April 19, 2023
Maggie Hart and Brittany Zampella
- Connect with Maggie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hart4film/
- Connect with Brittany on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-zampella-774636220/
- Learn more about Farsighted Creative: https://www.farsightedcreative.com/
- Learn more about Maggie and Brittany’s film, A Good Neighbor: https://agoodneighborfilm.com
Brittany Zampella:
There’s a human story in every cause.
Announcer:
Welcome to Agency for Change, a podcast from KidGlov that brings you the stories of changemakers who are actively working to improve our communities. In every episode, we’ll meet with people who are making a lasting impact in the places we call home.
Lyn Wineman:
Hey everyone, this is Lyn Wineman, president and chief strategist at KidGlov. Welcome to another episode of the Agency for Change podcast. There is a great quote from actor Milton Berle, it goes, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” And let me tell you, no one knows that better than a woman who dares to start her own business.
Today’s guests are Maggie Hart and Brittany Zampella, co-founders of Farsighted Creative, a purpose-driven filmmaking company out to capture Goodness with a capital G. These two are dreamers, creators and purpose-driven leaders after my own heart. I can’t wait for you to meet them and learn more about their great impact on the world. Maggie and Brittany, welcome to the podcast.
Brittany Zampella:
Thank you so much.
Maggie Hart:
Thank you.
Brittany Zampella:
Thanks for having us.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
I love talking to purpose-driven women entrepreneurs in the creative space. So, I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. Would you two take a minute to just tell us more about your organization and the work that you do?
Maggie Hart:
Sure. So, we run a film studio in Boulder, Colorado, called Farsighted Creative and we make narrative films, documentaries and just other video content with the aim of putting good into the world, things that cultivate empathy, sustainability, just making the world a better place. We love making our films and working with ethical, sustainable brands and other filmmakers to help their films be sustainable, as well.
Lyn Wineman:
I know people can’t see me because this is audio, but I’m smiling from ear to ear because I think there are so many parallels between KidGlov and Farsighted Creative, and I think that’s wonderful. So how did the two of you start working together? And I hear you’re best friends. What’s it like to work with your best friend?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, we first met in 20-
Maggie Hart:
’19?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, ’19, early 2019, and we were both working for another documentary production studio. We always developed this habit, I would always go into her office and talk about all these ideas that I had for stories or films, or I found out she was a filmmaker, of course. And got to learn more about the project she had made, and I just fell in love with them and had at that time newly developed a passion for really powerful stories that were different than I’d heard. We had ideas for a long time, and I think the summer of 2019, we did our first short film together. I fell in love with working on films and on a set, and we just started dreaming about, what would we want to do more of ourselves?
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
And I remember we had a meeting at Chick-fil-A when we were having lunch and Maggie asked me, “What’s your ideal job scenario?” And I rattled off a few things and she said, “Well, I guess we just make a production company that does all of those things.” And I was like, “You could just do that?” So that’s how it started. And working with your best friend is one of the greatest gifts in the world.
Maggie Hart:
It is.
Brittany Zampella:
I definitely would not be able to do this on my own. We joke around where we say, “If one of us is at 10% one day, the other’s at 90, and we can-
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
… help each other out on those times.” And there’s just so much fulfillment in that, both from a connection standpoint, we know each other really well, we joke around and say, as well that, “We are the same person, and we share a brain.” So yeah, that helps a lot just in making decisions and in creatively partnering. It makes things half as hard and twice as good when you’re with your best friend.
Lyn Wineman:
Half as hard and twice as good.
Brittany Zampella:
We didn’t make that up.
Lyn Wineman:
That’s amazing. That should be your business motto. I love that.
Brittany Zampella:
You can thank Sarah Groves, she wrote a song about it, so I did not make it up.
Lyn Wineman:
Okay. All right.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, I think it captures what it feels like, for me at least.
Maggie Hart:
Oh, yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
Twice as hard, twice as good.
Brittany Zampella:
It’s the same thing.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah. I love it. Well, first of all, I think somebody needs to alert Chick-fil-A because I can totally see the commercial, the two of you on their red couch interacting with someone on their staff talking about the high-powered Chick-fil-A meeting that launched this business. I love that. So, a lot of good things going on. Tell me, I’m really curious as a female founder myself, did you have any challenges in starting and running a woman-owned business?
Maggie Hart:
So, I think it’s interesting, because coming up in the film industry, there are challenges for women. I think starting out in film school, I tell everybody my stories about good old film school are now horror stories, coming up in a boy’s club. And there’s been a lot of, I think, progress since then, the last 10 to 15 years have been transformative. But I think we’re still very much aware that, I think it’s only 11% of directors are women.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow. I didn’t realize, I actually thought we had come farther than that?
Brittany Zampella:
Right.
Lyn Wineman:
I remember days in the marketing business being the only woman in the room. I remember days being the only pregnant woman in the room, for sure, when I had my kids and was younger. But on the marketing side, I feel like change is happening and I’ve got to believe it’s going to follow with film, school film, as well, because people like you are making a difference.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah, I think there has been growth and there is, that wanting to make a difference. I think it’s daunting at times, and then especially taking that and creating our own company, we’re like, “Okay, now we’re also entrepreneurs.” Which was kind of a side product, and we want to have the company that we want to see, we were talking about.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Maggie Hart:
It would be great. And I was like, “Well, I guess we just have to start that company. We don’t think it exists anywhere.” But I think to your point, when we started, I think it did feel lonely or we were not sure how to navigate it. But we’ve also found a really good support system in a lot of the women. We’re in a group, shout out to Women in Sustainability.
Lyn Wineman:
Yes. We talked to Becky Migas a couple months ago. She’s amazing.
Maggie Hart:
Yes, love her. So, I think the challenge is also helped by other women who recognize that it’s a challenge and this community of people, there’s also women in film in Colorado and other groups that are really encouraging and there feels less of a sense of competition and more like we’re all here to build each other up. So, I think that’s helped amidst that challenge.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
Good for you. Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, it’s still definitely daunting to hear 11% of female directors, and I think we’ve made great strides in our culture and seeing more women CEOs and entrepreneurs and all that stuff, but there’s still a lot of effort that has to be exerted, I think, for women. But yeah, like you said, we are so fortunate to have such a great group of women here in Colorado, and even we have friends and stuff that we never feel like you’re all fighting for the same thing, not fighting against each other. I think there’s a great abundance mindset here in our community, that there’s room at the table for everybody and let’s see how we can help each other up and refer each other. And I think that’s what makes it encouraging, because alone it is daunting, but together we really can clear some of those glass ceilings that might still be left over.
Lyn Wineman:
For sure.
Brittany Zampella:
But it takes doing that together rather than just pulling up your own bootstraps and trying to do that yourself.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah, to going from 11 to 22, to 33, to 44, to 55, right?
Maggie Hart:
Yes.
Brittany Zampella:
Yes.
Lyn Wineman:
Let’s accelerate that. I love what you said about women supporting each other in business too, because I have found the same thing from women-owned businesses, how we might be in a similar space, but we have a different niche. And I have a group of women individually, and sometimes together, that I can get together with as well, and we can provide each other advice like, “Hey, what are you doing about this? Or what are you doing about that?” Or if I get a project that doesn’t really fit our niche, I can say, “You know, you ought to talk to my friend and she may be better suited to help you out with this and vice versa.”
I love that part of business, as well. So, I want to move on to something I’ve heard you say, and I love the way you say it. You guys have given us a couple of good nuggets to work with here, but you talk about doing Good with a capital G and that being at the core of your business, whether that’s making good content or partnering with brands that are doing good things. Can you talk more about that philosophy and how you arrived there?
Brittany Zampella:
We both, at our core, are storytellers at heart. We love telling stories. Maggie’s background is in film. I have a background in music and storytelling and just developed that experience with filmmaking, as well. And I think we’ve really been drawn to this idea that film and storytelling is a vehicle for empathy and that empathy is such a critical part for our culture and is so necessary for creating change. And that can happen so powerfully with film. In two hours, 90 minutes, a 10-minute short film, you can take people on a whole journey and really lead them towards a place of being a different person or feeling empowered or feeling seen or feeling heard or allowing them to see and understand other people that maybe they didn’t previously. So that kind of heart and I would say, value, really bonded us as friends and embedded itself just very naturally into what we want to create. We both have experience in creating content in various spheres, where we’re just kind of pumping stuff out and sometimes you need to make money.
Lyn Wineman:
Sometimes you have to make money, you do.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
You can’t take your eye off that ball completely. But what I love about where we are in today’s current business environment is there are a number of businesses, a whole wave that are focused on making positive impact. And I fully believe that’s only going to increase because I keep seeing research that shows people want to align with brands that are making the world better, whether that’s as a consumer or an employee. I just think that that is such a positive thing to come out of maybe the last few years, which have been difficult. But I feel like the world is going in the right place, in that regard.
Maggie Hart:
And I think for us too, people are becoming more aware and like you said, these cause-based things and for us especially, with that Good with the capital G, we wanted to make things like Brittany said, with empathy, but also with hope. We were at this panel for one of our films and we were talking with a group of high school students and this girl was probably 16, 17, and she asked us, “I’m anxious all the time. How do you deal with anxiety?” And I was like, “Yeah, I totally get why you’re anxious. There’s so many things.” And so, for us, we didn’t want to stop with content that just makes you aware of these causes or these things, but here’s the solution or here’s the hope, here’s the good that you can hold on to.
Brittany Zampella:
And even the idea behind our name, Farsighted Creative, is that a farsighted person, if that’s their vision, they can see far away really clearly. So, we wanted to create content that moves past the noise of what’s currently happening, and we have to be aware of things. We’re not saying turn a blind eye to it, but look at it and then now, let’s create content that allows us to see what is possible for us, what’s the world that we can create? What’s the opportunity there? Because we believe that human beings are incredibly resilient and innovative and there’s all sorts of opportunities and we don’t have to stay here. So, what’s the story? What are the messages we can put out there that shows the world, “Hey, there’s opportunity for us here and how can we get there?” And I think storytelling is a great vehicle for inspiring that hope and also empowering people to walk in that.
Lyn Wineman:
The other thing I like about storytelling that sometimes people don’t realize is, that when you’re thinking about doing something that’s memorable, that inspires behavioral change, storytelling is such a powerful vehicle. And sometimes it’s so easy to go, “I just need a list of bullet points. I just need to tell people what to do.” But humans don’t really respond to bullet points and directives, as well as they do, if you can get in their heart and they can feel it, then they’re going to remember and it’s going to make a difference. So, I love what you’re doing. You’re so thoughtful. One thing too, you really opened my eyes to, I don’t really think about filmmaking as being eco-friendly, but you are very thoughtful in your production process. Can you talk me through that? What are some of the things that you’re doing?
Maggie Hart:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that’s very true that film sets especially, are notorious for waste or they can be extremely wasteful. When we were talking about filmmaking and being aware of the climate crisis in our day and age, it was a discussion about, this can be a wasteful industry. I had a friend who was a filmmaker, I was talking about the climate crisis with her, and she was like, “I don’t think films are helping.” And she quit filmmaking, and I think she went and joined Extinction Rebellion and is now going all over the world.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow.
Maggie Hart:
And I was like, “I think we need people in all avenues to combat the climate crisis.” But for us, I think one, talking about the power of storytelling and how much that can be an avenue for change, and two, I think seeing the waste, I think a film set can use somewhere between 40,000 and hundreds of thousands of single use plastic water bottles.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, right. Because everybody’s passing out the water bottles. Right, right.
Maggie Hart:
We saw opportunity, we were like, “Well swap it out with aluminum or steel water bottles that are also fun crew gifts, that have their name, that’s a memory from the set and do that instead of T-shirts, which saves on cotton production and that sort of thing.” We got started down that road of, “Well, how can we make this sustainable?” So, it’s things like that. It’s the low energy equipment, the craft services is another huge opportunity.
Lyn Wineman:
Right.
Maggie Hart:
We can go on all day about the things that we discovered and got a little nerdy about, as far as making sets zero waste, and also trying to figure out, we worked with a local company to figure out how you would carbon offset a film set, as well, which was wild.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow, what a great idea, you guys. As a person who is not a filmmaker but has been on several sets doing videos and commercials and so forth. I do always look forward to craft services, which is the table of snacks and food and drinks.
Maggie Hart:
Yes.
Lyn Wineman:
There’s a little bit of gluttony involved there, I think sometimes, I hate to say. But yeah, it’s not all necessary, I think, and if you can do it in better, more eco-friendly ways, I think that’s really fantastic. Once again, speaks to how thoughtful you are, and I know the two of you are really organized, really planful, but maybe one thing that didn’t work out the way you expected in planning. I understand you literally started your business just a few months before pandemic and lockdowns.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
And I know lockdowns were particularly tough for filmmakers because you couldn’t be around people and film them. What was that like being new entrepreneurs at that moment in time?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, definitely unexpected. Yeah, it was an interesting mix because we did have a lot of canceled shoots. It took a while to get COVID compliance officers and for people, even masks and vaccines, and it took a while for us to get there. For a long time, people just weren’t going on set, as we all know.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Or doing much of anything. So that definitely cost us some business and opportunities. At the same time though, we did get a lot of opportunity for post-production work.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, smart.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah. We’re a full-service post-production house as well from editing, color grading, sound mix, I mean the whole nine yards. So, we actually had a lot of people reach out to us also remotely from New York, LA, could just mail us a hard drive. They maybe organized their own very controlled set to shoot things.
Maggie Hart:
There was one that was actually, really, it was kind of a creative challenge because it was this company in New York that was aware of the isolation and wanted to create a spot called, “What is community and creating community with women.” They’re a great women’s wellness company, by the way.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Maggie Hart:
And so, the challenge was, we can only interview these women one at a time. Can you make it look like they’re in the same room?
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, my goodness. Were you able to do that?
Brittany Zampella:
A little bit?
Maggie Hart:
Yeah, a little bit.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow.
Brittany Zampella:
Masking and a few creative things, looking like they were dancing together and if you hadn’t known they weren’t in the same room. So that was fun. I think COVID also did present really fun challenges for us. If we come across something like that, we like to try and see, “How can we make this work?”
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Our business philosophy, I would say, or I think it’s part of being producers though. There’s a great producer’s joke that says, “How many producers does it take to screw a light bulb?” And the producer says, “Well, does it have to be a light bulb?” And that’s what you do, you’re always trying to innovate and you’re always like, “Well, I’m going to get creative.” And so, I think that provided some good opportunity there for us and the stuff that we didn’t have, like I said, but for the most part, I think it was a great opportunity for people to also see the power of videos. So, there was a lot of businesses as we know, that couldn’t run their in-store places, and a lot of people were shifting to video content.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah. They needed the video to do their business when they couldn’t do it in-person.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
That makes sense. I think once people realized, “Hey, this is not going away in two weeks-“
Brittany Zampella:
Right.
Lyn Wineman:
… and it’s a big deal. But yet, I think it kind of took, “All right, this is a bigger deal than we thought, but also we’re going to get through it.” Right? We had to go through those peaks and valleys and then it was like, “All right.” I remember doing this for myself and for KidGlov, “I’m going to shift my mind and we are not going back, so what do we need to do? What do we do now?”
Brittany Zampella:
Yes, exactly.
Lyn Wineman:
That was really helpful at that moment in time, make that shift and it sounds like you made it pretty quickly?
Maggie Hart:
Yeah. Well, it’s funny because we did start so close to the pandemic that there wasn’t much to shift from.
Lyn Wineman:
That’s a good point.
Maggie Hart:
That was almost normal business for the first couple of years. Over the last, maybe year or two, we’re like, “Okay, now what?”
Lyn Wineman:
Now what does it look like? That’s really crazy. That was normal business and now you’re shifting. I love that.
Maggie Hart:
We had produced films before, so I think the only thing that was super tough was, I was working on this Indie film that was supposed to shoot in LA and trying to navigate COVID with sets and crews and COVID compliance and all of that. I was like, “Indie filmmaking is hard enough.”
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah, right.
Maggie Hart:
Now we feel like we can do anything because that was added in.
Lyn Wineman:
Let’s tie both hands behind your back and put a mask on you. Right?
Maggie Hart:
Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Exactly. It’s tough.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow. So, I know also, in addition to doing commercial work, you do documentaries, and I’m going to say, I have watched your latest documentary, which is called, A Good Neighbor. Wow, what good work and what a powerful story. Can you tell us more about what inspired you and what that process was like?
Maggie Hart:
Thank you. Yeah. I’m trying to think. Obviously, sustainability and climate is really important to us, and we have a good friend who does a lot of climate work in Colorado, and I think we interviewed her for our podcast for Earth Month. And as we talked about wanting to find that empathy piece and the human story and asking her, I think Britney asked her-
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, I remember asking her, “Sustainability, I do care about it, but I feel like a link is missing. How can I care about this more? How can I develop more empathy for this?” And our friend, she said that, “One thing that really inspired empathy for her was meeting this woman named Lucy Molina.” And she started to tell us her story and her experience, and we kind of just jokingly said, “That sounds like a documentary, we should make a documentary about her.” “Yeah, talk to her.”
Maggie Hart:
… yes. Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
So, we got introduced to her and then of course, we met with her ourselves. And I think we both were brought to tears a few times, just hearing her talk. As you know, it’s hard not to feel with her when you hear her struggle and you see everything she’s up against. And that just made us realize, she was just starting to run for office for City Council that year, I think that week that we talked to her. So, it was one of those things where either we’re going to do this now or it’s not going to happen. So, we just grabbed cameras and we just started, which is not how you make a documentary, but we knew we had to tell this story.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah. For people who haven’t seen it, you want to just give us the short story and maybe where people can find it if they’d like to see it?
Maggie Hart:
Yeah. So, Lucy Molina lives in Commerce City, Colorado, which a few years ago was named the most polluted zip code in the nation, it ranks above the top, however many, very, very polluted area, and her kids were getting sick and just not enough was being done to protect the people of that community. So, she has been an activist for years, and when we met her, as Brittany said, she was about a couple weeks away from running for City Council to try to write the wrongs and it’s a lot about environmental justice and that. So, we just followed her and so following her on her campaign, using her story as jumping off points for people to learn about what’s going on in Commerce City, that there’s a lot of communities like this in the country, and they call them sacrifice zones because the industry has such a presence there.
Lyn Wineman:
Yikes. That is not something you put in a Chamber of Commerce brochure. Right? We are the most polluted zip code-
Maggie Hart:
Exactly.
Brittany Zampella:
Right.
Lyn Wineman:
… and we’re a sacrifice zone. Oh, gosh. That just honestly makes my heart hurt.
Maggie Hart:
It’s tough and it was talking about where it came from. I grew up in Colorado. I lived not too far away, and we all knew that Commerce City was not the nicest part of town, but just learning about it and putting Lucy’s face to that struggle, really made it come front and center. And we have people who have seen it because we have shots of the pollution in the area and people say, “They can’t drive through Commerce City the same way anymore.” So that’s great news.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Maggie Hart:
That’s great to hear for us, just that the awareness and people are really responding to it.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah. So, if people want to learn more about the film, they can go to agoodneighborfilm.com.
Lyn Wineman:
Nice.
Brittany Zampella:
It’s our website where you can watch a trailer on there. We’re still submitting to a handful of film festivals. A lot of them local to Colorado, but also across the U.S., as well. So, we’ll post those on there. We attend those.
Lyn Wineman:
Great. That’s great.
Brittany Zampella:
We’re planning and coordinating with local orgs and stuff to do some community focused screenings in the north Denver area, particularly, because it is another local election year.
Lyn Wineman:
Great. Is Lucy running again?
Brittany Zampella:
She is, yes.
Lyn Wineman:
Great.
Brittany Zampella:
We can’t tell you too much more about what she’s running for, just to avoid any spoilers.
Lyn Wineman:
Okay.
Brittany Zampella:
But yeah, she is going to be active and several others in the community. So part was really that this film would be an asset for the community, both educating a lot of people that live there and don’t know, because Lucy even talks about, she was sick for a long time, and it took a while before someone connected the dots between the health problems and the pollution.
Lyn Wineman:
Wow.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah. A lot of people in the community aren’t even aware of the extent of the problem.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
That’s amazing.
Brittany Zampella:
We’re hoping this is a tool for them too.
Maggie Hart:
So, it’s not streaming or anything right now, but if anyone is interested in watching it, they can contact us through, A Good Neighbor Film, post-screening or bring people together, we’d love to have people watch it.
Lyn Wineman:
Great. Fantastic. We’re going to make sure that link is in the show notes, as well.
Maggie Hart:
Perfect. That’s great.
Lyn Wineman:
So, people can link up to it. I love the image of the two of you hearing about this story, getting excited, just starting to film. But I know being a purpose-driven business owner myself, as much as you want to just do all the things to help all the people, you’ve got to balance some business, as well. How do the two of you find the balance between purpose and business?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, it’s a hard thing. It’s a hard line to walk, I feel like. But I think for us, as we’ve grown and developed over the last few years, we’ve really tried to have that come from understanding our own value first. And I think even just taking stock and realizing that we do have good to offer and we have almost 15 years of combined expertise in this field. So, letting that inform the types of people we partner with or our own stories and communicating that value, maybe to potential clients we might have, as well. Because you could hire someone on Fiverr or you could pay $15 for them to make you a little video, but-
Lyn Wineman:
I’d do a video for you too, but it’s not going to be very good.
Brittany Zampella:
… yeah. Right. It’s what you don’t get is, again, that experience and could hire someone and you could pay that $15 an hour or whatever it is, but it could take them twice or three times as long, where it might take us an hour.
Lyn Wineman:
Yes.
Brittany Zampella:
So, I think understanding those pieces and being forthright with those types of communication pieces too, is a big part of the conversations we have and also communicating how that benefits a business, as well, or an organization. And how that helps them achieve their goals because the whole reason for wanting to create high quality content, is for them to succeed.
Lyn Wineman:
Yes.
Brittany Zampella:
Not just for us to profit, but for them to profit. But ironically, we would do sustainable work and ethical work for free if we could.
Lyn Wineman:
If you could, right. Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Like you said, it has to also be sustainable for us. We need to be able to make a living off of that and it goes both ways. So, I think it’s something that we’re definitely still growing in and we’re excited for those opportunities. I think now, to see we have a good slate of things that we can point to and that we’re really proud of, and that we’re really confident in our abilities and our skills, and we’re excited to continue to bring that to stories, to projects, to brands, organizations that also have powerful stories to tell. Yeah, so I think communicating all of those things helps us navigate that and figure that out.
Lyn Wineman:
Absolutely.
Maggie Hart:
We have a lot of great clients who get it, who we love working with. There’s a website called Simple Switch that just switches everyday items for sustainable items and they were great. And coming up with a holiday campaign for them was really creatively fun and fulfilling, and the pay was very fair. So, I think there’s a lot of great understanding with a lot of the people that I work with or that we work with. So, it can be both, we don’t have to choose exactly between the creative.
Lyn Wineman:
I find that too. I think sometimes people don’t realize that purpose and profit can go together.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah, exactly.
Lyn Wineman:
And I think in more and more cases, organizations are going to be looking more for those things to go together, as well, which once again, I think is a very positive thing in all of our futures.
Brittany Zampella:
Yes, for sure.
Lyn Wineman:
So, you two, you have made it from working together to the fateful lunch meeting at Chick-fil-A, to the start of your business, to surviving the pandemic, to doing beautiful work and launching a documentary, all in a few short years. I’m curious what’s next? What’s on the horizon for the two of you and Farsighted Creative?
Maggie Hart:
So, we’re still in the middle of releasing our doc, so we’re still really excited about our doc and getting that out into the world.
Lyn Wineman:
Nice.
Maggie Hart:
We’ve been asked a bunch of times, “What’s the follow-up and what’s more to discover?” And we’ve had a lot of people say, “Oh, you should make a doc about this now, or that now.” It’s almost overwhelming.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah, let us finish the first one first before we tackle another one. Yeah.
Maggie Hart:
Exactly. Yeah, we’d love to do more of that. We have some more film projects that we’d like to do, working with more brands. We’re always trying to find more people to partner with to promote their products or their business. And then the sustainability coordinating is something kind of new that we’re rolling out, is working with other films or production company, whether that’s films, commercials, whatever work they’re doing, we’ve acquired a lot of knowledge about how to make sets and even post-production sustainable.
Lyn Wineman:
Nice.
Maggie Hart:
We’re getting that out to people. I think when COVID hit, they created COVID compliance officers and so now we’re going to push sustainability coordinators to help somebody else.
Lyn Wineman:
Right. I think that’s such a good idea, for sure.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, we’re seeing a lot of that in some of the big studios. HBO Max, now has a really solid sustainability arm and a lot of that which is encouraging. But that can be harder or seemingly harder, I would say, for Indie filmmakers, because Indie projects can be hard to get funded anyway.
Lyn Wineman:
And then to take that extra, you’re kind of flying by the seat of your pants a little, and then you go, “Wait a minute, I’m going to take a minute to be thoughtful and sustainable and eco-friendly here.” Right?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah. So, I think we really want to show that, “Hey, it actually may not be as costly as you think.” Again, we can get creative about things, but also hopefully, make that the norm. There are all sorts of ways that can really be an asset to the Indie filmmaking world. Our heart is Indie, we live in that space. We love the Indie filmmakers and that world. So really making that attainable for them in particular, is something we’re really excited about.
Lyn Wineman:
Very nice. Very nice. So, I want to ask the two of you my favorite question next, and we’ve done nearly 200 podcasts and asked this on every podcast, but I am so inspired by motivational quotes. I’m so lucky to get to talk with inspirational people like the two of you on this podcast. Could you each give us a few of your own words of wisdom to inspire me and our listeners?
Brittany Zampella:
Well, like we said before, we’re the same person, so we came up with one together.
Lyn Wineman:
Okay. I’ll let it fly. I’ll let it fly for the two of you.
Brittany Zampella:
So yeah, what we kind of landed on is that there’s a human story in every cause.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, yes.
Brittany Zampella:
I think even going back to our documentary, A Good Neighbor, talking about climate change, oftentimes when we talk about causes or that specifically, we think about the earth, the water, plastic water bottles, which we need to.
Lyn Wineman:
Yes, absolutely.
Brittany Zampella:
This is big, rising tides. But I think we forget or may not realize there are human people impacted by climate change or affected by it.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
So, we would say, no matter what cause you’re passionate about, if you’re part of a non-profit that may be promotes a cause, if you’re fighting for that, look for that human story and tell that story. Because I think that’s what resonates with people so deeply and what allows people to enlarge that capacity for empathy.
Lyn Wineman:
Yes.
Brittany Zampella:
And let that be, even also what inspires you and motivates you on days when it’s hard. Creating a documentary is wonderful, but also very tedious and has its challenges.
Maggie Hart:
Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
And there would be days where I’m all spreadsheet producer day, and your brain’s a little fried, but I literally would think, “Lucy has a migraine today. Her kids have bloody noses.”
Lyn Wineman:
You can’t stop. I can’t take it. Yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah. So, I can be motivated to continue in this work because a human being who has dignity and value is worth that. So, I think rooting your cause in the human dignity and value will keep you going, as well as empower, and I think inspire empathy for people to care about that, as well.
Lyn Wineman:
So beautiful, you guys. There’s a human story in every cause. The other thing, I don’t know if this was intentional or unintentional on your part, but we have a lot of nonprofit executives that listen to The Agency for Change. And a lot of nonprofit executives, in addition to providing their mission-based service, have to think about, “How am I going to raise funds for my organization?” And honestly, a lot of entrepreneurs have to think about that too.
Brittany Zampella:
For sure.
Lyn Wineman:
Now, I think what you said is key to that aspect of their business as well, because when you think about there being a human story in every cause, that’s what helps make the fundraising work, as well. Right? At the end of the day, we’re impacting people in a positive way. We’re doing Good with a capital G, which I love that saying, but it’s the human element of that. And I think that’s the magic of film too, because nothing portrays the human element the way that really good filmmaking does, because it just engages so many of the senses. And I love that you’re doing it and doing it so well.
Maggie Hart:
Thank you.
Lyn Wineman:
Absolutely.
Maggie Hart:
We’ve done several fundraising videos for nonprofits for whatever rounds, or Colorado Gives Day.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah.
Maggie Hart:
And we always talk to them about, “Well, who can we interview that gets the passion across or can we talk to some of the people that you’ve helped and get their story?” And it’s kind of that documentary style. “Yeah, let’s get the people in here and hear about-
Lyn Wineman:
Yes.
Maggie Hart:
… the people rather than just, here’s what we do and here’s why it’s important.” It’s important because of people, everything comes down to people.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah, everything. I love it. Such a brilliant quote, you guys. Honestly, it was one quote with the value of 10. So, for our listeners, we’ve talked a lot about your work and how you do it and what you do. Those who would like to find out more about Farsighted Creative, how can they find you?
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah. Well, our website is just farsightedcreative.com.
Lyn Wineman:
Easy enough to find and we’ll link that in the show notes, as well.
Brittany Zampella:
We also have an Instagram page, our handle is @farsighted.creative.
Lyn Wineman:
Nice.
Brittany Zampella:
And that’s a great place where you can see projects we’ve worked on. We do a lot of fun behind the scenes stuff, as well as our shoots, like any screenings we’ve done or events.
Maggie Hart:
If you go to our website, you can sign up for our newsletter, where you can see-
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, nice.
Maggie Hart:
… if we’re releasing anything or what we’re up to. You can keep in touch with us that way too.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
Fantastic. I love it. So, as we wrap up this great conversation, I’ve just really enjoyed talking with you. I’d love to hear, what is the most important thing you would like us to remember about the work that you’re doing?
Brittany Zampella:
Great question.
Maggie Hart:
That is a great question.
Lyn Wineman:
I saved the zinger for last.
Brittany Zampella:
I think what just initially comes to mind is that hopeful stories are worth telling.
Lyn Wineman:
Oh, yeah.
Brittany Zampella:
And partnering with hopeful stories are worth telling. I think about in our culture that there is a place and a purpose, especially documentaries for just lifting the veil and seeing all the critters underneath something and just saying, “Look at this. This is wrong.” And that is very necessary. And I think one thing that we both really carried into our work is, we want to do that, here’s a problem, but also, here’s where we can go, like we talked about earlier. So, I think just remembering that these kind of stories, there’s a need for them. The general public is very hungry for them because we’re so inundated every day with bad news.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah. We don’t really need too much more of that.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah.
Lyn Wineman:
We don’t need more unresolved bad news. Yes.
Brittany Zampella:
Exactly. Yeah. So, I think just remembering that these kind of stories are necessary and for people out there doing their own work, even just remembering that videos and film are a great way to communicate that hope and value for whatever cause that they’re working on, as well. I think just seeing the need for hopeful stories and making space for those in whatever avenue.
Lyn Wineman:
Yeah. Well, Maggie and Brittany, I’m going to wrap this up by saying, I feel more hopeful after talking with you.
Brittany Zampella:
Great.
Lyn Wineman:
So, I thank you for making space for this podcast and your busy schedules. And I’m going to say, I feel the world needs more people like you and more companies like Farsighted Creative. So, thank you so much for taking time to talk with us today.
Brittany Zampella:
Thank you.
Maggie Hart:
Thank you so much for having us. It’s been wonderful talking to you too.
Brittany Zampella:
Yeah, it’s been so great. Thank you so much.
Announcer:
We hope you enjoyed today’s Agency for Change podcast. To hear all our interviews with those who are making a positive change in our communities, or to nominate a changemaker you’d love to hear from, visit KidGlov.com at K-I-D-G-L-O-V.com to get in touch. As always, if you like what you’ve heard today, be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.