Put yourself out there

So at some point in your writing career, you have to take chances. I'm not sure how you know you're ready, but you sort of do. Sure a lot of people think they're ready and they're not, so it's hard to judge when you really are ready. I think I sent my scripts to my producer friend, but I'd only do like one a year. I waited to see what his feedback was. Over the years, I could tell I was getting more and more positive feedback. That's when I started to pitch TV shows. I could tell my ideas were getting strong and more commercial and that I was understanding how this biz worked.

So when I got into the doors of the Big Networks, and my TV producer friend noticed and was impressed, then I asked if he wanted me to help develop shows with him. And that took a lot of courage on my part. So that's what I'm talking about when I saw, put yourself out there. Maybe you're the type of person who can ask someone these things, but most people can't. Most people let this kind of fear of rejection stop them in their tracks.

Now I've known this TV producer friend for most of my adult life. And I never ever asked him before that time. I waited till I could tell he was impressed with what kind of doors I was getting opened on my own. I think that's key when you approach these successful people. Make ways on your own. Then you can say hey, let's work together.

So when we did work together, we worked really well together. We were trying to pitch some shows when he had some down time. But he got super busy again, so we stopped working together. But this year his assistant producer moved out of state to have a baby, so again, I put myself out there. So this time I approached him and said, I understand your situation with your producer, I'm obviously not her, but we did work together, maybe there's some way we could work together again. And he was totally into it! But I had to put myself out there, willing to risk hearing a "no" and feeling dejected. But guess what? I wasn't! And today I'm meeting with him on the first show we might work on together. The execs of the Network will be there too. It's all exciting. But I never would have gotten these opportunities without willing to ask. You have to ask and be wiling to hear a no. Because most likely, if you've done your work, it will be a "yes".