All out of enemies.

Fuck me, I’m all out of enemies!

Haha — okay, maybe not all out of enemies.

But as far as running my own creative production studio goes… I kind of am.

And honestly? I loved having enemies when I started out.
As a creative entrepreneur, I think I do my best work when I’ve got someone I want to fucking stick it to.

Am I the only one?

Here’s some context:

When I started over a decade ago, I was at zero — but I fell into an industry that was very corporate. The content production agencies that existed at the time were… stale. Bit of an old man’s club, if I’m being honest.

So I came in like a bull out of the gate.

I brought in ideas from outside industries — music videos, sports hype, even my work in strip clubs — and I built a studio that was producing $2 million a year in no time.
Over 100 creatives working in it.
The who’s who of the industry knocking on my door.

It gained attention.

I put a lot of complacent agencies out of business. And like anything that gets attention, the haters came out.

That’s when I discovered something interesting about myself:

As a leader, I loved the obligation of having to provide for my team.
They trusted me with their income, their careers — and if anyone threatened that, I went to war.

People tried to poach my team.
Tried to undercut my prices.
Tried to offer what we were doing for free or at a fraction of the cost (P.S. — they couldn’t do what we were doing. Just to be clear.)
And they ran around badmouthing the shit out of our agency.

But here’s the thing:

In the times when that wasn’t happening?
My energy wasn’t the same.
Sure, I wanted to do my best — but the fire was different.

Wanting to step on the throats of people?
It’s a powerful motivator.
It gave me extra wind in my sails.

Now — caveat — I was very careful never to be consumed by it.
And I never projected that energy onto others.

As far as my team and clients were concerned, we had no competition.

I’ve never badmouthed a competitor — especially not to a potential client.
It’s a bad look. And it lacks integrity.

My public stance was always:
No one can do what we do, the way we do it.
And the only people we had to be better than were ourselves — and the work we did yesterday.
That was the company line.

But man… deep down?
You just get out of bed differently when you’re on the hunt.

Fast forward to now — and honestly, I either know most of my competitors personally and we chat, or I’m just kind of… nonchalant about them.

I don’t care.

I still won’t let anyone mess with us, but I also don’t really see anyone as a threat either.

That said — I do think competition in any industry is a great way to raise the level across the board:
Product.
Service.
Marketing.
It should push us to be better.

So all I’m saying is:
If you need a little more juice in those early years?

Pick someone you really want to crush — and go get ‘em.

Worked for me.