The Quiet Anxiety Nobody Talks About

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.

Work.
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…

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.
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,