Build a Life You Love With Author and Entertainment Executive Tara Schuster
/Brava listeners, if you are needing a dose of inspiration - you must tune in today’s episode. Meet Tara Schuster, best-selling author, playwright, and accomplished entertainment executive. She served as Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central where she was the Executive in Charge of the Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Key & Peele, the Emmy® Award winning @Midnight, and Lights Out with David Spade.
In today’s episode, Tara touches on the inspiration behind her first book, Buy Yourself The F*cking Lilies, that debuted as the #1 New Release in Humor Essays and Self-Help on both Audible and Kindle. InStyle, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Goodreads, BuzzFeed, Goop, and many others have chosen Buy Yourself The F*cking Lilies as one of the best new books of 2020.
Keep on listening to get inspired, get real, and get that does of motivation to build a life you love.
SHOW NOTES:
Tara has a career path that makes you think, “yes!” (because it’s so dynamic and successful) and she notes how often we don’t stop to think and congratulate ourselves on doing what we’ve set out to do (1:43.)
“Persistence” is the foundation of Tara’s career. She refuses the word “no” and always finds an alternative solution (2:10.)
“I think a lot of people stop with the first ‘no’. We hear ‘no’ and we think, ‘that’s that’. You can always go around it. ”
Tara’s university education started at Brown and she quickly realized that playwriting and her want to write would need to be matched with a career choice that could help to allow her to save and earn money. This challenged emerged an opportunity: an internship on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (4:00.)
Her first position was as a Production Assistant at Comedy Central and it served as her ultimate foot-in-the-door in her dream job in entertainment (5:55.)
“Instead of ‘what promotion can they give me,’ ask yourself: ‘what work can be done? What value can I give?’”
Tara snuck into the pilot of Key & Peele and immediately had a lot of ideas of how to use the content she viewed and how it could be used on multiple platforms. She was promoted to Digital Producer for the show and helped to create segments for the shows moving forward. With Key & Peele under her belt, the development team took notice of her and with a lot of “asking” and by proving her value she became the Vice President of Talent Development (8:15.)
“Ask for what you want. ”
She asked herself, what works needs to be done, not work she wants to do (11:50.)
Tara believes that confidence is a huge asset. If you can be confident, reliable, kind, and pleasant to be around - then you are in whole other league (14:15.)
“I don’t want to be an expert, I want to be a beginner because a beginner has enthusiasm, passion, and curiosity. ”
Tara’s book, Buy Yourself the F*cking Lillies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, From Someone’s Who’s Been There allows Tara to use her creativity full-time (15:44.)
She never set out to write a book, she set out to save her life. Anything where she could check off a box (getting an internship, goals at work, or getting good grades) she was good at, but on the inside she was miserable. She decided to change, using the persistence she used at work, but for her personal life (17:38.)
Tara is interested in us, on the inside. She believes we need to learn how to take care of ourselves (22:05.)
Running into a challenge? Multiple challenges? Tara recommends you change the way you treat yourself and to be gentle. She also believes it’s the small steps and attainable goals before your worry about the big picture (25:42.)
Tara’s self-care go-to routine is journaling each morning, writing a gratitude list, and including exercise (30:15.)
Tara sees a 2nd book coming in the future. She also knows she wants to live her life in service to others and is trying to figure out how to marry that passion with storytelling for ideas in the future (33:30.)
Follow Tara on Instagram to stay connected and continue following along!
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What from our conversation inspired you today? What do you hope to hear next? Tweet or message us on Instagram @BravaPodcast to tell us what you want to hear, even if it’s your own story!
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