Working with Apple at the NBA All Star Weekend: My 3 Takeaways

Ever wondered how a small business could team up with a titan like Apple and not only survive but thrive? That's exactly the story I, Chris Anderson, unpack to reveal the explosive growth that collaboration, even with potential competitors, can bring to entrepreneurs. On this episode of the Elevate Media Podcast, we take you behind the scenes of our electrifying experience at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, working with Apple's live production team. It's a tale of embracing the big leagues, breaking out of comfort zones, and the untapped potential that lies in partnerships for businesses of all sizes.

This journey wasn't just about rubbing shoulders with industry giants; it was a masterclass in leveling up through discomfort and the unexpected lessons that come with high-profile projects. Learn how we navigated the ins and outs of live TV production, transforming initial hesitance into a game-changing endeavor. You'll hear firsthand the strategies we employed to turn challenges into opportunities for growth, and how these experiences can fuel your own entrepreneurial ascent. No guests needed in this one, just pure, unfiltered insights from our very own venture into the world of big event collaboration.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host Today. I'm going to go over our time that we were able to be a part of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis. It was truly an amazing experience, so thankful for Apple reaching out and bringing us on to help them with their live production. It was just an amazing experience. I want to break down some things I learned from that weekend, some three main things that we learned, and I think you can find some value from these as well. So if you're ready for it, let's dive into it.

Speaker 2: 1:03

So the first thing that you know comes to mind when I was recapping, when I was thinking back on the NBA All-Star Weekend that we were able to be a part of, was the fact that you know we're I mean, we're a small business and being able to partner with Apple with some proprietary devices that they were using for this live TV production. Things just blew my mind and it made me start thinking about different opportunities, collaborations and, a lot of times, people. They wear things too close to their vests sometimes and so they fight collaboration because they're scared of the competition when, in reality, there's really only one person you're competing with out there in a business and it's yourself. Because I think there is so much out there for us whether it be clients, money, whatever it is, there's enough for everyone. And when we start focusing on other people's competition, we lower our energy, we lower our vibration, we lower where we're at mentally and it hinders us, whereas if you can see things as collaboration and learn from one another and use the success of others to propel you to the next level, it's going to help you a lot better.

Speaker 2: 2:18

So, seeing people in your market, seeing them as collaborations even if you don't directly work with them, like we did with Apple but you see what they're doing, you see their success, you see different things they're doing, instead of just looking at it negatively, look at it as a collaboration of external window shopping, almost. You see what they're doing. How can you improve? Maybe it's your content, maybe it's your marketing, maybe it's your lead magnet, whatever it is. Whatever they're doing, that they're doing well. How can that help you? Because as you get better, they can look at you and say, okay, you know, elevate, they're doing this. Maybe we could do this for our clients and implement something else to help them. So everyone wins right, even if it's not direct, but still learning and improving from someone else instead of seeing them as competition. It's going to, you know, raise you and elevate you and your market a lot faster.

Speaker 2: 3:09

So that was the first thing that I really learned and kind of thought about after collaborating with Apple at the NBA All-Star weekend. The second thing is be open to the uncomfortable. It's crazy that when we first got approached to be a part of that, I initially didn't want to do it because it's going to be uncomfortable, it's going to be longer hours away from family, things like that, and I just, you know, didn't think it would be worth it. And then I sat down and got away from everything. I really thought and I changed my mind real quick, which I'm glad I did because of what it opened up.

Speaker 2: 3:48

But we've got to realize that the uncomfortable things, as long as they're not dangerous to us, most of the time will help us grow, will open up doors, connections and help us to level up a lot faster. So we've got to be, we've got to get comfortable being uncomfortable and you know, at first it was a little bit uncomfortable. I mean, we're coming in to working alongside people for live TV productions. That's way outside of what we do, at a level that we're not at. And so it was uncomfortable. Where, I mean, we're just these young guys, the small guys in these organizations TNT, espn, apple like being shoulder to shoulder with them working and, and you know, running cable, setting up cameras, running the show, like it just was very uncomfortable. But we learned and we gained and we grew so much from the experience. It was so worth it. But if we would have just said no, we don't want to, we don't want to spend the extra hour we, you know, or you know, I feel out of place, I don't want to do that, we would have missed out on a lot. And so you've got to get comfortable being uncomfortable, to really grow, to really elevate in your life and in your business. So the next thing something comes up and it pushes you out of your comfort zone a little bit. Really, think, like, as long as you're safe, like you know, see it as a big opportunity and you know, in my opinion, go for it.

Speaker 2: 5:12

And then the third and final thing that really kind of stuck and resonated with me from the NBA All-Star Weekend that we were able to work was experiences will change your worldview. The experiences you're able to have whether it be volunteering, collaborating, partnering, you know, going and taking a chance on something that you're going to get are going to be huge. You're going to again, like what we did we saw a different level of, you know, live production that we have ever seen, and because we just we don't do live TV broadcasts like that. So being able to see that opened up our eyes to different tech, different softwares, different systems connected to us with different people that we would have never connected with outside of that, and so that experience, you know, was super valuable. I mean, of course, you you run into celebrities while you're there Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal and Walker Hayes and people like that and that's great. But the experience of you know meeting and talking with and working with people in the same industry at different but in different genres so, like film industry, people were there. Music video people were there. Live TV production, people were there.

Speaker 2: 6:24

So those experiences shape your worldview because you learn from all different people in different fields and different positions and you're able to learn things and glean information from them and just see how they run things and what they've been through and you know what they had to go through to get to where they were and so making sure to get as many experiences in life as you can. So you you're not just stuck in a bubble, so you're not just in a box, not realizing what's out there, the potentials that are out there, the levels that you could get to if you just work at it. So things like this, even if it's if you can't get in there and be paid, even if you volunteer and give your time to be paid, even if you volunteer, um, and give your time to be just close, in proximity to these individuals or in these events, or things like that, like that will shape and shift your worldview and your mindset of what's out there. It was like a quote, um, I think it was from steve harvey.

Speaker 2: 7:23

I could be wrong on he. He said once you. He said you need to take a trip in first class once, because once you do, your mind and your mindset will shift to how can I never fly economy again Because of you experienced first class? Your, your view changed on flying. So now you'll shift and you'll say what do I need to do? What do I have to become to always fly first class? And it'll change how you see and how you act in your life. So experiences will shape your worldview. So get more of them, get more diverse experiences and continue to learn and grow. But I just wanted to recap our experience at the NBA All-Stars and these three things that really stuck out to me from the event. So collaboration over competition, be open to being uncomfortable and your experiences shape your worldview. Again, I hope this brought value to you. I hope you can go out, implement, think on these things, but until next time, continue to go out there, elevate your life, elevate your brand, and we'll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.