Storytelling in a Burning World
🌟Career Coaching: Why the chaos of our times is no excuse to stop creating—and how to keep making things when nothing feels stable.
If you’ve been in the entertainment industry long enough, you know the rhythm.
Boom. Bust. Repeat.
I’ve been in showbiz for over 30 years. I’ve watched the industry rise, crash, reinvent itself, and then do it all over again. I worked through 9/11. I kept producing through the Great Recession. I made a film during the pandemic. And I pushed forward during every strike, freeze, pivot and power shift that threatened to stop the work entirely. Across all of that, I’ve managed to produce over 100 projects in both theater and film.
So when people talk about the current disruptions—AI, politics, economic shifts, global instability, weather events and a seemingly endless supply of news that’s truly horrifying—I get it. It’s easy to feel anxious. Overwhelmed. Paralyzed.
But this industry has always been chaotic. The world has never stopped spinning. And we’ve always found ways to tell stories.
The key is learning to keep moving no matter how noisy it gets.
Disruption isn’t new. It’s the job.
If you’re waiting for things to settle down before making your next move, I have bad news.
They won’t.
Something new is always around the corner. The pace of change might be faster now, but the game hasn’t really changed: You either keep creating, or you get stuck waiting.
And waiting—especially in the entertainment industry—is rarely just passive. It becomes self-doubt. Creative drift. Disconnection from the work that once made you feel alive.
So how do you stay focused when everything around you feels uncertain?
Here are three principles that have kept me grounded—and producing—even when the future felt completely unpredictable.
1. Don’t wait for greenlights.
Some of my best projects didn’t come from work I was hired to do—they came from making my own opportunities.
2. Protect your circle.
There’s no shortage of people who will tell you it’s all doom and gloom.
But scrolling through opinions doesn’t get your script written. Listening to industry gossip doesn’t get your project funded.
Seek out people who are actually making things—people who can remind you that your next project, promotion or gig is still possible.
3. Own your next move.
Most of us were trained to think someone else holds the keys. A producer. A studio. A network. A mentor.
But if I’ve learned anything, it’s this: momentum doesn’t come from permission. It comes from movement.
What’s one action you can take today that will move your career or creative project forward?
Do that. Then do it again tomorrow.
Start Now. Adjust Later.
Look, I’m not saying this path is easy. But if you’ve made it this far, you already have something a lot of people don’t: resilience.
And maybe you’re realizing that it’s time to stop chasing the perfect conditions—and start building under imperfect ones.
Because if you want to make progress in this crazy business, you can’t wait for the noise to stop—you have to learn to create through it.
