How the Find Your People Program Uses Issa Rae’s ‘Network Across’ Mantra to Build Sustainable Careers for Emerging Creatives of Color

What started as an industry mixer from ColorCreative has become a source for Hollywood productions that need to "crew up"

The post How the Find Your People Program Uses Issa Rae’s ‘Network Across’ Mantra to Build Sustainable Careers for Emerging Creatives of Color appeared first on TheWrap.

ColorCreative‘s Find Your People Program (FYPP) is using its cofounder Issa Rae’s longtime “network across” mantra to help creatives of color build sustainable careers in Hollywood through networking, while providing a reliable staffing resource for productions that need to “crew up.”

“We set out to do this program because we knew that community was essential for having a sustaining career in this industry,” ColorCreative president Talitha Watkins explained to TheWrap. “No matter what industry you’re in, sustainability is our goal.”

Officially launched in 2023, FYPP is a training curriculum that provides emerging creators from seven disciplines — directors, producers, cinematographers, production design, costume designers, editors and composers — with training, mentorship and guidance as they work together in four separate teams to make a short film. By the end of the year-long program, participants will have the opportunity to pitch their shorts to a committee who can greenlight them with financial backing. By the end of the program, creatives leave not just with foundational experience needed to take them to the next level in their careers, but also an ecosystem of peers and advisers who can guide them along the way.

“We want people to know that in these lean years, where everyone is having a hard time getting things across the finish line, that at least you have your community, you have your tribe, you guys can work on things together, you can be innovative,” Watkins said. “The insight behind all of it is something that comes from Issa Rae directly; she often says, ‘People are always asking how you can meet the person in charge. But really, you got to look at the person to your left and the person to your right.’ And that working across can be just as effective as networking up. We built the program on that ‘network across’ mantra.”

As FYPP continues on with its second cycle, Watkins opened up about the program’s longterm goals, shared the backstory of how things initially started as an industry mixer and her thoughts on the attacks against diversity, equity and inclusion across industries.

Take me all the way back, where did the idea for the Find Your People Program come from?

These answers have been condensed for readability purposes.

Find Your People started as a networking event. In March 2020, Deniese Davis and Issa Rae, my cofounders, alongside Ashley Calloway, who was the sole manager at ColorCreative at the time, they created a hosted mixer. They had writers and directors, and the idea was, there are a lot of great writers and directors who call on us or reach out and say, “Hey, I’m looking for an editor, I’m looking for a cinematographer;” they’re by virtue trying to crew up and finding it difficult to do so. So Deniese and Ashley had the insight to create this opportunity for [employers and creatives] to mix and mingle and get to know each other, and facilitated the first Find Your People Party. What [ColorCreative] found were people self-selected into groups, and the team led by Deniese said, “OK, well what if we gave them some prompts. The best group who comes back with an idea, we’ll get behind this prompt. We’re going to offer some funding for your project.”

[During the pandemic], lots of promises were made, lots of dollars were spent, lots of programs were propped up. I joined ColorCreative in August of 2020, and started by just evaluating what was out there and said, “We had this party that was all about networking, getting to your tribe and then ended up with a prompt. OK, how can we build upon that?’ So we took a year and a half to really see what was working with everything else. Then we started just building some core comms around what the program should be. We realized that we’ve always been for emerging creators, and we needed to make sure we stayed there. We said our Find Your People Program will give opportunity to people who have never been on a set, on a credited, union or guild set. That was one of our factors in selecting people. We call ourselves the pre-pipeline to the pipeline programs.

Between George Floyd’s murder and the pandemic, you all started the Find Your People Program during one of the most crucial times culturally and for the job market. Did that at all amplify the production of FYPP, and how did you develop the program’s format?

Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. [And] I want to give credence to all the great programs that existed before, like the Warner Bros. directors program, the showrunner program that the WGA runs, there are a lot of really great programs out there. We’ve had the benefit in being a company that focuses on emerging talent, and we’ve had the benefit of meeting with a lot of the folks who run these programs. I was one of the founders of the Universal emerging writers program. So I’ve had a lot of purview on those programs that exist internally at some of these studios and networks. 

We started by just having a listening tour hearing what their processes have been, how they find people, what’s a good conversion rate for them, how do they evaluate success? We wanted to be successful from the gate, so instead of making it a short film program, we made it a Find Your People program, because one thing we knew we were going to do was build a community.

Was there anything you learned with your first cohort that helped you in any way with how you guide or assist your second group?

We went into this knowing that we were going to learn and that there would always be room for improvement. We did an anonymous survey at the end of the program and got some incredible feedback. Some of which we were able to implement immediately into Year 2, and some of it that we have on our goalposts.

What is different about this program, and what makes it live alongside all the other programs that exist, is that we’re looking to create experiences that build bonds, especially with people from marginalized communities within an entertainment community. At the beginning, one of the key factors is community. If you’ve got your people around you, you may be able to get through these lean years. These people are bonded for life, they now support one another and you’ve got your own cheering section, like a built-in database.

Breaking into Hollywood is no easy task, especially with no connections. And if you’re a person of color, there’s often an additional set of roadblocks to face. Based off your time in the industry and facilitating this program, what’s the biggest challenge creatives of color are facing while navigating the industry?

To be honest, it’s mentorship. [And] one of the things we ask [participants] to be mindful of walking into this program is how to be a good mentee. Because now you have a mentor [in our program], who we have secured this day-long workshop with and these monthly office hours. We guide them on how to engage with those mentors, because oftentimes, most good ideas fall apart because of bad communication. It’s like, “Hey, don’t be discouraged if you haven’t gotten an email response back. Be thoughtful about what’s going on in other people’s lives and careers. Do your research. Make an ask that this person could likely turn over really easily for you and follow through.” It’s sometimes guiding them on, “Hey, I want to send this email out, what do you think? Do you think this will be effective?” Half the time, its the nerves of them getting up the strength to send the email.

What we hope to do. is to create a platform where their name is now associated with our company, with our founder, with all theses great people who have done incredible things. Use that and use it effectively to get into rooms to continue to break down those doors. Sometimes you need that extra push and courage to send that email or make that ask.

Y’all are partnering with very well-known brands, from Michael Jordan’s Black Community Committment, American Express and Canva. How did that come about?

We’ve had such goodwill from some of the work that’s already been done. A really incredible philanthropic advisor reached out to us directly about what the Jordan Foundation is doing and we quickly sent them all of our manifesto documents, all of our plans and said, “This is how the Find Your People Program is effectively helping to align with your mission,” which is to leave the world in a better place, to dismantle racist policies that are keeping us out of certain systems, and we’re building these bonds that help folks to sustain their career and hopefully land them on stages for the work that they’re doing.

Issa had a relationship with American Express, and she’s very proud of the [Find Your People] program and spoke to them about it and they asked to be involved. We found a way for them to be involved, especially because part of our program is about the financial readiness to go and make this film; the reporting, the accountability for when you are no longer working with found funds, you’re working with a studio funding your project. There’s certain cost reporting that’s necessary, there’s certain risks you need to be mindful of and [American Express] was able to provide us some guidance.

It’s just a dream come true to work with Canva, which wants the collaboration in the hands of the creators and we were able to work with them in a few different ways. First and foremost, they built our site. Then as a part of the application process, all the applicants had to put together a business card — a creative element that allowed us to see participants’ creativity and their ability to use the tool. They’ve been collaborating this whole time on a Canva presentation that they’ll use to present to our Greenlight committee.

Find Your People focuses on emerging creators of color and woman creators. Right now, there seems to be an attack against DEI-centered initiatives, programing, content, etc. How does it feel to be running this type of program in this climate?

I’ve spent a lot of my career in multicultural marketing. As a person who has been advocating for diverse voices, what’s true is that what we contribute to the culture is undeniable, 100%. From the food to the music, to the incredible sports talent to film and television, the storytellers, we are all griots. We have, as a people, found other places to tell our stories ever since the digital divide. We have dominated on social and digital. So I know that eventually we will swing back into being in those creator seats. What I’m hoping will come out of this is more collaboration amongst people of color to see things through. Let’s work together, let’s cross this finish line together. That’s my goal.

What are some overarching goals you have for the program’s future?

We’re tracking all of the success of the first-year cohort. We want to create more community based relationships and opportunities for them. For the expanded community, we have about 3,000 members from people who participated in the application process. So we want to be able to create opportunities for them. We want to make sure they’re in places where they know that they’ve got that aunt or uncle in the business, if you will, with ColorCreative being that platform where they can tap in and say, “Hey, I’m really struggling with this?” or “I want to host this thing, would you help us and be able to put our stamp on it?” We’d like the Find Your People Program to be a stamp for any emerging creator who’s coming from outside of our business, outside of our city, from a marginalized community to say, “Well, I know this is a place for me, where I can be brave and tell my stories and I can be safe and get the guidance that I need.”

The post How the Find Your People Program Uses Issa Rae’s ‘Network Across’ Mantra to Build Sustainable Careers for Emerging Creatives of Color appeared first on TheWrap.