https://www.discovery-studios.com/

Takeaways:

There is a content surplus problem.

“You need to invent new ways for people to work with one another that look a lot different than: ‘we’re all going to start a business together.’”

There have never been as many creators and distribution platforms as there are today. And while overall that’s a VERY good thing, it leads to collaboration issues. How many times has a YouTuber had a secret they were working on but couldn’t tell you about? That was likely just them trying to build a new business with someone else. Something bigger. With even more content.

From Joe’s perspective, we need to invent new ways of working together without creators all starting media companies. It’s just not sustainable.

Back to the creative infrastructure drawing board.

“We need to rebuild a lot of the infrastructure from scratch and rethink it all. What does a 401k or health insurance look like for a full-time creator? What does the newsroom look like for a bunch of writers?”

There has been a massive shift to ownership and independence in the creative economy. Creatives have broken free from corporate chains and can now support themselves by themselves. But what about the good bits from “traditional” ways of doing things?

Joe is friends with some Substack writers who once worked in newsrooms, but now can create and earn from anywhere in the world. What do they miss most? The newsroom. Just hanging around and being able to share stories they’ve found with fellow writers.

What is the future of that culture?

Culture is the brain of any organization.

“I cried. In front of the entire company. It really fucked with me.”

Part of a company’s growing pains is dialing in the culture. At startups where projects move at a lightning pace, it’s easy to just be “go, go, go” and forget to take stock of your employees’ wellbeing.

During a Stir culture check-in (an employee feedback workshop), Joe’s very own intern brother dropped a truth bomb on his leadership tendencies that brought him to tears.

But in that moment, Joe felt an immediate improvement. It was a wake-up call that would make the company better and smarter. The approach to collaboration and problem solving becomes the company’s brain, so internal therapy is a must.

Stop drops and roll.

“What I realized was, they were distracting us from actually solving our bigger problem we were going after.”

Stir released a series of “drops” that solved specific tech-based problems and brought a lot of hype and excitement. But it was taking energy away from building the core product. Joe didn’t even realize the downside of the seemingly positive initiatives until his board members weighed in.

New founders and employees alike have to be conscious of how resources are being used and whether or not snatching the low-hanging fruit is worth it in the long run.

Be dead-set on deadlines.

“We don’t push deadlines.”

There’s a fine line between a hard worker and a toxically hard worker. But hard work is a value nonetheless and at the core of every successful enterprise. For Joe, his work ethic was inherited. He looks to his grandparents as a proven case study for passion and grit — a guiding light for getting shit done year after year.

And if you want to get shit done, you need to create deadlines. Joe is rather aggressive regarding due dates, but there’s logic to his approach. At Stir, Joe favors increasing the speed at which everyone learns and focusing only on what’s essential.

“Every time you do something, there are all of these constraints that I think produce more well-scoped work, and they help filter out the things that don’t actually matter, that you think matter.”

To get the full story from Joe Albanese, listen to his episode of The Creator Economy Podcast here:

LISTEN

https://www.discovery-studios.com/