You’ve Been Promoted

Future Proof Your Career

TGI Friday War & Peaceniks!

Something that I hear often, is that I know how to “pivot.” This is not a compliment about my basketball skills (though if you wanna play, lmk), but about my tendency to change career directions in unexpected ways, and into new territories.

I started my career in modern dance (no shit). The first half of my career was in marketing. I oversaw the branding for Shakespeare In The Park that’s still used. I ran, then sold, my own agency. I’ve run TV channels. I’ve produced TV, films, stand up specials, and podcasts, and created a first of its kind comedy streaming service. Currently, I’m a university professor, a consultant across a truly weird array of disciplines from “thought leadership” (wtf even is that?) to web3, an executive coach, a producer on three films, four podcasts and a few series, a media industry journalist, the author of an NFT web comic and a substack newsletter, and (somehow) the unofficial Official Cartographer of the Media Universe. An old friend recently said to me “congrats on figuring out to be paid to be Evan Shapiro.”

The above paragraph may seem like a boast. It truly is not. Because what most folks don’t realize is - as with many in business - that it has NOT always been MY choice to “pivot.” Ventures have failed, the industry has changed, and sometimes we (aka I) get fired. And, sometimes, my firings get 10,000 word colonoscopy-like think-pieces in Vulture.

I have found that - at least for me - pivoting is key to surviving.

On Monday I wrote a piece about becoming CEO of Your Own Shit - treating your talents as Superpowers and your Superpower like its own small business.

What I did NOT mean is that everyone should quit their jobs today and start an LLC. What I DID mean is that you should strive to ensure that everything you need to survive and thrive in your career (over the long, long haul) lives within you, and not in the job you have at the moment, or in the hands of a corporate overlord, whose main concerns are quarterly earnings for a stock market pop.

If you are a healthy person, with a healthy mind, you’ll likely have a dozen different jobs in your lifetime. And, if you work in media, technology, finance, marketing, law, or ANY aspect of the IP economy, you had better be prepared to pivot your career, or you will get left behind by the shifts in your industry.

When I started my career neither mobile phones nor the internet existed. My first job in TV was for a channel that no longer exists. My first deal with Netflix was for DVD output. Shit changes. Fast.

Along the way, I’ve talked to and coached dozens of established execs who’ve found themselves downsized, bored, laid off, fired or just flat-out confused about where to take their careers next. I’ve also taught and mentored hundreds of students and early career execs who look at the landscape and don’t know where to begin.

Peloton just laid off 2800 people. In a few weeks, DiscoBros will be born - and one of the notable stated goals of the new company is “efficiencies.” We all know what that means.

Yet, simultaneously, new jobs are being created in blockchain, NFTs, audio, gaming, web3, streaming, CTV content, distribution and ad sales, social media, AR/XR and the Creator Economy. I know because when companies cannot fill these jobs they call me to help fill them.

The problem for many I talk to is that they don’t know how to make the leap from one discipline to another. They have not prepared to pivot. They are not CEO of Their Own Shit.

With that context, here are my Top Five Tips for Being Your Own CEO and Prepping to Pivot: