We recently connected with John Hollingsworth and have shared our conversation below.

John, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents did a lot of things right when I was growing up. The first things that come to my mind when it comes to my career are the following: the importance of hard work, being coachable, and being a good person. They instilled in me that there is no substitute for hard work and you just have to get it done. I grew up playing sports and was always taught that, “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” That is something that I carry with me to this day, I might not be the most talented, but I can out work you to get what I want/need. I see people all the time now who are starting their careers and they want the easy way out, so that they can coast. That might be a path to success for some people, but not for most. When you find someone who is willing to work hard and is teachable, that is when you have something. In my industry of live audio, I have heard the statement many times that, “People aren’t always looking for the most talented individual, but more so looking for someone who works hard, is coachable, and is a good hang.” Being coachable is something I was always taught as my mom and sister are both educators, so I was always learning something at home. This has set me up for success on a daily basis as I am constantly learning new things about audio and production in general.
Finally, being a good person both on and off the job. It ties into the quote above, but being able to get along with people is the quickest way for you to have work in live audio. If you’re a jerk, nobody will want to hire you, no matter how talented you are. I can think of many people who I would take on a job with me, not necessarily having anything to do with their talent, but because I enjoy doing gigs with them. They’re a pleasure to be around and work with. The fact that they are world class at what they do isn’t the most important thing. At the end of the day, you still have to be able to execute, but nobody has time to coddle a jerk on a job site.
These three things were instilled in me growing up by my parents and are definitely keys to my success throughout my career. I hope these will be helpful for someone in the future, not just in live audio but in their everyday lives.

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.

My name is John Hollingsworth and I am an Audio Engineer, currently working at Christ Fellowship Church in Florida. I’ve been here almost 3.5 years. I also do freelance work on the side for a few clients. I got into this business as I would imagine a lot of people did, in church and in their school theater. My dad has run audio at his home church in Texas for over ten years and when I was going into high school, I started going early to rehearsal with him to watch everything and learn. At first it was just something to do, but the more I watched, the more I became enthralled with it. As chance would have it, a short time later I got asked to help with the production side of things in my school’s theater. At first I started in lighting, but slowly worked my way to doing audio, video, and lighting. By the time I graduated high school, I had designed lighting and video for shows, as well as running Front of House audio for them. By the time I was a senior in high school, I realized that I might want to pursue a career in audio. I was working in production for my school and church while also working as a Warehouse Manager and Lighting Tech for a wedding and event company. Suffice to say I had been bit by the production bug.
I provide myself as a service to clients I am working with. Clients will book me for events that they need an audio engineer for. I come in for load in, set up all the gear, execute the event, and then help load all the gear out onto a truck afterwards. In terms of problem solving, I help solve whatever comes up along the way. That could be anything from how to pack trucks, gear or personnel issues. Every event is different, so there is no cut and dry answer to that. I think what has helped set me apart in my career is my knack for taking initiative and solving issues before they manifest into something bigger. I am the type of person who feels like there is a solution to every problem, so I attack it relentlessly until I figure it out. This has always been valuable in the production world.
I am most proud of the fact that at the end of every event or every day of work, that I did the absolute best I could and worked as hard as I could to make the event happen flawlessly. I have never had someone tell me that I didn’t work hard enough or that I could have done more for the client. I feel like a great work ethic and attention to detail are things to be proud of, as it is not all that common anymore.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I don’t have one story in particular that pops out in my memory for this because I did the same sort of thing multiple times a year in college. In college, I worked for Production Services (now True Blue TV Event Productions) at Middle Tennessee State University. This department carried out productions for all things at the university. From small classroom events to arena concerts, it was a great learning experience. When we did arena shows, due to the nature of the entire crew being students minus a couple people, the load in’s took a long time (multiple days) as you’re having to somewhat work around class schedules. So we would have multiple shifts throughout the day and people would come when available. On these weeks, the show might be on Thursday, so we’re prepping the weekend before and then starting load in on Monday. Over the next three days we would load the entire show in, Thursday night would be the show night, and then load out would be Thursday night (all night) into Friday morning. All the while I am still going to school and trying to take care of school work, tests, etc. By the end of the week, I might have worked 80 hours while still taking 18 hours of school.
These weeks taught me so much about how to be resilient in the face of uncomfortable circumstances. Obviously it was my choice to work these long and crazy hours, but I wanted to do the gigs and learn everything I could while I had the opportunity to do so. Thinking back on those weeks, they were a bit absurd, but they are some of my most fun memories from my time at MTSU. The bonds that I have with the people that were there with me, still run strong to this day. So go out and do the hard things while you’re young and have the time to do so. They will make you a better person because you will be faced with trials, but you learn to overcome them. You must be resilient to have a career in production, so you have to learn how to operate in uncomfortable situations.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are resources which are available now due to being post COVID shut downs, that I wish had been available when I was first getting into audio and the production world. So many people created podcasts, YouTube shows, forums, etc., during the pandemic when everyone was at home that I have gained so much knowledge from. I would have been a much better engineer had they existed earlier. Here is a list of some of my favorites and a brief description of them. MxU – This is a platform that is geared towards churches. However, they have a platform with hundreds of videos on gear, philosophies, tips, etc. They have a podcast as well where they interview guests in the production and leadership world. It might be geared towards churches, but if you are new into production they have some amazing resources that will help you along the way.
Pooch and Rabold – This is a podcast by Ken “Pooch” Van Druten and Chris Rabold. Both are long time Front of House engineers for some of the biggest artists in the world. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Iron Maiden, KISS, etc. Their podcast is basically just the two of them sitting and talking audio for an hour on various topics. I have listened through all the episodes multiple times, just trying to absorb the knowledge into my head. If I’m struggling with a certain input in my mix, I have gone to see if they have an episode on it and see if I can get new ideas to try.
The Lab by Robert Scovill – I believe this came about during COVID as well. Robert is a Front of House engineer and is most notably associated with mixing for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He has also mixed for Rush, Def Leppard, Prince, Kenny Chesney, and many others. Robert is one of the smartest people that may have ever lived in terms of audio, he is always on the forefront of technology and will blow your mind with some of the things he talks about. The Lab is a deep dive into various topics in live audio and you can gain some unbelievable knowledge by watching those videos on YouTube. They can get very technical, so perhaps not for a beginner. However, it is an amazing resource nonetheless.

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