Justin Bieber: Incredible Teen Entrepreneur

If you would have told me I was going to spend last night watching the Justin Bieber documentary film "Never Say Never," I would have said you were crazy.

But it turns out that if my 8 year old daughter asks me anything within reason with a puppy dog face, that I'll pretty much say "yes." This is a truly amazing negotiating tactic of hers. I'm still trying to figure out how businesses can replicate it :)

So, there I was watching the movie about the life so far of teen idol Justin Bieber.

And I was highly skeptical. You see, I had checked out the reviews on IMDb (IMDb or the Internet Movie Database is a comprehensive online movie/television website now owned by Amazon.com).

And this movie got only 1.3 stars out of 10 on IMDb after 40,000 votes!!! So, there's a huge army of folks that truly despise this movie.

And now, having watched the movie, I have a two things to say to the 40,000 voters on IMDB.

1. You missed the point
2. You don't have an entrepreneurial bone in your body

I thought the movie was excellent. It was uplifting. It inspired me. And my daughter smiled the whole time (and my wife and 11 year old son liked it too).

So, what was so great about it?

It was great because it was the true story of two entrepreneurs who worked hard, did the right things, and achieved the massive success they deserved. It's the American Dream, unfolding right before our eyes.

The story begins with Justin Bieber as a young, highly talented musician from a tiny town in Canada.

Basically, Bieber started with NOTHING but his raw talent. While his 10 year old friends were goofing around and playing video games, he was practicing music. He was performing in talent shows. He was playing on street corners to get exposure.

And then, realizing that he could get serious exposure, he started putting videos of himself on YouTube. And because he connected with his target audience (young girls), his videos started going viral.

Like this one that he posted on YouTube in February 2008:



So, let's recap where we've been. A kid with nothing (oh, his parents had split up when he was a baby, so he was being raised in a small house by a single mom) works really hard to improve his talents and proactively goes out and gets himself a big audience of fans/customers.

Hopefully you're on the same page with me here as this is the classic entrepreneur tale so far.

So at this point in the movie, we get introduced to Scott "Scooter" Braun, who eventually would become Bieber's manager.

So Scooter, it turns out, is another kick-ass entrepreneur. The movie didn't include this, but a few years earlier while a student at Emory University in Atlanta, Scooter had started an extremely successful party-promotion business. And he parlayed that success into a key position at So So Def Records.

So, Scooter, a highly entrepreneurial manager at a record company sees one of Bieber's videos on YouTube. And then he sees another. And more importantly than Bieber's talent, Scooter starts seeing how many people are viewing the videos. And realizes that this Bieber guy is worth looking into.

This isn't rocket science folks. There's a product in the form of Justin Bieber. And the product has a large and growing fan base -- all the people watching it on YouTube.

So the entrepreneur Scooter realizes there's a real opportunity to make money here. So Scooter starts calling around and figuring out how to get in touch with Bieber's mother in Canada. He eventually reaches her and convinces her to fly to Atlanta with Justin to meet him.

Now, not only did Scooter recognize the opportunity, but he had classic entrepreneurial persistence. Most folks would have given up after a few phone calls to try to find Bieber's mom. But Scooter persisted. And he had the sales skills to convince mom and son Bieber to fly to Atlanta.

Moving on in the story, Bieber signs up Scooter as his manager. And Scooter introduces Bieber to singer Usher.

This is yet another incredible entrepreneurial move that I talk about all the time. Get a mentor or advisor. Get someone who has already achieved what you want to achieve so they can help you. And this is exactly what Usher would end up doing for Bieber.

Now you would think that with the help of Usher that Bieber could get a major record deal. Not so.

What did the record labels say?

Well, remember that the record labels are generally the least entrepreneurial folks on earth.

So, they said that Bieber needed a platform. They wanted to see Justin on Nickelodeon or some other TV station so they were assured that Bieber had lots of exposure. They didn't get that customers were getting exposed to Bieber directly on YouTube.

So, Bieber and Scooter spent a year doing small shows. I mean, this is a star talent that has impressed the likes of Usher, and he's doing small shows at middle schools in urban Indiana.

What do we call that as entrepreneurs? We call that guerilla marketing. We call that doing what needs to be done to get in front of customers. In front of any customers who will listen. Since we know we have a good product. And we know that it is so good that they will buy from us. And they will tell their friends about us.

In addition, Scooter started booking Justin on radio shows. On the shows he would play an acoustic version of one of his songs. This would get his product to a big listener base.

Now what Bieber did next was brilliant. He had started building a fan base from his YouTube videos and his appearances. And he used this to create a big Twitter following. So, each time he would do a radio show, he would tell his fans about it via Twitter.

So when he showed up at the radio station, he would have hundreds of raving fans screaming his name and trying to get his autograph. And do you think the radio DJs mentioned this on the air? Sure they did. So people are listening to the radio and hear about Justin Bieber for the first time...and importantly hear the DJ saying how there are hundreds of raving fans outside of the station. In marketing, we call this social proof; if tons of people already like something, it's easier for me to like it too (since I'm taking less of a risk of being an outcast).

As you might expect, Bieber's fan base just starts exploding. And he gets signed by a major record label. And he starts doing big shows at big stadiums.

And you think it would stop there. Bieber has won. Game over.

Not quite. Scooter has a novel thought....since it's our customers/fans who've given us success, maybe we should treat them right. So before every concert, you see Scooter and others walking around outside the stadium. And he's talking to fans (another novel thought - getting customer feedback and insight), and oftentimes when he finds fans who don't have tickets, he gives them seats right on the floor (the fans he gives these tickets to literally cry with joy, and clearly become fans for life).

Scooter realizes that they have nothing if they don't have their customers. He understands that even if he has the best product in the world, that it's irrelevant if he can't attract and satisfy customers. So he treasures them and takes care of them.

And when Bieber gets sick and can't make a concert, he tweets his apologies to his fans. And he only missed that concert because his voice coach was concerned about him doing permanent damage to his vocal chords. When he had a less serious injury -- a broken foot (yes, to the rest of us, that is pretty serious), he still performed multiple shows on stage with a full cast.

The movie culminates with Justin Bieber performing in front of a sold out Madison Square Garden audience. The world's most famous arena. Sold out by a small town kid from Canada. But a kid with true entrepreneurship within him.

Let me recap some of the key entrepreneurial lessons for you:

* Never complain: Justin Bieber was raised by a single mom in a small house, and nothing was handed to him.

* Work hard to improve your skills: we all have unique skills; things that we are really good at. We need to find out what those skills are and continue to improve them. We need to invest in ourselves and never stop getting better.

* Take action: Millions of people watched Justin Bieber on YouTube. And I'm sure thousands realized that he would be a star. But only Scooter Braun took action and went out and got him.

* Get a mentor or advisor who has "been there, done that." This is exactly what Bieber did with Usher. And note that Bieber did this proactively. Usher didn't come up to Bieber and ask to be his mentor. When they met, Bieber told Usher he wanted to sing him a song. Then he did it and impressed Usher.

* Bootstrap, do guerilla marketing and get PR. Entrepreneurs need to do more with less. They don't have multi-million dollar marketing budgets. So they need to figure out how to get in front of customers inexpensively, and how to get customers to tell their friends about them. Bieber did this through social media (YouTube and Twitter), radio show appearances (PR), and doing small local events throughout the US and Canada.

* Cherish your customers: Bieber and Scooter take great care of their customers. As mentioned, they give free tickets to some customers. And during every show, Bieber brings one fan on stage.

* Cherish your team: I didn't mention this one, but before every performance, the movie showed Bieber, Scooter and all the others in their crew doing a small ceremony. Bieber and Scooter constantly thank all the crew members for all their work. Since putting on a great event requires lots of people.

So what's not to like about the movie? A lot of the IMDb viewers complained about all the screaming girls which comprise Justin Bieber's fan base. I say their just jealous. I'd take millions of screaming fans who would fight for me any day!