It all started so well.

In October 2021, I was on a call with a Director of Programming from a European broadcaster (small but very interesting for my target audience). He said “I like your concept, I want to spread more awareness about renewable energy. Your project fits perfectly”.

OH MY GOD! It was happening.

Then, he finished the meeting with “I want this for April 2022 and we can’t really fund the project. So you need to find the money.”

While my mind was still dancing, my mouth responded “no problem”.

It couldn’t be that difficult to find funding now that I’ve had a broadcaster, a niche broadcaster, but a broadcaster nonetheless.

Fast forward in March 2022, and I can tell you I wish I could swallow back these “no problem” words.

The Premise

Let’s rewind back to 2020, before COVID started. Like many of you, I had been procrastinating since I was 6 years old. “To become a writer or not become a writer” was a recurrent existential question. For those who have African parents, early on we understood that “working as a writer” is the equivalent of “working to become homeless”. Being a good girl, I studied to get a “proper job”.

But 2020 brought something fresh in the air, i.e decisiveness… at last.

I signed up to Celtx (a free screenwriter software) - I started writing and coming up with ideas. I happened to co-build a renewable energy engineering company, mainly targeting Africa. One thing that frustrated me was that lack of relatability. So I thought “why not create a relatable show about renewable energy?”

I did… thanks to Zoom.

I created, wrote, produced, directed, edited, DP, sounded, cast, cooked, cleaned, coached… this webseries.

Now what? Well, I started working on the next season.

Virtual Colleagues Poster

Global Ambitions

Let’s forward to October 2021, 6 episodes of the webseries were out, but the impact was minimal. Obviously, as new writer, now a new director/producer, I wanted the world to know about this webseries that took sweat and tears to make. So far it was a global hit… within my friends and family. So for the next season, I needed big backers.

I became LinkedIn obsessed, looking for the Gods of television. I just needed one God to give me a shot.

So when this Director of Programming sent me the letter of Interest, I sipped an expensive tea, thinking “money’s gonna rain”.

If Other People can Do It, I Can Do it Too…

When I think back at my naivety, I want to hug it and say “you’re cute but get lost”.

I found a God of TV, now I needed Angels and I mean literally Angel Investors. My brother (bless him) agreed to contribute, but I still had 90% of the budget to find. With my no-experience and one-line IMDb credit, I boldly contacted investors. The title of the cold email: “be part of the next big show, it’s “THE OFFICE” about Renewables in Africa”.

Tracked responses: “recipient didn’t open your email”.

I didn’t understand, a Broadcaster was on board. Eventually, after countless cold emails, cold messages, cold texts, cold sign-ups, cold introductions, an Angel accepted to meet me so I could pitch. Hallelujah!

During the virtual meeting, I was welcomed by two seasoned investors in the creative business. At the end, one said: “We like the concept, now we need the see the numbers.”

Once again, my mind was dancing, and my mouth responded “no problem”.

Writer's meeting, "Virtual Colleagues"

Asking for Sales Projections is like Asking for the Holy Grail- Are you Indiana Jones?

Clearly, I didn’t learn the first time around. I found a broadcaster and a potential angel. Finding sales projections would be a piece of cake. Little did I know that cake was non-existent.

I started like anybody else, with Google. There must be templates online of sales projections and what to expect. And for the first time since 2004, Google failed me.

So I used Stage 32 to learn more about distribution and funding. I had a clearer idea of the strategy to get the numbers: I needed to approach distributors.

I ran against the clock! Do you remember the broadcaster wanted the show ready to air for April 2022. My naive self reached out to as many distributors as I could and their responses were “sorry we don’t provide sales projections”.

What?

More Classified than X-files

What do they mean they don’t provide “sales projections”? Most of them didn’t answer that question. So I hired “Scully” to my “Mulder” team. We’ll call that person “Scully” from now on. So initially, Scully was skeptical about getting “sales projections” but my utopia, or dystopia must have sounded charming because Scully agreed to help me. Scully was the connected one and planned to use these relationships to get the service. But sales projections were top secret files.

Scully got the same reactions, at least he had explanations. One day, more skeptical than usual, Scully told me “distributors don’t provide sales projections, unless they think they will sell your project. And scientific evidence has shown that your project isn’t well packaged.” But I wanted to believe.

Actors first rehearsal, "Virtual Colleagues"

6 months to produce a show… just a little ambitious

Christmas 2021 was around the corner, meaning no one was working until mid January. Slowly the shoe dropped, it was impossible to produce and post produce the next season to air in April. So I called the God of TV for the update. He understood. But I couldn’t leave the meeting without a counter-proposal. Instead of April 2022, why not air the show during the COP27 in November 2022? The biggest, most global conference on climate change and renewable energy? He agreed.

My mind was dancing, but this time my mouth said “I’ll keep you updated with the progress”. (I was learning after all)

New Girl

Stage 32 became my roommates, dispensing advice. I invested in coaching and realized I had the wrong approach: I shouldn’t do it alone.

No matter how strong willed I was, I needed to get an experienced producer on board.

So I pitched, refined my pitch, re-refined my pitch and as of last week, a producer requested the script through Stage 32.

My mind is dancing, but my mouth stays shut. Instead, I clicked “submit”.