Lead with Kindness

In our season finale, Melinda is joined by CAA agent Ann Blanchard and First Nations actress Rachel Colwell to discuss the personal benefits of service to others as well as how service is incredibly additive to the health and business of a workplace team. Additionally, they discuss the causes that are meaningful to them, and share how they mentor others in their communities.  Transcript: http...

This week, Melinda is joined by script supervisor DJ Barton and stunt coordinator Rorelee Tio to discuss the importance of safety as an element of collaborating with kindness. They discuss incidents where safety was not a priority and how those situations harmed the filming crew and overall production. Additionally, Melinda shares the strategies of the Sarah Jones Film Foundation in fostering set...

This week, Melinda is joined by Liz Hsiao Lan Alper, who co-founded Pay Up Hollywood to advocate for fair wages for Hollywood assistants, and executive coach Birgit Zacher Hanson, leader of Heads Up Performance. They share insights on how to hold people accountable in the workplace and how to manage commitments by using the tool of “Who will do what by when?” Additionally, they discuss the ab...

This week, Melinda speaks with writer-producers Erika Harrison and Alex Taub, who share their experiences in finding work-life integration while being in charge of the creative and personnel management of writers' rooms. We also discuss raising kids as TV writers and how it can improve profitability to intentionally foster a culture where work-life balance is prioritized. Transcript: https://...

This week, Melinda is joined by Akima Brown, founder of Reel Families For Change, and writer-producer Bradley Marques to talk about developing a culture of kindness in Hollywood and how we can pivot away from aggression. We discuss some doable and effective action items to help listeners address bullying behavior in dysfunctional and toxic work cultures that they may find themselves in. Trans...

Our focus in this week's episode is calm and how maintaining calm in high-pressure situations can lead to great success. I'm joined by Director Andi Behring and Post Supervisor Jonathan Brody who share some of the ways they keep calm when a situation becomes demanding, as well as how some of their past negative experiences informed the way they would act now that they find themselves in leadership...

Noga Landau and Cameron Johnson (co-creators and showrunners of NANCY DREW and TOM SWIFT) join Melinda this week to talk about how toxic work cultures in their past experiences forged their determination to foster humane, healthy and respectful environments on their own shows – which paid off in highly motivated creative collaborators who achieved terrific results. Episode Transcript: https://www....

This week, Melinda is joined by showrunner Andrea Thornton Bolden and writer Malek Mouzon to discuss how to acknowledge and address dysfunctions ranging from quiet microagressions to overtly hostile behavior in the workplace. The good news is that it’s possible to re-establish trust, and to embrace vulnerability as a bridge to community and improved performance. Episode Transcript: https://www.dro...

This week, we speak with Kennedy McMann and Tian Richards, who played Nancy Drew and Tom Swift respectively on their CW shows. They give us the secrets of how to raise performance levels by creating a kind, inclusive and nurturing environment while being number one on the call sheet. Episode Transcript: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vdt2gzawixsu0sahc1doo/LWK_Ep2_Transcript.pdf?rlkey=mhpi4vh9l759y...

In our first episode, Melinda speaks with director Ruben Garcia and line producer Kristin Killey, who both came up through the ranks of the AD department on set. They share cautionary tales and tell us how they turned their experiences around with inclusion and intention when they built their highly effective teams on Tom Swift and Nancy Drew. Episode Transcription: https://www.dropbox.com/sc...

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