Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions

Luminaria Productions LLC owns this blog.

It also owns Homewood Nation, the internet-based community news service headquartered at www.homewoodnation.com. For the first couple of years after its launch in April 2010, I made the mistake of identifying the website as Homewood Nation. But Homewood Nation includes a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter feed (you can use the green bar above to check out all of those elements).

I declared the intent a few years ago to build Luminaria into a company whose April 2017 IPO establishes its value at $1 billion. Not because I personally need the levels of money involved, but because I imagined that it would feel amazing to have the world say that I have created that much value.

I still think that that would feel amazing, but I've misbehaved badly enough so that I now need to either push the timeline back, or shrink the number.

I'll keep the number, because I like it, and shift the timeline as appears needed. Meanwhile, I must learn to work harder AND smarter AND more consistently at building a billion-dollar enterprise.

So what else is cooking in Luminaria's pot, besides ReVisions and Homewood Nation? Multiple projects in various stages of development...

A VIDEO GAME: PeaceBuilder: Homewood

A SCREENPLAY COLLECTION: QuickFlicks - a collection of short screenplays for fledgling filmmakers.

SHORT FILMS to be produced from the QuickFlicks scripts: "coda," "Message, Not In A Bottle," "No Dessert," and "End Run."

FEATURE FILM SCRIPTS: "The Nature of Love" - a dissatisfied wife falls for one of her husband's employees, not knowing that he intends to kill her family; "The Moses Effect" - a small town sheriff's life is turned upside down when a satellite-based system begins enforcing all of the laws on the books, including the most absurd ones.

A REALITY SHOW about the rehab of a building in Homewood - most likely 1015 N. Homewood Ave.

A NEWSLETTER for Homewood.

HNTV - A TELEVISION CHANNEL devoted to Homewood

HOMEWOOD NATION MERCHANDISE - branded apparel and gifts; a tablet computer (which may be manufactured/assembled in Homewood.)

A Homewood Nation hoodie could help you 
make it through the final brutal weeks of winter!

EVENTS:

• Building A 21st Century Journalism Enterprise - a discussion series for writers, editors, designers, photographers, videographers...basically, anyone interested in the possibilities and challenges of doing what the title says, with the tools now available.
• An event honoring writer John Edgar Wideman
• An event honoring Lou Scheimer, founder of Filmation, the animation company that produced "He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe."
• Communicating for Community - a discussion, or series of discussions, on enhancing communication within Homewood and enhancing Homewood's communication with the world (and wow, this is the first time I have said it that way - I like it!).

PUBLISHING, under the Greenhouse Publications banner:

• Book, working title, "Black Man In A Suit" - a collection of posts from "My Homewood"
• Book, "Homewood 2013" - a review of the year.
• Magazine, working title, "Homewood Quarterly Journal," (blech)
• Posters
• Other books

And that's the list of projects, each of which will require work by other people, and all of which together will require the work of lots of other people. The key to Luminaria's outrageous success, is, as I said in December, attracting and retaining great talent. And getting myself out of the way.

Do you see a possible place for yourself in this list? If so, drop a line to luminariaprod@gmail.com, and I will email you updates as they are issued.

***************
Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 19: Brick by brick

Today (i.e., Tuesday, 6/4) I worked mostly online.

I enrolled in the eService program for Legal Shield associates, snagging my associate website. I then went back to yesterday's post and inserted a link to the website there. I also rewrote my Google Plus profile, which appears here to the right, to link to it, as well as to Luminaria Productions' YouTube channel. You may have noticed that I also added a Chatroll chat window - I'm not sure why, except as a whim. I am more likely to use a chat window on Homewood Nation than here.

On Homewood Nation, I added an ad for Legal Shield that links to my Legal Shield website. And I created a sidebar module that links to both this blog and to Quick Flicks, my site for selling my short scripts to aspiring filmmakers.

Homewood Nation, which has so far generated only $50 in a one-time donation, now contains these channels for potential revenue:

• the Homewood Nation Cafe Press shop
• a sidebar link to my Amazon shop
• a sidebar link to Quick Flicks
• a sidebar ad for Legal Shield
• a donation button

It just occurred to me that, besides the having the sidebar link that invites people to search for books on Amazon, and besides inserting a link to my Amazon shop when I mention books in my Homewood Nation posts (something I should do more often), I may be able to create a "Recommended reading" sidebar module that highlights a particular book, such as my most recent favorite, Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, (the link is for the 2d edition; I read the original.)

While reviewing my stats for this blog, I noticed that my May 17th post, "Internet journalism and the Black Church's $420 billion," was receiving comments from people saying not only that they appreciated it, but that they were sharing it with others. Bad effect: I became overly preoccupied with checking to see how many times that post had been viewed. Good effect: I redistributed the link to it via G+, Twitter and Facebook.

Result - the numbers went up yet further. Yay!

Also today, I reviewed +Rob Jones'  piece for Homewood Nation, about coaching a community. That will go in tomorrow.

I am writing this because I want to post something here every evening for the remainder of this month. I don't think I've done that here for such an extended stretch, and I believe that doing so could produce dramatic results - with my definition of dramatic being something like, "having 50 readers daily" or "starting to make ANY money with this."

Wow; I've forgotten what may be the most important thing I did today. I posted a LinkedIn status linking to last night's post. I think it was the first time I've promoted a blog post on LinkedIn, despite having more 1st-degree contacts there (619) than I have Facebook friends (450).

But not only did I post the link on LinkedIn. I posted it ONLY on LinkedIn and on G+. Not on Facebook, not on Twitter. As an experiment.

I think I'll keep the experiment going, with these parameters: 1) write a BBDE post every evening for the remainder of the month, reviewing that day's activity; 2) promote it only on LinkedIn and G+.

I can write non-BBDE posts at will, and promote them everywhere EXCEPT LinkedIn.

On a separate note: I've tried to use AdSense here, but have never gotten it to work. Gotta get that going.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 13 - Tweaking the prototype

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."     - Samuel Johnson

Today I am performing corrective surgery on Quick Flicks.

I'm raising the prices on the scripts, effective Feb. 1.

I am doing this for two compelling reasons.

1. In any sane world, the scripts are worth more than their current prices of $4.99 and $9.99. I have always tended to undervalue my work as a writer, as evidenced by the fact that most of the writing I done, I have done for free (Like, um, this blog. Hmmmmm....).

But I have also been involved with the production of three short films, not only practically, but financially. Between the three of them, I have spent thousands of dollars to secure other people's expertise. For any of them, it would have made sense to allocate some money for myself as screenwriter. And not just $9.99.

The current Writers Guild of America contract sets the minimum payment for a feature-length screenplay at $42, 930.

Let's run some numbers.

The length of screenplays is generally about one page per minute of film, so the script for a 2-hour movie would be about 120 pages. Dividing the minimum payment of $42,930 by 120 suggests that any screenplay worth buying is worth $357.75 per page. Minimum.

But I"m not in the WGA, the people using the scripts wouldn't be WGA signatories, etc.

Very true, and that is why I am not charging $400/page. Or $300. Or even $200. But I'm also not valuing my work at less than the price of a fast-food meal anymore.

(That last paragraph was an update. The original version read: "Blah blah. Oz, the Great and Wonderful, has spoken. The discounted fares to ride this train end today." Which now sounds a bit testy.)

2. I am also raising the prices as an exercise in following instructions.

When Tim Ferriss expands on the idea of the Muse in his book, "The 4-Hour Workweek," the second criterion he lists is: "It should cost the customer $50 - $200." He summarizes his reasoning thusly:

"I have found that a price range of $50 - 200 per sale provides the most profit for the least customer service hassle. Price high and then justify."

The fact that I priced my scripts so far below Ferriss' suggested price range now looks like an example of a pattern.

I haven't followed wealthbuilding recipes well.

I tell myself that I want a recipe, a system. I tell myself that I want a list of steps I can follow to achieve a certain result. I have bought books and tapes by the dozens that lay out steps to follow to achieve certain results.

And I have not followed the steps.

Most of the time, I have started to follow the steps. Then I have stopped. I have no idea why.

Maybe it's because I have lacked the confidence to follow instructions, and don't really believe that the steps will work in my case. Maybe it's because I have lacked the humility to follow instructions, and I assume that I can improve the recipe before I've even tried it. Because, you know, I am so much smarter than the person who has done it.

Either way, it no longer matters. What matters is how I change, now.

I think it's time for a new BBDE Mantra: If you want the cake, you've got to follow the recipe.

**************

The justification for the new pricing, if a customer ever brings it to that, will run something like, "If you want to make quality films, you need to start getting used to paying for quality scripts."

This goes to the reason that I underpriced the scripts in the first place: my definition of my audience included the assumption that they are broke. 

Maybe that was because I have spent so much time being broke, myself (this may surprise people who got to know me during my flush period as a reporter for the Post-Gazette. Let's give a cheer for union contracts that help workers to not be broke.).

In any case, the assumption that aspiring filmmakers are broke is hereby broken: tuition for Master's programs at the top five film schools in the U.S. (according to a ranking by the Hollywood Reporter) averages about $40,000. People who manage that are probably not broke.

What assumptions are you operating with that might be leading you away from, rather than toward, the results you want? How can you break those assumptions, today, and change course? How have you done so in the past? Let's talk!

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 12 - Prototype QF2013Q1A

I felt like giving it a research lab-sounding name. But to put it more simply, "Quick Flicks" - at least in its initial iteration - is done.

Yesterday, I decided to just buckle down and get it done. I had gotten myself bogged down in questions about whether or not to publish through Kindle, of how to sell downloadable PDFs...I seriously confused myself. Yesterday, I decided to forget Kindle for now, to sell PDFs with PayPal as the transaction mechanism, and to just go ahead and get it done.

Last night, at six minutes past midnight, I quietly celebrated the completion of the mini-website containing PDFs of five short scripts, together with licenses granting people the right to produce them, which they can download upon purchase.

The scripts are:

    "Message, Not in a Bottle" – A young man leaves a very unusual phone message for his twin sister.
    "I Will Love You Always" – A priest abandons his ministry to marry one of his congregants.
    "coda" – A black man. A white woman. A carefully-planned sexual assault. A twist.
    "No Dessert" – A restaurant patron observers two lovers at dinner before carrying out his assignment as a hit man.
    "End Run" – A political candidate's campaign ends with his assassination - which he himself helped to plan.

Today I did a bunch of revisions. Perhaps best of all, I created a front end that is easily accessible and more attractive than a plain old webpage: I uploaded "I Will Love You Always," my first short film, to YouTube, and put a paragraph in the description offering the script to other filmmakers, with a link to QuickFlicks. (actually, just a link to the page for the IWLYA script, but now that I think of it, I think I'll replace it with a link to the Quick Flicks intro page, which I will tweak).

The rationale for Quick Flicks goes something like this: a lot of people want to make short films, but they don't want to write them - their hearts are set on directing, not writing. Some of them would gladly pay for a short script if they knew how to find a writer. Some might pay to use an existing script, especially if the price is in line for a No/Lo-budget project (the Quick Flick scripts are priced at $4.99/$9.99). (UPDATE: This pricing will expire at midnight, Jan. 31, 2013. See this blog post about recipes, teachability and wealth.)

The uploading of "I Will Love You Always" is in itself a breakthrough. When I shot IWLYA in April 2005, YouTube was in its infancy. I knew that I wanted to make short films, and I knew that I wanted to distribute them via the Internet. I envisioned a website where people would pay .99 to view a movie (maybe .47 for a short). I didn't have the resources to build such a site, so it became my dream to have my films appear on iFilm, which was the go-to site for short films online. But while I was laboring over IWLYA with my editor, Andy Fenlock - a process that took wayyy too long - iFilm was bought by Viacom and ultimately vanished into SpikeTV (a story which still saddens me - to my knowledge, it has never truly been replaced as an online showcase for short films). Meanwhile, YouTube grew to become the Godzilla of online video.

And in all of this time, I never learned how to get my short film from DVD to YouTube. Until today, when I Googled "upload DVDs to YouTube" (duh!), and found VidCorder, a dandy little program for ripping DVDs. Some five minutes after installing the program, my video was ready for upload. So I am pleased to present, "I Will Love You Always," an AC Earing/Elwin Green production, written and directed by Elwin Green.


So today, for the first time, I have products in the marketplace, I have the transaction machinery in place for selling those products automatically, with no work on my part, and I have a marketing piece in place to lead people toward the transaction machinery - a marketing piece that doesn't look like a marketing piece, because it's not - it's a short film :)

The very idea of Quick Flicks - making screenplays that I wrote for my own use available for other filmmakers who may not want to be writers - was inspired by Timothy Ferriss' "muse" concept, as described in his book "The 4-Hour Workweek:"

"Our goal is simple: to create an automated vehicle for generating cash without consuming time. That's it. I will call this vehicle a 'muse' whenever possible to separate it from the ambiguous term 'business,' which can refer to a lemonade stand or a Fortune 10 oil conglomerate - our objective is more limited and thus requires a more precise label."

Thanks, Tim!

Finally having such machinery in place is exciting. What's even more exciting is that scaling those elements - products, transaction machinery and marketing - can go a long way in growing Luminaria into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 9 - Killing Emily Dickinson

In order to build a billion-dollar enterprise, I must kill my inner Emily Dickinson.

For all my life, a part of me has been content merely to create stuff and then stuff it in a drawer. I need to terminate that part of me, with extreme prejudice.

Poems? Stories? Get 'em out there for others to read. Songs? Get 'em out there for others to sing. Scripts? Get 'em out there for others to produce. Or produce 'em myself and get the shows and films out there for others to view.

I don't know that it is even correct to say that part of me has been content to create content without distributing it. I do know that part of has been afraid of putting stuff out there. Afraid that my stuff would not be good enough.

Which then raises the question, "Good enough for what?" Or better yet, "Good enough, compared to what?"  I could not possibly do worse than some of what people get paid to produce every day.

At the meta level, the work only has value when others value it. On the ground, that means that it's worth what others will pay for it; and that it's gotta be out there for them do that. The worst that can happen when I put my stuff out there is that people will refuse to pay; that out of the earth's six billion people, none at all will find any value in anything I produce.

But every week, SyFy movies offer hilarious evidence that somebody will pay for pretty much anything. There are markets that are ravenous for content. Somewhere out there are markets for my stuff.

Let this, then, be my mantra, to be recited internally, whether I ever say it out loud to anyone or not:

This is what I have. Take it or leave it. If you take it, drop some coins in the hat, and thank you very much.

* * * * *

Today, my primary tasks were preparing for, then leading, the monthly meeting of the Save Race Street Committee's executive committee, which consists of block captains for each of our five blocks, the chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer. Three block captains, the secretary and myself were present. Two block captains were absent, as was the vice-chair. We don't have a treasurer, the post having been recently vacated.

Leading that group, along with SRSC itself, and Block Watch Plus (which I chair), gives me huge opportunities for experiential learning in effective leadership (EL2). Lessons learned in those contexts could be useful in building a billion-dollar enterprise. At the same time, billion-dollar enterprises can provide lessons that prove useful in leading volunteer groups of citizens.

I got in around 8 pm, ate dinner, and basically passed out on the love seat in the living room. Woke up a little after 11:30. And reminded myself that I had not done anything today to build my billion-dollar enterprise, or to make any money at all. And lounged on the love seat a little longer before going to the refrigerator to grab the last slice of Edwards key lime pie (left over from New Year's Eve), and bringing it up to my office with a large mug of cold water so I could do some BBDE work.

I realized that the thing I said yesterday about having goals emerge from my masterplan could have been a dodge to put off actually producing "Quick Flicks." So I worked on "Quick Flicks." I did not do as much as I would have liked, and I'm not yet done for the night. But at least I am doing something, have done something, this day to make money. I have done something this day to build my billion-dollar enterprise.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 8

Spoke with Andrew Thornhill today, who alerted me to the fact that the "fiscal cliff" deal worked out by Congress last night includes the extension of Bush-era tax credits for film and TV productions.

I had not known about such credits. This is the sentence from the Hollywood Reporter's story that jumps off the page:

"As extended through 2013, the credit allows deduction of production costs up to $15 million and as much as $20 million for shoots that occur in sites that meet the bill’s criteria for an economically disadvantaged area."

An economically disadvantaged area? Um, yeah, that would be Homewood.

That news nicely capped a day that started out rough, but got better.

The rough start was me having trouble sleeping last night, being highly congested and suffering fits of sneezing that caused my entire body to seize up (resulting in a kink in my lower back that still hurts). Then spending a really long time in the tub trying to steam bad stuff out of my body.

Finally got down to work some time this afternoon. I think I spent a couple of hours working on Homewood Nation's Cafe Press shop, trying to understand how Cafe Press works in its entirety. I have a couple of accounts with them, and a couple of shops. One is a beta shop; the one for Homewood Nation is...well I'm not sure what it is. I need to read their documentation again to get clear on the options they offer.

In any case, I was pleased simply to discover that the Homewood Nation page featuring the shop contains items that I created before going to Louisville, because at the time it appeared that they were not being saved.

It's time to make money. Now.

I need to do something this month to get momentum going for this year. Maybe I should make it a goal to publish "Quick Flicks," my collection of short screenplays, by Jan. 10. 

That certainly seems more doable than writing a novel in a month (sigh), just by working at it every day. And working at it every day would help to train me to work on building Luminaria Productions every day, period. Which is what I have to do to build it into a billion-dollar enterprise - work at it a minimum of six days a week.

But publishing "Quick Flicks" by Jan. 10 is not a goal just yet. I spent some hours this evening assembling and printing my masterplan for 2013. Or more precisely, the draft of said masterplan. Tomorrow (and perhaps the day after that), I will focus largely on updating it. That updating will determine what emerges as the strongest near-term goal. And what emerges as long-term ones.

A movie or TV series, set largely in Homewood and employing as many Homewood residents as possible in its production - that would change things.

That will influence the masterplan.