The Day The Happy Producers Was Born

It was a Wednesday morning in February. I was lying on a hospital gurney, naked under a little surgery gown. I was about to undergo a partial mastectomy to prevent breast cancer.
 
I remember thinking: I should be feeling scared. But I wasn't scared. Truth be told, I felt like I was at the spa. 
 
💥 While dealing with this true life emergency, it was so relaxing not to be available for the many false work emergencies that created daily stress for myself, my colleagues, and my clients.
 
I was working as an animation producer on a feature film, and the term ''911'' was thrown around many times a day, igniting stress for situations that might have been important, maybe even priorities, but in no way life-threatening.
 
Daily stress was the status quo, and it felt a lot like stress was my boss.
 
And at that moment, lying on a hospital gurney, I realized getting surgery for cancer was more pleasant than my current work conditions.
 
😖 OOOF!
 
Production is my vocation. It is one of my biggest passions in life. So how did I get here?
 
When did feeling stressed become synonymous with being productive or a job well done?

That was when I decided things had to change not only for me but for my colleagues and clients. We all deserve better.
 
Over the next 12 months, I trained as a coach and studied stress management, positive leadership, and productivity.
 
✨ And then, I co-founded The Happy Producers, a mission-based company that would serve my professional community. I wanted well-being to become the norm in everyday production so that we could have better retention and create better content with bigger profits.
 
Creating a low-stress work environment without compromising productivity became the backbone of our e-courses and workshops.

When we first started, I thought that if we could find only one person to open this discussion with, it would be a significant win.

Eighteen months later, over 200 people have entered the discussion, and more than 1400 people are now part of our community.

💛 Together, we are creating the workplace culture of our dreams and reprioritizing the human behind animation and visual effects production.

Turning challenges into opportunities, one day at a time.