The Visionary in Charge: 7 Simple Rules... Because Just One Extraordinary Idea Can Change Your Life

By Dave Noll

The Visionary in Charge is...

For the Dreamers.

For the Inventors.

For the Entrepreneurs.

For the people who Imagine & Ignite.

Are you someone who comes up with new ideas? New initiatives? New ways to make money?

Do you want to cr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspired by You Books, imprint of Inspired Girl Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798989789955

Book preview

Introduction

THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

Aperfect, bright, blue sky.

This was a couple of years ago, and I was sitting on a yacht in the South of France. The upper deck. Sunglasses. Rosé. Feet up. I had just finished lunch, prepared by our own private chef. As I held my glass, I looked out over the insanely blue water. The sun reflected endlessly on the ripples. To my right was a forest of masts from the other yachts and boats. Beyond that was Le Suquet, the old quarter of Cannes, with its clock tower high above the Bay of Cannes. Behind me, the Promenade de la Croisette, lined with high-end shops and high-end hotels. The Majestic. The Carlton. The Grand.

And palm trees. Those gorgeous, inspiring, palm trees.

I could hear other yachties laughing (and probably drinking their rosé) off in the distance. Revelry. Joy. Sunshine. The water. One of the most beautiful places in the world. One of the best feelings in the world. You know how people sometimes say they feel like a million bucks…

Why have you heard of Cannes? Because of the movies. It’s where celebrities and icons from across the globe come to celebrate the legendary Cannes Film Festival. Less famous, but just as beautiful, is the twice-yearly television festival.

This yacht was huge. A giant craft that could sleep at least twenty, with a full-time staff. The living room was gorgeous (that’s where we pitched television shows) – gold features and dark wood. The dining area was lovely. Every morning I woke up in the master suite, threw on a ball cap and a light sweater, and glided upstairs to the lower deck for breakfast. Early risers would walk by on the dock, smile and wave. As we had omelets, cheese, and fresh pastries… a million bucks.

But it was on the upper deck of the yacht, on the fourth day of the festival, that this book came to me. This idea came to me. The idea had three parts:

I came from nowhere. Look, my childhood was filled with love. It was filled with joy. It was filled with laughs and running around the park and Great Times. But my parents were Methodist ministers. Both of them. My childhood was not filled with money. It was not filled with yachts. I remember the special coupon thing that I brought to school for free lunch. I deeply remember government cheese. I remember a shocking realization decades later when I recalled a conversation with my friend Stacy’s mom. At one point, she nicely/weirdly told me that whenever I wanted, I could go over there for dinner. And that if I was ever hungry, all I had to do was show up. Stacy’s mom thought I might actually go hungry. Little seven-year-old Dave.

And now… I was on a yacht! In the South of France! For years I worked with billionaire and media titan Barry Diller. My job – along with my friend, creative partner, and business partner Cleve Keller – was (and still is) to create and sell television shows. During the Cannes TV festival, Cleve and I slept on the yacht with our team, and then pitched game shows (or other shows) every day on the half hour. And we had a blast! Rosé and sensational food and fun people and parties and pitching game shows. Absolute Great Times.

ALL OF THIS… came out of thin air. From our minds!! From our creativity. Our ideas. Our ability to sell those ideas. Our ability to bring those ideas to life. That’s it. We didn’t start with money from our parents. We didn’t start with connections of any kind. I grew up in Belvidere, New Jersey. Population 2,475. Cleve grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Population 7,838. For Cleve and I, our success came completely out of our own imaginations. Our own inspiration. Our own Visionary ideas. Cleve and I came from nothing. And we create (to this day) whole worlds… franchises… over half a billion dollars of television production… from nothing.

My thought that day, sitting on the upper deck of the yacht, was simple: if Cleve and I could create one thing – one idea – that completely changed our lives… well then obviously anyone could. And now… we knew the rules.

I came up with this idea, and I tore into the assignment. I immediately started writing down every single moment of brilliance that Cleve and I had ever experienced. Every moment of genius inspiration. Every moment where – BOOM – we learned something incredible. When I got back home, I spent many nights looking back through every great book I had ever read. I zipped through pages and pages of notes, and more pages of magazines, copying and highlighting any story about true Visionaries. For the next year, I compiled all of these memories, stories and analyses on large, colored note cards.

Almost instantly, obvious patterns emerged. Moments that overlapped, even across decades of time or from people who never met each other. One story I studied about Oprah Winfrey matches almost exactly to a story I heard directly from media genius Jerry Weintraub… and both are almost identical to a moment that happened to Cleve and me working for business giant Barry Diller.

And after months of searching and hunting and studying and remembering and talking to every important person I knew… seven rules became very obvious. In front of me were these seven separate piles of colored note cards, marked very clearly. Seven things that VICs who are just starting out definitely need to know. Seven rules that anyone can learn from.

WHAT IDEAS ARE HIDDEN INSIDE OF YOU?

LET THEM OUT!

The Visionary In Charge is a book for dreamers. It’s a book for igniters. This book is for future Visionaries. Future VICs. Everyone at one point has a crazy idea. An idea that just might be brilliant. Also… many people want to have one of those crazy ideas. An idea for a new product, a new company, a new TV show, a new book, a new YouTube series, a new podcast, a new program for work.

What ideas are hidden inside of you? What dreams? What insanely successful future brands are buried deep inside of your subconscious… just waiting to burst free?

Cleve and I have created wildly successful brands and we’ve done it multiple times. We know how to create these massive ideas. We know how to unearth them. Plus, we know how to sell these ideas, and build them. And, we have experienced all the rules, all the tips, all the tricks. We’ve heard all the stories. We have a shorthand on all of it.

My goal with The Visionary In Charge is to share… everything. Everything we’ve learned. Every valuable moment. If I can share all of it, and I can inspire just one person to create a massive success and change their life… well honestly, I’ll be completely thrilled. Mission accomplished. But… if I can share it all and inspire many many people to create many many hit brands and change their lives… well, that would be legendary.

I was stuck in a hotel room recently, working on a new television pilot, and I was up early (because I was too nervous to sleep – hahhaahahhaa!). I was thinking about this book and I wrote the following. (Yes, it was on a note card):

Here’s to the people who DREAM.

Here’s to the people who get so excited about that dream… and can get others excited enough… that they can actually bring that DREAM to life.

Here’s to everyone who works so hard to bring those same DREAMS into the world, for all to see.

For the DREAMERS… the DOERS… the SELLERS… the MAKERS… the INVENTORS… the VISIONARIES!! Anyone who has the VISION. Whether it’s for a new show, a new product, a new company, a new sale, a new initiative, a new brand, a new piece of artwork, a new personal goal, a new side hustle, or even a new career path.

Welcome to the club. We are… THE VISIONARIES IN CHARGE.

THE VISIONARIES IN CHARGE

Throughout my career, I’ve been very fortunate to work with some of the smartest – and most creative – people in the business. True VICs.

Following are seventy-two people that have inspired me… and have inspired different moments in this book. People I’ve either worked with closely, met with extensively, or studied specifically. Obviously, I thank them all enormously. Throughout the book, you’ll find stories on many of those listed below. If there aren’t specific stories, they’ve Marcus Samuelsson Mark Burnett Mark Goodson Martina McBride Marty Sklar Matt Iseman Melissa Peterman Merv Griffin Mike Krupat Nina Tassler Oprah Winfrey Regina King Rev. Frances Lawrie Noll Rev. Dr. William T. Noll Robert Iger Robin Roberts Rocco DiSpirito Roy E. Disney Roy O. Disney RuPaul Samuel L. Jackson Serena Williams Shonda Rhimes Stephen King Taylor Swift Ted Allen Tom Cruise Tyra Banks Vivica A. Fox Walt Disney Whoopi Goldberg Denzel Washington certainly inspired what I’ve written:

PART I

THE SUCCESS & THE HEARTBREAK

I’ve had an insane career. Ever since I was in college, I’ve been creating television shows (see that story in Rule Seven). As of today, I’ve created, sold, and produced 3,500+ episodes of TV across 60+ original TV series. That’s over $500 million of production. Other show creators have reached a billion, so I’m just getting started. But what makes my career so fascinating is that with just one show, one pitch, one idea… a $100 million brand could be created. In 2006, for instance, I created the global hit Chopped with a friend of mine. As of today, Chopped has spawned over 1,000 episodes across the franchise: Chopped Junior, Chopped Canada, Chopped Grill Masters, Chopped Sweets, Chopped Champions… there is Chopped cookware, local Chopped competitions, even a Chopped contest on the package of Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese my wife bought at ShopRite.

A couple of years ago, my daughter Sophia went to a Chopped birthday party. The mom literally thought Sophia was kidding when she said her father had created the show.

But the Chopped story is just one story of many. It was the one moment where I first became an official VIC. Since then Cleve and I have also had the shocking success of America Says. America Says is a game show that’s soared past 500 episodes in just a few years. It’s now the number one show in the history of the Game Show Network. And there are weeks where America Says – a game that we perfected by playing with my daughters and their friends in my dining room – is watched over twenty-five million times. Twenty-five million times in one week! Insanity.

Plus, Cleve and I have created projects for CBS, FOX, NBC, MTV, Peacock, Bravo, Discovery, HGTV, AMC, Lifetime… the list goes on and on. Our shows don’t only air in the United States, they have also now aired in a shocking number of countries around the world.

But what makes these seven rules so fascinating and insightful are also all of the many people we’ve worked with. Everyone we’ve met. And everyone we’ve studied. For four years, Cleve and I worked alongside a true media titan and business VIC: Barry Diller. Throughout my career, I have met with, worked with, or studied extensively VICs like Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Stephen King, James Cameron, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Taylor Swift, Kevin Feige, Shonda Rhimes, RuPaul, Celine Dion, and Chris Rock. Many of those stories are in here. All of that insight. Because at the end of it all, what I have found is that there are seven things Visionaries just keep on doing. seven rules for VICs. Seven Patterns.

These patterns are unmistakable. These are seven rules that you can use.

WHAT DO VICs DO?

What is it that Cleve and I do exactly? Well, we create television shows. More specifically, we create unscripted television shows. If you were to look through our credits, you’d find competition shows, game shows, building shows, comedy shows, talk shows, dance shows, dating shows… even an Emmy-winning show about people who are obsessed with books.

But to explain exactly what we do, let’s make our way back to the yacht. Cleve and I met for the first time back in 2003, and in 2009 we were hired to run the creative for Barry Diller’s New York-based production company (Diller is a television and media legend – you’ll find that out in Rule Two). Throughout each year, Cleve and I created shows. Dozens of shows. Probably fifty to seventy a year. These weren’t just ideas, mind you. To this day our goal with every single show is that it has a fantastic title… a highly promotable and attractive hook that audiences will love… that the show is producible, meaning you can actually make it… and that it is something we both actually want to make.

Twice a year, Cleve and I would go to Cannes and sleep on a yacht with our other business partner, Chachi Senior. (You’ll learn all about Chachi in Rule Two.) We would pick one show that was better and more sellable than all the others. During the three-day festival, we would pitch that show again and again on the half hour. Everything was planned out. Everything orchestrated. Our goal was an extravaganza in a half hour. Execs arrived on the yacht, were offered a drink and some snacks, and then we would put on a concise, informative, incredibly fun… performance. With game shows, we would actually play the game with each executive. And keep in mind one half hour might include executives from France (who only spoke half-English), and then the next half hour would be executives from Sweden. Then Germany. Then Japan. It was ludicrous and exhausting:

Cannes TV Festival Schedule

08:00a – Wake up and go upstairs for breakfast.

09:00a – Get ready for the day.

10:00a – Pitch #1

10:30a – Pitch #2

11:00a – Pitch #3

11:30a – Pitch #4

12:00p – Pitch #5

12:30p – Pitch #6

01:00p – Break for lunch.

After each pitch, we would scramble and write a pile of notes. There was a ton of information coming at us in each pitch. But then a new pitch would quickly start.

02:00p – Pitch #7

02:30p – Pitch #8

03:00p – Pitch #9

03:30p – Pitch #10

04:00p – Pitch #11

04:30p – Pitch #12

05:00p – Pitch #13

05:30p – Pitch #14

06:00p – Relax and get ready for dinner.

07:00p – Dinner on the yacht.

After all of that, most executives would then party through the night! Most of the time, I did not party through the night. Mainly because I was just wicked tired.

What we found was that when a show was awesome… it would get hot. Executives who heard the pitch on Day One would go to big dinners and start to talk about the show. Those execs from France would then talk to other execs from France, and they would want to come and see the show. Or execs from Germany would have friends over in Canada, and they would want to come and see. If we were doing everything right, by the third day each pitch was absolutely filled with people. Some pitches included multiple executives from multiple countries around the world, all hoping to see the new show created by Cleve & Dave.

But the main thing we learned by traveling to France, going to all those conventions, and executing an endless number of pitches, was exactly how to create these ideas. And exactly how to create ideas that were sellable, buildable, and global. That really is the goal of the VIC.

THE ROLE OF THE VISIONARY IN CHARGE

Who is The Visionary In Charge? Who is The VIC? The Visionary In Charge is someone who has actually created an idea, and who has then brought it to glorious life. Great authors are a fantastic example. They come up with an idea for a book, they figure out a way to sell it to a publisher, and then they bring it to life. Authors – or painters – are examples of VICs who don’t have to work with many people as their creations are being built.

Television creators, on the other hand, are people who have to work with (often) hundreds of people to bring the show to life. Or entrepreneurs. Or filmmakers, obviously. We’ve all seen movies with seemingly thousands of credits at the end. But no matter if the entire project/ brand was built by one person, or thousands, there is always one person (or a small group) who is The Visionary In Charge. The person who had the initial idea for the project, the spark that ignited all of it.

Cleve and I really see the role of The Visionary In Charge as three roles that we are constantly doing at all times:

When we’re creating the show, we are constantly thinking about how we’re going to sell that show to the network… plus how the network will sell that show to the audience. That just always seems to make for the best possible show. At the same time, we’re constantly thinking about how we’re going to build the show. How we’re going to actually produce it. Every show needs to be buildable; it can’t just be a great idea. For instance, anyone can have a great idea about sending a group of people to the moon. "It’s Survivor on the moon!" If you’re selling that idea, you also need a believable way to actually get those people to the moon.

Then, when we’re selling the show to the network, we’re changing it based on the feedback. Essentially, we’re recreating the show as we sell, always trying to keep in mind why exactly we loved the idea in the first place. In that way, we never lose the heart of the idea.

Next, when we’re building the show, we’re constantly recreating it… tweaking things here and there based on all the footage and how it’s coming together. Plus, we’re still figuring out how best to sell it to the audience.

But… for a large franchise (which is always our goal) we’re also constantly thinking about how to expand the brand. Constantly. How do you take America Says (our game show) and spin it off into Italy Says, Australia Says… or a holiday version titled America Says: Happy Holidays!... or a version where celebrities are playing against each other titled All-Star America Says?

When you’re looking to become the VIC, it’s important to know that your job is always going to include Creating the Vision… Selling the Vision… and Building the Vision. And your role is always going to include all three of those things at the very same time.

ROCK BOTTOM – ALL IS LOST

But on the other hand, it’s not all yachts and success. As you would imagine, it’s also a lot of heartbreak, crushing blows, and shocking outcomes. There was even one moment where I decided to call Cleve and say that I was done. All was lost. Let me explain.

Let me tell you a bit about my hatred for Penn Station in New York City. Disgust. I’ve been all over the world and I’ve seen some impressive train stations. Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, even Grand Central Station in New York. These are train stations. These are works of art that truly welcome people into their city. These are classic structures where you could just walk around them for days, exploring and taking in the gorgeous architecture.

Penn Station is psycho. It’s the opposite of a welcome sign. It’s an enormous, blaring billboard that says, Get the F out of here!! We don’t want you!! It’s a sprawling, confusing, smelly basement of a building. A mistake on an epic scale. A horror.

And yet, I’ve had to walk through Penn Station over 10,000 times. (I counted once.) I’ve gone in, mostly in the morning. And then I’ve raced through it to catch a train, mostly at night. Sometimes, you miss the train and then you’re stuck in that awful building for the next forty-five minutes or an hour. Sometimes, you’re packed into one section of it waiting for a stupid train looking at an old, half-broken monitor to tell you when you can finally take your seat. One time, I fell down a bunch of the stairs – brutally – and people walked over me when I finally hit the bottom.

I hate Penn Station.

But even including the falling-down-the-stairs moment (I had nasty bruises for weeks) my worst moment in Penn Station was a couple of years before Chopped. Years before Barry Diller. Years before America Says and yachts and flying around the world and success.