Those of you who regularly read the posts here on the Present Tense Blog (or at least those of you out there who know enough to trust Elana and Frank's acumen and check in from time to time) probably recognize that my expertise does not lie in business. I know marketing and creative stuff, but that nebulous-yet-profitable world of "business" is not my bag. So it would probably come as a surprise that I am the co-founder of a relatively new but already successful production co

The classic “make-or-buy” decision often neglects one important aspect: what the end-user wants. That became clear to me as my team and I started analyzing the first waves of feedback on Pathfinder, an online portal which helps veterans find appropriate services through user reviews. While the findings come from the non-profit world, I see strong parallels in how companies in the for-profit sector should best decide on whether to build up a competency in house, outsource that

This is the latest in a series of blogs on what we at Present Tense LLC call a “Master Story”. In this installment, Paul Mooney reminds us how the Master Story is not meant to be written alone, and that the greatest product comes from working with others to perfect your message. Read the first, second, and third parts of the series on our blog. If told properly, the Master Story of your business will undoubtedly share many parallels with the kinds of stories that make great w

Like many people working towards their big break in television and/or film, I do multiple jobs. Among them, a decent amount of my work is as a production assistant, or PA for short. Anyone with a passing familiarity with that job title probably associates it with coffee runs and other such gofer activities, which are definitely a part of it. But it also encompasses a broad range of functions that help keep a film shoot in working order. You're on the bottom rung of the ladder

Every now and then since leaving the Army, and even sometimes while I was in the Army, I wonder if I didn’t slip into a wormhole and pop out in an alternate universe where everyone else is mentally somewhere between 12 and 16 years old. And if anyone else is thinking that would be a great idea for a movie, we had better make it a horror sci-fi because that is terrifying. What was the worst thing about middle and high school was not homework or the classes in subjects you didn

Every one of us will experience this in our careers: some teams fall apart when a roadblock or a crisis comes up, while other teams adapt and still reach the goals. But what explains the difference? What do the successful teams do differently? We can gain some answers by looking at what happens when the consequences of team failure aren’t financial or social, but life-threatening. This is what happens in the air. Flying is an activity where most people focus their attention o

Let me begin this article by saying that hiking is nothing new to me. I know, I know, as The Bard himself so eloquently put it: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" (Queen Gertrude in Act III, Scene II of Hamlet, for the unaware). But it's true. I was somewhat forcibly enrolled into a program in high school that included two intense camping/bonding experiences per year that always involved serious treks. And then there are the four years I spent in the Marines that invo

We all do it. Just as we all eat, sleep, and complain about politicians, we also are all guilty of at one time or another checking our work email (or doing actual work) even while on “vacation.” For some reason, we feel as though the latter is, as the former items are certainly, necessary to our continued survival. But such is not actually the case. In fact, it’s bad for our health to continue to work when we are supposed to be off the clock, and negates the vacations that ar

Editor's Note: You may have noticed we haven't posted in a couple of weeks. This is in large part to our primary blog editor helping Paul with the event to which this article refers, something that we were honored to assist in doing. Please watch the trailer, follow the project, and feel free to contact us if you'd like more information on how you can help in moving this forward. Those of you who follow this blog, know this fine company I often work for, or who decided to cli

- Stacey Ebert Companies have many similarities to schools, only now we are all grown up. Jobs replace assignments, bosses replace teachers, and paychecks replace grades on report cards. Just as students want to impress their teachers, today it’s adult employees feeling the same about their supervisors. Valuing employees benefits all parties and might just be the secret to maintaining the best talent. Regardless of age, we all like to feel valued. Whether it’s public or one-o

The response was perfect. Your cubicle buddy is going to laugh at your slightly snarky but still informed response to his recent push of the latest company memo. You threw in a pun, an inside joke, and a clever barb at middle management. You can formulate your real response after lunch. Wait. Oh. Oh no. You hit reply all instead of reply. And there is no recall option on most web-based email servers. Middle management is not going to have the same appreciation for your clever