When Jason Felts left small-town Texas for California in 1996, he was a recent highschool graduate who dreamed of constructing a profession behind the digital camera.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Hollywood Virgin. Jason Felts.
Over the course of the subsequent decade-plus, the younger inventive and entrepreneur did simply that.
Felts co-founded his manufacturing firm, J2TV; constructed and led a multimillion-dollar leisure firm for Virgin Group because the second youngest CEO within the model’s historical past behind Sir Richard Branson himself; served as CEO of Virgin Fest; and sat on Virgin’s World Model Council, the place he consulted Virgin-branded corporations throughout a spread of industries.
Felts explores his lesson-packed journey to success and why he in the end left the leisure business for good in his new memoir, Hollywood Virgin: Breaking Into and Out of Present Enterprise.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Hollywood Virgin.
Felts additionally reveals how a number of key mentors helped form him alongside the best way — together with the billionaire Virgin Group founder Branson.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Hollywood Virgin. Jason Felts and Richard Branson.
It wasn’t till Felts began writing Hollywood Virgin that he seen the thread of mentorship all through, he tells Entrepreneur.
Felts says that Branson mentored him “by osmosis.” Basically, Felts turned the chief he’s now by watching how Branson handled individuals and managed priorities.
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Entrepreneur sat down with Felts and Branson to study extra about their views on enterprise and management.
Jason Felts met Richard Branson on Necker Island — and skilled a “surreal” second on high of a desk
When Felts first visited Branson’s Necker Island, Virgin America, Voyages and Lodges did not but exist. He knew little concerning the Virgin model and its founder.
“I went down there with no preconceived notions,” Felts recollects, “[which] I imagine is the easiest way to enter a room or scenario. I do not analysis individuals earlier than I meet them.”
Branson says he instantly appreciated Felts’s demeanor, humor and enthusiasm.
“ I am fairly inventive, and Jason’s extraordinarily inventive, and we each love music and movies, and I believed there could be methods we may work collectively within the years to return,” Branson provides.
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As dinner on Necker Island one night got here to an in depth, Branson requested Felts to get on the desk — “all of our tables are made for dancing on,” Branson explains — and inform everybody about himself.
The request wasn’t one the Virgin founder had been planning. “I do lots of issues spur-of-the-moment,” Branson says.
In what Felts remembers as a “surreal” second, he stood on high of the desk, surrounded by rich and influential people, and shared his perspective on the movie business, predicting that individuals would go to film theaters much less continuously and devour extra content material on their telephones.
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“All of my inhibitions went away,” Felts says. “I obtained on the aircraft and flew again to Los Angeles a special individual.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Hollywood Virgin. Jason Felts and Richard Branson.
Lead with authenticity and goal
Felts’s expertise on Necker Island taught him the worth of real, purposeful management. “As soon as you’ve got entered the room, or in my case, as soon as you’ve got gotten on the desk, you higher be prepared to speak and convey your beliefs with authenticity,” he explains. “Do not be shy.”
Years later, after Felts had helped construct Virgin Group’s leisure firm and music competition model, he discovered himself at knowledgeable and private crossroads that introduced these values again to the fore.
“I used to be so busy with appearing the half and dealing so arduous at being the CEO that I overlooked my true goal and the achievement behind that,” Felts explains.
Today, except there’s an actual goal behind an initiative, Felts is not — as a result of in any other case “it appears like a chore.”
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A portion of Felts’s proceeds from gross sales of Hollywood Virgin will help the LGBQT+ nonprofit The Trevor Venture.
Moreover, like so many Los Angeles residents, Felts misplaced his residence to the latest Palisades hearth. He turned the e-book’s February 5 launch occasion, co-hosted by Los Angeles journal, right into a profit for the LA Fireplace Division.
“You are solely pretty much as good as your ethical compass and authenticity,” Felts says.
Hear and study
In Hollywood Virgin, Felts additionally explores the concept that regardless of how completed or assured somebody might sound, they’re usually simply figuring issues out as they go.
The tendency to say “sure” to a possibility and work out the logistics later is a trait that he and Branson share, Felts notes.
“There’s the outdated adage ‘pretend it ’til you make it,’ and I do not subscribe to that,” Felts says. “Do not pretend it. Ask questions and encompass your self with people who find themselves smarter than you.”
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Branson additionally endorses a pay attention-and-learn method. Early on, the entrepreneur acknowledged that Felts was listener, which is “a essential attribute” for a robust chief, he says.
Branson factors to Virgin Unite’s The Elders, a gaggle of unbiased international leaders working collectively for peace and human rights that has included leaders like Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter, for example.
“They’re all nice listeners,” Branson explains. “They know what they’re pondering. They need not hear themselves saying it out loud, and the one approach they will study is by listening to different individuals discuss.”
Keep current and belief your staff
When Felts watched Branson accomplish his aim of going to house in 2021, he skilled a lightbulb second: Seeing Branson obtain his dream helped him notice that he’d additionally achieved his personal. It was time to maneuver on from the leisure business.
The revelation additionally helped Felts grapple with “striver syndrome,” or the inclination to really feel like he ought to at all times be doing or searching for extra. Today, Felts not feels the necessity to attend each single occasion.
“5 years in the past, you would have invited me to the opening of an envelope, and I’d have been there as a result of I felt like I wanted to be there,” Felts says. “Now, I am 100% centered on being current.”
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Felts admits his striver syndrome hasn’t utterly disappeared, however now he approaches the hours of the day in another way and has separate telephones for work and private use. “It is not likely about steadiness — there is not any play and work differentiation for me,” he says. “It is extra [a matter] of time administration.”
Felts is adamant about modeling that philosophy for his staff; he pushes individuals to take breaks and lets them know that they do not at all times have to point out up in individual. It goes again to a different perception that he and Branson share: In case you deal with your individuals, they’re going to deal with enterprise.
“ I’d at all times [say], ‘I do not pay you for the variety of hours that you simply work. I pay you for the way you assume, and I pay you for the way you deal with your self,'” Felts explains. “If you wish to go to yoga within the morning as a result of that zens you out and also you’re in a position to be inventive, do it. If you have to miss the employees assembly as a result of that is a part of your routine, fantastic. Determine it out, catch up, get the notes.”
Be detail-oriented but in addition delegate
Felts tackled bold initiatives throughout his time in Hollywood and at Virgin Group, from creating, financing and producing movie and tv reveals to serving to create the award-winning Virgin America Security Dance video and orchestrating Virgin-branded music festivals.
Branson appreciates that Felts does not take himself too critically or draw back from the main points.
“That is vital in addition to a chief,” Branson says. “He’ll gown as he feels snug in order that different individuals can gown as they really feel snug. He’ll roll up his sleeves and get into the thick of it. If there is a competition, he is out and about, discovering out what is going on on. If there’s an issue in some space, he’ll dive in and deal with it.”
Picture Credit score: Hollywood Virgin. Richard Branson and Jason Felts.
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Felts is adept at assembling and managing groups, one other should for profitable management, Branson says. Good leaders ought to know how you can delegate, letting individuals study from errors and achievements, he provides.
It is a management technique that Branson makes use of himself. For instance, when Virgin Group’s cruise firm Virgin Voyages launched, Branson was concerned within the unique design work, “moving into all of the weeds” for a couple of months earlier than stepping again to permit another person to take the reins.
 ”At Virgin, we attempt to promote from inside in order that we really know anyone’s strengths and weaknesses earlier than they turn into, say, a chief govt,” Branson says, “in order that it is unlikely they will come and destroy the spirit of an organization.”
Discover a mentor and ask for assist
As a child with massive Hollywood desires, Felts would cold-call fan golf equipment and movie star assistants with abandon, and it led to some thrilling alternatives, like attending a taping of John Ritter’s then-current present Hearts Afire.
In fact, nowadays, younger entrepreneurs searching for mentors and recommendation usually tend to ship an e mail or DM than to position a name or write a letter.
“In case you’re networking and reaching out, [consider] doing it in a approach the place you are presenting a mutually helpful alternative,” Felts suggests. “In case you’re searching for one thing, decide upfront what you’ll be able to present that particular person, firm or group in return as a result of time and bandwidth are restricted.”
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Branson encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to hunt out individuals who have run profitable companies and maybe bought them or retired as a result of a lot of them “can be delighted to spend a while serving to an adolescent get their enterprise going.”
“If there’s anyone who you respect who’s retired in your neighborhood, get ahold of them and see whether or not they may offer you a few hours within the evenings or come and assist you a bit,” Branson says.
“By no means be afraid to ask,” Felts agrees.
It is little question a mentality behind among the biggest enterprise successes.