Carissa Mitchell: The Empathetic Mindset That Transformed A Ministry Career Into A Premiere Talent Agency

Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked in Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50's.

How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?

In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carissa Mitchell.

Carissa Mitchell is the Owner and SAG-AFTRA Franchised Talent Agent at Mitchell & Associates Talent, with branches in Los Angeles, New Mexico and Atlanta. She is incredibly honored to work with her hand-picked clients that have booked amazing roles in television and films. She prides herself in knowing her clients personally and has succeeded in submitting, pitching, and booking them for perfect roles.

Before entering into the entertainment industry, Carissa was a mom, graphic designer, art director, special events coordinator and also in full-time church ministry for almost twenty years. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fine Art and Photography.

In addiction to being a Star Wars nerd, Disneyland fanatic and unjaded film and tv buff, she is a proud mother of three and even prouder “Mimo” of three. (And all of them love Star Wars too).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

Born in 1965, I was raised and educated in Madison, Wisconsin, from parents that were from Los Angeles. My dad was in “computers,” in the 60’s, back when they were the size of an office building. My mom had a biology degree from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. They were relocated to the Midwest with my dad’s job and they raised me and my younger brothers there. My parents encouraged my creativity, uniqueness and inquisitiveness, resulting in years of “talks too much in class” comments on report cards, and being labelled “too much” by many. I felt capable of doing anything I set my mind to.

My biggest role model was my mother, who reinvented herself at age 40 by going back to school and getting her nursing degree, which she had put on hold to raise me and my brothers.

I was always a fan of movies and television, and loved seeing actors in different roles and following their acting careers. This was way before the internet and IMDb, when we could look up information easily! When I was entering the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my desire was to go into film and television production. My parents (again, they were from Los Angeles) discouraged me, stating they didn’t want me to end up in Hollywood. So I went into Fine Arts and Graphic Design.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My formal answer would be a paraphrased quote from British Inspirational Writer Euginia Herlihy: “Being teachable makes you crave for more wisdom and knowledge. If you live life with a spirit of learning, you get wiser and wiser daily.” Being aware and willing to acknowledge that you don’t know or understand something will allow you to learn something new. Every single day.

But my honest answer is “Don’t be a dick.” No explanation necessary!

You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1. Hard Work. Always looking and learning how to be effective in an efficient manor.
2. Kindness. Always treating others as you would like to be treated.
3. Humor. Looking for the humor will help you break down the heaviness and anxiety that comes with stressful situations.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?

My “First Chapter” was full of graphic design, motherhood, mentoring women and mothers, but mostly it was about learning about people; how they relate, how they communicate, what drives them. It was also a time that I developed a healthy love of movies and television.

And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was “in training” my whole life for my career as a talent agent. Not only did my career as a graphic designer come into play (helping actors with competitive and honest headshots for submitting to casting directors) taking care of and loving children, serving women and mothers, as well facilitating conferences, special events and guest speaking all were valuable skills in my new career.

Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?

After putting aside my desire to go into film and television production in college out of fear of “not making it in Hollywood,” as my children grew and didn’t need me as much, and as the graphic design world had taken leaps in technology that I would need further training for to stay competitive, and I realized that the film and television industry was all around me in New Mexico. On impulse, I enrolled in the film production program at the local community college. I knew I wanted to work with actors, but I didn’t know what that looked like. The program took students through every position on a movie set. It was thrilling! I felt like I had found my “people!”

What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?

Talent agents have a reputation for being a**holes, uncaring and cold. From my days in counseling and ministry, I knew that I had to run my business with love and personal care and attention to the actors that I represent. Over the years I have had many casting directors, producers and directors thank me for being nice, for responding quickly and pleasantly. It seems like that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in the entertainment industry people remember who was nice to them, as unfortunately it is a rare occurrence.

How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.

Within 10 years, I took a small talent agency with not the highest reputation, or the worst, and turned it into the premiere agency in the market, with actors that book series regulars, guest stars, recurring roles and principal roles in film and television.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My instructor at Central New Mexico Community College was Jim “Grubb” Graebner. He is part of the legacy of the film industry in New Mexico. He knew EVERYONE. He didn’t suffer fools. If he liked you, he would introduce you to the right people. After completing my program, I thought I wanted to go into Casting. He got me some casting jobs. But he also recognized my skills in communicating and “mothering” people, so he encouraged me to talk to a local talent agent that was quietly looking for someone to take over her agency. That was a perfect introduction for me, and changed the course of my life.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

One of my actors booked a role on the Star Wars show “The Mandalorian.” When I got off the phone with Casting, I cried tears of joy and happiness, because one of the reasons I got into the entertainment industry in the first place came from my love of Star Wars. I dried my tears and called my actor, who is a big, scary stunt guy. I told him the news, and HE started crying because he became an actor because of his love of Star Wars! Then I started crying again!

Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?

After I had worked in the New Mexico Film Industry for a few years, I realized that I was losing my best actors when they moved to Los Angeles to further their careers. It seemed to me that taking the leap into being a talent agent in Hollywood was huge and unattainable! I had to TRUST that my brand of doing business with kindness, honesty and humor was going to set me apart in this huge and important market! But I did it and it is still paying off today! But boy was it scary. I had to believe in myself that I could do it, and I did it.

In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?

Again, it always goes back to asking questions. People love to give their opinion and share their thoughts. You can glean so much from their answers, ranging from them sharing industry standards to expressing what “not to do!” Surround yourself with like-minded people that are experts in your field, and learn from them!

Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?

When I took over the agency, my fear was that actors were going to leave once they heard that I had no experience, or casting directors were not going to take my submissions seriously. I set up a one-month apprenticeship with the former owner. After two days, she said I was doing great and I literally never spoke to her again. I asked the Casting Directors how they would like the submission and audition process to run smoothly (so I could do it they way that helped them), and received positive responses! And in fact, more people wanted to sign with the agency than leave it!

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Operating your business using “The Golden Rule” is ALWAYS appropriate. Think about how you’d like to be treated and treat everyone you come in contact with in that manner
2. Not everyone is going to love you. Be yourself and do business the way you’ve planned it, and like-minded people will join you.
3. Measure your success in months or years, not days or weeks. Look at the long-term big picture. Day to day may look like failures, but the trajectory is still upward!
4. Answer phone calls, texts and emails promptly. Don’t leave people hanging or give them opportunities to contact a competitor.
5. Always ask questions. If you don’t know something, ASK. Be honest about what you know and don’t know. People are always going to react positively if they feel heard.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would love to mentor young people that are thinking about becoming agents or managers. I also love speaking to actors at conferences, film festivals and other industry events! My message would always include thoughts on Kindness, Honesty and Humor.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

I would love to meet some of the heavy hitters of Disney and Star Wars: Bob Iger, Ken Potrock, Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can follow my company, Mitchell & Associates Talent, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MitchellandAssociatesTalent) and Instagram (@mitchellassociatestalent).

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!