Musical.ly killed the MTV reality star. 

HollywoodI remember the good old days when I used to have to get up and fix the rabbit-ear antennas on my television set. We had to turn the knob to change the channel until one day cable was affordable enough for us all to enjoy. Finally! We had a remote control to flip through a new fantastic library of channels.  The infrastructure required for this to happen was under my radar, as well as many other customers who watched Hollywood unfold into this huge monstrosity.

cable boxCable was a place where you could have a channel dedicated to an entire subject. You had news networks, sports networks, history, and SCI-FI. However cable television was fundamentally changed once audiences got their first taste of reality TV. Soon after Hollywood spun out of control when YouTube hit the scene and everyone could have a channel dedicated to themselves.

Although people will occasionally tune in to a do-it-yourself house remodel or pause mid-scroll to see that delicious meal pop out of the oven, the cable networks are quickly loosing their viewers to streaming services like YouTube. The infrastructure is again changing and unfolding into an even larger monster than the one before it. The infrastructure is simple enough, in fact Amazon even has a package that will enable you to bypass the cable network altogether. Really all one has to do is subscribe to a cable and phone network and they can watch anything they want.  But what do they want to watch?

Us!

watching youtubeWe are watching anyone and everyone. The truth is that most people have access to the technology that was once a fantasy far far away in Hollywood. We can build a channel or even a network online using YouTube or similar services. It is not uncommon for some shows to transition from YouTube to Netflix, or vice versa. The streaming services that Amazon, Netflix and YouTube are offering are seriously jeopardizing the cable networks. In addition, Facebook is going to start making it’s own original content to compete with Snapchat’s shows, and YouTube just announced that they’re going to start streaming ESPN sports which will be the final nail in the coffin of cable television if they don’t do something.

music.lyIt is an amazing time to be alive and witness such power being wielded by the masses.  SpotifyIt gives me gratification to see reality TV ridden channels like MTV sink because people are taking their music videos back through karaoke, in apps like Snapchat and musical.ly. Not to mention Spotify and SoundCloud are enabling any musician to grasp the power of the record industries. Also Amazon is going to roll out a next generation of Alexa with a TV screen on it.

Sreaming content Ultimately it warms my heart to realize that each individual has access to what was once unobtainable Hollywood magic. In my opinion people have little reason NOT to start something up themselves. If there can be a channel for everything, then people can have a channel for doing anything.  So go build a studio with your smart phone, and see if you have what it takes to be a star. Who knows? I may just tune in.

-Brandon

Rule your organization by defining your systems

There are many types of systems to dictate the way life is run. There are the judicial system, immune system, ecosystems, computer systems and many more. nervous-system-pv

While operating your business or start up it is important to start out by defining your business. What is your purpose, and why do you exist? The simplest way to go is to make a mission statement. No I know that sounds corny, but it is the simplest way to start measuring your business.

OpenSystemRepresentationAgain, it is important to define what it is you’re doing, and if you can’t define what you’re doing then you don’t know what you’re doing. Defining your Organization is the most important part of the business. It allows you to measure what you’re doing, and metrics allows you to control your business.

In addition to a project charter, you can use SIPOC diagrams, Process Flow diagrams, and Project Charters.

 

Approvals

Process Flow Diagram

SIPOC diagramSIPOC Diagram

In a side note, I would like to thank you all for reading. I have been absent for the last month for vacation, illness and I have also been working on a big project I plan to roll out within the next 6 months or so. I wish I could tell you more but be patient because it’s going to be huge!  Please keep sharing with your friends we we can continue this momentum and grow into a community that will make dedicated hard workers wealthy.
-Brandon

Defining the Truth

We hear many phrases today like “alternative facts” “bias media” or “false flag” and the more we hear that kind of noise the more it seems the truth is slipping from our grasp.  The truth is tricky to define because it is literally different from person to person. So where do we look to define it? You compare it to a known standard.

founding-fathersHistory reveals that governments do a poor job of defining the truth for us. Laws are a great comfort zone for many people to define what is right and wrong, but just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. Oscar Schindler was somebody who frequently broke the law to do what we all know is right, but his society deemed wrong.  That does not necessarily mean that laws are bad, there is a standard dictated by Natural Law. Natural Law was used by the founding fathers of the United States to shape the constitution. In fact Thomas Jefferson helped define the nonaggression principle.

john-locke The nonaggression principle or NAP was started by John Locke during the Age of Enlightenment. The NAP can essentially be defined as: don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff. Even the United States constitution uses the NAP as a Standard to define the truth in their laws and morals.

isoNow let’s get the most value out of the truth and move from what we should do with it to what we can do with it. While running a business, there are many different universally excepted standards such as ISO or ASME.

lean-manufactory
Lean

six-sigma
Six Sigma
Probably one of the most valuable tools you can use to analyze data and look at the facts is statistics. With statistics you use tools like Lean and Six Sigma. Six sigma was first used by Edward Deming. Collecting data and using facts to operate business quickly got him notice because it reshaped manufacturing. we moved from the industrial age to the information age.

 

Deming’s 14 points are used today in the most successful organizations around the world. The truth is a powerful tool that cannot be ignored when it is used properly. Whether you use it for politics or for business knowing the truth will separate you from your competitors and make you very successful in your ambitions. No matter what people think the truth is, we all know what the truth is we see it.

-Brandon

ISO