Tag Archives: Leadership

The Snowball of Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship is all about momentum. Hell, business is all about momentum. Ever roll a snowball to build a snowman? When starting a business, you need to push everything to a start, pack more snow on, recruit people to help you roll the ball as it gets bigger, and keep things going smoothly. If the ball stops, you will have to apply extra force to get it started again. Keep people excited, keep the idea alive, and keep people having fun. The energy alone will inspire your team, the caliber of work, and the vision at hand. Stop for no one.

Be careful and mind your surroundings. Some leaders get too excited about the work to notice the cliff ahead. One sharp rock could shatter your snowball. The trick with momentum? Stay fresh and always look forward. Avoid tunnel-vision at all costs so that you can chart the best course for your project. Listen to your team, your mentors, and the market around you. They may see something you don’t and could save the snowman’s life.

Mission Before Business, Horse Before Cart

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People throw around the word “entrepreneur” like it’s a lifestyle trend. Many fancy themselves an “entrepreneur” with only the curiosity (or perhaps a lust) for building a business. Like movie or rock stars, many successful business leaders keep up a public image. Far too many people subscribe to entrepreneurship because it sounds and looks cool. Most fail to understand the real work involved.

Building a business is very hard. With very few resources at hand, you must pull everything together through favors and very long hours. If you do not truly believe in what you are building, then it will never work. You must have a mission or product you believe in first before chasing your lust for business. Not only that, but you must have a mission or product that can inspire other people to help you and customers to buy from you. That’s a tricky thing to find. Most wannabe entrepreneurs forget that the core mission or product is what it’s all about. And it must come first.

Everyone and his or her mother wants to start a business and be a boss. Nobody will care about you until you give him or her something to sink teeth into. If you cannot offer the world a product that changes lives, then you must start with a mission people can understand, sign on for, and follow to the end. You must get the team on board and excited. And to find success with your business, you must get customers on board and excited as well. As the character Proximo says in Gladiator, “Win the crowd, and you will win your freedom.”

Find your core idea, set your mission, build a product, and then build a business around it. You cannot have a business without something to be busy about.

The Hat-Trick of Leadership

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While it takes many different ingredients to make a leader, some of the greatest I study share the following three traits:

  1. Higher Purpose – for the mission and for humanity abroad.
  2. Steadfast Optimism – faith in people, the direction, and positive results.
  3. Genuine Patriotism – in service of and love for the family or organization at hand.

Do you have what it takes?

Farewell, Alloy Entertainment!

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Ladies and gentlemen, my term with Alloy Entertainment has come to an end. Over the past 15 months, I helped teacher and friend Tripp Reed build a new media division, produce six original hour-long series, and premiere them across the web. My experiences on these series served as an unmatchable education in production, content, leadership, marketing, and technology. Lessons gleaned here will inform me for a lifetime. I could not be more grateful to Tripp and the Alloy family for this amazing opportunity. Thank you for trusting and empowering me to help you build this company.

To the 511 individual department heads, cast, crew, executives, assistants, accountants, lawyers, vendors, and clients I have worked with over the last year and a half: it has been an absolute pleasure. I love you all. Never hesitate to reach out if you need anything. Please stay in touch.

A few special shouts: to Korey Budd, for taking care of everyone and reminding me why I love this business; to my editors and post-production staff, for putting up with me daily and keeping the culture fruitful; to Courtney, for taking everything so seriously; to SonicPool Post-Production, for going above and beyond to meet our needs; and to our office staff, for putting the work first and keeping me alive.

Today, I pass the baton on and begin the next era of my life. I wish Tripp, Alloy, and our team all my love and best wishes as you venture into the shows beyond. We shall meet again down the road.

Here’s to the future!

Why Before the How

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Contemporary business culture moves faster than light. Every day, we’re bombarded with tasks and decisions. We are often forced to dive into problems and projects without context. Managers ask us to do things without explaining why. To protect our job, we do not ask questions. But we really should.

If you believe in what you do, you will perform better. To believe in what you do, you need to understand what you are supposed to believe first. Arbitrary assignments without context make it near impossible to connect with the material. Leaders are responsible for setting the stage, helping you understand why, and inspiring you to deliver.

If your boss fails to inspire you, take a moment to reflect on the tasks you’ve been asked to do. Avoid complacency at all costs. Know the “why” before approaching the “how.” If you cannot figure it out, ask for an explanation. You will do yourself and your company a favor.

The Controversy of Change: Netflix, Facebook, and Chameleons

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Many people freaked over Facebook’s face lift and Netflix’s reorganization. Yes, these changes are inconvenient. Some may break your routine or even damage your business. But what would you prefer instead? For the company or service to stay exactly the same?

Companies that fail to change fall prey to the market evolving around them. Inevitably, they are slain by the next best thing. By asking them to stay the same, you are asking them to fail. You are condemning the brand you embraced for so long to a slow death.

No, change may not always be good or necessary. But you cannot know until after you try. And neither can brands. No one has a crystal ball. Not even Steve Jobs. Smart leaders fail more often than lesser leaders and learn from their mistakes. They know that the biggest risk is avoiding risk altogether. You deserve to be eaten if you sit still in the savanna.

Like puberty, change may always be an ugly process. Some coast through it smoother than others. Those who make it out clean never forget who they are or what they believe in. A strong brand transforms with the market, but keeps its core mission at heart.

Embrace the chameleon business. Invest in progressive brands with solid foundation, not products destined for revision or absolution. If you truly believe in a brand, you should trust in change. Forgive the minor transgressions and take pleasure in discovering the next step along the way.

Hire the Job, Don’t Let It Hire You

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I pity you if every little task, responsibility, or minute of your day has been laid out by a job description. If you do not have the freedom to explore, discover, or experiment through your job, then you are little better than a slave.

Forcing a person to fit the itemized mold of a job description is unrealistic and myopic. Every employee has so much to offer; failure to encourage peripheral skills and passion will drive him or her out unfulfilled. On the other side of the table, applying for and interviewing to fit a job description may be equally naïve. Why sign up to do what you are told and nothing more?

Great organizations understand that human beings are not simple tools. They judge character and accomplishments over trade skills. Why do you think more than 70% of Americans secured their job through someone they knew in the company? Relationships bare the fruit and culture of success.

The dream hiring situation? First, the company acknowledges a need for talent in a certain area. They screen fresh talent and possibly give them a trial run. When a comfortable cultural fit is found, the company throws him or her into the wild. No guiding hands or operations checklists, only a dish full of puzzles to solve. Before long, the new hire will find his or her own place. Effectively, he or she will write his or her own job description.

Find a job you can make your own. If by the end of every day you have satisfied the thirst of all your talents and interests, you will know you have found the right fit.

Sergeant Major Eats Sugar Cookies

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A handful of military leaders, notably in the United States Army, embrace a fairly standard five-paragraph memo to outline, strategize, and communicate unique action plans. I feel the following memo structure, identified by the acronym SMESC (or “Sergeant Major Eats Sugar Cookies”), will serve most civilian leaders well. I have every intention of practicing it into my business in the future:

  1. Situation: What is the problem?
  2. Mission: What is the principle task at hand and purpose behind it?
  3. Execution: What strategy are we going to use to accomplish the task?
  4. Support: What are the logistics? How many troops and resources will we need?
  5. Command: What other groups should be involved and how will they communicate?

Feed Your Team

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An army marches on its stomach. Food boosts morale, energizes the mind, and rewards your team. Food is more magical than money. I am convinced through my experience that feeding your team is one of the keys to success. I calculate catering and craft service into my film budgets before any other line item. Not only is your team happier on a full stomach, they tend to stick around the office and get more work done. The traditional hour lunch break sends everyone off into the world and away from each other, making it difficult to get back into the gear of tasks at hand.

Afraid that feeding your team may be too expensive? Think instead about the productivity costs associated with sending your team outside for an hour lunch break. It will take an individual between 10 and 20 minutes to reach a destination for lunch, between 20 and 35 to eat, 10 to 20 to return, and as much as 30 minutes to get motivated again. On average, the hour lunch break could cost you as much as one and a half man-hours per employee per day. For a ten-person team with $60,000 salaries each, that’s $430 a day – over $2,000 per week! You could more than cover the costs of a caterer for the same price.

Find a way to pay for it. Feeding your team may be an added expense unaccounted for in your overhead and payroll costs, but the work output benefits are tenfold. Yum.

Don’t Work for the Man

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Be the Man (or Woman).

In either case, be true to yourself. Not your job. Stand up to the fools. Let no one push you around. If you know you deserve to lead, then lead. Don’t take “no” for an answer.