Taking Responsibility for Your Life, Why Creators Need to Smash Limits, and Dealmaking Strategies

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Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 800M+ users http://linkedin.com/tim, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement http://athleticgreens.com/tim, and Shopify global commerce platform providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business http://shopify.com/tim Resources from the interview: https://tim.blog/2022/12/16/todd-mcfarlane-2/ Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) is an Emmy- and Grammy-winning director/producer and creator of one of the world’s best-selling comic books, Spawn. He is best known to many comic book fans for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he co-created Marvel’s top villain, Venom. Todd is the CEO of Todd McFarlane Productions, McFarlane Toys (one of the US’s top action-figure manufacturers), and McFarlane Films. He is also a co-founder of Image Comics, which debuted Spawn in 1992, selling 1.7 million copies of the first issue. In 1997, Spawn was made into an Emmy Award-winning animated series on HBO and a live-action feature film that grossed over $100 million. In 2019, Todd made history with Spawn #301, earning the Guinness World Record for longest-running creator-owned superhero comic book series. Please enjoy! [01:23] The wit, wisdom, and work ethic of Stan Lee. [26:59] Todd’s four corners: video games, TV, movies, and toys. [37:58] Learning the art of toycrafting and beating the industry at its own game. [45:41] Dumb luck at Toy Fair. [1:00:21] Toy marketing and distribution circa 1994. [1:08:04] The play Todd made with a $3 million baseball. [1:15:35] Todd gets in a hockey fight. [1:21:52] Bringing Spawn to TV. [1:25:43] Being the dumbest guy in the room can win you Emmy awards. [1:29:15] Cancellation. [1:30:37] Todd is bilingual — in art and business. [1:37:07] How Todd finds time to create while managing his businesses. [1:42:15] Brand matters. [1:48:25] Making a music video, winning another Emmy, and almost killing Eddie Vedder. [1:55:33] The momentum of success. [1:58:17] The surface area of (dumb) luck. [2:00:19] Building worlds that will endure. [2:07:40] Building characters who will outlive their creator. [2:14:55] Today will not be perfect, so lower the bar and dance if you want to. [2:24:50] Is Todd’s wife married to a monster? [2:31:13] Be the second person. [2:36:23] Parting thoughts. About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 800 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/