How NOT to Help New Hollywood Transplants

Someone’s just moved to Los Angeles to break into the entertainment business.

They’re working for free and don’t know anyone.

They have writing chops (or acting chops, or are just really smart) but no income and no experience.

How do you help them?

And how do you NOT help them?

This post is about how it didn’t work out for a recent intern of mine.

 

Introducing Katherine

“Katherine” interned with us for a few months. She quit her teaching job on the East Coast and moved to Los Angeles to start her career in entertainment. She didn’t have the best attitude, but I get it. It was a tough situation:

1. She left a full-time job, where she was making real money, to work for free
2. Her internship required her to report to people who were probably definitely still playing Pokemon on the original Gameboy when she in college.
3. She was living with a rando roommate, on a month-to-month rental

 

Is any of this insurmountable? Of course not.

Tens of thousands overcome the “work-for-free” phase of their lives every month. They handle less-than-ideal living situations. And plenty of successful people (not just interns) learn from others who happen to be younger than them:

“Mark (Zuckerberg) and I sat down for my first formal review. One of the things he told me was that my desire to be liked by everyone would hold me back. He said that when you want to change things, you can’t please everyone. If you do please everyone, you aren’t making enough progress. Mark was right.” – Sheryl Sandberg, LEAN IN (click here for full review of LEAN IN)

It’s not easy, though.

 

When You Don’t Leave On Your Own Terms

I didn’t realize exactly how transient her situation was until she emailed me one day.

 

A few weeks later, she moved back to the east coast.

She ran out of money.

Katherine had good thoughts on the material she read. Her analysis was excellent.

So it’s awful she didn’t get the chance to explore the Hollywood landscape, and find out if there was a role or a company or a niche where she belonged. Katherine didn’t leave on her own terms, which is the worse way to go out.

If you decide Hollywood isn’t for you, great. You’ve crossed out one item off the 100 things you could do with your career list. But it’s an unpleasant taste when you’re forced out because:

1. No money
2. No job
3. An untenable living situation

 

I started Fighting Broke to help people before they found themselves in this position. Then, when people arrive, to prevent them from ever getting into this position. 

 

How Can You Help A Hollywood Transplant?

I’m starting to learn, however, there are only so many ways you can help a Hollywood transplant: 

Access

• Refer them to others who it’d be good for them to meet 
• Set them up with opportunities when they come

 

Education

• Teach about the business of entertainment – something most people know nothing about when they arrive
• Feedback – on how they navigate their entertainment careers,  on coverage, on scripts they’ve written, etc.

 

 

That’s it.

Doesn’t seem like a whole lot, does it?

I never thought so either. But after providing the above, it’s up to new transplants to toil and work and create their own opportunities. The struggles of finding a better living situation and getting them that paying gig, are challenges they must face, as much as you may want to shelter them from it. 

 

What The Restaurant Business Taught Me About Help

My father taught this to me at our first restaurant.

We had a prolonged slow season — business had slowed dramatically for 6 or 7 months. Slow enough that some days I didn’t bother to vacuum, because only two pairs of shoes had trekked over the carpet: mine, and “Mary’s.” Mary was a full-time waitress.

When it was busy, she finished her shift with more than enough cash money in her pocket. It hadn’t been busy for months now, and she admitted she felt the pinch. She had a mortgage to pay. A dog to feed. While we waited for customers to come in, she’d complain/fret over how slow it was, that she practically living hand-to-mouth, and god, she hoped tonight it’d pick up. 

At the time, this made me frustrated with my father, who could have helped out. I (naively) thought, “why doesn’t he give the staff a raise — even a temporary one, until things picked up again?” Or he could give her an advance, to help her out for a month.

I got angry at what I saw as his unwillingness to help.

Much later, I realized it wasn’t his unwillingness. He knew a salary increase was only a temporary fix. It’d treat the symptoms but it’d never cure the disease. The disease wasn’t that Mary didn’t earn enough. The disease was she overexposed herself financially.

A raise might cover a few more bills but it’s never solve the problem.

My father knew he couldn’t give a raise because they needed the money.

What he could was offer as many possibilities to work as possible.

 

Real Help versus Faux-Help

We can provide all the help in the world to a Hollywood transplant, but they have to earn their opportunities. Those opportunities are found and earned by struggle, by hard work, and accepting work outside your comfort zone.

We have to care enough to provide the access and the education. Then, we have to care enough to say, “that’s it, now you have to figure the rest out.” It reminds of the scene from RAY, when Little Ray is starting to lose his eyesight and his mother provides him the tools he needs to get around, but ultimately she has to let him fall, for him to learn to pick himself back up.

 

This is hard.

Much easier would be to take a high-horse position with faux-advice like, “this business is so hard. Unless it’s the only thing you can see yourself doing you should do something else.”

So when that person does fail, there’s another example to point at, and say, “See? They didn’t want it enough.”

This is a cop out.

It’s much harder to help.

It’s much harder to care. 

To care enough to try opening doors for their success, and provide them the resources to reach that door.

Ultimately, they’ll have to walk through the door themselves.

We can help make it as inviting as possible, though.

That’s what Fighting Broke is about. My way of providing access and education, in small doses, delivered right to your inbox or news feed. So even if we never get a chance to meet, you’ll still have the access and education to kick open your own doors. If you’d like to subscribe, just enter your email into the “subscription” box to the right.

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Photo Credit: onemorechris