We recently connected with Ricky Borba and have shared our conversation below.

Ricky , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think the biggest risk you’ll ever take as an artist, is on yourself. Americans are taught from a very early age that the safest route to “success” and “freedom” is to play it safe and get the nine to five, two weeks vacation, a spouse, 2.2 kids and a white picket fence. But I have come to realize that the REAL dream is to go after the desires and passions that are in your heart, which for me, I believe were put there by God.

I’m crazy enough to believe that the dreams inside of you are actually attainable if you can live within your means, surround yourself with supportive friends and family, and refuse to give up on yourself. Yes, it’s a huge risk to bet on yourself. And more times than not, it’s not going to work out exactly as you hope for. But along your journey, you’ll discover that the goals you have in mind vary and change.

But no matter the end result, there is no better feeling than realizing you’re doing exactly what you feel like you were put on earth to do. Taking a risk on yourself is scary, but so well-worth it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a film director and author, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been involved with film/tv/media for the last 35 years of my life and absolutely love telling stories through visual and audible media.

I’ve had two theatrically released films; “My Brothers’ Crossing” and “Hope for the Holidays” which have won multiple Best-Picture awards at festivals across the country, as well as acting awards for the cast. “My Brother’s Crossing” was also number 8 at the US Box office the week it debuted in 2020. In 2023 I directed mythird and fourth films, Christmas at Keestone, and Wedding at Keestone. In 2024 he will direct his first tent-pole film, “Sunday Sunday”, which is being distributed to 3000 theaters by Collide Media out of Franklin, TN .

I now live in Nashville, TN with his wife, 4 daughters and son. I have a double major in Pastoral Ministries and Theology, and all of my animals are named after Star Wars characters.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

At the end of 2016, a script came along my way, and I felt it would be a great film to make up here in my neck of the woods, and it could be done relatively cheap if we were smart about it. So I took it to my guys and we all decided we should give it a shot. We knew we needed a couple of names to “sell the film” once it was done, so we began putting our thinking caps on as to who those two guys could be. I had mentally made up my mind that two actors I’d grown up watching, would be perfect for the two main roles. So, I looked them both up and found out that both of them were managed by the same person. Now, I’m a guy that for better or worse, is pretty bold. So I decided to email this producer/manager and ask him if we could get these two guys for our film. He said yes, and a couple of non-refundable deposits later, we had these two guys attached.

“Excitement filled the air” as they say. I met up with one of the actors who was doing a local autograph show, and we cut a few promos and laid out the plans for our crowd-funding campaign to finance this film. Well, without getting into details, that effort blew up in our faces through absolutely no fault of our own. We had spent months building the campaign, building the audience, and doing our due diligence on how to actually produce a film the right way. Needless to say, I was extremely upset when it fell through. And to be fair, I didn’t handle it awesomely. I kind of bitched and moaned about it to anyone that would listen. Woe was me.

About a week later, I drove to the bay area to do some work to earn some extra income. It was my daughter’s birthday. Her party and dinner started at 5 in Sacramento, which meant I needed to leave the bay area no later than 2 pm. Thankfully, I was able to do just that, and head out of town. But, about thirty minutes into my drive, I realized there was a bridge I was going to have to cross to get home, and I didn’t have the $7 in bridge toll to do so. (Out here in California, you can’t pay with your debit card. It’s either cash, or you need a device in your car that the bridge senses when you drive over it, and it debits your bank account. Well, I don’t drive to the bay area often enough to warrant that device, so I always just bring cash with me.) I realize I need to pull off and find an ATM machine so I can pull $20 out to pay my bridge toll. I open my phone and look for the closest ATM, and it was a good 10 minutes off the freeway exit. (Don’t judge me. It was almost stop and go traffic, so it wasn’t like I was driving 75mph while looking down at my phone mmkay?) I realized that if I were to pull off and go to that ATM, I would be at a minimum, 25 minutes off my ETA to my daughter’s party, and possibly longer, considering how bad traffic was getting.

So I did what any other normal thinking person would do. I kept driving toward the tollbooth. And while I was driving toward the tollbooth I started getting upset about the whole film fallout again. I’m trying to keep this book PG, so I’ll just say I had a very colorful prayer for God. (By the way, I really don’t think God minds when we pray like that. He’s big enough and loves us enough to hear our hearts even if we’re using what some would consider inappropriate language. #controversialstatement) Not only was I getting upset, I decided in my anger and disappointment that I was going to do what I had been told by many pastors and teachers not to do, which was throw a fleece out to God. The final words of my prayer went something like this. “God, I’m so tired of things not coming together in terms of my career, that I honestly feel like giving up sometimes. This being one of those times. SO, if you are INDEED behind this film and ME as a filmmaker, I *NEED* the person ahead of me to pay my bridge toll so I know you’re with me on this dream you’ve given me. (Somewhere all of my pastors and teachers are cringing while reading this.)

I pull up to the bridge toll booth, and because my car was so awesome, the driver’s side window wouldn’t roll down. So I open my door, I look at the bridge toll guy and I say, “Look, I don’t have any cash, I’m really sorry.” He says, and I will never EVER forget it; “Don’t worry, that car ahead of you paid for your toll.” Talk about a watershed moment in my life. I’m actually crying right now just typing this out, remembering what I felt in that moment.
I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. And after a few seconds of me looking like I’d seen a ghost, with tears streaming down my face, I closed my car door on that 2001 Ford Escape, and drove as fast as that car would go, to catch up to the car ahead of me that paid my toll. I pull up next to it, honking my horn to get their attention, and the sweetest looking elderly African American couple looked over at me and smiled. But that wasn’t good enough for me. So I began SCREAMING, “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS!” The guy driving the car looked at me like “Dude, it’s no big deal, it was just seven bucks.” But I just kept saying thank you over and over again while crying like a newborn.

I don’t remember the ride home after that. I just remember getting to the restaurant in Roseville where my wife and kids and her parents were waiting for me, and barely being able to get that story out fast enough. My wife and her parents both started crying when they heard me tell it, and to this day, I would give my left arm to know the names of those two people who’s random act of kindness was an answer to my prayer.

From that day forward, I decided I was never going to feel sorry for myself or doubt God again. That no matter what, I would stay the course, follow my dreams, be content with whatever life threw at me, and respond better to things when they didn’t go my way.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I am the CEO of the “Respond Well” department of my life. I say it so much that my kids want to hurt me when I say it to them at this point. But, there have been so many bumps, bruises, twists, turns, false starts, non-starts and so forth the last nine years, that had I not had that phrase seared into my inner being, I honestly probably would have quit. But, I kept going, and now in the rearview mirror, everything looks incredible. I try not to look ahead because that road is filled with obstacles and “impossibilities” that seem insurmountable.

Before learning this core value of mine, I used to do a pretty good job of getting down on myself and my circumstances. Trying to build a film career is hard enough, let alone when you don’t live in Los Angeles and don’t know anyone in the industry.

But I can honestly say that learning to “respond well” to the things that have been difficult, has been the biggest catalyst for my career moving forward. People are attracted to a positive response in the midst of difficulties.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rickyborba.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rickyborbafilms
• Facebook: facebook.com/borbafett
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricky-borba-94b94423/
• Twitter: twitter.com/borbafett