Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Clark.
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was raised in a household that influenced free thought and will. I went on throughout my years of late teens, early 20s, and all through most of my 30s of professional work with a blue-collar. I grew up with an appreciation for hard physical work and holding an intimate relationship with the pride that comes along with that. Shortly before the end of my senior year in high school, I dropped out. I had begun working at 15 in the retail industry and continued that all through high school. I almost left for the Navy with a best friend around the age of 19-20, believe it or not, but had quite the difficulty joining fully due to recovering from two broken legs over the course of a couple of years from sports. My friend ultimately left, and it never happened. I actually remember recovering from the second broken leg in a cast while watching the Twin Towers in New York City collapse live. I eventually got into the field of construction shortly after recovering, I would then go on to become a plumber for a span of 17 years, from the age of 20 to 37.
After 9-10 years of plumbing, I eventually opened up my own plumbing company and was running with magnets on the side of my gas-guzzling, 5.9 liter Dodge Ram I was driving at the time. I was doing ok for myself and beginning to get constant work. I remember I even financed a Yellow Page ad in upwards of $5,000 for a space the size of half a business card. After a hard breakup with a steady girlfriend at the time and a good amount of time to reflect on my future, I was influenced enough to explore life-changing opportunities. I didn’t want to be a plumber any longer.
Throughout my childhood, I was brought up and surrounded with peers that all listened and were influenced by 90s Alternative, Grunge & Hip Hop music. Music in general was huge in my environment. My mother was a photographer for 18 years and played the guitar a lot. I remember falling asleep at night to her writing and playing to her own songs. My biological father died when I was barely three years old, but he was a sound man and played and performed guitar as well. He was a floor sales manager for years at the famous and infamous Guitar Center at the Van Ness location in San Francisco. I even have his company t-shirt still from the early 1980s.
After enough reflection, I had made the choice to go back to school and get my GED. I would then register for a school to facilitate my interest to become an Audio Engineer. At the time, I knew this was another 10-year investment. I knew I wasn’t going to really see the change for another ten years minimum. I was ok with that. I would reverse engineer the plan. I went and obtained my GED with flying colors. I then quickly would enroll into The Art Institute of California–San Francisco, which would be the precursor to the change that would go on to occur.
I had no family with enough money to help support the $96,000 tuition that would come along with this bold choice of mine. Naturally, I fell back on my plumbing experience and maintained my full-time career as a service plumber while attending college full-time for four years straight–no breaks. I went on to apply for another company when quickly realizing it was impractical to attempt to run your own company while attending college full time. During this time, I found a company that hired me, and I eventually got promoted to management while still attending and balancing school and training as an audio engineer. I would go on to wear these 2 hats for 4 years. Enduring the conflict of interest it brought was hell.
Upon close to graduation, I suffered an acute hyperextension and bucket tear of my right ACL and meniscus and had to get surgery. I went in and got it and continued to go to class, showing up against doctor’s orders. I could barely get around. I was then also breaking up from a relationship yet again while recovering and was forced to move out of the house at the time I was staying in, as it was her family’s home. I found a small room that my boss from the plumbing company at the time was able to help me acquire. I would go on to complete my senior project, attend the graduation ceremony and portfolio show with crutches while somehow also winning best portfolio in my graduating class. It had felt like I blacked out and then came to in that moment. Everything I had worked so hard for I got. But was it really just about the degree? I knew I’ve barely started my journey, and I had a lot of more work to do.
Out of the 4 years in school for audio, I had developed a massive network of creatives like no other. I had made life-lasting impressions and life-lasting friends. I had made a portfolio of work. Something no degree could replace. Now I knew what I had really manifested. I went on to work for that plumbing company for another 2 years before finally coming clean and admitting I no longer wanted to work as a plumber. After building enough experience as a freelance audio engineer and mustering up enough cash and confidence, I finally made the move to Southern California. I stayed in San Diego my first year with my best friend Aaron Goldsmith. He let me stay with him at his condo to help me get on my feet. I eventually needed to go back into plumbing shortly after moving and failing at freelancing as a sound designer and engineer. I got hired out of Oceanside, CA at a small company, and continued there, commuting an hour each way until I then eventually moved to Los Angeles exactly one year after. I wrote it down. “I WILL MOVE TO LA.” I would read that every day while in San Diego on a big whiteboard.
I continued plumbing, still with yet another small independent company while freelancing for another couple of years after moving to LA. At a certain point, I was plumbing, freelancing as an engineer while also working a graveyard shift, editing overdubs in Portuguese and Spanish for reruns of classic American sitcoms.
I hit a breaking point after enough time had passed with no movement and countless resumes, interviews and fall-throughs. I was plumbing, beating my body up day after day, with no successful opportunities. After the pandemic hit in 2019-20, things became even more stagnant. My creative work came to a halt. I had to push through and keep myself inspired while living in a small room in the quiet retirement neighborhood of Woodland Hills in San Fernando Valley during a global lockdown. I was waiting it out to make yet another big push for myself in my audio career.
It all seemed to happen as I met my life and now business partner Teresa Rosa. She saw the best in me once we met and pushed me/us to take our passions and talents further to what eventually developed into our company–Dópamín Media. Through the beautiful people we would go on to photograph, is where we would find our calling and momentum to build a creative and empathetic media company from it. It is here we feel most safe and free to express ourselves on a daily basis, and the people seem to like that. We are forged from the love of our people.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There is no “smooth road” behind self-success of any kind, on any level. The road I’ve been on for the last 10-11 years has been a constant uphill battle, but it’s all intentional. I decided to put myself through a different experience, to do different things, and eventually be a different person–The person I ultimately wanted to be, instead of who at the time I was becoming.
I went to both, college and work full-time for four years straight. I didn’t miss once the whole time. I don’t think most could continue both plumbing full-time while cranking out classes and projects surrounding around an entirely different industry. But that’s what you have to do if you want a real CHANGE and win. You have to be willing to do the stuff 99% of the world’s population simply don’t do. It’s too easy and simply boring to just be comfortable all the time.
It was tough as hell, but it embedded skills in me I still use now and plan on using for the rest of my life. I barely would sleep most of the time due to stress of bills and just always working on something. I had to live above my work (plumbing shop) eventually in the last year of college, and for the first two, I walked a solid mile and a half every day I had class there and back to the train station. I did anything I needed to make sure I won those four years. Regardless of being broken and battered all the time, my perspective was flipped, and life was working “for me.” Aside from the technical skill sets learned, my experience over those 4 years gave me something that would increase in value as it aged, and that was a network. Despite all the personal hardships I endured throughout, I built strong relationships and skill sets, and it would go on to be the brick and motor for the foundation of my freelance career.
I’m from the Bay Area, California, and for me, living there was always seen as a permanent thing growing up, It wasn’t until deciding to go back to school to follow a passion as a career did I see relocating as a reality. It became REAL. I knew I would be in LA eventually. It wouldn’t be until two years after I graduated that I would eventually leave for Southern California. I packed up everything and moved by myself with a little U-Haul truck fresh out of a nasty breakup. Luckily my best friend living in San Diego at the time, helped me get on my feet a bit, offering a room to rent to me at his condo with a couple of free months to start. I had to eventually start plumbing again after failing at freelancing out of San Diego but eventually saved enough to move again. And this time it was to Los Angeles.
I continued plumbing for another two years (2018-2020) while living in San Fernando Valley, as well as freelance as a Sound Designer and Sound Editor. I would take on anything I could get my hands on to. I constantly would apply to studios as well, but kept getting denied due to the fact that most studios just didn’t really need the help that bad at the time. The ones that did paid crap, yet had extremely high expectations of productivity and requirements of experience.
I suffered several nervous breakdowns and anxiety attacks after moving from my hometown. But the last one was the biggest, and I knew that was the end of the line, and I was fed up. I had it while on a plumbing job, and I remember eventually breaking down and crying in my company work van at the supply house getting parts for the job. I was unfulfilled in my purpose and couldn’t bare the purposeless reality I was living any longer. I had to find the mental strength in that moment to not only get that job done but get through the day. It seemed like eternity. I set up a meeting with my boss the next day and gave him my notice. That was in the Fall of 2020. I haven’t gone back to plumbing since.
In order to grow, you must endure pain. It is part of the process. Like most, I’ve gone through horrible breakups, family, and best friend deaths, sickness, injury–you name it. I went through a lot of it while going through school those four years. Then more after. It made me grow. Forcing myself through difficult situations and intentionally challenging myself has continued to advance me closer to my goals in life, as well as ultimately achieve them one by one.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I became drawn to sound design while within my audio program in school, and I was introduced to some new classes on the subject matter. I originally went to school to learn how to mix and master music professionally, but became interested and eventually enveloped in sound for film. My passion for cinema, combined with my passion for sound would create a drive toward something like I never had before.
I ultimately would go on to build a little IMDb for myself, working on sound design and editing on projects for television networks like BET, as well as full-feature movies under productions such as Lion’s Gate and several others. I worked professionally as a freelance sound designer and editor for film for another couple of years while in San Fernando Valley. I eventually met the love of my life, Teresa, and I would go on to build a media company together with her in late 2020. We are a photography-loving power couple who decided to join forces creatively, and a media company was born from it.
I personally specialize in custom sound design for visual media of all mediums, as well as sound/dialogue editing and general short-form content creation. My genre of choice is drama, realism and suspense.
I couldn’t be more proud of my achievement of getting a dream business off the ground and during a global pandemic. I simply do not quit. I am relentless and consistent, especially when it comes to something I know I’m destined for. Nothing will stand in my way. Not even a pandemic. This is what I know sets myself, as well as my business and life partner apart from others. It’s the simple action of getting up over and over and over, and over again.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you don’t take risks or chances throughout life, you are not going to get that far. That’s just a fact of reality. I’ve been consistently taking calculated risks for 10+ years now, and it seems to be working out. This doesn’t mean going and taking a bunch of risks whenever they pop up–no. What I’m saying is that unless you take some calculated chances in life that can provide you with the possibility to evolve as a human being and gain purpose, you’re going to find yourself very unhappy and unfulfilled ultimately. I ran that unfulfilled life as a “successful” service plumber for years. I could of had it all. The house with mortgage and cars, with a dog and fence. But that’s not what makes me happy. Comfortability does not evolve you.
I simply took the “risk” of failing. And I failed throughout–A lot. But all those mini-failures cash in as one big success–One accomplishment after another. Most people are terrified of failing, so they never even try once. I’ve failed so many times at things that I know I will learn to understand and achieve eventually. It’s just a matter of time. You have to have the patience to learn something new and the understanding of how delayed gratification works to evolve. Risk taking is successful through one’s perspective. I see risk as an opportunity and a possible good investment. Don’t let fear rob you of your destiny.
Pricing:
- Head Shots… $175 +
- Photoshoots… $300 (1 hr)
- Music Video… $1,850 +
Contact Info:
- Website: dopaminmedia.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/dopaminmedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=d%C3%B3pam%C3%ADn%20media
- Twitter:twitter.com/dopaminmedia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn0Lms_jpFBc_KT7z_vPROA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dopamin-media-los-angeles?osq=dopamin+media
Image Credits
Teresa Rosa, Andrew Clark, Dopamin Media
