Lessons Learned from 2019

In January of 2019 I wrote a blog article called "How Networking Gave Me One of the Best Years of my Life." It tells the story of how on New Years Eve at the end of a pretty difficult year, I made a list of everything that I wanted to achieve, I quit my job, and set out to accomplish it all in the next twelve months.

That year, I directed a music video, worked on a Hollywood studio lot on the crew of a national network TV show, directed corporate videos, drove cross-country (twice), travelled with/visited family, and organized a series of events in Los Angeles and Boston, among other goals.

It wasn't as easy, as simple, or as perfect as it may sound. Nor did it happen without a fair amount of sacrifice, disappointment, privilege, luck, outside help, and pain. Still, a great deal of what I set our to accomplish came to fruition in 2018.

I know, because I was there.

But as I mention in that previous article, the biggest lesson I learned from all of it is that what matters most in life (for me at least) is not what I accomplish or experience...what matters most to me, is who I share my experiences with and what I learn along the way.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share some stories and lessons that I learned throughout 2019, in case it might be helpful to others:

Music Video Screenings

We kicked off 2019 right with a sold-out premiere screening and live music show for a music video I directed and edited for a potty mouthed female-fronted LBTQIA(ish) post-punk 90’s influenced-yet-Millennial power-pop hard rock band (with a NSFW name). Yep.

We went on to screen the music video at the Boston Underground Film Festival's screening series in June, the Shawna Shea Film Festival in October, received an Honorable Mention or two at a handful of other fests, and coming up later this month, (December 2019), we're screening at the Somerville Theater for an event to raise money for a non-profit.

The music video is fun, uplifting, and actually pretty tame in my opinion, but the band name may be NSFW. You can click here to view the video on Youtube.

By the way, after we premiered the video the band was accepted into and advanced to the finals of Boston's longest running and most prestigious battle of the bands, called, "The Rock and Roll Rumble." Because of that honor, they were mentioned in the Boston Herald (one of Massachusetts' biggest newspapers), so perhaps the band's name isn't as NSFW as I think.

Lessons Learned: Stay open to serendipity. If you told me even a couple years ago that I'd direct a music video such as this one, I probably wouldn't believe you. And I'd be right not to. The odd series of events, coincidences, and the circuitous path that lead me to direct/edit this project is, emperically pretty unbelievable. But it happened. I know, because I was there.

Planning, goal-setting, and working toward what you want in life is important. Having a vision for how you want your life to be is vital to making it happen. But sometimes life has a different vision for us that we don't expect. And while many others have said all this more eloquently than I, the reality is that a few years ago, I couldn't imagine I'd be where I am now in my life, so who knows where I'll be a year from now? Can't wait to find out.

Directing/Editing Videos for Businesses

After leaving my job at a coworking space based in Boston called Workbar, I reached out to some friends I knew through that job who worked for the Techstars Air Force Accelerator. It turned out that they needed a few videos, and luckily, they decided to hire me to direct/edit them.

This year, Techstars hired our team again to do a number of videos on the program (see below) which led to being hired to produce one for Techstars/Blackstone Launchpad's Startup Weekend at UCLA. And wouldn't you know it? Right after that, Workbar hired us to produce a video for them as well.

A few months ago, a robotics company we met through Techstars hired us to do a video as well. I also did producing and/or editing work through The Video Garage for Cruz Construction, BKM Marketing, Korg synthesizers, a fancy health tech VC event, and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) this year. Fancy.

Lessons Learned: I was surprised to learn how many companies of a variety of sizes and industries that I reached out to (via cold call, connection, networking, etc) didn't think they needed a video at all, or who believed they could create effective video content with a strong ROI without much effort or experience, or who's budget expectations were far different from what was possible in reality.

But I was also reminded that building authentic relationships with other humans, (which is innately valuable on its own,) can also present business opportunities.

It's taken over a year, but working together with Roger Metcalf at The Video Garage, we have helped each other build business for both of our companies to collaborate on, and we continue to grow and improve creatively as we do.

The lesson here is to take the long view, focus on building strong relationships, and enjoy your successes while learning from your mistakes. That, and surround yourself with people who will share in your journey with all its ups and downs. Who knows if you'll attain the "success" you're seeking, but with good people around you, you not only improve your chances, but it makes the journey just as valuable as the destination.

Produced 6 Events Within 12 Months in LA and Boston

After leaving my role as head of events at Workbar, I knew I still wanted to be involved in producing events to bring people together and build community. Thanks to a the Community teams at a few WeWork locations in the Boston and LA area, I was able to put on 6 events in a year covering a range of topics such as Women In Tech, Content Marketing, Animation, just to name a few.

I am passionate about building community, bringing people together, and creating unique events. And while I would put on these events regardless, my hope was that my efforts with events would help me get a full-time job, or perhaps a paid event gig, or even just help to build my network. Ultimately, none of that really happened. But I learned some stuff. I know, because I was there.

Lessons Learned: I learned that I was able to consistently get 100+ RSVPs (with a varied amount of actual attendees) for a wide variety of events at a few different locations and on both coasts. I've put on events with far larger attendance than that in the past, but it was nice to see that without any corporate backing or much of an existing audience, I was able to consistently draw a crowd.

Another takeaway I received was that these events amounted to a mitzvah, a good deed, that helped others build their community and network, but not really doing the same for me. And since the events were free, I learned that if I want to put on events, my expectation needs to be that the purpose of them for me is to simply help others and to have some fun.

I knew this already to some degree. But the hope was that by partnering with organizations such as the American Marketing Association and Boston Content, and folks such as a showrunner for a Dreamworks/Netflix series and an organizer of one of LA's longest running and prestigious film festivals, that I would be receive some sort of return other than the feeling of a job well done.

Though the events didn't help me find work, demonstrably build my network, or increase my profile in the business community, I do derive a lot of joy from putting on events.

The lesson as I see it is to appreciate things for exactly what they are and how they are, not what I hope for what they could become. Another way of putting it is to not have expectations beyond a certain point. I love putting on events, and that's enough of a reason to continue to do them, just under different circumstances and expectations.

Podcast and Blog Articles

Listen to Episode 1 of the "That's What I'm Saying!" podcast 

After doing a podcast interview (see blog recap here), I decided to dive into creating a regular podcast myself. Similar to creating events, it didn't take much to get it going. I emailed a handful of friends who all said yes and with a little scheduling effort, I had the first batch of shows completed.

I interviewed a handful of my friends and also recorded a few episodes that are just me telling stories or offering business tips.

Lessons Learned: The podcast doesn't have much of a following, but I really enjoy working on it. I also like the idea of having some sort of record of the people I've come across in my life and the stories we have to share.

I'm sure there are ways to grow my audience via SEO, networking, maybe even paid ads, and other promotional tactics, but ultimately, I haven't had much luck building an audience in a year of trying. That all said, the lessons I took away from my podcast experience are, first, it's always good to stretch your legs creatively and to try something new. And just like most things in life, success with podcasting requires a consistent and focused effort as well as a mindful trial-and-error process. On another note, podcasting also helped me become a better interviewer and better listener overall.

Travel

Due to my remote working/gig work style, I was lucky enough to have another year of traveling every month. I was able to travel to visit family and friends in Vermont, Connecticut, Palm Springs, Essex, Las Vegas, Utah, Idaho, and NYC. And I spent time in Los Angeles and Boston pretty much every month.

I also had a Western state roadtrip plan that I had to cut short mid-way because I received a well paying last minute video producing gig that I didn't want to pass up.

Since these travels aren't business-focused, I'm not going to share the details here.

Film Screening

We will be screening a couple other films that I directed and/or produced along with the music video at the December event, including one that won Best Romantic Screenplay at the Woods Hole Film Festival

Lessons Learned:

Don't give up on your creative vision and always trust your gut regardless of what doubters may say. I mention this because one of the films we were invited to screen in December, we did 5 years and 19 festival screenings ago, but a fair amount of people told me back then that they didn't like or understand the film...and even now I hear that once in a while.

Most indie films don't get invited to screen beyond the first year or so, but getting invited by different festivals for 5 straight years (even to small screenings) feels pretty good. The lesson is, some people will "get" you and your work and some people won't. For me personally, the question of whether my art is a success is answered by asking myself: Do I like it, is the art true to myself, and did I enjoy the process creating it?

Acted in a DYI Horror Film Created by My Family

Speaking of enjoying the process, I acted in a scary movie that my sister directed and edited using her cameraphone that starred our extended family and a few friends. We even had a fancy premiere and after party for it. The film is the third she's done over the past decade or sowith our family as the stars and it's just a fun and silly thing for the whole family to participate in. It's hard to complete a movie of any scope, so I appreciate and admire my sister's hard work and the passion she has for it.

Lessons Learned: It's pretty cool to have a creative project that 15 or so of your extended family can collaborate on, especially something that is so much fun and brings so much joy.

The lessons I take away from it is for me to appreciate the precious time I do get with my family and close friends.

Another lesson for me is to be sure to spend regular time doing something creative and without a huge goal in mind.

Hobbies have a way of turning serious as you get better at them and invest more time and money into them. For me, I'm reminded that I want to carve out regular time to put energy into creative, joyful, or silly pursuits that aren't connected to my usual pursuits or business goals.

Content Marketing / Customer Success for Software Company

I was excited and grateful to rejoin the team of a softwares-as-a-service company that I first worked with when they were a startup. I do content creation, email and social media marketing, and customer success...and I get to collaborate with a hardworking, supportive, and fun team working toward a common goal.

Lessons Learned: Working with a supervisor and a team who understand your value and have your back is everything. And thankfully, I definitely have that with this company. I also really enjoy having an "energetic outlet" and focus other than the film/music/etc projects I tend to focus on.

Companies get higher quality work results over a longer period of time from employees if they invest in and believe in their employees as individuals. And of course, employees benefit by growing as an employee and a human being. You think that'd be obvious, but in my experience, that isn't always the case. I've worked at a few companies in the past where the leaders didn't understand or care that an employee who isn't supported and nurtured by the company will burn out likely sooner rather than later which in turn will cost the company time, money, other resources, and a "company culture drain".

The lesson for me is to be grateful that I work with a company who "gets it" and for me keep all this in mind so that I remember to "get it" when I hire folks for my various business endeavors.

Oh Hi

Wrapping things up: This year was full, fun, challenging, heartbreaking, amazing, joyful, tough, stressful, challenging (once more with feeling), unbelievable, troubling, good, so and so and on. I know, because I was there. (That line is a reference from the 80's movie, "Clue." It just feels good to type that once in a while.)

One other lesson that I wanted to mention is that as trite as it may sound, none of us know where life will take us next, so we might as well try our best to enjoy the moments along the journey...and hopefully learn a lesson or two along the way.

I'm going to cheat here a little and end with what I wrote in the blog article that kicked all this off:

"Life tends to unfold one way or another whether you know where you're headed or not. Luckily for me in the case of 2018 (and now 2019), it unfolded in mostly wonderful ways. These days I'm trying my best to appreciate my past, to learn from it, and apply what I've learned towards this new year ... and then probably blog about it. Stay Fancy Yo."

So there's that. Woo.

About the Author

Jeremy Jed Hammel got his start working in TV production in the production offices for NBC Late Night, eventually doing some producing work for "Later" and talent research for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".  He also worked in the production offices of the drama "ER." In the independent film realm, he has produced or directed 15+ short films that screened at over 140 film festivals including one that won Best Film at Comic-Con San Diego and has over 1 million views on Youtube.  On the commercial/corporate side of video production, Jeremy has produced, directed, or edited projects for clients such as Techstars Air Force Accelerator, Startup Institute, the Cambridge Innovation Center, UMASS-Lowell, and Alienware/Dell computer, among others.