We recently connected with Haely White and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Haely thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?

In a world where content is king, inspiration can come from the most unexpected of places. And let’s face it, real life is often stranger than fiction. As a writer and show creator who’s ‘here for the plot,’ I always draw ideas from my own experience, but this next story was something I could have never fathomed.

The day began like any other normal day on set. My business partner and I were shooting a commercial for a client and after wrapping, considering the crew was still there, we decided to head out into the street to shoot some additional content just for fun.

A few more actors joined in and we shot a silly sketch in the middle of the street. There were high kicks, head banging, booty slapping and more content that absolutely no one asked for. About roughly an hour, our cringe dancing was abruptly interrupted.

A women fled onto the street, sobbing, with her daughter by her side. She informed us her house had just been robbed mid daylight and nearly everything was stolen.

“How long have you been out here?” She asked.

“A couple hours or so,” I said.

Turning to look back at our crew, we realized that not only did this robbery happen at the same time we were busting a move on the exact same street, but we had cameras rolling the entire time. And not just one camera. Three.

But rather than halting production and going inside to review the footage immediately, the show must go on! After all, we were losing light.

Perhaps more cringe than our dancing, was the family and police (who’ve now arrived), waiting to review the footage and forced to watch us finish this sketch directly after their entire home had been ransacked.

We sheepishly finished and hurried inside to look at the footage. It didn’t take long to spot it. It was all there. The getaway car, the driver… all of it. The only problem is you had to zoom past our booty slapping to get a closer look. I couldn’t stop laughing which I’m sure felt wildly inappropriate, given the circumstances.

So did they catch them thanks to our fantastic footage? You bet. Did we ever release that sketch to the public? No way in hell. But did we craft a half hour television pitch based on this story? One hundred percent. Perhaps you’ll see it soon!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Sam and I started our content studio, Don’t Call Me Mommy, completely by accident. Seriously.

We were catching up over wine one evening, and after unpacking the insanity of early mom-hood, I wondered savagely to Sam why ‘No one told us any of this shit!

Turns out the next day Sam had a pitch for an online platform, and from our half-baked napkin idea, we sold our first digital series “Shit No One Told You.”

Don’t Call Me Mommy fits between the ad agency and influencer model, providing a one-stop-shop for comedic content production for streaming platforms, brands, and television. We’ve been creating content for over 5 years now, including the first scripted content for several platforms including PARENTS and FabFitFun, and have garnered over 100 million views online. We’ve been featured on CBS Evening News and been lucky to have so much fun doing what we love.

My new platform, Midlife Awakening, was founded in 2023 to create conscious community through LA-based events, as well as content about spiritual awakening and the journey to better understand ourselves. We are launching apparel soon and look forward to creating a new kind of community that’s based on self-love. Join the mailing list at www.MidlifeAwakening.club.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my co-founder, Samantha Gutstadt, while we were both hosting a red carpet event for LA Comedy Shorts. We had been paired together to run interviews and hit it off. To this day, we still have the same chemistry we did back then and it’s fun to think about how it began many moons ago.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was hell bent on being able to pull off being both behind the camera and in front of it. Several trusted veterans told me outright you didn’t want to do both because it would muddy the waters. I was strictly told it was important to be laser focused on your single path and stick to it. Mind you, this was before multihypenates existed, and Broad City and Lena Dunham had not yet entered the zeitgeist.

I figured I would first go into production, taking whatever PA gigs I could find, while secretly submitting myself for auditions and taking headshots. It wasn’t long into my acting career, if you could even call it that, where I felt incredibly empty because *shockingly* Budweiser auditions in a bikini and Dead Girl number 2 castings weren’t exactly squeezing my juice.

My roommate at the time was taking comedy classes and we would sit around, and rip apart shows, making jokes and turning everything into a comedic bit. Next, we started writing sketches and that turned into a partnership and an award winning digital series. From the success of our online show, DATED, I found myself pitching a series at Lionsgate, and suddenly realized I wanted to be a writer.

As my work evolved and I began content studio, DCMM, I was suddenly writing, directing, producing, and acting in spots for brands, writing the parts for myself! It’s ironic to have seemingly “failed” at something in the traditional sense, only to come back to it, in a roundabout way. If I had listened to the so-called seasoned veterans, who knows if I would even be here, but I followed my gut and wrote my own parts. Casting, be damned!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.haelywhite.com, www.dcmm.tv, www.midlifeawakening.club
• Instagram: @haelywhite, @dontcallmemommy, @midlifeawakening
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haely-white-5295184
• Other: Everything Is Awkward Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-is-awkward/id1690696758

Image Credits
Matt Beard Maxine Bowen Stephanie Day