Kevin Riordan: Transitioning from campus to commerce

Any aspiring singer or videographer with a smartphone can post a video on YouTube or promote work on Facebook.

But easy-to-use digital platforms and social media don't make it easy to break into music, or video. The only way to learn how to do that is to do it yourself - or with a little help from your friends.

Listen to recent Rowan University grads William Lees, his wife Stefany Mayz, and their pal John Breitling:

"It's harder to get noticed. There's so much content out there that you get lost at sea," says Lees, 24. He founded Lees Productions, a video and film production company, in January.

"I have to find new and creative ways to stand out," says Mayz, a singer-songwriter who as a child did modeling and acting work in New York and elsewhere.

At 24, she shares a Maple Shade home office with her husband and is determined to avoid being "just one of a million kids" who yearns for a music career.

"I am doing this," Mayz (stefanymayz.com) declares, and I believe her.

Adds Breitling, 23, a Medford resident directing Mayz's new music video for Lees Productions, "it's different doing work for clients, as opposed to doing work for professors. Instead of getting a grade for it, you're being paid for it. There's no room for error."

Those of us who remember typing our resumés - by which I mean on a typewriter - can empathize with ambitious young people making the transition from campus to commerce. Particularly in a tough economy, and with burdensome student-loan debt (as I experienced in the mid-'70s, come to think of it).

But I'm heartened to hear that even though a single click can blanket the universe with a resumé, hard work and hustle still matter. Mayz also has a photography business and sells music for commercial use; Lees does video for private clients, such as law firms; and Breitling is a freelance video producer.

Meanwhile, Lees joined the Camden County Chamber of Commerce as well as a Rotary club in Williamstown, Gloucester County, and meets weekly with local members of the Business Networking International organization.

The three sometimes barter their services.

Mayz, who writes her own material, provides free music for videos that her husband's firm produces. Lees Productions has made videos in exchange for free space at professional conventions. And they know how to multitask on a set; "I can fill in and do camera," Mayz notes.

The latest Lees production is a launch party and concert showcase for Mayz set for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Dave & Buster's in Philadelphia.

The star of the show has put a band together, and with her colleagues has drummed up sponsorships and sold tickets.

Breitling's video of Mayz' new power-pop song, "Not Mr. Nice Guy" will debut at the event.

"It's awesome to see something you shot [become] a finished video," he says. "I love to see my script come to life."

I ask Lees how he would define success.

"Being able to do what I love," he says. "Which I'm already doing."

Mayz adds, "It's such a cool thing to have this idea that you basically played with all throughout college - he wanted to have a production company, I wanted to be in music - and then, all of a sudden, the stars start to align.

"If you do the footwork, it finally starts to become something. You see this idea, this dream, start to become something other people can see and be a part of," she says. "That's really cool."

That really is.