Somebody Employ Phil

Somebody Employ Phil

A revealing story I heard last night…

You’d think the creator/writer of an iconic comedy TV series would have doors opened and walk from one series to the next to the next. But then again…

Phil Rosenthal - creator of the sitcom Everyone Loves Raymond - told this insightful story last night in Brisbane. It was the last stop on his Oz promotion tour of the upcoming Series 7 of Somebody Feed Phil and I was there.

💚From the outside you’d think that everyone loved Ray Romano.

He’s the star of Everybody Loves Raymond, the hit comedy for CBS.

But the truth is prior to this Ray Romano was a struggling comedian who was knocked back 12 years running by the Dave Letterman Show.

Getting on this show was how you got ’seen’.

Finally, he’s on the show, he’s seen, and the timing is great.

👉CBS was pitching for a new comedy.

👉Ray and Phil meet.

👉The chemistry is right.

👉The show runs for 9 seasons.

☘️That Ray’s a lucky guy huh!

💚From the outside you’d think that everyone loved Phil Rosenthal.

Remember, he created and wrote the show that became a household name.

But when the show wrapped it was going to be a while before another one of his show ideas was bought.

It was belief. I was meeting after meeting.

Including this surreal meeting with a Travel Channel who said ‘We’ve polled our audience and they aren’t that interested in travel anymore.’

👉It was understanding that timing is everything.

👉It was 10 years until his travel/food documentary called Somebody Feed Phil was picked up by PBS, then Netflix.

👉It becomes a hit.

☘️That Phil’s a lucky guy huh!

Here it was again. What I had witnessed for decades from behind the camera observing real people doing real things.

Extraordinary people are ordinary people who do extra.

It doesn’t matter what level of talent you have, you’re still a regular person with worries and fears and anxieties.

👉Yes, we all struggle.

👉Yes, we all need luck

👉Yes, we all need good timing.

But people who things seem to happen for, well, they turn up and keep turning up, over and over again.

When the little bell in my head finally went off about this, I found this to be liberating. Why?

Because it meant I’m in with a chance.

Yes, I’m ordinary.

But I worked out that over time, effort meets/beats talent.

So if you don’t start things because you don’t think you are talented enough then I’d love you to pause and a have a rethink.

☘️ You might be luckier than you realise.