Second Glance – Episode 4: Max van Otterdyk

Max van Otterdyk is a world-traveling videographer and photographer. From capturing high-profile political projects to documenting his journey abroad, this is a look behind the lens of Max Otter Productions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Um, so I was just in private rooms with Trump and just so many other people. Just even saying I flew to Australia to work for NASA hasn't really hit me yet. Like, it's still cool to say that. In the moment it sucks, but when you look back at it, you're like, wow, like I'm gonna tell my kids one day, like, oh yeah, your dad was hit in Costa Rica and got hit by a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Or today's guest built an entrepreneurial path that most people never really see. Not through credentials, not through a playbook, and definitely not by following a script. It started as a hobby, something fun. Then it became a skill, and eventually it became a passport. A camera turned into access, access turned into trust, and that trust opened doors into rooms that most people only wonder about. And he figured it all out before he even turned 24. This isn't really a loud story, it's a precise one. It's about how awkward early jobs, cheap equipment, and saying yes to anything just to get a little bit of lunch money can slowly turn into a real business model. It's about how working behind the scenes and out of the spotlight can actually be the leverage that puts you into the spotlight. If you've ever wondered how unconventional careers actually work and not the highlight reel that you see on TikTok, this episode pulls that curtain back. This is Max Van Otterdijk at a second glance.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

And then when I was one year old, I moved to Malaysia. Um and then when I was two years old, moved to the Wildlands, Texas, where I kind of grew up and had um a lot of my childhood. But yeah, I was blessed to grow up in the Wildlands, Texas. And ever since I was young, I was always kind of I always wanted to be the class clown. I always wanted the attention in the room. Looking back, I was probably one of those annoying kids that the teachers were like, oh, I have him in this class. But yeah, looking back, I always wanted attention, always wanted eyes on me. Um and that's kind of prevalent now with social media and of all these views, everyone wants views and comments and likes. It's kind of the same thing. I I correlate those two. But that was one of the things that kind of got me into videography and photography. Also, there are a few other things too. And because when I was young, that was the start of YouTube and watching those vloggers like Casey Neistat, of course, Logan Paul, Jake Paul, um, Taylor Fox. There were so many influencers that I followed that was like, whoa, like I want to be like them. Um, and then also just going to church camps every summer and seeing those recap videos at the end of the church camps, and people were just excited when they were in the church camp videos. And I always thought the videographer at those church camps were the coolest people ever because they would just be in the corner filming like a hawk and they wouldn't have a night, like they wouldn't have a bedtime or anything, like they could just do whatever they want. So stuff like that just really kind of pushed me towards picking up a camera for the first time. Um, and then lo and behold, uh my mom got me a camera for Christmas, and me and my best friend, his name's Grayson Brock. You'll hear a bunch of stories with him. Uh, we picked up a camera and we started doing these like vlogs and skits, and we would do trampoline versus fruit and trampoline versus balloons, and we would do these pranks. Um, looking back, it's super cringy, but um, it's fun to look back on. Um, and ever since then, just loved love doing video and kind of telling a story and picking up a camera. How old were you? Scotra first camera. I was in seventh grade, is when I got my own camera. And kind of before that, I used my mom's camera. She had a Canon T7i, something like that. Looking back, it's not good. It didn't even shoot like HD. Um, but I used it and I rolled with it, and it was a good time.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

So you get the camera, where does it go? Where does it go from there after you get the camera? You film the YouTube video, the cringy YouTube videos we all filmed at 12.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

This camera was seriously attached at my hip. I would bring it everywhere. I bring it to school so people knew me as the camera guy at school. Um, and kind of how I got into more professional videography was my classmates in class would tell their parents of like, oh my gosh, this is God Name Max, he vlogs all the time. And then they would show their parents some of my vlogs. Um, and then the parents would either have a real estate company or a business or a bank and they would want me to come film it. Um, so I would go there and I would think I would charge like $50 or $100. Um, and that was kind of my first time getting money in exchange for for filming different businesses and people.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

So this was a hobby that transitioned into a career. I guess I'm kind of jumping ahead here, but you started just doing this for fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I started doing videos for fun. Didn't I think I was doing it for like three years before I even made like over a thousand dollars? So it started as a passion, it started as a hobby for three years, which is super cool. I'm super blessed that I found something that can actually make money and um fulfill me um and also financially as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Did you know which were you just filming everything, or was it were there certain things you enjoyed filming when this started?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

I was filming everything. I was doing like senior photos, I was vlogging, bring it to school. I would do like I would have my friends do funny stuff, kind of like David Dobrik, where he just puts a camera on his friends and his friends do crazy stuff. So we would go bridge jumping, we would do all this stuff, we'd get caught by the cops going bridge jumping, and then got get in the uh cop car and get taken home. And then the clickbait for that title would be got arrested, even though I didn't get arrested. But just fun stuff like that that you would do as a seventh, eighth grader. Um, just kind of vlogging my life and and what came out of it, and just hangouts with my friends and just just some cool moments that looking back is cringy, but um, it's good to have, as I said.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

And you were editing while you were doing this filming. Yeah. So you were you were playing both sides of the fence.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, I was filming, editing everything. Um, and it's pretty simple edits that I did back in the day with vlogs, nothing crazy. Um, but just kind of put it to music and try to tell a story. But but yeah, I was pretty much doing everything.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So then this you start your friends' parents or friends of family start reaching out saying, Max, can you help us out? That starts, you know, talk us through the next part of this, how this career kept growing for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah, definitely. Kind of freshman year is when it changed a lot, um, going from eighth grade to freshman year. Yeah, freshman year is when my business just started booming. Like I I was getting senior photos left and right. Um, I did my youth pastors wedding, which was a 500-person wedding. It was crazy. I don't know how she trusted me um to film her wedding, but she did. Um it was one of the best things that ever happened because that was my first like big shoot where I was like, oh crap, like, am I even qualified to to film this? Like, because before that wedding, all I did was vlogs and stuff for myself. This was the first time I did it for like a big kind of a big event, like a wedding. Um and then yeah, ever since then, just kept doing bigger and bigger things. And um, what's good about I was super blessed to grow up in the woodlands because the woodlands, it's the woodlands, Texas, it was I think it was voted the like best city to live in, like three years in a row. So it's a small town, everyone kind of knows everyone, and everyone's kind of wealthy in the area too. So as I was growing my business um and getting my calendar more and more packed, I would charge just a little bit more and a little bit more. Um, and I'm every time I would up my price for like by $50, I would be so afraid to like, like if I did a senior photo shoot and they were like, oh, how much do I owe you again? I would be like $200, and I would be so nervous to even say $200 because I thought that was so much money back back in the day. But yeah, just keep just kept growing my business to a point where I was doing bigger and bigger shoots and started traveling. So throughout high school, um, I was doing little shoots in the woodlands, and then by senior year, I was doing so many senior photo shoots. I would do at least like three or four senior photo shoots a week just because I was doing all my friends and their friends, and everyone kind of knew me from that. And that's actually when I started making real money was senior year of high school. Um, and that's kind of where I put my name out there a little bit more. And then I made a hype video for uh my high school swim team that went viral, and that was my first time kind of seeing the power of videos and virality, I guess. So I had all these uh influencers kind of reach out to me and other swim organizations to make videos just because I made this one swim video, and that kind of put my name out there, as I said. Um, so uh high school was definitely um a learning curve and kind of taking my passion and actually making it a business.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Did did you know by this point that this is what you wanted to do, or was it still just, oh, this is a hobby, I can make my yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Um it was it was always a hobby. And then my senior year of high school, that's when it actually like I was making really good money, and then I looked at my bank account and I was like, whoa, like that's a lot of money. Um, and then my friends and stuff, they knew how much I charge for shoots, they knew how many shoots I was doing a week. So they're like, they were like, Max, like how much money are you making and all that stuff? And some of them would be like, Max, you're making you're making more money than my mom does. Or and my mom would be like, Max, like that's a lot of money. Like, like, have you ever thought about doing this full time? So that was the that was the point where I was like, oh crap, like maybe I do need to take this full time. And that was kind of during COVID too. So I had some time to sit down and create an LLC with my business and kind of do some back end stuff, um, especially right before I went uh went to college, um, just to kind of get everything situated before I started the craziness of of college.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

And what let's I know a little bit of your college story and your your takes and up and stories from this. Can you let's let's walk through the whole college adventure for you.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah, so my college experience um went to Texas AM um for a year and a half. Um but once I got there, my first semester tried out for three or four different orgs, um, didn't make anything, so I was kind of feeling lost a little bit. And second semester joined a fraternity, of course, with you, so that was a good time. Um, and then my last semester of college, which was only my third semester, um, I decided to drop out of school. Um, there's a few reasons for that. Um, one of them was I was trying to try to balance all these different things, my social life, studies, and my business. Um, and it was kind of hard to balance all three of those too. So I was like, one of them's gotta go. And I kind of thought about it long and hard, and I decided college was the one that was gonna go. And there's a few reasons, of course, inside of that too. When I was going to these classes at AM, I was not learning anything. And I mean nothing. I probably learned like three things I still think about to this day. Other than that, like, I didn't learn anything. I was like, why am I paying thousands and thousands of dollars for a professor to tell me how to find the value of X all over again? And I would be going to these history classes, learning about these wars I didn't care about. Um and I would be going to these classes and I would just be scrolling on my phone. I would look around all these students who are scrolling down their phones and they're not paying attention. Um, of course, when the test comes around, you study all night long and you go take the test, then you forget about everything right after the test. So when I actually looked about college and what I was learning, like it didn't make sense for me to stay in there. Um and it was prohibiting me from doing other shoots because I would get clients reaching out to me and be like, oh, can you travel here um for four days and film us doing this? And I was like, Oh, I can't. I have school or I have this exam, I can't do that. Um, and of course, just studying hours on hours for these exams, it was to me and what I wanted to do, it was a big waste of time. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Can you tell the story of how you dropped out? It's a quick one, but I always laughed at you trying to go through the process of dropping out of AM.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the process of actually dropping out of AM, man, I always tell people, I wanted to like go in my counselor's office, be like, I'm dropping out. Where do I sign? And I sign a piece of paper, take it out, and I want to like rip it in half, do this whole video um in front of the college. But that's not how you drop out. So I actually went to my counselor uh and I was like, hey, I think I'm gonna drop out of school. And of course, they're like, oh, why? Like, oh, we have this program, it's a little different, yada, yada, yada. I was like, no, I want to drop out. They said, okay, and I was like, where do I sign? And all they do is you just don't sign up for classes for next semester. Like, that's it. And I was like, dang, that's it. So like I didn't sign anything, I just didn't sign up for classes for next semester. So that was uh that was a fun time. Um, but I remember I still finished that semester out, so still took my finals. Um, and it was actually really fun taking these finals because I did not study one bit for these finals. I would go in and I would know nothing, but like I would not be nervous because I knew these classes didn't matter. Like once I finally decided to drop out, like nothing mat, like nothing in college mattered. So I didn't have any authority over me, which is super cool. Um, and another thing I love talking about is me and my mom or my mom's reaction to me dropping out. So um, the moment I actually was like, I think I'm gonna drop out is I was reading this book called Four Hour Work Week, and it talks about corporate America and all this stuff. Um, and it just really talks about how corporate America is a scam and like just think of the millions of people in corporate America, like they're all not working like 40 hours a week to kind of go to the business school. But yeah, so I read that book and I remember I was I vividly remember the window was open, I was in the bed reading the book. Um, I finished like the third chapter, and I was like, hmm, like I think I'm gonna drop out. And I I call my mom and I was like, hey mom, I think I want to drop out of college. And she she was like, what, Max is so stupid? Hangs up the phone. Um and I'm a mama's boy, so I had to get her, I had to get her approval. Um so I call her back and I was like, hey mom, like I actually think I'm gonna drop out, like this isn't a joke. She's like, no, Max, you're not drop it out. You're so stupid, blah, blah, blah. And she hangs up the phone again. Um, and from that point on, for like one or two months, I just called her every day, um, trying to convince her to kind of let me drop out. And of course I got just dropped out without perhaps, but I just didn't want to do that. Um, but it took her a few, a few weeks to finally even just listen to me. Um, because every day I was I was sharing what I learned in school, which was nothing. I was sharing how stressed I was from studying for these exams, which I didn't learn anything from. And I was sharing projects that I had to uh say no to because I had class. So she finally was like, okay, Max, like you can do what you want. I believe in you. And she wasn't really worried about like my financials or all that stuff. She was more worried about my social life. She was like, Oh, you can't go to date parties and you can't do this, you can't go to football games or anything like that. Uh and coming to find out you can.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

So you mentioned you were turning down like opportunities in Florida, I believe is one you just said, right? Where were people in Florida finding you? And what like and then plus too, like for most people like me, like how do you sales pitch yourself to like, yes, I am worth flying out. I am worth the extra expense to get me out here. Like, can you can you talk more about that for me?

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah, so how clients used to find me and kind of the same thing now is just my work. I don't market anything, I'm not putting ads out anywhere. Um, it's just kind of my work that I I guess speaks for itself. So people see the work and and they reach out to me on my website, and that's pretty that's pretty much it. Um and what's really cool about videography and kind of social media is like the the product I produce goes out into the world and it's meant to get as many views as possible compared to an accountant or your financial advisor that makes they can make the coolest spreadsheet in the world, but it's not being pushed out in the world for millions of people to see. Like it's just sent to one of their clients, and that's that. So they have to kind of put ads out and market and do all this stuff. But with videography, like your product is your is your marketing. Um and so every video I do, I put 110% effort into it. Um, there's never a video project where I'm just like, uh, I'm gonna have fastest, I don't really care about it. Um, if even if it's a corporate shoot for a bank or a hedgephone company, like I'll try to make it the best video ever with the visuals or the animations or anything like that. So I guess my work just speaks for itself. So people would see stuff and and then just reach out to me. And that's how that's how I still get clients to this day. Um, and then of course, people talk. If if I do one sorority shoot, um, another sorority shoot will ask who did who did your video? Like they I loved it. And then they would send my Instagram over and they would look at my other projects and they'd be like, wow, like let's reach out to him and see and see what he can do for us. So um it's really fulfilling when people reach out and they're like, Oh, I saw this one video, like it was amazing. It was so crazy. Like, I don't even know how you did it. So that's just really cool to see like the fruits of your labor from certain videos. Um, because there are certain videos that have gotten me a bunch of clientele, um, one of them being the AM Yell Eaters. I do a video for them every year where I create a hype video for the new Yell Eaters. Um, and that always goes viral. And I get a bunch of clients from that because they reach out and I always ask, How'd you find me? And of course, they always say, uh, your Yell Eater video. And that's why I got some big clients like Ted Cruz and other big names.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Now talk us through because what I think's interesting about you that we kind of have to dig to find out about you is this has taken you to a lot of places. You've gotten to see a lot of cool things, meet a lot of really cool people, get some really cool access, you know. Can you tell us some of that stuff that you've gotten to experience and how these opportunities came in front of you? Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, I can definitely brag, brag for a little bit about the places I've been. Um, but yeah, this, well actually, I always keep my camera right here. But this camera right here, I mean, this thing has it's like a key to unlock so many different things. Um it has taken me all over the world. Like last month I was in Australia um doing a project for NASA. Um year ago, I was falling around Ted Cruz for I was his photographer, videographer. So I was following him around for his re-election campaign. Um, so I was just in private rooms with Trump and just so many other people that I was like, wow, this this is insane. Um I've traveled to Costa Rica, do different things. I was just in Miami this past weekend shooting for sororities, um, especially with just social media too. Another thing is how people find me is just from my own social media and posting my own videos about behind the scenes of certain shoots. Um, and people really love that. Um, and especially the experiences I get to um to go on, um, just filming that process and behind the scenes of that. Um, it's really cool, um, I guess, for people to see see the behind the scenes of that. So I have done some pretty cool some pretty cool stuff. So it is pretty cool to be um in a room of of high caliber people like that. Um and then so just being around him, like basically 24-7. So we did this 53-stop bus tour where we would do two to three rallies a day. And it was just cool. I was like just hanging out with Ted Cruz. Like we were in the bus on the second deck, and we would just be vibing and talking to his people, and I met so many other people that worked for past presidents and doing advanced stuff and other media for them. And um, I just met so many cool people on that campaign. Um, and so hopefully I'll do another campaign in the future. Um, but that that one was pretty cool. Um, and it was a lot of work too. It it felt like man, it felt like I don't want to play say plugship. Um, but it did felt like joining. I know nothing about joining a fraternity or about plug chip, but uh it felt like blood chip all over again because we would do two, three rallies a day, as I said, and I was the only kind of media person on the campaign. So I was doing videos and photos. I remember I was in B-dubs with uh some of our fraternity brothers, and I saw my footage like on the big screen and I had no clue. So it's just really cool. Like the experiences I've got just like that, where I don't even know where my footage is going. Um, but just knowing it's out there making a difference somewhere for a business or a person is pretty cool. Um and then I've done a lot of other kind of politicians too. Just recently, I worked for NASA and I followed around Sean Duffy, which he is the administrator of NASA at the moment, but he's also the secretary of transportation. Um, so a very high caliber person too. He had his own Secret Service detail there. Um, but just even saying I flew to Australia to work for NASA um hasn't really hit me yet. Like it's still cool to say that. And every time I say that, I still like smile because it doesn't it doesn't feel real.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

That cruise campaign hurt your business at all? And I'm asking in the aspect of not politics, but you were unobtainable for two months. Right. You probably I imagined to turn down a lot of people. I know uh that it was a lot for you, but it was a great opportunity. But did that hurt your business at all?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, so I mean there were definitely a few things here and there that I had to say no to um just because there was no like I could I could not take any projects. Cause I had to be on call 24 7. If there was a hurricane in Houston, I had to go into Houston. And kind of see what he was going to do after that and how he's going to help people out. So yeah, my business, I th I believe it did hurt just a little bit because I had to say no to a few things, but also I think it helped out tremendously because now when I when I go on a call and I tell people who I worked for and I say Ted Cruz, their eyes kind of opens up. They're like, whoa, like, okay, this isn't just another videographer that has done sorority videos or something like that. Like he's actually worked for high-caliber people and they know my work is good from the clientele I have.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

It sounds like since senior year, this is always, or even before senior year of high school, this was always pretty good job for pretty good gig for you. It was working out. Has there ever been a moment where you were concerned about business or you felt like maybe this wasn't the right decision? Things just weren't going the right way?

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Yeah. There was, I don't think there was ever a time where I said, oh, like this might not work out. Um God has put so many opportunities in front of me that I am internally grateful for. Um I feel like there's just project after project that comes my way. Um and maybe that's not the best or the most humble thing to say, um, but it's true. So I've just always had projects come my way. I've always had people reach out. Um and now I'm at the point where like I can charge kind of whatever I want. And if a client comes to me and the budget is too tight and they're not able to pay it, then um unfortunately I just don't do the project because the money isn't there on their side. Um, so it's really cool that I kind of get to pick and choose what I want to do now. Um, but I think what was special is I started so young. Like I started in seventh grade. So a lot of people when they start a business, they don't start until after college or maybe like midway through college. But I started in seventh grade. So I had that like four or five year head start um than anyone else. Um, so I learned a bunch that time. And as I said, I didn't start really making good money until like three years into it. So I was already doing it for three years before I even created a business in an LLC. Um, so yeah, there was never really a point where I just, I just was like, crap, like, how am I gonna make money and all that stuff? Because the income's pretty stable. Um, but yeah, I don't know where my next paycheck is coming from. Um all I know is it's it's gonna get there somehow. So just through hard work and determination. And as I said, I like I put 110% effort into all my videos. And hopefully that shows um with the the stats on social media or how people respond to it and how how best I tell the story of that video.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

So obviously I've seen a lot of your, I see all your stuff on social media. It's great stuff. There's no denying that. How do you get to that caliber? Is there a self? I imagine there's a self-taught aspect. There's obviously some God-given creativity you have. But where is there other things too to this that helped you develop to the skill set you are at?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah, so every everything I've learned is either from like just being self-taught or YouTube or just buying like a simple course online. There was like the combination of all those things has got to me, has gotten me to where I am today and my skill set. Um, I never learned anything in college or I didn't take a specific class in high school that that taught me anything crazy. So everything I do now is self-taught through YouTube. And I look at videography as like a sport. Like you have to practice pretty much every day. So as I said, when I had that camera on my hip during middle school and high school, like that was just me practicing every day. I would take photos every day, edit them, and I'd be like, oh, that like man, I need to fix my white balance or let me let me get a new lens. And kind of cool. Something cool with videography is there's like different levels to it. Like you unlock something new every, I feel like every three months you unlock something new. So when I first started, I got a camera, and I was like, oh, this camera's so good, but this lens is prohibiting me to make the black, the background blurry or something like that. So you would kind of start start looking at different lenses and what they do, and you would unlock that, then you would get a new lens, and you were like, okay, audio, like what about like I need audio? How does how does audio work? Like what kind of mics work too? So you do research on mics and get the best mic for that stuff too. So it's like a video game, you just unlock like a new level every single month, um, which is pretty cool. So it's like it's never ending. And I just have this little tiny camera right now, but of course, with the the big commercial shoots that you see of Toyota or uh at the Super Bowl, those are not shot on these tiny cameras. They're shot on these big massive cameras with with the whole crew behind them. So um there's always skills um to develop and there's always new things to learn, which which is pretty cool. But yeah, everything is just self-taught and and just YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

So I'm big into the idea that the more you travel, and this was part of the reason I wanted to start this podcast, the more people you meet. I think it gives you such an insight to the world and really gives puts things in perspective in a lot of different ways. You've been able to take this really far, as we've talked about a lot. What have you learned or what has this taught you? Not necessarily straight the videography, photography part, but the opportunities that have come from this career that you've taken.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'll stop talking about videos now and talking about more life stuff. Um but yeah, traveling the world is it is one of the coolest things ever. And luckily, I've I've been able to do it with one of my best friends, Grayson. Um so we went to Bali this past summer. Um, we've flown to Madrid and London and everything. But just traveling the world and seeing how people work and live is insane. And one of the one of the quotes I I heard when I was in Europe, um, because in Europe, everyone, everyone's just so like like they're not mean there. Americans, they're kind of like, oh, mean, like let me work 24-7. But you go to Europe and you see people um at like 3 p.m. smoke a cigarette and they're getting a baguette on the street. And a quote I heard is like some Europeans um they work to live, but Americans live to work. Um, and so whenever I travel, I just try to make the most of it and see different cultures. This past summer I was in Bali and we rented motorcycles for like $3 a day, and I fell off my motorcycle and have a torn ligament in my elbow. Um, and also something in Bali is that they don't have like some intersections, like four ways. They don't have stop signs and they also don't have stoplights or anything. Like you just go. And if you have to turn, like I don't know how it works, but you just figure it out. So sometimes when I come back to America, I'm super grateful that we have stop signs and stoplights and highways. Um but yeah, just it just opened my my eyes up to so many different things and cultures and how how the other side of the world works. Um, and whenever I travel to, I also realize like America, we pretty much run the world. Like there's so like in Australia, all the celebrities and everything and big companies, like they're all American companies. So it's kind of cool to see that too. Um, but yeah, just it just opened my eyes up to so many things. And luckily I have the opportunity when I travel for work, uh, my flights and hotels and everything, they they get paid for. Um, so I just kind of get to travel for free. And of course I'm working, but I always take days off to enjoy, enjoy where I am. Um, there's a few stories of that too. Um when sometimes I have to be careful when I travel because one time I was in Costa Rica, I was filming for a surf campaign for a company and uh I was across the street and then a motorcycle came out of nowhere and hit me. Um and I flew and fell on my back, but luckily I had a backpack on. So just stories like that is in the moment it sucks, but when you look back at it, you're like, wow, like I'm gonna tell my kids one day, like, oh yeah, your dad was hit in Costa Rica and got hit by a motorcycle or was in Bali and fell off his bike. And I think it's just probably motorcycles I have to be careful with. Um, but yeah, traveling has definitely opened my eyes up, and I just got the United Explorer card. So hopefully I'll be traveling more.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

What is the hardest lesson? Or is there a mistake you have in your career that you look back at? You know, like maybe there's a funny mistake where you just messed up so bad. Maybe there's one you're still like, oh man, that was that was bad. And maybe there's one where you're like, man, what a great lesson I learned.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yeah, definitely. So I make mistakes all the time. I still make mistakes. Um, one thing I hate was is when people like think they have it all figured out, kind of. Like, I'm still trying to figure out how life works. I'm still trying to figure out how photography, videography works. So when people go online and they sell these courses and everything, I'm like, what are you doing? Like, you don't like maybe you did like one or two cool shoots and now you're teaching people how to do that. Like, that's not really how it goes. I've spent long weekends just editing, not going out with friends or doing anything. But procrastination is definitely one of the biggest things. I don't think there was ever a point where I was like, oh, I messed up really badly. And luckily nothing bad has happened yet where I've forgotten a battery yet or forgotten a camera.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

What motivates you? What motivated you when you started this journey when you dropped out of college? And has that motivation changed? And if it has, what does it change to?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Yeah, so kind of when I when I first started doing videos, the motivation was how many views, how many clicks can I get? All that stuff. What I found now is just from hearing people's stories about my video and how it's affected people's lives, is just super cool to me. So that's kind of what motivates me now. And I'll kind of give do two examples. So one of them is uh every summer I do, I film a church camp, a few here and there. Um, but just like filming those church camps and like filming the life change and filming people worship and raise their hands, like I never know what I'm actually filming. So what as during worship, people are crying, raising their hands up. Like, I never know if I'm capturing someone's like first time raising their hands and giving their life to Christ or something like that. Um so it's just super cool. Like I never know what I'm actually capturing. And when I make those videos and the recap videos for the church camps and and send it out, um, and the church sends it out to everyone, like have those videos made other people look at it and be like, wow, that's super cool. Like, I want to go to church camp next year, or like someone sees the video and they're like, oh my gosh, like that that was the moment I I gave my life to Christ. So um videos can be so powerful. Um, and sometimes I lose track of how powerful a project can be. Um, another example and one that's kind of hit me really hard is when I did a sorority philanthropy video. Um, and the sororities philanthropy was breast cancer awareness. And so the video was we interviewed um a mom and a daughter, and the mom had breast cancer. And um, so we just interviewed them. They were it was the cutest mom and daughter couple I've ever seen. Uh, they loved each other so much, but they talked about their struggles and everything. And I made the video, sent it out, and about a year later, um the daughter posts kind of a one-year anniversary of her mom during October during breast cancer awareness. And she used one of the frames from the video that I filmed of them. Um so just seeing that kind of hit me, and I was like, wow, like that was a video I made and just sent it to the client, and that was that. But maybe to this girl, like that was a life-changing video. So whenever she looks back at that video, like what is she thinking? Like, that's such a powerful video for her to look back on and think of her mom. So that's just I never know what I'm filming for different people. So it's just super cool having the opportunity to capture different things and different stories and just create create create a trailer of someone's life for even if it's just uh like a corporate thing for a bank, like I never know what I'm filming.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

I'm trying to find the right way to word this question. I'm gonna throw it out there and hopefully you get what I'm asking. What about videography and editing and photography brings you purpose? Where do you find your purpose and your love and your fire for all of this? Yeah, definitely. Does that make sense what I'm what I'm asking?

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's so many things involved in making a video from the the pre-production to the meetings to actually shooting it to editing it together and then sending it off to the client and seeing it how it performs on social media. Um, there's so many things that gets involved in it. Like when I'm shooting, I mean, it is so fun to shoot. Um and just like talk to people on set and when I'm interviewing people, just hearing people's stories, just the the community aspect of it fulfills me. Um, but the money aspect of it is is very fulfilling because um you can you can price a pretty penny for some of the projects I've done in the past. Storytelling is a big thing, as as you kind of heard with these with these stories I told about church camps and these philanthropy videos, like those, those are the most fulfilling to me. And people think like the coolest things I've done is falling Ted Cruz around or doing stuff for NASA or flying here and there or going to Miami. Like those aren't the coolest things. The coolest things things to me is the church camp videos that I do because it's kind of a full circle moment for me, and that that's kind of what fulfills me the most is because I'm I'm videoing and maybe I'm filming a kid and he sees the the the recap video and he's like, wow, like I want to do that. And so it's like a full circle moment just seeing my videos on there. And I remember when I was a kid in seventh grade and giving my life to Christ um and just seeing those videos and all that and filming baptisms and everything. It's it's just a super cool experience, and that's what fulfills me the most. Um, but of course, there's other things that help out with that, such as the money aspect of it, community, and when you put videos out there and they get millions of views, um, it's pretty cool to see that as well. Um, and just the opportunities that come from doing videos, and and I actually have a really cool story, is of course it goes with Ted Cruz again because that was a whole thing. Um, but November 5th, he won the election, and he's up on stage, and there's like there's like 30 cameras, all the news stations are there on him, and there's probably like a thousand people in this ballroom area, and he just gave his acceptance speech, and I was filming the entire thing. And after that, he goes down and he shakes hands with everyone that has come to this event. Um, and I saw the cameras were on me, and I saw my phone, people were sending me, it's like, oh my gosh, Max, you're on the news, like all this stuff. And like in that moment, I was like, wow, like it hit me. Like that was kind of my I made it moment. Because I was like, I am with this this high caliber person, I'm on the news. There's thousands of people that want to meet him, and I I am right next to him, like I have that all access. His security is around securing all around the perimeter of him, but just knowing like in that moment, something hit. I was like, wow, like this is crazy. Um, and I actually have never shared the story, but right after that, um, I go to kind of my boss for the campaign. I was like, hey, is there anything else that needs to be shot? She's like, no, that's it. And I was like, whoo, I took like a deep breath. And I remember going backstage and I FaceTime my mom and I started bawling crying. I was like, mom, I did it. Like for that six months, um just being on the tour and late nights and doing all that stuff, and like we did it, like we won. And it wasn't really just about winning, but it was about just like look where I've come, just from dropping out of college, not knowing where life is gonna take me, to now like a year and a half later, shooting for such a high-caliber person in the government and politics. Um it was just a really cool, cool feeling. And just knowing I was done with that campaign and all that work was behind me, and I get to see the fruits of my labor with that now. Um, it was just a really cool moment. Um, with me and my mom, and just just knowing the lights were on me and kind of getting some of that attention. Um, but just kind of being behind the scenes of that of that attention and how that big a machine of uh of a senator campaign works. Max. What's next? That's a good question. Um there's a few things that are next. First of all, I don't have a girlfriend, so trying to find a wife soon. Uh secondly, um, in the next two, three years, I want to grow my business um to at least two or three different employees and kind of travel the world and shoot for me and do different things and run people's social medias and do all that. Um, there's really cool opportunities that I have that are coming up.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

What stood out from this conversation is the reality behind independence. Being your own boss sounds like freedom. But what it really comes with is responsibility. Especially when something that starts as a hobby quietly turns into something bigger. For Max, the motivation isn't attention. It's ownership. Whether he's working on projects connected to NASA or documenting moments around major political events, the focus isn't the spotlight. It's the awareness that what he captures might matter long after the camera turns off. If you want to see his work, learn more, or connect about a project, you can find him at maxotter.com. You can also follow him on Instagram at Max Otter. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss a future episode of Second Glance. As always, I'm your host, Colin Adams. Thank you for listening.