How has the pandemic affected your job? What are you doing to pay the bills? How much of your work life has changed since this crazy started? Is it bad? Good? I would love to know. Seriously. If you feel the urge to share, please comment on this article.
I will start.
When Covid hit hard, back in March of 2020, I was in the United States on a work trip. My flight home was cancelled because of the lockdown in the UK and I got stuck in America for an extra month. My time there was wonderful, thanks to Carol — my cousin, true friend, and favorite person on this planet. Along with her family, she made her home my own. For some time, her dinner table became my office.
From that moment until right now, I spent 97.3% of my time in front of my computer either working or pretending to work. After 12 months, my professional life has seen an uplift like never before. Everyone was forced to go digital with their business and that’s my world. I am currently productive, filled with projects and, in general, very happy about the course of things.
Here’s a bit of what are a few things that I am doing. They all started very close to or after The Plague.
Round 6 — round6.co
This is my new agency in the UK. My top bread-maker. It’s an extension of my life in digital media, design, photography and video production. Round 6, although a new label, is nothing but Rodrigo Bressane Classic Edition. Doing the same things you probably know I do. Design, social media marketing, photography, video, all that good stuff. With clients in Brazil, the UK and the US.
Here are a few projects Round 6 has put out in the past months:
Lime USA - limehouse.me
Lime, my former agency in Brazil, now operates exclusively in the US in a partnership with Carol Andressa, my best friend. We pivoted the business model to make it into a quick premium landing-page-hot-site-building-company. Glorious.
Here are some of the projects we put out during Covid times.
Lumino — luminocenter.com
Lumino is one of the most interesting babies of this pandemic. It’s a project I started with my favorite couple from Minneapolis, Denise Gardner, grandmaster executive producer, and Bill Carlson, internationally acclaimed cinematographer. They are also my friends. Together, we brought Lumino to life. A visual arts center promoting photography, cinema and visual arts. Since November 2020, we hosted more than a dozen free live events with some of the greatest professionals out there. From astronaut Col. Terry Virts to National Geographic legend William Albert Allard. Every Monday, a new fascinating event.
Create IRL — createirl.com
Romina is a celebrated YouTuber and entrepreneur with thousands of fans across the globe. I am one of them. In 2020, we connected and teamed up for a new phase of CreateIRL, a project she started to get creators to meet in real life. Together, we rebranded and shifted the business model into a Members-Only Club. We have more than 300 people on board with events and exclusive content going out every month. If you are a creative person, this is your community.
Unbox & Go — unboxandgo.com
Karla Greg is a social media diva. She just knows, more than everyone else, how brands should talk and behave in their digital conversations. We met last year (thanks to Romina), combined our skills and started this new company that helps brands to upgrade their game online. It’s a unique business model where we completely revamp and reroute the presence companies have on social media, transporting them from bleh to hell-yeah in just three days.
As you can see, Covid made me a multi-business happy dude. And I am not counting the secret ones because, well, you’re not supposed to know about them.
How about you? How’s work going? Are things good or hell? Let me know.
Rodrigo Bressane
Hertfordshire, UK
Before you go, I want to ask you three things:
🐦 Follow me on Twitter — It's the social network from Satan, but it's fun.
🖼 Follow me on Instagram — I am about to drop (been using new lingo) a new project soon.
🐐 Recommend the Cabra Mail — Do you know someone that would enjoy my shenanigans? Forward this issue to them. Perhaps they will join the club.
Rodrigo, It sure sounds like you kept really busy and creative. Congrats. Since COVID my world for photography was greatly diminished. I only got out twice in a year compared to every week. I did manage to produce three photo books - "Salt Rats", "The Look", and "Surf City". My day job as a lubricant consultant to oil companies really put a damper on travel. However, I have been blessed through this period with digital meetings and communication and the by-product has been the same continued full-time income without the the travel expense. I apologize that its been pretty, pretty, pretty good, but after 30+ years for travel with an average of 200 nights a year in a hotel, I sort of like the slower pace. But I do miss the adventures in photography in new cities world-wide. I'm hoping that 2021 will bring back some of my travel. The time also has been spent enjoying your Lumino events. You as a moderator are terrific. You bring a charm and magnetism that really blends well with Denise, Bill and their quests. You have a great grasp moving it along, questions, time, and photographic professionalism. I look forward to seeing you in the virtual world every week. Cheers.
Rodrigo, since Covid I haven't had many outings to shoot. I'm currently in Washington DC shooting a couple of projects about people visiting pawn shops and tattoo parlors. Besides that, I have to give you a shout out for the excellent work you do as a moderator on Lumino. You are very engaging and keep things moving. I love the connection you have with Denise, Bill and their guests. God stuff. I hope to be back in London in January, Covid permitting, perhaps we can meet up. Cheers, mate.