Finishing Out the Winter Break

The spring semester starts up this week and I'm hoping this blog doesn't go dark again for months at a time. I've already printed out my 15 minute schedule breakdown for next week, but as I'm writing this I'm keeping it under my laptop thinking that'll somehow let me squeeze out the last bit of my winter break.

This past Saturday night St. Anne the Wife and I ditched the kiddos and snuck out to Stillwater, OK, for a screening of the Relentless Ride documentary. The film follows a group of ultra-endurance athletes competing in the 2021 Arkansas High Country Race, a self-supported 1,037-mile bike-packing event in northwest Arkansas.

Back in December 2021 I got to go out to Connecticut with Adam Harbottle from KOMBI Creative to film some interviews and pick-ups with one of the riders in the film, Spencer Ralston. Adam and I got to spend a few days with Spencer and his family and we stayed at their home out in southeast Connecticut. For sure one of the more interesting documentary projects I got to work on that year. Crazy excited for the team behind this film and I wish them the best of luck with the project.

This week I'll be out in Michigan filming a project with an MBA cohort of mine. In addtion to this project, we both start our spring semester this week: Tuesday night I've got a Managerial Accounting class and on Wednesday night she and I both have an Investment class. With it being our first week of the semester, we don't have much due, but I'll for sure be lugging around two big finance textbooks in addition to my production equipment.

This morning I joked with Anne about how I felt like I was with my tribe last night at that documentary screening. I'd assume most of the people there were cyclists, but the film kids fit right in. At the same time, I'm stoked to be getting back to my grad work and nerding out over finance and business related topics. Still no clue as to how all this nonsense will mix together, but I'm here for it.

Besides all this nonsense, I got to read a handful of books over the break that'd been piling up on my nightstand over the fall semester:

I'd started with what I'd thought would be the antidote to a crazy busy semester with Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing. I'd heard about it awhile back, finally got to read it, but can't say I'd read it again.

Easily my favorite book over the break was Jenny Slate's Little Weirds. It's a collection of essays she's written that convinced me we'd be friends. The opening essay is about how she'd love to be thought of as French – a French woman – but more specifically a Parisian Croissant.

"Let me be your morning treat with your coffee. Disregard the fear that I am too rich to be an ordinary meal... Treasury me for my layers and layers of fragility and richness. Name me after a shape the moon makes. Have me in a hotel while you are on vacation. Look at me and say, "Oh, I really shouldn't," just because you want to have me so very much." - Jenny Slate

Then came The Coddling of the American Mind by Lukianoff and Haidt. A classmate of mine recommended it a few months ago and I'd for sure recommend it myself.

At the moment I'm nearly through reading In the Dust of this Planet by Eugene Thacker. Another one that's been buried in my list of books to read after I'd heard about it on an old Radiolab episode. Kinda surprised how long it took to find, but I snagged a copy from the basement of Strand on a trip to NYC in December. For sure not the typical book I'd read, but dang it's been a wild ride so far.

Short-Term Investments for Freelancers & Small Businesses

If there's one thing so far that's kinda rocked my world of financial thinking as an MBA student, it's the idea of short term investments as a freelancer or small business. Investing always seemed like something you do only for retirement, but as we started learning to read and analyze business financial statements, I kept seeing a line for short term investments.

I'll say this upfront and very directly: I'm not an accountant, tax professional, or financial advisor. I learned a long time ago to work with financial professionals whose responsibility is to help me with my business and personal finances. Anything I'm sharing related to money is based on my personal experience and what I'm currently learning in the course of my MBA program. If you've followed me for any length of time you should be sick of me taking about this nonsense, but alas, here we are.

If you're self-employed and anything like me, you normally pile up some cash throughout the year to pay your known and scheduled expenses (taxes, business insurance, life insurance, etc), right?

I've been doing the full-time freelance thing since 2011 and from the beginning I've been putting aside a regular percentage of my profits from each project. When we were living in New York City, I was setting aside 30% for taxes, but we're in Oklahoma now and our taxes are much lower. Currently I'm putting aside 20% for taxes and 10% for retirement. That's worked out for me over the years and is something I'll continue to do until I have a reason to do otherwise.

Another part of my income is my stock footage licensing via Filmsupply. Those payouts fluctuate, but my monthly averages normally cover my overhead costs: salary, car payment, insurance, utilities, etc. I don't have regular expenses directly associated with those licensing fees, so I'll set aside 20% for taxes and 10% for retirement off the top, then allocate the remainder to cover my monthly overhead and stash the rest if and when there's more.

My taxes are typically paid at the end of the year and I've got a couple other major business expenses I save for and pay once a year. In the meantime, that cash being set aside to cover those expenses is just parked in a basic savings account. It's not my emergency fund, but if necessary I can use that small pile as a cash buffer when work is slow or clients are taking their dear sweet time to pay invoices. When work does pick up and I've got extra cash, I make sure to refill that fund. Remember, that cash is specifically set aside to cover those short-term (less than one year) major expenses as mentioned, but surely it could be more productive before its intended purpose months down the road (i.e., short-term investments).

Basic Savings Account

Until recently, I thought I was being smart by parking that dedicated money in a savings account. Here I am, letting the bank use my cash in exchange for the interest rate they're paying me. Well, if you're paying attention, you'll realize the bank isn't really out to make you money. They're a business too and more interested in making their own money and using your cash to do so.

According to the FDIC, as of Dec. 19, 2022, the typical savings account in the U.S. earns 0.3% interest annually. Keep in mind that 0.3% annual rate gets divided over twelve months, so it's actually 0.025% each month.

MathJax example

\[{0.3\% \, annual \,rate \over 12 \,months}= .025\% \,per \,month\] \[\] \[principal * \left( {annual \,rate \over 12 \,months} \right)^{number \,of \,periods} = earned \, interest \] \[$1,000 * \left( {0.3\% \over 12} \right)^ = \$0.25 \] \[\] \[$1,000 + \$0.25 = \$1,000.25 \]

Basically, if you park $1,000 in a savings account this month at 0.3%, next month you'll have $1,000.25. Your $1,000 earned a whopping $.25 in interest. It's not nothing, but yea it is.

High-Yield Online Savings Accounts

There are those high-yield online savings accounts and I've got freelancer buddies who swear by them for their parked cash. Right now, the best interest rate I could find in a high-yield online savings account was 4.13%. Going back to that $1,000 we'd talked about earlier, let's say you put it in one of those high-yield savings accounts this month. What does it look like next month?

MathJax example

\[$1,000 * { \left( 4.13\% \over 12 \,months \right)}^ = \$3.44\] \[\] \[$1,000 + \$3.44 = $1,003.44\]

By simply moving your money into an account with a higher interest rate, your $1,000 made enough in interest that month to buy you a decent cup of coffee. You're not getting rich by any means, but the interest you'd earn is much better than what you'd get with a regular savings account.

Short-Term Bonds

A bond is a promissory note issued by a business or a governmental unit when they want to raise additional money. Basically, a bond is a loan for an agreed upon period of time that makes additional money for the lender while the borrower is using it. Then at the end of the period, the borrower pays back the full amount they borrowed.

Bonds can get crazy complicated, but I'm intentionally trying to keep things simple. Specifically for this blog post, I'm going to stick with U.S. Treasury Bills (T-Bills), which are short-term bonds and range from four to 52-weeks. Because these U.S. Treasuries are fully backed by the U.S. government, they're considered to be nearly risk free and are one of the safest investments in the world.

These T-Bills are known as zero-coupon bonds and they're sold at a discount from their par value, meaning the actual purchase price is less than the bond's face value. Your return (profit) is the difference between the face value you get back at the end of the period (maturity) and what you actually paid to get it. For simplicity, let's assume we purchase a $1,000 zero-coupon bond at a 10% annual rate that'll mature in 52 weeks:

MathJax example

\[Purchase \,Price = {Maturity \over (1+annual \,rate)^{number \,of \,periods} } \] \[Purchase \,Price = {$1,000 \over (1+10\%)^ \] \[Purchase \,Price = \$909.09 \] \[\] \[Return = Face \,Value - Purchase \,Price \] \[Return = $1,000 - \$909.09 \] \[Return = \$90.91 \]

We're in this weird spot at the moment where the rates on these short-term T-Bills are crazy high. I could nerd out with you about the time value of money and inverted yield curves, but that's not my purpose here. Just know these nearly risk-free short-term investments are available with unusually high interest rates. As I'm writing this at the end of December 2022, the eight and 13-week T-bill rates are 4.3% compared to this time in December 2021 when those same bonds were at 0.05% and 0.06% respectively.

Let's go back to that $1,000 we'd talked about earlier. So instead of putting that money into an online savings account at 4.13%, let's say we buy an eight week T-bill at 4.3%. The math gets more complicated here and it's much easier to use a spreadsheet or financial calculator. The spreadsheet formula below allows you to calculate present value, basically the current value of that $1,000 face-value bond we're talking about.

MathJax example

\[= pv (rate, nper, pmt, fv, type) \] \[= pv \left( {4.3\% \over (52/8)}, 1, 0, -1000, 0 \right) \] \[= \$993.43 \] \[\] \[Return = Face \,Value - Purchase \,Price \] \[Return = $1,000 - \$993.43 \] \[Return = $6.57 \]

Keep in mind that $1,000 is a bit harder to get to than if it was simply in a savings account, but remember it's intentionally set aside to cover planned expenses later in the year. It's basically locked up for the length of time you committed to. Also, keep in mind the T-Bill example I gave is for an eight-week period. To make it a fair comparison with the basic savings account at 0.3% annual interest and those high-yield online savings accounts at 4.13%, you'd need to compare the interest earned over two months.

MathJax example

\[ \text{Basic Savings Account: 0.3% Annual Rate (Two Months)} \] \[ \$1,000 \times \left( \frac{0.3\%}{12} \right) = \$0.50 \] \[ \$1,000 + \$0.50 = \$1,000.50 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$0.50 \] \[ \] \[ \text{High Yield Savings Account: 4.13% Annual Rate (Two Months)} \] \[ \$1,000 \times \left( \frac{4.13\%}{12} \right) = \$6.90 \] \[ \$1,000 + \$6.90 = \$1,006.90 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$6.90 \] \[ \] \[ \text{8 Week T-Bill: 4.30% Annual Rate} \] \[ = \text{pv}\left( \frac{4.3\%}{(52/8)}, 1, 0, -1000 \right) \] \[ \$1,000 - \$993.43 = \$6.57 \] \[ \text{Return} = \$6.57 \]

What I've started doing recently is purchasing these short-term T-Bills directly from the U.S. Treasury via treasurydirect.gov. You'll have to set up an account and all that nonsense, but it's free and not that hard to do. A quick Google search can get you help in walking through the process, but I'd point you towards this Forbes article on How to Invest in Treasury Bills.

Also, I've been using $1,000 as an example, but the minimum investment for these T-Bills is $100, so I've been buying them in $100 and $200 chunks every couple weeks as the money I'm setting aside has been coming in. There's whole other conversation we could have about scheduling these short-term investments to land before your planned expenses, reinvesting after the T-Bill matures, and bond laddering, but that's not my purpose here. That said, I'm down to nerd out if you are.

The Stock Market

That nonsense is a dumpster fire at the moment. Not saying to completely stay out of the stock market, but I'm assuming you like to not lose money and have short-term plans for that money you've got stashed. Stocks are much more volatile than the boring bonds and savings accounts I'm gushing over, but historically stock market returns are much better. The S&P 500 – a basic benchmark for the U.S. stock market overall – has averaged an 11.88% yearly return since its inception. That said, the S&P 500 dropped nearly 20% in 2022.

Cryptocurrency

No. Just no. Personally I think crypto is interesting and I've got a small amount in a couple different things. Still, it's the freakin' Wild West out there and you're actually going to need that money we're talking about for your planned expenses.

So What's Your Point?

I'm over here singing the praises of these short-term bonds (T-Bills), but the high-yield savings account at 4.13% example I'm using is actually giving a better return. I'd consider each one equally safe seeing as how those savings accounts I linked to are backed by the FDIC and T-Bills are backed by the U.S. government. There's even some checking account options that'll earn you better returns, but you've got to watch out for minimum balances, ATM fees, and other expenses.

My point is to do something with that stashed short-term (less than one year) money that'll earn you more interest than just letting it sit in a 0.3% savings account. For sure too there's a conversation related to the tax obligation connected to the interest earned (capital gains), but for most people it's no higher than 15%. Paying attention to what your money is doing and the interest rates available may take a bit of leg work, but personally I think it's worth it. I'm keeping an eye on these T-Bill rates considering how high they are at the moment. That said, a high-yield savings account seems pretty low maintenance, but honestly I'd rather not deal with setting up another bank account. When you buy T-Bills, the funds are pulled and deposited directly into the bank account(s) you setup with your treasurydirect.gov account.

I'm sure I'll revisit these ideas throughout the year and I'll let you know how things shake out. By all means, if you're in a similar situation with your financial nonsense and have a tip (you can back up with legit evidence), I'm all ears.

Another One from Patti Smith

"How wonderful the worlds we enter through the words of others." - Patti Smith

In a complete 180° from what I've been reading the past 16 weeks, I finished A Book of Days by Patti Smith over the weekend.

New York Times writer Elisabeth Egan wrote "Think of it as a tear-off daily calendar, minus the stress of keeping up with page disposal; in fact, with her homages to bygone moments, Smith seems more concerned with reflection and preservation than she is with the rote ticking away of time."

Sounds about right.

At first glance, her newest book basically seems like a printed version of a year's worth of her Instagram feed. Somehow though it's much larger than that. I'd read someone talking about how it's intimate glimpse into her creative workflow. It's not like she's out to argue a point or teach you something, but more a meditation on the people and events that've shaped her life.

I'd become a Patti Smith fan through her 2010 memoir Just Kids and nerded out about it back in a 2019 blog post. I'm a fan of her music, but much more so of her writing. I'd not be upset if we somehow became friends and hung out every now and then. I'd freakin' lap up her stories of Robert Mapplethorpe, life in NYC during the '60s and '70s, and her time on the road.

I'd mentioned the book to St. Anne the Wife and she joked about how it's become my daily devotional. It may not carry quite that much weight, but it'll be something I go back to soon enough.

One More Week

These past 15 weeks have been brutal, but there's one more week to the first semester of my MBA. In focusing in on this goal I've had for years I've had to drastically cut back in other areas of my life. My family has had to put up with my time spent studying, I've had to turn down a few work opportunities, and I feel like my creative output has taken a huge – but temporary – hit.

Not complaining considering I knew going after my MBA would be a sizable commitment, but I didn't expect it to be this hard. I didn't realize I'd be a full-time student in addtion to being a husband, parent, and still staying on top of the work I do for a living. The most difficult and time consuming class I've taken so far has been my Financial Management course. I keep track of my study schedule and I've been clocking in more than 25 hours a week studying for that class alone. In early November it was something like 42 hours just for that class.

Still, I'm freakin' stoked about what I've been learning.

As creatives I feel like we cut ourselves off at the knees by not understanding the business end of our work, especially in finances. I'd like to see some more current numbers, but according to a 2014 report on financial literacy, the U.S. ranks 14th in the world. Some of the financial nonsense we've been covering in my classes is incredibly dense, but even the basics around time value of money and capital budgeting could be life changing to those of us who work as freelance creatives. Do I need an advanced degree in Business and/or Finance to be better at sharing stories and ideas? No. Does it help? You'd be surprised.

I'm hoping to share what I'm learning and how it applies to creatives soon enough. No hard and fast plans just yet, but I've got a decent break after this week and I'd love to start cranking out some basics ideas here on my blog.

The Opposite of a Cakewalk

Well, it's been a bit again – and that's totally fine by the way. The last few weeks have been a freakin' whirlwind.

I finished out the first module of my MBA with an A in both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis classes. Let me rephrase that: I earned those two As considering I was studying 30-40 hours a week in addition to my work and family responsibilities. The graduate work I'd done back in 2005-06 was an absolute cakewalk compared to what I went through these last eight weeks. We've already started our second module for the semester, and I'm taking classes in Financial Management and Leadership. Soon enough I'll start sharing what I'm learning in those classes, but considering how little time I have at the moment, I'll just leave you with a couple quotes I've already read for my leadership class:

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James

"When you say everything is a high priority, then nothing is a high priority. It really indicates that you're unwilling or unable to make a decision, which means you won't get anything done." - John Maxwell

During the tail end of finals week I was over in Amsterdam meeting with and interviewing the incredibly kind people behind Royal Posthumus. I'd mentioned it in an earlier post, but their story plays a large roll in my rubber stamp documentary. I'd been wanting to connect with them in person for what feels like forever at this point and I'm stoked it finally happened. I'll save the storyline details for the film, but I'm actually hoping to share some of the logistical experiences I went through in making that nonsense happen and what I learned.

While I've travelled alone internationally before, I've always met up with American crews on site and had producers and directors who were the "adults in the room." I'd not had to hire out and pay foreign crew in local currencies, deal with the whole Carnet thing, plus a notebook full of other things. Beyond that, there's the whole thing of me being up way too late studying and taking one of my MBA finals in a European hotel room and having to figure out how to keep my computer charged using my rental car's USB-c port because I'd accidentally left my charger at home.

There's also those other shoots I could talk about since my last post – Life.Church and Habitat for Humanity shoots here in Oklahoma City and that last minute job out in Kansas City, MO – but you'll just have to trust me and a few iPhone photos without context to prove I've been working my tail off lately.

Curb Stomp'd (but diggin' it...for the most part)

You wanna talk about depreciation schedules or amortization? Maybe basket purchases, asset turnover ratios, and how to dispose of those assets at the end of their service life? We could also get into Student's t-distributions and linear regression models if you're interested.

Literally no clue why any of you are still here (hi mom).

The last couple months my world has basically been a tossed salad of math, spreadsheets, reading assignments, and a couple stale croutons of creative work. There's also a side of Cub Scouts with Housefire No.2, and for dessert, an upcoming trip to Amsterdam for my rubber stamp documentary.

There's also our household getting absolutely wrecked earlier this month when we had to put down Clara the Dog. St. Anne the Wife and I got her in 2010 for our first wedding anniversary and over the last 12 years that English Bulldog was no question a member of our family. We knew Clara was getting towards the sunset of life, but her last few weeks went south quickly. We're incredibly lucky to have had such a great companion all these years and I'm glad we had the time with her that we did.

Regarding my school work, I'm freakin' floored with what I'm learning. Turns out the accountants and CPAs I've worked with over the years are true heroes and I'm absolutely not cut from that same cloth. There's also those statistical super powers and their potential I'm trying to comprehend that've basically made my head explode – in addition to literal headaches. One of our in-class examples last week worked through the actual correlation between political campaign results and the relationship to campaign spending. Freakin' fascinating.

Is this intentional mental torture getting me more creative work? No, not by a long shot. Is it making me think differently about how I approach what I do from a business standpoint? Unquestionably, and that's why I'm here.

We're more than half-way through our first eight week module and I'm stoked about my grades being as high as they are. On average, I've been spending nearly 40 hours a week studying and most the time I feel like I'm barely hanging on. Seeing as how flexible my freelance schedule typically is, I can't imagine how my cohorts are dealing with this nonsense in addition to the demands of a full-time job, let alone a family or personal life. I've got a shoot this week that'll have me missing one of my classes, and then mid-Oct I'll be seven time zones away during my finals week. I guess I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of seven time zones away, I'm off to Amsterdam to meet with some of the people behind Royal Posthumus. They're a company I'd learned about that played a major role in rubber stamp art as well as usse stamps to fight the Nazis during World War Two. I've been wanting to head over to do these interviews for what feels like forever at this point.

There's a bit of time during the week when I'm not getting curb stomped by my own choices and responsibilities. That's when both Housefires are bed and Anne and I have time to chill out and watch the internet. Chef's Table: Pizza is basically crack to me as a filmmaker who's interested in people and food. Atlanta, well, thank goodness for something interesting and original. And for something incredibly heavy but necessary, Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

Fun Haircuts and Superpowers

Bit of a grab bag this week as things are staying incredibly fast-paced 'round these parts (school, work, family, etc.).

St. Anne the Wife and I hit 13 years still married recently and Josh Thomas – second greatest person in the world (behind Anne obviously) – reminded me of this gem he'd made from Anne and my wedding weekend. Good grief that seems equally forever ago and last month at the same time.

Not only did it remind me that I once had a fun haircut and an ill-fitting white suit, but there's also a young wedding photog in there named Andrew Ryan Shepherd. That same Dallas-based still photographer I'd been absolutely enamored with basically blew up into the creative and directing powerhouse he is today. That dude, who's now making commercial and film magic in Austin with Camp Lucky, turned out to be much more distantly braided into my life than I could've imagined.

In other news, I'm still machete-ing my way through managerial accounting principles and random probability distributions because this creative must have some kind of underlying punishment kink. I figured I could "lighten things up" and picked up another book I'd been eyeing from afar called Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr.

"This book is based on a simple observation: we lose information when we don't translate numbers into instinctive human experience."

"When experts are asked to communicate something they understand intimately...they wildly overestimate how much of their mental model of the world is shared by their audience."

"Math can reveal truths about the world that the human mind was never built to intuitively grasp. If you can use math, you have a valuable skill. If you can use it and make it clear, bringing what is obscure and distant into the range where others where others can see it and feel it-well, then you have a superpower."

It's not a terribly long book and it's a nice change from the incredibly dense (to me) grad school books I'm hacking through. I'm only about 20 pages in and I'm sure I'll have more to say about it later, but seems like being able to effectively communicate complex ideas is a superpower we'd all be better having.

Math Nerdery

Well, if you need me, I'll apparently be drowning in math nerdery through the spring of 2024.

This past week was apparently out for blood as I started my graduate school work. I told St. Anne the Wife that it felt like I'd jumped out of a moving vehical and have yet to roll to a gooey and mangled stop.

You up to talk about Financial Accounting or Quantitative Analysis? Balance Sheets and Income Statements? Cash Flows and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? R Programing, both Linear and Non-Linear Functions, and the freakin' Greek alphabet pretending like we didn't move on? Needless to say, my handwritten uppercase sigmas (∑) and lowercase mus (µ) look like they're written in the dark with my left foot in Crayon. My lowercase sigmas (σ) look a bit better, but even I'll say that's being generous.

Not everything is a complete and bloody mess. A few things that are starting to click and I'm seeing the beginnings of some kind of rhythm. Back in the day I used to breakdown my weekly schedule into fifteen minute chunks to help keep me on track and organized. That spreadsheet got dusted off and tuned up this past week to help keep me from burning up on reentry into the (online) classroom. I'm just staring my second week I'm already something like 34 pages of notes into my Moleskine XL for these two classes. Pretty sure Anne wasn't as hyped about my note taking Legend, color usage, and layout as I was.

Did I mention I'm still a cinematographer and filmmaker? That I'm still super stoked about what I do for a living?

I'm still curious as to how all this nonsense will mix together. I had a dentist appointment the other day and we got to talking about the idea of "If you want something done, ask a busy person." We could go around and 'round with that idea in a street fight against the value of being bored, but it looks like my 15min chunks of time dedicated to "this week's blogpost" are up. Still, if I can figure out and be fluent in RED, Arri, (especially) Sony, and Canon camera menu systems, surely I can keep up with the 80-100+ pages of reading, note taking, and other class work I'm doing each week (plus trying to be a good/decent husband, dad, creative, etc.).

Oh, and I also finished that 400 page Debt: The First 5,000 Years book this past week.

"You all, markets come from the military industrial complex, capitalism is a dumpster fire, and we're all doomed..." says the dude going to business school.

That Same "More"

I'ma let you in on a little secret: I'm kinda feeling like one of these three photos at the moment. They're all from the same roll of black and white film I'd shot in downtown Tulsa last month.

There's the gorgeous, tall, and gleaming building that, I'm assuming, is filled with highly qualified and credentialed professionals. They're the ones who, I'm guessing, wear suits and ties to work everyday. Not sure if there's white-shoe firms here in Oklahoma, but I'm guessing they'd be in a building like this.

Then there's the shorter, stockier brick buildings with the ornate trim on top. I'd guess the people working in these buildings are no less qualified than the armies of people working in that first building, but I'd guess it's a bit more business casual. There's probably whiteboards and dry erase markers scattered around the open floor plans with row after row of iMacs. I'm sure there's a few old school law or accounting offices mixed in there too with bad lighting and worn out carpet.

Finally, there's this lunchable sized billboard / light pole hybrid on the edge of downtown. No clue what's on the other side, but it's probably something like an ad for a pot dispensary or a lawyer who's most likely not working in either of those other two buildings. I'd assume both of those lights work seeing as how the glass isn't broken out, but you can tell that whole thing has seen better days. It could use a coat of paint, but it seems pretty low maintenance and is doing the thing. It's like that Simpson's meme of Homer in his underware, looking fit and trim, standing in front of Marge, but the reverse shot has all his back fat pulled back tight with a chip clip and straining rubber band.

That's me at the moment. I'm that light pole pulling double duty with those budget ads on my chest trying to prove that I'm suppose to be here.

What the actual fuck am I doing? How is it that I'm choosing to focus two years of my professional life as a creative in pursuit of a graduate level business degree? I've got this repeating memory bouncing around in my head of a conversation I'd had with a filmmaker I absolutely admire. I'd gotten a chance to talk to him during a conference years ago and told him about wanting to get an MBA one day. He looked at me like I had hot turds smeared on my face. "Why wouldn't you go for something in cinematography? At least something film related..."

Honestly, I'm super stoked about it. Even shitty magicians can be impressive if they have one trick that catches you off guard.

My MBA classes at the University of Oklahoma start later this month and we've already had a couple different interactions as incoming students. I'm already inspired by the people I've met and most of us are coming from very different careers and walks of life. Along with the business, finance, and economic professionals I'd expected, there's a surprising amount of incoming MBA students in my cohort who are medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, and those with military backgrounds.

In the conversations I've had so far with other incoming students, one was with a young pediatrician and his wife who were from Toronto. We got to the "So why you getting an MBA?" part and he talked about feeling creatively choked off with the restricted nature of his work as a doctor. He's hoping the additional education will open up other opportunities down the road. Some of the others planed to move into more leadership focused roles within their companies or captain their own entrepreneurial ships.

Seems like everyone I'd talked to so far wanted more than what they had at the moment. Even though I'm still feeling like I snuck in the side door, I'm no different in wanting the same more they each talked about.

I Blame the Leadership

Finally finished up this two week documentary shoot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well, Broken Arrow to be exact. We were working 12 hour days, six days a week. The timecards I'd filled out had us working something near 70 hours each week. Thank goodness for direct deposit and clients actually paying in a timely manner.

We're not supposed to share project details at this point, but I'll go out of my way to mention how great an experience it was. We absolutely got worked like dogs, but from my perspective, I felt like the leadership and production teams went out of their way to try and make us feel supported and empowered to do out best work. Treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. I can't say enough about how rare that is in my professional experience.

I've been on these types of longer, intense documentary jobs in the past and in the days leading up to this one I was overly anxious due to countless bad experiences. Making this kind of creative nonsense is incredibly resource intensive and I can't tell you how often I'm on jobs with clients and producers who seem to go out of their way to cut corners. I'd only had a few phone calls and emails with my direct supervisor and I'd never heard of the rest of the crew.

On our prep day before the shoot, I literally cried seeing the mountain of gear cases that'd come in from a well known New York rental house. The leadership actually built in the time we needed – and paid us our full-rate – to build out our camera packages and trouble shoot the inevitable hiccups that come with that amount of gear. By the end of the two week show, we had nine cameras all sending video feeds to multiple locations on set in addition to the sound and story teams. Dealing with that amount nonsense plus everything else isn't something that just happens on its own.

There were some major take aways from this project. First, it seems like everyone on set already had some solid production experience and brought that expertise with them. I blame the leadership for putting a solid crew together. Second, we all seemed to connect and work well together, like we all were all working towards a similar goal. Again, I blame the leadership. They made the hiring decisions and brought in crew from all over the country (NYC, LA, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Dallas, OKC/Tulsa, etc.). Third, there was also a strategic move – in my opinion – in bringing us in early and doing a big meal before the shoot. There were like 24-30 of us crashing a fancy Italian place in Tulsa and they spent a good deal of money on that meal, but that early time together gave us a chance to connect before we were thrown into the fire. We lost a few crew members during two week shoot due to Covid infections and other commitments, but I honestly think that initial crew meal was key in setting the tone. Some of the team already knew each other, but most of us were new and barely knew anyone. Throughout the rest of the show, we went out of our way to spend time together outside of the 12-14 hour work days.

Again, treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. At one point we mutinied against the catering brought in for our daily production meals. There were also some communication hiccups along the way, but we all worked together to figure things out and do the thing. At the end of the show and after I'd taken off my EasyRig and walkie-talkie for the last time, I cried as I walked to my car and drove back to the hotel knowing it was the last time I'd be working with this specific team of people. Again, I point to the leadership for making this such a good experience, worts and all.

No clue when the documentary project will come out, but I'll keep you in the loop.

 

UPDATED Feb. 2024

Did want to toss out a bit of an update with this here blog post. The actual film has yet to come out, but in the course of my MBA I've now had multiple classes cover this TED Talk from Margaret Heffernan: "Why it's Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work."

Via the video's YouTube description:

Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a radical rethink of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. Because as Heffernan points out: “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do.”

Each time I've seen this video I can't help but think about this Summer 2022 documentary team and how the leadership intentionally built in time for us as crew members to connect. It's tough to accomplish that on the typically short freelance jobs I'm on where we're usually on set for only a day, maybe two or three at most. Given the chance though, it's in the leadership's best interest to adopt this kind of mindset.