Melissa Murillo & Camilo Chitiva

Can your dream pass the test of immigration? Makka, a content production agency from Toronto, Canada is the proof that it can. Melissa Murillo and Camilo Chitiva immigrated from Colombia to Canada back in 2014 with their dog, Roko, their luggage and their dream to establish and grow “Makka Producciones” in this new country. And they made it happen!

 

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU REALIZE EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED TO PURSUE?

We believe that life throws at us both opportunities and obstacles, and that it’s really up to us to react in a way that brings us closer to our final goal. In our case, when we first met, we realized that we were both passionate about telling stories through audiovisual content, and that our skills and work experience complemented each other. We realized right away that we were meant to work as a team.

 

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU START GOING AFTER YOUR DREAM?

In 2011 a friend asked Camilo if he could make some videos for a businessman interested in that service. At that moment our dream stopped being a simple idea and became a reality. We said YES to the opportunity and legally registered our production company, Makka Producciones, in Colombia.

 

WHAT WERE YOUR BIGGEST FEARS AND HOW DID YOU MANAGE/OVERCOME THEM?

The fear of taking risks. It’s always scary to take a step forward and be wrong. But when you take it, be it for better or for worse, your mind relaxes and changes direction and objective. It takes you to a next level, where you do a pros and cons analysis, helping you to get closer to your goals and set even higher expectations. It gives you strength and courage to go on. That’s why, we continue to take more risks every year.

 

WHAT DID YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE IN ORDER TO WORK ON YOUR DREAM?

Free time and leisure activities. When you start your own company, it’s very difficult to have the same financial stability as you would have with a permanent job. You have to invest more time and receive less. It becomes more and more rewarding with time, especially because it’s so much more satisfactory for us to work on our own projects than to work for someone else.

 

HOW DID YOU/DO YOU DEAL WITH THE NAYSAYERS?

This is really one of the hardest issues to deal with because there are so many naysayers in the art field unfortunately. That’s why we constantly have to prove ourselves with our work. Because even though nowadays everyone can take photos and videos, it’s our passion and expertise that make the difference in not wasting someone’s time and money. It’s better to just ignore the negative comments, focus on your work and show with results how valuable you are in your field of work.

 

START FIRST, PERFECT IT LATER OR PERFECTION FROM THE GET-GO?

Achieving perfection is very subjective. It would be better to try and do everything right from the beginning, even if it seems more difficult, so that you won’t have to go back and fix things later. We are also always adapting and looking for better work techniques that could help us to be more structured along the way.

 

ARE YOU A PART-TIME OR A FULL-TIME DREAM CHASER?

Part-time at the moment. As an immigrant, there are so many things that you don’t know about your work field in this new country. By working for someone else too, we are able to expand our network and get a real feeling about how things are done here. Like this we gain more experience, we can better understand our customer and deliver better results to them.

 

WHAT IS YOUR DAILY ROUTINE?

We have a weekly routine instead. We create a list of activities to be completed during the week and then we organize our days around those tasks in order of priority.

 

HOW DOES YOUR DREAM LIFE LOOK LIKE?

Producing large scale entertainment and high-quality strategic content with a unique print for those companies that truly believe, value and trust in the power of a well-produced image. Also, Makka’s dream is to create more employment opportunities internationally.

 

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE WHO FEELS STUCK? (THEY EITHER DON’T KNOW WHAT TO PURSUE OR THEY DO BUT ARE TOO AFRAID TO START)

That they should dare to take the first step even if they’ll get a NO as an answer. Because just trying it and experiencing it will bring a feeling a fulfilment that no one could ever take away from them.

We only have one life, and we need to live it fully!