Ep. 490: Define Your (Cup Of) Ambition
Happier in Hollywood
Liz Craft and Sarah Fane explore the evolution of their Happier in Hollywood Substack, shifting from traditional newsletters to interactive live sessions and writing
Key takeaways
- Liz Craft and Sarah Fane pivoted their Substack from standard newsletters to live 'BTS working lunch' sessions and the 'Killer Bee Work Hour' to foster accountability and community.
- The hosts analyze how Gen Z's work-to-live mindset contrasts with their own live-to-work upbringing, emphasizing that ambition should align with personal ethics and life balance.
Main topics
- Substack content strategy and community building
- Defining healthy ambition and career ethics
Notable quotes
Ambition can be tricky because it can make you feel like you're failing. It can be hard to maintain a certain level of ambition.
Conclusion
Listeners gain actionable insights on refining their own content strat
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) you Lemonada. Speaker 2 (0:06) So, Sarah, are you ready for your road trip this weekend? Speaker 1 (0:09) I think so, but it finally cooled down in L.A., and we're driving to Phoenix. I'm just like, why? Yes, that's the wrong direction. Speaker 1 (0:27) Hi, and welcome to Happier in Hollywood, the podcast about how to be happier, healthier, saner, more creative, more successful, and more productive in a backbiting, superficial, chaotic, unpredictable, fundamentally insane world. I'm Sarah Fane, a TV writer and producer living in Ojai, right outside of LA. And with me is my high school friend and writing partner, Liz. That's me, Liz Craft. On this Speaker 2 (0:49) podcast, we talk about being writers in Hollywood, how we balance a career and friendship, and how to survive the war of attrition that is life Speaker 1 (0:57) in Los Angeles. Today, we're talking about our sub stack. What is working for us and what is not? Then we've got the second Speaker 2 (1:05) installment of our new Cup of Ambition segment in honor of Dolly Parton. We'll be talking about why it's important to really understand your own ambition. Speaker 1 (1:15) In Hits and Bombs, Liz gives a hit to a Hollywood personality, and I have a bomb for myself. This week, we've got a practical home Hollywood hack, and finally, I have a book recommendation. But first, Sarah, we want to remind everybody that we have an amazing Speaker 2 (1:32) Facebook group. So we're Speaker 1 (1:34) going Speaker 2 (1:34) to talk about our sub stack a little later. But our Facebook group is so special to us because it is such a great community. It's got thousands of people. It is an amazing place to get advice on anything from the perfect audio book to listen to with your daughter on a road trip. to how to handle losing a job you loved. Speaker 1 (1:57) Yeah, it's just chock full of these really smart, kind women and then a few really cool men. Yes, exactly. Speaker 2 (2:08) It Speaker 1 (2:09) also Speaker 2 (2:09) is great for TV recommendations, movie recommendations, clothes hacks. I mean, we cover the gamut and it's always a positive conversation. Speaker 1 (2:22) Yes. Connie Ann is always keeping us up to date on like what new shows are out, who's in them, when they're debuting, etc. A very appreciated service that she she does in our Facebook group. Speaker 2 (2:34) Yes. So as we say at the end of every episode of Happier in Hollywood, just search for Happier in Hollywood on Facebook to join the conversation. We'd love to have you. Speaker 1 (2:46) And now it is time for From the Treadmill Desks Of, where we talk about what's most pressing in our work psyches. And this week, we're contemplating Substack. Recently, we assessed our team theme of the year, and that was really productive for us. And we thought it would be good to turn the same eye toward Substack. Speaker 2 (3:08) Yes, our Substack is evolving, changing. We're trying to figure out what it should be. Here's what we've got going on right now in Substack that we're very consistent with, which is every week we do BTS working lunch, behind the scenes working lunch. which is us just talking about whatever project we're working on that day, collaborating live on Substack, and people can just drop in and observe, you know, if they want to know what is it like to work on a TV show, or sometimes we're working on the book. And that's been really productive and fun, and that is a very successful part of our Substack. Speaker 1 (3:53) Yes. And then we also, every Friday, we do the Killer Bee Work Hour at 1030 a.m. Pacific. And it's just a power hour. We send out a Zoom link. We post it on our Facebook group and we post it on Substack in Notes. And it's the same link every week. So if you save it, you have it. Every Friday, there we are, and we do a power hour. It's just incredibly productive. Sometimes there are four people. Sometimes there are three. Sometimes there are 20. It just depends on the week and who needs to be productive in that hour. It's like the greatest productivity hour of the week for us, I would say. We get so much done. Speaker 2 (4:35) We do in both of these hours. Clearly, you and I, Speaker 1 (4:38) it's Speaker 2 (4:39) the accountability Speaker 1 (4:40) thing. Like, the more people are watching us work, Speaker 2 (4:43) the Speaker 1 (4:43) better Speaker 2 (4:44) for Speaker 1 (4:44) us. We could sit in, like, a store window and work, and that would be good for us. I think it's also about having the scheduled time, too. Yes, and the feel of community. I mean, it's just a Speaker 2 (4:55) positive Speaker 1 (4:55) feeling. The other thing we're doing on Speaker 2 (4:57) Substack, which we love, Sarah, now I should say this is for our paid subscribers. is the first five, and that's where writers send the first five pages of their spec to us, and we do an analysis of the first five pages and say whether or not we'd keep reading. And this is based on the fact that we find a showrunners that we know pretty much in the first five pages of reading a script, whether or not we're going to want to meet with somebody. Speaker 1 (5:26) Yes. What's interesting to me is all of the things we love are not the things that we initially were talking about when we decided to start our sub stack. They're all things that have kind of evolved over time. And there are favorite things about it. Speaker 2 (5:46) Yes, because when we initially started, we really pictured it as a traditional newsletter, you know, subscribe to our newsletter and we would each have a little something we were talking about. We would have an introduction, a writing tip every week, which I did like, a writing quote of the week, which I also like. Plus, we could link to the podcast. But I think what we found, Sarah, is that in our lives, we are so inundated by newsletters. that it just didn't feel like our listeners, I guess, need a newsletter of that type from us. Speaker 1 (6:23) Yeah. And I think as people who feel overwhelmed by the number of newsletters we get, we have not wanted to add to the maelstrom going into everybody's inboxes. So... weirdly, the thing that kind of got us started on Substack is the thing that has been the least satisfying and what we struggle with the most. And we haven't been doing it for a while. And I kind of feel like I don't feel any urge to suddenly start doing a regular newsletter, but I also would like to be able to