Local Catholic media company

It’s a story for our times—four bright and creative, young, local men, Ben Weisbeck, Cole Gendreau, Mark Dever and Jake Olson, start a media production company together. But it soon grew into a story of faith.

“Let’s make it a Catholic media company,” Gendreau suggested to Weisbeck over the phone one evening. It would mean dropping everything they had been working towards for months to change direction.

“As soon as he told me the idea, I was on board,” Weisbeck said. “I knew that was our calling.” They shared the idea with Dever, who also immediately felt called to it and a fourth friend, Olson became part of the group. Thus, was born Stand Firm Productions, named for the Scripture passage: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done with love” (Cor 16 13-14).

In an interview at their studio— a spacious garage in Bismarck— Weisbeck and Dever talked about their mission and how things have gained momentum very quickly.

“With the amount of vocations and the treasure of so many great minds here,” Weisbeck said, “we realized that we could create a platform to bring great Catholic speaking to others.  They are like Ted Talks. Our first one was with Father [Josh] Waltz.” 

They explained that in just six months, Stand Firm Productions published 23 podcasts and 55 shorter form videos with power-packed messages and amassed over 2.7 million views across several social media spaces including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

The video of Bishop Austin Vetter, a North Dakota native serving as Bishop of Helena, Montana, has over 739k views. He did an interview when he was in town this past spring for his nephew Father Steven Vetter’s ordination. In his talk, Truly Connecting With People & Visiting the Imprisoned, he shares poignant stories and tells people to go deeper in faith and desire to save souls or otherwise Jesus is not real to us. “He doesn’t take the mess away,” Bishop Vetter explained, “He enters it.”

One of Fr. Josh Waltz’s talks with a quarter of a million views includes reflections on prayer during a 30-day silent retreat in seminary. Considering the lure of the world, Fr. Waltz told God that he has a terrible sales pitch. Then, he heard God’s response: “Mine isn’t a sales pitch; mine is the truth.”

Titles and talks are intriguing. In Politicians Will Not Save You, Fr. Dominic Bouck addresses people’s outrage at politicians. “What? You can’t believe politicians are corrupt? What Bible have you read? They won’t save you and they also won’t destroy you.”

Fr. Josh Ehli in Distracted in Prayer says, “I want to write a book on it: ‘Distraction in Prayer: the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me.’”

Stand Firm Productions will soon include Handmaiden of the Home, with Sarah Merck, a wife and mother and owner of Root & Bloom photography in Minot. Her interviews will feature women in the world living their faith.  Another, “7-Mile Study” with Sam Breen, will connect the Old and New Testament with the Catholic Catechism.

They are also working on a documentary recounting the miraculous recovery of Lance Goetz after being hit by a train in 1998, shortly before his graduation from St. Mary’s Central High School. Goetz had left his parent’s farm in Sterling, headed to Bismarck to play basketball with friends. He never saw the train coming due to no warning signal and a blinding sun. Goetz was ejected from his car and landed on the side of the road, torn to shreds.

“He should be dead,” Weisbeck explained. “His mom said he was like a jigsaw puzzle with fingers and legs just hanging on by skin.” A neighbor called 9-1-1. No one expected him to make it alive to the hospital. When he did, survival still seemed impossible even after he received enough blood for three people because he kept losing so much.”

“The first night in the hospital, essentially his entire class of St. Mary’s packed the chapel at St. Alexius Medical Center praying for him,” Weisbeck said. “The prayers were unending. They’d be praying and get messages from doctors convinced something divine was at work.”

Goetz, who is married with two daughters and teaching in Mandan, shared that telling his story is difficult, but he believes in the mission of Stand Tall Productions to spread the message of Jesus Christ.

“Jesus is a big part of my story,” Goetz said. “So many have told me how my story has helped them, that I have to believe it should be shared, even if I do not like the spotlight. I see Stand Firm as a source for those who may be downtrodden, suffering or need to see something spiritually uplifting to fuel the spirit.”  

Weisbeck, commenting on the documentary said, “We could have a priest tell us that suffering redeems us but when you have someone who has suffered more than you can imagine, it bears a different message.”

“It’s been rewarding to see how much it [Stand Firm Productions] is impacting people,” Weisbeck said. “Some of the local Catholic schools have been using the videos in classes. What has occurred in the last five months, we are all blown away by. We didn’t expect to get two million views in such a short time. People are hungry for it and seeking it.”

 “We are still new and have a million more ideas,” Dever said, “but we need to narrow the focus as we diversify.” He explained that they will soon offer merchandise on their website including t-shirts and rosaries. There is also a support page on their website where people can donate to help them with expenses as they grow.

“This is bigger than ourselves,” Dever said. “When you think that Bishop Vetter’s video has 46,000 people who liked it and 920 comments, you never know who you are going to impact.”

 “It’s the Holy Spirit guiding us,” Weisbeck said. “God is using our gifts to spread the Gospel which is what we are called to do.”

To learn more, go to StandFirmProductions.com and follow them on social media.