1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,560
This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
2
00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:11,000
best advice from the most interesting people. In this exclusive series, entrepreneur and
3
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,720
creative leader Andy Nielman takes us through his views on creativity, curiosity and guts.
4
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:20,340
To find out more about Andy, listen to the Q&A listed in the show notes. To find out
5
00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:35,280
more about Label Sessions, visit Labelsessions.com. Welcome back to CCNG, the podcast that will
6
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:40,040
come to a screeching halt when you finish listening to this even briefer than usual
7
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:48,560
episode. But before we get there, let's take a step back to a couple years ago when I spent
8
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:54,600
a day at a high-end VC conference. Despite the presence of insanely wealthy investment
9
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,960
bankers and entrepreneurs tapping away on the newest tech toys and sipping expensive
10
00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:06,800
wine and scotch, most doing so simultaneously, despite the overpowering fumes of winning,
11
00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:12,520
those gathered were constantly and depressingly reminded by speakers about the incredible
12
00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:22,040
odds against business success of any kind. You've heard them all before, the greatest
13
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:30,000
hits of failure such as 95% of all startups fail, 90% of all new products disappear after
14
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,480
one year, most bands never make it, most books never sell, most artists starve, more actors
15
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:44,920
work in restaurants than on stage, and insert your own gloomy statistic here to top it off.
16
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:50,720
Yet even with all these seemingly clarion warning signals, people still start things
17
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:57,560
up. Why? Why do entrepreneurs seek capital to start businesses? Why do writers write?
18
00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:05,040
Why do singers sing? Why do chefs cook? Why am I doing this podcast? Because of the genie.
19
00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,560
Yeah, the guy in the lamp or the woman in the bottle, pop culture junkies, take your
20
00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,040
pick, Barbara Eden or Robin Williams.
21
00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:21,000
Why? 10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck.
22
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:27,740
Here's my theory of success. With every product, with every business, with every new idea,
23
00:02:27,740 --> 00:02:34,960
with everything we think up, all we're doing ultimately is making a wish. Yep, just that.
24
00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:41,160
A wish. We should stop kidding ourselves. As we recently learned here at CCNG Central,
25
00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:47,160
we have no control over the outcome, good or bad. No matter how much research we do,
26
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:53,200
no matter how diligently we plan, no matter how financially savvy our projections, once
27
00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:58,880
we press the go button and launch, the fate of our endeavor is in the hands of a greater
28
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,200
power.
29
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:09,560
This power is what I like to call the genie. Well, it's whom I call the genie actually,
30
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:15,800
as the genie is that one person, yes one, that one person whose endorsement, whose action
31
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:21,200
on your behalf, whose belief in what you've done will be enough to start the proverbial
32
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:28,040
Malcolm Gladwellian tipping point. Even if it's a company or an organization, a conglomerate
33
00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:33,160
that does the eventual pushing, it's always one person within it who is the catalyst to
34
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:40,240
get it moving. That's the genie. Talk about one-to-one marketing. For example, Verizon
35
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,640
Wireless executive Paul Palmieri was the genie to my airborne mobile company back in the
36
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:53,420
rocky shaky ground days of post-911 2001. In December of that year, we were three weeks
37
00:03:53,420 --> 00:03:59,200
away from missing an earnings milestone that would have negated our next tranche of financing.
38
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:04,000
But Paul saved our company from bankruptcy by providing us with a sizable check for,
39
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:10,240
and I quote, some work to be done for Verizon at a later date. One month after that, Paul
40
00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,720
showed up at our offices with a challenge that ended up making airborne a leader in
41
00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:20,720
the nascent mobile media space. He had just purchased a Super Bowl ad for Verizon's pioneering
42
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:27,800
vCast mobile video service. We have only two problems with vCast, he said. We have no content
43
00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:35,280
and we don't 100% know how to get video on mobile phones. Can you help? Yikes. But needless
44
00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:42,040
to say, he said yes and somehow actually delivered for him. So Paul was the genie for airborne
45
00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:48,800
mobile. Here's some more. Some Pfizer scientists who noted that the failed drug numbered UK
46
00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:58,840
92 480 had a strange side effect in men. Well, he was the genie for Viagra. True story.
47
00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:03,800
Oprah Winfrey has been the genie to too many people to count. Johnny Carson too, back in
48
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:10,160
his day. Drake was the genie for the weekend. The repulsive Roger Ailes of Fox News was
49
00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,520
the genie for the equally repulsive Donald Trump becoming president of the United States.
50
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:21,160
Hey, nobody said all genies are benevolent and kind. You don't have to be powerful or
51
00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:26,800
well placed. Anyone could be the genie. I really should say the genies plural as through
52
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:31,200
the life cycle of the business, a product or a career, there could be, there should
53
00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:38,400
be many genies. It could be one of those social media influencers, a stay at home mom, a college
54
00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:45,080
student, a preacher, an enemy, a whomever. But you never know whom in advance. You never
55
00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:49,840
know who's reading, who's watching, who's listening, who just happens to be in the right
56
00:05:49,840 --> 00:06:04,980
place at the right time for you. So we keep wishing and we keep pushing all in an effort
57
00:06:04,980 --> 00:06:11,980
to reach this genie whomever it may be. It's why we advertise, why we post on Insta, why
58
00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:18,720
we tweet or thread, why we spend money devising crafty PR stunts, why we sponsor events, why
59
00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:24,560
we attend networking events, and why we bust our ass and work late and on weekends to increase
60
00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:31,440
our chances of meeting the genie. The encounter, of course, is never guaranteed. Meeting the
61
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:36,800
genie could be likened to a raffle. Do nothing, you have no chance. Buy one ticket, you have
62
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:43,800
one chance. Buy 100 tickets and you increase your probability 100 fold. The more we do,
63
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,720
the better our chances of meeting the genie. It's rare that the genie will come to you,
64
00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:55,480
so do the work. The math is simple. It's the black box process of the outcome that's complicated.
65
00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:01,840
So this is why we market and keep marketing and why VCs still invest and why entrepreneurs
66
00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:07,800
bleed, sweat and cry. It's all an attempt to meet our version of the genie.
67
00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:13,240
Oh, genie! Genie? Good evening, master.
68
00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:17,480
You know, to be very frank with you all, the genie is one of the main reasons I took on
69
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:23,560
the task of creating this podcast. As discussed in episode 11, after a fateful snowshoeing
70
00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:29,240
episode, I had the initial idea for a CCNG, but as an MBA class kicking around my head
71
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:34,760
for a few days. I spent a couple of late weekend hours putting it into words, then attached
72
00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:41,120
those words to an email to McGill University's JP Ferguson. The class ran for two years and
73
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:46,200
then I heard from the partners at Label Sessions. Ian Montgomery and Nick Sherrod challenged
74
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,560
me to convert the course into a podcast as a shiny object for the consulting group. Even
75
00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:57,000
more impressive, they offered to pay. Sold!
76
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:03,440
And I must say, while not easy, the experience of converting the course into pure audio working
77
00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:08,680
alongside Josh Nixon has been a blast. So thanks, either Ian or Nick, I don't know
78
00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:13,360
which one exactly, for being the genie for this adventure and thanks Josh for making
79
00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:18,960
it one. But now that the podcast has just about run its course, I look for the genie
80
00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:25,720
one more time. Will CCNG be the catalyst for someone's next step and or for me? Will there
81
00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:31,440
be speaking gigs, consulting contracts, more courses elsewhere? A boop perhaps? Maybe a
82
00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:38,900
TED talk, a series of TikTok videos, a seminar or a TV series? Or will it be a one-off, slightly
83
00:08:38,900 --> 00:08:44,080
amusing a small, intelligent and motivated audience before they go on to their next listening
84
00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:51,320
experience? Will it enjoy new life or lives or will it be ignored? Let's see. Let's
85
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:58,320
test the theory. Let's see if this version of CCNG finds its genie. But whether it does
86
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:03,560
or doesn't, I want to thank you for being the most important part of this 13-week experiment
87
00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:09,600
that turned into an obsession. Well, an obsession for me at least. For you, well, I just hope
88
00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:13,320
you'll miss me like you miss the characters of your favorite show when it goes off the
89
00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:19,840
air. Like Nomi and Mad Men. So let me sign off as I have for the past 12 weeks by saying
90
00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:24,600
see you later. Well, maybe.
91
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:56,000
This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
92
00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,520
best advice from the most interesting people. Around the world, we work with brands to connect
93
00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,560
their people to true leaders, just like the people you hear on this podcast, for live
94
00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:09,920
sessions of advice, mentorship, or sometimes to collaborate on ideas. To find out more,
95
00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:20,200
visit labelsessions.com and book in for a demo with our team.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,560
This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
2
00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:11,000
best advice from the most interesting people. In this exclusive series, entrepreneur and
3
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,720
creative leader Andy Nielman takes us through his views on creativity, curiosity and guts.
4
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:20,340
To find out more about Andy, listen to the Q&A listed in the show notes. To find out
5
00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:35,280
more about Label Sessions, visit Labelsessions.com. Welcome back to CCNG, the podcast that will
6
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:40,040
come to a screeching halt when you finish listening to this even briefer than usual
7
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:48,560
episode. But before we get there, let's take a step back to a couple years ago when I spent
8
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:54,600
a day at a high-end VC conference. Despite the presence of insanely wealthy investment
9
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,960
bankers and entrepreneurs tapping away on the newest tech toys and sipping expensive
10
00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:06,800
wine and scotch, most doing so simultaneously, despite the overpowering fumes of winning,
11
00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:12,520
those gathered were constantly and depressingly reminded by speakers about the incredible
12
00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:22,040
odds against business success of any kind. You've heard them all before, the greatest
13
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:30,000
hits of failure such as 95% of all startups fail, 90% of all new products disappear after
14
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,480
one year, most bands never make it, most books never sell, most artists starve, more actors
15
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:44,920
work in restaurants than on stage, and insert your own gloomy statistic here to top it off.
16
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:50,720
Yet even with all these seemingly clarion warning signals, people still start things
17
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:57,560
up. Why? Why do entrepreneurs seek capital to start businesses? Why do writers write?
18
00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:05,040
Why do singers sing? Why do chefs cook? Why am I doing this podcast? Because of the genie.
19
00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,560
Yeah, the guy in the lamp or the woman in the bottle, pop culture junkies, take your
20
00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,040
pick, Barbara Eden or Robin Williams.
21
00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:21,000
Why? 10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck.
22
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:27,740
Here's my theory of success. With every product, with every business, with every new idea,
23
00:02:27,740 --> 00:02:34,960
with everything we think up, all we're doing ultimately is making a wish. Yep, just that.
24
00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:41,160
A wish. We should stop kidding ourselves. As we recently learned here at CCNG Central,
25
00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:47,160
we have no control over the outcome, good or bad. No matter how much research we do,
26
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:53,200
no matter how diligently we plan, no matter how financially savvy our projections, once
27
00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:58,880
we press the go button and launch, the fate of our endeavor is in the hands of a greater
28
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,200
power.
29
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:09,560
This power is what I like to call the genie. Well, it's whom I call the genie actually,
30
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:15,800
as the genie is that one person, yes one, that one person whose endorsement, whose action
31
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:21,200
on your behalf, whose belief in what you've done will be enough to start the proverbial
32
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:28,040
Malcolm Gladwellian tipping point. Even if it's a company or an organization, a conglomerate
33
00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:33,160
that does the eventual pushing, it's always one person within it who is the catalyst to
34
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:40,240
get it moving. That's the genie. Talk about one-to-one marketing. For example, Verizon
35
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,640
Wireless executive Paul Palmieri was the genie to my airborne mobile company back in the
36
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:53,420
rocky shaky ground days of post-911 2001. In December of that year, we were three weeks
37
00:03:53,420 --> 00:03:59,200
away from missing an earnings milestone that would have negated our next tranche of financing.
38
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:04,000
But Paul saved our company from bankruptcy by providing us with a sizable check for,
39
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:10,240
and I quote, some work to be done for Verizon at a later date. One month after that, Paul
40
00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,720
showed up at our offices with a challenge that ended up making airborne a leader in
41
00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:20,720
the nascent mobile media space. He had just purchased a Super Bowl ad for Verizon's pioneering
42
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:27,800
vCast mobile video service. We have only two problems with vCast, he said. We have no content
43
00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:35,280
and we don't 100% know how to get video on mobile phones. Can you help? Yikes. But needless
44
00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:42,040
to say, he said yes and somehow actually delivered for him. So Paul was the genie for airborne
45
00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:48,800
mobile. Here's some more. Some Pfizer scientists who noted that the failed drug numbered UK
46
00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:58,840
92 480 had a strange side effect in men. Well, he was the genie for Viagra. True story.
47
00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:03,800
Oprah Winfrey has been the genie to too many people to count. Johnny Carson too, back in
48
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:10,160
his day. Drake was the genie for the weekend. The repulsive Roger Ailes of Fox News was
49
00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,520
the genie for the equally repulsive Donald Trump becoming president of the United States.
50
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:21,160
Hey, nobody said all genies are benevolent and kind. You don't have to be powerful or
51
00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:26,800
well placed. Anyone could be the genie. I really should say the genies plural as through
52
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:31,200
the life cycle of the business, a product or a career, there could be, there should
53
00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:38,400
be many genies. It could be one of those social media influencers, a stay at home mom, a college
54
00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:45,080
student, a preacher, an enemy, a whomever. But you never know whom in advance. You never
55
00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:49,840
know who's reading, who's watching, who's listening, who just happens to be in the right
56
00:05:49,840 --> 00:06:04,980
place at the right time for you. So we keep wishing and we keep pushing all in an effort
57
00:06:04,980 --> 00:06:11,980
to reach this genie whomever it may be. It's why we advertise, why we post on Insta, why
58
00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:18,720
we tweet or thread, why we spend money devising crafty PR stunts, why we sponsor events, why
59
00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:24,560
we attend networking events, and why we bust our ass and work late and on weekends to increase
60
00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:31,440
our chances of meeting the genie. The encounter, of course, is never guaranteed. Meeting the
61
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:36,800
genie could be likened to a raffle. Do nothing, you have no chance. Buy one ticket, you have
62
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:43,800
one chance. Buy 100 tickets and you increase your probability 100 fold. The more we do,
63
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,720
the better our chances of meeting the genie. It's rare that the genie will come to you,
64
00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:55,480
so do the work. The math is simple. It's the black box process of the outcome that's complicated.
65
00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:01,840
So this is why we market and keep marketing and why VCs still invest and why entrepreneurs
66
00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:07,800
bleed, sweat and cry. It's all an attempt to meet our version of the genie.
67
00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:13,240
Oh, genie! Genie? Good evening, master.
68
00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:17,480
You know, to be very frank with you all, the genie is one of the main reasons I took on
69
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:23,560
the task of creating this podcast. As discussed in episode 11, after a fateful snowshoeing
70
00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:29,240
episode, I had the initial idea for a CCNG, but as an MBA class kicking around my head
71
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:34,760
for a few days. I spent a couple of late weekend hours putting it into words, then attached
72
00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:41,120
those words to an email to McGill University's JP Ferguson. The class ran for two years and
73
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:46,200
then I heard from the partners at Label Sessions. Ian Montgomery and Nick Sherrod challenged
74
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,560
me to convert the course into a podcast as a shiny object for the consulting group. Even
75
00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:57,000
more impressive, they offered to pay. Sold!
76
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:03,440
And I must say, while not easy, the experience of converting the course into pure audio working
77
00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:08,680
alongside Josh Nixon has been a blast. So thanks, either Ian or Nick, I don't know
78
00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:13,360
which one exactly, for being the genie for this adventure and thanks Josh for making
79
00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:18,960
it one. But now that the podcast has just about run its course, I look for the genie
80
00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:25,720
one more time. Will CCNG be the catalyst for someone's next step and or for me? Will there
81
00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:31,440
be speaking gigs, consulting contracts, more courses elsewhere? A boop perhaps? Maybe a
82
00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:38,900
TED talk, a series of TikTok videos, a seminar or a TV series? Or will it be a one-off, slightly
83
00:08:38,900 --> 00:08:44,080
amusing a small, intelligent and motivated audience before they go on to their next listening
84
00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:51,320
experience? Will it enjoy new life or lives or will it be ignored? Let's see. Let's
85
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:58,320
test the theory. Let's see if this version of CCNG finds its genie. But whether it does
86
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:03,560
or doesn't, I want to thank you for being the most important part of this 13-week experiment
87
00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:09,600
that turned into an obsession. Well, an obsession for me at least. For you, well, I just hope
88
00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:13,320
you'll miss me like you miss the characters of your favorite show when it goes off the
89
00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:19,840
air. Like Nomi and Mad Men. So let me sign off as I have for the past 12 weeks by saying
90
00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:24,600
see you later. Well, maybe.
91
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:56,000
This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
92
00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,520
best advice from the most interesting people. Around the world, we work with brands to connect
93
00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,560
their people to true leaders, just like the people you hear on this podcast, for live
94
00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:09,920
sessions of advice, mentorship, or sometimes to collaborate on ideas. To find out more,
95
00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:20,200
visit labelsessions.com and book in for a demo with our team.
