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March
9, 2021

12 min read

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March 2021
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The scene opens in hell. We see flames. We hear screams. Then the camera closes in on Satan himself — big horns, giant pectorals, bright red skin — as he slumps over on his throne. His phone buzzes. He glances at the screen. “You’re a match!” it says. Satan perks up, eyes wide in amazement. The dark lord, it appears, is looking for love on Match.com.

Cut to: a bridge underpass, in a park on Earth. There are trees. It is quiet. Satan waits to meet his date. A woman approaches. “Hi, Two-zero-two-zero?” Satan says to her. “Please,” she replies, “call me 2020.” Then it’s montage time: Satan and 2020 picnicking in an empty football stadium, doing yoga in an empty gym, stealing toilet paper and hanging out by a Dumpster fire, and generally setting their hearts aflame as they watch the world burn.

Related: 5 Most Successful Video Marketing Tactics Brands Are Using to Grab Eyeballs and Convert Customers

When this ad for Match.com debuted online in December 2020, it triggered an instant lovefest online. Ryan Reynolds expected as much. He cowrote and produced the spot for his marketing company, Maximum Effort, which has become one of the hottest in the advertising game. “I would have paid for [the Match ad] myself just to make sure we got it done,” Reynolds says. “I felt pretty confident that it would work. And when it did work, then I would go bill them back.” He laughs. But don’t worry about his compensation: He’s also on Match.com’s board.

A pandemic-themed ad created for Match.com.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Maximum Effort

Reynolds used to dislike marketing. He saw it as an obligation. And anyway, he was an actor; the marketing was for other people. But then, he spent a decade trying to turn the oddball Marvel superhero Deadpool into a movie — and even when 20th Century Fox finally got on board, the studio remained skeptical of its potential. So he teamed up with one of the studio’s marketing execs, George Dewey, who’d spent 15 years at the giant ad agency McCann, and they launched a ridiculous guerrilla campaign that stirred up so much excitement that Deadpool became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. (And so did its sequel.)

Related: How to Plan a Viral Marketing Campaign

“We started to look at marketing as a completely different tool we had in the shed, and something we could really tell stories with,” Reynolds says. “Everything is storytelling; if you’re not paying attention to that, then you’re just broadcasting and not engaging.” He and Dewey joined forces to build Maximum Effort, which has since produced consistent viral gems for a range of projects, including companies Reynolds owns (most notably Aviation Gin and the low-cost wireless company Mint Mobile). “Now I look at marketing as one of the great joys of my life and my business.”

Recently, while shooting a film in Vancouver, Reynolds stepped away to share what he’s learned about pushing the boundaries of what’s creatively possible — and pushing himself (and his team) to constantly reinvent.

Image Credit: Guy Aroch

Tell me about your creative process. When you sit down to come up with something like that Match ad, where are you starting?

You know that line about how Shakespeare smuggled poetry into popular works? Well, we’re kind of the opposite. We really feel like, when somebody is watching an ad, there’s no reason it cannot feel extremely entertaining and inventive and fun.

We want to bend, not break. We want to be able to comment on something like 2020 without being disrespectful to the grimness of that situation. So you’ve got to give yourself some guardrails — and we love guardrails. Problems are our best friends, because they really inspire ideas and ways to create. Even if it’s just “Our budget has to be X.” We can still get the job done, and we have to think outside the box in order to deliver something that is of great quality. I mean, showbiz will teach you that. If you keep throwing money at a problem, that problem is only going to be exacerbated.

I’m reminded of something I’ve heard you say before — that you’re happy Aviation Gin had a smaller marketing budget than its large competitors, because it forced you to be scrappier with your marketing.

If somebody says, “You have $10 million to go shoot an ad,” the reflex for most people would be to say, “OK, so let’s start with some helicopter shots. The city’s in peril, a superhero comes and lands and uses a skyscraper to block out the alien ship.” Immediately, your brain goes to scope and scale. But scope and scale can be character, too.

Related: Here’s How to Plan Your Digital-Marketing Strategy and Set Budget Priorities

This lesson was driven home to me while shooting Deadpool. Every time the studio took money away from our budget, we replaced whatever set piece we lost with character. Eventually that became the hallmark and defining characteristic of that property. People don’t remember saving-the-world kind of nonsense. They remember what he said, or how he reacted to a moment. To me, that lesson is worth its weight in gold, because you can penetrate the zeitgeist and make an impression without spending a ton of money, without busting the bank.

I mean, we live in a world that’s so reactionary, so there’s a lot to play with. But here’s a tenet of our work: We don’t want to be divisive. There’s enough of that out there. I know it sounds super saccharin, maybe a little nauseating, but when we talk about our company’s M.O., we talk about bringing people together. So when we talked to Match.com and they were nervous about this pitch — Hold on, your lead characters are Satan and a woman named 2020? — we had to reassure them that we’re not here to divide. We are here to embrace something and bring people together over a common experience. When people have an emotional response to something, or find something incredibly funny, it travels.

Image Credit: Guy Aroch

That seems to explain your marketing, which is often very simple. Most of the ads you produce are just a few people in a room, or you speaking direct to camera. And what you’re saying here is — a large budget can cause people to forget about human connections.

Yeah. I think audiences are numbed to spectacle. We’ve all seen superheroes save the day. We’ve all seen a city in peril. I mean, when we were working on our Peloton Aviation Gin ad, all we were doing is really just acknowledging the cultural landscape in that moment and doing it in a way that doesn’t attack Peloton. [For context: In 2019, Peloton released a cringe-inducing ad featuring a woman whose husband buys her a Peloton bike, and she becomes uncomfortably obsessed with it. Critics and consumers tore it apart, interpreting the ad as sexist or tone-deaf. Days later, Maximum Effort released an ad featuring the same actress, looking shaken, downing Aviation Gin martinis at a bar with two girlfriends and toasting to new beginnings. It was widely praised as one of the greatest ad moments of 2019.]

Related: Taraji P. Henson: Your Mission Must Be Stronger Than Your Fear

I just thought there was such an interesting redemption to that. If we could find Monica Ruiz, the woman in the Peloton ad, we could give this a side B — a look at this person from a different perspective, in a way that acknowledges and plays with the cultural landscape and the zeitgeist but still is only there to have fun with it. Not to further divide. Not to wag our finger at anybody or vilify anybody. Just to acknowledge this thing.

We found Monica — I called her four or five different times because she was so nervous that this would backfire. It’s already so alienating when you’re the subject of all of that energy and attention. But we did it. It was really where we started talking about “fast-vertising” — doing things with a speed and agility that others can’t, because Aviation Gin is owned by me, so I don’t really have to go up some huge corporate ladder. I can just say, “Let’s do it.”

You just told two stories — Match and Peloton — in which you approached a potentially controversial subject and had to convince others that you mean well. What’s your strategy for talking people into seemingly scary ideas?

It’s convincing them that I’m as risk-averse, if not more than they are. You want to be able to do something where everyone feels like you’re being provocative but nobody feels vilified, attacked, or nullified. It always comes back to that same edict: Let’s bring people together. Let’s filter everything we do through a prism of joy, as opposed to cynicism or division. I mean, division is very viral, but it’s not our bag. And it’s boring.

Related: Richard Branson Skewers Ryan Reynolds’s Business Knowledge as Virgin Atlantic and Aviation Gin Announce Partnership

Your ads can be self-referential or feature you as an overly confident dummy. Like the ad about Aviation Gin’s partnership with Virgin Atlantic. The setup was that you and Richard Branson were making an ad about the announcement, but you barely understood what was happening. Where does that instinct come from, to flip advertising on its head?

It just depends on what we’re doing. I mean, with the companies I own, I feel an obligation to be transparent. It doesn’t mean that transparency can’t be soaked in irony or self-awareness or silliness. When it’s me out in front, usually I’m playing with preconceived notions about celebrity or about the commercial space. We lean into the things a lot of people traditionally lean away from, which is “Hey, this is an ad. We are acknowledging and playing with the cultural landscape in this ad. And we are telling you that we’re doing that.” It allows people to be a part of it.

Reynolds with Richard Branson in a spot for Aviation Gin.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Aviation Gin

If I’m zooming out even farther, I look at our company, and our goal is to radically improve. But you don’t radically improve just on creative, because everyone is going to have great ideas. It’s our goal to radically improve in new and inventive ways. Rethinking things is our favorite thing to do, too. If I hadn’t second-guessed every decision I made since I exited the womb, I don’t know that I would be in the position I’m in. I think it’s OK to rethink things — even good ideas! I mean, if you’re satisfied with just making money, you’re not going to be a disruptor for very long.

As any entrepreneur knows, there’s a difference between wanting innovation and creating a culture that fosters innovation. How are you doing it?

I always say that you can’t be good at something unless you’re willing to be bad. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten way more comfortable with not having the answers. I think it’s such a great tool of leadership to be able to say, “I don’t know.” The worst leaders I’ve ever worked with or been around are the ones who are steadfast and indignant in their righteousness, and really worried about their image. So I love saying, “I don’t know.”

Related: Drew Barrymore Grew Her Lifestyle Brand and Started a New Venture in the Middle of a Pandemic. Here’s How She Did It.

Everyone at the company has different specializations and different interests, which we foster and want to grow. I want the people who work at Maximum Effort to feel like they’re the CEO. I want everybody pushing toward a direction that is really inspiring for them.

And that’s worked so far. I don’t pretend to know how exactly to run a company. But I think that people who run companies, they don’t know either! It’s great to stay curious and in the moment. Innovation is always born of curiosity.

You have an ability to stay a step ahead of culture — to engage with the next part of the conversation. What’s your advice on how to do that?

Well, you’d be a moron to not acknowledge the now. But as a company, we talk about 2022 right now. It’s just that balance of: We love culture. We know culture is typically very now. But we also love thinking ahead, and looking at where we would like to be, and what we would like to be doing, and trying to manifest that to the best of our abilities. 

March
8, 2021

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Mariangel Coghlan is a woman who is expertly and successfully serving many fronts simultaneously. He runs his design firm, edits books, studies, and mentors youth at the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) .

He studied architecture at the University of the Americas in Puebla with the dream of transforming spaces. After finishing his studies, he started working in a furniture store, but he soon realized that this was not what he wanted.

“What I did was follow a dream. I have the hypothesis and belief that the space you inhabit improves your productive and creative capacity, and of course your happiness ”, begins Mariangel.

The architect says that when she decided to undertake she had no idea what she had to do, but she was clear about the reason that still makes her get up every morning. With more than 20 years of experience, he reveals some secrets that have allowed him to grow.

^{Image: Courtesy Mariangel Coghlan}

1. Seek support and learn from other experiences

The first business he started was a furniture store that remained in force and grew to open three branches in Mexico City: San Ángel, Prado Norte and Prado Sur.

“After 14 years I wanted to do something different. However, the first thing I did was define what I wanted to do as an entrepreneur, ”she says.

Then a watershed came to her life and with the support of her husband, and a friend of his, they invited her to be part of EO, and although she already had many years of experience running a business, she was nervous that he would not. accept.

“It has been one of the best things that have happened because people share their experiences and help you grow,” he says about the experience. “What they have experienced helps you grow and I started there to learn.”

2. Fulfill your mission and be true to your philosophy

The mission of the design firm Mariangel Coghlan is simple: to help people live better, improving the environment they inhabit.

“When beauty is present it predisposes to good; when people are predisposed to good there is goodness, and when there is goodness the world improves ”, says the architect.

It may sound utopian, however, the lesson he shares is that to be a good firm of whatever it is, service comes before any business.

In her experience, many clients are not happy with the end result and she would rather sacrifice some profitability than lose a client’s recommendation.

“A satisfied customer will always be the best advertisement you can have. There are many people who write to us to ask for advice on which floor to put on or what color to paint and we answer all the messages we receive even if they cannot pay for our services, because that is my mission: to help them improve their spaces ”, he declares.

Being loyal to her principles has led her to have her firm recognized as the best luxury interior design studio in Mexico by the Luxury Lifestyle Awards.

^{Image: Courtesy Mariangel Coghlan}

3. Know your limits, don’t stop and adapt

For Mariangel, many entrepreneurs have in mind the idea of scaling and growing the business at any price, however, she has discovered that not all businesses have that possibility.

“I made a line of furniture to sell online and also at Casa Palacio. I wanted there to be a Mariangel Coghlan piece of furniture in every house and I became obsessed with scaling the business that ended up costing me millions and it never worked ”, describes the entrepreneur.

After this, the lesson that remained is that if it comes to entrepreneurship, you must be resilient and adapt to the possibilities.

“Not everything is a failure, I see it as an apprenticeship of millions of pesos. In this world of entrepreneurship, you must experiment, analyze and study what you want to do well, ”he says with a laugh.

For the architect, business is simple, it is about understanding how much comes in, how much goes out and how much you have left. If after some time there is no money left, it is not the right business.

“Then you have to turn it around to do what you are passionate about so that you can live well and also the people who work with you,” he says.

During the confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021, the showroom in which he exhibits his work has been closed, but he had to adapt to the times to maintain his business and the collaborators who make everything work.

“It has been a year of great challenges, having a closed space of two thousand square meters has not been easy, but building a brand that is focused on service has allowed us to remain in force,” he says.

The adaptation process had to be quick. He transformed his page, went digital and has created 12 ebooks that function as catalogs so that his clients and prospects do not lose interest.

4. It’s not all about money, it’s about your dream

“Starting a business based on just making money is not a good starting point. The starting point should be what you like to do and what you are good at ”, he says.
As a passionate about architecture and design, she ensures that when you discover “your element”, that can fill entrepreneurs with adrenaline and energy to make things work.

“You have to do something that fascinates you. In my experience as a mentor, the projects that transcend are those in which the entrepreneur does what fascinates him, ”she says.

As a “shamelessly optimistic” person, Mariangel believes that it’s all about making dreams come true, and always having new goals. That dream is “the element that moves us” and it is what, if you do it with passion, it will bring you profit.

There are three dreams that she has before her today: to finish her second book on interior design… and another two that she asked not to comment on until they come true, but that her server is aware of.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Currently the average age of entrepreneurs in Mexico is 33 years. Of course, there are very young entrepreneurs … and others who already have gray hair start and achieve success. What is certain is that, today, millennials represent more than 80% of new ventures. And if there is one piece of advice that millennials have been given thousands of times, it is this: “follow your passion.”

Entrepreneurship is not the same as being successful. Very few entrepreneurs “hit it” the first time, and most great entrepreneurs know it. Once the CEO of Tajín, today a successful multinational company, told me with complete confidence: “I have bankrupted more companies than I have managed … and there were several moments when I thought about closing Tajín.” But perseverance pays, and each defeat becomes a new stepping stone to the future.

If you have ever thought about starting your business or have you wondered where do I start? Perhaps you have met a friend, your parents, a teacher or a supposed expert who will tell you: follow your passion!

Bad business

“Follow your passion!”

This is perhaps the most common advice… and one that can cause the most damage. The modern world offers us thousands of options, and it sounds tempting to “follow your passion” because, as they say, “that way you will never really have to work.” In truth, who could contradict this logic?

However, the logic falls apart very quickly. You know – and I do too – many people who try to follow their passion, but never get off the ground, or feel satisfied, happy or free. In the end, they end up working on whatever it is and dedicate their weekends – if they are lucky – to their passion. These are the people who hate Mondays, the ones who never found their place in the world.

And, although doing something that you are passionate about is very important , it is not enough to find a path that will lead you to success.

When asked “where do I start?” or “what business do I choose?” It is not enough to say “do what you love!” the correct answer has three steps:

1. Identify your talent.
2. Connect with your passion.
3. Learn the business!

These are just the first three steps. Passion is a powerful feeling that drives us, but like all feelings, it can be changeable; and it is certain that some days you will feel less animated than others. Also – and this is very important – the fact that something “you like” or that you “love it” does not mean that you are good.

Passion is not enough

There are people who “love” to sing or whose “passion” is to play soccer. But that is not enough. If you want to be successful, you have to be talented. Talents are different for everyone, and discovering yours can be the most defining moment of your existence. Talents are natural to us, we were born with them, and it is our duty to develop them.

The ideal place to start a business or career is within what Ken Robinson calls “the element,” which is the point where your passions and talents connect:

In the environment of success, your talent is the first step . You have to do something that you are good at and, furthermore, you can improve with training, practice and study. I’m going to tell you something that may sound cruel, but someone has to tell you: If you have two left feet, it doesn’t matter that you feel passionate about playing soccer: you can never be a professional. If you are 1.45 tall, it doesn’t matter that you have a passion for basketball; most likely we won’t see you at the Olympics.

So start by looking in the mirror and asking yourself what is your talent? If you don’t know, ask those who know you. Now advance it even further; make yourself the best doing what you do. Author Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling book “Out of Series” (Outliers) states that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to develop talent to a level of excellence. It is not enough to have talent; you have to develop it. But spending time doing something that you have no talent or love for, will be a purgatory and a waste of time.

The third step: make money on your element

There are those who choose their career because they believe that money can be made in it. But beware! There are successful people (and money) in all activities. There are millionaire athletes, accountants and lawyers, but also poets, dancers, teachers and writers. That which you do well and that you love can turn into a very brilliant career! Money is everywhere. The difference is in the way we apply our element to the business format.

So, no, talent and passion are not enough either. There are excellent actors that nobody hires, or great singers who do not reach a fortnight. If you’ve found your item, the next step is to learn and understand the business. You have to understand how to make money with that talent. Learn to operate, to sell, to do the accounts, to carry out projects, to collect, to delegate and to grow. That is your business, and no one can do it better than you.

Although there are people who do not agree with what I am going to say, I am sure it is absolutely true: it is worth looking for people and places where you can learn, even if they do not pay you at first , or they pay you very little. Sure, working for free doing something you don’t like is simple exploitation. But if you’re in your element, learning will be the best payoff possible.

Do you have talent and passion for cooking, and do you want to be an entrepreneur? Then you won’t mind spending days and nights working in a restaurant, because you know it’s just one step to keep growing (remember the 10,000 hour rule?). Laws are your thing? So yes, even if you start by making copies, look for a place where you can learn how the business works, how do they find clients, how they carry out the processes, how they hire, how much they charge, what are the risks, crises and headaches ? To be a wealthy lawyer, it is not enough to be a good lawyer, you also have to learn the art of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship has its less fun parts: the numbers, the regulations, the taxes, the annoying customers. Just because you follow your talent and your passion does not mean that everything will be simple and fun. You have to get right into it, learn the machinery and build with vision. This means thousands of hours invested; many errors; many challenges and many sleepless nights.

What I can promise you is this: working within your element will make things four thousand percent easier for you. Finding and knowing your talents and connecting them with your passions will help you go further, faster and with greater pleasure than anything else. Copying deals just because it has worked for others is a career that you will always lose. Instead, discover your own career.

When you are there, at the peak of your own success (no two are alike), others will see you and say: What good luck you are! But you and I know that it is not about luck, but about finding your talent, developing it. and face the challenge of transforming it into a business.

If you are in a career that is not moving forward, ask yourself, am I truly in my element? If the answer is “no,” then stop, open your eyes, and start building. Trust me: it’s never too late to be in the right place.

March
5, 2021

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Jason Falls‘ Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand is out Feb. 23 via Entrepreneur Press. Pre-order your copy now via Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Bookshop.

They say money is the root of all evil. It’s most certainly the root of heated topics among influencers who depend on brand collaborations for revenue. The influencer pay gap — the difference in pay between white and non-white influencers, and the similar difference in what men are paid versus women — is a powder-keg issue across the board.

Influencer Lindsey Lee’s frustration with being undervalued by brands led to her developing F*** You Pay Me, a platform that allows influencers to publish reviews of brand partnerships. Since launching late last year, the site — which keeps users’ info anonymous and information on brands “locked” until at least 10 reviews of it are posted — has generated more than 500 posts as of this writing, despite still being in its minimum viable product (MVP) phase. 

Lee’s vision for the site is to function as a sort of Glassdoor for the influencer set, allowing users to compare the rates they command from brands and more accurately identify their own value. They can also distinguish brands that typically pay well from those that don’t.

Image credit: F*** You Pay Me

“The pain points of an influencer are the exact same pain points of a freelancer,” Lee says of the parallels with Glassdoor. “You’re presented with an opportunity for a job, and you have no idea how much to charge because every job is different. But you don’t want to lose the job, so you end up accepting less than what you’re worth.”

Lee adds that her site is necessary because, too often, money is left on the table at the expense of the creator.

Related: Where Do You Fall on the Philosophical Spectrum of Influence Marketing?

How the site works

When an influencer registers to use the site, they’re required to file their first review. The site’s membership is limited to what Lee calls true influencers, i.e. anyone who has contracted with a brand to post content online. Each is asked to identify demographic information, like gender and race, to allow the site to produce appropriate filters within reviews. 

Site users can navigate to a brand and see details, including the brand’s average engagement payout, what type of content they look for and what other creators have to say about working with them. And eventually, you’ll have visibility into the aforementioned demographic discrepancies. (Influencer-marketing platform Klear found the average pay for male influencers in 202 was $476 per post, while women earned just $348.)

Lee views F*** You Pay Me as a complement to the forces already driving pay-gap conversations, and specifically credits Instagram account @influencerpaygap — a clearinghouse for influencers to share individual experiences of prejudice or low-balling — with helping close that gap.

“I created F*** You Pay Me because it’s a product I wish I had when I first started influencing,” she elaborates. “Black, brown, womxn and LGTBQ+ creators, advocates and activists have long been driving the conversation and action in this space. F*** You Pay Me is merely a tool available for data and support.” 

Utility born of rage

Lee admitted on her blog post announcing the business that F*** You Pay Me was born out of rage, writing, “I feel it every time a brand asks me to perform this work yet is offended by my desire to be compensated for said work.”

Prior to ideating the site, she spent several years as a freelance model and a social media manager, sandwiched around a stint in finance. It was during the latter that she emerged as an influencer, creating the Instagram account Ms. Young Professional to spoof the daily sexism she experienced. As she amassed followers, brands reached out for collaborations, many of whose offers Lee did not find amusing.

“‘We don’t have a budget’ was one of my favorite lies,” she remembers. “When you hear, ‘We have no budget,’ what that means is they have no budget for you.”

Her inner voice began crying out to respond, “F*** you. Pay me.”

What’s in a Name?

“I named it F*** You Pay Me because I didn’t want there to be any doubt from the creator or freelancer that this is a platform actually built for them,” Lee tells me. “There are dozens of platforms out there that say they’re built for influencers. That’s not true. They’re built for brands’ needs first and creators’ needs second.”

In her experiences as a social media manager, she even used a tool that gave her the option to only search for influencers that will accept free product as payment. “It just drives the value of a creator’s work down,” she says. “And I don’t like it.”

Related: How to Build a Successful Influence Marketing Campaign

The business plan

The roadmap for F*** You Pay Me includes adding influencer-marketing software companies and agencies to the list so creators can share experiences with them, too. Agents and talent managers will eventually be invited to contribute as well.  

Lee says she is currently seeking funding and has applied to at least one accelerator. Her plans for a business model are “still being worked out,” she concedes, but she allowing brands to post opportunities for influencers is something she’s considered.

“My hope is that if I have a huge pool of influencers, it will create a network effect, and the brands will follow,” she explains. “Most platforms go get brands and hope the influencers will follow. I’m just flipping that around.”

Still, she is adamanet that influencers’ reviews will always remain anonymous. “This is about sharing information and helping creators and freelancers,” she says. “But I do want it to be mutually beneficial for brands, too.”

The initial reaction from brands may be to shudder, but Lee says they might be surprised to know that “more than half of our reviews so far are positive.” 

It’s the ones that aren’t that will keep some brand managers up at night, because now they know the market is holding them accountable.