Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
It has been a while since I shared any Mighteor business highlights or updates. The fact is, our little shop has been so crazy and amazing and nutty that it’s hard to keep up with everything.
Big picture highlights:
We are making so many beautiful things. Like this awesome drone reel which features some recent visuals from some shoots over the last few months. It’s just beyond pretty, I can’t believe it’s ours.
Mighteor also recently graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses Program at Babson College which opened my eyes to all the growth room there still is for this business. Sometimes I literally can not believe how big the opportunities have become. And I have to admit that my most recent sense of awe is just from meeting so many other business owners from the program who have built a business around something magical or wonderful or meaningful.
Let me give you a few examples of those people I admire from my most recent business bootcamp.
Courtney started DiOGi Pet Services to provide better pet care. Awesome. Except it’s so much more than that because you meet her and you realize that the foundation she has set at her business means that she provides pet care that’s better than the care I provide for my own pet. She cares THAT MUCH. She reminds me to just care more.
Or let’s talk about Martina who founded Swift Industries, the most incredible bicycle bag and accessories company you will ever have the pleasure of discovering. You think you are passionate about biking. Then you meet the folks behind Swift and you realize - OH, That’s Passion. Because Martina + Co don’t just make beautiful products, they use those products. And test them. And uses those lessons to make even better products. It’s a reminder to be thoughtful and open to change always.
The truth is that at times, it’s easy to find inspiration outside the business - but I’m also incredibly lucky to have constant inspiration blooming INSIDE the business. Our Minneapolis team continues to grow, which is great because it means our animation depth and skills grow with it. I am consistently shocked by the brains that come up with these moving moments. I think their latest reel shows off exactly what I mean without the need for words:
As we think about the future, I’m reminded always that there are so many people in our past who have helped us get here. And what’s really been interesting is how for the first time ever, I have been able to be a customer of many of some our past clients. I am excited to be working with Slice Realty and Track Ninja - two companies that are completely disrupting industries that are prime for change and evolution. It’s beyond interesting to learn more about their worlds and gain an understanding of what it’s like to be the game changer somewhere else. Needless to say, Mighteor gets that.
Before I get to my ultimate point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also plug Mighteor’s Second Season of Internet Video Masterclass which is smart and colorful and helpful and even better thanks to lots of Beyonce references. In case I don’t say this enough, I love my team in large part because they put up with my wacky ideas.
With so much happening, it’s easy to forget that we are still so new. In the life span of a business, anything under a decade is practically a baby infant whose still drooling on themselves. It reminds of Pixar’s “Ugly Baby” philosophy, which basically states: “The cost of that becomes clear when you think of how a movie starts out. It’s a baby. It’s like the fetus of a movie star; we all start out ugly. Every one of Pixar’s stories starts out that way. A new thing is hard to define; it’s not attractive, and it requires protection. … Every new idea in any field needs protection. Pixar is set up to protect our director’s ugly baby.Of course you can’t protect the baby forever. At some point, it has to grow up and change into something, because the beast is still there. That’s a positive thing. Because sometimes the ugly baby would rather play in the sandbox forever. It’s a lot like raising a kid. It’s complex and interesting. But most people want to make it simpler than it is.”
Mighteor is still a relatively new baby. We still have our ugly and weird and awkward moments. But when I see things like our new reels and watch the finished work we complete for clients whom I admire - I genuinely find myself convinced that all the work I did to protect this weird baby early on has been worth it.
Pretty soon, we’ll have teeth.
There are so many ways that you can measure success. Happy clients. Happy teammates. Growth. It’s all rewarding. And these are the things that keep you going.
But truth be told, it’s just as easy to find ways to get frustrated and sad because of the hard decisions and the tough mistakes and the exhausting hours. Until you see everything you’ve done in one minute and twenty seven seconds with incredible music.
What I’ve come to realize as I’m closing in on the fourth year of business, is that measuring success is exceptionally hard. It’s hard to know what is helping you and what is holding you back. You don’t want to get too comfortable with the wins, because they can just as easily be taken away by the losses.
The truth is entrepreneurs have to figure out how to measure success in the unique way that will allow them to succeed on their own terms and motivate them to KEEP succeeding.
If you decide to measure your success based on any one else’s definition of success - you will not only fail to succeed - you will fail to enjoy all the things that come with success.
So today, I’m gonna enjoy that little flutter in my tummy that I get when I see our work whiz by in that player.
How do you measure the success that is all your own?
If you are as obsessed with strategy as I am and you’re thinking about starting a business, you’ve probably taken a long walk through the business book section - and stacked your Kindle with all kinds of texts on finance, business planning and leadership. And all those books are great, but these books, well these books are the ones that are going to fill your gut with the sense of passion you need to get through the ups and downs of building a business.
1. On Writing Well by William Zinger
Here’s the thing that I am best at in the world: writing. I don’t tire of it. I find solace in it. And I never wonder if I’m any good at it. My main contribution every day at the business is not strategy, it’s writing. Writing emails. Writing proposals. Writing scripts. Writing presentations. Writing pitch decks. Writing speeches. Writing concepts. My words are my business INSIDE my business. So keeping fresh on how to do it well? It’s key. If you’re in a creative role or you will be serving as the voice of the business - you have no choice. You gotta write well.
2. The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Workaholics know another workaholic when they see them. Or in the case of Ms. Rhimes, you know it because the badass has three shows on the air right now - making her some kind of super human. But as I’ve written before, you truly have to enjoy your life if you have any intention of enjoying your business. Think of this book as a guide to celebrating and protecting the balance in your life.
3. Nora Ephron: Everything is Copy by Liz Dance
If writing well (#1) is my bible, then this idea is my constitution. The laws to live by in order to get through the hard parts. Every time there is a moment of overwhelming stress, I think of Nora’s words and remember that this is how life works: It must be hard, so we have something to write about later. In this book, you get an inner look at the wonderful Nora Ephron’s point of view.
4. Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
Pixar wasn’t built in a day. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that the film studio that produces some of the most perfect cinema in the history of the medium ever had an ugly period, but as you’ll discover, there are plenty of “ugly” moments in even the most beautiful business. While your cakes might be picture perfect on the day of the wedding or your artisanal lotions might be absolutely delightful once they hit shelves - there is usually a lot of really uncomfortable not-so-greatness that leads up to that moment. This book has taught me to embrace the ugly/messy/figuring it out stages of my business.
5. How to be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
So much of growing your business is putting yourself out there to be judged and chosen (or not) by customers. And that process can really make you feel like a sales robot. Very little of this book actually covers the details of how to deal with being a sales person, but it does deal with the nagging self-doubt that most of us feel from time to time. Or all the time. Remember that we are all people. And we are all trying to figure it out.
So what non-business book changed your view of your business or your journey?
When I started my business, I had a simple goal for achieving work/life balance: I was going to make sure I took time out to blog every week. (On this here, blog, no less.) It would be a way to ensure that I didn’t lose sight of myself. It was a promise to stay focused on things that made me happy so I didn’t only focus on things that made me money. I’ve failed.
When you start a company, people give you this look. I call it the “good luck, kid” look. It’s part pride, part fear, part hope and part skepticism. The funny thing is that their face is the physical manifestation of your insides. You are feeling all those things. Do they really feel that way or is it a projection? Is that that why you see what you see on their face?
Fast forward to today when I have five people on payroll, a new office, plans for expansion and an actual business with actual revenue. Now, people ask a different question: “how’s business?” And I give them a look that I call, “Can you tell I’m silently drowning in the confusingly endless ocean that is running a small business?” face. You feel this because things are going well. But invariably, if things are going well - that also means that things are very, very busy.
Which brings me to not writing. The other day in between the madness of finishing one project and trying to get to a meeting and make sure I got to the bank and achieved one of the other 100 things on my list, I realized that I was feeling unhappy. The amount of stress, people management and planning that had become my day to day life was overwhelming me. And all I wanted to do was sit down and do nothing.
This is because people management is not why I started my business.
Project coordination is not why I started my business.
Financial planning is not why I started my business.
But all these things were now my job. And since my job is so tightly interwoven with how I see myself and think about my place in the world, I suddenly felt totally out of place inside my own company. I can tell you first hand: that’s a bizarre feeling. For a few weeks, I’ve charged ahead, acknowledging that sometimes having a business that does what you love means you gotta do a lot more business than the thing that you love to make it survive.
However, that can only last so long before a total identity crisis sets in.
I’ve known a lot of overachievers in my life. In business. In corporate careers. In college. We all have this really big thing in common: we equate achievement with our personal value. If we’re not doing well, our value to the world plummets. When we’re killing it, well, our value to our employers and our friends and our partners is at its peak. Actions are everything. Proving to yourself and others that you can take on a challenge is the drug. And you want to experience the high.
In running my business, I’ve realized that no matter how much money you are making, no matter how happy your clients are, no matter how talented your team is becoming and no matter how successful you have become - exhaustion kills the joy. Without proper rest, nutrition, time off and just general balance, you will completely kill any and all of the high.
I won’t say I don’t love Mighteor. Or production. Or what we are doing as a team. Or the projects we are working on. I do. I love this business and all the people that make it a thing.
But, I am so tired.
And that’s confusing. Because identity is something we all struggle with, but for someone like me, pushing myself into what I do for my work is how I always manage those ups and downs. Now my work IS the ups and downs.
This weekend, I’m going to take my first real days off that I’ve had in 2.5 months. I’ve worked every weekend for 8 weeks straight. And to make myself step away, I had to book a damn flight and buy concert tickets. Otherwise, it was never gonna happen. But I also hope to reconnect with the part of myself that finds happiness and hope outside of the business.
Who knows, maybe I’ll even start a journal again.
Because the thing about identities is that we can always change them.
Here’s a shocking idea: what if we all stopped hating Monday so much? What if we no longer stood in line at Starbucks on Monday mornings with a pit of dread in our stomach? Instead, what if we embraced Mondays the way small children grab Mickey Mouse’s leg for the first time at Disney World?
I don’t hate Mondays. In fact, I kind of like Mondays. I find calm in starting my weekly routine, making my to do list and looking ahead at all the interesting projects we’re tackling at Mighteor. And on Monday nights, I find it strangely easier to leave the office, go home and settle into my evening. Of all the days of the week, I often find Monday the least stressful, because the pressures of getting things done or meeting deadlines rarely falls on a Monday.
Maybe this is the life of an entrepreneur. We are forced to make our own weeks happen and the feeling of a fresh start on Monday morning is distinctly part of the spirit and culture of working at a small company. In fact, when I find myself thinking late at night about my company and the kind of culture I’d like us to try and build and retain, I often come back to the same thought: I don’t want my employees to dread Mondays.
Now, this may seem like an insignificant thing to consider. Our policies on healthy balance, open communication and work product may seem like the first things that should come to my mind. However, when you dive a little further into the emotional equation for why we love some jobs and loathe others, it’s often because of the people around us and how their thoughts and feelings impact our thoughts and feelings.
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who works in sales and he was telling me that he stays off social media on Mondays. When I asked him why, his answer was so simple:
“Everyone I know is so full of complaints on Monday mornings. It’s just not a good vibe to start my week with.”
Groupthink is a real thing. There is no doubt in my mind that our cultural obsession with worshipping Friday has a lot to do with one guy, somewhere, standing around a water cooler and turning to the guy next to him and saying: “Mondays, amiright?” And before you know it, our cultural disdain for Mondays is born. We hate it, because we hate it together.
Reframing Monday can do wonders for your outlook on life. In so many of my jobs, I remember talking with colleagues about their weekend plans, but rarely, did we commiserate about our mutual passion to kill it on Monday. That should bother us as people who spend the vast majority of our week at work. And while I can completely understand that my deep passion for tackling a new week with verve can’t be shared by everyone, it is worth considering the impact it would have on our work place culture and ultimately, the bottom line, if we tried to at least not make it the worst super villain day of the damn week.
Going to a job that you hate or that you even just dislike, has real negative impacts on your health. Don’t believe me? Just ask someone who retired after doing a job they hated for 30 years. People have honestly told me that they feel like a different person. That, in retiring from a job they hated, they were freed to become who they always felt they were. I don’t even know how to make sense of that kind of thinking. But I think it starts with everyone buying into the idea that Mondays suck.
Mondays only suck if you hate your job.
Mondays only suck if you hate your colleagues.
Mondays only suck if you had such an epic weekend that work seems boring*
Mondays only suck if you live for the weekend.
Mondays only suck if you let them.
We have the ability to realign our expectations and our experience of Mondays. And it starts by no longer turning to each other and saying: “Mondays, amiright?” And instead, asking: “How are you going to be awesome this week?”
*In fairness, this seems like a worthwhile excuse.
