Lauren Meyer Emmy Nominated

Foreign.

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley Cup Champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome back to another episode.

Today.

My guest is Lauren Meyer and she's an Emmy nominated director. She has done work on many platforms including ABC, NBC, Nickelodeon, ESPN, HGTV, A&E, Discovery, Netflix and Amazon. Her specialty fits in with exactly what we do on this show on the Mike Hartman show and it's storytelling and being the underdog and being a champion. And that's what we're all about here. The Mike Hartman show talks about stories, mindset and champions. Enjoy the show. I'll know you'll like Lauren Hey Mike.

Thanks for the invitation. I'm going to share some stories today and hopefully that will help inspire and motivate many of you to go after your goals and pursue your dreams. As Mike mentioned, I'm the filmmaker behind the Other Boys of Summer. The Other Boys of Summer is a documentary that explores civil rights in America through the lives of the Negro League baseball players. It's narrated by the legendary Cicely Tyson and includes never before seen interviews with the men and a woman who played alongside Jackie Robinson and changed not only the game of baseball, but America. So I'll talk more about the film later, but just to kind of set things up, the Other Boys of Summer was a passion project. I wasn't hired or contracted or paid to make this film. It was something that I pursued because the story spoke to me and I felt it was an important story to tell. So to find out more about the film you can always go to the website. It's theotherboysofsummer.com for now. I'll tell you a little bit about myself and how I ultimately got to the place I am today. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to make movies or TV shows. Growing up, I watched a ton of tv. I loved going to the movies and I think it was about this, escaping into those stories and seeing the cool places and the characters. It was just the idea of that fantasy that anything was possible that I think really just grabbed me. I don't remember a time where I didn't want to work in TV or film. Making a documentary wasn't something that I had imagined doing, but I think that's one of the most Important things to success, however you might define success, is being open to twists and turns in the road. And so for me, again, I'm doing what I love doing, but it might not look like how I envisioned it when I was growing up. So when I graduated from college, I wanted to move out to California to pursue my career in TV and film, but I refused to fly there. I don't have any fear of flying. It had nothing to do with that. I just really wanted to see what America looked like between New York and California. My mom was not okay with me driving cross country on my own and thankfully she agreed to join me. So I packed up as much as I could fit into my little basically two seater convertible and mom and I joked that it was our Thelma and Louise trip with hopefully a very different ending. Within a month of getting to la, I landed a job as a production assistant for Roseanne and Tom Arnold. This is also when Roseanne's show was the number one show on tv. I was determined to break into the business and I knew I needed to figure out some way that I was going to stand out from the thousands of other people all applying for production assistant jobs. This is my first time that I specifically remember recognizing how important and how challenging it was going to be to stand out from the crowd and separate myself from the competition. So what I did was I came up with this idea that I was going to create a postcard to include when I sent out resumes so. So that it would give the people I was sending it to an easy way to reply. Because as we all know, most resumes, if they get read at all, just get tossed. In the first month I was out there, I sent out between 80 and 90 resumes. I'd sent them to every TV show, every production company I could find, and I included this self addressed postcard. And what I wrote on the postcard was I gave the people like two or three options. Number one with a little box next to it. All they had to do was check or put an X on it. And the first choice was, I, I'd like to schedule a meeting with you to discuss possible opportunities. The second option was something like, we don't have any openings right now, but please keep in touch. And I gave a line or two so people could put a phone number or an address or something. And then I drew some lines underneath it and just said, any other comments out of those postcards? I probably got back about 25% of them, which I think is pretty remarkable. I also got phone calls for some interviews. And I landed my first real job in Hollywood. My takeaway from that was that I realized that everyone wanted to get their foot in the door. So what I needed to do was figure out a way to stand out. I believe that if you're passionate about what you do and you're willing to put yourself out there and do whatever it takes, you can pursue your dreams and have success. Success means different things to different people. For me, I wasn't motivated by the money. I was motivated by doing what I love to do and what spoke to me. I'm proud to say that I've been able to support myself as a freelancer for over 25 years in a really competitive, very unstable field. And it's often required me to work seven days a week, sometimes 10, 12, 14, 16 hour days are not uncommon. You know, at times I work for free or I've gone months without any work at all. But I stayed the course. And over the years I've learned to trust that. It's scary, it's probably easy just to give up, but for me, I just never felt as though I was willing to quit. Okay, so I'm going to jump ahead a little bit because from when I first got my foot in the door and started till closer to today, I've worked for all different TV shows, production companies. I've done everything from feature film work and TV shows, promos, commercials, sports, a little bit of everything. But rather than go through all of that, what I'd like to do is jump ahead to a little bit more recently. It was about seven years ago, I think now. It was in 2014. I was invited to a meeting about directing a project called the American Dream Project. And that was an independent project which featured two guys traveling cross country on motorcycles to see if the American dream was still alive and what it meant to people today. So for me, that was a story that really resonated with me because it went along with things that I wanted to know. At the time, the show didn't have distribution, it was barely funded. It was going to be a crew of about eight people traveling by van and the two guys on the motorcycles. We'd be on the road for a month. We weren't staying in fancy hotels at all. We were often staying with people who we met along the way. And there was even the possibility of camping, which I was not really. To be honest, I wasn't okay with that option. But I didn't let that stop me from pursuing it. The job didn't pay very much, but Because I loved the story and I loved the passion of the people who wanted to make this project. I took a leap and I decided that, you know what, I'm going to take this risk. Risk, and I'm gonna go for it. And we did it. We traveled cross country. We spent about a month on the road. It was amazing. When we finished the filming, we didn't know if a network or distributor were going, going to pick it up. We went to the edit, and six months later, the American Dream project launched on Hulu and on Amazon as well as a bunch of other digital platforms. And then a year later, Netflix picked it up and we were nominated for an Emmy for the project. We did not win. Our project lost to Oprah. So if you're going to lose an Emmy, it's a pretty great story to say that you lost to Oprah, in my opinion. You know, one of the biggest hurdles that we face, I think everybody faces, whether it's personal or professional, is the biggest hurdle is fear. And it's fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of failure. One way that I've learned to deal with that is when something makes you stop because you're afraid. I try and think about what are the possible outcomes? What could happen? Are those results or those outcomes really that bad? If you were to fail, what would be the worst thing that would happen? And when I answer those questions, it helps me take some of the power away from that fear and enables me to take chances, take risks. The success of the American Dream project led to a spin off series called American Doers, where which was contracted for 12 episodes up front by People magazine, and it was in conjunction with Advil or Pfizer. They were our presenting sponsors. So it was a branded content series. So we had a better budget and I was able to get paid a bit better as well, because now we had partners and we had somebody who believed in it and who invested in it. So each episode of American Doers featured somebody pursuing their dreams in spite of their circumstances. It was always about not letting the roadblocks and the hurdles and the people telling you that you can't stop you from pursuing your dream. And working on those 12 stories compelled me to finish my film, the Other Boys of Summer, which I had at this point started nine years earlier. I had worked for dozens of companies, different networks. I had put in all the long days and weeks and months, but it was always for somebody else. And American Doers, what it did was by learning the stories of these 12 individuals and seeing them pursue their dreams and not giving up, it inspired me to go back to my film and put that same time and effort and dedication into a project that was my own, rather than working for somebody else. I gave myself one year. I said, I'm going to take a year and I'm going to finish this film. I believe if the story was worthy, and I really put my belief in it, something good would come of it. And I didn't know what it would look like. I didn't know what the end result would be. But I. I just. I did it. I went after it. And when I had started the film back in 2007, I was interviewing the players because I had realized that most of the Negro Leaguers had already passed away. I wanted to be able to hear their stories from them. So now, in order to preserve their legacy, I needed to finish the project. When I first started it back in 2007, I worked on it for about six months. And when I say I worked on it, I literally worked on it full time. I mean, I worked probably 80 hours a week, sometimes seven days a week, but. But I loved it. It was one of my favorite jobs ever. And then after those initial six months, I realized, this is great, I love it, but it's not paying the bills. And so I had to put it aside and start picking up paying jobs again. Over those next nine years, I'd occasionally work on it in between the paying jobs. I might work on it for a day or two, a week, even a month, but honestly, it wasn't getting done. Now I had pieces of a film that were sitting on a hard drive. You know, it just really needed that focus. And so after American Doers, I was determined to give it the time it needed and deserved, and I invested in me. So one of the things that resonated with me from directing American Doers, which is really important, I think, is that I interviewed so many different people in order to hear their stories. And one person who I interviewed was this guy who was running a ranch and in Wyoming. He had always dreamt of being a cowboy and running a ranch. I mean, that's the furthest thing from my dreams. But, you know, he and his wife believed in it and wanted to go after it. And they were all in. They got this land in Wyoming and they built a ranch on it, and they were really doing it. And they endured all sorts of struggles. I mean, when I say struggles, it's everything from losing a child. The ranch burned down. They had no idea if they were going to make it, but. But they Just kept their eye on their goals. And what he told me was that people often confuse patience and perseverance. Patience is waiting while perseverance is pursuing. You have to pursue your dreams. That just sort of was like that little bell going off, like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. That's the key, you know, so many people are waiting for the perfect opportunity to go after their dreams. Everyone was waiting for permission and I didn't want to wait any longer. So I gave myself one year and I said, I'm not sure what the end result is going to be, but I'm going to pursue my dream. I'm not going to wait any longer. At the end of the year, the film was almost done. I had really taken it as far as I could out of pocket. And I decided that I was going to take another risk. And that was I launched a Kickstarter campaign. I was definitely nervous about it and I didn't honestly believe that people would contribute to a stranger to make a film about civil rights and the Negro leagues. But I was wrong. I really believed in the film and saw the importance of sharing those stories and people connected with that. I was authentic and my passion for the project came through. People wanted to support that. On day four of my initial campaign, which is a month long campaign, I hit my goal of the, you know, the dollar amount that you put out there as your goal. I learned a big lesson there. I definitely should have asked for more money, that's for sure. But I didn't want to ask for too much because I was scared I wasn't going to reach the goal. With Kickstarter, if you ask for a certain amount of money and you don't receive that amount of money from your contributors, you don't get any of it. So for me, it was really important that I set a realistic goal that I had a chance of reaching. So my fear of failure definitely played into that one. When the film was finished, I took a step back and I wanted to figure out, what does the film offer that's of value beyond the typical documentary film space? For me, the story of the film was always, what is it like for the players to pursue their dreams in spite of their circumstances of racism, segregation and the lack of civil rights? These were unsung civil rights trailblazers. So what I did was I started exploring how that could be of value. I created a diversity, equity and inclusion program using the film as a centerpiece. The program has been used by Fortune 500 companies, communities, schools, MLB teams, organizations of all kinds, and what we do is we bring people together and create a space for courageous conversations. The program got off to a really strong start, and then the pandemic hit. And like everybody else, I had to figure out how to pivot. I created a virtual version and a hybrid version of the program, and those continued to resonate. And so the other boys of summer not only was preserving the legacy of these humble heroes, as I call them, but it was also serving a greater purpose. It was providing something that society was craving and that was different from the headlines. The theme theme was the same as everything going on in our world today regarding the lack of civil rights, social injustice and inequality. However, this was from a different perspective. And it wasn't a doom and gloom story. It wasn't a woe is me story. It was really a story of perseverance and resilience. The Negro Leaguers were not bitter when I interviewed them, and that's what shocked me the most. They were proud, they were humble, and they were just, you know, felt this joy of being able to pursue what they love to do. They recognized that they were an important part of American history. My takeaway from my experiences are, believe in yourself, pursue your goals. If you're willing to out think outwork, face your fears of failure, you have nothing but opportunities ahead of you. I'm definitely not saying it's easy, but I can tell you from my experience, it's definitely rewarding and it was worth it. I could talk about the other boys of summer all day long. One of the players I interviewed was Mamie Peanut Johnson, who was one of three women who actually played in the Negro Leagues. She shared with me a story about when she got pitching tips from Satchel Paige. I interviewed hall of Famer Monte Irvin, who Branch Rickey originally considered to potentially break the color barrier. Minnie Minoso, who's going into the hall of Fame this summer. Literally about a dozen different players who shared their personal stories and their stories are resonating today. And that, to me, is very rewarding. If you want to find out more about the film or the diversity, equity and inclusion program, you can check out theotherboysofsummer.com you can email us at theotherboysofsummermail.com you can find out more about the other work that I do as a director and a producer. My company is called Tumbleweed Pictures, and the website that is tumbleweedprod.com short for productions. You can always reach out to me through the website. Feel free to ask me any questions. Mike, I want to give a shout out to thank you once again for inviting me onto your podcast, and I hope that everybody has a great, successful year.

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