His loss, my gain

 I was in the office one day Friday afternoon in October 2014 when I received a phone call from Ben. He called to complain about Jude (not his real name), our mutual friend, who had disappointed him. According to Ben, he gave Jude a contract to produce an advert for the church’s devotional guide for 2015 but for about two months now, Jude had not made do with his promise to deliver the first cut of the advert.

Being a member of the church and a marketer with a strong yet untapped production background, I asked Ben to give me a chance to try my hands on this project although I knew I had no resources to pull this task through. I requested 2 weeks to deliver the first cut of the advert to him.

 

Since every advert, tv or radio, begins with a script, I asked Ben if a script for the supposed advert did exist and if it did, he should email it to me to commence work asap. The script was shared by email and my two weeks started counting down.

 

I first had to come up with a concept in mind around which this tv advert will be built around. I had no clue but challenged myself that I was going to make this happen.

 

Two days went by before I have a concept idea. Since a devotional guide is about reading, I will tackle this task using typography. After deciding on the concept, I needed a voiceover to read and record the script and a videographer to put text, graphics, soundtrack, and the voiceover (VO) all together in a beautiful 45 secs advert which my client (my church) will be wowed and of course, that my General Overseer will be pleased with knowing he loves excellent work.

I started reaching out to contacts I knew who I had done work with when I was the client and they were working for the agencies who were doing work for us.

 

I spoke to one lady Afia who said she can get me someone willing to do the same work but the person will charge GHC 1,500. I was not too happy with this information. But I should be happy because she knows someone who can deliver exactly what I want, right? Nope! I was not happy. The reason is that Ben told me that the whole budget for the advert was GHC 1,500. So if I carry all this money for a videographer, there will be zero Ghana Cedis for me to also “chop some”  let alone give some to the person who will record the VO for us to use in the advert. I hit a roadblock with the information from Afia.  I had to widen my search scope immediately to enable me to meet my deadline.

 

Then I remembered Seli, she was a videographer who I worked directly with on Malta Guinness adverts and most especially, Malta Guinness Street Dance competition videos for playbacks on TV3, Metro, and GTV.  Seli was at the time working with one of the national tv stations in Ghana. She had left her previous employer which was and still is one of the major production houses in this country with a rich resume of video productions, event productions, adverts, and two very popular tv series that we all loved and have nostalgic connections with. Enough of her background.

 

When I reached out to her, she said she does not know how to develop content using typography but she has a work colleague who she believes can assist my course. She also said she will speak to another person called Gloria who she also believes will be willing to record the voiceover for the advert. This news brought joy to my heart but in another breath, I was worried that I may not be able to afford them considering that the two (the videographer and the voice) were working in a very popular national tv station in Ghana as already mentioned.

 

Seli gave me the videographer’s number. I spoke to him (Leo) and explained what I wanted. Leo told me, he will do it for me. When I asked him how much he will charge, he said, I should wait for him to finish the work before he can tell me how much he will take. I was not happy with Leo’s posture because I did not tell the client (Ben) that he should wait for me to finish before I charge him. Ben was very specific, his budget was GHC 1,500 for the whole work.

 

Three days later, Leo sent me the recorded voice. When I heard it, it was good. Gloria’s delivery was super. I did not change anything. I gave Leo the go-ahead to use it for the development of the advert. He said okay, and that I should give him 3 days to share the first cut with me. Since it was within my timeline, I told him I was fine with it.

 

Indeed on the third day, Leo delivered with no errors and once again nothing to change. The only build I had was that the content was very normal with no elements of the church, the devotional 2015 book, and the General Overseer. That notwithstanding, I shared it first cut with Ben on WhatsApp.    

 

When Ben saw it, he was surprised with the output and said he was going to show it to the Operations Manager of the church for his input.

 

Four days after sending the video to Ben, he called me to inform me that the Operations Manager wants to book a meeting to discuss the video and give inputs on the advert. Per what Ben told me, the Operations Manager wanted me to come over to meet him to following day which I believed was a Thursday.  

At 3 pm the next day, I was at the church office to meet the Operations Manage. His comment on the advert I delivered was, "I have nothing to add to what you have done but the reason he wanted me to come was to discuss the next job which I want you to work on, an advert for CrossOver". Yes, CrossOver and it is at this point that I review that the client was ICGC - Christ Temple, and the General Overseer I referred to at the beginning of this post is Dr. Mensa Otabil.

 

Without thinking, I asked the Operations Manager of the church to give me 24hrs to share a concept for the new advert with him. I will tell you how this second task went in another blog I will title “My CrossOver into Production”.

 

After agreeing to the next task, I asked for elements that will make the advert speak to the books visually and also images of Dr. Mensa Otabil to make the video complete from a video production perspective.

 

To conclude the story, I got the elements after a month to complete the video to my marketing satisfaction. I delivered the video asset to the church, and it had its first play at the 2014 CrossOver into 2015 service at the Accra Sports Stadium. The joy in my heart when the advert was played.

 

Well, Leo charged me GHC 600 for the video work and the voiceover recording. I made a cool GHC 900 which I used to commence my production journey.

 

There are lessons to be learned in this story of mine. 

As friends, we sometimes downplay the potential of others and by doing so miss the essential import of the silent opportunity ringing in the words of the complainant (Ben). So imagine that when Ben called me to complain about Jude, I also went on the same tangent and said the same thing about how Jude disappointed me on the several occasions that my corporate institution had given him contracts that were never delivered in full and on time (and this is very true), I do not think my production life would have taken off in any way. I do believe so. Instead, I chose to look at the opportunity Jude’s delay or failure to deliver the advert had presented me and took hold of that to launch myself into the production world.

 

When the opportunity came, I reached out to other professionals in my circles who could handle the task. First Afia and then Seli who linked me to Leo who did wonderful work that pleased the client. I must add that beyond the Living Word Devotional Guide video, Leo did more than  15 other adverts for me for the same client and other corporate clients. Leo linked me to Gloria for the voiceover and so forth.

While we work with external people at work, in school, at work, in church, etc, let's be mindful of how we treat others because sometimes, big opportunities come and people will be wondering who around them they can give the job/contract to. I hope it will be you and I hope you will be able to find someone around you to assist when such an opportunity arises as it did for Leo.

The most important lesson for me is the ability to deliver tasks, contracts, and actions on time. I got the first advert because Jude failed to deliver on time. The Operation's Manage would not have given me the second advert to (CrossOver) develop if I delayed the delivery of the first advert to Ben. I hope you get my drift. It is important that we wholeheartedly deliver tasks on time and in full with no errors. You may never know, that could be your ticket to a better life, a better working opportunity, or a bigger contract. 

Below is the YouTube link for the devotional guide I produced which launched me into my production life.                         

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjx1G2vEg4c 

 

Wofa Ampong Kwesi writes to share his life experiences to help you learn the lessons so you can live a better and fulfilled life. 

Think positive, be positive and stay blessed. 

Email the writer at wofaampongkwesi@gmail.com