Meet Rachel: Writer

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chatted with Rachel Brethauer, Copywriter, Magical Unicorn and aspiring TV writer.

Besides giving us a peek behind the curtain of TV writing, Rachel also hit on some pretty important themes in our conversation with her. They included:

• The bonuses of partnerships and connections
• Seeing it as "making friends" and "finding your people" instead of "networking"
• How success doesn't look at all what you think it will
• Learning to accept what isn't in your control: often, the outcome of your work
• Chasing your dreams from a early age so you can learn, and readjust as you go

Resources

Copywriting and Advertising at Humber College

Radio and Television Arts (RTA) at Toronto Metropolitan University

Searle Creative Group

Transcript

Welcome to The One About Careers with Devon and Sarah-Jane. A career podcast for
adults involved with teens navigating life after high school. We help you help your
teens make informed education and career decisions by providing quality information and
resources. Join us for weekly, bite -sized conversations covering various aspects of
careers, including insights from professionals in different fields. New episodes
available every week at theoneaboutcareers .com.
Welcome to the One About Careers. So we're in a series where we're interviewing real
people, not robots, who have real jobs and we're finding out a little bit about
what they do. Devon, who do we have today? - Today we are talking to Rachel
Brethauer, who is currently Senior Copywriter and Content Strategist at Searle Creative Group. She's also a screenwriter. And someone I've known for a very long time. Welcome, Rachel, to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be
here. Excellent. So I'm going to sort of throw a little bit of something on that
introduction, Devon, because what I have in my notes is that her actual job title
was "Magical Unicorn." (laughing) So I'm kind of curious about either the senior
copywriter and content strategist or the magical unicorn. What the heck is that? - I
really don't know. (laughing) - Okay, well, I'll start with the senior copywriter
'cause it's easiest and then talk about the magical unicorn,
which is what I love. So I've been for god 20 years now basically,
which I can't believe, a copywriter for mainly digital and direct marketing,
which is basically writing for the internet and trying to sell people things.
So I started out in Toronto, I'm a Canadian, and I now live in the United States.
And I went to copywriting school, like many,
I've noticed, I listened to a bunch of your episodes and I noticed that many of
your guests have did the college thing after university, and I did the same thing.
Despite having gone to a very hands -on university program,
I went to a formerly Ryerson University in the Radio and Television Arts program and
graduated the immediate spring after 9 /11.
So wanting to work in television in Toronto wasn't really a thing because all of
the productions had pulled themselves back to the United States and there wasn't a
lot of jobs and TV at the time. I did a few months at the CBC but that was a
lot of contract work and you know I needed money. And so I decided to go to
Writers copywriting program and work in advertising because I was like, "Hey, I'm a
writer.
It's a way to get benefits and money and stuff." So I did that and was recruited
to work at McLaren McCann in my second semester.
It was a three semester program at the time and worked there for a few years,
worked at a couple other agencies, and yeah,
just have been doing the marketing writing thing since then. Magical unicorn is,
I am one of those people who,
if something, if there's something I don't know, it will bother me until I figure
it out. So, like, and I'm always like a helper, I like to pick up the slack where
it's possible. So I mean, generalist is kind of, you know,
the more HR term about it, but magical unicorn is more fun. So, like, I know a
lot, a little bit about a lot of things, which I think is also part of being just
a writer in general and using your curiosity to lead you places.
So in previous roles that I've had that haven't been specifically just writing, I've
been like a marketing content manager.
I've done like IT communications and community outreach.
And it's been lots of different things. So, my last few roles, like this role that
I'm in right now, because I work at a small agency, there's 15 of us total,
so there are a lot of opportunities to wear different hats. So, I don't just focus
on copywriting and content strategy, I also will look into analytics of how our
social media is doing and stuff like that. What and what happens for you on sort
of the screenwriting side of things?
All screenwriting is that's a whole can of worms. Screenwriting is the reason I
moved to Los Angeles obviously to chase the big dream of Hollywood fame and fortune
and it is hard down here. I wouldn't dissuade,
I mean, I would dissuade people. Like, if you think that you're not sure about it,
maybe like try, especially with the internet, and especially like in our like post
COVID world, I mean, we're not, but whatever. It is easier to break in to the
industry from further away. I still want to be a TV writer and still working
towards that, and to work in television, you have to basically be in LA or very
close by. So because you need to be in a writer's room with other people, there
are rooms that are Zoom -based, but it's mostly in person. And it's All comes from
like, I've always been obsessed with TV and movies and telling stories.
And I think, like, I decided to move here to, I got my master's degree in writing
and producing for television, because that was the best way I could figure to get
into the country legally. And so I did that in 2011 and I came here and it's so
much about networking and building this like network. A group of people,
like I tend to think of it as like making friends because networking sounds so
gross. And it's just like finding your people to go through this crazy industry with
and like once one or two of you break, they will start bringing the opportunities
into the like central group, which is what I love. And if you,
it happens less so in like the feature side, but in TV, you could definitely kind
of see it.
And yeah, so I'm still working towards that doing other like,
there's so many weird and random things that artists do to like, past the time
before you like make it big, you know when you become an overnight success after
like 15 years and you know, it's just like writing lots of stuff and The thing a
lot of people I find don't realize about screenwriting because why why would they?
You can have a very successful career as a screenwriter without Ever having anything
made. It's so weird or have like one movie that gets made Because what the studios
will do is they will hire people to write scripts and for whatever reason the
scripts don't get made and you will you get paid to write the scripts and develop
the scripts, but a lot of the times They just don't see the light of day for
whatever reason like The deal will fall apart or new,
it's studios in Hollywood, it's one of my least favorite things is like, it can be
very Hollywood, I mean, high school feeling. So like, or also even like toddlers
sometimes, like a new like head of the studio will come in and instantly they have
to, they feel the need to kill all all of the previous projects from the last
regime. And you're like, okay, why, but all right. And like,
so you can just lose a project because the new guy doesn't want it. And it's a
very weird environment that way. And so you have to like try and focus on just
like doing your best and like kind of letting go of you know wanting to see it's
so weird like you write this thing that can't really exist on its own and you want
it to you know eventually make it to the screen and you know we all dream of like
awards and whatever but um it's I think you really have to just focus on like
telling a story and that kind of being enough which is weird. Um, but yeah,
screenwriting. Rachel, I think that's like, um,
like such an important piece of information, uh, and just feeds into Dev and I have
a strong belief in talking to other people actually doing the work. Um, because
it's, it's those pieces that I'm not sure people actually understand you know and
those are the things that help people succeed or don't succeed in an industry or
understand like how am I gonna survive and I've heard you say you know there's
there's some work that you do that pays the bills and you're continuing to write
all the time and you're getting in groups and I remember my son my son's in film
and at his graduation the speaker,
whatever, said that in this industry, when your friends work, you work.
Absolutely.
Hmm, interesting. So it becomes very much like, and it's kind of like,
I think in the career world, right, Devon? You go where the money is. And sometimes
you do bring your friends along because you're like, here's this contract and there's
this thing to do. So it was fascinating to me that that's a that's a thing.
It's like, whoa, you better pick the right people.
And, and
yeah, understanding that piece and what you just said about letting go of the end
product. Like, wow, there's all these things being written that aren't actually
reduced also, but you're still getting paid. It's like, wow,
okay. Yeah, if you're lucky, you're getting paid. I mean, there is still even
outside of that, like, of the like being in the studio system and getting contracted
to write stuff like that, even getting to that point is really difficult. And
that's, you know, with like the writer's guild and all of that. There are a lot of
non -union things as well that get made and written.
And then I think it was,
I can't remember who it was. Ivan Reitman maybe. Someone said that being a writer
is like having homework every night for the rest of your life. And it's so true.
And sometimes it's the worst, because you're like,
I want to relax. And then like, your story brain is still going and being like,
no, you have to work on this.
And like, you just have to keep churning out new stuff.
But I find that that's where being a creative person and curious about the world
around you is kind of key. I mean, I think it's key to being a human and like
growing, but I mean, not everybody cares about that.
So I think just keeping that curiosity about the world also helps you keep like
your work fresh and like making it feel like less of a slog. 'Cause like, sure,
you might love telling stories, but It doesn't always lend itself to,
my brain just stopped. The genre that you're, or the medium that you're using. Yeah.
So knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself as a teenager?
I think maybe like
Go for your dreams Earlier because then if you hate it You've lost less time like
Not that I not that like I moved here to start like seriously pursuing Screenwriting
when I was 30 So like that's not even old it felt old,
but the things you learn as you get past it, just go for it.
It's scary, and your parents are going to think you're insane, but if you're lucky,
they'll also help support you, like mine did.
But yeah, just go for it.
Feel the fear and do it Um, which is still a thing I need to tell myself every
day. Um, but yeah, probably just go for it.
I love that. I keep seeing a meme pop up in different social media feeds that says
some variation of once you figure out you're on the wrong train, get off. It
doesn't matter how far you've gone, get off because the whole point is to get off
as soon as possible. So if you keep going on the wrong train, you're just going to
be further away from where you need to be. I feel like that aligns really, really
well with what you're saying. Like, yeah, you know what? Go for it. If you figure
out by the time you're 23, it's not for you. You're doing only 23. Yeah, you have
so much time. Yeah, right? Yeah, I love it. Absolutely. And there's also so much,
like, there are so many things out in the world that like, and I know, Devon,
you've talked about this in some of your like, posts and emails and stuff like
there's so much so many jobs in the world especially thanks to technology that you
never learn about in school like you still get like five jobs and you're like okay
I don't I like science but I don't want to do any of those five things what am I
gonna do you know and there's so many things out there and I think that we need
to show people that there is that wide array of stuff that's available to them.
And you can make up your own job now, which I love to. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks so
much, Rachel. You've touched on a number of things that Devon and I are passionate
about. And that's why we do this series about interviewing real people with real
jobs,
especially because also the assessments that are being used to provide information to
people about making career choices actually haven't necessarily been updated with the
jobs that currently exist right because we know every year like thousands of jobs
disappear and a whole new like jobs come into play, you know, when,
when, when I started out, you know, there was no
Like seriously, you know, and now I can't tell you how many people are being paid
to make content for social media. It's giant. Oh, it's crazy.
So thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. And next episode
of the one about careers is going to focus on the golden nuggets from all of
these. so stay tuned for the next episode of The One About Careers.
Thanks for listening to the One About Careers podcast. You can catch up with past
episodes at theoneaboutcareers .com. Join us next week for another bite -sized
conversation.