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Creative Innovators with Gigi Johnson

Education Podcasts

Ready to get inspired to change your Career? Guests share their very non-linear career stories and how they have changed the ways we create and reimagine in music, art, live events, virtual events, video, film, education, and social innovation. Interviewed by Gigi Louisa Johnson, creators and innovators share how they became change agents in their own creative sectors -- and what drives them. Join us and get inspired for your own career transformation.

Ready to get inspired to change your Career? Guests share their very non-linear career stories and how they have changed the ways we create and reimagine in music, art, live events, virtual events, video, film, education, and social innovation. Interviewed by Gigi Louisa Johnson, creators and innovators share how they became change agents in their own creative sectors -- and what drives them. Join us and get inspired for your own career transformation.

Location:

Monrovia, CA

Description:

Ready to get inspired to change your Career? Guests share their very non-linear career stories and how they have changed the ways we create and reimagine in music, art, live events, virtual events, video, film, education, and social innovation. Interviewed by Gigi Louisa Johnson, creators and innovators share how they became change agents in their own creative sectors -- and what drives them. Join us and get inspired for your own career transformation.

Twitter:

@CreateInnov

Language:

English

Contact:

6266032420

Episodes

That Was an Accident . . . with Martin Atkins

3/18/2021
Question: How do you decide what adventures to take in your nonlinear career? What are intentional plans vs. accidents? Guest: Martin Atkins, Music Industries Coordinator, Millikin University; producer, drummer, documentary filmmaker, DJ, and teacher Photo: Kara Hammond and NARAS Martin Atkins talked with our host, Gigi Johnson, from his studio that also acts as a museum of all of the adventurous projects around his career. Martin shared how he began drumming at age 9 and persistently...

Duration:00:45:14

Tidbit Tuesday . . . Postcard Moments and Planned Happenchance

3/9/2021
This was fun. Your host, Gigi Johnson, has been speaking for college classes this past week and kept being asked to tell her/my story of the pivot points and non-linear decisions over 9 careers. So in this Tuesday Tidbit segment, I share the story of how I changed into a film major at USC based on postcard from my teaching assistant for a single class. That changed my life and direction and those changes echo through my choices to this day. What postcards have you gotten in your life -- or...

Duration:00:08:37

A Very Human Culture . . . with David Hernandez

2/25/2021
Question: What if you could build a company around your passions? In this episode, David Hernandez shares how he is unlearning and relearning what he knows to create competition for his company . . . in his own company! He runs Colonize Media, a multiplatform network music aggregator. He has worked to create “a very human culture” with his team of 30+ people and now works to “break artists from nothing.” Guest: David Hernandez, CEO, Colonize Media David Hernandez is the CEO and co-founder...

Duration:00:38:05

Tidbit Tuesday - What is a Creative Career?

2/23/2021
Today starts the first segment of Tidbit Tuesday, which brings in parts of the Redesigning Your Creative Career program from NextCareer.me. What is a Creative Career? What are we talking about when we throw around the term “creative career”? This could be having a traditional career in a creative industry, or it could be doing something that has creativity in the actual job. In terms of being different from non-creative careers, they tend to recruit differently, and often you can build...

Duration:00:03:07

Ceremony and Story . . . with Beatie Wolfe

2/18/2021
Question: What if you could pursue the creative projects that you already saw in the world? Guest: Beatie Wolfe, Singer, Songwriter, Technologist (Photo: Ross Harris) In this episode, Beatie Wolfe takes us through her creative journey to become the technologist and artist she is today. Back when she was 7 or 8, she began to imagine the “music books” (album covers) that she wanted over music and moved to reimagine the vinyl experience in her later work. She shares her journey through...

Duration:00:47:17

Welcome to Tuesday Creative Career Sessions

2/17/2021
Starting next Tuesday, we'll be sharing parts of the NextCareer.me career exploration programs to tie in with the non-linear career stories from each of these podcast interviews. We'll be sharing each week on Tuesdays a bit of the programs we have been working on for a few years with groups on how to expand your creative career, using examples from past and future interview episodes. Listeners can continue the programs for free in our online program spaces and can share them with...

Duration:00:05:11

Finance, Story, and The Storm . . . with Christopher Zyda

2/11/2021
Question: What if you need to leave creative work to deal with crisis? How can you bring your creativity to other fields? Guest: Christopher Zyda, Author; CEO, Mozaic LLC In this episode, Christopher Zyda shares his journey through the 1980s AIDS pandemic as a young professional writer-to-be and his shift into finance to help care for his partner while dealing with insecurities and fears in launching a life. He tells of his choices to go to graduate school, his persistence and a kind...

Duration:00:47:29

Combining All Your Loves Together . . . with Laura Escudé

1/13/2021
In this episode, Laura Escudé takes us on her journey from violinist to adventures in Los Angeles as a seat filler for TV shows from Craig’s list to market research to other one-off jobs. . . until she becomes a tech support staffer at M-Audio because of problems she had with her own keyboard. For listeners who are inspired by linear journeys, this is not one. Instead, Laura was launched from being laid off as the first Ableton Certified Trainer. An email got her working for Cirque du Soleil...

Duration:00:37:26

Seeing Solutions - A Blessing and a Curse . . . with Dae Bogan

1/4/2021
Dae Bogan shares how he sees solutions and “warps” them into business ideas -- which is both a blessing and a curse. He began with selling cakes in middle school and organizing bus tours in high school from Cleveland, OH to New York. From his early history in acting, singing, and creating and producing events, he moved into a long series of start-ups (including putting gogo dancers in store windows) before moving into various endeavors in music tech. Dae has started and sold a variety of...

Duration:00:49:45

This is our Future: Saving the Planet . . . with Bas den Braber and Jenna Seiden

12/10/2020
In this episode, we hear how Bas Den Brader and Jenna Seiden are following their purpose with Zambezi Partners, a benefits corporation with a mission to eradicate African wildlife poaching during our lifetime. They both worked in large company business-to-business strategy, consulting, and brand leadership, and have found their purposes after their mid-career reality checks. Their careers in their subsequent order built toward new opportunities . . . that led to their using tech tools to...

Duration:00:44:57

Wearing a Cape This Whole Time . . . with Tania Katan

11/26/2020
Tania Katan shares her wit and wisdom about how to use creativity to challenge with playfulness our rigid organizational cultures. She works with large and small companies, helping them find new alignment around their daily contradictions through “small c” creative work, facing everyday practical problems with imagination. She shares the tales of #itwasneveradress (re-seeing the ladies’ room logo into a cape) and challenging the community to arm wrestle for art at the Scottsdale Museum of...

Duration:00:37:53

Pirates, Magicians, and Wizards . . . with Megan Elliott

11/17/2020
Megan Elliott shares her journey from Australia and indigenous cultural media to trade union representation in Ireland to traveling across Asia connecting leaders and cultures . . before she was found on LinkedIn to bring her superpowers to Nebraska. She tells of the shared collaborative creation of the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, which works to create “pirates, magicians, and wizards” who can reach their dream job or create their dream company right out of school. Guest:...

Duration:00:36:19

An Incredible Experiment. . . with Mark "Frosty" McNeill and Ale Cohen

11/11/2020
Ale Cohen and Mark "Frosty" McNeill share their journey through “experimenting with sound” and community in building the Internet radio collective DUBLAB over the past two decades. They share what inspired and drove them to build this institution and how it has shifted gears in our listen-from-home global era. Dublab is not your average radio station. Mark calls it “experimentation with sound” that was formed as a reaction to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which forced the closure of...

Duration:00:54:20

I Never Knew I was Supposed to Only Do One Thing. . . with Arabian Prince

10/27/2020
In this episode, Arabian Prince shares the rest of the story -- both before and after working with NWA. He shares how he got started with tech, entrepreneurship, and music creation at a young age. He talks with Gigi about how he taught himself new gaming and creative technologies, and how he brings that energy to his many current adventures. Guest: Arabian Prince, Founder of iNov8 Next Open Labs and GGGOAT; Partner at Covitech; President, Next Careers A songwriter, rapper, producer, DJ,...

Duration:00:32:36

Composers of Tomorrow . . . with Akira Nakano

10/21/2020
In this episode, Akira Nakano takes us through his journeys in piano performance, music composition, video editing, and starting a non-profit. These led to the launch of the LA Inception Orchestra, which works with youth and composers to launch Composers of Tomorrow. He shares his experience in piloting a learning non-profit organization and how his diverse skills and relationships combined into its launch and now growth in this Learn-From-Home era. Guest: Akira Nakano, President, CEO, and...

Duration:00:40:16

Trust Your Calling . . . with Christopher Hope

10/7/2020
In this episode, Christopher Hope shares his journey to found The Loop Lab in Cambridge, MA. He learned through DJing, community service, religious studies, and partnering with local organizations to deliver a unique blend of higher education, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurship training. He has grown this nonprofit into a live and virtual training program for womxn and BIPOC youth to build jobs and creative companies in audiovisual industries. He began locally in The Port neighborhood and...

Duration:00:39:10

Solving Problems with Art, VR, and Software . . . with Sasha Samochina

9/29/2020
In this episode, Sasha Samochina shares her journey connecting art, VR, and science together -- to her trio of roles at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She illustrates why she is “thankful for [her] boldness” in interning and pushing into each new job and new technology. The Field Museum in Chicago became an opportunity to connect art, science, computing, and social storytelling. By the end, you’ll see the arc that returned to her desire as a young student to be a teacher and librarian...

Duration:00:42:27

Social Proof and Pushing Forward . . . with Ty Frankel

9/22/2020
In this episode, Ty Frankel shares how as a young music creator and entrepreneur he pushed to create relationships to build Shut Down Media. His multi-country company creates hip hop music for integration into film and television. He talks about how he overcame obstacles, how he got distracted, and how he returned to his core business. He talked about being inspired by Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other books on how to build his career. Ty shares how his company has pivoted with film and...

Duration:00:22:52

That Moment of Mojo . . . with Zack Zalon

9/15/2020
Zack Zalon has shifted and grown along with a transforming music industry. He began as (and still is) a musician, then blossomed at the Troubadour before launching into websites, marketing, Farm Club, Virgin, and through that Moment of Mojo into taking his background and the now-possible world of artificial intelligence into Super Hi-Fi. We wrap up with advice to his younger self after this intriguing journey across music and digital transformation.Guest: Zack Zalon, Co-Founder and Chief...

Duration:00:49:41

Slightly Against the Grain . . . with Carlo, Ben, and Josh from Indie-Pop

9/1/2020
Enjoy the tales of Carlo Fox, Ben Willis, and Josh Andriano working together as the three-partner independent music management company leadership team running Indie-Pop. After meeting when Josh and Ben married sisters (no longer in the picture), they formed Indie-Pop and have learned to work together making decisions about talent, investment, and growth . . . and now in starting a new independent music label, Independent.co. They discuss future rights flow in building generational wealth for...

Duration:00:34:00

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