Welcome back to another newsletter. As always, the format is simple:
- The latest from me
- Ideas I’m thinking about
- Resources that are upgrading my quality of life
And yes, we’re switching this format ever so slightly to move latest to the first section as an experiment.
Let’s get into it.
The latest
It’s been a while since we’ve last talked. It might be the middle of summer, but I’m heads down, focused on my craft and building this business and my clients’ businesses. I’m adapting to MacOS with this incredible MacBook Pro, saving up for the full-frame camera, improving skills — especially in photography —and working towards raising my rate for Q4.
Creator reflection, Q2 2022. If you’re interested in reading at length (emphasis on length, coming in at 10K words), about my ongoing journey of becoming a creator, I recently wrote a public reflection. In it, I cover the goals I’m working towards, how I moved forward, the ways I need to improve, and the key lessons I’m learning.
No other content at the moment because I’m so behind with this backlog of footage and I’ve done quite frankly a terrible job of doing anything besides freelance and improving my craft on the side. But I’m close to resuming.
Ideas
You’re not paid for the time you’re working, you’re paid for the result you deliver. Even when you’re trading your time on an hourly basis.
Talk to people years ahead of you. Communicating with some videographers and editors over Reddit has me wanting to raise my creative rates higher and higher. The environmental exposure helps improve your standards to such a higher degree.
Chose an industry, position & situation that allows you to perpetually be paid more and more based on your skill. Long live meritocracy.
Instead of getting good at video games, get good at life. Life is the ultimate video game.
Retention is the most important thing on every platform. Not the hashtags, sounds, etc. — but rather how long you help keep people on the app, especially within your specific content.
They want us divided, they want us fighting. The easiest way to conquer the group is to first cause a civil war so they take out each other so by the time they’re ready to fight the group, the group has reduced themselves to a small fraction of the numbers and power that they once collectively had.
It’s time to forgive the other side (save for the extremes — fuck ‘em both). It’s time for us as people seeking the truth to let go of our anger for how they treated us, be the bigger person, and make room for people to join team common sense once they’ve woken up to what’s really going on.
“Personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion.” —Andy Frisella. It’s easy to get lost in politics and be angry at how fucked up things are without any clue of how to fix it. What can you as a single person do to counteract all the evil in the world right now? Improve yourself, your world. Seek truth, share truth. Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally. Become completely independent. Build the necessary skills, mentality and lifestyle to be in a position to reject whatever they throw your way. That way, they can’t control you.
Communism won’t be implemented directly, but rather indirectly, through seemingly virtuous causes. It’s actually shielded by progressivism, which you can verify by looking at what progressives support and what the communist party of America supports — they’re exactly the same. Reject the various do-gooder movements hijacked by evil at all costs, because almost all of them are tools to move the global communistic agenda forward.
Spend time sitting by yourself, and calmly asking “why”. It’s amazing what you’ll figure out.
Resources
M1 Max MacBook Pro. To have something work so fast that I don’t even think about is a must-have within professional creativity. Such incredible technology and an insanely worthwhile investment. I’m so grateful to be a Mac user.
External monitor. After editing for over a decade on laptops, I finally made the jump and got a 4K 32-inch monitor along with a magic keyboard & mouse. This investment has levelled up the quality of my life so much and fundamentally changed my process for video editing with all this newfound screen real estate — it feels massive. As well, paired with the speed of a mouse, I can’t go back now — my eyes are open to all the untapped potential I’ve previously missed out on.
JiDion. After discovering “DeMarcus Cousins III” through his Impaulsive episode and 20 vs. 1 Sidemen episode, I got completely hooked and I’ve been bingeing this man’s content over the last few weeks. Arguably the funniest man on YouTube, producing some of the best content in the game. Even though he’s already at 5 million subscribers, JiDion is just getting started because this man is going to the hall of fame.
How to become a better photographer through visual exercise by Sean Tucker. This photography video on developing one’s eye and vision had a major impact on how I view photography. After watching this, I’ve spent a lot of time in day-to-day life just framing up shots in my mind and/or using my hands as a frame. As a result, my eye for photography has improved.
The list of communistic objectives from The Naked Communist (1958). This rocked my world when I read through this and saw that from my perspective, 60%+ had already been achieved. Do you see how close we are now?
Westworld S4. Such an incredible season. I enjoyed it so much that I’d rank it second to the first (which I deem the best season of TV that I’ve watched).
That’s all for now. Until next time, be well.
—Josh
