Make Friends and Influence People

While talking to a mentee today, I realized that I must not have linked to my V-Day Post from my personal blog yet. Well, now I have. It's a post that deals with Taco Bell, and I've been wanting to post this picture for a while, so here it is:


"I'm just doing this between films."

Okay, that's done now.

I didn't get much done today in the formal sense (I'm even writing this post late) because one of my mentees came by, so I dropped everything to "talk shop" and expand our filmic knowledge. Both good things. Plus, this allows me to be an integral part of his life and formation; a job I take very seriously.

But, if I were to follow the advice of the marketing guru I get materials from, I am doing this all wrong. Or, at the very least, I'm not setting myself up to be productive. "Time Blocking" is required to keep the "time vampires" from draining your day away. It's how you avoid the "Have you got a minute?" interruptions that make it impossible to be really productive.

And it's true. I didn't get much BTS cut today. I'm only now posting on the blog, and I certainly didn't grow my business, come up with a new marketing ploy, or earn any money after noon.

But I'm okay with that.

I did do something important: I met with a kid who's making media. Was I able to radically change his life today? Did I take him from novice to master?

No.

But that's not how life works. Life is a slow process--painfully so for me--that works itself out as we age and interact with others. My mom has a saying that she uses when people do particularly destructive things to others: "Oh, that's one way to make friends and influence people."

And in this case, it is. And someone's got to do it.

So, sure, I wasn't very productive today... but I hope that will pay out in the long run.

~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor