Can I take parental leave as a casting company owner? A personal blog from founder, Taylor Lambert.
So you are an up and coming casting director and always open to new video production company castings whenever they come. You have to be!
It’s always a last minute rush, and that’s simply the nature of your work. You like meeting new people, and growing your roster of producers and filmmakers. You even try to throw networking events to keep your services at top of mind for your production clients.
So when a baby comes along, your world changes. Both a “Yay!” and “uh-oh” at the same time.
Yay, in that this is the best moment of your life, and one to be fully cherished, but uh-oh in that you might be able to work in the kind of consistently your clients expect of you. The biggest “gig” of your life so to speak. Suddenly your world shifts, and all those casting calls get replaced with diaper changes…
What is a small business owner casting company to do in such a situation?
Shouldn’t we have the same opportunity to take time off and bond with our little one just like our friends who work at corporate companies? Can we afford to do so? You can afford it, and it is worth it!
Check out these tips to ensure your casting business can keep running as smoothly as possible during this most exciting time in your life!
Magic is in the PREP:
Think of out of office messages, voicemails, slack notifications, or other things that can be automated. Try to be as transparent as possible so that your producers know what is happening and why there might be a delay in the response. As I mentioned, production companies need responses and they need them fast!
If you started a casting prior to your leave, and you don’t expect it wrapping up until during your leave, try to come up with creative solutions to make sure “no balls get dropped”. Again, communication and transparency are KEY!
Do you have a support staff?
Thankfully, at Aura Casting, we have an incredible team of casting reps who know exactly how to run our castings with speed and precision. It was helpful to have an overview meeting before I took my leave so they had a good idea of what to expect, and protocols to go over, how to handle invoicing communications, etc.
But say that you are a freelance casting director, and don’t have a team you work with yet. In that case, consider either not going entirely off the grid, but reserving ½ hour in the morning and evening to check emails. Again, this is up to you, and you might want to take off entirely, and if that is the case, then just do it.. Having a child is a precious time that should not be missed.
Trust
This is a big one. If you have everything set up, your systems in place, out of office messages on, your team prepared, then now all you have to do is trust the process will work! Sure there may be some stumbles along the way, but what a great opportunity for growth and new learning
Besides, most people are very understanding when it comes to parental leave because there is a built-in level of compassion and love that we all share as people.
Happy to say taking a month off proved very successful. Shout out to my incredible team, Emily Parsons and June Hauser for guiding the ship in my absence.
Happy 2025, and if you are looking for casting support on any upcoming video or photo productions in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Austin, LA, or Denver, we are here to help! Email me at Taylor@auracasting.com
