07 - Side Hustle to Sizeable Business with Ela Thier

This week we're going behind the CAMERA to talk with Ela Their. As a filmmaker, Ela started the Independent Film School to help other filmmakers. And in this episode, we discuss what it was like for her to make the transition of side hustle to full-time business owner.

 

Referenced in this Episode:

• www.theindependentfilmschool.com

 

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About The Guest:

Ela Thier went to film school at NYU and graduated in 1993. After film school she felt totally discouraged, didn’t think she had what it takes, and she couldn’t handle what felt like cut throat competitiveness. She also believed that a creative life was all about waiting around to get discovered. That wait went on for years.

So she quit.

After graduating from film school she spent her days at a soul sucking office job. Filmmaking became a dusty and long-forgotten dream, though she did try to occasionally write as she continued to harbor the secret hope that some day she’ll sell a screenplay.

She also continued to take more screenwriting classes; there she got ridiculed when she showed works-in-progress.

She left these classes becoming a total perfectionist about my writing. Plot point X must happen on page Y! The perfect recipe for writing blocks. She quit writing too.

More than ten years after film school, a series of events and insights turned that ship around. She made a U-Turn and went at it. Slowly at first, gaining momentum, and eventually at full steam ahead.

 

 

About The Host:

Monica Hammond is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Big Leap Brands. As a Broadway marketing professional, she has worked on numerous shows, including the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Once On This Island, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, It’s Only A Play, Gettin’ The Band Back Together, as well as the National Tour of A Night With Janis Joplin. Off Broadway: Tammany Hall, That Bachelorette Show, The Awesome 80s Prom, Daddy Long Legs, and A Better Place. She is also the Chief Coloring Officer of Curious Custom Coloring Books and founder of Broadway Murder Mysteries.  

 

About Big Leap Brands:

Founded by Broadway Marketing Professional and serial entrepreneur, Monica Hammond, Big Leap Brands is part marketing agency and part coaching/consulting program for entrepreneurs. Monica has taken her passion for theater and marketing and created Big Leap Brands to do two things . . . Help entertainment entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses so they can find financial freedom and free themselves of dreaded "day jobs." And, help theatrical productions build their audience and get butts in seats. Recent clients have included Ken Davenport, Natalie Weiss, Mandy Gonzalez, Miguel Cervantez, Mat and Savanna Shaw, and Tammany Hall at SoHo Playhouse.

 

About The Producer:

Mary Elizabeth Dina is a producer and content expert. Currently, she works for Tony Award-winning Producer Ken Davenport (Once On This Island, Spring Awakening, Daddy Long Legs); and her clients (past & present) include Kathleen Turner, Broadway Teaching Group, and Big Leap Brands. Mary is the co-host of the theatre podcast, Page To Stage: A Conversation with Theatre Makers and producer of The Producer’s Perspective Podcast and The Entertainment Entrepreneur.

 

This podcast is also supported by Abbie Martin.