We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Mee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Matthew , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
This goes back towards the later half of high school. As a school we were required, every Monday, to watch the student news. It was about 10 minutes but they were one of the longest 10 minutes of the day. One day, I told myself I probably could make this way more entertaining to watch. Unfortunately I had to take the intro to visual communications class before I could get into the advanced class that created the news. I had a conversation with the teacher who made a deal with me that if I can show her a video that I made that expresses that I know the ins and outs of video editting she would let me in. I watched alot of video editting videos to learn how to do the basics, (I was using iMovie at the time) and I also had an upcoming trip to Mexico so I planned to do a travel video. I can say that she was convinced enough to let me in the class and that led me to who I am today.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
A big part of who I am is being a filmmaker. I had all the intention in the world to shape my future in a way to always be around cameras , creating content and telling stories. When Covid broke out it put a pause on alot of peoples lives and for me led me into a completely unsuspecting industry. Healthcare. During covid I was struggling to find jobs that were hiring but a Skilled Nursing Facility was looking for someone to fill an Admissions Coordinator role. Almost 5 years later I am still working in healthcare, but currently at Seattle Childrens Hospital. This career change had been pretty rough as I still wanted to work in the film industry but I also needed a way to support myself and my family. I had to have a real conversation with myself about how to continue filmmaking and concluded that I would be able to continue filmmaking as long as I can financially benefit from it. This was a hard verdict to give myself but it has led me to oppurtunties working for other filmmakers (and getting paid) and also being able to contract with Pokemon.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I initially wanted to go to film school but was unable to get financial help from my family if I went down that route. I ended up gradutating with a Marketing / Management degree and realized looking back that may have been one of the smarter moves that I had made in my life. I knew that I was adequate enough in filmmaking that I could self teach myself anything that I would need in the future. But recognizing that money is a factor in being able to continue filmmaking was a quality that can make this dream of mine financially viable. I had also learned how to collaborate in college because I found out very fast that I cannot do everything nor knew everything. There are always other people who are better than you at some things and being able to work with others in getting things done tends to work out better 99% of the time. My advice for folks early in their journey is to put an importance on getting to know people who have similar interests to you as you can learn from them and be able to work with them in the future as you progress through your career. Networking in my experience has gotten me way further than a piece of paper that said I finished school.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I am currently struggling with feeling like I am straying away from filmmaking. Though working in healthcare is very noble and seeing how my work directly affects the wellbeing of another person there is some intrinsic reward that money can’t provide. I am not exactly where I want to be in my filmmaking career but I have to remind myself that filmmaking is more of a marathon than a sprint. I am trying to make this work in the long run so I have to remind myself that we are taking things one step at a time in a life long, uphill hike. Also working in healthcare, I have found that healthcare providers sometimes need to make a video for a presentation but the extent of their skills is just pressing the record button on their phone. I have slowly started to find a niche in helping healthcare providers with video creating needs in the meantime.
Contact Info:
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