11 Months Unemployed, 11 Films Later: Vedant Akhauri's Unlikely Comeback

Your career can change in a single moment, and for Vedant Akhauri, it changed in the coldest way possible: he was mid-text with his own production team when his login just stopped working, no explanation, no warning. What followed was 11 months of job hunting through a Hollywood strike, an interview with MrBeast's team that came agonizingly close, and a four-year resume gap from COVID-era shutdowns that kept ending interviews before he got a fair shot.

Vedant opens up about what it's like to be treated as "radioactive" the moment you're unemployed, watching mentors and former colleagues who once said "reach out anytime" go quiet, and how fast relationships reveal themselves as transactional once you have nothing to offer. Maria shares her own version of that gut-punch, being let go from a travel-industry career she'd spent over a decade building, and together they dig into the mindset shift from a traditional career ladder to a career jungle gym, where sideways moves, pauses, and pivots are strategy, not failure.

Then we get into the actual turning point: transferable skills. A brutal, low-paying live-events production gig became the proof Vedant needed to reenter film and video work, and saying yes to a single camera workshop he almost skipped led to relationships that turned into 11 films in one year, two of which won Best Picture at an independent film festival. He breaks down the two habits that carried him through the grind, delayed gratification and gratitude, and why he's learned to trust his gut even when it means turning down work that isn't right.

If you're navigating a layoff, a resume gap, or wondering whether pivoting means starting over, this conversation hands you both the mindset and the tactics.

Subscribe for more Against All Odds stories, share this with someone in a job-search spiral, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. What part of your career are you ready to pivot this week?

Connect with Vedant:
Podcast: Let's Talk Media with Vedant Akhauri
Instagram: @letstalkmediava
YouTube: Vedant Akhauri
LinkedIn: Vedant Akhauri
IMDb: Vedant Akhauri

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Pivoting Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people surviving against all odds. And my hope is that we can all see how life is always happening for us even when we are the less than 1% chance.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte. I am so excited for a new conversation today. And honestly, as much as things are happening in the world right now and in the life that we're living in right now, I think this conversation is so important to kind of learn how to pivot from a moment in your life where you didn't feel or you didn't see that coming kind of feeling. So I want to introduce to you our next guest. His name is Vedant Akari. Did I say it right?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Vedant Akari.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Vedant Akari. Awesome. So welcome. So just a little bit about him. After a layoff in a tough job market, Vedant spent 11 months hustling, overcoming doubt, and saying yes to more things. He overcame a four-year gap in his resume by pivoting toward his passion and shedding that old idea of traditional career ladder, which we all have. We're kind of all programmed with for the most part. His work is now in video and podcast production. So honestly, Vedant, thank you so much for being here. What is your against all odds story?

The Layoff And Resume Gap

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. This is my first time talking about this in this context for the first time. And so I'm kind of excited to be on here. But my story was that so I was the class of COVID, I was class of December 2021. So no opportunities really to work on sets. And then the strike happened, which I'll talk about later.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

And so I hadn't worked on a set in four years, and that was costing me a lot of opportunities because I would talk to employers, they'd be interested, but then they look at my resume and go, wait, so your last set experience was four years ago. And I'm like, Well, yeah, we had a pandemic.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

But a lot of the time that's where the conversation ended, unfortunately, through no fault of my own. I would I just I was in the wrong class, really. But on top of that, uh, I was let go in a very tough job market. They had a lot of consolidations on my old team. I think that summer, I think a third of my team was let go in like two or two or three waves. It was heartbreaking because I worked with a lot of them extensively, and to see them be cut was just it was hard. And when that happens, then people just don't talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And so it was kind of like just soldier on, don't talk about it, just move on, kind of mentality. But some of them I'd worked very closely with, and just within one week, a lot of them were just not there anymore. And it was hard because I had very fond memories working with some of them.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

And then I was like, go to. Um goodness. They basically just figured that it'd be cheaper to just have somebody else take over my work. And so they I still remember it. It was August 25th, 2023. It was a Friday morning. I was just at home talking to my producers over text. And then right in the middle of when I was helping my producers, my login got cut.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And then I'm trying to log in for 30 minutes, trying to figure out what's going on. And then because I wasn't hearing anything. And then I decided, you know what, IT might be at the office. And so I grabbed my laptop and I head out. And on my way to the office, my contractor calls me and says, Your time is up. And that's how it ended. I still remember it very vividly. And just like that, my producers were super confused. Wait, why can't you help us anymore? Right five minutes after I got the call, a producer texted me saying, Hey, can you get something done for me today? And I don't work there anymore, so I can't talk to you right now. I'm sorry. I have my own things going on. And then that was a Friday, and then the Monday I reached out to our voiceover actor because he relied a lot on me to schedule voiceovers, which I told text him, like, hey, I'm not there anymore. And he's thankful I mean, no, I had no idea that you weren't with them anymore.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

He was very sweet. He said, It was great working with you. Please reach out if you need anything, and I hope we get to work together again.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So those were the two things, like the industry, and then just spending 11 months in that. Because when you are unemployed, then a lot of people treat you as radioactive. Unfortunately. Literally three days before that happened, I had somebody that I really looked up to say, hey, if you need anything, like job referrals, recommendations, anything, reach out to me. And when I reached out to this person, somebody that I highly looked up to, they just they ghosted me, pretended like I never existed.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

That's so heartbreaking.

When Stable Careers Disappear

SPEAKER_02 5:09

I remember I went through I used to in my previous life, like in my 20s and early 30s, I worked in the travel industry. And it was 2017 when I was working there. I had just moved back to the previous company that I worked for. So I worked for two of the three largest wholesale travel companies worldwide. And I had started at this company, left because I had a better opportunity at the competing company, and then I was there for two years, came back because my previous company was like, no, we need you back. They promoted me. I was the area director for product development. And I was at the height of my career as a single mom. And I walked into the office, and all of a sudden, they were going through a big merger, and I was their first to be let go because they could hire two younger people that could be paid a lot less and try to do emulate the same job, and it was so frustrating because then no matter how amazing you were, I was working for two of the top three largest companies, and then anywhere that I could then go to, the opportunity for doing the same exact job was like $40,000, $50,000 less than what I was making. And I was like, I can't sustain my family on that. And it really became tough. So I understand that crushing feeling of wait, one moment that everything is there, and then the next moment you're like, what happened to all these opportunities and all this, like, you're amazing at what you do, and I love working with you, and then nothing.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah, and I was I was a little bit younger than you, I think. I was yeah, I had just turned 23 when this happened.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

And first job, too. And so looking back, there were signs that they're cutting people and all that, but when you're fresh out, you don't you don't know how to you don't know how to read the signs. And there's that double speak that people do in business that when you're starting out, you just don't know. And again, how was I supposed to know?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Strikes And Near Misses

SPEAKER_02 7:28

So, what are some of the misses during that job search for you? What were some of those misses for you?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

So definitely there was the strike that happened. Like I'd already been starting to look for other jobs in the entertainment world. And I'd actually taken a writing class because I love writing. I took a TV writing class for three months and was like, okay, this is gonna be how I break into Hollywood. But right when I finished the class, they announced that Hollywood was going on strike indefinitely. Oh my god. So film and TV, the market would just shut down, basically.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

And even after the strikes ended, it didn't return to normal. People still weren't hiring, and that was crushing because I I mean, I'm not like just a film and TV person, but just sets video productions in general were not hiring.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

And one example that I can remember is that I was actually interviewing for Mr. Beast, the YouTuber, and they were super interested in me. And I can't confirm for sure what happened. Maybe there was a hiring freeze or they filled a position, but things were going really well during the interview. But then the question came up about my recent experience. And I hadn't been on a set in four years again, due to COVID and the strikes. And I'll never know for sure, but I still think is that what cost me the job? Because for reasons outside of my control, I couldn't be on a set for four years. And so it just kept happening over and over again where I would be in the interview stages, but when recent experience came up, I had nothing.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Yeah. Yeah, that's super frustrating. I feel in those moments, you're just kind of it's like the blow after blow after blow, and you feel very defeated. But I really like to think that those are the things that make us stronger.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

And so it's closing the doors in the places where I didn't need to be because then I would miss out on something amazing. So how did the isolation of the I guess the modern job search impact you?

Unemployment Isolation And Identity

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So the moment that I was not employed anymore, a lot of people just stop talking to me. That's just whether it was personal, because they're like, I don't know how to help, or I don't want to help because this is too dark, I'm not equipped for this. And so people just stop talking to you. And also I feel like as Americans, we just put too much emphasis on what we do for work.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And because one of the first questions that we ask when we meet somebody is, so what do you do?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

And I didn't have anything for almost a year. And so that kind of took my identity away for a long time. But definitely on the professional front, where there I had some ride and dies, I'm not gonna lie. But then the moment that I didn't have anything, they just stopped answering my texts, pretended like they never knew me, stopped answering my emails, or if they would acknowledge me, they were kind of like, shove me away, please don't talk to me. You're unemployed, that's radioactive. And some of them were people that I'd worked with extensively, and I knew their some of them I knew their kids. And we would spend hours just talking about movies, TV shows, our career dreams. It was tough, really. And I guess it also taught me how some relationships are just purely transactional. The moment you are unemployed and you can't do something for them, you're dead to them. And what really hurt was that some of them were just ignoring my text for a solid year, my emails for help. But the moment that I got back on my feet again with opportunities, they're suddenly rushing back from like, hey, congratulations, or thumbs up. And I'm like, Really? Like I'm not happy here. I needed you then, not now. And you're just gonna pretend like none of that ever happened. And it just really left a sour taste in my mouth.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah. You get to learn in your 20s, you kind of have to also that's the years of learning you, who you are, how to see the signs of the people that are truly there for you and the ones that are not. I feel like that's that decade of learning about yourself and the people around you. And as the decades then stack on, I'm in my 40s now. I feel like I've continued to learn that little by little. And oh, okay, well, you are one to have from far away, and we can stay acquaintances, but we can never get that friendship back because I know where you stand. So I feel like people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. And some people are like you needed to experience their relationship for a reason. They had there was a reason behind it. Some were there for lessons and seasons of your life, and then you'll find that eventually you're lifetime people that you're like, I can count on you for anytime. Anytime I call, you're gonna be there. So you get to know those people as you progress in life.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah, like go ahead. Like that person that we looked up to. I I used to think very highly of them. I respected them. We would text each other quite often when I needed help, but when that person just pretended not to know me because I was unemployed, it was heartbreaking. But I guess it teaches you to look through people. I agree. Some people just come in your life for a reason. And thankfully, I have much healthier two-way reciprocal mentors and amazing people in my life now.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

But it taught me, okay, are you genuine or are you just transactional here? Yeah. So I absolutely agree.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah, absolutely. And it's vital for us to go through those experiences so that we are able to decipher. Because if everyone around us is always cookie cutter perfect, right? Then we won't learn those differences and people that we won't pick up on those things. So as much as it feels not so great inside, they're kind of needed. And I think that's definitely unfortunate, but it's a part of us kind of learning.

Using Transferable Skills To Reenter

SPEAKER_02 13:49

So, how were you able to land interviews by demonstrating transferable skills?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yes. So I had spent months trying to apply to jobs on movie sets or TV sets or just video sets, but I just did not have the experience because again, the four-year gap. But then on a job portal, I saw that they were doing live events where I lived, and they needed production assistants to run around, set up furniture and like chairs, tables, those dividers that they put at movie theaters. But they needed somebody to do that and also check in and out people for radio equipment, like the walkie-talkie equipments. And so I started thinking to myself, wait, this is a lot like working on a set. A lot of the same skills. And so in my cover letter, I specified that yes, I went to school for film and TV, and I want this job specifically because if I can demonstrate recent skills in those skills, recent skills and those skills in setting up equipment, listening to a production team, packing in and out equipment, and being on my feet all the time, working long hours, then that could help me get back into film work or video work. And it worked. Also, it also helped that the hiring manager went to the same college as me. So use your alumni network if you can. But I talked to her on the phone that this is why I'm applying. This is not just a gig for me. This is my golden ticket, possibly my one chance to get back. And a day later, she said, Okay, you're hired. And it was brutal. I'm not gonna lie, like 12 hours a day on a it's not said it was an event. It was the Bloomberg City Lab in Washington, DC, where they had Pete Buttigieg, Tim, I think Bloomberg was there, either virtually or in person. I don't remember. Like when the people were actually talking, you weren't allowed in, so I don't remember, but they had a lot of politicians there, and I think Karen Bass was there too. So it was a high-end event hosted in DC. I think it was American University, but it was brutal because I also hadn't been doing physical labor for four years. It's like my old job was a cubicle, sit and type and print and go to meetings. But this was actual standing on your feet from I think it was I think it was like 10 a.m. to like midnight sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And I mean, we had a lot of downtime, but it was being on your feet, running around carrying like 50 pounds of furniture, yeah, walkie-talkies, chairs, tables, and my body just wasn't used to that anymore. And by day two, it was a three-day event for me. So day two, like my feet were super sore, my hands were trembling, it was hurting. And I also had like sore abs from walking and running around and standing so much. And I was also exhausted because it had been four years. Uh like I was 23 instead of an 18, 19 year old on a set. So your body ages a little bit too with that in facility gone.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

But I pushed through because I decided this is gonna be worth it, even though it hurts. You have to do that delayed gratification when trying to break your way back in. And I did it for three days and I got paid pretty well. And they just contacted me, I think, last month saying, Hey, I heard about you. Would you like to come back? But I'm like, I'm not in DC anymore, but I'd be happy to do this freelance stuff if you're in the area. And then what ended up happening was that once I had this one experience with those transferable skills, I was able to use those in interviews to show that yeah, I haven't been on a movie set in four years, but I demonstrate. Yeah, and I showcased those skills, a lot of those same skills that you need on a film or TV set or video sets.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

And where I currently work, I use that exact same strategy to end up finding my current job in video because to the hiring manager, they specifically asked, so can you talk to us about the Bloomberg experience? And we're like, Okay, this is working. Yeah. And so I talked about it and I explicitly said 12-hour days, transferable skills, all of that. And plus I have a degree in this in TV production, and it ended up working for me. So by pivoting, I was able to get back into the industry.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

That's awesome. And yeah, sometimes it's those little forks in the road, right? You could either continue to try to do the same thing over and over again. That's the definition of insanity, right? Is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Or you can pivot and say, okay, how can this work for me and have the effect that I want to get in the door a different way in order to then get back on track, basically. So I love that. That's perfect. And it's a skill that unfortunately not everyone thinks about doing about pivoting just, oh, but I want to be in retail and retail is all it is. But if you don't have the opportunity to get into that market, then work that the same type of skills, you know. And I just I have kids almost your age, so I can say that I tell them, all right, then go to work at fast food. It's still customer service, you're still serving a customer, and you could use those skills to then kind of like wait out that time period of not having anything and shift. And then when that door opens back up, you're able to then leave this, grab all the experience that you needed from this job and pivot. I have three kids, two of them are adults already. And I tell them this all the time. You're able to shift, it doesn't have to be the only way that your view doesn't have to be linear, it can have pivots in it.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

So yeah, I love that. On that note, I agree with the whole retail, those kind of jobs, because in the entertainment industry, I also know somebody who I talked to, and she used to work at a call center for two years or so. I think one or two years, but she was talking to me about how she used her experience in call centers, at call centers, to land a job as a receptionist at a mid-sized Hollywood studio.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

And from that, she was able to then land a job as an assistant to producers.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yeah, absolutely. Personally, I worked on from home for many years. And I went back into an office, into an industry that I was not familiar with. I went into healthcare, so completely different from travel or from health and fitness, which I did for a while. And so I was like, I know what my skills are. However, I'm going back into a field or I'm going into a field that I have zero clue about. I know that I'm really great at problem solving. I'm really great at looking for trends, I'm really great at all of these things. I negotiate, I can negotiate contracts like nobody's business. However, right now, I'm getting my foot in the door. So I started as a performance improvement specialist assistant. Right. So I just started as the assistant to this position. And anything that they threw at me, I was like, yep, anything that I had questions on, I was like the first to be like, wait a second, how does this work? Or wait a second, what are we looking for? And my boss, the one that I was assisting, ended up leaving the job and I applied for it. And they're like, but wait, you're the assistant. I'm like, but I've been doing it for months because she went on medical leave and then she was on PTO. And so then she left. I've been doing it. I have the skills, and I've been there in that position for a year and a half now, which they were not expecting for me to last that long. None of the ones before me lasted that long, but they They saw like how my my brain the way my brain works sometimes is awesome. And I can put together something that it doesn't have to be the same language, but if I can decipher what they're saying and translate it into something that that works for them in their system, then I don't really need to know all the ins and outs, right? I could just apply that knowledge in a different way. So I totally agree with you with just using your kind of getting your foot in the door in one way or the other. And then they see the value in you and it continue, and then you continue to kind of climb that

The Career Ladder Is Changing

SPEAKER_02 22:40

ladder.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Speaking of the ladder, I also feel like it's a very generational shift too, because I don't know how old your parents are were, but my parents are Gen X, and them and boomers were raised with that ladder mentality. If you just work for one company for 30 years, you go from this to that level to that level. But somebody was talking to me about how modern careers are really like a jungle gym. You go from like left to right, down, up, sideways, diagonal sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

It's yeah, absolutely so different now. My I mean, my my dad had his own business for many years, but my entire life he had his own business. So it was a little bit of a different mentality. However, we the way that I grew up, it was always like, yeah, you get your foot in the door to this job and you just keep climbing up that ladder. That's what I did in my travel industry career is climbed the ladder, right? I started not knowing anything, got proficient in what I learned and what I needed, and then climbed the ladder, moved from different companies at some point, but I still climbed that ladder. And then when you get that blow, your identity completely shifts, and you're like, who even am I? And you have, you know, there's a lot of work that you have to do inside and in your brain and kind of figure out who you are because you're not that person. You're not you're you as a person are not attached to that job. That's not the that's not all that makes you up. And so we have, but it's a shit. Oh, who what do you do? I I am a performance improvement specialist. No, there's so much more to me. And so sometimes we have to kind of flip that script in our brain. But yeah, I definitely it isn't. It is it's okay to go from one way going up and then sideways and then down and then go back up. It is a jungle gym. I completely agree. It's very, very good analogy. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, and I think it also gave me a healthier approach to this work because I was, I mean, I was doing some freelance writing in between in this gig with Bloomberg, but for 11 months I wasn't actively working, I was applying. And so it's like when you've been away from it from one year, rebuild yourself on a new identity and then go back to work. It's completely different. It's I always think about the movie Iron Man 3. I don't know if you've seen Iron Man Three. Oh, you've seen it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

So you remember when Tony he's all alone in the forest, like the suit's not working, and then he has to figure out does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

SPEAKER_03 25:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

That's kind of how you feel. That the job make the person, or did the person make the job? It's like you have to rebuild yourself without your resources, your identity, and then once you put it on, it's like a healthy relationship because even without the job, you are a whole person now because you had to live with that one for a whole year or however long it took.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good nice analogy there. I like it.

Saying Yes And Trusting Your Gut

SPEAKER_02 25:43

So, how did switching your career paths? And we kind of talked about this, you it landed you back to the work that you love. So, what has sparked in you since then?

SPEAKER_00 25:55

I just feel the most alive I've felt in years because not just before the whole employment search began, because the universe kind of made me, but with the four-year gap preceding that, I just wanted to work on sets again. I was so excited to work on sets again. And I remember my when I first stepped on a set for the first time in four years, once I was done meeting with people involved, I drove back home and I started crying on the drive back because I was like, I've wanted this for so long. And then that excitement showed me that okay, pivoting can work sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

And what ended up happening was it was December 30th, no, it was December 29th, 2024. So New Year's Eve Eve. If I got the date wrong, it's the same day that Jimmy Carter passed away. I found out during this filming that I'm gonna talk about. But there was an event downtown in Orlando, which apparently we both live miles from each other.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Literally five minutes away. So crazy.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

In Orlando, yeah. But I saw an event on meetup.com saying, hey, we're doing a workshop for anybody who wants to come and learn camera work. And again, it was almost New Year's, so I'm like, uh, I don't know if I want to. But then I had this feeling that okay, maybe I want to. And that's another thing that I learned is that sometimes if you have that gut feeling telling you to try something, then just try it. What could possibly go wrong? So I went there, and so we're learning how to film, they had a model there. So we're like filming and learning how to use camera equipment, like tripods, lighting gear, all of that. And I met this guy there named Matthew, and I ended up networking with him. We became Facebook friends, I think, and Instagram friends. And then about five months later, I see in a Facebook group that I was in for filmmakers that he's working on his debut film.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

And so I contacted him saying, Hey, uh, you may remember me. We did we were at the workshop five months ago. I'm really interested. I'm trying to get back into films. And he remembered me from that thing that I almost said no to five months ago.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

And so he brought me onto his film, and that was my first film project in five years.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

And then he referred me to another film that his friend was working on. And then because of that, I was able to get hired on a film that was being made for Film 48, which is a competition where you have 48 hours after getting the prompt and the line and the genres to make a film.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Wow. Okay. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

And then after that happened, I just kept getting more film work here in Florida. But then the big breakthrough happened in October 2025 when there was a movie called Mortal Sin. Um that was looking for casting crew members here. And it's a it's about very mature subject matter. I don't know if I can say it on the podcast, but because of that, I almost said no to that because I was like, I don't know. This is very, I mean, I think it's relevant, but it's very mature. But I listened to my gut and just ended up applying. And what ended up happening was that they're lovely people to work with. And I ended up working with a lot of them on their films, and they invited me to a filmmaker's community that they're in. And I kind of became absorbed in and got referred to onto their movies, and it was just really cool.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

And we at a festival called OIF. OIF is a an organization of independent filmmakers. They host festivals and competitions. This film I almost said no to, One Best Picture.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

And around that time, there was another film called What Happened. I almost said no to that too. But then I said yes to that. And turns out that the Mortal Sin crew and the What Happened crew, they a lot of them know each other.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

So if I said no to one of them and then I was mingling with them, that would have been so awkward.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

And so all of us are working on each other's movies, and there's a second film called Where the Light Stays. And it was filming like 10 minutes from my house, too. So they're looking for PA's production assistants, and I almost didn't apply to that either because I was tired after working on so many films. But I was like, you know what, this is 10 minutes from my house. I can do a day. And so I applied in that one best picture, too.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

And so it's really just a lesson to me and hopefully to a lot of people that sometimes, even if you have that hesitancy, that reluctance, if a part of you is telling you to just be able to shot, see what happens, then more often than not we regret the chances we didn't take rather than the ones we did take. Because I know for sure that if I had said no to either Mortal Sin, where the light stays, or what happened, I would have beat myself up for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Because two of them won Best Picture. And without them, I wouldn't have been able to work on 11 films within the past year.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

That's amazing. That's amazing. And I think that's a testament to seeing how number one, always trust your instinct. Your first immediate instinct should always be the one that you kind of like lean towards because that because I say that whatever you pray to, to God, the universe, whatever, right? You always pray up to it, but we forget to listen. And when we listen to that instinct, that gut instinct, that intuition, it's those answered prayers. And I think that's really, really important to I always grab my gut, right? Because I just it just there's something that tells you this is the way to go. And so it shows us how like these situations, if you wouldn't have gone through the things that you went through, it you wouldn't be in the opportunities that you are that you've been given today. And so I think that that's super important to to see life happening for you and not to you. And in the moment it feels, God, why does this always happen to me? And instead, we have to kind of shift, okay, what is happening currently that I could find purpose and meaning to where whatever it's gonna take me to.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

I agree, and sometimes it works the opposite way too, where I was hired onto a film, but the more I read the script, I had that gut feeling like this is not the film for me. Yeah, and so I professionally and courteously told a producer that, hey, this is I don't think this is for me, I'm gonna drop out. But if you need me to refer somebody to replace me, just let me know I know a lot of people. And they had a s they had a screening for a lot of the films that I worked on, and the screening also included that film that I left, and I'm watching it and I'm like, oh thank God. And then my dad looked at me and said, Yeah, that was a good choice.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Yeah, that was a good call. Good call. Yeah, so it's I think that yes, absolutely. What one way or the other, I think we should always listen to our gut. And that I think is one of the most important things.

Limiting Beliefs To Unlearn

SPEAKER_02 33:09

So I feel like what limiting beliefs or roadblocks did you have to overcome to get to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 33:19

I just think that when we are growing up, we are raised with a very tunnel vision mindset of what success looks like, what a career path is supposed to look like. Like when I was at my previous job, I was taught that, oh, you're an assistant, then you become a coordinator, then you become a junior producer, then you become a senior producer, and then you become a supervising producer, and then you become an executive producer, and then you become a showrunner. But the past three or so years have really taught me that that's one path, but that's not the only path. It's so much more flexible than that. And so I had to unlearn that linearity that I was raised on. And the second one is just be more intuitive of the people around you. Like I said, I thought I had a network, but when I needed them, poof. And so I'm like, well, I guess you're not worth keeping around. I hate to say it, but it's like, I'm supposed to lean on you when I need help, but when I needed help, you weren't there. So what's even the point?

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

And the third is just learn to read people again, because I this still haunts me. Where at my previous job, I'm not gonna say who, but there was somebody very there was somebody I higher up who said to me, Oh, but we need we still need you until March. Just kidding. And I also had I had also told one of them that my birthday was coming up, and they said to me, When I was your age, I was fired. And then a month later I was let go. So double speak that I just did not understand. Because when you're fresh, you take things very literally. You don't know how to read people what they're saying. I think what they're saying was we're thinking of letting you go because of budget and consolidation. But I took it completely at face value because I was 22, 23.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Because why would people actually do that? Goodness. So yeah, I definitely understand that.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

And the fourth one is just listening to your gut. For me, more often than not, it's just been listening to that instinct that you should take on this project. Because if there's a part of you that's saying yes, then most likely it's because your subconscious is identifying something, it's seeing something that mentally you can't see because you're so rigid and linear about it. And also as humans, we fear uncertainty. And if I listened to my guts, then if I hadn't listened to my guts, then none of this film work, these 11 films, would have ever transpired. Because a lot of it came from just knowing one person, working with them, then they referred me, and here I am 11 movies later, and they're still referring to me to a TV show that they're gonna film, and then I'm trying to get my own stuff made. And because I worked with a lot of them over 11 films, they're happy to help me, and I hope that we're able to get this thing made. So a lot of the time, just listen to your gut, you never know what listening to your instincts to say yes or no can lead to.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Yeah, absolutely.

Delayed Gratification And Gratitude

SPEAKER_02 36:20

So, kind of to to close this off, what daily habits or rituals have helped you reach the level of success where you are now?

SPEAKER_00 36:29

I think there are two concepts. The first is delayed gratification. So I'm not gonna sh lie, but there have been some movie sets where no matter how much I love the premise, they're still grueling hours. I've been on sets where we're filming until 4 p until 4 a.m. And sometimes it's like you work like 12 hours and you go to sleep for like five hours and you're back on sets. And it's grueling. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that. That is the industry. But I still showed up. I know a few people who left because they just didn't or couldn't do it, and that's their decision. But I listened that okay, I just need to push through and it'll be worth it. So a lot of the time when I'm exhausted and working on something, it's like delayed gratification. Okay, this will pay off. It's gonna lead to something you're almost there. And that's not to say that you burn yourself out endlessly. There are times where I've recognized that I need to step away because I need rest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Like yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah, like just yesterday, I was working on a script for an episode, and it might come out uh by the time this comes out. I was trying to get it done today, but I was way too bone-tired, exhausted. And I'm not saving the world. I'm releasing a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

And so I I pushed it back a few days to just let myself rest. Because what's the point of burning out if you can't show up?

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Yeah, absolutely at full energy.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

And then the second thing that I've learned is just gratitude.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

I like especially after you've lost your identity, you've been in isolation for a year, it really teaches you once those people, better people show up, better opportunities show up. You remember where you were when you didn't have any of that. And I think that makes you grateful.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

And stronger too, and more open-minded too. And I recognize that I didn't have this, but now I do. So anytime I'm having a bad day or having challenges with a project, or mentally, I'm not I'm 90%, but not a hundred percent. I remember you could be right back to where you started, or it could be here.

SPEAKER_03 38:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

So going through ups and downs, but you have this, just be grateful for it because this is amazing what you have now. So a lot of it just comes down to just counting your blessings.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Yeah, I I definitely agree. I have to say that I wouldn't be able to appreciate the life that I have now, the relationships that I have now, everything that I have now, if I did not go through the periods that were dark and they were tough, and they were lonely, and they were I couldn't appreciate it in the same way. So yeah, I think that definitely shows that kind of just shows all of the how beautiful it is to go from one one dark place and see the light and then be so super appreciative of that light because you know what that dark is.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Yeah, I remember three years ago when that happened. It was dark, it was terrifying, legit, terrifying. And I didn't know if I'd ever be able to work again. And when you're in a place like that, your mind just keeps running in circles, it keeps ruminating over the worst case. Uh, what if I never find work again? What if I'm what if I'm done? And luckily I had some very patient and loving people in my life who helped me navigate that, and in a lot of ways, they helped pulled me out of it. Even the people that I've worked with on films and video sets and podcasts since then, I wouldn't be where I am without them. And they definitely, through love and support and understanding and opportunities, they in a lot of ways pulled me out of that darkness that was just there for a year just hanging every hour. Because that's the thing, too. Once you're in the darkness, I don't know if it's PTSD or whatever, but it took a solid year for my mind to remember and realize that you're not there anymore.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

And it took a lot of continuous repetitive reinforcement from people around me to pull me out of, get that out of my head, even though physically I was better. But mentally, that took a lot of patience and love and support from the people because people don't talk about that limital space where you're not there anymore, but you're also not here anymore.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Yeah, absolutely.

Where To Find Vedant

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Well, thank you so much. This has been amazing. I loved the life lessons in it. It was just it. I think that so many people need that message now. So please tell our listeners where they can find you so that I could also put all of that in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yes, so I have a podcast called Let's Talk Media with Vedanta Kari on their I talk about film and TV shows. Not just that, but film, TV, video games, journalism, basically all of the issues and trends within the entertainment and media landscape. I've been doing that for six years. And 170 plus episodes. And I talked to a lot of really cool people on there. Like I've talked to somebody who was the head writer for Tales from the Crypt on HBO. I've interviewed, I've interviewed the voice of Angelica from Rugrats. But a lot of it is just people who are experts or just fans of stuff in their industry. And I have a lot of exciting guests on there. So if you want to learn about what goes into your favorite TV shows, films, whatever, or you just want to work learn what it takes to make it, any advice to people like yourself, or if you just want to listen to a lot of people talking about pop culture, film, TV, the industry, then definitely consider checking that out. And if you want to come on, just let me know. And then they also we also have an Instagram for that, Let's Talk Media V A, Vedanta Kari. And I'm also on YouTube. My channel is just called Vedanta Akari. I am trying to post content on there more. I'm trying to revive that. Because again, the three-year stretch kind of took me away from YouTube, and I'm trying to bring that back. And I'm also on LinkedIn. You can just find me at Vedantakari. And yeah, I'm trying to get a film, I'm trying to get a film made. So by the time you listen to it, if that's out, just look me up on IMDb. It might be there. We'll just have to see. But yeah, you can find me on the internet anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Awesome. So yeah, I'll put I'll link everything in the show notes. But uh, thank you so much, Vedant. I really appreciate all of the just the insights and everything. It's been amazing. So, listeners, I hope you got as much from this conversation today as I did. Thank you for tuning in. As always, peace out, guys. Love your life.