Taking My First Breath: A Personal Thank You from President & Founder, Ryan Council

Before I can say anything about launching this company, I have the honor and extreme pleasure of thanking a number of people that have made a huge difference in my life along the way. First, I would like to thank my best friend…my Lord and Savior…Jesus Christ. It has been an extremely personal and wonderful friendship. Without Him, I would not have the opportunity (or be taking the opportunity) to enjoy this new life. Second, I want to honor and thank God for my parents. I failed to honor my parents sincerely growing up because I was immature and selfish. I hope that as I continue to reflect on my life that I will be able (and cautious) to continue to thank them for their love and their perseverance through some of the most difficult situations that a family could ever go through. My brother is the greatest big brother that anyone could ever ask for, and I got him without asking for him. God called him to protect and serve the community as a law enforcement officer and I am honored and grateful to have him in my life.

Along the way, I had the pleasure of developing friendships and relationships with folks that made a huge impact in my life, but a number of those relationships failed because of a mutual emotional poverty. I was wrong for the hurt that I caused, and I forgive those who hurt me. I know that our lives are better now because of God's intervention and divine grace.

A very special thank you to the faculty and staff (and vision) at Regent University. This school and institution played a very powerful role in God saving my life after I had faced certain destruction. I was a broken and depressed young man when I arrived, but God was there and he began the process of restoration.

 To all of my friends, co-workers, and executive leaders at Dominion Enterprises: I love you and miss you all very much. To this day, I have not found a better group of people to work with. A special thank you to George Brooks, Cindy Samford, and Carmen Ramage for taking a chance on me.

To Lisa and Milan: we miss you guys very much. Thank you Lisa for sacrificially believing in me on this leg of our journey!

To Mr. Carlos Wallace, Liz Faublas, and JaleneMack: thank you. I can't tell you how much it meant to me for you to take time out of your busy schedule to speak to me and encourage me throughout my program.

To my children, Tiras and Zechariah. God could not have given me any better than the two of you. It's hard for me to believe that I have one child in college and another one in kindergarten. You both are very strong and have also been a major inspiration behind Breathe 150. When I grow up, I want to be just like Tiras. You're going to make a great husband someday, son. Zechy…I Breathe 150 because of you. You will always be my little Sour Patch Kid…my Happy Gilmore…my Bat-a-saurus…my Alpaca…my joy.

Brenda Valentine: I miss our conversations, but I know God personally came and escorted you home Himself. I believe that with all of my heart. Angels are only allowed so much time on the earth before they have to go back home to glory. I know I really can't dance well, but save one for me.

Bill Valentine: There's probably not a man alive that I respect more than you. It's because of you that I have the life that I do. You gave me your daughter and she has brought an immense amount of fulfillment to my empty soul. If you would have denied me her hand in marriage, I would be a man without direction and without a purpose. I'm eternally grateful to you for what you gave me.

Finally…..to the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world: Tracey Council. I don't know where to begin. You take my breath away Mittens. You're my wife! Yes…you are my business partner…but you are my wife. I have the best of both worlds. There's not a woman alive that can hold a candle to you. You're the most beautiful and the smartest woman I know and I'm grateful to have you. I wish I can build a time machine so that I can go back and marry you every day for the rest of my life. I just never want our joy to end. Actually…it won't. I get to have you for all eternity. Thank you Jesus!

So…this is how it begins!

Everybody now….Breathe In!!  

I'm Heading to Rio!!

Growing up as a child, we had some pretty good feature length animated movies. Films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and TheLion King appealed to family audiences around the world, and received recognition for their musical scores and their art design. Disney sure knew how to pack a punch in the animation arena. Thanks to our local library, my youngest son can see some of the cartoons and animated films that I grew up watching as a child. To my surprise, after watching some of my old cartoon favorites, he’d memorized the theme song and was able to hum and sing it without an auto-tune feature. It’s always amazing to see how something that was created years ago can still appeal to younger audiences today.

These days, I find myself humming and singing the songs from the animated movies that my son watches. Just when I thought that there was no other rhythmically outstanding movie than the original Rio animated feature, Rio 2 lands on the scene. Just when I had made peace with the songs from the original movie playing in my head, Rio 2 flies into the theater. Unbelievable music. It was fantastic! Uh!! I tried to keep my hips from moving, but…Uh… Oh yeah…that has also proved pointless. Even now I’m twitching in my seat. With Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg as the voice of Jewel and Blue, Rio 2 takes the lovable couple and their family and friends on an adventure to the Amazon rain forest. 

Leaving the comfort of their home in Rio, the group heads to unknown territory in the Amazon. Typically, sequels don’t deliver more than the original, but Rio 2 brought with it more color, more adventure, and more music. The animation is amazing, but more spectacular is how the animals in the movie all become the music. Even with the volume turned off, I can still feel the pulsing drums just from watching the choreography playing on the screen. Rio 2 took music and made it colorful; it took music and put it into motion. So obviously, there is a dilemma in the Council household: My youngest son is singing old school and I’m singing what is fresh. Once a man; twice a child? Who cares, as long as there is rhythm.    

The Kid In Me

I have had the time of my life coming up with things to write about over the past number of months. I’ve had a chance to write about things pertaining to business issues, social issues, and parenting issues. Starting this blog was supposed to help me find a way to keep my kids entertained, and to find fun things to do since we relocated to the Orlando, Florida area. My kids have been the ones to truly benefit from the different places that we have gone and fun ideas that I have come up with, but I really haven’t touched on the kid living inside of me and the things that I really enjoyed doing growing up. I know…I’m thirty-five years old…father of two boys, and enough grey in my beard to make me look like a chocolate sexy Santa Clause. I admit that I’m a big kid inside and I love to have my own little adventures, but nothing used to get me more pumped up than a game of Nintendo’s Ring King.

Image courtesy of: http://www.gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Arcade/Snap/big/Vs._T.K.O._Boxing_-_1987_-_Namco.jpg

 I’ve never been into the whole online gaming world. I’m not the person that can tell you cheat codes or would ever be interested in learning how to create a video game, but boy do I love to play them. Well…I haven’t had a chance to really play them lately since I have been in school, a husband, and trying to play the role of a responsible provider…but you get what I am saying. I love playing video games, and Ring King especially. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out did wonders for bridging the boxing world with the video game industry, but nothing thrilled me more than playing Ring King. Nintendo really outdid themselves! They designed the funniest looking characters that would be laughed at by today’s game designers. These guys had Afros and wore the tightest shorts known to the sporting world.  As a player, you would dance around the ring squaring off against your opponent, trying to land critical blows to knock him out. If you landed a really good hit (or a series of good hits) you could cause your opponent to spin around like a top before hitting the canvas, or simply knock him clean out of the ring into the audience seats. POW…ZOOM…to the moon!! It was fantastic gameplay!

Game design company, Electronic Arts became really big as I was growing up, and games like Madden NFL were a hit among young game players. Marketing video games like Madden still seems to be pretty traditional by today’s online digital marketing standards. During the NFL football season, you will still see a number of television commercials targeted towards adult and adolescent gamers. In the digital world online and depending on what site you are on, you will see banner ads and video pop-up windows showing a video trailer of the game. Marketing a video game wasn’t that sophisticated back in the day. The public knew about a new video game when it came out in the next game publication, or when it showed up at a local arcade. No matter how the word gets out, there is nothing more spectacular about playing a game that will change your life for the rest of your life. Ring King was that game for me. I can’t wait until I am able to purchase all of the old game software and play them online or on a game console. Guess which one is going to be the first one I get?

Family Matters

My adolescent childhood was nearly destroyed by one television character: Steve Urkel. Isn't it funny how one pair of glasses and a set of braces can ruin your life when you're in school? Thankfully, I made it out alive with only a few emotional scars from all of the taunting and teasing. However, the show that spawned the Steve Urkel character was wildly successful.

From September of 1989, to May of 1997, Family Matters aired every Friday on the ABC network during a two hour block of family centered entertainment known as TGIF. For its last season, it aired on the CBS network. I was a huge fan of the Friday night ABC line up. Since I was young, nerdy, and had nothing really going on for me, I would stay home and just watch the programs. By 1998, however, I was in my second year of college and had lost the zeal to watch the shows. I didn't even know that Family Matters was still on the air, much less that it had been signed over to CBS.

Family Matters is not the only show that has switched television networks. Insanely funny hospital "dramady" Scrubs died off of the NBC network, only to be revived for another short season on the ABC network. Family Matters and its sister show, Step by Step was acquired by CBS in a deal worth $40 million. Tensions between Miller-Boyett Productions and The Walt Disney Company (parent company) erupted, causing Miller-Boyett to accept the deal with CBS to rival against the TGIF lineup. The effort was unsuccessful, and both Family Matters and Step by Step were cancelled the following season, dismantling CBS's efforts to steal the Friday night family market.

 Television shows seem to exhibit the same characteristics of modern day sports figures. If there is a better deal (or only deal offered) executives seem to have no problem trading a show to another team. Maybe the idea is that the show will do better on a different network than what it did previously. I think sometimes writers and producers attempt to do the impossible with a group of characters and with a show. I believe that you have to know when it is the right time to end a show and put those characters to rest. It's hard to let go, but drawing out a show will only have terrible effects for the legacy of the program. It's no different than Michael Jordan retiring from basketball, only to revive his own career on a different team. I might have looked liked Urkel back in the day, but I never did the Urkel shuffle. Catch my drift?

Spotlight Interview with Jalene M. Mack, Esq. Entertainment Industry Legal Expert

The development of a business plan is intended to be a map assisting the entrepreneur and business leader on the road to establishing a successful business. However, a staggering 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs that start a business fail within the first 18 months (Wagner, 2013). Among the many reasons why a business fails: poor communication with customers, and leadership breakdown (Wagner, 2013). As I continue to move forward developing my own business plan in family entertainment and artist management, it became obvious to me that something else would cause me to be unproductive in my business venture: that is the lack of knowledge in the area of entertainment law. Obviously, the purpose of my scholastic efforts is to gain an understanding of the entire field of the entertainment industry, but it is to also learn how to lean upon the strength of other qualified professionals.

Jalene M. Mack, Esq. is a highly sought after entertainment lawyer operating out of Houston, Texas with an extensive background in performance and media arts. Not only does she represent some of the more recognizable talent in the industry, she is an invaluable resource to the profession, offering years of insight from her background as an actress, producer, playwright, and businesswoman. She is also the founder and artistic director of Mack Performing Arts Collective (MPAC) which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "cultivate the interest of performing arts by exposing, educating and entertaining our disadvantaged youth and young adults" (http://www.mpac-arts.org, 2011). I was afforded the opportunity to ask her a few questions that I felt were pertinent to the development of my business.

I really wanted Ms. Mack to define and elaborate on the Infliction of Emotional Distress. I wanted to know where was it most common in the entertainment industry. Ms. Mack pointed out that there is a lot of rejection in the entertainment industry, especially when it comes to actors or talent not getting an audition, or booking a job. Her insight and direction for talented individuals is for them to simply know that they are good enough, despite the outcome of an audition. She encourages artists and talent to not wait for the job, but to go out and create one. Emphatically, she states for talent to write their own material. Ms. Mack also summed up another topic of concern for me: the area of contract interference. Business relationships fail, and she points out that a soured business relationship could lead to one-side trying to prevent deals going through for the other. She advises that a cease and desist order be sent on behalf of the clients; and if that is of no avail, a lawsuit filed with an injunctive relief may be in order.

Artist and talent management has become my passion, and it’s important to understand the legal avenues of setting up contracts when working with new talent. Ms. Mack confirms what we have been learning throughout this journey, and that is the importance of a contract. She adds that everything about a contract is important, including (and especially) what is not in the contract. I also inquired about starting a Christ-centered non-profit organization (that will utilize entertainment industry resources and personnel) and I wanted to know how not to let it interfere with my business of managing talent or making money. Ms. Mack immediately clarified something that I never knew before, and that is that non-profit organizations can make money. She clarified that the big problem we see with non-profit organizations having issues with making money is in how they submit their application, or in the absence of programs they should have in place to justify their status.

Above everything, Ms. Jalene Mack confirmed for me what I had believed about working in the entertainment business, and that is you must surround yourself with good people. In a world of open source documents and online legal advice, we run the risk of “depersonalizing” an industry that thrives off of networking with talented legal professionals. I admit, after my brief conversation with Ms. Mack I felt ten times smarter, but I also walked away with a great appreciation of letting go of the things that can be better handled by someone else who is more qualified. Maybe the only thing we really need to know to prevent our businesses from failing is simply how to pick up the phone and ask for help.                 

Paul F. Crouch: 1934-2013

On November 30, 2013, Paul F. Crouch, head co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network passed away after a ten year battle with degenerative heart disease. When I was younger, I used to watch the network religiously in an effort to learn more about my faith, and the people within my faith community.  Paul Crouch and his family were always on the television, hosting a show, or raising funds to build more stations around the world, or to send more satellites into orbit to beam "the Gospel" to every corner of the globe. It had been a while since I had sat down and watched any TBN program. I  don't know if I just became too preoccupied with everything else in life, or if I just got to the prideful place where I just felt like I didn't need the programming anymore. But as I flipped through the channel that evening, and I watched the cryptic commercial replying scenes from his life, I blurted out to my wife, "Oh my God...Paul Crouch is dead." Maybe it was all of my years working in television and knowing the tone and flow of bereavement packages, or maybe it just hit me. All I knew is that 20 seconds later, there was a graphic with a Ken Burns effect flying in on the screen with the dates between his life and death. My heart sunk. I immediately jumped on-line to find out more details, but the event had just happened that day, and the only thing I was able to find at that time were websites that were celebrating his passing in a negative manner. It began to destroy me and for one whole day, I walked around in a fog. Paul Crouch, like every other living human, had flaws. It did not bother me to read that another human being could actually have a flaw or had made a poor decision at sometime (anytime) in their life. What bothered me and probably many others, was that this man was being talked about like a dog. He was like a father figure to me especially for my tract in family entertainment. My entire scholastic career has been centered on learning and creating healthy programs that was educational and up-lifting, and a lot of credit for that inspiration should go to Paul Crouch and his family. I would have never thought or believed that it was possible to run a faith-based family theme park and studio if I hadn't seen it done successfully by TBN and TBN partners. My journey through my MBA program has showed me a lot about the business world, that 90-something percent of the population (and even faith-community population) does not know about. Truth be told, most of the negative comments were coming from sources that lacked credibility and understanding about how to even run a business (and more specifically: a ministry business). They couldn't possibly understand about "opportunity costs" and how many times Paul Crouch and his family had to decide not to sell the organization and the equipment, even though it might have been tempting when things got difficult. Paul and his surviving wife Jan retold the story of how TBN got started in a video package that was taped before Paul passed away. They tell the story of how they had $20,000 dollars left in their account (in the 1970's) but promised God to put it in the new ministry. They both acknowledge that after that, the ministry was able to grow and blossom both influentially and financially. What if they would have decided to keep that $20,000 dollars to themselves? You see...most people never have had to think about sacrifices like that. They have never had to make that kind of decision. So, today, I say what should be said...especially as someone looking to follow in similar path of Paul Crouch: Thank you, Sir!    

Parade Tradition!

So, every year, my family and I anticipate the annual broadcast of the Macy's Day Parade. More than 85 years, and the event is still going strong. My wife and I have a background in live television and communication, so the obvious appeal to us is always going to be how the program is being produced. By the time you have kids though, it becomes a family tradition and you sit down and just (try) to enjoy it for the magical event that it is. We could go on and on about the Broadway show previews, and the enormous balloon floats, and even the anticipation of Santa Clause arriving on location; but today...since the kids are upstairs, maybe this is a good time to consider what does go into making this annual event come to life. Now, no one can rival the expert craftsmanship and detailed designs of Santa's elves up in the North Pole. So, then it would be obvious to me that all of the floats and balloon designs are made up there. Right? Wrong!? How could this be? Maybe my Spidey senses are off today. Macy's has a parade studio in Moonachie, NJ where they design, construct, and engineer the 30 floats and 16 balloons that will make their way eventually down 34th Street...even your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man makes an appearance. Obviously New Jersey is no North Pole, but if it had to be in a category of places where magic happens, then it would rank right up there. Sure, we substitute elves for welders, engineers, and architects, but at least we still get a Santa at the end of the whole deal. The event is broadcast live on the NBC network and affiliates and is covered by NBC's top ranking anchors from the Today Show. But they are not the only talent on the scene. The annual event brings in actors, musicians, singers, and performers from all around the world and from all walks of life just to share the stage and to make a lasting memory for families everywhere. Practically, we understand that there is a high cost involved in bringing this show together every year, but I can't talk about cost right now, because my kids just entered the room and I don't want to destroy the dream. Let's just say then that Santa invests a lot to bring this event tradition to New York every year. I wonder what his spreadsheet looks like?