We’ve been a fan of the actor John Krasinski since the first episode of The Office. So it’s no surprise that we enjoyed his Coronavirus-era “home-made” (as in, “made at home”) on-demand, streaming video called “Some Good News.” Just how did Krasinski do it? We found the answer from SmallBusiness.com contributor Steve King at SmallBizLabs.com and on Twitter: @smallbizlabs.

Fast Company’s recent feature, “Meet John Krasinski’s secret weapon that helped make ‘Some Good News’ a hit‘ explores how Krasinski used Communo, an online creative talent marketplace, to find and engage his post-production team.  

The Good News Team

• Post-production | NYC’s Senior Post and Leroi
• Video Distribution | Nashville’s Made in Network
• Social Media| Calgary’s Arcade
• GIF Analytics | New Haven, Conn.’s Giflytics

Alright everybody, how about #SomeGoodNews ! Send me the stories that have made you feel good this week or the things that just made you smile!

— John Krasinski (@johnkrasinski) March 25, 2020

There are now eight episodes and the series was sold to ViamcomCBS for a reported $100 million +.  Pretty good for a couple of months’ work, although many fans are unhappy that Krasinski sold the show. 

Some things jumped out at us about this story:

• Krasinski was able to scale up a very successful, professionally produced TV show in just weeks using distributed nonemployee labor.  
• “Some Good News” bypassed the traditional media gatekeepers by using YouTube and going directly to consumers.  
• All the players involved are very small geographically distributed firms or independent workers who collaborate on this project. 

Of course, the show’s success would have been much less likely – and probably not possible – without the talent and star power of John Krasinski. 

But the show’s success still illustrates how teams of distributed, independent workers and small firms can quickly form and produce world-class results.  

And this is not just happening in creative fields. It’s happening in almost all industries and professions. 

(Updated December 20, 2019) Google has a year-end update for small business road warriors and others who need help with more simple real-time translation. They have added an “interpreter mode” to the mobile version of Google Assistant. Previously, the real-time translation feature was complex for many users to set up and use. It was also limited to Android devices. The new translation mode is simple to use with more features and languages, according to Google’s Lilian Rincon.

What Google Assistant’s interpreter mode does

Using your iOS (Apple) or Google Assistant (Android) devices, you can have a back and forth conversation with someone speaking a foreign language. The mode now works across 44 languages.

How to set up interpreter mode

If you use an Android mobile device, the translation mode is baked into the operating system. Apple mobile device users (iOS) need to download the Google Assistant app if you have an Apple iPhone or iPad.

How to use interpreter mode with your Smart Phone

To get started, just say “Hey Google, be my French translator” or “Hey Google, help me speak Spanish” and you’ll see and hear the translated conversation on your phone. According to Google’s Rincon. “After each translation, Goole Assistant may present Smart Replies, giving you suggestions that let you respond without speaking—which can make your conversations faster and even more seamless.”

Other ways to use interpreter mode

Interpreter mode also features different ways to communicate suited to your situation: you can type using a keyboard for quiet environments, or manually select what language to speak.

It’s still a work in progress

Real-time translation for the masses has been a long-time goal for visionaries ranging from academics to science fiction authors — and is available in many ways and various contexts even today. (For example, if you need to translate text, Google Lens works on Android device’s cameras.) And privacy is obviously an issue wherever users are using cloud devices to use personal conversations and other data.

But for business owners and manager, there are many situations where translation — even the next-step kind — can open up markets and add clarity to work-related communication.

And another thing

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The spread of American food trucks (or “mobile food” as they’re called these days) isn’t showing any signs of slowing according to a recent report. The food truck industry alone is projected to grow by nearly 20% this year (2019). One source of that growth is coming from a new type of small business owners called “Dabblers,” according to a report from the San Francisco-based mobile food consultancy, Off the Grid.

Enabled by emerging technology and the new gig economy in which having a “side hustle” is the norm, Off the Grid says a different breed of mobile food entrepreneur has emerged: the Dabbler.

Dabblers are passionate home cooks and would-be small business owners who view their mobile food venture as a controlled experiment on the open market, an added source of income, or perhaps even a creative outlet from their nine-to-fives.

These enterprising individuals recognize that their greatest strength lies in their ability to do exactly what their moniker suggests: to dabble with new menu items, new locations, new service models, new products and new partnerships.

Most importantly, dabblers are equipped to align (and realign) their strategies to changing consumer preferences, seize upon cultural moments, and capture the imagination of the dining public.

For more about Dabblers and other emerging trends in Mobile Food, download the report “Mobile Food Trends and Insights Report” from Off the Grid.

Photo: Off the Grid

Self-driving vehicles (also called “autonomous technology”) will soon be rolling from the development stage onto the actual highway stage. “Some experts say fleets of driverless vehicles will be on the road within two years,” according to a recent series by the San Francisco Chronicle. One issue the newspaper tackled was the question, “What happens to all of those over-the-road and local truckers who now deliver about 75 percent of everything businesses and consumers purchase?”

Some positive results that may occur due to self-driving trucks

• Fewer traffic accidents
  • 40,000 | In the U.S., 40,000 people die in car crashes each year, mostly caused by human error. Millions more are seriously injured.
• Cleaner air
• Cheaper transportation

Some negative results that may occur due to self-driving trucks

• Could cost millions of people their jobs
  • 3.8 Million | Number of Americans who work as commercial motor vehicle operators, driving trucks, delivery vans, buses and taxis (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  • 29 States | In 29 states, truck driving is the most common occupation
  • 4 million | People who work in trucking-related jobs other than driving. For example, insurance agents, parking meter attendants, truck stops, motels, parking lots, toll booths, garages, auto body shops, etc.
  • 90% | Percentage of the trucking industry made up of small business trucking companies with 10 or fewer trucks. (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association)
  • 350,000 | There are approximately 350,000 owner-operators in the United States.

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  What happens to truckers when commercial vehicles are self-driving?

  “The net impact of automation on employment has always been positive, rather than a negative,” says John Paul MacDuffie, a management professor at Wharton Business School’s program on vehicle and mobility innovation. “There’s no reason to expect that this time will be any different,” McDuffie told the Chronicle.

  “Luddites smashed looms 200 years ago because they thought they would do away with their craft. The reality is, work always evolves to adapt to technology,” said Rob Carter, chief information officer for FedEx, which operates 160,000 ground vehicles. Airplanes already can fly themselves — but pilots still inhabit the cockpit, handling takeoffs, landings and any situations that arise, Carter said. He thinks the same will be true for trucks.

  ---

  While pizza delivery is a different industry than over-the-road trucking, when Pizza Hut recently announced a new autonomous project, the company said that autonomous delivery trucks would actually create more jobs.

  It actually could create more jobs by opening the pool of “drivers” to those who do not own vehicles. They might act more as servers, focusing on hospitality.

  — Pizza Hut (@pizzahut) January 9, 2018

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  If history repeats itself, a re-tooled trucking industry will likely unveil countless needs that will lead to the creation of new small businesses and provide opportunities for sole proprietors. Some of those opportunities will include the adaptation of owner-operator business models that provide services similar to today — but that utilize some amazing new technology. Unfortunately, the next few years (or decades) may also be a rocky road for many small businesses in the trucking industry.

  But who knows? Maybe the future of commercial transportation won’t just be in self-driving trucks, but will also be something we’ve all wanted since the Jetsons: the flying cargo container.

  Hey. It could happen.

  

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Our friend Becky McCray, small town and rural small business expert and regular SmallBusiness.com contributor, alerted us to a small town business opportunity we think is ready to import from the UK: “Champing.” It’s like camping, but in a church. Or, perhaps, like staying in a bed and really heavenly breakfast.

Your town probably has one: an empty church building. Or perhaps an underutilized one. I’ve seen several small town and rural churches converted into private homes, but I hadn’t seen one used as camping or lodging until this: champing, or camping in churches.

Quote from the website of the UK’s Churches Conservation Trust:

‘Champing’ is the ultimate ‘slow tourism’ escape, with England’s historic churches offering their own unique havens of tranquility, a peaceful night’s sleep interrupted only by the sounds of the natural world, and time to explore the beauty of the surrounding countryside at your own pace by day.

For some small churches strapped for revenue, champing has become a new revenue stream. For others, church buildings have been converted into various forms of lodging ranging from youth hostels to B-and-Bs.

This is a business idea that many small towns could pick up on. You could only have one church, or you could branch out into multiple small towns. You could market on your own, or you could use platforms like AirBNB or VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner).

VIA | Small Business Survival
More | Champing.co.uk

Photos: Champing.co.uk, istock, SmallBusiness.com

Yesterday (6.7.2017) in Nashville at the 36|86 Technology Conference attended by early stage Southeast companies and investors, FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith, was interviewed in a fireside chat format by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. When asked by one of the entrepreneurs if he had some specific advice for the hopeful startup creators, Smith shared these five observations.

1 | Be objective about what you are trying to do.

“You must have a competitive advantage, and you must be able to sustain it,” Smith said. He told the audience that when he was starting FedEx (“when we didn’t have the budget to do it”), he commissioned three different companies to do the same research study in order to get an objective assessment of his theories about the marketplace they were planning to serve.

2 | You must have great people.

And those great people must be treated fairly and share in the rewards of the company’s performance.

3 | Business is just math, it’s not life.

He urged the entrepreneurs to realize that while being successful at business is good, but that family and other things away from work are more important.

4 | Work hard, but be true to your values.

And care about your health.

5 | Have a sense of humor

Smith punctuated the entire conversation with self-deprecating observations that charmed the audience while driving home his insights.

Interview photo | 3686 Conference
FedEx jet | Alan Radecki via WikiMedia.org CC 3.0

Innovators are passionate about and committed to their goals. This compels them to persist physically and mentally, according to Dr. K.H. Kim, professor of Creativity & Innovation at the College of William & Mary and author of  The Creativity Challenge: How We Can Recapture American Innovation. In an article for the Creativity Post, Kim explains how innovators never quit and continue even when they experience challenges, setbacks, or failures. Such persistence is the biggest difference between innovators and non-innovators.

Here are some attributes of persistent innovators, according to Kim.

Innovators simply do not quit

Instead, they switch their focused, persistent attitude into an unfocused, spontaneous attitude.

Their subconscious mind continuously works on problems they encounter

When their conscious mind is taking a break and relaxed. Moreover, their persistence continues even after their final creation.

They constantly think about and improve their creation, which leads to other creations

Some of their creations may not be of high quality, but their persistence drives them to constantly create. Innovators produce numerous creations, which increases the chance that one of their creations will be recognized by society as an innovation.  The greatest innovators in history produced more creations than non-innovators, and their persistent attitude helped them overcome bad luck, lack of resources, and all possible excuses, regardless of their age.

Innovators produce numerous creations

This flow of creations increases the chance that one of their creations will be recognized by society as an innovation.

The greatest innovators in history produced more creations than non-innovators, and their persistent attitude helped them overcome bad luck, lack of resources, and all possible excuses, regardless of their age.

VIA | CreativityPost.com “Want To Innovate? Science Says, ‘Persist‘”

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“A lot of smart, industrious and hard-working people admit that luck played a role in their success,” Carl Richards observed recently in the New York Times. (Among the best examples is Warren E. Buffett, who credits the “Ovarian Lottery.”) “Yet for some reason, many of the lucky ones refuse to credit luck,” says Richards. Having pride in your accomplishments is a powerful and positive motivator. It keeps you going when the times get tough. However, our pride can also cause us to recast the stories of our success in such a way as to downplay the role of luck while enhancing the role of our hard work, talent, intelligence, etc.

“Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.”

E. B. White (attributed)

When you’re running or bicycling into the wind or up an incline, you’re aware of it. But you’re rarely aware of those times when the wind is at your back or you are running down a gentle slope. “That’s just a fundamental feature of how our minds, and how the world, works,” according to Robert Frank, author of the book, Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy.

Despite the examples of Buffett and many others, many people seem reluctant to credit the role of luck in their success. Perhaps it is because they feel it devalues their talent or hard work, observes Richards. And for many, the more success they achieve, the more they want to dismiss the role of luck. According to the Pew Research Center, people in higher income brackets are much more likely than those with lower incomes to say that individuals get rich primarily because they work hard. Wealthy people tend to attribute their own success to hard work rather than to factors like luck or being in the right place at the right time.

The positive role of crediting luck’s role in your success

A growing body of research suggests that crediting the role of luck in your success can lead to a greater sense of gratitude and, in turn, a long list of positive physical and psychological benefits, including generosity.

Social scientists have been studying the benefits of gratitude intensively for almost two decades. Robert Emmons of the University of California at Davis and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami are leading researchers into the role of gratitude and have found that it produces a remarkable array of physical, psychological, and social changes, writes Frank.

“In one study, Emmons and McCullough asked one group of people to keep diaries in which they noted things that had made them feel grateful, a second group to note things that had made them feel irritated, and a third group to simply record events.

“After 10 weeks, the researchers reported dramatic changes in those who had noted their feelings of gratitude. The newly grateful had less frequent and less severe aches and pains and improved sleep quality. They reported greater happiness and alertness. They described themselves as more outgoing and compassionate, and less likely to feel lonely and isolated.

“No similar changes were observed in the second or third groups.”

Go ahead, say it: “I am very, very lucky.”

We shouldn’t rely on luck, but let’s stop kicking it in the teeth when it does show up, encourages Richards.  “Go ahead. Practice saying out loud, ‘I am very, very lucky.’ And guess what? You can say those words and still have working hard, learning more and daring to play in traffic be really important.”

“By recognizing the role luck has played in our lives, we can go forward with just a little more humility and a little less ego. That is a great investment for long-term success.”

Carl Richards

VIA | NYTimes.com

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At SmallBusiness.com, we call this  Small Business Gadget Week in honor of the gizmos that are unveiled at the annual CES in Las Vegas (formerly called the Consumer Electronics Show). Here are just a few of the gadgets being unveiled at CES that would come in handy – or just be cool – in any small business. They each were awarded a CES Innovation Award in one of 28 categories. 

Cota Tile | Ossia, Inc.

How the company describes it:

“Cota Tile delivers wireless power without plugs and pads. Built to replace a standard ceiling tile, Cota Tile can charge electronic devices within a 30-foot radius. From offices and hospitals to coffee shops and homes, Cota Tile makes power as convenient, safe and invisible as wireless internet.”

Cubit | Plott

How the company describes it:

“Plott is the consumer technology subsidiary of NWi. Cubit is our first step in tools that are capable of thinking/problem solving, and we are passionately excited about it. By freeing us up from complex measurements and the many, many calculations needed for layout placement, it enables us to focus on the reason why we’re doing a project in the first place. To visually plan out from ‘how it is now?’ to ‘how I want it to be,’ and guiding us to the points to make those changes in real life.”

Nighthawk X10 R9000 Smart WiFi router | Netgear

How the company describes it:

“Nighthawk X10 is the fastest router for media streaming with a Plex media server. Nighthawk X10 with 802.11ac and 802.11ad WiFi technology delivers ultra-smooth 4K streaming and instant downloads.”

Samsung Lifestyle TV | Samsung Electronics

How the company describes it:

“The innovative Samsung Lifestyle TV is a beautiful, always-on, truly smart display that transforms the TV to art, making a home or office more welcoming and aesthetically pleasing no matter the content on the screen.”

Steadicam Volt | Tiffen Company

How the company describes it:

“The Steadicam Volt is a compact, three-axis motorized smartphone camera stabilizer that allows users to stabilize videos like no other product on the market. The Volt is a unique hybrid: direct, precise Steadicam operating for smartphones with electronic gyro-simulated mass.”

NOTE | Currently the Steadicam Volt is a Kickstarter project. As of January 5, it had not reached it goal and a special CES price of $119 is available. Retail will be $199.

VIA | CES.tech

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Despite having popular “brand stores” in Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Taipei and Berlin (along with a distribution network in select bike stores), the company has the goal of selling 90 percent of its bikes online by the year 2020. “Anyone in the e-commerce world will tell you, ‘you’re only as good as your shipping partner,'” wrote Bex.

Even with great products and an awesome website,
nothing matters if the bike you order arrives crushed.

Earlier this year, the company’s co-founder had a “flash of genius,” writes Bex. “Our boxes are about the same size as a (really really reeeaaaaly massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?”

And just like that, the shipping damage to the company’s bikes dropped by 70–80%.

The company was hoping to keep their shipping trick secret, but the idea was too clever to stay secret for long. People who received the flatscreen TV bicycle boxes couldn’t help but post photos on Instagram and Twitter.

So the secret is out. “Just don’t tell FedEx,” begs Bex.

VIA | Subtraction.com | “How Graphic Design Reduced Damages to VanMoof’s Shipments” and QZ.com

Photos: VanMoof.com