Meet Zack Littlefield

We were lucky to catch up with Zack Littlefield recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zack , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Connecting the dots.

There’s a saying out there somewhere that talks about the answer being right in front you if you look hard enough. Finding your purpose can seem daunting, but sometimes it can be like looking for a lost pair of glasses that just happen to be in your hand while you are looking. Oh! It’s right here! Right under my nose! Now what? For me, whether I totally realized it or not in my earlier adult years, my purpose has always been to be creative in whatever shape or form that may take, given the day. There are no career books that list creativity as an actual job, but applying that underlying motivation to a job is what becomes the path. Can your work feel almost as good as what you’d be doing in your free time?

I had a big imagination as a kid. I would pretend a lot. I would create elaborate worlds and scenarios with my toys at home. I spent a lot of time playing in the woods with neighbors, just pretending things. Back then, you could get a week or more of fun out of a discarded refrigerator box and a pile of magic markers. With a little creativity and elbow grease, it could become the inside of a spaceship or a sophisticated command center for a hide-and-seek base. If there was something I wanted to do that I did not possess the tools to do, I would make pretend tools. A puppet show stage could be made out of things in the garage. A drum kit could be fashioned from old paint cans or boxes and some handmade drumsticks made form wooden dowels. My family made things. I didn’t realize that was very special at the time. My mom made children’s clothes, and I was the living mannequin. My dad made us Go Carts out of wood, lawn mower wheels and rope (for the steering wheel). Later my dad made me a skateboard ramp that I could roll anywhere I wanted within a mile or so from the house. Whether I knew it or not at the time, I grew up in a house full of Do-It-Yourself-ers.

While my love for music was there from as early as I can remember, my teenage years brought about a deep love and motivation toward the idea of playing music myself. I was drawn toward the drums, and that quickly became an obsession for me – so much so that it would become my primary focus for the next decade and a half. Exploring the drum kit later grew into curiosity for Afro-Cuban and Brazilian musical styles. Growing up in Tennessee, and attending college in Alabama in a mostly pre-Internet time period presented unique challenges for diving deep into these interests, but I sought out teachers, found a few great ones and absorbed everything I absolutely could. Playing in bands through college, and later touring with a few different groups based in Colorado and Austin, Texas, took me to parts of the country and the world that I would have never seen otherwise.

Eventually it would become time for me to “get a real job” as they say, which is where the long process of connecting the dots came to a head. While my degree in Communications got in close proximity of work I could stomach showing up for each day, it was never quite on the mark. I ended up having to do some deep soul searching, and going out on quite a few limbs – some of which broke underneath my weight – in order to end up where I am today in the video production field.

I think that in order to find your purpose, you really have to go with your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, you have to change it. If it is still doesn’t feel quite right, you have to change it again. The longer you stay in the wrong place, the longer you are unhappy. Beginner’s mind is your best friend.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

For me, trying to infuse my love for artistic exploration into a means of making a living has always been at the forefront of my motivations. Everybody has to pay the bills, so I have always set out to find ways of doing so while being true to who I am. This was mainly out necessity than anything else. I could never bring myself to fully bend into the adult that pursues typical career goals, and lives on that timeline. I’ve had periods of my life where I have jumped all the way off the cliff into the uncertain and unknown, such as my time as a touring musician where I also worked as an assistant to a steel sculpture artist when not on the road. I have also had time periods where I played a bit of adult catch up and tried my hand at jobs that were more suited for the path of study I took in college – such as working at advertising agencies and PR firms. For one of these firms, the only way to get my foot in the door was to do an internship. I was 30 and all of the other interns were in their early 20s. As the internship wrapped in December, they were planning to hire one of us, which created a bit of unspoken competition. Rather than trying to brown nose my way into getting the job, I came up with the idea of hand crafting a figurine of each employee out of modeling clay (around 30 people) that I would later arrange in a group and photograph for the company’s holiday card that went out to clients. That landed me the job, and I realized shortly there after that it wasn’t the right career path for me. Something just wasn’t right. So I had to make a change.

It was around that time that two things happened that would change my life forever.

1. YouTube had just found its way onto the Internet and created an opportunity for anyone and everyone to create content and share it without any gatekeeper whatsoever.

2. A friend of mine gave me a hacked copy of Apple’s Final Cut software (my apologies to Apple).

From here it was like a spark ignited in my brain and there was no turning back. I knew that even though I had made a few false starts in the professional world (and at a late age), it was clear what I was going to do now. I got to work, and nothing was going to stop me. This is where beginner’s mind became my best friend. I borrowed some money from my brother to purchase a cheap camera that could shoot in HD, with the promise of paying him back in six months. The timing was right, and internet video was a new realm. Because of this, it wasn’t too hard to find folks willing to let me give it a shot and create something for them. This is where my time dabbling in other creative spaces started to pay off. Because I had worked at the PR firm, I had relationships with a nonprofit organization that could use video to tell their story, but weren’t about to hire and expensive production company. Because I had spent so much time playing music, I had plenty of musician friends that wanted video content, but again were never going to pay some expensive production company. That’s where I came in. I would offer them a video for next to nothing, just for the opportunity to use them on my canvas and learn the craft. The risk for the client was extremely low, and I would learn from each of these experiences and get a little better every time.

I realized very quickly that this video medium allowed me to satisfy so many of my creative thirsts in one place. I could tell a story that had photography shot the way I see the world, I could choose the music to help tell the story. I could create an entire vibe, and then cross my fingers that the client would like it. In most cases, my instincts served me well and I realized that my sensitivities would be right at home in this path. From there it was just practice, practice, practice. I wasn’t the best (and still am not) but I do believe most of my projects have something special in there – even if it is just heart.

For the next 15 years I would maintain that beginner’s mindset and continue to challenge myself. I made friends with animators and partnered on projects. I made friends with other videographers and absorbed knowledge and created a community where we encourage each other to push each other’s creativity rather than compete with each other. I began creating my own music for video projects when time allowed. The potential to try something new is always there. You just have to be willing to jump in and try.

In 2020 I received a package in the mail that really hit home. Inside a cardboard box was a metal plaque with YouTube’s well-know logo and my name underneath. I had taken a channel I started on my own in 2010 for a music program called eTown, and built a subscriber base of more than 100,000 followers. That sits in my home office now as a reminder to follow your gut. It’ll pay off in the end.

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?

1. Developing the bravery to explore your creative whims early on will serve you well for a lifetime. Don’t ever talk yourself out something you want to do, as long as it won’t damage your health or kill you. Start learning piano at 40. Start painting at 65. It’s never too late to allow a new craft to enter your life. Put down the phone and pick up some clay. There is a reason people say “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

2. Take risks and see what happens. If you fail, what did you learn that will help the next thing? Embarrassment can create calluses that make the next attempt so much easier.

3. Aim to enjoy “the doing” of something, and not just the result. For example, if you are a musician you should enjoy playing the song and feeling your hands on the instrument. If you only like the part where people clap and ask for your autograph, you should probably do something else. Finding enjoyment in the doing is advice I’ve heard from many sources, and they all were right.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

The Creative Act – by Rick Rubin

I like this book for many reasons. The insights are short, easy to digest and can be revisited time and time again. The advise inside the book can also be applied to just about any discipline. It’s great food for thought when it comes to creativity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shimmer-ready.com
• Instagram: @zlittlefield
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/etownradioshow (the channel I started back in 2010 and maintain today)
• Other: Video sample:https://vimeo.com/364382113/98896aea0c?share=copy

  Drumming:

  https://open.spotify.com/album/5kNNNy0OOLUUPq8fefjV2Y?si=DH6yPZR8TOi9zLdqrAQvVQ

Image Credits

Image of me on stage filming a concert by Molly McCormick (www.mollymccormickphoto.com)

all other images by me (Zack Littlefield)