It’s a crisp winter
day in Colorado Springs and MaxPaul Franklin is heading to work at International
Media Systems, his film production company that has produced corporate films
and commercials for the likes of Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and Suzuki for
more than 30 years. He also produced the Chiropractic Centennial video for the
chiropractic profession, which aired on national television. He was introduced
to chiropractic by Guy Riekeman, president of Life University, while filming
the first-ever video education programs on chiropractic.
Aptly, he’s just returned from a whirlwind trip to France and England
where he attended the premier of “The Chronicles of Narnia” (he
loved it) and rubbed shoulders with Prince Charles and Annie Lennox (she looked
like a regular mom with her kids in tow). He got his start as an Air Force cameraman
and is still comfortable today filming four planes flying wingtip to wingtip
while cruising in a fifth plane with the door off (very exciting). Chatting
on his cell phone, he shares his thoughts about living with passion, stimulating
your creative juices and what chiropractors should do to make their offices
“a magical place.”
Q: You’re in the business of telling stories about people and organizations.
What makes a compelling story that people really tune in to?
A: Something that is transparent and truth telling. We round off the truth pretty
seriously these days. Everything seems to have a spin on it. When it does, our
brain just hears blah, blah, blah. Only when I really start to be authentic
and transparent do you believe and become interested. When a person tells their
story and it’s real, it’s compelling.
Q: How do you get to that?
A: To do the in-depth interviews that our company is known for, well, we don’t
do that from a position of news interviewer. We come at it as fellow travelers.
For us to do an interview correctly in a way that gets people to tell their
real story, we have to tell our story first. Then, they understand how deep
we’re going to ask them to go.
We all have a story to tell, it’s just whether we’re going to tell
it or not. The question is whether I can give you a safe enough place to share
your story. We know the annual report says everything is going great and next
year will be even better. Everything about that stinks. No one believes it.
I share enough information about myself so that if I don’t use your information
with integrity, you’ve got everything you need to take me out.
Q: You talk about equipping your staff to be revolutionaries. What does that
mean?
A: On any given day in any business there are a lot of hurting people. Some
of them aren’t sure they wanted to go to work that day. Part of our culture
at IMS is to know the boss has those feelings too. It’s OK to have feelings
of discouragement. But one of the things we ask is that we take that information
and keep it off stage. People visiting our company may only see us that one
day. We want them to have the best experience they’ve ever had in a business
environment—to do that we give them 100 percent. If I can’t do that
today and need a primal scream, I can pass that off to someone else and say
I need to get off stage. It’s OK to know when you just haven’t got
it.
The major reason for burnout is people go to meaningless work that doesn’t
count. When people are focused and believe they can make a difference in the
world, they’re excited.
Q: How do you stimulate your creativity?
A: I travel all the time. I live to travel. I just went on vacation with a Disney
imagineer. He helped design the Disney hotel in Paris. We went through the whole
park talking about why things were done in certain ways. Then I went to the
French Riviera and then to Toulouse where they make the Airbus. We took the
Chunnel to England and saw the Narnia premier and I sat next to a band member
from Queen. But the best part was going to a pub in Oxford where C.S. Lewis
and J.R.R. Tolkien met. We sat at the tables where they read what they called
their “inklings” as they fine-tuned what would become world classics.
I took my pad and I drew and drew so I could keep practicing looking at the
world through those eyes. It was amazing to reflect on these guys as college
professors at Oxford walking down those streets going after their passion.
This year I’ve been to nine countries so I just keep going. I’ve
been to nearly 80 countries. I want to know what’s unique about every
land and what’s the same and universal. Right now there are three commercials
running that we did for the prime minister of Kurdistan called “The Other
Iraq.” They’ve been a democracy for 13 years and that’s where
most of the fruits and vegetables for the country are grown. But nobody knows
that. I’m always eager to go to places that no one visits.
Q: Do you ever get blocked creatively?
A: Absolutely. Yes, I do. I think what blocks me, and what’s the hardest
thing about life and running a business, is relationships. When relationships
go south, everything blocks. One thing that helps me is working with a team
of young people—I’m 20 years older than the next oldest person in
the company. I can give them wisdom and they give me unbridled enthusiasm.
Q: Can creativity be cultivated or is it an inborn gift?
A: By and large people have had it knocked completely out of them. Often business
people and dollar and cents people are considered not creative, but I’ve
explored that for years and found it not to be true. You have to open up to
your child-like qualities.
Q: What does living with passion mean to you?
A: Living on purpose every day. When I get up in the morning, I look in the
mirror and say, “Are you on purpose today?” Every day I’m
either on purpose or off. When I’m doing things off purpose, I’m
getting ready to die. When I’m on purpose, I’m getting ready to
live.
Q: What things feed or drain passion from your life?
A: I am an extrovert so I always love being with people. Whoever I’m with
I’m going to learn something from, whether that’s the person serving
us in a restaurant or if I’m in a creative session with clients. That’s
done by synergy with a concept we call “Yes, and …” Every
time we say, “No, but …” in the office we have to put a dollar
in the kitty. What drains me are people who are so blocked that they’re
in the Ebenezer Scrooge part of their life and can’t let their little
child out to play.
Q: You produced the Chiropractic Centennial video series and have met and worked
with numerous chiropractors through the years. As a whole, do they strike you
as people who live with passion?
A: I’ve been exposed to an awful lot of chiropractors who live with passion.
I have interviewed all the college presidents and seen the best of what chiropractic
is about. I know a lot of the back story of it. I do consider them to be people
who really believe they are making a difference. They have chosen their profession
because they really, really want to change the world.
Q: How do you know a good idea from a bad one?
A: (Laughs) We say in our office, “Best idea wins.” To get there
we have to celebrate failure. For our 25th anniversary in business, 32 of us
went to Disneyland to learn the many ways they celebrated failure on the road
to getting so many things right. We asked the staff to give us examples of how
they did that. If I always have to hit a home run, I’m not going to risk
losing my job or losing face. I’ll just go with the safe proposal. We
say put it out there and best idea wins.
Q: Do you express creativity through personal appearance? I’ve heard you’ve
had blue hair before.
A: (Laughs) I’m doing a lot less of that today. That was one way I did
express myself. I think I went through my rebellious period after I turned 50
and I got my ears pierced and died my hair bright orange. Actually, it was never
blue. I always wear bright orange glasses that I’ve had for years and
I dress in all black. That’s so I don’t reflect in people’s
eyes when I’m interviewing them. And my office is done in Mickey Mouse.
The couch is bright red with yellow piping. It’s as bright an office as
you’ll ever see.
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: That would be the one question I’m glad you asked. Right now I’m
preparing to ride a Greenspeed recumbent tricycle from Colorado Springs to Disney
World (2,000 miles) to celebrate the 35th anniversary of my company. I’m
going to meet the staff there and we’re all going on the Disney cruise
for a week. It’s very cold training in Colorado right now though.
Q: If you weren’t producing films what would you be doing?
A: (Pauses, sighs) I think I’d be a counselor. I think I do that anyway.
That’s where my heart is.
As we said goodbye, Franklin gave me his e-mail address and asked me to send
him other articles I had written, saying, “What about you, I want to know
more about what you’ve done.” In 20 years of interviewing and writing
about people, I’ve never once been asked that. He had shared his authentic
story with me, and wanted me to share some of mine with him.