There isn’t much time for leisure in Stephens’ busy schedule, but he’s developed an appreciation for what some would call “crappy television”.
“Like most entrepreneurs, my work-life balance is quite poor. In some ways this situation is relatively fine to be in considering I don’t have a family.
“Often I’ll want to just sit down and do absolutely nothing. I have been known to watch movies that are specifically rated less than four on IMDB, that way you can just sit there and let them wash over you. There is great value in crap movies. Similarly I follow a number of American TV shows that don’t require a lot of thinking.”
Aside from his love of arguably poor quality television, he admits it’s hard to separate work and leisure.
“Given that, at our age, social media is a big part of how we socialise and obviously it’s a big part of my work, it is sometimes hard to separate the two. Some of my friends are sick of getting work-related articles on Facebook.
“But I work in a sector that I love and I enjoy, so I don’t mind if I’m at home and I see an interesting article sitting down and reading it,” he says.
Cox chimes in, saying I should ask about his sleeping patterns.
“My sleeping patterns are erratic. It’s not uncommon that while frowned upon in the office I’ll send Matt an idea that I’ve had at 1.30am when I’ll see him at 10am. My favourite saying is ‘sleep is for mortals and naps are for gods’.
Cox says Stephens has a unique sleeping ability.
“Hugh has this amazing ability to just reject consciousness, he decides to sleep for 20 minutes and can just wake up 20 minutes later without an alarm,” he says.
In ten years’ time, Stephens suspects the social media industry will have undergone massive changes and this belief has influenced his plans for the future of the company.
“I want to develop the risk management side of it because I think that side will still be there, but perhaps it will be more risk management in public communications.
“Another potential situation is an acquisition, particularly if we do keep competing with the bigger firms,” he says.
Personally, he is in the process of developing tools which allow companies and individuals to quantitatively measure their social media presence, but he’s unsure if it will turn into a product for the company.
“It’s a pet project. The initial market is sporting teams so they can measure how much an athlete is worth in terms of their social media presence.”
He says it’s fundamental the metrics are built with transparency as that’s what tools such as Clout currently lack.
He says such ventures, for better or worse, will inevitably separate the company from its competition.
“The risk appetite of our company is pretty big. I’m not fussed if we take some controversial stances on things, especially in relation to widely accepted metrics.”
