August 15, 2023, 12:00 p.m. EDT
Georgette passes the mic to our new host, Hunter Reis ‘17! Hunter explores the trial and error process of creating content for brand-new social media platforms and how the pandemic reset his relationship to work. He then turns the tables on Georgette, and they reflect on the highlights of her time as host and what project she’s diving into next. Recorded on July 14, 2023.
Transcript: Season 6, Bonus Episode
Georgette Pierre
Georgette Pierre:
What does it mean to make it big? Well, it depends on who you ask, and we did. Welcome to Making it Big in 30 minutes, a podcast for by and about the Emerson community. You're about to meet an Emersonian who's making it, making a living, making a difference, and sometimes making it up as they go. I'm your host and alum, Georgette Pierre. If you like what you hear, subscribe and share with your friends and meet me and other Emersonians over on Emerge, the only digital platform exclusive to the Emerson community. Go to emerge.emerson.edu for more.
Georgette Pierre:
Hunter Reis is an Emmy-winning entertainment news journalist currently working as a social producer for Freeform, a cable channel owned by Disney. Enrolling in Emerson's journalism program opened the door for his wildest dreams to come true. He then took his talents to the West Coast, finishing his time in the ELA program, landing opportunities at the Today Show, E! News, and Entertainment Tonight. As a first generation college student, Hunter shared his experiences navigating Emerson, things he learned about himself on his career path, and what he misses most during his time in Boston before turning the tables on me on what it means to make it big. I passed the mic to Hunter as we discussed me making it as a creative producer.
Georgette Pierre:
Hunter, welcome. How are you?
Hunter Reis:
I'm doing so well. It's so good to be here. I've been listening to so many of the episodes lately, and I feel like your voice is becoming homey at this point to me.
Georgette Pierre:
Thank you. This is a very special episode because I am passing the mic to Hunter who will be taking over for Making It Big in 30 Minutes. I'm excited to have you on, and I'm grateful that we get to have this conversation.
Hunter Reis:
Of course. I'm looking forward to it as well.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. How would you describe your profession in one sentence, any lighthearted or quirky way that you would describe what you do for a living?
Hunter Reis:
In a quirky but maybe dire way, I feel like I am in the trenches of these social media platforms, new and old, fighting for my life to find new ways to tell original and informational stories to our audiences.
Georgette Pierre:
It's the fighting for your life piece, because I understand how real that is. I used to live that life several years ago, and I was like, I don't know if this is the life that I want to go down, but it was fun while it lasted.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, I mean, especially this past week, by the time this comes out, it'll be out for a while, but Threads just dropped this week. Obviously we know all the turmoil going on at Twitter, so it's been an interesting couple of months. But I find that as long as my career has been going on, there have been different platforms that have popped up over the past five, six years that I keep having to just, all right, try to learn this new thing.
Georgette Pierre:
Yes. Oh, I think the discovery piece is so much fun. Speaking of discovery, what did you study at Emerson and how did that inform the work that you're doing now?
Hunter Reis:
Sure. Yeah. I studied journalism. I did my capstone in broadcast, so I had Marsha Della-Giustina's classes. I think that, gosh, it really led to my career today. I started off in journalism working at The Today Show during my internship at ELA. From there, I moved over to E! News afterwards. Because they're both NBC subsidiaries, they were able to, luckily after my internship, just kind of switch me over. Going from there, I've used journalism in every aspect of my career. Like I said, now I'm working for Freeform, which is a TV station, so it's definitely a step away from what I'm used to, but I'm still flexing those journalism muscles because I cover pop culture and real time events. We covered the election, the midterm election this past year for Freeform. I'm covering Pride Month and really trying to come up with a way that seems organic and celebratory of our queer talent and our queer fans while still doing that little extra research and seeing what is an artist like Sherry Cola done in the past, a queer artist like Sherry Cola had done to really celebrate her achievements.
Georgette Pierre:
It's funny because a lot of times we don't ever know what some of these jobs actually mean or do, or that these jobs exist. So when I hear social video producer, I mean, I work in TV production, so I understand what that means, but for someone that doesn't know, what does a social video producer do?
Hunter Reis:
I have to say it changes based on the job that I'm at. So right now, I do a lot of interviews with our stars. We'll come up with games. We just recently interviewed the cast of Grown-ish, and I came up with a game like Red Flags. So I was like, "Okay-
Georgette Pierre:
My show.
Hunter Reis:
It's so funny, it's my favorite show on Freeform. But I came up with a Red Flags game, so I was like, "Okay, I'm going to say this scenario, and you say if it's a red flag. If they're a teacher's pet, is it a red flag?" Just coming up with fun games like that, that people want to tune into and kind of learn more about the stars of the shows that they're watching but learn more about them as a person instead of them as a character. In the past, though, when I was working at Entertainment Tonight, being a social video producer meant taking our interviews that I was not conducting and cutting them down to short form social first stories. So if we had a 17-minute interview with Angelina Jolie on a red carpet, I wouldn't be there, but I would get that raw footage and I would say, "Okay, she's talking about her family for four minutes. This would be great for Facebook. She made a funny joke. This could be good for Twitter. Let's cut that to a minute." And really picking and choosing which aspects of an interview I think would do well for each audience.
Georgette Pierre:
I remember when Instagram dropped, oh gosh, it feels like eons ago. I didn't realize that people were creating content specifically for social media platforms. That was something that was very new to me. And so now we were talking offline about this, but Instagram Threads exists to compete with Twitter, and I'm like, "Oh gosh, please don't make me download another damn social platform." Still exist, right?
Hunter Reis:
You and me both. You and me both.
Georgette Pierre:
I'm over here sweating. But no, it's because it's hot in my apartment. How has the work that you've done, how do you find ways to interact with these newer platforms coming out? What's the play and the discovery for you in figuring out how to interact with a Threads and other things that continue to pop up as they do? Because I'm sure there's something else being worked on as well.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, probably. For me, it's all about guessing and checking. The audiences are going to be different. No matter if you're doing Entertainment Tonight or Freeform or whatever company you're working for, the audiences are going to be different across social platforms. So your Facebook audience is obviously going to look really different than your TikTok audience. The only way you really find who's on what is trying different things. I started at Entertainment Tonight in January of 2020, right before the Pandemic, so it was great timing, and that was really when TikTok was just a dancing app kind of. Over the years since I was there, it really developed to the beast that it is today, and I was able to help develop that TikTok strategy along the way. When I started, we were inviting people from the Hype House to come and do dances with our hosts, but by the time that we finished, we had I feel like a great TikTok strategy with really good interviews, really good short clips and callbacks. Entertainment Tonight's been out forever, so we would do a lot of vault footage. Just things like that. Right now we're still obviously developing our Threads strategy. Realistically, it'll probably be about six months to a year until we get something good on it, and that's okay.
Georgette Pierre:
Wow. I mean, even when you hear that, people don't realize that it's almost similar to developing TV, developing film. Just because you have the idea doesn't mean you start to execute these things immediately. You have to really figure out what works, and I think in that timeframe, you're also figuring out what doesn't work. What surprises you most about the work that you're doing now?
Hunter Reis:
What surprised me most about the job that I have now is how I'm able to put my hands into a lot of different buckets. It's Disney, so it's a really, really big company, but within that, Freeform is really small. So though I cover pop culture and real-time events for social media, I'm still being sent to the junkets. I'm still being sent to things like San Diego Comic-Con to be able to interview people and talk to people and just come up with creative, fun videos. My love, my first love, this is what I did in school, is video production. I really love making videos, particularly with a journalistic background, so I'm able to kind of still do that. Instead of just posting still graphics or TikTok videos, I'm actually able to go and flex my creative muscles and do a little production and do a little social media.
Georgette Pierre:
Is there a piece of advice that's tattooed to your heart? And if there is, what is it?
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. I remember when I was at Emerson, they would tell me all the time, "The job that you are going to have in five, 10 years from now does not exist yet." I have found that to be true time and time again. 10 years ago, there was not a social producer pop culture real-time reactive role. One of my first job out of college was at E! News, and I helped produce The Rundown, which was the first scripted program that was native to Snapchat. That didn't exist even two years before I graduated. So I think the biggest advice that I've received is just because you don't know what you want your job title to be over the next year doesn't mean it's not going to exist and doesn't mean that there's not something that fits exactly what you want to be doing.
Georgette Pierre:
Oh, I love that. I went to Emerson for grad, and I'm like, "Oh, man." Some of the advice I would hear from some of the guests I've interviewed, I'm like, "Oh, I wish I heard that."
Hunter Reis:
And it's unique. It's one of those things that are unique to Emerson. A lot of jobs have been around since the dawn of time, but I feel like in our fields, things are always developing. Obviously, we know with the strikes that's happening right now, I do think our trajectory and our career paths are going to look really, really different hopefully in two to five years than they do now.
Georgette Pierre:
I'm thinking about that in relation to that advice as far as the job that you want now doesn't necessarily exist, which gives some, I guess a fire lit under you to create that thing that you want. If you can go back in time, what would you say to your Emerson self, your younger Emerson self?
Hunter Reis:
That's a good question. Especially as you get through the years at Emerson, my first year, my freshman year was so fun, probably one of the best years of my life, but as you go on, you focus more on the work stuff and more on your exact field and what you want to be doing. I'd probably tell myself sophomore, junior year to just take a step back. You don't need to solely focus on one thing, should do more things that you enjoy doing. I was very dead set. I'm the first generation of my family to go to college, so I was like, "I need to be making money. I need to have an income. I need to get a good job out of college. If I don't, I'm going to have to move back home." So I was very focused on what part-time jobs can I do and less focused on, I want to play Quidditch in the Boston Common this weekend. So I would just go back and say enjoy things. Actually, one of my part-time jobs in Boston was working at the Apple Store on Boylston Street, and I used to walk there from my apartment. Now I would kill to be able to walk to work. So just those little things like sit back, you don't really have a lot to stress about right now. Just enjoy.
Georgette Pierre:
Yes. Oh my gosh. I know. I mean, when you're in school, to your point, I'm the second generation. My mom was the one that went traditionally when she came over into this country, but she went as a working woman raising children. Similar to me, I was just like, "I got to check all the boxes. I got to go to undergrad, and I got to go to grad school, and I got to do all these things." But when you're in the process, you're not thinking about the journey, so I always feel like there's been the through line of everyone saying that they would've told themselves to slow down, enjoy this, or do more of this or do less of that, whatever that thing was. So yeah.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, it seems like Emerson unfortunately invented hustle culture. I'm sure it's across the board other places too, but that was probably the first time I was like, "Okay, I have this film shoot from 3:00 to 4:00, and then I have to go and write this article from 4:00 to 5:00." And the real world, sometimes it can be like that, especially if you're a freelance, but nine times out of 10 you're going to do your job and go home and have a nice rest of the day.
Georgette Pierre:
Absolutely right because you're just a student. Really enjoy being a student and not fully having to adult yet, but that's either here nor there. What's one lesson that you felt like you learned the hard way?
Hunter Reis:
One lesson that I think I learned the hard way. I feel like this happens with some Emerson students, is that when you graduate, you go, "Okay, I came from the best journalism school in the country. I came from one of the best film schools in the country. I'm good to go. I know how to do this." It's good to have obviously some confidence, but there are a lot of people who have been at your job for longer than you've been alive, so you don't know everything. You might be more maybe in tune with what younger people are looking for or what younger people want, but that doesn't mean that all the aspects of social media platforms or anything like that that you might be working in. There's still so much to learn outside of Emerson. I learned a ton in Emerson, but I learned a ton outside of Emerson in my first two jobs as well.
Georgette Pierre:
Did you come out feeling like you knew it all? Did you find yourself to be less or more teachable when you entered the workforce from the things that you learned in school?
Hunter Reis:
I feel like I wasn't too bad, especially my first job was at E!, and it was a lot of learning to tell stories in ways that haven't been done before because it was on Snapchat and it was a brand new thing. I couldn't go in being like, "Yeah, I know everything about Snapchat," because I just did it. But I feel like I conflated my writing abilities at first and conflated how funny I thought that I was at first. I would get upset when my editor would be like, "Oh, this script doesn't really work," or, "Oh, we're going to push this script to next week because it's not super strong." That hurt at first. But I think you have to just learn, especially in journalism, to just not marry the material. Not everything is going to get approved. It doesn't mean that it's bad, just might not fit that week, and that's okay.
Georgette Pierre:
Okay. I like that. That's good. Yeah, there's a lot of conflating I think that goes on in our industry anyways, especially in Hollywood and TV, film. Name a catalyst that happened in your personal and/or professional life that made you change the way you saw your work, maybe even changed the way you saw yourself in your work.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. Wow. The first thing that comes to mind is really the pandemic. I think that that really shifted my priorities for me in work and outside of work. I felt like before it was the norm to be putting in 12-hour days at the office, especially in my early career in the first few jobs that I had when you're really doing all of the heavy lifting, the little things that need to be done. But taking that time where we all worked from home for a year plus, it made me realize that there are other things than just being there all the time. Since then, I've gotten into a long-term relationship. I have two dogs with my partner now, and I just feel like being able to have that forced barrier in between me and my career for a little bit amount of time during 2020 really kind of made me step back and be like, "I should be enjoying other things as much as I'm enjoying going to work every day or more than I'm enjoying going to work every day."
Georgette Pierre:
Mm-hmm. No, there was a reset that happened in a lot of ways that you just I think we were on autopilot destroying the earth in the process. There was always this running joke where bodies of water were able to rest and turn back to its natural colors. People were joking about how the air was cleaner in LA because people weren't driving. These were jokes, but it was like, wow, these were real things that were happening. And being able to halt and recalibrate what's important, including your wellbeing, I think is a huge one, and deciding that you needed boundaries for life and work.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, I always say now my favorite parts of my job are going to sets and doing interviews and going to the red carpets. That's why everybody wants to get into entertainment. But I kind of took a step back and said, "I'm working in social media. I don't want to drive two hours every day to sit on Facebook all day in an office." That doesn't make sense for me. It doesn't really serve my lifestyle at this point. I'm more than happy to go in five days a week if we're on set doing something, but if I'm just going to be at a cubicle, it's just a waste of everybody's time.
Georgette Pierre:
I agree.
Hunter Reis:
Maybe that's not the best attitude to have, but I feel like it's done so much more for my mental health and being able to just be in a place that I'm comfortable with.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. Well, we also really saw during that time that there was more efficiency that was able to happen when people were able to have a little bit more autonomy, a lot more autonomy in their lives. So you didn't need me in the cubicle just to watch me. I was still getting everything done, probably done a lot sooner than had I had to commute in, sit at my desk, do this. People were able to spend time with their kids, their pets, their partners, themself, whatever the thing was. And so I'm with you on the work-life balance, and I know with the situation that we have, we're in once a week and I'm like, "Okay, I got y'all on the once a week, but there's going to be days I may not be feeling well." And so now there's no eyebrow raises when someone's like, "Yeah, I won't be in this week, but I'll be in next week" as long as the work is getting done. And I hope we can stay at that level too, as far as people just being able to center their wellbeings, you know?
Hunter Reis:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, 100%. For me, it's like a mutual respect sort of thing. I will do my work, of course, but if I'm feeling like I'm just being brought into the office to be supervised over or snoopervised over even, I'm going to get less done.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. I like that. In these past three seasons, there were highs and lows that I navigated. And so the one thing that I really wanted to hear from my guests was how did they keep the momentum going during times they didn't always feel strong, motivated, or inspired? So I'm curious about what things worked for you to just keep on your journey, because a lot of times when we're pursuing the things that we're pursuing, it's not linear and there's going to be times where you want to quit, but there's something that always keeps us holding on. What has kept you going during some uncertain times?
Hunter Reis:
For me personally, I'm always been motivated by music, particularly live music. I think that going to concerts growing up and growing up in Massachusetts and having access to concerts in Boston and Rhode Island, that really, really made me interested in pursuing journalism, in particular entertainment journalism. So when I'm feeling burnt out, I like going to a concert, even if I don't know who the artist is. Now that I'm in LA, throw a stone and you'll hit some sort of music venue. So I like just buying last minute tickets to things on a Friday night of like, oh, let's go see this band, but we can stand in the back, have a drink, and have fun. Another thing that I find that if I'm really getting burnt out and need time is I go home. I'm from Southern Massachusetts. I'm from Fall River originally, so going to Emerson really wasn't far for me, but it does bring me back to being in high school and being in a time where I just lived in that town and had the whole world in front of me and had my whole life ahead of me. I was so excited about going to Emerson. I was so excited about getting a job in the industry. I don't know, when I go home, I get that reset. I stay at my parents' house in my childhood bedroom sometimes and just come back to that place and I'm like, "Yes, this is why I'm doing this."
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. No, it's funny, when I go to my mom's house in the childhood bedroom and I'm like, "Oh, I can actually hear birds chirping versus trying to scream above me in New York at one of my neighbors or dogs barking." It's just completely night and day being able to reset at the parent's house. If you had to switch careers right now, what would you do? Curious.
Hunter Reis:
My gosh. My gut instinct reaction is to say open a doggy daycare or something. I have such a soft spot for dogs, and every time that I can try to incorporate one of mine into a video, I will absolutely try to do it. I just think that I would be so peaceful and so happy, but alas, I couldn't imagine myself really leaving the industry to do that unless I actually made it really big and had a lot of money and could do that on the side.
Georgette Pierre:
No matter what you do now, your experience at Emerson has influenced who you are today. Every institution leaves its fingerprint on us, whether we use it, acknowledge it or not. What mark did Emerson leave on you?
Hunter Reis:
That advice that I said earlier about how my job hasn't been invented yet, I still feel that way. My role right now at Disney is contract, so it'll be ending soon. When I have these moments of when I'm job hunting and when I'm looking for next thing, I always think of that. Sure, right now, especially with the strikes happening and the economy is kind of not that great, I always think this is temporary. Five years ago, I couldn't imagine doing what I'm doing now and living in this situation, so I know it's going to be the same from five years later. I also think that the network that I met at Emerson is so large. My best friend is from Emerson. We live together. She lives less than a mile away from me now. We see each other all the time. And every job that I go to, there are people from Emerson there. The Emerson Mafia is so real and everybody says that, but once you actually get out into the workforce, you really see it has its roots everywhere.
Georgette Pierre:
It does. And I love that. Oh, I love that. I love that. I love that. I can't believe this is going to be the last time I get to ask this question, but I ask it with so much gratitude. Hunter, what does it mean for you to make it, and how will you know when you get there?
Hunter Reis:
For me it changes all the time. I felt like I was making it in 2017 when I got my first job at E! News. That was my dream company. I felt like I was making it three years later when I actually started making a living wage and was able to start saving money instead of spending it all on rent. I probably felt like I was making it a year ago more than I do now, truthfully, professionally at least. Today, I feel like I'm making it. Personally, I'm going to propose to my boyfriend tomorrow. We've been together for five years, so that makes me feel like I'm making it.
Georgette Pierre:
That's exciting. By the time they hear this, oh my gosh, congratulations.
Hunter Reis:
Yes. By the time they hear it. Yeah. Well, they'll have to check in and see if he says yes next season.
Georgette Pierre:
Oh, I love that. I love that.
Hunter Reis:
Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited but nervous, but by the time this comes out, yeah, I guess he'll have known. So the cat's out of the bag.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. But it seems that making it just keeps evolving, it sounds like for you, or kept evolving for you.
Hunter Reis:
Totally, ebbs and flows. I think the important part is taking in the moments in between. Like I said, walking to the Apple Store in college, I used to hate it. I used to be so annoyed that I had to walk, and of course, walking to work doesn't symbolize making it, but just enjoying those small things in between. You're going to have big moments and you're going to have small moments, and you should enjoy every single one. Georgette, you've been here for how long now? You've been here for three seasons?
Georgette Pierre:
Three seasons. I started a year ago, January 2022. Yeah, January 2022 officially. Uh-huh.
Hunter Reis:
Wow. Nice. That's incredible. So a full year. I'm looking forward to the year ahead for me.
Georgette Pierre:
Yes.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah. You've asked these questions all the time, but what is one mark that Emerson left on you?
Georgette Pierre:
Oh, man. It's funny because I've been public about my varying experiences from being at HBCU for undergrad and then coming to Emerson for grad. The grad experience at Emerson was definitely different. One thing I will say though is the loudness in support as an alumni is a large mark that Emerson left on me. I mean, even when I was still trying to figure some shit out on whether I was going to move to LA and if I wanted to start thinking and planting those seeds, Emerson was the first place I went to. I knew I would be able to get on whatever Listservs and mailing lists and things of that nature. And so I think community, but also fly fucking fly. You could do whatever you want, and Emerson was very supportive and not allowing you to think otherwise or less than. I definitely feel like and still feel like anything is possible and was possible. I studied integrated marketing communication, and then I buried myself in radio, and now I am a producer and doing voice acting. And so everything just kind of fed each other, but it was based off of whatever I felt like I wanted to do at Emerson, I was able to do.
Hunter Reis:
Nice. Did you find that there were any challenges coming in as a grad student without having done undergrad there?
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. This is something that they are aware of, and this is something I've talked about too with other students, there wasn't a centering of grad students that came in or the prioritizing of grad students. The priority were undergrads. And so I think there was just a missed opportunity for us to be involved in a different kind of way. But there was still a way to feel connected. I'm the one that's going to jump on all the things. I want to be part of whatever organizations I can be a part of and volunteer. And so I made my experience as a grad student what I wanted it to be. I wouldn't say there was many challenges. If anything, there were some things that Emerson illuminated me on and the access to talk to people in spaces that wasn't necessarily the case with my other college experience. I think it's also because Emerson was a lot smaller than my HBCU experience. The lines weren't as blurry if you really needed to talk to somebody that was at a level that you may have felt like was unattainable to talk to.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, I loved that it had that small school feeling while being in the middle of the city. That was so unique and something that I feel like few schools can replicate. Tell me about after your Emerson experience. What brought you to New York? What was the decision behind moving there?
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah, it was funny, funny story. I was trying to hold on to Boston and wanted to move from Boston to New York, and then my car got towed. And so that to me was like an F you, like Boston needed me to leave, and I was ready to leave Boston. Moved home for a year, but there was something that was like, New York is where I need to go next. I don't know what it is. Oh, I do know what it was. I was high off of ERS and being in radio. I just knew I was going to make it to the number one commercial radio market in the country. I mean, that was my naivety and that was my overconfidence. And so New York was where I wanted to go if I was going to do radio. And then when I got to New York, it ended up evolving into television. But yeah, for me, I was on the East Coast coming from a major city, I knew I could take New York by storm. I was sure I could, and it was a bumpy road for my first two years in New York. But yeah, New York was just the next thing in what I thought I wanted to do, which continued to evolve after I got here.
Hunter Reis:
And you've been there ever since. That's great.
Georgette Pierre:
I have. I left for a year and came back, but I had to come back to New York.
Hunter Reis:
Now that you have more free time coming up with this podcast ending, what is next for you?
Georgette Pierre:
Gosh, what is free time, Hunter? I don't know free time. I don't know free time.
Hunter Reis:
[inaudible 00:28:38] to the choir.
Georgette Pierre:
In all honesty, I have been planting seeds for my next act. I was taking TV writing classes with Sundance Collab. I decided that taking TV writing classes, and now I'm in the screenwriting class, I wanted to understand character arcs, story, structure to become a better producer because my goal now is expanding into development for scripted and being able to want to tell my own stories as well as being able to amplify black nuanced stories, black millennial women and black people in various mediums. And so I am investing in myself with that and just really getting my hands and feet wet with what it looks like to now move from being this producer that gets to work on short form content that I've created and commercials that I've done for companies like Paramount to now doing it and wanting to do it on behalf of production companies and/or studios. And so storytelling in short is my next move and what that looks like. And then I have a personal podcast that I have been dragging my feet on, Black and Nuanced season four. So by the time when this comes out, I would finally be rolling out season four of my podcast.
Hunter Reis:
Nice. All your fans from here are going to have to transition to your podcast.
Georgette Pierre:
Come over [inaudible 00:30:05]. Yeah.
Hunter Reis:
You mentioned that you started taking extra classes recently. Can you tell me a little bit behind the decision to continue your education post grad school? I know for a lot of people, they leave Emerson and they're like, "Okay, that's it for me."
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. The only way I felt like I was going to understand television beyond just me saying, "Eh, that was a good show, good pilot," was to actually get in it, immerse myself in it. And so with these classes that are connected to my industry, so you can take classes on directing, TV writing, producing, screenwriting, I knew specifically that the one thing that I did not touch out of all the things I've touched, Hunter, producing, hosting, creatively writing scripts and things of that nature, I never understood or took the time to understand writing for television, screenwriting, writing for film. And that to me was the one thing that I was like, "I got to figure this out." But that catalyst happened after there was a job that I worked at that I was a development producer, and it was a terrible experience, but what it sparked in me was I was like, "I don't want to develop content necessarily just for digital. I want to figure this shit out for TV." That's where I started, that's where I learned a lot. I want to do this for TV. That development bug started in October 2021 when I was no longer employed. I started being able to form and craft and shape it a little bit more until I got really clear that classes was the next thing that I needed to do to educate myself. I could say that I want to do these things, but if you're not investing in yourself to learn the things, then to me it's just hot air coming out of your breath or your mouth.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, because I feel you learn so much in your traditional job, but there's still so much that you can learn about different parts of the industry. I feel like an expert on social media, but it really was my Emerson upbringing and then me just doing things on the side that got me good at editing, at video editing. I can't count the amount of times on my hand how many times knowing how to edit a simple video has really helped me, even though that's not my job.
Georgette Pierre:
No, absolutely. And to your point, I had to learn how to do certain things on my own. And then the other thing that I think was loud for me was I'm working in positions that don't match where I want to be eventually. And so instead of allowing that to deter me, while I have this flexible schedule, it was like, Georgette, feed yourself. So start taking these classes, start working with this person, start doing this, start developing your own ideas, because that was the only thing that was going to at least keep me full until I got to the place where I wanted to be, where I'm doing this stuff full time for myself.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, absolutely. My role, as I mentioned earlier, is contract, which in my past roles, I'd always had to sign an NDA, and when you're working in a newsroom, it makes sense. You don't want to compete with your own news organization for a different one. But now that this is a contract role and I'm working more on TV, I have started doing things on the side, like writing for Metro Weekly, which is a queer magazine based out of DC. Just being able to try different things that I wasn't able to do in the past, it's been really exciting. Again, I feel like I'm still learning so much six years after graduation.
Georgette Pierre:
Absolutely, same. Radio bug started at Norfolk State in Virginia, my collegiate experience, and then it continued at Emerson. The radio bug is now podcasting for me. And then I learned how to write at Emerson, and so that writing evolved into more things. So yeah, I just had to be mindful and open to just still being willing to learn, even if it was in a different way.
Hunter Reis:
In all those years that you have been learning, what is the conclusion that you've come of what it means to make it big?
Georgette Pierre:
Oh, gosh. I told myself I was going to really sit with this question, and I did not do that, but I will say in regards to making it big, I think if you feel like you are connected to your purpose and you are confident that you are doing the work that you love to do, and it happens to also give you the financial and creative freedom, I think there's aspects of making it big in that regards. For me, it's financial freedom, and for me, it used to only be financial freedom, but I want to get to a place where creatively I can create the shit that I want, Hunter, that adds to the diverse stories that people want to connect with and see on screen. When I get to that place, and not just on screen, but across various mediums that also resonate with the audiences that I'm seeking to target, that to me is one of the tendrils of making it big.
Hunter Reis:
I feel that on a deep spiritual level. I feel that it can be a little soul crushing sometimes to be making content that you think is good and hear like, "Oh, no, we want to take this direction." It's usually a more corporate direction that makes more sense for their bottom line. But when you do get to get those really creative, fun things in, there's no better feeling-
Georgette Pierre:
Listen, let's be clear.
Hunter Reis:
... than making something from start to finish.
Georgette Pierre:
Absolutely. But still run me my bag. I'm here. [inaudible 00:35:42].
Hunter Reis:
Yes.
Georgette Pierre:
Give me my money.
Hunter Reis:
Happy to do it. We'll be putting overtime on the calendar, happy to do it.
Georgette Pierre:
Absolutely.
Hunter Reis:
Not to put you on the spot here, but is there any answers to that question, how do you see the term making it, are there any answers that you've gotten over the past year that have surprised you and stuck with you?
Georgette Pierre:
The ones that stuck with me were always detached from money. That was cool. Because here's the thing, when you're pursuing your goals, and if you know what your purpose is, a lot of times you get discouraged along the way because you feel like you're so far away from that finish line. But the other thing is the finish line will always move or it will continue to evolve. It's a combination of different things. It was every small accomplishment was making it big to some of my past guests, but also they were doing what they wanted to do, what they loved to do, what they felt connected to. And to them, as long as they were serving a greater purpose, back to the spirituality piece of it, as long as they felt like they were serving a greater purpose to them, that was making it big. When you are connected to your purpose in that way, the financial freedom is always going to come.
Hunter Reis:
Yeah, that's incredible. Hearing the tagline for this show, as long as you're making something, you're making it, I really feel that, because still my favorite job that I've had so far is probably my first job out of college where I wasn't getting paid a lot, but I was making really cool stuff. And that still, I romanticize it. I had no pennies to scrap together, but I was making really cool videos that I loved to watch and show people.
Georgette Pierre:
How many people could say that? I don't know if you ever crossed paths with him, but my friend Herbert, he worked at E! News and then he's at Entertainment Tonight now.
Hunter Reis:
Yes.
Georgette Pierre:
Oh, you know Herbert.
Hunter Reis:
Yes. Yeah, he went to Entertainment Tonight, probably like, gosh, three months before I did. Yeah, we worked together pretty closely.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. And so-
Hunter Reis:
That's so funny.
Georgette Pierre:
But how many people can say that out of college they're working at E!? I mean, E! Was huge, because I wanted to be a correspondent on E!. But you were able to land that. And sometimes, I know for me, my cousin, they [inaudible 00:38:11] me, and they were like, "Georgette, do you take the time to enjoy where you're at and enjoy the things that you've accomplished?" I was like, "I haven't." And they were like, "You should do that more." I was like, "Okay, you're right," because I'm focusing on like, oh, I didn't get there yet. Oh, I got to do this. Oh, I don't know how to do that. They were just like, "Just enjoy the journey, the process, because you have accomplished a lot more than you think you have." I still need to sit with that because I have, but because it looks a certain way to me, it's like, but I can always be doing more, Hunter, and I'm working on being easy on that.
Hunter Reis:
For me, at least, coming out of college and even really up until a couple of years ago, I felt like I had to be at the best of the best. I had to be at E! News or The Today Show or something, or I wasn't going to be happy. But you don't have as many opportunities at those big companies. E! News is not going to make you a correspondent unless you're famous already. But if you find somewhere, a smaller company, you have a better chance of doing things like that and really doing things that you really dreamed of that you didn't think possible.
Georgette Pierre:
Yeah. No, it's true. I feel like now I have to, when we're done, I'm like, "Let me make a list of the shit that I have done like landing my first voiceover [inaudible 00:39:31]." It's just small things, and I'm like, "No, that's not small though, Georgette." But yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Hunter Reis:
You make that list. In the next season, the first thing I'll do is read the list to the audience.
Georgette Pierre:
Oh my gosh, I love that. Yes. Oh, man. Yeah. I wish you the best with everything. Such a pleasure. Oh, such a pleasure.
Hunter Reis:
Thank you. Yeah, this is wonderful.
Georgette Pierre:
Making It Big in 30 Minutes is sponsored by the Emerson College Office of Alumni Engagement and supported by the Alumni Board of Directors. Stay in touch with the Emerson community. Join us over at Emerge, a digital platform where Emersonians go to connect. Go to emerge.emerson.edu for more.
