Hooked on a Feelin'

To be a bit cliche, I didn't nearly have any clue what to expect after Bryan and I agreed to I'll-do-it-if-you-do-it start to our relationship. Our friendship began during our second film course together at William Paterson University of New Jersey and not even halfway through the class, everyone had already "shipped" us. I have to admit that people were right; our first week of courtship we went on five dates and that's when we were both living on opposite ends of the state.

If our relationship has been something of somewhat incredible, there's no room for being dull. 2017 alone is continuing to be a tumultuous year for both our personal and professional lives. Bryan and I are confidential about our relationship and independent personal lives, but we never hide the fact that we are each other's support and that the love ain't fake. We'll always recognize our friendship comes first or else everything would fail.

Now although there has been quite a bit of negative energy this past year, we cannot forget all the good that has come with it: I completed my MBA and Bryan received a full-time position at an international media company, and we even got to go the beach for a few days!

In the last few months of my fall semester in 2016, the big question came of what I would do for work once I completed my degree and contract-scholarship position at the university. My personal dilemma came to terms with managing a full-time position for the next few years until I open my own brick-and-mortar book and cafe shoppe. If you're young like me and go for a masters, no one explains that you'll have the education, but no work experience (that's a topic for a different day).

Anyway, my original thought was to freelance on my own and through popular contract worker platforms, but that wasn't a great plan and needed to expand. Over the past few years, I contributed on numerous business and marketing plans, I had to have a better idea that what I originally thought! So came the next idea: start a freelance group with a referral list of students - like hiring a remote content writing or social media group with a bunch of workers ready to go.

The student group at the time was a great idea and I already had began writing down plans and ideas, potential clients and professors to talk to. March 2017 came around and my world halted due to a family death (the beginning of more tragic events to come) and I was two months away from completing my degree. I hate to say I "abandoned" the idea of helping other students gain professional experience, but at that moment in time I knew it wasn't going to take off anytime soon. So for now, that's on the back-burner.

After my family death, Bryan (hope you don't mind me adding this), lost his employment along with 500 others nationwide. Pretty much our lives were exploding with questions, concerns, and lack of any security.

This was truly a wake up call for us and that we needed to provide some additional income if there was another surprise that could affect us. We both got back on the topic of freelancing and 35 media marketing. was born.

At first, I wanted a different name and that's what we were stuck on for the longest time! I wanted to brand myself with a brand I started years ago when I producing short films, but it wasn't "ours." So one morning, the boy messaged me, "How about 35 media marketing? There's not many production companies that use that [because they'd rather have their personal name as the brand] and it goes back to old Hollywood with 35mm film." I immediately fell in love with the name, but I wanted to add the period. "No one uses periods in their logos," he said. "That's why I like it, it's to the point," I replied.

Once the name was chosen, it came down to discussing services, what to charge, and who to service. After careful consideration and debate, it came down to what we know best and to where our passions truly lie: creativity.

All of our lives we've been creative and think of new ideas and projects all the time. Majority of our free-time is spent doing a craft or working some digital project (for me, these past few weeks I've been doing a custom latch hook-rug).

As avid Etsy fanatics, we're always checking out new projects those talented individuals display in their online stores and look for more on social. Even for new bands and artists trying to make their way into their industry. According to an Etsy survey they published, only 8% of a seller's time is dedicated to marketing. When you look at the scope of how else time is divided, that's not a whole lot.Even new small business owners won't spend a ton of time on social media (3 to 5 hours a week at most) to primarily build awareness about their business, but do not have any sort of marketing plan (source). That's where we come in.

Bryan and I have created business model where we can help creatives and small businesses with affordable pricing plans for every bit of their marketing needs. Prices for social media marketing for a third-party can start at $2,000.00 minimum. We're only a small slither of that minimum. The question does arise, well since their cheap, they may not be that good. True, not all things that are cheap are considered good, but we're also two people who understand how difficult it is to make a dream a reality and know how to market our portfolios. So why shouldn't we help others?