Jacob Tell Interview in Montecito Journal

On stands now around town & available online 🗞️ - check out the Montecito Journal article written about Oniracom CEO and co-founder, @jacobtell!

In the article, Jacob shares on “covid-pivots”, giving back to the community, Oniracom’s mission, & more!

Enjoy an excerpt of the interview…

Advice for the next generation of entrepreneurs?

Have a clear purpose and a clear why, and lead with the why, rather than the what. The why for us is we want to support artists, we believe in artists being the voice of society, making a positive impact in our world. Those things will allow the company to thrive and you will attract your clients, partners, and team by being purpose driven.

Who inspires you?

Neil deGrasse Tyson, he really makes science cool and engaging, more importantly people like him want to teach people how to think for themselves to synthesize and assess facts to come up with their own thoughts and put creativity into the world.

Anyone doing creative things inspires me, everyone has creativity from engineers to artists, there are spectrums of creativity in everyone, and what inspires me is seeing people create not destroy.

Read more.

Interview on Agency Rockstars Podcast

I truly enjoyed being one of the first guests of the new Podcast “Agency Rockstars” and hope you find some value in our conversation.

Episode 2 “A True Rockstar Agency with Oniracom's Jacob Tell”

Check out a couple video clips below if you don’t have time to listen to the full episode.

Values over Party

January 20, 2021 is quite the significant date in American history. We witnessed the peaceful transfer of power to Joseph R. Biden from his predecessor who decided not to participate in this centuries old American tradition. The peaceful nature of this transition today is juxtaposed freshly in our minds against a merely two week old terrorist attack on the United States Capitol. We witnessed the first female, the first African American and the first Indian American Vice President in Kamala Harris. We witnessed the first Jewish senator from Georgia take office. We witnessed the first Jewish Senate Majority Leader begin his term. And we witness a raw, wounded, divided population, all seeking to be heard and be seen.

The Americana Fabric may not be shredded to bits, but it certainly requires serious mending.

As I search for personal significance in these unprecedented moments of America’s democratic experiment, I realize the values that bring meaning to this collective sigh of relief. There is hope embedded in the values that our new leadership seems already to embody. We will now all unpack and begin to understand our shared PTSD of the last 4 years, despite which side of the aisle we most identify with. And as somebody who does not subscribe to magazines, tout parties, or push fundamentalist perspective, it is truly our human values that bring alignment in truth and action for me, despite party affiliation.

Here are a few that resonate with me, especially in this moment:

Peace • Love • Empathy • Integrity • Compassion • Humor • Optimism • Togetherness • Courage • Innovation • Creativity • Stewardship • Environmentalism • Respect • Unity • Responsibility • Leadership • Science Minded • Learning Agile • Of Service • Selflessness • Humility • Strength • Wisdom • Empowerment • Authenticity • Confidence • Trustworthiness • Positivity

What other values do you identify with? What values did today’s events bring to mind? What values are you hopeful to see in Washington in the coming 4 years, and beyond?

I’m eagerly learning to stitch and sew empathy and listening into the threads and fabrics. Call it a newly acquired quarantine-era skill.

David Attenborough’s Witness Statement: ‘A story of global decline during a single lifetime.’

One of my personal heroes is natural historian, BBC broadcaster, and planet Earth champion Sir David Frederick Attenborough.  If you’re unfamiliar with the mind altering and innovative documentaries that Mr. Attenborough has brought us beginning in 1979, be sure to binge them all.  Some highlights include: Life on Earth, The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer, The Private Life of Plants, The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth, Life in Cold Blood, Life on Land, Life on Earth, Planet Earth, Planet Earth II, Blue Planet, Blue Planet II, and many more.

At 93 years young, David Attenborough’s recently released and extremely compelling call to action is presented in documentary form on Netflix “A Life On Our Planet.”  This film moved me to tears.  After 45 minutes presenting the context of how we’ve arrived at this critical moment throughout his life, he presents his witness statement, as authentic as it comes.  His visceral on-screen disappointment in humanity’s trajectory should be seen and felt by all of us — the human race living together on planet Earth. 

I felt compelled to write out each word from Mr. Attenborough’s witness statement as I rewatched and paused this powerful segment presented midway through the documentary.  

Thank you for reading his words below.  I hope you watch the film as well (link at the bottom).

David Attenborough’s Witness Statement.  ‘A story of global decline during a single lifetime.’

Our imprint is now truly global.

Our impact truly profound.

Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world.

We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels.

We cut down over 15 billion trees each year.

By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, we’ve reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%

We’re replacing the wild with the tame.

Half of the fertile land on earth is now farm land.

70% of the mass of bird on this planet are domestic birds.  The vast majority chickens.

We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth.  A further 60% are the animals we raise to eat. The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%.

This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind.

There is little left for the rest of the living world.

Since I started filming in the 1950s, on average, wild animal populations have more than halved.  

I look at these images now and I realize that, although as a young man I thought I was out there in the wild experiencing the untouched natural world, it was an illusion.

Those forest and plains and seas were already emptying.

Um, so, the world is not as wild as it was. 

Well, we’ve destroyed it.  Not just ruined it.  I mean, we have completely… destroyed that world….

… But it doesn’t end there. 

If we continue on our current course the damage that has been the defining feature of my lifetime will be eclipsed by the damage coming in the next.

- Sir David Attenborough