Inside the Mind of Jess Wass - What's your secret dream?
Hi Reader!
I was talking to a potential client the other day and in our conversation they mentioned they used to love writing. When they were younger, they even won awards for their writing. Now they have a secret dream of being a playwright.
But yet their career had nothing to do with writing and they found it hard to carve out time to do anything on the side related to writing.
This is so common.
And I’ve gone through the same challenge myself.
I had a secret dream for years...
It was to be a TV Producer in LaLa Land (aka Los Angeles).
I knew that nobody was going to discover me out of nowhere. And I knew luck was going to be needed.
But what is luck exactly? It's having the right skills at the right time to take advantage of an opportunity.
I knew I needed to do something if I wanted to even have a chance of that dream coming to life.
No one was ever going to give me a shot if I didn't have some way of signaling to them that I had this dream and interest.
I needed a "calling card". Something for them to see, be intrigued, and THEN maybe I'd get lucky with an opportunity.
If nobody knows about your dream, how can you get lucky?
So when an opportunity arose to get involved as a Producer when my professional actor friend wanted to shoot a web series he wrote, I seized it.
I produced 7 episodes of a YouTube webseries called “Don’t Shoot the Messenger”. It has over 40K views on YouTube and 100+ incredibly positive comments from admirers.
And yet Hollywood has never come calling.
But that’s ok because the experience of script editing, casting, shooting, and editing post production was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done! It was incredible!
A few weeks ago I sat down to rewatch the entire series. I texted my best friend and co-Producer, who also stars in the show, and I told him “omg this is still really funny.”
As I watched I felt so incredibly proud of what we created.
And guess what? No one can take that experience away from me!
When I’m 90 years old, even if I’ve never produced anything else in my life, I’ll be able to pull this out and say “Look! I did that!”
I am a Producer.
You aren’t a writer because you wrote a NY Times bestselling book. You are a writer because you have written and shared your writing.
You are a playwright if you write a play. Even if it never gets produced.
I can’t tell you how amazing it is to look at the things you’ve created.
So this is all to say...if you have a secret dream, explore it!
Not because it could lead to a career change or riches, but because it allows you to fully express a thought, idea, or skill. And you'll never regret doing that.
So ask yourself, what do you have to show for your dreams?
I’m reminded of the iconic Langston Hughes poem opener “What happens to a dream deferred?”
Don’t find out.
What’s one small step you can take today to move closer to your secret dream?
And if you have 10 min today, you can watch the pilot episode of the series I produced here.
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