Business Reality From Stars To Start Ups Helping to Move America Forward with William Shatner and Doug Llewellyn Honoring The Best of American Entrepeneurship and Ingenuity

Ramsey Seikaly

Los Angeles -- The other day I was on set with William Shatner  for a taping of a special business reality program moderated by Doug Llewellyn of PEOPLE'S COURT fame. Now if you are wondering how I got involved in something like this I am going to let you in on my own little secret.  I have always been involved.  I rarely talk about my past except in cryptic soliloquies because of the obnoxious and usually envious people who are just plain unhappy and probably through  no fault of their own...just a birth right or a corrupt gene.  My preference is the soft denim.  That's a joke.  Humor helps me to relieve the pressure cooker that I tend to place myself in when trekking through uncharted waters in this case the star struck wannabees who are under the delusional self aggrandized entitlement mentality. 

Moving America Forward was the brain child of one of this countries most creative marketing pioneers who trail-blazed the advent of the retail video franchise business.  His name, Bert Tenzer and if there is a man who epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit it is he.  Tough, stern, yet forth right in his core belief.  Incredibly focused and uncanny in his understanding of the public appetite and its perceptions when it comes to promotion and advertising.   I have sat in on pre-production meetings where he has dissected and constructed intriguing and engaging stories from ordinary mom and pop shop enterprises, turning their business into the next Facebook or Microsoft with his deft business skill and mastery of the art of story telling.  

I worked with Mr. Tenzer for well over a decade and learned a great deal as to what to do and what not to do.  For in the end it really comes down to the story.  If you have a good story you have the bedrock on which to build a successful hit.  But you've got to begin somewhere and that somewhere begins with the pre-story conference that his held prior to taping where the business owner and his management team are subjected to a complete make over that not only highlights there accomplishments but spotlights  any number of special idiosyncrasies that separates them from their competition.  

If Mr. Tenzer could recruit Mr. Shatner to participate in such an endeavor, lending his name and image to small town America, then you know this man has mastered the craft of packaging and the art of the presentation.  Because in this town it really is not solely based on the story but also on how you package and pitch the concept.  Well his concept is truly well packaged and professionally pitched.  

I have learned more about production doing Moving America Forward and its predecessor Heartbeat of America than a 4 year undergrad and a 2 year grad program in film and television production.  

You can visit the show's site at www.movingamericaforward.tv.  

And here is the promo of Moving America Forward. I hope to see you some day on the show.   I will be the guy dressed in black.  A production thing.  

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