Latest / Speak In Flow / From Neuroscience to Hollywood: Lessons in Leadership with Dr. Barry Sandrew
Transcript
- 0:03Melinda Lee: Welcome. Dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast where we dive into unique experiences to help you and your team achieve maximum potential and flow. Today I have the honor of introducing my esteemed guest from Harvard Mgh. Neuroscientist to internationally renowned serial entrepreneur. He's a digital imaging expert visual effects.
- 0:28Melinda Lee: Vfh. Pioneer, Dr. Barry Sandre, with over 37 patents and an expert of featured films and TV accomplishments.
- 0:42Melinda Lee: Hi, Dr. Sandre, welcome.
- 0:44Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Hi, Melinda!
- 0:46Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Thanks for having me.
- 0:47Melinda Lee: Thanks. I am so excited about our conversation today. Before we dive into the meat and potatoes of what we're going to talk about with presentations. You obviously have had so much success in your career, and you're going to share some of the secrets to doing that. But before we get into that. Can you share more about the all the amazing things that you've done so far in the TV industry.
- 1:12Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Yeah, well, I think the highlights are that you know I have. I have my doctorate in neuroscience, and I was on staff at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital
- 1:24Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and but I didn't let my degree define me. I actually left all of that
- 1:32Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: at the urging of Ted Turner, who invent, who created Cnn.
- 1:38Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And he asked me to invent a process for colorizing black and white movies so I could save his Mgm. Library from going into public domain, which I did, and that caused a lot of controversy. But the more controversy that occurred, the more successful I became.
- 1:58Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: So I I left Academia and became a serial entrepreneur in Hollywood.
- 2:05Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Did a lot of visual effects like for Scorsese, did the aviator and a few other things.
- 2:11Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: But then, in 2,007, I invented a process for converting movies from 2D. To 3D. Which is the de facto method of creating 3D movies and my team and I produced the 3D portion of about 65% of or 65 of the most successful films that came out of Hollywood.
- 2:37Melinda Lee: Wow!
- 2:37Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: In the past 12 years.
- 2:39Melinda Lee: And so in all that, how did you know which direction to go?
- 2:44Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And all that had the.
- 2:47Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I wish I could tell you there was a grand plan there wasn't. I just take things as they come.
- 2:52Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 2:53Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I'm able. I'm able to somehow
- 2:56Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: recognize opportunities at the right time
- 3:01Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and and jump on them, and I'm not afraid to jump on them. I'm not.
- 3:05Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 3:06Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Takes naturally. You know, go the wrong direction. Unfortunately, in most cases I haven't gone the wrong direction.
- 3:14Melinda Lee: Yeah. So you see, you're in this challenge here. And so you see the opportunity. You see the problem. And then a solution comes, a a big, a big idea.
- 3:24Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: That's right.
- 3:25Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: What?
- 3:25Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Just recently, in the past year, I just I I was awarded 3 patents in artificial intelligence because I saw a vacuum in education where professors needed to understand the authenticity of a student's responses rather than
- 3:44Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: sleuthing around to see if they're cheating with plagiarism, using chat. Gpt. Well, I created a solution for that. And we're testing that right now at Westcliff University.
- 3:57Melinda Lee: Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness! Because my daughter's still in school, and I wonder what they're doing, and how they're monitoring this.
- 4:04Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Oh, this will help!
- 4:06Melinda Lee: Oh, that's gonna be great, awesome! How innovative is that! And so with so much success, it didn't come right out the gate. So tell me, what are some times in the past? What? Some of the more difficult times where? Okay? Something didn't go. Well, a presentation didn't go. Well, the team is not performing like you want it to like. Tell me about that.
- 4:28Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I think that's a good question. It's really easy to explain that, because in early in one of my startups, you know, we were so focused on the technical brilliance of our product that we failed to communicate its value effectively to investors. In particular. This is a classic example of building something amazing, but not testing whether we could convey its relevance to the audience.
- 4:55Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: You know the it's the equivalent of developing a product without validating consumer demand. We didn't know whether consumers actually wanted it
- 5:04Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: yet. We're out there presenting it as the savior of the world.
- 5:10Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: During a critical pitch. Our presentation was overly technical, lacking clear, concise narrative, and that tied product to a real problem and its solution.
- 5:21Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: The result was that the investors were disengaged. We missed out on a major funding opportunity. But the experience taught me and my team the importance of validating
- 5:34Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: or validated learning, not only for the product, but how we present it.
- 5:40Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: You know, we started iterative feedback loops. That's important. Iterative feedback loops
- 5:46Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: to our presentations. So in other words, we put we put it out to potential customers got feedback, you know you, you build, you test and measure, and then you learn and you revise. You have to do that. Otherwise you can present something to a group of people, and they may have no interest in it whatsoever. So this was. This failure was a turning point for me, and it helped me shift my focus from explaining how of the product.
- 6:15Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and and rather it rather than how of the product. But to demonstrate the why of the product.
- 6:23Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: In this.
- 6:24Melinda Lee: Right.
- 6:24Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Positioned us for greater success.
- 6:28Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah, so much or so many times are we so excited about a product or an idea or service. And we invest all this time all this energy, because we think we're it's going to be the Savior of the world, and we want it to be perfect. We want it to look great, and then by the time you get it out there and you communicate it, people are just like, just glazed over
- 6:51Melinda Lee: eyes.
- 6:53Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Eric Eric Reese is a guy who came up with a book called the Lean Startup Framework.
- 7:02Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And it's it's it's my Bible. Essentially, it's, you know, you don't need a lot of money. You don't need a lot of people to create a startup. You don't need a minimum viable product can be, you know, pocket change to create.
- 7:17Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: that's all you need. Zappo is one company. Look up, Zappo, and how it originated, and and there. There are many other ones like Dropbox is another one. The the Ceos of these 2 companies basically created a minimum viable product
- 7:34Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: in in their bedroom within a couple hours, and they were both 1 billion dollar exits. Ultimately.
- 7:45Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah.
- 7:46Melinda Lee: yeah. Okay, what to put the quote and the name of the book in the show notes, too. And I'm gonna pick that up as well, because I I often wonder, am I at the place where I'm spending too much time? Yeah, refining things before getting it out there communicating it. Which is what you're saying is like, build something small, make it minimal viable product. But that's where I don't know. Like, what is minimal. Where do you cross the line? And what threshold.
- 8:12Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Well can I give you those 2 examples? I don't know how much.
- 8:14Melinda Lee: Yes.
- 8:16Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: This was early on with the Internet. And this guy, the CEO wanted to sell shoes online
- 8:27Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and investors no way. People will not buy shoes online. They're gonna want to try them on. Look at that little mirror, test them out, walk around. No one's gonna buy them online. So what he did was he created a website on his own.
- 8:42Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: It was like a little store storefront. and he went to local retailers, shoe retailers, and he took pictures of their shoes, and he posted it on their website.
- 8:55Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and he took orders for those shoes, even though he didn't own them with somebody else's, and if somebody bought them
- 9:02Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: he would go to the retailer, buy them at full retail, and then send them ship them out to the people. So he proved, and it was very successful. He proved that it actually worked. I think he sold that company ultimately for 1 point 3 billion dollars to Amazon. Dropbox is another one dropbox. The CEO never wrote one line of code. There were. There were file sharing companies around applications around, but none of them like quite like Dropbox.
- 9:32Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Well, he actually did a mock up of what it would look like to do. You know, basically very basic, no programming or anything. And he created a video out of that and and posted it on a techie site with hundreds of thousands of of viewers.
- 9:48Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And overnight he got 75,000 sign ups.
- 9:54Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: That that, and there again that company was sold, for, you know, millions of dollars.
- 9:58Melinda Lee: So if someone's going at it for about a year, 2 years, and that means there's probably not a good market for it.
- 10:06Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Oh, way too long.
- 10:10Melinda Lee: Okay. Okay.
- 10:12Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: If you can't get traction within 6 months, forget it. You gotta go do something else.
- 10:17Melinda Lee: Okay, got it. Got it. This is very helpful. I love that. I love that so like you're saying, you know, get the traction or test it and then use good communication. Assuming that you, you learn how to communicate it, like what is, you have the product or service, but then also communicate it. Well, like what are, what are the things that you're saying.
- 10:36Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: You'll have to. Actually, you have to define your your customer base. We'll find out whether what your product people actually want it. I've I've I've had a lot of clients because I also do a lot of consulting. I have a lot of clients who you know, who started to do a who created a startup and
- 10:57Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: got a lot of money and built the entire application the web before they even knew if anybody was going to use it.
- 11:06Melinda Lee: Right? Right? Right?
- 11:07Melinda Lee: Who waste time?
- 11:09Melinda Lee: Right? Right?
- 11:11Melinda Lee: Right? So don't do that. Build the Mvp minimal viable product. And then talk about the why talk more about the why?
- 11:19Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And test it, and actually.
- 11:21Melinda Lee: That's it.
- 11:21Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Up there and test and see if anybody's interested, and and also
- 11:26Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: you know, it's it's like showing a a crayon picture that you show your mom your mom's gonna say, oh, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I love what you did. Ask people whether they would like it, or whether they want to buy it. If there's no, if there's nothing invested from those people, then their their opinion doesn't really matter.
- 11:48Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: So even if it's even if it's if they if they just log on and say, Okay, I'm signing on. That's good, even if they don't put in. But as long as they put their name in there, and they sign on. Alright. Well, that's legitimate. Yes, you've got something.
- 12:03Melinda Lee: Right?
- 12:04Melinda Lee: Right? Right?
- 12:06Melinda Lee: Love that. And what is the difference between? Once you started to learn this and implement this across your teams or across what you're doing. What was the result of that? What were the outcomes.
- 12:18Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Well, the result is a a total I mean much more efficient startup operation and and basically more success. You know,
- 12:29Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: The we we we spend less time, you know. Spinning our wheels and more time just finding out
- 12:38Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: where, what the what the customer, what your your client, what your customer ultimately wants.
- 12:45Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Even if you just describe it. And you say, Okay, you know, we'd like to know if you'd commit to getting something like this, would you actually submit a a signature for a sign on, you know, that's all you need. That's all you need, because then investors will say, Okay, well, there might be something there.
- 13:04Melinda Lee: Hmm! Right? Right? Right? Right?
- 13:07Melinda Lee: What do you think holds people back from doing it?
- 13:12Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Ego
- 13:14Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: a lot of times, you know. I'll tell somebody, you know. No, don't go to Southeast Asia and get this thing totally developed. Don't spend $150,000 to build this this web this website that shows off and and actually has a functional application before you even know if anybody wants to do it.
- 13:35Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and and the fact in in but the several times, you know. my clients have said, no, this is the way I want to go, because how are people going to know what it's going to be like if I don't actually show them? Well, there are different ways to show them, you know, just like I showed you. I told you about zappos and and and
- 13:57Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: you can for pennies.
- 14:00Melinda Lee: Right, right.
- 14:01Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And to do it.
- 14:02Melinda Lee: Right? That's the key, like, think outside the box of how we can show them without really developing the whole thing.
- 14:09Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: That's right.
- 14:09Melinda Lee: There's other ways you can do it. Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
- 14:13Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 14:15Melinda Lee: love that. So then and then, so what? Okay, I'm gonna just end with one last question, because I think that there's so much value in what you just shared. And I certainly learned a lot in terms of getting the Mvp. Out there, communicating the value to your ideal clients. Who are the clients?
- 14:33Melinda Lee: What is it that they want? And then communicating that in a way, more of the why versus the technical pieces of it like, why is it important to you? Why, why, how's this gonna help you? And communicating those aspects of it.
- 14:47Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Exactly.
- 14:48Melinda Lee: And then, therefore, you're gonna be able to have more success, or is a very clear strategy and a way of building a company or a business.
- 14:55Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: That's right.
- 14:57Melinda Lee: Thank you, and what I'd like to ask you the last question I like to ask all my guests, what is that one leadership takeaway that you want the guests to remember.
- 15:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: No?
- 15:10Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Well.
- 15:11Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: to me leadership in a startup. And I'm I'm focused mainly on startups because I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've had a lot of success with startups. Leadership in a startup is is about building a critical mass of loyalists and believers
- 15:25Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: who share your vision, even if they don't have specific expertise in, you know, it really doesn't matter. I I took, you know, high school students to, you know, directly into my company, and they became the leads and and the executive management ultimately, and my various startup exploring uncharted territory and the most transformative progress came from working with people who weren't afraid to roll up their sleeves, take on
- 15:54Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: any roles outside their comfort zone, which is really important outside their comfort zone, and to experiment with
- 16:01Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: unproven ideas.
- 16:03Melinda Lee: A. A textbook. Organizational structure in a startup is the fool's task.
- 16:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: If you, if you create a you know, an organizational structure, high hierarchy, you're wasting your time. Instead, you need
- 16:17Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: the courage to embrace uncertainty
- 16:21Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: and trying to approaches. This ties directly to not being afraid to take calculated risk. Failure.
- 16:29Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I always tell my students is the most powerful learning tool, and John Maxwell was the famous is a famous lecture and and leadership expert. He puts it, fail early, fail often, but always fail forward. The key.
- 16:45Melinda Lee: Awesome.
- 16:46Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Is to create a culture where failure isn't seen as a dead end, but as a step toward innovation.
- 16:53Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: every setback
- 16:55Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: offers an opportunity to learn, iterate and improve. If you don't take a risk. If you don't put yourself out there and take a risk, you will fail 99% of the time you will fail
- 17:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: as a leader. Your role is to encourage these risks, support your team.
- 17:12Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 17:13Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Things don't go planned and keep everyone aligned to the mission.
- 17:17Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 17:18Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: In the lean, startup framework. There's build, measure. Learn cycle from the lean start. It's not just for products. It's for people, processes and strategies. Leadership is about fostering a relentless belief in forward progress where every failure moves you closer to success.
- 17:38Melinda Lee: That is. So I got the chills. I got the chills. It's it's powerful, it's powerful, and it's a i've heard this all before. But actually, for me really resonates with me right now, because
- 17:52Melinda Lee: I I think I'm just getting faster. And it took it would take me a lot longer to fail. Forward but now with you, with you just saying this over and over and ingraining it me, it just feels more like, okay. I could do that, you know, it's easier. It's better like you said failing is an opportunity for growth and learning. And and so it's encouraging for me, and to to be reminded of that.
- 18:15Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Keep in mind that.
- 18:16Melinda Lee: They feel.
- 18:17Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Yeah, keep in mind that you learn more from failure than you do from.
- 18:21Melinda Lee: Yeah, right? Right? Right?
- 18:25Melinda Lee: Oh.
- 18:26Melinda Lee: and I just I I it's so true. It's so true. And I think about my daughter. I think about how many times she's failed, and all of our failures do lead to a lot of our expansion and our growth.
- 18:36Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: She fails. Say good! That's positive.
- 18:39Melinda Lee: Good.
- 18:40Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: That's good. What did you learn from that?
- 18:42Melinda Lee: Yeah. Yeah. And with AI, I mean, I think that with AI and technology, we I love how you said no hierarchy. It almost feels like we all have a like. We can all have a playing ground here with the technology that's happening
- 18:56Melinda Lee: like there's so much we could do.
- 18:59Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Oh, for sure!
- 18:59Melinda Lee: Everyone.
- 19:00Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: For sure, AI is changing everything right now, especially, you know, within, within Hollywood, within the entertainment industry. Everybody everybody is
- 19:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: is is an independent contractor now, because they've got technology at home. They've got the they've got AI, you know, it's getting to the point where a single person, an independent filmmaker can actually create films using AI
- 19:31Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: can't hear. You
- 19:39Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: can't hear you, Melinda.
- 20:13Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Nope, you were up.
- 20:28Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I don't know what happened.
- 20:29Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Can you hear me.
- 20:32Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Can you hear me?
- 20:34Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Well, you can't hear me either.
- 20:36Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Interesting.
- 20:44Melinda Lee: Hello!
- 20:45Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: You know, it just said
- 20:48Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: what I just did, was it? It said, this is being recorded, and I clicked. Okay. And you came back.
- 20:55Melinda Lee: Oh, okay, okay, okay. Good. Okay. I think we're. I'm so sorry about that.
- 21:00Melinda Lee: I think we're let's take it from
- 21:04Melinda Lee: it was an AI. It was the AI, and how
- 21:09Melinda Lee: I'm gonna have my editor change it. But basically how AI
- 21:14Melinda Lee: was like the you know how everybody has their own freelance.
- 21:18Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: You're basically saying, Yeah, you don't need organizational structure. And I mentioned that most people in in Hollywood are now independent contractors, and they've got the technology and independent filmmakers can actually make movies on their desktop.
- 21:36Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 21:37Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I think that's right. After that it went out.
- 21:39Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 21:41Melinda Lee: yeah, let's just start from there. Yeah, can you just say that most people yeah in in Hollywood, just take it from there.
- 21:48Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Yeah, AI is very, very powerful. In fact, you know, Hollywood is being transformed because most practitioners, most visual effects in particular practitioners. You know, can work from home. They can work independently. And AI is allowing independent filmmakers
- 22:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: to actually create entire movies, or at least it's going this direction. It's not quite there yet, but it will be entire movies on their laptop
- 22:19Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: at home. That's very exciting to me, because for too long it's been controlled by the big studios and big money, you know. 100 million dollar budgets and that sort of thing. And the independent filmmaker just picks up the scraps. Well, now
- 22:34Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: they're on an even footage now. The independent filmmaker can make really exciting
- 22:43Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: heavily visual effects. Heavy. movies right on their laptop.
- 22:49Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: So exciting.
- 22:52Melinda Lee: That's exciting.
- 22:53Melinda Lee: That's amazing, I mean, and it goes the same to in all industries, across industries, a lot of roles, a lot of different areas of opportunities for for a lot of people.
- 23:05Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Yeah, a lot of people are afraid of AI, and they really don't. I mean, if they're afraid of. If they're afraid of AI, they will be left behind.
- 23:13Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 23:13Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: They need to embrace AI, learn it, and find out different ways that they can use it to make their lives and the lives of their their employees better.
- 23:23Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah, and I'm bringing it into my business. And so it's very exciting what we can do here with AI and coaching and communication.
- 23:31Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Oh, yeah.
- 23:32Melinda Lee: Wonderful. Well, thank you, Dr. Sandre. It was really wonderful meeting you and hearing about your expertise, I definitely learned a lot. I'll take it and implement it? And and how do people do? Are you looking for people? If people can contact you if they have any additional questions? Is that. Okay, that we put your
- 23:52Melinda Lee: oh, sure information into the chat or into the show notes.
- 23:56Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Oh, absolutely, absolutely feel free to contact.
- 23:59Melinda Lee: What are your yeah? What are you? Are you? Are you, Co? Are you consulting nowadays for.
- 24:06Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: I'm old I've got. I've got several startups that I'm consulting. I I host an angel group every 2 weeks at Westcliff University, and I'm in partnership with Westcliff University on this AI business, this this assessment business that was formed after I got my 3 patents in artificial intelligence. Again, when when education
- 24:34Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: really has no way, educators have no way of authenticating whether a student actually did their work or not, or whether it was done with Chat Gpt, and most of them spend most of their time just
- 24:48Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: trying to figure out whether somebody's plagiarizing. They'll use applications like turn it in to try to find out whether to try to catch somebody in the act of plagiarizing. I'm ignoring, plagiarizing. I don't really care about plagiarizing. I care about whether they've learned anything or not.
- 25:08Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: even if plagiarize something, if they've read through what they plagiarized and checked all the references and all of that business. They've learned something.
- 25:17Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: And that's really what matters. And so the technology that I developed that I'm going in partnership with Westcliff University on is going to, I think, be disruptive in a positive way to higher education.
- 25:33Melinda Lee: Wonderful, wonderful! I can't wait to hear more about it.
- 25:39Melinda Lee: I think that's so important. And again going like you mentioned taking a step forward, going into the unknown. And as you continue to do that to support the the communities, the world, our students.
- 25:53Melinda Lee: Thank you so much for your work, Dr. Sandre. It's really great.
- 25:56Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.: Thank you, Melinda. I really appreciate taking you taking the time.
- 26:02Melinda Lee: Thank you and dear listeners, thank you so much for joining us. I trust that you are going to take away your nugget for what you need to communicate, to make more positive difference in the world, appreciate you until next time. See you.