We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Fitzgerald. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.
Ryan, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Confident and self-esteem come from two key places: 1. A continued passion for learning and 2. Great mentors that believe in you. I’ve never been able to go too long without having the urge to jump back into learning of some kind; whether it be grad school or certification courses or just reading history, leadership and other non-fiction books. I’ve been inspired by the stories of our founding fathers or tech giants or brilliant entrepreneurs and how they would hole up and obsess over expanding their learning, reading multiple books a week or writing pages upon pages of treatises or code. When someone speaks from a place of knowledge it is naturally comfortable and confident. People trust what they’re hearing and gravitate to this confidence, often leading to direct or indirect leadership. Great mentors can not only expand that knowledge but also positively impact confidence and self-esteem with positive feedback and leadership. If someone is an up and coming leader that is expanding their leadership and reminded by a mentor about the true potential that they may have, it’s a powerful combination that I’ve been lucky enough to have in a few instances throughout my career.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
As Executive Vice President, Sea Production here at RWS Global I run the Sea Division across our company. Whether it be shows, immersive experiences, music acts or full turn key entertainment operation services, RWS Global has responsibility for part of the entertainment on about 45 ships globally. This talent rehearses at our studios in NYC (where we have the largest rehearsal facility in the city) or London and then travels to ships that touch 6 continents and countless ports each year. We have an in-house wardrobe department and a wide network of creative talent that spans the globe. The Sea Division is responsible to execute all of this.
Every day performers walk through our doors living out their dream of making a living and seeing the world through their art. I always get excited to see their excitement. They work…HARD. And the result is pretty magical. That goes for the performers as well as our in-house production teams in all of our HQs.
Personally, my focus is on doing whatever I can to support all of these people make this magic happen while also building relationships and making strategic decisions with the goal of moving the business forward.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Connect – I can easily point to connection as the number one reason my journey has progressed in the way that it has. For those early in their journey, connection can sometimes feel uncomfortable or make you nervous. Admittedly, it’s a pretty vulnerable moment. Slowly but surely it starts to feel more natural. You establish a broader appreciation for your industry and learn about the challenges of others. It’s likely that your own challenges start to feel more manageable and your confidence grows. At the same time, your network grows. And before you know it, that network is offering up exciting new opportunities.
Self Awareness – You’ve really got to be your most constructive critic. Your gut will tell you when you could be doing better or when you could be doing more. Your self awareness should be louder than your ego so that you always stay on track to improve.
Learn – Never stop learning, getting better, tweaking your approach, trying to improve. Never stop listening and caring to others.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I feel overwhelmed A LOT! Like many others, I have struggled with anxiety and a fair amount of imposter syndrome. My advice to others is to take meaningful steps to build everyday tactics to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Learn to compartmentalize and be strict with your time management. Build realistic to do lists with realistic deadlines and block time in order to achieve them. Starting a day with a to do list that you know you will never complete is the quickest way to feeling overwhelmed. Even with all of that, there will still be challenging moments. Physically, remember to breath and perhaps take a short break. Mentally, slow down and focus only on the task at hand.
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