WORK

Working From a Movie Set

A few weeks ago I wrote about spending a day living out a dream I'd had for as long as I can remember.

I couldn't say what it was then. But thanks to a local reporter breaking the story, I can now!

I was an extra in a movie!

It wasn't "one of the things I've always wanted to do." The thing. Number one on the list, for as long as I've had a list. Ahead of every trip I've dreamed about, every stage I've hoped to speak on or company I've hoped to work for, every item that has come and gone from that list over the years. This one sat at the top and never moved.

Here's how it happened. I was texting with my friend Melissa about the rumor that a movie was filming in Concord, just a few miles from our homes. We decided to drive by on the way to coffee, so she picked me up, pulled into the parking lot of where we thought they were filming, and she had the courage to go in and ask if they needed extras.

30 minutes later we were in costume and on the set of an independent film starring a well-known actor, and I was at the very beginning of living my life long dream.

She did the thing I never would have done for myself. She asked. A brave, simple question to someone connected to the production, a question I had talked myself out of asking a hundred times, and the answer was yes!

I keep thinking about that part. So much of what we want in life stays on the list because we're waiting for the right moment, or we're too shy to ask, or we assume the answer is no before anyone has actually said it. I'm an introvert and autistic. I love my routine, my home office, my quiet, my coffee. Left to my own devices, I would have probably kept that dream on the list forever, safely theoretical. But instead, one of the best days of my entire life happened because someone pulled me out of my routine and into something I'd only ever imagined.

Now, about the day itself!

It was a 12 hour filming day, and I was there for 10 of them. I had obviously never been on a film set before, so I didn't realize most of it was waiting. Hours of it. You wait to be placed, you wait between takes, you wait while the crew resets, you wait some more. I'm not good at waiting but strangely, I didn't find it tedious at all. Probably because I was so elated the entire time. I couldn't stop watching how the whole thing worked and could not believe I got to be a part of it.

Because I'm me, in addition to being completely enamored with my day, I spent a good part of the day observing people. Looking for patterns. Checking out what a movie set workplace looks like, because it is a workplace. A different, very cool workplace, but still, a workplace.

I've spent almost 30 years inside workplaces from corporate offices, warehouses, branch locations, to shop floors. I've seen a lot of operations up close. And a film set is one of the most operationally complex workplaces I have ever been in. Dozens of people, most of them background actors, many of them meeting for the first time that morning, all coordinating around one shared goal, on a schedule, with no room for confusion. There was no org chart. There was no onboarding, no employee handbook, no kickoff meeting. And somehow everyone knew their job, everyone knew where to be, and everyone knew exactly who to ask when they didn't.

The crew moved together like they had worked together for years. Some of them had. Many of them hadn't. It didn't seem to matter.

I kept trying to figure out how. I think part of it is that everyone's role is clearly defined. Part of it is that the work itself is visible, so accountability is built in. You can see whether the thing got done. But part of it, honestly, was culture. There was a warmth on that set, a positivity, that lasted the entire day. Ten hours of mostly waiting, and I didn't hear a single complaint.

The background actors were fascinating people. Teachers, retirees, students, people who do this every week or two just because they love it. I spent hours with total strangers when I arrived, and had a few new friends by lunch. The waiting, it turns out, is where the community happens.

My husband Dave was there too! I called him before we started, when they said they needed more extras, and he came right over. That one phone call turned into nine different days on set for him! He had a flexible couple of weeks and kept getting called back, day after day, playing a different person every time, sometimes a few in the same day. He lived several entire lives in that movie, and I loved every second of watching it happen (at least for the day I was there!)

Somewhere in all that waiting, I realized that everyone on that set was living some version of a portfolio career. The crew, piecing together a living from project to project. The background actors, teachers and retirees and students and business owners and a few full-time actors, fitting film days around the rest of their lives. Dave, who already has a portfolio career in real life and apparently decided to build a second one on screen! And me. I left a single full-time role to build a life out of speaking, advising, writing, and fractional CPO client work, and now, adding movie extra to the list! Everyone shows up, does excellent work, trusts the people around them to do the same, and then in a few weeks they'll do it again somewhere else. I talk about the changing world of work all the time. I write about it, I speak about it, I help companies prepare for it. And there it was, working beautifully, all around me.

One more thing, and I promise it's not a "throw a pizza party and your people will be more engaged" kind of thing. But it is food! The food was wonderful. Someone made a decision that people putting in a 12 hour day deserve more than the meal break required by law. You could see the pride the caterers took in feeding the team, and the gratitude that everyone, especially the extras like me, had for a pretty close to gourmet meal halfway through a long day. I work with frontline companies every day on employee experience, and I tell them constantly that the small things aren't small. They are the moments that matter. Whether people feel taken care of shows up in the culture, and in whether a 12-hour day feels punishing or energizing. On that set, somebody was paying attention to the experience of the people doing the work. It showed.

A lot of companies have their people for years and never build what that crew built in a day.

So that's the story! I unexpectedly went to coffee and ended up living out a dream. And it was everything I hoped and so much more.

But I also left with a masterclass in what a great workplace feels like, and a reminder I didn't know I needed: go ask the question. Say yes when a friend asks you.

Some pretty wonderful things are living just beyond the fear.

And to my friend Melissa, thank you. Forever, from the bottom of my heart.

(Want to know more about the movie? Keep watching here. I'll share more soon!)

COMMUNITY

Meet my friend Melissa Fisk!

That Melissa above? That's her!

I've known Melissa for probably 20 years. We met through the local HR community, and have always supported each other through the years, though we don't get together for coffee nearly enough!

She's an incredible Chief People Officer for a non-profit, and someone I always point to as an exemplary HR pro.

Melissa was also the reason I became a keynote speaker. She helped push me onto my very first stage ten years ago. If not for that nudge, I would not be writing this. Certainly not speaking. And probably I would not have built the career I have.

There aren't enough thanks in the world for her. You can find out more about Melissa and connect with her on LinkedIn!

I hate being on video. Absolutely hate it. I'm fine on webinars, podcasts, etc. because I look at that as a conversation. But filming a video talking to myself? Not my thing. However, you will see me doing it more, thanks to encouragement from my friend Daniel Space, who I wrote about a few weeks ago. He's helping me get out of my video-free comfort zone, and is a huge inspiration to me.

Another inspiration? Rhona Barnett-Pierce. A former recruiter, she now specializes in helping professionals over 40 build authority and influence through her company Workfluencer. AND, she shares incredible tips on personal branding and more, all with her incredible authenticity and relatability. If you aren't following her, please start now!

COFFEE

I'm a lover of routine, and travel is super disruptive to my routine. (Although I love travel too!)

My solution whenever I am somewhere for more than a night or two? Find my places. A grocery store or CVS to stock up on water, skinny pop, anything I may have forgotten. A walking route for the morning and for the afternoon. A restaurant I like on Doordash. A restaurant at or near the hotel.

And of course, coffee.

I spent most of last week in Salt Lake City, and returned to one of my places there, Roots Coffee & Co. Reader, the coffee is PERFECT. Like my top 10 perfect. They always make it exactly as I like it, and it always tastes amazing.

They have a few locations - definitely check it out if you are ever in SLC!

And a little bit more.......

I'm generally awful at branding and marketing myself. I have lots of advice for companies and for others. When it comes to myself, it just feels weird. But I'm trying to get used to that - I kind of have to since I own my own business!

So, I updated my website, and I'm sharing more with you here today. My website was beautiful, created by my friend Josh Drean two years ago. But, a lot has happened in the past two years, and it didn't really reflect who I am and what I do now, and didn't really reflect my focus on the frontline, Distribution and Manufacturing.

So I changed that. Painstakingly, page by page, line of code by line of code, I figured it out. I still have some more edits to make, but I'm thrilled with it. Check it out below!

Have a great week! See you soon.

Tracie