Daily Inspiration: Meet Alexander Hughes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Hughes

Hi Alexander, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Spin a globe of the world so it’s totally focused on the Pacific Ocean. See that tiny little spec of land there in the middle? That’s Hawaii. My dad calls it the “Piko” of the earth. Different than Pico the street, Piko means bellybutton in Hawaiian, the center, the navel of the planet and it does kinda look like an origin point. That one island with the active volcano, the Big Island is where I’m from. Arrived in Los Angeles just before the turn of the century by way of Northwestern University in Chicago. Talk about weather shock. Thought maybe I’d be a theater major, but found that I liked film and television better. Drove to Los Angeles the day after graduation and have lived on the west side ever since.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Thought I’d work in feature animation, but couldn’t compete with the more talented CalArts and USC kids. Interned at a couple places, but back then internships were unpaid, so when I ran out of graduation money, I took a production assistant job in the marketing department at The WB Television Network in Burbank. Found I really liked on-air promotions. It felt like we were producing little :30 second short films every week. Found I had the patience for the branded content side of the business when no one else wanted to deal with the headaches of clients and agencies AND marketing and sales and legal and show production. Been doing integrated creative advertising ever since – at The WB, then The CW, and then FOX Entertainment. Finally got caught up in the recent Hollywood layoff wave with a bunch of other talented folks in July 2024. Took the opportunity to start freelancing and consulting and thinking about next steps. Strange days in the business.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
To help with the job hunt, I started building a database of Los Angeles creative vendors organized by area of town. When it grew to over 2000 companies and fun insights started to emerge about the industry, I thought it would be a useful thing to share with my fellow job seekers. The aggregation effort turned into a field guide book sorta like a combination of those old Hollywood Creative Directories meets a Thomas and Zagat guide, with details about the top entertainment companies in 30 different parts of town – Agencies, Production Companies, Studios, PR, Experiential, etc. There’s blurbs about Santa Monica, Burbank, Culver City, and all the way from Encino to El Segundo. Even for someone who’s been in the business for years, there were a lot of surprises. I like seeing that different parts of town have distinct vibes and styles of creative. It was impressive and inspiring to see how amazing the Los Angeles creative community is, and all the interesting work happening all over town. I hope it stays that way.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I wish I had a guide like this book starting out. It would have helped me pick where I might want to live to be closer to where I wanted to work. The advice that served me best – when you’re faced with a problem that you had to have someone else help with, always follow up with them and asked how they solved it. Folks usually love sharing how they got to a solution. Building your toolkit of troubleshooting fixes is cumulative and gives you an easy reason to find out how the systems work. Asking good questions is a superpower.

Pricing:

• 7.10

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sidequestions.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex1hughes/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SideQuestions