How Los York Became One of the Top Content Agencies in America By Creating “Holy Shit” Moments, with Founder Seth Epstein

Apr 10, 2017

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If you ask Seth Epstein what his company, Los York, does, he could tell you that that they create "culture defining content" for top brands like Samsung, Motorola, and JBL. He could tell you that they're the creative agency of record for the Jordan brand and work with athletes like Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. He might even tell you that they’ve been called Nike’s “advertising swat team” by Inc. magazine, and landed at #8 on the coveted Inc. 5000 list.

But he’ll probably tell you that they’re in the business of “Holy shit.”

That's because inspiring that visceral, emotional response - where the viewer literally pauses and says, “Holy shit...” - is the driving force behind everything that Los York creates.

In this interview, co-host Sean Spear sits down with the Los York founder and creative director in the company's beautiful office space in Santa Monica to learn about Seth’s journey from artistic surfer kid to purveyor of jaw-dropping multimedia campaigns.

Seth is a thoughtful, introspective leader, who (tellingly) draws equal inspiration from Shawn Stussy, Giorgio Armani, and Pablo Picasso. In this interview, he tells the story of his very first entrepreneurial endeavor upcycling vintage jeans, and how the failure of that business provided the "fuel" to launch the next stage in his journey. He also tells us one amazing story about early mistakes that led to a television executive threatening he’d never work in this town again… only to have that same executive ask for a job a few years later, and explains how a Zen parable helps inform his leadership style.

We’re think you’re going to like this one, we know we sure did.

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