A Moment of Perspective
A couple weeks ago I had a bad lower back injury while doing some simple stretching in my office (pretty lame way to get injured, right?). I could barely walk even with assistance, and couldn't sit up without excruciating pain. While lying impaired on my couch at home, I realized how much I appreciate the support and compassion I feel from my coworkers and boss. This prompted the writing below.
I’m in my eighth year working at Around the Corner Productions (ATCP). Since graduating college in 2018, Eric Braley, our president and CEO, took a chance on me. I’ve been grateful for this opportunity ever since. The ATCP team has been fundamental to my growth, both professionally and personally.
Reflecting over the past years, I’ve distilled my love working here into three fundamental principles: Passion, Trust, and Care.
Passion
When I joined ATCP in 2018, I was eager, inexperienced, but driven to give 100% to every detail of every video. Our Creative Director, Jacob Meade, cultivated this passion, constantly pushing to expand our skills and evolve our creative approach. Working alongside Jacob taught me the importance of investing time, care, and a piece of myself into projects. He guided me on how to discern the best way to allocate my effort, helping ensure we give every project the attention it deserves while remaining within its budget or timeline. Over time, my confidence on set grew through our collaborative work. I have many fond memories of sitting by his side while he edited, leading me through his creative process.
Those early years allowed me to flourish, finding creative avenues within the constraints of each project.
Beyond being inspired by my coworkers’ dedication, the team supports and even encourages me to explore my own passions and let those interests guide my role. Having a natural knack for technology, I gravitated toward becoming the in-house IT Technician. I’ve been trusted to build editing PCs, set up servers, route ethernet, develop remote editing solutions, and create our website all because I genuinely love doing it. Even if a task takes me longer than a professional, this freedom is invaluable. Filling roles I’m passionate about contributes significantly to my personal fulfillment.
Trust
While working at Around the Corner Productions, I’ve stepped into a variety of roles from “tech guy” to “audio expert.” Throughout these various evolutions, the team’s support has been immense. My knowledge wasn’t instantaneous; I’ve made plenty of mistakes. Yet, I’ve never felt that time was wasted because the team gave me space, trust, and support to learn and grow. There have been times when solving a server or PC problem took days or weeks, but I never felt like I was letting anyone down. This continuous empowerment is what allows me to succeed.
It’s important for trust within a small team to be universal, but that doesn’t just happen automatically. It takes time to build the mutual confidence that everyone is putting in the hard work. Eric models this from the top down. He is always willing to work the odd hours to ensure the rest of us feel comfortable with our own commitments. This leadership inspires the whole team to collaborate and support one another. We do our best to recognize our collective hard work and never take those efforts for granted.
Trust is also allowing others to take control, learn from mistakes, and explore. I’ve definitely been given that opportunity, and as our team expands, I’m focusing on better extending that same opportunity to others.
Care
Leaving the best for last: nothing else matters without a caring team. I’ve always believed that personal life comes before work, and ATCP fully supports this. We all have important, stressful, and time-consuming things happening outside of work. There’s an understanding that our job is there to support our personal life needs and wants. Since hiring me to the team, I’ve always felt this understanding from Eric, and it’s a big reason I feel at home here.
The team here sees each other as complex, whole people. We support the individual first, before the work we do. Scheduling is flexible, mental health is openly supported, and individual needs are consistently met and exceeded through empathy and flexibility. Working at Around the Corner Productions is truly a unique experience, and I feel very fortunate to be part of it.
I especially want to give a shoutout to Prushia Golden, who demonstrates a remarkable awareness of her colleagues’ stress levels. She consistently checks in to see if my workload is manageable and has proactively stepped in to assist me when things get heavy. I find it difficult to ask for help, but Prushia instinctively recognizes when I’m overwhelmed and steps in to help. Her support means a lot to me.
Jack smiles and waves at Devin getting a sneaky shot while filming during harvest.
A Shared Future
Of course, we are not perfect. As we grow, challenges do arise, especially as projects become complex and workloads increase. In the midst of busyness, it can be easy to lose sight of the passion for our work and the value of our team. However, with a strong foundation built on a shared passion, trust, and care, we are well-equipped to face these obstacles and continue growing.
Thank you to all of the Around the Corner team for fostering this environment and creating a place where I feel I belong, can flourish, and can help build something great for years to come. I am excited to evolve alongside you all in the years ahead!
