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Susan Johnston

Founder/DirectorNew Media Film Festival®

Los Angeles, CA

Member Since July 2021

Skills

Digital Media
Technology
film

About

“”When it comes to show business, if you want to make a name for yourself, meeting Susan Johnston should be on everyone’s must-do list. She’s one of the pioneering, innovating wonders of the world. For over 20 years, Susan’s gained honors and awards for both bridging the gap between technology and story as well as innovating ideas for the future of media. When Susan Johnston speaks, everyone stops texting-- including Academy members, studio heads, chairs, content creators and moguls.”Great Mind Series, Ilene Proctor

Published content

Seven Easy Ways to Make Your Customers Feel Valued

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A personal touch can go a long way toward making your customers happy. As their business grows, it’s all too easy for business owners to get swept up in the numbers and forget that there are real people behind their profits. If they want to continue to succeed, it’s key that they make their customers feel valued and that they truly care about them and their experience with the brand.  There are a multitude of ways to do this, from simply listening to customer feedback to providing excellent customer service, but it’s often a combination of methods that makes the biggest difference in how customers feel. Below, the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council draw on their experiences working with customers to offer up seven of the top ways businesses can make customers feel valued and ensure they return to your business again and again.

The Big Picture Versus Narrow-Minded Thinking

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Sometimes when we are too close to ourselves and our situations, causing us to become narrow-minded, judgmental, accusatory and, frankly, not a team player.

Seven Ways to Leverage AI to Improve Your Business and Save Time

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Artificial intelligence may be the most important tool in your business tool belt. While artificial intelligence and its ongoing implementation in the business world remains a controversial topic, there are many business leaders and professionals who are finding ways to use AI to optimize their daily work and improve their overall business processes. As a tool, artificial intelligence is more than just a time-saver — but how can it be best utilized? Here, seven business leaders and innovators from Rolling Stone Culture Council offer up a few suggestions. Below, they each discuss some of the smartest ways they’re leveraging AI for their own businesses and why they recommend other business leaders follow suit. From streamlining data collection to predicting future consumer trends, AI has the potential to completely change the way you do business.

Seven Signs You and Your Business Partner May Not Be Compatible After All

expert panel

If your business is failing, a poor partner relationship could be to blame. Regardless of whether you’re best friends, family members, industry colleagues or anything else, two people always enter into a business partnership hoping to leverage each other’s strengths and build a successful business together. However, real life may not always play out so smoothly.  If your business isn’t doing as well as you’d hoped — or is even failing — but you can’t seem to find the root cause, you may consider looking at the state of your business partnership. From disagreeing on core values to avoiding each other entirely, issues within your relationship with your business partner can have a direct effect on the way your business runs and, ultimately, whether or not it succeeds. If you find yourself questioning whether or not you and your business partner are as compatible as you thought, look for these seven signs as outlined by the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council, and then determine whether you can heal your relationship or whether it would be beneficial to part ways.

Seven Not-So-Obvious Signs You Should Scale Your Business

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Scaling sustainably is all about the right timing. Running a business is all about taking risks, and so it may not always be clear when or how you should make a move. However, that doesn’t mean business is a guessing game. With data, personal experience or the experience of others at your disposal, you can make smart, educated decisions about the steps your business should take next. When it comes to scaling your business, though, timing is everything. Thankfully, there are signs you can watch for that will help you determine the best time to expand and the right speed of growth. Below, the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council offer their guidance as they discuss seven signs that it may in fact be time to scale your business and what a leader should do upon noticing any of these signs.

11 Key Steps Business Leaders Can Take to Meet Their 2024 Goals

expert panel

Your team needs a clear plan of action if they’re going to help you succeed. Individuals aren't the only ones setting resolutions for the new year. Throughout the month of January, even business leaders are reviewing their major goals for the year, setting timelines and creating plans for how to achieve them. Without such plans, business leaders aren’t likely to see success, as it takes intentional effort from them and their teams to accomplish the potentially challenging tasks they’ve set before them.  To ensure you’re setting you and your business up for success in 2024, taking the following 11 steps can be a good place to start. Here, Rolling Stone Culture Council business leaders each suggest one thing their fellow business leaders can do to ensure they meet their goals for 2024 and beyond.

Company details

New Media Film Festival®

Company bio

As noted by SAG Winner, Emmy & Golden Globe nominee Matthew Modine, “New technologies have empowered and enabled creators outside of a studio or network system to make their own movies and develop cutting edge entertainment. Affordable cameras and editing software allow artists to create and express their skills for a multitude of new distribution platforms. We are presently witness to how storytelling is being redefined in the 21st Century. New Media Film Festival highlights and showcases what will come next."