The Lies We Believe About Our Own Job

Most church media leaders hold at least one belief about their role that works against them. In this episode, Dan Wathen names six of the most common — and cracks them wide open with personal stories and real responses from media leaders across the country.

From "this job is just a stepping stone" to "if I push back, I'll lose my standing" — these beliefs sound like they could be true. And they are costing you more than you realize.

What we cover:

 🚩 This job is just a stepping stone 

🚩 Volunteers will never perform at a professional level 

🚩 Nobody understands what I actually do 

🚩 Nothing above me or around me will ever change 

🚩 There is no room for advancement here 

🚩 If I push back, I will lose my standing

Free Download: Get The Belief Breaker — a reminder card you can print and carry with you on the hard days. 👉 https://drwmediaworks.com/belief

Referenced in this episode: Be Unique — You Don't Have to Copy the Big Church 👉 Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-producers-seat/id1896282413?i=1000766138196

Watch on YouTube: 👉 https://youtu.be/rTEnlVl83_M

Ready for direct coaching? The Producer's Seat — private advisory for church media leaders stepping into producer-level responsibility. 👉 drwmediaworks.com/the-producers-seat

Connect with Dan: 🌐 drwmediaworks.com 🐦 Twitter/X: @danwathen 📸 Instagram: @danthetvman

Transcript

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Have you ever believed something about your job that just held you back for years without even realizing it was going on? Well, I have. And honestly, so has probably almost every church media leader I've ever worked with. We call these limiting beliefs. They're the things we tell ourselves about our role, team, pastor, and our future that sound like they're true, but they're actually keeping us stuck. So today we're gonna name them and we're gonna give you a different way to see things before you walk into work tomorrow. Before we get started, stay with me through the whole episode because at the end, I have something I want to give you. So let's get into it. Well, welcome to the Producer Seat Podcast. I'm Dan Wathan, and this show exists for one reason to help you, a church media leader, think like a producer, lead with purpose, and build teams that actually last. So let's get into it. Before we get into the list, I want to tell you how I built this episode. I didn't just sit down and write this out of my own head. I reached out, I sent several emails to some uh church media leaders that I've worked with over the years, big churches, small churches, people who have been doing this for 20 years, and people who are brand new in this position. Also posted on LinkedIn and asked them one simple question. Here it is What's a belief about your role that's held you back, even if part of you suspected it wasn't completely true? And I got quite a few responses, and from that I built today's episode. So these responses came from all kinds of leaders, different sizes, different levels of experience, and all different parts of the country. But the same beliefs kept showing up over and over, which tells me something very important. These beliefs aren't rare, they're everywhere. We just don't talk about them. So today we're gonna talk about them. So I'm gonna start with this one, and this is the one that most people keep to themselves. This job is just temporary. I'll stay here two or three years just to build my resume, and then I'm out of here. I'll move on. I'll get a job in Hollywood, a production company, or even start my own business. I know this belief personally because I live part of it probably. Early in my career, I took a church media job because I needed the work and I needed experience. My plan was simple. I'm gonna hunker down, I'm gonna get through it, and then I'll move on. And here's what that actually looked like. I wasn't fully present all the time. I was doing the job, I was showing up on Sunday, but I wasn't all in. And whenever things got hard, and they always got hard, that belief kind of became my way through it. I said, if I can just get through this until I find something better. But what I was actually doing, it was keeping me from going all in. See, you can't build something lasting with one foot already out the door, but then something happened. I had been through setbacks, frustrations, and I honestly I was wore out. And one night I was walking down the church hallway and something hit me. Actually, God said to me, and it wasn't out loud, but it was just this silent knowing, Dan, relax. This is right where you're supposed to be. And all of a sudden, this peace came over me that I hadn't felt for probably two years. I stopped paddling against the current and went with it. And everything looked different from that point. Not because the job got easier, not because the frustrations disappeared, because my posture and attitude changed. The skills that eventually opened bigger doors, like me going to Hollywood, broadcast, and eventually starting my own company, DRW Media Works, were built in situations like that. Don't write off the season you're in. Belief number two, volunteers will never perform at a professional level. This belief shows up in almost every church. Here's how it works: a volunteer comes in, they're eager, willing, they show up every week, and in the back of your mind, you're already thinking, there's a ceiling here. They're never gonna get to where I need them. So you stop investing in them, you stop training them past the basics, you just put them on the high and wide camera and you walk away. And guess what happens? They stay exactly where you put them. Not because they couldn't grow, because you stopped believing they could. I had a leader reach out to me for this episode who said something I want you to hear. They shared that they used to hold on to everything themselves. They were really hesitant to hand off projects because they weren't volunteers, couldn't meet their standards. So over time they realized the real issue wasn't about quality, it was control. By holding on to everything, they were unintentionally taking away opportunities for volunteers to learn, step in, and take ownership. They said the deeper lesson was this ministry is fundamentally people-oriented, not just task-oriented. That's so good. The job was never just to produce excellent work, it was to invest in and raise up people. That's honest, and I totally get it. I've been there too. But here's what I want you to know from 25 years of doing this, I can point to real people who came through my volunteer pipeline and are now working professionally in the media industry, full-time in the field. The belief said they had a ceiling, but that ceiling wasn't real. It was a leadership investment problem, not a volunteer capability problem. And here's something I learned over years of leading volunteers. Verbal affirmation changes people. I've always made it a habit when I can to call out when I see someone doing something great before they see it in themselves. Because I know what it feels like when someone does that to me. It can literally make my day, my month, or even my life. Now, not every volunteer is gonna run centerline. Some people are naturally gifted and can handle anything you throw at them. Others will always be on the wide shot, and that's cool, that's fine. Both have a place on your team. I've also watched churches spend real money on paid operators, and they still struggle with quality because paying someone does not fix a culture problem. The churches that are volunteer based from the start tend to be better at developing people because they never stop believing in what a volunteer could become. Another leader who responded to a LinkedIn post shared a belief that connects directly to this one. They said, they struggle with the belief that professional megachurch quality media is needed to make the word of God attractive to others. Okay, that belief and the volunteer belief really come from the same place. Both are saying what we have isn't enough. We need to be more like somebody else before what we do actually matters. The word of God doesn't need your production value to be powerful. It's been changing lives long before Hayes machines or jibs existed. In fact, I did a full episode on this topic. I think it was called Be Unique. You don't have to copy the big church. So if you haven't heard it, go back and listen after you listen to this one. It goes deep on this exact belief and why chasing another church's look is one of the most expensive mistakes a media team and church can make. Just a reminder to stay with me through the end of this episode. There's something I want to give you. Belief number three: nobody understands what I actually do. This one doesn't always show up as a complaint, it kind of shows up as a media director who stops explaining themselves. They stop advocating for their team or stop inviting people in. For me personally, it wasn't that I felt unseen, it was like I felt isolated. I was the only media professional on the staff team. So literally every conversation put me in the same spot. Maybe somebody came into my office with an idea. I mean it was a good idea in their mind, and I knew immediately in my head that I couldn't pull it off. I just didn't have the time. Now I have a choice. I say yes to them and I kill me and my team trying to execute it, or I say no and be the person who shuts everything down. It's hard to do that every week because nobody spoke my language. I was the only translator in the room, and translating gets exhausting when it never stops. Over time I got better at it, and the change was actually pretty simple. Instead of saying, hey, that won't work, I started saying, that's a really interesting idea. And then I would actually think through it with them out loud or right there in that conversation. Sometimes we could change up the idea into something that took less time, or maybe it didn't even need me or my team at all, and it became their project entirely. That's their win. I had a staff member once who wanted a video. Instead of saying no, I showed them how to shoot something simple on their iPhone. They actually made the video, they were super proud of it, and then I got two hours of my week back. You don't have to be the bottleneck just because you are the expert. Help them build something, even if it's smaller than what they imagined, even if it has nothing to do with you. This is how isolation becomes collaboration. Belief number four, nothing above me or around me will ever change. The staff dynamic will never change, my pastor doesn't care about my pain points. These two beliefs feel different on the surface, but they come from the same place. Same resignation, same decision to stop advocating. I've watched media directors completely shut down inside a role because they decided the environment was just too broken to fix. And some of them were right, some environments are really unhealthy, and some dynamics are broken in ways that you just can't fix. But I've also seen something else. Some people stayed in a hard environment because they genuinely felt God called them there, but their attitude had already left the building. And at some point, it's just time to move on. Stain's not always faithfulness. Sometimes staying and being miserable is just stain and being miserable. But here's the belief I really want to crack open. You get hired for a job, let's say the salary comes in lower than you expected, but they say, hey, we'll see what we can do later in the year. And you hold on to that in your head, or they hint at new equipment, maybe a studio build, a bigger budget next cycle, and you build your expectations on those conversations. And here's what I've learned anything that's not in writing when you start is most likely not going to happen. And you just have to be okay with that before you walk in. Because if you build your peace on promises that aren't guaranteed, when they don't come through, the whole environment starts to fall apart. But the environment wasn't broken, your expectations were. So be okay with the way things are when you're hired. Don't set your hopes on a dream that may never happen in that place. It doesn't mean you stop pushing for better or advocating for your team. It just means you don't let what has not happened yet steal your peace today. Someone also shared with me that they wrestle with the fear that mistakes, or maybe his team's mistakes, could somehow get in the way of what God was doing. And that the technical failures, the miscues, the bad Sundays could actually derail their mission. I think a lot of people might feel that way. God's not waiting on your production to decide if he shows up on Sunday. He was moving before your cameras were ever here or your jib was here or your Hayes machine. If any of these beliefs hit home with you, I want you to know about the Producer's Seat program. This is my private advisory program for church media leaders who are stepping in or struggling inside producer level responsibility. It's not a course, it's not a video library, it's direct coaching, me and you one-on-one, real situations, real solutions. Head over to drwmediaworks.com to learn more. DRW MediaWorks.com. Okay, two more beliefs. Let's go. Belief number five, there's no room for advancement here. I hear this one a lot, and here's what's true. In church media, the leadership structure has only so many floors. If you're a media assistant, maybe you can move into the head of media role eventually if things open up. I've also seen media directors with strong leadership instincts move into like head of communication roles or overseeing media and several other departments. I've also watched that person eventually step into an executive pastor position. So if you look at the full picture, there's room to move. But here's one I want to focus on. What if you're already the head person? You're the media director. What if there's nowhere higher to go in the organization? So get this you can get promoted within yourself, even when the title doesn't change. So every situation you navigate with integrity, that's growth. Every time you lead your team through something hard, that's growth. Every time you frame a media request in terms of mission instead of gear, that's growth. You're building something right now that will matter wherever God takes you next. The belief says the calling's fixed, but you've been measuring the wrong ceiling. One more thing on this belief, and this one came from a leader who reached out to me. They described a situation where they had full authority to send their teams across the country for a shoot. Nobody blinks. But trying to get that same team a bonus or a raise is nearly impossible. The team thinks they're in charge, but when it comes to compensation, their hands are tied. They watch they're watching resentment build slowly as the team sees the organization spending in other areas while there is nothing left for them. And I think we've all felt that and seen that, unfortunately. Here's something worth bringing up to your leadership when the time is right. It's almost always cheaper to give somebody a raise than to lose them and start a new hire from scratch. Because the cost of turnover, recruiting, training, loss momentum almost always exceeds the cost of retention. Frame it that way with leadership. Speak their language, make the business case. Keep advocating for your people and keep developing them even when the system's slow to reward them. The leaders who keep investing in people, even when the structure doesn't cooperate, those are the ones who build something that actually lasts. Belief number six, if I push back, I'll lose my job. This is one that's rooted in fear, and it keeps a lot of us leaders quiet when we should be speaking up. Early in my career, I worked with some pretty big ministries, big organizations. These were leaders with very large personalities. They knew what they wanted and they wanted me to execute it. Period. Pushing back, even like in an honoring way, was not something that happened often. Maybe one or two people in that organization had the relationship to do it, and I wasn't one of them. So I just stayed silent. Looking back, I wish I had found a way to speak up. Not in a confrontational way, not all the time, but there were moments where a different perspective would have helped everybody in that room. But here's what I've learned since the belief is not completely wrong. Pushing back without the right foundation does have a cost. But the belief gets the real problem wrong. The issue isn't whether to push back, it's whether you've built the equity to do it. Get into an organization, learn the culture, build those relationships. Be the person who says yes, who finds solutions, who supports the vision without making every conversation a battle. And then when the moment comes when you need to offer something different, your pastor or other staff members are going to hear you out because you earn that moment. So pick your battles, and when you pick them, make it count. If you're not the head person in your department, let's say you're an assistant or an editor, this same principle applies to your relationship with the media director above you. Build equity first. Learn when and how to bring a different perspective in a way that makes people think rather than making anyone feel challenged. Another leader reached out and says that early in their career, they held back from fully owning projects. They were hesitating to contribute ideas, sticking only to what they were told to do. Over time, they learned that great work comes from fully committing to whatever role you're in and doing it in a way that complements the people above you. They said roles in church media are often blended and closely defined, which is true. And part of growing was learning where they could define those blended roles and work together instead of waiting for permission. And that's the belief underneath the fear. Not just I might lose my standing, but I don't have the right to take ownership here. But you do. Whatever role you're in, own it completely. Do it with excellence. Compliment the people above you. That's how you build the equity that makes your voice matter. Okay, let's land this. We've been talking about six beliefs. Number one, the job is just a stepping stone. Number two, volunteers will never perform at a professional level. Number three, nobody understands what I actually do. Four, nothing above me or around me will ever change. Five, there's no room for advancement here. And six, if I push back, I'll lose everything. Every single one of those sounds like it could be true. Every single one has enough reality in it to feel completely justified. And all of them is costing you something. It could be your calling, your team, the growth, the impact you were put in that seat to have. Here's your action step for the week. Write down the belief that hit you hardest today. Just one. And underneath it, write this question what would be different if this belief was not running in the background of my head? Not what would be perfect, not some dream or version of your job, just what would be different. Because the moment you see it, you can start moving towards it. The belief is not the truth. It's just a story you've been telling yourself for a while. And today you can start telling a different one. And if you made it this far, I promised you something at the start. I put together something that goes along with this episode. I call it the Belief Breaker. It's a card you can download, print out, carry with you in your Bible notebook wherever you'll actually see it on the days when these beliefs start creeping back in. There's 12 beliefs. This is double the amount we talked about today, each one with a short reframe to help you push back when the lie shows up. It's free. Link is in the show notes in the description. Head over to DRW MediaWorks.com forward slash belief to grab it. That's DRW MediaWorks.com forward slash belief. And if this episode hit close to home, if you're already doing this work for real, the producer seat is where it happens. It's my private advisory program for church media leaders stepping into producer level responsibility. We work through real situations, real strategy, and real accountability. Go to drwmediaworks.com to learn more and apply. Link is in the show notes. Thanks for being with me on the producer seat. You are doing harder work than most people know, and I'll see you on the next episode.