Up Close & Personal with
Jesse Szymanski, Founder & CEO of Modern Muse Media Ltd.
Award-winning entrepreneur, Jesse Szymanski is the founder and CEO of Modern Muse Media, an Alberta-based business, promoting powerful brand-building, storytelling through video and content creation.
Modern Muse Media is a video production AND video training company that empowers professionals on how to capitalize on the tangible impact of video as the premier medium for business promotion and marketing. Her passion is to entertain, train and inspire people through the power of story and video every single day.
This is Jesse’s Story
Jesse is a devoted parent to a twelve-year-old daughter and is the proud owner of an adorable French Bulldog, Romeo. Jesse’s glamorous style, confidence, and award-winning career as a film producer is impressive, but it is her mischievous sense of humour and warm smile that captivates everyone who meets her. The loss of her mother to breast cancer in her early twenties devastated Jesse and motivated her to be fiercely independent. It is that determination and fire that fuels Jesse to turn her challenges into success.
Featured in Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40, Jesse Szymanski was a success story in film and television, a young female executive producer of an award-winning tv show called Blackstone.
When her relationship with television abruptly ended, Jesse decided to walk away from two decades of working in film and television to starting her own business.
Motivated, to mentor and empower women inspired Jesse to name her company Modern Muse Media, after the Greek muses. In Greek Mythology, Galatea is a statue carved by King Pygmalion and brought to life, but she eventually leaves him. Like Galatea, Jesse walked away from an established career in film and TV to forge her own destiny and provide an opportunity for women to shape their futures in film and Television. Jesse vowed to create opportunities for women and train female graduates and has provided them with the opportunity to hone their careers.
Utilizing her award-winning television experience as a producer and media personality, Jesse founded Modern Muse Media promoting powerful brand-building through social media video. Jesse took the knowledge gained from almost two decades of extensive experience in this field and reshaped it for entrepreneurs, training them in video production to help market their business.
Among her accolades, Jesse is thrilled to have been selected as the 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year Award recipient Business from The Heart; an award she accepts with honour.
Jesse is also active in her community. She will share the importance of using video technology this month as a Speaker for the Canadian Association of Gift Planning Professionals (CAGP) Northern Alberta Chapter https://www.cagp-acpdp.org/en/chapter/alberta-north.
She is Vice President of the Edmonton Business Association, and a member in good standing with the Fort Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Parkland Regional Chamber, the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. Jesse is a former board member of Girls In Film and Television (GIFT) and former Vice-President of Women in Film and Television Alberta (WIFTA).
Six years since starting her business, Jesse is busier than ever with Modern Muse Media, a video production AND video training company that empowers professionals on how to capitalize on the tangible impact of video as the premier medium for business promotion and marketing. She is currently supported by a team of five women, including a new intern Filza Khan, from NAIT.
What major event changed Jesse’s work life?
When COVID hit, Jesse wasn’t sure how it would impact her business and how the company would deliver the social media video production training programs in person. Jesse worked with Training Program Facilitator, Melissa Lamoureaux to reorganize the training to be delivered online, which meant the program could also be offered to businesses outside of Edmonton.
What is Modern Muse Media all about?
Modern Muse Media is a thriving Alberta-based business promoting powerful brand-building, storytelling through video and content creation while supporting fellow women entrepreneurs. They are an all-women staffed production company including interns, trainers, videographers, content writers, and film editors.
Modern Muse Media is a professional, full-service media production company that specializes in training individuals and businesses on how to produce and use video for their social media platforms.
Jesse’s Inspiration
After working in film and television for almost two decades Jesse realized that there was a gap in the Edmonton market that she could fulfill. Edmonton small and medium-sized businesses were having difficulty in keeping up with the creation of video for their social media content. A social media for the video training program was developed to help their clients develop skills and knowledge in content creation and how to maximize it. Team members provide Video Production Services and Video Training for businesses.
Looking back on her entrepreneurial journey, Jesse advises finding the right mentors to help navigate the challenges of starting a business and staying focused on your vision.
Jesse credits her mentors when she first started envisioning Modern Muse Media, and gratefully shares,
“One of my early mentors while starting out, was Dan Kern who helped me navigate
the many phases of my journey as an entrepreneur and our favorite saying was
‘Hashtag winning’. Dan was always there when I needed him, and I can’t envision growing
the way I did without his support.”
Left to Right: Catherine Mondragon, Sarah McKinley, Melissa Lamoureux, Jesse Szymanski, Fliza Khan, Sarah Hunter.
What is exciting right now?
Video is so big on social media, companies cannot keep up with the constant demand for video content, which is why Modern Muse Media continues to grow. Facebook, Linked In, YouTube, and Instagram are still the number one platform for promoting your business online and there is huge growth in other platforms like Tik-Tok. It is always exciting to venture into new social media platforms and we can accommodate our client’s needs to reach their target demographic.
If your company is not set up to create videos for social media and can’t afford the costs of high-end video production, then sign up for the Social Media Video Training Program.
The team can train business owners or their employees to develop the skills and confidence to create videos for social media. Video content is essential to attract clients to your service, business, or product. Presently, they are focused on offering the training program to any Alberta-based business. They can reach anywhere in the world with their virtual workshops, and we want to continue to see that grow.
Marketing today requires a lot of skills, employees are expected to be at writing articles, shooting, and editing videos, and knowledgeable in social media. Jesse and her team can empower your business and train your employee(s) to develop more skills and confidence in the knowledge area that they need. They have worked with many charitable organizations and can help both non-profits and businesses apply for the funding. If approved, they can get a reimbursement for two-thirds of the costs to participate in their social media training program.
Modern Muse Media has all the tools you need to learn how to create video content for social media, and access to funding for your business, contact them to get started! Contact Modern Muse Media.
