From Your Brain to the Box Office

Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:02

I'm Jaclyn, and today Jeff and I are speaking with Ricky Borba.

Jaclyn: 00:00:07

This is part two of our interview, and if you did not hear the first one, I really wanna recommend that you go back and listen to it, because he shared some incredible stories of how God moved in his life, moving him toward his film career.

Jaclyn: 00:00:21

And so now we

Jaclyn: 00:00:23

wanna get into learning from you.

Jaclyn: 00:00:26

I mean,

Jaclyn: 00:00:26

Ricky, it's not just that you've been in the industry a long time, you also have a heart, um, like a pastor's heart and a a teacher's heart.

Jaclyn: 00:00:35

And so you're wanting to share some of the things that you've learned.

Jaclyn: 00:00:38

So what kinds of things are you wanting to create?

Jaclyn: 00:00:42

What kind of education are you looking toward?

Ricky: 00:00:44

I'm really passionate about helping people follow their dreams and so, uh, in the film industry usually that, is the.

Ricky: 00:00:52

How it

Ricky: 00:00:52

manifests is you, you come up to me like, Hey, either this happened to me and I want to tell this story.

Ricky: 00:00:57

or you say, I have this idea.

Ricky: 00:00:59

So how do you get that from your brain to the box office?

Ricky: 00:01:02

How does that happen?

Ricky: 00:01:03

And so, because I've done that now three times, my, uh, my brother's crossing was completely written script and I didn't have to do much on that.

Ricky: 00:01:12

Um, but the other three films I've done have been from here to getting it

Ricky: 00:01:15

out.

Ricky: 00:01:16

there.

Ricky: 00:01:16

I. So how do you do that?

Ricky: 00:01:18

So, um,

Ricky: 00:01:19

I have a masterclass that I'm gonna be teaching, but it's basically, um, you have a few elements and I'm gonna pull up my phone here.

Ricky: 00:01:25

I'm just, 'cause I, I don't want to missay it.

Ricky: 00:01:27

I've given them really cool names.

Ricky: 00:01:29

So you have the Bulletproof script.

Ricky: 00:01:30

Uh, so you need a bulletproof script.

Ricky: 00:01:32

You need, you need to have a script that's not just well-written, but also

Ricky: 00:01:35

evaluated and for me, they need to hit a certain mark.

Ricky: 00:01:38

They need to be in

Ricky: 00:01:39

the top 20%.

Ricky: 00:01:40

And then once you get that done, we go on to the pitch packet.

Ricky: 00:01:43

Um,

Ricky: 00:01:44

your pitch packet needs to have some things and it does not need other things.

Ricky: 00:01:47

And so I, I've seen hundreds of pitch packets that, um, you know, for people wanting to pitch projects, a lot of them have too much, a lot of them have too little, but a lot

Ricky: 00:01:54

of them are,

Ricky: 00:01:55

I'm

Ricky: 00:01:55

sorry, a few of them are really well done and so I wanna teach people how to make a pitch packet.

Ricky: 00:01:58

Um, and then what does

Ricky: 00:02:00

production look.

Ricky: 00:02:00

like chances are, if you have an idea, you.

Ricky: 00:02:03

don't just wanna write that, then hand it off.

Ricky: 00:02:05

You wanna be part of the production.

Ricky: 00:02:06

So how do you hire the right people?

Ricky: 00:02:08

Who do you look for?

Ricky: 00:02:09

What kinds of things should you look for in a cameraman and a crew, and all those things.

Ricky: 00:02:12

And then finally, the biggest one is, um,

Ricky: 00:02:15

all that's great.

Ricky: 00:02:16

All those three things are great, but

Ricky: 00:02:17

how is that

Ricky: 00:02:18

film gonna make money?

Ricky: 00:02:18

And how are you gonna get your investors' money back so that we have the

Ricky: 00:02:21

distribution,

Ricky: 00:02:22

model.

Ricky: 00:02:22

So, um, I just wanna teach people a what I've been through the, the mistakes I've made and the good decisions I made.

Ricky: 00:02:28

So that when

Ricky: 00:02:29

they have an idea, if they take

Ricky: 00:02:31

my class.

Ricky: 00:02:32

they can theoretically get their idea from their brain to the box office.

Ricky: 00:02:35

With the things that I teach, it's still hard.

Ricky: 00:02:38

I'm

Ricky: 00:02:38

still working on my own films.

Ricky: 00:02:39

My name is not Steven Spielberg or Christopher Nolan.

Ricky: 00:02:41

I don't have a blank check.

Ricky: 00:02:42

I have to go out

Ricky: 00:02:43

and do this for myself all the time, and you know, you don't hit a home run every time.

Ricky: 00:02:46

Um, I'm working right now on my biggest film.

Ricky: 00:02:48

It's a $5 million budget.

Ricky: 00:02:50

It's an idea that I got during the pandemic and I'm talking to a couple investors right now.

Ricky: 00:02:54

So while I'm

Ricky: 00:02:55

teaching, I'm also living

Ricky: 00:02:56

it.

Ricky: 00:02:57

So the goal would be for me not to have to do this anymore.

Ricky: 00:02:59

The goal would be for me to be a studio to come aside and say, Hey, we're

Ricky: 00:03:02

giving you a

Ricky: 00:03:02

five.

Ricky: 00:03:02

picture deal.

Ricky: 00:03:03

But, um,

Ricky: 00:03:04

until that point, I I

Ricky: 00:03:05

want to help

Ricky: 00:03:06

people

Ricky: 00:03:07

because if I knew what I

Ricky: 00:03:08

know now, what I,

Ricky: 00:03:09

how does that phrase go?

Ricky: 00:03:10

If I knew them, what I know now, if I knew them, what I know now, I would've saved so much time and money and effort on getting those films to where they needed to be.

Ricky: 00:03:18

I could have, could have done things a lot differently.

Ricky: 00:03:19

So I wanna help people and, uh, just have a heart for helping people.

Jaclyn: 00:03:24

That's awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:03:25

And yeah, it is.

Jaclyn: 00:03:26

It's so true.

Jaclyn: 00:03:27

Like all of those factors need to be playing in together and, and it's good to know even like the end from the beginning, like to understand what it is that you're getting into and what.

Jaclyn: 00:03:38

What the goal is and what it looks like, you know, rather than just, 'cause there's a difference between a dream and a goal, you know, and, and so it sounds like what you are doing is helping people to go from having a dream to creating that goal and that process so that they

Jaclyn: 00:03:54

can actually achieve it.

Jaclyn: 00:03:56

And it's no longer just an idea that's been rolling around in their head for who knows how long.

Ricky: 00:04:02

Yeah.

Ricky: 00:04:03

Like you said, a dream.

Ricky: 00:04:04

A dream is different than a goal, but I always say a goal without a plan is a wish,

Ricky: 00:04:09

and so.

Ricky: 00:04:10

What are you gonna do about that goal that you have if you don't have a plan?

Ricky: 00:04:14

And, and the Bible also says, for lack of what knowledge, my people

Ricky: 00:04:17

perish.

Ricky: 00:04:17

And so we need to, we need to have knowledge.

Ricky: 00:04:19

So yeah, all, all of it comes, you know, and I'm not overtly, I'm not giving Bible verses during my teaching, but it is all

Ricky: 00:04:24

biblically based in terms of like, these are the things that God has told us would help if we do them.

Ricky: 00:04:28

And so I wanna give those to you.

Jaclyn: 00:04:30

Yeah, no, I love that.

Jaclyn: 00:04:31

And I think that, um, you know, like one of the, the reasons why Jeff and I started, well, it was called, Family Friendly Screenwriting Academy.

Jaclyn: 00:04:40

before we changed the name to Faith and Family Filmmakers Association, um, but as the Screenwriting Academy, the whole thing behind it was that.

Jaclyn: 00:04:49

I had taken a bunch of courses, um, and I had been told to watch these movies or these TV shows in order to learn the content that the course came from and the like, most of these shows were outside of my boundaries of what I would wanna watch.

Jaclyn: 00:05:04

And I was like, I, I don't want to be, I don't wanna be forced to learn in this environment.

Jaclyn: 00:05:11

Like There's gotta be a way to learn this without having to go outside of my own personal boundaries.

Jaclyn: 00:05:16

And um, so that's kind of what birthed that.

Jaclyn: 00:05:20

And I, I think that there are a lot of people that they do want to learn how to serve God with this calling of moving into the film industry.

Jaclyn: 00:05:28

And

Jaclyn: 00:05:29

so it's really hard to feel like you're moving toward that if you are working with someone who is.

Jaclyn: 00:05:35

Exposing you to things that are outside of God's will.

Jaclyn: 00:05:38

So I, I appreciate that you're, you're creating this environment that, uh, you know, Christians can go and learn how to do well, how to pursue excellence, how to pursue with profit in mind, because People say like, oh, it's not about the money.

Jaclyn: 00:05:51

And of course it's not a, that's not the end goal, but it needs to be one of the goals

Ricky: 00:05:56

it absolutely does.

Jaclyn: 00:05:57

make more than one, you wanna be a good steward with what you've been given.

Jaclyn: 00:06:00

You are accountable to your investors.

Jaclyn: 00:06:03

So making money does need to be a big part of the picture.

Jaclyn: 00:06:08

Um, so, so, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:06:09

I, I love that you are providing this opportunity in this space of people that want to honor God with the work that they do.

Ricky: 00:06:18

Well, thank you

Geoff: 00:06:20

So let's get into some advice.

Geoff: 00:06:21

Uh, Ricky, we've got listeners here, uh, all filmmakers, aspiring filmmakers,

Geoff: 00:06:27

and, um, you've got experience as a director.

Geoff: 00:06:31

Uh, tell us what you would like to share.

Geoff: 00:06:34

Uh, give us some tips.

Ricky: 00:06:35

my first tip would be, um.

Ricky: 00:06:38

You can do it.

Ricky: 00:06:39

I mean, honestly, it's so simply stated.

Ricky: 00:06:41

It is.

Ricky: 00:06:42

The fact that you can do this, there is a path for you to get your script to completion.

Ricky: 00:06:48

Now, whether it gets made into a film is a whole different thing, but if you've got an idea for a story, there are so many things now that you can use and they're really free tools that you can get this done.

Ricky: 00:06:57

Um, there are other tools that are not free that can help you get it done faster and better.

Ricky: 00:07:00

But you can do this.

Ricky: 00:07:01

So I, I don't ever wanna be that guy

Ricky: 00:07:03

that says, eh.

Ricky: 00:07:05

I don't know.

Ricky: 00:07:05

Jaclyn, I don't know if this is your thing.

Ricky: 00:07:07

You might just wanna stick to crocheting.

Ricky: 00:07:09

Like that's a,

Jaclyn: 00:07:10

Have you

Ricky: 00:07:11

things like that all the time.

Ricky: 00:07:12

Yeah, yeah.

Ricky: 00:07:13

People say things like that all the

Ricky: 00:07:15

time.

Ricky: 00:07:15

So I

Ricky: 00:07:15

just,

Ricky: 00:07:15

first of all, I just wanna tell you that you can do this.

Ricky: 00:07:18

This is, this is achievable.

Ricky: 00:07:20

Um, and then number two,

Ricky: 00:07:21

You can break them.

Ricky: 00:07:22

But there are rules.

Ricky: 00:07:23

You have to

Ricky: 00:07:24

follow

Ricky: 00:07:24

certain rules in script writing.

Ricky: 00:07:26

You have to follow certain Rules in filmmaking, but you can break them and be

Ricky: 00:07:29

avant-garde, but you can't rewrite the system

Ricky: 00:07:33

There

Ricky: 00:07:33

has to be certain things in your script.

Ricky: 00:07:35

You cannot introduce your villain on page 94 of a 97 page script, things like that.

Ricky: 00:07:41

There, there are things you have to do, you know, that make it work better.

Ricky: 00:07:44

So

Ricky: 00:07:45

you, you have to,

Ricky: 00:07:45

learn those things, but you can learn those things while you're

Ricky: 00:07:49

also taking your idea from germination to, to putting it in a paper.

Ricky: 00:07:53

Um.

Ricky: 00:07:54

And then kind of go back to something I said in, episode one of of these talks we're having is put some people around you that have your destiny in mind.

Ricky: 00:08:00

Put some people around you that are gonna pick you up when you're down that are gonna encourage you.

Ricky: 00:08:03

Maybe it's financially, maybe it's just emotionally, but you need people to say, Hey, I believe in you.

Ricky: 00:08:08

You're really giving it a go here.

Ricky: 00:08:10

I'm gonna help you out with whatever I have you.

Ricky: 00:08:13

I have a

Ricky: 00:08:13

couch.

Ricky: 00:08:14

You need a place to sleep.

Ricky: 00:08:14

One night here.

Ricky: 00:08:15

I

Ricky: 00:08:15

don't know what

Ricky: 00:08:16

that looks like for you, but there needs to be people in your

Ricky: 00:08:18

life

Ricky: 00:08:18

that are there picking you up by the bootstrap sometimes because, uh, nobody is self-made.

Ricky: 00:08:22

No one is self-made.

Ricky: 00:08:23

There are probably scores of people in my life

Ricky: 00:08:26

that help me get here in one way or another, including God, obviously.

Ricky: 00:08:29

So, you know, A, you can do this.

Ricky: 00:08:31

B

Ricky: 00:08:32

there are rules

Ricky: 00:08:33

that you

Ricky: 00:08:33

have to follow, and

Ricky: 00:08:34

I'm I'm a

Ricky: 00:08:34

Huge rule breaker,

Ricky: 00:08:36

but there's

Ricky: 00:08:36

still, you know, tenets you have to do.

Ricky: 00:08:37

And then, um, c did I go 1, 2, 3 or a, B, c?

Ricky: 00:08:40

We'll do, I don't know which idea.

Ricky: 00:08:42

But then the third thing would be, uh, put people in your life that have your destiny in mind.

Jaclyn: 00:08:46

No, that's great.

Jaclyn: 00:08:47

And I, it is true.

Jaclyn: 00:08:48

I tell people the same thing with, screenwriting.

Jaclyn: 00:08:50

I'm like, it's fine to break the rules as long as you know

Jaclyn: 00:08:53

what they are, and you can't break all of them at the

Jaclyn: 00:08:56

same time.

Jaclyn: 00:08:57

You know, you have to be very intentional and selective of which rules are going to break.

Jaclyn: 00:09:01

'cause if you just, if you break too many of them, then everything just feels disjointed and it feels like a mess.

Jaclyn: 00:09:07

And it doesn't, it doesn't feel like it was intentional.

Jaclyn: 00:09:09

It just feels like, oh, you don't

Jaclyn: 00:09:10

know what you're

Jaclyn: 00:09:11

doing.

Ricky: 00:09:11

And, and you know, not to, I, I'm gonna do it.

Ricky: 00:09:13

I'm not to drop my book again, but on page 63 of this book that I wrote, I

Ricky: 00:09:19

have my

Ricky: 00:09:19

personal phone number and

Ricky: 00:09:20

email address.

Ricky: 00:09:21

This book is called Trusting God, pursuing Your Dreams, and Never Giving Up On Yourself.

Ricky: 00:09:24

It's just kind of a handbook.

Ricky: 00:09:26

If you have dreams, how to maybe get them a, uh.

Ricky: 00:09:28

Achieved.

Ricky: 00:09:29

And on page 63, I

Ricky: 00:09:30

say

Ricky: 00:09:31

if you

Ricky: 00:09:31

need encouragement or help or something, call me, text me, email me, write me smoke signal.

Ricky: 00:09:35

'cause I wanna be an encouragement to you.

Ricky: 00:09:36

Um, Bob Goff, who has millions of followers, he's

Ricky: 00:09:39

an incredible author, incredible speaker, has his phone

Ricky: 00:09:42

number in his book.

Ricky: 00:09:43

I've called him twice.

Ricky: 00:09:45

He's answered on

Ricky: 00:09:46

the first ring both times.

Ricky: 00:09:47

and I

Ricky: 00:09:47

figured if me,

Ricky: 00:09:48

with my four followers.

Ricky: 00:09:50

If Bob Goff has millions that

Ricky: 00:09:52

I,

Ricky: 00:09:52

with my four

Ricky: 00:09:53

followers, I could

Ricky: 00:09:53

have my, my information in my,

Ricky: 00:09:55

book and I really mean it.

Ricky: 00:09:56

I've had a few people reach out via text and say, Hey, I read your book.

Ricky: 00:09:59

I'm reading it right now.

Ricky: 00:10:00

I need encouragement.

Ricky: 00:10:00

I'll either pray for them or

Ricky: 00:10:01

whatever.

Ricky: 00:10:02

Um, and it just, I think we need people in

Ricky: 00:10:04

our lives to, to help us.

Jaclyn: 00:10:05

Absolutely.

Jaclyn: 00:10:06

That's amazing.

Jaclyn: 00:10:07

Um, I have a question like with your journey, you had mentioned like one of the things that you

Jaclyn: 00:10:12

wanna do with

Jaclyn: 00:10:12

teaching

Jaclyn: 00:10:13

is to help people to, um.

Jaclyn: 00:10:15

Not make the mistakes that you made and then you know,

Jaclyn: 00:10:18

to learn from the things that you did right and all

Jaclyn: 00:10:19

of

Jaclyn: 00:10:19

that.

Jaclyn: 00:10:20

I'm just curious about some of those

Jaclyn: 00:10:21

mistakes.

Jaclyn: 00:10:22

What are some things, or maybe it wasn't a mistake, maybe even just something that you would do differently knowing what you know now?

Ricky: 00:10:29

Yeah, that's a great question.

Ricky: 00:10:30

I think, um, the thing that comes to mind, um, When you are making content, whether you're a writer or you're making videos or whatever,

Ricky: 00:10:40

don't

Ricky: 00:10:41

put

Ricky: 00:10:41

all of it out.

Ricky: 00:10:42

there for the world to see.

Ricky: 00:10:43

It's important for you to put it to people that know you and love you, that can give you unbiased feedback that aren't gonna blow smoke up your butt and say, well, this is great when it's not.

Ricky: 00:10:53

But don't put your acting reel.

Ricky: 00:10:55

On the internet for everybody to see when it's not good.

Ricky: 00:10:58

Because what happened with my first film is

Ricky: 00:11:00

I was living in Sacramento and I wanted to bring all of my filmmaking friends along with me

Ricky: 00:11:05

to make this film.

Ricky: 00:11:06

And the producer

Ricky: 00:11:07

and the

Ricky: 00:11:08

executive producer was financing, looked at their reels and stuff and

Ricky: 00:11:10

said, absolutely not.

Ricky: 00:11:12

You want me to hire this guy?

Ricky: 00:11:13

Look at this.

Ricky: 00:11:14

This is garbage.

Ricky: 00:11:15

And so my first thing would be, don't put everything that you make

Ricky: 00:11:18

out for the world to see.

Ricky: 00:11:20

Keep some of it here and then show your friends and family and close people, and then as it gets better, start putting out and not everybody's gonna like it.

Ricky: 00:11:26

I'm not saying when you do put it out there, everybody's gonna love it.

Ricky: 00:11:28

That's, you know, take any, even Star Wars.

Ricky: 00:11:31

Not everybody loves Star Wars, but really, don't cast your pearls before swine and, don't put your swine out for the world to see.

Ricky: 00:11:37

And so that's, that's number one.

Ricky: 00:11:39

Number two, I think with the advent of these devices,

Ricky: 00:11:43

these cell phones that we have in our pockets.

Ricky: 00:11:45

Use it, learn things.

Ricky: 00:11:47

Go on YouTube, go on a thousand other places, you know Khan Academy, and

Ricky: 00:11:53

learn about what you're doing.

Ricky: 00:11:54

Take a masterclass from masterclass.com.

Ricky: 00:11:57

I think one of the things that I really regret not doing was spending more time using

Ricky: 00:12:01

the tools at the time, you know, 7, 8, 9 years ago to.

Ricky: 00:12:04

Be the

Ricky: 00:12:04

best version of myself for my first film and

Ricky: 00:12:07

second film and third film.

Ricky: 00:12:08

Now, thankfully, through the grace of God and the gifting that he is given me and the anointing I have for that, I

Ricky: 00:12:11

was, I was okay at it, but I probably could have been better had I

Ricky: 00:12:14

spent some

Ricky: 00:12:14

more time studying

Ricky: 00:12:16

and learning the craft

Ricky: 00:12:18

from people that I admire and maybe even

Ricky: 00:12:19

people that I, don't know about, that people are like, wow, this guy's got 37

Ricky: 00:12:22

million views on TikTok.

Ricky: 00:12:23

You should see what

Ricky: 00:12:24

he's doing.

Ricky: 00:12:24

Go look at that and see why that is striking a chord with people.

Ricky: 00:12:29

At the end of the day, God's a storyteller.

Ricky: 00:12:31

He left us a book.

Ricky: 00:12:33

So what is a book?

Ricky: 00:12:34

It's a book of stories.

Ricky: 00:12:35

So God is telling stories perpetually

Ricky: 00:12:38

from the dawn of time to the end of time.

Ricky: 00:12:39

And if there's people doing.

Ricky: 00:12:41

it well Go

Ricky: 00:12:42

see why and make the

Ricky: 00:12:43

connect the dots that is resonating with people for this reason and that reason this.

Ricky: 00:12:46

So I would say, you know, study and, and

Ricky: 00:12:48

use the tools of the day right now

Ricky: 00:12:49

to make yourself better.

Jaclyn: 00:12:50

absolutely, that's a good word.

Jaclyn: 00:12:52

I, think that there is so much out there that like, there's really no excuse.

Jaclyn: 00:12:58

Yeah, I know.

Jaclyn: 00:12:59

Even when I was a, a single parent, like this was maybe 15 years ago, a little bit more than that.

Jaclyn: 00:13:04

I, um.

Jaclyn: 00:13:05

I was trying to lose weight because I had gained a lot of weight

Jaclyn: 00:13:07

when I had my kids.

Jaclyn: 00:13:09

Um,

Jaclyn: 00:13:09

and so I thought,

Jaclyn: 00:13:10

well, I wanna be

Jaclyn: 00:13:11

healthy.

Jaclyn: 00:13:11

That was my goal, and so I started studying nutrition

Jaclyn: 00:13:15

and so I.

Jaclyn: 00:13:16

studied

Jaclyn: 00:13:16

nutrition like practically for a year, and, I was implementing all the

Jaclyn: 00:13:20

things that

Jaclyn: 00:13:20

I

Jaclyn: 00:13:20

learned.

Jaclyn: 00:13:21

I never spent a cent on it though.

Jaclyn: 00:13:22

I went

Ricky: 00:13:23

Yeah.

Ricky: 00:13:23

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:13:24

You know, it, all of my work and

Jaclyn: 00:13:26

studying in nutrition was

Jaclyn: 00:13:28

all just effort.

Jaclyn: 00:13:29

Uh, you know, like whatever it cost

Jaclyn: 00:13:32

me to get to the library and and, pick up books and then

Jaclyn: 00:13:35

read it.

Jaclyn: 00:13:35

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:36

Exactly.

Ricky: 00:13:37

or pick a subject.

Ricky: 00:13:37

Now go on YouTube and type in better sleep.

Ricky: 00:13:41

Thousands of videos are gonna come up

Ricky: 00:13:42

with doctors saying, here's how you get better sleep.

Ricky: 00:13:44

like you said, there's no excuse

Ricky: 00:13:46

now.

Jaclyn: 00:13:46

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:47

And you know, I think also,

Jaclyn: 00:13:48

uh, one thing that I've noticed lately is that, the other thing that is really important to learn are the soft skills.

Jaclyn: 00:13:54

So you have your actual skill of whatever it is that you're pursuing, but then the question is, what kind of a person do I need to be and what kind of habits do I need to incorporate in my life in order to be successful

Jaclyn: 00:14:08

at that thing

Jaclyn: 00:14:09

that I wanna pursue?

Jaclyn: 00:14:11

And so, even just like.

Jaclyn: 00:14:13

Learning time

Jaclyn: 00:14:14

management,

Jaclyn: 00:14:14

like

Jaclyn: 00:14:15

learning a lot of these other skills, like how to break down

Jaclyn: 00:14:18

your goal setting and

Jaclyn: 00:14:19

all of that so

Jaclyn: 00:14:20

that you can actually, like, you may have a goal, but like you said, without a plan it's really

Jaclyn: 00:14:25

hard to actually, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:14:26

It, it's really hard to

Jaclyn: 00:14:27

achieve it.

Jaclyn: 00:14:28

And so

Jaclyn: 00:14:28

how do you

Jaclyn: 00:14:29

actually create the plan and like all of those skills that's what's necessary in order to become that thing

Jaclyn: 00:14:36

that you're pursuing to become.

Jaclyn: 00:14:38

And like, again, those things.

Jaclyn: 00:14:40

They don't take money necessarily.

Jaclyn: 00:14:43

I mean, sure you can pay for classes for that and they're valuable, but a lot of

Jaclyn: 00:14:47

that stuff you can learn by getting a, book at the library or watching something on YouTube,

Jaclyn: 00:14:52

like

Jaclyn: 00:14:52

there's so many learning opportunities out there.

Jaclyn: 00:14:55

and

Jaclyn: 00:14:55

then

Jaclyn: 00:14:55

it really

Jaclyn: 00:14:56

comes down to the discipline

Jaclyn: 00:14:57

and implementing it into your life.

Jaclyn: 00:14:59

And of course, if you

Jaclyn: 00:15:01

wanna be a producer or a

Jaclyn: 00:15:02

director or

Jaclyn: 00:15:02

an actor, like

Jaclyn: 00:15:03

all of those

Jaclyn: 00:15:04

things take.

Jaclyn: 00:15:05

Work like it is a lot of work to actually achieve those things.

Ricky: 00:15:10

So, right.

Ricky: 00:15:10

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got and I was 30 at the time when I got, I walked into the Dean of Students at William Jessup University.

Ricky: 00:15:17

I was a 30-year-old sophomore, 'cause I had already done enough, uh, school to be getting outta freshman year.

Ricky: 00:15:22

But I went back to get my degree in Pastoral Ministries.

Ricky: 00:15:24

I walked into Bryce Jessup's office.

Ricky: 00:15:26

He, you know, he's

Ricky: 00:15:27

the

Ricky: 00:15:27

son of the.

Ricky: 00:15:28

Founder of William Jessup.

Ricky: 00:15:29

We

Ricky: 00:15:30

have this conversation.

Ricky: 00:15:30

I

Ricky: 00:15:31

told him about

Ricky: 00:15:31

my

Ricky: 00:15:31

dreams of passions.

Ricky: 00:15:32

This was an hour long conversation, and at the end of it, he said, Ricky,

Ricky: 00:15:35

the

Ricky: 00:15:35

best

Ricky: 00:15:35

advice I

Ricky: 00:15:35

can give you is this.

Ricky: 00:15:36

Two

Ricky: 00:15:37

things.

Ricky: 00:15:37

Number one, you're a high I, you're a visionary, you're a, you know, get it out there, get your

Ricky: 00:15:42

ideas out there and stuff.

Ricky: 00:15:43

Like he goes,

Ricky: 00:15:43

you need a high D. There's,

Ricky: 00:15:45

it's a disc.

Ricky: 00:15:46

You take a test, it's called the

Ricky: 00:15:47

disc test.

Ricky: 00:15:48

You get a high D. A high D

Ricky: 00:15:50

is someone who, whose rubber meets the road.

Ricky: 00:15:51

It's like, okay, Ricky, you want to build R

Ricky: 00:15:53

2D two.

Ricky: 00:15:54

That's great.

Ricky: 00:15:55

How

Ricky: 00:15:55

do we do that

Ricky: 00:15:56

Where do we get

Ricky: 00:15:56

the money?

Ricky: 00:15:57

Where do we get the tools?

Ricky: 00:15:58

Who, you know,

Ricky: 00:15:58

put

Ricky: 00:15:59

yourself with a high?

Ricky: 00:15:59

D 'cause you're a high?

Ricky: 00:16:00

I, you need to balance each other out.

Ricky: 00:16:02

I was like, that is brilliant, because if I'm left to

Ricky: 00:16:04

my own, I'm just gonna vision, cast and dream all

Ricky: 00:16:06

day and

Ricky: 00:16:06

nothing's ever gonna get

Ricky: 00:16:07

done.

Ricky: 00:16:08

And then number two, he's a Christian man.

Ricky: 00:16:10

He loves the Lord, he's in heaven.

Ricky: 00:16:11

He

Ricky: 00:16:11

read the Bible, you've preached, but he said, I have an

Ricky: 00:16:13

African

Ricky: 00:16:13

proverb for you.

Ricky: 00:16:14

He

Ricky: 00:16:15

said, if you wanna run fast, run by yourself and you wanna run far, run

Ricky: 00:16:18

with a

Ricky: 00:16:18

team.

Ricky: 00:16:19

And I, and I just realized in

Ricky: 00:16:20

that moment.

Ricky: 00:16:21

If I want

Ricky: 00:16:22

to get to

Ricky: 00:16:22

the finish line of what God's called me to do,

Ricky: 00:16:24

I'm

Ricky: 00:16:24

not gonna do

Ricky: 00:16:25

it by myself.

Ricky: 00:16:26

There's no way.

Ricky: 00:16:27

With

Ricky: 00:16:27

me alone,

Ricky: 00:16:28

I'm gonna be able to dot all the i's, cross, all the T's, come up with the budget, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Ricky: 00:16:33

No way.

Ricky: 00:16:34

And so I

Ricky: 00:16:35

put a good

Ricky: 00:16:35

team around me.

Ricky: 00:16:36

And

Ricky: 00:16:36

so to your point,

Ricky: 00:16:37

uh, you just have

Ricky: 00:16:38

to have these things in your life.

Ricky: 00:16:39

You

Ricky: 00:16:39

have to have

Ricky: 00:16:40

the soft skills, and you have to, you can't

Ricky: 00:16:41

lie to

Ricky: 00:16:42

yourself, right?

Ricky: 00:16:42

I can't lie to

Ricky: 00:16:43

myself right now and say I'm the

Ricky: 00:16:44

world's foremost expert on sheep sharing when

Ricky: 00:16:47

I'm not.

Ricky: 00:16:48

So you have to be honest with

Ricky: 00:16:49

yourself and say, I'm not good at line budgeting.

Ricky: 00:16:51

I need to bring in a line budget person.

Ricky: 00:16:53

I'm not

Ricky: 00:16:54

good at whatever I need to bring someone in.

Ricky: 00:16:56

You cannot be great at all things.

Ricky: 00:16:57

And so, uh, You

Ricky: 00:16:58

have to put people around you that can support you.

Jaclyn: 00:17:00

Yeah, and I don't think that, um, I think that if we feel like we have to do everything ourselves, then we are

Jaclyn: 00:17:07

also, Removing ourself from the opportunity for God to bless us and speak to us, because a lot of the times, uh, the way that God connects with us and speaks to us and

Jaclyn: 00:17:16

impacts our lives is through people.

Jaclyn: 00:17:18

And so when

Jaclyn: 00:17:19

we are surrounded with people, then that's when

Jaclyn: 00:17:22

we get to have some of those really tangible moments where people, say things and you're like, you have no

Jaclyn: 00:17:27

idea.

Jaclyn: 00:17:27

I was just praying about that this morning.

Ricky: 00:17:30

exactly.

Ricky: 00:17:31

Exactly.

Geoff: 00:17:32

I think one of the things we've learned is that filmmaking is inherently collaborative, just 100%.

Geoff: 00:17:39

A screenwriter doesn't end up with

Geoff: 00:17:41

a

Geoff: 00:17:41

film.

Geoff: 00:17:41

Unless other people

Geoff: 00:17:42

are

Geoff: 00:17:43

involved and

Geoff: 00:17:44

every, you know, you pick any role, uh,

Geoff: 00:17:47

it

Geoff: 00:17:47

relies on a team by nature.

Geoff: 00:17:49

and

Geoff: 00:17:49

I, I think that's for

Geoff: 00:17:51

us, a big part of

Geoff: 00:17:52

what we do and

Geoff: 00:17:53

why we

Geoff: 00:17:54

do it in our goal of bringing people together.

Geoff: 00:17:57

it just requires collaboration and, uh, and as an individual, you grow the fastest and become the best you can

Geoff: 00:18:05

be.

Geoff: 00:18:05

the sooner you start involving other people in your journey.

Ricky: 00:18:08

Amen.

Ricky: 00:18:08

Love that Jeff.

Jaclyn: 00:18:10

It actually, it reminds me of the scripture that talks about the body of Christ and, that like there are different members in the body and they have different roles and different

Jaclyn: 00:18:19

responsibilities, but every single one of them

Jaclyn: 00:18:22

is necessary and relevant to the function and health of The

Jaclyn: 00:18:26

body.

Jaclyn: 00:18:26

That if.

Jaclyn: 00:18:27

If your pinky is sore,

Jaclyn: 00:18:29

like you're not gonna be able to stop thinking

Jaclyn: 00:18:31

about it.

Jaclyn: 00:18:31

Like,

Jaclyn: 00:18:32

I broke my finger a couple weeks ago and I can't

Jaclyn: 00:18:34

stop thinking about it because

Jaclyn: 00:18:35

like everything I do, I'm

Jaclyn: 00:18:36

like, uh, my

Jaclyn: 00:18:37

finger, it hurts,

Ricky: 00:18:39

yeah.

Ricky: 00:18:40

the, I can't tell the foot the foot's worthless and I can't be

Ricky: 00:18:42

on a set and tell my actors, I don't need you.

Ricky: 00:18:44

Well, yeah, you kind of do.

Jaclyn: 00:18:46

this has been another

Jaclyn: 00:18:46

fantastic conversation with you and, uh, I'm actually looking forward

Jaclyn: 00:18:51

to getting to know

Jaclyn: 00:18:52

you more.

Jaclyn: 00:18:52

I know we've got some, some plans to talk about maybe getting some of your education

Jaclyn: 00:18:57

on faf association.com, so everybody watch for that and uh, I'll be happy to share

Jaclyn: 00:19:03

some announcements when you've got some stuff out and, yeah, Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:19:06

So how do people find

Jaclyn: 00:19:08

your book?

Ricky: 00:19:08

Uh, they can go on Amazon.

Ricky: 00:19:10

Just type my name

Ricky: 00:19:10

in, just go to Amazon, put Ricky Borba and my book will come up.

Ricky: 00:19:13

Um, it's on Amazon, it's

Ricky: 00:19:14

on,

Ricky: 00:19:15

Barnes and Noble.

Ricky: 00:19:15

It's on all the major websites.

Ricky: 00:19:17

I was

Ricky: 00:19:18

blessed

Ricky: 00:19:18

to be, uh, published by Trilogy Publishing,

Ricky: 00:19:21

which is the TBN

Ricky: 00:19:22

Arm of

Ricky: 00:19:22

Publishing.

Ricky: 00:19:22

And so, uh, it's

Ricky: 00:19:23

everywhere.

Ricky: 00:19:24

And um, yeah, that's how they

Ricky: 00:19:25

can find it.

Jaclyn: 00:19:26

Perfect.

Jaclyn: 00:19:27

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:19:27

We'll get that link and put it.

Jaclyn: 00:19:28

in the show

Jaclyn: 00:19:28

notes also.

Ricky: 00:19:29

Okay, great.

Geoff: 00:19:30

Do you have a URL regarding your, uh, training at this point or there anything

Geoff: 00:19:34

you

Geoff: 00:19:35

can share?

Ricky: 00:19:35

Yeah, absolutely.

Ricky: 00:19:36

So I have a couple websites I, they can go to ricky borba.com, which is my name, and that's kind of

Ricky: 00:19:40

who I am and what I'm working on and stuff like that.

Ricky: 00:19:42

But

Ricky: 00:19:42

specifically for the masterclass is the letter

Ricky: 00:19:45

a

Ricky: 00:19:46

TO, the letter z, A to.

Ricky: 00:19:47

Z film.

Jaclyn: 00:19:48

Okay, perfect.

Jaclyn: 00:19:50

Thank you so much.