New Year’s Resolution / Tomorrow

I hope you all had a great holiday and happy New Year’s. Mine was exciting to say the least. Many life lessons learned that night that will be shared in later posts.

I have been slacking with the blog this last month so my first resolution for the new year is to be better about writing and writing in advance.

Other resolutions are to read more, (the classic) go to the gym more, volunteer more and produce something. I will update you on the progress throughout the year.

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me. I will be meeting (briefly) with NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. As I have said before I write letters to people when I know they are new to the DC area. That is how I got a meeting with Broadway Producer and new Managing Director of Arena Stage, Edgar Dobie. But I also write them to any employee that I know to be new hoping to always expand my network and build relationships. Not long after Chairman Landesman moved to DC I wrote him a letter welcoming him to the area and let him know how excited I was for him to be in DC. After thinking I wouldn’t hear from him, which is what I expected, I got a call from his office. Well, tomorrow I am having that meeting. I have no idea what we will discuss but I look forward to it. Some people look up to basketball stars, I look up to Broadway Producers.

Networking 2.3

I had the pleasure of meeting with Edgar Dobie yesterday. He is the new Managing Director of Arena Stage and the producer of 9 to 5. I wrote him and said I would like to meet with him with no set agenda and I think it was a great first meeting. He commented more than once on my card and how thoughtful it was.

I got to ask him questions about how he got started and hear some interesting stories about his career path. He also asked about mine and what I thought about certain things. I was impressed with how much he had done in so little time. He has not only been the head of several regional theatres but produced many commercial Broadway productions. He also was the president of the Really Useful Theatre Company for the first six years of its life. I was setting there think he should right write a book.

Why I am talking about this meeting. Well, it goes back to networking. I reached out and took a chance of meeting a producer and guess what it worked. I have sent out many cards like that and only a few get responses but even if I get one response and meeting like I had yesterday it would be worth it. I hope to meet with him again and find a way for me to learn from him. Take a chance and reach out to someone who could expand your network. You never know what might happen.