Boy do I not miss my job

I'm still wrapping up loose ends from my job at Strata Productions and am reminded everyday of the Sisyphusian special brand of hell that it was. I love movies, I love making movies, I loved telling people I was a producer (I'm still allowed to do that) but the job, calling atorneys and asking them if they'd like to invest in a movie was the challenge to do the impossible.

First, nobody's interested, and half of them are really angry, not at you, just angry people who, it seems, have real problems. Call as you might, they're not interested, but if you can log 100 calls in a day you'll probably find two people to take a look at it. Despite running them through a rigorious checklist of qualifications including setting a specific appointment the chances are you will never talk to either of them again.

So if you find ten people to take a look at the investment in a week, one will be there for the appointment but won't have looked at the information yet, two will not be there, but you will be able to catch them later in the week and pitch them, but they won't have looked at the information yet, five you will never talk to again, and two will "call you back"

Nobody, in three years at that job that said "I'll call you back" ever did. I started pointing it out to them. "Nobody who's ever said that, ever has, so if you're not interested just tell me."

Of the one's you can actually get on a second call and pitch, one in twenty will pick up a share, five of them will have things they need to get in order before they can invest meaning they never will, and four will "call you back."

Of the one in twenty that agree to write a check and pick up a share, only half of them actually do that after they've told you they will.

Roll the boulder up the hill...watch it roll back down...

Which brings me to a funny story...

So in my last week at the job I had this one guy I had sent information to and he is absolutely angry. Just a weird guy. My last week each time I'd call him he'd be there, but "I've got someone in my office! I'll call you!" *slam* and then "I'm in a meeting! I'll call you!" *slam*, a week later "You're catching me in the middle of something! I'll call you back!" *slam*. It got so hilarious that I started putting our call on speakerphone for the rest of the office to hear this guy which was not only angry, but kind of enjoyed being angry.



Over the last week since I left I've been trying to wrapup the people I had pitched but never been able to do a follow-up call including one guy that told me he was wiring the money two months ago. I call Angry mcAngryson last week and had another hilarious exchange. This morning I called, but didn't leave a message. Get this, the son of a bitch calls me off of caller i.d., I answer seeing that it's Angry's number, shocked at the first attorney EVER to call me back in three years is Angry, and Angry says "Hey, is this Strata?" "Yeah" "Did you call?" "Yeah" "Well I can't talk I'm in the middle of a meeting I'll call you back *slam*.

Did he just call me in the middle of a meeting to say he couldn't talk to me because he was in the middle of a meeting?

That's the sort of people I dealt with everyday.

Do no miss that job.