Sometimes people will ask whether or not they should take a specific meeting because they’re really not sure it’s “really worth it.” To that I say, take EVERY meeting — even a general meeting that you think may not go anywhere.
True story that I’m going to condense for sake of time…
My friend and I “sold” a show (industry term that doesn’t mean a whole lot!) to a production company. Together, we created a sizzle reel and began pitching the show. After 2 network meetings that resulted in “passes” the production company decided they were done with the show, and they released us from our agreement.
At that point, my partner and I took matters into our own hands and began arranging network meetings on our own because WE weren’t done with the idea.
In order to get our first meeting, we sent the log line to the network who said they weren’t interested in our show idea, but that they would like to meet us. GREAT! If we couldn’t sell our show idea, perhaps we could sell ourselves… and that’s exactly what happened!
We took the general meeting and lo and behold, before the meeting was out, they were already plugging my partner and I into one of their shows that was just about to begin taping.
Lesson to be learned: take any meeting you can get your hands on because while it may not fulfill exactly what your initial goal is, it may fulfill a different and no less important goal!
In the infamous words of my husband, Marty Metro, “Good luck and be yourself!