Meet Josh Emerick | Video Producer | Mentor | Husband & Father

We had the good fortune of connecting with Josh Emerick and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Josh, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
As a creative I find balance to be an interesting subject. I’ve lived on both sides and I think the real answer lies in determining your values, setting direction, and working with intention.

I grew up blue-collar and value hard work, so early in my career, I gravitated towards a mindset of endurance and somewhat suffering until a handful of situations created health issues and I started growing and realizing I was a leader responsible for others too. About 7 years in this really started clicking that my mind and ability to solve problems with strategy was more important than my raw ability to outwork a situation: enter work-life balance.

I’m a family man and having my first son provided a lot of clarity to this. These days I’m very in tune with my most productive hours, I study a lot of single-tasking and batch work approaches and systematize my workflows. This helps me be consistent and dependable to my family and my work. The hard part of being a creative is knowing you will never have a meaningful and balanced life, but I view it a lot like sprinting. I plan, strategize and sprint with a healthy recovery before the cycle repeats. This approach has felt sustainable and easy for me to communicate, setting realistic expectations.

It’s all a work in progress. Lots of reading and podcasts help me decide where I want to pull from to make my quality of life better. I adapt this constantly.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
On the surface, we produce music videos, but there’s a big differentiator that’s paved the way for success in a difficult industry to make sustainable. Our early mission was to help local artists stand out against the larger artist with label support and marketing dollars. With time that’s evolved and it revealed what makes our experience unique.

From a deliverable standpoint, we hand over high-volume packages so our artists have a project that focused more on marketing the material with strategy vs a single video. The struggle most artists have is connecting art to marketing and this is why we start every project with a deep dive discovery call to understand values, long and short-term goals, and visual hopes. From there it lets us translate feelings into art that can be formed into a schedule. It’s all about helping them connect and making it a win-win.

In the past two years, we’ve been developing our sister company, Myelin, with the same approach but targeted at service-based businesses. The through-line is relationship, clear understanding, and setting expectations early. Our top vetting focus for a project is client alignment. We either are a good fit or aren’t.

I think one of the biggest challenges in the video world is boldly taking a stand and challenging the norm. We constantly ask what our clients need and find ways to develop a VIP experience that lets us be creative, satisfied, and reach logical goals together. This approach has helped us grow and be transparent.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This question may get nixed as I am based in Zanesville, OH.

If I were to answer this it would be different.

Whenever I can hang out with a friend I like to experiment, but the main thing I look for is in designing an experience where we can connect and have a healthy conversation. I feel like so many people are starving for interactive and deep conversations so I focus on a quiet local coffee shop or small restaurant we can sit and chat and get lost in a conversation for a few hours. I like breaking the routine from my usual day to say as often as I can and when I can make someone feel heard it fills my heart.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Theres so many igniters I look at in my career that have paved the way for me. I see three categories; emotional, professional, and self-development.

Along the journey as a filmmaker I have evolved my identity and had to change who I am, which means you lose people along the way, but those who stuck by my side therapized me and truly supported me have my heart. My wife, Jessica, has been through it all, setting goals together and growing as a team. In addition, my business partner and creative match, Ross Theisen, has helped level me up, challenge my thinking, and tell me the hard truths. Lastly, my mother and father both gave me healthy obstacles, teaching me the value of my work ethic, and giving me a guiding set of morals that really turned into a business model.

Professionally I’m so thankful for the people at Ohio HD, Justin Howell, Rick Shriver, Serif Creative, Drew Hiles, Dylan Stanley, Gage Green, David Saltkeild Jr, and Kurt Drier. These organizations and people have shaped so much of who I am, who I became, and played pivotal roles in my growth in creativity and entrepreneurship.

Lastly, I’m a firm believer in learning to learn and accomplishing basically anything you want. I love spending 3-6 hours a week digging into various podcasts and books and some of them have deeply shaped and spoke to me. In Podcasts, I love Short Story Long, The Art of Charm, Impact Theory, and Grow Your Video Business. On the book front there are a few that helped me understand myself better and get through those clumsy growing pains; Profit First, The Sublte Art of Not Giving a F, Win without Pitching Manifesto, Start with Why, and Power of Habit.

x

Website: https://www.jecp.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmemerick/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO6Co_Lvwj6c7m9FuOUmTJw

Other: https://www.myelin.company/

Image Credits
William Wurzelbacher Vince Lundi