I must say that without the digital media exposure, your efforts to build a sustainable career in the creative arts sector may be very limited. I believe in having choices and options, which the Internet, together with the social media, offer to everyone and anyone who is willing to take advantage of the new muse that the Internet has become.

I understand that 9-5 jobs are safer and more secure, especially when you have a mortgage, family, and responsibilities but what if… the company you worked for decides to let you go, and in the time you have spent in that company, the market has changed so much that you become virtually unemployable?

What if tomorrow, all of a sudden, you stop getting freelance job offers? What will happen then? What if you are over 40? Yes, agism applies to the creative industries too. Or, “even worse”, you are a mother in her late thirties or forties. Sure, it’s illegal to discriminate against mothers or age but tell this to the recruitment agents who feel that mothers have very little to offer to the companies (I know this from my personal experience). All the scenarios above are real, as much as the Global Warming is.

That’s why I am a firm believer that everyone in the creative industry needs to invest time in building their own social media platforms and treat it as their security blanket. Just think about your digital media platforms the way you feel about owning a property; digital media is your security for the future, and we really cannot predict what will happen in 10 years from now. Being hands-on and present in the most fast-changing and innovating creative space will surely keep you on your toes and tighten your intuition.

I feel that we are very fortunate to live in exciting times and I’m not talking about politics here. And we all have been given this fantastic opportunity to have easy access to the billion dollars’ industry. However, we hardly ever use it, or when we do, our expectations are so high that it is impossible to meet them, and if something doesn’t take off for us on social media right away, we quickly develop the conviction that it will never do.

Overnight success stories are not real because the success never happens overnight. Those people put years of hard work before the “overnight” success becomes an overnight success story.

Right now my advice to a filmmaker or any other creative person is to put their head down, work on their digital media exposure and their art, have fun, make mistakes, learn from those, and move on while building the expertise and name in the niche they feel comfortable in. Yes, the current market is all about accommodating the diversity of niche markets. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not good or your content is crap. Do you care what the haters think? At least you are willing to put yourself out there, be patient and consistent and reap the awards of your hard work.