Spotlight on: Quinn Birkholz
Quinn Birkholz is a YouTuber, young entrepreneur, and founder of Cwil Creative. The following is an exclusive ‘Spotlight on’ interview with him. Get to know Quinn through a couple of the questions we asked, and if you find yourself wanting to learn more about this inspiring YouTuber, please leave your questions in the comment section below.
Please tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
My name’s Quinn Birkholz and I’m a YouTuber, writer, and entrepreneur. I’m an American immigrant creating conversation and exploring life through regular videos I post to my two different YouTube channels, while also working full time for my creative start-up, Cwil Creative.
How and when did you get started?
I started my creative career on YouTube in 2015, where I created acoustic piano covers and short form lifestyle videos. Eventually my digital film making led to creating films for BBC Cymru and getting my content featured on Netflix. A couple years ago I decided to bring my lived experience of digital marketing and videography into the freelance world – and last year I formalised that with the creation of my start-up, Cwil Creative, which provides turn-key digital solutions to help individuals, organisations, and movements break through the digital noise.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?
As a young entrepreneur at the start of my career, I’ve sometimes struggled to get people to take me seriously as a creative professional – but I hope that the quality of my work speaks for itself. Launching a start-up during a global pandemic wasn’t easy either, and we’ve definitely been a bit set back from that – but where there’s a cwil, there’s a way! (sorry)
What has been your most satisfying moment so far?
Getting to create a product I’m really proud of for clients is always an incredible feeling, whether that be a video, a website, or a successful marketing campaign. In general, launching Cwil has been one of the proudest moments of my career – and I’m really excited to create more than just a business with Cwil. I want to eventually use my business to herald individuals and causes who struggle to afford big marketing firms, but need the branding and promotion help just as much. That’s why I say “we’re a marketing company with a mission.” And I’m excited to make that mission happen!
Would you recommend entrepreneurship to others?
Absolutely! The contemporary constrains of capitalistic work structures are deeply unsatisfactory for many of us, and in some cases downright dysfunctional – whatever our professional lives may be – and entrepreneurship can let you draw between the lines, make your own rules, and take control of your professional reality.
What was your motivation to become an entrepreneur?
I had been working freelance for some time, but I was getting more business than I could manage on my own – and I wanted to get together a creative collective to help more people, be more ambitious with our projects, and over all have a greater impact. I’ve also worked for other companies like the BBC, and the Discovery channel, and I found that although these are great businesses to work for, and I had an amazing experience, I’m just much happier and produce better work when I’m working for myself.
What drives you, what motivates you?
I want to facilitate change in the world and connect with people while doing it – and my creative enterprise has provided an excellent platform to engage that. I want to create conversation and help people find their voice online.
To find out more…
To have a look at Quinn’s work, please visit the Cwil Creative’s website and his own YouTube channel – quinntsensual, just don’t forget to hit subscribe! 🙂
And if you want to read more about other successful entrepreneurs and freelancers, go to the ‘Spotlight on’ section of Revolancer’s magazine!
Freelance marketplace: Revolancer