Tiff: Hey Melv, how you doin’?

Melvin: I’m doing good, Tiff. How about you?

Tiff: I’m doing good, just kind of relaxing a little bit, taking it easy.

Melvin: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Tiff: Just taking it easy. How about you?

Melvin: Good, good.

Tiff: How was work today?

Melvin: Uh, work is good. Uh, I am uh, currently doing a temporary uh, work as a care-giver, taking care of uh, Grandpa Ted.

Tiff: Oh-

Melvin: In Delaware.

Tiff: -good. Oh wow.

Melvin: Yeah.

Tiff: That’s nice. Delaware’s not too far from Maryland. That’s pretty good.

Melvin: Yeah, yeah. It’s good. He’s very easy to get along with, very nice guy.

Tiff: That’s good. So you said you’re doing work as a care-taker, I thought you were coming back from Korea, you were gonna continue with your business, like your, I think you were doing a video business? Were you doing that?

Melvin: Uh yeah. Media production is what uh, that’s the business I had before I went to Korea.

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: Yeah. My original plan was um, go, actually, I was doing that before I went to Korea. I was doing it full time, after I just graduated from uh, university.

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: And my original plan was go to Korea one year and then come back and do my business, but uh, one year became 11 and a half years, and so now-

Tiff: (laughs)

Melvin: (laughs) now I’m back in America and trying to get my business back and uh, up and running.

Tiff: Uh-huh (affirmative) I understand, I was there for almost 10 years. It’s just, Korea’s a great place,

Melvin: (laughs)

Tiff: -it’s a great country to live in. It’s a great country.

Melvin: It is, it is.

Tiff: So what made you, like you know, we say entrepreneurial life, what made you, even before going to Korea, what made you decide to live the entrepreneurial life, and you know, start your own media business?

Melvin: Um, actually it wasn’t my original plan.

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: Um, before I graduated from uh university, my plan was uh, to get a job working in media production at some company-

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: -and, as I’m a beginner, getting experience, saving money and then starting my own business eventually,

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: -but kind of the op- opposite happened. I ended up starting my business before I graduated. So then uh, after I graduated I was kind of working for myself doing uh, weddings and special event videos here and there.

Tiff: Oh nice.

Melvin: And so was just kinda been doing that. Did that full time for a year before I went, went to Korea.

Tiff: So, like, were you getting clients because of word of mouth, or were you actually soliciting and doing marketing to get clients?

Melvin: Uh, it was mostly word of mouth, ’cause I had a lot of um, uh, classmates. Some were getting married and so word of mouth, so, ‘oh, this guy does videos’. ‘Okay’, and then it’s like, I had some work, and it’s led one thing to another, and yeah, and that was keeping me busy for a year, full time.

Tiff: That’s really nice. That’s really nice. Were there any pros and cons? Like, what were the pros and cons of doing that work before?

Melvin: Um, I would have to say, uh, one of the pros is, well you get to be your own boss and so you can set your own hours and things like that, which can be nice, but then also uh, you do wanna keep working and try to you know, uh, set yourself to have a goal-

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: -and so yeah. If you don’t reach that goal it can be kinda stressful, ’cause um, and if you’re working at a company then you know, you have steady pay. So when you’re working for yourself you have to keep it, you know, keep it going.

Tiff: That’s true. That is true.

Yeah I understand that aspect. I do understand that aspect. I know, even before I went to Korea as well, I had worked in NASA for a while, and then I quit my job and I started doing my own thing. I guess I was doing my own thing you could say, even though it was only for a short period of time, I [crosstalk 00:03:49] over. Um …

Melvin: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Tiff: Yeah, I got you. I understand. I also was doing my own thing before I went to Korea. I had started doing uh, art, full time, and the pros-

Melvin: Oh cool.

Tiff: -as well, yeah. It was, it was good.

Melvin: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Tiff: I was, you know, was producing paintings and artwork, and again, the pros were I worked for myself but the cons were, you weren’t sure when the pay check was coming in. So I totally-

Melvin: Yeah, yeah.

Tiff: -understand that. I totally understand that. But yeah, it was a good experience. It was an experience and, now I’m working for myself now too, so …

Is that why-

Melvin: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Tiff: -um, when you got back from Korea you decided, even though you’re doing the care-taker right now, you decided that you wanted to go back to it, as opposed to going to a nine-to-five job?

Melvin: Uh, yeah. I just, I miss doing it full time, and whenever I had a chance I would try to do it. Uh, even though I was in Korea, I was able to do some video projects here and there, but you know, it wasn’t enough, and I enjoy teaching. I still do. I enjoy teaching. I do miss it a little bit-

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: -but uh, I do also enjoy doing the video. Um, I don’t know, as I was in Korea, um, over the years, I have always had media in the back of my mind, so whenever I had some extra money I was always you know, investing in equip, in equipment-

Tiff: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Melvin: -and so um, you know, that, I think that’s one, one good thing that I did. I was able to uh, invest, so that I knew when I came back eventually, uh I wouldn’t be starting you know, from, from the ground zero. You know, I alrea- I did have equipment before uh, going to Korea, and I even brought some of it with me, but as you know um, uh, at least in, in media production, uh, technology is always changing so you have to kind of keep up and know what’s going on.

Tiff: True, that is true. That is true. Well honestly I think your business is gonna flourish because I know your work ethic is really good. So, I do hope everything works out really well for you too, being back home.

Melvin: Oh, thank you. Praise God about that. I’m praying about that.

Tiff: Yeah, I’ll be praying about it for you too. Hmm!