Alan and Heidi: Letting Passion Lead the Way

[00:00:03] Welcome to a new season of Formative, the podcast where today's leaders are interviewed by the leaders of tomorrow. Today, our guest is Alan Lewis, head of Global Corporate Communications at Take Two Interactive. For more than 30 years, Alan has worked in the interactive entertainment industry, shaping the stories told about some of the biggest brands. Alan talks to us about turning a passion for writing into a career.

[00:00:30] He also shares his advice on seeking out mentors and continuing to learn throughout your career. Hello and welcome. My name is Rachel Gazdick and I'm your host and CEO of New York Edge. On every episode of Formative, a student from our afterschool program joins me as co-host. And today that's Heidi from IS122Q. Heidi, can you tell our audience a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:57] Okay, well I'm a middle schooler in eighth grade, gonna graduate this year. I want to become a writer and an ELA teacher when I grow up. That's really amazing. I really see those two careers as really going together. Okay, so are we ready to go speak to our guest today? All right. That sounds good. All right, let's do it then.

[00:01:23] I just wanted to start off by saying good afternoon. And my first question is, I want to know more about your job. Like what are some skills that it takes to be good at communications? Thanks for having me today. Glad to take some time and chat with you.

[00:01:39] So I've been a quote unquote communications practitioner for over 30 years. What that means is I've worked in the field of public relations. My role, my job throughout my career has been to take information about a company and or its products and services and feed that information in a narrative story driven fact based way to media outlets.

[00:02:07] To encourage them to encourage them to encourage them to do stories. So how do you communicate? Well, a lot of it is writing, being a strong writer, both in things like a press release that you write up information and you send it out to the media or emails that you're writing to reporters or producers to give them information to set up introductions.

[00:02:29] I was an English major in college. I was an English major in college. I'm a very strong writer. Writing is a huge part of my job on a daily basis in some form or another. Being a strong writer and a communicator is essential in this field. Would you say that you've always been a good writer or did you take some time to like get better at it?

[00:02:48] I'll say this. I have always had a passion for writing. Even when I was in elementary school, my favorite subjects were English and history and largely because I liked writing essays. I liked writing papers that gave my interpretation or thoughts on a historical event or a literary analysis.

[00:03:06] My writing definitely grew and improved over time through middle school. I think middle school was really a huge inflection point because to me, between seventh and ninth grade, those were the years where we really started to read a lot of classic literature and do literary analysis.

[00:03:25] And that continued in high school as well. And then certainly on to college. The longer I stayed in it and certainly in majoring in English, there were greater demands and needs for writing. And there's a big difference between creative writing and writing for business. But I do think that so many of the skills that I've learned over the years and honed have all played an important role.

[00:03:51] And the thing with writing is that it's like using a muscle and that the more you use it, the stronger it gets and the better you get at it. And you learn to develop your writing voice. I agree with that, honestly. Do you ever think of having different career paths? I did. So growing up, initially there were two things I wanted to be. I either wanted to be a rock star, professional baseball player and play for the Yankees. And I'm sitting here.

[00:04:17] So I didn't get to do either of those things, but they're still good hobbies. But professionally, when I was in college, I thought I might teach English on a college level. And then I also thought about going into advertising and writing ad copy. And my career trajectory, I just sort of fell into public relations. I was doing a lot of PR and promotional work for my bands when I was in high school and college.

[00:04:41] So I sort of already was starting to develop those skills. I feel like careers are a funny thing in that you need to have an open mind and it's good to try certain things, especially when you're young. You can afford to take risks as you get older, depending upon what kind of life you want to have. If you have a family that's dependent upon you or if you want to travel a lot, all of those things. You have to think about what is it you want to do over the long term that will make you happy.

[00:05:11] I meet with students a lot, such as yourself. We host a lot of student groups here at our company. And I talk about the difference between a job and a career. So a job is something that the alarm clock goes off in the morning. You get up and you make rumble. You get out of bed and you go do your job. And you do that because you have to pay your rent. You need food. You're maybe taking care of people. You want to buy clothing. You want to go to the movies, have fun, whatever it is. You need some form of money. That's a job, a career.

[00:05:41] You're getting up for all the same reasons, but maybe you're doing it with a smile on your face. You're excited to go to the job that you're going to. And you really love the work you're doing. And it doesn't feel like a job. And the advice I have for people who are young and thinking about what kind of careers they want. First, you have to be really honest with yourself and think about what is it that you're good at? What are some of the things that come easy to you or you're passionate about?

[00:06:08] And it could be you like doing math and you want to be an accountant or you like the notion of medicine. Maybe you want to be a doctor or you want to work in IT and computers and help people make sure that their computers work properly so we can do a Zoom interview like this. So the first thing is really being honest with yourself and figuring out what you're good at. If it's a field that you're passionate about, does it require any kind of specific training or certifications and things like that?

[00:06:38] What's the pathway that you need to go to to achieve your goal? And then the last piece is taking what you're good at and marrying it with what you're passionate about. So, for example, if you're really good at accounting and you love video games, well, outside my office, we have a bunch of accountants here that work at our company. We have human resources. We have IT people. They work for a video game company.

[00:07:03] None of them design the games, but they're all part of the team that helps make the process possible. And I've been in the video game industry for over 30 years. I've never designed a game. I've never written a line of code. I've been a hidden character in a few games, which was fun. But it just shows you that you can take what you're good at. If you're lucky, you can take what you're good at and you can combine it with something you really like. So did anyone inspire you to do this?

[00:07:33] Yeah. I mean, once I knew I wasn't going to be a baseball player or a rock star, I had an uncle that I was very close with that was in marketing and advertising. And he would come to New York. He lived in Chicago and in Memphis. And he would come to New York a lot for television commercial shoots and photo shoots for print ads. And he would have storyboards and all these things.

[00:07:58] I thought it was really interesting, this combination of business and creativity. And I thought if I was going to get a quote unquote real job, I would want to do something that was creative and business oriented where I would continue to learn and grow. And he was very much a mentor to me. And I learned a lot about it. And then, of course, once I started working out of college, a lot of my colleagues and or former bosses, I learned a lot from working with them.

[00:08:28] Even before that, I had some amazing high school English teachers and college professors that were also inspiring that I learned a lot from. And I would encourage you, if you have teachers that are inspiring you to potentially go down a path, talk to them and find out what was their career path. How did they get to where they are now? What certifications did they need? What schooling? If it's something you really want to pursue and you're passionate about it, how do you get from here to there?

[00:08:57] And I'm sure talking with them about it will give you some information and insights on how to do that. Have you ever asked anybody for help and they've denied it? I've never met a person who I asked a question as it pertained to what can I do to learn more, work harder, be better, that wasn't willing to give an answer or spend time.

[00:09:23] Because I think they all knew that investing in me and me in turn investing in myself would make me better at whatever I was doing. So it would make me a better student, a better employee. It was going to be a win-win situation. So I think people who ask questions and they want that feedback and they seek mentors, they really want to keep learning and improving. It shows a sign of maturity.

[00:09:51] But what it also shows is a sign of I want to do my best work and ultimately I'm going to be able to give that back. Whether that's to this company or this class or whatever it might be. And hard work alone doesn't do it. That drive to continue to learn and work hard and to continue to grow and evolve, that's what we all call a work ethic. That's the drive that not everybody has.

[00:10:20] So when you see that in somebody else and you nurture it, you know great things are going to happen. I would like to know some of your careers, highs and lows that you've had throughout your time working there. Sure. So I think throughout my career, number one, I've been very fortunate to work with some great people. And nobody has a career working by themselves.

[00:10:46] You're working with people who are passionate and hardworking. They bring out the best in you and hopefully you bring out the best in them to generate results. Some of the highs of my career, I've been involved in launching some of the biggest video games of all time. It's exciting to put something out into the world and have it have immense success and see the cultural impact it can be.

[00:11:10] It's exciting making news when I've worked with reporters and the result is I can wake up the next day and open up a newspaper and there it is on the front page or in the business section. That's exciting. And some of the lows, I think, are, you know, I've worked for companies that there have been various times where maybe products weren't a success.

[00:11:32] Or, you know, in 2008, the economy was in a very tough place and companies were having layoffs and consumers were having a hard time. And so those are just a few. What advice would you give someone trying to get into this field from all this experience that you've had? What would you tell them?

[00:11:55] I think my advice for anybody trying to get not just into my field, but any field is, number one, what's the end goal, right? So what is the career path? It's not just identifying the entry level job, but then it's the, well, what are the growth opportunities? Five years, 10 years, 15 years in this field. Are there specific technical certifications being fluent in certain software applications that are essential for that job?

[00:12:23] What kind of education do you need? Do you need a two-year degree, a four-year college degree? Do you need graduate school? What kind of hands-on practical experience can you get to try out that job? So internship programs, I think, for some fields are so important because, you know, you may think, I want to be a lawyer.

[00:12:47] And then if you intern at a law firm over the summer, you may realize, maybe I don't want to do this. Part of knowing what you want in life is also knowing what you don't want. And I think also in terms of having a career, getting a taste of those fields and talking and interacting with the people that work in those fields and really picking their brain and asking them, like, how did you get here? What did you do? What has the growth of your career been like?

[00:13:15] Equally, and if not more important, is your ongoing education after you enter the workforce. Meaning, are you working for a company and in a job role where you're taking on new responsibilities? If you're in a field that, let's say, is technology, does the company that you work for continue to increase in new tools and technology? Or are you becoming, you know, archaic?

[00:13:41] Meaning, what if you work for a company 100 years ago that was a horse and buggy company? And then the automobile came out and the company didn't switch to automobiles and you were still the horse and buggy driver? At some point, you're going to be obsolete. You may be the best horse and buggy driver in the world, but if the rest of the world is advancing and you're not, that's going to make you obsolete.

[00:14:05] So, I think one of the most, again, important things any job can give you is the opportunity to continue to learn and develop skills and to take on responsibilities that will allow you to grow, continue to grow throughout your career. So, how about, can I ask you some questions? Sure, why not? Okay. You're in eighth grade.

[00:14:28] So far, what are some of the things that you've enjoyed learning and being involved with since you've been in school? Well, recently, I've been actually really enjoying my history class. I find it really interesting to learn about the past, to not repeat what's going on, and to also, like, evolve kind of from what's been going on recently, I guess. And are there any periods in history in particular you find more interesting than others?

[00:14:58] Not really. I find every single period, like, its own unique, interesting story. You get to figure out more about those people during that time. Although there are a bunch of time periods I wish to learn more about, I find all of them to be equally interesting. And I guess if you could think about your own future, if you could have any job in the world, what would you want to do?

[00:15:23] I would like to have the job as a middle school ELA teacher, right? For specifically seventh grade, because I got so inspired by my ELA teacher from seventh grade that now I kind of want to do it. Because it seems so fun and interesting. And I also want to be a writer whenever it's, like, summer, if I have time to. What kind of things do you like to write? Short stories, poetry, what do you like to write?

[00:15:52] Personally, I don't like poetry, and I'm not good at it. I do believe that being better at poetry would be the best because, I don't know, being able to write poetry, it just helps you be able to write anything else, I feel like. But I personally write fiction stories because I do like fiction. But sometimes I write more about slice of life kind of stories. That's awesome. I would say you should be open to trying any kind of writing.

[00:16:19] And the thing with writing is that sometimes, do you ever get writer's block when you write? Okay. So I've had that happen to me. And sometimes I have to force myself and I just say, I'm going to write down whatever ideas that I have right now. And it might be a bad idea or it may not be the final idea. But sometimes you're just getting it out of your system, right?

[00:16:47] And very often, bad ideas lead to good ideas. So you kind of have to be willing to sort of go with it. And that even if you're writing something and you're like, I don't know if this is very good, just flex those muscles, get it out of your system. And then if you can, put it away for a day or two and come back to it. And your perspective might change.

[00:17:09] The other thing with writing is that you need to gain perspectives that will influence your writing. So it could be reading, it could be learning about history, could be going to take a walk down the street and observing things in your neighborhood or feeling the sun in your face or going to a museum or watching a television show or listening to music.

[00:17:31] You know, you need life experiences and exposure to things that will also give you context and influence the things you write about. That's really important if you're a writer. Do you feel like your life perspective has changed the writing you've done? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I like to travel. I like walking down the street. I'm always observant of things around me.

[00:17:57] I think being a musician and writing music, you know, lyrics and music, you become sort of an observer of life. You're absorbing the things that you're seeing around you. I'm a reader. I like watching movies. I like listening to music. I like sports. Socialize with my friends.

[00:18:16] I'm a firm believer in that you need, in any job, whether it's creative or otherwise, you have to have a balance of real life experiences in order to be the best version of yourself. Whatever it is your job is, you need to be authentic to who you are. And part of that is having life experiences. So we have one final question for you.

[00:18:40] If you could go back and speak to yourself at Heidi's age, which is 13, what would you tell yourself? What would I tell myself at 13? Well, first of all, I bet the first thing I would do is I'd go back. I'd have different opinions about some of the haircuts and clothing I wore when I was 13 because maybe it was in style back then, but now I go back and I look at it and I'm horrified.

[00:19:03] In all seriousness, I think what I would say is work hard. Be a sponge. Learn as much as you can. Learn as much as you can. Also, find your tribe. I'm very happy to say that still like two or three of my closest friends are friends that I've had since junior high school. They have been lifelong friends. You know, finding your people is really important.

[00:19:31] And then the last thing I would say is at 13, you have your entire life ahead of you. And you're going to make decisions, hopefully, you know, mostly good, some bad. And that's okay. That's life. There's going to be surprises. There's going to be bumps in the road. And I would tell myself like that algebra test or that trigonometry test that you thought was the worst thing in the world. Like, guess what?

[00:19:59] There's going to be some worse and harder things down the road. Some papers you're not going to want to write or a job you may have. You're not like, it's all going to be okay because those things will just make you better, stronger. And you just have to be willing to be flexible. Take a deep breath. And even when things are hard, you're going to be okay. Yes, that's really good advice for every age. Thank you so much for being here. This has been a pleasure. And thank you, Heidi. Did great. That was awesome. I really enjoyed talking to you.

[00:20:29] I hope this was helpful. I want to wish you the best of luck. I'm sure the next chapter will be great. Keep studying history. Keep writing. All good things will happen, I'm sure. Thanks for listening to Formative, a production of New York Edge. I'm your host, Rachel Gazdick. Our production partner for this series is Citizen Racecar. This episode was produced by Hajar Adas. Post production by Alex Brower.

[00:20:58] Original music by Garrett Tiedemann. Thanks to the whole team at New York Edge for making this series possible. Never miss an episode by subscribing to the series at newyorkedge.org slash formative or wherever you get your podcasts.