What defines a child’s future occupation? For centuries, in some cultures, for instance, in China and Korea, there has been a tradition to celebrate a child’s first year by placing money, rope, rice, and a pencil on the table.

What the baby picks defines the future: money promises a wealthy life, a rope means long life, a future scholar will pick a pencil, whereas rice means the baby will always have enough food. Such is the Confucian tradition that has morphed in tune with the tech progress; nowadays, parents may place a microphone wishing their child to become a performer, or a computer, seeing his bright future in tech.  

Max Zaharenkov was born 30 years ago in Latvia to a native Russian family that was unaware of this tradition. However, they must have placed something resembling a video camera on the table, though camcorders were few and far between at the time. When Max turned 10, he was given a video camera for his birthday, and since then, it has become an integral part of his life. 

Max’s passion for shooting videos started with creating a TV channel for his school. Since then, he turned his passion into the art of filmmaking, each of his clips being an artwork. The primary platform where Max displays his videos is TikTok, where he started an account in 2018; his creative and highly entertaining videos have since garnered 500K views. Zaharenkov’s artwork, as he quite legitimately calls his videos, stands out from other platforms’ visual content due to his distinctive style and ability to surprise and captivate the audience with elegant visual effects. 

Zaharenkov’s target audience is Millennials and Gen Z, the demographic that aspires to grow their presence in social media, a task that is best achieved through his talented, spontaneous content. As many Millennials and Gen Z-ers increasingly gravitate towards a new job paradigm different from the 9-to-5 routine, the opportunity to monetize the social media presence that Zaharenkov’s offers them is a godsend. “I see opportunity where nobody can see it; I can see the market and know how to adapt to new realities, and I have a very sharp sensitivity for trends and know how to adapt to these trends,” says Zaharenkov. He calls himself a “vertical storyteller,” implying that his highly enjoyable videos carry a valuable message. 

Through his company ZAHARE Media, Zaharenkov works with many brands, including luxury and niche brands, celebrities, and several Fortune 500 companies. 

With the unique filmmaking talent and proven track record of successfully taking brands and businesses from offline to online and helping them monetize their social media presence, Zaharenkov nevertheless does not rest on his laurels. While focusing primarily on filmmaking, he wants his next project to be a talent agency. Why not? A filmmaking company and talent agency would produce perfect synergy, all for the benefit of Zaharenkov’s clientele. To find out more about Max Zaharenkov, visit his website and check out his Instagram and TikTok. Enjoy the show!