Behind the Scenes of This Week's Rollercoaster
Happy Monday, everyone! Last week was one heck of a week for our team. We got some bad news from one of our employees (more on that below), at least a couple of us are struggling with scary health stuff, and I flew up north to visit family for 5 days. But we’re back, it’s a new week, and we have a newsletter with an extra special section for you!
4 stories of note—good stories we have found around the internet this week that we can all learn something from.
3 things we’re obsessed with this week—peek behind the scenes at what has been getting fellow creatives through work days.
2 articles—written just for you from the OBA team.
1 journal entry—we’re sharing a personal story about a lesson we learned this week while working to get OBA Studios up and running. Hopefully it’s a lesson that can help you run your business well!
…And a bonus sneak peek at our newest podcast episode!
Let’s go!
Cheers,
Ceylan (Editor-in-Chief)
Felicia Sullivan writes a visceral piece on what it was like to grow up in New York in the 1980s. Felicia writes in a way that allows you to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the memories that she shares. Her story invites you to ponder how you have grown up. What kind of person you have become?
Charles Rodriguez hits it out of the park again with stories of video games he grew up playing, the scariest game he’s ever played, and the lessons he learned from them that helped him build his freelancing career.
5 Lessons for Creatives That I Learned from Video Games
This list could go on forever, which is a bonus lesson: art has so much wisdom to pass on to us, and art is always made by people just like you. So, today, there’s only five lessons to think about that come from the artistic medium of video games. These are creeds, philosophies, and proverbs that can help every creative get through their daily hardships…
Jared Moses unpacks some profound tips on pushing forward as leader of a startup company that he learned while being scared out of his wits watching the horror show “From.”
The Powerful Perseverance Secrets Hidden in a Horror Series
Sure, "From" is packed with jumpscares and nightmare fuel, but what surprised me to see were the lessons in leadership and business. These unexpected lessons resonated with me in ways that made me rethink how I approach my own journey with launching OBA. Here are 3 nuggets of wisdom that have stuck with me — lessons on leading under the worst possible circumstances.
Roman writes incredible poetry and shares his raw journey through life. This post strikes a deep chord with the way he explores the places of light and dark we experience in this life…and the space in between.
Ceylan: “I love reading people’s favorite childhood books. I feel like it gives me a unique glimpse into their perspective on life. While on vacation this week I finished reading Peter and the Starcatchers, and I loved the experience.”
Jared: “This week I’ve enjoyed reading Titan, the autobiography of John D Rockefeller. It’s been incredibly insightful.”
Charles: “Borderlands 2, Lupin III movies, The Beatles “White Album,” and the massive amount of video games being released next year I’m super looking forward to.”
Pro Tips on How to Put Together a Voice Actor Portfolio
If you’re a fan of anime, cartoons, or animated movies, you already know that voice acting is a HOT field. At fan conventions, voice actors are given the same awe as major television stars and iconic comic book artists. If you become famous in this industry, you are a celebrity in your own right — and the paychecks can be pretty decent, too.
I used to work in the entertainment industry. I had a part-time gig as a modeling booker and talent agent assistant, which led me to booking voice actors. Those jobs helped me learn how important a great portfolio is. But how do you make one? Here's some beginner's advice:
5 Life Hacks That Can Get You New Clients
In the creative world, one of the hardest things to do is find new clients. Most creative people are not natural salespeople. We just want to make things that make people feel something. When you pair that focus with the extreme competition the creative industry features, it can be rough for newbies to find new clients.
Have a story to tell? Any knowledge or experiences you would like to share? OBA is looking for contributors!
10/2/2024
Jared (Founder)
A couple of weekends ago, I was having the absolute worst time. Chronic pain had me doped up on muscle relaxers, and my wife and I were at odds—(completely my fault). Just when I thought the weekend couldn’t spiral any further, I got a message from one of my top employees. Due to life problems they were dealing with, they couldn’t continue working with our company.
Now, this setback hit hard. Not just because losing any employee sucks, but this particular one was our biggest content contributor. For a newsletter-driven business like ours, losing such a key contributor is a crisis. I genuinely thought we’d have to shut our project down.
The rest of the weekend, I was in a daze, wrestling with how to break the news to the rest of the team. I researched everything I could on how to address a group after a loss. How do you express disappointment without killing their morale? How do you tell them the vision we’ve been building might be done for?
By Monday morning, I felt like a failure. Sure, it wasn’t technically my fault the employee left—no one’s fault, really—but I still felt like I’d let everyone down. I had gathered this team, made them believe in the mission, and now I was ready to tell them it was over.
Then came the content meeting.
I logged in, trying to keep it together. And what I saw surprised me: my number two was ready to roll, sleeves up, prepared to figure out a way forward. My editor soon followed, just as ready to dig in. Neither of them knew about the bomb I was about to drop, yet their energy made me rethink everything.
In that moment, it hit me: we weren’t dead in the water. This disappointment wasn’t the end. We could pivot, adapt, and keep going. We didn’t need to shut down; we needed to lean into the challenge. That realization gave me clarity and taught me three key lessons.
1. Don’t Bottleneck Your Business
It’s easy to lean on one person—or yourself—when resources are tight, but that creates a fragile system. If that person goes, you’re stuck. The solution? Train your team to be utility players. Everyone should know enough to wear multiple hats. For solopreneurs, consider outsourcing—hiring a VA, or using platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to keep things running when you can’t. Your business should never rely on just one person.
2. Hire Problem Solvers Over Specialists
At that content meeting, I realized my team wasn’t just filled with specialists—they were problem solvers. Faced with a major setback, they didn’t panic; they got creative and found solutions. If I’d focused only on hiring specialists, we might’ve been stuck. When hiring, prioritize problem-solving skills over experience or specific expertise. You’ll face more situations that require quick thinking than niche knowledge.
3. Trust Your Team
My biggest mistake? Not trusting my people from the start. I treated the loss as a “me” problem, when the situation was an OBA Studios problem. Once I brought the team into the issue, they rose to the challenge and came up with ideas I hadn’t even considered. If you’ve hired a team, trust them. They’re there for a reason, and their input can lead to results that surpass your expectations.
Losing a team member is never easy, and it’s hard not to take the setback personally. But every loss is a lesson, a chance to find something valuable in the mess. For us at OBA, it was an opportunity to see just how capable we are. Losing someone isn’t the end—it’s a test of resilience, and we passed.
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