Punk Rock HR Episode 125:
Today’s guest is my friend Zach Ward. He is the former owner of a comedy theater whose career was ended in 2017. Zach was canceled before it was trendy.
Zach is someone who fulfilled a dream which many of us have. He came back home after college, created a community, and monetized his passion. But in creating that community, other things happened. Eventually, allegations were made against him and he was canceled.
I want Zach to not only survive this tidal wave but rebuild his life. That is why I brought him onto the show. In today’s episode, we are talking about serious issues like cancel culture and sexual assault allegations. Zach helps us understand where his career began and the lies that eventually made it come to an end. My hope is that, by hearing Zach’s story and his commitment to transparency, we can all begin to pause and ask our own questions when we hear accusations.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- Zach’s college experience and how he came to open DSI Comedy Theater.
- The smear campaign against DSI and Zach.
- How he managed the rumors in the marketplace.
- The Facebook thread in which he was accused of sexual assault and the details that made it untrue.
- The collateral damage from those accusations.
- How these lies followed him to his new job.
- Social isolation and his perspective on it.
- Takeaways for business leaders and professionals.
Resources from this episode:
Indy Week DSI Comedy Owner news article
Indy Week Misogny news article
News Observer DSI Comedy Owner Steps Down news article
DSI Comedy Insanity Reddit article
News Observer Indy Editor news article
NY Times Cancel Culture: Part 1 podcast
NY Times Cancel Culture: Part 2 podcast
Zach Ward cancelled himself. He shut his business down permanently just days after this stuff hit social media. Nothing says, “I didn’t do anything wrong” like shutting down your business based on some social media “lies”.
If Zach didn’t do anything wrong, or it wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be, then he should’ve just kept his business open, and he would have been fine. The dramatic people would have left, and everybody else who wasn’t caught up in the silly little drama would’ve kept going. Instead, Zach got way too caught up in social media (and by looking at his Twitter feed, still is), and for some reason confused social media with real life. He thought that screaming people on social media meant that all of his customers/employees were screaming too, but that just wasn’t the case.
Sure, he should never have had any sort of relationship with anybody associated with his business. That’s Life Skills 101. Don’t poop where you eat. But this was a completely survivable event if only he wasn’t so obsessed with what other people are saying about him on social media.