How I Ended Up Working With the Warriors!
People have been asking me “Michelle, how did you end up with working with Klay Thompson?”
… and to be completely honest, I have no idea.
This time in particular, the phone rang and I was just happy to be on the receiving end. I don’t think I did anything outright crazy to put myself on the radar but it’s really such an awesome feeling to just be recognized for your work or just being your authentic self on social media.
For those who haven’t seen or have no idea what the hell I’m talking about... here’s a clip of me being terribly nervous and socially awkward next to basketball superstar Klay Thompson.
The days leading up to filming was pretty nerve-racking.. What if I mess this up? What if I sabotage my own career before it even takes off? What if I embarrass myself, my friends + family? “What if” scenarios were piling sky high like a load of dirty laundry. I could feel my insecurities surfacing, terrified of being the next internet meme that would fill my Twitter feed.
I had to get out of my own head. This felt like one of those “once in a lifetime” opportunities that I could not pass up.
It was ironic, my previous job at NBC I was a production assistant coaching people to be natural in front of the camera. Now the roles are reversed and I could not stop my nervous jittering!
Special shoutout to my mentors at NBC who went out of their way to help me prep for my big internet debut. I’m talking: rereading scripts, ad-lib, giving me history lessons on Chinatown, and appearing “natural” on camera. At this point I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I was terrified, excited, and felt like I was in over my head.
A helpful tip that really stuck was:
“It’s just a camera, people look into it and have all their energy sucked out. Breathe and start over. It doesn’t matter if you mess up. Just be you. Don’t be the person in the script, just be you.”
Finally the day came.
“Are you ready?”
….. Nope, but I’m going to make this day my bitch. I was literally hyping myself up in my head trying to silence that tiny voice that kept picking at all the reasons why I would completely suck at this.
The day flew by and I had an awesome time hanging out with Kerith, the coaches, and Klay in Chinatown.
Expectations vs. Reality #AmIRite?!?!
I got to put Klay and Kerith’s chopstick skills to the test, enjoyed an exclusive tea tasting with the coaches, and taught them a few special things about Lunar New Year traditions!
When the videos were released I got a ton of love, people were tagging me on every social media channel possible. It was freakin’ awesome. I’ve gotten a lot of support to just keep doing me and it just feels damn good. Like I said, pursuing your passion isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, so having complete strangers message me saying how proud they are to be fans of an organization that wants to get in touch with their community made me really ecstatic to be a part of this project!
I hope I answered all your questions, and if not, feel free to leave them in the comments section and I’ll answer them below!
Thanks for reading!