Truly Independent: Demystifying the Indie Film Journey

This season of Truly Independent is
supported by the Help Them See Foundation.

Help Them See is a nonprofit dedicated
to supporting feature films that

inspire faith, hope, and connection.

By partnering with filmmakers
that help them see Foundation

brings meaningful stories to life
and shares them with audiences

worldwide, making a lasting cultural
impact through the power of cinema.

Learn more and discover how you can
be part of the movement by visiting.

Help them see foundation.

Welcome to Season three
of Truly Independent.

I'm Garrett Batty, alongside
my co-host Daren Smith.

Each week we'll go in depth with guests,
industry experts, and we'll even share

our own experiences, all with the goal of
demystifying the independent film process.

This season, it's all about the
script from the first spark of an

idea to a polished final draft,
breaking it down for scheduling,

budgeting, and ultimately shooting.

We'll walk through every step it
takes to get from page to production.

Welcome to Truly Independent.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Garrett, there you are.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
here, live and in person

and online, but not live.

How are you?

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I'm a person.

Are you not a person?

Are are, am I talking to Garrett AI now?

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: I'm
live and in person, but you're listening

to this, listeners are listening to
this long after it's been recorded.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

A whole week or so.

No, I love it.

It's good to see you, man.

What have you been up to this last week?

You've been busy.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Let's see.

I've been busy doing kind of client
maintenance stuff, so a lot of editing

and post, and we do a lot of trailers
here at three Coin and cutting some

trailers for some fun independent movies.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah, so it's been a kind

of a been in the edit bay.

How about you?

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I have been here at my desk making

phone calls and taking phone calls
and having phone calls with people.

So it's been a lot of meetings,
but it's, um, it's highlighted, uh,

a principle that we're gonna talk
about today in the episode, which

I'm very excited about, which I think
will be helpful for the audience.

But, um, you also went
to a premier this week.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah I am excited to talk about

that epi episode the principle.

'cause I know what you're gonna bring up
and it's crucial that we talk about it.

But before we do that.

I wanna tease, first of all,
we're gonna talk about NRB

eventually later in this episode.

But before that, I wanna talk
about, the premier I went to.

We featured Tanner Christensen
on the podcast a few weeks ago.

If you have not heard his episode,
I'd encourage you to listen to it.

And he produced and directed wrote his
feature length documentary standing out.

I enjoyed talking with Tanner a lot and
but it was before I had seen the movie,

I went to the premier and was was blown
away throughout the movie multiple times.

and credit to Tanner, he is not
selling or he, there's no way

he could oversell this movie.

It's it's amazing.

he's done an incredible job.

So if, and it releases in theaters
this week, so if you get a

chance to go see standing out.

I guess make an effort to go see it.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: That's.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
very good.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: I
I need to figure out how to get on

these email lists when people are
sending out invites to premieres

stuff 'cause I am not invited.

And it's,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: just
know that I can't afford it, so that.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's a better story for me.

Thank you.

No, I love it.

I've heard nothing but good things
about that project and a lot of people

were at that premier and it's exciting
to see the success of that already.

It sounds like it's gonna have
really good word of mouth.

It's hitting that community really well.

I'm excited for.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I'm not.

Yeah, and I just don't
wanna like blow smoke.

Like the narrative storytelling that he
told in a documentary more, sometimes

we just show up and call it an anal
phone and, oh, it's a documentary.

We're gonna put some talking heads
and add some music and B-roll.

not the case.

Like it's, he's gone in
depth when he says, I've been

working on this for four years.

see it.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: There's
a symbolism and tension stories and arcs

and redemptions, and it's incredible.

Great.

Great job.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's so exciting.

I love movies and I love good movies, and
I love good movies made by our friends.

So that's all of those things.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
This is that, this is Wonder

meets Rocky in a documentary

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Oh, man,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Incredible.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
can't wait.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Okay.

Alright, now so thank you.

Thank you for letting me in
indulging me on that a little bit.

But we want to, you want to talk
about this recurring principle

that we've noticed in 20, 25 years
of making independent film, and

you've put a great cap phrase on it.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah,
I think it really applies to both of us.

I'm excited to see how it's
played out in your life, but it's

definitely played out in mine.

And so I want to kind of use our histories
as the way to tell this principle.

And so the, let's start with the
principle and then I'll, I'll

start on my journey and then we can
ping pong back and forth, I think.

'cause I think as we talk about this,
we'll remember even more times where

this principle was true in our lives.

So the principle is solve bigger problems.

And the reason this came up, and I've,
I've since written about it and thought a

lot about this idea is I got some emails
from people too in the last week saying,

I'm really good and I don't understand why
I'm not being picked, or, I have all this

experience and I really want to be doing
feature films, but I'm doing this instead.

And why am I not getting
these opportunities?

I was trying to come up with a single
punchy answer, and my answer is,

you gotta solve bigger problems.

So let's pause there and
let people digest that idea.

What, what comes to mind for
you, Garrett, when I share that?

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
My immediate kind of

nature says, oh, that good.

That gives me a good excuse to make
bigger problems, but that's probably not

where, what you're going at with that.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
You never know.

We might get there.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: No.

I like that.

And what comes to mind honestly, is I
mentioned I, last week I was in the edit

bay editing trailers and keeping the the
bills paid client maintenance and client

work, which is great and nice to do if
I want to get out of that or if I want

to be able to hire somebody to do that.

Then I need to look at a bigger
problem than how am I gonna make my,

whatever, how am I gonna the bills paid?

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah I,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Is that what, is that kind of

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
no, definitely.

I think so, and we'll expand on it.

Excuse me.

So I go all the way back to the first time
that I got paid to, to do artistic stuff.

I was playing saxophone growing up.

I played saxophone in junior high
in high school, and we started a

little jazz band in high school.

And my dad was really good at this
'cause he, he drives all the time for

his, oh, I just went out of focus.

But he drives all the
time for his work and.

He would be out and about thinking
about how do we I'm gonna pause

'cause this is really bothering me.

Why?

Why

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
step in.

There you go.

You, okay, go ahead.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: So
in high school I started this jazz

band with some friends that I played
music with, and my dad was really good

at this because he was out and about
driving all the time for his work.

And he'd see grand opening signs.

And so he would go up to like a WinCo
or a, a, a, uh, car wash or any of

these things and say, Hey, do you
guys need a band of high schoolers

to play at your grand opening?

This is not a problem they had.

It's not like they were actively
searching for a band to play at their

grand opening, but WinCo was the first.

It was a grocery store, grand
opening in Sacramento, California.

This is probably 1999 or
something like that, or 2000 and.

They hired us as a band for like $250 to
play for an hour at the grand opening.

So each of us walked away with 50
bucks and at that point I was a

professional saxophone player 'cause
I had been paid to play saxophone.

But that was a very small problem,
which is why it had a very small budget.

It wasn't actually a problem.

It was just a nice to have.

And so if I had stayed on that path, I
would still be solving that same problem.

Do you need someone to play music
for you at a venue or at a gig or on

a Friday night where we have jazz?

Maybe it's a little bit bigger problem
because we have 150 dancers coming

and they want a live band, and so
we can pay you a little bit more.

But really it's the same problem,
just a slightly larger scale.

So that was kind of
the first time I maybe.

Had a contact with this principal.

I definitely didn't understand it at the
time, but I was solving a small problem,

and so the upside as far as financially
or career wise was not that big.

I.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Okay.

Okay, so relating then to indie film.

I'm an independent filmmaker.

And I want to solve a problem.

And I think that going back in that
mindset of you're saying, Hey let's

re review our trajectories years
ago before I made my first feature.

And there's always that, it seems like
there's always a question like how

do I get in My first feature, I had
started a production company 3D coin.

And our focus was we did a lot of
DVD design, DVD menu, DVD, behind

the scenes stuff, and prepping.

All of that bonus footage.

And then we did a lot of corporate stuff.

The problem then for that, that
I kept running into is I need

to, I want to make feature.

Like how do I just make my feature?

I realized, Daren, this story might
not have apply to what you're doing

because the problem was my own Right.

You're saying, how do I solve
a problem for a client or an

investor, or a donor or a whatever.

So anyway, that, that was the big problem.

How would you solve that?

What would you tell me in that scenario?

I'm running a company, we've
got five full-time employees.

I'm spending all my time focused on how
I'm going to the beast that I've created

as far as getting more projects, bringing
them in and bigger projects and better.

My clients certainly weren't looking for
feature films to be made, my passion, my

heart was, Hey, we gotta make a feature.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: So

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: that's.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
you solve that?

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's the that's the eternal

question that I keep getting asked.

And we keep getting asked, right?

And we're trying to solve for ourselves.

So the way I think about it and
the way it's played out for myself

is a small problem is something
that solves a problem just for you.

Like it's just singular.

It's your problem.

Bills need to be paid.

You wanna make a project, you want
to get paid to do a certain job.

That's a small problem
because it only impacts you.

And so because of that.

You're in a, uh, race to the bottom
scenario where you're saying,

well, if I wanna make that film,
I'll go, I'll do it for 30 grand.

I'll do it for 50 grand.

I'll do it for as cheap as possible.

So I get the opportunity to make the
movie instead of people coming to you and

saying, can I invest in your next film?

And how much do you need?

Those are two very different scenarios,
but it's the same quote unquote

problem of making a indie film.

But you kind of highlighted the
answer in your question, which was.

The first version is how
do I take care of my bills?

How do I take care of my company?

How do I have enough
clients coming in the door?

Every, every month, you're solving your
own problem, but as soon as you switch to

here is the problem I solve for clients.

Everything shifts a little bit least
it did for me in my business where for

nine years I had a video production
company and the an, the question

we always asked ourselves was, how
do we turn this into making movies?

And then the, the problem we
were solving is us making movies.

And so we'd go to a FM and we'd
pitch a $2 million project and

no one would give it to us.

'cause we were solving our own
problem, not their problem.

And everything shifted when I
left that business and I went out

into the marketplace and I said,
okay, that business didn't work.

That approach didn't work.

What am I gonna do differently?

And instead of saying, how do I solve my
problem, I went out and said, who needs.

Help solving their problems.

And the way that I can help
solve that is I'm a producer.

I can produce things.

The first gig that I got was with Relative
Race, a TV show that needed a producer

who knew how to produce, and that's me.

So I went in and I got hired the same
day right after the interview at a

rate that they'd never paid a producer
before a higher rate than they'd ever

paid producer before to start, because.

They had a really urgent problem.

They were filming in like four months.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
So I said, well, I'm your guy

and here's all the reasons why I
can help you solve your problem.

But in order for me to help you solve
your problem, it costs this much.

And they said, okay, I guess we gotta
say yes 'cause we have a problem.

So that's my answer.

That's the short answer is you, first
thing you d gotta do is shift from

how do I solve my problem to how
do I solve other people's problems?

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Okay.

So that makes sense.

And the other people's problems then.

So if I go back to that life experience,
what got me out of that, or what enabled

me to solve that to make that feature film
was and identifying people who had that

interest and didn't have that ability.

That ability and the interest.

You have the money and the interest.

Let me solve your problem that you want
to be involved in feature films, and

I'm gonna, I'm gonna help you do that.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah, huge.

Right?

There are, there's a, a phrase my friend
Dan Priestly uses, which is, someone

woke up today with an abundance of
the thing that you need, and because

of that, they're willing to trade
what they have for what you have.

Right?

So this company that hired me to
produce for them the TV show, they

had an abundance of money, maybe not.

Crazy abundance, but they had more
money than I had and I have more

producing ability than they had.

And so that trade led to us making
a really great deal that turned

into me working for them for three
years and making more money with

every season and becoming a really
seasoned and well-paid producer.

Yeah.

you gotta think about
who has this problem.

So let's hyperfocus on indie film
because I think this is the question

that everybody listening is asking.

It's like, okay, well how do I get more
money or any money for my feature film?

How do I go from making a hundred thousand
dollars movies to million dollar movies?

How do I get distribution?

How do I get big actors?

How do I get a producer?

All those questions are answered
by solve bigger problems, right?

So if you are.

The problem you're solving is we're
gonna make a movie and it solves

the problem of all of our filmmaker
friends to come and, and work, but we

don't have a lot of money to pay them.

Are you really solving anyone's problem?

No, not really.

It's just more of the same.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: You're
the cause you're exacerbating the problem.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: I
don't know that I would say it that way,

but maybe it could be taken that way.

But are you solving
problems for investors?

Not really.

Are you solving problems for distributors?

Not really.

You're not making movies that
they're gonna put in theaters and

make millions of dollars on, and so
you're not solving their problem.

And so it's this insular thinking
of, yes, maybe you've got 30

people now that you're impacting.

But no one's actually getting
better, uh, as far as having

their personal problems solved.

So the principle, the way it comes
full circle is when you s when you help

enough other people get what they want,
you get what you want in return, which

may be money or career or project wise.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
So it does come full circle, Daren.

I have a meeting tomorrow.

With somebody that called.

And so again, started
the Help mc Foundation.

We've talked about that on
this epi on this, in this

And it's a nonprofit for faith-based
movies because I was identifying people

that wanted to be mission-driven, wanted
to get, faith and inspirational stories

out into theaters, and were unable
to do that because it was oftentimes

the investment or the rate of return.

Wasn't as enough, wasn't, didn't compete
well with a horror movie or something.

and so was a reluctance to invest.

But once we started this nonprofit, there
is a an excitement to donate, right?

So we're solving a problem.

I got a call from a former investor.

He said, Hey I, I've seen what
you're doing with the foundation I

like the stories that you're wanting
to tell, and I have a tax problem.

So he is looking for a tax deduction,

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I'm going down to Las Vegas tomorrow

to meet with him and talk about
how we can help solve his problem.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah, exactly.

And how different a pitch is that
and a different conversation.

Is that it?

You're not talking about cameras
and lenses, you're not talking

about the story, you're not
talking about the production value.

It's not about the creative
project that's already a given.

'cause he is invested with you before,
so he knows what he's getting movie wise.

The problem he's trying to
pay you for is a tax problem.

So

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
So that's the pitch.

Like, that's

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Okay,
you have a hundred percent tax deduction.

Now tell us what, where
you're at with your.

Taxes.

What?

And we get to find out, and I, and talk
with him about what his problem is.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I wanna do this.

I wanna do this.

And there's a number of different
organizations I might be interested

in donating to in order to help me get
within the tax category I need to be in.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yep.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
We say, okay, here's why

you'd want to donate to ours,

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

It's brilliant.

No, it's super, super cool and
it, everything gets easier when

you're solving problems for people.

And so, we can fast forward a little bit
in my career to like going from being a

lead producer on a movie which has kind of
a cap of, call it 30 to $50,000 per movie.

That's great.

Like, I'm grateful for the movies I've
done and, and the experiences I've

had in the movies we've made like.

I wouldn't be where I'm at today
if I hadn't done those things.

But now it's like, well, do I want
to keep solving this problem or

do I wanna solve a bigger problem?

And I, as we've talked about with,
what I'm doing with Producer Fund

one and Craftsman Films now, it's
like it's solving a bigger problem.

And I think it's adjacent to the problem
you just highlighted with, there are

people with an abundance of the thing
that we lack, which is the money.

They woke up today with
too much They have.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: way.

Just hopefully FYI, knock on
wood, it's not gonna always

gonna be that way, but yes.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Right.

There are people who are literally
saying, I have too much money.

I need to get rid of some of it
in strategic ways so that I don't

have to get rid of more of it.

You know, like that's a,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I would rather pay a filmmaker

than a the government,

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: yeah.

So it's an interesting problem that
comes from an abundance of money.

Right.

And so.

I'm sitting here going, okay, well what's,
what's the actual problem I'm solving?

Well, right as it was, I'm solving a
problem for a director or an executive

producer who needs someone to come in,
manage the budget, manage the crew,

manage the schedule, and deliver a movie
on time and hopefully under budget.

That's a limited problem.

It's, it's bigger than being a pa.

it's still limited.

So if I want to solve a bigger
problem, well, I need to, I needed to

start looking at what are the bigger
problems to solve in indie film.

And I looked at all these different
areas, financing, development,

production, marketing, distribution,
and said, oh, as I was putting it

together, I, I started seeing that
like, oh, this is a systemic problem.

The existing model, the existing
system for indie film is not.

Solving the actual problems
that exist in the marketplace.

And so you've got all these people that
are trying to make things work, whether

it's a distributor or a marketing firm
or a producer or a cinematographer

or a financier, and nobody's like
happy with the current situation.

So I'm going, oh, okay.

It's a systemic problem.

And if we can actually provide a
solution to all these different problems.

Then everybody gets their problem solved.

And so as soon as I started going out
to the marketplace and saying, I have

a new model, I have a system that
delivers these outcomes or is built

to deliver these outcomes, those money
conversations got a lot easier because

I'm not saying invest in my movie.

I'm saying if you have a desire
to invest in meaningful media.

Here is a system that is built for
institutional grade allocation,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Know, and
people are going, oh, okay, you get it.

They're saying, you are
solving the problem.

I actually have, because investors
don't have a problem of they, they

don't have enough movies to invest in.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
One day we can all hope.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
We can all hope.

We laugh, but that's what we do, right?

We go, do you want to
listen to my movie pitch?

They go, no, I have had too many of those.

Thank you.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

No, that's true.

And a great way to look at it, Daren.

And it is an interesting approach
and probably one that's a little

counterintuitive because I think most,
any when we start out, we're saying, how

do we get, how do we, yeah, you're right.

How do we focus on my problem?

My problem is I want to
do this, wanna do that?

And the minute we start shifting
that to what do you want and

how can I help you get that?

I think

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
comes back to us.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

I want to do one extra, I'll try to keep
this one short, but one extra example.

The movie you make is solving a problem
for people, and so a lot of times

people go, I have this passion project.

The one I've heard a dozen
times is Porter Rockwell.

I got a Porter Rockwell script.

I'm like, yeah, you and
a dozen other people.

And I've been asked to read all
the scripts and I'm not interested.

'cause that doesn't solve a problem for
anybody because the marketplace is not

begging for a Porter Rockwell movie.

I'd say 80% of our audience probably
doesn't even know who that is.

And so, great, I'm glad
that you have a passion.

I'm glad you wrote a good script
and I'm glad that you wanna make it.

But.

That doesn't solve a problem for anybody.

And you look at Brotherhood, for
example, and you look at the movies

you're trying to make, for example.

And there is demand in the marketplace
for these movies that can spark

conversation, that can inspire
people, that can uplift people, that

give people a sense of hope and.

Inspiration coming out of the
theater instead of Darkness and

Dread, which is what we have in
80% of the theaters right now.

There's not another movie I can take
my family to on the weekend 'cause

we've already seen Zootopia two
and there's nothing else out there.

And you know that's existing demand.

That's a problem that is ready to
be solved, which is why you and

I are making these kind of family
friendly, values-based, faith-based

films because we see all around
us, including our own homes.

I want to go to the theater this week with
my family and I can't give, I can't give

any theater a hundred dollars to see a
movie I wanna see in theaters right now.

That's a problem.

So if I can do that at scale, and
there's a hundred thousand people or

a million people who have that same
problem and my movie solves that

problem, well, that's how you can
have a one or $10 million box office

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's a, it's an interesting
conversation and I need to just

take a step back to just defend

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: yet.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
movies and stories.

Because I,

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Do it.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
honestly, I, and I don't want to or.

Discourage anyone from making their
passion project like that is the problems

wanna be solved using your philosophy?

How do we create, how do you identify?

Let's see, how do you use that
to solve a bigger problem?

And I think that maybe an opportunity
where you say, look, I don't care.

Your movie's a Porter Rockwell movie,
or an another horror movie, or whatever.

If the market is flooded with such movies.

How are you gonna use
that to solve a problem?

And it was like, okay, I'm gonna
make a Porter Rockwell movie,

but I'm gonna put X star in it.

And suddenly the distributor goes,
I have a problem that I need a

mo, I need a movie with X star.

we are solving that for them.

So it might, so

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
whether that's, life experience or not,

whether that's worked for me or not, I
feel like that is a way to say, look.

Make your project, man, if
you're passionate about it.

If you want to do Porter Rockwell,
you know your version of it.

Do it by all means, but make sure it's
solving a bigger problem for somebody.

Yeah.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's the kicker.

If you want to do it and you want it,
you want it to turn into profit for you

and those that you work with in influence
in the marketplace and having, you know,

all of the impact that we wanna have as
filmmakers, then it has to solve problems.

But you, you said it perfectly yeah,
I don't wanna discourage anybody

from making their movie either.

But if you, if it's disconnected
from solving problems,

then it's a vanity project.

It only is serving you.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yes.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: And
that's, we don't need more of those.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Nope.

I agree.

I definitely agree.

Yeah.

What a great philosophy and great mindset
to just pivot around and wrap your head

around and say, okay, how am I doing this?

If you keep, I feel like, oh, I might be.

Continuing to run into the same wall
or the same issue with me trying to

find funding for my next project.

I need to expand the problem a little
bit or figure out who's that's solving.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
tomorrow my meeting we can help

this guy tax issues solving his

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
There you go.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
We'll keep you

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I love it.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: that.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: I'm
excited to see how that plays out.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: I
think we've I think we've hit that one.

Very cool.

I'm curious the response from people.

So if you have questions or
comments about this idea, hit us up.

Shoot us an email or leave a comment
somewhere and we'll, it'll get back to

us and then we'll talk about it more.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
You know what?

One place you can hit us
up is going to be at NRB.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Hey,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Daren and I are going to NRB.

It's next, let's see, it's February.

End of February.

Is that right?

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
17th through the 20th of February

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
20 in Memphis.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
in, uh, Nashville.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901: I
really gotta get my show notes right.

Sorry, Daren.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
You're just testing me and I like it.

It's all good.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's right.

I'm queuing you up.

but we would love to sit down and
talk with people those that have, are

familiar with the show or that are
familiar with Darren's LinkedIn post.

And I'll send out my newsletter too.

But it'd be fun.

I'm excited.

So during this came about a little
bit, I went to NRB last year.

Met wonderful, some wonderful people
chatted with distributors and have

developed, these ongoing, connections or
relationships, supportive, I don't know,

whatever it is, relationships with people.

And ended up signing an agreement
for Faith of Angels, on a kind

of a non-exclusive agreement
with one of these distributors.

They just reached out and said, Hey, we'd
love to see you again at NRB, and now

I feel like I'm not going there as a.

Kind of a stranger trying to find my
way, but oh, there's a reason to go there

and we're gonna connect and rekindle
these these working relationships.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah I've, I was telling you before,

and I think it's worth sharing
with the greater audience here is

not that they're greater than you,
Garrett, you're the greatest of all.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I get it.

I

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: But
I'm probably not gonna buy a pass to the

convention or the conference or whatever.

It's like I'm gonna just be
in the same buildings at the

same time as everybody, but.

You know, I'm setting up a dinner
on the Tuesday night and I'm setting

up some interviews and like, it's
gonna be a lot easier to just show

up and do that, and I might need to
buy a pass to get in the building.

I don't know.

But it'll be the cheap pass,
not the expensive pass.

'cause there's nothing programming
wise that's solving a problem for me.

The problem I'm going to solve
is connecting with people in.

In that, um, genre space, the faith-based
film and TV space and media to say, here's

a faith-based filmmaker and company and
movie that's coming to theaters later

this year, and you wanna know about
it, and I'm here to talk about it.

So a lot of the outreach that I'm
gonna be doing over the next month is.

Let's go to this same meeting
or a presentation together, but

like, let's meet in the lobby at
11 o'clock and we'll do a podcast

interview or something like that.

So it's being really strategic
around why you're going, and I'm

not just going to solve my problem.

I'm going to solve the problem
of the thousands of people

that are in attendance.

So I can look at the list of distributors
and media outlets and, and, and.

And go, oh, I can solve that problem
and I can solve that problem and I

should tell them that I'm gonna be
there and I can solve their problem.

And it's literally that in
practice at an event like NRB,

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
I would love to record a

couple episodes out there.

So if you are listening and you are
going to NRB look us up or send us an

email and let's line you up to record
an episode if we need to chat with you.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: amazing.

Yeah, we can make all that happen.

I.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Alright, good.

And I and NRB has done a good job
of solving that problem for those

that maybe don't want the full
blown pass or something like that.

I think I, I bought a convention
only pass or something last time

and very affordable and worth it to
be able to make those connections.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901:
Yeah, I'm excited to check it out.

I hear it's a good time and I'm
already getting some invites from

people about dinners and meetups
and stuff like that, and honestly,

I think that's where a lot of the.

The deeper connections that you walk
home with and or, or stem from is

those sit downs where you can spend
30 minutes or an hour with people.

Those are the relationships.

If it's just like you meet them
in a circle of people and you

exchange business cards, that's,
that's not what it is anymore.

garrett-batty_1_01-19-2026_101901:
That's hard to, yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

Okay.

I'm excited, Aaron.

We'll keep people posted on that.

And again, thank you very much for
sharing your feedback our episodes.

We love reading that I look forward
to talking more about it next week.

Okay.

daren-smith_1_01-19-2026_101901: Okay.

See you

This season of Truly Independent is
supported by the Help Them See Foundation.

Help Them See is a nonprofit dedicated
to supporting feature films that

inspire faith, hope, and connection.

By partnering with filmmakers
that help them see Foundation

brings meaningful stories to life
and shares them with audiences

worldwide, making a lasting cultural
impact through the power of cinema.

Learn more and discover how you can
be part of the movement by visiting.

Help them see foundation.

Thanks for joining us.

If you are enjoying truly independent.

Please share and subscribe so you
don't miss the rest of the journey.

Today's episode was edited by
Michael Bradford and produced

by Three Coin Productions.