Career Reinvention: How One Producer Pivoted Across Industries

Summary

Podcast Summary:

How Much Can I Make? — Real Jobs. Real Stories. Career Insights
Episode: Career Reinvention: How One Producer Pivoted Across Industries
Host: Mirav Ozeri
Guest: Cynthia Coyne
Date: April 20, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode explores the mindset, strategies, and real-world challenges behind career reinvention through the story of Cynthia Coyne, a producer who has successfully pivoted across advertising, entrepreneurship, event production, and more. The conversation offers insights for anyone rethinking their career path and delivers practical wisdom on transferring skills, embracing uncertainty, and navigating change in an increasingly unpredictable job landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cynthia’s Career Trajectory and Mindset

• Cynthia began in advertising as an art buyer, hiring visual artists and interpreting creative briefs ([01:15-01:48]).
• Facing a demotion, she chose entrepreneurship and started her own company, Right Arm Production, initially working out of a friend's closet ([02:04]).
• Her drive to carve out a niche in travel photography led to international work and sustained her production company for 20+ years, adapting to client needs and industry changes ([02:33-03:20]).

2. Pandemic Pivot: Project Bon Vivant

• The pandemic halted her traditional production work, pushing Cynthia to innovate.
• She launched “Project Bon Vivant,” an interactive virtual dinner party company connecting people across geographies with shared meals, music, and themes via Zoom ([03:33-05:07]).
  • Notable moment: Cynthia describes the first event as a “Travel to Maine” experience, with a fisherman shipping lobsters and oysters to guests and speaking about the catch ([04:03]).

3. Transferrable Skills & The Producer’s Toolkit

• Cynthia recognized her skills in production—budgeting, scheduling, people-coordination—were applicable across industries, from advertising shoots to event planning and even home-building ([06:27-07:25]).
  • “Being in production helped me build the house that we're sitting in right now.” – Cynthia ([07:08])
• She explains the dual role of problem-solving (business) and creativity (artistic), highlighting that “everything is in the prep” ([05:42-06:16], [12:48-12:54]).

4. Making Career Pivots: Motivation & Process

• Curiosity and an “insatiable need to continue exploring” drive her pivots, as well as a passion for solving problems creatively ([06:37-07:25]).
• Cynthia dives into research before switching fields, studying bids and contracts to understand differences when transitioning from photography to commercials ([12:54-13:35]).
• She clarifies that she doesn't abandon all past skills but builds upon them—her career is a “big ladder” for expanding expertise ([09:50-10:15]).

5. Managing Client Perceptions and Facing Risk

• Clients are sometimes hesitant when she evolves her offerings, requiring her to prove her capabilities in new arenas ([07:55-08:31]).
• Cynthia embraces risk, focusing on potential benefits rather than dwelling on what could go wrong: “I don’t spend a whole lot of time with risk. Everything has risk. Walking outside has risks. I would rather think about benefits.” ([09:13-09:30])

6. Dealing with Doubt, Challenges, and the Role of Optimism

• She acknowledges emotional ups and downs during career changes, with periods of doubt and client droughts requiring resilience ([16:10-16:49]).
• Optimism is a strategic asset: “Positivity and optimism are contagious... If you have the innate kind of energy that is optimistic and positive, people are really attracted to it.” ([00:02], [16:50-17:35])

7. AI & Industry Disruption

• Cynthia is realistic about AI’s impact on production; while AI can estimate costs quickly, it lacks the nuanced problem-solving and anticipation skills critical to good production ([14:29-15:40]).
• The larger concern is AI replacing the need for human-produced content, but she refuses to let fear dictate her path: “If I have learned anything... there’s never a downside to dreaming of something new.” ([15:45])

8. Luck, Manifestation, and Opportunity

• Cynthia credits luck—alongside proactivity—for much career success. She recounts landing a lucrative campaign with Walmart purely by happenstance during the 2008 recession ([18:06-18:52]).
  • “I made more money during that horrible economy with that one client... It was a complete fluke.” – Cynthia ([18:34])
• Manifestation and being “in the right place at the right time” play big roles ([18:59-19:02]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Optimism as a Career Asset:
  “If you have the innate kind of energy that is optimistic and positive, people are really attracted to it.” – Cynthia ([00:02], [16:50])

• On Career Trajectory:
  “My passion is in the artistic part of it, but my skill set is in the business part of it.” – Cynthia ([05:47])

• On Changing Directions:
  “It is an insatiable need to continue exploring... and I love the combination of problem solving with something that has some flair around it.” – Cynthia ([06:37])

• On Passion & Adaptation:
  “The ones that have been the most successful have been the ones that I’ve been most passionate about and able to use my passion as a propeller.” – Cynthia ([09:31])

• On the Producer’s Skillset:
  “Being a producer, being a good producer is all about anticipation and problem solving before it's the problem.” – Cynthia ([15:23])

• On AI:
  “AI can come up with an estimate in ten seconds, but they don't understand all the nuances... That is one thing that humans have over machines.” – Cynthia ([14:33])

• On Luck & Opportunity:
  “Luck is the most important.” – Mirav ([18:55])
  “There’s certainly an element of luck, but also manifestation is very important and being in the right place at the right time.” – Cynthia ([18:59])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Insights about Optimism: [00:02]
• Cynthia’s Early Career & First Pivot: [01:01-03:20]
• Launching Project Bon Vivant (Pandemic Innovation): [03:31-05:07]
• Adapting Production Skills Across Fields: [06:27-07:25]
• Process of Pivoting & Research: [12:48-13:35]
• Dealing with Risk & Doubt: [09:13-09:50], [16:10-16:49]
• Discussion of AI Impact on the Industry: [14:29-15:40]
• Luck and Career Breaks: [18:06-18:52]

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Practical Takeaways

• Build on your prior experience—treat your career as a ladder, not a series of disconnected leaps.
• Research and preparation are critical before pivoting; immerse yourself in the lingo, business rules, and networks of the new field.
• Passion and optimism are differentiators; clients and collaborators respond to positive energy.
• Accept risk as a constant and remain open to both failure and serendipity.
• Industry shifts (pandemics, AI, economic downturns) are inevitable, but adaptability keeps opportunities alive.
• Sometimes, the biggest break comes from unexpected places—luck and networks matter, but so does being ready to seize opportunity.

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Summary

This engaging episode uses Cynthia Coyne’s varied career as a lens to examine how transferable skills, curiosity, detailed research, openness to change, and a positive mindset can enable successful career pivots—even in unpredictable environments. Awareness of industry trends (like AI) and willingness to let go of outdated paths combine with resourcefulness, discipline, and a bit of luck to create a compelling formula for career reinvention.

Transcript

[A]

I believe that positivity and optimism are contagious and we live in a very cynical, pessimistic and fearful world. So if you have the innate kind of energy that is optimistic and positive, people are really attracted to it.

[B]

Hi, welcome back to How Much Can I Make the Podcast all about jobs and careers. Lets be real. The days of one career path are pretty much over. From the pandemic to the way tech and the world are moving, knowing how to pivot is the new superpower. Today I'm joined by a serial career pivoter, Cynthia Coyne. She breaks down the mindset behind the switch. So you're not just starting from scratch, but rather leveling up. Here is Cynthia. Okay, Cynthia, so thank you so much much for agreeing to do that. We're going to talk about changing career and pivoting. But before that, tell me a little bit about your career trajectory.

[A]

Okay. Thank you for inviting me to talk to you today. My career started in advertising. I did not go to school for advertising, but I was in love with advertising from an early age. I always thought it was like fun.

[B]

What did you do in advertising?

[A]

I was an art buyer. An art buyer is someone who hires photographers, illustrators, models, does contracts, but. But also interprets briefs into visual direction for outside executors. I got in, I really wanted to be a copywriter, but once I started working with photographers on the daily, I was like, I love this. I love photography and I love visuals. I also, I love artists of all kinds. And I worked for two agencies before I started my own company, Productions. I was facing a demotion at the advertising agency that I worked at and, and instead of staying at a company where I felt like I wasn't doing what I really wanted to, I just decided to start my own company instead.

[B]

So you are entrepreneur at heart.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So you started the right arm production.

[A]

Correct. Out of a closet? Out of friends. A great, wonderful guy, Greg Donuto, previous boss of mine, and I told him I wanted to start this company and he said, I've got space in my closet if you want to work out. And I said, I do. So that's what happened. So, so I started working almost immediately, producing photo shoots for advertising campaigns. Photography was the medium and one job just led to the next. The next. I really wanted to travel. I wanted to shoot around the world. I've always had a travel bug and I wanted to carve my own niche of doing travel photography for advertising purposes. And once I set my mind to it, that's exactly what happened. I've Traveled the whole world shooting. Yeah, I had the company, and I've had the company for 20 plus years now. And the company has shifted and changed with the shifts and change in the industry. So whereas it started primarily with print, over the years it has become whatever the client needs. And that could be video, that could be broadcast, that could. Recently, I did an event. Whatever production was required is what I would bend and provide before we get

[B]

into the changes that the marketplace demands now. And there are a lot. I just want to mention that during the pandemic, you started a whole new thing.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It's not connected.

[A]

I always thought I had a different business or a different company in me, and I wasn't really sure what it was. I had little stabs at a travel company, I had little stabs at a catering company, but nothing really had traction for me enough to stop doing production. But when the pandemic happened, it stopped it for me. In the earliest stages. I really thought there was like a way to bring different communities together with people who could not physically be together. There were still graduations and birthdays and events that were happening and people missing each other. So I reached out to a friend of mine and. And came up with this idea, Project Bon Vivant, which was a dinner party company that we would invite groups of people to attend on Zoom on the same night, all eating the same food with the same theme. And originally the theme was always travel. So our very first one was Travel to Maine. And I contacted a fisherman in Maine who flew everyone lobsters and oysters. And then he came on and he talked about how he pulled the oysters out of the fishing boat the day before. And then we would have the kids get involved and they would have drawings of sailboats. And then we had musicians who would come in and we would have a sommelier who would talk about the wine. And so it was a very interactive, super fun and engaging evening for an entire group of people who were all spread out all over the country.

[B]

And then he died. After the pandemic, yes.

[A]

But before the pandemic ended, it started taking on a different life of its own. We started doing corporate events. We did one event for a Philip Morris group that was included people four different continents, and we were hand delivering bottles of cava in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile. So what that experience taught me was that production is the base for anything. And no matter what the circumstance or situation is, there is a forward.

[B]

You have to combine all of this artistic and business endeavor into one.

[A]

It's very right brain, left brain. It really Is the. My passion is in the artistic part of it, but my skill set is in the business part of it. I like to solve problems. Doing these spreadsheets to me was like problem solving. I really get a total charge out of it when I do an estimate and I do my actual. And they are accurate. I love that.

[B]

That is really applicable to a lot of professions.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

You moved from the agency that you worked with to photography. So it's. You stayed within the field and the changes were forced on you because the agency you had to leave.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But the other changes, how did you make them? Because you got bored, because you wanted something new? What was the motivation behind. I think.

[A]

Yes, that's a good question. I think that it is a insatiable need to continue exploring. I have a lot of interests and I really love solving problems. I love solving problems for myself, I love solving problems for other people. And I love the combination of problem solving with something that has some flair around it, some style around it, some exploration around it. And it doesn't matter what the. What the vocation is if you bring that sort of energy to it. So, for example, we're sitting in my house right now. Being in production helped me build the house that we're sitting in right now. Understanding the flow of budgets and estimates and crew and timing and scheduling, it was the same thing that I'd been doing in a career, but just in a house. So now when I'm thinking about the future and the next career or the next building block of this career, I can imagine a job in construction project management.

[B]

Do you ever think about the perception of your clients? What do they think about you? Or you just don't want bother about it?

[A]

I have one client that I've worked with for many years. And when we went from stills to video and broadcast, I could feel that she was trepidatious, that I didn't really have the understanding to make the jump from one to the other. So I had to prove myself, prove that I did. And I knew that I could because I knew that they were the same animal, they just had different terms. And I am sure I have lost jobs along the way with clients who didn't want to take a chance on me putting myself in a new arena. And that's fine because you build a

[B]

whole new set of clients.

[A]

Yeah, whatever. Like I can't. The same way I can't control the environment and the political climate and AI, I can't control who hires me or doesn't or why. These clients, they have a very Hard job these days. And as. As do all these photographers. I was listening to your conversation with Phil there. There is not like a through line for any career now.

[B]

Nothing.

[A]

And the fact that there's no real job security that exists is either terrifying or motivational.

[B]

So before you change the direction of your career, do you think about the risk of what it will take or doesn't you are just like your gut feeling and that's it?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because I don't spend a whole lot of time with risk. It's like everything has risk. Walking outside has risks. I would rather think about benefits. And there's always a benefit to it. Even things that don't go well. If something doesn't really fly, how long

[B]

do you give it?

[A]

I think pretty quickly, either it just. There's just no interest in it, or I lose interest in it. And the ones that have been the most successful have been the ones that I've been most passionate about and able to use my passion as a propeller to acquire jobs and. Or new clientele.

[B]

You have to transfer your skill from one profession to the other in order to succeed in changing your career.

[A]

Yeah, see, that's. I don't think you do. I think you build. I think you look at your career like your. And your life like a big ladder. And you take your original talent and expertise and you just develop it and grow it and expand, expand on it and then shift as necessary. And if you are truly passionate and good at what you do and love it, you'll find something interesting in there. And I think you see that with consistency in fields and through people who love to work. You have to love to work, which is something that I think you. You have tapped into with this podcast. I mean, people that you speak to love what they do.

[B]

Totally. All of them.

[A]

And they. And it's a super old hackneyed adage, but if you love what you do, you'll.

[B]

You don't work.

[A]

You don't work. And that is a big part of what it is to be an entrepreneur and to certainly be a serial entrepreneur. I. I'm married to a man who never wants to retire until he's 80 something. Like, I would rather keep working myself and then change the type of work that I do, have adaptability and do something as I get older and want to slow down if I want to slow down.

[B]

So you mentioned before you're thinking of doing construction.

[A]

Yeah, it's a hybrid of construction. I love construction.

[B]

I love general contractor, what it is.

[A]

So general contractor and a line producer is the Same job?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And it's just a different application of it. So I think there is something in my line producer history and expertise that is applicable to construction.

[B]

How will you be able to explain this to new customers that want to build a house?

[A]

I think I would explain it to the builders, how I can fit in with them. I think I could explain it to the architects, how I can fit in with them. I think I can sell it to the designers, how I fit in with them. Years of being front facing with clients has given me an ability to speak to anyone up in and down the chain.

[B]

Cool. And you can show them a sample house you build. Exactly. You build your own house. Do you regret any of your pivots?

[A]

No.

[B]

So when the thing that you did with the drinks and the dinners during the pandemic was just. It just fit for the time of

[A]

the pandemic, so it started to merge into event coordination. It was something for bon vivant that worked so beautifully during the pandemic. But I, I'm not a caterer really and I'm not a party planner and I, that's. I would rather leave that to the people who love it. So it was time to just close the door on it.

[B]

Is there a lot of planning before pivoting and changing your career or you just jump in and whatever happens?

[A]

No, there is a lot. Every like life, everything is in the prep. Right. It's all the prep.

[B]

When you change from photography to commercials.

[A]

Right.

[B]

What was the process of preparing for that?

[A]

I started looking at bids from broadcast producers where I could get my hands on them. I asked friends to give me samples and examples so I could see what the terminology was, what the difference was in pricing from stills to broadcast, what the union rules were. I started digging around, digging around online to find out what the changes would be, what the hours that you would have to be from one discipline to another discipline. And then I just started getting on the phone and asking people questions about how to make that a smooth transition.

[B]

So was there any change that you were considering and you looked into it and then said, that's not for me, and you left it alone.

[A]

It's like the travel thing. So many people have said to me over the years, why don't you do this for a living? You know exactly where to go. You like, you know exactly when you get there, what to do. You have your maps, you have your contacts for captains of boats and drivers. And you have to have a very specific timeline of how to get up that hill to get that.

[B]

You've Got the whole network.

[A]

Exactly. The more I learned about the travel industry, the more I realized where the money comes from. And you have to steer people to specific places in order to get the money. So you have to steer them to a particular type of hotel or hotel group or a particular outfitter and be reliant on what those provide. That is not the way I wanted to recommend travel. So that was, that was a non starter for me.

[B]

You skill or producing? Do you think AI will kill producers job?

[A]

There is a lot of panic in the industry about AI in advertising and marketing and PR and all the related. For sure as a producer I think it can be useful as a tool, but I don't see it as threatening as a day to day thing. AI can come up with an estimate in 10 seconds, but they don't understand all the nuances that are within an estimate. That is one thing that humans have over machines, especially someone who has years and years of expertise in particular places. You know that you're going to come over in a particular place, you know that the there's going to be waiting time for the cars, you know that there's going to be a travel aspect. But AI could never anticipate that. And being a producer, being a good producer is all about anticipation and problem solving before it's the problem. But the larger threat is what happens if photoshoots are proved unnecessary, deemed unnecessary because of what AI can generate. That is the panic that is setting forth in the industry.

[B]

Does it make you think about a new direction to build on your career?

[A]

It doesn't. I don't want to spend a ton of time worrying about this incoming fearfulness that AI has brought in the industry. But I'm also not an idiot and naive enough to think that it will never affect me. And if I have learned anything through my timeline of working in this industry is there's never a downside to dreaming of something new.

[B]

What would you say is the biggest challenge in changing your career? Even though you building on the skill, skills you already have, there is an

[A]

emotional challenge to it. Even though I'm strong and strident and passionate and believe in myself and have confidence, there are moments of doubt of can something really ignite. Right. Exactly. And the same as any freelancer goes through gaps in time where you're just not working at all, you have to have a very kind of strong constitution to get through through those periods of time. Because we are relying on a client base that has nothing to do with us. You never really know where the clients are going to come from, and you have to be out in the world. I do believe that if I can get a meeting with somebody, I can get a job. And I don't even know what that job's going to be. But I do believe that. Like, I believe that. I believe that positivity and optimism are contagious. And we live in a very cynical, pessimistic, and fearful world. So if you have the innate kind of energy that is optimistic and positive, which is hard right now, people are really attracted to it and they want to be around it. And I've seen some amazing sales pitches that were based purely on the promise of something fun and interesting and less about the nuts and bolts of it. And people like that.

[B]

So basically, to change your career, you have to have the idea and the passion. You have to take time for research. You have to adapt your skills to the new thing. And voila.

[A]

Yeah. Keep your eyes and your ears open. Look for the opportunities. In every downturn, someone is getting an upturn. I remember in 2018, that horrible year. 2018, was that 2008.

[B]

Excuse me.

[A]

In 2008, when there was that huge economic downturn and everybody was panicking. I got a job with Walmart. And that job with Walmart to shoot for them. To shoot for them to do. It was a campaign. It was a small campaign for one of their. The one of their apparel groups. And that job turned into four year constant. It was unbelievable. I. That I made more money during that horrible economy with that one client that happened to be making all the money. And it was a complete fluke. It came from a weird. Somebody's husband knew someone who was working at a. At a PR company who then left before I even came on the job. It was just.

[B]

I hear it a lot. It's luck. Luck is the most important.

[A]

Yeah, there is a. There's certainly an element of luck, but

[B]

also manifestation is very important and being

[A]

in the right place at the right time. And maybe that is lucky.

[B]

All right. And on that point, thank you so much.

[A]

It was fun talking to you.

[B]

That's a wrap. Big thanks to Cynthia for breaking down how to turn your past into your future. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to follow and share. And I'll see you next week on how much can I make?