Meet Spencer Hawken

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Spencer Hawken. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Spencer below.

Hi Spencer, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.

I believe my resilience stems from life circumstances. I view resilience in several ways: how we push forward through life and how we cope with the challenges thrown at us. Death, in particular, has shaped my perspective. I was born into a huge family, and over the course of 35 years, almost all of them passed away. As strange as it sounds, experiencing such loss has strengthened me. It has given me a clear understanding that we live only once, so we must make the most of every single day.

Having so much death around me also means I have nobody else to rely on. While I have a loving partner, I don’t have a mother, father, grandmother, or sister to turn to for advice or financial support. I have to handle everything on my own to some degree. This forces me to spend a lot of time thinking about scenarios, assessing risks, and considering how things might play out. I understand that loss can sometimes be part of the gain. For example, I run a couple of annual film festivals. One is slightly profitable, while the other is a financial disaster. I have to accept that the second festival will continue to be a disaster until it stops being one. Each year, I prepare to lose money on that festival, believing that, like the first one, it will eventually succeed. Life has taught me that things eventually come to pass, and generally for the better.

When I left school, I had very few career options and no education. I was considered a bit of a loser—some might even say a big loser. Despite having no education or qualifications, I’ve had an okay career. I’ve worked in roles where businesses have economically changed for the better because of my involvement. Now, I manage a 750,000-square-meter estate worth just under 100 million British Pounds. All the responsibilities of that estate fall on my shoulders. I’m in one of the the top salary earning brackets in the UK, and when I reflect on my schoolmates who excelled academically, many of them earn less than a quarter of what I do.

My resilience comes from faith and belief—not in God or the devil, but in myself. I believe that if we put in the effort, have passion for our projects, and take enough downtime, we can achieve everything we want and need. We might not succeed in one interview, but after a few, we may find that we are exactly what an organization needs.

So, when it comes to resilience, believe in yourself. It took me until I was 51 to realize this. I believe in myself, I can be resilient, I can be successful, and I can achieve everything I want in life through application.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

It’s quite difficult to explain what I do because I wear multiple hats, so I’ll focus on the business I set up nine years ago: the Romford Film Festival and Romford Horror Festival.

The festival is based in a sleepy suburb at the far eastern point of London. It’s a not-for-profit festival, established with the intention of supporting filmmakers who might be overlooked by other film festivals, and it was created to promote transparency and fairness.

To explain where this began, I made a couple of films and had a very rough experience with the film festival circuit. This was despite having had really good experiences as a festival attendee prior to making films. The bad experience stemmed from realizing that many film festivals I submitted my films to weren’t actually watching them. I knew this because I set a different Vimeo link for each festival, and Vimeo tells you how much each link is watched. Out of around 100 festivals I submitted my first film to, only three festivals watched it, and all three selected it. For my second film, only one festival watched it, and nobody selected it. I was spending thousands of dollars on festival submissions with nothing to show for it, not even the assurance that the festivals had watched my film.

At Romford Film Festival, I vowed that we would have multiple people watch each film and provide feedback to any filmmaker who wanted it, highlighting both the merits and flaws of their work. I also wanted to give filmmakers a big experience, so when they come to the festival, they get their photograph taken on a red carpet, participate in Q&A sessions with a live audience, and sometimes join panels or other interviews. We aimed to deliver all of this on a budget. At the time we launched, we were one of the cheapest film festivals for filmmakers to submit to, and even now we’re still quite affordable. Every filmmaker who submits a film and has it screened receives incredible value. We provide audiences, a bit of exposure, get them on local radio, podcasts, and in the press. We also work with interested filmmakers on a strategy for which film festivals they should be submitting to and which to avoid.

I’ve never been someone who cares much about money, so the money we generate typically goes to those who help us. For example, our selections committee receives a payment for watching films, and our judges get a payment for judging films, all funded by submission fees. To secure a nice venue and freedom of the space, all admission ticket sales for paying customers go to the cinema. We make money by running the bar; the cinema has a bar, but it isn’t profitable enough to keep open regularly. So, whenever we run a film festival, my business partner and real-life partner runs the bar area while I manage the front of house.

Committed to honesty and integrity in the film festival industry, I also run a podcast and joined the Association of Independent Film Festivals (AIFF), an organization of like-minded individuals who work to give filmmakers real value for money, clarity, and a sense of pride in their work I’m also a BAFTA member.

II also wanted to create a festival that looks after filmmakers that might be forgotten by other festivals. Filmmakers have to start somewhere, and generally, their first films are not of the highest quality. While many festivals focus on improving quality, and we do too, we have a screen specifically for quality films and filmmakers. For fledgling filmmakers just starting their journey, we offer a screen so they can gain experience, understand how to improve, and unleash their new ideas on an audience. Fortunately, we have audiences for both types of films, making it a special experience.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Perseverance: We all have goals and career paths we would like to follow. I’m not going to tell you that if you continue, you will eventually get exactly what you want because it doesn’t always work that way. However, the ability to adapt and reflect on your place in a specific career is important. For example, if you are an aspiring actor but lack the money for training and keep submitting to films without being selected, consider other areas within the industry where you might be more successful. Put bluntly, we all might think we can act, but can we? There are millions of other roles in film and theatre, and success doesn’t have to be in front of the camera. Often, our best fit is in roles we didn’t expect. I know phenomenal failed actors and actresses who have become great producers and line producers. Similarly, many aspiring estate managers have become incredible operations managers. In my world, the goal I set for myself isn’t quite what I expected, but it is similar and has been 100 times more fruitful.

Education: Not necessarily in the academic sense, but it’s important to be aware of what’s happening in the world and the many facets of your career path. Knowledge is key. Don’t expect to make the next big career steps if you haven’t done the research about what the role entails. You can’t be a music journalist without knowing the ten most exciting musical acts out there right now. You can’t manage a shopping centre without basic retail knowledge. Stay up to date on politics; different political aspects could drastically change your role. For example, imagine setting yourself up in the business of making AI modifications for phones in Europe, where regulations on AI are becoming stricter. More formal education might serve you less than simple grassroots knowledge. Finally, be able to bring new things and concepts to the table by staying current in technology and current trends.

Innovation: Innovation has been my best asset in my career—the ability to step outside my role and do it better. Many people cannot see beyond their personal or career boxes; you need to be able to step out and innovate. This also helps with problem-solving because it trains your mind to look at other aspects surrounding you. I’m excellent at disaster management, so when something big happens, I’m always the first person my friends turn to. I’m quick-minded and quick-witted.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

The key to my biggest area of growth or improvement over the last 12 months has been learning to respect my downtime. It’s essential not to take your work home with you, unless of course you are experiencing something like bullying. If you’re just dealing with your day-to-day responsibilities, it’s crucial to have time for yourself to improve mentally and physically. Never be afraid to just sit on the sofa with the television on, laptop open, and surf the internet. Don’t feel ashamed to play video games—they teach you about collaborative working. Don’t feel guilty about sitting in the sun and enjoying its rays on your face. And lets not forget the simple art of retail therapy and preparing a meal from scratch.

My biggest key for growth and improvement is to embrace travel. It might seem like a strange thing, but when you visit different places and experience different cultures, you discover new ideas. Why doesn’t something that works effectively in Barcelona work in Cincinnati? Traveling exposes you to different mindsets. For instance, everyone knows about Spanish and Italian siestas and how these cultures experience a better way of life. When was the last time you took three hours out of your weekday afternoon to simply chill out and reflect? Sometimes employers will embrace these kinds of ideas. I know a few people who have travelled internationally, embraced the idea of siestas, and then proposed to their employer that they could finish three hours later and take a three-hour break in the middle of the day to boost productivity. Depending on the type of employment, often the employer will say, “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” My main employer has a very flexible approach to how I work, but didn’t 5 years ago, a lot of that has come from trust.

Four years ago, who would have thought we would conduct the majority of our meetings over the Internet? Ideas and innovation come from different places. Look at companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple—they have all innovated by incorporating play and relaxation into their working days.

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