TURNING A CRISIS INTO AN OPPORTUNITY #136

We're often judged by how we do in times of crisis and it’s something that over the years I have become better and better at. It’s a skill, and it’s something that can be learned.

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QUOTES:

Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. Fyodor Dostoevsky

The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That’s all you need to know. Marcus Aurelius

A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity, to choose well or to choose badly. Desmond Tutu

In a time of crisis we all have the potential to morph up to a new level and do things we never thought possible. Stuart Wilde

You never have real changes unless you have a time of crisis. Milton Friedman

Out of adversity comes opportunity. Benjamin Franklin

Rudyard Kipling in his poem IF wrote “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you” then “Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it”

SPONSOR:

This episode is sponsored by Petra Kolb


Season 10 Executive Producer: Christopher McPhillips from Artos Digital

2-time winners of 'Social Media Agency of the Year' at the Prestige Awards; Artos Digital specialises in marketing communications, coaching, and personal branding. Owner Christopher McPhillips launched the business from his home in Bathgate and now works alongside his wife, Electra, for specialized event management and fundraising. Enjoying a broad portfolio of clients over the years, ranging from established enterprises to start-ups - a good fit for Artos Digital given their adaptable and agile approach. Christopher and Electra have combined their talents for three significant clients this past year: Reconnect, an SCIO who runs the Regal Theatre in Bathgate; Pro2 Wrestling in Ayr; and Puppet Animation Scotland in Edinburgh.

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This episode is sponsored by the wonderfulPetrakalp. Hello and welcome back to Film
Pro, Productivity and Success, thepodcast It helps creative people to live a
more focused, effective and happy life. My name is Carter Ferguson and this

(00:21):
is episode one hundred and thirty sixlessons learned in twenty twenty three, Part
one. Turning a crisis into anopportunity. A time of crisis is not
just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity
to choose well or to choose badly. It has been two two unquote.

(00:46):
Well, here we are at thelast show of season ten, and it's
been a tough one for me.I must admit as I was only able
to batch record perhaps the quarters ofthis season before it smashed right into another
creative project of mine, my shortfestive horror film, The Traveler, and
typically I've completed the first pass onthe edit of that film just as I

(01:08):
come to record this show, whichreminds me of us a quote from Star
Trek they search for spot. It'sKirk who says, mister Scott, you've
fixed the barn door after the horsehas come home, And I've really no
justification for using that quote other thanI like it. I want to get
a Star Trek quote in this It'smy show, and I can do it.

(01:30):
But in last week's show, Irevisited good old Demi Demi with three
new motivational messages from the man,which we can all learn from. So
if you missed it, please goback and check it out. It's twenty
two minutes of great advice. WinstonChurchill said, never waste a good crisis,

(01:51):
and I had planned today to coversomething like five lessons learned from shooting
a creative project in twenty twenty threeor something like that, but after careful
consideration, I've actually decided to focusdown on just one of those things.
And I often refer to this asturning bad luck into good luck, but
from a slight scratch of the surfaceof the topic during my research, this

(02:14):
is more commonly referred to as turninga crisis into an opportunity. And it's
something I've been aware of in thepast because I'm into my stoicism, and
I'll touch on that a little bitlater on, but I felt it was
definitely worth an episode here and sohere it is. In a time of
crisis, we all have the potentialto morph up to a new level and

(02:37):
do things we never thought possible,Stuart Wild unquote. And I can give
you at least a couple of examplesof this from the Traveler, this short
film of mine, and both comefrom problems that we had when trying to
lock down locations, as both ourmain locations had serious issues as the day's

(02:58):
approach, during which we had toshoot on them, and the first of
these, the worst of these,and the first of these was a petrol
station in Erica. Now, thepeople we were negotiating with from that fuel
company will adamantly deny all of this, but here it is as I experienced
it. We had basically three weeksof conversations about the location all along the

(03:21):
way, with them saying that theycouldn't see any issue with it. But
as things unfolded and get closer tothe day, we never seemed to get
any closer to having it actually locked. We just kept on hearing this,
we don't see a problem thing.And after days of risk assessment and providing
proof of insurance to location, visits, permission from the landholder who was leasing

(03:45):
them the place, and a lotof schmoozing. We got to I think
it was pretty much the day before, perhaps it was two days before,
and we still didn't have it locked, and we of course were pressing them
for this. But even on themorning that we have that we finally found
out we weren't going to get it. We had received an email from another
level of management. This one wasthe health and safety guy saying that he

(04:08):
didn't see a problem with it either. But at that same afternoon, like
I think it's like twenty four hoursor thirty six hours before we were duty
shoot there, we got an emailfrom I had a whole team standing buys
I was desperately trying to get thisinformation out them. We got a message
through which effectively said no, orrather it said we can shoot, but

(04:29):
we can only shoot if we don'tuse our own cameras, we use other
cameras, and we can't use batteriesor mains power in these cameras or not
making this up. What are theysupposed to be powered by wind? I
don't know. And also we couldn'tgo within four meters and twenty centimeters of
any of the pumps. And giventhat the door to the petrol station shop,

(04:53):
which was what specifically we needed thisplace for, was approximately four meters
and twenty centimeters away from the nearestpump. It effectively meant that we couldn't
use the location at all anyway,So that was a complete at our nightmare.
But simultaneous to this, we werehaving negotiations with a park in Glasgow
to get access and to shoot theday after we were supposed to be shooting

(05:16):
an arka at the petrol station.And again we'd provided everything that was required
of us, including more detailed riskassessments and at no small expense, a
five million pound insurance policy, allof which had been requested of us,
and at the same almost the sametime, anyway, as we lost the
first location, it came through tous that we couldn't use this second location

(05:40):
either, although it wasn't entirely clearat that stage why. And this was
all, as you can understand,a phenomenal nightmare that interrupted the flow and
the time frames of everything else thatI was arranging at the time, including,
although certainly not exclusively, the recordingof this podcast's next few shows.
Everything had to get pushed aside inorder to deal with this catastrophic problem,

(06:04):
this crisis that was coming up withlocations. As I say, all these
people we had were standing by andwe couldn't even give them dates. And
the petrol station loss was a clearand total one, as the parameters that
they had set out for us ensuredthat it just could not ever be recovered,
at least not in so short aspace of time. So we immediately
started looking for an alternative on thatone, and I had previously discussed with

(06:28):
Neil and Christina that's the the opand other producer prior to this, the
idea that the scene could equally wellbe shot in our roadside coffee van or
burger van. So we started thinkingabout that sort of thing, and it
was our lead actor Paddy that suggesteda location which enough I had visited just
a couple of weeks before. Soafter a night of virtual wrecking, which

(06:50):
is going on to Google and havinga look around for alternative locations, we
went straight there the very next morning, quite early on to try and down
a new location. And this waslike a drive through coffee shop which has
very very nice food, I wouldhasten to add, and it was as
we got there pretty darn perfect,as it happens, and as I looked

(07:12):
about, I realized that the scenewould likely work absolutely fine there, and
it wasn't perhaps as compact a spaceand maybe as artistically creatively interesting a space
as I of Light, but itwas an excellent alternative. So after a
quick negotiation and a short delay aswe waited for permission from head office,
we walked away with a deal toshoot there on the Friday. And I

(07:35):
think this was on something like theThursday, my days on. This might
be off a little because it's alla little bit hazy, but yeah,
some three hundred quid lighter, wehad the place place locked and that location
was available for us to shoot in. And the fee, by the way,
not only covered our use of thefar end of their car park where

(07:57):
we were going to set most ofthe action, but it also allowed us
to shoot some stuff actually at thecafe end of the car park as well,
and also covered all of our foodand drinks and the use of their
toilet. So yes, it wasmore costly than the original, but it
was far simpler to pull together,and I can tell you now it worked
absolutely fine for what we were doingand was an excellent alternative location. I

(08:22):
don't think it's going to be anyparticularly story wise, any different from the
petrol station location. You never havereal changes unless you have a time of
crisis. Milton Friedman, unquote.And as for our second difficulty locking down

(08:43):
the park, I took the bullby the horns and I went and spoke
directly with the manager the other partmanager, and I think on that when
there had just been a little bitof miscommunication, I think perhaps they hadn't
really read what we'd sent them,or perhaps they'd never actually thought that we
were serious about the whole thing,so it was easier perhaps for them to

(09:05):
put the whole thing off. I'mreading between the lines here that I'm guessing
to be honest. But I didfeel that the hoops we had to jump
through for the councilor really maybe hada purpose of scaring off people who couldn't
be bothered dealing with all that.But we dealt with all that, and
we were sitting tracky lock it downwhen that appeared to be a problem anyway.

(09:28):
I was aiming for dry weather andI couldn't predict what what it was
going to be like the following week. But I agreed in effect directly with
the manager that we would shoot nomatter the weather and I moved. We
agreed some costs, so I thinkwe kind of didn't quite agree the costs.
I wasn't sure if it was goingto run two thousands or hundreds,
and as it was it was justin the hundreds. It was fine.

(09:50):
And I had to arrange a portaloo. That was another difficulty because the nearest
toilet was three and a half kilometersaway, so endy that had to go
to the loo would be in asit in kilometers round trip. And for
those of you that are interesting thissort of thing, it's two hundred and
fifty two pound to have a portloofor one day or it was. I
think it was there for eight itwas eight hours or was it less seven

(10:11):
hours? Seven or eight hours?And that's that was the cost on that
one, which is a bit ofa killer. Anyway, it all worked
out, and as it happened,even though I couldn't predict what the weather
was going to be like when Imade the agreement, it was moved like
a week down the line. Basically, we had a perfect night for it,
a far better night in fact,than the weather would have been on

(10:31):
the initial day that we tried tolock down and just one other thing that
that's in the same vein as allthis. Another thing that happened on the
night we were shooting there, whichwas a bit of a crisis in the
moment as it meant we didn't completeon that day. Du was that the
DP Neil lost the keys for hisvan, and that meant we couldn't complete.
But I went in the very nextmorning. I begged for a brief

(10:54):
access for just myself and kneel tothe area that we needed, and we
were given permission to shoot there aslong as we were out by six,
So I think we were in atfour or quarter to four something that and
we left by six. And thatalso benefited is as we actually were able
to shoot within that time frame afew more things than we would have been

(11:15):
able to shoot the night before,So that all worked out too. So
all of these problems, all ofthese crises effectively led to a series of
better opportunities on the film. Eventhe delay waiting for access to the park
gave us, as I say,better weather and the opportunity to prep more
for that day. I had anextra week to prep the design stuff.

(11:37):
Unfortunately in this one it is justsods though I ended up doing all the
design work on it, which wasI have got to see a bit of
a killer because I was already producing, directing, writer, vehicle coordinator,
you know, all these other things, and it was a bit of a
drag. But anyway, I'm goingoff on one there. It all worked

(11:58):
out. And the crisis that wewent through along the way, they were
very real and they were quite stressfulto live through, but we simply kept
ahead. We refocused, and wekept good communications going with everyone, and
we solved things as we went along. Times of crisis, of disruption or

(12:20):
constructive change are not always predictable,but are desirable. They mean growth,
taking a new step, uttering anew word is what people fear the most.
Feodore Dostoyevsky unquote. We're often judgedby how we do in times of
crisis, and it's something that overthe years, I like to believe I

(12:43):
have become better and better at.But it's a skill and it's something that
can be learned. Navigating life's challengesand crisis can be a painful struggle.
In the moment, it's hard tosee how tough times can ever lead to
growth and opportunity. But as itturns out, the mental fortitude required to

(13:05):
turn lemons into lemonade, for example, is a very valuable skill to develop.
Research even shows that hardiness is thekey to the resiliency for not only
surviving, but also thriving under stress. Hardiness enhances performance, leadership, conduct,
stamina, mood, and both physicaland mental health. And I did

(13:30):
quote that one, and I've gotto admit I didn't write down when I
got that quote for him, soI'm sorry, so important quote unquote.
Here's one I do know to knowwho the quote was from, though,
and it's a Marcus Aurelius, whosaid the cucumber is bitter, then throw
it out. There are brambles inthe path, then go around. That's

(13:50):
all you need to know. Here'sa few thoughts on how to turn a
crisis into an opportunity. First ofmy list to here is to take a
deep breath and collect your thoughts.It's all too easy to let panic and
stress control your thoughts, but allowingthose emotions to take over won't lead to
growth. When your mind spirals andcatastrophizes, you need to breathe deeply and

(14:15):
remind yourself that this moment will pass. And the phrase this too shall pass.
In fact, is what has gottenme through my darkest times. So
if you're ever struggling, you're everworried, you ever feel that things have
gone so badly wrong that you can'tdeal with it, just remind yourself that
this too shall pass, That tomorrow, this catastrophe, this crisis, will

(14:37):
be behind you. Take that deepbreath and collect your thoughts. Second,
in crisis, when it appears youcan reach out for the assistance of others,
sometimes you just can't do it allyourself, So reach out to those
people that you trust and seek advice. Don't just reach out randomly to everyone

(14:58):
unless you can manage that feedback,but people you trust might give you better.
A few people you trust might giveyou better advice than just throwing it
out there on social media saying help. And without the direct help of Christina
Littleson, Neil McMillan and Patrick O'Brienon my film when these difficult situations arose

(15:18):
on the shoot, I would reallyhave struggled to find alternative solutions to the
problem. So don't allow yourself tobe overwhelmed by when by simply asking for
help you can increase your odds ofresolving the issue. Third, don't allow
your perception of the crisis to cloudyour judgments. When crisis strikes, you

(15:39):
might feel like your life is overand that there's no hope for a better
future, but realistically that's probably farfrom the truth. People bounce back from
disaster every day. You can challengethose perceptions and you can bounce back to
It's kind of along with this thistoo shall pass thing, but you know,
challenge your own perceptions. Rewrite yourheadspace if you feel it's going in

(16:03):
that direction. Number four, usethis time to reevaluate your plans. Sometimes
difficult experiences are the perfect wake upcall and a good catalyst for chain,
So when crisis strikes, use itas an opportunity to think about what you
really want out of life. Numberfive, Remember that you can't control the

(16:23):
past. Accepting that we can't controlthe past can be a difficult thing to
accept, but it's impossible to embracethe future while you're obsessing over your past
failures and mistakes. I used tosay this when I was doing acting,
especially on stage. If you've messedup a line and you're kicking yourself for

(16:45):
messing up the line, the chancesare you're going to kick, you're going
to mess up the next line.So when you fluff that line, when
something goes wrong, forget about itand move on. Otherwise, that worry
can absolutely ruin everything else you're goingto do. It could rule in the
rest of the show or the restof the scene if you get sidetracked by
it. And it's exactly the teamin this situation. As I say,

(17:07):
it's impossible to embrace the future whileyou're obsessing over past failures and mistakes,
and don't allow yourself to feel helplessor hopeless. Simply remember that you can
control your actions, focus your energyon future possibilities and keeping a healthy mindset,
and you'll be much closer to turningcrisis into opportunity if you do that.

(17:29):
Number six, When faced with chronicissues and setbacks, to learn how
to look at the bigger picture.Some crises are acute and will only happen
once, and others are more chronicand happen throughout your life. Things like
depression, anxiety, struggles with selfesteem, and other long lasting dilemmas can
occur throughout your life. So tomove beyond that cycle of struggle, practice

(17:53):
assessing your own emotions and behaviors withoutjudgment. It will be much easier to
objectively assess the bigger picture and seethe path forward if you're not caught up
in your own stuff. So tryand look at the bigger picture. Number
seven and this is a big one, except that crisis will happen. And

(18:15):
this is my mindset whenever I gointo anything new. And it's a stoke
philosophy. And you've probably heard thefrustrating but true maximum that the only constant
in life is change. Crisis areunavoidable, whether it's a relationship breakdown or
getting fired. We will all facesome sort of hardship in our lives,
but adapting how we view and approachthese struggles might actually allow you to turn

(18:40):
them into something meaningful. Number eight. Learn from your mistakes. And it's
perhaps the simplest of all the opportunitiesthat come from a crisis, is to
grow. To allow you to growas individuals as a result of dealing with
the disaster. You know, don'tmake the same mistake twice, or if
you do make it twice, don'tmake sure you don't make it a third
time. Keep that, keep focusedon that, and prepare for it the

(19:04):
next time. Be prepared for it. I've learned a lot. As I
say, I've got quite a lotof learn from this film. A lot
of them are lessons that I haveexperienced in the past. This is actually
one of experiencing it on a numberof occasions as well. This turning a
crisis into an opportunity, but itwas very, very distinctly applicable to this
one because of what happened with thoselocations anyway. Finally number nine, have

(19:27):
a backup plan, anticipate what mightgo wrong, but basically think negatively about
things and have something ready. Ikind of get tricked into believing that all
was well with these locations because Iwas getting this positive feedback, Yeah,
we don't see any problems in that. I just couldn't punt it down,
so I didn't have a backup planready to go when it turned around and

(19:48):
one of them said no, youcan't shoot here. I just but I
did have some ideas about it,had some thoughts, but I just hadn't
fully prepped things. So don't belulled into a false sense of security by
people who effectively are lying to youbecause they're trying to be polite or nice
or whatever. Have a plan justin case important things fall through at the

(20:08):
last minute. And let me endthis one today. We just adding that
change and growth rarely happen when we'recomfortable. I did a show about this,
getting Comfortable being uncomfortable. Growth andfundamental levels of change only tend to
occur when we're out of our comfortzone. So we might look at the

(20:29):
crisis that we face as a blessingin disguise, albeit an unwanted one.
At the heart of turning crisis intoopportunity is mental reframing. You don't have
to ignore the reality of a situation, but you can change how you view
it. So use the experience ofbeing out of your comfort zone to seize
opportunities. Out of adversity comes opportunity. Benjamin Franklin unquote. And I must

(21:00):
end this there as I have ashoot to arrange for Sunday now, which
I wasn't expectants come in while Iwas recording this, and I'm basically at
a time. But I urge youto look at the stoic philosophers that delve
into this topic. Look specifically atMarcus Aurelius or Seneca for some great advice
and this stuff Aurelius said, demandnot that events should happen as you wish,

(21:26):
but wish them to happen as theydo happen, and your life will
be serene. So let that beyour motto when it comes to times of
crisis. And remember too, thewords of Seneca, who said, to
bear trials with a cam mind Rob'smisfortune of its strength and burden. Let's
say that one more time, tobear trials with a cam mind Rob's misfortune

(21:51):
of its strength and burden. SoI'm going offline again, folks, for
twelve weeks. I've tried the showweekly for a year now, and I
don't think it's necessary for me todo that anymore. It's the show continues
to go. I'm going to goback to my twelve weeks on twelve weeks
off again. It worked for mefor a few years. I don't see

(22:14):
any I mean, you're getting moreepisodes, but I don't feel the need
to produce any more than I'm alreadyproducing. And that's partly because I've got
shows going out by weekly as wellon YouTube for the next fourteen months on
the YouTube channel at film Pro Productive. Look, I can't speak at at
film Pro productivity three four four three, or if you want, just search

(22:34):
YouTube for film pro productivity and itwill appear before you. But I think
twelve episodes, just three months,then three months off and then twelve episodes
is a better way for me toproceed. It gives me time to do
other things. And I definitely,as you can tell, I've been struggling
with time to get stuff done.But I will be looking for a new

(22:55):
executive producer and twelve new episode sponsorsbefore season eleven airs with episode one three
seven. I think it is,and that I've did a quick look before
a record of this show. Ithink it's the fourteenth of May twenty twenty
three. I could be wrong.I may have miscounted that one. But
if you're interested in back in theshow the executive producer, there's only one
of them for the whole season.It gets your name on every episode and

(23:18):
it's one hundred and fifty pound.It also gets your name in the show
notes of every show with links yourown links with business links however, and
listed in the end credits the showanything else you want to put in there.
Basically as well within reason sponsorships,though episode sponsorships are buying an episode
by episode basis, and they costjust fifteen pounds per show with your name

(23:40):
and links in the credits and yourname spoken by me like in this one
it was Petre sponsored. This oneat the top of the show in the
form of this episode is sponsored byin certain name here, and I accept
PayPal payments for this one only atthe moment. If I know you face
to face, I'll take cash hey, and I might be able to do
back transfer, but bass is easierwith PayPal. So please get in touch

(24:03):
if it's of interest to you,and if you love the show and you
genuinely want to hear more episodes.The only reason why I can keep on
doing this is because people are listening. So the less people that listen,
the less likelihood it is that I'mgoing to be doing anymore. So I'd
like to know that people are outthere. So I have one big request,
and that is, if you haven'tdone so already, please go on
to Apple Podcasts and leave me apositive review of the show. I'd greatly

(24:26):
appreciate it. So there's going tobe there's other shows you can listen to
over the next few weeks. Iwould suggest things like the Endie Film Hustle
podcast Network. Go there and there'sloads of shows on that. And the
other big one to of course recommendis the Filmmaker's Podcast run by Giles Alderson,
who's a great guy, great show. I'm listening to an episode of

(24:48):
Theirs at the moment. There's loadsof other podcasts out there I've got I
might even ask some of these otherpodcasts that admire if they've got a like
a trailer, and I'll maybe puta few trailers up here for for other
shows. Would that be a certainof interest to you, just to fill
in this twelve weeks where I'm goingoff the air. Let me know if
that's something that you'll be interested in. But let me end today with some

(25:10):
words from Rudyard Kipling. Nearly nearlymisspoke that Rudyard Kipling who said in his
poem if if you can keep yourhead, we're all about your losing THEIRS
and blaming it on you, thenyours is the earth and everything that's in
it. Now take control of yourown destiny. My friends, keep on
shooting and join me next season onfilm pro Productivity and Success. Now,

(25:42):
the music that you can hear rightnow is Adventures by A Himitsu, and
the exact producer of this season wasChristopher McPhillips from afterss Digital. You can
view the show notes for this episodeonly on the official website film pro productivity
dot com, but you can alsofollow my account on Twitter, my personal
accounts on Twitter and Instagram at FightUnderscore Director, or follow the show itself

(26:04):
on Twitter at film pro prod podor on Facebook at film pro Productivity.
Please continue to support the show bysubscribing, spreading the word, and leaving
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