I have found myself in some difficult positions in business and this blog will talk a little bit about them and how I have learned to be a good business man and make the decision that is best for business
My public image is something that I struggle with not really in terms of who I am as a person but more so how I look. I'm not the most handsome man on the planet (unless you ask my wife or daughter) I dress accordingly for most social situations but I'm a jeans and a t-shirt kinda guy. If you look at me and Chris Fyfe standing together he's wearing a polo shirt and jeans and looks business casual and I'm in jeans and a t-shirt it's comical if you think about it.
There's an old expression "dress for the job you want" and get that and when I need t clean up and wear a suit I do but it's not something I would be comfortable in on a day to day basis because I wore a tie to work everyday for 10+ years and I said never again would I do that.
I want to be a film maker and I didn't look too much into it but I'm pretty sure there isn't a dress code for the job, right ? I like to be comfortable at work so I wear jeans and a t-shirt and recently added a suit coat to the outfit for the business casual look. I have toned down the jewelry a bit as well to look more professional .
This is something that I struggle with, I don't wear alot of jewelry to look cool or to stand out, each piece of my jewelry like my tattoos has special meaning to me. I wear my wedding ring, my Friday The 13th ring, my Friday the 13th pendent and I always wear something that belonged to my father (a necklace or ring) .
While I agree that my public image / persona is important I also don't want to be like everyone else in the industry. I want to have my own style and make sure I stay true to who I am as a person . My public persona is who I am just with the volume turned way up! While learning how to be professional I have had to ton down my behavior is some situations and that's a struggle for me . a good example of this would be during the pre production process of Sins of Man II : Vengeance we have some issues with cast members wanting to dictate when they would work on the movie and when they wouldn't and that's not how this works. the non business man in me came out right away and started going off and I was like screw this, then the business man in me kicked in and was like "Okay how are we going to handle this situation... let's call Chris and see what he thinks" I knew there was a way to work through this issue with the proper thought process and I did .
Being a business man is another area I struggle with because I'm new to business I mean I know the basic idea of how things work but anything beyond that I differ to Chris and he explains it to me as best he can . I'm learning slowly how to make business decisions and making the right decision, do I make mistakes of course I do but I always learn from them and that's important, right ?
I will admit that Chris handles most of the business dealings at this point because I'm not good at closing deals with people at this point although I did successfully negotiated the DVD Release party and Consignment deal with Bull Moose Music by myself last year . (pats himself on the back) I have alot to learn but I'm working on it .
Which leads me to my last topic that being doing what is "best for business", which is something that every person who is in any type of business should always make a priority if you're not doing what is best for business you should get out now !
You always have to have an eye on what's best for business and not just right now but for the future. I have a hard time seeing both the here and now and the future because if I'm thinking about what's best for the current project might not be seeing what's best for the future, as Chris says I'm not a big picture kinda guy which is 100% accurate as to how I look at things I have to work on making decisions based on business and not based on my gut feeling or making a knee jerk reaction . I must take time to process information and make the best decision .
I'm a work in progress as a business man and I know that and I'll admit I'm still learning how to be a better writer and director for sure. I'm a passionate person I want to learn as much as I can about the things I'm doing because that's how we get better at things in by doing, making mistakes, learning from them and coming back to do it again .
This is an amazing journey I'm on as a film maker I get to write the story, create the characters and the world the live in and tell their stories it's the coolest job on the planet for sure and I want to be a good example for the people just like me that want to chase their dreams but might not think it's possible.
It is possible because if I can do it anyone can reach their goals in life, all you need to make it work is a dream, a plan, (A backup plan) and a support system behind you that refuse to let you quit . Is there a chance you might fail? maybe but you only truly fail if you quit, as long as you are till working towards the goal you haven't failed at anything.
We went through alot of difficult times during the filming of Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis and we had days where we thought it was going to ever happen but we all showed up every day and worked our butts off and had a finished DVD on Halloween last year. Vengeance has had it's fair share of issues as well but we are better equipped to deal with them this time around because we have the knowledge from the previous film to pull from and suspect that we will get better with each film we finish .
STAY HUMBLE STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)