Daily Inspiration: Meet Adrian Sosebee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrian Sosebee.

Hi Adrian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story of being a Creative Director started in downtown Atlanta playing with my He-man toys arranging them into elaborate scenes and photographing them with polaroid cameras. It was the 80’s and it was my dream from a young age to be a film Director, I would direct my younger brother in scenes my mom would later tell me.

Link to video of my Mom talking about this.

When I reached Junior High I began with an obsession with watching movies. This was the 90’s so I had to search out cult classics like “Repo Man” and “Blue Velvet” by staying up late till 3am and recording them on VHS tapes. I thought that to be the best film director I had to watch all the classic movies. So I started watching 3 movies and day everything from Orson Welles to Truffaut I watched VHS tapes of all the classics.

My first chance to direct came at NYFA at YALE university, I was 16 and we were filming with ARRI-S 16 mm film cameras, the same camera used in the French New Wave films I had obsessively watched. But when it came time to create the movies it was a struggle, I realized then watching movies will not make you a great Director it will help but Life Experience is what you need to be a great Director.

How did I jump from Director to Creative Director? That transition came from the invention of Social Media in 2004. I had just graduated from NYU TISCH where my focus was cinematography but I had ignored business to focus on the liberal arts. I was on vacation at a classmate’s condo in Venice Beach L.A. where this friend of a friend pulled out a laptop and showed me a new app he said would change the world and that was “Friendster”. My first reaction was to look up my EX GF and her profile quickly popped up. It was a revelation this social media thing will change everything. Would I capitalize on this boom of social media? Kind of but not really. I was young and decided to create an EDM / Dubstep / Trap label that got attention and made a splash but never was monetized properly. I had become a social media local celebrity and it was cool getting into concerts for free but this is not sustainable. I was using all of my social media power to help other people (DJ’s producers) with my hot tumblr blog but I was not helping myself. I thought that if I helped others in the scene by karma magic I would profit but we all know this is not the case. If I would do it again I would have done a lot differently but that’s how we grow in life.

My record label days ended when my last client DJ almost bankrupted me because he had gone on drugs while on the road and I had to pay a fan to help him get home. It was the last straw I had to end this passion project turned nightmare that had gotten attention through the buzz of early social (Web 2.0) and had helped countless producers and DJ’s but had left me penniless and without employment. It was 2014 and I had completely given up on my Director dreams. I had tried to be a Creative Director for my record label brand but I had failed to make it profitable. I had given up and I moved to New Orleans to start over as a Bartender as my Brother was the manager of a high volume bar on Frenchmen Street. Soon I was running the bar’s social media and this gave me a lot of creative freedom and ability to master Instagram trends while having fun at work. The page quickly grew and musicians were soon asking me to do their pages. I started a business solidicemedia.com and charged musicians 100.00 a month to post once a day to their Instagram pages. Instagram was still a new thing in Louisiana and some people had disdain for it. But in a few months I had 6 clients and was paying my rent by my side Instagram hustle. I was starting to get my confidence back after the dark times of my failed record label. Bartending taught me consistency. I knew that if I was able to be on time and open that bar everyday at 6pm and not miss one day in 5 years (which I was never late) this is a value to any employer. I created Frenchmen Clothing in 2016 as a brand for Service Industry working and Musicians to identify with. A street wear brand for Bartenders, Barbacks, Doormen, and Musicians. I had an outlet to sell the shirts(my bar), I would let a bartender wear one and sure enough I’d sell 10 shirts. This was not sustainable though because it was interfering with my bartender tasks (which made more money). I tried to work out a deal with the corner book store but they weren’t having it so I moved my sales to a clothing store in the Bywater. The Bywater was the worst move I could have done and I would see people wearing my clothes, but I was getting no sales in my pocket. Once again I had a hot brand on social but people were not biting on the ecommerce or the new location. Another bad habit from my last business was I was not doing things for myself. Sales were low and I was doing the clothes more to “big up” the musicians. So once again in my entrepreneur journey I had hit a wall. I was spinning in circles. It had reached its brief peak. Again Frenchmen Clothing had made me a local celebrity but it was not paying the bills. Thankfully March 14th 2020 everything changed. A huge negative of the pandemic was a wake up call and positive for my career.

When I started SolidIceMedia.com I had no capital and I was 10 years removed from the film industry. But I had 5 years of social media management experience from being at the Bar and building my lifestyle brand. I took the 1200.00 bucks given to us from the pandemic and got my expert computer coder Teddy Blanchard to build me the best custom desktop PC he could build. I sent him the YouTube video of Robert Duval in “Days of Thunder” as inspiration. (He of course was too young for the reference and thought I was crazy) Nonetheless this custom computer and my father buying me a Canon R5 launched my new found life as a creative in the post Covid world. Once I re-learned Adobe Premiere again I found a job as a PA on a Lifetime Movie. This movie was one of the most fun and difficult experiences but it was like a vacation from being stuck at home. That being said I did the job without complaints and made a lot of friends. At the end of the shoot I did my job, I found all the walkies and the UPM was happy (and we are still friends today shout out to Pedro Lucero ( Aqui Productions ) . It’s crazy thinking back now but I had probably 3 job offers (career directions) from that gig. I could have worked as a professional PA on a Netflix food project, but I chose not too. I could have worked as a set designer (I had made friends and helped the designer on set) she had called me with a freelance gig but I turned it down. What did I choose ? The UPM helped me get a job working as an assistant video editor at a Marketing company that specialized in lawyer videos for social media. Working this job towards the end of Covid helped me build my skills as a video editor and learn my skills as a marketing professional. Tiktok had just done its first wave and everyone was clamoring for vertical social media videos for their business. I quickly realized I was the most knowledgeable person at the company on social media so I started speaking up to the owner. Soon I was promoted to Creative Director and there I was. I had gone from cleaning up puke on Mardi Gras Day to having my own office as Creative Director. But I wasn’t saving a lot of money at the marketing company and I was overworked and unhappy. Right before asking for a raise I met my new mentor Brad Bohannan and quit the marketing job.

I saw the flaws in the marketing company and realized I could go out on my own. So when Brad Bohannan showed up at my office to take me to Hooters and offered me the job to do social media for his bar Turtle Bay & Spirits on Bourbon. I jumped at the chance and I was also given the job to produce and shoot a feature film. This movie Dirty Dogs directed by Brad Bohannan changed a supreme court ruling and I helped get it distribution on Amazon Prime.

The project that Brad created “Dirty Dogs” is a project that changed my life. The filmmaking process was sparse. We had a three person crew but it allowed us to get a lot done and we changed a supreme court ruling. We later celebrated this in Beverly Hills at the Taste Awards which is running on the PBS app all spring. Look for that.

Link to Taste Awards video.

With Brad Bohannan I had found the perfect partner and one day we decided to go film one of my chef friends Anh Luu kind of on a whim, 2 years later we are still filming our show “Eat The Works”. Initially we had a focus on Louisiana, but now we are expanding while in Los Angeles we did a collaboration with Uncle Paulie’s Deli and we have done collaborations in NYC. We also are working with brands such as Ike’s Sandwiches located on both coasts. We (Brad & I) are creating a global food brand with Eat The Works and we plan on working with more influencers and brands in the future. I believe the best collaborations come organically so I want the ETW brand to grow naturally and not force anything. Currently for ETW we are filming our third season for streaming which we plan to release in 2026. You can find season 1+2 on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and iFood.TV streaming on your Smart TV.

If I have learned one thing in all of this, enjoy the process like Gary Vee preaches love what you do never work a day in your life. Sometimes it just takes meeting the right person or partner and these things take time. Interpersonal relationships are the key to success and maintaining those relationships is my priority.

Our goal with Eat The Works, Brad Bohannan and I hope to preserve and save the going out to eat experience. Because what is more fun than going out to eat at an hidden gem?

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My biggest challenge was to overcome the history of alcoholism in my family. Part of my pivot journey from bartender to creative director was putting the booze down. When the pandemic hit I knew that alcohol would help contribute to me getting sick so I decided to quit. That was 5 years ago and it has been the best decision yet. How do I do it when some of my clients are bars like “Turtle Bay” ? Easy ! Alcohol is everywhere you can buy it literally everywhere in New Orleans so I can’t let myself get triggered. I have to be spiritually and mentally fit so that I don’t have those cravings (and I don’t). You can’t blame other people or your environment for triggering you. You got to be strong. One of the things that I did which was imperative to my sobriety journey and putting booze down was some service work. During the pandemic I volunteered to run a support group on the then hot Clubhouse app. I called the class “Mindset Success” and everyday at 9:30am during the deep pandemic I was the host to a sober / mental support group. I met a lot of sober influencers there that I still follow and talk to today such as Brandon OConnell aka @trashcancut whose Instagram page is such an inspiration. I really want to one day tap into the sober scene of Los Angeles and create content in this realm. That is a goal I’m trying to manifest. When I was in Los Angeles for the Taste Awards I got to try some Poke with my homie @trashcancut collaborating and this is also the type of content I’d love to tap into in Los Angeles, the Poke scene and the sobriety-content scene. Has my life been easy? No its been a pain in the a*s but by looking up to other successful people like Brandon ( @trashcantalk) it gives me hope to take things one day at a time and deal with life on life’s terms.

@Trashcancut Poke video link.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My overall business and service is Solid Ice Media. What do we do? We create creative video, photo, graphic, solutions for your brand. You can find our work at solidicemedia.com We do not have any full time employees yet but we have an assistant editor Ellie to take on some of the edit load. With one of our projects we partnered with Brad Bohannan to create “Eat The Works” which has a focus on food influencer content at a reasonable price. We feel there is a gap in the market. Small businesses want influencer style content at at fraction of the going price. So we come in like the ghostbusters we first 1. have a discovery long hour long call to access your business needs. Then 2. We schedule a monthly shoot date to create content for your business 3. We shoot and edit your content after researching your niche 4.You post. 5.We repeat monthly for a rate that is accessed project to project but gives you as a business a month of content shot in one day. I am also freelance work for hire and provide video content for any client.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Happiness to me is waking to zero angry texts or phone calls. Eating a fresh sammy from Uncle Paulie’s Deli. Happiness is Dipping a fresh fried tortilla chip into queso. Happiness is my life. Simple things like a Coca Cola can make me happy, I’m blessed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://SolidIceMedia.com
• Other: https://Eattheworks.com

Image Credits
Profile photo and first image – Brianna Owens for did dat photography