What happens when you stop waiting for someone else’s yes and decide to greenlight yourself?

So many of the people I talk to for Creator Diaries are wildly talented, doing incredible work... and still feel like they’re standing outside some invisible door, hoping to be picked. An agent. A publisher. A network. A brand. A boss. Somebody.

That’s why I wanted to share this conversation with Jerrica Long.

Jerrica spent over a decade inside the old system — CAA, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Netflix — in the rooms where projects get pushed forward or quietly die on page five. She was literally the assistant screening scripts, sitting next to the people with the power to say yes or no. She’s seen how much brilliant, original work never makes it through those filters.

Now she’s doing the opposite. Jerrica is building Greenlight Yourself, a company, a bootcamp, and a movement designed to help creators become “Hollywood optional.” She’s growing her own studio, Studio Jerrica. She still wants to become the next Shonda Rhimes of comedy. And she’s building all of it in public, while holding down a full-time role in creator brand partnerships.

That’s the kind of builder story I started Creator Diaries to study.

In our conversation, we talked about how you can build a platform that attracts your dream opportunities and the things that hold most people back from starting. You’ll be hard pressed to read this full interview and not feel inspired to get out and launch the thing you’ve been wanting to do.

And under all of it, there’s the real blocker she sees over and over again: fear.
The fear of being seen. The fear of friends and coworkers watching. The fear your first attempt will be cringe. I hear versions of this in my inbox constantly. Jerrica hears it on almost every coaching call.

Instead of focusing on the fear of failing or (god forbid) feeling cringe, focus on the opportunity and the agency you have in front of you.

I’ve shared the full conversation below edited lightly for clarity:

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial inkling, to be honest. One of my first jobs was in New York City at CAA, where I was an assistant – actually a floater assistant, covering for many different people. I worked with a lot of the partners who would come into the New York office from LA, and I saw how the industry “sausage” gets made. I remember thinking, “Wow, I never want to be a creative; they struggle so much.” (Ironically, now I am a creative!)

I moved out to LA for the majority of my career – I lived there about 12 years. I originally went to LA to be the next Shonda Rhimes of comedy. I even got into a program at Sony where I produced a pilot presentation (basically a teaser for a TV pilot) on a sound stage. It was a multi-cam comedy with pre-built sets and a laugh track. That experience was incredible and kept me going in Hollywood. To this day, out of all the shows I’ve worked on (even including an episode of TV I got to write), multi-cam comedy is my favorite format. It’s like theater, and I always wished I’d been cool enough to be a theater kid, so I just loved it.

The real turning point for me came later, when I was working for Kevin Hart’s company, Laugh Out Loud Network. Being at Kevin’s company, I felt like I had to try stand-up at least once. It terrified me, which is exactly why I knew I needed to do it. So I took a stand-up class with a veteran comedian named David A. Arnold. At the time, David was looking to grow his social media presence, and since I worked in comedy and had helped with Kevin Hart’s posts, I understood how to build an audience. In fact, I had helped build the LOL Network’s audience from scratch, growing it by millions.

I decided to help David with his social media strategy. Over about two years working together, we grew him a massive following. During that time his career blew up – he got a Netflix special (with another on the way), a show set up at Amazon, all these things he had dreamed of. He kept telling me, “You should be doing this for other people. You could turn what you know into a business.”

Then, tragically, David passed away about three years ago. It was devastating. To be honest, I was pissed off that he was gone. I was grieving (still am), but his passing lit a fire under me. It made me realize that whatever I want to do, I have to go after it because tomorrow isn’t promised. Especially with how crazy the world is now, I felt an urgency to try something of my own. That was the final straw.

After he died, I said to myself, “Okay, it’s time. I’m going to figure out how to work for myself and build something of my own.”

The business I’m building now ended up completely different from what I originally thought it would be, but that’s part of the journey.

I actually spent years on the other side of the table as a gatekeeper in Hollywood. I was an assistant for a long time, which meant I was often the person saying “no” to people. I saw how the system works from the inside. Honestly, at one job we had a “five-page rule” for scripts – if it didn’t grab us in five pages, we moved on, mostly because we were overworked and had piles of material to get through. The point is, a lot of great stuff gets turned down for reasons that have nothing to do with quality.

Through all that, I developed a belief that has stuck with me: nobody can stop your success except you. I really believe that. If you have a story to tell or a project you want to make, you don’t have to wait for someone in Hollywood to say yes. You can greenlight yourself by finding a way to make it and bring it to an audience.

Working at Kevin Hart’s company reinforced that for me. Kevin was trying to bridge the gap between Hollywood and these internet creators who were making hilarious content on their own. These were people shooting sketch comedy videos in their living rooms for little or no money, but racking up millions of views. I saw that and thought, this is the future. Hollywood is always looking to save money and find the next big thing. If you’re a creator who can show up with your own audience and proven content, you have leverage. You don’t need the traditional gatekeepers in the same way because you’ve already shown that people want what you’re making.

So “greenlight yourself” is about taking that power into your own hands as a creator. It’s saying: don’t wait for permission to make the content you want to see — go make it, build an audience around it, and create your own opportunities.

Greenlight Yourself, the company, is kind of twofold. On one side, I’m building an education and content business for creators. I’m sharing what I know to help others “greenlight” their own projects.

For example, I have a group coaching program called Greenlight Yourself Bootcamp, which is a 12-week program I’m running right now. I also do some one-on-one consulting. And lately I’ve been experimenting with smaller offerings too — I’m actually doing Gary Vee’s “Stan challenge,” which basically has me putting out different ideas and mini-products to see what resonates. It’s a way to test what people need and will pay for, and to validate that this can be a real business. We’re in week two of that experiment, and it’s been really interesting to see the response so far.

The other side of Greenlight Yourself is me taking my own advice — essentially, building a mini studio for my personal creative projects. I like to call it Studio Jerrica. I have literally 20 or 30 scripts I’ve written just sitting on my laptop (some even printed out in hard copy) that I never got to fully produce. Remember, I came to Hollywood to be the next big comedy showrunner, and that hasn’t happened yet. But I still have all these ideas and I still love creating. So I’m in the process of figuring out how to produce my own content, independently.

My vision is something like what Tyler Perry or Issa Rae did, but for this new era. They created their own shows and films, often casting themselves, and then they owned that content. Tyler Perry, for example, would make a movie and then license it to a distributor like Netflix after the fact. I want to do something similar. Maybe that means using new-school distribution like FAST channels (free ad-supported TV channels that run continuous content) or other streaming platforms. I’m not 100% sure of the distribution method yet, but the idea is to create my own projects and get them out to audiences on my own terms.

So those are the two halves: teaching others how to greenlight themselves and doing it myself with my own creative work. They actually feed into each other, because as I learn things building my own studio, I can pass that knowledge to my community, and vice versa. It’s all aligned with the mission of helping creators bypass gatekeepers and bring their ideas to life.

Finding balance as a multi-hyphenate is definitely tricky, and I’ve had to redefine what “balance” means for me. I used to think balance meant doing everything, all the time — working on my projects until 2 AM every night on top of a full workday. That led straight to burnout.

Now I approach it differently, with more structure and also giving myself permission to rest.

For example, Mondays I do nothing but my 9-to-5 job. I’ve learned that on Monday I only have the energy for my day job, and that’s okay. I don’t schedule any extra meetings or work on my personal projects on Mondays. Then, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days I have my Greenlight Yourself Bootcamp coaching calls in the evenings, so those days are longer. Fridays and Saturdays I dedicate substantial time to my own business – creating content, developing the curriculum for my program, strategizing, all that. And Sundays I actually teach my live Bootcamp class.

Crucially, I also plan downtime. Sometimes that means Wednesday evening I do nothing, or I’ll take a Saturday afternoon off if I feel overwhelmed. I try to touch each part of my life each week – my job, my personal business, my creative projects – but I also rotate focus so I’m not doing everything every single day. It’s more like theme days. It’s still a lot of juggling, but having a sort of schedule (and being okay with not working on certain things every single day) has really helped. It’s a work in progress, but that’s how I’m managing it right now without losing my mind!

Yes, by day I work in creator brand partnerships (at Creator Match). Essentially, brands come to us and say, “We have X budget to spend on a campaign,” and our job is to come up with a creative concept and strategy and then match the right creators to that campaign. For example, a brand might say, “We have $500,000 and we want to launch a social media campaign for a new product.” We brainstorm what that campaign could look like, figure out the story or angle that will resonate, and then we identify which creators would be a great fit to execute it. Once the brand approves, we reach out to those creators and get the campaign rolling. So it’s the bread-and-butter of the creator economy: connecting brands with creators in a mutually beneficial way.

One big thing I’ve learned from doing this is the difference between visibility and conversion when it comes to creators. 

Some creators are what I’d call visibility creators – they have a big name or follower count that looks impressive, and having them on a campaign is great for optics. People will say, “Oh wow, you got [Famous Influencer] to be part of this.” It creates buzz. But they might not actually drive a ton of sales or actions; their value is more in awareness. On the other hand, there are conversion creators – these might not be household names at all, but their audience is ride or die and trusts them deeply, so when they recommend something, people actually click and buy or sign up. These creators move the needle for a brand’s bottom line.

What’s super interesting is that 99.9% of creators are not both. 

It’s rare to find someone who has huge visibility and also high conversion impact. So in the brand world, a lot of campaign strategy is a balance of those two factors: sometimes you include a big-name creator for the splashy announcement, and then you have a roster of smaller, niche creators who will actually drive the bulk of the results.

This has shown me that there’s room for everyone in the creator economy. You don’t need a million followers to get brand deals or be successful. In fact, I’ve seen creators in the 20k–50k follower range who absolutely crush it in terms of conversion. Many of them have been nurturing their community for years (like, they started on LinkedIn or a blog 7-10 years ago and slowly built real trust). Those smaller but mighty communities can outperform a massive but shallow audience.

So when I’m building my own brand and when I coach others, I emphasize that: figure out which game you’re playing. If you’re not a “visibility” creator with millions of followers, you can still be incredibly valuable as a conversion-focused creator with a tight-knit audience. And if you happen to have both reach and conversion, amazing – but don’t be discouraged if you don’t. Also, a practical tip: keep putting your name in the hat. A lot of creators give up if they don’t hear back on a brand pitch immediately, but I’ve learned the power of following up. Opportunities often come to those who stay on the radar.

My number one tip (and I spend a lot of time on this in my Bootcamp) is to develop a signature series for your content. 

By “signature series,” I mean a repeatable, recognizable format that you become known for. It could be a weekly video series, a themed daily post, a recurring character sketch – whatever makes sense for your style and platform. But it needs to be something that when people come to your page or profile, they immediately get what you’re about and they know, “Oh, this is the person who does XYZ.”

Why is this important? First, it gives your audience a reason to keep coming back. If they know you drop a new installment of a series every Tuesday, they’ll look forward to it. It builds a habit for your followers. Second, it actually makes content creation easier for you. You’re not reinventing the wheel with every post; you have a framework to plug into. And third, it’s huge for monetization and growth because it’s easier to sell a series to brands than random one-off content. A brand can look at your series and say, “Hey, we love what you’re doing – can we sponsor five episodes?” It’s a clear package. Also, when new people discover you, that series is like an entry point – they can binge previous installments and quickly become big fans.

So, whatever platform you’re on, think of something you can do consistently. It doesn’t even have to be often – it could be once a week or a monthly theme – but make it yours and stick to it. Consistency and a clear identity will set you apart from the many people just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

Absolutely. One example that comes to mind is a TikTok series called “Group Chat.” The creator (a woman on TikTok) started doing these comedic skits where she would impersonate different personalities in a group chat scenario. It was a simple concept but super relatable and funny. That series blew up – it took the internet by storm last year. It became so popular that she actually landed a deal with Hulu to develop it into a show. As we speak, I believe it’s in production as a TV series. So this little repeatable idea on social media turned into a career-changing opportunity, all because she stuck with it and it gained a loyal following.

Another great example: there’s a kid on TikTok named Davis who quite literally just rates his school lunches every day. That’s it – every day at lunchtime he films himself in the cafeteria giving a review of the school lunch. It’s hilarious and wholesome because he treats it like a serious critique, talking about the pizza’s crunch or the flavor of the day’s vegetable. When I started following him, he had maybe 10 or 15 thousand followers. Now he has over half a million. And it’s not because he’s doing crazy stunts or anything unattainable – he’s just consistently delivering this charming little series. People know, Monday through Friday, they can check his TikTok and see what he thinks of that day’s lunch. It’s low-fi, it’s consistent, and it’s him. That consistency and personality draws people in.

So those are two very different series, but both show how having a clear “thing” that you do can really propel you. It gives people something to latch onto and share with others (“you’ve got to see this kid reviewing his lunch every day, it’s so funny”). And it gives the algorithm something to latch onto as well, because it sees the pattern and who responds to it.

When I say someone has a “Hollywood optional” career, I mean that they have set themselves up in such a way that they don’t need Hollywood’s approval or traditional infrastructure to succeed. They can take it or leave it.

Think about some of the biggest stars – like Will Smith or Tom Cruise – at this point, if Hollywood for some reason said “no” to them, they could probably go to another country’s film industry or straight to their fanbase and get a project made. They have that level of clout and audience connection. Now, for an independent creator, being “Hollywood optional” means you’ve built your own audience and revenue streams so that you’re not reliant on pitching to studios or networks. You can create your own content, distribute it directly or via alternative means, and even make a living from it without a traditional deal.

I genuinely think everyone should strive for a Hollywood optional career, whether you’re an actor, writer, filmmaker, or any kind of creator. It’s about having leverage and freedom. If the Hollywood gatekeepers say “we’re not interested,” you can say, “that’s fine, my audience and I will do it ourselves.” And the funny thing is, once you do that and it works, Hollywood often comes back around anyway. Like, you make the thing independently and it gains traction, and then a Netflix or an Amazon might license it from you after the fact. You’ve essentially greenlit yourself and proven the concept.

When I talk about New Hollywood, I’m referring to this emerging ecosystem where a lot of the power is shifting to creators and their communities.

We’re seeing early signs of it already. For example, there are YouTube-based studios like Dhar Mann Studios that pull in crazy viewership with short films and series completely outside the traditional system. These indie studios are hiring actors, crew, etc., and pumping out content that gets millions of views – and the traditional Hollywood folks might not even be aware of it, but it’s happening.

Also, more established stars are embracing creator platforms. Will Smith is a great example – he started a YouTube channel and Instagram and was making really high-quality content for the web. If someone like him decided to launch a full-on series on YouTube or some non-traditional platform, it would be a huge validation of this New Hollywood model. I honestly think it’s just a matter of time. The audience doesn’t really care where a good show comes from. If it’s entertaining and accessible, they’ll watch it, whether it’s on NBC, Netflix, YouTube, or some app we haven’t heard of yet.

So New Hollywood to me is this blending of traditional and independent. Creators who grew up on the internet are becoming studio heads in their own right. Content is getting made without the old middlemen. It’s an exciting time – a little wild west, but exciting. And in this New Hollywood, being Hollywood optional is key, because it means you have choices. You can work with the old system when it makes sense, but you’re not dependent on it.

There are so many ways to fund a creative project now that don’t involve a traditional studio writing a check, and I do think more education is needed because a lot of creators still aren’t aware of all the options. Let me break down a few:

So, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Some creators might use a mix of these. For instance, you could crowdfund a pilot episode and then attract a sponsor for the rest of the season, all while your Patreon supports your day-to-day creation.

The main thing is creators have to think like entrepreneurs and be a little scrappy and creative when it comes to funding. But the flip side is, if you can pull it off, you retain a lot more ownership and control.

I love this question, because I really believe we’re going to get a much wider variety of stories in this new model. When only a handful of executives have the power to greenlight shows or films, you inevitably get a lot of the same types of ideas – because people tend to greenlight what they think will be a safe bet or what appeals to their tastes. That can leave a lot of voices out.

But when the audience is doing the greenlighting (by funding or supporting projects), the landscape opens up. If there’s an audience for it, it can get made. Period. Even niche communities can have incredibly successful content if they rally behind it. We’ve already seen examples of this.

One thing I think will change is how people react to traditional media. Right now, there’s a lot of frustration among viewers because streaming services are getting expensive and shows are getting canceled left and right. You fall in love with a series on Netflix, and then it gets axed after one season with a cliffhanger – it’s the worst feeling as a fan. Netflix and others have noticed that backlash; you’ll see they now label some new shows as “limited series” from the start, so we temper our expectations. But still, it’s frustrating.

I predict audiences will start saying, “Why am I paying all this money if I’m not seeing stories that reflect me, or if the shows I invest in just disappear?” And they’ll turn to alternatives. Maybe that’s a YouTube channel that consistently delivers the content they love, or a Patreon-funded mini-series that speaks to their community, or an indie streaming platform catering to a specific genre or group. The bonus is many of these alternatives are free (with ads) or much cheaper than traditional streaming.

So as this grows, you’ll have content made by communities for communities. For example, a group that feels underrepresented in mainstream media can literally fund a show that tells their story. And they know it’s not going to get canceled because as long as the community supports it, it continues. It’s almost a return to the old patronage system, but on a mass scale – the people who want the art make sure it keeps going.

In short, I think we’ll see an explosion of diverse stories: different cultures, subcultures, genres that TV execs might have deemed “too niche,” you name it. And audiences will have a more active role in what gets made. It’s pretty democratic – if 100,000 people really want a Firefly revival (to pick a famously canceled show) and are willing to fund it, hey, it could happen! We won’t be as beholden to what a few companies decide is marketable.

Fandoms and communities are everything. In this new landscape, your community is your coin – it’s the thing that will get your project made and keep your career sustainable. I always tell creators to think beyond just “viewers” or “followers.” You want to build a world that people can belong to.

What does that mean practically? It means your content should have a sense of identity and continuity that people can latch onto and feel a part of. You’re not just dropping random one-off posts; you’re creating an experience or a narrative over time. That could be through recurring characters, a storyline, a consistent style or theme, inside jokes with your audience – all of that helps make your little corner of the internet feel like its own universe.

Just as important is engaging with the people who enter that universe. If someone leaves a comment, acknowledge it. If your platform has community features (like YouTube’s Community tab, or Instagram Stories Q&A, etc.), use them to involve your audience. Maybe you poll them on what you should do next, or you let them name a character, or you do a live stream where you just hang out and chat. Those interactions make your audience feel valued and invested.

I’ll give you a small example: one of the creators in my bootcamp is a comedian who has developed a bunch of hilarious recurring characters in her sketches. She does an Yzma impersonation (from The Emperor’s New Groove) and a spot-on parody of Tina Knowles, among others. Her viewers love these characters. My advice to her was, “Recognize that you’re building a mini-universe with these characters. Make it easy for fans to spend time in that universe.” That means compiling those character sketches into playlists or highlighting them, maybe giving each character their own series name, and definitely interacting with fans about them – like “Which character do you want to see at the DMV next?” or fun things like that. Basically, invite the audience to play in your world.

A really powerful case study in community building is Critical Role, which is a group of voice actors who started livestreaming their Dungeons & Dragons games. They weren’t thinking TV show at first; they were just sharing something they loved and engaging with a niche community of tabletop gaming fans. But they treated that community like gold – they named fan-favorite moments, made merch, did events. The fandom became so passionate that they crowdfunded an animated series based on their game (The Legend of Vox Machina). It raised millions on Kickstarter, purely from fans eager to see more of that story. And then Amazon Prime picked it up for distribution! That animated series only exists because the community was there and the creators nurtured it for years.

So for creators: build that fandom. It can start small – even if you have 50 true fans, treat them amazingly. Those first 50 fans are going to turn into 500, and then 5,000, and so on, if you keep delivering and keep engaging. Make your work a two-way street where your audience feels like they’re part of something, not just passive consumers. Because once you have a true community, not just a casual viewership, you basically have superpowers as a creator. That community will follow you to new platforms, fund your projects, and evangelize your content to the world.

In one word: fear. The fear of being seen, the fear of putting yourself out there. It’s huge. I see it come up in almost every coaching call or conversation with new creators. People are scared of being judged or of failing publicly. They’re worried that their work isn’t good enough, or that they’ll be cringey, or that no one will care.

And ironically, that fear of no one caring can paralyze you just as much as the fear of everyone watching and laughing at you. It’s like two sides of the same coin of self-doubt.

I call one of the big hurdles “Cringe Mountain.” So many folks are terrified of making content that other people (or even they themselves) might label as cringe. But the truth is, your first attempts might be a little cringe! And that’s okay. You can’t get to the good stuff without getting through the awkward beginner phase.

I always remind people: when you start, almost nobody is watching. Those first few blog posts, videos, newsletters – they might get zero likes, zero views. And that is totally normal. Instead of seeing that as a failure, see it as freedom. In the beginning, you have the most freedom to experiment because the stakes are really low – hardly anyone is paying attention yet. So embrace that and use it.

Another huge piece of the puzzle is mindset. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your mindset isn’t right – if you don’t believe in yourself or you’re not in it for the right reasons – you’ll sabotage yourself or burn out.

I actually have a recent example: in this Gary Vee challenge I’m doing, I launched a new coaching offer and I was bummed out because only a handful of people signed up initially. I was like, “Man, 100+ people viewed my story about this, why didn’t more convert?” I even got to ask Gary Vaynerchuk that question directly.

And his answer was basically, “Your perspective is off – this is a mindset issue. You’ve just started; don’t expect to have 100 people sign up overnight. Be grateful for the four that did and build from there.” He was so excited about telling me that, he was like, “I’m gonna put this clip on the internet!” (laughs). It was a needed kick in the pants.

So for people hesitating: know that the fear is normal, but you have to push past it. Start before you’re ready. It will be uncomfortable at first. You might look back at your early stuff and cringe – in fact, I hope you do, because it means you’ve grown. And work on that mindset constantly. Instead of thinking “What if I fail or look stupid?”, reframe it to “What might I learn if I try this? What opportunities could open up if it goes well?”

And remember, you don’t need anyone’s permission to be a creator. The internet is wide open. Give yourself that green light.

This might sound a little corny, but I truly believe it: everyone has the power to greenlight themselves. You don’t need to wait for a yes from an executive or a publisher or whoever the gatekeeper is in your field. All you really need is something to create with – and these days, if you have a smartphone, you’re already holding a movie studio, a writing desk, whatever you need, in the palm of your hand.

So the action I’d encourage is: just start creating that thing you really want to create. Even if it’s small, even if it’s just a rough version, do it. Post it. Share it with one person if you’re nervous about sharing it with the world. But take that step. Every big creator out there started with zero followers and an idea they were passionate about.

And remember that as creators, we have an opportunity to make the world better. I know the world is a pretty scary place right now in many ways. But I honestly think storytellers and creatives are going to be a big part of the solution – whether it’s by spreading positive messages, bringing people joy and escape, or shining a light on issues in a compelling way. We need creators, we need new voices. So whatever your voice is, we need you.

Grant yourself that permission to do your thing. Greenlight yourself, and in doing so, you might inspire someone else to do the same. That ripple effect is how we’ll keep creativity alive and shape the future for the better. Go for it!