It's been awhile
Coming back to Berlin, not suceeding with SongQuest, looking for jobs and feeling lost but finding the rhythm again...
Oh boy! It’s been 6 months since my last post. Maybe even more. I didn’t really check, but it feels like an eternity because so much has happened. Since our move back to Berlin, I’ve been faced with a new challenge that I’ve never encountered before in my life: I needed to get back in business. I hadn’t been in town for about 4 years. While I traveled back and forth, I managed to catch up with some people and take on a few jobs, but it’s definitely not the same as being here in town.
I’ll do my best to explain everything that’s happened. Let’s dive in.
Housekeeping
Coming back to Berlin and struggling with my business
This is the stuff we chose to move with. Quite a lot to carry, but we still left many things behind. It felt good to downsize. However, if we had taken everything with us, it simply wouldn’t have fit into our Berlin apartment, which is just one of the many changes we would face in the upcoming weeks.
At first, everything felt so good and smooth. I mean, we’re no strangers to the city; we are “echte Berliner,” as we like to say, having been born and raised here. Plus, doing something new always brings a fresh perspective. We really enjoyed the summer in Berlin and engaged in a lot of activities as a family together.
Our biggest concern was our 7-year-old son and whether he would adjust to the new environment at school. We worked on enhancing his German as soon as we knew we would be moving back. It paid off, as he didn’t have any major issues making friends and was able to keep up with the lessons.
While our personal life felt good, after the initial excitement of this new chapter, I started to doubt myself on the business front, as I hadn’t landed any new projects to work on. Sure, I was busy with SongQuest, but it didn’t pay the rent at the end of the day. SongQuest will get its own chapter later on, so keep reading.
A couple of weeks in, I felt pretty miserable about my choices for work. I was out there, trying to reactivate my network, but it just wasn’t clicking from the get-go. Reflecting on the whole situation now, I ask myself what I was thinking. Did I really believe I would get super busy right from the start, as if everyone had been waiting for my arrival?
As a freelance creative, there are always tougher times when you need to push through. But this felt different. My back was against the wall, and I needed to take action. So, I started applying for jobs—not full-time, but something I could do while still trying to be myself and manage my freelance work. Sending out applications and going to interviews gave me a sense of purpose, but at the same time, I felt like I was failing as a creative. The last time I was an employee was over 10 years ago.
I really like to believe that diligent people will get what they deserve. That’s why I always keep my head down and focus on my work. Pitying yourself isn’t going to bring you closer to your goals; only honest work will do that. Is it easy? Of course not. I was really struggling this time, but trough every dark night there is a brighter day.
So here I am, trying to get a part time job to get things started. Showing up in my office space everyday and pushing the buttons to get going. Meanwhile my colleauges from my Berlin days start reaching out to me with freelance jobs. Is this the dawn I was waiting for? Certainly it was.
Everything started with the inquire for the rapper Volo. I was selected to shoot the press kit photographs. Felt so good to be back in the studio. Check out the photos here over at my website.
After that, I had the opportunity to work with one of my oldest friends in this business, BRKN. He was gearing up to release a new EP and was still looking to shoot the artwork. He had a very clear vision of how he wanted it to look, and I was fortunate enough to be part of it. Once again, head over to my website to check out final results. Also, be sure to check out this short reel about the shooting day—a kind of “POV / a day in the life” video.
Meanwhile, I was still on the hunt for a part-time job. I went through a couple of interviews and soon landed a position as a Social Media Assistant at TU Berlin. The paperwork took quite a while, but I started three weeks ago. I have to say, it feels really nice to have a work relationship where you clearly know your duties and deadlines. Don’t get me wrong—I love being a freelancer—but having defined responsibilities and working in a group toward a larger goal feels great. I appreciate the contrast I’m experiencing right now.
On top of that, I also worked on a project featuring Lukas Podolski. Yes, the German national football player who won the World Cup in 2014! I collaborated on this with my colleague Kazim Günyar. He’s the man—check out his work. Great guy, great talent. Here’s one of the social media pieces we created.
Salt030
Here I am back in business again. Freelance projects coming in - check. Scored a part time job - check. But what’s about the Salt030? You remember the fashion company that I own right? I dunno if I talked about it in the previous newsletter, but my partner and I stoped our B2C operations and fully concentraed on B2B. We started in the beginning of 2024 and can now proudly say that we are really happy about the decision as we grew our client rooster to a remarkable amount. We did achieve our goals that we settled for the first year and now we are going full force for 2025. In between the many projects we finished, they were a couple of really nice ones that we are even more proud of than we are already.
For exmaple, we did a big drop for Hypeculture. The Youtube channel has more than 170k followers and they wanted give back to the community. So they decided to give away free t-shirts and jerseys. We was not only charge of the sourcing and production of the goods, no, we also did the fullfilment part where we put up the website, handled the orders and stored the articles. This marks a special moment for us, as this project was the biggest one to come for now. So happy that we could be a part of that. God’s plan. Here are some pictures of the tshirt and jersey.
SongQuest - How People Loved It, But We Still Couldn’t Succeed
I started SongQuest in early 2024, and I was really passionate about the project as it combined my love for music and filmmaking. Essentially, the content was a music quiz show where we interviewed people on the street, giving them headphones and asking if they knew the playing artist. I had my two friends, Nico and Felix, on board, who were big supporters and helped me infuse the project with the energy it needed. Shoutout to both of you—1 Love.
But the show never took off. Despite everyone we showed the content to loving it, it never “clicked” on the platforms. Why? I really don’t know. We tried everything. We changed the editing style to fit the TikTok trends, held sessions with influencers and musicians, and even started creating long-form videos for YouTube. After a year of consistent uploads, we decided to stop. It was time-consuming, which was never an issue, but the money we were putting in started to become a problem. So, rest in peace, dear SongQuest. It was nice knowing you. But now, it’s time to move on to the next adventure.
This is the End, Beautiful Friend
These are the ups and downs of my last six months. I apologize for not including any recommendations for movies, music, or video games this time. I’ve been really busy over the past few weeks and haven’t consumed much. But you can follow me on Letterboxd and my other socials to stay updated on a day-to-day basis.
Thank you for reading this. And just remember to stick to your dreams and keep on grinding. Catch you in the next one.
1 Love.
Life goes on and mostly in a very fascinating way. When you`ve served a few years you will look back and smile, you`ve survived, and then you can look back and enjoy the thoughts and memories. Life is cool...........