What does Go Woke / Go Broke Mean in Hollywood?

(A THREAD on CASTING)

Earlier today, I was having a conversation with a friend who is a casting director. She said she was coming under criticism for casting decisions she made recently.

- - - She told me the criticism, and asked me to help her understand it.

This is rough summary of our conversation.

She started by asking me:

Most guys at some point have an innate urge to date beautiful women.

I'm not saying you *should* date models, but if you want to...here are some tips.

Here's what I've learned about dating models, and where to meet them.

/ THREAD / 1) Attend Fashion Week in a fashion capital.

Paris, Milan, and New York are all some of the most influential fashion capitals in the world.

So, they’re a hotbed for meeting models from all over the world—especially during Fashion Week, when designers show their new stuff...

- Things I Learned from David Hasselhoff -

< A Hoff-tastic Thread >

1) BE GOOD AT YOUR JOB

I worked on several media projects with Hasselhoff.

Last time was when we were on Bloomberg TV together promoting a game.

In all that time, I never saw him flub a SINGLE line... Perfect take after perfect take.

Practice might not make perfect, but it makes you darn good over time.

It also meant morning shows always loved to have him on.

Which made promoting events incredibly easy...

-Why is the Russian Military Doing So Bad?-

(A military-politico Thread)

Russia seems bogged down. Why?

Russia has terrible demographics. Below replacement birth-rate.

And the number of top-leaders who are knowledgable+experienced is small...

...and shrinking.

Why? Casualties have been high in Ukraine, as you might know.

Thanks to the fall of the Soviets, the number of experienced, educated political & military leaders is small.

A bad economy, and a generation of alcohol abuse, while perhaps understandable...

...will do that to you. So?

Things I Learned Working with Clint Eastwood

(A Manly Thread)

Years back, I had the pleasure to work with one of my idols, Clint Eastwood.

It was great seeing him in action, because he is so 100% Not-Hollywood-At-All... Technically, I worked for Sequoia Lighting, the lighting company owned by Tom Stern...

When Eastwood directs, Tom is usually his cinematographer. But the point is, I got to hang around productions a lot.

Eastwood is famous for not shooting like a normal Hollywood director...

Digital Nomad Tips: MONACO

(A Short Thread - a Month in Monaco)

Monaco is tiny city-state on the French Riviera. Technically, it's its own little country.

It's one of the most expensive and wealthiest places in the world.

So, how do you hang out without being rich...? The architecture, particularly in Monte Carlo, is that of the Belle Époque...old Euro glamour.

You've probably seen it in the movies.

Because it's so wealthy, it's also super clean.

I'm sure you could easily eat off the streets in Monaco...

- Things I Learned Living Around The World -

(a thread on being a digital nomad in 20+ countries, and how you can do it)

I work in marketing and biz-dev, so I can mostly live anywhere...

These are some of the things I have learned from living out of a suitcase for 3 years... I put everything I owned in the US in storage in Dec 2018.

This is what I learned:

1) You can live in most countries for 3 months, without a visa.

2) Outside of North America and Western Europe, living is cheap...

- Things I Learned Living Around The World -

(a thread on being a digital nomad in 20+ countries, and how you can do it)

I work in marketing and biz-dev, so I can mostly live anywhere...

These are some of the things I have learned from living out of a suitcase for 3 years... I put everything I owned in the US in storage in Dec 2018.

This is what I learned:

1) You can live in most countries for 3 months, without a visa.

2) Outside of North America and Western Europe, living is cheap...

How I Built a Gaming Company from ZERO & Sold it for 8 Figures

- PART 2: Hollywood & Celebrities -

(THREAD) But despite the rats and all the "no" answers, we kept at it.

Soon, we had lined up a some game development work as subcontractors.

It wasn’t making us rich, but it was paying the bills.

I was so proud I was when I saw our first game being promoted next year in London.

How I Built a Gaming Company from ZERO & Sold it for 8 Figures

- PART I: Rats and London -

(A story about a lot of hard work and a bit of luck)

(THREAD)

It started when I was VP of Marketing for a game company (not my own company)... I honestly didn’t know much about games at the time, but I had just sold my PR company, and I was out of work and bored.

It turns out producing video games is not all that different from producing movies or documentaries or TV, which fortunately I did have some experience in.

Things I Learned Hanging Out w/ Hulk Hogan

Hulk wasn't the first celebrity/actor I worked with, but he was one of the most unusual.

In a good way.

(THREAD) I worked with Hulk pretty regularly for several years; and one of those years was really memorable.

Mainly because just about everything in Hulk's life was completely falling apart.

In the course of just 12 months the following stuff happened to him:

Once I was working in the Cotopaxi mountains of Ecuador, in the Andes.

At nearly 6,000 ft, it was one of the highest in the country.

It was also an active volcano.

There, I met a family living just as their ancestors had lived for 1,000 years...

/ (thread) / We were visiting an Andean tribe, documenting how they raised goats for wool.

The Cotopaxi is called a "Sacred Mountain" by the locals, the water from the glacier at the top feeds the village's crops every year.

But sometimes the volcano erupts...