One of my most favourite projects to work on was The Buried Life, an MTV show circa 2010. Although it was technically an MTV US series, we liked to claim it as our own because the talent - Dave, Duncan, Ben and Jonnie - was Canadian.

The series was launching the second week of January. MTV was giving it a HUGE push and the guys were on one of the big NYE shows in Times Square. Everyone was bracing for it to be a hit.

(L-R) The Buried Life’s Duncan, Jonnie, Ben and Dave

The premise was simple, Dave, Duncan, Ben and Jonnie had put together a list of the 100 things they wanted to do before they died. They travelled around the US in a purple bus named Penelope trying to cross items off this list and then help a stranger cross something off theirs. The project started organically, with the guys on the road a few years earlier trying to do something purposeful during their summers in between university. They put their list on a website and it caught on fire, receiving invitations from strangers who were happy to help them check things off their bucket list. Jonnie was a filmmaker, so they decided to document it.

One of those items was to make a TV show and with a little elbow grease and a grassroots campaign, MTV came calling.

Behind the scenes, the show was premiering the second week of January. I hate an early January premiere because interviews are hard to book in December. Journalists are off for the holidays and everyone is just so over their jobs by the end of the year. This was a major priority though, so that year, I did not get a break. But I was here for it; on top of being impactful, this project sounded like so much fun. Watching the screeners, I knew I would like these guys and I wanted to give their dream project the best push possible in their home country.

My GF Alison was the lead on anything MTV, but she went out of town for Christmas around Dec. 18 that year and we were only told about the guys coming to Toronto on Dec. 15 (yes, I remember the date) for 3 days (!!!) in early January. There was literally no time to plan. How could I possibly fill all that time over the Christmas holidays?

Short answer. I didn’t.

By the time Dec. 24 rolled around, I had one interview booked and I was sweating bullets throughout the holidays. Thankfully, the MTV promo team needed them for an entire day so it bought us some time. That first day back after Christmas, I put my head down and called and emailed everyone I could think of. It was such an amazing homegrown story, who could say no? But it wasn’t like anyone was saying no, they were just out of the office.

Eventually the schedule filled up with interviews, but it was no small feat. When I went to meet the guys at the hotel, I was immediately charmed and so glad I had worked so hard. Until that point in my career, I had never had a more stressful or busier two days in my life but it was worth every ounce of effort.

By the time they left for their NYC press junket, they told us they felt prepared because of the effort we had put into their stay.

Coincidentally, a mere month later, I saw them again in Whistler during Vancouver 2010. They had travelled home to BC to take in some of the Games and so they came to Whistler to take part of Much’s live broadcast. Turns out, all the hotels were booked so guess what, a couple of them stayed with me. I’ll never forget my boss Gab walking into my room to get something out of my fridge (she had a key because there was no fridge in her room) and finding Dave wrapped up in a comforter on my couch! She had a few questions about that… but it really was just friends crashing in another friends’ hotel room. By that point, we were all buddies.

Over the years, we’ve kept in touch. I helped them garner press when they launched a production company, we went to their book launch in Toronto, and they all sent sweet notes when Alison passed.

Since then, they’ve all taken different paths. Ben is now a professional speaker and I’ve always wanted to hear him tell his story on a big stage. Last week, I was able to do that when he was in Toronto for a conference. We didn’t get to hang out for very long but his hour-long keynote took me right back to sitting at a desk on Jan. 4 trying to book a press junket for the following day.

Sometimes, in your professional life you come across special people who aren’t just a client and they’re not just a friend. They really impact you in a way you weren’t expecting. I thought about them a lot when I launched ADPR. Afterall, if they could get a TV show driving a purple bus named Penelope - and conquer # 95 (Play Basketball with Obama) + #124 (Meet Oprah) + #19 (write a NYT Best Seller), then couldn’t I make it as an entrepreneur?

Hell yeah, I could.