Hollywood broke me!

[jjohns500]

Hey all,


I’m a bit lost at this moment in life. I read MFL and Unscripted towards the end of last year and many things resonated with me. I have been a freelancer for my entire career, and after about 5yrs of working in an office I created a pathway to be able to work from home which allowed me to expand my client base and also work on multiple projects at one time.

I work in hollywood in the film industry. I am a union worker. Half of my income is from W2 union work and the other half is from self employed 1099. I keep my union gig as sorta my 9-5 if you will, however that work only takes me about 3-4 hrs per day. So I’m always hustling for 1099 work on the side to bring in more income.

My goal in life has always been to not work for someone else. Not be tied to an external income source. I think my family and friends always thought I was crazy, but I knew there had to be another way. After reading MFL I knew I could never go back to what I’de been before and continue pursue my time for money.

My career has been very successful, and make good money working for some of the largest film studios, and I make a decent amount doing my own thing on the side. Yet here I am. Struggling. They say when it rains it pours and for me that is true. However I cannot get over the fact that I allowed myself to be in this situation to begin with. It shouldn’t matter how much it rains, I should have been prepared.

I am currently going through so major personal life changes which has caused me to move out of my home that I own. So now I am renting an apartment, and paying for my mortgage. Add in this COVID drama and now I am out of work and will be for probably at least the next 6 months if things returned to normal tomorrow. I have put my house on the market to sell, so that will be a big weight lifted off my shoulders. In the meantime I am working on a course in my area of expertise and I am trying to work with a few colleges to implement this course into part of their curriculum. This is not my long term plan, this is just an effort to start some stream of income that will be additional to my slow lane job. I also just started a 3D home tour business and I have that up and running as well. I just need to get my advertising squared away. I own 1 duplex in another state, and my goal is to expand more into real estate in the future.

My problem is I am just lost right now on what direction to go, or how to even go there; professionally. I See many of you involved in marketing, copywriting, sales, web design, ect and I know nothing about any of these things for the most part. My career is very specialized and this CORNA virus has been a huge smack in the face for me as all of my income is directly tied to someone else and I am so specialized in what I do that I cannot expand very easily. I’m kicking myself for ever being so blind as to allow this to happen. I keep seeing the word “value” pop up, and so that is what I’ve been searching for. How can I add value. I know no one can tell me how to add value and thats not even what I’m asking. I’m just not sure where to go. I’ve never felt this lost in my professional life before. It’s a very uneasy time. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I apologize for the long, rather vague post.

Josh

 

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[Visionary96]

You gotta see the situation in a positive light and just keep thinking how you can push forward, virus or no virus. Pick a sellable skill, anything (something that interests you enough to stick with it) and just plow on. That’s literally all you need to do. That’s what I’m doing now and wish I had taken action a few years ago tbh, but starting today is better than tomorrow for sure.

 

[minivanman]

What specialized skill do you have? Maybe someone can think of something that will benefit from that skill in some other way than what you currently use it for. Or maybe someone knows of something that is close to that skill so you could easily learn it.

Good point about Hollywood. We have a close family member who works for Pixar and his wife is an actress, I bet they are maxed out as far as debt goes thinking they had it made. We should get ahold of them and see if they can be talked down. I gave his sister Dave Ramsey's book a few years ago and he scoffed at it..... maybe he will come around soon. Atleast she listened, for the most part.

On a side note, you stated that you moved out of the house you own. And then you stated that you owe a mortgage..... just to clear that up for your future so you see things in a different light..... when you owe $0 on your home is when you own it or atleast as much as the government will let you own it. Right now, you are renting from the lender that owns the home. That goes for anything that you owe money on so.... since you want to basically start over, you might as well go all the way and see things for what they really are. If you borrow money to buy a shovel, it's not your shovel until you pay off the loan.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Hey all,


I’m a bit lost at this moment in life. I read MFL and Unscripted towards the end of last year and many things resonated with me. I have been a freelancer for my entire career, and after about 5yrs of working in an office I created a pathway to be able to work from home which allowed me to expand my client base and also work on multiple projects at one time.

I work in hollywood in the film industry. I am a union worker. Half of my income is from W2 union work and the other half is from self employed 1099. I keep my union gig as sorta my 9-5 if you will, however that work only takes me about 3-4 hrs per day. So I’m always hustling for 1099 work on the side to bring in more income.

My goal in life has always been to not work for someone else. Not be tied to an external income source. I think my family and friends always thought I was crazy, but I knew there had to be another way. After reading MFL I knew I could never go back to what I’de been before and continue pursue my time for money.

My career has been very successful, and make good money working for some of the largest film studios, and I make a decent amount doing my own thing on the side. Yet here I am. Struggling. They say when it rains it pours and for me that is true. However I cannot get over the fact that I allowed myself to be in this situation to begin with. It shouldn’t matter how much it rains, I should have been prepared.

I am currently going through so major personal life changes which has caused me to move out of my home that I own. So now I am renting an apartment, and paying for my mortgage. Add in this COVID drama and now I am out of work and will be for probably at least the next 6 months if things returned to normal tomorrow. I have put my house on the market to sell, so that will be a big weight lifted off my shoulders. In the meantime I am working on a course in my area of expertise and I am trying to work with a few colleges to implement this course into part of their curriculum. This is not my long term plan, this is just an effort to start some stream of income that will be additional to my slow lane job. I also just started a 3D home tour business and I have that up and running as well. I just need to get my advertising squared away. I own 1 duplex in another state, and my goal is to expand more into real estate in the future.

My problem is I am just lost right now on what direction to go, or how to even go there; professionally. I See many of you involved in marketing, copywriting, sales, web design, ect and I know nothing about any of these things for the most part. My career is very specialized and this CORNA virus has been a huge smack in the face for me as all of my income is directly tied to someone else and I am so specialized in what I do that I cannot expand very easily. I’m kicking myself for ever being so blind as to allow this to happen. I keep seeing the word “value” pop up, and so that is what I’ve been searching for. How can I add value. I know no one can tell me how to add value and thats not even what I’m asking. I’m just not sure where to go. I’ve never felt this lost in my professional life before. It’s a very uneasy time. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I apologize for the long, rather vague post.

Josh

Sounds like you are missing meaning and purpose.
You are working on multiple businesses, no focus, no purpose.
You keep asking how, but where is your why?
What are you trying to do? Do you have a goal?
And dont say: I want to be free!
Or some BS like that.
You want to be free to do what?
What are your working towards?

Without purpose, you'll never have a direction because you are not trying to go anywhere.

 

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[jjohns500]

What specialized skill do you have? Maybe someone can think of something that will benefit from that skill in some other way than what you currently use it for. Or maybe someone knows of something that is close to that skill so you could easily learn it.

Good point about Hollywood. We have a close family member who works for Pixar and his wife is an actress, I bet they are maxed out as far as debt goes thinking they had it made. We should get ahold of them and see if they can be talked down. I gave his sister Dave Ramsey's book a few years ago and he scoffed at it..... maybe he will come around soon. Atleast she listened, for the most part.

On a side note, you stated that you moved out of the house you own. And then you stated that you owe a mortgage..... just to clear that up for your future so you see things in a different light..... when you owe $0 on your home is when you own it or atleast as much as the government will let you own it. Right now, you are renting from the lender that owns the home. That goes for anything that you owe money on so.... since you want to basically start over, you might as well go all the way and see things for what they really are. If you borrow money to buy a shovel, it's not your shovel until you pay off the loan.

Thanks Minivanman, I appreciate the response.

I am a sound designer for film/television, so I specialize in sound, sound effects, sound design and really anything having to do with post production audio. I have been trying to expand into new avenues with this expertise but haven't found traction as of yet. Still moving forwards!

Yes I have been in the industry for 15 years and I have seen the change from large studios to much smaller independent companies and with youtube and the ability or anyone to become an internet star the entertainment industry is rapidly changing. Big studios are struggling to keep up. Add in the fact that the generation of kids we have now want less and less to do with the usual content created in hollywood.

And yes, you are correct. I have a mortgage, so I do not own my home. I do have a bit of equity which is good and will hopefully sell within the next 1-2 months.

 

[jjohns500]

Sounds like you are missing meaning and purpose.
You are working on multiple businesses, no focus, no purpose.
You keep asking how, but where is your why?
What are you trying to do? Do you have a goal?
And dont say: I want to be free!
Or some BS like that.
You want to be free to do what?
What are your working towards?

Without purpose, you'll never have a direction because you are not trying to go anywhere.

alex,

Thanks for the reply!

You are absolutely correct. I am missing purpose in my life. For years I believed I had a purpose or a mission, however I'm now thinking that what I saw as purpose was only goals of things to obtain. My plan has been for the last 10 years to build a bigger family; I am a single father now, move away from Hollywood to the east coast where I am from. I planned to build a sound studio in my home just like I have here and continue to work in the film industry but be more choosy with my clients. I already own a duplex in GA, no mortgage, 2 tenants. And my plan was to continue to build a real estate investment portfolio and focus on that.

But now I see that none of these things are a purpose. In these last few months my life has been flipped upside down due to personal reason and I have been searching for that purpose.

My goals are still very similar now. I want to move out of Hollywood, back east, own a large plot of land and build a home studio to continue doing the work I love to do. I still want to invest in real estate and grow a family. Ultimately I want my work to not be directly tied to my income. If I choose to work on a film it's because I enjoy the work, not because I need the income.

Currently I am working towards these goals. I plan to move out of CA at the end of this summer. My daughter and myself will be moving back to GA for a period of time.

And yes, the WHY. IDK the why. I always thought the why was for my family. So I cannot tell you why because I honestly don't know.