Deconstructing the saga: Evan Shapiro

In the latest episode of The Career Circus podcast, media futurist Evan Shapiro shares tales from his storied career from producer to executive to media universe cartographer. 

The stories he shared served as commentary about the media industry and navigating workplace politics because they were highly relatable to anyone who has worked in a corporate role - in media or otherwise.

The Office fail

By the time you clock up a few years in your career, executive decision-making can start to baffle. Which is why Evan’s story of NBCU’s short-sightedness on The Office felt relatable. 

Evan’s story clearly explained the stakes - $100 million - for a tentpole asset that everyone is familiar with: The Office.

When Evan recounted that Netflix paid $100 million in addition to what they were already paying for The Office, the subtext was the incredible value Netflix was deriving from this show and how reliant NBCU had become on licensing its content.

By exposing the short-sightedness of NBCU leadership at the time and their inability to make a bold move towards streaming even if it was costly in the short run, Evan validated every junior staffer and middle manager who concluded that management is kind of clueless.

The power of this story lies in its relatability. Even if you’ve not directly been in a situation where management ignores your advice, most folks can relate to a story where management is clueless and self-serving.

This story is complemented by the next tale that Evan shares: how his well-received key note at a tech conference was derailed by the use of a single curse word. 

By focusing on his use of language, executives overlooked his underlying message and the broader value he was driving for the company. A relatable tale for anyone frustrated by a performance review that trips them up on a minor detail in order to deny a promotion or a raise.

Fired on 50th birthday

Later in the podcast Evan shares a tale of being fired on his 50th birthday. You don’t have to be 50+ or love birthdays to relate to this because everyone has birthdays and nobody wants to be fired.

After all, even the most disgruntled worker would want to quit on his/her own terms.

Without saying it, Evan’s anecdote touches upon a universal but under-acknowledged truth: employers - especially those in the United States - just don’t care.

What makes this story compelling is that Evan owns the outcome, acknowledges the impact and recognizes that losing his executive role at NBCUniversal led him to where he is today: more fulfilled on a professional basis and happier on a personal basis. 

In other words, the story has a happy ending despite the very significant and public setback of being fired on his 50th birthday.

In sum, Evan's narratives are compelling because they don’t just chronicle his career. Rather, his stories expose the deeper truths that govern the worlds of business and media. 

Driven by his relatability, Evan’s stories become powerful tools for understanding the machinations and frustrations that beset every large corporation.

Ultimately, Evan’s stories work because they are true to him and his experience and are highly relatable. Relatability usually means shared experiences. One way to achieve this is by referring to pop culture.

But another very effective way, as Evan demonstrated, is to talk about your own experiences. Because the chances are your audience will have undergone the same experience and will be able to relate.