Interviewee Name: Susan Murphy
Company Name: Jester Creative Inc.
Website: http://www.jestercreative.com
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Susan Murphy: I live in Ottawa, Canada with my husband, 3 cats, and 1 dog. I’m an entrepreneur, a writer, and a teacher. But mostly, I’m a storyteller.
Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?
Susan Murphy: A few years ago, my business partner and I made the decision to get rid of our office and work remotely. Our team also works remotely, and it’s the best decision we ever made for the company.
As a result, I have a lot of flexibility in my days. Typically I start the day off with a big, warm mug of coffee and my laptop or iPad. I read through the morning headlines, check in on Twitter and Facebook and say good morning to some friends. I then usually compose a blog post or two, for my own personal blog at suzemuse.com, or for one of the other blogs I contribute to (Workshifting.com and Thoughtwrestling.com).
I try to schedule meetings for late morning or early afternoon, so I can work in lunch and errands midday without affecting the flow of what I call the “real work” in the morning and afternoon.
My “real work” time is focused on projects like client work, working on our television show, or prepping for classes and speaking engagements.
I teach at the local community college a couple of nights a week as well as some online courses, so my evenings are usually made up of either teaching commitments, events, and of course, some social time with family and friends, too.
Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
Susan Murphy: I love to work hard. I’m not afraid to work hard, and since I’ve been self employed (going on 8 years now), I’ve not had a difficult time staying motivated. When you are solely responsible for your own income, it pushes you to keep bringing in new opportunities. Lack of money is a big motivator!
But mostly, I try to surround myself with people and ideas that are inspiring. I watch successful people and study how they work. Then, I try to bring what I learn into my own environment. Watching other people succeed is a great motivator.
Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Susan Murphy: I would have way more confidence. I’m a shy person by nature, and I tend to not give myself enough credit for my experience. I’ve been working in media and communications for 22 years, but sometimes I still feel like I’m a kid just starting out…like I have so much more to learn. And I realize that in many ways, I do.
However, if I had the chance to do it over, I would have done more to overcome my fears and shyness sooner, to make the most of the opportunities that have been presented to me.
Avil Beckford: What's the most important business or other discovery you've made in the past year?
Susan Murphy: I think the thing that’s been the most apparent to me this year is the real power of what’s possible when you work and collaborate with other people.
I’ve learned both sides of collaboration too, because there are times when it works and times when it doesn’t. I’ve worked on some great blogging projects, and some awesome web and video projects this year, where the team was tight and there was a lot of trust, and the ideas and work just flowed. However, I’ve also had some situations this year where trust and respect went by the wayside, and collaborative efforts broke down.
When trust leaves a relationship of any kind, business, personal or both, it can be very damaging. Unfortunately, not every collaboration is going to work out, because not everyone has the same level of trust and integrity.
I guess the important discovery for me was to realize that it can, and will be both ways, and that we should focus on the positive collaborations, and know when to let things go if it’s not working out.
Avil Beckford: What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?
Susan Murphy: Well, hands down it has to be the emergence of the social Web. As I mentioned before, I’m a storyteller. I started my career by helping people to tell stories using video, by helping people produce TV shows that were important to them. I moved into the Web world in 1997, and continued to help people tell stories by building an online presence. But when I first got involved in the social part of the web – things like blogging, podcasting, and of course, Facebook and Twitter – the way people told stories began to evolve again.
I was like a sponge back in 2007 – absorbing everything I could about this new, social, online place. I contributed, I got to know people, I learned, and then, I started to really understand how to use these social tools to help people tell their stories.
I’m still a storyteller, at the root – but now, I have a whole lot of new storytelling tools at my disposal.
Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?
Susan Murphy: I try not to focus too much on threats, other than being aware that they are there. I prefer to move my business forward on the positive. If I feel threatened, I’m fearful, and I don’t think that’s a way to run a business.
But I suppose the biggest threat, if there is one, is the one that we all have – what if business dries up? What if the downturn in the economy hits hard? Being in a marketing-related field, we’re well aware that marketing budgets are often the first things to be cut. So, to counteract that, I think it’s necessary for companies to continue to be diverse – don’t just pigeon-hole yourself into one specialty. Use all of your skills and experience to find ways to help people.
That’s why, not only am I a TV producer, but I’m a consultant, a web site designer, a teacher, and a writer. I even do HR and recruiting work sometimes, because I have a background in that. I move my work in and out of where it needs to be for me to be always expanding, and growing.
Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?
Susan Murphy: Jester Creative prides itself on being a one-stop media production company. We build web sites of all sizes and complexity. We design print layouts. We write copy. We run marketing campaigns. We do training. We produce videos, and make television shows. We help our customers design and create and manage all of the media they make.
A lot of companies only provide one service or another – just web design, just video production, or just social media consulting. What sets us apart is that we do it all. We deliver fully integrated media campaigns on as small or as large a scale as our customers require.
Avil Beckford: What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?
Susan Murphy: I think by far, the thing I see done the most poorly is anything to do with social media. First of all, I believe that social media in and of itself is a buzzword, and because it’s a buzzword, there are lots of businesses out there who are trying to take advantage of the trendiness of the term. They are trying to build entire businesses around teaching people how to make an @ reply on Twitter, or create a page on Facebook, and charging way too much money for social media consulting services that are mostly bogus and not based on any real best practices or experience.
We don’t need to be teaching people how to get more followers on Twitter, in my opinion. We need to be teaching people how to become better communicators in this new era of communications.
People don’t need to be taught how to upload a video to YouTube. It’s one button – labelled, “Upload”. I think most people are smart enough to figure these things out. Given a bit of time and the self-motivation, anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can figure out how to use Twitter. What they may need more help with is using it to communicate well.
Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?
Susan Murphy: Back in 1994 I had the worst year of my life in terms of my health and personal life. In addition to the end of a significant relationship, I ended up quite sick more than once for 3 different, and fairly serious ailments. I spent much of the year either not working or only working part time. The worst of it was, I was only 24 years old.
Until that point, I’d always been very healthy. But I was working 100 hours a week in a very stressful environment. I had no distinction between my personal life, my friendships, and my work. In short, I was way out of balance, and at just 24 years of age, it had caught up to me. My body literally shut down, forcing me to stop suddenly, and take stock of where I was at and where I wanted to go.
It was a turning point for me, because I realized that everyone has a physical and emotional limit to what they can do.
I spent a good chunk of time over the next year or so healing physically and emotionally, and I came out on the other end of the experience a much stronger person with a sense of the direction I wanted to take with my life.
Though I would never wish sickness or heartbreak on anyone, these are often the times in our lives when we learn the most.
Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.
Susan Murphy: I was just out of college, 19 years old, and ready to take on the world. Only the world was not quite ready to take me on yet, apparently. Two years of broadcasting school, and there was not a job in sight. It didn’t help that the same year I graduated, both the CBC and CTV had just gone through rounds of layoffs. The future didn’t look so bright in my industry.
I discovered that the local community cable channel was looking for volunteers to work on productions, so I signed up. I quickly realized that this was a great way to get experience and to meet new people. Since I didn’t have a job, and I was still living with my parents at the time, I dedicated 40-60 hours per week to working on productions. One day, I was giving one of the staff producers a ride home, and he asked me if I was aware of a job placement program being run by the provincial government, where I could work at the station 40 hours a week for 4 months with pay. I signed on immediately and was accepted to the program. I was immediately taken under my boss Andre’s wing. He taught me everything he could about producing shows.
About 1 month into my placement, Andre got a promotion to Executive Producer. Suddenly, he had far less time to devote to producing his shows. He figured, since I was already basically doing the job, that I might as well step in and run the shows. He gave me a shot, trusted me with 7 programs that meant a lot to him, and set me off and running. I did so well that 3 months later, when my placement ended, I was hired full time. Andre was the person who believed in me from the beginning. To this day, 21 years later, he and I are still very good friends. I am forever grateful for his support and friendship.
It just goes to show that one must seek out and grab onto opportunities when they come their way. Even if the opportunity doesn’t mean a paying job at first, if it’s in line with your path, then it’s vital to grab hold. You never know where the path will take you.
Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?
Susan Murphy: I once made the mistake of trusting the wrong person too much. Although things were fine for the first little while, I started to feel suspicious that the person was not being truthful. Instead of terminating things when the red flags went up, I ignored the warning signs and continued. Ultimately, the bottom fell out of the relationship, all trust was gone, and it wound up being a very expensive mistake, both financially and emotionally.
I’ve learned that it’s one thing to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s another entirely to throw caution to the wind and blindly trust, especially when entering a business relationship with someone that you don’t have a history with. Trust and respect are to be earned, and take time to build. If you see red flags, heed the warnings and get to the bottom of it. Even if it means saying “no”, you’ll be better off in the end.
Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?
Susan Murphy: To be honest, I spend so little time focusing on disappointment that I can’t answer this question. Everyone makes mistakes, and I’ve made several. I’ve had hard times like everyone else, but I can’t look at things with regret and disappointment, because then I could never move forward. My advice is, when bad things happen, work as diligently as possible to pick up the pieces and carry on. Harbour no regrets. Forget about being disappointed. Take the lesson and move forward.
Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?
Susan Murphy: The toughest decision for me was finally quitting my full time job to start my business. Jumping off the cliff into the unknown was very frightening. Many things had to be put on hold financially. My husband had to sacrifice a lot and take on a second job.
There were many times when I wanted to give up and go back to my old life. There were lots of sleepless nights. But eventually things started to turn around, and now, 7 years in, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m grateful to my husband, my family, and my friends for sticking it out with me on this journey.
Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?
Susan Murphy: Getting my first job, marrying my husband, and starting my business.
Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?
Susan Murphy: I am a very shy person by nature. I’m most proud of the ability I’ve gained to stand up in front of people and teach and speak. It’s something I would have never dreamed of doing 20 years ago.
Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?
Susan Murphy: Through all the iterations of my career, mentors have been there. I watch, listen, and learn from them on a regular basis. And now, with the Internet, our mentors can be anywhere. I have friends that I only know online who influence me and teach me things on a daily basis. It’s a remarkable thing.
Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?
Susan Murphy: Above all else, be yourself.
Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?
Susan Murphy: Don’t spend too much time getting caught up in the method and the process. Spend the most time on using your natural talents and abilities to create great things.
.