Here's a hot take: Failure is your friend! When producing a show, you often have to fall down a few times in order to get back up and make an even better, more engaging show. When the going gets tough, there are a few tricks for snapping out of your funk.

Chris Lavigne

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Head of Production

Jeff Ayers

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Digital Media & Broadcasting Manager

Elena Besser

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Trained Chef & TV Host

Kibi Anderson

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Digital Content & Strategy Executive

Dave Mizzoni

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Actor & Producer 

Rand Fishkin

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CEO & Co-Founder

Dan Mills

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Head of Wistia Studios

David Cancel

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CEO & Founder

Brendan Schwartz

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Co-Founder

Kristen Bryant

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Strategic Partnerships Manager

Jenny Coppola

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Director of Content and Creative

E13 On Failure - Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes

On Failure


NARRATOR: Let's face it. Making shows, especially when you're just getting started, is tough. The production process can be discouraging and leave you feeling like an impostor. No matter how much you plan, things will go wrong, and your show might be a total flop.

CHRIS LAVIGNE: You kinda have to embrace failure.

NARRATOR: And no one knows failure quite like Wistia's head of production, Chris Lavigne.

CHRIS LAVIGNE: Did the narrator just roast me? Look, failure isn't something that show makers are going to run into once or twice or from time to time. It is very much part of the process. So the sooner you can learn to see failure as an opportunity to improve, the better your shows are going to be in the end.

NARRATOR: Even the most successful show runners can feel like they're failing when it comes to new episodes or new shows, like Jeff Ayers from Deathwish Coffee.

JEFF AYERS: If you feel like you're doing something wrong or everything is just failing, congratulations. You're actually doing it right.

ELENA BESSER: The only way that you're going to get better at making shows is if you fail all the time. That's the only way you're going to learn what not to do so that you can get really good at what you're supposed to do.

KIBI ANDERSON: It forces you to hone how you communicate. It forces you to think more broadly. It's the best thing that has made me a better producer. And that's what you want to do. You're always thinking about how you can get better, and failure is your friend for that.

NARRATOR: And remember, when it comes to producing shows, you probably won't hit a home run on your first try.

DAVE MIZZONI: You cannot pay for the education you receive when you fail. Every little piece of building a creative project is a trial and an error.

RAND FISHKIN: Failure is how you learn. It's a sign of progress.

NARRATOR: Here's Rand Fishkin.

RAND FISHKIN: Howdy, folks. Failure's how you work through an idea and figure out which parts of it to keep and what to throw away.

NARRATOR: There are some things you can do to avoid a total show meltdown.

DAN MILLS: Don't underestimate the power of taking a break. That's five, everybody.

NARRATOR: Here's Dan again from Wistia Studios.

DAN MILLS: Production and being creative is hard work. If your project is going off track, don't be afraid to take a break or move a deadline. Just communicate with your stakeholders at the business and let them know what's going on. Flexibility in the end, and building it in, might make the difference between your project being a huge win or huge failure.

DAVID CANCEL: Our podcast series that we've created that have only 10 episodes, 12 episodes, 20 episodes, and then we've decided to retire them. We didn't have anything left to tell as storytellers in that subject. And we took that energy instead and moved it to another area or another idea or another series that we were passionate about and we had a lot to say on that. So you've got to be willing to let things end. It's OK, right? It's just like reading a storybook. Like, there's an end to the storybook. They don't have to last forever.

BRENDAN SCHWARTZ: One of the smartest things you can do to avoid all-out failure is to produce a pilot episode.

NARRATOR: Say hi to Wistia's co-founder, Brendan Schwartz.

BRENDAN SCHWARTZ: Happy to be here. Just like in product where you'd make a prototype, a pilot episode lets you test out your ideas and make sure that your series is actually going to work. So produce this pilot episode, make sure that you give it your all, because this needs to be a proxy for what the actual series is going to look and sound like.

So send it to your community, to people you trust. Send it inside your company, and listen hard to that feedback. It's going to allow you to tweak your ideas and really get things right before committing to the full series.

NARRATOR: Testing a pilot will help make sure your show is resonating with your audience. But it also helps to define failure and success before you launch your show. If you hope your show is an international sensation with millions of subscribers, but only a few hundred tune into each episode, that's a failure. But if you hope to reach 50 people in your niche audience and you end up creating 100 fans that watch every episode, that's a huge success. Setting the right expectations can turn what seems like a failure into a celebration.

KRISTEN BRYANT: We always say that if you have 50 to 100 people tuning in, that's actually pretty awesome.

NARRATOR: There's Kristen Bryant.

KRISTEN BRYANT: Think about it. If you had 100 people show up to your office to hear you talk about anything week over week, you'd be so impressed. Every episode is an opportunity to impact the audience that you do have.

JENNY COPPOLA: Don't expect to see overnight success with your shows.

NARRATOR: Here's one more thought about setting expectations from Wistia's Jenny Coppola.

JENNY COPPOLA: It's all about being consistent, putting out episodes, and learning from what you're doing. Because when it comes to building community, it just takes some time.

CHRIS LAVIGNE: One more thing, things always come together in post. I can't tell you how many times I've walked off set feeling like garbage, like we didn't get what we needed, like the project is doomed. But that's the magic of post-production. Some of these moments that we have to find ways to creatively problem solve in post end up being my favorite parts of the video.

KIBI ANDERSON: We oftentime spend so much worrying about failure that the worry is actually worse than the failure. Don't let failure bog your mind down because that's the last thing you want to do if you want to put out amazing content.

JEFF AYERS: You pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and just try again.

RAND FISHKIN: And as you fail more, you learn more. If you want to level up, fail more.

NARRATOR: So the next time you feel like this, remember that failure is part of the process and a great way to get you closer to your audience. Stick with it. You might just be surprised at how failure can lead to some of your biggest wins.
