We are a few days into quarter two. Lets take a look back at what we set out to do and what we’ve actually done. In January, I laid out a strategic goal for Leechon to be reached in six-months which is, “I am an Executive Producer.”

To reach this strategic business goal, I laid out two objectives that must be met:

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Strategic Objective #1 - Outsource IlmCast.com and GemReel.com to the AlMaghrib Qabaail totally. What this would entail is equipping 15 AlMaghrib Qabaail on the know-how of producing and distributing:

• Professional 30-60 minute lectures for IlmCast.com so that there is a pipeline of content laid out every month and its automated

• Quality level videos and Gem Reels for the promotion of seminars and other AlMaghrib activities within the local student bodies.

Reaching this objective will totally lay down the foundation to automate the production of content, whether it be for AlMaghrib or other independent Leechon projects. Sort of like a decentralized studio system.

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Strategic Objective #2 - Develop and Produce a client project from the back. This would require that I be an effective manager where I don’t have to micromanage. Rather I oversee a project from start to finish but I personally don’t have to do the major hands on work such as editing, and what not.

Achieving this will be a major development in my CEO muscles. being able to lead from the back is absolutely necessary to be an effective Executive Producer.

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As per the 2009 Goals and Objectives post, Q1 goals were the following:

Quarter 1 - 2009
January - March

Finish and close client-projects started in 2008 and earlier who aren’t on a monthly contract.

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For the most part, all but one were closed. For the ones that were closed, the master DVD needs to be mailed out and a blog posts needs to be written up reflecting on the experience. That’s about eight projects that need “spotlighting”.

Light Upon Light seminar from Eman Rush was the only project that hasn’t been completed yet and it has proven to be a real challenge. The main issue that’s come into play is the mislabeling of tapes by the original production team. We’re all human and we make mistakes, its just that some mistakes end up being paid for by the time of others (the editor in this case).

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Launch “God Speak” - 2 hour feature lecture by Nouman Ali Khan as a means laying down the foundation for an online distribution network.

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This is one of the projects that was completed. We ended up renaming it to “Divine Speech Prologue”. If you haven’t seen the completed feature, I recommend you search for “”Divine Speech Prologue” on YouTube.

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Contract a bookkeeper.

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I was presented with a number of options. I decided to move Samir (see The Team) to this. It’s been a challenge so far, scheduling for training and laying out the processes for how to do the actual corporate stuff.

At this moment I have to simply lay out a system so that internal corporate bookkeeping is a cookie cutter process, make the policies clear and lay out a budget for this to work.

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Resume and finish Secrets of Video Production course on Message Mastery.

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The new release schedule is well on its way. See the updates on http://messagemastery.com - We’ve completed all of production and are into the sessions for Post-Production.

This Saturday @ 1pm we’re having a session on “Unveiling Facebook as a Marketing Tool for Videos” - If you’re a member, remember to write it into your weekend schedule. If you’re not a member then sign up!

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Launch a project specific course on Message Mastery as a follow up to Secrets of Video Production in which participants will be working toward a complete feature be working as a means of equipping AlMaghrib Institute Qabaail with adequate media personnel.

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Got no where with this, considering the current course is still in session. This objective will be adjusted and moved into to Quarter Two.

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Start at least one client-project valued at over $7,000 and delegate majority of operations to dedicated proteges via Message Mastery.

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This goal didn’t go exactly as I envisioned, but I did start such a project. The client was DiscoverU and the projects that were started were two seminars:

• Millionaire Who Went to Jannah - Two Day Seminar
• DiscoverU Certification - 10 Day Certification Seminar

So far development and production were completed in one shot. A major shout out to my Qabeelat Majd (Toronto) crew (you know who you are!) for a job well done. The challenge currently is laying out the post-production process in a totally systematic way so that it can be edited without my presence.

The parts that I will be hands on is developing the marketing and promotional material for this project, which is my forte and I want to do it. The post-production of the two seminars will be totally delegated inshaAllah.

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Produce a “live-action” trailer and distribute it on YouTube HD.

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Initially I intended the Breach of Covenant trailer to be the fulfillment of this objective, but deadlines decided otherwise. I did manage to keep to this objective on the last minute by releasing the Divine Link: Fiqh of Salah Promo

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Keep Leechon’s Blog to be focused on: (1) Commentary and news on industry, (2) Strategic News and how the company deals with it, (3) Commentary on issues bigger than the company itself, (4) Reflections on projects produced by Leechon.

Keep Message Mastery’s blog focused on: (1) Reviews of products, (2) Inform about communication methods and tools, (3) Teach and instruct

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I’ve been keeping to this so far. The only adjustment I’m going to make from this point is to keep Reviews of products used in Leechon projects on the Leechon blog (as I have done so far), and not on the Message Mastery blog.

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Start an “Idea of the Week” video series on Leechon which pitches an ideas and starts a brainstorm on outrageous and cool thoughts. - Perhaps some of those ideas will bear fruit!

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This objective evolved into a totally different exercise. Ended up with 30+ ideas:
http://www.leechon.com/30-ideas-give-your-feedback-890.htm

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Begin negotiations and talks with a client to launch a joint project that works as an online income stream.

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This objective hasn’t gone very far. I ran into a legal obstacle of a non-profit entity (501c3) being a member of LLC. I’m still unclear on some parts of the legalities of such a dealing. Currently not sure on how I’m going to approach this.

If anyone has any info or suggestions on this, you’re more than welcome to share.

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Spend a weekend in professional Adobe After Effects training.

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Got no where with this.

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Start a monthly group instruction for Message Mastery members on various topics that cover areas of business, film, media and communication.

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Didn’t meet this objective in Q1, but our first session in this manner starting this Saturday @ 1pm. Log into Message Mastery for details.

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Launch a project portfolio website for Leechon.

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This objective was expanded to totally restructuring the Leechon website so that is resembles something more corporate and professional. The planning and development of this is complete. All that remains is execution, which is slated for later April or early May.

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We all have ideas. They’re so cheap. We get so many every day. We share them with each other and everyone else, but by the end of the day we forget it completely. This post is dedicated to presenting a means of saving any and all of your ideas so that you can use spilt personality as a means of moving forward with the outrageously remarkable ones.

Leechon is a result of preserving a series of ideas for a period of ten days. At the end of those ten days, the ideas were collected, filtered and analyzied. That led to coming up with actual steps to develop a project with then formed into Leechon.

Step 01 - Idea Creation/Collection
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We need to have some sort of method of collecting ideas. Always have something to write on. Have a box or folder at home to throw your ideas into. Doesn’t matter whether the idea is “good” or not. Just write it down. Set yourself a goal where every day, no matter what you’ll write down at least three ideas. Do this over a period of ten days.

Step 02 - Opportunity Evaluation
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Of the list of ideas you’ve collected over 10 days. Pick the top three. How do you pick your top three? - It’s up to you really:

• You can show them to your friends and see which ones get the best results
• You can randomly pick them
• You can have your mom pick them out
• You can see which one sounds cool
• You can pick three that start with the letter “C” (for no reason what so ever)

Bottom line is that you have to pick three.

This is where you get to use Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats” to properly evaluate those top three ideas. What are the “Six Thinking Hats”?

• White Hat - This is where you are totally objective and neutral to the idea. What information do you have on the idea. Any data of sort? Figures? Dates?

  Lets say you want to start a magazine focused towards filmmakers in the New Jersey area. - How many filmmakers are there in New Jersey? What are some trends among NJ filmmakers? How much money do they spend on subscriptions? Etc.

• Yellow Hat - Here you look at the value, benefits and feasibility of the idea with total optimism.

  If you took action on this idea, what would be the beneficial impact of it? What opportunities would arise as a result of it? What value does it bring?

• Black Hat - This is where you look at all the critical points. Approach the idea with caution. What are the negative implications and the downsides to the idea? Look at the dangers threats the idea presents logically.

  Look at the idea with pessimism. Try to see why the idea might not work. Lay out the fears associated with this. Looking at it this way will allow you to see the weak points and plan around and develop contingency plans it in the event you decide to take action on it.This method of thinking is a means of bringing you back to reality and dealing with the real issues and difficulties that may arise.

• Red Hat - What feelings do you associate with this idea? When you think of the idea do you feel fear? Threatened? Excited? Pumped? Sad? What are your gut feelings and hunches? What intuitive thoughts come to mind?

  You may also want to think about how other people will respond emotionally. Try to understand the responses of people who may not know why you’re executing on this idea.

• Green Hat - This is where you let your creativity shine.

  From the perceived problems what are some alternatives and possibilities that you can think of? What are some ways to change the idea to improve it and make it better in the face of the challenges and perceived problems. What’s interesting about the idea?

• Blue Hat - This is where you get to take a bird’s eye view of the idea. Look at the different hats in relation to one another. You may want to direction your attention to any one of the other hats.

  In this area you’re not thinking about the idea itself, rather the subject of the idea. The big picture

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What does all this have to do with Leechon?

Everything! - One of the quarter one goals for 2009 (as stated in the previous post) was to:

Start an “Idea of the Week” video series on Leechon which pitches an ideas and starts a brainstorm on outrageous and cool thoughts. - Perhaps some of those ideas will bear fruit!

My issue was that I have just way too many ideas. What I’ll be doing starting tomorrow (Friday) is everyday for ten days lay out three ideas. At the end of those ten days I’m going to follow the process I’ve laid out above.

This is a discipline I intend to keep. InshaAllah by the end of the year I’ll some some really phenominal ideas that have been thought through. If I don’t move on them, then inshaAllah others can.