The Geek Strips – and Leaves a Business Lesson You Can’t Afford to Ignore

I’m sure you read that title thinking, “what the…”, so let me just add to your wince with a nasty little stat that’s been haunting me since entertainment business grad school: the Small Business Administration reports that 3 out of every 10 startups die in their first two years of operation.

I don’t know about you and your business, but that bothers the fire out of me. Especially since I’m going into my second year.

No pressure at all, right?

Well, if you’re freaking out like I am, there’s one very simple way to beat that stat and overcome the panic, but you’re going to have to look over my broken model first to find it – warts and all.

(Literally.)

Read on carefully and learn from my fail, okay?

Friday Feature: What’s Stopping You From Doing It Yourself? [Interview]

Indie Film Director and Editor Justin Connors Proves You Can Do It

“ If you can teach yourself Photoshop and Illustrator, you can pretty much learn any program.  -Justin Connors

It’s a simple as that, according to Connors.

Don’t think you can do it? Someone tell you can’t? Here’s some motivation for you to keep going.

 Full Sail University Film alumnus Justin Connors has trained himself into a beast, learning the entire Final Cut Studio software suite, Shake, After Effects, and Photoshop; and since 2010, he’s been creating the remarkable content produced by one of the nation’s premier entertainment media universities by doing what he taught himself to do: editing.

Full Sail’s in-house creative agency, Platinum Creative, shoots and edits all of the school’s events, guest lectures, concerts and promotional videos, and is also the creative force behind their award winning graphics and websites. If it needs to be seen or read by anyone, Platinum Creative does the branding.

As a Platinum Creative editor, Connors directed the unreleased footage of Tim Tebow’s campus appearance in promotion of Tebow's documentary Tim Tebow: Everything In Between, and was even on location in Aspen to capture and edit footage of the Winter 2012 Xgames on behalf of Full Sail. You can see all of his other work here.

Sound miraculous? It’s not.

Connors’ journey, like yours, started small – and one step at a time.

I held a phone interview with the super-busy Connors to get into his head and find out how he did it all.