Josh Elsass is a video editor and content creator living in Oklahoma. Josh works at an advertising agency in Oklahoma City and aims to grow his career while making a life for himself in the Sooner State. He joins us to tell his story of how his career led him to move to Oklahoma from Wyoming.
I’m originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I’ve been just about everywhere in the beautiful United States, but I’ve landed recently in Oklahoma City and I want to tell you a little bit about why.
The thing that originally brought me to Oklahoma City was a career. I’d been living in Laramie, Wyoming for two years. I was working up there in video production and had been working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for roughly eight years before that. Once I left Pittsburgh, I knew it was time to go any and everywhere.
While I was looking for a job, I was stunned to see this awesome culture and creative industry in Oklahoma. I applied for a job at Insight Creative Group and was offered a position. Yes, at an ad agency that works on a national scale, that has national clients, that does things that I wanted to do with my career – in Oklahoma.
This wasn’t just a sideways move for me. This was a career advancement. I’m now getting to work on big national brands, Super Bowl commercials, that kind of thing. It was something that I desperately wanted.
What was really cool about it was I didn’t have to go to L.A. I didn’t have to go to Chicago. I didn’t have to go to New York. I didn’t have to go to Atlanta. I was able to do that stuff in a place that is big enough to matter, but small enough to care.
When I was going through the interview process with the job that brought me to Oklahoma, I was doing a lot of Googling and I was like, “restaurants, breweries, coffee shops,” because my wife and I are young professional millennials with no kids. That’s where we spend our money.
What I found was awesome. Oklahoma City is so underrated when it comes to food, beer and coffee. That was something that was super important to us when we were researching whether or not we wanted to move to Oklahoma City.
The range of food in OKC is so diverse. You can get traditional Japanese. You can get awesome barbecue. You can get great Mexican food. You can get James Beard Award-winning food.
I’m a millennial. Craft beer is, I’ll say it, important to my survival. I have to be surrounded by quality craft beer. Oklahoma City has that. Within a stone’s throw of my office or my house are five or six local microbreweries making some awesome beer. And while the list of breweries is long, the list of coffee shops is even longer.
Angry Scotsman Brewing | Coop Ale Works | Prairie Artisan Ales | Vanessa House Beer Co | more
Growing up in the Pittsburgh area, authenticity in where you live is really important. A lot of people believe that once a city expands past a certain point, it can no longer be authentic. That was something I really liked about Oklahoma City.
On the number of people per capita, it is smooshed right between Nashville and Denver, which I loved because I love Denver and I love Nashville.
I think the perception is kind of like that Ted Lasso scene where Roy’s like, “Howdy, I’m Ted Lasso. I’m a cowboy from America.” That’s not the truth here. It’s got this great culture to it and it’s authentic. Yes, there’s a touch of cowboy to it, but there’s also a lot of beautiful things in the art scene, the food scene, the nightlife, all that kinds of stuff.
If you’re thinking about visiting Oklahoma, here’s your sign:
Come check it out. It’s an awesome place to visit. It’s an even cooler place to live.
