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Three ideas everyday for the next 10 days – on ways of growing Leechon financially.

Looking back at this year so much has been accomplished, yet so many things need to be changed. A company’s sustainability and growth is based on how effectively it engages in projects that bring in revenue and increasing profits.

After coming back from my trip to Ottawa this weekend, a few things were put into perspective to me.

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Growth can be painful, scary and most certainly exciting.

For the next 10 days I’ll be doing a brainstorm of ideas on ways to increase revenues for Leechon in a systematic manner and build good-will/social-capital. I encourage you to share ideas or suggestions you may have as well.

I’d love for you to engage me on a personal level regarding the ideas via Twitter or Facebook.

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I was almost ready to launch this thing until something weird happened. The application that I setup accidentally got deleted. It’s a VERY frustrating feeling. Qadr Allah.

Everything else is pretty much in place.

My focus with this internship is to pour as much of myself as I can into my interns over a period of 5 months. Some updates and changes to the internship:

• I’ve decided to include a live in-person workshop as part of the deal combined with one-on-one training with your team – This will come only after you and your team have been accepted and have fulfilled some requirements.

• I will be accepting only SEVEN people to be team-leaders. – I’m doing this is to focus on quality development.

Keep a look out here for when the application goes live within the next 36 hrs inshaAllah.

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Internship is slated to begin Jan 2010 -

Application process will begin before end of this weekend. – December will be all about applicants and gathering teams. First assignment will be handed out in the first week of Jan.

WHY LAUNCH THIS INTERNSHIP? -

I’m calling all super heroes with special abilities. Whether you need to teleport or borrow your friend’s bat-mobile, if you have ability to lead people, strong work ethic, an interest in media and technology and an eye for creativity then; I want YOU!

I need a sidekick. Actually, I need many sidekicks. There’s just too much that needs to be done and I simply cannot do it alone. We’re all members of this ummah and we all need to participate.

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I’ve had the opportunity to work with AlMaghrib Institute and producing their video marketing material for almost the past two years. In these two years AlMaghrib has GROWN to three different countries – United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with almost 30 different student bodies world wide – consisting of tens of thousands of students.

Because the student body has grown massively, the demand for content with a presentation style that is more widely appealing and professional in nature has also grown.

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WHAT IS THE SIDE-KICK TO DO? HOW IS THIS GOING TO WORK? -

From every student body location I’ll be selecting a team leader who will basically be my producer in training. The team-leader/producer’s job will be to:

• Apply – An application process will take place. followed by an on-the-phone interview to make sure that this is really something that is suited for you and that your goals are in line with what this opportunity offers.

• Gather a team – Three to five people from each location are to be part of the internship. No team = No internship. If you don’t have leadership ability, then this isn’t for you. Types of people you might want on your team are; [individual with quick technical learning ability], [individual with people skills], [individual with a likeness towards technology], and [individual with problem solving ability].

• Acceptance – First assignment that I hand out will be an acceptance assignment. Each producer will have 31 days to demonstrate their leadership ability and work ethic. If assignment is completed in 31 days then the producer and his/her team members are in.

• MessageMastery.com will be our headquarters. Each producer and his/her team members will have access to the members forum inside as well as learning content and I’ll be conducting all follow up and training there.

• Carry out assignments – There will be a DEADLINE schedule I lay out. If deadlines aren’t met, the team is dead. Producer and team members will be out of the internship. No excuses. As a producer, expect to put in about 5-10 hrs a week for the next few months. If you cannot commit that much time, then this isn’t for you.

• Types of Projects – The types of assignments and projects the producers will be responsible for will be in the range of short drama films, short documentaries, high quality lecture production as well as commercials.

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HOW TO PREPARE

One of the key things I’m looking for is your ability to demonstrate leadership.

I’ll be putting up the application form this coming weekend, so keep your eyes open.

Part of the application and interview process will be addressing your past performance as a leader. What skills you applied and the results you were able to achieve. Start thinking about them now.

When you gather your team, you’ll need to gather your tools as well. What I mean by tools is your camera production and post-production system.

My recommended camera production system is as follows:

• Camera – Canon HG10 ~$400.00 USD used on eBay
• Lens Filters – UV, Polarizer & Neutral Density ~$20.00 USD on eBay
• Lens – Wide Angle Lens between .38x to .5x ~$30.00-$60.00 USD on eBay & Amazon.com

• XLR Microphone – Azden SGM-2x ~$200.oo USD on eBay & Amazon.com
• XLR Audio Adapter – BeachTek DXA-2S ~$180.oo on Amazon.com & BHPhotoVideo.com

• Work Lights – 1000-Watt Halogen Work Light w/ Tripod ~$40 each on Amazon.com, Home Depot or Walmart – you’ll need 3 for indoor shooting
• Portable Lights – 130 LED Work Light ~$60.00 each on Amazon.com – You’ll need 3 for night shooting

• Tripod ~$30.00 at any electronics store
• Car - Look in your driveway. It comes with an expensive built in stabilization system. Makes for a great dolly

• Computer to Edit on – Adobe Premiere CS4 - Be resourceful
• 1TB Hard Drive for storage digital footage & projects ~$100.00 USD – see NewEgg.com

If you have any questions, ask right away.

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It’s been an eventful weekend. This Friday, my wife and I flew out to Los Angeles.

While she hung out at the Bayyinah Tajweed classes taught by Wisam Shareef, I attended a low-budget film financing seminar conducted by Suzanne Lyons, an independent producer.

I met Suzanne in April when she spoke at Film Specific’s Going Global Bootcamp. It was there I learned out about this particular workshop that I attended.

Outside of all the technical factors of financing and getting investors, a few points I took away from the class,

• Be selfless and inspiring - To be a successful producer, you have to be more than just a leader. You need to do more than just influence those around. Be able to put yourself aside and genuinely care for all of those you’re working with. Your very being must inspire excitement and enthusiasm for the work at hand. If you can’t do that, don’t be a producer.

• Make your movie for less – If your budget is $200,000, cut it down to $180,000 and get ready to work your butt off. – You’re better off than the people trying to sell their films today. It’ll take you about two years before your feature is done. By then the market will have picked up again – hopefully.

• Be unique in your movie – Don’t be a Slumdog Millionaire, Paranormal Activity, or Blair Witch. Be your own thing that the market wants to enjoy. Be the one to be copycatted.

• If you have a niche audience, truly consider developing your own distribution channels and systems.

One of the guest speakers – a sales agent – used an interesting analogy when talking about taking on the entertainment industry.

It’s like an Olympic race.

Are you getting up early every morning to run around the block while others sleep? Are you training yourself to be the best in your neighborhood, town, city, state and region?

Are you working to be the best in your country? Are you working hard to represent your people?

If in the end you make it into the Olympics will you really win the gold medal? That Oscar?

That is the reality of the business

Not everyone wins the Oscar, but many people have careers. Some just race. Others become trainers and mentors, but very few get the gold.

Out of 100 ideas there are 100 scripts. Out of 100 scripts only 10 movies get made, but there is usually one success.

My thoughts to all this: Dream bigger dreams, work smart and leave the results to Allah.

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Next up,

My meeting with some of Hollywood professionals.