Michael Counts is an artist, director, designer, tech pioneer and serial entrepreneur who has been called a “mad genius” by the New York Times. On the entertainment side of his career he was worked with brands like Disney, Blue Man Group, Michael Kors, and the Walking Dead among many others. He created and launched The Ride New York and a wide range other other entertainment concepts before shifting his focus to coaching and supporting other top brands, businesses and entrepreneurs with his app based coaching platform – a)plan coaching – which he founded with his longtime coach Sara Ellis Conant.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Russell Simmons co-founder of the hip hop music label Def Jam Recordings
Also mentioned:
- Rishon Blumberg and Michael Solomon – Click the following link to listen to the Rishon Blumberg podcast and Michael Solomon podcast episode on The Entrepreneur Way
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I think that there is a period of time before starting anything where there is an idea and maybe even a vision… There’s this sense of is this going to work? Can I do this? Is anyone going to care? Can we make a difference? Can we do this right? If we build it will they come? And I think overcoming that is a big hurdle and I think a lot of people never get over that hurdle… It incubated for a couple of years may be before I could really move it forward with Sarah as my partner and form the company and engage coaches and create the infrastructure that was necessary to start”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations Book by Thomas L. Friedman
- The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level Book by Gay Hendricks
Also mentioned:
- They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators Books by David Lefer and Gail Buckland and Harold Evans
- Game Changer: How to Be 10x in the Talent Economy Books by Michael Solomon and Rishon Blumberg
Favourite Quote:
“the mistake that most entrepreneurs make is they just give up too soon” Russell Simmons
Recommended Online Resources:
- Newsletter by James Clear – this newsletter helps you to learn how to create healthy habits that actually stick and improve your mental and physical performance
- Asana – Easily organize and plan workflows, projects, and more, so you can keep your team s work on schedule
- Google Suite – An integrated suite of secure, cloud native collaboration and productivity apps powered by Google AI Includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Meet and more
- Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 exclusively on iOS.
- Facebook, Inc. is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“if you are going to pursue something as an entrepreneur, you are going to start a business it needs to be something that you really love because if it’s not something that you love and you are looking to kind of do it and then get away from it there will always be others who love it more and they will be putting in the extra time and they will be doing it just that much better. Not that it’s a zero-sum game or race to the finish but I think if they really want to excel you need to love what you do because that’s when you will put in the extra time and be really passionate about every detail”…[Listen for More]
More About Michael Counts:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.” Scott Adams
Other Quotes From the Chat with Michael Counts:
- “it’s always the stories of people who persisted in the face of adversity and rejection”
- “I knew there was a huge opportunity here and I had absolute clarity and a vision that this was a huge opportunity and that we should go after it. But that little bit of doubt we talked about earlier kept me from going all in earlier. And so, what I know now is that after two years of incremental growth we have proven the viability of this business – we have a proof of concept ”
- “start with what’s working, start with gratitude, start with celebrating exactly where you are and then from that position determine where you want to go”
- “entrepreneurship is really the guiding principle of all business today. There is that idea of the brand of you…”
- “There are more and more obstacles that are making people realising their full potential more challenging”
- “be a better entrepreneur”
- “life is a great adventure or its nothing at all”
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