Austin Entertainment Business Meetup: May 17th at The Speakeasy, Austin, TX.
I've been loving this meetup! The best part of hanging out with people who come to this meetup is talking about their creative projects. It feels awesome to talk to people about what they are most passionate about. The thing that I believe some lose sight of is the idea that connecting with other human beings is actually incredibly satisfying. Go figure!! It begs the question: What message is a person sending when he/she is just asking for something from you, even if they just met you five minutes ago?
I understand how it might be for people with a little too much ambition. Thankfully, this meetup took the issue of building a career head-on, even from scratch. Jen Hutchings, the organizer who is a film/tv producer extraordinare, took the time to invite out two career coaches from the Austin area, Lynn Chang and Jonathan Troen. They both shared some fantastic advice.
Lynn Chang of Career Zen focused on the beliefs that surround us as we march ever forward to build our careers. The idea that we believe we can do something, the idea that we are changed by the energy when we feel we can do something, seems to be a central foundation to Lynn's work. She went beyond this and gave a little bit of a peek into her more practical skills by sharing what she calls Informational Interviews. The jist is this: Instead of meeting someone and asking them for a job within a minute or so, why not get to know them, understand them, and listen to them instead? This was great for me to hear because instictively I have always felt more comfy listening than talking! It's easy for me to connect to people in this way. I was so happy to listen to Lynn's talk because it validated what I naturally knew to be true.
Johnathan Troen of YogaTree was a perfect complement to Lynn. He was very forthright when it came to figuring out exactly what you need to do to build that career you want. Here's a quick overview of his process:
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it? Your "why" should make you tingle, should make you feel amazing to think about and experience.
- What is one thing I can do right now to get me closer to the why? What is the next right action to get me closer to feeling that why?
Of course, I'm just paraphrasing Johnathon, but I found that it was perfectly inline with how a career should go. Know what you want, know why you want to do it, and then find the next right action to get there. Perfectly logical!
Aside from the panel on building a career, I was also able to hang out with tons of great people at the meetup. I don't know how it worked out, but I ended up meeting three people who all went to the same small college I went to in Ohio (Bowling Green State University). We talked for at least a half hour on BGSU and all the things we did there. I got to meet a voiceover artist, an acting coach, and an incredibly interesting colorist who's worked with a huge name in cinema.
If I could sum up everything I learned last night, here it is: I think that happiness in a film career has a rough mix of cool projects, fair wages, and great people. By far, I feel that having awesome people makes me happiest. I was so glad to attend that meeting, and I'm already looking forward to the next one...