Rhiannon Lewis is a Senior Producer with over 17 years experience working in film production for advertising. She runs The Gate Films in Manchester and works regularly with brands such as Nike and Missguided. Over the past 12 months she has won multiple awards for the film “The Boob Life” for Tommee Tippee.
What do you most admire in a colleague?
It’s really important for me that colleagues are team players. There will always be hierarchies in teams, but I admire someone who doesn’t view themselves as above everyone else. Everyone should be willing to make a coffee for the team, to help out with an office tidy, to do the little things basically.
What moment in your life most helped in shaping your career?
There was a time when we almost lost the company. We had brought in someone to help take the company to the next level. Decisions were made, and money was spent, that I knew in my gut wasn’t the best move for a company of our size.
Instead of speaking up I watched as the company lost a lot of money, we had to make many redundancies, and eventually we were left sitting round the kitchen table working out who we could afford to pay.
Fortunately, an investor stepped in and saved us. Since then, we’ve built the company back up, and have gone from strength to strength. But the whole episode taught me to trust in myself and to trust my gut. That self-belief has meant that since turning a corner I’ve produced some of the best work in my career.
Which women do you look to in life to help guide you?
I have a really grounding group of friends known as “the girls from Mars”. We’ve known each other since school, and they inspire me all the time.
My mother, my sister, my daughters…all show me new perspectives on life all the time. But a pleasant surprise of growing older is that you realise how many amazing women you meet along the way.
I think I thought that you have your mates, and that’s it. But some of the women who guide me I’ve only met over the past few years. Women I’ve worked with, and quite often worked for in a client/supplier capacity are now some of my closet confidents.
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self?
Some people won’t like you, and that’s totally OK. Learn to be ok with the fact that you can’t please everyone all the time. Don’t put all your music onto mini discs, it’s a total waste of time.