I used to think that I had no skills outside the entertainment industry and, if I wanted to switch careers, I would have nothing going for me since I’ve worked in Hollywood my whole life, including going to film school and getting a BFA.

However, I have recently realized that I do have skills that are unique, different and ones that not every Wharton or Harvard MBA has.

These skills are:

• Thinking outside of the box:  Being in Hollywood, you quickly learn that you have to think outside the box to get anything done in this town.
• Leaving no stone unturned:  Literally. Trying to set up a tv or movie or any project makes you reach out to every single person you know and those you don’t in an effort to get a project set up.
• Not taking no for an answer:  To me, a no is just the start of a negotiation.
• Being creative: If you are stumped on something, get creative and work around it.
• Not giving up:  It just takes one person to say yes.
• Practicing the art of delegating: This is very important, and many big and small companies fail because their CEOs micromanage too much.
• Bringing the experts in: It’s okay to ask for help because there is no way you can know everything. Part of succeeding in this town is not being afraid to say, hey, can I get some advice?
• Having an opinion: This can not be overstated. I don’t care what your opinion is, having one is a HUGE asset and most people are too scared to have one.
• Being decisive: The best leaders are the ones who are unafraid to make a decision.  I have seen companies fold because their leader couldn’t make a decision.

So if you think you don’t have any portable skills portable, think again, and be thankful for all the skills that Hollywood taught you!

If you read the trades, you will notice that a lot of agents are becoming managers these days.  While sometimes this works, an agent and manager are not interchangeable.  Often I have seen agents who became managers quickly going back to being an agent.

Why is this?

Managing is hard work. It’s a lot more hands-on than most agents are use to. It’s also a lot more creative than most agents are use to.

As a manager, I am constantly looking for new ideas for my clients. I am also always looking for the right people with whom to pair them up.   In fact, my job is to be as proactive as possible and not wait for someone to call me about my client, which is what most agents are use to.

Agents can sit and wait for the incoming calls while managers are always making outgoing calls.

Also, there is a lot of development that managers do that agents don’t. Often we will do notes on 8-10 drafts of a client’s project before it even goes to an agent.  Many agents haven’t developed their notes skills and don’t know how to do detailed notes.

It’s a very different job skill set for managers and most agents don’t realize this when they make the switch.  They simply think of it as a different job title for representing clients.  

Best of luck to all the agents out there becoming managers.  But a piece of advice — it’s not as easy as it looks.

The Fourth of July usually means barbeques, beer and fireworks.  For Hollywood it also usually means the slow down of the feature film business. Phones stop ringing, specs stop going out, and people start going on vacation.

Does that mean that you have to spend the next two months twiddling your thumbs? No! It means you have two solid months where you can spend your time and energy on things that you could never do while the phone rings every two seconds.

My two favorite activities that I like to do in these summer months are:

* Diversify

* Be creative

By diversify what I mean is I like to spend these summer months looking into arenas that I haven’t explored before and want to have better knowledge about.

For example, when my business partner and I started Tom Sawyer Entertainment, we spent the summer months learning everything about the TV business since we came from the feature world. Now we do almost 1/2 of our business in the TV world and several of our clients are staffed on TV shows.

A couple years ago we spent the summer learning all about the book world.  Now we have sold seven books so far and are working on two more book deals.

There is always some segment of the entertainment business of which you could grow your knowledge, and the summer is the perfect time to do that.

By being creative what I mean is having the time to go through all those articles, ideas and scraps of stories that I have kept in a folder while I wait for some peace and quiet to sort through these.

My business partner and I will take an afternoon and read through everything in this folder and see what we want to develop for the next year.

Or being creative means finally having the time to work on my website, blogs, etc.  For anything that takes creativity and the time to do it right — the summer is the perfect time for it!

If you are reading the trades (Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter) I am sure you are reading about studios making less and less pictures and spending less and less money on those pictures.

So what can you do?

The only way to survive in this town is to diversify, diversify, diversify. Think of it like stocks — you want to be in as many businesses as possible because, in case something happens in one field, you have others to fall back on.

What this means as a writer is that you should be in as many different fields as possible (while still endeavoring to be great in all of them). Whether this is books, tv — half hour and hour, film, games, comic books, etc., the more fields you are in, the more stocks you have in different arenas that could pay off.

The other great thing about being in as many fields as possible is that  it will stretch your creative muscles.  You will be forced to be creative in ways that you might have not thought possible.

And that new creativity will flow through to all your other arenas.  It will make you a stronger writer in every other field you are in.

I once read an article about a famous old producer who said that he spent over half his day doing favors for other people.  And I have to agree with him.

Much of my day is spent doing favors for other people: trying to help friends get jobs, making introductions, reading resumes, introducing actors to casting agents, etc.

It might seem like a waste of my time (and, trust me, there are days that I would agree).  But then something happens to remind me that it all comes back to you.

We have been friends over the years with a writer who we have tried to help out whenever we can without the expectation of anything in return.  We recently got an email from him saying he is now working at the Huffington Post and he would love to do an article on our very funny client Ben Schwartz.

Of course we said yes and, boy, are we happy about this article.  See the link below to read this fantastic article.

And remember, this goes to show you that it’s a good business practice to try to be nice to everyone — you never know how it is going to come back around.

Enjoy reading the article now.

One of the most important parts of the film/tv/media process is picking a partner. In most cases you will team up with someone to produce a project or, if you are a writer, sometimes you will team up on a project together. And if you are a director, you will most certainly be partnering with a producer.

And choosing the right one is crucial to a successful endeavor.  So how do you pick the right person?

To be honest, a lot of it is instinct. Similar to a first date, is there any chemistry with the person (and I am not just talking about physical chemistry)?

Do you like the person? Could you imagine spending days and days together, hours upon hours, without wanting to kill each other?

If it is a more established producer, how does he/she treat a younger producer? Is the producer inclusive or exclusive? Does he/she listen to your ideas?

Does he/she create drama just for drama’s sake? When the going gets tough, does the producer roll up his/her sleeves or turn tail and run?

Besides relying on instinct, do your research:  Talk to people they have worked with and learn how they acted.

Also, keep a close eye on how the person was in the the beginning of the process.  If he/she treats you well before production starts you are probably in a good place. If he/she is difficult in pre-production or the negotiating stages (or, if you are a writer, in the spit-balling stage) you are most likely in trouble.

Remember finding the perfect partner is like dating — a bit of trial and error.  But you should also do some reference checks before you take the plunge!

Being a Californian native, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to go to Coachella, the annual music festival in Indio, CA. But finally I did. And I learned several lessons that definitely apply to the film and television industry.

Sly Stone or Show Up And Do Your Job

In case you didn’t hear about Sly I’ll get you up to speed.  This was his first gig in about 10 years. When we got there, about five minutes into the appointed hour at 7p.m. someone came to the microphone and said this event was postponed until a later time.  When Sly finally showed up, at 11p.m., he was rambling, incoherent and stumbled around on stage and could barely sing.  In short, he was a mess.

This is the first lesson in showbiz. You have to show up and be a professional. Do the work, do it well, and respect that you are getting paid to entertain people.  Make them laugh, or cry, or sing or dance, but you always, always have to show up and act professional.

MGMT or Learn How to Hold Your Audience’s Attention

Now I like MGMT.  The band has some great songs and is the perfect band for Coachella. When we got there the ground was pumped - they couldn’t wait to see them.  But, man, were we all disappointed. In fact, I have never seen so many people stream out of an area so fast in my life.

One of the fundamental rules of showbiz is you have to learn how to hold your audience’s attention. If the audience is getting bored, change something around and get back the attention.

MGMT’s problem was that there was a lot of talking between songs and, for some reason, the band decided to play new material — which no one in the audience was interested in. Worst part is, after the first two songs of new material, the band knew people were leaving but continued to play the new material instead of switching to the band’s hit singles. In a crowd like Coachella, you have to play your hits and keep the crowds energy going!

Miike White or Sometimes Things Surprise You

Miike White was in my top three shows at Coachella and I wasn’t even expecting to like the band. I had heard one or two songs but had never seen the band in concert and, man, were they good. They had the crowd jumping and knew exactly how to hold the crowd’s attention.

It just goes to show you that you have to be open to new things because sometimes these new things surprise you by how good they are.

I was talking to an agent friend of mine and she told me her client just booked his debut feature on a major franchise. After the obligatory congratulations, I asked her how he managed to land the gig when studios are loathe these days to take chances on first-time directors.

And she told me he prepared a huge visual presentation that really wowed the studio execs. She then said, “At this point I would never put up for a job a director who doesn’t have a great visual presentation.”

And I couldn’t say this better myself.  When studios are making less and less films and are becoming more and more risk averse, it is getting harder and harder to get directors their first movie. The only way you have a chance is to really put the time and effort into making an amazing visual presentation.

You have to present the buyers with a dramatic reason why they can’t say no.  Show them you can do the visuals; show them you have the actor relationships. Give them an answer to every question they might have before they have a chance to ask the question.

Be creative! You need to wow and impress the buyers so they can sell their bosses, shareholders and investors on why, even though you are a first-time director, you are the perfect person to direct the movie.

Bottom line?  If you can’t be creative in the pre-stages you won’t get the chance to be creative in the filming stages.

We just had a very hot film project that everyone wanted to partner on. It’s a nice change of pace to be the prom queen everyone wants to ask out instead of the last girl desperate for a date.

In a very short time period we were in a situation where several big producers were interested in pairing up with us and we had to pick which producer we wanted to work with.

We decided that, with the author of the book, we’d take meetings with all the producers to see who we liked the most and who we thought would be the best partner.  And one of the results of our week of meetings is that I now have several important tips that every young producer or writer or director should know:

1. DON’T Be Afraid to ask Tough Questions

Even though you might be meeting with fancy producers, ask the tough questions so you can see if their vision of the project fits with yours.  Some examples of questions:

- Why are you the right person for the project?
- What’s your vision of the story?
- Who are the directors and writers you think would be good?

2.  DON’T Be Star Struck

Just because someone might be a very big producer it doesn’t mean he or she is the right person for the project.  Listen to your gut and don’t be blinded by the flash and sizzle.

3.  DO Your Research

Take the time to do your research and find out as much background info as you can on the producer. Some examples of intel to gather:

- Do the studios want to buy from them?
- What is the producer’s reputation?
- Does the producer work well with young producers?
- Does the producer treat book authors well?

4. DO Pick Someone You Like

Pick someone that you actually want to work with.  Think about if you will want to work with these people for the next 5, 10 years.  Ultimately it comes down to a gut feeling — and some due diligence.

Thus while you might be meeting with very big producers or producers that have a name for themselves but are still hungry, you have to go on your gut feeling — after doing your research — as to who is the best fit for a specific project.

Time’s running out!  Don’t delay another second.

RSVP NOW: http://ah-feb10.eventbee.com

“Makin’ It!” - A Special Awards Season Panel
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Maggiano’s Little Italy
3rd & Fairfax (189 The Grove Drive)
Hollywood, CA 90036

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Join us in welcoming:

Romell Foster-Owens, Award winning Producer-Director (Moderator)
Millicent Shelton, Award winning Director
Forrest Murray, Award winning Producer
Richard Kiratsoulis, Film Finance Consultant

A Networking Reception will immediately follow panel presentation

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**Use Discount Code “Affiliate” to receive a $5 discount off your pre-confirmed ticket.