Freedom From

For the last three years, I’ve been working with a talented, kind and experienced Executive Producer.  She’s built a team of equally talented, kind and experienced people. All of us playing a part in this symphony of high end event production. 

Insert needle scratch.   

The end client who’d been supplying this EP with projects hired a new in-house executive producer.  

Fear, like an invasive species, crept into our team. Insidiously infecting our communications. 

Thoughts like, “I’m not the right fit for this client.”

Side bar conversations, “What are you going to do if we lose this business?” 

Running financial forecasts, “What will next year look like if we don’t have this revenue?”

Fear, corrosive and cunning, dug in like a fishhook.  

I have a mentor outside of the production world. She asked me why I was afraid? Was there some kind of action I could take to mitigate the fear? 

Yes. Unquestionably. I can show up authentically, professionally and look for ways to help.  

Earlier this spring, I did just that.  I stayed in the moment, called a solid show, paid attention to where I could be most helpful. Lo and behold, I was free. Fear faded into the background like shadows when the light it turned on.

I was free from the fear (for the time being) and free to accommodate and anticipate client needs.  

Selfish fear had me spinning out.  Trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.  But service gladly rendered, obligations squarely met freed me from that selfishness.  

This Independence Day when we think about freedom, it’s not just freedom to (fill in the blank) it’s freedom from.  Freedom from selfishness allowed me the freedom to support the client, my team and the whole project. 

What is keeping you from being free? How free to do you want to be?