Ocean Palmer

The Official Site of Ted Simondinger

JOIN TED'S MAILING LIST

Oscar Nominees: Who Deserves to Win

by Leave a Comment

I write motion picture screenplays and watch movies all the time (but very little television). Having seen all the films nominated in this year’s major categories, here are my picks for most deserving winners. Films and names are sequenced as released by the academy. I have rated each film in its category. The number to […]

LEARN MORE

New Book Announcement

by Leave a Comment

Very excited to announce my 14th book, which is scheduled for release in late spring: “Pro Selling (How to Succeed at the World’s Greatest Profession)” is written for new and ambitious sales professionals who aspire to accelerate up the performance curve quickly. The book is a “how to” and “what to know” teaching guide that […]

LEARN MORE

The Ebb & Flow of Life: How to Survive the Holidays

by Leave a Comment

Good Year or Bad Year? The 10 Things that Happen Each Year Nothing creates emotional amplitude quite like the holidays. Especially this year. Social upheaval, global mistrust, selfishness, and behavioral unaccountability hardly mix a wonderful soufflé. Noise and uncertainty create disruption, as do mortality and circumstantial happenstance. Good things happen to bad people, bad things […]

LEARN MORE

Today’s Assignment: Going Old School

by Leave a Comment

This time of year life seems easy or challenging, headlines scream abuse and conspiracy, and happiness washes upon us either in buckets or droplets. Surrounded by all that, today we are each empowered to brighten someone’s day in the simplest of ways. Today’s assignment is simple. When someone passes by, look at them and smile. […]

LEARN MORE

Company Culture: Is Yours by Design or Default?

by Leave a Comment

The major driver of sustained excellence in businesses, teams, and organizations is culture by design. Unfortunately, very few are set up this way. Most have default cultures that have morphed over time. There are two major keys to culture design success, each of which comes with a potential failure point. Those two keys are accountability […]

LEARN MORE

Five Keys to Staying Positive in Trying Times

by Leave a Comment

In 2007  the global recession toppled dominoes around the world. Around the world we shared a common enemy, which was economic instability. Flash forward a decade: Today  global angst looks like a life-sized Lego puzzle. Divisiveness rules,  mistrust abounds, and conclusion-jumping has leap-frogged a long assumed, more traditional respect for measured, fact-based, contemplative thought. What’s […]

LEARN MORE

The Construction Process for Three Comedy Shorts

by Leave a Comment

In business and entertainment, story matters. A great story, well made with great characters, produces great results. Conversely, a thin story or mediocre characters can never tell a really strong story. I recently wrote three comedic film shorts, ten to fifteen minutes each, written to be shot with a “single or dual setup,” which enables […]

LEARN MORE