Staying Focused on Your Mission with Chris Inman

In this episode of Struggles, presented by NCBI, Chris Inman sits down to share a real conversation about one of the hardest parts of running a business: staying focused on your mission while the world throws opportunities, distractions, and shiny objects at you. Chris opens up about his early years in video production, from working on sports broadcasts to managing large corporate shoots, and the moment he realized the path he was on no longer aligned with the life he wanted. 

He talks about the turning point that forced him to rethink everything — including how he wanted to help clients, the lifestyle he wanted with his family, and how to build a business that aligns with personal goals, not just revenue. This episode gets into the honest challenges many entrepreneurs face: chasing every project, losing clarity, doing work that doesn’t fulfill you, and drifting away from your purpose. 

Chris also explains how working with a business coach helped him redefine IDEA Cleveland, focusing on virtual content creation, strategy, and meaningful conversations instead of high-end production for big corporations. He shares practical tools like the 24-hour rule, pros and cons lists, and creating a decision scorecard to help business owners stay rooted in what matters most. 

If you’ve ever struggled with staying on track, taking on too much, or saying yes to things that don’t move your business forward, this conversation will remind you that focus is a skill — and a powerful one. Tune in to hear a transparent, relatable story about growth, clarity, and building a business that supports your life instead of taking over it.

Transcript

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Welcome to another episode of struggles presented by Ncbi, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of struggles, presented by Ncbi. I'm Chris Inman, I'm part of the executive team here at Ncbi. And joining me today is Chris Simeon with Ideo Cleveland. so thank you so much for joining me, Chris. So today Chris and I are going to talk about it's been really hard for us to get our schedules to really match up and make this thing happen, but we made it happen. And so today we're going to kind of talk about the struggle of staying focused on your company's mission. And, we all do so many different things, and we've done different things in our past, and Chris has done so many. And we're going to talk about it today. But like, how do you stay focused on what your company's mission is and how you're going to help your clients? And I think we're going to have a great conversation about that today. So what were some of the early days of you and your career? So my early career I was doing a lot of bigger production tech production. We had full staff, we had a grip truck and all this stuff, and, I felt as though that was really where I had to be in the industry, because that's where everybody was. And, I was doing the grind and all these new young kids are coming up and they're joining me, and they're learning new toys, all kinds of stuff. And I really enjoyed that time that I spent. And, from sports to corporate videos and, but every stage I hit, I hit a wall where I wasn't thinking, this is where I want to be in five years. And, at that early stage, I started doing sports, and I was given opportunities to do all kinds of stuff in the sports production world. And then I was like, you know, I actually love my wife, and I don't want to live on the road. And that's where opportunities really happen in that world. Is, in sports is when you start traveling and doing the national televised games. And I was like, okay. And then at that moment when I was kind of done, opportunities changed and I was able to just go full into corporate video, as I call. This is a lot of fun. I'm doing fun corporate videos. They're in studios. I was managing a studio at the time and, large projects, lights and everything. And so many crew members. And I really enjoyed hanging out with the crew and being a part of the team aspect of all that. And, but then Covid hit, and then all of a sudden you're thrown home, and now all that kind of went away. And then I was like, well, where's the next stage of my life going to be? And that's really where I am now. So so obviously you're in this whole production world, and it's really working hard. It's manual labor. A lot of people don't think about it that way, but when did you decide, like, hey, I'm tired of doing this manual labor and being a part of it. And I wanted to elevate and go to the next level with my career Yeah. So it's so weird in in the production world. Is that you? You're on the crew. You think you know all these different departments. Like, I knew, from electrical to lighting to camera to audio. I knew enough to be dangerous. But the people that were in charge there, people that didn't have those positions. And it's a very weird thing to say, like, hey, I want to move up, but there's no up in the video world because you're hired into those departments that then move up and become the producers in every. so I know that you partnered with somebody and you started trying to like, bid on larger projects and everything. Why don't you tell us about that? That little portion of your career? So at that moment, I was like, okay, maybe I just have a production company and I oversee everything and maybe, maybe I just force myself into that role because I was given those opportunities. But as I was doing that, I'm bidding on projects and it was a lot of work. And I'll be honest with you. Cash flow was a problem because every month I'm trying to bid on a 15 $20,000 project. I'm trying to figure it out. And every month I'm chasing. Chasing every month. And the other thing is, who am I really helping? And I think that's when I started realizing that my career wasn't really providing me any real joy in the sense of giving back to people. So what happened in your career that you really decided to, like, make a shift and change the way that you actually operate and help your client? So at that moment when I was really conflicted about what do I want to do? And I had a business partner at the time, and then I started me with Josh Moeller, with Maple Creek coaching. And then the first question he asked in our session was, what is your life goal? And I was like, oh, what do you mean by that, like business wise? Because no, no no no. What is your life goals? And that's when I was like, well, I would really love to be able to travel in an RV with my wife and, see the 48 states and really experience what this country has to offer. But I live in a world where I pack a giant van or a truck, and I have to go out and be on location at least three times a week to really make good money. And I was like, well, I'm just not in the right field. And he's like, well, maybe you're just thinking too much in a box. So he helped me develop the concept of idea. Cleveland, where can we actually work with people? Virtually. Can I take things that they require and edit them? Can I actually become more of a strategic partner for them to figure out what they should be talking about? And then this thing that nobody likes to talk about, Covid came around the corner. And Covid actually was something that helped me in my business because people are recording things on zoom conversation, posting it on social media, posting on YouTube, and it looked atrocious. I was like, oh my, I can definitely help people that are doing this. And they're not really looking for high end production. They're looking for high end conversation. And ultimately that's what people really want is better conversations, not new toys and drones and 4K cameras. And I'm sure really thinking about it. I'm like, man, the audience wants better content. They don't want nicer content. And so this whole thing with Josh and everything really helped me develop and say, hey, I can actually help people by helping them create their own content in a way that not just in the sense that it looks a little bit better, but also has the values that their audience actually cares about. They can actually generate some leads and actually lead some conversation to grow their business. And before that, I was just working for large corporations, the Cleveland Clinic and such university hospitals, and we're just pouring out videos and doing these high end productions. But who am I really helping? It's helping this large corporation, the Cleveland Clinic, advertise, you know, their cancer center or whatever. It's great work that they do, but I don't really have a touch with it. Whereas now when I help small business owners and I have conversations with them on a monthly basis of saying, hey, did anybody have a conversation about this? Did you get any leads? How's this moving your business? And you can actually hear their responses. So this is helping my business. This is helping me build my personal brand, my my authority. And that's so much more rewarding. So people come everybody with all these different, how do you really decide which ones? And say yes to and which ones? They say no, So it's an interesting thing to say because we're here at the NCB headquarters, we have a studio here, and I was a part of the beginning of all this. And John and Brian were like, hey, let's go to studio. The excitement of all that. But as I said, that's not really was part of my goals. But I got swept up in the excitement of it all. I joined the venture. I started to help them build in the studio and everything. And then as time went on, I was like, that's not really what I wanted to be. I didn't want to have to come out here and record content with people. I wanted to be able to do it virtually through Riverside. I wanted them to pull out their cell phone, but it's very conflicting because now I'm building a studio. Well, that went totally against what my missions were as a company, and so I'm not exempt to this. I get swept up in shiny objects too. So I think that as a business owner, when you think about like opportunities come and it could be we just had a conversation over here, a sidebar before we started. If someone comes to you and says, I want to hire you to do something, most business owners looked at, how much is am I going to make of them? We don't always think about how much is that going to take us off course to our ultimate goals as a business. And when you're starting off, honestly, when you're starting off, you have to do that. You have to do take on the clients that you don't enjoy. You have to take on the projects that you don't. But at a certain point, you need to make a hard stance and say, this is the company. These are the services I offer. This is the prices I can't afford. I really am sorry, but unfortunately this is it. I can't be doing things pro bono. I am giving out discounts everybody, because that's the only way you can afford a team to actually grow your business is do to hold those things true. And even if you didn't have a team and you're doing things for free, I sometimes like to joke that I would rather be playing NBA two K with my son than doing a free project for somebody. Nothing against your free project and in your missions, but I get one life and my teenage kids are eventually going to leave my house, and I'd much rather spend time with them than work on a pro bono project for you when I already know I can achieve that. It's not like I'm 20 years old and I need to prove myself in the field. I'm 47 and so I think it's all business owners we need to think about. Like, what are we want to do? What do we want to accomplish? What is our vision? What's our future vision of this company and stay on track and only work with clients that align with that. Because when you get off course, yes, you're like, oh, I'm making money over here, but is it really making you happy and really moving you forward the way you want? And I've been known obviously in this situation, so to steer off course because hey friends say let's do something. I'm like, oh, that sounds cool. And then I'm like, oh wait, is that really what I wanted to do? So how do you actually stay focused when something comes about it maybe doesn't align with your goal? how do I stay focused? Now, if you think about this, I think this is good for everything in life. My wife and I made the mistake of buying a timeshare once we went in timeshare. A person gave us this amazing pitch, told us we're buying this ski resort location out in the Alps, and we're like, oh, we never go skiing there. You could treat it this way and you get caught up in the moment. So I think what I really try to do now is an opportunity comes, even if it's an email like, hey, I would love for you to take part in this project, take 24 hours to think about things. Take time. Think about it. I also learned from my wife a pros and cons just list that. What are the pros of this? What are the cons of this? Does it actually get me to my goals and think about things a little bit? So if something does come about, maybe there is an opportunity you never thought about. And maybe it is where you want to be. But take the time and think about it before you jump on it. And and Josh, he also he talks about like a scorecard. You can create some kind of scorecard to think about those type of thing. There's many ways to do it, but I recommend if something is out of the norm that you're not used to doing. Think about it. Take some time and really evaluate before you jump all in. We live in a society where people think they get instant answers. Because I send you a text and you should be responding instantly. I send you an email so you get a response in two hours. But it doesn't have to be that way. And a lot of people are okay. If you take 24 hours to respond to something. It's not like I'm inviting you to the Cavs game tonight and you have until 7:00 tonight to answer. These are big decisions you need to make as business owners. So taking the time I think is valuable. Hey, thank you so much, Chris, for joining us today. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. And, if any of the listeners have any questions about, goals or marketing or anything, please reach out to me. Awesome. And thank you for tuning in. And remember, if you have any questions about Ncbi, jump on our website. We have plenty of events that we'd love to have you join us and that we'll see you at the next episode of Struggles Thanks for tuning in to this episode of struggles presented by Ncbi, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen and share this podcast with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome. And we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.