In the world of business, there is one thing that matters more than almost anything: RELATIONSHIPS.

I’m not talking about fake, one-sided relationships where you’re keeping someone’s number because you think they can do something for you. I mean genuine, we actually care about each other, but yes, let’s do some business together relationships.

Some of the best relationships that have the best return on investment (ROI) aren’t transactional at all. You know what someone does, they know what you do, and when either of you runs into the right person, somebody’s name gets brought up.

In business we get rewarded for managing relationships well. The person making more money isn’t necessarily doing anything different, they simply have a more advanced network of people who know, trust, and remember them.

A few years ago I was reminded of what can happen when you don’t manage one of those relationships well.

So... What Happened Was...

About five years ago, I filmed an amazing project for a client and it went about as well as you could hope. Then the project ended, and I basically disappeared.

There wasn’t a falling out or anything that made me think the relationship was over, I just didn’t reach out. Part of me assumed that if they needed something else, they’d call. They had my number, they knew the work I could do, and we had a great experience together.

I was in my early 20s at the time... how naive of me.

As time went by and I started getting better at tracking every project, freelance and direct-to-client. I eventually tried following up, but by then, three or four years had passed. The email bounced back as inactive.

My point of contact was gone.

So why did it take me that long

Somewhere along the way in film school, I picked up this idea that if I worked hard enough and made great work, eventually the people with the money would find me.

School will teach you to make great spec work, build a great portfolio, do great work for clients and eventually, more people will come.

I’ve learned that’s far from the truth.

Even with spec work, there’s a strategy to getting the right brands, production partners, and people to actually see it. There’s more to that conversation, and I’ll probably cover it in another post.

The other reason I didn’t reach out is I had that I don’t want to bother them feeling. I wish someone would have smacked me for being afraid of getting uncomfortable. (continue reading to see our resolution)

After Hours 🌒

You learned how to make money. Now learn how to keep it, invest it, and build wealth beyond a paycheck.

By Gene After Hours 🌒

How the Client Moved On

What sparked this whole conversation is that a few weeks ago I was reminded how this client started working with another media company.

I don’t know why they chose them, and honestly, the reason doesn’t really matter. My best guess is that the new company came through a referral, and by then my original point of contact was no longer there to vouch for us.

Would one email five years ago have guaranteed another $30,000 worth of work?

Of course not.

The Part About Money

A finished project is when a client is warmest. The relationship is active, the experience is fresh, and assuming you did great work, their trust in you is probably at its highest.

Yet that’s the exact moment a lot of us disappear. We treat delivery like the end of the sale when it might actually be the best time to start the next conversation. That conversation doesn’t always need to be, Hey, do you have more work for me?

Sometimes it’s being genuine and maintaining the relationship. Hey, I saw what you guys are working on, looks great. I Hope everything is going well. Could you share the link to the video? etc.

Resolution

Some of my longest client relationships didn’t last because I completed one great project and waited for them to remember me. One project led to another, a conversation created an idea and an idea created another project.

You have clients relationships who are direct to client and then there are production partners (Freelancer) relationships. Both can be different based on specific situations, but what matters is how authentic the relationship is and do they trust you.

That’s the part I didn’t understand in my early 20s.

• The key lesson is simple: silence costs.

• Track every project

• Set reminders after it’s been too quiet

• Back track past projects

Reach out or miss out.

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The Slow Months Don’t Lie

When business slows down, most creatives and founders fall into one of two traps.

• First, they panic. They start chasing any project they can find. This almost always leads to undercharging, over-committing, and burning precious energy on client work that doesn’t serve them.

Or,

• They wait. They tell themselves things will pick back up next month. They check their bank account balance far more than they check their actual sales pipeline. They survive the slump, move on, and completely fail to ask the harder question.

What is the harder question?

It starts by realizing that when a slow month creates real financial stress, the issue always traces back to one of two root problems.

Problem 1: You aren’t managing the money you already make.

The income was there. The busy months were real. But somewhere between the paid invoice and the current season, the cash disappeared. This is a systems problem. You don’t necessarily need to make more money, you need a tighter relationship with the revenue you already pull in.

Problem 2: You don’t actually make enough money.

Even if you managed everything perfectly setting aside taxes, building a reserve, and keeping overhead low, the math still doesn’t work. Your income during peak season isn’t high enough to carry you through the valleys. This is a pricing or volume problem.

If It’s a Pricing Problem, Which One Is It?

Not all pricing issues are created equal. To fix it, you have to diagnose the specific leak:

• Your rate is too low: You are doing incredible work, but you are still charging the exact same prices you charged three years ago.

• Your margin is too thin: Your rate looks fine on paper, but by the time you subtract taxes, software, equipment, insurance, and unpaid administrative hours, your actual profit is microscopic. You aren’t underpaid; you are undermargined.

• Your volume is inconsistent: Your rates are right and your margins are healthy, but your calendar has massive gaps. Your sales pipeline is dry, new clients aren’t arriving fast enough, and old clients aren’t returning.

• Your retention is low: This is the most underrated leak. A client who books you once and disappears is incredibly expensive to replace. If your business relies entirely on hunting new clients every single month, the slow season will always feel like starting over.

The Seasonal Diagnostic Checklist

Before you change a single thing in your business, sit down with these five diagnostic questions and look at your actual data, not your feelings.

1. How did I spend the last three months of strong income?
Pull up the statements. If you can’t account for where the cash went, you’ve already found your first major answer.

2. What would six consecutive slow months look like right now?
If the answer is absolute financial crisis, you don’t have a slow month problem, you have a reserve problem. The goal is to build a cash cushion so large that a slow month is just inconvenient, never catastrophic.

3. When did I last raise my rates?
If you can’t remember, it’s been too long. Your pricing must reflect your current experience, market demand, and the rising cost of operations, not where you stood when you started.

4. Am I executing an active business vision?
Your goals cannot rely on opportunity casually knocking on your door. Having clients call you out of the blue is a luxury, not a strategy. You need a timeline and concrete action steps to make moves whether the phone is ringing or not.

5. Why are my clients leaving?
How many of your best clients came back this year without you having to chase them down? If that number is close to zero, retention requires your immediate attention.

6. Is the industry slow, or is my pipeline just thin?
There is a massive difference between a macroeconomic market slowdown and a business that simply never built consistent marketing momentum. Don’t use the “economy” as an excuse; even in the slowest seasons, someone is always staying busy.

What to Do with the Diagnosis

The strategy is simple: identify the primary bottleneck, build a concrete solution, and actively resolve it.

Document the systems you fixed. When the busy season picks back up or the next slow period rolls around, compare your data, look at what worked, and refine the process.

Rinse and repeat.

Ready to Build a Recession-Proof Business?

If you are tired of riding the revenue roller coaster alone, let’s talk about it. I’m hosting an exclusive After Hours Round Table for a small group of ambitious small business owners to swap frameworks, dissect market challenges, and build predictable growth.

Spaces are strictly limited to keep the conversation impactful. Leave a comment below or email me directly at Team@the5thmedia.com with the subject line “After Hours Round Table” to claim your spot.

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After Hours is the newsletter for creative entrepreneurs building real financial stability alongside their creative careers. If this resonated, subscribe below and share it with a freelancer who needs to read it.

Most people hear “safety net” and immediately think, “Six months of expenses,” or, “keep some cash in the bank.”

That’s part of it. If you don’t have an emergency fund, that’s probably the first thing you should build. I take that as a given. If you’ve been freelancing for years and don’t have any cash reserves, you’re playing a dangerous game.

But, that’s not really what I’m talking about.

When I say “safety net,” I mean knowing that one bad year in your business doesn’t destroy the next twenty years of your life. That’s a completely different kind of security.

A Big Mistake…

I think one of the biggest mistakes creative entrepreneurs make is assuming every extra dollar should go back into the business.

At some point, I realized I didn’t just need to get better at making money, I needed to get better at deciding where that money went. That meant spending time learning things that had nothing to do with filmmaking.

• Subjects like…

  • Investing, taxes, retirement accounts, business operations, acquiring businesses, marketing strategies, and many other topics.

Most creatives don’t want to educate themselves because it feels like time away from the craft. I get it, I’d rather be on set than reading financial newsletters, but the 6 months I spent learning completely changed how I think. After a 1-2 years, I saw a huge difference in how I balanced business and personal finances.

Now, after a solid month making more than projected, my first question is “where should this dollar go?” Then I ask…

• “Should it strengthen the business? Should it strengthen my balance sheet? Should it go toward retirement? Should it be invested in my individual brokerage? Should it sit in cash? etc.”

Lets go further,

• Once my income from video production became more consistent, I started adding things on auto pilot which freed up more time. These decisions matter more than the size of the paycheck itself.

The Irony

The irony is that the better your safety net gets, the less desperate you become.

You…

• stop taking bad clients because you need the money.

• stop panicking when work slows down.

• feel less uneasy

• have moments where you see your money increasing without you being onset.

I have gained the freedom to know that if this year is slower than the last one, my family is still okay. My retirement is still growing. My kids’ future is still being funded. As long as I have enough to put food on the table and have shelter, my business still has time to figure things out!

That’s a complete safety net.

I’m curious how you think about this. What does a financial safety net look like to you? Leave a comment, I read every one!

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After Hours is becoming a community for creative entrepreneurs who want to build wealth, better businesses, and better lives. The newsletter is where it starts.

I’ve seen a version of a multi family arrangement done well…

• A group of immediate family members pooling together on a piece of land maybe 10-15 acres total, with each family holding their own section, but sharing the larger footprint.

• A garden big enough to matter, fruit trees that take a decade to mature, planted anyway because someone’s grandchildren will eat from them and a bunch of chickens running around in a contained environment.

Even in a newsletter I’ve created built on being honest about decision-making, it is a little uncomfortable to write about publicly. You know the saying “don’t tell people your goals”; I’m sure whether or not I work towards this in the background while building my creative career someone will have something negative to say. Maybe not, who knows.

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Here’s where I actually am with it.

The idea I keep coming back to isn’t buying raw land solo, it’s the shared-family model because the capital and the labor both get lighter when they’re split across more than one household. That means the real first decision isn’t “how many acres,” it’s “who’s actually in.” Land is easy to buy, but a functioning multi-family arrangement that doesn’t fall apart over money or decision-making five years in is the hard part.

The structural question I’m sitting with:

How do you own something like this so it survives disagreements, deaths, and decades, without one person’s decisions being able to unravel it for everyone else? The honest answer is that the “we’ll figure it out as family” isn’t a legal structure. We need a real operating agreement, drafted by someone who does this professionally.

What’s actually stopping me right now? First, is the elephant in the room, money. Then it’s sequencing. I don’t want to buy land and then figure out the family structure after the fact; I’ve seen that go badly for other people. The real next step is a conversation with the people I’d want to build this with. I need to know whether they’re really in, before a single dollar moves or an idea is planned.

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I will have updates when these conversations are had and completed for paid members only. Continue to follow along my creative entrepreneur journey full of business decisions, creative reels and investment updates from someone who is actually in the field, not speaking from the sidelines. I will have other like-minded members soon who will also be able to pass on great lessons through out podcast and chatroom on Substack.

If land or another investment has been sitting in the back of your mind, I’d genuinely like to know what’s stopped you from moving on it?

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This is the second time I’ve applied to the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) Vision Mentorship Program. The first time, I didn’t get in.

I’ve been a working DP for almost a decade, Emmy-nominated twice, campaigns for brands you’d recognize, and have many feature films streaming right now.
By most measures, I don’t “need” a mentor, but I applied anyway even after being told no.

During a recent Bible study, Proverbs reminded me how quickly pride and a lack of humility can lead to your own downfall. Proverbs 19:20 puts it plainly: "Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future." It's a reminder that good leaders and successful people never stop learning, no matter how far along the road they already are.

Here’s the thing about ownership that people miss.

When you’re self-employed, your independent career is the business. You are the owner of yourself, and that ownership compounds or it depreciates, just like a stock. The people who stop investing in relationships and rooms once they’ve “made it” are the ones who plateau without noticing it happened.

There’s a version of ownership that has nothing to do with equity. Owning your craft, owning your education, owning the fact that if you’re not further along in five years, that’s on you, not the industry, not the algorithm, not by bad luck.

That’s what applying for this mentorship actually was. Nobody made me do it and there’s no client requiring it and no boss reviewing my performance if I skip it. I did it because I’ve decided my growth is my responsibility.

Evaluation

Am I deciding my value based on an acceptance? Absolutely not. My mindset is, “if it’s meant for me, it’s meant for me.

What actually changed between the first two rejections and this application wasn’t more credits or a stronger reel on paper. It was outside eyes. Someone who’d already been through the process read what I had drafted to submit and the most useful thing he gave me wasn’t a line edit. It was pointing out that I was still trying to prove I could handle the work, but what the organization is actually evaluating was something I couldn’t see from inside my own draft. It wasn't about trying harder or trying again, it was about reassessing my mindset and point of view"

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To be specific…

I had to submit a personal statement for this application and the first two versions of my personal statement leaned hard on the resume, film credits, and the technical range I’ve shown from project to project. This time, I was more personable and relatable, focusing on my why and other life experiences that drives my mind to wake up everyday and push forward despite many life events that would cause most people to quit.

My last application leaned heavily on commercial work. This time I presented my best narrative work and only included commercial examples that were considered my very best. Why? Well, I thought about who I am submitting this application to. Who will they find to fit as a mentor to me. I asked myself “what would they prefer”, “what would they want to see, read, or hear about me that would allow my application and personality to stand out. Everyone works hard, so in a high volume application this is not a differentiator. They need to read the application and believe I am someone who should be invited into their space.

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Why share?

This isn’t my first time applying to an association, but the feeling reminded me of bidding on a project, writing a grant essay, or pitching an idea. Somewhere between recording this as a voice note and typing it out, I knew other readers could benefit from this experience.

One lesson to takeaway: “growth stops being optional the moment you decide it's your job, not the industry's.”

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See you on the next post. View past readings here.

My background is in film, but these concepts carry across every creative industry. Cosmetologists, architects, tattoo artists, and many others.

The craft changes, but the pattern stays the same.
We buy our way into a business before we’ve built one. We call it investing in ourselves, in our craft or in our brand, but most of the time it’s something else entirely.

Note: Some tools are very much needed. The mistake isn't buying equipment, it's buying before the business demands it.

What gear trapped actually is

It’s the belief that the next purchase is the thing standing between you and the version of your business you’re trying to build.

For example, you may say to yourself…

1. You can’t raise your rates until you own the better camera.

2. You can’t launch until the app is perfect.

3. You can’t take on bigger clients until your studio looks like the ones you see on Instagram.

The purchase feels like momentum. It feels like progress. It has the same emotional satisfaction as doing actual work without requiring you to do any of the hard parts.

That’s what makes it so dangerous because here’s the truth nobody tells you when you’re starting out:

1. The business you build in the beginning is not the business you’ll run five years from now.

2. Your first job isn’t building the perfect business. Your first job is figuring out what actually works.

Why the problem follows you into success

Most people assume it’s a beginner problem and when you get experience or make more money you grow out of it. You don’t.

I’ve watched creatives earning great money $200k+ a year, fall into the exact same trap. The purchases just get more expensive. The $500 lens becomes a $5,000 lens. The home office becomes a studio lease. The freelance setup becomes a full production infrastructure built for a business that doesn’t exist yet.

I am relating this to my industry, but you get my point.

Instead of saving or investing the money they worked incredibly hard to earn, they’re immediately scanning for the next thing to spend it on.

The income scales while the habit stays the same. Every dollar you spend has an alternative use. Economists call this opportunity cost. Most creative entrepreneurs never apply it to their purchasing decisions.

Ownership isn’t just owning gear. What I do differently now.

I still buy gear, but the difference is the filter I run every purchase through. I ask myself “does this solve a real business problem?”

Most creatives think ownership means owning more stuff or having a paper that says LLC. Real ownership is a mental shift to thinking about financial growth goals, having cash reserves, increasing workflow speed, building a healthy network, systems that scale and having assets that appreciate.

Gear is an asset, but it depreciates the moment you buy it. The assets above compound. They work for you on the days you don’t work.

The goal isn’t to own every piece of equipment in your industry. The goal is to build a life where ALL assets work together.

Remember, before your next purchase — ask yourself one question

Is this the highest return use of this dollar right now? Make the decision intentionally, because every dollar you spend today is a dollar that can’t be spent somewhere else tomorrow.

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We have two unique examples if you continue reading! Otherwise please share with another creative entrepreneur if you thought this reading was helpful!

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Example 1: Let me make it concrete.

Say you’re considering a $10,000 camera upgrade. Your current camera already satisfies the majority of your clients.

Here’s what that same $10,000 could become instead:

• Six months of financial runway, the ability to say no to clients you don’t want (download our runway calculator)

• A marketing investment: reaching the clients you actually do want. (Spec Ad or partnerships to develop an original concept or campaign without having to ask for money)

• A part-time editor or assistant (buying back your time so you can grow your business)

• An emergency fund: protection against the inevitable slow season

• A simple index fund investment: money that compounds while you sleep

The question most creatives ask is: can I afford it?

The question that actually builds your business while building your finances is: is this the highest-return use of this dollar right now?

Example 2: The car wash lesson

I want you to think about car washes for a moment. Ten years ago a car wash was four bays, a coin slot, and a pressure hose.

That was the product. You showed up, you paid, you washed your car.
Now look at what they’ve become.

Monthly subscriptions, loyalty programs, tire shine, dashboard spray, air fresheners, and towels. It’s a full experience built around something as simple as cleaning a vehicle.

Did the owner of that car wash know on day one that subscriptions would be their model? No. They figured it out by running the business, watching what customers responded to, and building toward what was actually working.

The service stayed the same. The business model evolved completely.

Here’s the lesson:

Too many creative entrepreneurs buy for the business they hope to have instead of the business they actually have.

Imagine you own that car wash early on. Your first instinct is to buy a second pressure washer. Then a third. Soon you’ve spent tens of thousands improving a business that only has enough customers to keep one machine busy.

The problem was never the equipment. The problem was demand. What if instead you’d spent that money on marketing, on systems, on freeing up your own time to grow the customer base?

The business grows. Eventually the second pressure washer becomes necessary — not because you wanted it, but because the business demanded it. Buy because the business demands it. Not because you want it.

Every client is different and every production has its own rules, different rates, project numbers, people to CC, and different payment windows. If you wait until the job is done to figure all of that out you’re already behind.

Here’s the habit that fixed it for me.

Two documents. Every job. No exceptions.

The first thing I do when a job is confirmed isn’t prep my kit or lock the schedule. I open Wave Accounting and create an estimate.

Not an invoice, an estimate.

The estimate goes out before the job starts. It has my service rate, projected shoot days, kit fee, and any additional costs we agreed on. The client approves it and we’re aligned on money before a single frame rolls. This limits any surprises and any awkward conversations about what we agreed to three weeks ago.

When the job wraps I convert the estimate to an invoice with one click via Wave and then I adjust anything that changed (an extra day, an added fee), and send it.

Why the estimate matters more than the invoice

Most freelancers skip the estimate. They do the job, build the invoice from scratch, and hope the client remembers what they agreed to. If you send a contract per client then this step may be included in your contract. Since I work as a hybrid (DP and as a production company) for work as a production company I provide a link to the contract inside of my estimate.

I created this two step idea because I would get lazy and wait 3-5 days to create the invoice after a project is done. If you create the estimate beforehand it takes 2 clicks (convert to invoice > Send as email) to send the invoice off.

Lastly, the estimate creates alignment upfront. It protects you legally and it makes the invoice a formality instead of a negotiation. IF they are doing partial payments then set the settings to allow partial payments.

If a client pushes back on your invoice, you point to the approved estimate. Conversation over.

For people who are new and need help! This is how you properly fill out an invoice/estimate

Here’s the clean split:

5thmedia Invoice Sample 1

5.19KB ∙ PDF file

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Download

Keep in mind there is more than one correct way to do this, but this is what works for me.

Two minutes at booking saves you twenty minutes of frustration at billing.

If this was useful, subscribe. There’s more where this came from.

I Don’t Talk About This Publicly Often. But This Is Exactly What Nobody Prepares You For.

A client payment is now 60 days late.

Here’s every step we took — because if you’re in this situation right now or you ever will be, this is the playbook.

Step 1. Business manager, not you
After a few follow-ups, I handed it off. My business manager sent the first formal notice with the subject line: [ACTION REQUIRED — 1st Attempt Payment Status]. That’s part of why you build a team. The relationship between you and the client doesn’t get awkward over money because you never made it personal.

Step 2. The CEO call
When that went nowhere I made a direct call myself to get more information. What I found out: the person I’d been dealing with the entire time wasn’t the decision maker. She was the middle man. This is critical information we didn’t have before.

Step 3 — Formal escalation
My business manager sent a follow-up email: [ACTION REQUIRED — 4th Attempt Payment Status] with a clear message, if no response this week, we want to speak to someone who approves the payroll.

Step 4 — Intel gathering
We researched the owner and their representative directly. We called past clients who had worked with them. We connected with someone who had a personal relationship with our client and gave them a heads up about what was coming. This step is underrated because it creates soft social pressure before you ever file anything legal.

Step 5 — Small claims prep
Internally we started the paperwork for small claims. Before we filed, we received confirmation that the payment is arriving July 15th.

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What actually made this survivable

None of this would have felt manageable if my expenses weren’t already covered. Below are some financial goals I set to ensure I can survive these moments

What actually made this survivable

None of this would have felt manageable if my expenses weren’t already covered.

I keep at least 2–3 months of operating expenses in a separate account at all times. When I say operating expenses, I mean both business and family operating expenses.

In this example, your minimum emergency fund target would be about $16,000.

The exact number will be different for everyone, but the concept is the same:

1. Add up your monthly operating expenses.

2. Multiply by 3.

3. Keep that amount separate from investing, growth plans, and opportunity capital. A simple money market account is fine.

That account isn’t there to make money.

It’s there so one late client payment, one slow month, or one unexpected expense doesn’t force you to make emotional decisions.

Your emergency fund buys time and time is one of the most valuable assets a business owner can own.

If you’ve been here — or you’re here right now — I want to hear about it.

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Many billionaires, millionaires, financial celebrities and people with a net worth that ends in 7 or more zeros, they all often say the same thing when someone points a camera at them.

“Just buy index funds.”

Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people in the world says it, Former NBA owner Mark Cuban says it, and many guests on most financial podcasts eventually gets there.

I used to take that at face value until I started paying attention to what they actually did, not what they said.

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The Billionaire Lie

“Buy index funds” is the most repeated piece of investment advice in the world.

Here’s what none of them lead with.

Jeremy Schneider is the guy behind Personal Finance Club, the account with 400,000+ followers preaching index funds, yet he didn’t get rich from index funds.

• He built a company called RentLinx in his twenties, paid himself a modest $36,000 salary while he grew it, and sold it for $5 million at 34.

• The index fund investing was happening quietly in the background the entire time. The real wealth event was owning and selling a business he built.

Matt Kaplan, founder of ACE Entertainment which is the production company behind Netflix hits like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, didn’t build his wealth investing in index funds. He built it producing films and owning equity in the company that made them.

Even the founder in Moneywise’s anonymous interview series who sold his business for $80 million put it plainly

I’d always had a little bit of money in index funds, but I never would put a big chunk in there, because the risk part is my business.

They built wealth through ownership, a company, equity, real assets they controlled and understood. Once the money existed, they moved a portion into index funds to protect it while still receiving dividend/interest payouts. This strategy is considered preservation.

The Two-Phase Playbook Nobody Talks About

There’s a framework investors actually use, even if they don’t describe it this way publicly. Researchers call it the core-satellite strategy.

The “core” is passive: low-cost index funds that track the market and will more than likely hold value steadily over time. The “satellites” are high-conviction positions in individual stocks, real estate, or sector-specific plays designed to outperform the market.

The data backs this up plainly. Concentrated, conviction-based investments create fortunes. Index funds preserve them. So when you are working your way up as a small business owner it’s smart to split your savings with these two styles of investments.

What the S&P 500 Actually Does

Index funds are genuinely good. I’m not here to trash them. The S&P 500 has delivered an average annual return of roughly 10% since inception. Over the last 10 years, that number climbs to about 15.6%. That’s real, compounding wealth.

But here’s what the averages hide.

Year S&P Index Return

The “average” of around 15% almost never actually happens in a given year. You’re either up big or dealing with a real drawdown.

When you buy an index fund today, you’re not buying the diversified product your parents invested in. You’re buying a product heavily weighted toward mega-cap tech.

If you’re going to have concentration risk anyway, the question becomes whose concentrated bets do you want to ride?

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Gene After Hours is a newsletter about the financial and business side of building a life that compounds as a creative, the part nobody teaches you in school.

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What I’ve been doing to weather any economic environment

My core is the steady, boring engine. It’s money that goes in every month with the intention to never be touched until retirement. It’s split across a few different fund types inside a SEP IRA and Self Employed 401k. None of this requires me to think hard or check it daily. That’s the point.

My satellite portfolio is an account where you keep high conviction stock investments. I keep it in a separate account on purpose, so I can clearly see how it’s performing against my core without the numbers blending together. Right now I hold 13 individual companies I have high conviction in.

Here’s what high conviction actually looks like with real numbers.

In 2022, I bought Palantir at $13-14 a share. A $5,000 investment has grown to roughly $60,000.

That money is unrealized until I actually sell, but it’s real on paper. That’s the kind of return that never happens just matching the index, it happens from understanding a company well enough to buy it early or at a time it was undervalued and hold through the noise instead of panic-selling.

How often does this occur?

Not every position works out that way and that’s okay! It’s investing!

Let’s compare it to when you buy camera gear or buy a computer. When you buy it it could take 1 month or 1 year for you to make enough money to get your return on investment.

It’s the same concept. A $5,000 investment that is down 50% doesn’t mean it’s a loss. It simply means your investment hasn’t matured yet. Did the business fail? Did they switch services? Are they selling their business? If the core reason for you buying into the company didn’t change why worry?

Capital Tax Rate

Two things worth knowing if you ever sell a winning position.

1. If you hold it for over a year before selling, your tax rate drops significantly. Sell before a year and it’s taxed as regular income, often 30% or more. Hold past the one-year mark and it becomes a long-term capital gain, which can drop to 15% or even lower depending on your tax bracket.

2. Don’t sell it unless you have to. I’ve sold a partial winning position to allocate to a new high conviction investment. I still have a large portion of my original investment profits while not missing out on another opportunity.

Talent creates income. Ownership creates freedom.

Gene

The internet is full of advice on how to get the client, land the promotion, grow the side hustle, or finally make enough money to breathe, but very few people talk about what happens next.

• How much should you keep in cash?

• Should you invest or reinvest into the business?

• Should you buy the gear or rent it?

• When is it time to hire?

• How will the company make money without you?

• Should you buy real estate?

• How do you build something that doesn’t reset every month?

What do you do once the money starts coming in?

I’m Gene, a freelance cinematographer, media production company owner, investor, husband, and father. Over the last decade, I’ve learned how to get paid for the work. More recently, I’ve become obsessed with a different question:

What do you do once the money starts coming in?

Being a high income earner building a full life for your family and generations to come aren’t the same thing.

I’ve invested outside of my income. I’ve built systems inside my business. I’ve navigated taxes, pricing, hiring, investing, real estate, and the constant tension between enjoying life today and planning for tomorrow.

I’ve had good judgment.
I’ve made expensive decisions.
I’m still learning.
No one was perfect but Jesus.

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Why After Hours 🌒?

You don’t need a guru. You need someone in your corner willing to show you the numbers, trade-offs, and decisions in real time while building beyond the paycheck.

For less than the cost of an hour with a consultant, you'll gain access to the lessons, frameworks, and real-world decisions I wish someone had handed me before learning them the expensive way.

This is what comes after the paycheck clears.
The part where income becomes ownership.
The part where small decisions start to compound.

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Welcome to After Hours.

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I’ve written before about keeping my family close when I travel for work, bringing them along when I can, building the business in a way that doesn’t cost me the things that matter most.

When you’re moving that much for jobs and for family, the systems that held everything together start showing their limits. My organization is not a mess, but is slightly disorganized feeling like my old way of managing life is overdue for an upgrade.

Lastly, I do want to mention how grateful to God I am to make these memories with my wife and my dad. These are moments that you never forget.

Does A Physical Calendar Work?

My wife put it plainly… she told me I need to physically see things. That I’m the kind of person who needs both a physical calendar and a digital one running together. She’s probably right. I’ve resisted it because I don’t love clutter, and digital feels cleaner. But clean doesn’t always mean effective. If the system keeps me too hands-off, things slip.

After Hours isn’t just something I write for you, but it’s something I’m building alongside you. That means sometimes I’m the one asking the question. If you’ve figured out how to keep it together when life is full, I want to hear it. The best answer might end up in the next blog post.

Drop your system in the comments; app, physical journals, lessons, organization hacks, whatever. I am not too good to listen.

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Gene After Hours,
Talent creates income. Ownership creates freedom.

Everyone told you to niche down. Pick one thing, be known for that one thing and build your whole identity around it.

So you did. Somehow the money still feels inconsistent and the right opportunities still aren’t coming. You’re doing everything right and it still feels like something is missing.

Here’s what nobody told you.

Niching down is a positioning strategy, not a business strategy. If you only built one without the other, you’ve built half a career.

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The Advice Is Incomplete

Specializing works, yes..

• The market rewards clarity

• Clients hire specialists

But the people who niche down and actually stay there didn’t just get good at their craft. They gained knowledge and became good at everything around it.

• Negotiation

• Attracting an audience

• Finding clients directly

• Building relationships

• Reading what someone actually needs versus what they’re saying they need.

That’s not craft, that’s business and most freelancers treat it like an afterthought.

What This Actually Looks Like

My Instagram says cinematographer. That’s the positioning, the flag I’ve planted so the right people can find me.

But I also run a production company. Here is an example;

When I’m sitting across from a business owner, I’m not just selling a Cinematography services. I’m solving their problem. Sometimes that’s a DP. Sometimes it’s full production. Sometimes it’s ideas on a future product launch or sharing ideas to attract a certain audience. I move based on what they need.

That’s the business strategy and it’s what’s kept me working for almost ten years. Positioning gets you in the room, business strategy keeps you in the game.

The Two Types Who Make It

Type one niches down so precisely, and executes so well, that one lane is enough. The volume and rates inside that niche sustain everything. This is real, but it’s rare.

Type two niches their identity but diversifies their income. Known for one thing, but behind the scenes things like consulting, marketing, weddings, designer or other adjacent work that offers optional streams of income feeding the main thing. The niche is the flag. The hybrid thinking is what keeps the ship moving.

Many people who are actually making it are type two. They just don’t talk about it that way.

What You Need To Build

• How to negotiate, not just quote

• How to build relationships that last past one project

• How to identify what a client actually needs and solve for that

• How to create workflows that make your business run smoother

Hybrid thinking, forming great friendships and relationships within and outside of your circle has helped me sustain during the best and worse economic years.

So do you think niching down is the best play? What value can you add to the subject that may help someone else? Leave a comment or enter chatroom

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01. Prepping three films simultaneously is a different animal

Coming from a commercial background where you might have two days to shoot a 45-second spot, narrative film demands a different kind of mental preparation. Normally I’d read a script, revisit it, and refine my notes over time. But when films are back-to-back-to-back, you’re essentially prepping for all three at the same time.

Adding to that, working with the different directors and writers, you have to be intentional about approaching each film with a completely clean stylistic slate. The goals and visual language of one film can’t bleed into the next.

02. Asking “what’s unexpected?” changed how I shoot

The biggest shift in my process this year was a single question I started asking before each shooting day:

“what do people expect to see here” and “how can I give them something they’re not expecting?”

Then I would follow-up with;

“does that unexpected choice enhance what the audience needs to receive from this scene, or does it take away from it?”

That question pushed me out of the standard DP thinking and into something more intentional. It wasn’t just about shot selection anymore.

It bled into white balance decisions, color temperature choices, leaning hard into cool and green for a nightmare-interior-blue hour-awakening scene rather than finding a neutral temp and adding the style it in post.

The director noticed. There were moments on set where the look we were developing genuinely excited the room. Here are some moments from a few scenes.

You can view our Instagram post for more examples HERE.

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When to add eye light?

03. The right tools for the moment, not just the right tools in general

We had a scene that called for a jib high-to-low move pushing into a close-up on someone’s eyes with no focus puller available that day. A motorized head wasn’t on our jib. Manual focus during that move wasn’t realistic. So we swapped to an autofocus lens.

The key thing I communicated to our gaffer and AD was “you want an autofocus lens that doesn’t call attention to itself.” Same color rendering, similar contrast, nothing that makes it feel like a foreign shot cut into a sequence of primes. Sigma, G Master, certain Zeiss options all work well here. The lesson extends beyond lenses too: if you’re shooting on a Venice or C400, having a small mirrorless body in your kit that gives a close enough representation of your A cam is genuinely useful for mounting cameras, dashboard shots, tight spaces, and unexpected situations.

A lot learned and much more to share. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s to come.

Past Readings:

1. Why Talented Filmmakers Are struggling - And What the Ones Winning Are Doing Differently

2. The Illusion of Stability + Did I choose Correctly?

3. Nobody taught you what to do with the money after the invoice clears. (Paid)

Upcoming:

1. How I shot a feature and still took other bookings?

2. Podcast Ep. 1: A conversation with a video freelance who owns multiple commercial real estate!

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For years, freelancers were sold a simple dream.

The new game is not about only being talented.
The new game is about building leverage around your talent.

What is "leverage around your talent?”

Being good with a camera is no longer enough to create a substantial amount of money in a freelance career by itself. Now, “substantial” can be different from person to person but for this reading lets call it 350k-1/M a year after taxes.

Freelancers and small business owners were taught “Get better at your craft and the opportunities will come,” but now, even talented people are struggling because the industry itself changed.

Most video/photo freelancers surviving this shift aren’t relying on just one skillset anymore.

They’re:

• building direct relationships with clients instead of waiting for agencies

• creating audiences online instead of waiting to get discovered

• learning business and money management instead of only learning cameras

• using commercial work to fund narrative projects or give them leverage when bidding/pitching.

• building brands, communities, or products around their creativity

I used to think the ‘Youtube creator look’ would devalue a person.

Then a few years later, seeing many bring in their own clients, brand deals, while Freelancing, streaming, etc. I realized they saw a change in the film industry very early.

Need Proof??

It’s going on even with the top tier Directors and Cinematographers in our industry.

1. Shane Hurlbut with Filmmakers Academy

2. Masterclass partnering with elite directors, writers, actors, and cinematographers to monetize knowledge directly to audiences

3. Roger Deakins launching the Team Deakins podcast and community

4. Peter McKinnon building an entire business ecosystem around filmmaking and photography

5. Natash Braier ASC member created Deep Light mentorship programs

This is ownership. This is leverage.

Old vs New

The old freelance model depended heavily on constant client work, referrals, and being chosen by the right people.

The problem is that when the market slows down, budgets shrink, or industries change, many talented freelancers suddenly feel stuck living project to project again.

That’s why the new generation of creatives is starting to think differently.

Instead of relying only on talent, they’re building leverage around their skills through direct client relationships, recurring revenue, personal brands, audiences, investments, newsletters, products, and multiple income streams.

The goal is no longer just to stay booked.
The goal is to build a career that can survive even when the industry changes.

This doesn’t mean filmmaking is dead, it means the career path became less linear. The people adapting the fastest are the ones treating filmmaking not just like art, but like a long-term business and survival strategy too.

If you enjoyed this reading, help us grow by subscribing and leaving your thoughts in the comment section!

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My Personal Thoughts…

The discouraging part is that a lot of filmmakers were trained for an industry that doesn’t exist the same way anymore, including myself.

The new industry is rewarding people who build proof, audience, relationships, and business infrastructure before anyone picks them.

That doesn’t mean talent doesn’t matter. It means talent alone is becoming harder to survive on.

The Business Literacy Layer

Underneath all of this…

A lot of freelancers are not actually struggling from lack of talent.
They’re struggling because the industry they were depending on became unstable before they built an infrastructure outside of it.

This is why I’m always on Instagram talking about being more than your day rate.

It’s not so you wont be the best at your position, because trust, I am putting in my hours; but since the industry has shifted and I want substantial money… not ‘decent money’, naturally we are forced to learn things many never thought they’d need to understand:

• investing

• taxes

• audience ownership

• brand positioning

• licensing

• business systems

• marketing

• contracts and negotiation

• client retention

• networking beyond Hollywood

• personal branding

• sales and pitching

• distribution

• content strategy

• sponsorships and partnerships

• retirement planning

• how algorithms and platforms affect visibility

• social media strategy

• email lists and owned audiences

• how to turn one project into long-term opportunities

• how to operate like a business, not just an artist

Creatives didn’t become greedy, it’s that survival has changed.

The old industry rewarded access.

The new industry rewards leverage.

Other Readings.

If you enjoyed this reading, help us grow by subscribing and leaving your thoughts in the comment section!

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Stats / News

• LA on-location production fell 22.4% in Q1 2025, with TV down 30.5% and feature films down 28.9% year over year.

• FilmLA reported LA finished 2025 with 19,694 shoot days, down 16.1% from 2024.

• Hollywood employment has reportedly dropped around 30% since late 2022, with roughly 41,000–42,000 industry jobs lost depending on the report.

• Michigan’s film incentive program was eliminated in 2015, which is a major reason Detroit has talent but not the same production pipeline as states with stronger incentives.

• Michigan lawmakers and industry advocates have been pushing to bring back credits, with proposed plans offering up to 30% tax credits for qualified in-state production.

• Sundance still matters, but the market is weaker. Sundance 2025 was described as slow, with fewer bidding wars and more measured acquisitions.

• Even Sundance 2024’s box office was concentrated: roughly half of its reported $57M box office came from only three films — Thelma, A Real Pain, and Love Lies Bleeding.

Sources

Reuters — LA production fell 22.4% in Q1 2025
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/on-location-filming-los-angeles-falls-22-first-quarter-2025-04-14/

FilmLA — 2025 production decline / shoot day stats
https://filmla.com/rising-california-film-tv-tax-credit-productions-signal-growing-industry-momentum-amid-2025-production-losses/

New York Post — Hollywood job losses / industry contraction
https://nypost.com/2026/04/02/us-news/fears-grow-of-detroit-style-decline-as-hollywood-jobs-evaporate/

Michigan Business — Michigan film incentive background
https://www.michiganbusiness.org/industries/mfdmo/film/

Bridge Michigan — proposed return of Michigan film tax credits
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/lights-camerafilm-credits-lawmakers-consider-michigan-movie-incentives

Mark Litwak — Sundance market slowdown / indie film landscape
https://www.marklitwak.com/blog/the-new-reality-for-independent-filmmakers-navigating-a-transformed-industry-landscape-in-2025

IndieWire — Sundance 2024 box office concentration
https://www.indiewire.com/news/box-office/sundance-2024-box-office-report-57-million-to-date-1235086953/

You land a big job. The deposit hits. Then the final payment. For a few days, the account looks healthy and everything feels fine.

Then the next month comes… and the month after that. You soon realize the money you thought you had was already spoken for; taxes you forgot to set aside, gear payments, slow weeks you didn’t see coming.

This is the cycle most freelancers live in. Not broke, not thriving, just always a little uncertain.

Earning well and building wealth are two completely different skills. Most creatives only learn the first one.

Here’s how I think about money now, broken into the order it actually matters.

1. Separate your money the day it lands.

2. Build the buffer before you build anything else.

Check out our Freelance Stability Calculator.
If your income stopped today… how long would you actually be okay?

This tool helps you learn…

3. Pay yourself a salary — even from your own business.

4. Open a SEP-IRA or Solo 401k. Now.

5. Invest in assets, not just upgrades.

THE SIMPLE CASH FLOW

Invoice clears → move 25-30% to taxes → pay yourself your → put the rest toward the buffer/emergency fund until it’s full → after that, invest in retirement, then you decide what comes next. Once you go from Single member LLC to sole proprietor things could shift but the general concept remains the same.

The creative industry will keep you focused on the next job. Nobody is going to tap you on the shoulder and remind you to think about where you’ll be in 10-20 years.

That part is on you.

The sooner you start managing money well, investing, and building ownership, the less pressure you’ll have to constantly chase massive income later.

Example:

• Someone making $90k/year but investing consistently for 15 years may end up wealthier and less stressed than someone making $250k/year who spends everything.

• A DP who starts building retirement accounts, assets, and business systems at 30 may not need to grind nonstop at 50.

Other Details worth noting. Most financial gurus says “invest” without saying where. Here is where:

• First - Solo 401k or SEP-IRA up to the match or limit (use Fidelity.com for max control) if you want full automation (recommended for most people who are not great with stock picking and trading) go with Wealthfront.com.

Use our link, and get a 0.50% match on investing deposits for 3 months

• Second - HSA if you have a high deductible health plan Fidelity.com

• Third - taxable individual brokerage account in low cost index funds, etf’s or individual companies for advanced investors

• Fourth - real estate or ownership stakes when capital allows

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Your camera gear is not an investment.

At least - not the way most people are buying it.

I hear the same justifications constantly.

“I’ll rent it out.”
“It’ll pay for itself.”
“I just need to have it.”

That sounds logical, but it isn’t because every one of those sentences is built on something you don’t control… other people’s demand for your stuff. Relying on rentals to justify a purchase isn’t investing. It’s hoping and hope doesn’t pay off debt.

The rule I follow:

If I can’t pay the gear off within 12 months, I don’t buy it. No exceptions.

Once that payment bleeds into the next year, you’re not building anymore. You’re carrying weight. Interest stacks, options shrink and the gear that was supposed to free you up starts making decisions for you.

The real ROI on gear isn’t rental income. It’s usage.

1. Can I use this on work I’m already getting?

2. Does it help me move faster or shoot more consistently?

3. Does it let me say yes to jobs I’d otherwise pass on?

That’s the return is not “how much can I rent this for?”, but “how often will I actually use this in my own work?”

I’ve shot on high-end cameras, but there are moments where the budget doesn’t support a full package and you still have to make the shot happen. That’s where something like an FX3, C50, Pocket 6k, or a Komodo earns its keeps. Immediate access has a value most people never calculate.

That $5,000, in most cases won’t come from random rentals, therefore, it needs to come from your actual workflow. If you can’t clearly see where that $420/month comes from before you buy it, you shouldn’t buy it.

(Leave comments here after reading)

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There are two ways creative freelancers think about gear:

1. Spec-based: Is this the best camera I can get?

2. Return-based: Will this consistently make me money within a year?

Most people stay stuck in the first one.
The second one is what actually moves you forward.

I’m done chasing upgrades. From here, I only buy tools that fit into my current workflow, get used regularly, and pay themselves off fast. The goal isn’t to own more gear. It’s to own gear that works for you, not the other way around.

Thank you for reading and I have more readings in the chamber.

If you think entrepreneurship is about riding off into the sunset with you million dollar idea, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Most entrepreneurs are in bondage. Most don’t have time to build their business because they are too busy working in the business.

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Here are a few scenarios…

1. After you spend years in the trenches of figuring out strategies, marketing, improving your craft, developing a client list, hit financial milestones, just to feel like you’ve max out your potential in year 5,6,7 or 8? Then you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

2. When you have family drama, miss multiple birthday parties or family vacations due to a shoot that you believe will uplift your career or due to life changing money, just for a client that you thought would be a long term client ghost you; Then you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

3. Imagine having a deadline for you bread and butter client, and you have a death in the family, or you catch the Flu. The client still needs to present regardless of your “feelings”. Finding a last minute replacement that will represent you well because the client renewing their retainer depends on it can be mentally draining.

I’ve often felt these pressures… I usually deal with them by saying, “you don’t have a choice”. Though, I always have a choice, with a wife and children my options are very limited.

• Bad news doesn’t wait for a slow week.

• Stress doesn’t check your calendar.

• Family concerns, grief, disappointment, unexpected life moments, they all arrive whether you have deadlines or not.

• Somehow, the client still expects the edit tomorrow, the meeting still happens in the morning. The deliverables are still due Friday.

Is this toxic thinking? Maybe. Could I get better at outsourcing some of my work? Maybe. It’s hard to alter a mindset that was used as a tool to fuel your career when you felt like giving up.

Building Beyond Myself x What is true Freedom?

If I’m being honest, this is one of the clearest reminders of why I think so much about building beyond myself.

True freedom isn’t just about making more money. It’s about building a life and business with enough structure, leverage, and support
that when life inevitably demands your attention everything doesn’t stop.

A business that only works when you’re functioning at 100% isn’t freedom. It’s dependency disguised as success.

So if anything, difficult weeks remind me of what I’m building toward. A business that can breathe without me for at least a moment. A life with systems, support and flexibility.

Gene,

A lot of freelancers feel stable until they’re not.

You can have a few good months. Money is coming in. Leads are hitting your phone a few times a week. For a moment, everything feels like it’s working.

Then a week or two passes…

And the same question shows up again:
What’s next?

What’s next?

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That’s the problem with freelance income. It’s not just about what you made this month. It’s about how long you can go if nothing comes in next month.

That’s why I built a simple tracker for myself. Click the link below.

Freelance Stability Calculator

Nothing fancy. Just a tool that shows

• how much cash you have saved

• what your monthly burn looks like

• how many months you can operate without new income

• you suggestions on where to shift your focus

Once you know that number, your decisions change. You stop panicking, you stop forcing bad projects and you start thinking longer-term.

Pivoting Isn’t Failure - It’s Direction

One thing I’ve learned is that where you start isn’t where you finish.

In 2020, I made a decision to step away from shooting music videos and weddings. Not because I wasn’t making money, but I started to think deeper about the environments I was in, the people I was around, and the type of work I wanted to be connected to long-term.

Was every artist bad? Absolutely not. Many were very respectful, reliable, and paid on time. Were weddings a headache? The headache didn’t come from the client. My transition occurred because I wanted something different.

A New Diection

I knew I wanted to be in rooms where ideas were being built to influence or grow communities. I felt in my heart that my expertise would be best acting as the visual puzzle piece for companies that are shaping the future.

My conversations about investing, finding tax write offs, pitching to receive funding for a startup, building a team, etc didn’t fit in my previous network. This pivot was a decision about who I was becoming.

I’ll speak more on pivoting within industries in the next read, as my transition through the media production industry has been a great ride.

Up next?

• I may have some news soon about a new service 5th Media will be offering if things go as planned.

Until next time… For now, check out the Freelance Stability Calculator and give your feedback below!

We are spending time developing unique tools for freelancers so any feedback is helpful!

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Interested in a group zoom call for a conversation regarding pivoting in a volatile economy? Type “Yes” below! (Open to subscribers only)

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The Line Between Confidence and Awareness

There’s a fine line I’ve been thinking about lately.

On one side, you have to be confident in your work. You have to know your value. When you’ve put in the time, built the relationships, and delivered consistently, you shouldn’t shrink yourself when you walk into rooms with clients or partners.

But on the other side, there’s also the ability to read the room.

Not everyone you interact with are in the same situations. Some colleagues you work with are extremely busy. Some are moderately busy. Others may not have much going on at all.

Some clients may not have industry standard budgets, some colleagues could be in different tax brackets, have employees instead of being a solopreneur, or be in a different stage of life in general. How you communicate with different groups matter.

You want to carry confidence without sounding arrogant. You want to represent yourself honestly without making others feel small. This translates to speaking to clients; you can be clear about your value without sounding dismissive.

I recently witnessed a situation…

A guy was talking amongst a few very successful entrepreneurs and throughout the conversation he kept trying to validate his status and experience so the other two individuals would see him as an equal. This is what I thought to myself on the ride home.

1. I should have pulled him aside after the conversation. That’s my mistake because it could have been a start of a positive and genuine work relationship.

2. You don’t need to validate yourself to anyone. If people around you choose to walk around looking down on others then that’s a personal problem for them.

This balance has been on my mind lately because as your career grows, it’s not just about the work you do, it’s about how you show up in conversations in-person and when you are not around.

Missed last week? Read it now.

This Week

1. Shot a few more productions with NASCAR. That relationship continues to be a phenomenal experience.

2. Started pre-production for a feature film I am shooting in April.

3. Continued exploring ways to build beyond just production work.

   1. I have started the process of buying land, but more details will be shared privately on another post.

Interested In A Group Virtual Meetup? (Available for subscribers only)

Lately I’ve been thinking about what building beyond weekly thoughts looks like for this newsletter.

The idea isn’t just to ramble alone, but to gather a group of people who are also thinking critically about their careers, businesses, and decisions. People who are trying to figure out how to do meaningful work and build something sustainable long-term.

I’d love to start experimenting with group conversations, maybe small Zoom sessions where we can compare notes, talk through real challenges, and share perspectives.

If that’s something you’d be interested in, comment “yes” below. I’d love to see where that goes.

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Expanding My Impact

Another area I’ve been expanding into is working directly with schools. Recently I’ve been consulting with a few high schools about their film and media programs.

What I’m trying to show them isn’t just the technical side; the cameras, the software, or the editing. Students already learn that in class or from Youtube University. What they don’t always learn is:

• How do you actually turn these skills into a career?

• How do you sell creative ideas?

• How do you position yourself in the real world?

It’s been interesting helping bridge that gap between classroom learning and real industry experience. After speaking on a 8 person panel in front of 1,700 high school students, we split up into groups and during that time I spoke to a variety of creatives. I will upload and share audio in my next posting.

What I’m Thinking About

Out of everything that happened this month, the thing I’m most proud of actually has nothing to do with film.

It’s the balance.

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I handled work and family in a way that felt healthy. I was present when I needed to be and for the first time in years, I opened my Bible.

What’s Next

– I’ve booked my first international shoot, that is not “Canada”!
– Sharing the process of buying acres of land and future plan of use.
– Expanding conversations with people willing to connect.
– A Freelance Stability Tool will be shared for free by mid April.

We’ll see where it all leads.

Gene,

This week wasn’t heavy, but there’s something about light weeks that expose something deeper.

When you run your own company that feeds your family there’s always a quiet question in the background:

What if it all just stops?

Currently, there’s no signs of slowdown, I’m building very strong relationships with partners, but if you’ve built something yourself, you may have felt similar anxiety.

It’s not panic. It’s awareness. You don’t get a guaranteed check. You create it.

Have you felt this way before?

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The Week

Work was steady with post production work and two corporate jobs (bts below) I worked with Baity Films and GoTakeMedia.

I had a conversation this week that stuck with me. We talked about entrepreneurship and balance. It came down to something simple:

You only have two schedules.

1. Work.

2. Personal.

There is no third lane. If you don’t schedule personal time intentionally, work will take it.

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Trade-Off

I have feature films booked for April, May, June and July.

Here’s the real debate I live in…Narrative vs Commercial. Commercial pays more. Narrative feeds something deeper. Some people only chase the money. Some chase only the art. It’s the balance of being a business, but still treating your work as art that can be influential to society.

What This Is Really About?

Most creatives focus only on filling the calendar which leaves little to know room for building relationship equity, innovation within the business, long-term positioning strategies or diversifying income lanes.

For those wondering a “Long-term positioning strategy” would be

Step 1: pitching to an organization just so you can start the relationship

Step 2: If they respond, convincing them it could be nice to do b-roll of an upcoming event, paid or non paid;

Step 3: After a few weeks tell the client, “if we did a few interviews we could really put a complete story together mixed with the b roll from the last event”, which would lead to

Step 4: them paying for a production day and editing services.

Does this deal take 2 months to land? Sure. But this is chess not checkers. I’m not saying you can’t be hyper focused on 1-2 crew positions as a Freelancer because not everyone is equipped to manage teams and clients. The point I’m making is once I realized most jobs have a fulfillment ceiling that creatives chase, I started looking for outlets that took the roof off of what will be my legacy.

Two things I wrote in my notes to end the week…

1. Life only has a ceiling when you continuously search for satisfaction and approval in the wrong places. Nothing on earth or any amount of business success can fulfill me more than the love that comes from Jesus Christ.

2. Diversity is good. I don’t have to be put in a box creatively. I can work primarily as a DP and do very good things in that role, but I can also be a owner, an investor, an educator, have a large family, live in an RV, grow a garden and not be considered “unfocused” or “distracted”.

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Next week: Three shoots, a few phone calls to make and a panel discussion at a local high school guiding students how to navigate in this video/photo industry. I will give an investment update in the next reading.

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Gene,