MOSMAN DAILY, Thursday, May 26, 2011 35

Alive 37. A Wonderful Day 45. Dive into history

COVER STORYwith EMMA PAGE

Breaking down the mythsSam Folder’s Get Your Break!series:Recording artists: Interviewswith Ben Lee, Kate Miller-Heidke, Eskimo Joe, XavierRudd, Kisschasy, Cassie Davis,Urthboy, The Grates and AmyMeredith.Fashion Designers: Hear fromMarnie Skillings, ThereseRawsthorne, Bec & Bridge,Jessie Hill, Alpha60, Zanerobeand Nina Maya.Television Presenters:Interviews with CarrieBickmore, Fuzzy Agolley,Jules Lund, Ally Langdon,Danny Clayton, Yumi Stynesand Erin McNaught.Available:getyourbreak.com.au andmajor retailers. $1 from saleswill go to the ReachFoundation.

Samuel Folder intervieweda number of celebrities for anew book, including (fromtop) Kate Miller-Heidke,Nina Maya and Eskimo Joe.

Main picture: DAVE SWIFT

WHAT do television presenterCarrie Bickmore, rock bandEskimo Joe and fashion designersBec & Bridge have in common?

Rejection.Each of these successful

personalities suffered knockbackswhile toiling away at their craftbefore catapulting to nationalfame.

ARIA winners Eskimo Joe weredumped by their record label,Network Ten’s 7pm Project hostCarrie Bickmore never thoughtshe had the face for television, andBec & Bridge were snubbed fortwo years before David Jonesdecided to represent them.

But the myth of ‘‘overnightsuccess’’ still persisted, Mosmanauthor Sam Folder said.

‘‘People look at successfulidentities in the entertainmentworld and assume they had every-thing handed to them on a plat-ter,’’ he said.

‘‘The truth is they got to wherethey are through sheer hard work,stubborn persistence and, oc-casionally, a bit of good luck.’’

Mr Folder, who owns Red HillPress, has recently publishedthree titles aimed at giving youngpeople a realistic insight into howto crack the music, television andfashion industries.

The Get Your Break series fea-tures in-depth interviews with up-and-comers such as fashion de-signer Jacqui Alexander (wholaunched Skinny Nelson in 2008),

and industry heavyweights suchas singer-songwriter Ben Lee, andtelevision stars Yumi Stynes andAlly Langdon.

‘‘I wanted to give people a no-holds-barred look at what it takesto get a break - all my subjectsbroke down the myth that gettinga job in television or fashion isabout who you know,’’ he said.

Mr Folder said while somepresenters were in ‘‘the rightplace at the right time’’ - such as

Toasted TV co-host Kellyn Morriswho was spotted by Network Tenproducer Stephen Tate at an Aust-ralian Idol audition - successusually boiled down to ‘‘dedi-cation and perseverance’’.

‘‘Look at people like Jules Lund(Getaway) - he hired a personaltrainer and forked out $10,000 todo every television presentingand voice-over course in Aust-ralia to get a gig on TV,’’ Mr

Folder said. Confidence, self-belief , an entrepreneurialmindset, passion for their craftand a stubborn resistance to nevertake no for an answer were com-mon traits among the identities.

It took Mr Folder, who has a PRand creative writing background,11 months and close to 100 inter-views to compile the series.

He chose a cross-section of indi-viduals with whom today’s gener-ation of 15 to 24-year-olds could

relate. The books are aimed ateducating high-school studentsabout the reality of landing jobs inthe entertainment industry.

He said he was inspired to writethe series after his high schoolcareers adviser failed to give himuseful information on landing aTV role.

Mr Folder is due to release twomore Get Your Break publications- on comedy and acting - at the endof this year.

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