Want to help support The Futur? Fill out this super short survey: https://bit.ly/futur-survey Jose Gomez is the Executive Creative Director of Dallas based design agency, ATK PLN. He’s won an Emmy, built a skateboard brand as a teenager and continues to push the envelope in the worlds of motion design and live action. This episode is full of great stories about the triumphs and tribulations of running a creative business in the advertising world. He and Chris swap stories about pitching ideas, working with nightmare clients and discuss how to take a loss and learn from it—even when it costs you $45K. But it's not all war stories. Listen hard enough and you might pick up a few new tools to use in your own creative business.

The Futur

89 - Tales From a Creative Director — with Jose Gomez

Want to help support The Futur? Fill out this super short survey: https://bit.ly/futur-survey Reena Merchant is a UX Manager at Google and one of the few people we know that holds an MBA in Design Strategy. In this episode, Reena and Chris discuss her journey from shy kid to tech executive, the weight of family expectations and why believing in yourself is the best cure for self-doubt. And rest assured, Reena will lay out what exactly UX is and how you can go about learning it.

88 - From Shy Kid to Tech Executive — with Reena Merchant

Want to help support The Futur? Fill out this super short survey: https://bit.ly/futur-survey Hannah Corlett is the founder of architectural and urban design firm, HNNA. The projects she works on today, you may get to see 10 years from now, which means she spends a lot of time thinking about the future and how to design for it. In this episode, Hannah and Chris discuss what that future might look like for everyone and how urban designers and educators play in an integral role in shaping it.

87 - Designing for the Future — with Hannah Corlett

Randy Hereman has lived many professional lives. He started as a web-designer, then a professional kite-surfer, then a high rolling poker player and is now an execution coach, on a mission to help people become who they need to be to attain their goals. He also happens to be a member of The Futur Pro Group. If you don’t know what that is, visit the http://thefutur.com/pro to find out. It just might be where your people are. In this episode, Randy and Chris talk through the mindset it takes to have an idea and then see it through to fruition, which is a problem a lot of us struggle with. Consuming the content is easy, but taking action from it, not so much. Get out of your head and into the mind of an action-taker.

86 - Stop Thinking and Start Doing — with Randy Hereman

Alex Zaccaria is the founder and CEO of Linktree. You might recognize that name from the millions of Instagram profiles that use their product. If you don’t know what Linktree is, go look it up. It is quite the handy social media tool. In this episode, Alex and Chris talk about Linktree’s remarkable growth and how they gain around 20,000 new sign ups every day, without spending much on customer acquisition. Sounds crazy right? Not if you build a great solution to a common problem. It’s not often we get to talk shop with the founder of a tech company. Alex and his team have built something undeniably unique. Even the Royal Family uses it.

85 - Problem Solving and Product Design — with Alex Zaccaria

What do you think about when you hear the term, “virtual reality”? It's been part of the pop-culture and entertainment news cycle for a while, but still feels out of reach. There are cumbersome headsets you need to wear, low fidelity images and poorly designed experiences. Like or not, VR is on the cusp of changing our lives forever, which is why we were thrilled to have HP’s Global Lead of VR for Location Based Entertainment on the show, Joanna Popper. While we shelter-in-place we can't help but think: how might VR change day-to-day life during something like this. Will it connect people and offer experiences that they could otherwise not enjoy, or will VR live up to the dystopian future we often see portrayed in films? Either way, it's here to stay.

84 - The Promise of Virtual Reality — with Joanna Popper

Adrien Behn is a seasoned world traveler, writer and comedic performer. This self-proclaimed “Jill of all trades“ ventures into new countries to seek out total strangers and listen to their stories. She then reports back about the most daring and interesting ones via her own podcast, Strangers Abroad. In this episode, Adrien and Chris discuss what makes great storytelling, the power of vulnerability and they allude to an unforgettable travel story that led to an audience member fainting mid-show. If you enjoy a good story or want to be a better storyteller, then you better not miss this one.

83 - How To Tell A Great Story — with Adrien Behn

Michael Bungay Stanier is an Oxford graduate and author of the wildly popular book, The Coaching Habit. He is a champion of curiosity that believes the advice we so eagerly give is not nearly as good as we think it is. Michael founded Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led. His missions is to help shape how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior.

82 - Stop Giving Advice, Ask More Questions — with Michael Bungay Stanier

Sophia Ahamed is a designer and founder of design agency Monograph & Co. She and Chris go deep into the role that empathy plays in creative business. Spoiler alert: it's an important one. They talk about how losing someone can trigger a perspective shift and, subsequently, how you can use your own life experiences to build greater empathy with your clients. A lot of us get caught up thinking about ourselves and that makes it difficult to look at the world through another person’s lens. In strange times like these, we could all use a bit more empathy.

81 - Designing With Empathy — with Sophia Ahamed

Meg Lewis is a designer, comedian, performance artist, entrepreneur, meditation podcaster and a whole lot more. You might recognize her style, her voice and definitely her glasses, but after listening to this episode you will understand the power of her personal branding. Meg and Chris discuss how to take what's weird about yourself and turn it into a unique career advantage. After all, that's what creativity is: combining unrelated things to make something new. If you're interested in finding your own personal brand or style, then you will enjoy this very fun conversation with the one and only, Meg Lewis.

80 - Design, Comedy and Personal Branding — with Meg Lewis

This episode is fiery right from the start. Chris talks with brand strategist, Stef Hamerlinck, about the nuance of branding and why it matters. Though, the two don’t necessarily agree about any of it. If you are interested in branding, strategy and enjoy a healthy debate then you will love this episode. Chris and Stef get deep into the weeds of brand purpose, brand differentiation and why it's important for a brand to be just as good as it is unique. It's a talk about Coke versus Pepsi and McDonald's versus In 'n Out. Which is better? Only you can decide. Please enjoy our branding conversation with Stef Hamerlinck.

79 - Why branding matters — with Stef Hamerlinck

In this episode Chris talks with creative team, Beth Stafford and Jeremy Slagle. Together, they've written, illustrated and published two successful children's books that shine a light on the importance of teaching empathy to both parents and their kids. These two solopreneurs share how their collaborative spirit works, the perks and perils of social media and the unintended benefits of pursuing that side project you can't stop thinking about. If you're a parent, teacher or curious about publishing then you are in for a wonderful treat. Even if you're none of those things, give this one a listen, because there's always something to learn.

78 - Teaching Empathy, Self-Publishing and True Collaborative Spirit — with Beth Stafford and Jeremy Slagle

Christine Outram is the CEO of Everydae—an education company aiming to provide affordable, fun and personalized learning. As a former architect, MIT graduate and self-proclaimed "systems thinker," she and her team are leading the race to create the world's smartest digital tutor and to bring families all over the world, the custom-tailored education they're looking for. If you're a fan of what we do here at The Futur, and our mission to change education, then you do not want to miss this episode. ‍

77 - What does the future of education look like? — with Christine Outram

In this episode of Deep Dive, The Futur’s Chief Content Officer, Matthew Encina, and Futur Video Content Producer, Mark Contreras, talk with executive coach, Marie Elena. They discuss their struggles with communication, leadership and the invisible pressure of working here at The Futur. Get a peek into the minds of our management team in this candid conversation about what life is like under our roof—warts and all. This episode is a long a one, but well worth the listen.

076 - Deep Dive: Therapy, Leadership and Invisible Pressures — with Marie Elena

In this powerful episode of our Deep Dive series, Chris talks with guest Kathryn Dyer about the power and importance of real, human connection. Kathryn shares the story of her fight for a cancer diagnosis and how that experience redefined her purpose in life. The two open up and go deep into one of the most genuine and vulnerable conversations The Futur has ever shared. https://www.instagram.com/kathryn_dyer/

075 - Deep Dive: Vulnerability and Human Connection — with Kathryn Dyer

A podcast about the Business of Design and Creative Entrepreneurship hosted by Emmy-winning director, Chris Do. This is the Futur of design education. Check us out on YouTube - youtube.com/thefuturishere

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