There was recent article in The New York Times about using data “to solve the equation of the hit film script.” While I’m in favor of any great idea that might improve the quality of a screenplay – or movies as a whole – I am conflicted about what this means for the future of Hollywood… and humankind.

Stats might reflect what formulas will work, but they have NOTHING to do with creativity, imagination, gut-instinct or love of film, which is the primary reason most of us were drawn to Hollywood in the first place.

We’re entering an era of data mining, algorithms, digital genomics. Computers are pre-selecting everything for us. Susan Blackmore, a memologist and scholar, has said that the pithy notions and bite-sized content we so eagerly share with each other on Facebook and Twitter are a form of computers using human beings as instruments for those ideas’ propagation. We have, in essence, become the devices by which memes pre-selected and influenced by machines are spread.

A popular meme

In similar fashion, the data-crunching, computer-optimized statistical system of script analysis outlined in the article is yet another blow to the “creative community” that was Hollywood. It demonstrates an effort to remove creativity—humanity!–from the equation. And it begs the question: What’s the point of fostering “ideas” at all when you can have a statistician tell you what formulas will work?

A formula is an equation that produces an expected result. 1 + 1 = 2. It guarantees combining specific quantities will yield a certain outcome. But isn’t Hollywood where “creative” accounting originated? Wasn’t this the land of 1 + 1 = 3? For anyone involved in the creative process of making movies, our collective aspiration is that the outcome is greater than the sum of the parts. The sky is the limit on any given project. That’s how the magic happens. That’s the alchemy.

Hollywood "Creative Accounting" exemplified

But all of that has been subjugated to one mighty aim: making money. Just like Wall Street. So that means removing the human element, instituting a system of statistical script analysis that’s the Hollywood equivalent of electronic trading.

Makes sense. If a computer can make the most informed choice, the most efficient bet, then why have a human element at all? Computers can pick the movies, fashion the scripts, control the production pipeline––everything is digital from beginning to end in terms of shooting, editing, visual effects, finishing and post now anyway. Then computers can distribute the movies to us, measure our viewership and report back to other computers the algorithms of our consumption. Ergo, humanity is out of the equation entirely. Success!

This posits a future in which machines will be occupied with computing each other while what’s left of humanity will go back to the campfire to tell each other cautionary tales about it.

Moviegoing in the good 'ole days

Presaging Hollywood’s trajectory, Griffin Mill muses aloud in The Player during a big wheel meeting where studio execs dispense with writers in favor of movies constructed from newspaper headlines: “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we’ve got something here.”

Griffin Mill: smooth, smug & well-tailored

Then again, The Player wouldn’t have passed muster in the algorithmic green-lighting process. It wouldn’t have been made. In the e-trading, optimized and formulaic future of Hollywood, the town won’t have any more Griffin Mills. It won’t have any more “Players.” The statisticians will have eliminated their necessity. And the “Players” will have been the instruments of their own extinction.

Wait --the algorithm said what?!

*This article was first published in The Hollywood Journal and in The Huffington Post.

Content Engine

A snapshot of where Hollywood Drive & Talk often has its genesis.

Sometimes it starts as just a word or a kernel of an idea that I think might be a fun or interesting topic to cover. Other times, the ideas spill forth as seeds for future episodes. In any case, this brainstorming session filled quite a few Post-its.

Watch ContentEngine.tv for the completed episodes when they are released. Until then, I hope they are eagerly anticipated.

In any case, you’ve seen ‘em here first.

Content Engine

So what is SHOW ME THE LOVE? It’s a new currency to quantify the human, energetic and spiritual compensation that reflects meaning and value in our lives.

We are entering an era where money is no longer the only thing of import. In fact, financial incentive has drained out of most endeavors. The familiar excuse that you may hate your job, that you’re not fulfilled by your work, that your day-to-day is immensely stressful or that it’s not really what you WANT to be doing, but you just can’t quit because the “money is just too good” has become a hollow one. Those days seem to be — by and large — over.

The same is true for Hollywood. Compensation ain’t what it used to be. A-listers are hanging in the game and newcomers or very low paid artisans are getting opportunity because that’s all the financiers want to pay. It’s all the market will bear. The result: very little in between. The layer in the middle is gone. And that “middle” is almost everyone else.

What that means is that people are forced to reflect on their fulfillment quotient. They start asking themselves: “If I’m not getting paid to do this, is this what I love? If it’s not what I love, what is?” And that’s exactly the right question. Because compensation needs to be more than monetary.

MONETARY is MOMENTARY. Money is a resource to facilitate enjoyment in this brief nanosecond we are gifted with a life on the planet, but you can’t take it with you. And truly, monetary compensation is not the mark of success: it’s the RESULT of success. If you are living successfully, the money will follow.

I’ve always been an “Even Steven” personality — feeling like I want to repay someone’s gift in greater or equal value to what I’ve received. I’ve come to realize that payback may not be fiscal. Typically, it doesn’t even NEED to be. See how far SHOWING THE LOVE can take you without money changing hands. Because it’s not just about the money. I’m sure everyone has had the experience of getting paid, but feeling that the experience wasn’t worth the dough or that it fell into the “life’s too short” category. Why is that? Because you got paid, but you weren’t SHOWN THE LOVE.

Gandhi said: “Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it’s important that you do it.” So while we’re on this journey of unimportance, shouldn’t we make the best of it? Do something that makes us happy and fulfilled? Do something of meaning and value? Leave behind a spiritual legacy of consequence?

I was just at the Big Bear Film Festival where Tom Schulman, the writer of DEAD POETS SOCIETY, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. We were treated to the key scene from the film where Robin William’s teacher imparts upon the boys the imperative of CARPE DIEM: “Seize the day.” Carpe Diem is all about making the most of the time we have. And that means MEANING. Following our bliss. SHOWING THE LOVE.

In essence, it’s a value proposition. It’s about doing something worthwhile and fulfilling with our lives. Something that fills the well, inspires us and feeds us with energy to continue to do our thing, to keep on keeping on, to persevere through it all. And to have fun and feel rewarded along the journey.

And that’s SHOW ME THE LOVE: the currency of exchange — our human, energetic and spiritual compensation — in a form that takes into account the totality of our experience.

As a new currency of exchange, SHOW ME THE LOVE is easy to quantify because it’s based on HOW YOU FEEL. Money, despite its numeric absolute, is, ironically, harder to quantify. What is the real price you pay for something in terms of time, stress endured and life force expended for the financial payoff? Did someone else get more than you did for the same amount work? Are you getting enough? Was it worth it in the end? Was it a fair payoff for that expenditure of yourself? All of these questions surround the financial quantification of our existence.

Reevaluating our lives through the prism of SHOW ME THE LOVE is a paradigm shift that can be eye-opening. SHOW ME THE LOVE is about getting in touch with your inner barometer and figuring out how that energy exchange (or lack thereof) makes you feel. It’s about whether you grok a sense of energy being returned to you in a similar manner to which you are putting it out.

As you go through your work day ask yourself, AM I BEING SHOWN THE LOVE? THE LOVE is the totality of your feelings regarding your self-worth, your financial remuneration, being treated with respect, dealt with equitably, considerately, as a valued member of the team, being appreciated and ultimately feeling like your work has lasting value. SHOW ME THE LOVE pushes you to evaluate if you are being and feeling fulfilled. In this way, SHOW ME THE LOVE is sustaining.

SHOW ME THE LOVE is also a great way to focus one’s energy and talents. In the business of Hollywood, you are broadcasting yourself and your energy outwardly — or you need to be (see Hollywood Drive & Talk: HANG IT OUT THERE) — and that requires transmitting your life force out into the universe in myriad directions. SHOW ME THE LOVE is your pH test for what’s working and what’s not; what direction to travel in and who to enlist in your cause — who to work with, run towards, run from — who the universe is magnetizing you to and who it’s not. It’s about being directed to the right people who will support you and what you are trying to accomplish. If you find you ARE being SHOWN THE LOVE in kind, then cast your life force in that direction — toward those projects, people and partners who are reciprocating. It’s that easy.

To get anything done requires a village of supporters and an aligning of the energy of the universe. With SHOW ME THE LOVE, the energy that feeds you keeps the fires of your project stoked. It magnetizes other like-minded individuals to your endeavor. It also aligns and acknowledges the ethereal, magical and synchronistic forces at work on your behalf and encourages them to help you make it happen.

SHOW ME THE LOVE is also a barometer for your own awareness of how the energy, appreciation and resources should be flowing FROM you TO others. SHOW ME THE LOVE heightens your own awareness of the help you DO receive, which should be acknowledged and returned. And by heightening your awarenes of SHOW ME THE LOVE in all facets of your life, you’ll become attuned to where LOVE is coming at you from directions you weren’t previously aware of or from individuals whom you had previously disregarded.

The universe is telling you something. Go where you are SHOWN THE LOVE.

Remember, it’s about reciprocity. It’s about the LOVE you RECEIVE in all of its forms and the LOVE you RETURN to others in all of its forms. It doesn’t work if you just take-take-take. It’s a two-way street. A famous Beatle once sang, “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

So make some love, Hollywood party people.

SHOW EACH OTHER THE LOVE!

Content Engine

As Content Creators, all of your traditional media efforts can and should continue. What I advocate is supplemental to doing everything you might be doing to “get an agent or manager” and to find a producer or financier for your projects.

In the interim, we’ve entered an age of the Mediaverse™ in which Content Creators need to think of themselves as brands (even successful, “established” Content Creators). One can no longer be a silo’d writer, silo’d director or silo’d anything. You must see yourself as a brand with a distinct voice and unique point-of-view.

In order to be relevant and to stand out from the crowd, Content Creators must publish their unique and original content to any one of a number of new distribution platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, a blog, website, etc.) on a regular and consistent basis. The tools are accessible and the cost is virtually nonexistent. It just takes dedication, creativity and time. It also takes some moxie to Hang it Out There, but it’s essential that you do so.

We’re also in a traditional media environment that requires proof of audience on other platforms, which is why the studios are making so many errant IP grabs, remaking everything in sight and trying to launch franchises from non-narrative board games.

Yes, writers and directors need advocates, but the role of those advocates must evolve in the same way the responsibilities and purview of writers and directors (Content Creators) must evolve to remain vital.

Endeavor in all respects and on all platforms. In the meantime, eschew the permission of the gatekeepers and publish your creative works to your own Micro-Audience™.

And remember at all times to “Inspire, Have Fun and Be the Change.”

Before you know it, you’ll be an integral part of New Hollywood™.

Content Engine is here to help.

Good luck!

Content Engine

1)    It’s good to be humble. Rich Ross, the short-lived and now departing Walt Disney Chairman, was rumored to have a “touch of arrogance” and a flippancy about the ease of running a studio. Arrogance is a tough proposition when you’re great at your job, which he clearly was at Disney Channel, but when you’re in a new gig outside your area of expertise and facing a learning curve as steep as the climb at K2, a little humble pie can help motivate the Sherpas getting you up the mountain. It’s hard to say negative things about someone who is both successful and humble. So try to be. Especially in the face of uncertainty. Arrogance only alienates the people whose help you need to make your tenure a success. If you’re running the place, you’re going to get the credit anyway. Humility. It wears much better than arrogance.

2)    It’s not who you FIRE, it’s who you HIRE. Rich Ross did a lot of housecleaning in his short stint as studio Chairman. He fired the chief of Miramax, the marketing president, the president of the Disney Studios Motion Picture Group, the head of film production, the head of distribution, the head of physical production and the head of casting. He did hire a new head of marketing, but then fired her less than a year later. Termination, it seems, was the new normal. But firing people should have made room to hire the people necessary to make a profitable film slate. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Ross himself was fired after fewer than three years on the job. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

3)    It’s not about the movies you DON’T make, but the ones that you DO. Cost-cutting, belt-tightening and streamlining are sometimes necessary corporate maneuvers. Cutting back was the clear mandate implemented by Ross. But rarely do reductions propagate growth. Reducing Disney’s home-grown film output to a trickle and narrowing the studio’s genre focus put a ton of emphasis on just a few enormous bets. Not to say that John Carter was a bad idea–it was–but in the end, it’s not a reduced film slate that spells success, it’s the films ON that slate that dictate the studio’s fortunes. $300 million in write-downs later, would it have been better to have made more films and had more people at the studio to help usher them into theaters? A focus on eliminating, reducing and mitigating means the focus is NOT on growing, nurturing and building. Scaling back your film slate by definition means you’re looking for fewer great ideas, fewer projects that could be the next big success and fewer chances for a break-out surprise hit. You can’t think expansively and contractively at the same time. Cutting back creates a culture of cut-backs, not spring-forwards. As we know, the film business is filled with nothing but surprises. Better to create the preconditions for surprise by creating an expansive culture of possibility.

Now that Iger is poised to take advantage of lesson #2, above, here’s a little advice for the next guy in the hot seat.

1)    Great ideas. Only cut your film slate to a few movies if you’ve got some really, really fantastic ideas for the very few films you ARE going to make. Board games, tv shows from the 70’s and old, rarefied literary IP don’t count. Wow us with something original and special. We’re fortunate to be back in a time in the film business where the idea is what drives moviegoers into theaters. So focus on the bright, big, shiny, new, fun, fresh, high-concept ideas. Great ideas are our lifeblood and will always will drive our business.

2)    Take modest risks.  Keep budgets somewhere south of zany and inane. “Responsible” has a nice ring to it. That will allow you to make some bets on projects that might be a little outside the box or sound a little risky. Whatever happened to hitting a successful single or double? Wasn’t that the whole premise of the Moneyball strategy that reinvented baseball and made a good film? You need runs to win; to get runs you need players on base, so recruit the team that can get you on base the most. Find the slate that’s a mix of films and concepts that can get you on base a lot. That sets the stage for that grand slam that brings everyone else home. It beats swinging for the fences the few times you’re at bat and striking out. The write-downs from two big whiffs alone could have financed a whole new stadium to play in.

3)    Vision. Oh, yeah, that vision thing. Surprise, surprise. It all comes back to vision. Having a vision for the future. Having a sense for the zeitgeist. Having a gut response to great ideas and storytelling. Let’s get back to a place where we embrace visionaries at the reins of film studios. The studio that bears Walt Disney’s name should have a visionary at the head of its film business. Savvy corporate managers are an instrumental part of running an enterprise as vast as Disney, but just as important are the creative visionaries who deliver the big ideas (or who can deliver the teams that deliver the big ideas). If you find yourself lucky enough to be running the studio next, before you drive through its Burbank gates your first day on the job, make sure you have some big ideas in your back pocket. The studio, the audience and the film business at large, deserve it. And they’ll reward you for it.

Photo Credit: Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press

Content Engine

What is it about deadlines that gets the job done?

To understand why they can are so motivating, I took a peek at the etymology of the word, “deadline.” Etymology, by the way, in narrative terms, is the “origin story” of words and their changing (or evolving) meaning through time.

For example, “the whole nine yards” has nothing to do with football. Its derivation is thought to come from WWII, wherein gunners would “give ‘em the full nine yards” by firing an aircraft’s entire ammo belt at the enemy. The belt was nine yards long.

Strangely, “rule of thumb” was the general rule applied in England to husbands who were only allowed to beat their wives with a stick as wide as their thumb. That should give you pause the next time you invoke that expression. Especially if you have stubby thumbs.

But I digress. “Deadline” has its roots in prisons.  A “deadline” was used in Civil War jails to deter prisoners from passing over a threshold beyond which they would be shot. It was a literal “dead line.” So the penalty for crossing a deadline, as it were, was severe.

Today, however, deadlines have a figurative connotation. But do they lose their efficacy once we blow past them? Then you’re just into that I’m-past-the-deadline no-man’s-land. If it’s not life or death, is there much impetus to hand in work when it’s past due? Once you’re beyond a deadline, does an extension (with a new deadline) foot the bill? Is it moving the goal posts? Is it prolonging the inevitable? And why do we choose to work right up to the last possible minute? Is it our modern equivalent of living dangerously?

Not long ago, I submitted an online application for a panel I was proposing and I got it in just under the wire (as it happens, “under the wire” is an expression from horse racing). As I attempted to submit my proposal online with ten minutes to spare, the system shut me out. No fair! I’ve still got 10 minutes!

I emailed the website as did enough last-minute applicants to get them to extend the deadline — for 48 hours. With my new deadline so far off, I continued to work on my proposal… right up until the last minute! Granted, this was the weekend. I had other things to do, but I submitted in the nick of time. (“Nick of time” is an interesting idiom wherein a “nick” was a precision notch used in clockworks; “nick” meant a precise moment in time so “of time” is actually superfluous).

There’s an adage that says, “A task takes as long as the time available to complete it.” I did manage to do my best work with the time at my disposal, but without a deadline I might still be tweaking. That’s why deadlines are an imperative. They get us to focus. And focused energy yields positive results. One television writer told me she did a page one rewrite of an entire script in a 24 hour period. In TV, that’s par for the course — the show must go on and it can’t go on without a script. If we had a deadline for all of our important stuff, we might get more important stuff done.

Truth is, our lives are governed by deadlines. There are deadlines to pay bills, renew passports, protest a red light camera ticket, file a story, make a blog post, deliver your director’s cut, release a film, hand in a budget, submit a proposal, apply to a school, buy a concert ticket, cash in our miles, redeem a discount… Some we honor, some not so much.

Warner Bros. adopted a hard deadline tactic with its screenwriters and producers in an effort to get expected scripted work in on time with dire professional and financial consequences if the deadline is missed. Despite much hemming and hawing on the part of screenwriters and their reps, we’ve accepted it. And it appears to be working. An effective use of deadline — high stakes, harsh consequences.

Deadlines. They work. They matter. They get us to focus. And maybe they get the best work from us. For as much as we might fear them or resent them or procrastinate because of them, ultimately, we all understand their meaning.

So you see, Hollywood has more in common with civil war prisons than we realize: productive civil war prisoners get stuff done and don’t get dead. Remember that the next time you’re penning a project for Warner Bros.

It’s deadline, Hollywood!

Content Engine

“Read Between The Lines”

Hollywood has a vernacular all its own and it’s best to learn the lingo so that you can become an eloquent practitioner. It’s what identifies you as a native to the other members of our tribe, as someone who’s in the know. Among the Town’s most popular pieces of parlance is “I don’t disagree.” But is it an affirmation worth a damn or is it just another equivocation on the road to development hell?

Rather than diminish the expression, understand that “I don’t disagree” is the epitome of endorsement, the height of harmony, the apex of agreement — in other words, in Hollywood, it’s as good as it gets.

In other cultures, contexts and businesses when one makes a cogent point, another person’s accord might be expressed with a head nod and the assent “I agree with you,” or simply, “I agree.” But in Hollywood, where everyone is perennially looking for an “out” — a way to avoid commitment, a way not to be pinned down — “I don’t disagree” is music to the ears.

“I don’t disagree” plants our flag in that narrow slice of sand that exists somewhere between agreeing and disagreeing with someone. It’s a half-endorsement. A non-contradictory stance. A no-quarrel policy. Like gender-neutrality, the blindfold of justice, or Switzerland.

But what’s really being conveyed by this double-negative euphemism?

In a business driven by passion, we’re leading the other person to think there’s something to build on. Like a promising first date, “I don’t disagree” could one day evolve into a real accord, a genuine romance or a committed relationship. But for the time being, we’re just flirting with consent, keeping all of our options open because passion, after all, can be fleeting.

“I don’t disagree” leaves the door open without creating conflict. It says: “I’m agreeable-adjacent, but your opinion is not quite tantamount to my own. Not that I have an opinion, otherwise I’d express it so that you don’t disagree with it either.” In a town where we can’t take no for answer, “I don’t completely reject what you’re saying” has become validation enough. It’s as cogent a concord as you’re ever going to get or you ever need to give.

For an innocuous little phrase, “I don’t disagree” covers a lot bases. Whenever it’s uttered, a tacit pact occurs — one that keeps both parties off the hook: You haven’t rocked the boat with an opinion anyone disagreed with and They only half-agreed to whatever it is you ventured. You’re both in a comfort zone of plausible deniability. Reciprocity, you see, is part of our Hollywood Code. A Code that is all about conflict avoidance, which is why we’re prone to this tentative truce, to this détente of dialogue. “I don’t disagree” warms our cockles like a comfortable cashmere sweater.

And therein lies the truth about what this handy little ditty really means…

“I don’t disagree” has become an inside joke with Lee Cohen, an agent with whom I’ve worked for 14 years. When he uses it on me, I reason that if that’s the strongest covenant he’ll offer, my only appropriate response is “Fuck you, too.” It’s a good-natured joke, of course, and our mutual laughter signifies the truth of the matter. But there is truth there: if the best you’re prepared to offer someone is that you don’t disagree, isn’t that the same as flipping them the bird?

I hereby submit that the real meaning of “I don’t disagree” is “Fuck you.” If you’re in on the joke then when you tell another Hollywood denizen “I don’t disagree,” they’ll know that this is what you really mean.

So if you’re going to say it, say it with a smile. Utter it with feeling. Express it with gusto. Greet each other with it as you pass in the hallway. Take your game to the next level. Suss out who’s really in the know.

“I don’t disagree.” If you can’t say it, you can’t do it.

I dare you to disagree.

Content Engine

When we don’t feel appreciated, it can sap our motivation, our ability to perform, to do our best, to serve others.

The paradox of appreciation is that in order to get it, you have to give it.

If you want to feel more appreciated by others — your spouse, your clients, your kids, your colleagues, your employees, your boss, your agent — you have to first truly appreciate their efforts. It’s not enough just to pay them a compliment, you have to feel appreciation wholly and completely with your being. You have to acknowledge it specifically and genuinely. (Even if you send an invisible thank you note!)

Once you’ve done this, it’s possible to feel the appreciation come back to you, especially when you need it. Isn’t it always worth going the extra mile for someone when you feel they’ve truly appreciated the fact that you did?

Eckhart Tolle wrote: “Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

Same goes for appreciation. In order to receive it, you’ve got to give it.

Thank you for reading. Spread the love.

Content Engine

If you can't see me, is my presence still felt?

It’s the thought that counts.

Isn’t that what they say? I wholeheartedly agree. And I tend to think the thought counting also saves a whole lot of trees.

I like to carry with me an attitude of gratitude for all the wonderful things in my life. Often, when my heart is bursting with appreciation, I feel like penning thank you notes to everyone whom I credit with contributing to my blissful state of mind: my wife, my clients, an agent who has done me a solid, the studio executive who has made good on their promise to get something done, a friend who is simply a good friend, my cell phone customer service rep who went the extra mile, my gardener, my neighbor, and so on.

Ultimately, the actual writing of the notes (the pen to paper part) isn’t always practical. When I have the thought, it’s often tied to powerfully positive intention, but then life intercedes. I get busy and the follow-through may not happen, or I get edited by my inner critic who tells me it’s not such a great idea to send a thank you note “just because.” What will people think?

Does it count that I had the thought? Does it register on a psychic level –– a karmic level –– that I sent the intended recipient an invisible thank you note instead?

I believe it does. The thought always counts. And conducting your life with an attitude of gratitude creates a karmic wave that reverberates to everyone around you and returns to you in kind.

Besides, when you receive an actual thank you note, you tend to read it once, say, “That’s nice,” and then toss it into the shredder so no one can steal your identity.

Is it any less effective to send an Invisible Thank You Note?

Maybe on those days when you are feeling particularly appreciated even though no one has singled you out with a compliment, someone somewhere has sent you an invisible thank you note. Maybe it was me.

While we’re on the subject, thank YOU for taking the time to digest what you’ve read. I enjoy reading your invisible comments full of invisible feedback.

Your Invisible Thank You Note is in the mail.

Content Engine

Not long ago, whenever my son would hear me draw my breath in quickly or make a sound approximating alarm, he’d look at me with the insouciant curiosity of a three year-old and ask, “What’s the panic?”

Precisely, my son. What IS the panic?

Can anyone tell me? Are movies dead? Have people stopped consuming entertainment? Has media gone down the tubes? Is this the death knell of our business?

As my boy is ever quick to remind me, “Dad, it’s not a panic.”

I’m here to pass along that sentiment. Panic is anxiety. And, as Seth Godin astutely observed, “Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance.” The sky is not falling. The end is not near. So why panic? Remain calm. Prepare for what may be a turbulent ride, but one where we will certainly arrive at our destination, which, if we reprogram our thinking, is SUCCESS.

The turbulence we are experiencing is CHANGE. The nature of change has changed. The rate of change has changed. The rate of the nature of change changing has changed.

It’s coming fast and furious now, truly at the speed of thought. Some of us will be ahead of it. Some of us will BE the change. Some us will ride the crest of the wave. Others will be swallowed by it. Though, even if you’re swept under by the torrent, as long as you manage to hold your breath, you can kick to the surface.

Media is indestructible. Media is perennial. Media is omnipresent. So what’s the panic?

The way media is managed, monetized and marketed will metamorphose. Platforms will progress. Infrastructure will transmogrify. Content will still be King. Those adept, will adapt.

So let’s get an attitude adjustment about the way we approach the future of our work, our industry, our lives. Media will survive. And so will you. Better yet, you can choose to thrive.

So take a deep breath, hold it in for as long as you can and allow the soothing words of a sagacious three year-old wash over you…

IT’S NOT A PANIC.

Content Engine