BRAD BURGESS: Localization and Leadership in China
Localization and Leadership in China | Brad Burgess
"I think the question is whether or not you are willing to invest your energy and your time to be a little bit more long-term, because the Chinese people are long-term people. They are long-term thinkers, they are strategic people, and they are relational people. You need to put in the time, you need to build your friendships, and you need to demonstrate that you are someone they want to do business with. You need to be willing to put out without getting an instant return." - Brad Burgess
It is no small achievement to come to a foreign country, build your own business, and crown yourself CEO over a local team that you have hired and built yourself. However, it is quite another accomplishment to be hired as the CEO of a local company as the only foreigner, having worked your way up from the very bottom of your industry, but that is precisely what Brad Burgess has done - and more - over the course of his successful career working in marketing and public relations in China.
Brad has handled highly sensitive tasks ranging from promotion to crisis management for a confidential client list that includes celebrities, top business leaders, and others with delicate PR considerations. He has been able to do this in part because he has become truly localized, having set an intention from the very beginning to become a local guy as much as possible, studying the leadership styles and messaging of countless Chinese business and opinion leaders in the process.
We dig deep into Brad's strategic recommendations for success, both for foreigners working in China, as well as for Chinese who want to work with foreigners in overseas markets themselves. Along the way we unearth many tidbits of interesting information regarding Brad's journey. I think it's a really interesting interview, and I hope you enjoy it.
For more information or to contact Brad or the show, visit the links below. Also, please subscribe and tell a friend about the show if you haven't already. Cheers!
Brad Burgess on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-burgess-585ba513/
Brad Burgess on WeChat:
吴大哥 (Bradley Burgess)
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
“BFMK" website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com.
“BFMK” Facebook (just launched, more coming soon!):
https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
To LISTEN or SUBSCRIBE:
http://bigfishmiddlekingdom.libsyn.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2
CastBox:
http://castbox.fm/u/4711710
Google Play:
https://play.google.com/music/m/I6czuz5n5svzfh4dm3r2y6jx4ji?t=Big_Fish_in_the_Middle_Kingdom
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIENWrdP2tlqtbz2PRiRtqw
COCA XIE: Building A Red Carpet Bridge Between China and Hollywood
Building A Red Carpet Bridge Between China and Hollywood | Coca Xie
This week’s episode features Los Angeles TV producer and red carpet host Coca Xie, which flips my show’s usual format on it’s head. I usually feature foreigners who have come to China to do something interesting, but now that we are a few months into the podcast I wanted to begin getting another kind of voice in the mix, namely: Chinese people who have taken their insights into things here and gone to another country in order to build a bridge to China from their new side of the sea. Every 10 episodes I will add one of these into the mix, and I can’t think of a better person to start with than Coca.
I have known Coca for just a few years, but in that short amount of time she has accomplished a great deal. She’s established herself in both New York and L.A. as a bilingual reporter and host for Chinese and China-centric entertainment shows and events, but as a producer, she’s building a platform that is the first of it’s kind and is uniquely positioned to connect the US and Chinese entertainment worlds like never before. She’s a genuinely nice person on top of being very driven, and there are lots of funny stories as well as sharp insights in this one, so I hope you enjoy it.
To learn more about Coca or the show, please visit the links below. Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE wherever you get your podcasts, tell any friends you think would also like the show, and if you think you or a friend would be a great guest on the show, let me know!
Coca Xie - Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/littleleafyuko/?hl=en
Coca Xie - Weibo:
http://weibo.com/littleleafyuko
"BFMK" site:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2
CastBox:
http://castbox.fm/u/4711710
JESSE APPELL: The Comedy Scene in China
“I always sum up China in two words: cognitive dissonance.” - Jesse Appell
Boston native Jesse Appell has launched a successful business and speaks Chinese like a local, but that’s not all he’s accomplished during his time in Beijing. Jesse is one of only a handful of Westerners who is trained in the Chinese comedy art of xiangsheng, or crosstalk. It’s a discipline with a storied history here, and Jesse won a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to come study under a true master of the art, Ding Laoshi. But that was just the start of his career in China.
Jesse’s primary focus nowadays is on running the US-China Comedy Center here in Beijing. At the Center, they feature both single language and bilingual improv and standup comedy shows. Jesse founded the Center just about a year ago, but it’s already become a focal point for the growing comedy scene here. To give you an idea of what these shows are like, in the show notes I am including links to several examples of Jesse in action, which are subtitled and really funny regardless of your native language.
As a writer, Jesse has also been working hard to crack the elusive cross-cultural comedy code for movies. He has been developing a buddy picture that’s designed to truly appeal to both markets, and from what he says about it here, I think he might be onto something.
This episode gets very deep into the worlds of comedy, creativity, and filmmaking, so it’s especially worth checking out if you work in those worlds, aspire to, or just enjoy them and want to learn more. But Jesse’s thoughts about the obstacles to true communication are keenly observed, and should be interesting to anyone trying to understand the other cultural better. I hope you enjoy it!
Lastly, another quick reminder that we are still a featured show on the Castbox.fm website and the Castbox podcast app! Castbox works in your web browser, iOS, and they have an especially nice new app for Android devices. Please check us out on Castbox, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to us.
US-China Comedy Center:
www.uschinacomedy.com
WeChat:
Uschinacomedycenter
Weibo:
@艾杰西
Jesse Appell - Chinese standup (subtitled):
https://youtu.be/UA2P-q9MxXk
"Chinese Mitch Hedberg" routine
http://m.youku.com/video/id_XNzU3ODkyNDgw.html
Xiangsheng overview:
https://youtu.be/7QxW-KBE6EA
"BFMK" site:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2
CastBox:
http://castbox.fm/u/4711710
Ximalaya:
http://m.ximalaya.com/82109155/album/8651374
MATT WILLIAM KNOWLES: Acting in China, Los Angeles & London
#008 - Acting in China, Los Angeles & London | Matt William Knowles
My guest this week is American actor Matt William Knowles. Matt's story is pretty incredible: he played football at Clemson and had a real shot at playing professionally, but had his NFL dreams crushed along with his knee during his senior year. A humble guy, he decided to take a break and help others while he healed himself, and he ended up teaching English in Guizhou Province in rural China. He mastered Mandarin, was discovered singing Chinese karaoke by a talent agent in a bar, and was launched on his path to becoming a TV star and film actor in China. Along the way, he became the first non-Asian to study acting at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy, which is essentially the Harvard of filmmaking in China, only more selective.
Cut to 2017: having made a significant name for himself in China, Matt has relocated to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and master stage acting. Meanwhile, he looks forward to the 2018 release of Asura, a giant Chinese $100M USD fantasy movie that provided him with what looks to be his breakout role, starring as Rawa, a heroic demigod battling evil. The film looks awesome and will hopefully cross borders and bridge cultures in much the same way that Matt himself has been doing in his work and in his life. Enjoy!
One quick reminder that we are still a featured show on the Castbox.fm website and the Castbox podcast app! Castbox works in your web browser and they also have an iOS app, but they have an especially nice app for Android devices. Please check us out on Castbox, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to us.
Matt William Knowles:
http://mattwilliam.com
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
"Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom" on Apple Podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2
on Castbox:
https://castbox.fm/channel/Big-Fish-in-the-Middle-Kingdom-id571573
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
DOMINIC JOHNSON-HILL: Building a Brand in Beijing
"And then suddenly, like 10 million people knew my telephone number, and it was a turning point for the brand, because when that show started to air China-wide, my phone didn’t stop ringing for two years.” - Dominic Johnson-Hill, Plastered 8
#007 - Building a Brand in Beijing | Dominic Johnson-Hill
Dominic Johnson-Hill is a British punk-rock Renaissance man. He’s famous in China for many things but he is probably best known as being the man who single-handedly began the transformation of an almost 800 year old (!) hutong called Nan Luo Gu Xiang - dating back to the days of Kubla Khan - into becoming one of the busiest and most popular tourist and shopping / nightlife destinations in Beijing around the world. If you have ever visited Beijing or looked into it on travel websites, you’ve seen the area featured as a must-see. Dominic was the very first person to open a store there, and the rest is history.
He did this as the founder of iconic street wear brand Plastered 8, a truly “only in China” success story that you have to hear for yourself. I am an unofficial brand ambassador for Plastered myself, being a huge fan of their crazy and cool t-shirts (owning about 20 as of now), so I was excited to hear the tale of how he built the brand straight from the horse’s mouth. The story quoted above starts at about the 10-minute mark of the interview, but the whole thing is a wild ride that you have to hear for yourself. Among Dominic's other innovations and “media moments”, he has gotten worldwide press as being the creator of canned “Beijing Air”, but that only scratches the surface of his innovation and creativity. He has created a 30 square meter mural in the high-end Beijing art hotel The Opposite House, has been a TV host and presenter as well as frequent guest on talk and game shows here, he's a filmmaker who directs his own commercials, and much more.
This one is full of inspired and occasionally raunchy, hilarious content; if you’re highly sensitive you might wince a few times, but I grew up on Monty Python, Benny Hill, and other English humor, so I laughed throughout the talk. One note is that we did have a few Skype issues. I edited around them as well as possible, and as always I strive to make those edits seamless, but this week there are a small handful that you will probably hear. There are also a couple of places where the audio quality gets weird in general for maybe 5-10 seconds, but I don’t think it detracts from the comprehension of the stories being told, so I hope you can bear with those brief moments when they pop up.
Lastly, I’m excited to announce that starting this week, we are a featured show on the Castbox.fm website and the Castbox podcast app! Castbox works in your web browser and they also have an iOS app, but they have an especially nice app for Android devices. Please check us out on Castbox, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to us. Enjoy!
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
Plastered 8:
https://plasteredtshirts.com
about Dominic Johnson-Hill:
http://plasteredtshirts.com/category/dominic/
Castbox:
https://castbox.fm
"Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom" direct links -
on Apple Podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2
on Castbox:
https://castbox.fm/channel/Big-Fish-in-the-Middle-Kingdom-id571573
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
STEVE BARR: Screenwriting and Producing in L.A., New Zealand, and Beijing
#006 - Screenwriting and Producing in L.A., New Zealand, and Beijing | Steve Barr
“Over the last 30 years, they (China) have raised more people out of poverty than ever before in the history of the human race, which is amazing. (Most of) the young people in China have such an optimistic view of the future because their life has gotten better every single year.” - Steve Barr
This week’s episode was recorded on location from the 2017 Shanghai Film Festival, but the guest is one of my best friends from L.A. Steve Barr is a writer, producer, and occasional actor who has worked and traveled extensively throughout and between the very different film industries in Los Angeles, China, and New Zealand. His recent credits in one or more of those capacities include Born to Dance, Chronesthesia, Hang Time, and the remake of Pete’s Dragon, in which he had a small but memorable supporting role.
In this interview, Steve discusses the unique challenges and opportunities inherent to the various filmmaking systems, and he explains his working process with a level of detail and candor that will be especially useful to anyone working in a creative industry such as film. He also shares lessons and thoughts that will particularly resonate with anyone who’s spent significant time in China, but which are applicable to travelers in foreign lands regardless.
We cover a lot of ground in this one. As we say in the interview, I want to give full disclosure upfront that Steve and I are not only long time friends, but that we are and have been business colleagues in all three countries, too. Steve was a part of my previous company based in L.A., we are currently partners in a film production company in New Zealand with our friend Andy Conlan, and the partners in my Beijing film company hired him to write the screenplay for an upcoming historical epic film of ours. Steve is now part of that company too, so there are a lot of interrelationships here. Still, we make a serious effort to not be overly self-serving, as the goal of discussing some of our projects past and present is not promotional, but educational and practical. Because we have lots of shared real-world examples to draw from in our discussion, it helps us to be much more real than if we stayed strictly theoretical.
The episode is now available on Apple Podcasts, on most of the popular Android / Google apps, on the Chinese service Ximalaya - please search it in your favorite of those places - and of course on the Podcast player here. Of course I’m biased, but I do think it’s a fun conversation, and I hope you enjoy it! Please tell a friend, subscribe, or send me feedback below as you like.
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
Steve Barr on Twitter:
@BarrSteve
Steve Barr writing website (with Casey Zilbert):
http://www.scwheelbarrow.com
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
STEVE HOFFMAN: Silicon Valley with Chinese Characteristics
Episode #005 - Silicon Valley with Chinese Characteristics
I was very fortunate this week to get a chance for a proper interview with Steve Hoffman, aka "Captain Hoff". He is the Founder and Captain of Founders Space, a top tech incubator / accelerator from Silicon Valley that has been very successful in establishing themselves in China and elsewhere around the world as well. Steven is a very dynamic thinker and speaker who has had big business success globally, currently has a best-selling book in Chinese ("Making Elephants Fly"), and he has become a highly in-demand keynote speaker here, appearing in front of many millions of people in live audiences and simulcasts online throughout China in just this last year alone, so it is a real treat for me to welcome him to the show.
In our chat, Steven shares solid, actionable advice for those seeking to create or advance their startup, what types of projects they look for at Founders Space, and other information that is invaluable to business people of all kinds. And of course we devote a lot of energy to China-specific questions, and get deeply into the answers, whether it’s discussing the unique opportunities here, what China is better at than their counterparts elsewhere and vice versa, and much much more. It is jam-packed with great information and I hope you enjoy it!
Steven’s resume is varied and extensive. Quoting from the Founders Space website a bit, for more context:
"Always innovating on his life, Steven Hoffman, known as Captain Hoff, has tried more professions than cats have lives, including serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, angel investor, mobile studio head, computer engineer, filmmaker, Hollywood TV exec, published author, coder, game designer, manga rewriter, animator and voice actor.
Hoffman was Chair of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.
After starting three venture-funded startups in Silicon Valley, Hoffman launched Founders Space with the mission to educate and accelerate entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Founders Space has become one of the top startup accelerators in the world with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Hoffman has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and routinely works with the world’s largest global corporations and venture funds. He’s also an LP in August Capital."
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Founders Space info:
https://www.foundersspace.com
Steven Hoffman full bio:
https://www.foundersspace.com/mentors/hoffman/
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
BENJAMIN SAPHIRO: Art & Identity
“The West was built on American steel; China, on bamboo.” - Benjamin Saphiro
My guest for Episode #004 is Benjamin Saphiro. Ben is a poet and painter from the Midlands area of Birmingham, England. He is an intuitive and bold artist, and he brings a very thoughtful, grounded perspective to the creation of his work and to his life. We talk about everything from Abraham Maslow to metaphysics to Black Sabbath. It’s a wide-ranging chat that also somehow manages to go by very fast, too.
All episodes are available in the usual podcatchers or you can listen HERE, on the site.
I first met Ben on a Beijing trip 9 months before I actually moved here. We have talked a lot before, and as a result we had a very personal, philosophical, and revealing talk here. We did this interview in person, at Ben's home, and his beautiful golden retriever Sandy kept us company, so if you hear something in the background that you can’t quite put your finger on, that’s probably her! It doesn’t interfere with the sound at all, and it made the interview feel very relaxed for us, so I hope that there will be more dogs or cats keeping me company in future episodes.
In this episode, we discuss the nature of identity and some of the ways that long-term travel and living away from your country of origin impacts your life and your work, among other things. So regardless of what YOU do for a living, or WHERE you are living, I think there’s lots to relate to. We were both in a particularly reflective mood when we recorded this, having enjoyed some drinks and a good catch-up conversation before we ever started recording, so I think that helped us to - occasionally - go deep. But it’s also very light and funny in places, and it’s an easy, fast listen, so I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Show Notes:
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Benjamin Saphiro:
http://www.bensaphiro.com
Carl King (composer):
http://carlkingdom.com
JENNIFER HSIUNG: Comedy & Family
Jennifer Hsiung - Comedy & Family
This week’s guest is Jennifer Hsiung. Jennifer is a Canadian born to Taiwanese parents; she lives and works in Beijing as a TV anchor and reporter, a budding standup comedian, and - as she is 7 months pregnant at the time of posting this - is a very busy mother of “two and a half” kids.
Jennifer first came to China on a cultural exchange trip, but her big break after she moved to the mainland was when she became a sports reporter for CCTV during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That opportunity led to many others as a reporter and news anchor, and Jennifer is now a host of the popular show “Culture Express” on CGTN, formerly CCTV English International, where she interviews prominent guests from the arts and entertainment world. She is also part of the growing standup comedy scene in China, which we discuss in detail.
This episode is as real as it is comedic. Jennifer brings a very interesting perspective to the show; as someone who is a foreigner from North America, but is of Asian ancestry, she has unique insights into both worlds that are worth hearing, and she has a way of making the truth funny that I think you’ll really enjoy.
If you DO enjoy it, please SUBSCRIBE to the show if you are new here, tell a friend or two about us, and check out the links below to get in touch or learn more!
"BFMK" Website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
Jennifer Hsiung links:
https://www.facebook.com/JenExpress
https://www.youtube.com/user/pumpkinvive88
Weibo / WeChat: JenniferHsiung熊邦欣
Carl King (composer):
www.carlkingdom.com
CHINAVERSARY
Hey! Thanks for checking out my site, and (hopefully) my new podcast, "Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom". I am writing this on May 20, 2017 China Standard Time, and today is my ONE-YEAR "Chinaversary":
It's the date I moved, after lots of visits and time spent here, to Beijing from Los Angeles. It was a big move, and a big deal for me at the time, but the weight and (mostly) powerful consequences of that decision grow by the day for me...so I wanted to talk about it with my friends, and as I've done so, lots of what they have had to say has been worth sharing with YOU, hence the podcast.
So I'm not sure how you ended up checking out this page, but I am glad you're here. There is a lot more to say about the hows and whys and ups and downs and benefits of me move, and on the podcast I will end up saying MUCH more than I would subject you to reading here. Hardly anyone reads blogs these days, right? Especially "groovy expat adventure" oriented ones.
But podcasts are a great, and growing, way to share information, insights, and entertainment with all kinds of people, in the comfort of their own ears and at their own pace / level of commitment, so...I humbly offer my contribution to that medium, and to the growing conversation focused on how East and West can best work, understand, and agree with each other.
The very first episode (featuring <7 minutes of me talking about the show and giving enough relevant backstory about myself to launch this sucker) is up and live NOW! You can check it out in iTunes HERE, search it on the Google / Android / Windows-friendly podcast aggregators by show name, or just listen to it online HERE.
But regardless of HOW you check it out, I hope that you DO - especially considering some of the interesting people I have lined up to interview for the subsequent episodes. I have venture capitalists, film and TV creators and personalities, standup comedians, screenwriters, philanthropists, artists and educators and business people of all kinds queued up to bring to you, one each week, and I really can't wait for you to hear what these folks have to say.
Okay! Please check out the show if you're interested, SUBSCRIBE if you like it, and and send me feedback or however you like. I am easy to find online and will reply as soon as I can. Thanks and I hope you enjoy the show!
Episode 001 is now LIVE!
In this first, short installment, I give an overview of what the show is all about, plus just enough backstory on me to give it all context:
Episode #001 - Welcome to BFMK | Brendan Davis
You can subscribe in iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187
or view it directly on the web HERE.
You can also search "Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom" in your favorite pod app, or you can always subscribe to the RSS feed here on this site, via the link at the bottom of the page.
New episodes coming every week at 11:11AM Saturdays, China Standard Time. Please SUBSCRIBE, leave feedback as you like, and see you then!
- B
SMALL POST, BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Considering what a big deal this is to me, and what a milestone this represents, this will be an incredibly short post:
On May 20, 2017, I am launching my new podcast.
It has been in the works for a long time; long before I moved to China, in fact. But as of May 20th I will have spent one entire year living here and building a company, so the time is right to finally do this.
The show is called "Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom", and I hope that you'll download it and give us a listen when we go live.
The premise is that each week I will interview a fellow foreigner who has likewise moved to China in order to either build their brand, launch a product, make a name for themselves, give back in some way, or just to be a part of this crazy adventure of living in the world's biggest entrepreneurial pond.
I currently have a 30-person-deep potential guest list made up of people from the film, finance, philanthropic, and mainstream business worlds primarily, but with some sweet curveballs thrown in for good measure. My first four interviews are lined up, and I will post a new one every week for 52 weeks a year until either I or you are absolutely sick of it - whichever comes first.
Our original theme music and other musical cues were composed by none other than the awesome Carl King (find him at carlkingdom.com), with drums by Mike Stone (https://soundcloud.com/demise-o)
Again: March 20 is the proper launch date. Internet gods willing, we will be available everywhere then - or if not, then shortly thereafter - so please keep an eye out.
Thanks in advance for checking it out when we go live. And to help me spread the word when the time comes, l'll have more info soon. Cheers!
FOUNDATIONS
How does where we are from and where we live and have traveled influence who we are?
The above photo of me was taken in early December, 2007 at sunrise in Carthage, Tunisia. The story behind it isn't as epic as the history of the place itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage), but it was a pretty profound experience for me all the same...
I was accompanying my great friend and then producing partner Blue Nelson on one leg of a particular long-term, record-setting-attempt road trip he's been on and off of in one way or another since 1998. This kicked off the North African leg. We'd previously been through Central and Southern Italy as well as the Southern European island nation of Malta together. This was the morning we woke up in Tunisia, having ferried over from Reggio, Italy 22 hours before, and it began a journey around the entirety of pre-Arab Spring Tunisia that took us down into the entrance of the Sahara Desert and back, with stops across the borders into both Algeria and Libya (past the old Star Wars sets, a movie his uncle helped produce...but that's HIS story to tell).
Blue, Brendan and Bigfoot. On location in the Angeles National Forest, CA, 200...3(?)
Scouting in Rome, Italy. 2007
Delivery "van" somewhere in Southern Italy, 2007
On the road outside Bizerte, Tunisia. 2007
Inside Blue's car at the Libyan border. Note Big Brother Leader (deceased) in the background. They wouldn't let us in but at least they let us leave. 2007
I say all this because I've had a lot of opportunity to reflect on the impact of travels and relocations in the slightly over 9 years since this trip. I woke up on January 1, 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand. The next day I travelled to Wellington, where I woke up January 3rd. On that day I meditated for an hour on the nature of my year just past, and was struck by the realization that in just the roughly 6 months previous I'd been in: Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand; Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington and Birmingham, Alabama in the US; various tiny towns in Inner Mongolia that I can't type properly in Roman characters; and in Gannan, Xi'An, Anyang, Erenhot, and Beijing, China.
Which of these things is not like the others? Getting to take part in a traditional celebration in Gansu, Gannan, China. July 17, 2016
Newspaper boardroom giving a talk, Xi'An, China. August 25, 2016
At the airport. Erenhot, China. August 30, 2016
Yakking about something at Sundance: Hong Kong. September 24, 2016
With a 2008 Olympic Torch at the SiMuWu company, which made it, in Anyang, China. November 28, 2016
With Steve Barr in Wellington (I think). Jan 2, 2017.
How did I get here - all of those "here"s - from whence I came? That'll take more than one blog post to explore, but the short version is that it was a combination of accident and effort. I'm going to brain-dump the outline below, without a lot of editing, and then will flesh out details in subsequent posts as I get around to it. :)
I was born in Augusta, Georgia in the Southern US. Mostly raised in and around the Atlanta area, and in Anniston, Alabama, where my maternal grandparents lived. They were the closest thing I had to a stabilizing influence in my young life so I adopted Anniston as my hometown of choice. I lived a few "interesting" years in Southwest Georgia, which will also merit it's own post. I spent one year of college in Birmingham, Alabama back before my mom lived there, which she does now, and I commuted an hour back "home" to Anniston most weekends to visit with my Grandmother, which was (in retrospect) probably why I am not dead or in jail as I type this. I had a sweet fake ID so I would go out and see my friend / guitar teacher Will (then "Bill") Owsley's bands playing in area clubs when I could - he gets a blog post too someday - but mostly I'd sit at home with "Ma" and do laundry, read or chat about things with her, and eat her amazing food. But after that one year in Birmingham, then a regrouping year back in Albany, Georgia at the then-junior college resurrecting my grades (I HATED my college in Birmingham, and avoided studying as much as possible in some creative ways, which is also it's own story), I finally moved to Athens, Georgia to attend the University of and get my life back on track. I lived in Athens for 8 years and have loads of stories and experiences involving the art and music scenes there that I will also dig into another time. For now, the key part of this narrative is that Athens and then Atlanta (where I moved next, the last stop before Los Angeles, and where I earned Bachelor's Degree in Film) are the two cities that most shaped me immediately prior to my move West.
As a Southern expat of 15 years now, I'm unqualified to talk about their values and virtues today. But when I was there, in addition to all the good and bad that are topics for still other discussions, there was a sense of fundamental community that I later had in Los Angeles, believe it or not, in the tight-knit concentric circles of the entertainment business, but which seems so far away from my 2017 perspective as an expat yet again, this time halfway around the world in Beijing.
First stop on the Beijing move: Tuanjiehu. June, 2016
Building a brand at Adamas Film HQ, Beijing, China. 2016
The plan is to be mostly here for ~5 years, give or take, with stops back home and at points elsewhere and in between as needed. The things that I'm building with friends and partners here are worth the tradeoffs, but those tradeoffs are real, and they are significant, starting with the ability to communicate fluently with close friends who share a somewhat similar frame of reference to me. It's why I spend any time at all on Facebook these days, even though the sorry state of affairs in our political system back home is hugely depressing. Still, it's the closest thing to a virtual town square I have, so for better or worse there I will be, for now.
Where have your travels taken you, and what are the lessons learned along the way that you think are universal? I'll have more thoughts on mine later. For now, I'd like to know yours. Please comment below, via the Contact form or any social sites I link this too if you want.
PROCESS
Now that the Chinese New Year / Spring Festival holidays are over and people are getting back to work, I have been reflecting on what they meant to me - an American - the way I spent them here myself in Beijing: alone, and far removed physically from the uncertainty and insanity consuming my own beloved country.
During the break, it’s been interesting to consider how exactly the various rituals of the celebration and the national homecoming here affected me personally, without my even taking direct part in them much this year.
It got me to thinking about Process, and how important it is for everyone to figure out for themselves what they need in order to do their best, in what context they ARE their best, and how to reconcile those personal needs with the needs of the collective, whose demands on our time don’t always sync up smoothly with our own agendas.
Speaking of that, re Chinese New Year 2017:
For me personally, on a practical level, it was great. I’m a pretty social and outward-facing guy when I need to be; maybe in another post I'll talk about how I overcame debilitating childhood shyness to become - twenty years later - very comfortable leading conversations in a professional environment or speaking to groups of people in public and private. But the flip side is that whenever I get the chance, I like to put the world on Airplane Mode and be as much of a hermit as humanly possible. At work I can play Type A with the best of them, but at home I’m all about soft lights on dimmers, reading, Chinese tea rituals, meditating with candles and incense burning in the background, etc. I basically tend towards being very very quiet unless there’s a great reason to get loud and rock out, which - as a recovering rock and roll guitar player - is always a possibility with me, too. But it’s not my default energy these days.
So the funny thing is that although I at times have a fairly big personality, naturally I'm more of an introvert than most people would probably imagine. I'm at home running a movie set or managing a high-stakes project with multiple stakeholders, but in terms of my personal, creative work, I don’t thrive in chaos. So enjoying a big, State-mandated break from all of the day-to-day craziness of Beijing and just being able to breathe - admittedly, with the help of a good air cleaner most days - and to move and live at my own pace for a hot minute was a real gift.
On a generative level it was pretty sweet also. Besides tending to the Western-facing aspects of our business here during the Eastern holidays, I got to spend a healthy chunk of brainpower working on some personal projects that needed time paid to them* (a concept I got from Carl Bressler, who I believe was likewise inspired by a friend of his) and also to catch up on some housekeeping issues like paying bills and sorting through tax records and such.
Creatively, in addition to starting this blog, I can now say that I’m in the home stretch of writing a TV pilot. I’ve had the basic premise for years and have been working on the story in one form or another for equally as long. It started as an idea for a short film, then quickly expanded to a feature once I got my head around the story better, and finally, after I’d lived with that version of it long enough I realized that it made the most sense to structure it as a series.
It’s far from done, but I think the shape of it is solid, I know my characters really well, and I have all of the scenes drafted; most of them are written to a state where I don’t want to punch the computer now, so in those aspects it's all good. Over the holidays I’ve mostly been playing with tone a lot, as I've struggled to say what I want to say in a form that I think people might enjoy and find compelling on a week to week basis. And I’m not done refining it yet but I’m also not hating where I’ve landed for now, so it's exciting to at least have the end of this iteration in sight.
Back to process:
Part of how I stay connected to my home culture while I am so far away from it is listening to podcasts. Recently the writer-producer-actor-comedian Whitney Cummings was a return guest on one of my favorites, the excellent Tim Ferriss Show, and the format of this episode was that she answered listener questions. The one she saved for last asked what was the best advice she’d ever received for achieving success. She credited actor-director-producer Peter Berg with a one-word challenge he gave her at a time when she was struggling with something profound:
“FINISH."
Just finish. His point (as relayed by her) was that there aren’t awards given out for the best screenplay someone merely STARTED, or funding being thrown at all those great IDEAS that someone came up with but never bothered to put into a tangible, shareable, salable, FINISHED form. You have to FINISH what you start for it - and all the effort you expended creating it - to actually MEAN anything.
It reminded me of another piece of advice I got once, that for anything to even have the HOPE of becoming real, you have to fIrst WRITE IT DOWN.
It works for Berg, it's apparently worked for Whitney, and it's worked - so far anyway - for me.
So before the more cynical of you are tempted to dismiss these as trite aphorisms, please know that as simple and obvious as these ideas may seem, there is also - for some of us at least - deep truth and real power to be found in understanding them, and lasting results are only attainable by applying them. So maybe meditate on them and see for yourself, if that’s your thing. Or don’t. Either way, good luck!
On that note, off I go to do it again. More later here. :)
Cheers, and thanks for reading. Comment below if you like.
A BEGINNING, A.K.A. WHAT IS THIS BLOG ABOUT?
For this first post, let’s start with a confession:
More than anything else I do or have done professionally (i.e. for money) in my entire adult life, for many years I've secretly fancied myself to really be, underneath it all, a writer.
With a snappy cap and a bottle of Scotch, you, too can be a screenwriter! 2004, Los Angeles, CA
The truth is, though, that it's been many years since I've actively DONE much of it; any that I've shared publicly at least, aside from the random social media screed. Besides the other obvious limitations of that form, there are also issues of sharability, ownership, and permanence to consider.
For a long time now I've been sorting out how, exactly, to rectify this situation, and I’ve decided that this blog is the solution. I operate in a world of bilingual, cross-cultural communications every day, so I know that getting the tone right in this adventure will sometimes be a challenge, but I figure that if I at least state my (good) intentions up front and am candid and clear about things as I proceed, then I can be forgiven the occasional misstep - in theory. Right?
Cool. So: why a blog?
Well, for one thing, I need a regular creative outlet to encourage a proper writing habit, and having a personal platform that begs to be filled is a great motivator. And in an effort to integrate and consolidate my online presence, I want my thoughts to show up in one central place instead of being scattered across a half-dozen different websites, none of which I actually own. So I'll push OUT to social media, but things will START here.
I also have lots of random stories to tell, things that don’t necessarily fit cohesively into any one other place, which leads us to the next question:
What’s with the title?
This is where it gets weird, or maybe more interesting, depending on your point of view:
The short version is that given where I started from, in all ways, the expectations any reasonable person would've had for the trajectory of me and my life versus where I've actually ended up is nothing short of - well - crazy. The gap between those two things - what psychologists call cognitive dissonance, but what I call my reality - has at times made me feel a little crazy, too, hence the blog title. So acknowledging that it’s okay to be “crazy, but in a good way" has become the unofficial organizing principle of my life. It’s the only thing that - ironically - consistently makes sense as a philosophy for me, and I suspect that even more people will come to similar conclusions of their own as the reshuffling of the geopolitical order continues.
High school graduation pic. 1986, Albany, GA
Hair farmer extraordinaire. Jan 1996, Atlanta GA
All growed up. New Years' Day 2017, Auckland, NZ
Okay, great. So how does this fine idea look in practice? Your mileage may vary, but my operating philosophy is try to take (only) smart risks, learn from mistakes, share the wealth of successes and the (usually) helpful pain of hard lessons learned freely, with others, in order to help flatten their own learning curves, and then I trust that they will share their own relevant lessons when I most need to hear them. In my case, self-reinvention has been both the secret weapon to my forward momentum, and the self-reinforcing result of it’s application. In the process, I try to do as little harm to myself or others as possible while avoiding stagnation at all costs. Then, repeat. GO.
The longer / more candid version is that, if you know the details, from an outside perspective my life story so far reads like the adventures of a slightly more self-aware Forrest Gump adrift across the entire spectrum of the international entertainment business, which isn’t horribly far from the truth. In my travels from Anniston, Alabama to Athens and later Atlanta, Georgia, then across the country to my long-time home of Los Angeles, and then now, all the way across the Pacific Ocean to my current home in Beijing, China, I've been fortunate to have and make and experience far more than my fair share of random and amazing connections and coincidences and collisions with notable and/or fascinating people, places and things along the way, and many of the stories and lessons learned are just too good / funny / weird and/or instructive not to share.
So I wanted to create a place to collect them all, in a way that hopefully doesn't make me look like a self-promoting jackass. That’s (frankly/admittedly) an inherent occupational hazard of the entertainment business, and will likely prove easier said than done sometimes, but that's the goal anyway.
"Whoa-OH! LIV-in on a preh-ER!" KTV with the squad, as you do. Jan 2017, Beijing China
And I figured that sharing these tales will not only help ME to work out and integrate some of the stranger questions and tangents and insights of and from my life into one cohesive meta-story, it might also help someone ELSE to identify and sort out the overarching themes of their own seemingly random lives as well - and then they can tell me or others what they learned, and the positive cycle continues.
Because - to get back to that Forrest Gump comparison for a minute - in retrospect, my own journey HASN’T been completely random. Along the way, I’ve used both conscious and unconscious strategy and tactics, combined with a massive amount of good-to-great fortune, plus some lucky recoveries from a few tragic, potentially debilitating missteps - moments that could have and nearly did end me - to get where I am and wherever I am going...but that’s getting ahead of the story.
For now, at the very least, I think this project could be fun for me and my friends to reflect on and engage with, plus maybe it's interesting for any of THEIR friends who see it, and in this day and age that ain't nothing, so off we go.
In terms of content, I'll use this forum to post about any and everything I want to, but will tag and categorize it in order to be easily searchable to anyone who randomly (there’s that word again) stumbles across it as well. When I have a lot to say on a subject, like right now, I can be a little bit long-winded (insert friends' and former students' knowing laughter HERE), so I'll try to be succinct wherever I can or should be. But I won't put artificial limitations on what I write, either. It's my blog, and I'll ramble if I want to. ;)
I imagine that I’ll mostly write about current events and relevant developments in the film business between the US and China, plus notes from my travels and then anything else I want to get off my chest or discuss with you here. And in between those topics, I'll add chapters to the backstory of my life as they occur to me - for fun, or posterity, or just to share the learning experience (and wow, have I had a few).
Think of this site as an asynchronous memoir of a guy who isn't famous, but who has some unusual stories to tell. I hope you enjoy it, and that this is worth the time it takes to read and write for all of us. Comment below if you like. Thanks. :)