Goal Setting
Dear Friends:
When I was doing some coaching to groups of people from the corporate world years ago I always started with this question, “How many of you have set your goals (both long and short term) this year?” Every time 99% of the hand would go up. A few years later when I asked the same question in seminars filled with folks of all facets and levels of the entertainment industry the exact opposite would happen. Only a couple of hands went up.
Goal setting is fun, exhilarating and life altering. So why don’t we do it? Why don’t we set goals for ourselves? I think why so many of us in our industry don’t set goals is because we think it’s someone else’s job. We hear it all the time… “That’s my agent’s job,” or “That’s my manager’s job.” Putting your career in the hands of someone else is crazy. This is not the place to relinquish your power. I’m not saying that having an agent or manager is not great. Of course, it’s helpful to have a team supporting you. But that doesn’t mean that YOU are not 100% responsible for your career. <--read more-->
10 Tips on How to Deal With Stress
Dear Friends:
It’s been a busy two months for me. I spoke on the international film production panel at (TIFF) the Toronto International Film Festival, worked with my business partner on the casting of our amazing John Lennon project and attached an incredible actor, signed a deal on a TV pilot with Canadian Production Company, went back up to Toronto to meet with the showrunner on that project and then off to Israel for two weeks and came back to Los Angeles to prep for the American Film Market and then optioned another fantastic feature project, and on and on it goes.
You can see why I wanted to write this Blog on how to deal with stress! Just looking at that paragraph is causing me stress. I think we are all crazy busy these days. Multitasking is a given and stress is something that everyone is dealing with… at every age, every level, in every business and in our personal lives. <--read more-->
Turning Weaknesses into Strengths
Dear Friends:
I have literally spent the last month thinking about this topic and I have to be honest, this has been a difficult one. Turning our weaknesses into strengths! The more I thought about it, the more I realized I could write a book about this topic or a whole series of books for that matter. Just being in the inquiry and observing myself and others has been amazing, enlightening and yes, at times, downright depressing.
I’ve even reread “Creativity, Inc.” by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. If you haven’t read this book, go online and order it now! When you’re committed to the highest artistic standards as Catmull and his colleagues were, you are going to bump up against your weak areas again and again. Never did he or his colleagues back down from a challenge. They faced each breakdown and problem head on, dealt with it and found solutions. The results were pure creative genius and we as audiences got to enjoy the magic they created. <--read more-->
Moving From Resignation To Enthusiasm
Dear Friends:
This week I’m going to focus on the subject of ‘energy and enthusiasm.’ As I do with many of the topics of these articles, I put myself in an inquiry. This time as I was focusing on ‘energy and enthusiasm,’ I was continually observing what impact the day-to-day bumps in the road were having on me… always noticing when (and how quickly) resignation would set in and affect my level of energy and my productivity.
I recommend you join me in this inquiry. Just staying conscious and present to these distinctions is transformational. In addition to observing, I did some research on the topic and spoke to a lot of people about it. I noticed that it doesn’t take much to bring us down.
In the entertainment industry I believe we face more rejection than any other industry in the world. The result of on-going rejection will be resignation and despair if we don’t really make a concerted effort to turn it around. <--read more-->
Turning Your Passion into Prosperity
Dear Friends:
“Workin’ 9 to 5… what a way to make a livin.” Do you know that song from the old 70s film “9 to 5”? Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you get the picture. It’s the way we’ve been trained. It’s the way our parents were raised and it’s the way their parents were raised. It’s just “the way it is.” Well, what if it didn’t have to be that way? If you love your 9 to 5 job, fantastic! Of course, these days the hours are more like 9:00 to 7:00! However, Jack Canfield, in his book “The Success Principles,” refers to a study that was done in the U.S. that says, “A full one third of Americans would be happier in another job.” That’s crazy. We really have to ask ourselves, “Am I doing what I love to do?”
Many of you reading this article are in the entertainment industry doing what you love. But, for the majority of us, it’s not a weekly paycheck. Sometimes there’s weeks, months and even years between gigs. So, what are ways that we can make money doing other things we love and want to do. <--read more-->
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