Tag: How to go from youtube to a television deal

I’m Back! With exciting news to share!

feathersandtoast

Wow I’ve been honest in this blog! I was just looking back at it, in order to pick up where I left off, hoping to seamlessly get you up to speed, and was struck by my own honesty.

But I’m happy I was that honest because the truth can set you free. Going after dreams can test you deeply, both internally and externally, with no guarantees that you will ever succeed, often taking way longer than you think you have endurance for, and if through this blog I’ve inspired even one person to just keep on facing whatever they need to face, by being an example of what can happen when you never give up, then I am happy.

So without further ado, I am thrilled to report that Mhairi and I have pitched a new show idea (starring Tallulah of course) to a network and they have requested a sizzle for it. Yay!!!! It’s different than anything we ever set out to do, but yet somehow exactly what it was always meant to be. We’ve got a great feeling about it. So much so that we feel like celebrating.

We just finished shooting and will be spending the next month or so editing and shopping it around, but in the meantime we thought we’d celebrate by spending some time with our fans and hopefully pulling in some new ones.

Starting next Tuesday (4/25/17) we will be re-releasing Seasons 1 & 2 of Feathers and Toast directly on FB, 1 episode per week at 10pm EST/7pm PST, with a lively talk back in the comments section between Mhairi and I (and occasionally “Tallulah.”)

It is our sincerest hope that you join us there every Tuesday night, for a little hang out to laugh about the show, trade stories, and in general just have a little bit of fun.

And this leads me to…

Industry Tip # 41
When a network is generous enough to give you inside information about the type of content they are looking for, humbly listen, and then use all the creativity at your disposal to figure out how to align your content with their needs. This is the necessary “business” part of “show.”

I leave you with some BTS pics, compliments of our favorite photographer, Katie Nolan.

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Time to Shove This Snowball Down The Mountain

Holly Payberg

Home_1I started this blog with the bold prediction that its followers would essentially be first hand witnesses to Mhairi & I’s story of “How We Went From Youtube to a Television Deal” and now we are at the point in the journey where its time to hunker down into what I’m gonna call Phase 2 in order to make that prediction a reality.

As a recap for anybody new, we started this journey with a great character (Tallulah Grace) and team, built a web series around our character (Feathers and Toast), produced 2 seasons of Feathers and Toast (as well as bonus content), put it all up on Youtube, went deep into social media promotion, went to festivals, won awards, bonded with our fans, learned from our fans, and then used all that we learned as the fuel to expand the concept into a 1/2 hour show. I’ll call that Phase 1.

And now here we are in Phase 2 and what lies ahead is more good ole fashioned hard work. Our battle plan is threefold: 1) continue to tweak our pilot script to make it the best it can possibly be 2) practice our pitch until it is fun, alive and an accurate reflection of the story we are intending to tell and 3) dive deep into research and networking to discover which companies/distribution outlets would be the right fit for us.

Now because I do like to sleep from time to time, Phase 2 is going to require me to make some adjustments. I’ve realized in order to accomplish all I am setting out to do, my social media efforts are going to have to shift to a plan that’s a little more fast and loose.

Rather than 3 official blogs a week, I’ll be doing 1 a week and keeping you posted in between with shorter tweet/instagram style updates, often times from the “field” (for e.g. the festival we will be attending this week). I’m thinking I’ll even start including some quick videos as well so make sure to follow me @hollypayberg for all the fun. Which leads me to…

Industry Tip #30
Staying balanced mentally, physically and spiritually is the key to long term success. Always be prepared to readjust your daily and weekly goals as needed in order to maintain a healthy balance.

And without further ado I leave you with a little holiday Tip from Tallulah.

How We Went From Youtube to a Television Deal

Holly Payberg

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!