Nellie Bly, investigative reporter in the 1880’s and Mary Tyler Moore of station WJM in Minneapolis were my heroes. They both had courage, grit and spunk. I like spunk.

When you love what you do and you find meaning in it, sprinkle in life balance, joy, respect, and those moments of humility. Add a dash of flare, lots of laughs, determination and I think you can build a pretty good career and life.

I started in this business in college while I was a starving NYU student. A well-known agent at the time, hired me to answer his phone. Those were the days with a hold button. I used pencils with erasers because I made lots of mistakes. I went to work with a regular coffee, a buttered roll and the New York Times. It was then I helped to move forward the careers of Max Robinson, Connie Chung, Maury Povich and a young guy named Al Roker. By moving forward, I mean I took their calls and transferred them to the boss.

While all of that was going on, I was studying acting with the legendary Lee Strasberg and taking lots of abuse at auditions. I ended up doing comedy improvisation for the most part and was the first group to open the cabaret Westbank, which still exists. We were called Legal Action and for a time we were pretty damn good.

In the years to follow I acted, auditioned, worked temporary jobs, started a successful executive search company and then transferred those skills into representing talent. I came to love journalists.