If there’s anything a career in TV, Film, Games, and Commercials has taught me, it would be how to create a good process.
Goals and dreams are great. We need targets to aim at. Still they can possibly lead to discouragement if we don’t have a good process in place, especially if we haven’t built enjoyment into our processes.
[DISCLAIMER: Since writing this post, I have left Funded Today to continue my freelance animation career. The video and page design divisions are now in the hands of my talented, former teammates. Please do not interperet this article as an endorsement of Funded Today’s services. I encourage you to do thorough research before hiring any company to assist with your crowdfunding campaign. Thanks!]
When I started this video division with Funded Today, I had no idea what the process of running a business would look like. Yet I had two thoughts: 1. Having a mentors like Funded Today’s co-founders, Zach Smith and Thomas Alvord [which are two of the many mentors I’ve had in this challenging journey] could help me take care of what I lacked, and 2. I knew how to make a great video, so that would be the first step in my process.
So I made the first few videos and any time I wasn’t sure how to manage the business aspect, I turned to the leadership at Funded Today, and together we learned what to do and what not to do. Once they suggested I hire a few people, I did just that. I figured out processes to help client interaction, to help raise quality, to help make the most of our time. Those processes are under continual refinement.
When it came to advertising our own services, we spent extra time to create this video [edit: which I would now do so much differently]:
[bjd-responsive-iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/faTqQFE3LOk?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0"]
So how can all of this apply to those of you reading this post? Let’s simplify the process above into 4 easy steps.
1. Start with what you know.
2. Find a mentor who has had your desired success.
3. Create processes that help you produce great work.
4. Continually refine these processes.
When it comes to processes, the simpler the better. You don’t want to waste precious time you could spend building other parts of your business. Zach, Thomas, and I [discussed] plans and hope to eventually turn this into a feature film production business [edit: these plans me sharing my own aspirations and since leaving Funded Today, I continue pursue them in my own animation business], and that’s part of a life-long goal I can tell you more about later. The point is, success in life is a process – and we are all fully capable of succeeding if we can simply learn from great mentors and break the overall process (life) into smaller, more actionable processes.
As always, I can wait to hear from you in the comments and see the great things you’ll create!