How We Went From Youtube to a Television Deal

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 8.45.18 AMSo a funny thing happened on the way to starting this blog…

In the vein of true Olympic Athlete style thinking, of visualizing the intended outcome and then going after it, the plan was that I would begin sharing Mhairi and I’s story in blog form (how Feathers and Toast was formed and all the steps we’ve taken along the way to go from youtube to television) and that by the end of the telling of this story our readers would have experienced the answer to that question “How We Went From Youtube to a Television Deal” because we would have caused it to happen in real time. (A risk for sure, but this business is nothing if its not risky, and one thing Mhairi and I both wholeheartedly agree on is that one has to be clear, bold and brave when going after one’s dreams.)

So off we went with this goal. We planned our strategy and then, in an effort to promote our new direction, made an announcement to all of you. We shared with everybody about how we are expanding to TV, how we’ve written a pilot script and are working with an attorney, how we’re shopping for the perfect production company, and that we would be starting this blog and a vlog to keep you in the know and the feedback to this was amazing, heart warming, so heart warming in fact, that as time went past and the congratulations started to rack up we began to wonder, first silently and then out loud, “does everyone think we already have a television deal?”

Well the idea of this just made Mhairi’s “feet start sweating”, in fact she said it left her feeling “a bit queasy darling.” Our intention was to be bold for sure, but never to deceive people, and for a second I’ll admit I got a bit worried too. Had I worded things in such a way as could be misleading? Is this my fault?

I wrestled with this for a while wondering if I needed to make a point to clarify that there is no deal written in stone yet and that we don’t know with any certainty when we are going to be on television, but if I’m honest I found myself really not wanting to. In fact, I found myself loving that you believe, fueled by it even, and not because I find any enjoyment in tricking people, but because I really believe it too and its been so nice to have some company.

The thing is Mhairi and I’s creative partnership has been the single most successful creative partnership I have had. Thus far every goal we have made has been achieved and I have no reason to believe that that won’t continue. The secret to our success has not been about the results, its been about the process. We work well together, we respect each other, our strengths cover each other’s weaknesses and there hasn’t been a single challenge we haven’t been able to laugh our way through. For all these reasons its been easy to achieve another well known secret to success: Never Giving Up. We won’t give up. Why would we? We’re having too much fun.

So we’re going to call this little misunderstanding a happy accident and ask you to stick with us in the believing that we do have a deal, its just not quite officially here yet. I will continue to share my posts and starting tomorrow Mhairi will begin sharing her Vlog and together hopefully we will make history by making a dream come true in real time through this blog.

***In the future I will end each post with an industry tip based on things we learned throughout production and a video example but for today it felt apropos to leave you with a little Behind The Scenes moment from Mhairi & I. Much love to you all – enjoy!