Welcome to a special episode of Your World of Creativity! This week, we’re bringing you a New Country Music Sampler featuring a selection of fresh tracks released over the summer from some incredibly talented independent singer-songwriters.

Summer can be a busy time, and it’s easy to miss new music. That’s why we’re thrilled to showcase these artists and their creative work, offering you a chance to discover some great songs that might have flown under your radar.

Featured Songs and Artists:

1.    Robert Ross, Canadian/Australian Country Chart-Topper, released “Mamma’s Song” on July 26. It’s from his upcoming sophomore album, “Better With Time.” We also feature a song from his debut album, “For You Girl.”

2.    Ohio Country Music Hall of Famer Richard Lynch released his highly anticipated new album, “Pulling Up the Covers,” on July 26. This collection is not just a covers album; it is a heartfelt journey through the songs that have defined country music and shaped Lynch’s own life and career. We feature Richard’s cover of the Barry Gibb-penned, Conway Twitty country hit, “Rest Your Love on Me.”

3.    Acclaimed songwriter and musician, Tim Tye and his project, Midnight Sky, released of the highly anticipated lyric video for their latest single, “Every Now and Then.” Following the success of their two Top 10 UK iTunes Country hits and two more Top 25 singles, Midnight Sky continues to captivate audiences with their unique blend of country and Americana.

4.    Eddy Mann, the acclaimed Christian folk rock music artist, released his latest single, “I’m Coming,” from his album, “Turn Up the Divine,” on June 7. This powerful new single underscores the themes of divine presence and unwavering faith, offering comfort and inspiration to listeners worldwide.

5.    Here's the new single from chart-topping, award-winning singer-songwriter, Jeremy Parsons. His innovative productions have won him critical acclaim and a place among today's most unique and exciting new country artists.

6.    Cliff & Susan, the dynamic married country music duo, released of their rendition of Van Morrison’s timeless classic, “Into the Mystic” on all major streaming platforms July 5. The song was recorded at the legendary FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Their version captures the soulful essence of the original while injecting it with their signature country flair.

7.    Erin Enderlin is a force in the country music world, known for her storytelling and vocal prowess. Her accolades include multiple albums, performances at the Grand Ole Opry, and numerous awards from the ACMAs. Her recent songwriting credits include cuts by Willie Nelson and Trisha Yearwood. 

8.    Country artist Lady Redneck, known for her high-energy performances and fun, tongue-in-cheek songs, released her latest single on June 7 -- a cover of The Police’s iconic hit, “Every Breath You Take.”

Bonus Track

9. Renowned for his profound musical prowess and heartfelt melodies, Michael Zuzek is thrilled to release his new single, "Graystone," June 21. This track promises to be a captivating addition to the pop-rock genre, merging nostalgic influences with a fresh and invigorating sound. The track is from his upcoming 2024 album release, “Everest,” encapsulating the essence of the 60s and 70s while infusing it with contemporary vibrancy.

Special thanks to the artists for allowing us to share their music, and to their management for supporting our creative community, especially Michael at MTS Management Group.

We appreciate you for tuning in to Your World of Creativity! We hope you enjoy these fantastic new country tracks as much as we do. Be sure to follow and support these...

In this episode of Your World of Creativity, we dive into the minds behind the new book *Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future*, co-authored by Scott Doorley and Carissa Carter, with illustrations by Armando Veve.

Scott and Armando discuss the collaborative process behind the book, which blends fiction, essays, and stunning visuals to address the role of design in an ever-changing world. The conversation touches on the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies, the importance of creative partnerships, and the concept of thriving as a guiding principle for the future.

Key Takeaways:

1. Designing in an Unpredictable World: Scott emphasizes the need for flexibility and adaptability in design, especially in an era marked by rapid technological advancements and constant change.

2. Creative Collaboration: The unique partnership between Scott and Armando highlights the power of integrating design and illustration from the start, allowing for a fluid exchange of ideas that enriches both the visual and textual narratives.

3. The Role of Fiction in Design: Incorporating fictional elements into the book was crucial for exploring not just what is, but what could be, encouraging readers to think beyond the present.

4. Human Touch in a Technological World: Armando’s hand-drawn illustrations provide a necessary human element in a book that grapples with complex technological themes, striking a balance between the organic and the mechanical.

5. Thriving as a Design Goal: The book’s focus on thriving—rather than simply improving or progressing—reflects a holistic approach to the future, where harmony, sustainability, and individual potential are paramount.

Pull-Out Quote:

“In an unpredictable world, the goal isn’t to get it perfect, but to create something that’s changeable, something you can shepherd and adapt as the world evolves.” – Scott Doorley

In this episode, we dive into the world of indie filmmaking with Rob Mabry, discussing his journey, challenges, and triumphs in creating his first feature film, "The Legend of El Chupacabra."

Rob's Website

@thechupacabramovie on Instagram

Rob on YouTube

1. **Blending Horror and Comedy:**

- Rob shares insights on balancing horror and comedy, noting their similar structures of anticipation and payoff.

- "Horror and comedy are about anticipation and payoff... jokes build up tension to a punchline, and horror builds tension to a scare."

2. **Character and Creature Development:**

- Emphasizes the importance of character-driven comedy and using real-life inspirations for character behaviors.

- "Good comedy is built out of character... I take a lot of inspiration from my daily life and the people I interact with."

- Discusses working with creature designer Sergio Gara for the Chupacabra costume, highlighting the blend of creativity and engineering.

3. **Production and Logistical Challenges:**

- Rob describes the complexities of indie filmmaking, from crowdfunding to logistical planning.

- "It's stressful... when you're an independent filmmaker, you're not just wearing the director hat; you're managing logistics, locations, and ensuring everyone is fed."

4. **Distribution Strategy:**

- Rob talks about the evolving landscape of film distribution, particularly for indie films, and the importance of physical media.

- "It's a challenging time for indie filmmakers to surface above the noise and get their film out there... taking advantage of social media is crucial."

5. **Creative Roots and Inspiration:**

- Reflects on his early passion for storytelling, from writing plays and comic books to filming with a Super 8 camera.

- "I was that kid always writing my own comic books, writing plays... and my dad, who owned a Super 8 film camera, let me borrow it once in a while."

Jude Warne, Rock Reviewer on Bob Dylan

This podcast welcomes Jude Warne, a rock biographer, music reviewer, and author. We discuss Bob Dylan's creativity in his book “The Philosophy of Modern Song” -- as well as the book “Folk Music of Bob Dylan: Biography in Seven Songs.”

Bob Dylan's book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, captures the mystery and creativity of his immense body of work with references to other famous songwriters. It showcases his creative voice as a critic, author, and biographer to discuss the writerly quality of other musicians' songs and their lives.

Jude says, “It highlighted for me a lot of the songwriters and songs that he touches on, he brings out their mystery or the mystery going on with the characters in each of the songs he talks about. So there's, the theme really is consistent in my opinion throughout the whole book.”

I replied, “It's exciting. And mystery is a nice word because how many people have tried to interpret a Bob Dylan song, and it's like how much meaning could we infuse in it? But often to look at it the other way and say, how does somebody like Bob Dylan interpret other people's songs?”

·     Bob’s creative, conversational tone has opened listeners' minds as he riffs and creates new stories for his songs that showcase his writing talent and insight.

·     Bob is an experienced music reviewer who notes the influence of older genres in modern songs, having charted on the Billboard charts since the 1950s and 60s.

·     Bob Dylan's selection of music speaks to artists of all eras, regardless of gender, race, or background, showing his unique creative vision and critical insight. Even though it may not seem like a “diverse” selection of artists to profile.

·     Through reflection on the works of great artists Bob Dylan questions if sacrificing one's personal identity is necessary to create strong and meaningful works.

·     We shared a laugh while envisioning Bob Dylan doing some real-life mundane tasks like sorting the photos used in the book, because of his persona of a philosophical approach to writing.

In the second half of the interview, we discussed a Bob Dylan biography on his creative journey through influences and contributions to history and culture, written by Rolling Stone critic and author Greil Marcus.

As we closed, Jude talked personally about her work as a creative critic, author, and biographer—and her secret dream to DJ in her own club where she can choose what songs to play.

We promised to keep the conversation going and check in periodically on new books and albums, especially ones that Jude reviews on platforms like The Vinyl District.

Jude is now working on a new book about a seventies rock artist which is set to be released in Fall of 2024.

My thanks to Larry Hughes at Simon & Schuster Publishing for an advanced introduction to the Bob Dylan "Philosophy of Modern Song" book.

Today we talk sonic branding with Jeanna Isham of Dreamr Productions

Jeanna creates, consults, and educates on the power of sound in marketing.

She is founder and sonic branding composer and started the company back in 2009. Her career in music and marketing has been a 20-year journey in the making. She is well versed in the art of traditional music composition as well as being a thought leader, author, and speaker in the sound in the marketing and advertising industry.

Website: https://www.soundinmarketing.com

YouTube: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-sound-in-marketing-47922539/episode/sonic-branding-for-the-small-business-108455421/

This is a special BONUS, LIVE episode with my guest, Anita Sonya

Sonya is a highly respected live streaming coach and consultant, and the founder of LivePodcast Media. Her passion lies in helping business owners, entrepreneurs, digital creators, and professionals transform their businesses through live streaming.

LINKED IN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livepodcastmedia/

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCly3HVYidu0_6uPa4opqvZg

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/livepodcastmedia/

INSTAGRAM: @livepodcastmedia

WEBSITE: https://anitasonya.com

Sonya has organized multiple international summits, supported by leading brands such as Blubrry, Ecamm Network, Wave.video, and Restream. These events have brought together top expert speakers from diverse industries to share their knowledge and expertise.

If you're looking to transform your business through live streaming, Sonya is the partner you've been searching for. With her vast knowledge, experience, and unparalleled passion for helping others, she is the perfect choice to help you take your business to the next level.

Don't miss the opportunity to work with her and attend the upcoming Bali LivePodcast Summit, scheduled for September 19-24, 2023.

Today's guest is Henning Svoren of Ocean Sound Recording in Giske, Norway.

https://www.oceansound.no

Henning is a Norwegian music producer and engineer, who has been part of running the recording studio Ocean Sound on the island of Giske in Norway since 2009.

He says, “My responsibilities are pretty wide from developing the business and studio itself to working on the songs and actual music through mixing, recording and producing. In my spare time I like to go hiking or skiing in the mountains and fjords around here.”

Here are some of the key topics we discuss:

·     Henning believes that the natural surroundings of an island contribute to the creative process. For example, he learned Peter Gabriel's studio was designed with creativity in mind, as the flowing water outside provides inspiration.

·     As the owner of the studio, he explains how the studio was built and how it is different from other studios in New York and London.

·     Why the artists are drawn to the studio's setting and equipment. They have kept up with the latest technology by installing a Dolby Atmos system in their studio.

·     Henning describes how their music is influenced by the environment, ranging in styles which include sixties pop, German hip-hop, jazz, and even meditation sounds.

·     “We had one of my favorite Norwegian bands called Motorcycle which I've been a fan of since I was a kid. I was finally asked to work with them as an engineer a couple of years ago. Their guitar player lives in Trondheim, a Norwegian city. He decided that he is not going to bring any guitars or any pedals or anything. He's just going to use what's in the studio because the different instruments will inspire him to play something different than a normal would. So we also try to have a few weird instruments lying around, like strategically placed around the studio. So if you get stuck with a song you're working on, why don't you try this weird Indian thing?”

·     The role of the Engineer. Musicians need an engineer to do more than push the buttons and make them sound great. They need someone who is not close to the project with fresh ears to help contribute to the creative process. The studio and engineer can help the band capture their musical vision.

·     The challenge of finding the balance between wanting to be popular and wanting to be unique. Ocean Sound wants to help create new tastes in music and that helps decide what sort of projects they would like to work on.

As we closed, Henning added, “I'm touched by your enthusiasm, both for the music-making process and for our studio.”

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson

Mary Gauthier, The Healing Power of Songwriting

Today's guest is Grammy-nominated folk/Americana/country singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier.

We discuss her experiences in:

• the healing power of writing
• working with veterans
• songwriting groups
• obstacles in the process
• tours and life on the road
• What's ahead for music and life

Learn more about Mary, her music, her book, and upcoming tours dates at:

Mary's Website

For marketers, creating a powerful connection with consumers is key — and audio plays an important role in that connection.

Audio branding and radio expert Paul Suchman has dedicated his career to honing audio into the perfect tool of engagement for brands large and small. We recently had the chance to sit down with Paul to discuss what it takes to create powerful audio brand experiences, as well as how you can get started leveraging sound in your own marketing efforts.

Audacy is a production company specializing in creating narrative audio content for brands, agencies, and networks. "We're always looking for new ways to push the boundaries of storytelling through sound," Paul says. "It's really exciting because there are so many different components that go into producing great audio – sound design, music composition, voice direction – all of these things come together to make something special. But I think the most important thing is finding a way to tell a story that resonates with listeners. That's the key to success."

It's truly an art form, and there are endless possibilities that come with creating audio content. You never know what kind of stories you're going to uncover and how they'll be received by your audience. That's what makes it so exciting!

"At Audacy we pride ourselves on having some of the best producers in the industry – people who understand how important storytelling is and know how to craft something special out of their work. Our team works hard to ensure that the audio content we create accurately reflects our brand and its values," Paul says.

Since Audacy rebranded from Entercom, the team has been working diligently to uphold the mission behind it. "We've worked on creating memorable audio content that resonates with our audience and is in line with our brand identity. We want people to feel like they're connected to us, whether through a podcast or a radio show, and recognize the work that goes into making this content," Paul described. "We are continuously pushing ourselves to create something new and innovative while staying true to who Audacy is as a company – a conglomeration of many different audio brands coming together under one roof. It's an ongoing process, but we believe it's the best way to keep our partners and advertisers engaged and looking forward to what comes next. We strive to maintain a level of transparency when it comes to how we are creating, distributing, and marketing our content so that everyone involved has an understanding of where their investments are going."

"We also want to make sure that our team is supported in any way possible – with the right tools, resources, guidance, etc. Our goal is for everyone who interacts with Audacy's brand experience to feel good about what they're getting out of it so that they keep coming back again and again. We believe this is how businesses can not only survive but thrive in today's competitive audio landscape," Paul says.

To accomplish this, Paul says they focus on creating a comprehensive experience from the moment our partners decide to advertise with us. Audacy offers detailed insights into our listener base and track their engagement with our content so that they have an accurate understanding of how their campaigns are performing.

We also strive to provide regular updates throughout the entire process – from initial strategy meetings before the campaign even launches, to analyzing metrics after it is completed – in order to give everyone involved a clear picture of what has been achieved and where there is still room for improvement.

At Audacy, we understand that brand experience matters and are committed to delivering unparalleled support and service to...

Today, we're stamping our creative passports in one of my favorite capital cities of the world, Copenhagen, Denmark, and my guest Salome Trambach

• Salome describes her favorite hidden coffee spot in Copenhagen, which is in a park behind a university. (Landbohøjskolen Garden. In the garden you will find the cozy Væksthuset café where the barista brewed coffee is so good that the place has won the University Post prize for the University of Copenhagen’s best coffee shop.)
• She talks about the leadership and guidance that is provided to help people start their own businesses. We discuss the idea of moving from founder to leader and what that means for creative people. People often found their own businesses because they feel compelled to break free from the corporate environment.
• Taking small steps that could be big is an important part of life. The person needs to be passionate about their project and have a good reason for starting it in order for people to want to listen.
• Founders should make contingency plans, but not let the fear of the worst-case scenario paralyze them.
• Salome shares her model and her opinion on leadership development and personal development. She says leaders need to understand themselves in order to be effective. Self-awareness and self-mastery lead to trust in oneself, which is necessary to start a business and garner a higher price. It starts with self-worth.
• Salome was Born in Paris, and grew up in Copenhagen; her bio says that she is half French and half Moroccan. Speaks four languages and loves to travel. Learned a love of dance in Ghana. All these things feed her creative spirit. She tells us how she is inspired by nature and the things she has experienced while traveling. She recommends integrating new experiences into your daily life to increase creativity.

Salome 's Website

Salomé Trambach offers years of extraordinary success in a series of high-level roles at top-tier companies that include HybridLedelse.dk, Mentoring Club, LifeX, Softbank's Emerge Accelerator, China Experience, PriceWaterHouseCoopers Mexico, P.20, Gaia Solar, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Coloplast, JOY 94.9, and AIESEC Denmark. Salomé is one of the members of the Board of Directors at Movinn (Real Estate) and a Senior Leadership Consultant at Safe2Great (Leadership Consultancy). Salomé is a certified Safe2Great Practitioner with a focus on Culture Assessment, Growth Mindset & Psychological Safety. Salomé’s invaluable expertise and broad business experience have powered a history of developing successful process improvements that drive productivity, reliability, and client satisfaction.

@salometrambach on Instagram

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson

OLESIJA SAUE

www.olesijasaue.com

linkedin.com/in/olesijasaue

• Personal Branding & Executive Coach.
• Social Media Strategist & Partner at Goal Marketing-multiple-awards winning Social Media agency
• Founder at Personal Branding Agency Maximizer
• 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2022
• (Thinkers 360)
• Serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in Sales and Marketing.
• 2x Amazon best-selling author "The Brand Named You
• (www.thebrandnamedyou.com) and BLU talks "Business Life and the Universe. Vol 4" (www.blutalksbook.com)
• Lecturer on Personal Branding at Estonian Business School Contributor at Thrive Global, Modern Warrior Magazine, Expert Circle, Thinkers360
• M.B.A in International business administration
• AoEC Accredited Executive Coach
• NLP Classic Code & New Code Practicioner
• Member of the International Coach Federation.
• Managed a steel galvanizing plant
• Built her own steel trading company
• As a former CEO of Forbes Estonia, she helped to bring the world's most trusted business media brand to the business audience in Baltics.
• Today she helps corporate clients as well as aspiring start-ups and small-to-medium sized businesses to stand out from the competition and achieve their business goals through the strategic use of social media and personal branding of the CEOs and employees.
• She is also helping with in-house brand ambassadors programs development & implementation as well as strategical usage of personal branding in corporate communication and employer branding.

S T O R Y

The start of Olesija's career was like a rocket launch. Within less than a year, she went from the position of HR specialist to the position of CEO of a galvanizing steel plant, followed by the establishment of her steel trading company a couple of years later. For several years business was growing exponentially and by the age of 25, she had everything she could possibly dream of. But then came the crisis of 2007/2008, and in a matter of months, she was completely broke and massively in debt. But looking back, she believes that this was the best possible blessing in disguise.

As she had nothing, and she means absolutely nothing, left from her previously highly successful life, she had to start reinventing herself from below zero. And she discovered that one thing that we all have at all times, one thing that no one can take from you no matter what happens, is your true essence, your personal brand DNA- your why, your unique strengths, your true values, your story, your network and how you make people feel. And the moment she realized this, her life changed. She found a way to make things work again. She published a book and runs a successful coaching and consulting business, inspires individuals and businesses to take action, make the most of themselves and truly make a difference. She also discovered that knowing who you really are and what do you really want to do and most importantly WHY is the only way to build an authentic personal brand. And the biggest problem that most of us have is that we don't have time to stop and really look inside. And as Carl Jung said, your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.

Olesija's Website

@olesija on Instagram

Robin Landa is a distinguished professor at Kean University and a globally recognized ideation expert. She is a well-known “creativity guru” and a best-selling author of books on creativity, design, and advertising. She has won numerous awards and The Carnegie Foundation counts her among the "Great Teachers of Our Time."

She has written twenty-five books, including Strategic Creativity, Graphic Design Solutions, Advertising by Design, Build Your Own Brand, Designing Brand Experiences, and Nimble.

About The New Art of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential

In a world with a surplus of ideas, what separates a good idea from a bad one?

In her breakthrough book, The New Art of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential (Berrett-Koehler Publishers; November 8, 2022), Robin Landa offers a comprehensive and actionable guide on how to produce the kind of ideas people can’t turn down.

The New Art of Ideas is designed to help readers consistently produce worthwhile ideas by becoming nimble and imaginative thinkers better equipped to compete and produce in a global economy.

In the book, Landa presents her proven framework for generating consequential ideas,

The Three Gs— the first new idea generation technique since brainstorming.

• Goal—What you want to achieve

• Gap—The missing piece that your idea provides

• Gain—The overall benefits of your idea

This book is about how to get great ideas. Not just lots of ideas, but ideas worth pursuing that get results. With explanations and examples of each component, The New Art of Ideas demystifies the process of effective ideation and hands you the key to unlock your creative potential.

Actor Holly Taylor (Manifest; The Americans) illustrated the book and Broadway director and choreographer Lorin Latarro wrote the foreword.

Drawing from her expertise and key themes in The New Art of Ideas, we discuss:

· The new framework for valuable ideation: The Three Gs — Goal, Gap, and Gain

· How to use the fluid process (in any order) to generate, crystalize, amplify, and evaluate worthwhile ideas across disciplines and industries

· How to evaluate the validity of your ideas so that you don’t waste time on fruitless endeavors

· How the Three Gs process differs from others— It’s an actionable system vs. a black box ideation method that depends on an elusive Aha! moment

· The benefits of the Three Gs: How worthwhile ideas impact profit, people, and the planet

· How diversity, equity, and inclusion can amplify the Three Gs process

· How leaders and organizations can employ this process in their companies to get ahead of the competition in an idea-based economy

· How individuals at any level can develop creative habits— and where to start

· Are you a gap seeker? Critical steps to identify key growth opportunities

· The impacts that emotion and doubt play in goal setting— and how to overcome the obstacles

· Notable examples of how impactful ideas were developed

The New Art of Ideas is available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold.

For more information, please visit:

Robin 's Website

Robin on YouTube

@proflanda on Instagram

Maybe you just got promoted. Maybe you're a new manager, you finally got the promotion you've been asking for three years.

And so now you say, What do I need to do as a new manager? What are some of the tools I need to add from being an individual contributor to being a leader of a team?

Today, we discuss these topics with our guest today, Ramona Shaw, stamping our creative passport in San Francisco. We've also got a special guest, Susan Sutton, who's one of Ramona's leadership program and managerial workshop participants.

Here are some highlights of our discussion:

·     People often become managers because they are good at their jobs, but this is not always the right fit for them.

·     Most people feel unprepared when they are promoted into their first leadership role.

·     Leaders can improve their skills by taking leadership training courses.

·     The self-leadership mindset enables people to focus on new management core competencies and skills.

·     The program is designed to help participants make a big transformation and provides personalized support.

Susan Sutton was preparing for a promotion when she met Ramona and went through her program. Ramona was a helpful guide to Susan during a difficult time. One of the things Ramona teaches is that you can't expect everyone to do things like you would. She reminded Susan of the importance of curiosity and communication. People often unintentionally give advice that is counterproductive because they are trying to help.

Ramona says leaders often feel overwhelmed with new responsibilities, but this is something that can be managed by looking at the facts. People can get overwhelmed with stress when they focus on the emotion of a situation rather than the facts.

Ramona believes that before managing people, it is important to manage your mind. She even says that people working for a micromanager might try to create a “hardship” for themselves, in order to make the boss feel engaged. She feels that their boss does not trust them, and this is causing them to disengage from their work. You can't control your boss, but you can try to influence them and make them feel comfortable.

Now let's look ahead: People are setting different goals in light of current situations.

Mark said, “By the time we're listening to this podcast, we're into the first quarter of 2023, which is that kind of mind-boggling anyway, but it seems we've said all the things about the “great something,” -- there was a resignation, now a restart, a re-engagement mindset. I don't think since 2019 have we had the normal goal setting. We need to make these numbers or we need to get these goals in place because there's always been, something we are reacting to.”

Ramona said goals are fluid and can change, but the direction and end goal stay the same. Companies need to continually check in and realign on goals with employees in order for them to feel engaged and aligned. Experiment with different communication modes to find what works best for her students.

Our podcast will continue to have conversations with creative managers and practitioners to help individuals make an impact on a bigger team.

Ramona's Website

Ramona on YouTube

@ramona.shaw.leadership on Instagram

Ramona Shaw is a Certified Professional Leadership...

Welcome back to "Your World of Creativity"! In this milestone episode, we reconnect with past guests from various corners of the country to catch up on their journeys and future plans.

Join us as we travel to Cincinnati, Seattle, and LA to hear the latest from Mark Graban, Jeff Leisawitz, and Chris Hood.

- Mark Graban shares insights from his book "The Mistakes That Make Us" and discusses the importance of learning from mistakes in personal and professional settings.

- Jeff Leisawitz talks about his new book, "The Magical Impact of Storytelling," and his unique art form combining coffee stains and typewritten quotes.

- Chris Hood reveals his transition from Google to founding a video game company, emphasizing the significance of fun and creativity in the workplace.

- Discussions on the implications of dissolving non-compete agreements and how they might impact employee satisfaction and mobility.

- Reflections on the importance of storytelling for personal and organizational growth.

Key Quotes:

- Mark Graban: "When we can reduce some of the risk involved in speaking up, it reduces vulnerability and makes it easier for everyone to speak up."

- Jeff Leisawitz: "At its best, storytelling is a way for us to be seen, expressed, healed, and connected."

- Chris Hood: "If you think about having fun at work, it's not just for the benefit of the culture you're building; it's also at the benefit of the consumer engaging with you."

Join us for this engaging reunion episode as we explore the creative journeys of our guests and discuss how they've evolved since their last appearance. Stay connected and inspired with "Your World of Creativity"!

Links to our guests’ projects and social media can be found in the panel interview. Thank you for joining us on this creative journey, and here's to many more episodes of inspiring conversations!

Today I'm so lucky to have Maureen Falvey as my guest!

She is a marketing powerhouse, with wide-ranging experience in advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, and Grey. We were just having a chat about how we might miss those midnight flights from California - but you can't help reminiscing on all that creative energy swirling around us at exciting moments of big launches or strategic brand planning sessions. It's such an honor for me to be talking with this astute ad expert today; let's see what she has in store for us!

Coaching and mentorship in professional fields like advertising can be a huge asset for any individual’s success. But why do even the most seasoned pros need one? Maureen shares her insight here, explaining that we often rely too heavily on our habits when it comes to achieving goals - both good and bad ones! Having an external figure hold us accountable allows us to break out of those patterns and stay focused on what truly matters. It's clear how having someone keeping you motivated along the way is such a critical part of growth- no matter where you are with your career journey.

Mark reflected, “As a long-time industry veteran in advertising, it took me 10 years before I even knew the concept of mentoring. Sadly, this is an environment that often rewards cutthroat competition and short-term wins rather than fostering growth for its professionals. So when did we see a shift to investing more energy into cultivating talent?”

Maureen shared, “Well as experienced by many others like myself, this transition began when people started to leave their positions - prompting us to ask ‘what should we be doing differently?’. From there my journey as a mentor truly blossomed; allowing me now use my expertise gained from decades of playing the game of advertising & marketing talent acquisition.

Many advertising professionals are now looking to develop their leadership and managerial style, beyond individual contribution. It's important for these individuals to not only look after themselves but also extend that care to others in order to create a strong followership. While many people think they're self-aware, the reality is usually far from it - 10% or 15 % of them actually demonstrate this quality due to its complexity. This is where coaching and training come into play as an essential part of professional development.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work with a coach?

Exploring the tools and techniques that can reprogram your approach is something many strive for. As an expert, I'm here to offer one of those tools - coaching yourself! With this powerful tool in mind, my wish for everyone is empowerment; harnessing our inner accountability partners so we may reach peak performance levels. At Strong Training & Coaching Inc., not only do coaches receive top-notch Harvard Business Review training but produce results efficiently as well.

Have you ever felt like the obstacles in your way are just too intense to overcome?

Well, we could all agree that there isn't enough time for everything. But what if instead of focusing on why something can't be done, we tried creating contingency plans and dialing down those intimidating challenges? That's where a coach comes into play! Unlike mentors who tell us how things should go and provide answers from their own experiences; coaches ask questions that build our confidence as they guide us toward finding solutions ourselves. They may even offer suggestions based upon years of insight - but ultimately it is up to each individual person’s inner knowledge that will lead the way forward.

Today on the show, we've been talking with Maureen Falvey from

Welcome back friends to our podcast, Unlocking Your World of Creativity.

Today we talk with NY Times bestselling author and the founder of Voices of Eden, an Ancient Wisdom and Healing Music Institute, Eliana Gilad. Eliana is a healing voice mentor, therapeutic singing pioneer, and founder of the Find Your True Voice program. She helps heart centered entrepreneurs and healing professionals embody their own unique voices and confidently express their truth from the inside out.

This brings us to today's interview. Mark discusses with Eliana about: 

• Unlocking creativity through unleashing the power of our voice, our inner voice, and the ability and power to shine through that voice. 
• Insightful stories of her journey that lead her to unlocking her true voice. 
• Bonus: Heart Voice Healing Activation focused on Unlocking Your Creativity. **Stay tuned for that after the episode. 

How can people start to find their voice in these uncertain times? 

• Turn off your media
• You're not going to find it by trying to figure things out 
• The Choice is yours. You want expand and thrive, let go and get ready for adventure!

Being who you already are: 

• Eliana explains that daring to stop the drug of scrolling or the drug of whatever the autopilot is.
• We knew the power of voice literally and figuratively in ancient times. It got forgotten, and we disconnected from it. 
• Your voice, your human voice, is the instrument that bridges your inner clarity, your inner world with your outer expression. 

An insightful part of Eliana’s Journey

After extensive research into vibration of sound studying anything from science to archaeology to medicine, Eliana compiled 16 studies that were conducted where sound was used as a healing technique. Finally convincing a doctor to try it she was allowed to work on a premature infant in an intensive care unit. The baby weighed less than a pound. Eliana began to sing, and the baby began to move! This proved three things to the doctors. 

• He was hearing.
• The specific part of his brain to hear was working.
• He enjoyed the music. 

Not only did they see how the power of sound healing was working it helped the medical staff in their own work with focus and they felt calmer.

This experience allowed Eliana into receiving a fully funded research project for three years and paying her salary to study babies in the NICU.  

“When there's something in you that's an impulse, that's a hunch, trust it, even if it doesn't make sense. it's your true voice.” 

**Bonus Voice Healing Activation

Eliana explains in ancient times the leaders would go to temples and avail themselves of special applications of voice and rhythm that would bypass the intellect and connect them inwardly to their higher mind. There was always a focus. 

This is an activation focused on Unlocking Your Creativity.

Enjoy! 

You can find Eliana Gilad and more of what she does at Voices of Eden. There you can explore her different types of healings and offerings along with free resources to get you started. 

Be sure to check out her best-selling book Emerge Triumphant: Thrive Through Uncertainty on Amazon.

Lastly, you can listen to her ted talks here:

Welcome back to our podcast, Unlocking Your World of Creativity. We are so pleased to welcome on our program today a designer, a creative director, a filmmaker, an animator, and a man that wears many more hats, Hussain Almossawi. 

Hussain Almossawi is an innovator, product designer and visual effects artist who has worked across industries and around the world consulting for companies such as Nike, Apple, Google, Adidas, Intel, and Ford Motor Company, among others. He is a regular keynote speaker on innovation and design and has taught at several universities. In 2019, Hussain founded Mossawi Studios, a multi-disciplinary design studio specializing in creating memorable, iconic, and bold experiences. He loves blurring the lines between product design, visual effects, and storytelling.

• Hussain’s new book The Innovator's Handbook, a short guide to Unleashing Your Creative Mindset and we get to hear a short excerpt from Chapter five, Cultivate Curiosity.
• Encouragement for young creatives moving up in their career
• Lastly, what’s coming up next in Hussain’s creative future 

“As a designer, as a creative, the way I look at it, you can either act or react. You can be a leader or a follower. That's the cool thing about it, there's no right or wrong.” 

The Innovator's Handbook, a short guide to Unleashing Your Creative Mindset  

In Hussain’s book he helps designers and creatives 

• harness their fire, 
• flex their courage, and 
• supercharge their ideas to create remarkable products, services, and experiences.

What was Hussain’s intent when he decided to create this book? 

• He wanted to be a quick read, 
• A short, fun read with lots of illustrations in it. 
• Something that was not overwhelming to him. 

He explains that Innovation always felt overwhelming to him, even the books that he has that are super insightful. He tried to break it down. Create something to get a person’s ideas going and start to make the reader think outside the box. 

**At 11:23 minutes we hear a short excerpt from Chapter five, Cultivate Curiosity that Hussain reads for us. 

Hussain’s advice to somebody who is young in this space or wants to get into it is:

• Always be humble and hungry. 
• Always try to see how you can go to the next level. 
• There's no right and wrong in innovation. Every idea can become something.
• Dream big, think big. Don't limit yourself. 

“Fear. It all goes back to fear. Fear is the number one thing that stops you from coming up with ideas, fear of speaking, fear of thinking out loud, fear of sharing ideas with other people and so on. So, be fearless. Be humble, and be hungry. And that will take you very far.”

** Where you live shouldn’t be an inspiration for what you create. It doesn't matter where you are, he says. There's always hidden stories that you can use as your insights when you're designing.

1. First, Hussain is trying to find ways to blend the digital space and the physical space. Mixing the two and taking him back to the idea of intersections and mixing two things together. He has found it’s opened a lot of new doors to be more innovative and creative and

Today we traveled to sunny L.A. to sit down with the Founder and Producer of Pink Poodle Productions, Marlene Sharp. Marlene has quite an impressive resume wearing many different hats in the Entertainment Industry. To name a few, Marlene has worked as a director and producer and an all-around key contributor in both iconic and niche franchises such as YO-KAI WATCH, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, POWER RANGERS, PINK PANTHER, and POSTMAN PAT.

In this episode we some of the topics we talked with Marlene about are:

• The creative journey from growing up in New Orleans to working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.
• Her role as a mentor for autistic artists at The Center for Learning Unlimited, &
• The new film trilogy she’s working on, Young Captain Nemo.  

“I cannot lie and say that developing video game characters was my dream as a girl. It was not. I was interested in all different aspects of the entertainment industry, deal-making, writing, and producing, especially as it concerned me because there aren't as many roles for women.”

Marlene’s Creative Journey 

When Marlene got to Hollywood she fell into the video game-driven content business through her first temp job. She worked for a company called Bandi. The owner of the Bandi worked closely with Japan, which owned Power Rangers at the time. Her company was concerned with selling toys. 

Marlene talks a lot about the anime industry in this segment explaining that 99% of what kids entertainment business is about is first selling stuff, to sustain the business and this is mostly through consumer products. 

1. She would have to follow the development and then the production to make sure that the toys were being played within the correct play pattern to make kids want to buy them. imitating that role-playing in real life. 
2. A lot of the anime she received was very stream-of-consciousness storytelling. Which is not ideal for western audiences. They had to create a beginning, middle, and end.

“There was a lot, there was creativity in the sense that we had to disguise the fact that we were selling so much because it wasn't supposed to be just a commercial for, for toys, there needed to be storytelling.”

1. Marlene attended an all-girls school growing up in New Orleans. She went through what she explains as the hard knocks going through the “mean girl” experience. She feels this prepared her for the cutthroat industry in Hollywood. 
2. She felt a big change coming into Los Angeles from New Orleans with how people are very career conscious in L.A. She said she sees people buckle down and work insane hours and will make all kinds of sacrifices for their careers. 

Being a Mentor

Marlene mentors a special group of artists at a school called The Center for Learning Unlimited in Torrance, California. The school has an animation career training program for adults on the autism spectrum. She works with adults 18 and over. There’s a lot of diversity, age ranges, and backgrounds in the program.  

• Three-year certificate training program 
• When the students finish that program, they go into Brainstorm Productions, the companion studio. 
• The studio serves as a traditional studio that takes work for hire opportunities. 
• It's a bridge between the academic program and working at a big third-party studio.

Young Captain

Claudia is an artist, writer, philanthropist, life coach, mentor, mother, and wife. During her career as a journalist, she has worked for magazines and television in South America and the US, touching on subjects from parenting, forgiveness, and growth to political issues. 

"Everything I know about love is taught by the people who really never loved me. We strive to be loved… we do… and we hope to be loved back but sometimes what we give is not returned in the same authentic way… so let’s don’t allow this to change our hearts. Let’s learn from it. Keep on spreading love around as love is really all we need," says Claudia.

Llevo más de treinta años en un viaje de crecimiento personal. He cambiado la forma en la que como, la forma en que me visto, la forma en que pienso, la forma en que “digiero” las cosas y la forma en que gasto mi dinero, entre otras cosas, porque siempre sentí que todo era parte de convertirme en el Yo auténtico que estaba destinada a ser. Pero la sensación de vacío no desaparecía hasta que decidí buscar la felicidad dentro de mí, reconocer mis dones y apreciar lo que realmente es.

En este viaje, he aprendido que todos los días una versión de mí expira. Que me acerco más y más a quien estoy destinada a ser, convirtiéndome en mi verdadero yo. La persona que conociste o pensaste que era, ya no existe, ya que ella es sólo un boceto de la obra maestra que intento ser. También he aprendido que no necesito encogerme para encajar y que ese sentimiento de amor y aceptación debe comenzar conmigo.

Tu crecimiento es inminente y no le debes una disculpa a nadie. Aquí estoy compartiendo ejemplos y anécdotas de mi viaje para así mostrarle las lecciones esenciales que he aprendido, algunas historias que amo y memorias inspiradoras de familia, matrimonio, amor y ansiedad.

Después de leer este libro:

-Tendrás las herramientas que necesitas para evitar que el pasado se repita.

-Abrazarás tu poder y visualizarás la vida que deseas.

-Finalmente aprenderás cómo ponerte en primer lugar y no permitir que las conversaciones negativas dentro de tu cabeza, te impidan alcanzar tus sueños.

-Aprenderás a elegir tu tribu y dejarás ir a las personas tóxicas en tu vida.

¡Tu puedes vivir la mejor versión de tu vida! ¡Empieza ahora!

Claudia es artista, escritora, filántropa, coach de abundancia/vida, mentora, madre y esposa. Durante su carrera como periodista y escritora, ha trabajado para revistas y televisión en el Peru y Estados Unidos, tocando temas desde la crianza positiva, el perdón y el crecimiento emociona, hasta temas políticos y de inmigración. Comenzó su carrera en televisión a los 17 años como actriz de la conocida telenovela Carmin con el personaje de Monica, donde co-protagonizo con el actor Jorge Garcia Bustamante, una de las telenovelas más populares del Peru y que se transmitió en más de 37 paises, así como Zańa y Kerara Marka, produccion filmada en el Cuzco. Participo en importantes campañas publicitarias internacionales como Levi’s entre otras, pero poco despues le encontró el gusto a la producción y a estar detrás de la cámara. A los 21 años y se convirtió en una de las 

Co-productoras más jóvenes de su país donde escribió un manual que luego se usó para capacitar a otros productores jóvenes. Estudió Arte desde muy joven, desde acrílico y óleo hasta esculturas en piedra. Actualmente esta trabajando en una colección de pinturas que será expuesta en el extrajero el proximo año. También estudio Dirección de Cine y televisión. 

Después de mudarse a los EE. UU., trabajó como modelo en la Florida y luego se mudo a Las Vegas donde produjo espectáculos musicales en importantes Hoteles del Strip de Las Vegas. Y

Welcome back to another interview on Unlocking Your World of Creativity. We had the pleasure and honor to sit down and speak with Major General Robert W. Mixon, Jr. 

In the US Army, General Mixon commanded the 7th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, Colorado. He has served in executive leadership positions in both for-profit and not-for-profit companies prior to starting his own leadership company, Level Five Associates, in 2014. 

He is also the co-author of a best-selling book on Amazon, “Cows in the Living Room: Developing an Effective Strategic Plan and Sustaining It” and the author of “We're All In: The Journey to a World-Class Culture”, which became a "Best New Release" on Amazon in 2017. 

In today’s episode: 

1. Major General Mixon breaks down his 6 key principles of success in leadership 
2. The value veterans bring to the workplace 
3. General Mixons company, Level Five Associates and how his time in military service developed the insights, discipline, and vision necessary to transform capable people into unsurpassed business leaders.

6 Principles of Success

1. Azimuth - A term learned in the military. It's your cardinal direction for the organization, for the team. You set the azimuth, which includes your mission intent. 
2. Listen - Becoming more effective listeners. 
3. Trust and Empower - Empowerment is the embodiment of trust. But if we don't nurture that aspect of our culture, then we'll end up with an environment of distrust, which is toxic. 
4. Do the Right Thing When No One is Looking - “As we say, at the Pentagon, that briefs well, but it's very difficult to do because we have to value the process over the outcome and do the right thing.”  
5. When in Charge Take Charge - It's not being loud and profane and directive. It's being calm in the chaos.
6. Balance the Personal and Professional - Taking your careers very seriously, your mission very seriously, but not taking ourselves that way. Promoting balance among each other. It's not all about time with work life. It's about having the values that you really believe in guide your actions, and that's where balance lives.

“The plan is a basis for change. And if we are not adaptive as leaders, as organizations, and we are rigid in our fixation on the plan, then I think our chances of success are very low.”

Value Veterans bring to the Workplace 

1. a sense of duty, a sense of doing what needs to be done.   
2. They're reliable.  They're gonna be used to getting the mission accomplished. Sometimes when it runs beyond five o'clock
3. They're going to be team players. They understand that there's no eye in team.

After General Mixon left military service, he continued to support and work for veterans with disabilities, mental health challenges, and has worked extensively in nonprofit work. 

Two organizations he is privileged to be a part of are:

For those with an interest in marketing, health care, and the workforce, it's impossible to ignore the influence of Ken Dychtwald. A psychologist and gerontologist, Dychtwald is a best-selling author of 16 books on aging-related issues, including Radical Curiosity. He is also the founder and CEO of Age Wave—a firm created to guide companies and government groups in product/service development for boomers and mature adults. With more than two million people worldwide having heard his speeches to corporates, associations, social services, and government groups, let’s take a closer look at who Ken Dychtwald is and why he is so influential today.

Dychtwald’s work centers around understanding how businesses can capture the attention of mature consumers as they age. He provides advice on how businesses can use this knowledge to create products that better serve mature consumers’ needs while increasing their own profits. According to Dychtwald's research, older adults are some of the most affluent consumers in the market today – making them prime targets for any business looking to increase its customer base. His approach has been adopted by many companies looking to expand their product lines into age-specific markets as well as attract more customers from different generations.

In addition to his work in business, Dychtwald has also had a significant impact on health care systems across North America. He has argued that our current health care system does not adequately address the needs of older adults – particularly those living with chronic conditions or disabilities – because it fails to recognize their unique circumstances and challenges faced by caregivers. As such, he advocates for changes in policy that would better equip health care providers with strategies for addressing these needs more effectively. Additionally, he works with governments around the world on programs designed specifically for older adults—such as enhanced home-based medical services or improved access to quality nutrition programs—in order to improve their overall quality of life and well-being.

In short, Ken Dychtwald has become one of the leading voices when it comes to understanding how aging impacts businesses and society at large. Through his work at Age Wave, he continues to provide valuable insights into how companies can better target older consumers while also advocating for policies that will improve the elderly's quality of life through better access to healthcare services when needed. Whether you are a business owner or simply someone interested in learning more about how aging affects us all —Ken Dychtwald is an essential source of information worth investigating further!

Ken's Website

Over the past 40+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health care, and workforce implications of the age wave. Ken is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling author of 16 books on aging-related issues, including Radical Curiosity. Since 1986, Ken has been the founding President and CEO of Age Wave, a firm created to guide companies and government groups in product/service development for boomers and mature adults. Ken was recently honored by Investment Advisor as one of the 35 most influential thought leaders in the financial services industry over the past 35 years. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum, and he was a featured speaker at two White House Conferences on Aging. During his career, Ken has addressed more than two million people worldwide in his speeches to corporate, association, social...

Welcome back everyone to Unlocking Your World of Creativity.

Today we are talking with Joe Hart, the President and CEO of Dale Carnegie & Associates. He’s also co-author of a Dale Carnegie book called, Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want.

In today’s episode we talk to Joe about Take Command, his inspiring journey to embrace change in the modern world, and working alongside the grandson of Dale Carnegie and co-author of Take Command, Michael Crum. 

**A special note: At the end of this episode Mark asks Joe to give his 2-minute talk on Take Command - an exercise practiced worldwide in the Dale Carnegie course in which you stand up and tell your story in 2 mins. Listen to the end for this. 

"Take Command builds beautifully on the ideas in my fathers’ books and takes those insights even further with innovative and effective ways to implement them. For those seeking inner strength, greater confidence, and truly meaningful relationships, Take Command will be an invaluable guide.”

• Donna Dale Carnegie

Take Command - What’s it about?

Joe says he has been told by friends and readers that, “This is not a book that you just read. This is a book that I'm going to need to come back to over and over and over ``. 

The book guides the reader to:

• take command of their thoughts and emotions.
• take command of your relationships 
• Take command of your future, your vision. 

Joe explains he sees this as a manual or roadmap that people will come back to and 

read, then apply, and practice. The goal is for this to be a transformative work in the lives of the readers. Part of what makes all of this book so compelling are the powerful stories. The stories are combined with what might be research or insights or other kinds of lessons. 

“The story teaches.”

Inspired Journey - Embracing Change in the Modern World

“The concept of embracing change, whether it's in something big or something small, is the reality that often the problem with change is our response to it.” 

One of the principles that Dale Carnegie teaches in How to Win Friends or How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is to cooperate with the inevitable.

Joe gives an example: Say there's a change at work or there's a policy at work that changes, or there's someone who says there's going to be a merger. Does our mind automatically go to the worst possible situation? Or do we think to ourselves, where's the opportunity? Part of the book is to help people work on their mindset. How do we reframe our thinking? How do we condition our minds and ourselves for success so that we can become resilient and agile and really strong, face some adversity?

The book teaches you that YOU CAN work through it and keep on moving and find opportunity and thrive even during difficult times. “Embracing change is a really important part of that whole process.”

Co-Author Michael Crum

Joe has known Michael for over 20 years. He says Michael is a “tremendous human being and someone who just has such a breadth of knowledge.” When Joe had the idea to write the book the first person he thought of was Michael Crum. Michale was already interviewing Fortune 30 under 30 people and he’s an...

We are back for another interview on Unlocking Your World of Creativity. Today Mark traveled over to Dallas-FortWorth to talk with the co-founder/creator of Real Time Feedback, Adam Alfia. 

Mark discussed with Adam his innovative new platform and how it’s changing the way a customer can communicate with upper management of businesses about issues they are experiencing in a very simple and effective way. Whether that be at a restaurant, a recreational park, a medical clinic, and even a grocery store. 

“We like to say, give them help before they Yelp!” 

What is it?

It's a QR code. We make it very simple. We don't use an app. Customers never have to download anything.

By scanning/taking a picture on your phone of the QR code of the business you’re at, you are then automatically taken to that business site. 

Here’s a step-by-step procedure:

• Scan QR code 
• Takes you to a specific website page
• You put in whatever your issue is 
• Submit (you can be anonymous if you want!)
• Management of the business receives the message through email, text, or through the company’s app connected to business
• Management responds to that customer (YOU) and the customer gets a response via text message on their phone. 
• Begins the open dialogue on the issue
• The issue gets resolved in a quick and effective way 

“When that customer walks across the threshold of your door, they're now in your world. You really have to do a lot to keep 'em engaged, keep them happy, and if they're not happy, you have to make it very easy for them to let someone know.” 

Examples of how this works:

Example scenario #1: Let's say you're in the men's restroom at a business or an arena and you see that the bathroom is out of paper towels and you end up walking out wiping your hands on your pants. You're not gonna walk around and find somebody, right?

You scan the QR codes already loaded with the location of the restrooms and it's already prepopulated with the words “paper towels are out” and you can then add more and even say, “Hey, the sink is overflowing or the toilet's running” 

Example scenario #2:

How many times have you gone to the grocery store and you go to return your cart in the parking lot and the whole cart area is full of carts? You're not gonna walk back in with your groceries and find a manager. 

What Real Time does is have the QR codes ON the cart area. So when you're walking out, you just scan your phone and it automatically sends a message without you having to enter anything that says the parking lot needs attention, please come out. 

Now you're letting the business know something, and once again you can add additional information.

Something to note:  Grocery stores and retail stores spend millions of dollars a year for big brands on parking lot dings and dents from runaway carts. We can help solve that very easily or at least a majority of it by knowing when the carts are outta control in your parking lot.

Example scenario #3:

You’re out at the park with your kids and there's a swing broken or there's a sprinkler head that's leaking or anything that you see that needs attention. Instead of having personnel visit the park once a week and aimlessly walk around looking for stuff, now the resident or visitor can be your eyes and ears and let you know about all kinds of issues that really matter to them. 

Scan the QR code -  it opens up a ticket, they can take care of it, and they can respond. They can send the resident/visitor a message back saying, “Hey...

Esther Weinberg

Esther's Website

Esther Weinberg is a business growth accelerator that equips executives in high-growth industries to create big pivots, big impact and big returns. As Founder & Chief Leadership Development Officer of The Ready Zone, she powerfully fast tracks an organization’s progress by focusing on The Ready Zone’s six Zone Performance Indicators (ZPIs), that are paramount to profitable growth. Esther’s innovative strategies have assisted clients to grow, scale and thrive in the worst and best of times including Netflix, Microsoft, Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN, Adobe, Disney and IMAX. Esther is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and a contributor to Forbes.

@esther_weinberg on Instagram

Esther's Facebook page

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherweinberg/

Exploring Musical Creativity: With Mark from Eagle Coffee and Bakery

Join us for a special episode recorded from Eagle Coffee and Bakery where host Mark Stinson merges his passions for podcasting and supporting local artists. Delve into the musical creative process, inspiration, and launching works into the world with insights from various singer-songwriters.

Featured Artists:

- Victoria Simmonds

- Stephen DiJoseph

- Nismah Osman

- Luanne Hunt

- Eleyet

Tune in for future episodes as we continue to explore creativity in various forms and uncover the stories behind talented individuals. Don't miss out on more inspiring conversations and discoveries on Your World of Creativity!

In this very exciting interview today Mark stamped his passport in his #1 destination, Amsterdam. On today’s podcast, we brought in author, Lisette Schuitemaker. Born in the Netherlands, Lisette is the eldest of four children which is the subject of her 2016 book The Eldest Daughter Effect. She also wrote in 2017 The Childhood Conclusions Fix and Childless Living (2019). 

In this episode, Mark and Lisette discussed Lisette's inspirations and conclusions for creating her books, writing non-fiction, and the inside tellings on her new book she's working on, The Inner Life of Money.

In the first part of our interview, Mark asks about “alleviating loneliness and how we feel we are the only ones”. Lisette mentions attending the Barbara Brand School of Healing where she learned about the insightful theory of psychiatrist William Reich. She breaks down his 5 conclusions that people come out of childhood with. 

• I should of not been born, I am different
• We are not good enough
• Being ashamed of ourselves 
• We should be in control
• We should be perfect

 Her insightful feedback around these childhood issues coming from the eldest child is that even though we think we are not good enough, we end up trying harder and we wanna do better. She says that kind of makes it the “positive side of it”. And in turn, the negative side of it can be self-destructive and you end up starting over and over again.

Observing patterns in firstborns like Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Cheryl Sandberg, JK Rowling, Beyonce, and many many more that her main key takeaway was “responsibility”. 

She says alleviating loneliness, is also a “kind of freeing ourselves up to be our true selves and not be at a mercy of patterns that we learned in our childhood”.

Lisette's “Hero’s Journey” in creating Non-fiction 

“You have to know a lot about your material, and at the same time, you have to have some distance from it so that you can kind of be a bit more abstract in a way, whereas you're still factual.” 

The book that's always on her table is The Grounded Theory and it says, “look at your data, keep looking at your data, because at some point, a pattern will emerge.”

She describes writing as:

• It isn't always writing
• It’s also reading, 
• Writing is also despairing. 
• Writing is going back to notes, and then going back to previous versions. 

“I think my imagination is not as large as my curiosity and my wanting to know how things are and my kind of empathy for people in certain situations. And then that's what I write about.”

Lisette is currently working on a new book, The Inner Life of Money. She talks about currently co-writing on the topic of money and how she shares her ideas back and forth with her partner. 

Listen towards the end as she discusses her new book and to learn more about Lisette and her books go to her website at lisetteschuitemaker.com/en/

You can also find her on Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram. 

 Copyright 2026 Mark

We’re back for another exciting interview on Unlocking Your World of Creativity. 

Today, we traveled over to Helsinki, Finland where we spoke with the entrepreneur coach and French national, Laurent Notin. 

 Laurent is the host of the podcast Inter:views, Cracking The Entrepreneurship Code podcast. He is a Start-up Mentor in several organizations such as Red Brick and Nordic Start-up School.

In this insightful talk about entrepreneurship Laurent and Mark discussed:

• Laurent before he became an entrepreneur coach
• The 3 types of entrepreneurs 
• Why entrepreneurs get “bottlenecked” 
• What does the term “impact” mean for Entrepreneurs?
• The “role” of being a coach and what success really is

Before he became an entrepreneur coach Laurent asked himself, ”What makes me, me?” What he enjoyed most throughout all his experiences working for others and especially running his own company was working with the people. It was around coaching them, mentoring his staff, training them, and seeing them grow in their role. 

“I've always enjoyed those “Aha” moments that people have, where you can see, you can see the sparkles in their eyes. And I thought, that's what I want to reproduce again, and again and again.”

The 3 types of entrepreneurs:

• The first type is those who were born in an entrepreneurial family 
• The second is people coming from the corporate world  
• The third is a bit of everything - The need to survive

Getting “Bottlenecked”

• We often are in our own way
• Feeling anxious and people start creating all these stories into their heads and then they start asking themselves very stupid questions, 
• Complacency

The “role” of being a coach keeps entrepreneurs accountable for themselves.

As an entrepreneur, you have to deal with so many things. You have to wear so many hats. There are so many things you need to learn, from financial management, to marketing, to customer service, to production. 

One of the big risks is getting lost in the details because you're stuck in the day-to-day operations. Entrepreneurs forget to take a step back from it, to look at the big picture.

That's where a coach can also help is knowing, “What I need to focus on right now, because this is what matters the most.” 

Laurent helps people take that step back and look at the big picture. 

He encourages his clients to take a step or two or three backward so they can analyze a situation from a different perspective. He says that's what a coach does. Helps you take those steps back. 

One of the keys he points out to becoming a successful entrepreneur is asking for help.

“There is no shame in asking for help. Asking for help will actually help you get there, get where you want to go.” 

Lastly, Laurent tells Mark what success really is. 

He explains, “it’s not measuring the success of what others do. It’s about measuring success to what you want success to be. Always ask yourself, what is success for you? Entrepreneurship is a journey. When it starts, you never know when it's gonna end. You better enjoy it on the way.” 

He says: 

• take the time to reflect, 
• take the time to celebrate the wins/failures,
• take the time to enjoy it yourself, and 
• take the time to take care of yourself

You can learn more about Laurent Notin by checking out his website at

Today, we are excited to explore the world of Venezuelan-born and New York-based contemporary art advisor, author, and curator, Maria Brito. 

Complex Magazine selected Maria as one of the 20 Power Players in the Art World and she was named by ARTNEWS as one of the visionaries who gets to shape the art world.

In today’s episode Mark talks to Maria about her role as an advisor and curator, how she launched “Jumpstart”, and the creative steps she took when writing her bestselling book “How Creativity Rules The World” (HarperCollins).

Maria’s techniques and thoughtful strategies as a contemporary art advisor and curator come from asking ALOT of questions. She talks about digging into who they are and finding out ways to create both a collection that is aesthetically pleasing, that matches their personality, and also that gains value over time. She thinks about what they value. What are their interests? Anything from football to a beach or a mountain, she will be curious about. These things are clues that actually allow Maria to put together the right type of collection for people

She explains that creativity is infinite, and it is an endless resource. The more we work at our creative skills, the more they reproduce. 

How did you create your online course, Jumpstart? 

Jumpstart is an online program on creativity for entrepreneurs based on years of research and observation in both the areas of business and art.

It began with private clients asking if Maria could talk to their employees and their companies about how she built her business, her branding and what it is to work with artists. The course includes some of these key learnings:

• actionable exercises and points of view that they can do in a practical, everyday way.
• It teaches about the balance between business and art 
• help you see opportunities that others miss
• boost your profits and generate new sources of income,
• innovate

She built a curriculum, launched it and had great success. Then she decided to write a book about it and expand it to more people.

How does Creativity Rule Marias World?

• Without our creativity, we are going nowhere. We are stuck.
• We keep the wheel moving forward through creative thinking, creative ideas, and then materializing those ideas
• Always have something creative. 

“If you want to keep pushing forward, if you want to stay relevant, if you want people to notice you, if you want to find scientific discoveries that are breakthroughs, whether that is cure to cancer or vaccines or whatnot, that all requires creative thinking.”

Maria’s book “How Creativity Rules The World” The Art and Business of Turning Your Ideas Into Gold is a highly actionable book that uses a lot of storytelling through history, business, and science inspiring people who are curious like Maria. She felt compelled to write the book because of the pandemic. 

She talks about how it got people to go back to that ‘crazy entrepreneurial, fun, risk taking experimental American dream’. MariaI wanted to be able to support that in her quest for creative thinking, for being different, for showing up differently how that is so important. “It is something that everybody should embrace, that the uniqueness of who you are is your greatest advantage, not your disadvantage.”

“I admire entrepreneurs in general because I...

A quote from our guest today, Katia Ravé:

“BE in Giving and Generosity. Survey what people need. When in doubt, focus out. It's not about you, it's about them. You're not in business for you, you’re in business for them. You're a servant.”

Today we're speaking with leadership trainer and an ultimate female force, Katia Ravé. Katia is an author, podcast host, entrepreneur coach, wife, mother of three, savvy businesswoman, and entrepreneur.  This overall business leadership powerhouse has empowered thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals across the globe serving as their daily leadership coach, compass, and biggest cheerleader.  

Katia is the founder of Ravé Strategy Studio and her most recent and highly reputed course is titled EAM ( Entrepreneur Academy Mastermind). This is a one-stop shop entrepreneur course. Guiding entrepreneurs with writing their speeches, creating their branding, setting and achieving goals, writing books, understanding their avatar, and living the life they always dreamed of. 

And this brings us to today’s episode. Katia and I discuss “vision”. What does that term mean in her creative process whether that’s in business, coaching, or any new project? She also gave some insightful tips when working with her husband and how they split up the work in their business and collaborate in a way that makes a very successful team and supportive relationship.   

What is your creative process? Where do you get started?

“My process is really… 

Step 1: What is my vision? Why do I want to put that into the world?

Step 2: Who is going to benefit?

What sort of topics and what sort of people do you find are drawn to some of the things that you're doing? 

• business owners
• entrepreneurs
• men
• people in corporate

She explains that what people need most when it comes to executing or selling their ideas is enrollment and an exchange of value versus selling. They want to sell or they want to put something out there. And they're not really thinking of others. They're just thinking about themselves. She encourages people to think about at the end of their day. Who do I serve?

Working with her husband

What's your vision? What's my vision? Is this super important to you? 

And can we align?  Not can we agree, can we align?

• What's your vision? 
• What's your vision for your program? 
• What's your vision for your creativity? 
• What's your vision for the enrollment? What's your vision for working with your spouse? 

Katia is the face of the company. She shows up for things like podcasts, speaking on stages, and selling from the stage. She coaches people. 

Her husband laser coaches. He coaches really high-end CEOs and CFOs and he speaks in places like Las Vegas about cybersecurity of technology.

“We get to align as long as the vision at the end of the day, you're going in the same direction. We are creatives, so sometimes inspiration comes at different times and we cannot put it to a clock.” 

Potholes and stumbling blocks and obstacles that you find 

• Vision and communication style
• How to flex into the other person's style? If you do not understand the other person's style, how can you meet them where they're at?  

Lastly, Katia talks about what it is to really be a leader. She says being a...

Welcome back friends to our podcast, unlocking your world of creativity. We've been talking with creative practitioners all over the world about how they get inspired and how they organize their ideas. And most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to launch their creative work into the world. And if you've been thinking about this concept of digital transformation, customer orientation, and making the customer first, we are going to take that from concept to reality today with our guest Chris Hood.

Chris is a digital strategist, podcaster, and thought leader.  He is head of business development, business innovation, and strategy with the Google cloud. With a highly creative background 

Chris's Website

Chris on YouTube

@chrishood on Instagram

in the media entertainment industries with people like Fox and Disney and Universal. In many circles, he is on the leading edge of the concept of digital transformation.

Today as we talk about digital transformation, he defines it as the process by which organizations have to change their technology to keep up with the demands that consumers have. 

He also reminds us to look at it as more than just improving customer service and that it's real customer orientation. Brought about by the continuous evolution of technology.

As technology trends change, businesses have to be able to adapt to them in almost real-time 

And so, digital transformation is best understood as, if a consumer wants to use a certain type of technology, the business better be ready to support that technology.

To understand this concept, he reckons that we start with what is the customer expectation and experience that an individual like us is looking for.  He simply refers to this as the outside-in perspective. Start on the outside, understand what the customers want and then work your way to the inside to figure out what technologies and services, and products you need to build to satisfy those expectations

We asked him to highlight his day-to-day creativity deliverables, especially from his role as head of business, innovation, and strategy at Google.

• Where we arrive at the deliverables for creativity being the art of the possible. Giving the customer convenience and endless possibilities there has to e innovation.  
• This calls for a lot of teamwork to improve the customer's journey. He soundly guides us and lets us know that it's everybody's responsibility at every organization to solve every problem. 
• And organizations have to be able to accept and embrace that. They have to admit that everyone within that organization is responsible for ideas, creativity, innovation, business, and partnerships.
•  And so he encourages organizations to build and embrace that culture.

He started working at a movie theater and has seen how technology has evolved. Which definitely has been an influence throughout his career as a creative of how you reach people who are passionate about something. 

In conclusion as a creative himself writing a fantasy adventure novel, he described the creative process as a learning process too. Highlighting the importance of continuously growing, evolving, and learning individuals, outside our organizations and careers. Reminding us that that's the only way that we're going to be able to keep up with the things that are changing around us.

Chris Hood website: chrishood.com

Mark Stinson

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson

Today, we traveled over to London to chat with Jay Tepley.

Jay is an author, entrepreneur, international speaker, and passionate mental health advocate. Her Unbreakable ONE program has shown many men the road to personal power and renewed hope and is credited with saving many lives. She helps entrepreneurs overcome depression through her proven masculine-geared system of spiritual evolution. 

In this episode, we discuss exploring becoming a new hero in today’s era and the key to entrepreneurs (more specifically male) succeeding through practicing mindfulness and understanding what it means to be your authentic self.  

Jay explains the key for every entrepreneur who wants to succeed is not because you have business problems, but rather you have personal problems that are showing up in your business.

• Everything that you are going through personally is reflected in your choices, in your productivity, and ultimately in the way that your business grows.
• The quality of your customers or your students directly reflects the quality of your thoughts and your inner work.

She explains the rate of male depression and suicides is nearly double that of female

• Men need an action plan and action steps to resolve situations and to really succeed in whatever task they set themselves to achieve.

Jay sees a real gap in the support that men need.

There is not much help available to support male entrepreneurs.  There are therapists and coaching groups that are mainly designed to support the average Joe. Someone who works in nine to five, who goes with the crowd, who just follows certain principles established by society. “To break free from that mold is a real challenge, especially if you're doing it on your own with no mentor by your side”

• The male entrepreneur is someone who decides to go and create his own world.
• A true masculine principle wants to be in control, wants to be a creator of his reality, his life to be in charge. But for that, men need more understanding of their true nature
• If you become a more powerful, whole and integrated being, your business will prosper. And you will take over the compensation that stumbles in their own fears, traumas, and insecurities. 

She describes the way forward as being “ a combination of the physical part and the spiritual energy part, The soul, the spirit, the mind. And we need to address both parts, and we need to integrate them to work, perform, and run our business to our ultimate capacity.

Being More Authentic 

• Once you remember how to be authentic, you don't actually want to be inauthentic anymore because it takes a lot more effort. 
• you want to go with what's easier and more pleasurable.
• being yourself is a lot more effortless, is a lot more fulfilling for your heart and your soul
• Tapping into that superpower you don’t ever want to go back to creating some sort of a mask or a persona about yourself

Lastly, what steps could we take as we become more authentic, an action step, activity or an exercise that we might employ?

“Practical Mindfulness”

Exercise: Set up an alarm on your phone, five times a day, 30 seconds

Notice your breathing and make it a little bit deeper.  Relax your shoulders, relax your jaw. We usually carry a lot of tension in our bodies without realizing it. Analyze what it is you're doing at that moment. Read it and why, and what you are feeling and why. 

• Look at kids like little children, how they are in their element. 
• The important thing is not to judge your observations as they come in. 
• Imagine yourself as a scientist or a researcher...

Arnaud Saint-Paul

Arnaud's Website

Arnaud Saint-Paul, living between Los Angeles and Paris, went through his awakening when he was 13. While growing companies in Finance and Technology and helping conscious leaders on their path, he has been traveling throughout the world to study different religions and philosophies in his relentless quest to understand himself. His life’s purpose is now to open billions of hearts and help them find harmony inside and out. He has been featured in different events, podcasts, and international conferences, including Conscious Capitalism, Women in Technology International, AIBC, and Innovate Finance. He recently published a book entitled “I: I is born,” a unique tool to become a more conscious leader of one’s life and others’.

Arnaud on YouTube

Arnaud's Facebook group

Arnaud's Facebook page

@healthruwords on Instagram

@healthruwords on X

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaudsaintpaul/

Mark Stinson

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson

Mentioned in this episode:

THE ALAURA SHOW

Hey, it's Alaura Lovelight. And if you're enjoying "unlocking your world of creativity," make sure to check out my new show, "The Alaura Show" ... on Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Meet Nisha Lehmann who introduces us to Confidential Conversation, a mental health app.

https://www.confidconvos.com/

Confidential Conversations is an app that offers peer-led online support groups for a wide array of mental health issues that is:

• Anonymous
• Affordable
• Available

Admitting you have a problem or assessing where you are in your mental health journey can be a harrowing experience. It is not made any easier with the judgment and stigma attached to the admission of having a problem.

Confidential Conversations assigns you a random username and offers users the opportunity to remain anonymous as you discuss complex issues.

Professional Counseling and online therapists have become the default avenue for help when it comes to mental health. But unfortunately, these simply are not viable options for those who cannot afford them.

With Confidential Conversations, you pay to download the app. And that’s it — nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Available when you need it. 24 hours/7 days/365.

Mental health doesn’t follow the schedule of your online professional or therapist. This app is available whenever you need it. Help at your fingertips, on-demand, for you.

The Bottom Line.

Mental health is a right, not a choice. And although we are not there yet, hopefully, this app can provide the necessary first step for people to begin their journey toward better mental health in a cost-effective and secure way.

https://www.confidconvos.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.merixstudio.confidentialconversations

https://apps.apple.com/tt/app/confidential-conversations/id1591893663?uo=2

Nisha Lehmann on LInkedIn

Conventional wisdom says that emotions have no place in business or leadership. Reiner Lomb will tell you that is a fallacy.

You must master seven critical emotions to be an effective and empowering leader who creates positive change.

Whether you are in a formal leadership role or are a rising leader, entrepreneur, or changemaker driven by a desire to use your voice to create change, in Reiner Lomb’s groundbreaking new book Aspire: Seven Essential Emotions for Leading Positive Change, No Matter Where You Are, you will discover how to positively influence key stakeholders, build trust, lead with optimism, ride the waves of negative emotions, mobilize people to take action, and choose resiliency in the face of setbacks.

Says Lomb: “The essence of leadership is creating a vision of an aspirational new future and then influencing people to change their behavior to make that vision a reality. Your inspiration to create aspirational change may come from your dissatisfaction with the status quo, joyful anticipation of an aspirational new future, or a new insight. To create such a vision and bring it into reality requires an emotional shift from hopelessness to optimism and inspiration, which then can mobilize any group - from dozens to millions.”

Reiner saw this firsthand having grown up just a few miles from the border between East and West Germany, watching a small group of committed leaders peacefully bring down the Berlin Wall by mobilizing millions of people. This is one of many incidences or case studies he shares in Aspire to show the power of emotional IQ.  

The seven critical emotions are:

●       Empathy – The Gate To Caring

●       Compassion - The Commitment To Serving

●       Interest – The Drive To Understanding

●       Optimism – The Lens For Visioning

●       Inspiration – The Energy For Mobilizing

●       Trust – The Fuel For Collaborating

●       Positivity – Being Resilient

Understanding and cultivating these emotions within yourself and others are essential to change your own behavior and influence behavioral change in others. In the book, Reiner shows readers the importance of each of the 7 emotions, best practices to develop these emotions in yourself and others, and then provides practical recommendations for how to do this work as a leader with the people you serve. 

About Reiner Lomb

Reiner is the founder of BoomerangCoach, an executive coaching firm specializing in leadership and career development, innovation, and transformational change. Reiner’s mission is to mobilize and develop leaders to create a more sustainable and positive future for all. As an executive coach, he works with leaders and changemakers in a wide range of organizations, from start-ups and multinational companies to non-profits and local communities - all of whom aspire to create transformational change. Whether he’s working with corporate executives, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, or indigenous tribal leaders, Reiner’s clients appreciate his international business and cross-cultural leadership experience.

Before becoming an executive coach, Reiner had a 30-plus-year career in technology, started and developed software businesses, and led leadership development. At Hewlett-Packard, his home for 20-plus years, he launched new software product businesses and helped grow HP Software into a multi-billion...

Welcome back friends to our podcast, unlocking your world of creativity, the podcast, where we talk about how to get inspired and how to organize our ideas. And most of all, how to gain the confidence and the connections to launch our creative work out and to the world.

Today we've got a unique set of guests who are gonna talk to us about transformational change and creativity, and how to apply our creativity in whatever creative practitioners might be working on right now.

They are Ian Ziskin and a panel of collaborators, Linda Naiman, Susan Robertson, Kelly Bean, and Karen Jaw-Madson.

Ian leads a group called the consortium for change and has just published a book, The Secret Sauce For Leading Transformational Change

The book is a collaborative effort by Ian and the Consortium for Change. Written by a diverse, and inclusive community of contributors and business experts, The Secret Sauce guides readers through navigating change on an individual, organizational, and societal level. Every essay is unique, ranging from deeply personal challenges like confronting a life-threatening cancer diagnosis to reimagining the organizational and societal impact of a world of work without jobs. Readers will learn concepts and techniques to engage the mind, navigate vulnerable moments, cultivate adaptive leadership, and much more. 

Linda Naiman is joining the fourth industrial revolution and going technical, designing, and producing an online on-demand course on creative resilience.

Kelly Bean is the principal of parent strategy partners based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has been working with organizations and universities on how to integrate learning into everything we do on a daily basis.

Karen Jaw-Madson Has been primarily spending her time between executive coaching and consulting in leadership culture, diversity, talent optimization, and change. She has also been spending a lot of time teaching as well as advising and investing in the startup space and developing a research project at the intersection of DEI and culture.

Susan Robertson is working on her third book, real Cultural Transformation To Change. She is doing a lot of executive coaching on how to get into the C-suite and has a special interest in working with culture change in the healthcare industry.

We opened our discussion with what were some of the underpinnings that he began to explore when we cooked up the idea to put this book together.

• Those leaders who are actually successfully leading sustained transformational change why and what are they doing? 
• The second question that we began to explore was a lot of situations where transformational change is not successful. Why do we so often fail? to touch on the broader concept of large-scale transformational change. 

We also dove into each author’s sense of what transformational change was as they contributed to the book. 

We also started with a bit of a hypothesis or premise that we wanted to explore. Basically, the assumption that all transformation is changed, but is all changed transformational

Linda Naiman: transformation has to do with an evolved state where you go transform from unawareness to awareness or to higher awareness and to create an improved quality.Her contribution to the book has to do with using the arts as a catalyst for transformation in people, and in organizations. 

Kelly Bean: She says leaders have to be learners. And if you're a learner, you have every capability and possibility to be a leader. And so in order to do that, you have to practice

Karen Jaw-Madson: To be able to manage changes, you have to be good at change too. You have to be able to

Welcome back to Your World of Creativity, where we travel to creative capitals around the world and talk to creative practitioners about their inspiration, idea organization, and confidence in launching their work.

Today, we stamp our creative passport in Nashville, Tennessee, with Grammy-winning jazz pianist and composer, John Novello.

John's Website

John's Facebook page

John shares insights from his musical journey and his transformational self-help book, *The Invisible Architect*. This episode dives into his inspirations, key moments in his career, and the principles of his book aimed at designing a perfect life from within.

Key Highlights:

- **Early Inspiration**: At three years old, John’s fascination with a keyboard set him on a path to a music career, highlighting the importance of early inspiration and intuition.

- **First Gig**: His first paid gig at 13, where he learned the power of music to engage and captivate an audience, setting the stage for his future success.

- **Breakthrough Opportunity**: A serendipitous encounter during a snowstorm led to his band getting a record deal, illustrating the impact of being prepared for unexpected opportunities.

- **Transition to Writing**: After a successful music career, John wrote *The Invisible Architect*, focusing on how internal thoughts shape external realities.

- **Mentorship**: John’s one-on-one mentorship program helps individuals apply the principles from his book to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Pull-Out Quote:

“We are not the power; the architect is the power. The way we design our lives is by networking with the architect, sharing our desires, and collaborating with this quantum intelligent energy field.”

Recommended Music:

- Artist: Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Described as the Franz Liszt or Vladimir Horowitz of jazz piano, Gonzalo's work is a must-listen for any jazz enthusiast.

Thank you for joining us on this inspiring journey with John Novello. Stay tuned as we continue our global exploration, talking to creatives about their processes and experiences in bringing their visions to life.

Jeff Reynolds, Author "The Monster That Ate Marketing"

Jeff Reynolds

Jeff Reynolds is an entrepreneur, author, and business advisor who coaches established companies to think and act more like startups and startup founders grow into established companies. He is president of Reynolds+Myers, a consultancy helping food and shelter companies evolve into modern marketers. Jeff’s new book is the Monster That Ate Marketing, a look at how leaders reinvigorate their departments through organizational design.

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkjeffthink/

We are back for another great interview on our podcast on unlocking YOUR world of creativity. We go around the world to talk to creative practitioners and leaders about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and how they gain the confidence and connections to launch their work out into the world. 

Today, we explore the world of talent recruiting with our guest Evan Sohn. He is a Chief Executive Officer at Recruiter.com. And also the Co-Founder of the Sohn Conference Foundation. Our main conversation will be around sourcing, recruiting, and talent acquisition.

Recruiter.com is at the epicenter of many of the conversations going on in the job market. 

• They have an on-demand platform for freelance recruiters. It carries a network of over 40,000 recruiters and growing. Where they place assignments on behalf of their clients, ranging from scientific recruiters, looking for scientists, for pharmaceutical companies, to technology recruiters, to general recruiters from the US to Mexico, Latin America, Europe Singapore, Australia, and just everywhere in between. 
• They also have their own brilliant AI software that sits on top of about 170 million records. Which they use to  help their clients source, find, engage, screen, and qualify, candidates of all different types of candidates

The software mainly aids in a couple of things:

• It helps people to get engaged in an opportunity. Especially since life has changed tremendously since the pandemic. Because even jobs that were considered geographically inaccessible or undesirable are now quite accessible. Given that people work remotely these days. 
• The job application process has become so much easier as opposed to writing numerous resumes and sending them to so many companies. 
• Technology has narrowed down what positions are open. 
• Making online applications has made the hiring manager’s job that much easier in finding the right fit for whatever position they are looking for. Making the job matching process more like match.com or Tinder.

Overall, Evan teaches us to embrace technology in the search to find the right job or in recruiting the right person for the job.

He further gave us tips for people looking to make a change in their careers,

• Find the person on LinkedIn that has the job you want and then reach out to them on LinkedIn and go,” Hey, can I pick your brain for 15 minutes? You have the job I want. What am I missing? Here's what I've been doing. I'd love to get into whatever you are doing.” And that would point you in the correct direction. 
• Similarly,  as a firm looking for a workforce, it is important to hire a recruiter that knows how to find remote workers.

He also has some golden advice for the recruiter as well, that they too should know what their strengths are.  For example, they should know how good they are at finding some sort of talent. Or how good they are at onboarding candidates and highlighting what success rate they have.

In conclusion, we discuss another of his passions which is doing a tremendous job. The Sohn Conference Foundation. A foundation inspired and named after his late brother Iris Sohn, who passed away from cancer in 1933 just a day shy of his 29th birthday. The foundation aims to fight pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases, it is now in 11 cities including  New York, London, Australia, Israel, and Hong Kong.

Betsy Cerulo, Shake It Off Leadership

Shake It Off Leadership-Achieving Success Through the Eyes of Our Labels

Who Defines You? You or Others?

Can You Choose Your Labels and Use Them to Empower Yourself and Your Business?

YES!

Are you ready to stop allowing others’ perceptions and labels of you limit what you can accomplish? Have you had enough of the outright or subtle undermining of your career or self-esteem by the ways people “categorize” you or the way you categorize yourself?

Betsy Cerulo had her fill, and so she stepped up to claim her labels and make them her fuel for greater success!

And in her new book Shake It Off Leadership—Achieving Success Through the Eyes of Our Labels, she will gift you with guidance on how she did it…and how it can transform your life and your business!

Betsy felt the sting of disempowering external perceptions early. Her mother made no effort to hide she favored the boys in the family over the girls, and that they could have nearly unlimited freedom, but the females had to live according to a specific standard. And then, in college, when she came out, after falling for one of her classmates, she began to experience the sting of unkind and discriminating labels. In business, as she tried to rise as a young executive search professional, she found her way blocked and her salary less simply because she was ”a woman.” 

But with skill and determination, she built a hugely successful boutique professional staffing and executive search firm. AdNet/AccountNet, Advocates for Workplace Excellence and Equity. But along the way, she decided to throw off the limitations of those labels, embrace those she was proud of, and choose the labels that she wanted to define her!

Betsy won’t put up with “the nonsense” she hears coming out of the mouth of those who attempt to diminish women, the LGBTQ+ community, and racially diverse people. She challenges them. 

Instead of suffering the insulting brand of dyke or lesbian with a sneer, she decided to make her sexuality a proud hallmark of her success, attaining the first government 8A certification based on Gender and LGBT discrimination. This allows a company to bid for government contracts with less competition. Then, she went on to co-found the Maryland LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the Maryland LGBT Foundation, building them into robust organizations that attracted many mainstream sponsors. As a woman-owned business, she fought the discrimination of banks that refused loans and found those that would treat her with respect.

In this episode, she shares other resources for entrepreneurs looking to become government contractors:

- The SBA and SBDC

- The APTCA

Betsy learned how to shake off the slights, disappointments, and roadblocks in building a successful business—not just the issues related to discrimination, but with all of the gumption, wisdom, and courage it takes to create a thriving enterprise, with quality, happy, engaged staff and curation of clients that are an asset to the business. She’s discerned a style of SKAKE IT OFF LEADERSHIP, that will empower any leader with the skills, wisdom, and strength to successfully create or grow a business while insuring balance and personal fulfillment.

Each chapter in Shake It Off Leadership provides lessons, new perspectives, and an enriching Shake It Off tip at the end. Betsy’s personal story is woven throughout as an inspiration for those who have struggled with the labels that have disempowered them.

You will find astute insights on every page. Every business can benefit from a leader who stands in her, his or their strength -- and who can spot and act on strengthening the weaknesses within themselves and their company—just as Betsy Cerulo has done.

Betsy Cerulo

Betsy's Website...

Michael Facchinello + Artists of Altamira Gallery

Michael 's Website

Michael Facchinello is the Founder & CEO of Altamira. Altamira is a platform serving contemporary artists from around the world, empowering them to make a living and fostering community between artists, critics, collectors, and fans. It brings artists, fans, and critics together in a space without gatekeepers and pretension. Before starting Altamira, Michael launched, managed and grew 2 offices for a top national design firm working with folks like Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver Public Art, SendGrid, and Jake Knapp (the creator of the design sprint).

Also, we featured a panel of artists who are on the Altramira gallery platform:

Gina Werfel - Gina is an Abstract artist whose work is vibrant and emotive while still clearly defined. Her training includes Columbia University (MFA), New York Studio School (Certificate) and Hamilton College (BA). She was a Professor of Art at the University of California Davis.  A few of my favorite works by Gina:

• Wave
• Intersection 

Bruce Dean - Bruce is a striking and emotive painting focused on figurative surrealist work. Over the course of his 40-year career, his work has evolved almost as much as it has been featured. He has participated in numerous museum shows and featured in multiple magazines and in the press.  A few of my favorite works by Bruce:

• Intersection
• Dancing Cranes
• Moire

Marlene Llanes - Marlene Llanes is a surrealist artist who paints intriguing images that evoke a sense of peace. By creating unusual combinations of everyday objects with natural elements, Marlene’s works take the viewer to a grounded fantasy. Marlene graduated as a graphic designer from Universidad Vasco de Quiroga in Morelia, Mexico. In 1998 Marlene was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the USA. She earned a master's degree in Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design.   A few of my favorite works by Marlene:

• In the Comfort of my Island
• Infinite Rollercoaster Fun

Miriam Ortiz y Pino

Miriam's Website

Miriam Ortiz y Pino CPO®, Simplicity Expert & Money Breakthrough Business Coach, Entrepreneur, Writer, Blogger and Creator of The Streamlined Solution works with entrepreneurs and other busy and creative people to craft environments where you connect the control you crave and the freedom you desire while building wealth through organization Miriam holds certificates in Workplace Productivity, Residential Organizing, Courageous Coaching Method, Fire Starter Session & Desire Map Facilitator, Sacred Money Archetypes and Money Breakthrough Business Coaching.

Miriam's Facebook page

@moypmto on Instagram

@moypmto on X

Miriam on YouTube

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamortizypino/

Tickets for upcoming tour dates at https://mikedawes.co.uk/tour/

Mark Stinson

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson

Music tracks are copyrighted by the artists and used for editorial review purposes.

Mentioned in this episode:

THE ALAURA SHOW

Hey, it's Alaura Lovelight. And if you're enjoying "unlocking your world of creativity," make sure to check out my new show, "The Alaura Show" ... on Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

We’re back for another very fun interview on our podcast of Unlocking YOUR World of Creativity. We go around the world to talk to creative practitioners and leaders about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and how they gain the confidence and connections to launch their work out into the world. 

Today, we explore the world of NYC-based artist and creative director Asher Young.  Asher He is the founder of Challenge Your Imagination, a creative direction, design, and producing studio developing projects internally and for others. 

Our main conversation will be around Asher’s most recent piece Pathways at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, going on Tour with DPR, and what the collaboration and logistical side of creating these immersive audience experiences are like.

Pathways at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden use lasers to draw lines of light between a series of trees, creating a visible network and illuminating a new path for Lightscape visitors to explore. 

Asher describes it as “a high-powered laser that bounces off trees through the botanic gardens that you can see at night. It’s a beam of life that sort of ricochets between the trees”

• The focus of the piece is on Mycorrhizal networks. Inspired through the works and science of Suzanne Simard, an ecologist discovered that trees communicate their needs and send each other nutrients via a network of latticed fungi buried in the soil — in other words, she found, they “talk” to each other  

Asher explains, “that her work discovered that it's not competition. Plants actually share resources”

Pathways utilize light, which is the source of nutrients for the plants at night, to show those connections when a lot of that work is being done.

DPR: Regime Tour is a world tour that immerses fans in the world of music collective DPR. Asher talks about the part of the creative process with this world tour is about rethinking what the concert experience could be from the perspective of an audience. 

• How do we merge theater, art, installation, and music? 
• How do we think about collectives and how do we demonstrate that to the audience?
• How do we use the pre-show to warm people up to other things that are gonna happen later?

The show opens in September 2022 

Mark asks: “What are the logistics of moving this experience from city to city?”

• when you're doing 55 cities worldwide and they're all different sizes
• it does have to fit in trailers
• It feels like five or six iterations of the concept and the physical elements of the show are incredibly modular

The running theme through the interview was collaboration and Asher explains how he and his team approach it “by establishing the framework of what matters and the idea that we're trying to articulate, the teams can come together and sort of ricochet and problem solve around it while maintaining that core principle.”

Toward the end of the interview, Asher gave us a few sneak peeks into future projects in the works. He said they are developing internally a lot of shows and experiences that are more hospitality-based or hotel-based, some that cross genres, i.e.; a dinner theater show, and projects that are more art-based. We look forward to seeing what’s next in the creative mind of Asher Young.

You can reach out to Asher Young, and see his creative works at cyi.studio

Also, check out his Instagram page @cy.studio

We are back for another great interview on our podcast on how to unlock your world of creativity. Our guest today joins us on our around-the-world journey where we talk to creative practitioners about how they get inspired and how they organize ideas. And most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to launch their work out into the world. Our guest Michaell Magrutsche is an Austrian/Californian multimedia artist (painting, writing, music, film) and art adviser. Who recognizes many similarities that showed up in each art form. His passion is to discover patterns that reveal hidden functions in art. He is known to specialize in using his findings to elevate the exposure of art and foster clearer communication between all involved in the Arts. 

Today we have a conversation about the starving artist, a topic that is well illuminated in his last book, The Smart of Art: A New Art Consciousness To Awaken Our Enthusiasm For Art. A book he wrote because of the insane phenomenon that 95% of all artists worldwide exist around the poverty line. We talk about reclaiming artists’ value and their passion and how a lot of creatives undervalue themselves and their work as well.

In our conversation, we discover that artists have never defined their value. When you go to other professionals, they can tell you exactly why you're paying $3,000 for their work but an artist has no idea how to value his masterpiece. Because the value of art is ultimately mostly assessed through the foreign system of capitalism and economy where other values are the rule. There is little incentive for the economy to make art a tangible system.

The market decides the value of an art piece when an artist creates a piece of art. In our talk, we realize that we know the art market, but we don't know art itself. As art is perceived today, it can no longer reveal its properties and true values because its ultimate evaluation is always tied to success, money, and fame. This is a huge misunderstanding since the art itself is where the value is. That's the purity of creativity is in art

His top tips to artists so that they are not categorized as starving artists are:

• Artists have to compartmentalize the magical process of creating. Because this is where they grow and get instant feedback on their creations.
• An artist has to disengage when they are done with their creation. Although that is a  hard thing for artists. They can't disengage because the experience of creation was so magical
• They need to learn to detach after being done with the magic of creation. After they have milked the moment and they are now saturated. They can give the painting to the market so that their art can be pieced accordingly.
• If they cannot detach themselves then they need to get an expert, a businessman gallerist, or a manager is usually the best because they are detached. Because your attachment to your creation as an artist blinds and blurs, the sales.

If we knew more about creativity and art, we would know that as a creator one can abide but never submit to the creation of ourselves such as economy or technology. It always and only can lead to self-destruction if we try to submit to a system we created. Nature and humans are the most advanced systems on this planet.

Therefore, AI is ultimately nothing more than human frailty on steroids because the data stems from human imperfection. And therefore what the observation of art does is it pushes you into humanity and that's magic.

In conclusion, agree that  we shouldn't be able to name art & poverty in the same breath.Michaell educates us that art is the language of wisdom and that we should get in touch with our wisdom. He invites artists to create art without bothering about the market. And he reminds them to milk...

We are back for another great interview on our podcast on how to unlock your world of creativity. Our guest today joins us on our around-the-world journey where we talk to creative practitioners about how they get inspired and how they organize ideas. And most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to launch their work out into the world.

Today we have the pleasure to chat with Deborah Johnson. As an entertainer, pianist, vocalist, and composer, she has toured the world and has been up for multiple Grammy Awards.

As an educator, Deborah taught at every level through graduate school. As a speaker and podcast host, her words touch the mind and her music touches the heart. Authoring multiple books, producing over two-dozen albums, and writing three full-length musicals makes her one of the most prolific women composers and writers in the world. Deborah has won multiple awards, but she claims her biggest accomplishment is successfully raising and launching three sons.

On today’s show, we pay particular attention to a creative’s mid-career midlife and the next steps to perhaps not just refining, but reinventing the craft and personal brand. Deborah has a program, called hero mountain summit, that is a guide on getting out of your roundabout. If you're in the middle of a roundabout, which many people right now are, especially after the two and a half now or almost three years that we've just experienced so much upheaval, people have found a way to reinvent and that's what is getting out of that roundabout. She also is vocal about it in her book Women at Halftime: Principles for Producing Your Successful Second Half.

Her latest book The  Summit: Journey to Hero Mountain, is an allegory. Which is a story within a story, the character’s original name is Mallery which means not good enough or ill-fated. And it has to change for her to get to her summit. And it changes to Andreette, which means a strong and courageous one, but she has to go through all these little different lands. Because in the book before this, she goes through hero mountain, which is her woman at half times

In her work, there is an emphasis on women at halftime. We've been talking about mid-career midlife, which by definition says, we're not done. There's still another half of the game left. As an experienced creative, she teaches us some lessons to hold onto at that midpoint.

• You've got to develop the actual business plan. And ask yourself, what are your residuals like as an artist? What are the products that you're putting out? Does it help you move your business ahead?
• You have got to understand that in the creative sector we are in the gig economy which particularly presents a unique challenge. So your network is extremely important in establishing the business part, the arms of your business, and what is going to actually generate the most money. Not only the most money but what gives you the most satisfaction. What do you love to do? And how can you develop that further? And what's gonna actually pay off
• You have to study and you have to see what's out there.
• You need to think about the business side of creativity, the pricing, the contracts, and the negotiation.
• You have to be able to put together your own contracts. And understand that they are letters of agreement. You've got to have those because you may forget some important details. You have got to study those, all of those details, and make sure those are very clear. You don't have to be demanding, but just make sure they're very clear on what your needs are to be able to give the best performance.
• Show up early enough that you can provide a great experience for everyone involved, including yourself.
• You have to hire the right team. From...

Episode 201 - highlights and samples from music featured on the podcast.

Playlist:

Olive Klug - https://oliveklug.com/

Lindzey Autumn - https://www.lindzeyautumn.com/

CerVon Campbell (with John Oates) - https://www.liinks.co/cervoncampbell

Natalie Soma - https://open.spotify.com/artist/0YReEni47rNn6Eg4oo1ibp?si=Kl6uNUBYRROmBGQijTZkQg&nd=1

Bon Mofar - https://www.facebook.com/officialzimplybon

America - https://www.venturahighway.com/

Angela Soffe - https://www.angelasoffe.com/

Rebecca King Crews - https://www.audible.com/pd/Stronger-Together-Audiobook/B08Y9BZ385

Emilia Pederson - https://www.playandfollow.com/r/icmg/with-you

Moody Bank$ - https://www.moodybanks.com/

Teedeevee - https://linktr.ee/teedeevee

Gabe Furtado - https://linktr.ee/gabe.furtado

Alaura Lovelight - https://linktr.ee/alauralovelight

Bill Small - https://billsmallmusic.com/

Banji and Mayuri - https://kahanirecords.com/

All music is copyrighted by the artists and used with permission.

Welcome back to *Your World of Creativity*, where we explore the inspirations, processes, and journeys of creatives from all corners of the globe.

Today’s episode dives into the power of differentiation with Barry LaBov, a renowned expert in marketing and branding. Barry, who has just released his new book, *The Power of Differentiation: Win Hearts, Minds, and Market Share*, shares his insights on what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

Barry's Website

Barry on YouTube

Barry's Facebook page

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Differentiation-Barry-Labov/dp/1954676867/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GMSGp42GMOAmYgyzEH19tqKEDbdNobhSY_7xhA3a9lo.rbMxlQs3MQmOCStR7d8W_VD8wpL4Rn3tbWbMr6ZqzG4&qid=1716999973&sr=1-1

Key Highlights:

- **Understanding Differentiation**: Barry discusses the importance of making your brand stand out by winning the hearts and minds of both your employees and your customers.

- **Engaging Employees**: Emphasizing that employees need to be deeply connected with the brand, Barry explains how this internal alignment drives external success.

- **Real-World Examples**: Barry shares case studies from working with major brands like Audi, demonstrating how standing firm on brand values can lead to long-term growth.

- **Creativity and Leadership**: Barry talks about his unique approach to leadership, inspired by his experience as a rock musician, where every team member's strengths are utilized to the fullest.

- **AI in Creativity**: The discussion touches on the potential and pitfalls of AI in the creative process, stressing the importance of maintaining a genuine voice amidst technological advancements.

Pull-Out Quote:

"I would rather have an army of people who feel that what they're doing for me is meaningful and significant than have a bunch of robots out there that say, 'I don't care.'"

Join us as we uncover the strategies and stories that can help you unlock your own creative potential and set your work apart in today’s competitive landscape.

Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations on *Your World of Creativity*. We continue to explore the innovative minds and creative journeys that shape our world. Don’t miss our next episode as we travel to new destinations and unlock more secrets to creative success.

Remember to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode. Your feedback helps us bring more inspiring content to you.

I want to welcome you to the 200th episode of our podcast. Unlocking your world of creativity,

Who would've thought two years ago, that we would sustain this momentum of interviewing 200 creatives from around the world, and how they get inspired. It's been wonderful.

You know, I set out to learn by interviewing authors musicians, restaurant tours, marketeers scientists, and actors; I even interviewed a celebrity dentist from "Extreme Makeover."

I wanted to invite a few of the guests to give you an update on what they're currently doing. so you're going to hear in this episode messages from many of the creatives that we've talked to, but I also thought I'd give you kind of a six-point recap of my main takeaways and it inspired me.

I'll be doing a future episode on some of the takeaways from all these interviews, but I thought for now I would give you six points.

1. Number one is that all of the great creatives I've talked to had a signature method, there was some process or style that they could name and describe and document and teach that became their own brand of creativity.
2. Number two, they have resilience. They don't just brush off rejection, but instead, they have a true drive to fulfill what they think is a creative dream. And even on the level of a mission, these creatives literally didn't take no for an answer. They learned from their mistakes. They adjust to advance, but this persistence and resilience was something I was really inspired by.
3. The third thing I took away was the collaboration. these creatives sought collaborators that they could work with, who would complement their craft, and who could accelerate their art. It might be a producer, it might be another artist. It might be a songwriter to complement their, you know, a lyricist to complement their song. So there might be another rock band to interview, and there might be other writers to collaborate with.
4. Number four was a grasp of the numbers, the data, the finances, you know, successful creators viewed their craft as an enterprise, a business that also needed financial management, even profit and loss. So I spoke with an accountant. I spoke with, producers who were focused on the financial management side, not just the creative production. I talk to people who taught classes, even on pricing your services, to get an idea that we don't just get paid by the hour or by the download. But by the value of our creative work,
5. number five is that we have contingency plans. There's a sense of what if we know we're going to face obstacles. So we have to have backup ideas, several angles. We have to try even in times of difficulty. So I was impressed by the creatives who, you know, tried one way and went one medium and tried another one or that somebody might have even tried a pseudonym, or I tried to perform under one name and I decided to go back to my original name. All of these stories were quite inspiring.
6. number six, the last thing I took away was the leadership that we not only admire leaders and emulate leaders in our industries, but also leaders in all industries, but also people who embrace their own leadership and recognize they need to serve as a role model and an example to others. And that might be speaking to you that says, you know, you can look outside your craft, but what about inside to see what sort of mentorship and leadership you could provide?

So enjoy these conversations and updates from the guests.

also, remember, and I mentioned this at the end of almost every episode, I do have an eBook of about 12 or so interviews from our very first series of "a world of creativity," plus some bonus content. And this is the full eBook. This is 200-plus pages of interviews. You can find it at my website, mark-stinson.com. It's right on the homepage, easy to download the PDF of the full eBook of the world of creativity.

Hey, by the way, the...

We are back for another great interview on our podcast on how to unlock your world of creativity. Our guests today join us on our around-the-world journey where we talk to creative practitioners about how they get inspired and how they organize ideas. And most of all, how they gain the confidence and the connections to launch their work out into the world. Today we have the pleasure to  travel to one of my favorite cities in the world, Stockholm, Sweden, to have a chat with Fredrik and Erik of the SNASK agency

SNASK is an internationally renowned creative agency that makes kick-ass branding, design & film. So much so that some of their clients have described them as “Disneyland for graphic designers.” They are a different kind of company they also describe themselves as a creative agency of misfit geniuses conquering the world through fine-looking design and real emotions. Often reminding their clients that they are their client’s future romance.

A few tips that they share with us that all hold steady to their stellar performance in their industry are:

• Passion as a creative is very important.
• Build a team around you that is equally passionate about what they do. It makes it easier for them to show up.
• They remind us that when people have a creative passion they do not come to work at 10:00 A.M. They get up early and go after it. 
• We should not be afraid to stand out in the world no matter what our craft is. And it is ok to be bold and colorful even as a  brand agency in a Minimalistic place like Stockholm 
• Remember to have a balance of both work and fun in order to thrive.

In a  professional world built on conservative ideas and frameworks and structures, one look at their website and you will immediately notice that their work is very emotional. It's very provocative. It's very colorful and energetic. Which has made them stand out as an agency over the years which in fact gave them the creative consistency they needed to stand out in the industry.

In conclusion, they also give us some insight into, pitching the work and how to convince the client which campaign to go with. Both Erik and Fredrik agree that it's all about taking the client by the hand and leading them through the process. Like you lead someone to the dance floor. You can't just throw a new design in their face without an explanation. You need to take them on a journey on the thought behind the strategy, and how it connects with the brand. And then make sure that this makes a lot of sense to them as much as it does make sense to you as the pitcher.

You can find more information about this agency of misfit geniuses on their website https://snask.com

Instagram: snasksthlm

Frederik Öst’s Instagram: freddiemeup

Erik Kockum’s Instagram: fessus

Meet partners in crime - Fredrik Öst and Erik Kockum, Branding Experts with vulnerability and anti-machismo. 

First off, let me tell you a little about who Fredrik Öst & Erik Kockum are…

"Freddie" was adopted from South Korea and raised in Northern Sweden after being found outside a police...

Today we are combining our storytelling and our creativity to promote social good to overcome some of the issues and challenges we face in our world today. And that's the focus of the creativity of our next guest. Aalia Lanius. 

She is a multiple Award-Winning Novelist, Award-Nominated Executive Producer & Podcast host. As founder of Unsugarcoated Media, a 501(c)(3) social enterprise, she is passionate about using her leadership skills to build a unique media company that focuses solely on projects in media geared at social impact through storytelling. Aalia is also the Producer and host of "Unsugarcoated with Aalia", a social good-centered podcast. The show was nominated for Best Use of Podcast for Social Good in 2020. A powerful advocate for survivors of trauma and mental health education.

She believes as creatives, we have an immense gift that comes with accountability and we have to use it to create a positive social impact in everything. She only chooses to speak on social issues unsugarcoated. Hence the name of her company.  In our chat, she tells us that the most important part of what  Unsugarcoated Media does is provide a place where other creatives can come and collaborate with them, knowing that the goal is social impact.

According to Aalia, “What's the message?” is the first and most important question a creative needs to ask themselves if their goal is social impact through their work. She also enlightens us that If you wanted to have a social message, as an artist, you have to show up to those spaces and say, “This is important to me. This is what I want to happen and if I don't see it, then I'm gonna start creating a wave myself.”

She has experienced so much turmoil. From homelessness to the trauma of domestic abuse, and the cancer fight. And yet there's resilience. Through that, she was able to write a book that has helped so many people who are in those particular situations. Once again she gives us a lesson through it all. She teaches us that that is what influence really is. When you empower the right people to see their own brilliance, and to see their own capacity, and potentially even see a life past trauma.

We need to learn and take away from the experiences that life throws at us how we can learn to be better. It's about understanding that, you wanna grow and that you wanna upgrade your belief systems. You have to yearn to understand yourself better so that you can be more powerful.  So that you can be more concerted on whatever the effort is you're trying to do as navigate the journey life has set before you, and maintain your high creative energy.

In conclusion, she reminds us that there is only trying so long as you learn to fail forward. And that is part of the creative process. And learning about yourself is the most powerful thing and then keep growing. And only look back to see how far you've come. And recognize that that is your big thing. Even though sometimes it may take so long to see, there's always hope. And the hope is you.

To get more on her amazing work: unsugarcoatedmedia.com

Instagram: aalia_unsugarcoated

Aalia Lanius

Aalia's Website

Aalia Lanius is an International Multiple-Award Winning Novelist, Executive Producer and host of the award-nominated globally top-rated social good podcast, UNSUGARCOATED with Aalia. As founder of UNSUGARCOATED Media, a 501(c)(3) media social enterprise, Lanius is creating social...