Jon has an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge at the forefront of his mind, and in 2023 we turned about sixty pieces of it into short films.
Jon Barnes, consultant and speaker on autonomy at work
Jon Barnes helps business owners and team leaders build organisations where responsibility is shared, so it stops all coming back to the person at the top.
When he came to me in April 2023 he had plenty to say and nothing filmed. So we spent four hours on strategy, two days filming in April and the next few months editing, and he ended up with the films and two sets of photographs.
Where he started
Jon told me the dots tend to join up for him out running on the South Downs, or talking things through with a client in a coffee shop or on a walk.
He'd thought about what the films should do, and before our strategy session he wrote down his hypothesis for me.
“If I produce regular, erudite and relatable short form video content, then I will generate more high quality leads for both consulting work and speaker engagements.”
And he told me what he didn't want, which was any pretending.
He wanted the enthusiasm he has with clients one to one to come through on camera, soap box moments and all.
What working with us involved
Strategy
Before our session Jon sent me links to his existing material, and I sent him a questionnaire to fill in over Easter. Then we spent four hours together at Plus X in Brighton, and his answers turned into most of the list of films.
Strategy and three months of video, signed 6 April 2023
Photography
I always make time for photos on a project like this, so we did two sets for Jon. The first came out of the spring filming, and when we filmed his testimonial in January 2024 I took 45 new headshots the same day.
63 photos in May 2023
What we made
Jon's films are him talking about autonomy at work, many of them in under a minute, and a lot of them were filmed outside.
Short films
They take on the questions his clients ask him, like how decisions get made when a team runs itself or how conflict gets handled, and the stories he tells to answer them, from his son's school in Costa Rica to starlings murmurating.
In the studio and outdoors
We filmed a day in the studio on two cameras, then went out into the woods and parkland at Stanmer Park.
A testimonial
In January 2024 we filmed Jon talking about the project, and I edited that film so I could send it to people thinking about working with me.
The films
Here are a few of Jon's films.
