009: Surround Yourself with the Right Team of Advisors with Jim Sweeney & ‘Mike’ The Ultimate Talking Head

Hello everybody, Neil Ball here. Thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey. The vision, the mindset, the commitment, the sacrifice, the failures and the successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Jim Sweeney. But before I introduce you to him, I am just going to give you a little bit of something to think about. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. That was said by Nagube Mafos. The entrepreneur way asks the questions so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our business. Jim welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

Mr Neil Ball, thank you for having me. I am buckled in and ready to go and yes I am ready to share whatever questions you pepper my way.

Awesome, thank you. Jim Sweeney has crafted his digital innovation to become the first universal animated brand in sports. He envisions his trade-marked mike alter-ego sports personality to eventually be seen and heard on network television and Jumbotrons. Jim enjoyed an incredible start in digital media by penning over 750 blogs, and publishing 37 mike sports comics and monetizing them via numerous affilliate links housed within them. Sounds fascinating and I can’t wait to find out more. Jim, can you provide me with some more insight into your business and personal life? To allow the listeners to get to know more about what you do and who you are.

Well my personal life is such that I was very successful in some previous businesses, the last one my wife and I had started from scratch and our best year, our annual revenues exceeded 52 million dollars in sales. But it was a boring business. We had very little, you know personal reward and reporting to work every day. And even it got to the point in cashing our paychecks at the end of the week where at the end of the month, you know when we would pay ourselves. And we got to the point where we wanted to do something different. Something bold, something couragous, something totally outside of the box, and over a period of time, it led us to eventually segway out of a previously prosperous business to start something new, and something totally different which is digital content creation. And one of our properties that we have created is by Mike cartoon sports character,  and Mike is short for Mic rophone. He is what he is named. He is a Microphone. Who we call the ultimate talking head on sport. He was birthed with me 58 years ago in Treton New Jersey. And I felt like Mike is always coursed through my DNA. And I just needed to bring him to fruition. And you had referenced the man with the unpronounceable last name, to kick off the show.

Ha ha ha ha

and you said you are going to ask the tough questions or the questions that will illicit responses from people. And I thank you for asking that, you know what is my background, what has been my journey? As that man with the unpronouncable last name had said, and getting Mike to where he is today and where he will inevitably go, has been a journey, it is not been a sprint, its not been a short race. It has not been something that can be quickly done. Its taking a whole life time of experience. And dedicating myself to it full time because the making of Mike and developing content is my full-time gig. And it has been a journey and its a journey that I have loved. It hasn’t been easy, hasn’t been perfect, but its a journey and I have grown to love it.

It sounds absolutely awesome. So what sort of things are you doing with Mike? can you give us some more information on that? Obviously you have had him in blogs and you have obviously published in comics and things, so can you just enlighten a bit more?

Yes the ultimate goal with Mike, is to get a licencing deal with a major international sports network. Like NSPN or Fox, NBC, BBC, or what not. And in order to do that I needed to build brand equity with the character. Very few of the major networks would even talk to me if I did not have some type of digital assets that I had compiled. Or some type of a following, that I was able to build up. So knowing that my inevitable goal is to create whom I believe will be the first ever animated brand to transcend all sports. Is I needed to get a start in digital publishing and I needed to be able to do a blog to get the image and likeness of Mike out there, through not just static images but through Mike’s work. Because I write all of my blogs, now 771 of them through the voice of Mike. And because Mike is a funny man, he is witty, he is clever, you know he sees the forest from the trees, and sometimes sees a lot of the stuff through his lense that other people don’t see.

Mmmm hmmm

That people are attracted to him. People like his voice. So in addition to the blogs, I have also now, just this week, I am publishing my 38th sports comic book. And all my comic books are digital, they are available either on Amazon or on my own website, TheeMike.com and in the books, I utilise sports comics to be able to tell some type of a story about an athlete, a play, a moment in sports. A stadium, a sports expression. And we have done exceptionally well, in getting our electronic books out there, either through Amazon or through my own website.

Mmmm hmm

So what I am doing is actually building digital metrics. I’m building value in terms of how many impressions of Mike are out there, in cyberspace. And eventually that will make me a lot of palatable to a major sports network that will want to sign us, to a licencing deal so that they can utilise the image and likeness of Mike, for whatever they endeavour to do with it on their network.

Wow that sound awesome. It sounds like you have really thought alot about this. So Jim, what do you enjoy most about what you do?

Its the content creation. Its being able to come up with things that are witty, clever, outside the box, that may be 50 other sports writers when they are doing a blog, they are going to cover the brass tacks, the blocking and tackling. They are going to cover the scores, the statistics, the standings. And I am going to talk about something that is totally different that I learned as a result of watching a game or following a player or a game. And I want to be able to be different, I want to be a little bit eccentric. But also I want to have the credibility in writing through the character, that he sees things through his own lense and this sports world that maybe others have missed.

Mmm hmm

and he also provides value by educating us on that. Or giving us a belly laugh at something that maybe others would have missed when they are looking at the same thing, that I was in writing through the voice of Mike.

Mmm hmmm. And how do you create all this content? Because obviously there are graphics and things involved in this, so do you do this yourself or do you get someone else to help you?

I don’t do any of the graphics myself otherwise Mike would never be able to get out of my office. The team for our organisation that has birthed Mike and done all this content is me and my wife and this is the third time we have worked together, in an entrepreneurial endeavour. You know we met at the university back in 1977. We have been married almost 35 years. So we are the only employees of our corporation called New Vision Entertainment. But what we have done is that and this is purposeful on our side, on our end. We have had other businesses where we employed people. We feel because the entire paradime of media as well as business, in certain regards has shifted and changed. That we could have people that work for us but they are not full time employees of ours. They work for higher employees. Where we could hire them for an hourly basis, a daily basis, a weekly basis to do certain things. That they do for us, But yet if they help us create something, we retain the interlectual property rights of that song, that music, you know that sports comic, that animated clip, or the umbrella of the Mike property, always remains ours and with a 100% IP or interlectual property rights owners.

Thats fantastic.

Yeh we have an artist, we have an animator, we have sound guys. We have a production team. We have some legal people. We have some ‘go-to’ web people, that we employ but I say that with asterix. You know they are not necessarily our employers. But we pay them on ‘work-for-hire’ projects or assignments.

Mmmm hmm, so its like outsourcing everything to these people?

Absolutely, yes sir.

So what is it that drives you Jim? what makes you keep doing this? Obviously you have had a few businesses in the past and you are still going, so what is it that keeps you going?

Its the fun, and its also the challenge. I love what I do and I look forward every single day when I wake up, make my coffee, press the button on my coffee that my wife has prepared the night before. And I go into my office and I start looking on the internet at the sports pages or yahoo or wherever. And trying to find up something clever. You know, for a blog or for a potential chapter in a book. Or for a future podcast. So I love sports, I love the written word, I love being creative, I love humour and I also love truth. I like Mike, sometimes puts out some posts that are I think, pretty poignant. And they address, not necessarily. They address the bad behaviour of a character, they won’t necessarily exhoriate an individual, but Mike will look to ask the question or profur the argument or sights different stats or facts, that maybe other sportscasters have avoided or they just toss softballs at an athelete for his boarish behaviour. But in the case of Mike, he looks to delve into that a little bit further. He likes to address the truth and thats another thing that prompts me and motivates me.

And do you spend alot of time working on Mike? Is it quite time consuming for you?

Its my full-time gig. I can work 7 days a week, and I don’t consider it work, because its something that I am passionate about and something that I love. Does that answer your question? Yeh every day. I do something when it comes to Mike, even if I am driving, I always have a scratch pad you know on the seat next to me, my car you know, if I go out for a walk. You know, we live in Florida, we go for walks on the beach a couple of times a month. You know, I will take a scratch pad and I will put it in my pocket and if I am walking and I get an idea or I get motivated or something just strikes me, I write it down and then I go back home, get on the computer and try and bring that to life.

A true creator.

Yes absolutely, thank you.

So how do you relax when you are not working in your business, even though you work 7 days a week potentially and even though you don’t see the, you must completely get out of it sometimes, so what do you get up to?

Yes. We are very fortunate in that my wife and I have lived in Florida for 33 years. We live in the Tampa Bay area on the beautiful gulf coast. So we have got gorgeous beaches, less than 15 minutes from our house. I play basketball three times a week. I am 58 years old, so I need to tell you, when I do play, I play slowly. But I’m still out there, I am breaking a sweat. I lace them up with my friends, you know talk a lot of junk. You know, have fun, get a work out, and I think that is one of the things that keeps me healthy and keeps me motivated. And plus, being around my basketball buddies, I get alot of ammunition and I get a lot of information that I could utilise, in future blogs or in future chapters in my books. Because my buddies are all sports fanatics and Mike can’t see everything, he can see alot, but you know he piggy backs on comments that other people have made and you know he tries to incorporate, namely me, and tries to incorporate that in blogs and in chapters in my books.

Sounds like alot of fun. So do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

Yes, you know one guy I love is Steve Jobs. Everybody loves him, and I love you know some of the, you know when you look at his life in hindsight now, some of the things that he said, that you follow what you are passionate about. And keep on doing it and knowing that eventually, its going to get you some place. And its going to make sense in what you are doing because you have been diligent. You have been wise, you have been passionate about what you are doing. That you are eventually going to be able to get to that destination, and then when you arrive at that destination, you will look back and you will say, ‘oh wow, look at all those things I did, and how they all helped contribute to my journey and where I have eventually found myself.’ So he would probably be my number one role model that I look to and I say, ‘that guy was just a brilliant visionary.’

Oh absolutely.

Now, in no way shape or form do I think I am going to create the iphone or the ipad or  the Mac like Steve Jobs, was instrumental in creating.  But I just admire and respect the man’s brilliance.

And Pixar pictures. Well he didn’t create that but he obviously developed it as well didn’t he?

Yes. Yes absolutely.

So, speaking of journeys, what I want to do now is can you take your mind back to the time before your were an entrepreneur? And I am going to ask you some questions about that time, because I think there are some things I would like to find out, so what difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business? or started on the journey as an entrepreneur? Was there anything that stopped you or you had to overcome?

It always trying to find the right time, the right set of circumstances, the right situation, the right number of dollars, of pounds in your bank account. I think I looked at that as potential stumbling block before I ventured off to do things on my own and I met alot of people, you know they had the same hesitation. They say, ‘I will do it when my kids are off to college, or I’ll do it when I get enough money, in my savings account. Or I’ll do it when I could be further along in the development of my character.’ I’m not advocating somebody do something you know outrageous and stupid. But I am encouraging people that why wait? You know. Start doing something now, you know. Write down a plan, you know, set yourself some type of goals, and begin following your passion and begin the first couple of steps on your journey today. They don’t have to be jumping off a cliff. But they could be positive steps in the right direction. By doing something tangible and making a commitment to yourself, you know internally that ‘hey, I am going to do this, I am going to follow this, and these are the goals that I have set.’

Mmmm some great advice there, so did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your first business?

Exactly what I just said, ‘do I have enough money in my bank account?’ and fortunately we did, but I just wanted a much bigger cushion. You know, do I really have the moxy? to be able to live up to I was going to be boldly proclaiming that I have created the first ever animated brand?That will eventually transcend all sports? So they were the doubts, but then, I quickly overcame them and fortunately my partner, who was also my wife who is my closest friend, and a woman that I have incredible respect for. You know, she was always there to tabooing me with support and also to set me right when I was becoming too negative, or doubting myself or lacking in some confidence.

Sounds good, so what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey? Were there any?

Yeh one big mistake, I felt like I had to rely on some other people to do things that I could inevitably do myself, and they were big financial mistakes too. Because we hired a very successful sports agency in the New York Metro area, that had incredible ties to the major sports networks. That new sponsorship, that new sports marketing, and they also represented some very well known names within the sports industry. And we paid them a handsome monthly retainer to do some things that I could have very quickly found out how to do, and become successful at myself. And what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners that have not yet taken that first step on the entrepreneur’s way?

I would say know what you are really good at, and know where you need it and you will need help. Like in my case, even though I was in the technology business, my wife and I owned a very successful computer sales agency. Where we brokered computer parts for a number of years. Even though I was in the technology sector, I wasn’t really tech proficient. So one of the things we did, was we attended alot of meet-ups, networking events, you know daily conferences. Just to learn the skills that we needed in order to be successful in the digital space. And then also just knowing that its ok not to do everything yourself and to hire those people on ‘work-for-hire’ agreements. Where you pay them for the work, but they had no future claim to anything that you are doing or will be paid for in the future.

Thats one of the things that I would strongly suggest to would-be entrepreneurs. Know how to go to get the right information, and surround yourself with the right team of people that will work with you, and also the right team of advisors, that could speak truth and maybe correction into your life. So they could help you navigate away from pitfalls that they be forthcoming because you did not have the experience necessarily to see that but some of your board of advisors or whatever had lived through that or had known how to circumvent it in the past.

Mmm so Jim, what I would like to do now is talk about your entrepreneurial journey, so that from the time you have created your business, and the first thing I would like to talk about is culture in business. So, do you believe culture is important from the beginning in a business?

I totally do. 100% concur. And the previous businesses my wife and I had, and in the business we had now and I recognise there is only the two of us, but we believe everywhere we go, we need to have fun and we need to display professionalism and always treat people, communicate with people in a collaberative spirit. Because if you think that you know everything, chances are very good you don’t. And what you don’t know is going to bite you if you don’t. You don’t have the humility and the understanding that you can learn from others. So, as far as the culture in our tiny little company now and our much bigger companies, that we had in the past, its definately having fun at what you do, because if you love what you do, if you are happy in what you do, you are just going to be that much more productive. Always have an openess to learn from others, and look to collaberate and there are so many ways to describe the paying forward process, but we believe when we collaberate with others, is eventually it might not be that day, that week, that month. But eventually, someone is going to collaborate with us that we weren’t seeking but they are going to help us along our road and along our journey.

Mmm very good. So knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve.

I would say how to utilize technology even better. Its certain things on twitter, instead of doing so many things manually having to use Twello or some of the other things to get my tweets out there, more regularly and to have them scheduled out. Auto responders, you know I don’t necessarily utilise technology when it comes to those people that respond to mailing lists or other things, I try to respond to everything, but I know that I could be a lot efficent and utilise technology and that is one of our goals for me and my wife this year, is to utilise technology better to our advantage. So that would be the number one thing is fully embracing technology, and wear it where it is relevant in our business, utilising that to create efficiencies.

And how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

Because I am a creator and developing creative content for my character, gut feeling is paramont. I don’t know if I can say 100% because front side o, then I know I need to write about it and then I need to develop that content, and put it out there through the voice of my Mike character.

Sounds very interesting, so Mike, Jim, you’ve got me saying Mike now ha ha

Thats ok, everybody does it. ha

Jim, life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not and I certainly believe that the only constant in life is change, or one of the only constants is change. How do you try to keep up with change? or how have you done over the years?

Well with technology, things change radically. So being an entrepreneur, and recognising that technology is intrinsic in our success. My wife and I look to go to as many meet-ups or like e-marketing type groups, whether they are over coffee and bagel in the morning, or drinks at night. At a restaurant that has got a backroom, where people share their stories and that way you could be on the cusp of changes that are taking technologically. As far as what is going on in the world of sports, because thats what Mike reports on, is watching the games. Its reading ESPN and Yahoo and Fox sports, NBC sports, US Today sports. And just disciplining yourself, to know that there is always going to be something new, there is always going to be changes expect it. But you need to be on the front side of the wave and obviously, you can’t predict it, but you can expect the change to take place. And you need to put yourself in the position to be able to gleen as much and learn as much about the change that is taking place. So that in my personal case, I can report on it correctly.

Mmm hmm And what is your favourite book on Entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? And can you tell us why you have chosen it?

I can’t say that I have one specific individual book, but I used to be a voracious reader of books and of biographies. Of reading about great men, you know whether they were sports heroes like Will Chamberlain or a Bay Bruth. Or business icons like or visionaries like Steve Jobs or even Nicola Tessler. So, what I always look to do, I just don’t want to rest all my future you know, on one particular thing. So in this case, I kind of shy away when people ask me the question, ‘what is your favourite book?’ I could say biographies, as a genre would be my favourite type of book. And I try and gleen and collect as much relevant information about people’s stories that apply to my life, my vision, my business that I could personally utilise in my journey.

So you use their biographies to sort of get motivation and ideas from? is that what you are saying?

Yeh I love biographies, every body has got a story. Everyone has got a story and no one has skated their way you know immediately overnight to success. They have all zigged and zagged. Fallen down a few times, got up again, and just followed after what they were passionate about, towards their eventual goal.

People always forget that though don’t they? They always think that those people have been instantly successful and they don’t see that journey and the hardship that they have had to go through before they got there. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you were at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing, to choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up, you will qualify. Jim, what I would like to do now is, I would like to fast forward into the future, and just ask you a few questions about that, so what one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

I would utilise a percentage of the revenues to be able to start some type of a foundation that would equip, educate and encourage younger entrepreneurs, that had great ideas however didn’t know how to go about bringing what they had created to fruition. Because I am very grateful that so many people have reached out to me and helped me, you know in my life and I would want to give back and I would want to help those people that maybe did not have the resources, that were available to me and I want to be able to supply them to others.

Mmm thats fantastic, I mean that is what I am trying to achieve with the entrepreneur way, I am trying to give people, to get to understand what other entrepreneurs are doing and to get ideas from them and so a sort of similar vision with this. What skill, if you were excellent at it, would help you most to double your business?

Being an animator. Animation is really expensive. It would not double my business, it would grow it probably 25 x 50 fold because when we first brought our character out, we were piloted by major network but we were here in the United States. But it was too premature, we weren’t ready for prime time. I did not know how little our property at that time was worth, because we did not have the digital metrics to support the inevitable value, of what we know the property is worth today, and will be. And we were paying almost $200 dollars per finished second, for animation, so that is the writing, the story boarding, the mastering of the sound. And the incredibly great animation that was done. So, if I were an animator and I could bring to life, all the different things that Mike could be doing. You know, on your phone, on your tablet, on your computer, on the big screen. I think our business would explode.

Wow so zooming completely out, and looking completely into the future. In five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers. What would you like it to say?

That Jim Sweeney had vision. People did not necessarily embrace his vision immediately. But he was persistant, he had integrity. He was passionate, the content he put out was excellent. And he just stuck with it and then he aligned himself with the right people. That eventually grasped his vision. They collaberated together, and they developed an international brand.

Wow fantastic. Right, we are now where the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us, so Jim, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

The Nike quote ‘just do it’. You had asked me earlier, what prevents people from getting started and it is maybe a lack of confidence or not thinking they had enough money. Or not thinking the situation in their life was the right time to do what they were doing and Nike had that great quote ‘just do it’ for many many years and my wife and I embraced that and we just go for it, we do it. We just don’t think about it, we don’t write about it, we don’t ponder it, sure we are not going to like jump off a cliff as I referenced earlier, but we are going to go for it. We are going to go for it with a plan, we are going to go for it with some reasonable ways in which to follow after our passion. But we are not going to sit around on our hands, we are going to go for it.

Yeh you seem very clear on what you want with this.

Yes Sir.

And do you have any favourite online resources that you would like to share? That it would be useful to our listeners?

Google. I Google alot. I Google obviously to corroborate the voracity of certain things that are right. I google how to properly utilise how to use this plug-in for my word press website. I google my competition or those that I think, are competitive writers or competitive sports book authors. You cannot underestimate Google, it is an incredibly valuable tool. And I google things multiple times a day.

And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

If you are passionate about something, you believe in it, you can envision it, but maybe others don’t. Don’t let that proclude you from taking the first step. And put together some type of a plan, and also have a couple of people, it could be one, it could be five, but people in your life that will speak truthfully to you. They won’t butter your bread, shine your apple, they won’t tell you ‘wow thats great’ you should do more of that. You know they should say, ‘thats terrible man, you should find somebody else to help you with that.’ or ‘you need to look at it completely differently.’ and I think having trustworthy advisors that will speak truthfully and candidly to you is some of the best advice that I could offer to any other entrepreneur.

What about coaches? Have you got any opinions on having coaches when you are in business?

Unfortunate that I work with my wife, of almost 35 years who is very successful in corporate America here in Florida. And she is also an extremely successful new media personality and she is not a sports fan. So everytime before I go to publish something, you know one of my 38 books, I will go to her and she is editor and then she edits it again, and again and again and again. And she makes it such that anybody could understand it, and it resinates with them because it needs to resinate with her first. And I think that is very valuable to have a wife that is also your coach.

Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Jim’s favourite resource, or his favourite book, you can find the links on Jim’s shownotes page, just go to the entrepreneurway.com and search for Jim or Jim Sweeney in the search box. Jim is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

I would just like to thank all those people out there and I don’t know all of them that have downloaded or free books, listen to our pod cast, you know read our blogs. You know commented under a psydeunum, you know to things that I have written in the past. And I just want to thank the people that have taken the time to respond to me. You know, even if it is a comment on which they do not agree, I just appreciate the fact that they have taken the time, you know to read what I have done because it is my business, its my vocation as well as my avocation and I am grateful for that.

Well Jim, its been an absolute honour having you on the show, you really have provided some useful insight into the entrepreneur way.

Well thank you, I have loved being a part of the show and I love answering questions, because people have spoken candidly and candid and encouraging words into my life. You know and I would love to be able to reciprocate doing that for others.

Well you have certainly done it today, so thank you very much.