October 30, 2017

Q & A with Morissa Schwartz, digital entrepreneur


As the Voice of Generation Z, Morissa Schwartz uses her position as a young bestselling author, digital entrepreneur, and media personality to advocate for the new generation. She is the owner of GenZ Publishing, a thriving publishing company with over 50 authors signed and multiple bestsellers. Her mission is to positively change the world one word at a time. She also works with young people and aspiring entrepreneurs and makes them leaders through her talk ‘The Modern World of Work: Why a 9-5 is No Longer Your Only Option,’ where she encourages others to follow their passions and talents to succeed. Morissa was also a contributor for Entertainment Weekly’s Community and has written about everything from South Park to her experience in Hollywood as a contestant on the national competitive singing show “Copycat” on MTV. She is now earning her doctorate degree in literature at Drew University. Find her on Instagram @Morissa_Schwartz, on Twitter @MorissaSchwartz, and on the web at www.morissaschwartz.com.

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GB: Morissa, thank you for taking time to chat. My first question is usually: Can you share a little bit about yourself? Any background info for the readers? Or any works you'd like to self-plug?

MS: I am the 6th generation of my family, to grow up in New Jersey. Actually, we all grew up in Woodbridge, New Jersey and then I was of the first generation to move down south a little bit farther to Aberdeen but because of that, we've always had a lot of Jersey pride. I’ve enjoyed growing up in New Jersey, every step of it. A little bit of background about me is I have enjoyed reading and writing. Since before I could read and write, my dad would read me stories every night before I go to sleep, until I would go sleep and he would just read and read them and then I started to memorize the story, so he would change them up to kind of challenge me and I realized you know my dad was rewriting the stories and my dad rewrite them, I wanted to too. So that was how I got into writing. I had my first national story published when I was 12 years old in Discovery Girls magazine and that kind of positive reinforcement to a 12-year-old is huge because the editor of the magazine told me that I had a great writing talent and I started getting letters from girls who read my story and were just so inspired by it. So it made me want to write even more.

So I was 13, I applied to be an advisor for Scholastic and I got it. They picked only 10 out of 10,000 students that applied. So talk about more positive reinforcement and I actually got to work with Scholastic. I loved their magazines. I loved their books. I would read them all the time as a kid just like every kid would. So actually, getting to work with them was the greatest thing. So I was extraordinarily lucky to have a lot of really great opportunities at a really young age in addition to a wonderful family who always supported me and you know everything that I did they were there for.

All that led me to write my first book when I was in high school, it was a guide to contests because I loved entering contests and that was what also led me to break my Guinness world record for making the world's long chain of bracelets. Oh, I self-published that book and then when I got into college, I wrote my first book that was published by a publishing company, VIP Inc. Publishing. And so many of my classmates, you know, they were also English majors and they were so talented at writing and they were like how do you get a book published like we're so young most people won't even consider publishing us and the truth was I was so lucky to get my book published. I'm reading this book called Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell) and it just kind of reaffirms my thought of how extraordinarily lucky I am. I mean yes, I work very hard and a successful person works really hard but you also have to have a lot of great opportunities and luck and I luckily recognize that at that young age that I was really lucky to have found this publishing company that the site published my book. But I knew that my classmates were lucky. I mean we're talented and I wanted to okay a publishing company that could publish them and their work too because the publishing company I mean the publishing world a lot of the time publishes big names rather than big ideas and that's not right. So Indie publishers are better with that: they'll publish based on an idea or a writing quality rather than oh well, this person's the celebrity so we need to publish their nonsense book, you know.

I wanted to make a company that was all about innovation and publishing good ideas. So I started my publishing company GenZ and we've been in business two years, and published probably close to sixty books by now. All extraordinary authors. It started with a view on publishing young authors but it's turned into innovative authors. GenZ is more of a mindset thing than an age. And the really neat thing is people who I admired, writers who I admired, I now signed to my company. For example, growing up I always loved juvenile humor like Mad Magazine. I mean I read that when I was way too old to be reading okay, I still read it. So I also love like the Onion and Cracked and I signed a writer from each of those and I was like, I fangled over those writers when I was in high school and yes, even college. And then to actually sign my favorite writers, I mean it's unbelievable to me. I was so star-struck, couldn't believe it when they wanted to sign with me and now, I'm just really, really thankful.

So I've become a little bit of a serial entrepreneur. I have a number of online businesses. That's why I've written my new book called, Be A Digital Entrepreneur Today. We're still formatting it right now, but it should be out in the New Year and I'm really excited about that. And I now, not just have a passion for writing, but for businesses and starting businesses and helping businesses, as well. My other business is called Dr. Risky's Writing and we write content for business websites. And the great thing about that is, you see, I grew up with my parents, Mom and Pop carpet shop and that gave me this love of helping small businesses, so if I could do that through my online marketing and online writing, I've had a great day.

GB: On top of being a creative at heart, you're an entrepreneur and the "Voice of Generation Z"? Does that inspire your personal work at all? What impact does it have on your work with young, aspiring artists?

MS: I'm inspired, the Entrepreneurship and the Voice of Generation Z definitely inspires my personal work. Because I always, you know, I didn't see myself as an inspiration and I still don't but people always say it. A lot of people say it's not even about my work, it's just about the fact that I go for my dreams and that inspires people. You know, when I wrote that article when I was 12 years old, I was just writing about a personal experience  I had and little girls were inspired by it because they had similar personal experiences but some of them didn't have the bravery to go out and talk about it. So I think that just by me being brave enough to talk about some of the things that I do or to start a business, actually inspires people and the fact that I inspire people, inspires me. You know? It inspires me to do even more and to work even harder and you always feel like you don't want to let people down. It started out where you know my head, I want to do all this because I want to make my family proud, but it's morphed into something so much more than that, where now I have this great community of people around me and I never want to let them down. I am an only child and the GenZ team has really turned into more of a family and we all say that it's truly incredible. I would fly to the moon and back for my family if I could.

GB: If you could use one word or phrase to describe your message and what you're trying to give to the world, what would it be and why?

MS: If I could use one word to describe my message, I think it'd be 'innovation.' There are so many. I read for like two hours every night before I go to bed. And a recurring theme that I keep seeing is innovation. And that's always been a theme of what I do in GenZ and you know there's that quote even by Darwin about how the ones who succeed are the ones that are constantly changing and adapting to their environment. So I think that innovation is a huge part of GenZ and my businesses, you need to adapt especially in this world of technology where things are constantly changing and moving and improving. You need to stay ahead of trends and change with them and be innovative.

GB: What's your process like? Where do you make the time needed to create? Are there any obstacles?

MS: My process. I'm a Type-A personality. Some things need to be perfect like grammar, I'm a grammar stickler but other things I'm like loosey-goosey. You know, I'm just like 'that's good enough' it's kind of funny. There are planters and they're architects. Planters will just you know throw their ideas around until something good comes on the paper, an architect will carefully outline everything and I'm a little bit of both. I'll take my notes carefully as an architect right, but then I just flow with the season just kind of free write stream of conscious sometimes. And that works for me and I'm like that with everything. I will spend all day organizing my library, my books by color and advertising them and yet, I’ll throw my book bag on the floor, you know. I will spend forever perfecting my grammar but my handwriting is atrocious, so it's kind of funny. But where I make the time to create is at night. I actually I stay up very late. So I like the late hours of the night when I know that the world is sleeping and I pretend to be sleeping so that I can have those hours to create. So oftentimes, we've seen midnight at 2:00 am, that's when I will read or bead. I love beading jewelry or I'll knit or I'll do something creative because those are the hours when I know there aren't going to be the notifications on my phone and if they are, I'll be able to at least dismiss in my mind like 'oh well, it's midnight I'm sleeping.'

So a lot of people always say, 'I don't have the time, I don't have the time' and I always thought that that was an awful excuse. If you're passionate about something, passionate enough you can't always make the time. And I'm not saying there aren't situations… I know a lot, there's a lot of commitments and things to do and we all have that and we all have a lack of time and I think that that is one of the biggest downfalls of our modern society: how little time everybody actually has. But you do find time to do the creative things if you want it badly enough. I just finished the book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (Mark Manson). And he talked about kind of the thing that if you want something badly enough, you'll do it. He thought that he wants to be a rock star but he didn't put in the hard work that took to be a rock star. Which means to him that he didn't want to be a rock star badly enough and it's like that with anything. So if you want it, just go, it's tough for me to read to shut off my brain, to shut the outside world but if I want it badly enough, I'm going to find a way to do it. And they're always outside interfering forces but if you want to do something badly enough, you do it.

GB: What authors/artists have had the most profound influences your work?

MS: Okay, I actually keep a list of my favorite maverick thinkers. So this is a great question. The first one on my list who I always talk about, whom I’m very much obsessed with that much like a lot of people, millennials is Jack White. But not just because of his music, yes, his music is brilliant and that's why most people admire him. But I also admire his entrepreneurship and his determination, I mean he started his own upholstery company when he was in his early 20s, great entrepreneurship. Then he launches four bands at one time. I know his whole bio like by heart, it's sickening I'm like so obsessed with this man but he's just so amazing. So he had four bands at one time, the White Stripes took off. He wrote the songs. He sang the songs. He played guitar on the songs. He can play any instrument because he would devote so much time to perfecting his craft and when you hear his music, he really, truly has perfected. He makes music like no one else. He's already a legend, a classic musician even though he's only 40-something years old. I mean he's with the likes of like Keith Richards and he's half his age, it's truly remarkable.

So now, he's this great musician, he goes solo he also has three bands right, three good and he starts his own record company, third band records, okay and then he opens another location. So he's always doing entrepreneurial endeavors with his creative stuff and how can you not admire that? I mean and to top it off, he brands everything so perfectly with the colors. When you think White Stripes, you think of the colors: red, white. When you think of their main records, you think of that gold color, but when you think of Jack White, the sole artist you think of that blue color. He brands ever a single thing to perfection and he also has a love for the classics and a true appreciation, admiration, and respect for the classics. He's had how my classic artists record in his recording studio and no other record company would do that because they're all about the profits. He doesn't care about the profits as much he cares about perfecting the art and remaining creative. And now, how can you not admire them? Some other authors and artists who have influenced me the most, this one's going to sound silly but I have to say, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. South Park is something that I grew up with, I started watching it when I was way too young to be watching it and I'm glad that I did because that's how I always got my news. They perfectly explain current events in a bipartisan way, show the ridiculousness of both sides humorously and they're absolutely brilliant and I think that you know their show is smarter than 90% of the shows that you see anywhere else. They know how to remain creative after all these years. So you have to admire them for everything that they do.

An author who has been my favorite since I was a teenager is Chuck Palahniuk. No other author is as satirical. It's him well remaining dark, edgy, humorous and of course, relevant in the way that through these decades, he has kept up with the news and the issues in society. I mean most people think of him and they think of Fight Club which of course, is a great skewing of our commercialism and our need to just keep buying and buying and buying and all the problems with what was then modern-day society in the 90s. But he still does it and each book is just with that same tone. I love his sarcastic satirical tone.

Some other authors and artists, Anthony Burgess, I'll get to him in the next question. Saint Vincent, she's just amazing, she can play any instrument, her songs are timeless. You know where they could have been made in the 80s or today but that's a good thing because they're really modern, the crazy thing is they're very modern but they have kind of 80s vibe to a lot of them. She has such an angelic voice, I love her presence. And then I love Puddles Pity Party, he is the clown with the golden voice and you know a lot of people think it would be a gimmick that oh, 'this guy dresses up like a clown sings.' But no, I saw him live. He's funny. He's brilliant. He has one of the best voices in music today that that's a real talent.

So I think that's enough with my influences even though. I got to say Rod Serling is another one. I have every Twilight Zone episode memorized. I bought the scripts when I was a kid, bought all the DVDs and just sat there and read all the scripts and memorized them and it was really funny. We were out the other night and the twilight is almost playing and I was able to with the sound muted, you know everything that they were saying know exactly what episode, who was doing what every character's name. I'm obsessed with the Twilight Zone because it was made from 1959 through 1963, but it's just so classic. Rod Serling was such a genius and of course, you have Richard Matheson writing a few episodes too. It was so ahead of its time, so brilliant and truly no show has really measured up to the level that the Twilight Zone was at.

GB: Who and what is on your MUST-READ list?

MS: On my must-read list, my number one book is A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess). To me, no other book has played with language as much as that book. I love the Nadsat language. When I was a teenager, I made this whole glossary of terms from that and I would just use them in casual conversation like a weirdo and people would be like, 'what is she doing?' But I just I love it and I love the story as well. Can you really force somebody to be good? It's absolutely brilliant, that's why I wrote my capstone on in college too. And then, of course, I always say Fight Club, but I'm more of a nonfiction reader than a fiction reader. I love reading books by comedians. I go from one extreme to another. I either read very, very dark books or I read silly, ridiculous, funny books. I read ten books at a time. So I'd normally try and mix up and normally do two fiction books, two educational books, two memoirs or biographies, two business books, two humor books, and then two kind of mix-bag books. So that's how I read and there are so many that I read. It's always difficult to complete exactly which books because you know you kind of… it's like when somebody says, what’s your favorite movie? For a lot of people, is very difficult to come up with that because you see so many movies and stuff and you know which ones you like and don't like. But some books that I've read this year that are incredible, Judd Apatow's Interviews with Comedians were fantastic and took me a while, a week because that was a really thick book like 500 pages.

I've recently become obsessed Tim Ferriss, I'm reading all his books in there. You know I used to think that it was just like okay, it's a catchy title and I think more but no, there is substance to those books and they're absolutely fantastic, quite revolutionary. And oddly enough, I just finished reading the Scott Pilgrim series. I always loved Kick-Ass and I still like Kick-Ass better than Scott Pilgrim, but they both came around about the same time and I was more team Kick-Ass than Scott Pilgrim but I just recently read the whole series and you know what, it wasn't them. And then, as for GenZ books that are taking the world by storm, we have such a variety of books. If you go onto our website you see just so many great titles we have and they have been all different genres, as well. So my favorite reads, I always go back to William F. Akers, ‘Our Confession.' It has a little bit of a Bukowski / Pelennor kind of vibe to him. Then we have like a lot of books by Preston Marshall he has a whole series of these zombie apocalypse books and they're fantastic and they're really fun and they're humorous too.

GB: What does "success" mean to you? What keeps you going?

MS: You know a lot of people have different definitions for success. To me, I think success is freedom and inspiring others. You know, you're successful when you can kind of breathe and you know something in that in a book I just read, The Sellers Are Not Giving Enough, success is really where you put it. He mentioned the lead singer of Megadeth, never felt like he was successful because he was always measuring himself to the likes of Metallica and Metallica was the biggest band in the world and Megadeth was really huge, but not as big as Metallica, so in his mind, he never succeeded. So success really is a state of mind, whereas you know if you just view yourself and say, 'I set this goal, I accomplished it, I'm successful.' But if you say, I can't do anything then you're not going to be successful in your own mind. Success really is a mindset. It is about accomplishing your dreams and goals and inspiring others, but it's also about accomplishing the freedom so that you're not miserable. I think success is really about accomplishing happiness because when it comes down to it, all we really want is to be happy.

And what keeps me going is the idea that I can inspire others and help others and get some really important messages out there that are not being gotten out there. It saddens me sometimes when you see that a lot of the big publishers are just publishing these books that are like cash cows. I don't want to do that. I want to get books out there with substance that can actually make a difference.

GB: Is there any advice you have for someone looking to launch a publishing business? 

MS: Advice for somebody launching a publishing business would be to know how much it entails. A lot of people think 'oh when you publish a book, you just write it and it's out there right?' But that's not true it's a whole process. You need to have a staff so that you can have editors and formatters. You need to have a proof system in order. You need to be able to distribute it. You need to be able to market the book. Because creating the book is only part of the battle, you also need to know how to market that book, how to get your authors out there to do book signings and readings. Those are huge parts of it.

GB: What's next for Morissa Schwartz? Got any upcoming projects we can look out for?

MS: I hope to keep growing my businesses. We're looking to make some of our books into movies which is such a dream, I'm having my book, Be A Digital Entrepreneur Today, released next year and I hope to tour or to give talks about that topic at many places. And I'm also earning my doctorate, so next on the horizon for me is a doctoral degree in literature.

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