Outing Myself Professionally
I’m driving with my 4-year old son and we pass a billboard for the latest Ghostbusters movie and he says “Look Mama, GHOSTBUSTERS!”. Ignoring my immediate curiosity of how he recognized an emblem I grew up with and he should know nothing about, I casually mention, “Yes, Mommy worked on part of that movie”.
“YOU. WORK. IN. MOVIES!??” he squealed.
My own kid, who’s visited several production offices of whatever movie I happen to be working on, had no idea I worked on movies.
“I thought you helped people on your computer,” he said very confusedly. “Yes, I do that too, that’s my other job. I work from home and talk to people on my computer, I’m a life coach”. “Oh… What OTHER movies have you worked on!?” he asked, clearly not interested in the latter. But I realized, if my own child doesn’t know what I do (and yeah, I get that he’s 4 and not totally aware yet), how transparent have I been with other people I know, in both industries.
So let me set the record straight. I work in film production. I am also a life coach! Two pretty different worlds. I’ve met tons of people from each of these worlds and we all have something in common.
We all want to feel good about what we do and who we are.
And THAT’S what I love about life coaching. Helping people figure out what lights them up, lights ME up. And the film production adds a layer I didn’t have 15 years ago.
A lot of people I know in “the biz” don’t know I’m a life coach and I KNOW a lot of new people I’ve met as a life coach in the entrepreneurial world have no idea I work in film. I do both and there are many aspects to each that I love and excel in.
I think I’ve been unwittingly putting pressure on myself to keep each identity separate for fear of some kind of unprofessional-ness in each field but the fact that I do both has actually made me better at each. And, it’s who I am.
So there you have it. I’m a life coach who moonlights (during the day) in the film industry. If you’re interested in my life coach world, my website is a good start. If you wanna see what movies I’ve worked on, here’s my IMDB page. My motto is “Life is big. Start small” and that seems to work for me in both worlds.
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