Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Zauzig.
Hi Michelle, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
From a career perspective — I suppose I started as a writer… always. I have journals from when I was nine– telling stories, recounting the day, working through anything I saw as an issue. That throughline would be the connective tissue that built my career- my love for storytelling, and the moment those dreams are realized- on a page, on a screen, in a VR headset, as an activation – all of it. I went to film school as an obvious antidote to my insatiable need to have that moment – the intangible into the tangible — and actually thought i’d become an investigative journalist, but as life does, she took me on a different journey. I moved to LA, and my first job in production was for a commercial production company with some pretty big-named directors. I was an assistant to one of the partners, and it was a very demanding role. As anyone who came up in that world in LA … you know. I really wanted my work to mean something more, even in my early 20s, the desire to have an impact on the world was great. That’s when I found RYOT. A bunch of documentary film kids, making stuff we thought was important out of a tiny warehouse in Mar Vista. We grew insanely fast, we went through an acquisition and merger in the same year — took on massive clients, explored new modalities for documentary filmmaking including VR and AR. We were pioneers .. in my eyes. My original task was to help build out our branded content division, and due to our growth, my role toook on a much larger life of it’s own. I became the director of partnerships, and oversaw a lot of client facing efforts in LA, NY and our 7 newly branded studio partners across the globe. That is where I learned to find the need in a growing company, and build it. Not in the way it’s always been done, but in a way that works for that particular establishment. I took that lesson with me after, at Dell, helping lead the way toward experiential , again at Bakery, building out our in-house production studio and now, for my own Studio, Studio 113, that really does just that– put color in the white space. Originally just a shell for my freelance work, it became more of a way to help production companies, agencies and brand build the way they needed to. I’ve helped brands build their internal agency capabilities to get their first campaigns off the ground, and i’ve helped production companies ideate on what it means to be an agency — how to build it, not based on how it’s been done, but how it works for them.. and with the right people. And now…. here I am.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Noway. Production is never a smooth road. It’s a challenging, and in many cases, thankless role. The demands and stresses are high, and it weeds people out pretty quickly. Producers are a strange mix of creative, finance, strategy and management. Each production is like starting and running a small company. So the role in and of itself can be a struggle — you have to be a little crazy, and really love it. And then add being a woman in to the mix. Yee haw. No but it’s truly been mostly good for me – but i had to leave to know what I had. After RYOT became agency of record for Oath, i was a little disenchanted, and missed being the crazy documentary kids we once were. I left and led partnerships for a small fund, and then did something similar for a PE firm. I went full speed on impact and finance, but something was always missing. It wasn’t until I came back to production to know that anything else i tried to do would bore me. I even started my own DTC women’s health brand during covid, and even that had holes for me. But since being back, i haven’t looked back. And knowing what it feels like to be lost, and then having the calm of knowing your path again — that alone is enough to surmount any struggle that may be up ahead — and I think we all know, no matter the time, experience, wisdom .. those troubles will always come — we just become better suited to meet them.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a title, I”m an executive producer. As a practice, I help make ideas real. And more recently, with the changing tides of advertising, I help brands, agencies and production companies continue to tell those stories in the confines of tighter budgets, shorter timelines, a million deliverables and a cadence that’s tough to catch with our expedited relevancy time span we live in. There’s a ton of newly added pressures, and people trying innovative ways to keep up. I’m there to either truly be a producer, but more recently a partner in building in the white space. What’s the new way of things ? How do youw want things to be? Are we telling stories the most effective way? Let’s rethink the approach — always. I’d say what sets me apart (and is possibly my toxic trait) is that I really care. It’s never just a brand spot, or an activation, or a campaign. I get my roots planted, and I’ll spend 3 wild months stressing probably more than the founders themselves on how to make magic out of hte ordinary. I wake up at 3a with ideas, or worries. I’ll work 16 hour days without a notice at the passing time. I truly think when you find your way, and you love what you do — it always sets you apart. I think actually thinking about what your doing, and how you build teams, and how you make the experience good for everyone. I guess that’s another thing — i’ve seen the atrocities of our industry(production, advertising, entertainment) and I never want to replicate that world for the next generation of creatives, filmmakers etc — on my sets, I really hope everyone can say that no matter what chaos ensued, they felt they had a team to problem solve, and left feeling proud for the work they created. The environment really matters.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Doing a thing you think is worth being done — finding some purpose in it. No matter how big or small. And leaving that place in time better than you found it. If you’re really lucky, making things that outlive you … a legacy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.michellezauzig.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellezauzig/?hl=en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellezauzig/
