Who is Michael Ovitz?

For some reason I decided to start re-reading “Who is Michael Ovitz?” If you don’t know who Michael Ovitz is, then you can Google him. The main reason I started to re-read it is that he tells some great stories and outlines his beginnings of starting CAA (Creative Artists Agency).
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He does a great job of describing the early years and just getting by to get the firm going to the later years when he started “packaging” movies. There were some key takeaways that I think are important but also was a reminder for myself.

1. Incremental growth is great. It’s the blocking and tackling of any business. Adding more customers with increasing average deal sizes is fantastic. It makes for a great growth curve to show VCs. However, you should also have some monster outlier deals in your pipeline. Especially as a founder, you should be working a few big relationships that are game changers. These can come in the form of partnerships or large customers. I once had a startup where my average customer was about $1k per month. We were adding 10 customers per month and getting great referrals etc. Then I started spending time with sales people at some of the mega consulting companies. They started making introductions to some Fortune 1000 type clients. Then I started building a pipeline of six to seven figure contracts. When we closed a $800k client, it was a game changer. We couldn’t do it consistently, but when we did it was a big boost. Especially in an era of SaaS, Account Based Marketing, Product Led Growth, etc. , customer acquisition becomes very process oriented. As a founder, make space to go big game hunting. Those game changing deals have big payoffs.
2. Build deep and key trusted relationships. Orvitz talks about all the lawyers that he became friends with and became his trusted network. In order to scale a business, you have to have a strong network and nurture it. It a world of 15 minute calls and 30 minute Zoom meetings, I have gone the other way (I still do a lot of these), I have been doing 3-4 hour in-person workshop type meetings. A few months ago, I flew 2 hours away just to have dinner with an executive. He asked me “Who are you in town visiting?” I said “you.”  It was meaningful to him that I came all that way to have dinner. I have learned that you can send a client a nice bottle of wine, or you can jump on a plane and spend some meaningful time with them over a meal. The latter is more beneficial to building an authentic relationship.
3. Your relationship is with the person. Orvitz talks about making sure whenever one of the studio heads was looking for a new job, he made a point of helping them find one. I have always done this, I still do it today. It’s very common that clients come to me and share that they are looking for a change. I always try to help out. A client will only ask if they trust you and know that you can help.
4. There is a part where Orvitz’s mentor asks him, if he worked 10% less, would it affect his success. His response is No. He doesn’t stop working less. I have this same issue. When you are mission oriented, you don’t watch the clock and don’t count your hours. In my case, I am available and helpful almost every day and anytime. I message with clients and portco founders all hours of the day and 7 days a week. Why? I actually want to help them. I also answer LinkedIn and my community messages within 24 hours. My work isn’t a job, it’s a mission. If your startup isn’t a mission, then you may want to rethink it. On a side note, I started watching The Bear. A great example (while fictional) of people that are working hard because they are on a mission.
5. Get creative. When Orvitz talks about packaging movies with mostly his clients and not charging the studio for packaging the deal, it changes his business in a big way. It requires him to think like a studio and not an agent, but gets paid even better.
6. Become influential. I had a founder that I never met ping me to tell me that I was putting him out of business. I was confused. He said that I led an investment in his competitor and that many of my strategic investors and clients were cancelling their contracts and moving to my portco.  That apparently my reputation mattered and people were paying attention. Until then, I hadn’t realized that I had that kind of influence. Orvitz has a similar moment in his book.
7. Writing. Orvitz talks about writing a half dozen memos a day. I think developing some daily and weekly thought and sharing them are critical to scale. This newsletter drives so much inbound meetings and conversations, along with my LI posts that I try to publish them without fail. I am currently writing this after a 20 hour day carting a 2 year old from Atlanta to N.Cal. Bathtime, bedtime books and everything else. But if I skipped a week, that may mean that I didn’t help someone this week. That’s important and part of my mission.