Meet Raymond Eugenio | Storyteller & Artisan

We had the good fortune of connecting with Raymond Eugenio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Raymond, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
Learning to go at your own pace. I used to think that it was all about running fast, pushing constantly, and acquiring accolades left/right. Then I started to question that because on the inside, as my own career in the outside seemingly was popping off – in the inside, I felt different. Mentally & spiritually, I was drained. There was a breaking point in my own career that I decided to get off the perpetual rat race, coming from New York City – the hustle flowed freely through my veins. It was something I adopted in the 7 years of living with the sharks. Now that I am in Los Angeles, the time has passed and I’ve grown to understand that comparison is the depletion of joy. Why would I put myself into a certain emotional state and compare my own successes, achievements, and wonders to a completely different person or entity? I am not them and they are not me. It takes hard work to admit, to practice, and to continue to live this state of being. And it’s easy to fall back into a state of comparison of your peers even only if you’re looking to see what the industry is up to. This decision to move at my own pace has brought countless new creative ideas to my work as well as opportunities I did not know possible. To this point, I believe in moving with purpose and flowing with intention. This mindset has opened untapped possibilities in how I maneuver and has lifted the weight of other people’s expectations (& my own).

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Filmmaking has always been my first love. At heart, I am and will always be a filmmaker. I started my creative journey in highschool. I was that kid with the camera running around school and if we had a group video project, I was your man. My journey then led me to move to New York for college. I decided to stay after I was done with school and began to dive into the other side of the film world, which was the business. I began to understand what it meant to work for large network TV productions, how to freelance, and work part-time for creative agencies. All the while, slowly learning to gather my own list of clientele. Being open to new opportunities has also led me to become skilled at other expertises such as brand development, marketing, partnerships, and other forms of content creation — videos just happened to be my favorite out of it all. Eventually, I opened up my own business – Pushstory, a community-focused production agency. In 2016, I had no idea what I was doing. What I did know is that people gravitated to our crew and our ability to craft narratives. I believe in cultivating opportunities and relationships, which was what helped us launch into the world of sports, education, fashion, and tech. We did everything from throwing an 8-day food crawl in Nolita to putting together tech-enabled creative workshops for career development amongst students and freelancers. We threw events, built communities, pushed campaigns, entered film festivals, and had a lot of fun doing it all! It wasn’t only cinema anymore. There was a basic understanding that what I was immersed in – there was always a story to tell. Whether it was through experiential events or through educational courses that my team and I produced, there will always be a narrative. To be able to listen, learn, then tell in the most respectful way (to the audience and for myself) is what drives me to continue this path. There have been a lot of challenges because I wasn’t good at the business aspect at first. Growing from my various experiences and the privilege of living in New York City for a good portion of my adult life has given me a bit of an edge in that area. So far, I realize that you can literally do whatever you set your mind to. As a scatterbrained kid who was unable to focus on the academic side of schooling, I had a plethora of interests growing up. I love cinema, street culture (streetwear), surfing, history, anime, traveling, food, and now ceramics! Why not dive into all of them? Here’s the catch… You still have to be a master of something, and that for me is the art of storytelling. The ability to craft narratives, from an early age cultivated by my love of filmmaking. To be frank, I don’t believe that I’ve mastered anything yet because it always feels like I’m just getting started. I’m still just as excited as I was when I first began running around filming my friends and me in high school. Who would’ve thought huh?

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hands down, we are going to Manhattan Beach for a surf getaway. I lowkey don’t want to blow up this spot but it’s okay because I trust y’all. I love going to the beach and participating in the activity of surfing. There’s plenty of places we can wine and dine once we’re done in the area as well but to me, this would be a much-needed form of active yet relaxing activity. I would also bring my friends to Chinatown, where there are so many great places to eat and the community is thriving in the most unexpected ways. I love meeting the shop owners there because they’re so genuine and we can even take a fun ceramic class at Clay CA! Lastly, I would also venture off to the Arts District. There are so many things to experience in that area – from hip food establishments to cool arts areas. Specifically every Sunday, there is an area called Manila District that is blossoming. This would be the place where we can grub on the best Filipino foods all put together in one place here in LA.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to give a shout out to Nam Ho of Oh Man Clothing ohmanclothing.com, Alex Kato of Cmd+Z presscommandz.com & Nam Le of Pollinate Art pollinate.co.

Website: www.pushstory.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raygenio/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/raygenio
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNxEQ92IxBmgJRgmMfTsiRg
Other: www.pushtownmarket.com

Image Credits
Photos by Hannah Turner-Harts & Garret Tartt