I was at the Denver airport a few years back waiting for a rental car to drive up to Breckenridge to produce the Hartford Ski Spectacular video and ran into a couple of guys that were coming out of Burlington VT to test skis. We struck up a conversation and they asked what we were up to. I told them we were producing an event video that would be shown to the group 5 days hence. As the two of them huddled I heard one say to the other with a chuckle “A little old to be doing that huh?”. He didn’t know I had heard. He must have assumed that someone in their 50s must have bad ears.
I turned to him and said, “Yes.” Yes I was a little old to be doing this. This is hard work. Sun up to sun down days with extensive equipment, cold, intense skiing. I told them that the thing that got me was that I was doing all of this work, but that my world had changed because of the kids that have a gopro and all they want for producing a video is $40 and a lift ticket. It doesn’t matter that these kids will produce video that is visually pleasing, but without a story, purpose or market. They were taking my market from me.
But then I realized something. I used to be the kid that would work for $40 and a lift ticket. That is how I started out. Realizing that the world moves on, markets change and newer generations push older ones to become more innovative and use lifelong skills to find new markets.
