Kevin Hong: Chief of Biz Dev of Sinemia | The Business Blast Podcast #531

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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Kevin Hong with us. He is the chief of biz dev at Cinemia, a MoviePass competitor that is in 5 countries, and the author of The Outlier Approach. So welcome to the show, man.

Thanks for having me.

Of course, man, grateful to have you here. We'll jump into the first one, Kevin. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life life that has an underlying valuable message?

Yeah, for sure. So I guess like those of you who aren't really familiar with me, I was one of the co-founders of a company called Dealflix. And Dealflix was kind of like a Groupon but for movie deals. And we launched this back in 2012. And the problem was, was working in the movie industry, it's very old school, and you have to kind of wine and dine, you people, shaking handshakes. That's typically the norm in the entertainment space. And we were fighting basically a two-part battle, right? So you had to get the partnerships with the theaters to offer discounted tickets at the movie theater. And then we had to get customers, moviegoing customers, essentially. So what we wanted to do was partner with as many partner theater partners as possible to get the inventory to put on our app and our mobile app. But then we had to kind of wine and dine these movie executives to get them on board. We didn't really have the resources to fly in, rent a car, book a hotel, do a meeting, and fly back, especially with some of these more independent mom-and-pop movie theaters. So what we decided to do was live in a van, drive around the country, and sign up as many theaters as possible. We ended up doing that for about 2 years and it was really fun. We ended up getting up to 750 theater locations. We ended up raising close to $5 million. Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank was one of our investors. We got Warner Brothers, Turner, as well as 500 Startups invested in our startup. Most people think it's a crazy idea to live in a van. But just like riding a bike, you get used to it. Your mind and body starts to adapt. I actually ended up writing a book with some of the experience at DealFlix. It ended up becoming an Amazon bestseller for 5 or 6 months. It sold at 38 bookstores. I ended up writing articles for Forbes and Inc. magazine related to that. Yeah, I think the lesson is just anything you put your mind into it, you kind of start to readjust reality and it becomes the norm.

Dude, that is awesome. I mean, that whole story is awesome, but what stuck out the most is that you got a shark, man. That is cool. You got a shark. Yeah. That is awesome, man. That's one of my favorite shows. So congratulations.

Sure.

The next one that I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Yeah, I guess reputation is everything. Guard it with your life. I think people a lot of times they kind of go for the quick wins, like a really high ROI after building a relationship really quickly. But people remember what you do. Many of my clients, when I launched new products at a new company or when I switched companies, they remember what you did for them. So my situation, I was ousted from my own startup and it sucked. But then although I didn't have my position, all my social capital moved into my next corporate executive role. And then it's switching over again to Sinomía. So some of my clients have signed up for all 3 services, which is crazy, but they believe in what I do and how I deliver excellent service and excellent product. And what ends up happening is that, you know, you stay in an industry for 4 or 5 years and you build a strong reputation, people will come after you. So, you know, When I was an advisor for a couple movie industry companies, I get paid $400 to $500 an hour just to chat and talk about my strategy because I'm probably one of the very few guys where I can text message anyone from AMC or studios, Warner and stuff like that, a C-level executive, and I'll get a response within a couple hours. So there's only a few people when you do that, especially Given the fact that I've only been in the industry for about 7 years.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

I think just kind of adapting a trader's mindset. So prior to jumping into the movie industry, I was a retail trader, I was a stock research analyst for a few years. Never get too high, never get too low. When we raised a few million dollars and we were doing $7 million a year annually at DealClicks, I was never too high of my own supply, if you will. And then when I got fired from my own company, I was casual enough to joke around. People would just ask me, "Hey, how's your day?" I'm like, "Hey, for a founder who got fired from his own company, I'm doing pretty well." And then people would look at me like, "Man, is this guy normal to just say that nonchalantly?" It almost made people around me uncomfortable, but I think Steve Jobs said it best, the journey is the reward. And people forget that and everyone's like, oh, you're so successful now. Shouldn't you start getting married, settling down, buying a nice car, et cetera? And I'm like, no, I love it. I show up to work 5:30 in the morning. I'm usually not done by 9:00. Sometimes I show up to work 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning because I'm so excited to work the next day. If you love what you do, it doesn't seem like work. So just get used to it. The highs and lows don't really matter if you're just focused on the journey and the whole process of it and just keep mastering it like it's your own craft. And then you'll go really far really quickly with that mindset and you can turn your life around in like 6 months.

Yeah, I could not agree more. I actually made like a video the other day and I was saying it's interesting. It's like when you work, if you're just working for money, like those hours you just said, like, you know, like 5 AM till 9 PM, if you're just working for money, then that's like hard work. But if you are working for something that like you enjoy and like you're passionate about, the 16 hours actually is not— like, I don't want to say it's easy, but I want to say that like it feels good, you know? Oh yeah. Like it's not a struggle. Sometimes it's struggle, but I just mean, I don't know, to me it's fun. Just like you, I could do podcasts and business meetings, like you're saying, from 5 AM to 9 PM, and it would not faze me. I actually like it. I think once you find it, you just go all in, and it's very different than a money motive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate that. I see a lot of people, So I see kind of like 2 or 3 different versions of success. So there are the types where, you know, like people want to be successful so that they can, you know, date someone super attractive, buy a nice car, wear nice clothes and stuff like that. And then once they hit, you know, in, you know, when they, once they hit their early 30s, I mean, like the same old, same old, their income doesn't increase like 50% every year. It's because they've gotten the nice car, you know, the nice house and stuff like that. Their ceiling is very finite. And then I see another type of person that's successful where when you're younger, you kind of have to do everything on your own because you're still trying to build your personal brand. You don't have employees. Even when you start your own business, you don't have the capital to hire a lot of people. So in your 20s, you can kind of get by drinking Red Bull and working 90 hours a week and not delegating your work. But you can't do that when you're hitting your young 30s and stuff like that. You can't do all-nighters. And keep your company afloat. So, you know what I mean? So, I still have friends like drinking Red Bull and they're like, you know, in their mid-30s. I'm like, bro, you can't scale your business like that. That's just ridiculous. Yeah.

And the next one I have for you, man, is if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

You know, I just— If it was me, I would just say something like, just be patient. Your time will come. Sometimes when you're too ambitious, you look up and you see the guys like Elon Musk and the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world and Bezos, and you're just like, man, how am I going to catch up? What do I got to do to get to their level? I guess this is for the uber ambitious folks. right? And then you start thinking like, man, like, this is just, this is just so much. So just take it as one day at a time. So think of one day as a race in itself and just think to yourself, well, yeah, I'm not gonna turn into like Elon Musk or, you know, Jeff Bezos in like one day. But if there was like just a race between me and Jeff Bezos today, let's just make sure I beat him just that one day, right? And then the next day you just think the same thing. Right? So you're turning a marathon into like these really short sprints, at least mentally. So you just focus on the day, on that day, just that task. Just live, you know, at the moment as you focus on your work. So you're not too high, too low, not too stressed, you know, etc. So you're just very process-driven. Yeah.

And kind of going a little bit down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

I think you just got to find something that you really enjoy doing. If you don't like working for someone or if you don't like your job, try to look for something else. If you don't like working with a certain employee or employer, move on to a different job or fire that employee. Just keep finding something, just keep going until you find something that you really like and find the people who you really like working with. And then, you know, life is just so much easier. And as you get more and more successful, that process is gonna be a lot easier because they will start reaching out to you. Like, I've never had to submit a resume since like 2010 or 2011. I've been constantly just recruited. And then, you know, I never say no, I never say yes. When opportunities come by, I just, you know, put them on hold and then I just queue 'em up. And then, you know, If I don't like the opportunity or if the other opportunity seems very enticing, I just kind of entertain the option. So you're always building leverage.

And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Oh man, I mean, there's just so many good books out there. I can't think of anything. I can't just think of just one book.

You could say your most recent favorite maybe.

Yeah, I think my most recent favorite was The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. I know I feel like every entrepreneur or founder mentions this book, but I just really like how he broke it down because a lot of books bring up such cliché advice and that's the whole reason why I wrote The Outlier Approach. I really wanted to talk about just outside-the-box thinking. And Ben breaks it down pretty well. Just for example, one chapter is like wartime CEO versus peacetime CEO. Sometimes, when you're going through wartime, you might have to resort to a strategy such as micromanagement. There's no one-size-fits-all. And maybe during a peacetime, you might revert back to macromanagement. I mean, sometimes when you're going through a very, I guess, like hypercompetitive marketplace, you're gonna go to becoming like a wartime executive. And Steve Jobs is a great example of a really good wartime executive. So, you know, it just really accounts for all those variables in his book. And I really appreciated the thinking process behind it.

And what's your favorite quote and why?

I guess like John Wooden, you know, Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. I mean, I know that's nothing special, but I think that resonates really well. So just always be prepared, always think of every opportunity as an interview. Always think you're interviewing for the next job.

I agree, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?

Yeah, you can check out nonconformistmedia.com. The site is a little bit on— parts of it is under construction, but you can reach out to me there. You can find me on Twitter, Kevin HS Hong, and I'm pretty active on LinkedIn.

Perfect, man. Thanks again for hopping on.

Thanks, Tyler. Thanks for having me.

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