Linda Seger - Script Consultant - Seminar Leader - Author
When I started my business, I did it as a last resort. I had been well prepared for a career in drama. I had a B.A. in English with many additional theater classes. I had 3 M.A. degrees including one in Dramatic Arts from one of the best universities in the U.S. (Northwestern University). I had a doctorate in Drama and Theology, which, I admit, was an unmarketable degree since nobody understood it, but it had prepared me well for teaching theater, working at a professional theater, even directing Little Theatre. I was smart. I was a reasonably nice person. I didn’t have any bad habits or mannerisms and I didn’t dress funny. I seemed like the perfect candidate for a job. But nothing was working. I wasn’t getting hired in the competitive world of college teaching. I tried getting into the film industry but nobody wanted someone they considered “overly qualified”, especially since
most people had to start at an entry level job. In a moment of sheer frustration, I took all my degrees off my resume except for my B.A. and sold myself on my typing ability since many told me I was one of the fastest typists they had ever seen (123 words per minute on a manual typewriter!)
The typing job came fairly easily. I began working at Norman Lear’s company. Norman was known for his many sit-coms that he had produced for years – All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, The Facts of Life, etc. I became the assistant to the assistant of the Director of Development, which was about the most entry level job that one could ever get. But the Writer’s strike hit, and soon I was out of a job again.
After some thinking, I realized that there might be an attitude that was keeping me from being successful. I always presumed that the self-made man (or woman) was the reality for people who had good jobs. I figured that we all had to make it on our own strengths, and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. I was someone who rarely asked for advice but worked hard, and always tried to figure everything out by myself. I began to wonder if maybe I was wrong about this.
One weekend, I checked out all the books from the local library I could find on women and management, hoping to find the answers. I spread them on my living room floor, and began skimming, looking for answers. I soon found the answer. “Work is like football. You’re on a team, and it’s better to be on the bench than to be the water carrier.” I began to read more, and learned about team playing, and about getting more connected with my boss and with other workers. I realized that I needed to ask questions, to think more about what I could do to make other people’s lives easier at work. I changed my attitude from The Lone Ranger, to realizing that even The Lone Ranger had Tonto. I began to realize that nobody made it alone, and that my belief that everyone was potential competition wasn’t getting me anywhere. I began to try to connect with others, and began to be as supportive of others as I wanted them to be of me.
Shortly after revising my idea of a business model, my business as a script consultant began to do well. I decided to apply this idea of a connecting rather than competitive model to my business, and began to help others begin businesses. I referred business to others – either when I wasn’t right for the job, or couldn’t take on the assignment. I began to see how much Good Will I had from others as a result of my help. My business began to prosper, but others did as well. In fact, those of us who changed their model began to do better than those who followed a dog-eat-eat competitive model. Not only did our businesses do well, but we noticed they had more longevity. Many of us have now been in business for 20-25 years, and have created supportive and caring networks with other consultants and authors and seminar leaders. We endorse each other’s books. We sometimes team-teach. We help each other get consulting and teaching jobs.
Eventually, not only did my business become international, with clients from all six continents, but I labeled this way of thinking as “web-thinking”, much like a spider web which shows the connections between all the parts. I wrote a book about it (Web-Thinking: Connecting not Competing for Success) and began to lecture on it, thereby not only expanding my script consulting business, but also adding another element to my seminar and speaking business.
I found, over the years, that success is about helping others, and supporting others, and believing that there is enough to go around. I found that more consultants and more authors in my field actually helped my business, because it taught writers and producers how natural it was to go for help to a consultant. It began to be a normal thing to do – because there were more and more of us doing it. In further reading, I learned that those who live by a more collaborative model do better in the long run.
As I look back over the growth of my business since 1981, I credit my success to changing my way of thinking about my business, my relationships, and success!
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Linda Seger, 1 B.A. - 3 M.A,'s and a doctorate = one cluey lady...... Just one tiny problem, Linda was magnificently overqualified for the movie industry.
Linda de-universityfied herself, did some serious people skills re-evaluating and became an international consultant working on some of the world's major movie presentations. Visit Linda's website at the bottom of the page to read Linda's impressive list of credentials.
