THE BLOG

Mike L. Murphy: Leaving Hollywood and The Corporate World

mike l. murphy Jul 20, 2019

Hey, Mike L. Murphy here!

Ever since I was a kid I wanted to work in Hollywood.

By the time I was 21 I was working on blockbuster movies, and making more money than my dad who was the Vice President of a major corporation.

While I loved working in Hollywood (and living like a king all over the world), I felt I had no control…

You see, after 15 years I had worked my way to the top of the production pyramid.  I was directing commercials, supervising on the world’s biggest movies and winning awards for my short films.  My next step was to direct big movies.

However, I looked around at my buddies who were doing that...and they were miserable!

They were controlled by the studios and felt like a corporate monkey, instead of a creative Visionary.

To make matters worse, working on production means 12 hour days, 6 days a week (factor in traffic and you’re effectively putting in 84 hour weeks).  

I wanted to have a family, and it sure wasn’t going to happen if: 

  1. A) I had no time to meet a lovely woman to marry. 
  2. B) I had no time to see my wife or kids.

This led me to have a grand Vision of what I wanted out of life...and my career at the time wasn’t going to help me achieve it.

During this time I was trying to figure out how to save on my taxes, and I signed up for an email marketing list of a tax guru.  Randomly he was promoting Jeff Walker’s ‘Product Launch Formula’. This course opened my eyes that an online business was a real thing.

I took Jeff’s advice and started publicly speaking.  

This led me to landing a big client who wanted me to move to Malaysia and teach filmmaking at their university.  I had to decline (way too humid in Southeast Asia).  

But because I had become aware of using online learning to automate the teaching experience, and then structuring in review calls to free up my time; I was able to propose that I record lecture videos and develop a system were students submit work and then I review it via video, then answer questions on short bi-weekly live calls.

This strategy helped me earn more than I was making working in Hollywood (while working less than 1 day a month), and I was now able to live anywhere (hello Europe!).

Around this time I joined a Mastermind and showed everyone the system I’d worked out…

7 entrepreneurs wanted me to help them build their online business in the same way.  

This led to me being a business coach!  

In my heart I’m a filmmaker (which I’m now finally getting back to), but I had truly struggled to learn the ‘art of business’ and how to ‘get online’ that I felt morally responsible to help others start all this up the right way.

I’ll be honest with you…

Starting up a business is always a risk.  

However when you have a proven system to work off of, and a community of like-minded people who are all on the same journey, it makes your odds of success as strategic as possible.

And if I could do it, I know you can too!  

 

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