New Company Coming

Well, after much cajoling and discussing, I'm officially moving forward with opening Uglyshz.com as a design studio for internet presence development.

However, there are some key things that I'm going to be crafting that side of my brand around - and it will be different. Whether it succeeds, or fails, we'll see.

I've developed something I call "narrative design services" - this is a further elaboration on my original tag line on my portfolio that said "content with context." It's taken me a while to figure out what that means, but for starters, it means sea changes in the types of sites we'll take on, what kind of clients and how much we charge them.

The idea, is simple, but the application is another "story."

While the concept has its roots in my career in filmmaking and love of story, it has been crystallized by my work on the web, and more importantly, in the Hughtrain.

Our narrative design services center around the premise that every person, and every business has a story to tell in some way.

In my experience in filmmaking and writing, the stand out story is ALWAYS the one based upon some shared, human value. The archetypes of story, are very basic, but for millenia there have been stories that elevate human potential and leave us, the audience, exhilarated for having participated in the simple act of story well-told.

It's time to apply that way of thinking to people's business and products in a way that communicates something *more* human, *more* honest, and *more* satisfying than ever before.

It can no longer be just text on a page.

It can no longer be some fancy Flash animation.

It can no longer be "info@yourwebsite.com" how about "we-want-to-talk-with-YOU@yourwebsite.com" (you get the idea...).

There will be much more coming about this in the weeks ahead.

Find your story.

True (th) in Advertising

OK now, I'll be the first to admit, that in the past, I have tried online dating services. Obviously, the results were not that spectacular, as I am still more or less single (well, officially, and I'm not currently looking). 'Nuff said.

So, being ever the social optomist, a few months back I put up a "profile" at MySpace, which, for those of you who don't know, is a "social networking" site - NOT an online dating site. Yeah, right. What the hell is the difference between social networking and dating? Um... well, in social networking you have a few more nutjobs, loonies, nasties, and other undesirables and utterly unqualifieds to fend off, but other than that, very little difference.

Alright, well, the point of this rant being the current ad campaign being run by some new online dating outfit called "True" and their ads appear ALL over MySpace, driving me nuts.

Below, are two of the ads they currently run (and none of the additional ads are any different):



Now, my favorite one, I couldn't get to pop up, which has another gratuitous (and quite nice, really) tit shot, with the caption, "Dive into Love."

Which I can hardly type without laughing so hard I want to pee my pants.

Now, I'm glad they do background checks and all that, but hey, how about checking to see if the person REALLY looks like their photo, or better yet, how about making sure that all the photos on the site, and in the advertising are the REAL photos of the people on the service???

Oh, wait, that would mean.. uh, NOBODY would sign up.

I'm just bent on a service called "True" pitching something in a so patently False manner.

I mean, you know what?

People WANT to fall in love, need to fall in love.

So why not advertise to that value?

Find a way to connect with that narrative, value based thread deep within people to communicate the belief that your service will them find that missing part of their life? As Hugh over at GapingVoid says - "The Market for Something to Believe In is Infinite."

Maybe that just wouldn't mean as high a subscription rate... but it might also mean not as high a disappointment rate.

My two cents.

Learn my business Dammit!

So, in the last few weeks as my own company looked to move into some new spaces, we had a team we had talked to about coming in to be a CEO/CFO combination for us, so that me and the rest of our executive team could get back to focusing on actually making movies again.

Two weeks later, I end up being placed in the CEO position (at least for now) officially and we've got 90 days to find, and close on, $5,000,000. Sure. No Sweat.

Now, that's not the point of this post though. The interesting part of the story is in what happened with the CEO/CFO team we were talking to - and what was revealed to be a very stark contrast of attitude and character.

The CEO candidate, came and met with my partners, and walked around a $2m facility that they developed, and executed the creation of from the ground up, and then proceeded to tell us how many employees he'd managed, and how much IT he had deployed, and how large a budget he had overseen.

We're a movie company.

Now, we knew this guy didn't have film industry experience, so we didn't expect him to know anything about it.

We DID expect him to ask questions about it, and show a passion or at least a passing interest in learning it.

He did neither.

In contrast, the CFO candidate, took a good "virtual" look at the company and the business and the financials and said, "You know, I'm tickled you guys are asking me to be a part of this, but I don't know enough about your business to feel like I've earned this position."

HUH??? Now, this guy has an impeccable resume and experience in some areas that we feel ARE very pertinent to our business, even if he hasn't been IN the business. But his attitude was so vastly different from the other part of the "team." it was remarkable.

So, another two weeks goes by, and the CEO candidate has been kicked to the curb in no uncertain terms, and the CFO candidate has accepted a board position and has already proven invaluable AND humble. We're enjoying working with him a lot.

Sometimes there's just those circumstances that contrast two personalities so much that ya just gotta comment on them.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

There's A Lot to Be Said

You know, there's a lot to said for looking at something from your own point of view, and saying "this is the way I choose to do business, and you choose to business a different way. And that's OK that it works for you, but I will not choose to do business with you."

It's kind of like, when I go to a fruit stand and there's a peach I like, so I look at the price, and I decide to buy it.

Then, there's another customer who goes to the store, and sees the same peach, and says "I like it, but I want to pay less for it" so he goes to the fruit stand worker and says "Hey, I really like you, and I really like your stand, and I really like this peach, but I can only pay you 50% of what you're asking for it. Now, maybe tomorrow, if I have a good bowel movement because of your peach, I can come back and pay you some more for it."

Now, let's examine this for a minute.
First - The customer probably doesn't at all know the fruit stand worker and is making a snap judgement on the persons character in order to get what he wants.
Second - Who cares if he likes the stand? It's a shack. Shut up.
Third - Glad you like the peach, please pay for it.
and last
Fourth - I don't want to know anything about your potential bowel movements, please, I'll take 50% just to get you to shut up and leave my shack.

In current negotiations I'm having, in an attempt to buy out a company that will fail without a team and a real strategy and organizational structure behind it, we reached the point today where we walked away from the deal. We were done. There was no way to reconcile the BS that came back at us, a company where we have 6 figures worth of hard assets and zero (ZERO) debt, to take on another company that has less than $4,000 in hard assets and close to HALF A MILLION dollars in debt but has some "intangible" assets that have debatable real value, and some strategic value. So we called it a wash.

Until the majority shareholder of the company called to ask if he could come over RIGHT NOW to please find a way to make it work.

After much discussion, the discussion is to be continued in the morning, but the deeper we get, the more I start to think that even IF we get everything we want, it still might be more pain than it's worth because I don't like working with someone who does business in a different way than I do... that is why my partners have chosen to work with me, and I have chosen to work with them. And yet, maybe there is still some value - there IS definitely some sort of talent and ability inherent in the owner that has brought about some good things, though maybe in spite of his talent and ability to create things on purpose. His ability to spin and publicize things is pretty damn amazing. And he IS funny. Sometimes.

But dammit, it is hard to look at a proposition that looked uncertain from the get go, and to try to walk away when it looked worse, and to have someone come back and say "wait wait wait" - there's a long road ahead for what's left tomorrow morning.

Either way, it will turn out well for my company as our passion and enthusiasm for a new market fuels our imaginations and our relationships in our current business. It will be interesting to be a part of.