Passion for Teaching and Media

How do you succeed in the media industry? Well, Spanish immigrant, Miguel Hernandez seems to have cracked that code.

Miguel has been heavily involved in media and has been passionately sharing his media experiences through Grumo media. He creates educational videos on YouTube Channel and through Udemy.

Drawn to the camera, whether he was in the frame or operating it from behind, Miguel’s intrigue in the craft also attracted him to animation. He highlights a distinct moment in his early career, which put him on the path to success.

“I was kind of desperate, and I needed to make money, so I created a video for a startup in Silicon Valley. I got fortunate because the guy running the marketing department, someone incredibly famous in Silicon Valley, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of the vast social media platform called Reddit. He really liked that video, and he said I’m going to promote this video to everybody I know in my network. We’re talking about hundreds of startups. It was one of the most significant moments in my career, going from zero money and experience to basically in a couple of weeks having over 40 startups knocking on my door asking for a video. It was a matter of luck and opportunity, and I don’t know what happened there. The stars aligned, and I was off to the races.”

Although that moment would be the catalyst for his achievements, Miguel always knew he wanted to work with video, and teaching was a happy addition down the line.  

In the early 2000s, 3D animation was beginning to gain popularity. At that time, Miguel worked in manufacturing and had the brilliant idea of promoting some products through video. He began to create animations of the machinery, and they found success in sales and training. Unfortunately, he was laid off from that job. However, that small moment ignited Miguel’s passion, and undeterred began working freelance creating animated videos for industrial purposes. Wanting to learn how to tell stories more creatively, Miguel took up film making, taking courses that would lead to a series of gigs in the music video industry and a camera operator for a television company.

In 2010, Miguel began creating explainer videos for startups, and then one would eventually be noticed by Alexis Ohanian.

For the last ten years, Grumo Media has been producing these sorts of explainer videos, but early on, Miguel decided he should create online courses.

“I had a lot of people coming to my studio that couldn’t afford the typical fee for one of these animated videos, which is between $5,000 or $10,000 to create one of these videos. Many of these companies are startups; they don’t have the budget to make videos like this. I decided to create an online course where I teach people how to create these videos for themselves. I posted it on my website and started getting a few sales, and then that same year, we’re talking 2011,  and that’s when Udimy began.”

At that time, Udemy was looking for online instructors, and curious about how one of his videos would do, Miguel uploaded a video. He was pleasantly surprised when the video did incredibly well, making over $96,000 US.

“To me, that was like the biggest light bulb in history. I was like, are you kidding me? You can sit at home, record an online course, and make a decent living? Since then, I’ve always been teaching online because I really enjoy it. I have lots of feedback from my 35,000 students on Udimy who are very happy with my courses. I’ve been recording a few more courses over the years, and I think it’s a great way to reach people and also make money as well.”