by Craig Colby
“Let’s talk tomorrow.”
The e-mail comes from Ellen Windemuth, a business colleague in Amsterdam, the day my release by Blue Ant Media is announced.
Ellen owns a distribution and production company called Off the Fence. OTF had been an important partner for years. At television markets we’d talked about everything from nature conservation to the merits of a Red Bull in the morning. I admire Ellen, so her note is a lifeline when I really needed one.
We talk the next day, like colleagues and friends. A few months later I sign a distribution deal with Off the Fence for the first three shows I develop. It’s a welcome reminder of how important friendships are to my career.
COVID Connections
Flash forward to September of 2020. Because of the pandemic, television production has hit the brakes hard. The work I’d lined up is gone. I’ve spent the summer creating online interview shows to market myself and expanding my contacts in the business world. Right now, I’m producing an online fund-raising event for the Aga Khan Museum, to replace their annual in-person gala. This opportunity comes through a university friend who had seen my social media marketing. When this production ends, however, I’m looking at a blank slate. There’s a long list of tasks I need to attack to earn some cash.
Then I receive a call from my former boss at Discovery Channel, Paul Lewis. Paul and I have stayed in touch over the years and we hang out together at conferences. We’ve heard the chimes at midnight. Paul heads the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, a gathering of the best factual producers and broadcasters in the world. This year the gathering will take place online. Paul’s assembled a great lineup of interview guests, including Bill Gates and Dr. Fauci. Paul asks if I’m available to produce seven sessions. He offers me some compensation options, none of which approach market rate. “I’m sorry I can’t offer more but this is a non-profit and our revenue is way down.” Of course I’m going to help Paul.
For the next two months, I work with top executives, producers, and hosts from around the world. Paul even asks me to moderate an interview with one of the directors of Tiger King, the hit Netflix Series. The gig is way more work than I thought it would be, but it’s invigorating. When my 12-year-old son Curtis finds out Bill Gates will be on a video call to our house, he asks if he can watch. We pull him out of school for the call, and my whole family sits quietly out of view during the interview.
Conference Calling
During the conference in December, my name is all over the Congress web site. In the chat box that accompanies the sessions people praise my work. I’m getting LinkedIn connection requests from around the world. A quarter of the 2020 traffic on my web site takes place the week of the conference. Paul tells me John Lynch now knows who I am. Lynch is a towering figure in science television. He led the BBC’s science division and was responsible for Walking with Dinosaurs, the ground-breaking collaboration between BBC and Discovery Channel (and one of only four shows to beat out my highest rated program on Discovery Channel Canada). Lynch has three British Academy of Film and Television Awards, two Emmys, and two Royal Television Society Awards.
This is heady stuff for me. For the bulk of 2020, the drop in income has me thinking about how to pay for my sons’ post-secondary education and my retirement. In Canada at least, opportunities in television were dwindling before the pandemic. I’ve wondered if I can still stay in this industry that I love. The World Congress makes me feel connected, hopeful.
Market Matters
On the last day of the Congress, I stop in on a Zoom coffee session and am put into a breakout room with enthusiastic young television producers. A filmmaker from New Dehli says “they don’t tell you how to work the markets in school. There should be a course for that.”
I say, “I can tell you all you need to know about the markets if you want.”
My breakout roommates say yes.
“This is the secret to the markets – make friends. They may be able to introduce you to someone who can help you. Those friends may become commissioning editors who can green light your shows. At the very least, you’ll have someone to talk to while you wait for your next meeting.”
“Here’s the catch, you can’t make friends to get something out of it. You have to make friends just to have friends. That’s the only way it works.”
I join another coffee session. It’s filled with the event’s organizers. John Lynch is in the room, speaking eloquently about the sessions. He’s been integral in organizing the event for decades. I decide to send him a note through the Congress portal.
I hit the connect button and the chat window pops up. I type “just wanted to say “hi” and great job.”
John replies “Thanks Craig. Much appreciated. But more to the point thank YOU for producing some stand-out sessions this year. Overall, the quality of the panels has been great, but you gave us some real stars.”
Real Value
I walk out of the basement, my workplace throughout the pandemic, and into the kitchen where my wife has set up her laptop. Nancy often sees me come out of that basement looking frustrated, sometimes defeated. This time she sees something different. Nancy smiles, hugs me and says “you know, Paul really had your back.”
That statement is true, but incomplete. Paul’s value to me isn’t getting more work. The value is Paul’s friendship. He shares great stories, like getting a nosebleed that ruined his only white shirt at a fancy concert in Europe. Paul and his wife took me to pick up my car after it was towed. We wandered down Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Since I lost my job at Blue Ant, every job I’ve had has come through a friend. The associate producer on my first series I produced brought me in to produce a history series. Bree’s an executive producer now and I reported to her. My best memories of her are laughing together at my 40th birthday party and her tearing up when I told her how I proposed to my wife. The former visual researcher from our daily science news show hired me to work on a crime series. Today, Alix is the producer of some of the most successful series in the country. I’ve hung out with her and her husband at karaoke night and we’re teammates in a Quarantine Quiz League. Another former visual researcher from Discovery Channel hired me to write an episode of a documentary series and she had me lined up for some directing and writing work this year. Now Kelly’s in charge of all production at Exploration Production. She and I were softball teammates. I videotaped her wedding.
Other friends have mentored me, consoled me, texted me during football games, and cried with me at funerals. One even arranged to have meals dropped off at our house when my son was in the hospital. Gill did that as she was preparing for her own cancer treatment.
The work has been great, and needed, but the relationships sustain me.
I can’t tell you how to get rich, but I can tell you about enrichment. If you want to succeed in business, make friends.
Get stories as soon as they're published!
Craig Colby is a television executive producer, producer, director, writer and story editor. He runs a storytelling consulting and production service for businesses. He can be reached at craig@colbyvision.net for consulting, training, writing or production.