Monica Lago-Kaytis - RISE UP ANIMATION | AW08

Do you know someone who’s been a victim of racism? Maybe someone who’s experienced discrimination because of the color of their skin? Here at Alicyn’s Wonderland, we want to show our support to the BIPOC community. Just like this week’s guest. Monica Lago-Kaytis, CEO and producer at Frogbot Films, talks to us about her new venture as co-founder of Rise Up Animation. 

Rise Up Animation is all about giving the members of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community an equal chance at a career in animation. This is especially relevant now, as the pandemic has caused even more hate against our brothers and sisters of color. Monica, together with 3 other co-founders, established this nonprofit organization to offer free advice, portfolio and resume feedback, and even mentorship. As someone who has mentored a few talents, I think this episode hit really close to home. Show your support and listen in! 

Show Notes:

[4:06] The conception of Rise Up Animation.

[15:36] Rise UP Animation’s short-term and long-term goals.

[22:11] Monica as Frogbot Films’ CEO and producer.

[24:53] What is the positive change that Rise Up Animation wants to achieve?

[40:28] Rise Up Animation success stories.

[38:44] Q&A with Monica during the live IgTV.

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Twitter: @Alicyn 

Transcript :

Intro Welcome to Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm your host, Alicyn Packard. Join us as we journey through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. Hey, do a girl a favor, and please subscribe to this podcast and go on iTunes and leave us a good review. If you like the show, please help spread the word, it really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. Alicyn Happy Wonderland Wednesday. Welcome, welcome. Happy Wednesday, everyone. Thanks for tuning in live. This is Alicyn Packard and today's guests on Wonderland Wednesday is Rise Up Animation. This is a relatively new organization created to uplevel and elevate voices of black, indigenous, people of color in the animation industry. And our guest is one of the co-founders, Monica Lago-Kaytss, hopefully I'm pronouncing her name correctly. And we're really excited to tune in. So I'm going to go ahead and add Monica to the stream and we're going to get right into it. Hi guys, thanks for joining live. Hey, let's LetsTalkCartoons. And AlicynPackardFan, you're all up in this these days. Let's see. I'm going to go ahead and invite Monica right now. Everybody, Monica. Monica Hey. Alicyn Hi. How are you? Monica I'm great. How are you? Alicyn I'm good. Happy Wednesday. Monica Same to you. Alicyn I love your hair. Monica Oh, thank you. Alicyn It's amazing. It's so so well-fluffed, you know, for pandemic, as far as pandemic hair goes. Monica Well, you know, thank you. You're right. My, I, actually my husband has been amazing. He's been cutting my Mohawk. For me, yeah, he's gotten really good. But I have to also give credit to my cousin because she is an amazing stylist, even though she doesn't live locally. She can come into town and we'd socially distance. And so she did color it, so I've got it colored one time in the year. And then she showed Clay, my husband, how to like really cut it. So Alicyn Wow. Monica Yeah, and he just did it like a couple of days. Alicyn We're all discovering these new hobbies and skills that we have these days. Monica Totally. I mean, I really think it made us, look it's a horrible thing to have happen. Like everything, you know, I'm a cancer survivor. So I always kind of, I don't mean to look at the bright side but I kind of have to so at the end of the day I go, well you know, it showed us all these things we got, we all got so resourceful. Alicyn So many gifts. I agree with you completely. Monica You have to you have to try to get gifts out of these horrible situations. Alicyn AnimatedMelissa says, Mohawk haircutting is a skill. Sure is. Well thank you so much for coming on the show Monica, and and donating your time. Did I pronounce your name correctly? Monica You were close. You were closer than most people. It's the Lago that gets people, because Lago is actually Spanish for Lake. So it's Monica Lago-Kaytis or Monica Lago-Kaytis, but you got the Monica and the Kaytis spot on. Most people call me the Lago-Kaytai. Like they just, I don't know. Alicyn It kind of sounds like you run your own clan. Monica Right? Alicyn I don't know what kind of clan, but. Well, thank you so much. I first heard about Rise Up Animation, I think when you guy were just getting started. I was on an animation panel for my college alumni, which is Emerson College. And there was an animator Taylor, Taylor mentioned was on as well. And he was telling me about you guys. And so I was very intrigued. And I started following you guys. And I just recently really wanted to reach out and see if you would come and be on the show. Monica Oh, we're so grateful. I mean, you know, with something like this, of course, unless we're all together, we can't all get in on it. But Rise Up Animation was actually started by three men and they put the word out, and as soon as I heard about what they wanted to do, I volunteered immediately and then I guess my, my passion for, for all things came through. Alicyn And that's um, that's Frank Abney, Trent Correy, and Bobby Pontillas? Monica Correct. Absolutely. So it was Trent's idea originally, like, we need to do something, you know, we're all donating, people are marchingt's, i the pandemic. We, you know, we knew there were a lot of normal get togethers or conferences that happened in the animation community that weren't going to happen and people, students all over the world kind of wait to come to these events, they can get their portfolios looked at and so on. And so I think it was Trent that was like, You know what can we do? I'm with Bobby and Frank, and the three of them are like, Well, why don't we try to do like portfolio feedback sessions? And then when I saw that, I was like, how can I volunteer? And as I was volunteering, I realized, you know, there's, we need to do more than just portfolio feedbacks. We need to do resumes as well, because animation is a huge job, right? It isn't just the animators, though they are amazing. It's, there's so many different jobs. So you can be an artist, a production person, technology, overhead, so we wanted to make sure we were opening to everyone. And even though it's a US based, nonprofit, it is open, were International. So yeah. Alicyn Wow. Well, I know that there's at least one person on here from Jamaica that is interested in getting into the animation industry. So I'm sure he's, he's actually already helping to amplify voices and animation. So it's good to hear that it's global. It's amazing how social media has really shifted this industry to become so connected and so, so global, and have everything accessible at once. Monica Absolutely. And I think what we've seen during the pandemic, is the fact that a lot of other businesses, you know, Sperry, sadly, have closed, or have not been able to keep going, they had to shut down for a period. Live action. You know, we, we, I do animation and live action, and we had a bunch of live action projects that we wanted to put out there, and it literally, everything went on hold, right? You couldn't shoot. But animations kept going. And you're hearing about films, like literally getting completed during this time, and it's, and TV shows and everything. So it's, I think it's been amazing for animation, amazing that people are realizing that this is not just a fun business, but a very viable business. Alicyn But also a fun business. Monica And it's hard, it's really hard to make animated movies, you know? We've always kind of got a little bit like, you know, I don't want to say lesser, but you know, there's a little bit like in everything, there's bias, right? So live action looks at animation like cartoons, not realizing now these are movies that can take two to five years or longer. And they're, they're a lot of work, directing them and producing them is a lot of work. And anyway, so yeah. Alicyn Take that now live action. Monica First, you know, we don't have a lot of diversity in animation. So that was the biggest thing was like, how do we get more diverse talent in animation? You know, what are the barriers? We were always you know, when I was, I was at Disney for 23 years, and we were always thinking about it and trying to hire diverse talent, but we weren't seeing it. And I don't, seeing them, us, because I'm Hispanic, myself, and Jewish. And I didn't really see a lot of people like me when I was there. And so I think what we're realizing is there's a lot of barriers, right? There's socio-economic, there's being having even art schools online available, too. But I think there's something bigger than that, which is just lack of knowledge. I think kids don't know, young people don't know that you can have a career doing this. And so that's another piece of what Rise Up Animation is going to get to, we were doing more outreach, to educate the schools at a younger age, we want to go into elementary, and junior high, and high school, whether you have an art program or not. And be like, think of this, this is a career, you know, yeah, doctors, lawyers, basketball, football, but there's animation. Alicyn And I wonder, I mean, hasn't there been a trend to cut arts programs from public schools over the past 15-20 years? Monica Absolutely. Not in California, though, which is where I am, born and raised. But I mean, not to say that it wasn't even cut here. There just are now, there's a lot of laws that are trying to retain that and create spaces where art can be accessible to students. So there's a lot of programs, amazing programs that we're, I'm just learning about, you know, I just, I was never in the nonprofit sector before. So it's all true. And there's so many great organizations. But yeah, you're right. They've done a lot of that, in a lot of the US and you know, and it's even harder internationally. There are people in countries that we we do feedback sessions with and you just cry, they cry, and it makes you cry, all emotional because they want to do art, and there's so far for many schools, and, you know, you can't just get a visa and come into the US as we know, it's not that easy. So, so we try to give them tools, and we actually succeed at it, I think. We give them ideas and tools and things they can do. We provide the panels that you've seen, you know. Alicyn Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how much ground you guys have covered in the short period that you have been around. And I'm just curious, you know how many, so it's the four founders and then you guys have over 300 volunteers. Monica We have close to 600 volunteers, about 580 volunteers. Those are mentors because you can volunteer and depending on your background, you can be a mentor, if you have enough professional experience and the quality of your work is there, you know, or, you know, you can volunteer as an administrative person. So we have people that, I just had someone join us who's done event planning for years, and is looking to maybe move into animation and production management, but you know, isn't ready to mentor. So I was like, yeah, so we have an amazing group of people, we have a marketing and PR group that's phenomenal. I think that's actually really one of the first things that really kicked in, before I became a founder, was just seeing all the Instagram and everything. And so when I got involved, I was helping them to with another wonderful individual named Orienton to create the Nonprofit - Rise Up Animation. So we became a company, and you have to apply for your 501C. And so all that's gone through the government, and it's just really exciting. But you're right, it hasn't even been a year, our one year anniversary, is June 5th. Alicyn Oh my goodness. Monica And that's the community. And people, so one of the things I just want to share, because you're getting me so excited here, your personality value, I've been watching you and you're so fabulous. And I have a lot of energy too. And so it's just like this wonderful contagious. Alicyn I did, the minute we reached out, I was like, I felt like a soul sister connection. I was like, God, do I know you? Monica I totally get that. Alicyn Not yet but now I do. Monica Oh, my goodness, what was I gonna say though? I don't know. Because you're so amazing. I was just so. Alicyn It was the volunteer community and, like, less than a year? Monica Yeah, I think I was just gonna say that, like, the mentees are amazing as well, because they, they created their own discord, which you know, it's like Slack, but it's even for the younger generation. So they've got this discord that they created for Rise Up Animation mentees. So this is this entire community of people. And, you know, and I know what I was gonna say that, well, our you know, mission is to increase diverse talent, right? In animation, specifically, black, indigenous and people of color, by giving them you know, advice and feedback and the tools they need to make their dreams come true. We can't guarantee jobs, we just can't do that. But what we're finding is recruiters are interested, they're looking at the work, they're seeing people. And we've actually gotten like 30 people hired, I mean, not like we didn't, you know, but come in, they've come through our program, and they've gotten hired. So that's like 1% of the people who've actually gone through because we've had, probably, we have probably 2600 or 2500 mentees, and they come back. That's the beauty of our program is that you sign up and see someone for an hour and get your professional advice. And if that mentor has the bandwidth, and they say to you, Hey, you know what, I want to keep working with you. So you go ahead and email me anytime you have questions or any new artwork. That's great. But if that doesn't happen, because our mentors, we want to give them the flexibility, the mentee can sign up 60 days later, and meet a new, you know, professional, industry professional. And hopefully they've addressed any notes. So then, with even like, this is where I was, this is where I am now, what advice do you have, so you're getting different perspectives. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about what we offer. Alicyn So did the mentors go through a training program then? Monica They're just all industry professionals. At the end of the day, there are people who have been in the industry for over like three to five years. We, you know, that does not include internships, not because internships are not experience, they are and they're amazing. But it's not professional, so it's very different when you're in an intern program, and what's expected of you. So we really try to make sure that our mentors are well rounded. Because it's one thing if you've gotten hired, you've only been at a company or place for a year, you probably haven't dealt with all of the, I don't wanna say politics because it shouldn't be but but really, it's about the culture and dealing with, not always the easiest people or easiest projects, we need to also be, not just giving feedback about art, and, you know, emotional intelligence as well. Alicyn Yeah, and that is a part of it, how we're all growing and learning together. So it's really inspiring to hear you say that. Monica They don't really need training because at the end of the day, you're just getting on and you're just meeting somebody, that's why we try to do a half an hour - an hour session, you're like get to know them get to know what they want. And then really you're catering. You're just answering their questions. And if they have a portfolio or resume, you look at it and you tell them your gut, because most of us that have been doing this for over like three to five years or like me over 25, I've hired hundreds of people, looked at 1000s of portfolios and resumes, so you know, I think I have a pretty good instinct on what's working. Alicyn Yeah. Well, I mean, if you ever needed voice actors to be mentors, have you, do you have anybody in that discipline? Monica Well, I would say that I've been doing all of that. So people on the side that I have, they have been amazing. Like I have a, an amazing casting director who I work with in Disney, will see people kind of after the fact, she doesn't have the bandwidth to sign up. But I would love that. So we should totally talk about that offline. Alicyn Let's table that discussion Monica That would be phenomenal. Alicyn So um, can you tell us a little bit then, you brushed on this shortly about the short and long term goals? But can you just kind of spell it out for us for Rise Up Animation, short term goals and then your broader picture? Monica Yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, it's still kind of early for us. But I feel like we want to maintain the, what our core business is, which is our feedback sessions, keeping that really fluid because it's so hard to gain access to people. I mean, you can if you're lucky, you can ping somebody and maybe they'll respond. But this way,you know, it's guaranteed. You sign up, someone will see you, it may take a month or two but it happens. So we're not changing that. Our panels will continue. I think we've done like 50 of those today. We're starting to do more collaboration. So what you're going to be seeing more of is us collaborating with studios. Last one on um, wasn't last year, it was the beginning of this year, we actually took a one week collaboration with Nickelodeon. Alicyn Oh, wow. Monica Yeah, it was amazing. Alicyn What did that look like? Monica It was amazing. So it was Rise Up Animation and Nick U, their four-star animation group. And they did a full week. They did classes in the morning. And we basically opened it up to all of our mentors. So all 2500 people were invited and, Alicyn Mentees? Monica That's what I meant. Yeah, thank you. Sorry. Yeah, our mentees, I mean, our mentors can hang out too. But no, for the mentees, we didn't, they didn't open it to like the public. So you had to have gone through our program, which is, which is nice as well, because then they know that everybody is qualified. And so yeah, they did classes in the mornings. And then in the afternoon, they had like these drawing workshops where somebody from Nick would come in and, and they maybe they'd be like, Alright, let's do animals. And then everybody would be drawing together. And we always had a Rise Up Animation person there. It was fabulous. And we recorded them. But we can only release the recordings to people who are Rise Up Animation mentees. So that's another reason to make sure you sign up because once you've gone through a session, then you'll be able to see those ones that are ready. Alicyn So it's like a resource for online training as well. Monica Absolutely. Absolutely. And then some of the other things we're going to do is outreach, like I mentioned, so getting into schools, we're collaborating with a bunch of other amazing groups, you know, LatinX, Black 'N Animated, VES. And so we're gonna be doing a lot more outreach stuff. And then we're hoping, this is like a couple years from now. Alicyn That's the long term. Monica Yeah. It would be great if we could get enough donations, or we could actually create scholarships for people. Add to one of our goals. I mean, we can't say that we're doing it now. But we want to. So that's absolutely one of the big things. In fact, we just got our Rise Up Animation website up. They're still under construction. But yeah, it's cool. I'm so excited. Alicyn Yes, I saw that it was under construction. So it'll be launching soon? Monica It's actually, it's live now. Most are operational. People can donate. It's really cool. And they can volunteer through there. So volunteers are like, how do I get involved? They go there. Eventually, we'll have, I think we'll have our mentees utilize that as a way to sign up because we only open up our signups at the end of the month. We used to open them daily, but it became kinda unattendable. And, you know, we just realized that it was wiser to open it up for like three days at the end of the month. And that was it. And then all the mentors, just go to town and grab their mentees. And if somebody isn't seen, we always make sure to carry them over. And we always denote that, so everybody knows this person's been waiting. Alicyn Got it. Wow. So I know that you guys had a pretty big reception when you launched. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like, when you first announced Rise Up Animation? Monica Well, I can only speak from my point of view, because I was one of the people seeing the announcement. I wasn't you know, I think from what I've heard from the guys, it was just an outpouring of, you know, first just kind of love for the idea. So many people they, they put out the call and they got hundreds of mentors signing up immediately. And so I remember because I was one of the first mentors that when they first did it, they assigned like each mentor got three mentees and they all, and then it became much more streamlined. I mean, the guys I have to say to their credit, amazing, they did it. Amazing, because they're artists and directors, you know? They're not, I'm the producer of the group, so you know, they did a great job setting up the system. So it's really, yeah, I mean, I think we got a, I think we got a pretty, a really, well, warm welcome. And I think part of it is because we're filling kind of a need, that doesn't totally exist, you know, there are other programs, they do mentor for long term, which is, you know, that's a harder thing to do, right? You have so many mentors and so many mentees, you can do, we don't, we're not really like this. Alicyn And the other thing about the longer term thing is, I've mentored people through my school and stuff. And some people you just, you keep in touch with, they keep in touch with you year after year, and you become fast friends. And then there's other people that just for whatever reason, end up going in different paths. So kind of having the freedom and flexibility to be matched up with a variety of people can help you find your people and the people that you can learn best from. So I think that's a great idea. Monica Agreed. Again, with the discord. Once they go through, they get information on the discord. And they have a full community where they have like, they have the most amazing things they can, they can vent, there's like a mental health channel. And, you know, they talk about if they wanted to move in together, and food, and they critique each other's work. And some of them take notes from their feedback sessions and share it with the group. So yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I've done, they were calling me the Alexander Hamilton of feedback. Because I had done the most, I don't know if I still have because becoming a founder is kind of made it a little bit harder. But I have done 106 feedback sessions. Alicyn In a year? Monica Mm hmm. And all of the mentees know that they can always email me if they have a question. So I'm, I keep them all and I've created my own Google database. And I try to ask them if it's okay if I take a picture, because I'm not great with names. And so sometimes I'll get an email and I'm like, I'm like, oh yeah, you know, so? Alicyn Yeah. So then how are you juggling your time with your ft, full time? Monica Yeah, that's, um, I've actually been very lucky right now because of, because of COVID. And live action isn't really popping off. So I've had more bandwidth, because we're doing a lot of development. So I have my own production company. Alicyn Do you want to talk about Frogbot? Monica Frogbot Films. Yeah, just a little bit. You know, it's just, when I left Disney it was something that, um, my partner and I, he's my directing partner, he's also my husband we met, yeah, we met at Disney, like in 1994. Alicyn Win-win. Monica I know, right? And he's, you know, he's an animator and a director and I was production person, so it kind of worked out. Um, so when I left Disney, he had already directed his first animated film, which was The Angry Birds Movie, the first one, with Fergal Reilly. And so after that, he wanted to do some live action. So we did do a live action film together, which was the Christmas Chronicles, starring Kurt Russell on Netflix, but it was the first one and clay directed that I was one of the producers. And that was a great experience. And then after that, we just started developing stuff and trying, you know, going out there to sell. So that would be based on books, or maybe scripts that came to us. And of course, we're gonna have our own ideas as well. So that was kind of heating up and then with COVID, so it was kind of perfect timing. We're also building a house right now. So I have like, four jobs. It's probably more like six, but it's like the nonprofit is, I would say is taking most of my focus right now because I really want to get it going to be really robust. But it just help us run it. Frogbot Films, and then building a house, and then running the household. You know? I am married to somebody who's working full time, even if it is in the garage. Alicyn Somebody needs to cook or at least go like this and order. Monica Yes, exactly, meal planning because it was high risk. So we didn't, we didn't order in for, I don't know, six months? I cooked every meal and I love to cook so it's all right. I mean, I have a little, a little silly YouTube channel called Monica cooks in her PJs and it only has like four videos because Clay's too busy to edit the rest, but. In my PJs. Alicyn How did I not come across it in my research? Monica I don't know, but I'm glad you haven't. Anyway. Alicyn Well, if you want me to share a link just send one over. Monica If people find it, they can get a good laugh. But I will say the recipes are great. Alicyn Yeah. What do you like to cook? Monica Thanks, ClayKaytis. He just said Monica is the best cook. Alicyn Oh. Monica He's my husband. Alicyn You know, Clay, there's little hearts in the corner. You can give your wifey some. There we go. Give her some love. Monica Great. Great. Alicyn Um, so um, you know, you speak, Rise Up says their mission is to help positive change in the industry for black, indigenous, people of color. And so I just was curious, have you guys discussed what positive change looks like? Monica Well, for us, it's people getting hired, honestly. Alicyn Getting hired. Monica Because when you're in the door and, you know, like, a lot of times people will come to you and they'll say, Oh, I want to, I want to do a diverse hire, I'd like to hire a production designer, that's African American, or Latino, or Filipino, or what have you. And I will say, actually, the hardest one is when they say, I'm really looking for an African American production designer, because you look around and everybody ready to come up is not that. That's a real problem. So I think for us, the icing on this cake for us of what we're doing is knowing, and we always ask them to let us know if they get hired, that it is getting in, because once they've gotten in and they do great work, then they will move up, and then they will be the change themselves, because they will be in a position where they're doing the hiring. So I feel like, you know, that's what I'm supposed to do. I've always hired the best person for the job. But if they were diverse as well, all the better. That's how I look at it, you know, because, you know, I look around, and if I'm, if I'm hiring for production management, we're all, a lot of us were women, we would be like, okay, we actually need to get a male. Come on, let's get some males in here. Or if you look around, and everybody's white male, you're like, Okay, we need, you know, oh, we've got a female, oh, we've got a black male, great. Like, I feel like if you're looking at two candidates, and they're both really equally great, then, like, what do you need to compliment the group that you're already working with. And that's when you get that diverse voice. You know, if you have white men making movies about stuff, you know, and the female characters are female, they tend to do really well, because they do a lot of research, and they get a lot of people on, and it's great. But when those people aren't in the room, it's very telling. Alicyn Mm hmm. And so just providing opportunity to get more diverse voices within the room, whatever that need might be to round it out. So it's more like the general population. Diverse. Monica Absolutely. I mean, I, the other way would just be able to, if I had like, well, what's your dream for this? I mean, if I could get education, affordable education in the arts to our entire community, no matter where they are? That would be key. You know, brick-and-mortar schools are amazing. Cal Arts is phenomenal. Do they have relationships with tons of studios? Sure. Can everybody afford it? No, no. So, and I think the other thing, Alicyn, is that you don't have to have a four-year education if you're wanting to come in as an artist. Artists, if you're great, if your artwork is amazing, nobody's gonna care about necessarily how old you are, as long as you're over 18. Like, it's not, like I get a lot of people going well, I'm, I'm, I'm older, and I want to change focuses. I've been doing illustration, I really want to get into animation. I'm like, you know what your work is going to speak for you. Alicyn Absolutely. Monica So yeah, I feel like it's the one area where there's not as much ageism. There's a lot of other isms, I'm sure. But, um. Alicyn We're working on those too. For anybody that's just joining us, this is Alicyn's Wonderland. It's a weekly show, where we interview people that work in animation, and the video game industry, all different aspects, from voice actors, to animators, to Monica, the co-founder of Rise Up Animation, to, you name it, storyboard artists. If there's something that you want to see, send me a direct message, and we'll try and get somebody on. And if you want, go ahead and follow me, and we do this every week. So I hope you're enjoying it. Promo Hey, guys, this is Alicyn Packard. Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to let you know that if you like the show, please, please, please remember to subscribe to this podcast, and leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps us to get heard by more people. Thanks so much. Alicyn So back to this. I was curious. Obviously, you know, you've talked about some of the highs, but starting a major organization is big. Has there been challenges? And what were your challenges? Monica You know, I think it's just you don't know what you don't know. The guys and I, we've never, I mean, we each have our, maybe our own production companies. You know, I know Frank does. But we've never done a nonprofit. I know that the guys, I don't think had ever had to think about organizing in a way that they've done. So, you know, it's interesting. Lows, I think in the beginning, sometimes, you know, I've had some people challenge me, because they wondered, you know why we don't just let anyone mentor? We have a conversation because at the end of the day, yes, you want everyone's experience. However, you have to make sure that the person who's teaching is qualified to do so. Imagine you go to sign up for a class and you realize that your teacher doesn't have any, hardly any experience, you know? Alicyn That happened. Monica It does and so, for us, what we realized, especially when I became a founder, meeting with the guys, because we meet weekly when we talk about all these things, it was like, Hey, we need to be a little bit more robust about making sure people have enough experience. And we're not saying that we don't want you we're just saying do your thing. Work in animation, get as much experience as possible, jump around, do freelance, go to game, whatever it is, and then come back to us, you can always get back later. Just get you know, get your, get your animation on, so to speak. Alicyn That's right. And what, you know, hopefully maybe, well I don't know, and maybe I'm just jumping the gun but when the world does come back online, maybe you'll be doing some in person panels and stuff like that. So there's opportunities to volunteer that way. Monica Absolutely. We totally, I think the other, you know, when you're asking about other things, I was like, something was occurring to me about another kind of like, what's difficult, it's probably something that one of the mentors messaged. So we use slack for the mentors, right? And one of them was like, wow, has anyone else dealt with this? Like, I really feel like I had kind of like a counseling session with my mentee. And so many of us are like, Oh, yeah. Totally. You know, and he was, I think it was a he, he was quite concerned about what if he was saying the wrong thing, or what have you. And what I realized is, if you just listen, all you need to do is let that person know that you're, you're hearing them, that they're being heard. And that they need, they can take baby steps. Like I think at the end of the day, people need to know, they need true feedback. And I don't mean like really hard, slap you in the face feedback, but they need to know where they need to push and grow, and study their fundamentals, or redo their resume, because maybe they're trying to do the new fad, which has all these columns. And what ends up happening is, it's just a bunch of information, you don't know where to look. And I'm just like, okay, garbage. Like I, you know. So I think it's, Alicyn When you realize that the volume at which you may be seeing resumes or recruiter might be looking at portfolios, and you don't, you realize that there's, there's not a lot of time to make little mistakes, because it just is not gonna stand out. Monica No time. And I remember when I was, you know, when I was a student being told about how important your resume was, and you know, it was your calling card, it's the first thing, and I kind of didn't totally get it myself. But at the end of the day, especially if you're not an artist, if you're an artist, you have a portfolio of artwork, you have a real, you have something to show for yourself. But I always say, if you're a production person or HR, any of the other areas, maybe for technology, you can show somebody that you've written a great script. So that's cool. You know, like, I mean, script language, not like a written scripts, you know, if you're in technology, you all know that. Um, but with production people, we just have a resume and the jobs we've done and who we are, because it's all about your people call it soft skills. I don't necessarily like to call it soft, soft skills, it's like, to me it's it's how your personality manifests into behaviors and your elegance because I was actually born quite shy, but I project quite outgoing, right? And, but I'm an ambivert I'm not an intro nor an extra. And so I think at the end of the day, you you have to come outside of yourself and and be a certain way to, in the workplace. And then you can go home and just be quiet if you want Alicyn Ambivert is that, I never heard that phrase before. I think I'm an ambivert, too. Sound like a bossy, you swing both ways. Monica You can take, you can take a test. Alicyn Oh, wow. Monica The book, Quiet, I think it is. I think it was called Quiet. Living in a world of extra, like introverts or living in a world of extroverts. And there's like a questionnaire. I met the author. She was amazing. And I was like, I'm an ambivert. But everybody thinks I'm an extrovert. And she was like, you're just presenting as an extrovert. I'm like, Oh, interesting. Alicyn I think I'd like to read that book. But yeah, I mean, and I think a lot of artists too. Well, I mean, it's not always this case, but a lot of people that work in animation do tend to be introverts, which, you know, when you have an introverted side, you're not that comfortable pitching yourself and selling yourself. And that takes time. And unfortunately, or not even unfortunately, but that is part of the process, is becoming comfortable enough with your ideas that you can share them in a way that brings enthusiasm to you and hopefully the person that you're listening to. Monica Absolutely, I couldn't have said it better myself, and your pitch thing, and you know, you don't have, people aren't seeing that passion? They're gonna make assumption that's incorrect, potentially. So it is important, you know, it's a skill and it's something that we need to work on, all of us, you know, like, I have to sometimes work on just listening better, right? And, and letting that room breathe because I am, I can make decisions so quick, and I can take care of stuff, you know. Alicyn Are you a Libra? Monica I'm not. I'm Sagittarius. November. Alicyn Oh, yeah. Oh, really? Okay then. Yeah. Okay. Monica What are you? Are you a Libra? Alicyn Yeah. Monica Many of my best friends are Libras. Alicyn Yeah, well, and what you were just saying, I really resonate with that. The learning to listen and I'm also a mom to a five year old. And so sometimes I'm surprised that he's reacting and not listening. And then I'm like, wait a minute, you still do the same thing and you are a lot older than five. Monica Yeah. So I listened to everything but people think because my mind is going so fast and I talk so fast, that I may not have, that I didn't hear but I can multitask like nobody's business. Like I can be held talking to you, and the person's orders coming, and the person's got it wrong. And I'm like, No, they want it bla bla bla. I think it drives my husband a little crazy. Alicyn Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I'm curious. Well, I mean, there's so many different things. One of the things I'm wondering is, for people that are working in the business and want to become mentors, how do they get on board? Are you still looking for mentors? I mean, it sounds like you have a lot of people? Monica Oh, no, we're always looking for mentors, especially if you're listening, visual development, character design, environmental design, because those, that, I mean story as well. Those are the areas that people sign up for the most. So sometimes we have to close those areas, because we just have too many people and not enough mentors in that area. So yeah, all they have to do is go to RiseUpAnimation.org, and they'll see the volunteers, and they can go there and they can apply, but they definitely have to have at least three to five years of professional experience. And there's, there's basically an application form that you have to fill out. Alicyn Got it. And then is there a certain minimum amount of time requirement per month? Or is it? Monica Yeah, we asked for two hours a month from our mentor. So not a lot. It's like two people, you know, and of course, sometimes, you know, I was doing three or four a week, that's probably why I got to such a high number. And then when you start to have people come back and need to see you again, then of course, you, you reduce the amount of new people you're seeing, to see your mentees that are coming back around. Maybe they need a mock interview, or they want you to look at their revised portfolio, something like that. Alicyn And for your mentees, what are the requirements? Monica That's a great question, you just have to be 18 years or older. And also identify as a person of color. So you can be mixed race or biracial. I don't like to say white, because I think people identifying as white has not been a good thing, as a blank display. So if you consider yourself European-American, or you consider yourself white, solely that, then this is not the program for you. But if you're you know, Latino, Latina, or LatinX, black, African-American, Asian, you know, we have everything there. And you do have to, you do have to fill that out, that that's one of the things that I brought to the table with the guys, I was like, we can't have people saying, I don't want to say, this program is for BIPOC. And it's, and we're going to, everybody's gotta embrace that. So just to have another, people would write in very white supremacist type of things. So we got a, Alicyn What would that be? Monica Just like, you know, just haters, just people like, how dare you do this? And I'm getting my button on this stuff. So that was one of the probably the, you know, like the difficulties of starting this and realizing like, Yeah, no, we're not. I just don't play, you know, I'm just, like, take that off. Alicyn When you, yeah, it's like, keeping it within that positive space. Where we're here to help. And we're, especially in an organization that's completely volunteer, I mean, you're 100% volunteer, right? Monica 100%. 100%. We're, you know, we're hoping to get donations to help us with operating costs, like, Zoom, and some of the things that we do, but that's all out of the founders, we pay for everything ourselves. And, you know, we care that much. And, you know, back to kind of the, you know, there are a lot of programs, I mean, the world started as kind of a male, white male world. And so all of those things are still in place, right? And when we have systemic racism, right? It's not, it's not a fallacy, it exists. And so there are a lot of places where people who are not people of color, are getting help already. So this is very much specific to BIPOC people. And so if you are 18 and older and you identify as a person of color, you can sign up. You don't have to have a portfolio or resume, you can for general industry advice. And if you're younger than 18, what you can do is your parent can sign up. Alicyn Oh, wow. Monica So let's say your child was, you know, 12 or 14 or 15 or 16, and was interested in or maybe even 10, you know, I don't know, and they're interested in art and they're doing a lot of art and you're thinking I want them to speak to somebody. So you sign up. It's under your name, your email address, but you bring them to the session. All right, and guardians always there. Alicyn That's so sweet. Monica We're not, we don't do a lot of those, but I'm actually doing one next week. So I'm pretty excited about it. Alicyn Fun, how old, or you know what, we don't have to go into details probably. So that might be confidential anyway. But that's, that's so inspiring. Monica He's under 18, his mom is really proactive. I gotta say. Alicyn I love it. What are some of the success stories? Can you share anything that really moved you? Monica Well, I just, I mean, I'm very, I'm just an emotional person. I mean, I think tough and all but I'm just like, so squishy inside. So I would say anytime he's telling me that they've gotten an internship, or, I'm just, I mean, we have a celebration channel on slack. Where all the mentors, soon as they find out, they're like, Oh my god. One of our mentees got a job with this doing that, like, we're just, we're all just so invested in them doing well. And again, we're just trying to prepare them. So when they go in, or they send out their portfolio or resume or going for an interview, they do the best they absolutely can. That's all we can do for them. And so when they do get hired, and I think I've had eight of my mentees get hired, yeah, some are production assistance, couple artists. So it, a couple interns. That just makes me, makes me so excited. I just sent out an email to the whole community. And so they were sending back. So a lot of them I knew about because of our celebration channel, but some I didn't. So I was like, Oh my god. Anyway, yeah, it's pretty. It's just, I just get all. Alicyn Oh yeah. I mean, it is amazing how, how invested we get to the people's lives who you're helping, it's, it's almost counterintuitive, because in some ways, the mentee is so grateful. But being able to, my experience mentoring anybody is being able to relive the world, through their eyes. And remember how it was when you were starting out. And sometimes we forget how far we've come and people look up to us and think, Wow, you've had this success, are you you worked on this show, or you created this movie, that's so amazing. And at the end of the day, it's you need to be reminded of that, or you're always looking forward, if you never stopped to look back, you don't have any sense of how lucky we really are. Monica Totally, the founders and I always got this is we think sometimes more rewarding to us, than, you know, to the to the mentor, it's so rewarding. And I know I've always been that way, I've hired people at Disney and when and you remember, you're like I'm the person that said yes to that person and look at them now. You know, Gal, she's just I mean, there's been so many but there's one in particular who left as a herder as a production assistant. She's now at Netflix, and she's like, a development executive. And just like, I'm seeing her stuff now. I mean, the trip, you know? I remember when my, the woman who hired me at Disney, when she left, she turned to me, was it her that said it to me. And actually it was the, it was the producer on the same show, he said the same thing to me when he left. He said, the best thing I ever did was hire you. The thing I'm most proud about you is hiring you. And I feel that way about people, and touched me so much, I feel that way. There's people that I'm like, one of the best things I ever did in my life was given, you know, take a chance, whatever. And that's what we need to do on people that don't have all the experience or don't have the you know, these schools, these colleges that are you know, I don't even know what they call them because I didn't go to a school like that. I didn't have, Alicyn Where did you go to school? Did you go to college? Monica I did go to college. Um, but first I went to junior college because I didn't know what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. My mother was an artist and my father, a businessman. So I went to Los Angeles City College, LACC. My mom was teaching art there. I took her art class, and she gave me a B, which really stunk because I worked hard. But she was afraid someone would think it was favoritism. So she didn't give me an A. And then at the end of the class, she told everybody, okay, she's foreign and I can't do her accent. But she was like, Okay, everybody, I just need to tell you Monica is my daughter, they're like, No wonder. She was so hard on me. But that's how we roll. I was, I worked with my husband for years. And I was always hard on him to and then we don't like to show favoritism. We're very fair people. That's how I was raised. So I went to LACC, I was taking some business courses, didn't know what I wanted to do. My dad was like, you see how poor your mother is right? Like don't do. Alicyn Is your dad from Boston? Monica No but he, they're from New York. So he kind of had this like wiseguy thing going. Alicyn Yeah. My dad's from Boston, so. Monica So yeah, so I ended up going to, I actually transferred to Northridge, CSUN, which was a big business school here in the Valley of Los Angeles, and this was over 25 years ago, and it was so white at the time. I didn't fit in because all the schools I had gone to were mostly black, Latino, Jewish, like it was. So for me, it was very, it was a culture shock. So I actually dropped out after two weeks, and I transferred to East LA and I went to Cal State University in Los Angeles, and got my degree and then, and then Disney came but not, didn't even come knocking. It was my, my mother actually remarried when I was 18. She married an amazing artist named Doug Ball. And with her help, because she was his teacher, his art teacher. Oh, um, but don't worry, college level. Oh, she helped him put together his portfolio and he got hired at Disney on the Little Mermaid as a background painter. And so actually, Doug, who said, you know, Monica, I think, you know, because he saw, I produced everything. My mom was a very, is, is a very, she's still alive and I love her. She's very eccentric woman. Artists. And so I always took care of her. I paid all the bills, did the taxes before I was 12. Like, I just put my production. And so he was like, you know, Alicyn I still can't do my taxes. Monica We should talk about that. I'll help you. So, yeah. So he was like, I think you should just talk to somebody, if you don't mind. And I was like, okay, they're not gonna want me, I was in my 20s. And it took four months, took a lot of interviews, and I finally got hired. And you know, I was probably the last on the list. But they took a chance. You know, I didn't, I didn't go to an Ivy League school or any of these, like master's programs, but I was a quick study. And here I am. Alicyn Wow. Oh, I also wanted to put it out there that if anybody has questions for Monica, or Rise Up Animation, there's a little box at the bottom of the screen and feel free to put them in there. We're going to save a few minutes at the end for questions. Actually, probably pretty soon, because it's coming up on that time. So what do you hope that people take away from Rise Up Animation that people, our listeners and our audience? Monica Wow, that's a really, it's a very thoughtful question. I could take a second on that, I think. I think, what do I want them to take away, I just want them to know that there's a place they can go, if they are at all interested in the animation industry, and that it is a an amazing job, and you can survive. I know a lot of our mentees or their parents discourage them against going to art school because they don't think, you know, that you can survive financially. And you can so I guess know that, know that there's a place you can come and get information, know that we that there are so many people that are working with us all these other groups. Everybody's really invested. You know, I think there's there's, there's time for all of us where it's like, wow, it's 2021. And we're still in the same situation. We're still fighting the same battles, the same marches. You know, it's it's disheartening. But I think what I'm feeling slightly different right now, is that there is this, there's been a huge movement since the murder of George Floyd, not, not that it should have happened, no, and it should have happened sooner. But we're at a pivotal moment where everybody is actively like holding hands and saying, we don't want to just go, Okay, if I did my 10 minutes of that I'm done. It's like, No, no, no, this is this for good. I want, I want this to last. So I want our mentors to keep with us and stay with us and get more because we don't want people to get burned out and I just want us, I want us to have longevity, frankly. Alicyn Absolutely. Tell your friends, guys. Tell your friends get involved and do what you can. Let me just check out my question box down here. Wait, no questions. Okay, right, right, right. These are from the stories. This is a good one. Do you have a favorite interaction that happened because of Rise Up Animation? Monica Well, I will say what's really interesting is, because we're all so interconnected, I did this, we did the Nick University week, and two of the guest speakers, one of, I mean, some of our guest speakers were in production management, and they were working on at Nickelodeon on the Casa Grande is, which is their, which is fabulous. Of course, it's Latin, so I love it. Right, exactly. And so, but, one of the gal who was speaking, I didn't know that she was one of the founders of LatinX in animation. So that to me, was like one of those aha moments, you know, we met she was like, Hey, we were on that panel together. So I mean, for me, it's just seeing the best part of this is just being able to kind of cross pollinate with all these other groups. Because the passion is just there. I mean, theVvisual Effects Society that I've been working with those guys, the PGA, I mean, there's just all these different groups who are really. Alicyn Yeah, you also have a partner with Women in Animation now, right? Monica Yeah. I mean, they're like, they're like, Rise Up Animation's mentors, like yeah, we company. Marge, Dean, Okay. The people there have been so amazing. They've been, I mean, I've known them a long time. I've been a member of WIA since, I don't know, probably 2015. And I've always known of, you know, I've always loved Marge and everything. But when we started realize like, they had such a great nonprofit, we were like, you know, we need mentorship, and they've been really open and really very helpful. So yeah. And so we send the mentors to their mentor circles. And it's a really very, it's a, you know, animation people are amazing. You know, yeah, some of them are shy. That's why we work behind the camera right? Not in front of it. But at the end of the day, we're really good people. We care. And so it's a great community. Alicyn Love that. AboutFrendo had asked where they can sign up as a mentee, and if they need to be from USA. So Monica answered that question in the beginning, you do not need to be from the USA, you just need to be over 18 and a black, indigenous, person of color that identifies as that and you can sign up on their new website, what's the URL to that? Monica Well, actually, our signup is still going through Instagram, because that, the page is, it's still under construction. So I would say go to Instagram, Rise Up Animation on Instagram, you'll see a post that gives you the dates of when we're gonna open up our form. And then once we open the form, it's still off of the Instagram, there's like a little link tree that you go, go into, you'll see that usually at the top, and it kind of shakes and vibrates so that gets your attention. There's, that's to click on. There's a form, fill it out. Alicyn Fantastic. And a question for Monica from Alicyn back in 2002. My question is, who was your best mentor in your career? Oh, that's a good question, huh? Monica Well, it is especially a great question, but I didn't really have a mentor. I didn't have a formal mentor at all. Yeah, now, I have people I looked up to and just tried to glean as much as I could from them. I would say, my mom honestly was the first because she championed me no matter what, no matter what fear I had, she was like, you can do it Monica, you know, always. But when I got into Disney it was very interesting. They didn't have a lot of setup for, it was kind of a sink and swim situation. And I think over the years working there, because I became a studio leader as well, we tried to put in more like, wow, this would have been great if this existed when I was coming up, you know, type of thing. But actual mentors, you know, I guess what I would say is probably the people that come to mind would be a gentleman named Clark Spencer. And Clark is actually the general manager, I think of Walt Disney Animation Studios now. He's produced, he actually worked on Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia, he won the Academy Award for that. And even though he wasn't like my formal mentor, just watching him, and learning from him, and being able to ask him questions was amazing. And I think at the end of the day, we think we have to have these like formal like, will you be like asking someone on a date. Will you be my mentor? And really, the first thing to do is just to say, Hey, could I pick your brain? I love the work you do people like to talk about themselves. So there you go. Alicyn One more question. How has the administration role, you know what I mean, how has the animation role been affected by COVID? Well, this is a bit of a long question, but. Monica Well, I would just simply say that it's, it's actually flourished. People are able to work from their homes in animation, and they've been able to work all over the world. So I would say it's been, it hasn't hurt animation, that people are getting it done. I think the thing that we're all realizing is how are we going to move forward? If we can all work from home, do people want to go back in? And and I would say to that, yes, work from home part of the week, but there's something that cannot be replaced by going in and actually having collaborative meetings and brainstorming together? So like, you know, people have said to me, I want to do a four week day week, you know, and whatever. But I'm like, in production, there's no such thing, you end up working six or seven days a week. So for me, if I could go into work two days out of the week and spend the, you know, work from home or three, that would be great. That'd be ideal. We could go in and have those big meetings where you're kind of collaborating. So I think it's, I don't think it's changed for the worst, by any means. Things have gotten done. We've been able to release stuff and I think more people have had jobs because of it. Alicyn Awesome. And what about just before we depart, we're, we're talking more about representation and animation behind the scenes. But are you guys have any initiatives for representation in terms of animated characters? Monica Well, we don't, you know, I will say that what's great is like, each of the guys are directing stuff, right? So like, isn't Netflix. It's not an announced project, but pretty sure, I feel like it's African, I don't know if I can say that, he's gonna kill me. But you know, but you know, same things happening in Disney. So I think that we're starting to see that, because these organizations are being more inclusive, not just the people, the stories are coming, you know, I met a guy who's Brazilian, and he has this great idea for a show based on these myths in Brazil. And it's like, well, I wouldn't know anything about that. I'm not from Brazil. So, so I think it's like, I was gonna say, a stupid analogy, but it's like, you know, what does that feild of dreams, build it, they'll come. In the people, their stories exist. So the diversity will just naturally happen, because they're going to want to make noise about different areas. You know, and would I love to do something on South America or Argentina? Absolutely. So you know, I think it's, the onus is on the individual, you, you know, you just have to really, I think that's another thing, actually, that I'd like to mention is that people need to realize and lean into the fact that unless you were born here in the United States, unless you're Native American, it's just the nationality like we're, it's, it's, we're not from here, we're all generally from somewhere else. And we have roots that have stories. Look into that. And, and, you know, I know for all I know, when my mom came to this country, she was dissuaded from leaning into her culture, because it meant she was other, and she was beating the crap out of her every day because she couldn't speak English. And so she wanted to assimilate as soon as possible. And that's asking, and like, I can't tell you how many Latinos I meet. They're like, Well, can I, do I qualify? Am I considered a person of color? And I'm like, you don't know that? Yes. Yes. Look, we're people of color, hate to tell you, you know, so, you know, you can't judge a person by the color of their skin. Honestly, you just can't, you don't know. Yeah. So I was asked, what are your roots? Alicyn I know. It's a tricky question, too. Because, you know, in terms of roots, the stories that you hear from your family, who's to know if that's even true, right? I was always told that we have, my father's family's Portuguese and my mother's, everybody's from all over. And we've always been told a lot of Native American like my great grandmother lived on and, Miꞌkmaq reservation. And then I took a DNA test, and like, none of that came up. Monica So you don't know. So Exactly. So that's the thing. And a lot of people don't want to take DNA tests, I had, I had, like, quasi not an argument, but like a disagreement with someone because they were like, well, I don't know what I am. And I'm like, Well, unless you were adopted, if you're adopted and you don't know who your parents are or you don't know your lineage, I get that. But you can get a DNA test. It was exactly what my parents said. I'm half, like Latino, Italian, like Argentinian-Italian Spanish, and the other half absolutely 50% Ashkenazi Jew. Yeah. So, and people will have said to me, Well, you can't be Jewish if your mother's not Jewish. I'm like, that's the religion. There's a people, it's a bloodline. You may not want to admit that because you may feel like we're going to be persecuted again, and they're going to kill 6 million more of us. I understand that thinking, because that happened. But there's also a bloodline. I actually, that's why a lot of Ashkenazi Jews have cancer. I had breast cancer. We had mutations because we got to such small numbers of people. We started to interbreed to try to, you know, up the numbers of Ashkenazi Jews. Yeah. And it created a lot of cancer. No, just throw the best way. So um, yeah, Alicyn My mother in law is Rakesh Jain cancer survivor, as well, so. Monica I actually don't have the Brock, I have a different genetic mutations called P-10. Alicyn Yeah, wow. Monica Isn't that interesting? Alicyn kind of, I don't know, like, catchy, catchy, cute little name. That when you make it look good. Monica I make it look good. But I do a lot of stuff with cancer survivors as well. So that's another one of my jobs. I am actually working on a short, Alicyn A hero, you are a hero? Monica I try. But I am producing, volunteering producing an animated short on breast cancer with CB Wormers, who's an amazing director, and Allison Mann who's also directing, this is her first time directing. But she does more creative executive and recruiting stuff. And so, and we have Maggie Malone on and she's fighting. She's a breast cancer survivor, too. So we just have a lot of, a lot of very amazing women. Allie, who's a survivor of colon cancer. And you know, we just, so the whole, I was I was gonna say the whole cast, the whole leadership group, we're all survivors of cancer. And so we're all trying to we're trying to get people to work on a project that are either cancer adjacent, meaning they had a loved one who has battled or they themselves have had it. So anyway, that'll be coming in a while. But it's pretty exciting. Alicyn That, yeah, I'm very inspired by all the energy that you're putting forth in the world. So thank you so much for being our guest. Before, before we go, can I just ask, would you mind just saying, just, like do a little highlight reel and introduce yourself your name, from Rise Up Animation and just say, you get, you should check out Alicyn, or check out Alicyn's Wonderland or something like that, so I can cut it together. Monica Okay, Alicyn's Wonderland. I'm Monica Lago-Kaytis, CEO and producer at Frogbot films, I'm also one of the co-founders of Rise Up Animation, and if you haven't yet, you need to check out Alicyn's Wonderland, because it's amazing, and she's amazing. Alicyn Thank you. That was so awesome. Well, I will go ahead and share that, for anybody that's not already following Rise Up Animation, I'll go ahead and share the profile to my stories. If you guys are not already following them. Make sure you're connected and keep us posted of any new news. I'm happy to help spread the word. And thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Monica My pleasure. Thank you so much. So great to meet you. Alicyn Take care. Monica Bye. Alicyn Bye. Outro Thanks for tuning in to Alicyn's Wonderland, where we explore the wild and wonderful world of animation and video games. Please remember to subscribe and leave us a review. For more episodes of Alicyn's Wonderland, please visit us at www.AlicynPackard.com. See you next week.