Today we’d like to introduce you to David Mata.
David, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I was 16, I used my mom’s point and shoot camera to make a hand full of awful videos that I would post on YouTube. Those videos were unedited, unscripted and all-around terrible but the seed was planted to make videos and post them online. YouTube was still fairly new and the word “influencer” wasn’t even around but I wanted to share my life, family and friends with the world; that idea was dormant for years but I still recorded and photographed most important and fun times in my life on my phone. Excuses always discouraged me from chasing the idea of “YouTube Vlogging” like, “oh I don’t have a camera” “I’m not funny enough” or “My life isn’t exciting”, but excuses only take you so far.
One day when I was 24, I made plans with some friends to go cliff jumping at Lake Travis in Austin, where I lived at the time, well I had an old GoPro and $16 handheld video stabilizer I bought from eBay. It was a blast and I recorded a lot of footage, I didn’t have a computer so I used iMovie on my phone to edit the videos. I finished them and posted them on YouTube but I didn’t have a name, so I just used mine, MataJrVlogs but the name didn’t sit right. A couple of weeks later I stayed up all night two nights in a row thinking of a name for my channel because I wanted to expand other than just vlogging. I glanced over to my pet red tail boa, Kaa and tried to think of a way to corporate her into the name, then it hit me. Thinking of something that is available on all social media platforms is challenging but I finally came up with RedTailMovement, I wanted a name that stayed true to myself without making my face the face of the brand.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course, most things worth time, effort and money have obstacles. The biggest material struggle before I got a camera was recording on my phone, space and interfering with communication were huge. Money is always tight to start doing anything so buying new equipment such as microphones, lights, stabilizers, memory cards the list goes on and on. Although, the biggest struggle was finding the balance between working for more money to buy better equipment and making time to use what I had. Time is and always will be the ultimate necessity.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
At this point, I’m not really focused on being a business but more of a brand for videography and a YouTube vlogging and How-To channel. I’m most proud of my vlogs that are lighthearted and goofy because my favorite part of anything I make isn’t the views or being “famous”, it’s seeing my friends faces when they watch and experience the good time we have. Hard not to say I’m extremely proud of the artists I work with and the promo videos I make.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Shouts to Mom and Dad!!! We going up!! My family has been nothing but supportive, I’m beyond blessed to have my parents and my younger sisters, Andrea and Victoria.
The support I’ve got from my friends really kept my going, Ashley, Lawrence, Gabby, Lili, Paul, Brittney, Adam, Martin, Misael, Rob, Tiffani, Pete. I hate to cut the list short because I’ve had so much support and I’m sorry if I miss anyone.
I want to thank everyone that’s been part of my channel and it’s growth.
I seriously can’t be more thankful for everyone that’s been a part of the journey but we got a long way to go!!
Contact Info:
- Website: youtube.com/redtailmovement
- Email: redtailmovement@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/redtailmovement
- Facebook: facebook.com/redtailmovement
- Twitter: twitter.com/redtailmovement
Image Credit:
RedTailMovement
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