who's in their bag: maleek loyd x loyd visuals

who:

Maleek Loyd

I am a cinematographer and editor at my company Loyd Visuals. I graduated a semester early from App State in December 2018 with a B.S. in Electronic Media/Broadcasting with a minor in General Business.

Finding ways to be creative with new technology has always been an interest of mine and it was supported heavily by my family environment. With the business acumen of my oldest brother, Khaleel, and the creative direction and support from my middle brother, Najm, we found a way to pursue our passions together as a team with our company, Loyd Visuals.

fun fact:

Ever since I was a kid in middle school I would edit videos for fun. I made “music videos” with Windows Movie Maker, taking photos of the musicians from Google and making slideshows out of it. 11 years later, one of those videos has a million views on Youtube lol (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuvdXYdCFfs).

the bag:

Loyd Visuals

Est. 2016

We are not a traditional media company. We strive to make positive changes in the community by telling stories, connecting with artists/entrepreneurs, and shaping new narratives for people of different backgrounds around the world.

⅓ of loyd visuals: instagram.com/maleekloyd

instagram.com/loydvisuals

website: http://www.loydvisuals.com

inspiration:

I and my two older brothers all have skills and talents that complement each other. We decided that we wanted to build something for our family and find out what it means to really own a business. I’m inspired by all of the creatives and filmmakers who created a path for themselves, without holding themselves back for a corporate dream or idealistic success. I’m inspired by the endless possibilities that we have in this age to create a future that we want for ourselves and for our families.

a continuous challenge:

As you grow in a creative business you quickly become a victim of the perfection gap. That’s the gap between mediocre work and perfect work. You want to make work that is perfect for your client’s needs and that lives up to your own expectations of yourself. This can quickly cause mental strain and unnecessary pressure that ultimately leads you to do mediocre work anyway. It’s a feedback loop that is important to find balance in with each project. One thing that has helped me is building a team to spread out the workload and to talk through creative ideas. I’ve come to learn that your technical and artistic skills are only a small percentage of what it takes to run a creative business. I’m always working on ways to improve my decisiveness, confidence, and communication skills to make the perfection gap obsolete.

a tip for someone chasing the bag:

Nothing can be really developed without practice, failure, and persistence. It's important to detach from your work or your art and share it with the world as it is. That’s how you get better. You never know what bag you could get off of one random post (i.e. I almost didn’t post a client video on social media because it wasn’t “perfect”, but that video ended up getting me a contract with Airbnb). Basically, making the decision to do something is more important than overthinking it and not doing anything at all.