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By now the crowd was “ooh”-ing and “ahh”-ing as Maye and Chris volleyed jabs back and forth. Maye had won them over quite a bit.
“Alright, Maye,” Chris said. “I’m offering a truce. You’re good, but I still think I’ve added some value here.”
“Fine, truce accepted,” Maye said. “I will concede that some of your ideas might be a decent starting point for a productive conversation.”
Chris looked towards the tech guy. “We got that on camera, right? She might as well have handed me an honorary doctorate! Okay, everyone say bye to Maye. We have to let you go now and get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Thanks, Maye!”
“Bye, Ma—” the audience started to say as she was cut off from the livestream.
Maye sat quietly for a few minutes. She felt her face relax as the smile that had been plastered on since she put her phone down eased. That was actually a pretty fun time—her quiet moment was interrupted by a phone call from Tracy.
“Ahhh!!!” Tracy shrieked so loudly that Maye pulled the phone away from her ear. “Are you kidding me???” Tracy’s voice was crystal clear even with Maye holding her phone an entire arm’s length away.
“Tracy, breathe!” Maye said. “We don’t need you hyperventilating again.”
“Right…right. Of course,” Tracy took a few deep breaths before she continued at a more calm pace. “That was so fun! Who is this new, fun Maye?”
“That was resentful, two-mimosas-for-breakfast Maye. Don’t get too attached.”
“Too late,” Tracy said. “Okay, so guess what. I’m standing here with a movie producer, and they loved your livestream with Chris and they want to talk to you about doing a show with him!” Tracy’s voice got progressively louder and faster as her excitement grew. “Can you even believe it, Maye?? Isn’t this so exciting?!”
Maye waited patiently as Tracy took another few deep breaths.
“Okay,” Tracy said. “I’m handing you to the producer.”
“Tracy, wait! No!” Maye protested, but to no end.
“Hello? Maye?” an unfamiliar voice came through the phone.
“Hi. Yes, this is Maye. And you are?”
“My name’s Jayce. Jayce Holiday.”
Maye chuckled, expecting the punchline of a joke to follow, but it never came.
“I’m a producer who helps create these magical holiday films,” Jayce continued. “And I saw your livestream with Chris. I just have to say…wow! We absolutely have to bottle that up and sell it! This would be a huge success during the holiday season. The window is closing to get productions ready in time. Sometimes there’s a late scramble for holiday content from networks and streamers, and we’d want to be ready with something we can put on the air in Q4.”
“Wait, how did you find me?” Maye asked. “And how do I even know you’re a real producer? And how will you get something ready to be on the air this holiday season if it’s already July??”
“A healthy dose of skepticism, I love it!” Jayce said. “I’ve had a number of roles in this industry, including assistant and producer, and I have been looking for a project to take on that I can build from the ground up, and this seems like the perfect opportunity for all of us. Lucky for me, your cousin Tracy here was very easy to find after the entire room was introduced to her. I just had to try to get in touch with you right away.”
“How could you make a show out of that? All I did was give my take on something.”
“And the audience loved it! It was pure entertainment! We could make that into a podcast or a TV show, sell it to a streamer, hit the convention circuit; the options are endless! That’s the part I handle, so don’t worry about that just yet. The part that you would focus on is doing exactly what you did with Chris. You’re the expert; you ground the banter and level set. How many clients do you see a week? Twenty? Thirty? Think of the number of people you could reach with a hit show during the holiday season! Possibly millions, Maye!”
“Really?” This genuinely surprised Maye. “Millions?”
“It’s possible!” Jayce said. “Half a million, easily. We’re talking network television. But no matter the format, the sky’s the limit.”
Maye had first listened mostly as a courtesy, but the possibility of reaching such a large number of people at once was quite intriguing.
“Maye,” her cousin Tracy shouted into the phone. “A producer with a really nice proposal wants to put you on a TV show. Why wouldn’t you sign up for that?”
Jayce sure sounded slick, but Maye had no way to know if he actually walked the talk.
“Maye,” Jayce continued. “I’ve got a lot of connections and ideas, and I think this is worth a shot, especially with the hype right now. Your livestream appearance was a huge hit. Now’s the time to capitalize on that.”
Maye thought of some of the mental health advocates she followed on social media and how they’ve been able to reach so many people as their following has grown and how it has expanded their careers into writing books and doing in-person appearances.
