I was in Chicago recently for a conference (which I’ll tell you more about next week) and something stuck out to me that I won’t forget:
Don’t punish the market.
“Uh… Okay Curt, way to not to be cryptic… what does that mean?”
Let’s say you have an audience for something and they love you (kinda like you love me). You notice they REALLY want something, like a film in a different genre, or a course on pitching, and you know you can add MASSIVE value by putting it out there.
Yet for whatever reason you don’t…
- “I have way too much to do already.” = “I’m not prioritizing my biggest fans.”
- “I don’t have the right people on board…” = “I don’t lack resources, I lack resourcefulness.”
- “I’m scared of what they might think.” = “I’m putting my ego above my audience.”
- etc.
So given all of this, what should we do? Use this mantra: Don’t punish the market.
If you KNOW you can create something world class that helps a lot of people, then do it.
Unless you’re not passionate about creating what your audience is craving, for example, I will never send nudes no matter how much my audience begs me. (btw they don’t. Which makes me sad), then any other excuse you concoct actually hurts your audience.
You have to love your audience the way they love you, since this isn’t the 1960s where you can be a big corporation who wins by carpet-bomb-advertising shitty products that people hate and then not listening to them and giving shitty customer service on top of that. (*cough* Rogers *cough*)
I have a rule at indiefilmTO: You gotta give your audience at least 1.5x as much love as they give you or they will leave 1.5x sooner.
This is why we’re re-launching our course on pitching, funding, and getting the right crew once more, even though I wasn’t planning on opening it back up this soon.
AND this is why you’ll see us doing a push for more video content; Because you wanted it. And you know what? I will NOT punish the market.
***
Last year we sat down with the 36 international gold and platinum record award winning Mark Berry and some other indie film big wigs in a conversation about making it in this industry as an up-and-comer.
We weren’t going to release this since it was a pilot but the people we showed it to internally really liked it… and we won’t punish the market.
11:46 What can a filmmaker do to make actors and crew more reliable?
28:03 The red flags of a bad film.
35:13 What it takes to get recognition in this industry, besides “make a good movie”
43:56 What is the step by step guide to crowdfunding?
52:15 How to be more entrepreneurial when the world wants you to be vanilla.
1:02:45 How do you know your film is good before creating it?
1:08:57 What are the biggest mistakes filmmakers are making nowadays?
Sometimes we forget the power of how much difference one insight can make.
Think back to a time when if you just knew one piece of information, it would have TOTALLY shifted the decisions you made. Think of how much time you would have saved. Days? Years? Think of where you would have been now.
That’s why I feel no shame that I spent over $2,000 for a weekend conference in Chicago, because I knew if there was even one insight… it would be totally worth it.
Man, I’m excited to see what you’re going to create for the world this year.
Comment below after you’ve watched the video and let me know ONE insight you’ve gotten. I read every one.
Til next time my lovely entrepreneur,
– Curt
PS: Tomorrow we’re having a small gathering for a screening of indiefilmTO’s Festival. I would love to see you come out but you have to RSVP here by tonight. It’s now 100% free thanks to our sponsor 9 Media Systems.
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