stuff, here's a little perk for you Use the link in the description to sign up for an annual plan and you'll get two extra months free.
• 25:50
  Matt Jacob: It's a great deal to keep your creative juices flowing even longer.
• 25:54
  Matt Jacob: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 25:56
  Matt Jacob: It's amazing how many people that you perceive as your heroes or that you're inspired by will reply to you and we'll take the time to chat.
• 26:08
  Matt Jacob: Oh yeah, they're actually just human beings at the end of the day for sure they want to give back as well.
• 26:13
  Matt Jacob: Most of these great, like you said, it's, once you kind of dive into those layers, you find that everyone is super supportive yeah, and they're just humans as well but they're just, yeah, they're just people, yeah, still with the same battle, still fighting the same goals and desires and, and, uh, doubts and fears.
• 26:31
  Matt Jacob: Um, so, yeah, if anyone hesitates, I would suggest they don't.
• 26:35
  Matt Jacob: And for you, I mean, um, I'm sure you get loads of messages from people and can you pinpoint something that is um most common that you get asked in terms of your audience?
• 26:48
  Julie Valentina: I think I get a lot of questions about bali because I've spent quite a lot of time here.
• 26:52
  Julie Valentina: So like, just like, casual travel tips okay and um, I actually I I got the question a lot if people can intern with me, okay, and I actually have an intern from October, which is going to be cool, yeah, and then just to travel together, which is also a big thing, awesome, traveling together.
• 27:13
  Matt Jacob: People want to come and travel with you.
• 27:15
  Julie Valentina: Yeah.
• 27:15
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, that's great when you talk about inspirations, or at least the way you learned was there.
• 27:22
  Matt Jacob: I know this is a lot of questions I get, but maybe you get these types of questions as well.
• 27:27
  Matt Jacob: Was there a conscious decision to create a specific style or theme to your work in terms of the technical side of it?
• 27:35
  Matt Jacob: Or did you not worry too much about that, Because most of the time when you're doing jobs, it's about the person, not always about the aesthetics or the the technical side?
• 27:44
  Julie Valentina: I would say it's just go with the flow, I guess, create whatever feels right of course, depending on the jobs, there's like some requirements, especially like, for example, beautiful destinations.
• 27:56
  Julie Valentina: They still want like a lot of this like fast-paced transition, sam colder kind of style.
• 28:01
  Julie Valentina: Um, and then some want more like artistic, with more storytelling.
• 28:07
  Julie Valentina: So I would say like, when it comes to client shoots, it always depends on the client.
• 28:10
  Julie Valentina: When I'm doing personal content, it's always what I'm in the mood for, kind of so, when it comes, I'm more interested in what your personal stuff.
• 28:19
  Matt Jacob: So you sit down and you maybe come up tell us about your process, idea formulation, onto what mood boards or concepts or, you know, just playing around with stuff.
• 28:30
  Matt Jacob: How did, how do you go about creating something?
• 28:33
  Julie Valentina: I would say there's always two ways.
• 28:35
  Julie Valentina: Way one is just shoot something and figure out after.
• 28:40
  Julie Valentina: It's just like out of the mood, because you're kind of feeling inspired in the moment, um.
• 28:46
  Julie Valentina: And the other way is I get a lot of inspiration from vimeo.
• 28:49
  Julie Valentina: There's a lot of like beautiful commercials with lots of storytelling, and that's like when I plan out actual shoots, um, and yeah, these two ways.
• 28:59
  Julie Valentina: So, for example, I use Vimeo, I create a mood board with like ShotDec.
• 29:03
  Julie Valentina: Shotdec has like different frames.
• 29:06
  Matt Jacob: That's amazing.
• 29:07
  Matt Jacob: Do you know ShotDec, yeah, where they take frames from movies and stuff.
• 29:10
  Julie Valentina: Insane, right.
• 29:10
  Julie Valentina: It's such a level up for everything, inspiration lighting, it's crazy yeah.
• 29:17
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, people need to go and check that.
• 29:18
  Matt Jacob: I didn't know about it until maybe a few months ago because I was watching movies going.
• 29:23
  Matt Jacob: You know, I'll pause the movie go.
• 29:24
  Matt Jacob: How do they, you know, how do they like that, you know?
• 29:26
  Matt Jacob: Um, yeah, that's a really, really, really good platform.
• 29:30
  Matt Jacob: What has been more the?
• 29:33
  Matt Jacob: I mean, I'm keen to hear about your expectations before and after.
• 29:36
  Matt Jacob: Like before, you know, you had this goal of being a travel filmmaker and then you, then you went and did it.
• 29:41
  Matt Jacob: Was there something during that journey that you thought was different to what it might have been?
• 29:47
  Julie Valentina: that's a really good question.
• 29:48
  Julie Valentina: Um, in one way, yes, and the other way no.
• 29:53
  Julie Valentina: So, of course, you're traveling all the time, you're seeing all these amazing places and you're pretty much getting flown out to be there, and in the beginning this was like absolutely insane.
• 30:06
  Julie Valentina: I think one thing I was not expecting is that it's so hard on your body, like the time zone is changing all the time.
• 30:14
  Julie Valentina: You don't have a routine.
• 30:15
  Julie Valentina: Sometimes you're forced to like.
• 30:17
  Julie Valentina: For example, we were in Turkey on a shoot and I'm vegetarian, but we were in South Turkey, southern Turkey, and there's only meat, so I was eating bread for like 10 days.
• 30:26
  Julie Valentina: So that's like stuff you cannot.
• 30:30
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, it's funny now, but at the moment yeah.
• 30:32
  Julie Valentina: It wasn't great.
• 30:33
  Matt Jacob: You need a good diet to work well.
• 30:36
  Julie Valentina: So it's finding a balance.
• 30:37
  Julie Valentina: I guess, Like having a balanced lifestyle is pretty much impossible when you're on the go 24-7.
• 30:42
  Matt Jacob: How like having a balanced lifestyle is pretty much impossible when you're on the go 24 7.
• 30:45
  Matt Jacob: How do you define creativity?
• 30:48
  Julie Valentina: in which way like?
• 30:50
  Matt Jacob: well, I think it's.
• 30:50
  Matt Jacob: I only ask because it's a word that gets thrown around a lot and can mean so many different things depending on, I guess, who you are and what you do.
• 30:58
  Matt Jacob: Um, what did?
• 31:00
  Matt Jacob: Okay, let me rephrase what does creativity mean to you?
• 31:03
  Matt Jacob: Flow state have you ever heard about?
• 31:06
  Matt Jacob: Yeah?
• 31:06
  Julie Valentina: yeah, it's pretty much dedicating yourself fully to the craft you're fully passionate about and just going all in without having any ego in the back of your mind.
• 31:17
  Julie Valentina: That's creativity for me, like raw creativity where does it come from?
• 31:21
  Julie Valentina: I feel like a lot from the outer world and emotions experiences.
• 31:29
  Julie Valentina: I feel like creativity is a way of expressing our inner world.
• 31:34
  Matt Jacob: As in your inner world, as in who you are as a person.
• 31:36
  Matt Jacob: Can you elaborate on how specifically how that applies to you and your work?
• 31:42
  Matt Jacob: You elaborate on on how specifically how that applies to you and your work?
• 31:46
  Matt Jacob: What, what is, what is, what is?
• 31:47
  Matt Jacob: What does you look like in your craft?
• 31:49
  Julie Valentina: so I think it's.
• 31:50
  Julie Valentina: I just said it's a reflection of the inner world, but I think you take the inspiration from the outer world, you process it and you reframe it in your own way, kind of that's.
• 32:02
  Julie Valentina: That's creativity for me, because every single person has their own experiences in life and unique perspective on things and I think it's just a way of expressing that.
• 32:15
  Matt Jacob: Whatever it is, what a great answer, because creativity is not something that's.
• 32:19
  Matt Jacob: I just talk about a difference between originality and uniqueness.
• 32:23
  Matt Jacob: You are original because there is no other julie in this world, right, unless it's in a different world we don't know about.
• 32:29
  Matt Jacob: So that's original.
• 32:31
  Matt Jacob: And then you've got to try and be unique amongst so many other people in what you do.
• 32:36
  Matt Jacob: That's the same as other people, right?
• 32:38
  Matt Jacob: So many filmmakers around the world.
• 32:41
  Matt Jacob: The less, I think, people worry about that and the less they're able to.
• 32:44
  Matt Jacob: Just exactly how you said it, like we're all influenced by many things, whether it's our internalities in terms of neurons firing emotions, thoughts that no one chooses, what they think right, thoughts come up all the time, so that's innate.
• 32:58
  Matt Jacob: But you're also influenced by what other people say and their thoughts.
• 33:00
  Matt Jacob: So that's innate.
• 33:01
  Matt Jacob: But you're also influenced by what other people say and their thoughts.
• 33:04
  Matt Jacob: So that's such a great way of putting it.
• 33:06
  Matt Jacob: Creativity is kind of sat in the middle of that, right, and it's it's how you, it's how you perceive and create something from that really, um, really interesting.
• 33:18
  Matt Jacob: There is no, I guess, checklist for that.
• 33:21
  Matt Jacob: There's no kind of not really go and do this, go do this, but people teach it, people do teach it.
• 33:28
  Matt Jacob: People teach creativity, which is weird to me, you know because it feels so natural right isn't the definition of creativity like a natural creation, like if you create something, by definition it's make something from nothing.
• 33:44
  Matt Jacob: So to be able to teach ways of being creative is a bit strange, but I think there are ways that can help you be creative.
• 33:55
  Matt Jacob: I don't know.
• 33:56
  Julie Valentina: I feel like even just surrounding yourself with people who are creative like you're the average of the five people you spend most of your time at that subconsciously already influences you so much and I feel like once you see how they do it, like in action, and you're surrounded by their energy and their way of thinking, you adapt these ways of thinking, like I'm a different person every time.
• 34:19
  Julie Valentina: I'm like in a new place pretty much, and whoever I surround myself with and since I'm mostly surrounded by like creative people, I'm also like creating a lot, and now I'm living with two entrepreneurs and now I'm like focusing more on the entrepreneurship side of things.
• 34:34
  Julie Valentina: You know, and it's, it's crazy what your surroundings have an influence like, how, what kind of influence they have on you that is amazing.
• 34:40
  Matt Jacob: Um so, where you talked about your output being an expression of the inner you, what is the inner you?
• 34:49
  Matt Jacob: What?
• 34:49
  Matt Jacob: What is the inner?
• 34:50
  Matt Jacob: Julie?
• 34:50
  Matt Jacob: Tell us who you are I think it's constantly changing, depending on but there's got to be some some common denominators in there, surely, or is it just a completely new person?
• 35:02
  Julie Valentina: you mean like adjectives?
• 35:03
  Julie Valentina: Yeah okay, I would say open-minded, very open-minded, creative once we already spoke about it.
• 35:14
  Julie Valentina: Um then, I like to that's not certainly an adjective, but I like to try new things and see how these new things have the possibility to change and have an impact on my and other people's lives.
• 35:28
  Julie Valentina: I think that's my current main focus.
• 35:31
  Julie Valentina: I guess I'm very adventurous, spontaneous and, yeah, I just don't think a lot but I just do things.
• 35:43
  Matt Jacob: Don't overthink things, just get on and do it.
• 35:45
  Matt Jacob: That's freedom for you.
• 35:47
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I think the lesson I take from that I'm always trying to kind of listen to what someone says, and how can we learn from this other person?
• 35:58
  Matt Jacob: Right?
• 35:59
  Matt Jacob: Hugely inspirational words from you, by the way.
• 36:01
  Matt Jacob: But I think we can take from that just throw yourself in the right environment, right, just go and, whether it's the community, or whether it's just saying yes to a job, or saying yes to going traveling or this step that will take you, hopefully, towards your goal.
• 36:18
  Matt Jacob: And it's easy to say right, because it's scary, it's, it's so many doubts and things go wrong.
• 36:24
  Matt Jacob: And as long as we can reframe those into learning lessons, then just move on.
• 36:29
  Matt Jacob: And but, yeah, putting yourself in that environment, especially with the community side, I think, I think it's hugely important that's crazy.
• 36:38
  Julie Valentina: I feel like that's also the biggest step, which is giving you the opportunity to go towards your goals, just believing that it's possible for yourself.
• 36:47
  Julie Valentina: Because how would you know that you can become a successful entrepreneur or a successful filmmaker or successful teacher when you never know how it actually feels like living that kind of life?
• 37:02
  Julie Valentina: You know, or you don't know, how these people actually live from day to day?
• 37:05
  Matt Jacob: it's like, it's crazy, like so what are you doing now on the community side?
• 37:11
  Matt Jacob: What are you doing now on the entrepreneurial side?
• 37:12
  Matt Jacob: Can you share kind of on the agency side?
• 37:15
  Matt Jacob: Can you share more about that?
• 37:17
  Julie Valentina: so first of all, the community side of things.
• 37:19
  Julie Valentina: I mean I personally was part of Creative, which has been massive impact for my career, for getting the outreach, but I feel like what I've always been missing personally is like community events and trips and all these kinds of things.
• 37:34
  Julie Valentina: And since I get the question so often if people can like travel with me or like get surrounded by these creative things, I'm building kind of a brand for people, um to travel with other creatives and filmmakers and overall we're hosting like events where everyone can like just gather and the first one is in october, which is very exciting.
• 37:56
  Matt Jacob: Um, we already have 150 people signed up yeah, so by the time this goes out it'll'll be too late, so sorry about that.
• 38:04
  Julie Valentina: But yeah, I mean, we're planning future things, probably also in Africa, with a couple of other brands, bigger brands, and we have a lot of visions.
• 38:15
  Julie Valentina: I'm not sure where this is going to go, but for now it's going great, so I'm excited for this side of things.
• 38:20
  Matt Jacob: So what do people get if they get into this event or they get into this giveaway, or tell us a little bit about the specifics of of that?
• 38:29
  Julie Valentina: so I think the main thing is the creative community, so it's a lot of value, just like the personal exchange with people.
• 38:36
  Julie Valentina: Like social media nowadays is powerful, but personal side of things gets kind of lost, I feel like, and nothing is more worth than your network, like your network is your net worth and it's been the biggest changing point for me in my career and I'm sure it can be a big changing point for a lot of people.
• 38:55
  Julie Valentina: And I have this network of people who are already successful and of people who want to start out and I see the perfect matching point where I can come in and help.
• 39:05
  Matt Jacob: That's awesome.
• 39:06
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I think that's needed more than ever, just in my own experience.
• 39:13
  Matt Jacob: But you talked about social media there, which we'll just touch on in a minute.
• 39:16
  Matt Jacob: It seems to be not as communal as it once was, or not as easy to form an authentic and genuine community as maybe it was.
• 39:26
  Matt Jacob: So things like what you're doing and I've seen it firsthand in here in this studio, as well as many other places like it's so powerful and to get inspiration from these types of groups, communities, events, is, I think it can only be a good thing, even though it can be competitive, there can be envy, there can be backstabbing, just like any other industry, just like any other sector, just like any other human nature.
• 39:54
  Matt Jacob: But overall, um, I'm excited to see what comes of it.
• 39:59
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, so you talked about kind of um, social media and kind of stepping out into not into a limelight, but at least making yourself stand out a little bit on platforms like instagram.
• 40:12
  Matt Jacob: You know, when you've got over 100 million photos and videos posting every day, is that part of your strategy?
• 40:20
  Matt Jacob: I mean is, is Instagram platforms, youtube, social media?
• 40:24
  Matt Jacob: Is that something that you think about in, in what you do?
• 40:29
  Julie Valentina: Instagram, for sure.
• 40:30
  Julie Valentina: I've been definitely thinking about YouTube also, but it's like, for me personally, it's not worth the time invest versus what I get from it, because it takes a lot of time to build it and it wouldn't really make sense at the current position I'm in.
• 40:43
  Julie Valentina: But Instagram is such a powerful way and I feel like nowadays it's more important the quality of followers than the quantity, because I mean, if you have like a hundred super powerful clients following you versus I don't know two thousand people from who have no freaking idea about like what you're even doing, I'd rather choose the 100 people who are yeah, absolutely I value followers how long do you spend on instagram every day?
• 41:10
  Julie Valentina: oh god, you don't want to know how long do you?
• 41:14
  Julie Valentina: How long do you?
• 41:15
  Julie Valentina: Oh, my god, um, probably I have better times right now seven hours, which is, which is not good yeah.
• 41:23
  Matt Jacob: Not on Instagram.
• 41:24
  Julie Valentina: Screen time.
• 41:25
  Matt Jacob: Screen time?
• 41:25
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I'd say, but I think that's by average, I think just, but yeah, there's still.
• 41:30
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, actually that's it.
• 41:33
  Matt Jacob: Well, that must be including laptop and stuff, or is it just phone?
• 41:36
  Julie Valentina: I think that might be just the phone, but I work a lot from the phone.
• 41:39
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you tell yourself that.
• 41:41
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, maybe.
• 41:42
  Julie Valentina: How about you?
• 41:43
  Julie Valentina: What's your schedule A?
• 41:44
  Matt Jacob: couple of hours, but when I add in laptops I'm on my laptop a lot of the time during the days it gets up to that seven, eight hour mark, which I'm okay with because you know it's a tool.
• 41:57
  Matt Jacob: You're using it for something.
• 41:58
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I can't remember why I asked that question, but I think so many people get so consumed with social media it kind of warps their mind, or at least their mindset.
• 42:12
  Matt Jacob: Have you ever had that difficulty of someone being so prevalent on social media?
• 42:18
  Matt Jacob: There's a lot, especially if you're doing it yourself, in terms of answering DMs, answering comments, staying active, staying engaged.
• 42:26
  Matt Jacob: That's a couple of hours every day, certainly at your level of followers.
• 42:28
  Matt Jacob: You've got a lot of story views and then you're trying to engage and you're probably putting out stories where you want people to engage, asking questions, and it becomes an integral part of your day.
• 42:40
  Matt Jacob: Is that something for someone who's so mindful and you know practices, great habits during the day?
• 42:47
  Matt Jacob: Is that something you worry about as a, as a digital filmmaker, essentially?
• 42:51
  Julie Valentina: for sure.
• 42:52
  Julie Valentina: I mean it's, it's super intertwined, because that consumerism and the work part are like super like.
• 42:58
  Julie Valentina: They're merged together pretty much like once you go on instagram you answer the dms that are maybe for work, you also answer the dms where some friends send you some funny posts and then you start scrolling and scrolling and it's never ending and like this whole dopamine, it kind of like it catches you and once you have this one reel, you want to see the next one and the next one, and suddenly two hours are over.
• 43:20
  Julie Valentina: You were like, oh, I just wanted to answer this client dm.
• 43:23
  Matt Jacob: You know it's, it's not great, um two hours it's hard to set like actual boundaries right, yeah, do you set screen limits?
• 43:35
  Julie Valentina: no, yeah, but I always yeah, just ignore yeah I'm working hardly yeah, yeah, well, there's a problem.
• 43:42
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, I, yeah, okay, well, it's, it's.
• 43:46
  Matt Jacob: You know, it's a tool and, um, I, I realized that relatively quickly.
• 43:52
  Matt Jacob: I got into Instagram late.
• 43:53
  Matt Jacob: I mean, I'm an old granddad, essentially, and I was, so I did photography way before Instagram.
• 43:59
  Matt Jacob: So it was Instagram was around when I started photography, but I was so adamant that I wasn't gonna.
• 44:04
  Matt Jacob: You know, I just didn't like the whole premise of social media showing off and like putting yourself out there eventually came around to that, to that, and now I spend I spend probably 90% of my social media time on YouTube.
• 44:17
  Matt Jacob: Well, podcasts, clips, just hopefully like learning something, and then, obviously, I post the stuff on Instagram and just answering DMs, which I think is really, really important from audience members.
• 44:31
  Matt Jacob: Other than that, like, I sometimes find myself scrolling, but I'm usually able to catch it within a couple of minutes.
• 44:39
  Matt Jacob: Oh no, danny, that's funny, but I'll watch it later.
• 44:42
  Julie Valentina: It happens naturally right.
• 44:43
  Julie Valentina: So many funny videos, that's true, but every single video influences you subconsciously.
• 44:48
  Matt Jacob: Yep.
• 44:48
  Matt Jacob: But what I now tell myself is look, do I want this type of content being presented to me next time I open up Instagram?
• 44:56
  Matt Jacob: Because now you know how the algorithm works.
• 44:58
  Matt Jacob: That's what stops me more than oh, I, you know I shouldn't be on Instagram.
• 45:09
  Matt Jacob: It's like when I open Instagram, I want to see incredible photos, incredible video.
• 45:11
  Matt Jacob: That's me.
• 45:11
  Matt Jacob: I just photos video like cinematic videos, like real filmmaking, real photo, real photography, like professional stuff.
• 45:14
  Matt Jacob: That's all I want to see.
• 45:15
  Matt Jacob: And then stuff like I like fight, mma fighting.
• 45:18
  Matt Jacob: So some of that comes in, and then my wife will send me a funny video someone falling over so of that comes in, and then my wife would send me a funny video of someone falling over.
• 45:23
  Matt Jacob: So then that comes in, and then, before you know it, like you said, you know you're just losing your time.
• 45:29
  Julie Valentina: But the algorithm is crazy, right Like it naturally recognizes what you like and what you don't and, within like two days, you can change up everything what's getting shown to you, which is crazy.
• 45:41
  Matt Jacob: That's the scary.
• 45:41
  Matt Jacob: That's the scariest thing.
• 45:42
  Matt Jacob: Everything what's getting shown to you which is crazy, that's the scary.
• 45:44
  Matt Jacob: That's the scariest thing it really is.
• 45:45
  Matt Jacob: But also for someone who wants their, for us as visual artists, we want our stuff seen.
• 45:48
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, so you know, when you post something, you don't know who's gonna see it.
• 45:54
  Matt Jacob: You don't know if none of your or actual genuine audience who want to see things from you, so then then you end up posting twice, like if you have a broadcast channel, I post twice because you post and they go oh, if you didn't see this, most of them go no, I didn't see this, this didn't come up on my feed.
• 46:09
  Matt Jacob: So you end up playing this just circus of algorithm chasing, which is even worse than doom scrolling, in my opinion, because you never beat the algorithm.
• 46:19
  Matt Jacob: As long as we can, like you said, just stay as authentic as we can do what we do get in our flow state.
• 46:25
  Matt Jacob: Let everything else fall into place if we can.
• 46:30
  Matt Jacob: Easier said than done, especially when you need social media sometimes to get money to get clients.
• 46:39
  Matt Jacob: So you've got to play it that way as well.
• 46:40
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, it's hard to find the balance and set boundaries for yourself, but I play it that way as well.
• 46:43
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, it's hard to find the balance and, like, set boundaries for yourself.
• 46:44
  Julie Valentina: But, I feel like it's a constant process.
• 46:48
  Matt Jacob: Now I speak to photographers who teach, some photographers who teach workshops.
• 46:52
  Matt Jacob: They actually now include in their workshops how to deal with social media.
• 46:58
  Matt Jacob: Right, they recognize it's an integral part of growing as an artist.
• 47:03
  Matt Jacob: It has to be especially instagram and maybe in your case, more so, youtube.
• 47:08
  Matt Jacob: I mean, I know some filmmakers who just right, I've got to do it, I've got to go into youtube.
• 47:12
  Matt Jacob: That's that's what I want to put and, like you said, a lot of work into it's so much work, but hey, frequent post.
• 47:20
  Julie Valentina: I live with a youtuber you know, martin martin schrader he's.
• 47:25
  Julie Valentina: He has his own photography course and he's like literally constantly doing new youtube videos all day.
• 47:31
  Julie Valentina: New inspiration, new shooting.
• 47:33
  Julie Valentina: I see how much work it is.
• 47:35
  Julie Valentina: I respect every person who does youtube full time.
• 47:38
  Matt Jacob: Oh, my goodness, so much.
• 47:40
  Matt Jacob: It's crazy.
• 47:42
  Matt Jacob: There's a lot of shit out there, but still you gotta, you gotta put the time and effort in and then you're still playing with an algorithm.
• 47:49
  Matt Jacob: It's a little bit of an easier algorithm, but editing everything yeah, oh, excuse me, anyway, I digress we took yeah um, we talked about your audience and your followers.
• 48:00
  Matt Jacob: I I asked this to a lot of people actually, but it but it's an interesting question, hopefully interesting answer.
• 48:05
  Matt Jacob: Why do you think your followers follow you?
• 48:10
  Julie Valentina: um one point inspiration why, I think my content is pretty unique, like I have a pretty unique style when it comes to filmmaking.
• 48:19
  Julie Valentina: Um, that's one reason.
• 48:22
  Julie Valentina: Then potentially some business insights and like things like community events, because I oftentimes like ask if, for example, somebody's available to join a trip, or yeah, for example, the event thing, like I always post about job opportunities.
• 48:38
  Julie Valentina: I think that's also one thing.
• 48:39
  Julie Valentina: And, yeah, these two are the main, main, main reasons, I guess.
• 48:44
  Matt Jacob: Excuse the interruption very briefly, but I'd like to just take a moment to introduce you to a partner that has supported this podcast for a long time now, and it's Yore, a brand that truly stands at the intersection of art and craftsmanship.
• 48:59
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• 49:07
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• 49:19
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• 49:51
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• 50:05
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• 50:14
  Matt Jacob: Okay, I'm done.
• 50:15
  Matt Jacob: Promise I'll let you get back to it.
• 50:17
  Matt Jacob: What would you say?
• 50:19
  Matt Jacob: Your secret ingredient is?
• 50:21
  Matt Jacob: for for style relating filmmaking for anything for you as a person, you as a filmmaker, you as an entrepreneur, you as a community leader, you as a female in a man's world, whatever it might be.
• 50:33
  Matt Jacob: What is it that, that one kind of little secret ingredient that makes Julie tick?
• 50:38
  Julie Valentina: um, I think it is believing that everything is possible once you see it possible for yourself it's amazing.
• 50:50
  Matt Jacob: Yeah, love it.
• 50:51
  Matt Jacob: Looking ahead, then, what's what's?
• 50:53
  Matt Jacob: I know you've got.
• 50:54
  Matt Jacob: You're working on a lot of things.
• 50:56
  Matt Jacob: Is something like legacy important to you, or just kind of focusing more on the process?
• 51:01
  Matt Jacob: Do you care a lot about what you leave behind?
• 51:04
  Matt Jacob: Is that something you've even thought about?
• 51:07
  Matt Jacob: Like leaving behind, for example, family, no body of work like in terms of films, in terms of businesses, in terms of something you can step away from saying.
• 51:17
  Julie Valentina: I made that like what I'm proud of producing, um.
• 51:22
  Julie Valentina: So I would say I really like the one plus.
• 51:24
  Julie Valentina: We did the one plus video we did in in tokyo.
• 51:27
  Julie Valentina: That was in tokyo, um I I didn't even do a lot of long-form content over the last couple of months, which is pretty sad.
• 51:36
  Julie Valentina: Actually, I would love to do more about it, but most of my client work is actually constantly like reels projects.
• 51:41
  Julie Valentina: What I'm really proud of is the turkish aliens project we did in may this year and then I did a show reel which is kind of merging different voices and different languages from different like shots with different locations all across the world.
• 52:00
  Julie Valentina: That's something I really am proud of producing.
• 52:03
  Julie Valentina: Yeah, that's.
• 52:06
  Matt Jacob: And what about the future?
• 52:06
  Matt Jacob: When you look ahead, is there something?
• 52:09
  Matt Jacob: Does that play into your creative process or your goal setting?
• 52:15
  Matt Jacob: Like, I want to build a body of work.
• 52:18
  Matt Jacob: I want to build something like say oh, this is Julie, this is what I made in my filmmaking career.
• 52:24
  Matt Jacob: Does that matter to you?
• 52:27
  Julie Valentina: It does matter to a certain extent.
• 52:29
  Julie Valentina: I feel like currently my business goals are a little bit different, like they're not mainly focused on like getting more client work.
• 52:38
  Julie Valentina: They're more focused on like community building an agency, scaling the agency, these kind of things.
• 52:43
  Julie Valentina: But I'm sure it's going to go back to that and then that I want to focus more in the creative process on doing more impressive storytelling and creating bigger projects with bigger clients.
• 52:55
  Julie Valentina: But I think that's that's a focus for next year probably okay, what is?
• 53:01
  Matt Jacob: um, as we start to wrap up here, if there was a message that you wanted to give budding filmmakers, or your audience and other people out there, what would that, that message, be?
• 53:13
  Julie Valentina: Network is everything.
• 53:14
  Julie Valentina: Once you believe it's possible for yourself, the opportunities are going to open up and consistency is key.
• 53:23
  Julie Valentina: These three things.
• 53:25
  Matt Jacob: Networking.
• 53:26
  Julie Valentina: Networking.
• 53:27
  Matt Jacob: Belief, belief.
• 53:29
  Julie Valentina: Consistency and stay unique.
• 53:32
  Matt Jacob: Bonus tip Stay unique Bonus tip.
• 53:35
  Matt Jacob: How do you stay unique?
• 53:37
  Julie Valentina: stay unique.
• 53:38
  Julie Valentina: Um, I feel like nowadays people are just like reusing the same audios, the same content.
• 53:44
  Julie Valentina: I mean, we all know it, like running through the waterfalls and like you know the kind of shots people.
• 53:52
  Julie Valentina: It's like you've seen this real 10 millions of times, Like who's going to hire you over the other person who already has 200,000 followers.
• 54:03
  Julie Valentina: You know that also posted that kind of real.
• 54:06
  Julie Valentina: It's like the same content on like 10 million accounts, but nobody thinks about like creating something new, something unique that hasn't been out there.
• 54:14
  Julie Valentina: That's a massive tip how?
• 54:19
  Matt Jacob: how do they do that?
• 54:20
  Matt Jacob: How do we do it?
• 54:22
  Matt Jacob: How do we be unique?
• 54:24
  Julie Valentina: be different.
• 54:24
  Julie Valentina: I think.
• 54:25
  Julie Valentina: Take inspiration from people who are doing something different and merge that together with your own vision yeah, it's difficult to have your own vision, isn't it sometimes?
• 54:39
  Matt Jacob: I mean, some people obviously find it more easy, and we talked about this earlier being creative, some people find it more easy than others.
• 54:47
  Matt Jacob: Um, but you know it's easy to say well, you know, merge it with your visions or what.
• 54:52
  Matt Jacob: I don't know where to start.
• 54:54
  Matt Jacob: You know it's certainly learning a new skill, whatever skill that might be.
• 54:58
  Matt Jacob: You know you can get overwhelmed so easily and you know you do a client job and then you do another client job and they're vastly different.
• 55:06
  Matt Jacob: And then you do this and that and then you travel and you're exhausted and you come back here and you've got your own space.
• 55:11
  Matt Jacob: Like where do I, what do I do now, kind of thing.
• 55:14
  Matt Jacob: Where, where is my vision?
• 55:16
  Matt Jacob: What do I?
• 55:16
  Matt Jacob: How do I kind of curate that?
• 55:18
  Matt Jacob: I don't looking at your, your face.
• 55:21
  Matt Jacob: I don't think you have that problem.
• 55:23
  Julie Valentina: I generally I do have creative burnout, like seasons, but it's I always get the inspiration back in some way.
• 55:31
  Julie Valentina: How doing something different?
• 55:33
  Julie Valentina: Always get the inspiration back in some way.
• 55:37
  Julie Valentina: How doing something different, like surrounding myself with new people, trying out something completely different, a new style maybe, or a new business.
• 55:41
  Julie Valentina: Like when I came here in May, like two months ago, I was really burned out from all the traveling I was.
• 55:52
  Julie Valentina: I came from six weeks of shooting non-stop, like four different jobs, and it was like wow this is too much and I had like four weeks of editing ahead and I was like this needs to change.
• 56:01
  Julie Valentina: I need to change something.
• 56:02
  Julie Valentina: And since I started thinking differently and surrounding myself with people who have different visions in life, I suddenly got new ideas and they kind of came naturally.
• 56:13
  Julie Valentina: And then one thing comes to the other.
• 56:14
  Julie Valentina: I feel like, yeah, inspiration comes, comes naturally once you start stepping out of your comfort zone yeah, yeah, easy, easy, just like that easy.
• 56:27
  Matt Jacob: Okay, last question um before I ask the question.
• 56:30
  Matt Jacob: Thank you so much for joining me today it it's been so much fun.
• 56:34
  Matt Jacob: I hope you haven't been too hot, but we'll get the egg on in a minute.
• 56:38
  Julie Valentina: It's good.
• 56:40
  Matt Jacob: Finishing with one question Tell us something that no one else knows about you.
• 56:46
  Julie Valentina: Oh, wow, spinning out the secrets.
• 56:49
  Julie Valentina: Wow, I got to think about this.
• 56:51
  Julie Valentina: What no one else knows about me.
• 56:55
  Julie Valentina: I think one thing that not many people know.
• 56:58
  Julie Valentina: It's nothing crazy secret, but I graduated and I went to university when I was 16 oh, wow yeah, and I went to school when I was four, so I had a pretty early wow, yeah.
• 57:12
  Julie Valentina: I'm not telling this high high intellect, high functioning intellect.
• 57:16
  Julie Valentina: My parents are teachers.
• 57:18
  Julie Valentina: Probably that's where it's coming from.
• 57:20
  Matt Jacob: Got you in through the back door Literally.
• 57:21
  Matt Jacob: Did that play a role in you then stepping away from it so soon?
• 57:28
  Julie Valentina: I think so.
• 57:29
  Julie Valentina: I mean, I studied three different things at university.
• 57:31
  Julie Valentina: I first studied to be a teacher, Then I studied economics different things at university.
• 57:35
  Julie Valentina: I first studied to be a teacher, then I studied economics and then media and I think it taught me to become very independent at a very young age, just like moving out at 16, going to junior university um, yeah, that, I think that has been the the biggest impact and like surrounding myself with people who are like three years older than me is if teaching is in your blood.
• 57:55
  Matt Jacob: Do you see yourself going down that path at some point?
• 57:59
  Julie Valentina: not the traditional way of teaching, like schools, no, no, no, no, but just like maybe like an online course or something or like in-person teachings, like I could see myself doing that watch this space yeah until then.
• 58:11
  Matt Jacob: Thank you so much again.
• 58:12
  Matt Jacob: It's's been an absolute pleasure.
• 58:14
  Julie Valentina: Thanks for having me.
• 58:15
  Julie Valentina: It was so much fun honestly Cool.
• 58:17
  Julie Valentina: Thank you, Cheers.