“This new journey brought me to the intersection of sound, storytelling, and personal growth. Partnering with Grammy Award-winning producer Ryan Lewis and up-and-coming pop artist **Jonah Marais**, i embarked in a new creative venture learning to write songs fully immersing myself for two years in the songwriting process. Together, we’ve released 11 songs. in my career as a director my work has amassed over 10 billion views on my music video work along with 3 MTV VMA wins out of 8 Nominations, an EMA for Video of the Year, a Cannes NRJ music video award, Camerimage nomination for best music video, along with 4 Clio Awards, and a Grammy Nomination for Best Short form Music Film, but this has been my first step into songwriting. The Jonah Marais project has been a collision of all of my creative experiences and expertise and has led to an evolution as a songwriter and artist. I also took charge of content creation, photography, and video production directing 2 music videos, and a Minnesota hometown concert film, hundreds of pieces of short form content. I filmed over 200 studio sessions—capturing not only the writing process but the highs and lows of the creative flow. This hands-on approach helped me better understand how to shape and share music in today’s ever-changing digital landscape. Reflecting on this transformative experience, This process has completely shifted my perspective on creativity—whether it’s ideating, entering flow state, or collaborating with others searching out creative spark while leaning into my strengths as a story teller and communicator. One of the most surprising discoveries was realizing how much my work in photography and cinematography had already prepared me for shaping sound and understanding the production process. I learned that many of the principles used to capture light are just as applicable to sound, using different tools but the same underlying concepts.”