About Today’s Subject:
Alex Cornell
Creator of: Firespotter (co-founder), YouTube Music Channel
Day Job: Designer/Musician/Entrepreneur
Location: San Francisco, CA
Website: Alex Cornell, Firespotter, ISO50, YouTube Channel
Twitter: @alexcornell
Traveling in More Than One Sphere
Alex Cornell has multiple ways to reach you and connect with you. He isn’t just a designer or just a musician. He’s both. He’s also a photographer and a filmmaker. He clearly has a love for expressing himself, and he doesn’t want to restrict himself to just one way of doing so. Currently, most of his time and attention seems focused on his work as a co-founder and designer at Firespotter, but he also contributes to the ISO50 blog and posts his acoustic performances on his YouTube channel. (For those of you who know Alex only as a designer, you really should check out his awesome acoustic cover of “Billie Jean”, which has been viewed more than 192,000 times. He has nearly 10,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.)
“If I put something up on YouTube, that’s going to be 45 minutes of my time where I’m guaranteed to hit thousands of people.” – Alex Cornell
We met up to chat at The Big Egg Family Restaurant during WMC Fest 2011. I can definitely relate to Alex because I’ve always had a tough time fitting neatly into a single label or industry. His approach seems to be to focus his energy on one pursuit at a time while keeping his other passions there healthily on the backburner. We had an interesting talk about being a jack-of-all-trades v. being a specialist, and he talks about how the startup world – where he finds himself these days – really necessitates combining multiple skills. We also talked about how he’s amplified his audience by sharing his music via YouTube instead of doing the traditional concert circuit.
“For the ecosystem I’m in, the jack-of-all-trades ends up being a master, even if you’re not a master of a specific one.” – Alex Cornell
One thing I should add that I really like about Alex – and everyone I interviewed at WMC Fest 2011 for that matter – is that he seems like a nice, humble guy to be so accomplished. Even though I live in Chicago now, I’ll always be a small town boy at heart having grown up in small town Ohio, so that really means a lot to me.
A Few Insights from My Conversation with Alex
- You might not even realize just yet what you love; you might figure it out through experimentation. Just a few years ago, Alex hadn’t even thought of the startup world as a possible career path. Instead, he was thinking about having his own design studio or working for a design studio. In grad school, he had a lot of free time, and he filled part of it with freelance work. Because he was living in San Francisco, he started doing logos and branding for startups and discovered that he really loved that world. Had he not ventured out and seized opportunities, he may not have figured out his love for startups.
- There’s value in combining multiple talents. Being a jack-of-all-trades is the new specialist. If you’ve had a tough time in life trying to pick just one thing to be great at, maybe go a little easier on yourself and be a “combo person” who combines two or three skills to bring a truly unique and versatile skill set to the table. Don’t hide from it. Embrace it. Now more than ever, you can travel in more than one world. In fact, Alex uses this to help him get unstuck; when he gets stuck creatively with a design project, stepping away from it and playing the guitar can help him get unstuck.
- Make your work easy for people to see and understand. Attention spans are shrinking. People need to be able to digest what you have to offer quickly. Don’t overwhelm them with all kinds of bells and whistles unless that’s what you’re trying to showcase. Make it simple for people to find you and to figure out the value you create in the world.
Alright, it’s time. On to the videos. Take your pick:
1. A Taste (2 min. clip). In case you just want to take a little bite.
2. The Feast (the full 16 min. interview).
Option #1: A Taste (2 min. clip)
Option #2: The Feast (16 min. interview)
A Viewer’s Guide
- Brief intro to who he is, what he does, and an accomplishment he’s proud of
- An explanation of what Firespotter is
- He’s only 26
- The vision he had when was younger; thinking one life step ahead
- Discovering the world of startups
- Turning his back on the traditional path and leaving school to go work for a startup
- Leaving grad school one semester from graduation
- How he gets unstuck
- The jack-of-all-trades v. specialist debate
- How he came up with the idea of uploading his music to YouTube
- Reaching 9,000-10,000 people via YouTube
- Advice for people creating their own maps
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