"An entrepreneur is someone who loves to work for themselves, and doesn't understand why so many follow 'the norm' or 'how it's always been done.'"
Actress, Author & Filmmaker, Faleena Hopkins has written over forty novels since she first published them in 2013. Her directorial debut movie, Just One More Kiss, won Best Feature Film at BAFF in NYC and acquired distribution through Lionsgate as well as a theatrical release beginning Feb. 20, 2020, cut short when Covid closed theaters. Founder of Hop Hop Productions Inc., she is a storyteller entrepreneur in today’s technologically driven world where anything is possible if you think far outside of the box.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Faleena Hopkins: So happy to spend time with you. I’m an indie storyteller finding new ways to entertain people worldwide. Hop Hop Productions Inc. is the corporation I founded to be an umbrella housing all of my creative projects whether they be books, films, or my upcoming NFTs. The future is exciting and constantly evolving due to how much creative energy is out there right now. Everything is shifting.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Faleena Hopkins: I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was but I kinda was that. At age six I wrote books, bound them with yarn, and sold them to my parents for a dollar. I recently found a sign where I offered the services of myself and my sister for chores, dog walking, etc. when we were eight or nine. Outside of babysitting, I had to get a work permit so I could work at a sandwich shop at fourteen – before the legal working age – and became a manager at sixteen. My passions have always been the arts, but financial independence has always driven me. And that’s what I believe an entrepreneur is…someone who wants freedom – both financial and creative.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Faleena Hopkins: I fight ‘the demons’ every morning when I wake up with doubts knocking on my psyche. There is always the need to pull myself up and go despite how loud those doubts are at dawn. They always fade and by night – when I’m most myself – they’re gone entirely. Basically… not a morning person.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Faleena Hopkins: An entrepreneur is someone who loves to work for themselves, and doesn’t understand why so many follow ‘the norm’ or ‘how it’s always been done.’ They’ve found something that drives them to show up to ‘work’ every day and because they love it so much — ache for it, obsess about it — it’s not work at all. They don’t mind putting the hours in because when the achievements, milestones, and rewards come, they know those were earned. An entrepreneur isn’t afraid to fail. They’re afraid that if they don’t follow inspiration, that if they don’t try to do the crazy thing, they’ll die. Or worse… live an unfulfilled life.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Faleena Hopkins:Here’s the kicker to inspiration. It may come to you or to those around you – your tribe. If you EVER feel you are above ANYONE, then you are closing a door. Those great ideas might not go to you from the ethers by which they come, but rather might be given to someone on your team, your neighbor, the guy/girl making your delicious coffee who says just the right thing to open a door in your mind. Or the mind of your team.
Therefore there is never, ever, ever a place in a forward-thinking culture (which is what entrepreneurs are, to me, in the truest sense of the word) for excluding anyone, race, sex, gender identification. Our world – Earth – is made of all different kinds of people with talents that make us all whole if we just open our minds and hearts and businesses to the idea that we really all have something to add. That said, if someone’s a negative cloud of darkness, what they may have to add is learning how to remove them. Doesn’t make them worse than anyone… just not on the same ride as your team and company.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Faleena Hopkins: Make work play. I’d lean into the post covid world knowing what it’s taught so many of us – that human connection is vital to our happiness. I believe the future can be – hopefully will be – more focused on inclusion. Time spent with people. Team activities. Balance of work and home life. We aren’t valuable if we’re overworked. Shorter work days with goals set and achieved with actionable items will allow people to shine while they still have energy, before burnout (which long days usually give) and go home to their loved ones – friends, partners, kids, pets. The recharge they get brings more focus. It’s not about more more more. It’s about more play less work, and that will equal more success. Make work play.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Faleena Hopkins: I write stories that entertain the world. You know the books you read, or you see on your mommy’s and daddy’s shelves? I write those. And I make movies, too, and plan to make many more. But more important than that, you can do anything you see in the world. So dream big, little one.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Faleena Hopkins: The movie we made, Just One More Kiss, had an editor attached. With the intention/job of editing as we shot he’d come with us to Upstate New York for the first three weeks of filming.
By the end of those, there was only half a scene edited accompanied with a long letter to me that he couldn’t show me what he was working on until it was finished – not what we’d set up in the contract. He confided in the producer unsavory things about the project, rather than admitting he didn’t know how to edit it. In the end I had to pay him to leave, per the contract, and got nothing from it but a bit of a broken heart. It turned out that the film he privately told the producer was ‘boring’ won Best Feature Film and a theatrical distribution contract. The script is now in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Library Archives with photos from the filming, per their request. Not so boring. But really f**king hard to let him go when we’d all thought he was one of us.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Faleena Hopkins: I can clap one hand. Literally, know the sound of one hand clapping. I can also do a pretty okay impression of Beeker from The Muppets. Mmmhmmm. Yep.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Faleena Hopkins: “For F**ks Sake, Really?” or “Don’t Do It.” or “Stop. Just Stop.”
Thank you for having me! This was a blast. Hope it helps someone to know that they’re enough… and there is no ‘one way’ to do anything.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Faleena Hopkins for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Faleena Hopkins or his company, you can do it through his – Facebook
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