We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tracy Misner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tracy below.
Hi Tracy, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I think in order to be successful, you first have to define what success is to you personally. Is it money in the bank, is it industry recognition, is it work/life balance. To me success is achieving a set of goals laid out at the beginning of the journey in any endeavor. In my case now my goals are to transition from teaching film and video to sustaining income from film and video. I’ve laid out a series of goals I must achieve in order to keep moving forward- and for me now, it’s about moving forward by laying a network foundation or building on that network foundation from the relationships I’ve built over many years.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I started out in video production in 1993 and built a boutique production company until 2009. In 2009 after the economy dropped, I began a new career in teaching film and video. The successes from my program opened many new doors for me and in 2022 I retired to go back into business. The things I learned from working with students to develop their craft enabled me to develop my craft of story telling. And a few students actually became successful YouTubers and helped me gain the knowledge to develop branding and branding techniques. And while gaining this knowledge, I also revisited what I learned from owning my own businesses-most importantly, the customer will remember the experience of how you do business over what the actual product or service costs!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think part of entrepreneurship includes being able to pivot or in other words, being able to change direction due to any adversity you face. In my case, I was going through a divorce. I could not focus on my business and thus I faced a lawsuit in the business. I was looking at losing my building, losing my business, losing my house, and my life as I know it. Rather than cave into the adversity, I chose to think on my feet. I sold my business to a competitor, sold my building to that competitor, and focused my attention on redefining my priorities.
After the dust settled, I was left with just enough funds to get me through the next few months. I settled my divorce and moved back home with my parents. With my funds, I developed a video business and quickly (took about 5 months) immersed myself into video production. I learned a lot in closing my first business and honed in on the skills I knew–sales and marketing. After 15 years of building my video business, I knew I needed to focus on gaining more time back in my life…I pivoted into teaching film and video.
As a teacher, I learned even more about how to work with various personality types. I also learned more about production by actually teaching video production. And now I am once again pivoting–my wife and I are starting a media production company. Not even having yet gotten our bank accounts, I landed two contracts–both coming from my past.
So the big picture lesson here is YES you can pivot to move into a new direction, but what really matters is that the person does not pivot their ideals, their ethic, their value system–that stays the same or maybe even grows. That growth is what continues to attract clients.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I think the biggest lesson in any adversity is that there is ALWAYS a lesson to learn. Sometimes it’s about people–sometimes it’s about yourself. I think, in my case, I did not unlearn anything but rather learned that even in the darkest times, you can work through adversity. My backstory was described in the paragraph above.
Contact Info:
- Website: MisnerMedia.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracymisner/
Image Credits
photo by Nick Decsi