Following Your Intuition | Comedian, Brian Volk-Weiss

Brian Volk-Weiss (0:00)

Most successful breakthroughs coast on the backs of prior breakthroughs. Great example is Facebook. Facebook probably would have not done so well without the Harvard infrastructure. Netflix is another great example.

They were shipping plastic disks of movies they did not make to people paying for them. They had a brilliant idea, brilliant technology, brilliant everything, but still, they built Netflix on the backs of the Warner Brothers in Disney and Paramount libraries. So I always thought it was crazy to have a website that you would drag people to. So we started building this infrastructure that put us where everybody was. So if you're in Alabama, we're on Cox.

If you're in Denver, we're on Dish. Yada, yada, yada, till we covered the entire country.

Michael Gervais (0:58)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais and by trade and training, a sport and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of Compete to Create. And the whole idea behind this conversation, behind these conversations, this podcast is to learn and to apply the insights from people who have dedicated their life efforts towards mastery.

And it's a unique conversation because we're not just looking for the tactics and there are no tricks, there's no hacks, there's no shortcuts, there's no secrets, but we're working to understand their psychological framework, that sturdy, resilient, flexible, dynamic approach to life. We want to understand what they're searching for and as well we want to understand the mental skills that they've used to build and refine their craft.

I want to take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I want to pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just want to get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you and your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up once again. That's findingmastery.com/training, and I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now, this week's conversation is with Brian Volk-Weiss. He's the founder and president of Comedy Dynamics. Brian stands at the forefront of comedy's evolution in the 21st century. He's been in it and he's leading it from a business perspective and an opportunity perspective for so many. And since the launch of Comedy Dynamics in 2008, he's guided his company to become the nation's largest independent producer and distributor of one-hour comedy specials. So that's one of his main marks in the industry. And while initiating innovative partnerships, and I love this part of the conversation because his business IQ and acumen comes alive, and he's got these partnerships with Amazon, Roku, Hulu, where it ranks as one of the platform's top three most popular comedy channels. And so he understands it. He understands the business and the value of comedy and how to put people together. And his company has worked with a wide range of folks, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan, David Cross and so many others. And obviously comedy is Brian's passion. This conversation is about intuition and risk. It's about having a tolerance for failure and being willing to take a chance when you see there's an opportunity on the table.