Dear Quicksmith,
I've been at the helm of a series of companies over the years. I’ve been through many difficult periods but this feels different. I'm seriously worried about whether the company will survive. I'm desperately cutting costs and trying to find alternative revenue streams whilst trying to keep everyone around me hopeful and motivated, for a future I'm not sure is even going to come. I'm increasingly short tempered and I'm not sleeping well. I can't seem to stop spinning and I feel like I’m going under. What can I do?
Derren Lawford Founder and CEO of Dare Pictures
Derren set up Dare nearly 3 years ago and has investment from Asylum Entertainment Group (Endeavor).
Disruption and Change – How To Cope?
We are clearly In an era of international disruption. We are half way through this period of disruption in my view, with constant step changes – progress accelerates and then plateaus, before the next acceleration. COVID also forced an acceleration.
The intensity of everything increases, be it consolidation of businesses, contraction, “fewer, bigger, better”. In the last 5 years more people have been moving online and into social media, and it’s been gathering pace.
I think it is important to treat a day like a week, a week like a month and a month like a year. Things are changing so quickly, so get used to it. Commissioners’ whole strategy can change the next day – and business models are changing just as fast. It’s going to sound trite and simple but it’s really hard to do every day, you need to be disciplined in how to approach change.
I find it helps to treat every day like it’s the first day, the first day of your new company. Try to move things forward, just a little bit – small steps forward, Tiny, incremental steps = progress.
At the end of each day, note down what you are grateful for. We (as humans) are naturally attuned to see the negatives, one bad thing can dominate your thoughts, hiding the 8 or 9 good things that have happened.
Do things in any given week that bring you joy. It doesn’t have to define you as a person. I play tennis (as do Dee and I), it’s a healthy exercise that releases dopamine and makes you feel better.
It also helps to acknowledge that you have no control over anything except your reaction to what is happening.
I also wish that the industry was not so competitive and therefore siloed. Talk to each other, we may each have solutions to help each others’ businesses. I think more and more indie bosses are being more honest about their struggles.
Broadcasters be more honest too, there is no shame in a commissioner being upfront about not being able to spend any money right now. Patrick Holland alluded to this recently. C4 were very brave to admit this a year ago.
I think producers should try to work with commissioners as a team. When I was working at Woodcut we did this quite successfully, setting up a distribution arm to bring money to the table on our projects. It is crucial to be as honest as you can be.
Being part of Asylum Entertainment is great for us, as a win for anyone in the group is seen as a win for all, there is proper collaboration and the person to pitch the idea gets to push it forward. There is no way we can get through this without collaborating more smartly. This is something I have learnt from social media/user generated world, success is predicated on amplification and collaboration. If influencers don’t collaborate, they wither away.
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