My Failed Fundraising Meeting

"Justin, your idea is foolish and you are in way over your head."

I had barely begun sharing my vision when this man began to mockingly laugh at how my creative idea was foolish.

How do you handle your heart when you are mocked for dreaming big?

Where is the line of faith without works is dead vs living a life of wisdom?

I am currently in production for my next film, Between Two Worlds. In today's episode, I share about a fundraising meeting that did not go well and what I learned from it.

To donate or get more information about our Between Two Worlds film visit: http://ww.givebutter.com/firelight 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey, what's up, everybody. It's so good to be back with you. I'm so sorry for my radio silence. It's been a crazy but exciting past couple of months here. Uh, my sister got married. Uh, we did a 36 day worship nights trip all out west, which is incredible. But main thing that I've been focusing on is the production for this next film, which we're going to talk about today. I have a story that I wanna share with you about a fundraising meeting gone bad. So I wanna talk about something today that, uh, very interestingly has been not only happening in my life, but a lot of clients that I work with and people that I coach have been asking me questions about this as well. And so it's super interesting as I'm pursuing this thing called raising funds to support your creative work. A lot of other people, it seems like are, are kind of asking those questions as well. And, you know, where's the line of trusting in God and waiting verse faith without works is dead. Where's the line of abundant faith and foolishness. And, uh, obviously we can't seek to answer all those today, but I wanna offer just a little, little glimpse into kind of my world. And, uh, some of the things that I've been going through and hope that it's an encouragement to you as a creative, or just as, as someone who loves the Lord, who wants to live a life of faith, who wants to do what the word says that, you know, having faith without action, faith without works is dead. Uh, again, there's many contexts that that can mean different things, but, uh, for our context today, I'm talking about having funding to support your creative works. So many of you guys know if you listened to the show last year, we raised$65,000 to put on our first stage film. Yeah, we put it on and we recorded it. And 65,000, I mean, that's a shoe stringing budget. That's not a lot of money at all. And this year we, we set out, uh, mean, well, actually it was last year. We did the budget, me and Alice Scott, my director, and kind of my partner in all of this or my co-writer, uh, we said, okay, we're gonna have radical faith. It was obviously many things with the first musical that we could have done better if we had more funding. And we said, Hey, we're gonna just double the budget. Here is the allocation for where all that money is gonna go, where it's gonna be spent to make an even higher quality, second stage film. And so we have been fundraising for that. And we are in rehearsals now for that. So pre-production has been going on for quite some time months. Well, well actually, well over a year, if you wanna be particular about it, but really we're in, in full swing now rehearsals are going. So fundraising is a part of that. And I wanna share a story with you guys today. Uh, I'm gonna change the names to protect everyone out there. I'll call a person. Paul. I had a date on the calendar with Paul a couple of months ago to, you know, have I had my pitch deck to share the vision for my production company, firelight created productions and this second film, which is called between two worlds based and the life of Daniel, uh, we'll be talking more about that here in the coming weeks. And, uh, you know, I had my pitch deck ready. I had a little video ready and I walked into this meeting. It was a half hour meeting on this person's calendar. They're a successful business person. And we have, you know, mean we're, we're not besties by any means, but we have, have some summons of relationship and, and friendship there. So, uh, you know, sit down and I had a half hour. So I was kind of planning on, you know, sharing my heart at the beginning, you know, small talk of course, but then once we got into it, you know, don't go right to the pitch. Just kinda share your heart a little bit. And so I'm, I'm in this fundraising meeting and we have a big fat zero in our fundraising account at this point in time. This is several months ago. And so I sit down and, you know, we do the pleasantries, you know, small talk and, and then I, I kind of started to get into it. And I was like, well, you know, again, I'm calling him Paul, you know, thanks so much for, for your time. And I shared, you know, three, four minutes, uh, a bit of my vision about firelight creative and, and what we're really seeking to do as a, a studio of, um, writers, composers, filmmakers, and actors that we want to, to raise up something, likened a Disney type thing that, you know, and I've shared this, I feel like everywhere that I'm going on, I'm saying this statement, I don't think I've said it here in the podcast yet. This is a first, but, you know, imagine Disney in all of their history and all of their films and everything that they've done with absolutely zero songs in their history. If it was just a animated mouse that danced and, you know, whatever, I'll say, there's no songs. Now, Walt, I believe was a genius. And I believe he was anointed of God as the gifts and colors of God are irrevocable to do amazing things. So he probably still would've been successful somehow with an animated mouse, but look at the songs that decade after decade after decade continue to be what fills our homes, the mouths of children, middle ages, old people, it's the song. So much of what I believe has made it a success is the, the musicals and the songs. And I believe that the Lord wants to raise something up, uh, not just with firelight, but with thousands of people around the world, doing similar things to begin to inundate people's imaginations, to inundate their minds and their souls with whether it be a, a Bible story and a musical based on that, whether it be just a, a story based on, you know, love and loss and the human heart and the tensions that we all face that leads them back to, to truth, you know, that's kind of my vision, right? So I'm, so I'm sharing this with, with this person in the meeting and kind of before I, I, you know, kind of finished my sentence of this opening, you know, heart pour that I was doing this, uh, person, Paul will call him, began to mockingly laugh and just kinda like respond in a, a very negative way. And I was so shocked. I was like, what? And he proceeds to say, he said, Justin, you are in way over your head. You're a worship leader. You really don't know the full scope of people once you're even saying, why don't you just do what the chosen has done and get a bunch of people, you know, to support you 50 bucks a month and just produce your film that way, you know, no small thing, just do what the chosen is done, man. That's, that's my advice, you know, it's like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Like, I really appreciate that. And so, um, I, I was not thinking that at the time I was, I was like crushed since we've started this endeavor, you know, of raising, you know, high ticket funds for these films, you know, you've had meetings that, okay, maybe it didn't go so amazing and okay, that person's probably not gonna give or whatever it didn't the message didn't resonate. And that's okay. You know, I mean, there's so many needs in the body of Christ, so many amazing organizations doing amazing things, right. This was the first meeting that I literally felt like just a failure. I felt like such a loser. I honestly, I wanted to just kind of cry and walk out of the room. I was offended, hurt, you know, all these things at the same time, right. Needless to say, I kind of bailed on the pitch. However, I, I, I went one step further, you know, cuz I was like, well, I, I came this all this way to have this meeting. So I didn't go through my whole pitch tech, but I did show him a uh, two minute video that kind of gives the, the background of firelight creative, my production company. And so to continue my, uh, my sob story here before I, I draw a couple of points that, that I've learned from this that I think are, are we gonna help you? You know, I, I turn my laptop around and I, I pressed play on this video, which, which I'll post a link to this video when the show notes, if you wanna check it out and assess it for yourself. So I, I flip my laptop around and uh, you know, after I kind of compose myself, whatever, and I was like, well, you know, let me kind of get into the, the details of what we're doing. So I play this two minute video and you know, I, I already kind of bailed on asking this person for money. And so after the video, I said, you know, Hey, what are, what are your thoughts in this video? Would you be open, you know, to sharing this video with, you know, other businessmen, kingdom business guys that, you know, he said, no, absolutely not. And again, like I've, I've had people tell me no. Or, you know, they say yes, but you kinda like, I'm not really sure if they're gonna, you know, have any leads for me. And I said, oh, okay. Yeah. Like I I'd love to know why. And he said, this video told me nothing, this video didn't gimme X, Y, Z X, Y, Z. And I was like, well, as I stated, this is a two minute introductory video. I have a pitch check. I have a whole business plan that you would send in, in follow up as opposed to sending, you know, Hey man, here's five things in a text. Look it over. My friend is doing some, some films, if you wanna be a part of it. Anyway. So needless to say, this meeting did not go well. I ended up, you know, calling my wife afterwards saying, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna be a little bit delayed. I'm gonna just drive around and, you know, have a good prayer drive with the Lord. And so, um, we were not meant to work together. That's the, uh, the first bullet point of this story. I wanna draw out a couple of things here. And as creatives, as, as you know, obvious, this applies to many other things, business people, you know, who are looking for capital to start their business or whatever it is, there are gonna be people out there that you're just not meant to be in business with. You're not meant to be in partnership with, and that's okay. That's okay. That was, uh, again, you might be listening to this like, oh, of course that's okay. That was a new, a new lesson for me at the level at which I, I learned it, you know, again, I, I learned, you know, maybe the, the delay or they stop responding sort of way. It's like, oh yeah, I don't, I don't think, you know, this person over here wants to, to, you know, partner with us or whatever in this film, but this was like right out of the gate. No. So that's the first thing that I wanna, I wanna draw out to this. And that's a positive thing that as creatives, as we're seeking partners to come alongside us, whether it's through donations or through investors who are gonna get a cut on the back end of what we're doing, there are people out there that it's not gonna be a good fit and that's okay. You're not meant to work with everyone. The second thing that it taught me is there's a real need for humility. When you are raising capital, when you're raising funds, we're raising donations for this second film, uh, just to be clear, not, not capital in terms of investment, that you'll get a return, but humility is needed in that process. Now, upon first hearing, you might think like, you're going to ask someone whether you're raising capital or donations, isn't that like clearly a humble thing to do. And you're like, you know, kind of kneeling at someone's feet and saying, Hey, you have like all this cash. Could I have a piece of it? And yeah, that is, that is a humble thing. And it's a, you know, we need each other coming alongside to, to do something awesome. Uh, in this case, you know, for the kingdom of God, but there's even a deeper level of humility that's needed and losing sight of that can be, can be detrimental. So staying humble in the entirety of the process, whether the, the pitch meeting goes great, whether it goes bad, whether it's in between remaining humble before the Lord is, is a, a big lesson that I learned, the third one, and this is kind of where I wanna spend just the last couple minutes here, then I'll, I'll wrap this up is remaining in a place of prayer. And since this meeting, I've really kind of felt this beautiful weight upon me, that what the Lord has me doing right now, and this is, you know, hopefully it's true for your life as well, uh, with whatever you're giving yourself to business or creativity or pastoring, whatever it is, the ministry that you're called of God. Right? And it's probably safe to say for, for most of us, as we're seeking to follow Jesus, that what we're doing right now probably was birthed from a place of prayer. And the goal, not even just from, from my heart, I believe from the Lord's heart, is that it would continue to be birthed or continue to scale as we remain in the place of prayer. Another way to say that, that this has been just kind of really, Lord's been hitting my heart with this Justin, this production company, these musicals, everything you're building was birthed on your face in a prayer room largely. And I spent 15 years full time in a prayer room, the international house of prayer here in Kansas city, obviously, you know, that was from like 18 to, you know, whatever 30 something rather whatever 15 years is obviously the 18 years before that were also incredibly foundational. But those 15 years on your face is where this stuff was birthed. And he's saying to me that it will continue to be birthed. More shows will be birthed donations and future capital even will come. This thing will scale as you remain on your face before the Lord and our job, our role is to just be faithful, to have the fundraising meeting. If you're a musician and you want to cut a record, if you're a painter and you wanna do this, if you're a, you know, whatever lane of creativity, you know, it takes, takes funds to be creative. You know, if you're working like 65, 80 hours a week, or even 40 hours a week, you know, at your job where you're not being creative, especially if you have a family, it doesn't leave much time for, for creativity to flow. So it takes money to even free up your time to be able to, you know, devote yourself to it. So remaining, just steadfast in the Lord to say, Lord, this is, this is your deal. You birth this thing, as I was saying yes to you in prayer, I'm just gonna continue to say yes to you in prayer and let what happens happen. And again, as I mentioned earlier, we won't get into it here, uh, on this podcast, but that great tension of the waiting on God, verse faith without works is dead. And just a quick comment on that. I can confidently say if when the Lord, you know, invited us to record, you know, these three stage films in three years last fall, if I had said, okay, God, just, you know, the first, first one is gonna be 65,000. As soon as I get that, bam, I'm going, I'd still be waiting. Probably I'd still be fundraising. I'd still be, you know, kind of tiptoeing around. But we, we stepped out in faith, we got the budget, we got the team. We said, Lord, we're doing our part. We felt your call. Here we are. And we came within$50 of that budget. And now here we are a year later, uh, we start shooting this film September 2nd. Uh, and we need to raise$170,000, uh, by August 29th is the deadline for this round of fundraising. And we still have quite a ways to go, but I wanna end this with a really cool thing that happened just a couple of days after this, not so awesome meeting with this person, uh, where I got a big fat, no kind of a slap in the face. I was up here where I'm recording this podcast in my writing room, just having one of those days, you know, you know what one of those days are just faith was low. I, I was just like, Lord, what, what am I really doing? Like this? This is ridiculous. Like, I'm, I'm a worship leader. I'm like a teacher person. Like, what am I doing doing these films? You know, you know, this person's right, right. And an email comes through on my laptop from a person that I'd met, like one time had a face to face with and just kind of shared my heart. And, uh, it was a couple months earlier and we emailed a little bit, you know, different questions or whatever about, you know, my, my nonprofit board and the structure and how it's set up, et cetera, et cetera. And this email comes through and this person said, Justin, my wife and I have prayed about it. And we want to give you$50,000 as seed money for this next film. And needless to say that the, the peril of all the emotions I felt in that, that first meeting with that, uh, guy I was, you know, asking to donate suddenly just bolstered in confidence to say, the Lord truly is in this. This really is the Lord's deal. I am just a steward and I'm gonna continue to walk this road of faith, one foot in front of the other good days, bad days, good pitch meetings, bad pitch meetings, because the Lord is indeed in this. And this second film is, is going to be funded. And so I'll, I'm gonna pace the link here in the show notes where you guys can go and check out kind of where we're at. We we're at like$62,000, I believe right now. And we need to raise one 70. So about a hundred K just a little bit more over that, uh, a little bit more over a hundred K you know, the next about two months-ish. And so if it's, if it's on your heart to check that out, if you know someone who's interested, feel free to send in this link here, it'll be down in the, in the, the show notes. And you can, um, spread that around as you feel led to do. But I wanna just leave you with this encouragement. You might be sitting right now feeling like a big goose egg in terms of what you're doing creatively of what you're doing in terms of the dream that God has called you to. And I wanna encourage you to take the first step. What does step one look like for you in your creativity, in your business, in your invention, in your pursuit of whatever it is that that the Lord has called you to what is a, a first step that you can begin walking that line and maybe you already are, but you can begin walking that line of, you know, what faith without works is dead. And I want to have abundant wisdom in my life, but you know, I've sang this for years, the house of prayer, this phrase that I think sometimes I have a little bit too much common sense for my own good. And there is no common sense in faith guys. There is no common sense in faith to look at a blind person and say, Hey, man, I'm gonna just get some, uh, spit and dirt and kind of rub it in your eyes and you're gonna see no, that's not common sense. What are you doing Jesus, to look at the, the dead man and say, Hey, open up the tomb. He's gonna live again. There is no common sense in faith. So what is the Lord asking of you today? Again, I'm not saying do something crazy, like, you know, mortgage your house or, or do anything like that. But what's a first step that the Lord is inviting you into to meet him on this journey. And to just declare, you know, that, that statement along with me, there is no common sense in faith. So I'm gonna begin doing this today. So I hope that's encouraging to you. We'll be back with more episodes as we get into production here on the second film, it's gonna be incredible. Rehearsals are going awesome. We've got an incredible cast. Who's come along to bring this show to life and to bring it to the screen. It's gonna be an amazing journey. So we will talk to you guys soon.