We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jack Polefko. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jack below.

Alright, Jack thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2020, I was working a job filming lectures for doctors at a university. The pandemic had just hit, and everything had frozen, so it gave me a good amount of time to reflect on where my life was heading. I would look around my office (which was in the basement of the College of Medicine) and I would see skulls and other on the nose symbols reminding me that I could easily get work this job until I’m old and then die if I wasn’t careful. I was very existential in those days, constantly philosophizing about what it meant to go on and do something great. The cadavers in the rooms next to me was a nice way of telling me that it doesn’t matter what I do, just that I do something before my my body was next on the table to be observed.

Fortunately for me, my landlord said that I had one month to pack my things up and leave the condo I was in. Believe it or not, this landlord is still one of my best friends, just bad at charging me the right amount. He could no longer afford to keep me there. I was at a loss. If I signed a lease, it meant another year of living in my home town, filming sleepy doctors and showing lecturers how to set up a Zoom meeting. If I didn’t sign a lease, I would have to move back in with my family which was in the middle of nowhere.

I’ve had many people in my life tell me that there’s no such thing as coincidences. At that point in my life, it felt true. I got a call the next week from one of my close friends, Ryan, asking me if I needed a place to live for the summer…and if I wanted to quit my job and move to New York City with him. I was never one to do something irrational. I didn’t have a lot of money, I didn’t know too many people in NYC, and my whole family (who is risk adverse like I am) lived in my home town. But I keep thinking about those skulls in the offices, so I sold my car, got rid of many of my belongings, and moved to NYC with no job prospects in sight.

Fast forward four years, and I’ve worked in production on shows for HBO, Apple TV+, and Netflix. I started a production company, WLC, with my two business partners Ben and Kenny. I’ve done stand-up shows, put on a a play that I wrote and acted in at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective, and acted in directing exercises for Columbia Film Grads. The list of opportunities I’ve had continues to grow everyday from taking that one risk of betting on myself. It was a matter of letting go and trusting that I could handle whatever issues came my way.

I don’t really think it would be right for me to say that I encourage people to drop what they are doing and blindly move to another city with no money or job. But I do think that if you find that nothing is happening in your life and you get a call from someone asking you to do something potentially unwise, there are worse decisions.

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 got into the industry of filmmaking and production work simply by being around people who were constantly creating and collaborating. My company, WLC Productions, which I started with my co-founders, Ben Gregory and Kenny Clemons, came to be because we were helping a friend of ours with a comedy idea. All three of us had worked in production in some fashion, but found that we wanted to be more in charge of the decision making. It wasn’t until one of my best friends, James Donlon, asked us to film his comedy show. That’s when WLC formed.

WLC (which is just short for our middle initials; William, Lee, and Chase) started off as a service for stand-up comedians. We advertised ourselves as a run-and-gun film operation that could give high quality reels to stand-up comics for a reasonable price. But over the course of a year, as we started getting more gigs, other opportunities have presented themselves. We have now expanded into filming short films, sketches, documentaries, commercials, fashion brands, and more. We also provide services other than filming, such as editing and production management advice.

We are mostly proud of the fact that we go out of our way to make the project work regardless of budget. My team has incredible knowledge and talent when it comes to filmmaking, so we know how to give an extra touch of quality to a project without having to spend so much money. We prioritize growing with a group of creatives rather than treating them simply as a client. Our primary mission is to be an affordable production team that gives big budget results for small budget projects. We are always looking to foster new relationships, so that when we grow, others grow with us.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The book that impacted the most on creative management was Pixar Inc. by Ed Catmull. I’m a huge fan of animation and Pixar is a fantastic example of a passionate team of creatives who pushed through some incredible hurdles. Ed Catmull, former president and founder of Pixar, breaks down the history of his company, finding a way into his passion without having much animation talent, and why Pixar is revolutionary as a company.

The management at Pixar focuses on transparency and availability. For anyone curious on advice on how to connect with a team and get them to trust you and feel comfortable sharing with you, read Pixar Inc.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest goal in my creative journey is to build a company that allows myself and others to create stories that we want to tell, regardless of monetary success. If that means that I create a studio that makes one movie that we all absolutely believe in and it takes, then that’s okay as long as we are proud of it. I’d like to create at least one opportunity to make something that has a big budget with no compromises.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jackpolefko.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jack_polefko/#
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-polefko-35a38a14b/