I haven’t been writing the last few weeks all that much, but one thing I have been doing is reading and listening to interviews. A lot. I was never one that had “role models” growing up. The few claimed names I would throw out was Todd McFarlane, I suppose. And I’m sure Big Bird was #1 before that. But, in this day and age, and my aspirations to expand some sort of career out of my skills, a few names have become very big on my radar.
Gary Vaynerchuk – He’s been on the fringe of my viewpoint for a while now, but with his recent online media blitz for his new book, “Crush It”, I’ve become a little more familiar with his story, and his message of making what you love what you do. While I look forward to his audiobook release, his web site has a great run of recent interviews and convention appearances where he talks about his philosophy in a fairly frank manner.
Mark Cuban – Speaking of frank, there’s this guy. From right up the road here in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, he’s a self made millionaire tied to the Dallas Mavericks, HDNet, and most recently, a date with a table on WWE RAW. I had a chance to see him represent in front of a panel of FCC chairmen at Carnegie Mellon University in a spirited conversation with a representative from Google. I’ve fallen out of regular rotation with his blog, but it’s a must read for an atypical view on media and business from the top down.
Leo Laporte – Creator of the one-man network (that’s now several men/shows deep). This Week in Tech was one of the first Podcasts I started to listen to, inspiring a lot of what we’ve done with the Wrestling Mayhem Show. I recently came across an interview with him that had a great incite on how his network looks these days.
These, of course, are the big wigs that have been catching my attention, but who can forget those I’ve been inspired by for a while now, Justin Kownacki, Chris Brogan, and Walt Ribeiro, colleagues of Podcamp Pittsburgh.