It's been a crazy 2 years. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we've had to re-evaluate our lives. How we work, how we interact, how we see hygiene, everything changed in a matter of days. Our lives and perspectives have forever been changed, and from our standpoint, it changed right before the lockdowns even happened.
On February 1st, 2020, our son was born. We decided in December of 2019 that we were going to take a break from everything so we could focus on the pregnancy and raising our son in the first few months. Little did we know, the world was going to take a break with us. Restrictions were implemented and we saw how it was going to impact us as a small business once we decided to make our way back into doing projects. I made a little post saying that we were still going to do remote things and just left it at that, but as time went on, I noticed that I was less focused on getting new business and more focused on what my son was needing. I already had a full-time job so doing more projects just seemed like it would be too much at the time.
I then left that job in 2021, when it seemed like everything was calming down and we thought life would get back on track. Of course, we were wrong, but at the time we didn't know. While I didn't have a full-time job, I spent my time trying to get new projects going. I found out real quick that the landscape had changed dramatically. Businesses were either struggling to stay open, about to close or weren't looking to spend any money on my services. I understand because I was doing the same thing, but it worried me because I thought that if it was like this now, what is it going to be like if we don't get out of the pandemic?
Eventually, I found another full-time job at the Better Business Bureau as their Cinematographer and marketing assistant. I thought that this would be the best thing I could do for businesses since they would be using my services through them and get a ton of value with a great name behind it. Little did I know, that everything wasn't what it seemed at all. I had a completely two-faced boss. They plagiarized my work by saying they did it themselves and not me, talked about me behind my back, you know the typical office drama stuff that goes on, and constantly lied about giving me raises and commissions on the videos I was doing for businesses. I realized that the decision I made in joining the BBB was a huge mistake because all it did was further a single individual's reputation in the eyes of the public while they trashed mine. I've been in that exact situation before so I wasn't in the mood to deal with that again. So I distanced myself from everyone and started looking for a new job. In the midst of all that, we found out we were going to have another child, a girl, the first granddaughter to be born in both my and my wife's family. I eventually found a job just in time to leave a sinking ship before things got out to the public.
In 2021, we lost 3 members of our family, my grandmother, my wife's grandfather, and my father. My father died right before Christmas and before he could see his first granddaughter. It's been a rough year for my wife and me and the last thing I wanted was to start this year in worse shape mentally than when I started in 2021. Of course, being a new father again comes with its pros and cons but the mental issue is still there. My new full-time job is very gracious and understanding about everything that I've been through, and they know everything that has happened and thankfully hasn't judged me about it.
You may have just read that and asked, "Why is he still looking for full-time work when he has his own video production business?" The simple answer is this, it's not guaranteed work. My kids are too young for me to risk a lot and I'm not willing to put them through hardships if I can help it. Before my wife and I had kids, I didn't hesitate to get more work. Now I have to ask myself how much time is this going to take away from me and my family. I spent a good portion of my life alone because I didn't have a great relationship with most of my large family. I don't want to make my kids feel like they aren't my priority and I want to actually raise them. If it takes time away from building my business, that's fine. I can still do regular projects that aren't time-consuming. I can still do films for myself. I can still be picky on who I want to help grow their business by either graphic design, website building, or making videos. I can still run South Town Productions. Keep in mind, my priority is always going to be my family and my kids. As the whole theme of this blog says, priorities shift all the time, you just never know where they're going to shift to when things happen.
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