WRITTEN BY Kate Finan

CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST

This year, I was invited to be on Impact24’s 5th Annual “Hollywood Game Changers: A Conversation with the Women Behind Popular Film and TV Projects” panel at San Diego Comic Con. I was humbled to be joined by other amazing women from across the entertainment industry, such as Ashleigh Hairston, EP/Voice Actor on Nickelodeon’s The Fairly Odd Parents: A New Wish; Joy Ngiaw, composer for WondLa, Skydance’s epic new animated series; KC Cavarozzi, Co-Founder of On Camera Audiences, and more.

I arrived at the panel excited to share both my experiences on the creative side as a re-recording mixer as well as my business acumen from co-owning Boom Box Post (with my partner here, Jeff Shiffman). I was delighted to find that the other women on the panel had similar expertise to share. Each of them had forged their own path by way of extraordinary business savvy, but they also had that essential creative spark that makes someone interesting to talk to. It’s so rare that a panel will focus on both the business and the creative at the same time. But, when you think about it, in the entertainment industry, both are essential. The creative spark gets people interested in working with you, but business intelligence keeps you afloat in your endeavors. Theses women have moved up through the ranks, and moved through times both good and bad in our industry and weathered the storm.

I learned an incredible amount from my fellow panelists, and I’m still mulling over some of their career advice myself. I’m currently rolling around KC Cavarozzi’s the idea of “surge and purge” in my brain. I love the concept of giving your ideas legs and surging forward to meet new challenges head on, but then adding a second step where you ask yourself what about your new setup really works, and then get rid of the rest. This idea gives you license to go after you dreams with gusto, but also allows you to re-evaluate what doesn’t actually work in practice, guilt-free. It’s just part of the process!

Check out the video below to watch the full panel, and let us know in the comments below if there were any parts that spoke to you.