My Creating Journey began in 1986
I bought a video camera to film my two toddlers (1986) and was immediately hooked on telling stories with it. I quit my job in 1990 and became a full-time independent filmmaker—without a class under my belt—with prosumer filmmaking equipment and total dedication.
I stopped producing films for others when I retired from ‘the schlep’ in 2018. Now, I only produce my own creative projects—writings, films, and speaking gigs—and I'm enjoying the best and most productive times of my life.
Authenticity
is nurtured by life's enriching, better-than-college experiences. I schlepped video equipment throughout NorCal and produced nearly 2000 professional films for eBay, Google, Office Max, Deloitte, Folsom State Prison, Stanford, SF 49ers, etc.—including ad-lib interviewing thousands of subjects on-camera—regular folks and celebrities such as John Elway, Bill Walsh, Alice Cooper, Pete Carroll, Peggy Fleming, Steve Wozniak, to name a few.
I wrote articles for video publications (WEVA and Videomaker) and spoke at major video conferences.
Twenty-eight years of working in the trenches and creating my butt off gave me off-the-charts self-confidence and perfected my humorous, informative, motivational, and occasionally silly schtick.
Newsletters are much work, so why put me through this…for free?
HennSchtick allows me to communicate my beloved writings and films to an endless audience and has become an all-time favorite passion project.
I dreaded starting this newsletter (Aug 2023). They said it’d help publish my upcoming memoir, Touched by Hannah. I’m dedicated to TBH, so I got to writing and crafted the first newsletter, which I was quite proud of. It killed at the box office! That pumped me up big time, so I did a 2nd successful issue—and a 3rd. And now I look forward to it.
I dig composing raw, unfiltered, reality-based essays for my writings, films, and speaking gigs. Being able to access a microscopic portal to the creative imagination lobe in my mind and, with zero inhibitions, quickly spew out magical ideas is not normal--and neither am I. Normal is boring.
I put much time and effort into crafting each issue because,
Entertaining is a rewarding, feel-good drug.
Motivating folks sends me over the rainbow, way up high.
Helping people is the right thing to do, and it helps me, too.
Heartfelt feedback—hearing how readers are moved and provided confidence to go for it while chuckling siphons much satisfaction directly into my energy healing points.
When I learned to live in the moment
I spent a ton of time with Hannah when she was born, less than a month after my cancer surgery at Stanford. She came three months premature, weighing one pound and nine ounces, fighting to live. Late nights at her incubator, long after the other parents left, the first three months of her life in the hospital.
Since recovering, we’ve enjoyed a plethora of Hannah and Daddy days in the Baby Bjorne, countless trips to 7-11 than the park, school field trips, coaching her teams, Children Discovery Museum, Happy Hallow, producing twenty-four episodes of our award-winning cable TV show, Yolo YoYo’s, together. Hannah has given me much joy and the gift and ability to live in the moment.
A mantra since my prostate cancer diagnosis on June 2, 2009, has been ‘live life as usual.’ In June 2020, a scan revealed the cancer moved into my lungs. Instead of sitting around sulking, stressing, and in fear, I’m living life as usual, in the moment, and achieving my dreams. God and the universe must be pushing me toward my potential. It’s the only explanation.
Who reads HennSchtick?
Those craving a short break to escape reality while enhancing it with amusement, tears, inspiration, and pleasure. They start believing, have less fear, have the guts to try, take the chance, and then know they can do it.
Finally, if you're one of us who realizes we're simply beings on a planet surrounded by a solar system full of stuff, floating through the infinities of nothing. Yeah, we want you. You must sign up.
HennSchtick is emailed every month. (summer 2024, bi-monthly) Have access to my publication archives. For more information about my schtick, please go to henchris.com
