Snapshots From Bydgoszsz

Downtown Bydgoszsz

I Just returned from Poland. Bydgoszsz, Poland to be exact.  It’s pronounced (bid-goe-sh.) Yeah pronouncing it took a while.  For the longest time before my business partner Richard and I took the trip, we were just calling it Badonkadonk. We were there for Cameraimage, the international cinematographers film festival.

It took four planes to get there. Halfway through the journey I was trying to figure out exactly why we were going in the first place, especially on the last plane, a small prop plane that was pitched around in the winds and seemed like it was going to land upside down. Oh yeah and the plane before that which Richard proclaimed looked suspiciously like the one from the movie ‘Alive.’

Looking forward to the post flight meal.

With any trip to a culture that is completely foreign, the answer doesn’t come until you’re there. I checked out some travel sites before we went, one of which proclaimed it was unclear why anyone would want to go to Bydgoszsz, but if you did, after a few day you would find it charming.

You see it’s a rather strange place where the sun rises at 8:30am and sets by 3:30pm and they are not even in the shortest days of the year yet.  It’s cold, (see Richard’s over compensating coat) and the architecture is a mix of new post Berlin Wall, Soviet era cheap housing and pre WW II buildings, some stucco’d over in places to hide the cracks of age and  bullet holes.

That being the case, I found that Polish people seem to rely heavily on three things: 1) Vodka, 2) Various dumplings and 3) Cold cuts. Those of you who know me know I am not a drinker.  However I can attest that the dumplings and cold cuts rock. Richard assures me that the Vodka rocks as well.

The people are not what you would expect.  After decades of Soviet propaganda, you would think they would be either be wary of Americans or downright hostile. Not the case at all.  It seemed to me that only about a third knew how to speak English.  When I found myself trying to communicate with a non english speaker, they would hurridly look around to find someone to translate, dragging them over, genuinely and happily wanting to speak with me.  No one was put out that I dared to come to their country not knowing the language.

The short day messes with your internal clock and produces an active nightlife.  Not a big city at all, the Bydgoszsz Holiday Inn (yes, there was a Holiday Inn) came alive and blossomed into a huge party at midnight.  So, when the sun went down, there was a tendency to retreat to nap for a few hours, grab a late dinner, then hit the Holiday Inn.  People proceded to stay up until 5 or 6 am, then grabbed a few hours sleep until the sun came up at 8:30a and started their day. I’m pretty sure they didn’t do that every night, but you never know.

Richard and our French colleagues Vanessa and Magali about to get on the prop plane from Hell.

The festival itself was pretty cool.  Films from everywhere in the world and more importantly, the people from everywhere who made them.  The whole experience reinforced in me the importance of people.  We talk about great films, great performances, great technical innovation, great distribution platforms. But, it’s groups of committed people, coming together and finding ways to communicate a vision.  First to each other and to the world.  Any endeavor depends on this. In the information age when you would think communication advances would bring us closer together in meaningful dialogue, we seem instead to be dumbing down the quality of our collaboration.

I used to talk on the phone to people all day everyday.  Now it’s all email and iChat and a few calls a day.  It’s faster, more efficient and creates a communication economy of scale.  But, direct conversation creates a deeper bond and a more visceral truth.

Renown Cinematographers from all over the world came to teach master classes. Young Cinematographers came to take them.  There was a spirit among the teachers and students alike of:  ”I may know a certain amount, but there’s always more.” In that lies a creative delight.

Ah yes, then there’s truth.  In Bydgoszsz there was a lot of talk of truth.  Films that were “true to character, true to story, true to vision.” That comes back to people gathered around a camera face to face, deciding to achieve that truth.

So, if I learned lessons in Bydgoszsz they were these:

1) Cold Cuts can be a dietary staple and are delicious.

2) If your day is more like night, learn to live in it.

3) Just because a plane looks like one that crashed into a snowy mountainside in the Andes, doesn’t mean you’re going to end up dining on a stack of pancreas and someone’s foot.

4) Popularity does not define successful art, truth does.

5) True masters realize that there will always be more to learn and they take joy in teaching others the art of trying to understand this.

6) Nothing beats face to face communication.  Even if you don’t speak the same language, the effort of pursuing mutual understanding  in any form is worth going halfway around the world for.

I’m Back!

Hello again, it’s me. Back from my self-imposed or should I say self involved sabbatical.  I ran out of things to say there for a while (I find we all do that sometimes) and faced with reprinting other people’s material, re-treading my own, or clamming up I chose the latter for three months. I must admit some guilt every time I passed my computer on my way to watching football or playing my guitar, but never enough to actually sit down and write something.  So, here I am again, with a (hopefully) simple message.

Once upon a time I had a girlfriend who told me about how her father got hit by a trolley car when he was a kid.  Obviously, he was OK as he grew up to father children, but the story goes like this:  he and his mother had just come from the shoe store where he had gotten a new pair of shoes.  He was enthralled by how shiny they were and kept looking down at them.  His mother implored him to  pay less attention to his new shoes and more attention to where he was walking. They came to a busy street corner, he stepped off the curb whilst looking at his shoes and …. well you know the rest, he got hit by a trolley car.

Why do I bring this up now? WPA, the company I started with a great group of intrepid and committed people just celebrated its 1 year anniversary.  The enterprise is going gangbusters and dare I say, is more successful in one year of operation than my previous company was in ten years. I could attribute this to any number of factors and there are a lot at work here.  But, when it comes right down to it, it’s about the people involved.  They all have vision, commitment and ambition, both personal and collective. As a group, we’ve flourished.

There have been challenges for sure. There was and still is a learning curve of how to work together for the common good. There have been control issues (mostly mine) and the fits and starts of implementing a new and innovative team system of representation and corporate culture. I’m very proud of everyone involved and what we’ve accomplished together.

What does this have to do with shiny new shoes?  Only everything. It would be so easy to sit back, look at what we’ve done and be delighted.  But, to keep staring at the glow of our shiny shoes would be to invite a trolley car to run us over.  So, instead we are looking ahead.

“Yesterday’s home runs won’t help you win today” – Babe Ruth

Too true. As we start to plot a course for 2012, we’re asking ourselves a lot of questions. What were the successes and why?  Where did we fall down and why? Both sets are tough to answer, but are equally important.  I personally have been taking a lot of time to plot goals and strategy.  Here’s what I have found: I’ve been very bad in the past at plotting goals and strategy. Here’s why:  I haven’t ever spent enough time doing it.  I’ve always just sat down and written it out, then moved on.  This time, I’m writing, considering, coming back to it a few days later, suddenly adding insight when I have an inspiration.  It’s been a process of several weeks now and I can tell I’m not done yet.

Setting goals are one thing. Adding a detailed strategy to achieve them is quite another. I just read “Great By Choice” by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen. I found it to be a fantastic system of goal setting and strategy.  The basic techniques are: set your goal, figure out how you’re going to get there with a SMaC recipe. These are actions to be taken that are Specific, Methodical and Consistent (SMaC) and are then formed into what they call a “twenty mile march.” A march you do day in, day out, week by week, year by year.

It has opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about goals.  In short, there’s an accountability mechanism built in. Because, you’re either marching or you’re not. You’re either advancing on your goals or you’re not. You have a specific list of actionable steps or you don’t. I recommend this read.

So then, what’s next for WPA?  You’ll have to keep reading. I can tell you we won’t be caught staring down at our shiny shoes.  This is Hollywood, the trolley cars don’t just pass by, they’re aiming for you.

Typical dress for a hollywood Trolley Car.

Learning To Persevere

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

We live in a world of instant gratification, where success looks easy.  I don’t have any trouble making that statement.  If you watch TV at all, then your days are filled with instantly white teeth, instant and inexplicable celebrity and seemingly easy financial success. And we fall for it every time.  Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Sarah Palin and of course my favorite, freakin  Snookie. They all have the same things, white teeth, unexplained celebrity and financial success.

But, they also all have three other things in common: Head scratching mediocrity, an ability to manipulate us with our own desire for overnight success and that they only play one note. When we tire of that note, they are gone and the next one comes along.

You Betcha!

It is truly not them though, it is a very skilled media who chose them to hold up as examples of what we desire for ourselves. In many ways, they were just convenient.  In the right place at the right time when a hungry dream machine needed fresh fodder. Or, in Palin’s case, a fading and cynical political campaign’s need for a woman, a black person, anything to appear relevant to an increasingly diverse electorate. They really didn’t care much that they were promoting a half wit who thinks Africa is a country and the French Revolution a ballet step.

OK, so where does that leave the rest of us?  Well, personally, my sex tape didn’t really take off and my reality show “The Real Goys of Hollywood” didn’t get past the pitch phase, so to succeed I’m left with persistance, determination and hard work.

“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” – Thomas Carlyle

It’s hard to grind it out every day. I get that. At some point you may ask your self why keep going? The answer to that question is purpose. It’s the purpose of loving your art, loving your family and loving those that work next to you. It’s the purpose of contributing to something bigger than yourself and creating a legacy. That’s what keeps you going. That’s what keeps you looking forward to the next step.

But what makes for purpose? Author Guy Kawasaki gives a simple equation in his book ‘Enchantment.’ He uses an acronym: ‘M.A.P.’ which stands for mastery, autonomy and purpose. He explains that in any endeavor, if we are given the opportunity to master a skill and receive autonomy in doing so, all we have to add is our unique purpose of something bigger and we will have no problem finding the energy for persistance and determination.

I find his equation not so much a recipe for success as a formula for joy. As we all have, I find I have reinvented myself numerous times. Life just unfolds that way. If you really look closely at it, what makes change interesting and purpose easier, is the simple act of learning new things. When your interest is held, you become persistent in your pursuit of practicing the new skills you are acquiring. That feeds your purpose and vice versa.  That’s right, what I am suggesting is that constant progress is the result of persistence, and persistance is the child of constant learning and expanding your skills. Mix it all together and you manage to support your purpose.

For myself, my learning consists of downloading a steady stream of audio books from iTunes.  I have a 45 minute commute each way and I have decided to fill it with learning.  In the past year, I’ve listened to books on business culture, leadership, happiness, purpose and entrepreneurship to name a few subjects.  My current title is: The Talent Code, Unlocking The Secret of Skill by Thomas Coyle. It’s a remarkable  study of where our physiology and habits meet to propel our talents. It’s all about how we learn, how we are coached by others and how we should coach others.

The bottom line is this: In pursuit of my purpose I have become extremely determined and persistent when it comes to learning. Even this blog is me learning. I’ve come to realize that no matter what I’m doing, I’m learning something.  Even when doing nothing I’m learning something (how to do nothing.)  For me, it’s become a question of what do I need to know to make my business better, my relationships better and what excites me and makes me want to get up in the morning.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now” - Chinese Proverb

Do you want  (or need) to be more persistent, tenacious, determined? Those traits want constant fuel to keep them ignited.  Even if you just surf the net, something as benign as Stumbleupon.com will help you learn.  It’s great. You just plug in your interests and the website randomly sends you to other websites that contain articles and information on the subjects of your choosing. As a matter of fact, just last night on Stumble I learned of a new concept: PLN or Personal Learning Networks. Groups of people that share what they are learning through Twitter.  They point out blogs, videos and articles.  Kind of what I’m doing here. I learn, I share, I learn some more.  It’s made me better at all facets of my life.

So, what are you learning about for your career? How is that translating to your life.  What things spark your passion, make you persistent and determined to push farther?  I want to know!  At this point I want to do more than throw words out into the blogosphere. I want to start a conversation! I want to start a PLN.

I’ve been writing this blog for over a year now.  In that pursuit I have been determined and persistent.  Learning new things has been the vehicle to spark my imagination to try and communicate new things and that’s my epiphany. What’s yours?

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn to do it”  - Pablo Picasso

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Want to share this idea with your own Twitter network? Here are tweetable bits.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now” - Chinese Proverb http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.” – Calvin Coolidge http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities: http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn to do it”  - Pablo Picasso http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

Stoked

One winter when I was a kid the power went out for two days.  I grew up in Connecticut and every winter we would have several Ice Storms.  On these days, you would wake up to all the tree branches glistening with a coating of ice around everything.  It was most fantastic because school was always cancelled.  My sisters and I would sit around the kitchen table, ears stuck to the radio waiting to hear our town called out as closed. When there were Ice Storms they always closed school.

You see, as the storm progressed, the roads would develop a half inch or so of solid ice.  I remember this particular time putting on ice skates and skating right down the middle of the road. That is until those beautiful tree branches began to break and fall on the equally coated power lines. Then, what was a lot of fun became something else. Downed lines flailing and sparking and a stupid kid in skates trying to run down the street.  I did manage to make it home.

After several hours of the power being out and phone calls to friends who still had power and reports from the radio, it became apparent that it would be a few days before we had heat again. So, my parents hatched a plan where after waiting for the roads to be sanded, my mother and sisters would head off to my Grandparents house in the next town to wait it out while my father and I stayed behind to drain the radiators (we had those old steam kind) and keep a fire going in the fireplace so that hopefully the whole plumbing system didn’t freeze up.

It was quite an adventure.  We had sleeping bags in the living room, a pile of wood and we took shifts staying up and keeping the fire going. I was only 12, we sat up for a long time talking.  He let me have a beer, I didn’t really like beer that much at the time, especially beer that had been sitting in 10 degree weather on the back porch and was more like a half frozen 7/11 beer slushy.  But we were two men braving the elements and surviving anything a  suburban living room could throw at them.

I remember keeping that fire going strong all night. I mean the house was freezing and I’m not sure the fire warmed the plumbing system that much (though it didn’t freeze) but we made it through the night. The following afternoon as we were preparing for another death defying night on Mt. Rumpus Room, the power unexpectedly came back on.

I think we all have experience sitting around a fire and tending it, keeping it going.  There’s something primal and satisfying about making a “roaring” fire and keeping it really big.

So what about your career’s fire?  Is it roaring? Is it fading?  I’ve seen plenty of careers that at one time were roaring but one day become barely glowing embers. They got that way simply because as they died down, the owner failed to stoke it and put more wood on.  There’s a misnomer that once you “make it” your career will just keep going on it’s own momentum.  But, it won’t.  It’s just like a fire that needs constant tending.

Some say, “that’s why I have an agent” but, as an agent myself I can tell you that isn’t enough.  If you rely solely on your agent’s contacts without making and maintaining contacts on your own, the day will come when you will realize that you don’t actually know many people in the business. You’ve worked with a lot of people, you’ve done a good job, but years after the fact, you don’t really know them well enough to suddenly reach out and start a work dialogue.  When you finally do reach out long after working together, it seems desperate because let’s face it, as a freelancer, if you wait until you need work to work on getting work, it is desperate.

On the other hand, if you maintain your contacts by regular casual ‘hey what’s up emails, birthday and holiday greetings, or even just using the Facebook ‘Like’ button daily, you are ahead of the game. Through constant contact you may even make some close friends and we all want more of that.  You have to see each contact you make as a stick of wood going on to the fire of your career.  The more sticks, the higher the fire may grow.  If you make contact with people infrequently, don’t expect too big of a fire. If not at all, you will find yourself blowing at the embers just trying to get a small flame started up.

It may be that you think that since people really like you when you’ve worked with them, and that’s enough for them to think of you next time.  It’s not.  People forget very quickly and need to be reminded that they really like you. And the best way to do that is to keep being likable. When you pay attention to people, it shows you like them. When people feel you like them, you in turn become likable.

It’s never too late to sleep in the living room and get that fire going again.  But once you do, make sure you keep an eye on it every day. And more than that, make sure that every day you keep throwing sticks on the fire.  More sticks = more fire. More contacts = longer career.

The math isn’t hard, but organizing a plan can be.  Try this: make a list of everyone you can ever remember working with.  Now go on Facebook and if you’re not Facebook friends already, FRIEND THEM.  In almost every person’s Facebook info is their birthday and their email address. Add this info to your contact list. Now the hard part: use the information. Put together a daily list of contacts that can be made and follow through.

This is a simple first step towards building a fire.  The casual contacts are sticks, so put them on the fire.  When you actually work together, those are logs so make them count.  After the job, make sure you keep throwing sticks on the fire until the next job.

And take my advice: don’t try to run in the street in ice skates. It’s very difficult.

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Want to share this idea with your own Twitter network? Here are handy tweetable bits.

More sticks = more fire. More contacts = longer career. http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

What about your career’s fire?  Is it roaring? Is it fading? http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

When you pay attention to people, it shows you like them. When people feel you like them, you in turn become likable. http://bitly.com/lF4tfb

Don’t try to run in the street in ice skates. It’s very difficult. http://bitly.com/lF4tfb @agentonloose

I’ve Seen London, I’ve Seen France…

Headed to Paris from London today. Rocking the Eurostar through the Chunnel. The English countryside has been flying by for the past half hour, looking vaguely like New England until a random castle pops onto the landscape out of nowhere. The train conductor is making an announcement through a squeaky speaker in an accent so thick and unintelligible that he sounds like inspector Clouseau taking your order at a Jack In The Box drive through. I hope it wasn’t something important like “the Chunnel ahead has sprung a leak, please proceed to the lifeboats.” I think if that’s the case we’re pretty well screwed anyway, but still.

People have been commenting on my American accent over the past few days!! Can you imagine? I keep telling them I’m not the one with the accent, but it hasn’t helped. When I realize that I am indeed the different one, I make a quick apology for the Bush administration and we move right along with the conversation.

Back to the train. Most of the seats on this train face each other and I’m opposite a rather large man. We are alternating our foot position to give us each enough leg room. The guy next to me is asleep with his fist against the side of his head, his propped elbow taking up the whole arm rest between us. Therefore, I am now typing in a contorted sideways position, my body twisted against the window and my feet headed in the opposite direction between the fat man’s feet. I would say something, but my accent would be discovered and I would have to start the Bush apology all over again.  However, It does remind me about the importance of positioning.

The view from my train!

Ah, we’ve come out of the dark tunnel and into France. I just got a text from the French cell provider that my per minute rates are one quarter of what they were in Great Britain. Imagine the joy of the troops coming ashore at Normandy when they realized their cell phone calls just got cheaper. And we wonder how they found the resolve to push on to Berlin…

Back to positioning. How is your career and indeed your life positioned? It’s a tricky question. Are you doing commercials, features, television? Are you at the top of the market, the middle of the market or are you just breaking in? Are you single with very little stuff and no debt or are you married with kids and a mortgage?

None of these scenarios are better or worse than another, but they all point to what your positioning is. You may wish to work at the high end of features but you are working in the middle market of tv commercials and you have a family. Not impossible by any means, but not as easy as the transition of someone without a family, as the financial foundation must be supported and risk is tougher. You have the talent, but the positioning is wrong. You may be single, just out of film school with a few student films under your belt and you are positioning for high end commercials. Your reel is pretty good but your set experience is light and you’ve never worked in the stressful environment of advertising where money changes hands fast.  And errors, well lets just say there isn’t much latitude for errors.

Positioning is a starting point at the beginning of a career.  Positioning is also choosing a NEW starting point at any time during a career.  So, how do you find the right positioning to have the career you want? How do you then move it forward? There is no right way to answer to this, but in my experience I would say slowly. Step by step, day by day get to where you want to go by moving in the direction you desire. If you have financial and family commitments, build up your savings so you can take a low paying feature as an intro to that world. If you are young, join a department at the bottom and work your way up so you are exposed to both the technical and political workings of the business.

If you are pointed one way and where you want to go is in the opposite direction, you first need to turn around. Assess where you really want to go and take the first small steps in getting there. There is a pressure in society to live your whole career in a month.  To be a millionaire before you are 30. That happens of course, but only in a minute percentage of careers.  Mostly, it’s the image we tend to see in the media, so it’s our own fault really.  But, you don’t have to buy into it.

The idea is to be calculating and make choices wisely over a period of time. If you can avoid it, don’t head in directions that are just lucrative and not artistically satisfying, unless of course you have to.  There is a point where money will no longer be enough. I heard a great quote by the speaker John C. Maxwell. “To go up you have to give up.”

It’s true. Many on my trip have been surprised and some even appalled that this is my first trip to Europe. I could have gone earlier of course, but I was working mostly office jobs, supporting a family, working my way up. The positioning and direction I had chosen for my life just hadn’t led to Europe until now.  It’s ironic of course that many of the clients I work with travel to Europe constantly. Some live there. However, I now realize my positioning has been changing slowly over the past several years and I’ve wanted it to. This sea change has culminated in the creation of WPA, The Worldwide Production Agency. With that name, of course there is going to be a bit more travel involved.

So, assess where you’ve positioned yourself and where you want to go. Remember, steering a career is like steering a big ship. To turn it in a new direction you turn the wheel slowly.  To try and spin it around quickly is to risk capsizing.

As Thoreau said: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” I’ll add: as you go, be aware of your course and make the small adjustments to keep you on your path.

I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and here I am.  It took a while, but now I am on a train, twisted against the window between a snoring arm rest hog and a fat man. Inspector Clouseau is muttering about his “Minkey” over the intercom and I’m loving every second. It’s funny, I chose this long ago and step by step, with some decent and often hard choices, I slowly got here.

Tonight I see the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow, who knows?

Customer Service

When I was 12, I had a paper route.  I worked for the Hartford Courant, a morning paper.  I was pretty good at getting up early and delivering the papers. But getting paid for my work was another matter.  In those days, the paperboy would have to go every week and get paid from the customers individually for the week of papers on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning, I’d have to go to the paper’s offices and pay the wholesale price for the newspapers I had delivered during the week.

So Friday evenings were an important time for paperboys to work.  But, it was also an important time for 12 year old boys to go to the local skating rink to hang out with their friends and pretend girls were remotely interested in them.  So, invariably I would go and collect just enough money to pay my newspaper bill and get into the skating rink, thinking I would make it back sometime on Saturday to get the rest. Never quite worked out that way and created some customer service issues for me.

In one instance, there was a Mrs. Gaudette who was on a strict weekly budget and insisted I come every Friday night.  After a few times of missing a collection and the ensuing reprimands, then missing a few more times, I just stopped going back out of fear.  I kept delivering papers for 2 years and just didn’t get paid for that house.  What can I say? I was twelve and she was mean, but she was the customer and she made her expectations known.

On the other side of the coin, there was Mrs. Buckley on the next street.  It was 1971, she was alone and her son had been killed in Vietnam early in the war.  She would invite me in while she got her $1.10 together and then talk to me for an hour about her son.  Brutal, but I was polite and I felt so sorry for her.

When we think of customer service, it seems we think of some person on the phone sitting in the midwest or India or my favorite “Peggy” in the Capital 1 commercials.  Basically they exist to listen to our complaints and offer some kind of mediocre or inadequate fix to our problem (whatever it is.)  So really, we think of the worst job in creation.  A never ending array of complaints and demands and anger.

In reality, customer service is one of the most simple concepts in business and at the same time the most complex. Especially for Artists, who are just more interested in the creative elements of the business.  There are Mrs. Gaudettes who intimidate and then are happy to get stuff for free because of it (no, I’m not bitter) and Mrs. Buckley’s who are needy and take a great deal of time.

But, customer service needn’t be the extremes and can be broken down.  First of all, customer service implies or assumes that you already have a customer.  Once someone is a customer, only then can you worry about customer service.  Before that it’s called marketing.

Once you have a customer, the whole drill can be boiled down to one concept: REPEAT BUSINESS.  For all the fancy business rhetoric, charts, facts, figures, personal development and techniques, this is the only real measurement.  How much repeat business are you getting?  If you have consistent repeat business, you are doing something right.  If you don’t have enough, you are doing something wrong in your working process.

Customers do not forget a great experience and they do not forget a bad experience. But, they do forget an average experience or even an above average experience. So, what’s the fix? Give them a great experience, first time, every time.

What is that supposed to mean? It means giving great care to the entire process. In the book ‘Purple Cow,’ author Seth Godin puts it simply: “be remarkable.” The premiss of the book is that if you’re driving through the countryside and you see some cows grazing, you notice them and may think they’re cool.  But, as you keep driving and you keep seeing different versions of brown cows, eventually they just blend into the background. However, if you see a purple cow, now that’s something you’ll remember for a long time. Because, lets face it, a purple cow is remarkable.

Customer service is a lot of things, but mostly it’s going way way beyond what is expected. Way way beyond starts with listening to the customer about their goals, but listening even harder to their concerns and expectations. Nothing can be beneath you to address, no matter how ridiculous and no lengths are too far.

In Tony Hsieh‘s book  about the culture of Zappos.com “Delivering Happiness,” the CEO recounts the story of how he once goaded a client into calling the the Zappos customer service line in the middle of the night to ask “can you tell me where I can order a pizza in Santa Monica and get it delivered at 1am? Remember, Zappos is an online shoe store.  They put him on hold, found the information and gave it to him. That’s customer service!!

It’s preparation, it’s execution, it’s follow up. But, it’s not THAT you do these things consistently, it’s about HOW you do these things. Do you do some of these things begrudgingly? DO you become stressed and yell at subordinates in the heat of battle?  Are you onto the next project after and do minimal follow up?  It’s all seen and it all counts.

A few years ago I heard a great and challenging quote by the speaker and author T.Harv Ecker.  It goes: “how you do anything is how you do everything.”  I think that deep in each of our minds we are programmed to reason: “once I see someone do something, that’s how they do it every time.” That simple concept has kept me from all sorts of laziness, half measures and half cocked stress related mistakes.

So how do you do things?  Are you inconsistent in your marketing?  Do you shy away from the business end of being professionally creative? Is repeat business alluding you?  You have to ask yourself the tough questions to begin to move forward.

After all, with no customers, there’s no point in thinking about service and with no service there are no customers.  It’s a tricky ‘Catch 22.’ What are you going to do about it?

Related articles

• Tony Hsieh on Empowerment – Best Customer Service (bjconquest.com)
• Leadership Hall of Fame: Seth Godin, Author of “Purple Cow” (fastcompany.com)

It’s The Little Things

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how the little things add up. Like plaque in your arteries.  I’ve seen that commercial with the little globules piling up in that guy’s heart.  Those globules are really tiny (they tell you the head of a pin tiny) but of course they go on to say the tiny gobs become a clog that can kill you, or you end up with a gurney following you around all day or any number of scary advertising metaphors.

Little things of course mean a lot. They say divorces start over small arguments over the toothpaste cap.  So much so that toothpaste manufacturers have been kind enough to attach the cap to the tube, an innovation that has saved millions in legal fees.  The point is that there becomes enough of anything (positive OR negative) and a critical mass will eventually arise. So, lately I’ve become obsessed with this concept.

I’ve also become a bit obsessed with cultivating a positive attitude. Now starting with heart attacks and divorce may not sound like an overtly positive person at the keyboard, but I think I’m becoming a pretty positive person. For instance, if you end up having a heart attack and it doesn’t kill you, you’ll probably begin to appreciate the important things in life with your second chance.  If you get a divorce, maybe there’s someone better out there for you. If you have a heart attack and get a divorce at the same time, maybe it’s time to realize that your attention to everything may need some work.

Our lives are a process and too often we bump along through that process letting the tide take us wherever it chooses to go.  It’s part of the American dream.

If you don’t believe me, just walk into any bar for Thursday night Karaoke and you will hear someone drunkenly singing ‘Rambling Man.’ But the other part of the dream is to have a successful, fulfilling career that showers upon us all the trappings of our achievement.  My assessment: the concept of American Dream lives at cross purposes and drives us crazy.

If you live and work in Hollywood as I do, you find yourself at the epicenter of this contradiction.  The media that we create tells us that life is easy, we’re supposed to be beautiful with not much effort and no matter the problem, it all works out in the end.  Even in Vampire movies for some reason.  Nothing more compelling than violent, brooding vampires finding true love, attacking helpless wildlife and living happily ever after.

So, our eyes and ears tell us yes, yes, yes, anything is possible and our brains assess our reality and tell us, no, no, no, all of this is BS.  The result:  paralysis.

So I want to talk about how to move past paralysis and a way to move forward.  I’ve talked in the past about the 1% solution.  The idea that making 1% progress in your career everyday compounds and reaches the tipping point that little heart globules can.  But how to exact that 1%?. I think I’ve found a way.

I recently read an article by Darren Hardy in Success magazine (yes, I’m one of the dorks that reads that publication) about an equation for building and maintaining your career network through doing little things.  It’s called the 3 – 15 – 5 – 1 equation.  It breaks down like this: each week commit to 3 – in person meetings, 15 written communications, 5 direct phone calls, 1 gift. The idea is to sit down at the beginning of each week and plan it out.  Then work your way through the plan over the next 5 days.

Here’s the paralysis that hit me with this strategy:  Do I know enough people to make this work week to week or will I just be hitting the same people over and over again?  It forced me to sit down and write a list of all my business contacts that I feel close enough to do this with.  I came up with about 120.  But, then I took it further, I wrote out a list of people and companies I’d like to get to know or that I have vague aquaintence with. Then I brought in the people I work closest with and reviewed the list, adding people they know well and want to get to know.  Now between us all the list is rather large and we can all do it.

It occurred to me as I was putting this together that these are all little things.  All doable if I write a weekly plan for it.  I haven’t figured it all out yet, the gift thing in particular because that seems a bit forward to me, but I am committed to trying it all out.

Instead of picturing globules piling up in arteries, I am looking at it as more of a turn of the flywheel with each communication.  If you want, you can go back and read that blog post also (Lord of the Flywheel).  See, I’ve been writing this blog for a year now and the material has compounded to a point where I can refer to previous posts!  This works the same way, only you’re compounding a network of relationships!  Do 1% daily, turn the flywheel and those relationships will begin to intertwine also.  When that happens you reach Hollywoods Holy Grail: BUZZ

Now isn’t this a better use of your time than sitting around waiting for plaque to build up in your heart?  As a matter of fact, I’m thinking the positive direction and actionable steps may prevent a heart attack. Oh, and lay off the nachos.

Perspective

My horse died last week.  He was a good friend.  Lexington was one thousand pounds of power that protected me on the trail as much as I protected him. He was like me, an Alpha horse that was willing to step out in front to protect the herd when he needed to. But, he was better than me. More honest, better looking and way smarter. He was one of a kind.  I saw him every morning and every night, standing watch from his spot in front of the barn, his flaxen white mane hanging regally off to one side and a shock of hair hanging down his forehead, laying right between his eyes.  I’ll miss our late night chats and sunrise state of the corral updates.  Yes, we conversed regularly in our own way  He was my friend and I miss him terribly.

He died of colic.  Horses can’t vomit, so if too much of the wrong thing gets inside them, it settles and clogs somewhere in the small intestine. It can be a rock, moldy hay, whatever.  If you don’t discover the sick animal quickly enough, sections of the intestine die. If too much intestine is destroyed, the horse dies also. That’s exactly what happened to Lex.

We’re still not sure what he ate, but I know from the experience it takes a perfect storm to kill a horse. I fed them dinner early and then headed to San Diego for the afternoon and evening. I fed them outside in the pasture so the animals that ate in stalls would not be inside too long. Lex always ate in the pasture so there was nothing different for him. But, we returned after dark. On a normal day I would go out to the barn and turn the stalled horses out into the pasture, but they were already out.  If I had, I might have caught it. We’ll never know.

More good news, I’m on a plane headed east to attend the funeral of a client who’s wife died of cancer at 47. A tragedy, another inexpressible loss. Far greater I’m afraid than the loss of my friend. Mine, while painful is but a trifle.  Losing a wife, a mother, no comparison.

However tragic and unbelievable, and while never forgetting these losses, the human spirit finds ways to heal from them. Lex’s memory won’t fade, but I know the last frantic and frightening hours of trying to save him will.  My wife wants to head to Kentucky in a few weeks to look for a horse to replace him. I told her I’m not ready to date other horses yet. But, I’ll go with her anyway, ride some great horses and likely come back disappointed that they don’t match up to my friend Lex. But, it will mark my first step in moving on.

Believe it or not there is good news in all this heartache. It’s called perspective. I’ve been doing this for 15 years now, so I’m not afraid to say that I’ve lost clients to other agents,  lost deals, lost the fair edge in negotiations, been sued by former employers, flirted with not being able to make payroll, thought my career was over more than once and you know what? As stomach turning as business can be, nobody died. Each time, I showed up for work the next day, learned to not make the same mistakes twice.  Each time, I ended up keeping my wits about me and riding out the storm.

As I got on the plane today, the non-stop coverage of the tragedy in Japan continued. I read in the NY Times about the rescue of a 60 year old man from the roof of his house. He had been riding the house in the water for two days, and oh yeah, before they found him, he had drifted ten miles out to sea. Now, that’s a problem. That’s what I call riding out the storm.

So, next time you lose a job to someone else, get fired, come up a little short on cash, come upon a director or producer who is taking themselves a bit too seriously, cursing and throwing things because the setup took too long, please remember you read this. Remember to take a deep breath and whisper silently to yourself “perspective.” say to yourself “well at least I’m not riding the roof of my house ten miles out at sea. Now THAT would suck.” Remember, in the end, we’re making movies and money.  We work in a profession where we don’t have to perform life or death brain surgery.   So, when the going gets tough, just breathe.

I’m not by any means saying what we do isn’t important and the stress isn’t real. It is. Well,  I certainly know mine is.  I’m saying, show toughness and tenacity when called for. Don’t take things personally and save your angst for when you really need it. Because, if you haven’t needed it yet, I can assure you the day will come when you find yourself dealing with personal tragedy or riding the roof of your house ten miles out at sea.  By using some perspective now, at the very least you’ll recognize some real trouble when you see it.

Angry Birds, I Can’t Quit You

Angry Birds, I can’t quit you.  Ever since my evil assistant Trevor introduced us a week and a half ago, you have confounded me, enticed me and made me addicted to your charms.  Angry Birds, I can’t quit you.

Yes, Angry Birds, the pointless and insipid iPhone app game.  Thanks to Angry Birds, I’ve become the Charlie Sheen of my own couch.  Playing the game no matter what else is going on around me.  In a week and a half, my family has left me, my bank accounts are empty and I wander around my house, robe open  in my underwear, staring at my iPhone screen, drooling and muttering insults at the stupid little red bird who can’t blow anything up and bounces off everything without inflicting any damage!  On the plus side, I received an encouraging email from Lindsay Lohan in which she offered to be my sponsor, provided I show the tiniest bit of evidence that I want to recover. I have hit bottom and started to dig.

Ah, Angry Birds, my current diversion. I’ve had millions of them.  They’ve ranged from incessant practicing of musical instruments to sitting for too long in front of the tube, watching CSI Boise and following the ever fascinating online  updates of Charlie and Lindsey as they circle the drain.

I’m talking about the things that keep us from doing the work we need to be doing. Of course, doing the things we like are easy.  We gravitate towards these things and tend to do them first.  When we’re done with them, we look for any reason we can to keep from doing the things that provide foundation to the dreams we are trying to build. Sound familiar?

I can’t remember where, but I heard something recently about productivity.  When asked about his long successful career, an older entrepreneur said “whenever I find myself in a lull at work, I ask myself this question: is this the most productive thing I could be doing right now.  I ask this question constantly throughout my day.”

Not as easy for a freelancer of course.  When you’re not working and trying to GET work, you also have the rhythm of home to deal with.  When you’re sitting in the car waiting to pick up the kids from school, no, it’s probably not the most productive work thing you could be doing.  But, if you’re waiting with an iPhone in your hand playing FREAKIN ANGRY BIRDS, stop and send an email to a business contact.  If you’re sitting at your computer, resist the urge to do the online NY Times crossword puzzle and do some technical research your craft or find some useful ways to network.

It’s great that we live in a time when there is so much right at our fingertips. Information is everywhere and it’s all fighting for our attention.  Leisure is everywhere and it’s all fighting for our attention.  I’m not saying never relax.  You have to let your mind have some downtime.  But, be disciplined and reserve time to work  on your career.  During that work time keep asking yourself: is this the most productive thing I could be doing right now?

That said, it’s been an hour since I wrote that last line.  I had to go to the bathroom, then my neighbor down the road called and said my dogs were loose. I retrieved them, fixed the gate that they compromised, (those damn dogs have more escapes than the cast of Hogan’s Heros) considered taking a shower and finally decided to finish writing instead. So, yes I get it.  Being at home trying to work is distracting.  At least I haven’t picked up my iPhone and succumbed to the calling of ANGRY BIRDS.

I suggest you might try this:  Tape to your computer the question: ‘is this the most productive thing I could be doing right now?’  I mean, what could it hurt?  At the very least you might develop a new working habit. As for me, if I can finish this blog post before either Charlie or Lindsey get in trouble again it will be a miracle.  Bill Maher said it best the other night, and I have to paraphrase because I couldn’t find it on You Tube yet, though I did look at 20 other things: “Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, you know you’re a mess when a train wreck stops to look at you!  ba dum dum.

Go try to be productive. As for me, I’ve got level 2 to get past and I better not see that friggin little red bird again.

Don’t Panic!!

I have three dogs, Sophie, Dusty and Rambo.  Now this isn’t some stupid blog post created to show pictures of my stupid pets.  Though I will show pictures of my stupid pets in a few paragraphs.  Let me start again.  I have three dogs, Sophie, Dusty and Rambo.  They never panic.  They bark furiously from the windows at the Fed-x man, landscapers, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the dogs next door, but they never panic.

I’ve watched them a lot.  They react to stimuli sure, and they get very excited. But nearest I can tell, when they get used to a situation, they calm right down, forget about it and go about the business of sniffing each others butt’s and trying to drag off the counters things which may or may not be food.  Not once have I seen them brood or worry about a situation.

Sophie

If i’m a little late with dinner, they sit at attention, expectantly waiting.  They don’t become consumed with thoughts of never eating again. They just wait.  If I sleep in and don’t hear them scratching to go out, they may take care of business in the house, but they don’t worry that they’ll never see the backyard again.

Perhaps, it’s the size of their brain.  Let’s face it, not big. Not prone to reason, just fight or flight.  I believe it’s the reasoning mind that panics.  A dog will just run. Humans too will run in certain situations, but are more likely to stand there, staring at the danger and thinking ahead to all the various possibilities of how it will ruin their life ten or twenty years down the road.

Dusty

When it comes to my dogs and panic, The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a little different of course.  In those cases I actually let the dogs out.  They are in full flight. It’s interesting watching one Witness trying to run while pushing the other Witness’s wheelchair (there’s always one in a wheelchair) down my long gravel driveway, the wheels digging in, the dogs getting closer, the panic rising.  The attendant Witness suddenly turning the chair around and using his friend as a human shield against the on coming pack of canine killing machines.  Of course they don’t realize that with my dogs, the only goal they have is to bury their noses well into the crotch of a Jehovah’s Witness to get a whiff of God.

Weighing in at 6 lbs - Rambo

I’m kidding about all that of course, I would never sick my dogs on anyone (or would I?)  I’m just trying to make a point here.  If you don’t get that job or couple of jobs, if you are out of work for a month, don’t panic.

Stars explode, planets collide and free lancers sit around sometimes.  It’s merely the natural flow of things.  There is a beauty to working in the arts.  For your vision and to be your own boss is freedom. But, when it’s slow, remember: the lack of work today does not preclude a lack of work tomorrow or next week or next month or next year.

You can fight that “I’m never going to work again” angst by re-focusing your energy in a more positive way.  I’m not going to tell you to go make some calls or send some emails or start a personal development art project.  I say that all the time and by now you know that productivity begets work.  Instead, when the pangs of “I’m finished professionally” set in, I want you to do something simple: TRUST.  Trust that you are not at the sum total of your profession.  Trust that the work will come back around. Trust that your talent is your purpose, and purpose can’t be denied. Trust that just as stars explode and planets collide, freelancers go back to work.

I’m a big fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  For both of you who have never heard of this book series, movie, TV series, radio series, it is about a fictional Inter Galactic travel guide.  According to Wikipedia:  ”DON’T PANIC (always upper-case) is a phrase written on the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.^[27] The novel explains that this was partly because the device “looked insanely complicated” to operate, and partly to keep intergalactic travelers from panicking.^[28] It is said that despite its many glaring (and occasionally fatal) inaccuracies, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Galactica because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words “Don’t Panic” in large, friendly letters on the cover.^[27]“

Wikipedia goes on to say that the author of 2001 A Space Odyssey “Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams‘ use of “don’t panic” was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity.”

I have to agree.  See it doesn’t matter whether you are a freelancer, one of my dogs, a Jehovah’s Witness or an intergalactic traveler.  When you panic, you spend a lot of brain power making up imaginary disasters, when in fact you could be using your brain power to be productive and find some solutions.  But, to keep from panicking you have to TRUST.  So, trust me, it will all be fine.  At the very least, I won’t sick my dogs on you.