Getting Too Close to What You Love: Joe Hennes (Tough Pigs) on Working at Sesame Workshop

Joe Hennes runs Tough Pigs, the premier Muppet fan site, and for years he also worked at Sesame Workshop -- the dream company he had been writing about since 2006. In this conversation, Joe is unusually candid about what it actually costs to merge fandom and profession. Episode page with video, links, and more: http://markgraban.com/mistake352 He explains why he kept his Sesame job quiet, what changed when he saw "how the sausage is made," and how being laid off from the place he had always wanted to be reshaped his relationship with the work. He also walks through how Tough Pigs broke the Steve Whitmire/Kermit performer story in 2017, why he resists the rah-rah instinct most fan sites default to, and why he thinks the new 50th anniversary Muppet Show special worked when so many recent reinventions did not. Along the way, Joe and Mark get into the marketing miscalculations behind Muppets Most Wanted, the case for more Muppet specials instead of full seasons, and the genuine joy you can see on a celebrity's face when they get to share a chair with Kermit. For leaders, it's a thoughtful look at the cost of fusing identity with employer -- and what it takes to keep enough distance from the things you love to think clearly about them.