Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Ogutu.
Hi Matthew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Throughout my life there has always been a through-line of creativity. It wasn’t till I got to college that it truly presented itself, in the form of a birthday gift from my one of my brothers, a GoPro. It probably collected dust for a few months before I took it for a proper run, but once I did I was instantly hooked on anything camera related. Everything after that has been a perpetual cycle of curiosity and exploring different facets of creativity.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There is always some inherent struggle to pursuing anything. Being self taught, a lot of the struggles I faced were simply due to a lack of understanding how to approach certain projects. It was very much a lot of trial and error to find where I felt good with the momentum of what I was creating. Growing up I never even knew it was an option as a career choice; and there weren’t a lot of Black people in creative positions to model that for the next generation. So I’d often tell myself “you don’t know what you don’t know” and find ways to apply those lessons to the next project.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
9-5 I’m a Senior Content Creator in advertising, specializing in short form social content for a variety of clients. 5-9 I’m the Director of Marketing for a semi professional soccer club, Southside FC, founded by my brother, Goddard; I handle most things like media days, social content, match coverage and more. It’s been a huge project over the last 3 years, with the main goal of bringing accessible soccer to south Kansas City.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Some of the best apps that keep me inspired to do my best work are social media apps. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest are all filled with insanely talented people. Especially on Instagram, I like just scrolling through my Explore tab to see what sort of things the algorithm pushes to me. YouTube and Reddit are also great tools to find solutions. I’m also a big fan of watching sports documentaries. Watching these larger narratives helps me understand ways I can tell better stories and take mental notes of production sets. Some ones recently that have stuck with me are “Sunderland Till I Die”, “All or Nothing: Manchester City”, “The Last Dance” and “The Redeem Team.”
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt_ogutu
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewogutu/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/southsidefckc
