Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Workflow therapy discussions on media, asset management solutions and stories about media production technology. You get it here on the workflow show. I'm Jason Whetstone, senior workflow engineer and developer at Chesapeake systems. And I'm Ben Kilburg senior solutions architect at Chesapeake. In this episode of the workflow show creative journeys, we'll discuss our own journeys that led us to a career in media production technology. And we'll talk about common threads in those journeys and common skills that got us through the challenges. We'll cover the importance of finding great mentors and asking for help when you're stuck. And imposter syndrome is extremely common for those of our disciplines. So we'll offer some encouragement to keep you going on your own journey to becoming a creative technologist in the industry. So today we are pleased to chat with a return guest, our very own Louise Scheidler who heads up business development for Chesa here on the East coast. So welcome Louise.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 Thanks. It's really great to be back.
Speaker 0 00:00:59 Cool. Well, we're, we're really happy to have you back
Speaker 1 00:01:01 Back in the virtual sense. Yeah, exactly. Not in our happy little podcast studios, but we're making it
Speaker 0 00:01:09 Right. So listeners, in this episode of the workflow show, we're going to be talking about creative detours. So this is also known as, so you went to film school and now you're the it department notice I said, you, you are the it department not you're in the it department because I think some of our listeners have, have found themselves in that situation. So we been Louise and myself, our three creatives who ended up behind the scenes, working in technology and engineering. And we know that we're not alone. And this seems to be kind of a trend, a common theme amongst our clients and industry partners. So we wanted to kind of just delve into why that is. But before we get into that, we have a few quick things to ask of our listeners. First, you can reach out to us directly with questions and thoughts on anything at workflow show at <inaudible> dot com. And also if you enjoy listening to the work flow show, please subscribe to the podcast. So, you know, when the next episode is going to drop, so let's get into it. Um, Louise, let's just start with you a little bit. I mean, uh, let's talk about your individual journey. So where did you come from? What, what, what started your journey into this, into this industry and into this kind of,
Speaker 1 00:02:22 Yeah, I definitely did not go to school for what I'm currently doing in my career. And I've found that's the case for many folks in our industry space. I'm actually a journalist by training. I was the wordsmith, the copy editor, a little bit of print layout, and design on that. However, when it came time to get a job and what people were willing to pay me to do was installed software systems, train people, to use those systems and then provide help desk support when that software didn't work properly. So really quickly started honing those troubleshooting. And particularly what I like to call the question behind the question when people are saying X, but then you find out that their problem is really why.
Speaker 0 00:03:09 Yeah. I kind of call that spiraling out from the problem where you have this perceived issue. This is what people are seeing, you know, it's what the users are seeing and they tell you, they think they know what the, what the solution is. And sometimes they're correct. I mean, many times they're correct, but sometimes you really have to take a step back and see the whole picture and start with a spiral in the center where we think the problem is and, and, and sort of connect the dots. And oftentimes I find that the problem is somewhere else, it's not necessarily like right where we all think it is.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 Oh yeah, for sure. So I was really drawn to the spiral. You mentioned because it was this really tangible thing. Install this service, configure these settings on the server, push this button, do this, and that happens. And then if you get it all correct. And then things work that was immensely gratifying because I was giving people better tools to do their jobs and solving problems for them and this very tangible input feedback systems to work with compared to the wordsmithing realm that I had come from, as much as I love the creative writing and editing, and that brain work could be a lot less tangible at the end of the day.
Speaker 0 00:04:24 So I'm hearing that, you know, some key sort of bridges there between your training or schooling or background and what you're doing now, definitely like being a good listener, not necessarily zeroing in on one particular way to solve the problem, but being open to solving the problem in many different ways and kind of guiding them through a process, helping them decide, but really just communicating what you've learned to your team, to, you know, that that's part of journalism, right? So you're, you're listening, you're communicating that back to your audience and I'm hoping that they buy it, right?
Speaker 1 00:04:58 Yeah. And, uh, as our illustrious or your illustrious cohost, Ben Kilburg often says, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason in the listening, as well as another, can I call them Ben isn't, Kilburg isms, many ways to skin that cat and thinking and approach of what someone presents says I need X or Y is my problem. And they probably have an idea of what they want, but very likely they might not be aware of all of the options out there, which is a big part of what Ben brings to our conversations as a solutions architect and thinking about, Hey, have you heard about this?
Speaker 0 00:05:37 Right. Right. So if our listeners aren't catching that drift Louise and I work together on a pretty regular basis as a team. So one of the things I really appreciate about working with Louise is she remembers cool things. I say what I never do. So I get to hear these things the second time and be like I said, that I actually, I started my own notes in my own note card and my laptop, unfortunately I've lost it because something happened to that particular set of notes. But I had a note card that was things that I want to remember that Ben has said, just like these, just like these little antidotes that Louise just mentioned. He's a very memorable guy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, on that note, Ben, um, talk about your journey a little bit. So, you know, we, we have talked on the show before about the fact that you and I both have audio backgrounds. Um, so sure. Give us a summary of your journey.
Speaker 2 00:06:31 I blame it all on Eddie van Halen. Um, yeah, like, like we've talked about before a musician by training audio engineer, I guess I really got into electronic music in audio engineering after I had given myself tendonitis and both wrists, um, when I was maybe 18 or 19 and I couldn't play guitar very much. And so at that point, that's when I really got into computers and learning about middy and electronic music and, you know, keyboards and other ways to express myself in the medium. And from there, it, you know, it's snowballed into recording and, you know, having some of my first experiences in the studio and being like, Oh, look at all these blinking lights. This is awesome. And then from there, um, path led me to college where I studied, uh, music and audio engineering. And then after that I worked some temp jobs. Uh, I was a medical photographer for a number of years for the Wilmer eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, doing strange things like looking at cancerous eyeballs and, uh, learning Photoshop and working in the dark room,
Speaker 1 00:07:45 Probably not your typical dark room images are developing.
Speaker 2 00:07:49 No for sure. Like retinal scans and all sorts of strange things. I'm looking at the backs of people's eyes on a daily basis, which, you know, can be kind of beautiful in a way. But anyway, from there, the question is how did I come to Chesapeake systems? Well, um, our former co-host mr. Nick gold, uh, went to college with my wife and at a party at our house one day. Um, he happened around the corner and wind himself up in my studio and, you know, saw my, at that point G five and my studio rig and all of my acoustic treatment and everything. And he kind of stopped and said, Oh, you should talk to my boss. We could probably use your help.
Speaker 1 00:08:34 Not just everybody is hiding this in their closet.
Speaker 2 00:08:38 Yeah. Right. And so from there, uh, at the time I was working for a soundscape, which was a, an a V installers slash high end, um, audio, video retailer in, and I still have, uh, one of my best friends drew still works there. So shout out to my friends at soundscape, but the opportunity at Chesapeake to learn much more about the canvas and the background and the inner workings of max and the medium that I had grown to embrace was intoxicating.
Speaker 0 00:09:17 And, and so now, and, and you, you worked for Chessa as, you know, as, as an engineer, for, as a, you know, a infrastructure engineer for quite a while, and now we're doing the solutions architecture, but for our listeners, I was actually hired as the solutions architect, the first solution for Chesapeake systems. Right. And Ben and I kind of switched roles a few, a few months after that. I'm not sure how long it was, six months, three months, something like that. It became apparent to our corporate overlords that, um, I was, I was really good at building the ma'ams and the, those sorts of things. And Ben was really good at specking them out, so yep. Traded places. So, anyway, I mean, I have a pretty similar story myself. I mean, I, um, I I've been a musician all my life. Um, I still, you know, even, even given what I'm doing now, I still can really kind of primarily consider myself a musician.
Speaker 0 00:10:07 And, uh, you know, I've been, I know you would appreciate if anyone shameless plug for the King killer Chronicles series, that's a fantasy series. Those of us who, uh, for those of us who like fantasy novels, it's, it's kind of a tone, but it's a great story about someone who is essentially a musician and has all of these great adventures and becomes known as this like really interesting heroic character and sometimes tragic character. But at the end of the day, he's a musician. So that's, that was one of the inspirations actually for me, still referring to myself as a musician, but now I've always been into music at the same time. Always have been into technology, always have been into ever since I was a child, I've always been really interested by how things work. I wanted to take things apart and figure out how they worked to put them back together. Maybe make them a little better. Um, middle school, I got an Atari st nice. But you know, back in the day, that was a 6,800 based machine. The biggest selling point to me as a kid that wanted to make music was that it has a mini interface built into it. You don't have to go out and buy one. I really just played around with it as a, as a middle schooler. And you know, this is back in late eighties, early nineties, I'm dating myself.
Speaker 1 00:11:13 Hey, I had an Atari
Speaker 0 00:11:17 And, and you know, one of the reasons I went back so far back to middle school is because while I was in middle school, I started learning about programming and, uh, on the Atari, I remember my best friend. He got into coding too. And we started kind of like trading things that we figured out. And I started writing this program that was an interactive periodic table of the elements. So I'm sure everyone knows the periodic table, the elements, it's a big chart with all the elements on it.
Speaker 1 00:11:42 Okay. Thank you, Ben. Cause I was going to say nerdy,
Speaker 0 00:11:47 Very nerdy. And here's the, here's the weird thing about it. I am not into chemistry at all. I failed in college. I'm just full disclosure. I failed chemistry in college, so I am not into chemistry. I just, I saw this thing and I was like, wow, wouldn't it be cool if you could click on these elements and it would show you like all the stuff you need to know about them. And it had a quiz where you, you know, you could be asked questions about the elements and you know, what, what has the specific mass and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then there was also a screensaver and the screensaver was that if you sat for a period of time that the elements would start swapping places on the table and it was, it made a little noise and everything. It was, it was kind of cool.
Speaker 0 00:12:29 And it was all written in basic. So yeah, I mean, I don't know whatever happened to that actually. I don't know whatever number that program. I mean, I wrote it in, I think it disappeared when I was in college at some point, but that was kind of like my first foray into programming. And I didn't have any reason to do it other than like, this just seems like a cool thing to work on. I would work on it until all hours of the night, you know, just, I remember my dad coming up after falling asleep on the couch and telling me to go to bed anyway, in college, I remember my interview with my advisor and he was talking about, Oh, you know, there's audio engineering. And I was like, audio engineering. What's that? And he explained what an audio engineer does. And I was like, that sounds amazing. That's what I want to do. Right.
Speaker 1 00:13:06 Well, and Jason, I think that's a key point and that we definitely talk about it. Chessa of being involved in a given space. There are many things to be done in many facets that aren't creating the thing. Even I know our CEO, Jason Peck, when he talks about how he interned at Chesa and then he interned at a recording studio. And then I think he received job offers at both places and chose to start at the recording studio and then realized that he only ever really enjoyed the days of the office when things broke and he got to fix them.
Speaker 0 00:13:45 So again, it's that taking things apart, you know, figuring out how they work and fixing them, you know,
Speaker 1 00:13:50 So who's much more enthused by the troubleshooting and the technology than the craft of the audio mixing in that part of it. And so, yeah, even if you're not creating music, you can be involved in that from other facets. So yeah, the audio engineering being a prime example,
Speaker 0 00:14:08 Right? So, you know, fast forward college was I had, I started with a double major computer engineering and music and that did not end up happening, but, uh, then ended up in Nashville for a few years. And while I was in Nashville, Nashville is kind of a tough nut to crack with, with the music industry, because you are completely on your own. You have to make your own way. You have to kind of really figure out where you want to go and you've gotta be very diligent. You have to understand that there's lots of other people that are trying to do the same thing you are. You can just kind of have to hit the pavement and start doing it. And, uh, one of the things that I realized very quickly when I, when I got there, was that my propensity for trying to figure out and solve problems was really, really like, just like Louis said, that's what people were willing to pay me to. So I ended up being the one that would solve the ProTools issue in the studio that, uh, some that some people were having. And sometimes right around this time pro tools Ellie had just come out. So for our listeners, if you're not familiar with pro tools, Ellie, it was a version of pro tools that ran without all of the, um, really, really expensive at the time it was digit design hardware. You still had to make an investment in some hardware, but you didn't need, um, quite the amount of,
Speaker 2 00:15:19 Of tech that you did, right. For the HD version, it was running natively instead of using their big ass DSP cards.
Speaker 0 00:15:25 Yes, exactly. So all the DSPs, the signal processing was done on the host CPU, when that happened, a lot of recording artists started buying ProTools, at least systems, and they would hire me to set them up for them. So I became very, you were the guy. Yeah. I was the guy to like, Oh, these guys want a pro tools at least system. All right. Well, they, they bought all this stuff. I just have to install it and like set it up and show them what I did and all that kind of stuff. So, um, as you can imagine, that's very much akin to what I'm doing now. So I kind of got into that career path and, uh, ended up most of the work that I ended up doing after that was in that vein in some way, shape or form building the system and helping my coworkers, helping our clients build these systems that help them be more efficient, help them stay in the creative space and not so much in the, Oh, like here's a bunch of videos I have to transcode and a couple of them and do all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 0 00:16:19 Building those automations behind the scenes, people appreciated it. I saw them using this stuff. It felt very rewarding and gratifying, and I was a good problem solver and I was also very resourceful. So that's kind of what I want to talk, talk about next. If we could move the discussion on to what are some of the skills, what's the common thread in our stories. So I know for me, one of the things that I feel I'm very good at is I'm very good at problem solving. So again, that spiraling out from the issue and looking at the big picture. So I'm gonna make an analogy really quick to my background, my, my schooling, which is I walk into a studio, a recording studio, and I see a large format console, okay. A giant console with like, let's say 128 channels that screw it 256, you know, the console takes up the entire room.
Speaker 0 00:17:10 There's a patch Bay with spaghetti hanging out of it. And you're just like, Whoa, this is a mess. Like, this is totally a mess. And it's totally like, and comprehensible. And a lot of people would walk into a recording studio and be like, what is all this? Like, how do you figure this out? And it's all about looking at the picture and saying, okay, let's break it down. Where do we start? Well, you know, we only need to focus on one channel at a time. You don't have to focus on the whole thing. So let's start with the first channel. That's the kick, you know, the kick drum, what microphone is on that channel? What processing is it going through over at the patch Bay before it gets to the console? Is there anything post that, that whole signal chain? So it's really about understanding that signal, where do things come in?
Speaker 0 00:17:51 How do they get processed once they're in there and what happens to them after? And that's kind of very much akin to workflow consulting on workflow design, doing workflow therapy, you know, building media, asset management platforms, doing automation work, it's all about signal flow, right? Yeah. I'm right there with you. I'm working as a systems engineer and knowing our organization. So many of us came to video post-production by way of audio and also into the it realm and understanding, like you said, the signal flow from point a to point B, same thing with networking, same thing with storage. It comes from here. It goes to there somewhere in the middle. It does something cool.
Speaker 1 00:18:41 Say if I steal one of the Ben's analogies from earlier, see, I remember it I'm remembered one of your anecdote been about the artists and in order to make really cool stuff and create art, then really needing to intimately understand the canvas and the paints and what they're composed of. And even I was thinking vinta Amsterdam and Rembrandt's house and his studio. And he had, you know, apprentices and for a long time, the apprentices just mix the paints every day. Like that was your job, heat up the rocks, smash them, get the plants put in the oil so that Rembrandt could paint and having to understand all of those components that go into it. And how do you get certain colors? So then when it's your turn to paint and you finally get to paint, what all colors are available to me, how do I create those colors? How do they mix all those kinds of things have really better results in, in art by understanding that canvas front and back, and those tools to end up with a better final product. For sure.
Speaker 0 00:19:48 Yeah. And I mean, I think a really good, a really good thing to note here is that just because you are an assistant does not mean you are on the path to becoming a first, I don't know if that's, if that's a good way to put it, but like I was a second engineer in Nashville for awhile. I wasn't really sure where my journey was going to take me, but there were what, you know, what you would consider first engineers in Nashville, many of them. And just because I was a really good second engineer doesn't necessarily mean I would make a really good first engineer. I was better at understanding the technology. And especially when it came to digital technology, it took me a little while to wrap my brain around the actual analog workflow and audio. But yeah, the, the point I'm trying to make is that it's okay to realize that you like mixing the paints, you like coming up with new combinations of colors.
Speaker 0 00:20:37 You like, um, figuring out what rocks are going to make, what colors, and just focusing on that because somebody has to do that job. And if it brings you joy, go ahead and do it. And sometimes might pay even better than being a first engineer. Exactly. Exactly. So what strikes me about what we're talking about right now is that is, is this thing that we've, we've talked about it on the show before the imposter syndrome. Okay. So chances are you've, you've gone to film school, you've gone to music school, whatever it is, you've gone to art school and you're really good at solving problems, you know? And then suddenly you become the problem solver. You become the guy,
Speaker 1 00:21:14 Right? You're the guy, you pulled someone out of the ringer at the last minute. Now you're the go to guy and people keep coming to you to solve problems that maybe inside you increase anything. I don't know anything about this. Why do you think I can solve this for you? I'm not a miracle worker, but you've been labeled as the tech wizard. And from you're the expert. Now
Speaker 0 00:21:40 We become excellent at a game. I like to call, let me Google that for you. Uh, uh, for our listeners, there is actually a, let me Google that for you site. I highly suggest that you don't send, let me Google it to anyone, unless it's really a joke, right?
Speaker 1 00:21:59 Uh, definitely not anyone above, if you're feeling particularly snarky, you may want to vent and keep that to yourself, but not share with superiors.
Speaker 0 00:22:11 And you know, you'll, if you're not familiar with, let me Google that for you. You'll, you'll laugh out loud the first time you see it. So check it out. So yeah. Um, how do we deal with that imposter syndrome? I guess it really comes down to getting back to how did I get where I am? Did I get where I am by by luck? Well, maybe a little, but I got to where I am by being resourced,
Speaker 1 00:22:32 Transferable skills, right? Those skills still apply the things you did to get where you are, will continue to serve you. And, uh, this is just kind of a personal thing, but I often my own mantra of everybody's faking it till they make it right. Just join in even, uh, the aforementioned, my first job out of college, that then I was a position working with not working with, but in training training people much more senior than myself who had been in this industry for decades. And here I'm coming in like, Hey, here's this new software. Here's how you're going to do your job. Right? And I was very daunted by that. Like, what do I have to tell these people, right? They've been doing this longer than I've been aware that of this industry, but I did have a specialized set of knowledge that they lacked. And, uh, in order to enable them to do their job going forward, I was essential to that process
Speaker 0 00:23:34 Tools for, for handling imposter syndrome. I would say, first of all, I think the thing that's most pertinent to say today in 2020, we're recording this in August of 2020, everyone, 2020 has imposter
Speaker 2 00:23:46 Syndrome. There's so many, there's so many unknowns in this world that we're in today. Everyone's got a little bit of imposter syndrome, even the experts
Speaker 1 00:23:54 And the experts know how to call on resources and find the information. What did you say, Jason? Uh, earlier about Google? I am nothing without Google.
Speaker 2 00:24:06 I am nothing without good. Yes. I did say thank you please. I am nothing without Google and insert search engine of choice here. It's not just Google though. It's it's forums. I, I spend a lot of time reading forum posts. Part of the understanding that I think we have is that just because you can Google something doesn't necessarily mean you're going to find the answer as your first hit. You gotta be willing to dig a little bit deeper. You have to be willing to, you know, maybe go down, maybe even go to the second page of results and just look at what you see and be able to sift through the BS very quickly.
Speaker 1 00:24:42 And what did they call that fuzzy logic? I think it's actually called the math of, it's not an exact match, but it's close and you can take nuggets out of that to apply to your problem. And that's the, yeah, that's where your brain and your resourcefulness comes in and in pulling out what's useful and then how to apply it to your situation.
Speaker 2 00:25:07 And I th I think a lot of us who have been working in troubleshooting, um, in gaining competence in these skills, essentially know how to slowly and carefully methodically eliminate specific causes. Right? And if we can narrow it down to say, well, this is the thing we've, we've ruled out that it's these nine other things are not it. So clearly this is it. And bingo, it's it. Right. I think those are the skills you learn when your mastering anything, right? Be it an instrument, be it a medium, be it a piece of software. It's all trial and error and experimentation to read the fine manual and understand everything you can about the cool stuff that you love. One of the things in regards to imposter syndrome, that's so painful. I think for so many creatives is that we gain competence, right? At some point in our life, we felt like we were really good at something. Right. And then often that thing shifts, you know, the software changes, the studio changes. We move from analog to digital. We moved from HD to four K or SD to HD and everything changes, everything shifts change is the only constant. So sounds cliche.
Speaker 1 00:26:32 Cliche. Yeah. True.
Speaker 2 00:26:34 Got it. Really is true. Yeah. So with that in mind, the fact that change is constant. Don't be afraid to say, I don't know. Yeah. But also be willing to find an answer,
Speaker 1 00:26:45 Right. Don't stop with, I don't know.
Speaker 2 00:26:49 Right. I find that what keeps us, the people who do this kind of work and demand is our willingness to be, to relentlessly find a solution, right. Um, tenaciously find a solution. However you want to put that you may spin your wheels for a while and that's fine. That's all part of that. Fail, fail early fail often. But, uh, you know, I find that some of the problems that I struggle the most with are the ones that also facilitate a lot of learning during that process. So you may actually start Googling and reading forum posts, and maybe reading some product literature about a product that could help solve a problem. And then you may find your solution somewhere else, but you've gained all of this knowledge by trying to find that solution and get to it that will probably help you with some other problem that you're going to have in the future.
Speaker 2 00:27:40 Oh, I remember reading about that. You know, I remember reading about that when I was looking for this other information on this other issue I had, but I remember reading this thing. Let me see if I can find that link and you know, that can, that can help you out too. Yeah. And like Louise was saying as well, uh, there are organizations out there in people in your life that you're going to find teachers, if you set upon the road, you're gonna find a teacher. If you're trying to master anything, if you ask for help, often it will be granted. You just need to know where to where to ask. Right? Sure. We were talking about this a little bit earlier, before we started recording. And if we referenced the hero's journey for any of our Joseph Campbell fans out there, the hero essentially always finds the weird hermit in the woods who teaches them. The ways of the force is we're talking about Luke or, uh, it might be Gandalf showing up at your doorstep. If we're talking about a Frodo, um, or apathy and the King killer Chronicle, you got it. Right. There's the master or the teacher usually usually shows up and people are out there. Resources are available. Look at seek. And ye shall find,
Speaker 1 00:28:50 Yeah, I actually, I had forgotten about this, but actually at my first job, a number of the more senior folks had been there, you know, 15, 20 plus years. And actually one of them took to calling me young Patois and I called him obiwan cause I would like skirt, you know, we had, uh, cubes in the middle of the office and the managers had actual offices on the outside. And so I would like scurry into his office and you know, Oh, what about this? And so that was yes. Young Palawan, I'd forgotten about that. Very apropos for the current topic. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:29:24 So asking for help talking to, uh, those in your community, whatever that might be, that maybe have solved this problem and in a way that worked for them, talk to them about why it worked for them, what their solution was. Why did it work for you? It's all about research, right? That's all, that's part of that is all the research. Yep. Understand that. Just because something worked for somebody else doesn't mean it's going to work for you. Yeah. I think the other thing, um, if we're talking about imposter syndrome, the one thing that we should probably mention too, is a pitfall is the Dunning Kruger effect, which is the cognitive bias. That one can overestimate their own ability. Right. And miss, miss calibrate their competence and get themselves into serious hot water. So yes, it's always good to have people around you who can ground you and you can seek feedback from that you trust, even if you feel like you've got this, uh, it's good to have a sound.
Speaker 1 00:30:21 Yeah. And how many, uh, phone client phone calls Ben, do I say, keep me honest or you jump in and massage the nuance that I might've missed on the technical aspect.
Speaker 2 00:30:36 There you go. I guess I would add to what Ben just said about that sort of imposter syndrome and, and, and having that sometimes cause the over promising effect, it's one of those failures that you need to chalk up to fail early fail often it happens to all of us. Yeah. And I mean, most of us are pretty fricking insane, right. I mean, given, given the idea of fail early fail often, and it's this kind of mantra in and around a software and it, I mean, failure hurts, right. If, if we've legitimately screwed something up to be able to, you know, bootstrap, pull yourself up and get back in there again and try at a different angle that takes courage. And so for all of you out there listening, um, who might be listening to this podcast, clearly you're seeking resources, you're on the path already. Um, you've got some rocking skills and keep at it. Life, life will knock you down. You just gotta keep rolling. So let's shift on to talk about who and our journeys. And, and again, this is to relate to our listeners journeys who helped us in our journeys or some like things that happen in our journeys that really helped us out. Whether it was just with encouragement, it was a door that was opened. So Louise, let's start with you.
Speaker 1 00:31:53 Yeah. I definitely have to give a shout out to Cindy, the society of motion, picture and television engineers. They are the standards body that develops the framework ecosystem in which the technology of our industry operates. I always tell people the fact that you can go to any movie theater, this example doesn't work anymore. The fact that you can go to any movie theater in the country and see a movie and it projects and it plays and all that interoperability that's because of safety. I'm going to have to come up with better example. I mean, the fact that everybody can stream the same video on their variety of devices, that's because of CMT as well. And so very early in my time at Chestnut in our local D Washington D C section has an annual conference and I showed up the day and class was in session.
Speaker 1 00:32:41 I was fiercely scrawling notes on every speaker, like sort of trying to hide in the court background corner. Cause I was like, I don't know what any of these are talking about, Googling furiously Googling. What is that thing they just talked about and really building a base of knowledge from <inaudible> and now continue to be involved with them. And it's a lot of fun and seeing not, I'm not quite old enough to be the next generation, but seeing now more recent college grads getting involved in connecting them as the industry continues to evolve extremely quickly. And just also the huge benefit of working at Chessa and being immersed in what I call this creative technical mule, you and always kind of being in sponge mode in listening and what snippets picking up from colleagues as well as, yes. Thank you, Ben. You have definitely taught me much of classes in session and your patience in explaining things so that I don't sound like an idiot when I'm talking to customers.
Speaker 2 00:33:43 Yeah. And that's that, that seems like, you know, so that, that speaks again to that listening mentality of just keeping your ears perked open all the time. And if something sounds interesting, if, if you want to learn more about something, put that on the back burner of the mind and say, I'm going to go talk to that person when they have time about this particular subject, because it's something I feel I need to learn more about for sure. So what about you, Ben who's helped you or what resources have helped you? I've always been a pretty strong do it yourselfer. So I'm right there with you with, uh, Googling everything and finding answers all along the way. I've also had great teachers all throughout my career, both in music and um, in it, I mean, there's a reason I've been with Chesapeake for, you know, nearly 12 years now, the company culture is one that is really about support in creativity and helping each other. That environment really does foster lifelong learning and this field that we all work in. I mean, unless you're really into lifelong learning, things change so frequently that, um, you're always going to be recommitting new things into your gray matter because it's, the industry just changes so rapidly.
Speaker 1 00:34:59 Well, and that's such a great Testament to what I call the brace on day, tra of Chessa that lifelong learning is one of our company pillars. We're all about sharing the knowledge and equipping our industry peers that we bend Jason. And I know firsthand this stuff gets really complicated really quickly. And we talk to frustrated folks and see that so much lost productivity often can easily be avoided by understanding how things work by a straightforward explanation of, okay, do acts and avoid Y I mean, as we've about today, the three of us know personally that formal education options are often scanned on this front, that we recognize this gap that, you know, none of us explicitly went to school for exactly what Chesa does. And now we're working at a company that enables us to help others to fill in that gap. And that definitely excites me talking about the gratification of that light bulb moment when it all comes together for a client and you can help them understand and give them tools to better do their job and avoid frustration, you know, and then they're equipped to help their colleagues out and in their future employers and positions, uh, the, uh, all the virtuous cycle
Speaker 0 00:36:27 For me in terms of who or what resources helped me, like Ben said, I had a lot of really great teachers, uh that's you know, and, and, and all forms of schooling. I've had some really, really awesome teachers middle school, high school college, uh, and afterwards also, you know, this, I think speaks to the mentor that we, that we mentioned before, people who can see your potential and who are willing to invest in your potential, those are really great relationships to have because you can help each other out. They probably see your potential and think, how can I harness that, that, that power and use that, and you can help each other out, you know, that you can learn and also help at the same time, which is I think, great. It's fantastic. Everybody wins. Yep. I mentioned forums. I mean, I don't necessarily need to mention them specifically, but you know, one that helped me in back in the day was creative cow stack overflow was very helpful.
Speaker 0 00:37:22 It's still to this day, very helpful. Actually, some of my posts on creative cow were actually helpful in getting me advanced in my career because, because of my posts on creative cow, I got some phone calls that led to sure. Employment opportunities. So let's just put it that way. Uh, so that's, yeah. I mean, that's, that's always a cool thing. And, and on the forums, what, while we're talking about forums, I'm a huge proponent of the community learning through forums. Uh, if it's not something that you're really familiar with, I, I gotta believe that everyone has, has dealt with them in some way, shape or form, but, uh, there, there is a really important etiquette that goes into these forums. So if you're going to participate, um, it's always good to understand what that etiquette is. So that, that, that information, again, Google it, um, for Medicat, you know, the moderators and administrators of forums get really frustrated. And so do some of the users get frustrated when, um, different people keep posting the same question because they didn't Google it. You know, it's, it's one of these things. This is where, this is the whole idea of where let me Google that for you came from is because you're being asked a question that, you know, somebody could just spend five minutes doing a search for, and they'd probably find at least an answer. It may not be the answer they want, but an answer.
Speaker 1 00:38:38 Well, I think I was thinking about this beforehand, that the more people understand this stuff, the better that the more we foster a baseline of knowledge, that's widespread, then we can spend more time digging into the really fun and complicated stuff that the more knowledgeable folks we work with are we can spend less time on the basics and jump ahead to the really cool stuff. And the more involved stuff that if you've got the basics down and then you can, you know, once you've got your foundation, you can build on that. So yeah, we still do tons of shared storage cause that's still the foundation of what people need, but the fun stuff is automated delivery and publishing out to social media and integrations with maybe work order systems and, uh, alerts and all these other, you know, tying into the larger delivery and distribution ecosystem and getting analytics back, tagged into your content. That's the fun stuff, right? Not just make sure all your stuff is centralized and backed up.
Speaker 0 00:39:47 I would add that we have a little bit of a, of an interest in educating people about what we do, because you know, we're always looking for talent. So there are talented people out there and we may want you to come and work for us. So the more people as the, we said, the more people that know how to do this kind of work and are resourceful. This, this, this industry is really growing, especially when we talk about things like things like cloud enabled workflows and cloud first, uh, environments,
Speaker 1 00:40:15 A hundred percent even just talking with friends and family at this time. And you know, unfortunately many people are working less or not working at all depending on where they are. And so admittedly, many friends and family don't really understand what I do. And they're like, how are you? You know? And so just starting with, Hey, all of that news and entertainment content that people are stuck at home watching, even more of that right now, people producing that are our clients that we're supporting and they still need to get content out the door we're behind all of this ecosystem. And so just, yeah, that's a, like you said, Jason, a hundred percent, we always need talent.
Speaker 0 00:40:59 I mean, part of my own personal story is that someone saw my potential at various points in my career. Someone saw my potential and came to me and said, Hey, uh, either I have an opportunity for you or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It might, might be a freelance thing, whatever, whatever the case may be. One of those people, organizations, whatever you want to say, that came to me was Jessa. And that's how I ultimately ended up working for Chessa because someone saw my potential and said, Hey, we want you to come and do this kind of work.
Speaker 1 00:41:25 So that's a, I'll call it the Adam boy. Like if we just go with, okay, kind of wrapping up, we hope this has been encouraging to you. If you're feeling over your head out of your league, there's hope there's help Ben, Jason and I have been there, have lived it, uh, hopefully some of what we've shared can help you.
Speaker 0 00:41:51 Yeah, I would totally, uh, I would, I would totally second that encouragement is always, uh, one of the greatest things just keep at it. Yup. You know, these, these solutions are really, really complex. They really are. It's very easy to make them seem not complex. There are, there are many, many, many folks out there who are very smart individuals that will minimize the complexity of a system of a solution by telling you how easy things are. And you know, those people are great. You should make friends with them. You should talk to them often, but also understand that, um, part of the ease of their, uh, you know, of their work is probably just cause they've been doing it for awhile. And uh, to them at that point in their particular career, it's just like, Oh, here's just another thing that I need to learn and I'll read some things on it.
Speaker 0 00:42:40 And then, you know, I can talk about it. And that's, that's a great attitude to have just understand that. Not everybody, you know, mentally has the capability of breaking things down like that and saying, Oh yeah, this is easy. I can learn this things seem daunting. Things can seem really daunting. So keep at it and, you know, do your best and ask for help and ask for help. Thank you, Ben. Um, that is something that I personally need to be told every once in a while. It's okay to ask for help. Right? Do your best to try and solve it yourself when you hit a roadblock, ask for help. Absolutely. On that note, I'd like to thank our guest Louise Scheidler business development for Chesapeake systems on the East coast. Thanks Louise.
Speaker 1 00:43:25 You're very welcome. It was really fun. I always love chatting with you guys,
Speaker 0 00:43:30 Ben, Louise, myself, and all the people at Chesa. Thank you for being a part of our journey. Love the show. Have suggestions want to hear from a particular expert in the industry about a particular subject, send us an email to workflow show at <inaudible> dot com or at Chestnut pro on Twitter. And please subscribe to the work flow show. So, you know, when you can expect to get your workflow therapy fix, and don't forget to share with your friends, I'm Jason Whetstone, senior workflow engineer, and I'm Ben Kilburg senior solutions architect. Ben also records and edits the show. The workflow show is a production of Chesapeake systems and more banana productions. Thanks for listening and go make it a great journey.
