I really enjoy working with Barri Evins because she is teaching me about the power of being unreasonable - first hand. Barri is a Hollywood film producer and teacher I met through Cinestory. She has had a long career in the industry – which she partially attributes to being unreasonable. How else could you persist in an industry that is famous for exclusivity and rejection? As she said, “Any reasonable person would pack up and go home. But where is the fun in that?”
So how has she done it? I think the key is to understand that ultimately she is fearless. She will ask for anything and work for anything if it is something that matters to her. Here’s an example: Barri once decided that the children in the Head Start programs she was working with should have the same warm Santa experience that other children have when they receive their gifts for the Holidays. There would be no more plastic chairs and boring backdrops.
So this nice Jewish girl decided to design sets for all of the Head Start Programs her literacy charity was working with that year. First she built a small six inch model and then it was simply a matter of taking the steps – one after the other – until every school had their own fairy tale land complete with working lights, fake snow – you name it. Ultimately it was a matter of asking a lot of people to work together to support a common vision.
That’s how she does it. Barri starts with a vision of where she is going – and then it’s just a matter of taking the steps and asking for what she needs – often beginning with the first thing she does know how to do on her own. Frankly, this is exactly what I needed to learn right now as I work to build this site. I have to be unafraid – whether I am approaching people to be interviewed or simply asking you to take your time to read my posts.
What a powerful combination – Unreasonable and Unafraid! Just think what we can accomplish with those two simple traits. So – Thank you to Barri for being a role model and for believing in me and my Unreasonable Dream of building this site!!!
Here’s to being Unafraid!!