How Barbara Sharpe’s Approach to Setbacks Applies to Video Production

Production rarely goes exactly as planned.

Weather changes. Locations fall through. Equipment fails. A client shifts direction. A strong concept may suddenly need a different path.

Barbara Sharpe, Co-Founder and CEO of Rebel Gardens, has built her business through similarly unpredictable conditions. Her Authority Magazine interview focuses on resilience, community, purpose, adaptability, and long-term thinking.

For Beverly Boy, those lessons translate naturally to video production, where success often depends less on avoiding problems and more on how quickly the team responds when they appear.

Sharpe’s five formal lessons are resilience, community, belief in your why, the ability to pivot, and long-game thinking.

Stay Calm When the Plan Falls Apart

Sharpe’s first year of farming brought drought, no on-site water source, and a processor shutting down shortly before harvest.

Her takeaway was that resilience is not always dramatic. Sometimes it means staying calm, asking for help, thinking quickly, and continuing after the original plan fails.

That is a useful production mindset.

If weather interrupts a shoot or a location becomes unavailable, the team needs to identify what can still be controlled.

For Beverly Boy, resilience can mean protecting the core objective while adjusting the schedule, location, shot list, or crew plan around the new reality.

Build a Network Before You Need It

Sharpe also credits community with helping Rebel Gardens through difficult periods.

As first-time growers, she and her family joined a coalition where members exchanged advice, support, and resources.

Production works the same way.

A strong network of producers, DPs, sound mixers, camera operators, editors, location contacts, and local crews gives a project more options when something changes.

Beverly Boy’s nationwide production work depends on more than having names on a crew list.

The value comes from trusted relationships with people who can step in, solve problems, and understand what the project needs.

Keep the Purpose Clear

Sharpe says belief in why Rebel Gardens exists helped the company stay grounded through higher costs, regulatory changes, and other pressures.

Video projects need the same clarity.

When creative discussions become complicated, the team can return to the basic question:

What does this video need to accomplish?

Is the goal to explain a product? Build trust with employees? Capture a customer story? Document an event? Help an executive communicate clearly?

For Beverly Boy, a defined purpose gives the team a reference point when deciding what to cut, what to change, and what deserves more production time.

Pivot Without Losing the Objective

In Rebel Gardens’ third year of growing, a storm damaged most of the crop. The plants the team salvaged fell below the processor’s minimum weight for oil extraction.

Instead of treating the season as a complete loss, her team found a different use for what remained and created new products with a manufacturing partner.

The production equivalent is not forcing the original idea when conditions have changed.

An executive may have less time than expected. A live event may produce different footage than planned. A location may limit the original camera setup.

The team may need to simplify the concept, change the interview structure, use different coverage, or rethink the edit.

A pivot is successful when the method changes but the communication goal stays intact.

Treat Setbacks as Information

Sharpe says she eventually learned to look more objectively at failed partnerships and ask whether the problem was the idea, partner, timing, or structure.

She later described obstacles as information rather than automatic reasons to quit.

That is valuable after a difficult production.

If a shoot runs behind, identify why.

Was the schedule unrealistic?

Did approvals arrive too late?

Was the location more complicated than expected?

Did the crew need different information beforehand?

For Beverly Boy, the useful lesson is not simply that something went wrong. It is identifying what the problem should change in the next production.

Think Beyond the Current Deliverable

Sharpe’s fifth lesson is long-game thinking.

She emphasizes growing at a deliberate pace, even as regulations change and costs rise.

Video teams can apply that beyond a single project.

One corporate video may become the foundation for interviews, social clips, recruiting content, training assets, or future campaigns.

Beverly Boy can help clients think about what footage may remain useful later, which interviews deserve broader coverage, and how production decisions today could support future content.

The goal is not to create more deliverables unnecessarily. It is to avoid making every production decision as though the current edit is the only thing that will ever matter.

Protect the People Doing the Work

Sharpe also describes learning to create better boundaries around time and energy as the business matured.

That matters in production too.

Long days and difficult schedules sometimes happen, but exhaustion should not become the default strategy for solving planning problems.

Realistic schedules, clear expectations, and enough preparation help crews stay effective when unexpected pressure does arrive.

Team Beverly Boy’s Takeaway

Sharpe’s story reinforces a practical production principle: the original plan is important, but the team’s ability to adapt is often more important.

For Beverly Boy, strong production means having a clear purpose, trusted collaborators, realistic alternatives, and a process for learning from what did not work.

Conclusion

Resilient video teams do not expect every project to run perfectly.

They stay focused on the goal, ask for help when needed, change direction when circumstances demand it, and carry the lessons from one production into the next.

This article is based on an interview originally published by Authority Magazine. Read the full interview here.