Personal Development

February 11, 2015

Vision for My Production Process

Casting a vision is one of the single most important exercises to being successful in the workplace. Whether you are leading a business, a department, or yourself as an employee, casting a vision will give you a clear direction to move in, stimulate growth, and reveal resources that would have otherwise been overlooked. One of my visions for this website is to “Become more clear in my thinking and stimulate my mind which will keep me creative.” So today, in front of you, I want to hash out my vision for my role in Multimedia. My hope is that this will encourage you to cast a vision, provide an example of how, and even get some feedback from you on what could be improved.

As a video producer for On The Edge Multimedia Studio I do a lot. From pre-production, to production, and on to post-production, I am involved in all of it.

Pre-Production

Monday is my planning day. I come in to work five minutes early and start working. I paint a picture of how I want each product video to look when it is finished. I lay out a detailed plan illustrating what I will need, how long everything will take, and what order I will attack each task. When my primary plan is laid out, I plan three contingencies. Once my foundation in planning is strong I prepare everything that I can possibly prepare.

Production

The quality of my production is directly related to the quality of my preproduction. When it is time to film, I hit the ground running. I quickly gather everything up and head to my first planned filming location. I decisively set up my equipment and set. When I am filming, my focus is sharp and my picture is clear and beautiful. My pans are smooth and tasteful. My light is falling on the areas I want it to. It is only highlighting what I want the viewer to see. I systematically cover all of the shots I have planned to cover. My product demonstrations are thorough, intense, entertaining, and practical.

Post-Production

The quality of my post-production is directly related to the quality of my production. My videos start with an intriguing, captivating, or curious opener. They grab the viewer from the start. They hold the viewers attention through the entire video. The consistently surprise the viewer and deliver more than they expected. The transitions are tasteful and rhythmic. They reflect well on the respective brands that they are promoting.

So, there it is! I hope this helps inspire you to create a vision of your own. What will you cast a vision for this year? What area of your life could benefit from a vision makeover?

January 20, 2015

Three Reasons Why Casting A Vision Is Important To You

If you haven’t decided where you are headed in life, your circumstances will decide for you. It is important to intentionally decide what you want all areas of your life to look like. I affectionately call this “casting a vision.”

1. Casting A Vision Helps To Fight Away Distraction

In geometry there is a rule that states: between any two points is a straight line. This rule also applies in our lives. Your vision acts as the second point in the equation keeping you moving in a straight line toward your goal. One of my goals at work is to “produce three product videos per week.” This vision pushes me to avoid distractions and time-consuming tasks. It has also caused me to develop specific, repeatable, measurable steps in completing my projects.

2. Not having A Vision Will Leave You Shipwrecked

If you haven’t set a destination, you’re like a ship adrift at sea going wherever the current takes you. Early last year, I had to stop producing videos to help the increased load of our photography department. At first my editing was taking forever! Finally, my boss challenged me to process an image every 15 minutes. I didn’t always meet that challenge, but I realized that I was saving about 5 to 10 minutes per image while trying to hit my 15-minute mark. Over the course of a 480-minute day, that’s up to an extra 48 images!

3. Without A Vision There Can Be No Strategy Having a vision doesn’t mean you have it all figured out. It isn’t a game plan or a strategy. It is simply a destination. But that destination, I believe, is far more important than strategy. In fact, it is an essential precursor to strategy. How can you develop a strategy to win if you don’t know what winning looks like? Would a football coach be able to develop an effective strategy if he didn’t know that winning meant having more points at the end of the game than the other team? Of course not! In the same way, you have to decide what winning looks like in your life. You have to cast a vision.

Question: What is your vision for 2015? What do you want to accomplish at work, in your finances, with your family, and everywhere else in the Wheel Of Life? What does winning look like in those areas? Drop me a line in the comments!

January 14, 2015

Don’t Waste Your Time On New Years Resolutions

So, it is officially 2015! You have a clean slate, a fresh start, and a new beginning. It’s no surprise that this is the time of year we all consider the things we would like to see changed. Sadly, chances are none of them will, unless you follow these steps!

1. Set Specific Goals

Have you ever wondered why so many new years resolutions fail? It’s almost like a curse! We’ve all heard them: “I want to make more money.” Or, “I want to lose weight.” Maybe, “I want to get in shape.” Notice a trend? These are really healthy desires, and should be pursued. The only problem is, these are not goals. These are simply desires. A goal is specific, measurable, and on a deadline. Some better examples would sound like this: “I want to make $40,000 by December 31.” Or, “I want to lose 30 pounds by August 1.” Or, “I want to run a half-marathon by December 15.”

2. Determine What’s At Stake

The next step is to connect to what Michael Hyatt calls your “Why.” Why do you need to make more money? Why do you need to get in better shape? These questions are important because if you haven’t connected a strong enough reason, you’ll just quit when it gets tough. A good example might be that you want to get in better shape to keep up with your kids. Or maybe you want to live long enough to see your grandchildren. Whatever it may be, you need to connect to it because when it gets hard, that will be the only thing that keeps you going.

3. Determine Your Schedule

Once your goal is specific and you’ve connected to your why, it is time to set the progress schedule. How much progress do you need to make each month, or even each week, to accomplish your goal on time? If your goal is to make $40,000 by December 31, 2015, then you need to make about $3,300 each month. If you hope to run a half marathon by December 15, you should be able to run about 6.5 miles by June 15. If your goal is to lose 30 pounds by August 1, then you should be shedding about 4 pounds a month. One of the coolest experiences is to have a goal and be ahead of schedule. Even better, when you start to fall behind you can determine what needs to happen to get back on schedule.

Achieving your goals for 2015 is totally possible! Connect with your why, set a specific goal with a deadline, and get at it!

Question: What specific goals will you be setting this year? How do you plan to get there? Even better, check back in and let me know how you’re progressing!

January 7, 2015

The Wheel of Life

Long before I ever considered blogging, possibly even breathing, a man by the name of Zig Ziglar presented an illustration called The Wheel of Life. In this wheel, Zig illustrates the importance of seven crucial areas of our lives: Career, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Family and Social. Zig tapped into a universal truth with this simple diagram; what you do in one of these areas of life will affect your overall ride.

The Wheel Leaks!

If it isn’t maintained, it gets out of whack. A perfect example: When I graduated college I thought my wheel was pretty round; until Maura and I got engaged. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life but we had no idea how we were going to pay for it. Maura was in a career transition, so much of my income was going to things like rent and lights at her apartment. I hadn’t been doing any saving or even budgeting up to that point, so my wheel wasn’t as round as I had thought. As a result, the ride got a little bumpy!

Pump it up Schwarzenegger style!

Thankfully, around that time we discovered Dave Ramsey. Over the next few months, we hunkered down, cut our lifestyle and began selling anything that wasn’t nailed down. We began pumping the wheel like Arnold pumps iron! It was a perfect opportunity for Maura and I to work on something together. In the end, we had our wedding and our honeymoon without acquiring any debt!

All Parts Need Each Other

An even more profound aspect of the wheel is how connected the different areas of our life are. You can be the champ at work, but if you neglect your family it will catch up to you there. You can be the best parent, but weigh 500 pounds and not live to meet your grandchildren. It is so important to give attention, or “air” to every section in the wheel. The other sections depend on it!

Question: As 2015 really gets moving, what areas do you need to give some air to? Leave a reply in the comments!

December 31, 2014

Will Your Kids See You As A Deadbeat?

Have you ever thought about the legacy you are creating? Whether you like it or not, your children, and maybe even their children, will be subject to the decisions you are making today. Maura and I don’t have children, but we were children not too long ago. So, I’m speaking out of my experience as a son.

It’s yours to build
Last weekend as my brother and I walked around my Grandparents’ farm, I thought about our family’s legacy. My grandfather came from an abusive home, and my grandmother was raised in the hills of West Virginia (not exactly the birthplace of wealth.) However, by the end of their lives they had acquired 260 acres of land, a wonderful family, and a comfortable life. Where you start in life isn’t the determining factor of where you will end up.

Make the decision today
My grandparents did not stumble into the lives I watched them lead. They made a choice. They made a choice when they were married to stick it out no matter what. They chose to work hard, and work together to get out of debt and retire with dignity. They chose to teach my Mom how to work and how to be successful in life. All of these benefits in life have to be choices on our part that are carried out intentionally.

Stick with it
My Grandparents were huge advocates of hard work. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” If you want to leave a legacy for your children and even your grandchildren, there will be times when it feels like work. But, take heart! If you stick with it the benefits will far surpass the temporary sacrifices you are making today. Literally, you will change your family tree and impact generations.

I often use financial illustrations when talking about intentionality, but only because it is a concrete and measurable aspect of our lives. There are so many other factors that will impact our future and that of our families. Zig Ziglar used an illustration known as “The Wheel of Life” which does an amazing job of helping us understand what all these factors are. More on that to come! So, my question to you is: Have you ever considered what your children and grandchildren will say about you when you’re gone? How will they describe you to their children? What are some specific things you would like to do for your family to set up their future? Please leave a comment below!

December 24, 2014

Passion

I love the topic of passion. Maybe it’s because I am so passionate about so many things, especially personal development. My guess is if you’re reading this blog, you probably are too! Have you ever hit slumps in your job where passion was nowhere to be found? Unfortunately, this tends to happen from time to time. I know it’s happened to me recently. Follow these three steps, and you’ll be on your way to recovering the passion needed to thrive!

View the challenge as an opportunity
Last week I was tasked with producing a demonstration video that would cover three separate products. I needed to film in four separate locations, use four different cameras, and cover all of my material in one morning; half of which would be shot outside in the late December cold. The night before, I dreaded having to go in and go through the pain of managing the shoot. Instead of staying in a place of dread, I began to view it as an opportunity. This was an opportunity to produce one of the best videos I have ever made. With that result in mind, I tore through the shoot with passion. Not because it was particularly fun, but because I really wanted this to be a video that I could show to my boss, my friends, my wife, and even myself with pride. The end result was a video that gained more views in the first 24 hours than any of our previous videos.

Have the end in mind
Do you enjoy busy work? Me neither! One way to gain passion is to ask good questions. Try to discover why the work you are assigned is important. When we can see results for our work, it motivates us to attack the next assignment with passion. Why is what we are doing so important? What’s at stake? If your end is to simply bring home a paycheck, then I promise you won’t be happy, much less passionate! If you are spending 40 hours a week doing something you dread, then you need to consider a career change. But, that’s a topic for another day.

You bring the passion
I know, this post is supposed to help you regain passion at work, and here I am saying something that sounds a lot like “Just do it.” Just follow me for a second. The ability to bring passion, even when it’s hard, is one of the most important traits of effective people. Sometimes work is really hard. That’s why they call it work. Even work we enjoy has moments where we have to really push through to finish. It’s during these times that keeping the end in mind and viewing the challenge as an opportunity are important. When you do, passion is the byproduct. Passion is contagious.

Do you ever experience these slumps at work where passion is nowhere to be found? If so, what are some ways that you have regained passion? Please leave a comment below!

December 17, 2014

The Trap of Least Resistance

We’ve all heard about “The path of least resistance.” As a teenager, all I heard in that phrase was “no fun for you!” Today, as a newly wed and fresh college grad, I understand why avoiding what that phrase entails not only means life, but a successful, fulfilled life. Following the path, or as I call it, the trap of least resistance has caused me serious pain. Read on to find out why, but most importantly, how you can avoid it.

Hakuna Matata
As a young college student I ventured out without a plan to pay for school, prepare for life after college, or how to get the most out of my time while attending. So, like many students today, I took a part time job and coupled that with Student loans. I had the H.O.P.E. scholarship, which covered most of my tuition, and the loans covered my living expenses. It was easy, stress free, and I didn’t have to think about it. Hakuna Matata. As a result, I graduated with loads of student loan debt which is a huge tax on my income today.

It Hurts!
This is the problem with the path of least resistance. It’s easy now, and may save you a little pain, but it always catches up. When it catches up, the pain is multiplied exponentially compared to what it would have been had you put forth the work of being intentional. I could have avoided the student loans with wise spending, saving, and working more hours. It would have been a little harder then, but it would have changed my life forever. Instead of living in a tiny apartment with my wife, we could be saving up for a big down payment on a house right now. Not to mention avoiding the pain of being the only one to bring debt into a marriage. Don’t follow the path of least resistance! It hurts!

You can avoid the pain that comes with this easy path. The key word is intentionality. Be intentional about how you live. Use your emotions as a gauge. How do you feel in your marriage, at work or at school? Is it easy? If so, it’s possible that you may just be in a good season. But I encourage you, strongly, take inventory. Assess your situation and see if there’s something you could be doing better, somewhere you could be working harder, somewhere you could be more effective. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Don’t just go with the flow!

Have you ever found yourself caught in the trap of least resistance? How did it affect you? What are your tips for escaping it? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

December 9, 2014

Unity: Secret Sauce to Success

I have different opinions than my boss. I don’t always agree with his decisions. If I sound like I am being insubordinate, you need to change your thinking, and here’s why:

We are all human, and we don’t always agree.
The element that separates winning teams from mediocre teams is not that winning teams agree. Instead, winning teams support leadership decisions, take ownership of their job, and don’t sabotage projects they don’t agree with. The element is unity, and it supersedes good ideas.

Unity trumps good ideas every time.
There is no shortage of good ideas. Entrepreneurs have good ideas every day. In my experience, the shortage is in unity. The boss makes a decision that the team may not agree with and, as a result, the team drags their feet. Rather than supporting the boss’ decision in unity, the goal is sabotaged by disunity.

Unity starts with you.
Unity will not happen by accident. Leadership should facilitate it, but often, they don’t do the best job. If this is the case, it’s your job to influence the culture around you. Give credit where it’s due. Be kind even when your coworkers don’t deserve it. Encourage everyone around you. Otherwise, problems just get worse. Then, when a project falls through, when a deadline gets missed or when your department falls short of expectations, everyone is held responsible. Facilitate unity, and succeed together.

What do you do that helps unity in your workplace? What about your home? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

November 28, 2014

The “B” Word (Budget)

Budgeting is a concept that we have all heard about. There are multitudes of budget forms available on the web, collections of books that can teach and guide us in this habit, and loads of studies that reveal its countless benefits. Yet, many of us still don’t do it! Why not? Here are a few reasons I believe many of us don’t budget, and why we should reconsider.

“I don’t have time.”

You don’t have time not to. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as an adult it’s that you make time for the things that are important to you. I promise you have time. It may mean less time doing something that’s more fun, but there is time. Honestly, after the first couple of budgets, it takes less and less time. There may be occasions where more attention and time are necessary, but once you find your rhythm its more maintenance than hard work.

“But it’s hard!”

I was having lunch with a friend at work last week when we began talking about budgeting. He regrettably shared how he and his wife have tried to budget in the past, but were discouraged by how challenging it was. He pointed to difficulties like fluctuating gas prices and unexpected expenses. Listen, budgeting is tough. But trust me, it gets easier! When Maura (my wife) and I first started we hit some serious speed bumps. Maura had just left her job as a full time Nanny and taken a part time job. Budgeting seemed like torture at the time, but looking back it’s the only thing that kept us afloat. Now that we’re both back to full time wages, budgeting has become a regular part of our life.

 

“I don’t need a budget.”

This time last year I had just graduated college and was working full-time at my current job as a video editor. I was still living with my parents rent-free and I had way more money than I needed. I thought I didn’t need a budget because I could pay my bills (including my minimum student loan payments) and still have plenty of money left over. I even saved money and gave to my church. The problem with this method of handling money is that today I have nothing to show for that time in my life. I had a unique opportunity to attack my debt and pile up cash. Instead, I literally have no idea where the money went. Today, even though we have less left over at the end of each month, Maura and I still manage to save more and pay more down on debt thanks to budgeting.

 

Do you follow a written budget? Do you know exactly where every dollar of your hard earned money is going? If not, is it for one of these reasons? If so, go ahead and take the first step! Jump in and see what happens! I would love to hear what you think about budgeting! Please share any tips, stories, or encouragement in the comments. I want to hear from YOU!

November 26, 2014

Mad Momentum

This morning as my wife, Maura, and I sat down to review our budget, I was bracing myself for how little money we were going to have left after bills.  We were recovering from paying everything we made over our minimum needs into our wedding and honeymoon. Plus, for the week we were gone, Maura only got paid for one day, making her check half of what it normally is. Over the last four weeks, we have had to jump on opportunities to make more money, closely watch our spending, and even scrape together loose change! But, not only did we meet our budget, we exceeded it! Here are a few suggestions to build momentum when times start to get tight.

1. Take Inventory.
Believe it or not, you have a TON of untapped capital around you right at home. When Maura and I were raising money for our wedding, one way we generated income was through good old-fashioned yard sales. We simply took one Saturday per month, put stuff in our yard, and made money! I promise you there are things in your home that you either have forgotten about, never use, or simply don’t need. Those same items will turn into cash if you simply put forth the effort to move them from your house to your front yard. The best part, some things that didn’t sell this month may get sold next month. Another option might be sights like Amazon, Ebay, or Craigslist.

2. The “B” word.
I hate to say it but writing out a monthly budget has honestly been the most powerful tool for Maura and I in taking control of our money. I am continually amazed at how much money we are able to funnel towards saving when we are intentional and conscious of what our money is doing. The first time I realized how much I was spending on eating out I was blown away. It’s simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Most things that have a big payoff aren’t! Simply write your income at the top of a piece of paper, followed by expenses, then what’s left over, pile into savings! If you already have a good sized savings account ($500-$1000) start piling on your debt! It takes work, but trust me, it’s worth it!

3. Use your skills.
You have skills! Use them! When I was in college I made a music video and a Kickstarter video for a local artist for some extra cash. Maura is excellent with kids, so she often babysits for extra income. What skills do you have? What jobs have you worked in the past and what are you doing for a living now? What are your hobbies? Start there. Any money you make over your normal salary can work exponentially in your favor to gain momentum.

These are just a few examples of how I have gained momentum in tight times. What are some of the hardest times you’ve had? How have you gained momentum and gotten back on your feet? Share your story in the comments! I would love to hear from you!