How Can I (We) Help?

Happy May! That's weird to say, given that March felt like a year and April just flew by. Honestly, I've been trying to find the right words for weeks. That's because for the last six weeks, we've watched our friends, partners, and fellow businesses come to a complete halt. Things have literally been changing by the hour. And it's hard for anyone to make any decisions right now.

Scott and I have always believed when decisions seem impossible, go back to core values and often decisions will become clear. The two biggest examples of following that mantra are deciding to adopt our son, Max, and starting this company in the first place. So as this was all starting on March 16th, we started with two decisions: be open and direct with our staff and move everyone to work from home.

For our staff, simply put, no one was being laid off or having their hours reduced. Even with many projects suspended or canceled, the business was okay and could weather the storm. However, we were also realistic about the next several months. But for our overarching commitment, we would do everything we could and they would not be surprised. There was simply enough uncertainty in the world at the moment and they didn’t need it from us.

We then discussed moving everyone home. Our technology model made this surprisingly simple (shout out to Master of Tech, Scott Ready). In just a few hours, everyone took computers, hard drives, and camera gear from our cozy Midtown office to their kitchen tables, counter tops, and spare bedrooms. And even though everything has slowed down, we're still finding ways to use our time for the immediate needs of our clients and to create for ourselves. We've been spending a lot of time doing graphic videos and animations, voice overs with footage in our archives, and live streams for organizations who can't have supporters physically gather. It's been amazing to see how quickly my team adapted to this "new norm" and continued to serve.

One of my biggest strengths is optimism. It's literally what Forever Ready Productions was founded on — spotlighting the good in people. But I will say, after one week at home, I found myself feeling helpless. So I did the only thing I could think of and asked the question, "How can I help?"

That's where #FeelGoodFriday was born. For seven weeks, we've been giving anyone who will tune in, a weekly dose of positivity LIVE on our Facebook and YouTube pages. We’ve been sharing both videos sent to us by others and our own quarantine creations. You can tune in every Friday for the foreseeable future at 1:30 p.m.

Aside from the obvious, one of the hardest parts about getting through this pandemic is watching all of our friends and partners cancel and postpone events that were critical to their mission. We truly believe your work is important and needs to continue but we know that for many, the big events and fundraising efforts have been dropped, delayed, or just put in limbo.

We've always operated with small crews (on purpose) and small set-ups. We'll continue to do that as we get back in the office and out into the community to tell stories. With that, we’ve invested further in our LIVEstreaming capabilities (read more) and continue to use our core values of creativity and efficiency to get your message out there quickly-- before it becomes irrelevant or too late.

There has still been work to do and it has been fulfilling and hopeful. I hope you can find a way to feel the same, at least most days (even if you have kids at home). We all know that life has changed. We will likely never go back to "normal" but we will go back. And we will get through this.

Please know that the Forever Ready family is here to support you and your work. We will continue to tell stories that lift us all up.