Episode 216: Cecilia Escobar, Founder, Accountant, Payroll Expert

For this episode, I sat with Cecilia Escobar, Founder and President of Smart Accounting Solutions. With more than 30 years of Entertainment Payroll and Accounting Expertise Cecilia has held executive and senior management roles for multiple entertainment payroll companies like Media Services and Axium, and most recently, she was the Vice President of Payroll Operations at Entertainment Partners. 

In between these positions, she freelanced as a payroll and production accountant on major motion pictures and studios for over 18 years.

Cecilia is a Multi-Cultural Client Business Partner, leading efforts for Multi-Cultural Diversity in the Industry. She has hosted many Diversity Client events as well as sponsorships to Diversity Production Summits and Trade Shows. One of her latest pet-projects is bridging Latin American Film Productions with their US counterparts. 

Cecilia is currently a member of multiple entertainment industry associations including N.A.L.I.P., Women In Film, and Hispanic Professionals.

She has just started a non-profit called Sandbar Sanctuary – a Horse Rescue and Equine Therapy for Abused Women. With her love of horses, she hopes to help women bond and find a way to heal through therapeutic equine experiences. 

To reach Cecilia: Info@sasolutionsinc.com

Episode 99: Hilary Wagner, VP Production Finance, CBS

Hilary is the Vice President of Production Finance at CBS Studios. Here’s a story about how the entertainment industry lures you in. If your first couple of jobs are Seinfeld and Waiting for Guffman, are you really going back to corporate audit? Of course not.

Hilary tells her story of how she worked her way up through production accounting, to production finance on the studio side with a brief stint in the production department.

She’s now at the point in her career where leadership and mentorship has become as important as getting the numbers right. It’s legacy time, and when you can see big trends in the industry and are positioned to make a difference, you do.

Episode 65: Fran Lucci, Production Consultant, Options Trader

Fran is currently a Production Consultant, with a background in Production, Accounting, Marketing, and Music. She is also an options trader and she explains the whole thing. It’s a bit intimidating. Fran is both brilliant and talented. I have always said math and music are different sides of the same coin, and she proves this out.

Some lessons from musical theatre stick with you forever: when someone asks you if you can do something, the answer is always YES! (And then you sure better figure it out for real.)

If you agree to take something on, you take it on 100%.

…..and we may or may not sing.