We recently connected with Damian Fitzsimmons and have shared our conversation below.
Damian, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
The bottom line is this; if you don’t believe in yourself no-one else will.
Like so many artists, I suffered from imposter syndrome for years, decades really. I didn’t come from an artistic background. If anything, creativity was frowned upon. It took me a long time to recognize my own talent. It didn’t matter that I won awards or that people sought me out.
Words are powerful. I was a filmmaker and a writer for years before I had the courage to call myself one. That was the first change. I was embarrassed to say I was a filmmaker early on when all I’d done was make a couple of short films. But the truth is as soon as you have made a film you’re a filmmaker. In fact, as soon as you have made the decision to become a filmmaker, then you are a filmmaker. Nowadays, when someone asks me what I do, I tell them I’m an artist – I find it simpler as my interests are varied.
The next step in developing my confidence as an artist was being able to recognize my talent. That’s a tricky one. Most people don’t come out of the gate making great work. Even when I started winning awards and commissions, I didn’t actually believe it was real. It was like having one foot on the gas and the other on the brakes. So when the inevitable rejections would happen, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Eventually, I just kind of decided that I wasn’t ever going to stop so I might as well believe in my own talent. As soon as I made that decision, I just found it easier to view my own work objectively. I have a pretty decent internal meter nowadays, I can tell if something is good or not. Plus along the way, I found my tribe, my inner circle, people I trust to be honest (but not mean) with my work. Generally, they like it!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I live to create and am fortunate enough to create to live.
My main gig is being a director and a writer. I love being on set, especially when I’m working on something that I have written. I’m the creative director and co-founder of BRAVEMAN Media. We are a team of filmmakers specializing in narrative content – from corporate videos and commercials to TV shows and films. We have an award winning feature film, ACROSS THE RAILS, under our belt, and two seasons of a narrative TV Show, Life’s Rewards, on Amazon Prime. We’ve done literally hundreds of commercials, training videos, and hours of 2D and 3D animations. The through line for all of our productions, whether it’s a long form narrative or a 2D animation, is our focus on storytelling. I love telling stories and have surrounded myself with a team that love telling stories too – it’s what sets us apart as a production company.
A few years back, we shot a 30 second commercial for the South Florida Fair where an inept super hero accidentally shoots down Santa’s sleigh. Honestly, from initial concept to seeing it on TV, every step was a blast. Everything we do, hones our skills as storytellers – it’s great for our clients, but it’s great for us too as our long term goal is to keep producing feature films. Right now we have a couple of scripts in development and we will be in production on one of them next year.
I also work as a mixed media artist incorporating my love of fantasy and storytelling. I take everyday objects, mostly from my childhood, and reimagine them – water guns, dinosaurs, robots and UFO’s. I’m still just a big kid.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My journey is far from over but there are certain things that have helped me get this far that will still be sustaining me for years to come.
Tenacity is the first thing that comes to mind. When I started out, I had never heard of the concept of “ten thousand hours” – I hadn’t realized how long everything would take me to develop the skills that now come as second nature. Once I set my mind to something, I just keep going.
Of course, it helps if you love what you do. Joseph Campbell said to “follow your bliss” – back when I read that as a young man, it really spoke to me. I’ve been following my bliss ever since. There’s a lot of smart people out there, many of whom I admire, who warn you against this – Jordan Peterson, Mark Cuban and Scott Galloway to name a few. I totally get where they’re coming from. Following your bliss is scary.
There’s an argument for doing something you don’t love that will make you a lot of money, so you can do whatever you want later in life – I’m just not convinced that makes for great art. So hand in hand with “following your bliss” is taking risks. You have to take risks as an artist if you really want to produce impactful work. I took a massive risk thirty years ago, thinking that maybe I could make a career out of being an artist. I haven’t stopped taking risks. It has made for an interesting journey.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I’m a big believer in having a positive mindset. Thoughts, just like words, are powerful. So, it might sound a little counterintuitive to hear that one of the big areas of growth for me in the last twelve months has been learning the art of saying “no”.
Steve Jobs was a big believer in saying “no”. It’s taken me a long time to get my head around that. Early on in my career, I said yes to everything. It felt like the only way to survive. I think there’s some truth in this, I mean you’re just trying to get started, right? Reed Morano, the cinematographer on Winter’s Bone and the creator of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, got her start shooting weddings. A lot of us got our start that way – let me tell you, an eight hour wedding is tougher than a twelve hour commercial but at some stage, Reed made the change, started saying “no” and her career blew up.
The struggle is real but there comes a time when saying “yes” to anything that comes your way just slows you down. Today, we ask ourselves just one question when a new project comes our way. Are we a right fit? If we’re a right fit, then everything else falls into place. If we’re not a right fit we just say “no”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://braveman.media/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damianfitz
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bravemanmedia
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/damian-fitzsimmons-4204bba
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bravemanmedia
