We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rebekah Louisa Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rebekah Louisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

At the time when I created my company I was completing my PhD in Film and Audience Research. I was very close to becoming a Doctor, so as a good omen that I would pass, I decided to call my company The Film Festival Doctor. This name also resonated with what my company does – helping filmmakers solve their problems so they can get their films seen on the international film festival circuit,

Rebekah Louisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. From humble beginnings working as a Personal Assistant at lots of corporate companies, I worked my way up to become an award-winning consultant and media personality who now has more than 10 years of film festival strategy consulting experience.

After choosing not to pursue a career in Academia teaching film studies, I began my film industry career in 2009, working as one of the producers of Wales’ most successful national horror film festival; the Abertoir Horror Festival, and during that time I began to develop a great knowledge of the film festival business, which led me to become inspired to start my own innovative company in an industry that I love.

Myself and my hard-working team behind my company The Film Festival Doctor are creators of success and we are committed to nurturing filmmakers in order to help them secure film festival screenings, win awards, and a positive recognition within the film industry. Currently, my company has won more than 1,800 awards for my clients and one Oscar nomination. I have supported over 850 creatives across the world, enlightening and inspiring their journey towards achieving their goals and following their filmmaking dreams.

My mission is to help filmmakers get their films seen in festivals around the world so they can gain visibility, get their films sold, win awards and create more opportunities for their careers.

I am my brand, my company is called The Film Festival Doctor and this is what I am known as my nickname is ‘The Film Doctor’. When people say that I’m the best person to work with to get the results that my clients want this is the pressure that I feel I am under. If I can’t take on a film because it’s not what festivals want, I don’t take it on for the money. If I know I can’t get the results that the client wants then I won’t take it on. I care about every one of my clients and ensure that they get results.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Over the years I have found that instagram is a wonderful way to keep in touch with clients and supporting them on their continued journey. I find that liking and commenting – or in other words really engaging with their lives and genuinely caring – is great. I find instagram far more effective than Linkedin and Facebook as its such a rich visual medium.

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

The biggest thing that I’ve learnt is that delegating is essential. I used to be extremely controlling to the point where I believed that no one could run my business except for me which did not make running it a smooth process at all. My family often used the phrase ‘if you want something done right do it yourself’ and that’s what I grew up believing however I soon learnt that inherited belief was a limiting one for my business, and I stopped believing it when one of my coaches said ‘how can you grow your company if you think you can do everything by yourself?’ As soon as he said that I knew that I was blocking hundreds of opportunities from coming towards me. I starting trusting my team and delegating more work to them which soon saw the company grow and gave me more time to spend doing other productive and more inspiring things.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thefilmfestivaldoctor.com
• Instagram: @rebekahfilmdr
• Linkedin: rebekah film dr
• Twitter: rebekah film dr
• Youtube: rebekah film dr

Image Credits
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