Kevin Smith: Entrepreneurship, American-Style

One of my favorite directors, and one of the genuine voices of my generation, Kevin Smith has done what we all must do from time to time. He has, in just a few weeks, reinvented himself. Smith launched his own Internet radio station this week. It seems like it’s going to work. And just like when Dr. Reese got peanut butter on his chocolate or vice versa, it was an accident.

Since 1994, I’ve been a Kevin Smith junkie. Something about the gloriously foul words that flew from his characters’ mouths spoke to a yearning in my soul to say whatever the fuck I want. As Smith went through the normal progression of life (marriage, kids, success, failure, etc), so did his audience. I always just seemed to be at a place in my life where his work informed my own. I even paid homage to “Mallrats” in my first flick with a fun little animated blueprint sequence a la Jay and Silent Bob. I’ve followed (and written about) his career, to include the very beginnings of his new venture.

Back in early 2007, Smith was looking for a way to more consistently hang out with his good friend and producing partner Scott Mosier. The duo decided to get together on a weekly basis, to record their conversations and release them as a podcast, merely as a way to hold themselves accountable for some man-on-man time (I mean that in a non-sexual way, but really, these two should just get it over with). People – including me – listened and the show, called “SModcast,” became the top podcast on iTunes.

Flash forward three years, and Smith had added several more podcasts, hosted by him and others in his Askewniverse. Some were short series, but there was a core of 7 broadcasts, one released each day of the week. Sponsors came in (“came” being the operative word here, as the first sponsor was “Fleshlight”… you can look that one up on your own) to offset costs and make the network profitable. Meanwhile, Smith made the heartfelt revelation that he was enjoying podcasting more than making films. He’s said that “Hit Somebody,” a film based on a song written for Warren Zevon by “Tuesdays with Morrie” author Mitch Albom, would be the last film he’d direct, for at least a while. He needed a break from the movies.

Then, as with most successful entrepreneurial ventures in America, it occurred to Smith that he could do what he loves, make a little dough, and perhaps make a run at building his own empire. With a core audience of fans to build on, and nearly 1.8 million Twitter followers, Smith knows that if he builds it, at least a bunch of us will come (many times a day if we engage his newer sponsors like Adam and Eve, but again, you’re on your own there). So, on a Smodcast from February, exactly 4 years after starting with what was a way to make sure he could hang out with a friend for an hour every week, Smith announced that he was launching SModcast Internet Radio, or S.I.R. for short. The technology had caught up with the idea of internet radio, with S.I.R. available to stream to your phone or other mobile device. You can listen wherever you are in the world. A new business was created.

That, my friends, is capitalism in America. In “Michael Moore Hates America” I interviewed a young guy in Flint, MI who loved coffee… in his car, he had books on coffee, magazines about coffee, loads of material on different coffee beans around the world. He created his own unique roasts and gave them rock-n-roll-based names, then sold them at the local farmers market. He said to me, “Figure out what you love to do, and then find a way to make money by it.” Those words have stuck with me as I’ve built my own business over the years. This is what Kevin Smith has done with S.I.R.

Not only has he created a new business, but it will have an impact others. Advertisers have a new, inexpensive outlet to appeal to a very specific demographic, and they will surely benefit from the new audience. That’s how a free-market economy works.

Look, Kevin Smith has made lots of money doing something a lot of people dream of. He had more resources and name recognition than most people. It was easier for him – especially in this economy, under leadership that doesn’t seem to give a shit about free markets nor a clue about how jobs are created – to make the leap to a new career with a new business than it is for most. But S.I.R. is a shining example of what’s possible if you’re willing to do what it takes to live the dreams you dream.

The father of Wayne Gretzky (the near-mythological hockey player Smith quotes frequently) once said, “Don’t be where the puck is, be where the puck is going to be.” It seems to me that the future of America will rely on a bunch of us figuring that out and being ahead of the puck. There are a million excuses to keep chasing it around the rink, but that’s not what has made this the greatest nation on earth. So, if you’ve been laid off, or you’re unhappy with your gig, take some time to find what you love. Pursue it. Simply make it “become.” Kevin Smith has done that with S.I.R.