I became a teacher at age 16, when I got my Red Cross WSI card and started teaching swimming. I was a Division 1 swimmer in college, and teaching was my side hustle during school. I became a swim coach for a boys’ swim team, and I taught swimming at hotels in the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and at a Montessori school in West Los Angeles. In my 20s, I met a successful businessman who was terrified of the water; he’d almost drowned twice, and never swam with his kids. He didn’t want to miss out a second time by not swimming with his grandchildren, so he asked me to teach him. In six weeks of careful, patient lessons he not only learned how to swim, he loved it. Six months later, he joined a Masters swim team, and he considered learning to swim his greatest achievement, and one of my proudest moments. I’ve carried that passion into every job, and former employees of mine are now in top positions producing shows and running production companies. I wrote The Reality TV Producer and Director Handbook to teach people new to those jobs, and it has been used on dozens of shows. With my friend and colleague Dr. Devon Smith, I started Story Detectives, a school program that taught 5th graders how to find stories in their own lives which they transformed into monologues that professional actors performed on stage. Whether it’s someone afraid of the water, or someone afraid of restructuring their film, or someone scared they’re not ready for that directing job, I know there’s always a way. We just have to find it.