Meet Maiya Brown of Mai Cam Productions in Vinings

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maiya Brown.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m from North Carolina, and I am a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs. That was my story two years ago. It was around this time in 2017 while working in that role that I realized I was getting no satisfaction from my career. It is not a coincidence that 2017 is also when I picked up vlogging and creating videos as a hobby. Unbeknownst to me, that hobby would soon consume all of my focus–at work, at home, it made no difference–and I loved every minute of it. There was no denying it, I had found my passion. I didn’t know what needed to change but knew a change was needed. I officially took ‘climbing the corporate ladder’ off of my to-do list, traded in my apartment in Brooklyn for one in Atlanta, and started creating videos for a living. Two years later, I have turned that little hobby into a career and thriving business!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road less traveled is never smooth. Up until I changed my career path, everything in my life had ordered. I fulfilled these requirements and went to college, I took these steps and got a job in corporate America, I could do A, B, and C and opportunities would just come my way. The biggest challenge I faced when becoming an entrepreneur was realizing that I could no longer wait around for opportunities to come. I would have to make things happen. In nature, the gazelle doesn’t run up to the lioness and ask to be eaten. The lioness hunts persistently, or she starves. Developing an aggressive attitude towards seeking new opportunities and persisting past rejection became easier once I understood this.

Starting a new business or career from scratch also requires you to be extremely resourceful. For me building a network of other creatives to work with was a struggle. For example, I served as my own model for most of my earlier photos and videos because I spent so much time working that I never really had time to meet other creators. Again, my life was requiring me to be more strategic about finding opportunities to advance instead of waiting for things to happen.

Please tell us about Mai Cam Productions.
I am a freelance videographer and owner of Mai Cam Productions, a film production company. I provide personal branding videos for professionals and entrepreneurs, promotional material for small businesses, and capture other amazing moments including parades, live performances, corporate events, parties, keynote speeches, and more. Outside of my own projects, I have also worked on the production crew for short films. I am driven by passion and love every part of filmmaking from conceptualizing an idea all the way through to post-production; I have fulfilled every role in filmmaking from director to editor.

Unlike many in my field, my forte is video editing. The editing process is my favorite part. It is where I get to transform a person’s brand or a moment in time into a dope visual experience that viewers can enjoy over and over again. That is always my goal–to have people feel like they were at an event that they never attended or get them to understand and trust a brand that they’ve never heard of before, just by watching my videos.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
The only thing I would do differently is go directly into filmmaking when I got to college. In the same breath, I have to admit that at that age, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I started out as a nursing major because my mom was a nurse. Then I switched to marketing because it seemed like I could get a job with that. I took a job in finance because everyone around me made it seem like the right thing to do. All the while, I knew I wanted to explore film, wanted to be able to create. But back then, I was doing what I thought people expected of me.

It took that roundabout journey for me to really realize that I was living for the approval of others. That’s when I decided to seek my passion and put what I wanted first. The thing is, no one is waiting around to give you permission to seek what you want out of life. Whatever we want is truly ours for the taking. It’s just about having the realization. So sure, I think going straight into film earlier in life would have saved some time, but I learned so much because of the journey that I honestly don’t know if I would change anything about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maicam.wixsite.com/home
• Phone: 3366553644
• Email: maicamprods@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maicamprods/

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