Joel Holland is the founder of VideoBlocks, a company that distributes over 1,000,000 clips of royalty free stock video and audio each month to over 100,000 customers in the television and video production industry. Joel has been named in the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25” by BusinessWeek Magazine, “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” by the United States Small Business Administration, and “30 Under 30” by Inc. Magazine.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk
When business started difficulties overcame:
“Age. When I started out I was a teenager. This was back in 2003 before young entrepreneurs were a hot commodity. So being young made it difficult to get people to take me seriously, the flip side was “If they did I didn’t have the confidence because I was young. I looked at people like Jeff Bezos like he’s so much older and wiser and I’m just a kid I know nothing. But what I realised is you don’t have to have all the answers when you’re starting out, you can do baby steps”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Book by Robert Cialdini
Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future Book by Ashlee Vance
Sam Walton : Made in America My Story Book by Sam Walton, John HueyFavourite Quote:
“Luck is the residue of design”
“The harder I try the luckier I get”
Recommended Online Resources:
Customer.io – is a platform that uses application data and rules to message users.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“If you want to be an entrepreneur and have an idea, now is the time to act on it. The worst thing you can do is kick the can down the road and think you’re going to come back to it later, and I’ve seen a lot of people do that. I meet them for drinks and they talk about their idea and it is a good idea, then they go back to their consulting job where they’re miserable and they do that for years, and they have a car and a house and a family and they’ve never created their idea. So I think regardless of the economy, or any number of excuses, now is always the best time to start”…[Listen for More]
More About Joel Holland:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
Martin Parr “I like to keep in touch with younger photographers. It’s important that a younger generation comes up and questions the assumptions made by old farts like me.”
Other Quotes From the Chat with Joel Holland:
- “I just can’t overemphasise the important of trying to hire great people early on, I think the cost will be more than made up”
- “There’s nothing wrong with getting into a business you know nothing about, you’ve got to learn quickly and you’ve got to learn a lot, and by the way make sure you actually enjoy it, do it for the right reasons”
- “Values are very important because you want to make sure everyone on the team is swimming in the same direction”
- “I think too many young entrepreneurs today try to raise money too early, the longer you can wait to prove yourself the more control you have”
- “If anyone has an idea we don’t say that’s a good idea or that’s a bad idea, we just say that’s a test idea, let’s put it in the hopper, and test it”
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