Girls Next Poor

EP15: Greenlight Yourself

• Girls Next Poor • Season 1 • Episode 15

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0:00 | 32:35

We all know Hollywood is known for nepo babies and gatekeepers. But what if we all just said “yes!” to ourselves and bypassed the systems entirely? What if it actually worked? On today’s episode, we walk through taking a chance on yourself through social media, collaborating with friends, and what it feels like to get your hand slapped by your publisher when you’re a control freak.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, I'm Vanessa Simone.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm Mimi Hayes.

SPEAKER_00

And we are the Girls Next Poor.

SPEAKER_01

Wouldn't you know it? Back again in your face.

SPEAKER_00

In your face. We are having so much fun on this podcast, are we not? We are having the best time. I wish we could just do this all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01

This is our life.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

This is our life. We're living it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, we have fun because this is also like so natural. Like, all the things we talked about on this podcast have been so fun to talk about. And I feel like we could have even longer episodes. We could. We totally're just sticking with half hours at the minute.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because that's what our subscription can afford, right?

SPEAKER_01

There's so much we can afford to do. Uh welcome back. Um, as per usual, we're talking about creativity. And uh, what do we got going on the books today, Vanessa?

SPEAKER_00

We are talking all about green lighting yourself, not asking for permission to do to be the thing from systems, organizations, just be the artist.

SPEAKER_01

So now, what is that illicit for you? What does that mean to you to green light yourself in where you are right now as an artist?

SPEAKER_00

Right. So let me take a step back because right now, Hollywood, uh, there's so many things that you have to do in order to become a legitimate actor or actress or creative, and it feels like all of these you have to go through all of these systems and hoops and hurdles, and it's who you know, and this. This is back in the 90s, they had to do all that in order to become a singer, to be an actor, to be anything of anything. You had to go through Hell, is that just yeah, gatekeepers, and it's all about who you know, and it's luck. Whereas now we're very fortunate in this day and age to have social media, to have platforms that are free to be able to put our content out there. And I think one beautiful thing about social media is watching artists who would have never been able to make it before in the 90s or the early 2000s, before this social media age, but they are now able to become an A-list celebrity or A-list in whatever field that it is because they greenlit themselves, they put their own work, their own content out there for the world to see and the world determined. Oh, yeah, we want you to be, we want you to be the next big thing. That whole comment where people say we made the right person famous, you know, or yeah, you know, so we're talking about that today because and how this applies in my life is I am a very multifaceted and multi-passionate person.

SPEAKER_01

I'll say.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're both very much like that, and seeing so I work kind of on the influencer side, I work in the content creator side. I also am trying to get more into acting and into film and TV producing and writing scripts, and instead of wishing for it, it's just do it, honestly, Niking it up. And so learning how to learning to just put it out there without having to go through um before you you might get an agent or any of that, because I don't have agent, I don't have a representation, I don't have any of that. I'm still building, but the beauty is we can build and basically put our resume onto online. And if you haven't seen our resume episode, I highly suggest you watching that. Um, but Mimi, so what with you, kind of what's your background and what are you kind of doing to green light yourself?

SPEAKER_01

I'll say I feel like I kind of have learned this the hard way by not greenlighting myself. Um, in Hollywood, I moved to LA in 2022 with the delusion of getting my TV pilot made and greenlit. And I had this TV pilot written based on my life, a comedy drama about a young teacher who has a brain hemorrhage and is trying to navigate life. And I do see it as an ongoing series. Um dramedy, you know, very coming of age. I could still play myself. I mean, I could still hang, I could still play 22. You bet your ass I could, especially with my new haircut, which is lovely. Um, but when I got to LA, I thought it was just gonna happen to me. And I didn't, I wasn't going out and making my own content or just making my series myself. I didn't go out and get my friends together and say, let's make this TV pilot or let's make a trailer for it, or let's just make something at all. Um, I just wanted the gatekeepers to welcome me with open arms. And that did not happen. And um, I tried a couple things. I was in a contest for um screenwriting and I was a top 10. And um, what I did get with this was a 10-minute conversation with the production company who had not read my script, who had not read my work, and I pretty much had 10 minutes to tell them what it was about, and at the end of the day, I didn't get picked. And even the person who won the competition, I actually checked in with. I did the research and I figured out who won. And I checked in with them years later and I said, Did your film ever get made from that contest? And they're like, No, no, it didn't. So even if you get greenlit, there's no guarantee that you are going to have your shit made because of the nature of the industry, because there's so many hoops and hurdles and things I don't understand yet because I'm still on the outside of the industry. I do have some experience, but by no means do I feel confident walking on a set right now and knowing what the hell I'm doing, you know. And so, in terms of me green lining myself, what I'm looking to do is make my documentary and make it myself and put it out into the world. I would love to sell it to a streaming site. I don't know how to go about that, but I have to make it first. You know, you can't sell something that doesn't exist, and so you know, I want it to be distributed so that as many people can see it as possible. I don't necessarily want to just put it on YouTube, but um, I have to make it first and get through the process, and then I'm gonna start the um film festival circuit, and I'll get on the film festival circuit, and I'm gonna connect with people over that. I'm gonna put myself out there um and know that I very much could fail, but at least I have to try in the first place. Right, you know? Um, something I wanted to bring up is that I have this thought about um things being gatekeeped, in that back in the olden days, especially as a comedian in like the 70s, 80s, there was a lot more opportunity in that you could you could be Jerry Seinfeld and be a nobody, and you could go to the comedy cellar every night and you would hang around and be a part of the boys' club. If there was a free spot, you'd take a spot, you get on stage, and there's happens to be an agent in the audience who's like, Hey Jerry, do you want your own TV show? And that was the true story. That's literally Jerry Seinfeld walked, like, you know, got an agent, got his show made, you know, from doing a stand-up, and you could be in a club and be goofing off and get on stage, and there would be people there that would uplift your career, right? Now it's even more competitive. And I think you brought up a good point with social media. Now you can break through the noise without being Jerry Seinfeld, you know, without some of those waiting for those gatekeepers, you can just green light yourself, make your own content. And if you're lucky, you go viral, you get a major from it, you you know, get a special audition because of your TikTok that you made. You know, you just don't know what's possible, but you have to stop waiting for the cavalry to come and to give you the golden key to the city.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Stop there's stop waiting for approval. Just do and put it out there. And I think this is where a lot of creatives can learn from influencers and content creators because every day we are just putting out videos, they are our hot takes, they are our whatever it is that it that we are putting out into the world. But one thing I will say that I really appreciate about that field is they just in that influencer creative world, it's get it out there, get it out there, get it out there. Whereas I feel like on as I enter more into the acting, production, and TV side, it almost feels like a lot of artists are waiting to put anything out there, and I'm and I understand because social media technically, when you put it out there, it's almost like you don't have ownership rights, especially with new laws. However, one of the things that actors, comedians, all of these other types of creatives can learn is maybe build stuff specifically for social media. Like I know a creator who um they're a comedian, but they write separate stuff for specific specifically for social media, um, or like they write a mini-series for social media. So like instead of doing your full documentary on social media, maybe you do a mini documentary about something else in another aspect of your life, and you put that on social media, so you still you're okay with if this gets blown out there. At least I have my documentary that I know I want to pilot. You could still put like a one-minute or the 30-second snippets on social media of your documentary, but you're not putting the whole thing out there, right? And I wish that more of the actors, singers, all of these things would put their work out there. Maybe they don't have to put all of it, like maybe they do save some for you know those deals if they get a deal or whatever, but even in the process of as an actor, if I I guess I'm gonna start this because if me as a new actor, I want to write a whole new script and I want to act it and put it out there and film it. And the beauty about that is me by me making mini projects for social media, you're not not now, you're also practicing all of the different crafts, but you also get to utilize social media, and then people can see that work, and then you know, maybe you could keep that other work that's your long longer term project or whatever for the future. So definitely the and this will help with not seeking or waiting for approval because I think I think we just need to get something out there, and I feel like there's so many talented people who still aren't discovered yet because they don't put anything out on social media, and I I see the hesitation, you know, but by practicing and putting out your mini projects or making a mini project that's maybe for social media, you're gaining new experience and you're building your skills and you're learning something new, and you're building your chances of being discovered in a non-traditional way that could actually help propel your career. So that would be my take from the influencer side to the creative side is to do more of that because as and as somebody who is in a different kind of blended worlds here from that influencer side and then the creator or like artist side, as as a non, I'm like I'm an artist, yes, I'm acting and all that, but I'm not an actress quite fully yet. But from the outside looking in, I'm fascinated by people who are putting their monologues, doing their showing their process of I'm writing a script. I have I don't see that on my feed, like I don't see that anywhere.

SPEAKER_01

I'm getting that my FYP since we started talking about acting and getting serious about both of our acting careers. My FYP is entirely full of people's self-tapes. My favorite kind of video on the internet right now is your audition tape versus what actually aired on TV. And so you can see this is me in my closet, you know, with my backdrop, with my lights, taking my self-tape, because that is that is a new thing too, is even the process of getting hired. Is you can make a self-tape in Denver, Colorado. You can apply for a Hollywood movie from Colorado from your self-tape. They could book you, call you into LA, make the film. There's no reason why you can't do that. You don't have to live in LA to have these opportunities anymore because it used to be you'd have to go to a casting, a live casting, and those still happen, but you know, after the self tape. That's the first thing you usually have to do is show yourself on camera and show yourself acting. And so you're literally in your bedroom by yourself with maybe a friend who's reading the opposite lines, and that's how you start. So, you know, the world is more open in that way that you can any Joe Schmo can make a self-tape. You don't need an agent to do that. And there's so many gigs open to you if you don't have an agent or union, non-union, you know, like you can be new to it and you can find gigs as a new person. You can you can be a nobody. Absolutely. Um, but I would say one of my favorite uh from the writing side of things, one of my favorite uses of social media that really, really helped this author um was a couple years ago, this author, um Paula Lafferty, she um she had come up with a book idea like 13 years ago. And she had started writing it, but she scared herself and she was like, I'm not good enough to be a writer, so she put it down for 13 years. She picked it back up in like 2022, and she started filming herself, putting her pages down. After she wrote a chapter, chapter by chapter, she would go to the camera and put her pages down on the on the counter. And then the next day, boom, and it was a time lapse and boom, boom, boom, until she had this big, thick stack of papers that was her whole manuscript. Well, guess what? It went viral. And she decided to she, I think she did get an initial offer um from an agent, I think, that saw that, but she actually wanted to self-publish it. Because she wanted to take a chance on herself and green light herself because she wanted control of the project. Because that's a big thing with publishing, is when you sign with the publisher, you pretty much sign your life away. But if you're self-publishing, you would get ultimate control of that project. And that's what she wanted. So she did her Kickstarter, she funded it super easily and then some. She put out her first book. It sold out immediately from the excitement from just her TikTok alone. Um, she ended up getting signed, and now she has foreign rights. She has her book is reprinted with the publisher with a new title and a new cover. She does have an agent now. And she is on her way to get her next book out there after publishing this year, you know. And so that was so cool for me to see a self-published author and someone literally just so simple, putting your pages on the counter. You know, and here's me committing to myself, making this thing. And um, still it gives me chills to think about it, just because I'm so happy for her, like that she deserves that after, you know, not taking a chance on herself for so long. She finally got the book done, and uh it's sitting on my TBR, it's sitting there. I'm super excited. It's a special edition and it's stunning. Uh, the once and future queen. So um, check it out. That's my favorite author, you know, taking a chance on yourself story.

SPEAKER_00

I, you know what I love about that story too, is now Paula is her name, has full autonomy over her art. And another aspect about green lighting yourself is you kind of bypass all of the royalties that are taken out or the the money that people want to take when they see a good product, right? Because with with whether you're whatever TV producer, author, whatever, if you have a good product and you're you have an agency, they want a cut, right? Everybody wants a cut. Everybody wants a cut, but in this case, I mean, now obviously she signed and all that stuff, but for her to know that she could do that on her own, get that self-publishing, it's all in fully in her name. She doesn't have the rules and regulations and the almost entrapment of being with some a publisher or so, and she gets that for herself. And I think that that might be one of the ultimate rewards as an artist is being able to have full autonomy autonomy over your art. And so that's another reason why it's important to green light yourself because in this day and age, the rules that happened back then do not apply as much today.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And to be able to own your work, I mean, we've seen so many singer-songwriters have to fight for their art, their artwork. The work that they made, they have to fight for. But now, knowing in this day and age, you can have you can self-publish, you can sell out your self-published book, that's a huge accomplishment. And I know that you know, there's titles when that come with um being with an agency or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

Well, there's a certain kind of like um prestige you get, respect you get from that. But I think those are starting to tear down because I do think the systems are even Hollywood. I've been hearing the trends in Hollywood from my TikTok FYP, is there is this desire for indie filmmakers. There's a desire for people to make their own content because things are still so gate-kept and so uptight about who is allowed to do what, and everything is nepotism. There's this craving for people to just put your work out there. And what was it called? There was a film that was made. There have been several films made from iPhones, entirely by iPhones. And um, they go on to be amazing at film festivals, and these filmmakers then go on to be able to be in Hollywood. Um, but they didn't start that way. They made their own content, they took a chance on themselves when maybe the gatekeepers said, no, get out of town, get out of Dodge. Um, and to green light yourself, I think you have to you also have to get used to rejection.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And absolutely make a note of this rejection as rocket fuel. Okay. Uh, that's a new episode. It's all about rejection. Okay. Um, and I think it's important because when you get so much rejection, you do just want to quit. Or you do think, you know, when you get a no, it feels like a slap in the face. Because I thought this was going to be the person who was gonna say yes. Because all it takes is one yes. And at the end of the day, no is a redirection, right, to your path. And it's telling you something. That no is telling you something, whether it's like, hey, wasn't a good fit, whether it's, hey, I need to rewrite my agent letter because it keeps getting rejected, and there's obviously something about this that isn't working. Time to go back to the drawing board, right?

SPEAKER_00

Pivot. Pivot.

SPEAKER_01

It's a pivot. And, you know, so many authors, filmmakers, there are people, you know, Jim Carrey lived in his car, you know, people who come from such humble beginnings were told no, left, right, and center. And we we love them today. We their beloved actors and filmmakers and people, but when they started, they just got no all the time. And it wasn't because they weren't talented, it was just because they weren't what that gatekeeper was thinking that day. Like, and some of it has nothing to do with you. Yeah, you know, some of it's a lot of people. Half the time, you look at like you look at why someone like with agents, right? You look for for an author for an author finding an agent, you look at the agent's profile, you look at where they went to school, you look at what they studied, you look at their list of books that they publish, and you may feel like a perfect fit. And so you you email them and you say, Hey, I have this book. I'd love for you to take a look at it. And you know, what gets you looked at may have nothing to do with your book. It may be like we went to the same college. Oh, cool. Or like in my case, my publisher liked ice hockey. And in my manuscript, I do have a chapter about how I played ice hockey, and he was like, I like that. Like, you had nothing to do with anything, it was just a coincidence, and so much of so much of it is a coincidence. So you can't rely on that luck happening. You have to take charge, you have to be the main character. Of your story and make the thing, put yourself out there, get slapped in the face with a no and keep doing it anyway. This is my soulbox. I'm very passionate about this. Yes. Yeah. I love the passion. Yeah, because I just I just want everyone to experience that. Um freedom. It is freedom. You get to make the thing. Right. You might have to wait years to make a thing if you wait for them to make it.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah. It's kind of like in the travel world. You don't wait for somebody to go with you, just go. Um, but going back to your coincidences, this is why I highly suggest trying new things, testing things out, because sometimes you're making the coincidences for your future self. Because you entering into some random, oh, I want to do pottery, I'm I'm gonna do pottery. Oh, I want to do this, I'm gonna I'm gonna do that. You entering into these things ends up helping you connect with others who might be different or from you in most things, but you get to connect on this other thing that you guys both have done. So it's almost like trying your new things, green lighting yourself, making yourself put yourself out there to make these almost it's like manifesting and creating these new coincidences for you to for your future.

SPEAKER_01

You are setting your future self up for success, right? Right by putting yourself in those arenas, um, putting out a casting call saying, I'm making my own film. Yep, no one can stop me. I'm writing and directing it and acting in it and producing it and all the things, and I want you to be a part of it. And you might be surprised at how many people might want to be a part of your project um because you are doing it yourself and you're not waiting around and you don't have a big budget. And that's the kind of the cool, cool thing and shitty thing about Hollywood is that um budgets are real and money is real, and everything comes back to money. And sometimes projects that don't deserve a big fat budget get one anyway, and then projects that really could use that support, they have to do it on a shoestring budget, they have to do it paying on the credit cards and doing it themselves, and I'm experiencing that too, and it's hard, but at the end of the day, at least I'm getting to choose what I'm spending my money on. You know, if I want to spend money on a camera, or if I want to hire a certain person or get a certain location, that's my call. I'm the director, you know, and I'm also such a control freak. I'm gonna be honest, I have a control issue letting other people in charge of my creativity. Right. You would not believe how many times I got in trouble with my publisher because I'm a control freak. And I signed my life away with this contract. I had to have a clause in the contract that said that I could get on stage and tell stories from the book because I'm a performer. That was not allowed to me for the initial contract. Are you serious? So, you know, anyway, I would get into trouble because, you know, my book cover and I had a certain vision for my book cover. They hired a freelance, you know, um cover artist, and they brought me the first thing, and I was like, I hate that. I absolutely hate that. Um, brought me another one. I said, I hate that too. And I got to the point where I I I texted or emailed the uh cover designer asking her to go to coffee with me because I wanted her to get to know me. To really because this is my baby, this is about my life. Your life this is my book, so I'm not gonna put some shitty cover on it, you know, excuse me. But they were so bad. And uh I finally, you know, texted her, said, Can we get a coffee? You know, I feel like, you know, you I want to take another shot at this and for you to get to know me so you understand my personality. And um, she went back to my publisher and she was like, How dare she reach out to me and try to meet with me? And I got slapped on the hand, and you're not supposed to do that. I didn't know that. Yeah, I just want a good cover and I want it to look a way that represents me. And the cover I got, I actually drew myself. And I gave her this sample and I said, Can you make it look like this? Because I'm done with you taking a chance on it. And it doesn't reflect my brand or me or my book. So here's my idea, and she made it look like that. So that's why the cover is decent. It's because I'm a control freak.

SPEAKER_00

It is a great cover. We should we don't edit these, so I was gonna say we can put these in here, and I was like, nah, we don't do that. No, we don't.

SPEAKER_01

We you can look it up um Mimi's Instagram for yeah, it's it's there, yeah, it's there, but you know, um being a creative does force you to confront those things about yourself that maybe are challenging, and for me, it's control. So when I'm working with other creatives, I have to remind myself they have a certain skill set that I do not, and I need to trust them with what they're doing, you know, because they know about the camera and I do not. So I'm gonna defer to you and stay in my lane about what I know. But um it's hard.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it is hard when you're when you are creative, because I remember when I would, whenever you're working with a brand or so, they have their specific way that you want they want you to maybe say something, or they want you to, you want, they want you to film it in this way or in this type of light or whatever. And so when within my clauses for when I'm working with a brand, I always try to ask them, what freedom do I have? Because sometimes they'll send you a full script and it or they'll send you very specific things that you know just your audience will just not resonate with, or that you simply are like, How am I gonna make this me? Because when you're when you're filming like an ad or something, you want it to be as real and as authentic, as cliche as that sounds, as possible, because there's the other person on the line. So in a way, a lot of us creatives, we are very we want to control the narrative, we want to control the story, and I think it is a good, it is a good quality to have, and it is understandable because the work that we do is our baby, it's our bread and butter that we're putting into the world for it to be judged. We want our vision taken from our brain and properly executed out into the real world. So it it's understandable to want to have that control, but it's also, like you said, when you're collaborating and understanding, okay, they have these gifts, they have these talents, I do need to trust them. And especially for these larger projects that we want to do later in life with producing our own TV series, producing your own documentary, we're gonna have to learn how to work with people who have expertise in areas that we don't have. But the beauty about green lighting yourself is you do get a lot of the control, but you do get it's almost a balance control. So you get to control the narrative, control the, like for instance, with your documentary or with my TV show, control where you film, control the type of lighting, the control the type of angles or whatever. But you also and you also get to control the narrative, but you still have to work with the people who have the skill set that you need that's required for the whole story to come together.

SPEAKER_01

I would say the best the best thing to do right now, if you're looking to green light yourself, is to find your people, find your friends, find people that are on your level or maybe a touch above you. Maybe they've done a feature film and just a little sneaky bit. And you know, I'm my crew, which consists of two guys and me, um, for my documentary. One of them is an editor, and he has edited for like Netflix and brands and films, and he's he's moving up in his career. And then I have a cinematographer who I met at a networking event, listened to our networking episode, um, who is also moving up in his career, but they also just believe in my story and they're willing to do things for free right now because we want to make this, because we believe in the project, we believe in the message in the documentary. And so, if you can find people who believe in what you're trying to say, or even you could create that belief together, write a film together, say, hey, I'm looking for a writing partner. You know, like you and I, Vanessa, have huge potential to write short films and create content. And we love making skits, and we should make one after this. Um, we love making skits and being funny together. And so, like, having someone to bounce ideas off of is another way of green lighting yourself because you're not being told no. That person is totally excited. They're like, Yes, let's do it. So if you can find people and again use social media, reach out to people, get in people's DMs, take a chance on yourself, say, Hey, I'd love to work with you. Hey, I'd love to be on your film set, hey, I'm looking for a writing partner. Like it all has to start somewhere, it might as well start with you. And when you get to the other side, you might be surprised at people that are gonna they're gonna say yes to you to you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And to tie this all back to green lighting yourself, when you do find your people, imagine some of the people today, like Amy Polar and Tina Faye, they were roommates in college. People that are famous and who are successful or who we consider successful today, like your friend group that you have right now could be the next, we could be the next TV show, god, whatever, who knows what. So don't so look at the people around you, find your tribe, find your people. You guys all might end up rising and together and bypassing this whole all of these gatekeeped systems and to become the next big thing, the next big art, the next big TV show, the next big book or series that comes out. So don't sleep on your friends because or the people that are creative in your life, because you guys might be the next big things together.

SPEAKER_01

And then for life, you just get front row tickets to all their shit for all of it.

unknown

I can't wait.

SPEAKER_01

I can't wait till you and I'm gonna travel with you and we're gonna go everywhere. I don't want to do a show in every city where you have a gig and we'll film around the world. It's gonna be lit. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00

I'm stoked.

SPEAKER_01

All right, y'all. That's uh that's all for us today. We are the girls next for