Departing the Comfort Zone
What is ‘the comfort zone’? The bit above the air bubble in a pair of Nike Air Max? Maybe. A place where we feel safe in what we’re doing, with that security creating a strong desire to remain? Yeah that’s it. It’s one of those terms that’s painfully overused, but has no better alternative.
I left mine way behind this week
“I know what I want to do. I’m going to create a business video documentary company. It’ll create short films that people can learn from and be ‘inspired’ by”
That’s what I said to myself over the Christmas period last year. Not a ground-breaking idea, yet one that excited me and I thought I could bring a different angle to.
I sat on it for weeks, my consultancy work was (is) booming and I had to focus on that. Then, about six weeks ago I decided to push ahead with the idea. Fortune favours the brave and all that!
I came up with a name — Chimp House Media. Why? I love Chimps. People stand and watch Chimps in a Chimp House go about their business. That’s what my documentaries will do, go behind the scenes of brilliant businesses and focus on the people in them. Sorted.
Next up, logo! I’m ‘bootstrapping’ this, so I went over to Fiverr and selected a designer. I needed something to work with, not the be-all-end-all. Here’s where we got to.
Perfect for launch, the Chimp part is ideal for social avatars etc and adds some personality to proceedings. Done.
The Chimp needs a House!
I needed a place to direct people to out-with social. I also wanted to gather some email addresses to act as an initial audience. Google spat out Launch Rock as a simple option. After a pretty painful hour, I had this live:
A single page that has a clear CTA (call to action) and tells people what Chimp House is. Incredible? Nope. Viable? Yes.
Now I need a subject for the first film
Ok, I’ll admit, I had this lined up before I had the logo and the landing page sorted. Skyscanner is a massive tech success based in my home town of Edinburgh; they were acquired in 2016 for $1.75 billion dollars! I knew they take a great approach to marketing and wanted to make their ‘Growth Team’ the focus of the first film. One of my pals who works there helped me to make it happen and there we had it, a rather incredible subject for the first Chimp House production.
Comfort
Up until this point, everything I’d had to carry out was comfy for me. Branding, marketing etc, it’s what I do. What I don’t do is make films. I needed a partner. Serendipity had led me to meet one of the founders of Shakehaus and we had a chat about partnering on the first film. We quickly worked out that it was a great idea for both parties, and began working on the plan.
Making it happen
Today, we wrapped up the second day of filming. I was quite uncomfortable for most of it! Suddenly, I was a documentary presenter/director. I had to interview the lovely team at Skyscanner, make them feel at ease, get the right info from them and ensure we were on the right track at all times. Did I love it? Looking back now, I did. During it? I doubted my abilities for sure. The Skyscanner guys were great and the support of the super-talented Shakehaus crew was very welcome! All-in-all, I feel we’ve created something great.
Getting shit done
I’m delighted to have made all of this happen in six weeks. In the past, I’ve had ideas, actually been fairly far down the road of making them a reality and then dropped them. The comfort zone is in the rear-view mirror. The adventure ahead is going to be awesome…
The film is now live! Watch it here.
