Ian Michael Simon

09/25/2026

My company, Ian Michael Simon, spends $0 on marketing or advertising.

We market by doing the work.

We share finished projects.
We document behind the scenes.
We explain the problems we encounter and how we solve them.
We show people how we think.

Then the right people find us.

That taught me something important:

Attention is not currency. Proof is.

Going viral by itself doesn’t mean much. You can generate attention by being controversial, outrageous, funny, reckless—or simply being in the right place at the right time.

But attention without demonstrated value is difficult to convert into opportunity.

The better question for a creative is:

What skill do I possess that creates value for someone else?

Can you direct?
Write?
Edit?
Produce?
Design?
Strategize?
Tell stories?
Solve business problems through creativity?

Once you can answer that clearly, social media stops being a popularity contest.

It becomes a place to document your competency.

Show the skill.
Show the process.
Show the finished work.
Show the result.

Eventually, the people who need what you do can recognize you.

That’s when content becomes business.

And I think that’s part of what “know thyself” means for a creative:

Know what you can do.
Know who it helps.
Then leave evidence.

09/22/2026

09/21/2026

As a director, I believe there’s no substitute for life when it comes to inspiration.

Standing on the beach with my family, watching my daughter discover the ocean with wonder in her eyes. Seeing the smile on my wife’s face and feeling the relief that we can travel again. Feeling the sun going down and realizing, for a moment, there was nowhere else I needed to be.

These are the images I want to remember.

The more I live, the more I understand what I want to make. Because eventually you realize the things that make a scene beautiful are the same things that make a life beautiful: presence, love, change, loss, wonder, time.

Sometimes life gives you a moment that already feels like a memory.

Like the ending of a movie you’re still living.

Maybe the best thing I can do as a filmmaker is keep living enough to have something worth saying.

Remix this and add the moments from your life that felt like the ending of a movie.

I’d love to see what your ending looks like.

09/18/2026

I’ll go first…. Lioness because what in the actual f*ck is going on 😂

09/15/2026

Ryan Clark Fred Taylor Channing Crowder Pivot Podcast 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 a masterclass

Creatives, it’s time. Ownership is the only way.

Make it. Build it. Own it.

09/14/2026

Literally do this if you want to make $250K+ creating content for business owners and brands:

1. Research businesses that already understand the importance of social media. Don’t waste all your time convincing someone they need content.

Find founders, doctors, restaurants, athletes, companies, etc. that are already posting, already marketing and already trying to grow.

2. Figure out what problem they actually have. They usually don’t need “more videos.” Maybe they need more trust. More awareness. More leads. A stronger personal brand. Better recruiting. More authority in their industry.
A reason for people to keep paying attention.

Learn to diagnose the business problem before you touch a camera.

3. Build one offer that solves multiple problems. Instead of selling them 10 reels, I would offer to help turn them into a media company. Give me one day with you and I can create:

A podcast.
Short-form content.
Long-form content.
Photos.
A newsletter.
Founder stories.
Educational content.
Behind-the-scenes content.

One production day can become weeks of media.

4. Build a system that makes it easy to repeat. Research.
Strategy. Production day. Editing. Distribution. Analytics.
Repeat.

The more organized your process becomes, the more clients you can serve without constantly reinventing your business.

5. Stop thinking like a content creator. Start thinking like a creative problem solver. The biggest shift in my career was realizing businesses were never really paying me because I knew how to use a camera.

They were paying me because I could look at a problem they had and use storytelling, media and creativity to help solve it.

Master that skill and your value goes way beyond making content.

The camera is just the tool.

Your ability to solve problems is the business.

09/10/2026

We are making a documentary series for and we’re halfway through the project now, with three more episodes to go, but I wanted to share some insights and our journey with VASCO helping them create stories.

I wanted to share some BTS on how my crew and I at get ready to make our projects.

The series we’re creating is called “In Their Words,” where we feature immigrants who came to America in pursuit of a better life, overcame the obstacles of starting over, and built success in their own way while carrying their culture, identity and traditions with them.

Every episode asks a few simple questions:

Where did you come from?
What did you have to overcome?
What did you build?
What did you bring with you?
What can the world learn from your story?

For us, making a documentary starts long before we turn the cameras on.

It starts with research, conversations, understanding the person and their world, finding the real story underneath the surface, and figuring out how we can create an environment where someone feels comfortable enough to tell us the truth.

This is a little look at how we prepare to do that.

Three episodes down. Three more to go.

These are their stories, told in their words.

I’ll be sharing more bts for this project and others, subscribe to my substack for more in depth stories and insights on how we are building media around brands, companies and extraordinary people.

05/22/2026

The imaginative man understands that while the outer world is real, it is the inner world of continuous imagination that serves as the true force.

Every creative person must become conscious of their inner activity and recognize the relationship between the inner causal world of imagination and the outer world of effects.

Cause becomes effects.
Emotional states become realities.
Thoughts become things.

The imaginative man does not wait for permission from the world before creating. He understands that every structure, film, movement, business, invention, and civilization first existed as an invisible image held within the mind of someone willing to believe in what could not yet be seen.

Most people live only by reaction to appearances.
The creative lives by inner vision first.

To master imagination is to stop being ruled entirely by circumstance and begin participating in reality as a conscious creator instead of a passive observer.

The unseen always precedes the seen.

05/20/2026

If you’re working with professional athletes on a shoot, project or campaign, you should definitely keep this in mind before you get to the set!

1. Time is their most important currency. They have agents, their coaches, trainers, etc. watching them like a hawk. You need to know what you need from them, respect their time, stay organized and streamline everything so you can mitigate any hiccups on shoot day.

2. Coach them! These guys are used to being told what to do. However for me, I don’t give basic instructions like “pose like this, just stand like that.” I try to put them in situations where they emotionally can tap into a moment where they feel like they’re competing. Or I plan the shoot where they’re in situations that they’d experience on game day. Learn their lingo, and lead them!

3. PROTECT THEM FROM STUPID SH*T. These teams invest a lot into them and they need to stay safe. Don’t ask a professional baseball player to slide into home base for a photo shoot. That is stupid. Make sure you keep in mind that they do things that they are comfortable with.

I’ve been working with professionally show the past couple years for some major campaigns with Brands. I promise you that if you keep some of these tips in mind, you’ll be requested back for more projects!