Your World of Creativity

Christian Banach, Agency Growth StrategiesAbout the podcast: Unlocking Your World of CreativityUnlocking Your World of Creativity is a podcast hosted by best-selling author and global brand innovator, Mark Stinson.This is a podcast where diverse guests who share in common being creative professionals from all over the world. They talk about they get inspired, how they organize their ideas and gain confidence to make the connections needed to launch their amazing work. Our guest: Christian BanachChristian Banach is an agency owner, sales team leader, and new business director. He has a passion for helping agency leaders to be empowered and approach their future with greater confidence. Christian’s consulting clients range from Reebok to TD Bank among other multinational level businesses. He believes that regardless of the size of the agency it is possible to do something that unique and different than others. And that’s how he gets clients, by offering unique solutions to the specific problems they may have. It is difficult to be good at everything, but when you specialize in a certain area, you will get bigger companies to seek you out. His approach to helping them figure out their “one big thing”When getting clients through word of mouth you may not have a good idea of what type of business they are or what type of client they may be. This creates a situation were they’ve done a lot of different things. So when they get their foot in the door with a client they may have a situation difficult to approach. What an agency does it that it comes up with creative solutions by examining the clients and the problems they come with. They look for commonalities, buckets of work they’ve done, certain types of consumers and targets, and some common themes. They take those themes and then they find companies that have the same type of theme and engage them in a development stage where they are finally able to reach solutions and find their unique “big thing” to stand out in the market. How he got thereChristian came to the industry almost by accident. He started by working on concert promotions to pay his way through college. He got to work with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Lady Gaga, Pitbull and T-Pain. Along the way, he was approached by an experimental marketing agency that was looking for some help with more street-type activation strategies. For Christian, it was a very natural transition from doing concert promotions and working with sponsors into that experiential marketing. Lessons learned along the wayAlong the way, when the 2008 recession hit, Christian learned the hard way that promoting his agency through just word of mouth was not enough. He ended up having to hire consultants who provided him with an immense amount of valuable insight. While this help came a little late and Christian had to close his business, he was inspired to go into business and business development a few years later. This made him learn that even when times are good, you still need to focus on having a predictable pipeline, price sales process, and word of mouth referral as a bonus only. What the future holds for ChristianChristian really enjoys art and has found himself increasingly trying to explore other creative avenues for himself. He is considering turning the Monday motivation newsletter into a book and be able to not only give some valuable insight to others but especially to his daughter. Find more about Christian by going to his website www.christianbanach.com and learn more about his agency and what they can do for you. Don’t forget to tune in for our next guests who will be bringing in even more valuable insight for those looking to make a big name in the business that is "creativity." 

My guest is Margaret "Peg" Donahue, who along with Madeline Gerwick, authored a 300-Page “encyclopedia” of money attraction tools.If you have ever struggled or are still struggling to push past your money set point, and really experience a level of unparalleled financial ease and success, you have no doubt been exposed to a few “energy” shifting tactics to transform your money woes ... But what if you had at hand an entire guidebook—or rather an “encyclopedia”—of proven strategies that can transform your life and your relationship to money—as quickly as overnight!That’s what you get with Margaret Donahue and Madeline Gerwick’s award-winning Money is an Energy Game, chock full of practices, perspectives, exercises and more that offer the most comprehensive roundup ever of energy-altering strategies and money-attraction tools that will jumpstart your business and personal prosperity, and create a firm financial future.By now you probably know that money IS energy, and your bank account is a reflection of your energetic money imprint. And these two women are experts at “playing the energy game” in their own lives and advising others. Madeline Gerwick is renowned internationally for her annual Good Timing Guides, advising businesses and investors on advantageous astrological cycles; and Margaret “Peg” Donahue, MBA and former college educator, has used these techniques to grow a successful and fulfilling Feng Shui practice.Over the course of several years, the two friends and colleagues collected, tested and synthesized all of the money/energy-transforming strategies into one power-packed volume. They treat you to what worked and didn’t work for themselves and their clients!“The book provides a way for you to prosper and thrive, particularly when life throws a curveball,” says Peg. “With well over one hundred tools to help you navigate today’s world with ease, you can implement what works best for you. Change comes from within, and you are the driver of your own success.” This is a book that enables you to create with ease and joy, leaving behind “working hard,” struggle and drama. The bottom line is that you can shift your money patterns AND your bottom line.The authors address ten areas of focus:Cultivating a positive money vibeReleasing blockages to successLearning the secrets of subtle energy at workTapping into the alchemy of creating desired resultsCreating with trustProspering and succeeding with good timingOptimizing your office for success and prosperityMethods for building your wealth, including playing the “Money is an Energy Game” to engage those around you and integrate these strategies on a consistent basisChoosing prosperous language and reframing your storiesTaking an energy inventory to identify your sleep, food, exercise, mental, emotional and spiritual patterns that impact your prosperity.Within the 324-page book are charts, checklists, examples, anecdotes, action items, and other practical tools to support your quest for the abundance that helps fuel a life of ease, joy and fulfillment on the business and personal fronts.Money is an Energy Game is a game-changer! It is available at www.moneyisanenergygame.com

As Founder & CEO of Ugly Mug Marketing, Wayne Mullins has inspired clients from more than 100 industries and his work directly influences over 250,000 entrepreneurs/year.Wayne is a husband, father of 4, and entrepreneur. "I'm an out-of-the-box, against-the-grain, risk-taking thinker and it has more than paid off for my company and clients. I lead from the heart and am passionate and unapologetic about doing so," Wayne says.Discover Morehttps://www.facebook.com/uglymugmarketing/https://www.uglymugmarketing.com/

My guest today is Siarhei Sadouski, CEO of Goolny Games Development StudioGoolny Games is a mobile game development outsourcing studio in Belarus.Siarhei says, "We are professionals who live and breathe art, design and exciting mobile games. Our mission is to create Unity-based projects that will be best remembered by players."In this episode, we discuss:TEAM MOBILE GAME DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: turning ideas into successful products in the hyper-casual mobile gaming market.MOBILE GAME PROTOTYPING: how the developer "MVP"-building and game prototyping Siarhei has 15+ years of experience in IT, from a software developer to a co-founder, technical manager and project manager. He brings his experience of work in worldwide team environments.To learn more about Siarhei and his team at Goolny:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siarhei-sadouski-75b1b095/Website: https://goolny.com/

Alexandr Mashkov, MBicycle Software Development About the podcast: Unlocking Your World of CreativityUnlocking Your World of Creativity is a podcast hosted by best-selling author and global brand innovator, Mark Stinson.This is a podcast where diverse guests who share in common being creative professionals from all over the world. They talk about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas and gain confidence to make the connections needed to launch their amazing work. Our guest: Alexandr Mashkov and the MBicycle team In today’s episode, we welcome our first guests from Belarus, the MBicycle Team. First, we have Vlada who is the business development manager, she is in charge of reaching out to potential and current clients. She is the first person you can talk to get introduced into the MBicycle world. Then, we have Alex who is the manager of the company and his role focuses on software development. He has worked with Vada for over 11 years and as far as their agencies are concerned, they work creating custom software development in such domains as sports, health, wellness, health tech, and fintech are some of the most common cases they concentrate on. They usually work with startup companies because that gives them an opportunity to feel the fresh air of new ideas that are innovative for any market. Alex has spent 25 years living in various parts of Eastern Europe and he started a number of companies and one of those businesses he has was located in Belarus. There he got to know a number of people in the engineering and software development technology fields. While his markets may seem quite separate from each other, from a technical perspective they’re similar. So their most successful case studies are connected to a sports application because they’ve done numerous apps for basketball for players, coaches and fans. Up next, Mike works more in the business and finance part of the company. He spoke about how from a competitive standpoint a dynamic market such as Belarus found more expertise in engineering manufacturing. There were a lot of top-rate scientific institutes of technology and technical universities. So the cost structure of a company such as Mbicycle can provide superior services at a much lower cost. That gives them an amazing competitive advantage. About potential new customersVlada talks about what are some of the differences in what potential new clients are looking for. She says it depends mostly as some people just want the company as a support to their current team. Others just had a general idea and they were looking for a team to help them create something new. To make their ideas into something real and measurable by taking their ideas and concepts and bringing them to life. On team organization After working for 11 years, they have developed a very good delivery model. They cover the full cycle of delivery. They will propose to start with a discovery stage so the potential client can work with their business analyst for up to a month. They communicate a lot about the idea and it should be organized and it can be divided into other stages. After that stage is done, the analyst prepares a solid document that can be used for making estimates and for further communications with their tech leads. After that, the tech team starts the actual development process. They of course have project managers, QA guys, and everything needed so they bring the idea to life with the help of the team. With MBicycle, helping dreams align with reality is all about execution and the help of their experienced business analyst. They know how to communicate, how to define the specific things or features that will be needed for these projects. Based on that, they also use their expertise from previous projects to get the most information from a person to make a combination of what is needed and should be done. This combination is what helps them succeed with new startups. Current exciting projectsCurrently, the company is working on an app that will be the Uber for people wanting personal chefs. So, say you have an important dinner or you just don’t want to cook one night but want that home-cooked meal flavor, you can go on the app and you look for chefs in your area. You see what types of meals they offer, their pricing and you get a chat feature to talk with the chef. To learn more about the exciting new projects that MBicycle is working on, you can follow them on LinkedIn. 

Creator of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and author of Food Americana, David Page is a long-time journalist (2 decades, foreign and domestic, with ABC News and NBC News) who transitioned to food television, and then books.He’s gone all around the country capturing the stories behind the people and places in the foods and now, he compiled all that into a book called Food Americana. The Americanization of the FoodDavid says that since America is a country of immigrants, pretty much everything eaten here has come from someplace else. Even something as supposedly red-blooded American as a hamburger came from Hamburg, Germany. So there is pretty much nothing that just sprang up as American food. Another example could be lobster, which is indigenous to North America, when the explorers and settlers got here, and they first saw lobster that did not look like dinner, they had to learn what to do with lobster from the Native Americans who had been eating it for quite some time along with oysters.What did David learn about food?After having done Diners, David had the fervent belief that there are some remarkable people throughout the country who put their heart and soul into homemaking real food. David says that behind good food is people who really care about making good food. To succeed in the hospitality industry, David says, you have to have been born wanting to please people. Because the chances are they’re not gonna get rich.  And the concept of peeling a bushel of potatoes every day to make your fries fresh isn't going to seem like a lot of fun unless you really care that you make good fries, which David added, requires cooking them twice. About his investigative reporter and journalist backgroundDavid that getting the facts right is the absolute most for his work. “Factual doesn’t mean dry,” he says. His biggest standard is to avoid getting the facts wrong and he claims that in food writing that can be very tough because there are legends that are now fact, such as the allegation that a very, very good hamburger restaurant New Haven, Louise lunch made the first hamburger and there's no proof the Louise lunch made the first hamburger.His show pitch When David left the world of network TV and opened his own production company, he started proposing shows for various networks with no success. He started as a subcontractor and found that he had to work his way up to be a contractor himself so he started pitching to the networks himself. He said he was remarkably unsuccessful. Finally, he started pitching to The Food Network, where he talked to an executive. It was a late Thursday or Friday afternoon when after rejecting most of his pitches, the executive asked “Haven you got anything else about diners?” and he said that he was currently developing Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. That one caught her attention. She asked him to have something sent to her desk on Monday. The only problem? David had just come up with the name out of nowhere in the phone, he had no show in development! He spent the weekend making phone calls, wrote the pitch for Monday, and was asked to do a one-hour special called Diners, drive-ins, and dives. And this eventually became a series. A rather lucky turn of events for David! Book vs. Show For David, some of the key differences between a book and a show lie in how the elements for storytelling are presented. For example, in a show, you are creating an experience where the audience feels as if they’re hanging with someone they enjoy hanging out with. For his show, his host was a naturally talented TV performed who got into the rhythm of things really fast. Other aspects of audiovisual storytelling include immersing the audience in the experience, making them hear the sizzle as the burger hits the grill.This is all different when you’re writing of course, when it comes to nonfictional writing you have to find a way to tell the story from another human being’s point of view. So the challenge is not having pictures and being able to describe everything in an engaging, non-repetitive way. In writing, you have to carefully use the right words to make food appealing, and most importantly: you have to tell the right stories. If anything, David is a great example of how perseverance and passion for what you do can and will take you very far in life. It was his determination to succeed that drove him to the place he is today, and most surely will lead him even farther in life. 

Todd Hoyer, Digital Content ProducerAbout the podcast: Unlocking Your World of CreativityUnlocking Your World of Creativity is a podcast hosted by best-selling author and global brand innovator, Mark Stinson.This is a podcast where diverse creative professionals from all over the world ttalk about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and gain confidence to make the connections needed to launch their amazing work. Our guest: Todd HoyerTodd is a content producer in digital, animation, film, and video. Pretty much all kinds of mediums. And he has also worked in interactive games, trade shows, display branding, and the visuals needed to really tell stories. Todd has been doing digital and video long before those words were even known to be digital. He told us about how he started back in college by cutting film and tape and then as soon as he got out of college, he was given a computer and digital non-linear editing system. He didn’t know how to use it, but he was able to figure it out on his own and start his career from there. His approach to structure and style Todd has always been more interested in the editing side of things; he of course had to learn how to do a little bit of everything, from shooting to audio. But editing was always what held his interest. He says that when it comes to putting a story together through editing, sometimes there’s a plan and other times it is just a matter of staring at the footage for a day, reflecting on it, and then working the next morning into building that story that you created in your mind. Todd talks about how it is very important to be able to visually tell a story in a compelling way. And editing is a major component in that, for which, there are certain techniques that you can use to achieve your goals. He summarizes his latest technique into listening and absorbing the information presented and experimenting with ideas before turning them into complete compelling stories. The Todd Hoyer Style For Todd, each project is different so no matter what genre or industry, whether it is healthcare film or training film, he feels the same excitement facing each one of the new creativity challenges. One of his favorite projects was a food safety training video that he spent nine months working on. It took him across the country and he got to meet a lot of interesting people. The production and post-production also proved to be interestingly challenging because they dealt with translations into other languages, different cuts for the Asian market. But in general, it was a very complex project in which Todd got to explore his knowledge and abilities to a great extend to face the challenges and deliver an amazing pieceHis current projectTodd is currently working on a mini-documentary series called Salsabrate. The brand is called Fresh Cravings and the campaign for 2021 is called “Salsabrate the Good.” They are giving $5,000 to 50 charities and they are making episodes telling their stories and releasing those stories to all of their social media channels, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok.Making Tiktoks also proved to be a new challenge for Todd as he had to adapt to a new form of storytelling that is more brief. Salsabrate is a year-long campaign where they will be releasing new episodes each week. Each charity has its own story, so telling that story changes the way he has to approach the editing. There isn’t a formula to follow. Another very important component to creating this type of content is making sure they hit the most engagement in the social marketplace.If you’re interested in following Todd and learning more about his projects you can contact him through his LinkedIn profile, Todd Hoyer. If you’re interested in the Salsabrate the good campaign and videos, you can find them at freshcravings.com/salsabrate and you can see all the videos there and even nominate a charity.

Listen to what today's guest, Dennis Morrison, says about Business Storytelling: "I enable coaches, course creators & service providers to attract, engage & sell to their ideal audience with stories."Your Voice Matters: The whole world has changed, and storytelling is your new opportunity to take full control of the direction of your business and life. Purposeful storytelling puts you in the driving seat by attracting and engaging your ideal audience on an emotional level.Your Story: It’s imperative that you find your voice, have an authentic connection with your audience and differentiate yourself and your business from everyone else. Discover why this one powerful skill will give you the confidence to be your unique self. Will enable you to communicate with authority. Is the best way to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your industry or niche.The Power of Storytelling: The most profitable thing you do in your business is either talking or typing. This is how you get your message out into the marketplace. Discover why the use of stories and storytelling is becoming integral to how you define your content marketing, and the best way to instantly transform the conversation and move people to action.Your Audience: Buyers are evolving, so the old tactics no longer work. This is where storytelling comes to the rescue. It has to become the key element of your marketing strategy. By telling different stories depending on where your audience is in their customer journey, you’ll build a deeper relationship, so when they’re ready to buy, you become the only choice.Sell with Story: Storytelling is a serious business and the future of content marketing. However, you’re not telling any old story. You’re telling stories on purpose. Stories that lead to a sale. Selling with story is the ethical way to sell, and attracts your ideal buyer. It changes the conversation from you trying to sell them something, to them choosing to buy from you. Communicate in your ideal audience’s language and design stories that work for you and your business."My Story" Framework - A simple and effective framework that helps you craft and tell your story. The purpose of this framework is to show “Who you are”, aligning your story with what you do and why you do it. Remember people buy into people, not things.The Audience Magnet 7 Step Framework - The one framework that helps you define your path, get clarity on your offer and creates a platform for you to consistently tell stories to attract and engage your ideal audience, so they become your perfect clients and customers.FREE OFFER: https://theaudiencemagnet.com/unlocking-your-world-of-creativity

Our guest: Harry ShapiroHarry Shapiro is an author -- more specifically, a rock biographer.Harry is known for biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan among others. He has also written for many magazines such as Mojo, Classic Rock, Record Collector, and Blues in Britain. He also had the chance to write liner notes for various record labels. About his creative processThe way he gathers and organizes information, every book he has done has been different. He tends to start with the family of the artist since they are the gateway. Usually, he likes to make sure the family knows that he doesn’t have any bad intentions when writing about the artist, and then comes the other part of the process. Which is the recounting of facts, essentially, people tend to forget or misremember the facts which may prove to be a challenge for them. It can be a big triangulation process to fill in the big picture. In every interview, people give him bits of information that are valuable. He describes it as a jigsaw puzzle, and even 6 seconds or a quote out of a 30-minute interview is incredibly helpful in building someone’s life story. Of course, he has to select what to leave in and out of each book in order to make it factual but also interesting. His current project on John CampbellUp until now, he’s been writing about specific eras he is familiar with. Currently, he is writing about an unsung hero, John Campbell from Shreveport, Louisiana. Last summer, while looking through his library he found an article about John Campbell and reached out to people on Facebook, and was able to reach his family. So far, Harry believes the process for this book has been very fascinating.John was an exceptional musician who put out incredibly usual music for his genre. He was a gentleman and everyone has had something nice to say about him so far, which also says a lot about him. People from all over have been very helpful by sending Harry pictures and memorabilia from John to add to his biography. His advice for those looking to start a similar projectHe says that the way he started was at a really boring job and then realized that he wanted to do something that would help him express himself. So he started writing about something he liked: music and musicians. And that’s how he started, by doing something he liked and cared about. Talking to people and putting a bit of his enthusiasm into each book. Essentially, a writer writes. A writer doesn’t just sit and wait. 

This is our 100th episode in this series. Such a great milestone deserves a great guest, and today we have Arjun Sen, who is a former Fortune 500 executive for well-known brands like Papa Johns, Chipotle and Chili's, Quiznos, Einstein Bros, & Pizza Hut.He is a celebrated author of the book Customer Karma, a branding guru & customer journey expert through Zen Mango, and a highly sought-after international keynote speaker. In his book, Customer Karma, Arjun uncovers the blindspots of many well-intentioned companies in the customer dating game. From his experience, he tells us that Karma is about building relationships with the customer from that first experience that you're not just looking for that transaction but rather, you are trying to build a relationship.He categorizes customers into 2: customers who are in control (Butterflies) and self-paced customers (Terminators).   By giving customers a positive feeling in your business, they will be the ones who give. positive word of mouth which becomes a lifetime referral. One of the key concepts to remember is that customers are powerful in the restaurant business or any business. And to give your customers those positive feeling you must do 4 things: be human, think human, feel human,And act human. Additionally, when dealing with customers, rememberYou cannot have a long-term connection with customers by making customers feel stupid at any point in timeYou make your own Karma: When you have an opportunity, you must do the best you can, putting the best effort is paramount.first impression with a customer is everything. you either land the customer for life or lose them for life.Lessons Learn when collaborating with othersTo lead a team, you must understand their mindsetHurting someone’s feelings isn’t a way to build a teamit's not about what you do, but, how we do together as a team.  Arjun's Website: Arjuns personal branding siteBranding website: Zen MangoPodcast: Secrets to win bigAmazon link: Customer KarmaBarnes and Noble link: Customer KarmaSummary.When working on any project, ensure you have fun, you look beyond just connecting the dots. Remember to always ask yourself how can I make this bigger?  Because the bigger ideas pay exponentially more.