Entertainment and Business with David Allen Jones (Part 2)

Aaron:

From reading your profile you obviously worked in Hollywood and Canada, what drew you to Thailand to do all these things you are doing in Thailand now rather than stay in Hollywood where the big market is.

David:

That's a good question. The other half of my life Aaron, I got into technology consulting. It's something I fell into and I found out I had a knack for it. It's the thing that I am really good at entertainment and lands itself in technology consulting because I am really good at looking in something and figuring out how to position it in a market place. Oh that is really cool, if we did this and this, someone will probably want to buy it. So that led me into technology consulting, I found myself at one point being one of these guys who got known around the industry ad the person to talk to if you have a new product a new service or new division, I was the first person to call.

I got involved in that and opened up an office in Hawaii and it took me to a few different places around the world and it eventually brought me to Thailand. I came out to Thailand to start off a new version of satellite broadcasting for an interactive satellite broadcasting company. I did the business plan, the marketing plan and the feasibility study, I did all these things and was asked to be a partner in the company and I declined because I was having to much fun doing what I was doing. I went back to the United States and decided I wanted to relocate to start my life over. I was then asked by the same company to stay in Thailand as a partner and was working on a project for a broadband infrastructure around Thailand. I had all these ideas but my partner told me "this is brilliant let's wait." In Thailand there is one thing that people always say "let's wait." Then I started to notice about the entertainment and media industry here, what was coming, what was going on and I said boy there's so many holes here that a guy like me could fill.

I then decided to leave the company and stay in Thailand with a goal to build a media company that was a bit different and take advantage of the coming wave. Everything is moving towards Asia and this is the most vibrant part of the world right now, setting companies like the one I am currently involved in can have amazing opportunities as people begin to look more and more to this part of the world to start growing their businesses. So that is why I stayed because this is an exciting time and an exciting place to be.

Aaron:


Yea that is very interesting actually because you always here about people trying to make it into Hollywood whereas you left Hollywood to pursue something else, which might be bigger in the future.

David:

That interesting that you say that because I didn't leave Hollywood because I couldn't make money. I was very successful in Hollywood. But saying that I don't mind being the first guy through the bushes because sometimes you are the first one to see something that's amazing and its an amazing time. It's challenging definitely but its amazing. 

Aaron:

So what did you first start out as in Hollywood?


David:

I started out in Hollywood as a musician. I left school (college) in third year to pursue a career in music. I was a songwriter and a record producer first and then went to Hollywood and did that for 12-15 years, scored a bunch of Movies and then with my ex-wife opened up a company, started representing talent and represented some really successful talent in Hollywood in the music area then changed our company into a company that really represented music. When I left Hollywood, we had a very successful, one of the most successful companies in Hollywood providing music to films and television shows. I was in Hollywood for a long time doing music, I also consulted music companies, had my own record label and managed other people's companies.

I was one of the musicians in town who was working all the time. I was very frustrated because I didn't like the way musicians were treated, paid and handled. So I learnt the business side of it, I took it upon myself to understand how does this music business work and when I learned it I found I learnt the business through a lot of misconceptions that I had about how it worked. There were things I felt should have changed but right a long with it, I was also learning the technology side of things. Not from a technical standpoint but what it meant to people. I was never a technical guy but I was able to tell you what this means to the marketplace. So when things like Napster came along, I was the guy companies would call and ask "what would this mean for us right now?" I saw it very differently than other people saw it, I still do. Technology side of it came in later, if someone were to ask me right now "what do you do?" The first thing that would come to my mind is musician, I don't always say that but that's the first thing that comes to my mind.

I was very successful, I had a long of music come out, I had songs that hit the chart, albums that sold millions of copies, I was one of the guys that got a call when a big or small record was being done. I got introduced to Hollywood by Eddie Murphy, I came to Hollywood with him and he brought me into a completely different world. I grew up with him from Long Island, New York and I got to see things from both sides, sitting next to the biggest movie star in the world and a young novice musician trying to make it. I ended up doing a lot of projects with Eddie, I did a music on a bunch of his projects, I did the music for Raw, Saturday Night Live - The Best of Eddie Murphy (Bonus Edition) and a bunch of his movies. Working with him was great because he gave me the opportunity to see here's how things go. He wasn't the kind of guy who says "David I will give you this" but he was the kind of guy to say "look man this is going on, if you want to take a shot at it, go ahead" but without him I wouldn't have gotten a shot.

It was funny because I would end up in a lot of his movies but he wouldn't even know it. I would use his name to get me in the door but it wouldn't' get me on the soundtrack. I would have to get myself on the soundtrack. I was one of those young guys who was just committed, I was a workaholic. I was always working, learning and pushing, if there was something going on I would find out how to do it. I wasn't a great musician, I didn't start playing an instrument when I was 8 years old, I started learning how to play music in College but I was so determined. I also learned how to find out what was important in music, what I needed to figure out so I can become successful. I always had mentors, find people who know what you are going to do and who are willing to impart their knowledge around you. That is a major important key to life.


Yes I know its very long, so I will leave you with this for now and continue with part 3 soon.

Happy Holidays!!!

Peace

Aaron Koo

www.akooxp.com 

Entertainment and Business with David Allen Jones (Part 1)

CEO INTERNATIONAL David Allen Jones is a Hollywood veteran with more than 20 years experience in the film, TV, music and new media industries. He has worked with some of Hollywood’s top talent including Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Elton John, Anthony Quinn, and Burt Reynolds. He co-founded Hollywood’s TMC, a top music publisher with clients: 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. As a partner in MediaMen, he aggregated 45,000 hours of digital content and built distribution deals with: Comcast (USA), Bell Canada, Media Gateway (Dubai), and Broaden (Scandinavia). His background also includes consulting several entertainment and media companies including: Mainframe Entertainment (Canada), Global Satellite Broadcasting Corporation (Thailand), Demeu Music (Kazakhstan), Bop Recording (South Africa), Motown Records (USA), Interscope Records (USA), MuzicDepot.com (Bahamas), Pizzaz Productions (Australia), Pittard Sullivan (USA), Reputable Records (USA), Communications Media, Inc.(USA) and FSBO Illustrated (USA). He is also a principal at Memotion Co Ltd where he has produced the feature films The Coffin and Prey. 

 *Taken from Asia West Entertainment.
 

My Chat with David Allen Jones was probably one of the most interesting and eye opening conversations that I ever had in my life. We spent approximately 2 hours talking about the entertainment industry and how it has evolved over the years. 

 David was kind enough to share with us his extensive experience with Hollywood and the projects that he is working on in Thailand. He also shared with us his thoughts about the entertainment industry and what's needed to be changed in order to help the industry move forward. Instead of insanely filtering down what was discussed between myself and David, I have decided to split the post into 3 parts. 

 

Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did. 

Interview Part 1:

 

Aaron:

Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

 

David:

Asia West is a company that we have set up in Hong Kong, mainly for international projects. The main company is called Memotion, which is a Thai company. Memotion is a production company, we do all sorts of entertainment projects (film, television, online, concerts, anything entertainment. What we say ourselves is that we are a Thai based international entertainment company. I would say we are a media company as well, the difference is an entertainment company develops and produces projects and media gets those projects out. We have a hand in getting those projects out as well.

 

Aaron:

So when you say "get them out" does that mean that you produce a movie in let's say Thailand and you get it screened in Cinemas all over the world?

David:

I'll give you an example of a project. We did a film here that came out at the end of 2008, it was a movie project with the English titled called "The Coffin." It was a pretty interesting project from a Thailand perspective, it was a film that was written and directed by a very well known and successful Thai write/director and we took the biggest Thai star, it was a guy named Ananda Everingham (half Laos and South African but has lived his whole life in Thailand) and we also took a star from Taiwan (Karen Mok). We produced the film based on a Thai story (it's a Thai legend), it was a horror movie. We shot the film more than 85% in English and we dubbed it back into Thai, which is highly unusual. Everyone was telling us it's not going to work. The film came out here, it was number 1 in Thailand for two weeks and it was very successful.

At the time there was a movie that came out, an American film that was a remake of a Thai movie (Bangkok Dangerous) and our film did much better than Bangkok Dangerous. It was the biggest Thai film in the history of Malaysia, Singapore and it continues to sell around the world. That was an example of a Thai film that we did that had international potential. We did a Thai story, Thai director, Thai writer, Thai writer but we did it in English for the international marketplace.

We did a music project at the end of last year in Phuket called the Roy Fest, in Thailand "Roy" means good. It was a 2 day music festival that had local Thai bands and DJ's and international DJ's. We had DJ's from England and Germany and it was the biggest music festival in the history of Phuket.

Those two example are examples of types of projects we do. Projects that can be successful locally and have an international component to it and can travel internationally.

Aaron:

So you guys would be making Thai movies locally but have an international appeal like "Ong Bak"?


David:


Yea but Ong Bak is an example of a film that we would probably not do. Ong Bak was made specifically for a Thai audience only, Thai movie, Thai stories, Thai themes, Thai everything and then interntional picked it up because Tony Jaa was such a freak in martial arts and next thing you know it did well in the United States but that is an example of a projects that we probably would not do.

We actually have few projects in front of Tony Jaa, my partner is very close with the film company that works with him. As example the project we have in mind is with Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen from the film called Ip man. The film  would take place in Thailand and Hong Kong and it would be in English. So it would be an international film with Tony Jaa.


Aaron:


So basically you produce movies in Asia with an end goal of reaching an international audience?


David:


Correct. The same thing with concerts, television projects and so on. We have a television project being shot and our partners are NBC Universal so hopefully it will be shown in the U.S and all over the world. On the music side we have music stars here in Thailand and we are looking to do an English album with them and releasing it in the United States.



More to come in the next few days.


UP NEXT David gives us insight on his experience in Hollywood.

Peace

Aaron
www.akooxp.com

Innovation within the workplace with Dr. Jason Fox

I recently had a chat with Dr. Jason Fox who is a very interesting and creative individual. He describes himself as an an "ideas liberator" and is very passionate about helping organisations foster an innovative culture in their workplace. Dr. Fox compeleted his PhD (helping people fill the gap between goal setting and goal getting), wrote a book (Master Exams) and lectured at 3 different universities before the age of 25, which is a milestone that not many people have achieved. Before he started his quest on fostering innovation, he was working on a project called Enjoy Exams, which educated students on how to approach and excel at examinations.

Now on to what we discussed during our chat...

The problem:

A lot of traditional businesses are having trouble with innovation as there is an increasing need for a collaborative working environment. Many companies have trouble getting past certain hurdles in their business and they cannot seem to find a way to improve. There is still a very strong risk adverse culture out there and with the attitude of "if it is not broke, don't fix it!"  Innovation seems to be seen as something that gets in the way of organisation operations rather than something that is should be a part of it. "When companies send their employees out to conferences to bring back ideas, the ideas get brought back but are usually not implemented."

How Dr. Jason Fox helps innovate companies:

Dr. Fox helps his clients by introducing steps and procedures to make sure that the new ideas generated get implemented. "I help them identify all the issues and "air out" all the problems and issues so that companies can get on to it straight after." Dr. Fox helps businesses implement innovation as part of their business culture rather "than a box that needs to be ticked." One of the interesting ways that Dr. Fox does this is by build a game or a method to make sure that the ideas happen.

Apart from consulting, Dr. Jason Fox also provides motivation speaking services to companies on topics such as "Making Clever Happen" and "Level Up."

If you like to find out more about the services that Dr. Jason Fox offers please go to - http://www.drjasonfox.com

How "games" help the workplace:

"13 million people are currently playing World of Warcraft (online multi-player game), 316 million people log into Farmville (Facebook game application) everyday and there are reports of people that have died from malnutrition due to being addicted to video games." Dr. Fox suggests that instead of looking at games as a negative thing, we can start to look at the paradigms that makes them so addictive and implement them in our workplace and daily lives. One of the paradigms that has been the most effective is the philosophy of "Kaizen." The Japanese word "Kaizen" means "improvement" or "change for the better", the Kaizen philosophy is to reward acts that are right instead of punishing acts that are wrong. This concept is strongly linked to "levelling up" by rewarding an individual a right to do something when they have reached a certain milestone. "You know how when you first set up your LinkedIn profile and it says your profile is 80% complete, it makes you think that if I just do this little bit more I can make it 100% complete, that is the culture we want to implement in our workplaces."

Why?

"I am really passionate about what I do because I get to work with something new all the time. I really like helping out with different quests and puzzles and also the idea of NOT having to work 9 - 5  is the big bonus." Dr. Jason Fox recommends the book Rework for people who want to have a working life that isn't held down to the traditional 9-5 working idea.

Julissa Shrewsbury pursuing her passion

I recently had a chat with Julissa Shrewsbury who has been running her own fashion photography business for approximately a year. The great thing about Julissa's story is that she is a great representation of what passion combine with persistence and hard work can achieve. Her business has only recently started generating a sustainable cash flow and is only the beginning of what she wants to achieve. I think this is a great change of pace to showcase someone that is going through the initial challenges of being an entrepreneur rather than someone who has already "made it". Hope you enjoy!!

Julissa's Story:

Julissa Shrewsbury is an entrepreneur who is juggling her photography business with her creative writing studies at University and also a part time job to pay the bills. She has recently made the transition from part-time to full-time for her business and it has been approximately 1 year since she started her business.

Before Julissa decided to pursue her passion in photography, she was a primary school teacher teaching children of several different year levels for 7 years. "I loved kids and I loved working with kids, but it got to a point where I needed a career change and I wanted to do something creative and I decided the best way for me to do that was to go back to Uni to do another Bachelor's degree." 

When asked about when she developed an interest in photography, Julissa replied "when my parents first gave me a film camera when I was 11." Halfway throughout her studies in photography and creative writing, Julissa decided that she did not want to work for somebody else and wanted to run her own business. From there she started to experiment by doing photography with studio lights on a couple of parties and a few parties with themed nights, Julissa then discovered that this was the path she wanted to take in life and started thinking of ideas on how to integrate it into a business.

Themed party photos from Julissa's Facebook Fan page

"I did a lot of reading, particularly about women who were leaders in business or had started businesses on their own and that inspired me. The book Secrets of Inspiring Women Exposed and the Secrets Exposed series was a great starting point for me because it has a lot of inspiring stories about everyday people and how they changed their lives doing something for themselves." Julissa also attributed a lot of her motivation and inspiration to the encouragement and advise that she received from her family and friends.

"I got the initial confidence from doing structured units and from there I went off on my own tangent and did a lot of reading about business structures and marketing." Julissa started off doing a lot of research about the business and industry and mentioned that joining linkedIn was one of the biggest steps for her because it allowed her to get in contact with networks that were relevant and beneficial to her. "I got to a networking almost weekly and find that it is a great way for people to get to know me face to face and I got a lot of business that way." Julissa advises that entrepreneurs starting up need to find a good balance in being proactive and confident and not becoming annoying or spamming other people.

"I use the blog a lot for describing different kinds of that shoots I do, so that people are informed about the work that I do. Also from a female's perspective particularly, a lot of women want a personal shoot but a little bit scared and don't know what to expect so I write stories on there to give them a description of what other people have experienced and I encourage other people to comment on there as well." This is how Julissa uses social media to interact with her customers to build a relationship and educate her customers outside taking photos. Julissa also warns about offering free service and advises photographers to be very selective when choosing clients to do free shoots to develop a portfolio. She mentions that doing "too many free shoots" can lead to people not valuing your work and be seen as an expectation. "I only do free shoots if I find that doing it will benefit my business or if I find the cause of the business very interesting." Julissa has provided support to the Global Good Foundation.

Currently Julissa is still working part-time for financial requirements. However, ever since the University semester ended, Julissa has found more time to promote her business and finds that she is receiving more work. "If this continues, I will be able to leave my part-time job and focus fully on my business and studies." In the coming months she is looking to be able to systemise the tasks that are very time consuming for her business and also getting other photographers on board her business.

 Julissa advise for upcoming entrepreneurs (especially those in the arts segment) to really think about whether they want to start their own business when they are still studying or only after they finish, find a good support source (both financially and emotionally) and finding your niche because that is where they will differentiate themselves and doing a lot of research before jumping into it.

Peace,

Aaron Koo
http://www.akooxp.com

If you like to find out more about Julissa's business please go to http://www.newworkphotography.com.au and add her Facebook Fan page

Carl Taylor - Moving the human race forward with business

Carl Taylor is a 24 year old Australian entrepreneur who specialises in buying and selling businesses. He currently owns a variety of different companies and describes himself as a "young entrepreneur, author and educator" who is passionate about helping the human race move forward.



Small and simple

During my Q & A with Carl, he talks about the effectiveness of lean businesses. Carl currently run a few different companies with a very small number of virtual staff hired from around the world. Carl mainly outsources work that involves admin and research, he mentions that "anything that doesn't make you money should be outsourced" and that you can systemise those tasks for someone else to do it.


Leadership in business

Carl describes the key to effective hiring is leadership. He shared with us the words that one of his early mentors mentioned was that 'you get the people that you deserve.' "When you're an exceptional leader and you have an exceptional company, you will have exceptional people who will work for you." Carl points out that is is very important to make the systems and processes as simple as possible especially during the times where he has encountered language problems with employees. To be a good leader, Carl mentions that it is very important to empower employees with decision making skills and having templates and scripts to provide assistance.

Tips to hiring virtual employees from Carl Taylor:

• Sample work at a cheaper rate before hiring
• Invest money by providing smaller projects to ensure that the same mistakes will not be made on a bigger project

Moving the human race forward

Carl Taylor's goal is to be able to financially retire at the age of 27. He describes being financially retired as being able to earn $60,000 a year whether he gets out of bed or not.  Carl believes that to hit this goal, it is very important to have different passive income streams" and is planning on releasing information products on buying and selling businesses and marketing start-up businesses. "I want to have specific businesses that grow to be able to provide passive income without having an active involvement in the business."

Some of the reason's that Carl describes as reasons he wants to grow his wealth is the fact that he wants to inspire and educate people. It is the way he feels that he can help the human race move forward. "I want to be one of those where if a crazy scientist or a person with a crazy idea approaches me with a radical life changing idea, I can say "here's a billion dollars, let's do it."" Carl believes that he on track to hit this goal and is where he wants to be with his businesses.

Hurdles

The biggest hurdle that any entrepreneur can come across when starting a business is fear. "The biggest hurdle is ourselves and getting past that fear." Carl mentions that himself and many other entrepreneurs start doubting themselves just before they are about to start a business and start saying things like "what if I got it wrong and did do my research properly?" These causes entrepreneurs to fail because they give up before they even start the business.

Some solutions that Carl has mentioned include asking yourself the right questions such as "what do you expect from the business?" "What is the worse case scenario?" Carl relates this to his fear of heights. "I used to be afraid to go beyond the 2nd floor of the Eiffel tower, how I overcame this is when I asked myself "how many people have died from going to the top of the Eiffel tower without doing anything stupid?" the answer was "none."" Analysing the potential worse case scenario and reducing that fear as small as possible is essential as there is no way to get rid of it. Carl quotes the famous Thomas Edison that rather than failing, "I found ways that didn't work." The only form of failure is doing nothing.

Guide on buying and selling business


It is much easier to buy a business where you can increase its value by fixing processes, fine tuning certain aspects and making a few key changes in the business rather than a business where you have to have to implement growth. Carl points out that the key is to buy the right business and also find the right buyer.

Personal Branding

Personal branding is actually a new initiative that Carl has taken on and has only been doing it for a year. When he started his first business when he was 15, he never would have imagined that he would be selling "Carl Taylor" the brand in the future. Carl explains that his choice to bring attention to the brand "Carl Taylor" is because he wants to demonstrate that he is an experienced young entrepreneur that has value to offer to society.

DO NOT's

The reason I have decided to ask Carl about "DO NOT's" is because many people out there only focus on the "DO's" and common mistakes are being made over and over again.

"Do not stress to much about the business name, no one really cares about it, it is the service and products you offer that people care about. The only person who cares about the name "Joe's plumbing" is Joe and Joe's mum."

"Do not try to be perfect, just move forward."

"Find a product or service that already has a need, do not start a business and then try to find a market AFTER the business has been started. If someone is buying a drill, what they are actually buying is a hole in the wall, work around that."

"It is not necessary to write a huge business plan unless you are planning to raise capital or getting a loan. Business plans that are found in textbooks and guides are way too long and it is most likely that the owner will never look through it every again. It is much more effective to write a one page plan that outlines the goals, objectives, vision, value, "why we are unique," kpi's and targets and exit strategy of the business. It is much easier to refer back to this plan and make changes to it in the future."

"Do not sell yourself short. Too many people worry about price instead of focusing on delivering better value to their consumers. Focus on being the best rather than the cheapest."

"Do not discount, discounting is the death of business. Businesses are better of value adding (e.g. buy one get one free) rather than reducing the price."

Recommendation

For the final section, Carl finishes up with a recommendation for all entrepreneurs out there.

"Work out what you want in life, not just what you want the business to do. For example if you want to start a company that employs thousands of people, make sure you know why you want to do that."

Peace

Aaron Koo
http://www.akooxp.com


For those of you who are interested in Carl's latest book "Red means Go" please check it out on the side link. If you want to know more about Carl and read some of his earlier interviews please check out http://www.carltaylor.com.au/

Leaving Google for AIESEC and ICE with Freddy law

I met Freddy Law in March at the AIESEC Asia Pacific Exchange Leadership Development Seminar 2010. I found his story of how he wanted to make a major change in society and how he left an awesome company like Google to pursue his dream very inspiring.

I decided to interview him, so that he can share his story with all you people out there. The major points I got from this interview is the importance of resilience and perseverance. These are characteristics that all aspiring entrepreneurs out there should have because many people will try and shut down your idea and things might not always go as smooth as you like it to be at the start.

If you want to find out more about Inter Cultural Education or interested in doing some cultural education there, please go to http://www.icehongkong.com

If you are interested in more stuff like this, please subscribe to my youtube channel and this blog :D (click the subscribe button on the right hand tab or just under the Video Title in Youtube).







Aaron Koo

http://www.akooxp.com