Meet Rebekah Louisa Smith | Film Festival Strategist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rebekah Louisa Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rebekah Louisa, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
There are a couple of things. 1. Delegate
Firstly, I’ve learnt in order to be more successful 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 started 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.
2. Hiring a Publicist Too Early
When I first launched my company, I chose to hire a publicist. I was eager to inform the world that my niche business had just launched.

I was a young woman filling a massive gap in the market, and I was open for business.

I had no clients at this point, no testimonials, or any newsworthy results. I just wanted to get my start-up noticed.

The publicist secured no media coverage, and I learned the complex and costly way that the best time to hire a publicist is when an entrepreneur has a powerful story to tell, or a business has a viable product and some happy customers.

3. Trusting Business Coaches Who Are Not Who They Say They Are
When I was new to the world of business, I met several female business coaches whom I thought were helpful but instead were charging me a good amount of money for telling me general essential advice from a book. Not all coaches are like this, and all of the business coaches I work with now I research and get to know before I hire them.

I met my business mentor Gerlanda Milioto at what started to be a horrendously dull networking event, a London Business Owners mixer event for entrepreneurs. It was the type of event you are unsure about attending as it could be hit or miss in terms of whom you meet and the overall event quality.

During the event, Gerlanda gave a fantastic presentation that clearly defined exactly what she does and how she can help a business grow and become more successful.

I spoke with her for a long time afterward and followed up with her the next day. Later, we spoke on the phone, and she told me what was missing from my company: infrastructure. I had spent the first couple of years running my business with what I thought was an organized system. However, Gerlanda soon made me realize that my main problem was the ‘back end of my accounting system: it was nowhere near as organized as it should be! I then quickly hired her to work with me as I needed to create a pipeline and monthly key performance indicators (KPIs), and I also needed to position myself as an expert for my clientele. I thought I was doing well by closing deals, but it turned out I really needed to refine my sales pitch so I could work with more clients.

And it’s thanks to her expertise that I now have this knowledge.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
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.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would love to show my best friend around the wonderful city of Dallas.

The first thing we would do which would take a couple of days would be to explore inside out my neighbourhood Bishop Arts. I LOVE living here and each night we would go to a different restaurant for dinner, the restaurants would include Paradiso, Written By The Seasons, Tribal, Casablanca (where we could do some dancing afterwards), Kiro, Stock and Barrell and Lucia. Each night we would have a coffee at the Wild Detectives which is a home from home. During the day we would go shopping and stock up on some plants at the Oasis Plant Shop and get our nails done and D&J Nails.

I’d take her shopping for the day at the Northpark Mall and have dinner at Terra in Eataly and then finish watching a film at the AMC Theatre.

After exploring every part of Bishop Arts the remaining part of the week would be exploring Uptown and Downtown Dallas and I’d be sure that we caught a show at the American Airlines Centre

On the final few days I’d take her to explore the hidden gems in Fort Worth – Downtown Fort Worth has such good night life and I am a big fan of King Tut – delicious plant based food!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Yes I’d like to dedicate my shout out to Zalika ‘ZStar’ Thomas – she’s a Dallas Gem. Zalika was born and raised in Dallas and when we first met she told me that she pursued her creative career because it was her childhood dream. Entertainment has always made her feel alive. Her background is in accounting but she told me that her creative side would just scream inside of her to let her loose! She would take photos all the time when she was growing up and she even wrote a full feature movie at the age of 14 years old in two weeks that took place in Los Angeles and featured her siblings and celebrities.

I connected with Zalika during an event she was putting on in Dallas for Women In Film Dallas. She is also very supportive of female filmmakers and has lots of creative ideas and solutions.

Connect with her on Instagram – zstarrockproductions

Website: www.thefilmfestivaldoctor..com

Instagram: Rebekahfilmdr

Linkedin: Rebekah Film Dr

Youtube: Rebekahfilmdr