Get in the Trenches

I had the great fortune of spending a week with Hangtime Media on a video shoot for the beautiful and eclectic Union Station Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Hangtime creates destination video content that is unparalleled and is setting the standard for drone videography.   I’m a highly active member of the Board of Advisors of Hangtime and have been involved with the business for the past 2 years or so.  Assisting with the strategic planning and direction of the company is extremely rewarding and I’m honored to work with such talented and creative individuals.

While I’ve seen the finished product and even unedited footage I hadn’t had the opportunity to see the process from front to back onsite with the venue and felt that in order to truly provide quality advice to the company I needed to witness the inner workings first hand.  If I never see the process myself how can I help operationalize it and grow it?   Throughout my career I have worked to understand what the projects are from a technical standpoint and translate those into non-technical terms.  As a lawyer, it’s impossible to write an agreement for a technology if you don’t understand it.  From my perspective, this eagerness to learn and get involved has paid dividends back in my ability to build trust with my teams as well as helped ensure I guide the project to success.

So, I got into the trenches and learned how to set up and break down tripods.  I carried equipment around and moved furniture to stage rooms to shoot with video.  It’s certainly not a new lesson to managers but it’s one that many of us forget as we go through our daily routines.

  • Reset your thinking.
  • Plan out a trip into the trenches of your organization.
  • Gain a new perspective on the hard work everyone does.
  • Be inspired to develop new processes.
  • Achieve success.

I promise you this is a rejuvenating experience that will help you be a better advisor and leader for your organization.