What jobs have you had?

Not to be depressing but dang, I go through the extensive list of all the jobs I’ve done over the past five decades and woah Nelly call me Tyrannosaurus Jim. But there were positives that came from them all Let’s have some fun though and walk the timeline and see what’s replaced everything I’ve done:

1990: correspondence writer for two newspapers (that merged and are now irrelevant for news and information) but I learned how to do real journalism.

Also 1990: Grocery store clerk. Had to actually memorize the daily produce prices and manually enter prices at the checkout. Self checkout and instacart. But, I learned I sucked at memorizing daily produce prices.

Also 1990: comic book store. Certainly a bygone thing now. However, I watched what collecting sports cards looked like. Made the battle for Elmo look like child’s play.

1991 – 1997: town to town and up and down the dial in broadcast radio. Humans replaced by machines and automation. I learned how to communicate to the masses with style, crazy and comedy. Also learned the responsibility of the microphone and how many listeners were lonely and looking for a friend and they found it in my voice. Priceless.

1997 – 2001: General Manager duties for a major cinema company. Hollywood is dead and even on that level of the industry, the corruption was there. I did however learn how to manage people with compassion and encouragement. The only turn over I had was when a kid moved onward and upward with my blessings and references.

2001 – 2002: Back to the air chair. Saw what a fractured and empty shell my beloved career choice had become. Learned what I never wanted to do again.

2002 – 2006: freelance audio / video production. Nothing bad here but pretty much a non industry now with technology and the internet as it is. The ability to help people see their dreams make it to the air or the screen: still priceless though the money was sketchy and lean at best.

2006 – 2008: Retail and sales in the music capital of middle America. Retails dead. Period. Helping those stuck in the same hamster wheel, satisfying and honest.

2008 – 2020: Broadcast television and freelance video production and streaming . Audience disappeared. Technology changed exponentially. Internet and on demand forever shifted that paradigm. Again, made a lot of dreams come true. Mostly worth it. I say mostly because some people proved that being nice is a bad idea in many circles.

2020 – 2023: Gig economy delivery. Massive soul searching and reflecting. It’s the new world now. Was able to observe first hand the shift in humans following the biggest psyop in recorded history that we all lived through.

2023 – 2025: Back to video freelancing. Still a horrible way to make a living However, all the lived experience has led to an indeed of why I did and do and will continue to do: Care and give a shit about those who still do.

Now and beyond: Embracing my Spark full time as a storyteller and creator. I won’t have it any other way.

Jim 05/30/2025