Prioritising your mental and physical health in the age of the do-it-all producer. 

Last Friday's Producer Clinic started with one CHQ producer standing outside a boxing gym in Peckham.

"I'm not great at putting myself out there," he admitted, mid-stride between teaching classes. "But the more I do it, the more energy I get back. I just don't care about the noise anymore."

That sentence — I just don't care about the noise anymore — might be the most liberating thing a producer can say about their own survival.

Because here's what no one tells you when you're starting out: the job will always be stressful. There are too many moving parts. You're never going to be in control, even when you think you are.

The only question that matters is: how are you managing yourself through it?

Your Not Boasting, You're Bringing Wine To The Party

Several producers in the room brought up the same cultural block: the deeply British fear of being "seen to be touting."

As one member of the clinic put it: 

"We love it when people rise, it reminds us of our dreams. But when they become too successful, they remind us of all the times we didn't chase ours."

So here's a reframe, courtesy of our clinic leader and resident non-Brit, Sasha Damjanovski:

You're not showing off. You're bringing wine to the party.

You don't show up empty-handed. You don't apologise for what you've brought. Maybe they prefer white and you brought red, fine. But you contributed. You showed up with something.

That's not arrogance. That's presence.

And when you show up like that, knowing you have something to offer, even if it's not for everyone, rejection becomes less personal. It's just a matter of finding your people. Your tribe.

What Actually Works: The Honest Truth About Self-Care

One CHQ producer took the day off. Completely. No guilt.

"I've gone part-time to prioritise my own projects. I'm technically my boss now. So I took the day off."

Another producer admitted he and his wife had only taken five days off in 365 days before realising they'd been living entirely in "drive and stress" with zero rest.

Another shared his three-sphere system: Drive. Stress. Rest.

Most of us live in the first two. 

The third one, the one your body is screaming for, gets scheduled last, if at all.

Here is the hard truth: Your calendar says more about your level of success than your pitch decks and awards ever will.

How to escape the busy-ness spiral?

One CHQ producer makes playlists. Instrumental. They start dark, match the rage or grief or frustration, then slowly lift. By the end: reset.

Another producer escapes into video games. Another walks her dog. Another spends time with horses: mindful versus mind full.

The method doesn't matter. What matters is auditing your life and asking: where's the rest?

The Creative Community 

Producing can be a lonely vocation. We are first in on projects and last out, emptying the bins after the wrap parties and distribution deals are long since done and dusted. 

We need people around us that get it. People that understand just how many times you have to feel you’re getting it wrong before something goes right. 

We need a community that sees the years of struggle that took place before the ‘overnight success’. 

Not just to celebrate wins. Not just to commiserate over rejections.

But remind each other, again and again: you're better than the mistakes. You're more than the stress. And you're not doing this alone.

Ready to find your creative community?

Join the next CreativeHQ webinar to find out how we support producers to achieve more critical acclaim and commercial success by working smarter not harder. 

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