Inspiring Conversations with Christian Normandia of elsE Collective

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Normandia. 

Hi Christian, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Palm Bay, Florida, where my parents were pastors and musicians. Watching my dad preach from the pulpit and sing over the radio had a huge impact on me with regard to how I related to the arts from an early age. I started breaking at 15 years old, and by 21, I had joined America’s Got Talent season 5 contestants Fighting Gravity, who had just won 3rd place on the show. This was probably the most transformative experience in my life; Visiting countries like China, Russia, and the UAE gave me a completely different perspective on life I’m not sure that I would have attained otherwise. 

I had always played with graphic design and video editing as a teen, so I began filming and editing projects between shows with friends in the community; through this, I ended up partnering with my Art mentor, Marlon Hightower, and creating the elsE Collective, Inc. 

Originally, it started as a media company from which we could put out our own original works into the world, and I think that in many ways, it’s remained true to that, but as time went on the company evolved into being able to facilitate creative solutions for production companies, agencies, and businesses needing fresh ideas. 

The plan is to continue to expand and remain grateful throughout, create meaningful content that has an impact on viewers, and grow as a person and artist over time. Being consistent in my curiosity of art and multimedia is what got me to where I am today, and I’ve met many creatives in my life that have helped push me when the journey became difficult. 

I think that art, of any medium, has the power to do that; to change you and build you into the person you’ve always wanted to be; all one needs is a little push and a bright idea. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In some ways, it’s been a smooth road, and in others, it has been challenging. I’m the oldest of 4, and my parents didn’t make a lot of money as pastors when I was growing up, so I spent a lot of time in my room learning how to edit videos and design t-shirts from YouTube. 

Anxiety also runs in my family, I used to feel debilitated when it came to everyday tasks like paying bills, making phone calls, etc., but I began prioritizing my mental health and found ways to mitigate the levels of anxiety I would feel when trying to get through the day. 

When we first founded the elsE collective, Marlon and I had only a few pieces of equipment at our disposal, but we had become creatively resourceful with it, took what money we made from early jobs, and invested it back into the company before doing anything else. 

It’s been smooth in that we managed to keep a steady flow of work coming in early on; I think this had to do with the years we put in as individual creatives helping others, as well as the planning and preparation we did before proceeding to make any moves. 

As you know, we’re big fans of elsE Collective Inc. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
I feel like what people should know as it pertains to the elsE Collective is that above all things, we’re artists who love to create, and this is truly something we would still be doing if money didn’t exist. 

We hold ourselves to a high standard when working with our clients, and we don’t like to implement cookie-cutter solutions when meeting client needs because we understand that just as we feel like what we do is special, so too should every client feel like their brand is unique and deserving of the utmost care because it is, and it does. 

We specialize in Branding and Content Creation, and that’s what we are most known for. Not only that, but we’re passionate about design and storytelling, and every member of the collective is an artist that comes from a specialized background, which allows them to understand the challenges that exists for businesses and agencies alike. 

I think what I’m most proud of brand-wise is just how down-to-earth we all are; we want to make you feel like we understand like you’re one of us. 

Difficult people are present in every industry, but I think that part of the stress that’s often associated with finding the right creative company to work with is finding someone who can maintain the vision of the project at hand, and we’re excellent at doing that. 

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that I think surprises most people about me that they might not know is that before the elsE Collective became a thing, I worked a ton of 9-5 type jobs between Fighting Gravity shows. Social media has a funny way of projecting everyone’s best while hiding the more normal aspects of our lives, and my socials were no different. 

I mostly posted my travels with Fighting Gravity and projects I had produced in between shows, and it gave the impression that I woke up one day and decided to be a world-traveling performer and nothing else. It took a lot to get to where I am now, and most of the story is full of boring moments of pinching pennies from paychecks I would scrape together from 9-5 jobs. 

I think the difference is that I took good portions of everything I made and invested it back into the dream, and that’s where the real magic happens. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elsecollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dontdoitchris/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/elsecollectiveinc 

Image Credits
Damaris Gonzalez
Marlon Hightower