Rising Stars: Meet Betsy Pearce of Edgewater

Today we’d like to introduce you to Betsy Pearce.

Hi Betsy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am a teleprompter operator. You know, a teleprompter, like what a newscaster can read from on TV news? Or more famously noted, what Ron Burgundy/Will Ferrell tried to read from in the movie Anchorman. I do not work in TV news though. I work mostly within the areas of video production, media production, ad agency and live event/conferences production.

At the age of 15 or 16, I was dancing with The Colorado Ballet school. At this age, is usually when the better dancers start focusing on becoming professional ballet dancers. I wasn’t quite as good as some of my fellow ballet classmates, I knew that. One December, standing backstage at a rehearsal for the Nutcracker, I saw a video crew talking to the prima ballerina. I remember thinking, well, this professional ballet thing isn’t working out for me, but it’d be real cool to maybe be a part of that video crew one day. Later that night I came home and told my mom that. I feel like she was like, uh, ok.

Later as I was figuring out what college to attend and what to major in, I focused in on video production. I mean isn’t that likely the degree the video production crew interviewing the prima ballerina likely had?

As a native Coloradan, I ended up enrolling at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska. I wanted to pick a different school than my fellow classmates, most of whom were picking local larger institutions. And I liked what Hastings College had to offer. I could start working on my major the first day of my freshman year and I like to say the school pretty much gave us a camera and equipment to work with our first day of college and said, go explore! Check in with us a few times during your college career. I also like that Hastings College offered a liberal arts education. I felt like if I was going to make a go at this video production thing that it’d be important to know a little about a lot of things. So a liberal arts education sounded enticing to me.

Following college, I came back to Denver and said to myself if I could make a career out of video production in Denver and not have to move to L.A. like a lot of communication majors I knew — then I would be happy. My mom was very nice in that she said, please take your time finding the job you want. Do not feel like you need to take the first job that comes your way because it will likely be something you do not want to do. Her patience gave me time to land my first job working at MediaOne, a cable company at the time, that has now essentially morphed into Comcast.

In my first job at MediaOne, I worked alongside my boss to make corporate videos for the cable company. My boss, Pat Mulcahy, was very instrumental in my career path. I knew he was looking for someone green, and trust me, I was green. But he gave me opportunities to meet, hire and manage many players in the video production community. I will forever be grateful to him. As well as a 9News technical director at the time that told me to reach out to Pat Mulcahy for a job.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I remember my parents telling me landing a full time corporate job is a key to life. Good benefits, guaranteed employment. So while some of my fellow video production classmates had moved on to work in L.A. or New York as freelancers, picking up jobs here and there, almost making a living, I felt like I was following my parents advice with this full time corporate job. I enjoyed the job. It was hard getting used to going to work everyday, but I was happy. And then not too long after I got the job, the executives at MediaOne decided to sell the company, which in turn meant I would no longer have a full time job! What happened to taking a full time job so I would be secure like my parents said?! As my job at MediaOne was ending, I went on to work for a small video production company that did a lot of work with MediaOne. I spent another year or so with this company until 9/11 happened, which slowed a lot of video production work, and subsequently I lost my secure full time job again! In shock, for some reason, I called a fellow freelance video production person I had hired over the last couple years to work on videos, and she said, oh! you lost your job again?! I said yes. She said ok, I need someone to fill in for me on a job in a couple days — do you want to do it? I said yes! I am forever indebted to this person because she started my career in this freelance video business. This was during the early 2000s when a great company, High Noon Productions, was churning out lots of content for HGTV, Food Network, etc. This woman I called, that had me quickly filling in for her, was doing a lot of teleprompting work with High Noon — running prompter for people like Marc Summers and other hosts for these HGTV and Food Network shows. High Noon was churning so many shows out that she said, why don’t you learn the teleprompter and help out on these shoots. So she gave me a crash course in teleprompting — and here I am today.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I now work as a freelance teleprompter operator — and I make a living at it! See mom, I didn’t need a full time corporate job! She acknowledges this now.

I have worked on countless productions. Running prompter for more hosts of TV shows. Running prompter for company CEO’s and executives, politicians — local and national. I like what I do. I enjoy meeting a lot of people and feel like I get to see how the world works with all the people I have encountered. I sometimes vote differently based off encounters I have had.

It’s fun to say you’ve worked on productions like MTV’s The Real World: Denver, Food Network’s’ Challenge and Unwrapped, American Ninja Warriors (when it came to Denver), Sesame Street, and more recently the MLB Draft during the All Star game.

Lots of companies with a local Colorado presence, like Coors, Chipotle, Quiznos, Comcast, Starz, DISH, and RE/MAX. Corporate video production is actually my favorite! I love seeing inner workings of companies and what makes each of them tick.

Historical events like the Aurora Theater shooting and numerous elections. Like the time I hopped a plane the day before the 2020 presidential election to run prompter for Joe Biden in Ohio because there wasn’t a local Ohio teleprompter available.

And that I’ve run prompter for other politicians like, Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, etc.

And folks like, Julia Andrews and Diana Ross, Hilary Duff, Al Pacino, countless Olympians, famous bands, and sports figures.

I find video production crews work and collaborate well together. As a freelancer, I do not go to the same office everyday. This keeps the job interesting. So I don’t always see the same people everyday. I might see some of the crew I work with a few times a year, but despite this we work hard together and work together as a team to get a job done. It’s refreshing.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I love freelancing. I am afraid I would be bored with a 9-5 job, but I also really only had a 9-5 job for the first 3 years of my professional career.

There are times I wish freelancing was seen as a respectable career. Everyone I work with works hard and makes a respectable living.

I wish we had access to be better healthcare as self employed individuals and seen as a pivotal player in the workforce. I do think this is changing as more and more people turn to freelancing careers. Freelancing does not mean unemployed (or underemployed, like some of us say), it’s just another way to go about making a living.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coloradoprompter.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betsie_pearce/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.18034740157&type=3