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Hourly America
Hourly America is a film showing the many different ways to live and work in America. We’ve met semi-pro football playing warehouse workers, barista musicians, award winning farmers, student waitresses, yoga-teaching accountants, zombie make-up artists, and even someone whose entire job is to paddle board with whales.
Hourly America is full of stories from what work looks like to different people. What is a real job? Does it matter if it’s a 9-5 salaried job that requires a degree, or if it’s serving burgers at White Castle? Does it matter what your parents think? Or what society thinks? Is doing what makes you happy more important that making money?
All of this is chronicled through Heath (somewhat hilariously) attempting to work fifty jobs across the country.
How can I watch the film?
We premiered a sneak peak in Portland, Oregon as part of the annual World Domination Summit. We’re currently planning a screening tour. Our next premier is scheduled for September 4th in Austin, Texas. Buy your tickets here.
Our film will be available for streaming and download after the Sept 4th premier date. Add your email below to receive reminders for the film release.
The Mission
“I have a great idea. Since we don’t really know what we want to do for work, what if while we travel, I work a different job in each state?” Heath said to me over the phone one afternoon three months before our wedding day.
“You want to work through our entire honeymoon?”
Hands down, it was the worst idea I’d ever heard from my fiancè at the time. Traveling for your honeymoon should be fun. Not filled with work.
I agreed to think about it–and pray that he forgot about this crazy idea.
But Heath didn’t give up.
Instead, he found someone to help make his dream a reality.
Working A Job in All 50 States
Since we had recently graduated college, we knew just how difficult it can be to find a good job. Heath knew the biggest obstacle to his idea was the ability to find jobs that would let him work for a day or two while we were in town.
So he Googled ‘Jobs in New Mexico’ since it was our first stop. The first hit on Google was a company called Snagajob, an online hourly job board.
Heath sent a cold email to the head of marketing at Snagajob simply asking if they would help him find jobs across the country. Two quick weeks later, Heath flew up to Richmond, Virginia to meet with Snagajob. They eagerly agreed not only to help Heath find jobs, but to sponsor part of our travel.
Side note: When your husband has a crazy idea that leads to a sponsored honeymoon, say yes.
The Documentary
“Hey babe, I just got off the phone with Jon at Snagajob and he said if we wanted to turn the trip into a documentary, they would send us some film equipment,” Heath said.
“You’ve always wanted to make a documentary! That would be awesome.” Look at me being a supportive wife.
“Do you really think so? Because really, you’d be the one filming it all.”
Oh. “I’ve never filmed anything before.”
“Me neither. But it would be cool to film a documentary, right?”
“Yeah…Okay let’s do it.”
In retrospect, I put way too little thought into agreeing to film and produce an entire documentary. I had no clue how to work a camera nor did I ever even watch documentaries. I was jumping in headfirst, agreeing to follow my husband around with a camera for the next year, not knowing what I would capture.
The Adventure
On the road, we broke down. We got lost. We made u-turns. We worked crappy jobs. We worked amazing jobs. We got fired. We met talented people. We met people who refused to be on camera. We made friends. We got amazing shots. We lost footage. We fought. (Mostly due to the GPS). We spent 10 days in California. We spent 10 hours in Delaware. We drove five days across Canada to make it to Alaska. We spent five days in Maui and contemplated never leaving.
Traveling to all 50 states for Hourly America has been the greatest adventure of our lives. The fact that was all our honeymoon makes it all the more special.