Retirement? What's that??

For many years, I haven't seriously considered retirement. I feel that if you're doing what you love with people you respect, why quit? Besides, I'm an entrepreneur, and that's more of an identity than a career. I can't quit that. 

But sometimes circumstances change, and recently I left my dream job as CEO of closerlook and President of US/Global Marketing for the company that bought closerlook. Jon Sawyer, my business partner and friend also stepped down. I guess you could call us a package deal.

This prompted a raucous and joyful "retirement" party at Brehon Pub in Chicago, the very location where closerlook was started many years ago. Friends and colleagues showed up with their own fond memories. And of course, as I've done many times before, I jumped up on a bar stool to give my final speech.

Brehon Pub, April 27, 2022

"So good to see everyone. And I mean everyone, current closerlookers and former closerlookers. You look so beautiful! You didn't think Jon Sawyer and I were just going to disappear into nothingness, did you?? Just slink away? We don't do slinking!

I have stood before you hundreds of times. And this will be my last. I will tell you that every time I stood at the front of a room, whether for Coffee Talk, LoveFest, Town Hall, new employee orientation, holiday parties, whatever, it was always with a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Excitement that it afforded us all another opportunity to connect, communicate, deepen our relationship. And trepidation because I knew I was entering the no-bull sh*t zone.

If I didn't speak with complete candor and transparency, you would know. And I would know that you knew. And you would know that I knew that you knew... Am I right? So we kept each other honest.

That's the closerlook way. That's our definition of being authentic. No hiding the ball or shaving the truth.

So tonight, as I reflect back on a career as an entrepreneur, I want to leave you with a three things that I think are critically important.

1. Be radically authentic
2. Invest in relationship
3. Trust each other

Be radically authentic

Why did I start closerlook, in this very bar? I had started my career in television, and worked my way up from production to writer, producer, and director of award-winning TV shows and documentaries. As a young creative in his 20s, I was having the time of my life.

Except for one thing - the corporate management at the station where I worked was old-school, top-down, command and control. Very little interest in listening to people on the front lines who actually knew the business, and more interested in looking for every possible way to cut corners, even at the expense of quality.

After several years of trying to work within the system, I decided to forge out on my own and start my own production company. But it wasn't just the idea of building something of my own that intrigued me. I actually thought of closerlook as a social experiment - could I build a culture of respect, a meritocracy where the best ideas won the day, a company that honored truth telling, radical transparency?

I wanted to build a company that I would like to work at. Hence closerlook, where even our floor plan suggests openness and transparency. Where you always have access to anyone.

This is also why from the very beginning, I adopted the Open Book Management principle. Twice a year I would stand in front of you and give the financial details on the business, good, bad or ugly. Our revenue, our expenses, and our profit. Trends. And what it meant to you.

Was there risk in doing that? Yes. But the benefits of creating a culture of openness far outweighed those risks in my mind. 

I challenge you to carry this torch of radical authenticity forward, here or wherever you may be in the future.

Knowing Allison and her team, Abbie, Naomi, Amy, Julie, Binish, Leif who have taken the mantle of leadership, that's how they're wired, too. But they need you to be full partners with them.

Invest in Relationship

Touch the heart to move the mind. I came up with this slogan in the very early days of closerlook as I reflected on how people learn, process information, change behavior. That's why good storytelling is so powerful, because it's connecting with an audience at the heart-level.

Our clients are very content-oriented, but we do our best work when we are able to convert them to considering patient engagement, relationships, emotion.

Why was our most recent product launch so successful? Yes, the science is amazing. But the launch was successful because the audience was ready. And why were they ready? Because the team built a strategy around touching the heart. You built a patient community around the voices and lives of patients and created a Cannes award-winning documentary film that tells the true lives of three patients in their struggles with their rare disease.

Why do you think our medical affairs client is so excited about the disease awareness campaign we are building for them? Because you have created a website that is a work of art, something totally irresistible and engaging. Something new and fresh.

Something that touches the heart to move the mind.

And this holds true not only for the work we do for our clients, but for how we treat each other. Touching the heart means finding meaning, creating connections, relationships, where it counts, in here - the heart.

It's giving people the "why" behind a decision, because that is respectful and humane.

If you want to motivate your team, change their minds, then start with building a true, trusted relationship.

Trust each Other

When I started closerlook, I did everything. That's what you do at a start-up. You make coffee, take out the trash, cold call, write proposals, close the deal, then write the strategy, build a team, execute and deliver, send out an invoice, pay your freelancers, pay your taxes, and then start all over again.

Over the years, as we grew, I hit upon the notion of not just hiring staff but hiring really smart people. If I could hire people smarter than me, then over time the average IQ of the firm would go up, and it wouldn't be constrained by me!

As we hired all these really smart and creative people, I began to run out of things to do. I found someone who was a better account exec, a better project manager, a better writer (thank you, Dave Reidy), a better financial controller (the bar there was pretty low). 

Then one day, rather than retrench to what was comfortable, I decided to take this up a notch. Another thought experiment. Could I create a self-managing company, in which I can release the entire business to these really smart people I hired.

For an entrepreneur, that's a pretty scary proposition. It requires a leap of faith and trust in my team. But I did that, starting about eight years ago. Soon, work would be sold, designed, delivered, and paid for, without my intervention at any step of the process.

And that's when magic happened. You felt empowered to run the business, not by listening to edicts from the c-suite, but by using your own good judgement based on what your clients and your team required.

This magic happened because I was able to trust you, and you were able to trust each other.

Trust each other - don't be afraid to delegate. Partner. Listen.

So there it is, be radically authentic, invest in relationship, trust each other.

Oh, and if there is a coda to all of this, it's Love. What I have always felt toward you, and I know Jon shares this sentiment, is yes, personal and professional respect and admiration.

But here at closerlook, I have to tell you that what I have always felt, and always will, is love. For each of you. You're good people. And I want only the best for each of you.

I'm proud of you, I'm excited for you, and, I love you.

So a toast, to each one of you on your life journey, and to the principles of authenticity, of relationship, trust, and love.

Cheers!”

So what’s next? Well, it’s spring in Chicago. My boat Jasmin is back in the water, so summer should be consumed by sailing and racing. But I’ve got a few other ideas… Watch this space!??