I met up with my friend Gillian yesterday. Like me, she’s perhaps a frustrated introvert – very comfortable being out there in front of a room, but less keen on being the in-your-face face of a brand. As we chatted about the shift from contractor/freelancer to entrepreneur, and being front…
Browsing Category Entrepreneurship
Life’s a Pitch…but for who?
Over the last few months, I’ve been working with nearly two dozen founders from across the spectrum of New York’s media & entertainment industry. It’s the third cohort of New York City’s AMP NYC accelerator program, a first of its kind initiative helping small business owners in the city develop…
SXSW 2020: The Remix
A blog post I keep coming back to is The Rise of the Remixer. I wrote this quite a while ago, and didn’t think much of it at the time – or rather, I sensed there was something interesting to explore further but wasn’t sure exactly what that something was….
The Educator in Residence
Why a different type of EIR could be your firm’s new secret weapon In 1989, the Hollywood talent agency CAA moved into its new $25m offices designed by star architect I.M Pei. In a little over a decade the company had grown from a $21,000 bank loan and no employees…
The important thing before on-boarding
It’s not just about what happens once they’re on board and the vessel is setting sail. It’s not just about the on-boarding rituals that occur once they’ve arrived at the place of departure and they’re beginning to assimilate into the culture of how we do things here. It’s also about…
Learnings from the other side of an accelerator program
In the Spring of 2018, I was approached about collaborating on a new project being presented by New York City’s Department of Small Business Services and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. The project came about from the City looking to further their support to creative businesses. Media &…
Great (Un)Expectations
Below is a very lightly edited version of a brief introduction I gave at the final presentation day for the second cohort of the AMP NYC media & entertainment accelerator program in New York. I’d had a busy few days and showed up at the venue with nothing prepared at…
No Reply = No Interest?
Next week marks the 31st edition of my monthly email newsletter which I started in late 2015. As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t really kept up my end of the bargain. In the early days I sometimes let two, three or even four months pass without a newsletter leaving the…
Switching to Annual View
Whether we’re coming fresh out of a salaried role or have spent years out on the road as an independent, it’s easy to default to the monthly view. Just like a calendar, the month is the most easily understood timeframe. No time differences to manage, or weeks starting on a…
Positioning: Get Uncomfortably Narrow
A lot of entrepreneurs and freelancers struggle with positioning. Often it’s ironic as the work many of us do is to help others communicate, tell stories, and stand out. Yet, of course, we struggle to do this effectively for ourselves. Here’s one way to think about it: get so narrow…