DAVID BROWNSTEIN provides career coaching and leadership development for professionals in the entertainment industry, production companies and Hollywood Studios.
Named one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders” by Leadership Excellence magazine, David is also an author, certified life coach, workshop leader and business consultant.
He has coached executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, editors. DP’s and AD’s at ABC, NBC, CBS, Sony, Fox, Touchstone TV, Warner Brothers TV, Walt Disney, HBO, E!, Bravo, MTV, ICM, William Morris and BBC-TV.
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Daily Blog
June 23, 2010
-Simple Techniques for Managing Your “To-Do” list.
-Time Management vs. Creativity Management
-Clearing the Obstacles for Creativity
-Enjoying Your Work And Your Life
Bring Your To-Do List: (Whether Large or Small.)
Arrival time 6:30. We’ll start at 7:00 and go until 8:00. Then hang around to network and schmooze.
NOTE: Admission is Complimentary but RSVP Required:
The Writer’s Junction
1001 Colorado Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.451.0999
April 22, 2010
Hi Film Industry Bloggers Community:
Just got back from a Career Day Event with NAB in Vegas Last week. Here’s letter I wrote to the people I met with there.
There may be something in it for you guys too:
See ya
-db
Hi folks. Hope you all had a productive and informative time at NAB last week.
It was great to meet and speak to so many of you. It was exciting to see and hear your new ideas, enthusiasm and willingness to try new approaches to your career.
It’s obviously been a strange time, both in the entertainment industry and the world, but I do believe there are new and lucrative work opportunities for us all.
The challenge is often about getting a clearer picture of who we are, what we’re good at, what we care about and how it relates to the current market opportunities.
GRADUATES AND MENTORS
I met some of you who are still in college and some of you who’ve been in the workforce for decades.
The broadcast and entertainment industry is different now than it was 2 years ago, let alone 20 years ago.
Your ability to thrive is in direct proportion to your ability and willingness to re-invent yourself in a way that is true to yourself and relevant to the professional world as it exists today.
It used to seem like the best way to stay gainfully employed in the old days was to find a way to mold ourselves to the shape of an existing job. Now the challenge is to figure out what we’re best at, what we care about and what organization needs our help to get where they are going.
MICRO-NICHE: WHAT ARE YOU REALLY BEST AT?
Things are changing and happening so fast that many employers know they need help but don’t know what how to ask for or what who they need.
Companies have been shedding jobs that fit their old view of their process and business model but they’re looking for help in reworking their business model for the future.
Therefore, if you can explain on your resume objective and cover letter what your skills and interests are and how it relates to the current business environment then they will be more likely to bring you in for an interview or meeting.
FRESH OUT OF SCHOOL?
If you’re fresh out of school and looking for a first professional job it’s important to show your special interests, as they relate to the job you want to do.
It’s not just that they make you stand out from the crowd of boring resumes it’s that it shows you’re a person who’s got an eye out on the world and paying attention and ready to be a contributor to the team as well as to the world.
GET SPECIFIC
A specialized resume will generally get you more interviews and more interest than a generic one. If you’re creative and want to be creative, highlight and put the focus on your creative skills.
Creatives understand creatives and generally want to have them around. So don’t hide your creative side.
If you’re an aspiring reporter (and I enjoyed meeting a bunch of you) it’s important to show what part of the world or community excites you and lights you up. Sure, your first job may not be in front of the camera, but people want to hire people who’re passionate about the material whether it’s weather, politics, cooking, technology or movies.
FOR THE SEASONED PRO’S
For those who’ve been working steadily for years and now find themselves entering a different job market the challenge is different, but the approach is similar.
The first step is to be clear and specific about what kind of job you want now and with what sort of company. Give potential job titles: this will help the HR/Recruiting person who might be reviewing resumes and also help your resume show up in the searches on Monster.com, LinkedIn, etc.
And be clear about what type of company you want to work for. You may need to do some research on this point but it’s well worth the time and can help you on your search in many ways.
Whether you realize it or not, now you’re somewhat of an expert in a few things.
In the big picture what are you best at and what do you love to do?
What new companies or industries may need people like you? These may not have existed a few years ago.
That’s ok. But that’s why they need you now.
A STRANGE COMBINATION
Now with so many markets, niches and outlets, it’s important to be a strange combination of extremely individual and extremely flexible.
In other words, narrow your view of what you’re good at and what sort of skills are you best at, and broaden your views of how and where you’ll apply it.
Good luck on your search and please let me know what’s working for you these days.
April 6, 2010
After a quiet midwinter dip in energy (or was it a surge of reflective, nurturing energy) the Hollywood earth is thawing and ready for planting new seeds.
The entertainment landscape has certainly changed but it hasn’t disappeared. Now is the time to reframe and possibly rebrand your career in accordance with the seismic shifts of the past 2 years.
I know I’ve used the past few months to do an assortment of things.
NO DIRECTION HOME?
I’ve looked at where Hollywood is going and how I fit in. Both as a career coach and as a creative person.
I always talk with my clients about their need to continue to be creative in addition to working your day job or your hunt for a day job or your hunt for financing or whatever you’re hunting for.
Continuing to create is an essential fuel for the fire that is our life as creative people. It sounds stupidly obvious, but how many of us have been looking so hard for the right creative “job” that we forgot to express and work in the creative part of our life that we do have control of.
YOU KNOW . . .
Writing a script, writing a song, taking a photo, shooting a web series or a feature or a short.
Or writing a spec. Or going to the museum. Or staying up late reading or writing.
Or waking up early and swimming in the ocean.
See a movie. Write a blog about what your love or hate or fear about the state of the industry or art or world or politics.
It’s our job to follow the creative urges and to see where it leads or lands.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY?
Of course we must be responsible to the day job and be responsible for our finances, that’s a given.
But as human’s alive in the world today we’re also responsible for staying inspired and creative and synthesizing and searching for meaning and magic.
Then sharing it with the people who’re around us who might be hungry for or inspired by what we’ve discovered, uncovered or shined a light on.
Use the extra hours of light and bubbling energy rising up to plant new seeds for the rest of the year.
Lets assume this season is called SPRING for a reason and use the energy influx as leverage for the rest of the year.Feel the power surge. And if you don’t feel it, hang out with someone who does and hang on for the ride.
February 15, 2010
Hi Film Industry Blogger Community: I wrote a really long great article this month on the plane to Sundance.
However, I’m just going to send you the last part of it because I know your attention span is challenged. (As are all of our’s these days.)
I may post the rest later but for now. . . lets all just create community. Shall we?
—–
ON COMMUNITY AND MISSION. . .
I had a gathering of a small number of friends, colleagues and clients recently.
Because I had the presence of mind to get help with the party food and preparations I was able to have the time to think, actually. And be relaxed in the hours before people arrived.
And I thought about saying a few words when people were gathered there, but I didn’t, because it didn’t seem necessary at the time, but because the thank you I got was that they had all shown up, in my life, as well as my practice.
WHAT I REALIZED WAS THIS:
I actually had a mission for my business and my coaching practice that I’d never articulated.
HERE IT IS
My mission for Hollywood Coaching is to create a Hollywood that is Healthy, Rewarding, and Enlightening.
And I can only do that when people show up in my life who’re hungry for that as well. (And I’m not just talking about coaching clients.)
JUST SHOWING UP
When people with a positive outlook show up at a networking event or a gathering or a meeting it allows me to bring and share my positive outlook and thoughts.
When someone makes a film or tells a story that facilitates or inspires a new way to see things, lives or the world, it speaks to that part of it’s audience members as well and allows them to see, feel or otherwise access lesser known parts of themselves.
I believe in a world that is growing, learning, expanding and getting generally, slowly smarter and more awake, aware and compassionate.
WHAT I BELIEVE
I believe that Hollywood, as in industry, is becoming that way was well. It’s hard to say whether it’s happening more slowly or more quickly than other industries but I have a feeling that it’s happening more slowly, actually.
SOMEHOW
The power disparity between those with power and those without seems great. And those who want to change their life, move to Hollywood, and live their dream of creating film, television, music or whatever, often feel grateful for the opportunity to be treated badly at some entry level stage of their career in the business.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t work hard, pay our dues or do stuff that the folks back home would say is crazy.
I’M NOT
Take that assistant job, that extra work, that office job if it’s what it takes to get an inside look at how the machinery works.
But what I am saying is that for those of you who’re inside the machine, to whatever degree, I challenge you to challenge the paradigms of what’s expected at times.
You may not get exactly what you want. Or at least not now or at first. That’s ok.
THE CHALLENGE IS TO ASK
Ask for some time off during the day to make a phone call that will benefit your career.
Ask your possible new manager if the strange things you noticed during your interview are they way they do things around here?
Ask your old manager if he/she will still work with you if you put your education first, even when it might mean missing some auditions or meetings.
Set the intention to create, nurture and develop relationship and business opportunities with people that you like, trust and believe in.
A community with whom you can explore, reveal and support each other in the challenges and vulnerabilities and successes of your career journey as participant in the evolving story that is Hollywood at this point in the world’s development.
FIND YOUR COMMUNITY
Create a new Hollywood that will help create a new world.
—
And speaking of building community. . .
LITERATI SCHMOOZE - 2/25/10
Please join me at my schmooze/hang/networking event. It’s my way of connecting my clients, friends and other interested professionals working in the creative industries and to meet up and chill out.
No RSVP. Come when you can. Trust the forces of randomness and synchronicity. Meet cool creative professionals. Be pleasantly surprised.
DATE/TIME - Thurs - 2/25/10 - 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
LOCATION: The Literati Café in Brentwood.
12081 Wilshire Blvd (At Bundy) Valet Parking available in the back. (310.231.7484)
(We’ll be in the cafe. Not the restaurant)
December 1, 2009
Interesting interview in the LA Times with Carol Lomdardi who is the new chief negotiator of the AMPTP (representing the major studios and networks.)
She’s already shifting the dynamic. That’s good news.
Nick Counter was known as a pugnacious negotiator. Will you adopt a similar approach?
I’m a good listener at the bargaining table. I try to be. I’m still a representative of management. I represent major studios, each of whom has different businesses and in some cases different interests. All of that is the same as it was for Nick. The one area where we may really differ a lot is getting out in front of negotiations. Having regular communications with the guilds and unions, so that we can share perceptions or disagree about what the world looks like, is very important. I’ve already had discussions with representatives of the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild about doing that.
In fact, during the writers strike, it seemed that you were practically speaking different languages.
I think increased dialogue between the parties would have helped on some issues, particularly in new media, where the companies felt it was too early to negotiate a deal, and the Writers Guild felt they were going be left in the dust and have this whole market develop around them and not be part of it. It may not have prevented a strike, but having discussions about that at an earlier stage might have been very helpful. We really didn’t have a functioning relationship.
And you have one now?
We’re working on it. I’ve made efforts to reach out to the WGA leadership to change that dynamic.
Looking ahead to 2011, when contracts for actors, writers and directors all expire, conditions would seem ripe for another showdown between studios and talent.
I hope not. Everybody endured some battle scars from the last round. The economy in L.A. and elsewhere suffered tremendously as a result of the last strike. A lot of people lost their jobs. Nobody really wants to revisit those consequences, so I’m optimistic that people will say, “Let’s find a way to get this done.”
Thanks to Jonathan Handel for pointing to the article:
