CREATING YOUR MILLION DOLLAR IDEA! and telling the naysayers to PISS OFF!

I don't know about you, but nothing urkes me more than a bunch of jaded haters and naysayers giving me their opinion on how unlikely it is to create a Million Dollar Idea and see it to fruition. This seems to be especially true in the film and television business.

For all of you Newbies out there who have a dream...I hope you can learn to put the blinders on when it comes to what you are truly passionate about.  If I would have listened to every person, (including many agents, managers and fellow producers) who told me how IMPOSSIBLE or how DIFFICULT it is to accomplish this or that...I never would have built a career in this business.

Let's face it...if you are pursuing the creative side of the entertainment business, whether you are a producer, writer, director or actor, you are without a doubt...a dreamer!  Actors are probably the best candidates for putting the blinders on and plowing full steam ahead.  For Actor's, their "MILLION DOLLAR IDEA" is in fact...THEM!  For us producers however, we can fall prey to the "reality" of things much easier.  I must tell you...being overly "realistic" can keep you from accomplishing greatness!  

In 1998 I was an executive at MTV.  We were just coming off the Tom Green Show and developing JACKASS.  I still remember how hard I laughed the first time I saw Johnny Knoxville shoot himself in the chest with a loaded gun while wearing a bullet proof vest!  Being a life-long wrestling fan, I pinpointed another "Jackass" style movement that was taking place called BACKYARD WRESTLING which involved teenage boys beating the hell out of each other "for fun" in their backyards.  

After seeing an expose on 60 minutes, I started doing some research and found out that all these little bastards had their own websites!  So, I started emailing hundreds of "Backyard Wrestling Federations" from my MTV email address.  I let them know I was putting together a Best Of Backyard Wrestling special, and asked them to submit footage.  Before I knew it, I had hundreds of hours of content waiting for me in a PO box.  As I sat there screening through tape after tape and would see hours of nothing but 2 dudes on a trampoline body slamming each other.  ...Then, about 90 minutes in on a particular tape, something spectacular happened.  this dude does a moonsault off the top of Mom and Dad's roof onto his buddy who was laying on a table covered in barbed wire and thumbtacks that was lit on fire!  BINGO! I told myself...this is my MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!  And the madness kept pouring in!

Since I had a full time job, I called upon my childhood friend who was an MBA (but more importantly, a wrestling super-freak) and convinced him to quit his fortune 500 job, move to LA and help me create our MILLION DOLLAR IDEA together!  We spent a year in the edit bay, spending every dime we had.  By the time we had our movie produced, my buddy was living on leftovers and I was still working as an executive for a big production company during the day.  We would work all night, every night...7 nights a week!  Finally after a year of cutting together barbed wire bats to the head, lightube death matches and back flips off of basketball hoops through wooden tables...our movie was ready!

At this point, we had already heard a million people tell us...it's TOO CRAZY!  It will NEVER SELL!, Don't put your name on it..you'll NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN!  and on...and on!  We decided to produce one of those late night TV ads and see if we could sell it direct to the consumer.

Unfortunately, we knew NOTHING about DRTV at the time.  Our first add looked more like an MTV trailer than a commercial.  It failed miserably!  Even the company who we hired to purchase our media time told us to GIVE UP...IT's NEVER GONNA WORK!  

But something deep inside my knew that THIS was my MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!  I couldn't give up!  Not now...not after all of the blood, sweat and metal chairs to the head!  It just HAD to work!

So, I started studying direct response advertising.  I read every book out there, from Joe Sugarman who created the Blu Blocker sunglasses to Ron Popiel, Mr. "Set it and forget it"!  The more we immersed ourselves in the study of direct response, the more excited we got about our product.  It took us another 2 months but our new commercial spot was finally ready!

I will never forget the day it ran.  First off, it was so damn crazy that we couldn't get it cleared on many stations.  But, fortunately, we got it cleared on the Howard Stern show which was airing on the E! Network.  Our first ad on Howard cost us about 1800 bucks.  The next day, my buddy called me while I was at the office and said."Are you ready to make a million dollars?"  Our 1800 dollar ad brought in about 6 thousand dollars in revenue!

Finally, after almost two years of listening to everyone tell us we would never succeed, the proof was in the pudding!  Our ads ran for over a year generating millions in revenue before we ever went to retail.  Now keep in mind, everyone had told us that our movie was too outrageous for retail stores and that we would never make it on the shelf.  Well...once again, we didn't listen!  and THE BEST OF BACKYARD WRESTLING exploded to the top of the special interest charts and went platinum! 

Now...at this point, you would think that the "Hollywood Experts" would have eaten some humble pie!  ...NOPE!  We continued to hear how we were going to wind up in a lawsuit and lose everything.

Then came pay-per-view and finally...we had one more very big goal for our BACKYARD WRESTLING franchise.  Something that to us at least...made PERFECT SENSE!  A BACKYARD WRESTLING VIDEO GAME!

At the time I was being repped by the William Morris Agency.  WMA had just started a video game division and I went to meet with the top agent in the video game space.  Not only did he tell me I would NEVER sell Backyard Wrestling as a video game...he told me it was a horrible idea and no video game publisher in their right mind would EVER touch it!

Well...at this point, I had quit working for anyone else and BACKYARD WRESTLING was a full time commitment.  I wasn't about to take no for an answer.  With no agent behind us, in another 3 months we had inked a deal with Eidos Interactive, the makers of the billion dollar video game franchise TOMBRADER.  The Backyard Wrestling video game went on to sell over a million copies across two titles for PlayStation 2 and X-Box.  In fact, this year we will be going back into the marketplace to re-introduce the brand to the newer gaming consoles.

So, the moral to this little story is this: When you finally have YOUR million dollar idea, don't let the rest of the industry destroy your dreams and convictions by telling you how impossible it is.  From the agents   who think they know it all...to the jaded colleagues who might often even be your mentor, you must stick to your guns!  If your idea is fresh, new and has an audience...then you will eventually bring it to life, so long as you DON'T GIVE UP!  I was fortunate enough to have one person in my life, besides my business partner and girlfriend (who is now my wife and the mother of my two beautiful daughters) who also believed in me.  My future father-in-law!

It is important to have at least one person in your corner.  Someone who might be older and wiser, but not jaded.  Someone who still knows how to dream!

My father-n-law had no clue if Backyard Wrestling was a good idea.  But he asked me the right questions.   One long day, after I was feeling defeated and sick of hearing everyone tell me I was crazy, I remember him saying, "Do YOU believe this is a million dollar idea?"  I said yes!  he said..."Then why in the hell would you ever allow anyone to tell you otherwise?"  To this day, those words have stayed with me, and have been one of the cornerstones for how I approach life and business.  (Thanks Mr. B.)

Sadly, we aren't always going to be right.  Since creating my first movie, I've done dozens more. Some have been successful, and then there's a few I'd like to forget.  That being said, I believe when you approach your most important projects with a BLIND PASSION...more often than not, you will succeed where others will fail!  

I recently watched a documentary about John Hughes. I had forgotten that most critics panned the hell out of him!  Now, years later, he is an icon of the teen movie genre!  If you can hold your breath long enough, the naysayers eventually go away!  Two years after I had turned THE BEST OF BACKYARD WRESTLING into a true DVD franchise, I found myself pitching a reality show to Mike Darnell at FOX.  He had two of my DVD's sitting on his bookshelf and I remember him saying..."Man, if only I could have figured out a way to air Backyard Wrestling on FOX!, It would have rated through the roof!"

In the same week I wound up at a poker game with none other than Universal Topper, Ron Meyer.  When Ron asked me what I had produced and I mentioned Backyard Wrestling, he smiled and said,"I'm a HUGE fan!" 

I'm not sure if Ron would have felt the same way if I had asked him to initially fund the project for me...but the vindication from someone as respected as Ron Meyer or Mike Darnell was almost as sweet as the success itself.  ...well, not really, but it's nice to be appreciated,  even if it was in "hindsight".

So...what are you waiting for?  Don't be the person who says, "I thought of that" while someone else takes YOUR DREAM and makes it their reality!  Buy into your own hype...own it, believe it... get off your ass and go make it happen!

With a little luck, some elbow grease an ounce of HOPE and belief in the idea that you really can WISH upon a star and see your wish come true...your dream project may soon be taking shape!

I'll be hoping the best for you on your journey and wishing you luck in having the patience and determination to make sure YOUR million dollar idea comes true!

Keep on Dreaming.  See you again real soon!

Houston

Why 2011 is going to kick some serious ASS!

From 2008 to 2010 I’ve been rat-f*cked out of millions of dollars.  Bankrupt Distributors, Laws passed that caused businesses to stiff me, decline in the special interest DVD/Indy film market...you name it, I took it on the nose.

All this, coming off the heels of a stellar run since the inception of my company Big Vision Entertainment in 2003.  In fact, my entire career since going independent has been a steady uphill sprint!

It's not rocket science to make money in this town. I’m a dude from Southern Illinois who moved to LA after high school in 89 to become a rock star, found a passion for crazy forms of entertainment and became a self-made millionaire by the time I was 30.  But damn...holding on to it and being consistent is another story.  So...back to the title of this blog.  Why is 2011 going to kick some serious ass?

I believe in the power of 3.  I've had 3 of the absolute worst financial years of my professional life.  Add the loss of my father and a few other personal disasters and it becomes a 3-year nightmare that just never seemed to end.  But through it all, I was planning, plotting, scheming, producing, developing and growing the assets of my business.  While the money stopped coming in...I found ways to keep it going out.  That's right...I was spending like a mad man!  On what?  On the future of my company and the fact that nothing bad lasts forever, just like nothing good can last forever.  My goal has always been to break 100 Million and by the end of 2007 I was on my way.   Well...I had some setbacks.  But who doesn't?

Through it all...through 3 years of sheer financial hell, I kept pushing and holding on to what I believed in. And now...here we are in 2011.  I have a feature film in the can, a major animated series ready for North American Distribution, a 3rd party Production Shingle for DRTV, half a dozen killer sizzle reels and formats ready to sell and a major studio output deal in negotiations for the 1000 hour plus content library I've amassed since starting my company.  ... and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Sure, I’ve learned a lot of lessons over the past three years.  I was one of those guys who had it all and never thought I could lose it.  And man..did I spend some loot.  The 3 million dollar house, the 200 thousand dollar cars, the watches....you name it, I had it.  And why the hell not?  When you’ve got 250k a month rolling in like clockwork, a million hear a million there from different deals, exec producer fees, royalties...what are you supposed to do, save it all for a rainy day?  Well, I put it ALL in 3 places.  (Again...the power of 3)...Either back into my company, into my personal collection of STUFF or number 3...blown out into our beautiful economy on everything from high priced dinners, charity events, Vegas trips, loved ones, friends and relatives who may not be as fortunate, etc.  The only place I forgot to store the dough was in a savings account that couldn't be touched!  Now don't get me wrong...its hard to cry for a guy who STILL lives in that same 3 million dollar house (which is now worth 2 million)...and yes, I’m still driving a Mercedes...its just not quite as fast as the last two I owned!

A very successful Wall Street guy once told me, invest in yourself and you'll be fine.  Well...At least I can say that I took those words to heart.  Like Matt Damon said in the movie Rounders..."You can't lose what you don't put in the middle...but then again, you can't win much either."  Well, I put it ALL in the middle.  And now, after 3 years of what seemed like the world coming to an end, 2011 promises to rake in a HUGE pot!  Question is...what will I do with all the money this time? ( I figure the power of 3 is all UP SIDE until 2013! ...that is, unless the rumors about the end of the world in 2012 come true.

The way I see it, I’ve got another 3 years to figure that out! What about you?  I look forward to discussing business, life, Hollywood and much more as this bog continues.  Hopefully make some new friends, gain some insight, share some insight and if anything, use this space as a form of therapy in coping with the daily bullshit that comes with trying to conquer the bizarre business of Hollywood. I would also like to thank all of the people in my life who have been there for me during these past 3 years.  You know who you are!  Be it, business partners, or family...its great to have someone other than yourself to lean on when your world turns to shit!  Happy New Year everyone.  2011 is going to kick some serious ASS!

Make sure to stay tuned for some of my upcoming blogs that will include: Where's my private jet? Losing a Million Overnight; High Stakes Hollywood Poker, and How To Make A million Dollars in 60 Seconds - Guaranteed! and many more!