About Susan Dansby
About Susan Dansby
I’ve written/directed on…
It All Started When I Fell in Love with Drama…
And nearly ended when it felt like drama didn’t love me back.
Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to get what I wanted most—to be a professional director in the entertainment industry.
Here’s the story of how I stopped waiting for success to attack me and went on the hunt for that sucker.
Is This You?
You love working in TV, theater, film, music, or some other area of entertainment. The rush of performing for an audience is what you crave; or maybe you enjoy the satisfaction of adding your directing, writing, designing, building, or production magic behind the scenes. You’re good at it. Energized by it.
Your best times ever? Hanging with talented friends, creating art.
The problem? It’s not your everyday.
The work that brings you joy, excitement and satisfaction doesn’t pay your rent or put gas in your car.
And while you do well at your regular job, maybe even enjoy it, and go all in because that’s your nature—you’re not doing what you were put on the planet to do.
That’s draining. And heartbreaking. And feels inescapable.
Shouldn’t your life be more than that?
That Was Me
College didn’t prepare me for the real world of entertainment. Or if it did I wasn’t paying attention.
In school, I was always busy doing productions, giddy with the joy of it, the engagement of it. I naively expected my post-college life to be more of the same.
That my love of the art would propel me, and (just like school) the assignments would keep coming, and I’d do good work, and—oh, yeah—make money.
Living in New York, typing for lawyers to pay my rent, I was strategic. My plan was to work for free as a stage manager and assistant director as I built up credits toward directing. Then it happened. I finally got that first professional directing gig.
And made $250.
How many years would it take me to work my way up to enough money to live on?
I felt adrift. For some of my friends, it seemed easy. They landed jobs in movies, commercials and soaps.
But me? Responsibilities like school loans, rent, credit cards, utilities and family obligations meant I couldn’t afford to quit my typing job and really focus on getting directing work. Not that typing for lawyers was making me rich. I was barely getting by. No safety net… no savings… no 401K.
I started thinking about television. It paid more than theater; but I didn’t know anything about directing TV. And I couldn’t afford to go back to school to study it.
Even if some perfect theater/TV/film gig where I could earn-while-I-learned dropped in my lap, how long would it last? A week? A month? I’d end up back where I started, so why bother? With no choice but to stay put, I was almost 30 and stuck.
My Boss Unstuck Me
This lawyer I had never met in the year I’d worked for him—a partner in the firm where I typed affidavits—summoned me to his corner office.
He eyed me and said the last thing I expected. “What are your intentions toward this job?”
Seriously? Intentions? We were talking about a typing job that amounted to fill-in-the-blanks.
He then reprimanded me because I had taken time off (vacation and sick days) the previous week to direct a play.
I couldn’t believe Mr. I’m All That, Esq., was sitting there expecting me to apologize and swear I’d cleave only to him and his firm to my dying day.
What really galled me was this whole “intention” thing was one-sided. Do you think that guy would have shed a tear if I collapsed at my keyboard? No way. He’d get me hauled out on a stretcher, and have another typist plopped in that chair before the ambulance pulled away from the curb.
That cut it for me. I was done. I quit that job knowing I could find another just like it in less than a day.
Another. Just. Like. It.
Was that what I wanted? More of the same? NO! But for the first time, instead of assuming I was stuck, I asked, what if…?
What if I made a shift, and instead of waiting for my entertainment career to happen to me, I made it happen? Maybe I could finally get a decent shot—if I found a TV job that paid enough to replace my current salary.
My Boss Unstuck Me
This lawyer I had never met in the year I’d worked for him—a partner in the firm where I typed affidavits—summoned me to his corner office. He eyed me and said the last thing I expected. “What are your intentions toward this job?” Seriously? Intentions? We were talking about a typing job that amounted to fill-in-the-blanks. He then reprimanded me because I had taken time off (vacation and sick days) the previous week to direct a play. I couldn’t believe Mr. I’m All That, Esq., was sitting there expecting me to apologize, and to swear I’d cleave only to him and his firm to my dying day. What really galled me was this whole “intention” thing was one-sided. Do you think that guy would have shed a tear if I collapsed at my keyboard? No way. He’d have me hauled out on a stretcher, and have another typist plopped in that chair before the ambulance pulled away from the curb. That cut it for me. I was done. I quit that job knowing I could find another just like it in less than a day. Another. Just. Like. It. Was that what I wanted? More of the same? The answer was a firm no. But for the first time, instead of assuming I was stuck, I asked, what if…? What if I made a shift, and instead of waiting for my entertainment career to happen to me, I made it happen? Maybe I could finally get a decent shot—if I found a TV job that paid enough to replace my current salary. To do that, I had to: 1) Figure out what that job was; 2) Follow a proven plan to get it; and 3) Accomplish that in my spare time.
How Do You Get That Job?
The job was directing. The plan?
It was on my bookshelf. Through years of trying (and failing) to make extra money doing multilevel marketing, I’d been introduced to books on mindset by writers like Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale and Shakti Gawain.
Now I wondered how effective would these principles be if I was going after something I loved? It was worth a try.
I figured the search would be exhausting since I’d be job-hunting while holding down a full-time typing job, but I was ready to commit 20 hours a week to the goal.
Doing that, I expected it to take me about a year.
Twenty Minutes a Day
It only took nine months. And forget 20 hours a week. I averaged only 20 minutes a day. That’s how I landed a job in the production office of the soap opera, Guiding Light. A job that was not posted, not listed, and not advertised anywhere.
I didn’t have to compete with the thousands of other talented theater, television and film grads out there searching. Less than ten people knew this opening even existed.
It was entry level, and I took a cut in pay. But my eye was on the prize—directing. I wasn’t at my goal, but I was in the building.
Within a year, I got a promotion to a union job as Production Assistant, and doubled my typist salary. Steady work, more promotions and raises kept coming for over five years; and yes, I got that directing shot.
That’s when I quit.
New City Without a Job
If I had stayed at Guiding Light, it would be as an Associate Director who sometimes directed. I wanted more.
So, I moved to LA, and faced a job search in a city where I knew a handful of people. Again, I only averaged 20 minutes a day. But, this time, I was better at the process and had five years of experience in the industry. So, it was only four months before I landed two well-paying jobs on a soap—as a director and a consultant.
Don’t get me wrong. There have been dry spells during my career; but there have also been long-term gigs like 13 years writing for As the World Turns and 7 years writing for The Young and the Restless.
Two Job Hunts = Decades of Jobs
I only did that kind of focused job search twice; and got these jobs as a result:
- Production Assistant
- Associate Director
- Director
- Associate Producer
- Script Writer
- Breakdown Writer
- Associate Head Writer
- Consulting Producer
- Story Consultant
Two job hunts, averaging 20 minutes a day, brought me decades of work. And every single job paid more than that typing job, bringing me financial security, and a few shiny awards besides. And the sweet bliss of working with a talented team to create entertainment? It never goes away.
All About You
That’s why I launched Directing Your Career—to help talented but underpaid entertainment industry professionals keep a steady stream of jobs going so you can prosper doing work you love.
Using the same process I did, you’ll follow simple steps to transition into well-paying entertainment jobs, focus your energies on a specific goal while being open to better offers, nurture strong industry connections, acquire the skills you need and adjust mindsets that impede your success. Then, any time you meet a person with the power to hire you, you’ll be confident you have what it takes to be a valuable member of their team.
If you love what you do enough to work hard and be a team player, you’ll get hired again and again and again. Sometimes, as with a few of my jobs, without submitting a work sample, or even a resume.
If you’re serious about turning your passionate hobby into a profitable career, enter your e-mail address below. Every week you’ll get links to my latest blog posts on some key aspect of having a dynamic and profitable career in the entertainment industry. Time to get unstuck and start directing your career.
