Meet AJ Tesler

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

AJ, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My daughter is the most resilient person I know. She has a rare neurological disorder called Rett Syndrome, so every day she wakes up struggling to breathe, use her hand and talk. But that doesn’t stop her from pushing herself out of bed. It’s the very definition of resilience and she’s dealing with way harder things than I would ever have to. So, when I get a “No” or a “pass” I don’t let it stop me, I just keep plugging away and find a way to bounce back. If my daughter is setting the example for me, it’s the least I can do to try to set the same example for her.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I like to tell people I take care of all of the hard stuff required to make great content — developing the creative, managing the production, and hiring the right talent . More importantly I try to make the process easy for any of my clients. I’ve got 20 years of experience at this point, so there’s not a ton of challenges I haven’t run across and I know how to solve just about any production problem that might get thrown my way. My experience certainly sets me a part, becaus it means I have a pretty extensive rolodex of great people from talent to tradespeople, but more so, what I believe sets me apart is my attitude towards production.

There was a time when production would cause stress or anxiety, but my daughter’s history has really put all of my work into perspective. Now, I recognize there’s no problem on set that is as stressful as her day to day life. That really allows me to focus on getting the job done without worrying about the drama.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I often tell the story of one of the first professional jobs I had as a producer. The EP was trying to decide what color of paint “would be the funniest.” I was a baby producer and was going to be responsible for getting the exact right color for this bit so I waited and waited and waited while the EP deliberated with the rest of his team. Turns out, green is the funniest color. On the next project I brought up the same question to our director, thinking I was being forward thinking in making sure the director got what he wanted. He told me that was ridiculous and there’s no such thing as a funny wall color. That EP has been out of the business for 15 years and that director just got his show picked up for a second season. The lesson I took from that was if you worry about the tiniest details and get bogged down by them it’ll make the entire process that much harder. That was the last time I asked which color would be funnier.

If you’re going to fail, fail big:

This was advice I got from a teacher of mine in college and a mantra I’ve carried with me every time I’ve tried to do something I don’t know how to do. It helped me avoid shying away from something I thought might be hard and helped me dive in full bore whenever anything got tough. You can only really fail if you walk away from something and don’t learn anything from the experience. And failure isn’t really an option in entertainment, there are too many people counting on you to do your job well, whatever job you have on set. So, even though failing big is always a possibility, the fear of failure will drive you to greater heights than you would have thought.

Learn how to collaborate:

This is such an important and necessary part of working in entertainment, and really any job at all.. What we do in making tv/films and the like is highly subjective. There is no right answer for anything, but rather an infinite number of right answers with each choice having the ability to alter the project, albeit in a spectacularly small way. So don’t sweat the small stuff and if there’s a chance someone’s idea is better than yours, try it, you might be surprised.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking for new collaborators and welcome people to reach out to me through my website at peakcuriosity.us or on social @ajtesler. I’m always looking to work with people with great scripts or great relationships with talent on the scripted or unscripted side. And I’m happy to come in and work with you if I can help you realize your dream project. Collaborating is about finding like minded people and sharing a vision for something. Building those relationships is the most rewarding part of our business. So, even if you don’t have a project we can work on together right now, but something you read resonated with you, happy to connect with you about that as well.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move