Taking career risks to help you land bigger opportunities

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Lindsay Issler, an entertainment industry veteran currently a Brand Director at CBS. We go in depth with Lindsay’s career journey from getting her start in the entertainment industry and taking risks in her career in order to get to where she is today. Lindsay also provides advice for aspiring entertainment professionals that want to get into the industry themselves and what they need to do in order to be successful in the industry in the long run.

QUOTES

• “Dig your well before you’re thirsty, and take advantage of being a student and get yourself out there and start building relationships and planting seeds everywhere you can at these companies that you’re interested in.” - Lindsay Issler [8:16]
• “I know that it’s a really personal thing, but I’m not really big on counter offers for a number of reasons, mainly that I felt like I was done with that experience at Lionsgate and I had outgrown it and I was already too far down the rabbit hole interviewing with other companies, that it wouldn’t have made sense for me to stay.” - Lindsay Issler [26:06]
• “Taking risks and doing challenging things that scare you, put you out of your comfort zone and just make you feel like you have to rise to a challenge are important to have, like those are the types of experiences that you have room to grow.” - Lindsay Issler [33:54]

TIMESTAMPS

• [0:25] Meet Lindsay
• [1:09] Lindsay’s thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the entertainment industry 
• [4:23] How Lindsay got her start in the entertainment industry
• [7:42] Advice for soon to be grads and recent grads on how to break into the entertainment industry 
• [9:57] Knowing your why when it comes to wanting to get into the entertainment industry
• [16:59] The future of new movie releases as the COVID-19 pandemic dies down
• [18:22] Advice on getting promoted in the entertainment industry
• [21:56] Evaluating her opportunity with Fox and the risk of joining a company that was going through being acquired
• [27:37] Lindsay’s next move after Fox and what she needed to do to get to the next step of her career
• [33:39] Advice on taking calculated risks to further your career
• [35:51] What Lindsay looks for in her next hire for her team during the interview process
• [41:27] Discussing whether it’s a good time right now to try to pivot into entertainment as the industry is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic
• [44:06] A major roadblock that Lindsay had faced and what she did to overcome it to move her career forward
• [45:51] Contacting Lindsay
• [46:43] Outro

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

• Lindsay Issler on LinkedIn
• Chan With A Plan
• Max Chan on LinkedIn