KRB-Roll no3 - march 21, 22

Our picture car was stolen

Every word of this is true.

KRB-Roll no. 2

Office B-roll no. 1

Spiderman: No Way Home is a big deal.

Episode 2 - It's good to have North Stars.

My YouTuber Status is certified.

I made this video last night.

It’s been in my mind for the past few years to start putting my perspective out into the world again, and adding to the discourse.

You would be high up in my book of gratitude if you left a comment with your feedback.

love - KR

Reflecting back on Civil House.

This is a short video we produced at Rhino to introduce the idea of Civil House Coffee to the community of Kalamazoo. We tried to sort out all of the various inspirations for the forming of Civil House. Why did it need to be? That was what we wanted to point to here.

Now that the shop is closed, it creates an entirely new light in which to view the decision making process that guided the founding of the shop. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to fail and learn new lessons along the way.

Despite it’s ultimate fate, I still think this is a really cool piece directed by Matt Bakken.

"Lead a Crash, Not a Herd" - My talk at Pecha Kucha Kalamazoo.

Pecha Kucha is a global event that anyone can speak at, and they are truly a ton of fun.

(Sort of a zippier TED talk)

Very COMMUNAL, and very ENCOURAGING.

In this talk, I shared my thesis for leadership of highly creative artistic personalities.

Everything Will Change

The world will change and the sky will open up the moment when you begin to accept responsibility for every area of your life.

Lead Yourself

I’m obsessed with refining my ability to communicate clearly, with an artful perspective, for purposes of leading myself to where I want to go.
This concept has recently been giving me a lot of fruit for imagination.

There isn’t just “you”.
There are two “yous”.

You have to rationalize with yourself. Who is actually doing that? Who is doing the reasoning and who is doing the listening? I suppose it’s a sort of way of talking about the relationship between the head and the heart. But I’ve always thought of that relationship as thinking vs feeling or logic vs emotion. But I’ve never quite thought of it as an individual that you need to influence in a positive direction that you’d like to go.

This is a fairly new concept for me to wrap my head around, but it’s been incredibly powerful as I try to sort out the areas of my life that are working vs what is not working.

I’ve been a student of leadership for the past decade as I’ve built a production company, but I haven’t processed the extent to which you need to apply leadership principles to yourSELF.

The phrase that has seemed to be effective for me of late is “Stop Doing Things That Make You Weak”

More to come on this.

My Kids Are Obsessed with My Childhood Stories

I recently have begun telling stories to my children. They are at the age where they can follow the details, understand the premise and know which parts are funny and all that, to a relatively nuanced degree.

This has a tremendous amount of mutual benefit.

I love the chance to work out my storytelling abilities and watch their little eyes light up when I get to the climax. They cackle their little heads off if I tell it well. They find the stories hilarious and always want to know if they are true.

They also get to know me a lot deeper. They form a deeper understanding of who their dad is, and the kinds of stories that formed my experiences growing up. They also gain a deeper appreciation for the characters in the stories, mainly my mom, dad and brother.

A few of these I’ve shared publicly in speeches in front of professionals or at the university, but maybe I’ll start adding more to my repertoire.

Have the Courage to Suck at Things.

So many people are stuck and don’t know how to get out. There is no getting out of your mediocrity if you aren’t willing to risk looking stupid, foolish, and amateur. But that is exactly what you are if you’re just starting out. The sooner you embrace it, the sooner you can begin to grow.

But if you don’t push through the early phases of development, you will never reach greatness. You will never transcend your own suffering and therefore can not win. You can not achieve the levels of competence you dream of if you don’t first step out into the unknown and do something amateur.

In every sense, you don’t deserve to win.

You have to first create something that is ugly before you can create something beautiful.

Sometimes the ugly thing is you.

But by journeying out into the unknown, you can become beautiful.

Bad Leadership Ruins Everything p2

The blessing and curse of leadership is that it can either elevate or destroy otherwise

Bad leadership ruins good ideas
Bad leadership ruins good projects
Bad leadership ruins good projects
Bad leadership ruins good teams
Bad leadership ruins good companies
You have to lead yourself

Art and Chaos

The human condition requires compelling art and stories.

To make sense of the chaos and complex nature of our world.

But creating thoughtful, meaningful art is incredibly difficult. It’s completely worthy of lifelong pursuit.

Creating art on a deadline and coupled with the purpose of compelling someone’s emotions towards a brand, product or idea? And being reasonable to work with, and enjoying the process… Well that seems damned impossible.

Furthermore, creating art requires you to not know where you’re going. In a way, the journey is more important than the destination. Business goals require you to get to an endpoint.

Finding the balance is one of my primary pursuits in leading and building Rhino.

The Trophy Shop

I really like the idea of a character whose day job is polishing trophies at a trophy shop.

There’s a fun irony to play with a cynical person, who is surrounded by idols representing winning. He hates competition. This will cause tension in his life.

Three Things That Are Always Worth The Money

Real Talk Post #1

Bad Leadership Ruins Everything

Bad Leadership ruins good ideas.

Bad Leadership ruins good projects.

Bad Leadership ruins good people.

Bad Leadership ruins good companies.

The GOOD news is, you get to decide what kind of person you will be, and who and what you invest your time in.

The Music Video for "Hurt" by Johnny Cash. Directed by Mark Romanek

I could talk about this music video for hours, but for now, I'll just drop the link here.