Jellysmack

Jordyn Fischer always knew she wanted to make movies, but she had no idea that she’d end up making them for Snapchat. Nevertheless, she enjoys every bit of her high-speed job and hopes to open the door for more women in high positions.Finding the practical path for your dream jobI was pretty lucky to know what I wanted to do from a very young age, which was to make movies. Obviously, once I grew up, I understood that this is not a practical career approach, and decided to follow a more traditional television producing path.&nbsp;During my time in college, I got an internship with The Soup on E!, which paved the way for the rest of my career. I moved up from an intern to a PA and then to an Associate Producer, until that show sadly got cancelled. As I was figuring out my next steps, the idea of digital came into my life, with the show The Rundown, which was something new and exciting.&nbsp;It was the first partner Snapchat show with E! News. It showed me that there is a totally different way to make television, that’s not actually on television. From there, I bounced around a few places, like Netflix, when The Soup was reinvented as The Joel McHale Show, and then Jellysmack came into my life.Getting into the fast-paced startup mentalityI was hired at Jellysmack as a senior producer, and within less than a year moved up to Director of Programming. The role of a producer is not something that everyone understands right away. My parents still have no idea what I do. In fact, the image of the producer that you see on TV shows, the person running around in a hectic newsroom, is not that far off from reality. It’s all about being able to juggle a million things and wearing many hats; keeping it all together with the end results of making something amazing.&nbsp;To me, producing is being involved in anything from pre-production, directing, and coordinating edits. As the Director of Programming, I'm not so much hands-on anymore, which I do miss. I’m more active behind the scene, taking what the producers have made and figuring out where it goes, and when. It's also an analytics-heavy role, where I use the data from viewing to inform our strategy.I touch on everything that goes out the door for our Snapchat -- that includes 11 active shows (soon to be 12). I’m also extremely involved in TikTok. Coming from TV, especially from a tiny show, where if we had a million viewers it was considered a success, it’s a huge difference. Our Snapchat shows reach millions and millions of people every day. It’s remarkable to have that impact and I even get addicted to it.The biggest difference between network TV and digital programming is speed. We have several shows a day on both Facebook and Snapchat, between 3 to 5 minutes each. Because we move so quickly, you learn not to get too attached, but you also get the benefit of an immediate response. Even if it’s awful reviews and people don’t like it, it's still free feedback, so you know what to do next time.Managing can sometimes mean stepping asideMy team includes a content coordinator, an editor and a production manager. As a leader, I think of myself as a “mama bird”&nbsp; -- I’m going to be there for you, but as soon as you're ready, I'm going to push you out of the nest. My team has clear objectives and expectations, so I’m able to trust them and take a more hands-off approach.On top of that, I make sure that everyone knows that they can always come to me with anything, work-related or personal. At the end of the day, I am more concerned about everyone being happy and motivated. You can even say that I’m the company cheerleader.Women are your best allies, find yoursIf I’m honest, I was a little hesitant about joining Jellysmack two years ago. Every person I met or happened to see during my interview was a man, and that didn’t feel right. I remember saying that to my then manager, who had a great response. He said that he completely understood my concern, but that this was the first step in bringing more women into management positions.&nbsp;He also mentioned that the company’s COO is a woman, who turned out to be a great confidant. Mathilde believed in me and saw a lot of my qualities in herself. This made her recommend me in many cases, or talk me up. But I’m not going to lie, there are moments when I'm in high leadership meetings, and I look around to see only male faces and that's disheartening.My recommendation for other women is to look for those female allies. There's this myth that women want to destroy each other and they're competitive. But I've had many conversations about how it’s the exact opposite. No one is going to champion you like a woman, no one believes in you like a woman. We’ve been underestimated all our lives, so no one but other women can understand how strong and smart we are.

"Don’t fall for the myth of over-competitive women"

Jordyn Fischer