Good morning, fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly Hollywood blog.
We are officially at the halfway mark of the year! I celebrated last week by immersing myself in Madonna’s new album, Confessions II. By the way, it’s an amazing album—exhilarating, pulsating, boundary-pushing, personal, and emotional. Forty-plus years in the game and she still has IT.
As I promised last week, I performed another audit of my DOIN after I celebrated. With this mid-year review, I looked at the goals I accomplished in the first half of the year, as well as the ones that need to be recalibrated or completely thrown out for Q3 and Q4.
In a previous blog post, I introduced the The Multi-Hyphenate’s Dictionary. In it, definition number 8 stated: Audit [aw-dit] (noun) A new addition to my vocabulary defined as the act of honestly assessing my progress each quarter, which actually means peeking through my fingers in absolute terror as I scroll through my DOIN. Just kidding.
Just kidding indeed, as I objectively went through my business plan. Keep reading below 🙂
I read my raison d’être (reason for existence, purpose) and it still resonates deeply. I read my postulates, and they still ring true and excite me. My primary goal for 2026 remains intact and is still my target (which is to secure top-tier literary representation.) I also read through my sub-goals and the separate administration plans under each one. These sub-goals—both long-term and short-term—are exactly what will get me closer to achieving that primary target.
I was incredibly happy to see how many action items I’ve already checked off in my administration plans. Seeing that progress brought a tremendous sense of satisfaction and pride. However, the biggest takeaway from this audit, and my core focus for the rest of 2026, is the need to “close the deal” on these sub-goals. I have checked off a lot of individual action items, but there is now a collective sense of, “Okay, now what? Finish it.” Let’s look at a few examples below:
Sub-goal: Research different writers’ groups. Build communities with them. Great. I’ve done the research. Now, I just need to join one.
Sub-goal: Build a website to promote my talents as an artist. Great. I’ve built the website. Now, I need to drive traffic to it.
Sub-goal: Create a writer’s reel to highlight the evidence. Great. I’ve done that. I’ve put together a reel of some of my past writing works. Now, I need to write and shoot new evidence of my current writing abilities.
Sub-goal: Support and build my relationship map. While I have done that in the first half of the year, I now see that I need to make more of an effort in terms of in-person connection. I recently told my career administration partner that one of the things I most admire about him is his ability to build and nourish his relationship map with in-person lunch and coffee meetings. He excels in the valuable face-to-face arena, and those connections continue to provide him with wonderful opportunities.
Then there are the goals that require a shift in strategy.
One sub-goal that needs to be recalibrated is: Finish the second draft of “The Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Check. After its successful pitch at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and the enthusiastic “goldmine” response it received, the team is pivoting to making “The Third Act” a TV series. The goal is to sell the series to a major streaming company and go into production.
Another sub-goal that needs to be recalibrated, but not quite thrown out yet, is: Use social media to gain traction and attention from top-tier literary agents. In a recent assessment in class and a conversation with my career administration partner, using social media boiled down to a simple question, “To what purpose?” I haven’t figured out a compelling purpose or reason yet to use social media on a consistent, daily basis to share my voice as a writer. What’s my way in? What’s my angle?
Looking at this directive of “closing the deal” in order to complete a sub-goal and put a confident, solid check mark next to it, I added some new action items and highlighted them in bright green so they stand out as a reminder within my DOIN document. As the days progress, I will continue adding more targeted action items to finish what I started. Keep reading below 🙂
See you next week!
Chasing The George 