Meet Kyle Buckley | Creative

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

Hi Kyle, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My original thought was “I want to work for myself” and I want to do something where my income is entirely dependent on my performance. There are a lot of benefits for working for someone else however with low level, low skill positions, you’re somewhat capped with your income. I struggle with jobs which require repetitive actions so I took my chances with something which I believed could open more doors on a creative level. This is when I started my first business Blue Octopus Media.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve now answered this question 5 times and I’ve put myself to sleep reading it back 5 times. I’m going to cut directly to the chase and tell you what I do for a living and what I’m feverishly working on. My background is somewhat important to understand the theme of my current project.

I’m a photographer with my own business called Blue Octopus Media specializing in architectural and luxury real estate media. I’ve shot over 5000 properties in Los Angeles over the past 6 years to get to the point where I’m at today.

I graduated from the Los Angeles Music Academy (now LACM) with a certificate in drum performance and have played nearly every club in the greater Los Angeles area as both a drummer and singer.

I’ve written songs for commercials and movies and music has always been the base of my creativity.

I’ve acted in commercials and shows, from Disney to German Candy commercials that no one has ever seen to a Red Bull Episodic called Exit Vine.

I’ve had all types of stints in different fields and the reason I’m sharing this is because the theme of my entire career path has been the importance being able to pivot and explore new ideas.

Auditions terrify me and it’s why I got an agent and why I began acting. I needed to get out of my skin and become comfortable with who I was. I judged the sound of my voice, the way I moved, the way I reacted, and how I presented myself. This part of my life has significantly helped me befriend myself.

Art requires confidence and to be an artist that has the power to move or excite people is to be vulnerable to a certain degree… which requires confidence. It’s a cycle.

Every element of what I do and create is an amalgamation of my past experiences in all different mediums.

OK! So what is it right now that I’m currently excited about and working on building???

I am building a brand. The brand is called CHELLYZ. It’s an apparel line inspired by the Immortal Jellyfish.

This obsession with jellyfish started when I read about a science experiment conducted in 1991 where around 2500 Jellyfish polyps were sent into Earth’s orbit to see if they could survive an environment with no gravity. Not only did they survive but they proliferated into 60,000 jellyfish.

This idea that there were Jellyfish living in outer space (and that money was actually spent to do this) was so interesting to me that I started researching about different types of Jellyfish that existed. I came across one known as the “Immortal Jellyfish” or the “Turritopsis dohrnii”.

This particular creature, when exposed to high levels of stress, threat, or injury, can devolve back into its polyp form and clone itself in a genetically identical replica.

I started to build a brand around this ethos of never giving up, always willing to pivot and pursue new endeavors with the knowledge of past experiences. If you break it down, all self made entrepreneurs have failed and had to go back to the drawing board. With any endeavor involving creativity, you need to ignite your imagination
and be willing to try new things.

We don’t judge ourselves as children the same way we do as adults and this idea of reverting back to a polyp to restart seemed like the perfect metaphor for my brand (www.chellyz.com) and my life.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would have to hit Laguna Beach, possibly wine tasting in Santa Barbara or Malibu. Maybe go to No Vacancy or see a show somewhere.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My friends and family deserve major credit in their encouragement toward my success. Also read the Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

Website: www.chellyz.com

Instagram: @hyp3rh3x

Twitter: @hyp3rh3x

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/kylejosephbuckley