[Kelly]
Hillary Cutter, the founder and executive producer of New York City-based Cutter Productions. She is an industry leader in broadcast content creation and known for her long-form storytelling, as well as being a fierce champion for the inclusion of women in entertainment. This included hiring a 90% female crew for a documentary about the intersection of hip hop and fashion. She’s worked with a variety of clients including Disney, Google, MTV, Sony, Ford, and so much more.
Maybe a good place to start would be to get a little bit of information about where you’re from and where you started out in your career.
[Hillary]
I’m originally from Massachusetts. I was raised in a suburb not too far from Boston. I always had my eyes set on a career in media. Just growing up I was really fascinated by news media and just content creation and even from like the early days of junior high or high school projects, I always liked to integrate media into any of the projects that I was creating. I entered Syracuse and was a TRF major and definitely had a focus on the production side the industry. I’m not sure how the the major is structured nowadays but back when I was there, you could either do a production media or writing track and I was definitely on the production track. The one thing I identified really early on in my college career was that I liked the project management side of the business. When we were forming different groups for our various projects, whether it was multicam or single cam or documentary or narrative, I really liked being the person who put the project together and help lead the creators. A lot of people in my various class projects wanted to be the writer or the editor, and I really just wanted to make good content and work with a strong, collaborative team. I took those interest on to you know into my career.
So when I first graduated, my first gig out in the industry was working for a short form production company. I didn’t know a lot about commercial short form content production. I felt in Newhouse we were learning more about longform narrative, TV, and episodic studio projects. You can use your production interests and skills for short form media. What I mean by short form media is producing content for advertisers on branded content you know for brands and a lot of times TV networks have short films and interstitial that they run in between the television content. There’s a whole world and content creators that focus on the short form world and that content. The first gig that I had out of Newhouse was working for a content creator who produced work for NBC, ESPN, and HBO. I loved the fast turnaround of these types of projects. You might get an assignment on Monday and you’re delivering a 30 or 60 or two minute video piece within two weeks. I loved the short turnaround and the different variety of projects you could work on in that setting. When I was working for this first company, I was the right hand to the head of production and to the managing director of the company. I was dealing a lot with contracts and budgets and deal-making and deal memos, using a lot of that communications law curriculum that I remember learning. I just really loved nurturing talent and really early on in my career I identified sort of the area that I was interested in and it confirmed that it wasn’t interested in the creative.
[Kelly]
Could you give us a little bit of background on a challenge that you’ve faced that you’re still facing?
The advantage at the beginning of starting my own company is, in 2005-2006 it was at the beginning stages of Youtube. When I entered the industry in the early 2000’s, there was still very much broadcast production and advertisers were spending millions of dollars on TV commercials. There was the ad media spend that could support really high production dollars. But then when video content was moving digital, advertisers didn’t want to risk spending millions of dollars on a 30-second pre roll ad that might have a really short shelf life. They wanted to produce content at a much lower price point. But the real challenge for industry folks like myself and people who kind moved up in the high-end content creation world, is that advertisers don’t want to risk and spend all their money on a 30-second spot that’s only going to run for a couple of weeks. But we still need all the tools and resources and we need to pay all of our crew members, and our vendors, and our partners to execute pieces. So whether or not a commercial is going to be airing during the Super Bowl or it’s going to have a two day or a 48-hour run on Instagram, you still need someone to write the script and you need a director and wardrobe and makeup. There’s still hard costs involved in creating these executions.
The one thing that I had an advantage in 2005-2006 was I was young and I was hungry. I was willing to cut my costs to get an entry into a lot of potential clients. So that’s what I did in 2005-2006. I was a more cost effective partner to these advertisers who only wanted to spend $50-75,000 on a small video project. I was really able to build my company and my brand and my reputation through doing some of these short-form, lower-price content pieces.
As I was growing my company around 2010-2011, I really wanted to position myself for some of the bigger jobs and I created a roster of talent that my potential clients could then have access to to really elevate the opportunities for my company and my brand. We were sort of on this uphill scale of bigger projects. Then in 2016-2017, there was a huge shift in the industry where all the sudden even for broadcast quality content there was few and far between jobs that were willing to spend a lot of money. The industry was just becoming so competitive and there’s so many media outlets and there’s so many potential partners out there that brands and advertisers felt like they had to spend less unless it was like a huge Super Bowl commercial or it was maybe something for once every two years.
So what was really interesting at that time was I saw a lot of companies just not being able to keep up with the new trends and companies that had been very successful in the late 90s or early 2000’s had huge overheads and a huge payroll and didn’t have the ability to take on a project for less than $300,000. It would be a loss for them. There was no way they’d be able to turn a project. Whereas I feel I have built my company and our infrastructure on a smaller price point. Again, we are 100% all about high-quality and high-content. I would never take a job unless I thought it would be advantageous for us and if it was a good portfolio piece or it would open a door. So we take pride in the work we do we only want our work to be the best. We also just know how to really create content and just more cost effective price points. I saw a huge shift and we’ve definitely been able to keep up with the changing trends. I keep a really small team and I have low overhead for office space. I kind of started that business model because I had no other option, and when I scaled I was able to build out the team. Now when I see a dip in the budgets we’re still able to adapt and manage.
[Kelly]
You have a lot of things to juggle and a lot of people to manage, so what do you do to deal with that stress? You’re in a challenging situation. How do you handle that to be ready on the other side of this?
[Hilary]
We had tons of projects in development and shoots that were curtailed or pushed to a later shoot date. I think the strategy now, as a small business owner and as a content creator, it’s our job to be problem solvers and we just have to be there for our clients and be a support system and let them know we’re ready to shoot when the industry is allowed to open up again. We can come up with solutions to make film sets more sanitary if need be. I’ve talked to my film colleagues about how we think a film set is going to look a lot different after all of this. Coming up with roommate shooting situations if possible. If we have any patient documentary type videos if we need to produce, maybe it’s sending a camera system to a home instead of shooting in a studio. We’re not really there yet. Right now, on some of the projects we’re bidding on, the advertisers are still waiting to see if clients are willing to wait a couple months to release content or do they have an immediate need for content. Right now it’s really just being open, being communicative, being a problem solver, and staying in touch with my community so that they know we’re a resource until we can open up again.
[Kelly]
From your experience and from what you may have learned from peers in the industry, do you think that remote production and doing things in piece meal where you can put things together in a post will be a trend we’re going to see?
[Hillary]
So the really interesting thing is that it was somewhat shunned upon if you were a complete remote operation. A lot of times businesses who didn’t necessarily have full operational space didn’t overly advertise that they were a remote operation. For the last ten years, my friend has run a remote team and has done it very successfully and she speaks vocally about how the workflow works for her. She wanted to create a company that was really based around having a balanced lifestyle and she felt that office space would take away from maybe more vacation time. Whereas, I know some other peers just wouldn’t advertise the fact that they were working out of their home.
The big difference that is going to come out of this situation is that it’s going to be a lot more acceptable and people won’t have to hide the fact that they’re working from home. There’s a joke out there that the industry has been changing a lot and we have become remote. You used to have to go to an edit suite to edit but now people are editing on their laptops from home. I think the biggest change is that it’s been happening but I think a lot of people have been silent about their operational infrastructure. Now I think people are going to be a lot more vocal about what their work setups are. At the end of the day, it’s about executing really good content and whether or not you’re editing in your basement or you’re editing in a 20,000 square foot office. It’s not about the space. It’s about being a creator and having the skillset to create good content.
[Kelly]
That sounds like a silver lining. There’s a lot of negatives that we can focus on right now but really this change has allowed people to focus more on the abilities and the skill sets and it’s not so much where you’re doing it so maybe that’s something that we can take away as a positive.
[Hillary]
Another thing that my peers have been talking about is that on some of our film shoots, if we’re working with a big brand like Nestle or Ford, they’ll send like 15 people to a shoot. We always joke that they’re just coming to set to get out of the office. A lot of times they don’t really inform us on the people who are coming to set and then we will buy enough catering for 40 people and then 10 more people from their team show up. There’s too many cooks in the kitchen. I think the positive that’s going to come out of it is hopefully they’re not going to send 15 person crews to set anymore and they see it as a potential liability to send so many team members.
The one thing we’ve also been talking about is ‘you don’t need to come to set and get in our way, you can just Zoom in.’ We can give them the full experience from their laptop and we’ll probably be a lot more productive if they’re not breathing down our throats trying to share ideas that aren’t really helpful.
[Kelly]
Do you think that will have an impact on the number of roles that will be available?
[Hillary]
I think that it’s just going to streamline communication. When we’re producing a project the way that it typically works is that there’s a brand, say Google, and then Google hires an ad agency. Then the agency creates the concept and then they outsource the concept to us and then we execute it and bring the story to life. On the agency side, there’s an account team and sometimes the account team is four or five people — there’s an account director, account executive, and assistant account executive. On the project management side, there might be a producer and an assistant producer. On the creative side, there’s a creative director, a copywriter, and an art director. All those people have an agenda. The account people want to make sure that the marketing message is keeping their client happy. The creative people want to make sure their creative vision is being heard and seen. A lot of times, they’re still kind of working out the kinks while we’re on set and they’re sometimes eating up some of our film time. So my hope is that through this whole thing is that they’re getting sort of their streamline organization that it’s getting more aligned and that maybe the account creative and project management team can align before they come first at and then trust that maybe there’s only one liaison per team. Hopefully they can trust that they’ve collectively made a decision on how this project needs to be executed on the fact that we are going to hit all of the marketing points and we are going to execute our creative vision and we don’t need to be deciding on set whether we’re aligned with our thought process.
[Kelly]
It sounds like it might be improved efficiency and communication as a result of people being able to focus on the job at hand. A lot of people that are joining us today are thinking about the unknown and what’s going to happen in these next few months. There’s a lot that we don’t know and we know that everything is temporary so we’re going to focus on what we can control right now. What advice do you have for students in today’s time of the unknown?
[Hillary]
For the freshman, sophomores, and juniors, you’re obviously doing your remote learning and you’re executing your assignments. Continue to learn and engage as much as possible with your various class projects. I’m sure that some of your projects are being curtailed. I’m assuming that the filming component of it is being curbed until we can get back outside and start working as a team again. But I would really just take time to listen and learn and watch a lot of content. Start to get a sense of what direction you want to go in. If you’re on the production side, are you interested in cinematography, art department, project management. Do you think that you want to pursue a writing career in Hollywood? Are you interested in working for late-night or daytime? There’s so many avenues and areas that you could explore, so I would just take the time now to explore those opportunities. Obviously Syracuse has a massive network of industry professionals. I got my first job out of college through a Syracuse alum. I constantly use the Syracuse alumni community to get new contacts and pitch new projects. Half the people I hire are Syracuse alum. I would use this time to really research and gain more knowledge on what areas of interest you want to pursue and how to get that information.
One thing, I didn’t land my first job until August 1st. I did heavy networking during May, June, and July. So I used those first three months out of college to go on tons of informational interviews and I had calls and in-person meetings with as many people as possible. My first job that I got was cool. During my second semester of senior year, I would go down to the city a couple of times to meet the prospective employers. Early on in that year I met with a prospective employer for an informational meeting. At the end of July, the person I had met posted an opportunity on JobOps. It’s an amazing resource because there are job opportunities submitted by Syracuse alumni or people interested in hiring from the Syracuse alumni community. So I read the prospective job and it turns out it was the same person I had gone on an informational interview with. I emailed that person immediately and said ‘hey I don’t know if you remember me but I’m actually interested in that job you just posted.’ I really connected the dots to that meeting and so for the seniors out there, I’m sure you’ve had internships, so I’d be in really close contact with any of your former internship employers and see what might be going on in June or July. So May, June, and July are those are like the hardcore networking months. You know you don’t have to have a job on June 1st. There’s no requirement or rule out there that if you don’t get a job by July 15th your entire career is doomed. If anything, you want to take a little mental time off. I got my first job on August 1st and I’ve barely taken a day off since. Use the summer to relax, network, ponder, think about what you want to do, and don’t freak out or panic. The job market is going to be amazing for entry-level because all the senior-level executives are the ones who are in trouble. They always layoff from the top first and then they rehire from the entry level. So I just think for anyone who’s hungry and ready to dive into a new job in August, September, or October, employers are going to be hungry to have you. All my peers are the ones who have it rough. They’ve been in their executive or vice president roles for 10 or 15 years and they’re all getting laid off. I never worry about entry level. Entry level is always open for opportunities. It’s when you get into your 10 or 15 year mark in your career when things get rough because there’s a certain lifestyle that you’re trying to support and you have a certain salary cap that you need to adhere to to maintain the lifestyle that you’ve created for yourself, and also just for pure motivation and confidence.
My number one advice to anyone is you never stop networking from that very first job you get out of college. You continue to build the network and never get comfortable. I think that was the success of my career. Even when I entered the office of my very first job — I was there for two years — I networked like a maniac for those first two years in the industry because I knew I was working for a small production start up and I didn’t know what the future of that company was going to be. I didn’t want my future to depend on some small startup and I wanted to make sure that I was protecting my future. That company actually went under. I also experienced 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis so this is basically the third crisis I’ve experienced in my 20-year career. I had networked so much that I was unemployed for three weeks and I had a new job within a month from getting laid off from that first job. I wasn’t even unemployed long enough to collect an unemployment check and that was all because I was just networking so much. The number one advice I can give anyone is like never feel comfortable in your job, never take your eye off the ball, always keep moving forward, keep doing whatever you can to flex your creative muscles, stay relevant, and really just keep staying connected to what the industry trends are so that you can continue contributing in a positive way.
I’m so grateful for the Newhouse career center. It’s really funny because whenever I am mentoring and working with recent grads from other universities, I always say ‘hey have you checked in with your career center?’ and they’ll say ‘I don’t even know if my university has a career center.’ Be so grateful. The career center is the biggest gift you’re getting from Syracuse and utilize it as much as possible.
[Kelly]
I want to leave some time for questions but I do want you to read that email if you’re still willing to do that because I thought that was a really clever thing that the student did.
[Hillary]
I run a female mentorship program and we host biannual events that have different themes and we help match women in all stages of their career. The foundation of that was just really trying to diversify my network just so that the film sets and the board room meetings that I’m sitting in look much like the Zoom call we’re on right now — people from all walks of life, diversities, genders, class. I want my world to represent the real word.
So there’s a young woman who is not a Syracuse alum, she went to Emerson, but she was referred to me through another Syracuse alum. We were producing a shoot four years ago and we needed another PA and a PA on the gig said ‘hey I have a friend who’s looking to get her entry into the film business.’ So she sent me this email earlier this week, which I was really touched by it but I thought it was really smart and strategic and something that you guys should all think about doing while you’re out there in lockdown. Really just kind of taking a look back at some of the people who’ve maybe contributed to your careers or touched you in some way.
So she writes: ‘It’s been some time since we’ve been in touch. While I’ve been taking this time specifically to reflect on many things, I wanted to be sure to let you know how grateful I am that you helped me get a start in this industry, and don’t worry this is not a beg for work email (haha).’
I really loved that because the last time she had reached out to me she was looking for work. I thought it was funny that she kind of pointed that out. She was looking for work in a natural way. She had just wrapped up a gig and was looking for a new one. Now is not the time to ask people for a job. It has to be organic and you have to know that a real job exists out there.
She writes: ‘Had it not been for the initial two-day hire during the ABC upfronts in May of 2016 and your cutter connections that fall, I would not have continued to find work with you or in this tremendous field. So thank you again for initiating me into the world of production. There’s a lot to take away from each job and each interaction, no matter the length of the project, personal growth and professional growth interests will always be measured too. Best of luck to you and everyone. Stay safe and be well.’
I just thought that was a really smart, strategic, and touching email that she sent. The one take away from that was that she came out and worked on a two-day shoot and that was the entry into her career. The one thing to also share for the seniors is that you need to focus on what your interests are and try to procure a job that is sort of in line with that. But also any entry-level job or like a two-day opportunity is always going to open up doors to new connections, new collaborators, new ideas, and new skill sets. No job is ever going to hurt your career, it’s only going to help it. But the key is to just keep your eye on the prize because if you’re extremely passionate about being a documentary filmmaker, and you’re stuck in some job buying advertising in some ad sales job, that’s not going to get you to your goals. So it’s fine if you need the day job to pay your bills, but what are you doing at night or on the weekends in your spare time to really achieve the true goal of what you want to do? In 10 or 15 years down the line, you don’t want to wake up saying ‘oh I just stayed in this dead end job and I never pursued my dreams.’ You want to keep your eye on the prize.
[Kelly]
There’s a lot of things to like with that email she sent you. I think it’s a good reminder that you have to maintain your connections not to just reach out to them to get that first job and then fall off the face of the earth.
[Hillary]
That’s one thing that I was reminded of. For my networking events, I usually have 50 or 60 people at them. What shocks me is that half of them never stay in touch with me. Sometimes I might bump into them or I’ll reconnect with them somewhere else down the line and I’ll say ‘hey how come you never stayed in touch or who have you stayed in touch with from that event?’ Some of them will say ‘no one.’ Well if your career isn’t advancing, that’s your own fault. I just created an opportunity and I opened up a room so that you can engage with 50 new people in the industry. If you don’t follow up with any of those people then that’s your fault.
[Kelly]
It’s on you to take the reigns of your own career.
[Hillary]
I don’t sit and wait for the phone to ring.
[Kelly]
The other thing I just wanted to point out with that email is that that person was showing that she appreciates you as an entire person. She’s not just being like ‘what can you do for me?’ She’s showing that she appreciates you and wanted to check in with you and she’s nurturing that relationship.That’s so important.
[Hillary]
I was really impressed and inspired by that email. I think there’s a lot take away from that.
[Kelly]
You’ll have to tell her that you shared her email. I want to let other people ask some questions. Thank you so much for answering all of mine. So who has a question?
[Hillary]
Maggie. Wait Maggie do I know you?
[Maggie]
Yes. We talked last summer when I was doing the profile on you as a Newhouse alum. Last time we talked that Cutter Productions is very lean and nimble and you don’t carry a big overhead. That’s kind of how big productions are moving. From this kind of another crisis, how do you see the industry moving and companies adapting?
[Hillary]
I think companies are going to scale back. In the first week after this crisis, I was talking to a lot of my industry peers about a lot of companies that have been hanging on by a shoe string with huge office rents and large payrolls that they’re supporting. The projects just aren’t supporting massive payrolls. The budgets have shrunk massively in the last few years and I think a lot of companies were holding on and waiting for that next home run. We’ve had our glory days of million-dollar jobs and those sizable jobs just haven’t come in the last couple years. We might not get a million dollar job but maybe we’ll get ten $50,000 jobs. I think a lot of companies are going to be forced to take a look at their infrastructure and what’s really needed and who on the team do they need to keep on payroll to keep the machine going and who can I convert into a freelance role. A lot of business owners are going to be asking themselves, if not already, those questions on what they need on a day-to-day basis to keep the necessary profits to sustain the company and what steps I need to take to reorganize and restructure the team.
[Maggie]
Do you think every company is scaling back?
[Hillary]
I know for a fact because I have a lot of peers that have just been furloughed. Basically kind of from this perspective, right now there’s a couple of things going on. Companies with large staffs are temporarily laying off employees so that they can collect unemployment. The other thing that is out there is a payment protection program, which we’re applying for, and it’s basically a loan that you might not have to pay back as long as you can prove that you used it to keep it your business afloat. So really companies are just exploring different loans and grant opportunities to keep their businesses afloat for the next couple of months.
[Maggie]
Do you see any new opportunities in this time?
[Hillary]
When I entered the industry, the key was to focus on one skill set, so you’re a writer, you’re a producer, or you’re an editor. You can’t really share more than one hat or you’re going to seem like you’re not strong in that one area. One thing that has been successful for us is a lot of our directors are hybrid directors. We have hybrid editors, hybrid directors DP’s that can play more than one role in any given job. That just makes them more of an asset to the project. I might not be able to pay their full director or editor fee on a job, but if I can at least give them a hybrid fee that is a well worth compensation, then they’re more likely to join. The one thing that a lot of people are doing right now, especially for people who work in the field if they’re a cinematographer or a digital tech, they’re thinking about what skills they have that they can apply to a more remote situation. I’m sure a lot of my peers who have been doing the daily grind on set to pay the bills, but have this desire to write a screenplay. They’re probably staying at home hopefully writing an award-winning screenplay that will have come out of this. What’s happening is people are really exploring their personal interests and skill sets and figuring out how they can reapply them to other potential offerings.
[Jules]
I know you have experience both on the creative side and the business side, so what would you recommend to someone who has experience on the creative side who wants to jump into the business side of the industry? Would you recommend that they get their masters in business?
[Hillary]
I have more experience running my business every single day than most people with an MBA have. I’m in business school every single day. Coming up with everything from the startup phase to figuring out how I was going to have revenue to run the business, and managing projects. I’m everything from an HR director to financial consultant. My advice to you would be just try to get a job in the industry working in production, whether it’s working for a production executive being an assistant to head of production or a managing director, and gaining as much experience as possible. The MBA might be helpful down the road, but at the very beginning of your career experience is key. An MBA, if anything, will make you seem like you’re going to ask for more money than is offered in an entry-level position. I never got a business degree and I don’t think it’s required if you’re looking to be on the business side of this industry. But then again, I’m just one person with one person’s opinion.
[Ashley]
I’m a television radio and film major and my question is more job specific. Earlier you mentioned that you weren’t as interested in the creative side of the industry so you chose production management and I’m interested in producing as well. I want to know how closely you work with the creative side of production and what the creative side looks like?
[Hillary]
We do work on a lot of branded content and so sometimes my clients’ role might be the creative producer. So that sort of rule is the ideation, if we’re working on a nonfiction branded content piece, it’s identifying potential characters that are going to be in the piece. Typically the way it works is an agency or brand studio will call us and they’ll want one of our directors to lead the project. So our director is the liaison with either their creative producer or creative lead. My focus has really been on project management, budget management, deal memos, and contracts. My creative’s job is, as soon as they’re assigned to a project, they’re working with the casting director on sourcing talent, working with the cinematographer on the look, feel, and lighting, working with the production designer on what the set is going to look like, working with the wardrobe stylist on how the looks will be designed. The creative producing and directing is very much focused on building the look, feel, visual aesthetic, the tone. On our marketing jobs, the director works to create a vision in line with what the client’s goals are and also hitting all of the marketing agendas too.
[Caroline]
You mentioned earlier that you liked putting all of the content together. I personally am the same way. What sort of skills and classes did you feel benefited you for those production leadership roles?
[Hillary]
You sort of have to create those opportunities for yourself. For example, I remember there being an introduction to production class my sophomore year. I remember my classmates being so dead set on being the director. I think it’s kind of like the luck of the draw if you’re paired up in a group of four or five. You can just say ‘I want to be the producer.’ It’s just sort of vocalizing the role that you want to play within the group that you’re assigned to.
And then also extracurriculars. I remember working at UUT back then and I think it’s called Orange TV now. Doing extracurriculars outside the classroom that can position you in a production management role.
[Ori]
I am a rising senior advertising production student. Which kind of company do you recommend for a student who is interested in the industry but doesn’t yet have a lot of industry knowledge?
[Hillary]
Any entry-level job, whether it’s at a small production company or working at a big network, pretty much a production assistant or an assistant to a president. Typically entry-level jobs are just looking for hard working individuals who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. Whether or not you are an advertising or a film major, I don’t think that’s really going to impact the decision makers. It’s really just showing what your interests are and that you’re willing to show up and do a good job. If you are transitioning from being an advertising major and now you want to do a TV/film path, maybe do one internship just to get something on your resume that has TV/film/radio in it.
[Haley]
I was wondering how you knew that you wanted to create your own business?
[Hillary]
I definitely got the entrepreneurial bug during my first job out of college. It was interesting because I had tons of informational interviews mostly with TV networks and the only startup kind of small business that I had interviewed with was the place I ended up getting my first job. I loved the small kind of team aspect of it. In that job I got to see all of the roles and everything from pitching a job to landing a job to executing it to concept through completion. What I gravitated toward during that first job is that I loved building that relationship with the client and then also being their support system through the project journey. I wanted to create a voice in a company that represented a more diverse body within the industry. I think it was between liking working for a small company then also wanting to represent a bigger voice within the industry was like those two areas that was an impetus of starting my own thing.
[Student]
You were talking before about your friends who have been in your line of work for a long time. How are they feeling? Are they wishing that they had done more networking in their careers?
[Hillary]
I definitely have a lot of peers who run small creative companies that in the last five years have been downsizing. One of my mentors has been running her own shop for 30 years and she had a 25-30 person staff and now she has a five to eight person staff. On the business owner side, I have been seeing people scale back. Just realizing that you don’t have to have a huge staff to be able to provide great content for your clients. That’s just becoming more of a trend where clients don’t expect you to have a huge staff anymore. They understand the challenges of keeping your machine going. For the folks in the 15-20 year executive positions, I think a lot of them if they looked back at their careers and if they could have changed things up, they wouldn’t have stayed at the same company for so long. Now it’s not really trendy anymore to stick for that long. Most of my peers are switching every two years. If they worked for a TV studio or for an ad company or a marketing firm, they’re moving out and up every two to three years. Whereas it was more trendy to start with a company and stay there for 10 or 15 years. I would say the biggest lesson learned for a lot of those folks is that they were feeling to safe and insular in those companies and if they could turn back time they would have tried to diversify their resume a little bit more.
I don’t even think nowadays people are afforded the opportunity to stay somewhere 10 or 15 years. You don’t stay at a job that long anymore. It’s not a typical career path.
[Kelly]
Which isn’t necessarily the worst thing. It keeps you moving. It keeps you exposed to new tasks and responsibilities.
[Hillary]
What I love about having a freelance staff versus a full-time staff is all of the freelancers that come in and out of my office bring new intel from the outside world that I wouldn’t have if I just had the same person clocking in and out everyday. That’s the same when someone who moves from job A to job B, they bring new intel and gain new intel from their new company they’re working for. It’s a win win for the employer and employee.
[Kelly]
Well that’s a great note to end on. Thank you so much for taking the time.
[Hillary]
It was so fun meeting all of you guys. Just use this time to really educate, inform, and start to flex some of those creative or business muscles that you’ve been pondering over. Now is the time to explore and soak up as much information as possible.
