Reasons to become a Producer

 

Become a Producer

By Aje Pelser

Here are several reasons why you need to be a producer – perhaps you already are!

What defines a producer? Film and cinema comes to mind – that mystical figure behind the realisation of dreams and the person who finds the support and funding to make it all possible. But I have found that the real producers learn to use what they’ve got and don’t wait until everything is perfectly aligned. Time is a luxury for a producer. Time management is a power tool for a producer and it determines budget, human resources, production, launch dates and distribution strategies.

Now that we’ve seen ourselves in Hollywood for a moment, let’s bring it back home and consider whether we are producers or consumers?

To become a producer in life means that you have thought about the way you live and the circles you move in, and you have found that there are essential resources lacking in that environment that only you can provide. Perhaps there are others who can provide that resource, but they haven’t done so yet, or they don’t see the potential market value. 

When you view your resource that you wish to produce from the potential consumer – and take some notes about their complaints about current offerings in the market, you can start to envision your product.

Before we get into marketing strategy let’s talk about your intrinsic production value.

Make a short list of things that you have made, or helped to innovate. It can be concrete or abstract. Concrete examples could include: books, music, video, buildings, gardens, crochet work or anything that you can see. 

Abstract products can include: thought leadership principles and intellectual capital., systems in business or even philosophies for living.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Once you have used your beliefs to create or produce something, you will have some understanding of the way you produce.

Make a few notes about your process.

Do you work fast or do you take time to consider all angles?

When you produce something are you thinking of others or are you making life easier for yourself first, then passing the invention onto someone else?

Do you think about the product and test it in your mind completely or do you apply trial and error until something works out. That is the difference between Edison and Tesla – In the period from 1878 to 1880 Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/edisons-lightbulb  It had never been done before and no one knew which gases would work with a tungsten filament. Tesla, worked with mind experiments and thought out the entire system of alternating current before attempting to build the prototype. 

Both were successful, so once again, there is no one method here. 

Producing something helps you to fulfil the mandate to be fruitful and multiply in all senses. If you have not worked on something to a point that it can successfully be multiplied, then it still needs some tweaking and perfecting.

Ask anyone who has successfully written or published a book, how many times they had to rewrite and proof read it before going to press? You will learn from writers that they get into a consistent process of rewriting and reading through the book up to a point of exhaustion when they realize it is enough and the book has to get out there! 

When an artist produces an artwork, there a moments when the work needs adjustments and some overall finishing. But then there comes a moment when the artist stands back, squints the eyes to focus and see the work as a whole, and put the paint brush and palette down. It is finished – sign the work! Sometimes if the artist tinkers on at this point the painting loses it vitality.

Producing a family album helps to preserve it for the future - loose photos get lost. Compiling a video of footage about an important event in your life helps to commemorate it and set it apart as a turning point in your life.

When you realize the value of your own productions, you start to see the value of other people’s moments, experiences, and products in their lives too. As a producer you are now a resource for others to make their lives memorable and important. A good product will enhance life and leave a legacy. A useless product will just affirm the apparent transience of our existence. 

When I had finally written and published my first book entitled “Into Orbit: Orbital Systems for every Organization,” my father said something memorable: “You have contributed something to the life force of humanity.”

Interesting thought, ‘life force’ – it makes one think that we all have something to contribute to our collective life force of existence. It is not about the amount of books you can sell. It is the fact that you have written something for someone to read. Even if it reaches one person and enhances their life, it is a contribution to the life force! 

Bob Dylan said once in a song: “I know this song will mean something to someone.” During the pandemic while musicians were struggling to perform, added to the fact that digital music streaming has disrupted the music industry and left song writers wondering about how to make a living, Dylan sold the rights to his collection of songs to Universal Music who purchased his entire song writing catalogue of more than 600 songs in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of a single act’s publishing rights, an estimated $300,000,000. 

Dylan’s catalog, though, is a special gem, revered in a way that perhaps no other popular musician has achieved. His trove of songs have reshaped folk, rock and pop, and he maintains an almost mythic status as the bard of the current age. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” 

I really hope you find the motivation in this article to be the producer God wants you to be in whatever field or capacity. 

If you would like to book an online session of Executive Coaching to help you become a producer or to prepare a product or launch, we can help! 

Book ajepelser@gmail.com