Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Goodstein.
Elizabeth has spent her career empowering badass women to share their stories. Prior to joining Madison Wells in 2019, Elizabeth worked at Hello Sunshine during her MBA, focusing on amplifying Reese’s Book Club. Before that, Elizabeth was an Agent Trainee and worked for the Head of Lit, Books-to-Film-and-TV, and Live Events at WME. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Columbia Business School.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
While I have no personal connection to the entertainment industry, I grew up in a household where my father was a cinephile and my mother a theater nerd. This meant that a lot of our free time was dedicated to watching great films and singing showtunes. Like for so many others, stories were my escape. I always wanted to work alongside creative people and empower them to share their gifts with the world. It was with this background in mind that I started working for Florentine Films at the age of 16 and convinced ICM to take a chance on me as an undergraduate intern. Those opportunities were transformational and helped solidify my passion for pursuing a career in entertainment.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Madison Wells we are uniquely built in such a way that enables stories and/or relationships in one medium to translate into another. I believe this is one of our competitive advantages. There are numerous examples of us walking that walk — whether taking a story from a company we invest in and adapting into a television series or having our creative teams decide that a book initially optioned for Film/TV would be better served by starting as an adaptation in Live theater. The practice of adapting source material in and of itself is not disruptive. However, the internal systems we’ve worked hard to hone enable this kind of nimble decision making and action.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I didn’t realize a boss at WME needed a visa to get into India. She was leaving in 72 hours from when I discovered this. I learned about the power and importance of building real relationships outside of one’s day-to-day. Those relationships often prove essential, most of the time when you least expect it. Let’s just say my boss made it to India.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
A person I have turned to a few times — when I really needed someone whom I admired to show up for me — is Strauss Zelnick, of ZMC, Take-Two Interactive, etc. He might not realize it, but Strauss has taught me lessons big and small — i.e., to always answer emails within 24 hours, to take the professional road less traveled when you care deeply about what you’re doing, to directly ask for advice when you need it, among other best practices. While I don’t speak to Strauss all the time, when I have made it clear I have needed his wisdom, he has always been there. When recruiting post-business school, Strauss had a clear POV on the paths I was deciding between. The impact he made on me in that moment was: 1) recognizing the importance of building relationships in which a mentor can be honest and 2) inspiring me to want to grow up to be someone like Strauss, who countless young professionals rely on for guidance, etc.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption is a term that is both overused and not necessarily a good thing, although it has become synonymous in today’s world with cool and innovative. From my perspective, disrupting an industry is positive when the disruption leads to a more equitable environment within that industry or ecosystem. An example of positive disruption would be some of the disruption that has taken place in the healthcare industry. For example, it is now possible to access quality healthcare from the touch of one’s phone or laptop, enabling access for those whose work hours are inconvenient for receiving in-person care and/or who live far away from an in-person facility. On the “not so positive” side of the coin, I am biased, but I do not believe in the newfound economics created by the streaming model. 1) Independent producers have been completely disadvantaged by the back-end buyout/buy all rights strategy of the streamers, even though these producers are often essential in the ‘making’ of a film or television series, and 2) I’m not reinventing the wheel when I say that the business model of streaming doesn’t make sense from a profitability perspective (see: most recent earnings reports and the big media market correction).
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond. Operating in a smaller, more high growth environment allows one to make more of an impact in the day-to-day (and also contributes to more learning than if everything is already figured out for you).
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
There is a major injustice in how venture capital dollars are allocated in this country (and world). We invested in a female-founded podcast company called Lemonada Media earlier this year, and I’d like to continue to deploy capital into early-stage businesses we believe in, whose mission aligns with our north star at Madison Wells, and whose founders might be adversely impacted by the biases that exist in traditional fundraising.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby have had the most impact on my thinking in recent years. The former because Jeannette’s story teaches that resilience and perseverance are possible, even against the greatest of odds. The latter because we should all strive to live a life of fulfillment, with respect and care for others — as opposed to regretting how we behaved after it is too late.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor E. Frankl. In the context of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl teaches that no matter what atrocities or horrors a person experiences in their lives, one may choose one’s attitude and thus choose one’s own way in response. And that ability to choose is the very definition of liberty and freedom. This is true in every trivial aspect of life, too. It is a reminder that we are (mostly) in charge, even when it feels like we have lost our way or are deeply frustrated or feel like it is all too much.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I am not a person of great influence, but if I could inspire a movement it would be to actually codify the separation between church and state. Meaning, reproductive rights and marriage rights, etc., would be deemed human rights (and in no way politicized by our politicians because of religious beliefs, powerful lobbying groups, etc.).
How can our readers follow you online?
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
