We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rob Hedrick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rob, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I was lucky to have two parents who believed creativity was as crucial to learning as books. As a kid known for experimenting with electricity and the 8mm film camera my grandfather gave me, they weren’t always thrilled with what I did in the garage, but they supported my creativity. I would build elaborate sets to scale in the garage and borrow my brother’s action figures to star in my short films. As the films got more elaborate, I wanted to add more and more complexity, Which, of course, at 14 meant adding Pyro to my re-enactments of the fall of the Roman Empire with Emperor Honorious coming over the seventh hill, and also explains why I didn’t kiss a girl until I was 17. When I accidentally caused a small explosion in the garage, my parents decided it was time for me to go somewhere that could foster my creativity further, also known as boarding school. This was the best thing that ever happened to me. The school I was sent to had an incredible theatre program, and I fell in love instantly. This was what I was meant to do, which made me fall in love with live production, which led to me now tech managing national sports telecasts. If my parents had stifled creativity, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Rob, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a broadcast technical operations specialist and digital content creator. What does that mean? It means I create content for broadcast, cable, and digital outlets and then set up the technology that delivers that content to your home, phone, or wherever you consume content. I am convinced we are just a blink away from being able to watch content on anything. I love what I do because I get to use both sides of my brain; the creative right side of the brain edits, shoots, and designs, and then the left side sets up transmission facilities and builds OTT platforms to let people watch it. I enjoy being able to see creative work from inception to completion.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing creative people is one of the hardest things to do well, and as a creative person, I try to manage people the way I want to be managed. I don’t sell false hope or praise; when I give compliments, they are genuine, and having done most of the roles of the people I now manage, I know the arduous tasks they perform every day so that I can connect to them on a personal level. Creative people put everything they are into their work; their work is them, and managing from that perspective allows me to connect with them in a way that a left-brainer wouldn’t be able to. It’s about knowing how to get the best from creative people.

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

I wish that when I was loading Adobe After Effects from 13 floppy disks we had Youtube around. I have been able to learn so much from watching YouTube tutorials. I’ve taught myself Cinema4D, Maya, and ProTools just by watching tutorials.

Contact Info:

• Website: imake.tv
• Instagram: @robtvla
• Linkedin: robtvla
• Twitter: @robtvla
• Youtube: @robtvla

Image Credits
all shot by me