The Futur with Chris Do

In final episode of our three-part passion versus profit series, Chris and Rodrigo agree to never have this conversation again. In exchange, Rodrigo makes a public commitment to remain focused on his business and sets a clear financial goal. But it doesn’t end there. Chris helps Rodrigo plot the course to achieve that goal and offers a useful equation that anyone can use to do the same. To wrap up...

In part two of our three-part passion versus profit conversation, Chris, Rodrigo, Mo and Niddy pick up where they left off: to succeed you need a clear goal and to remain focused on it. The benefits of living this way are clear. It’s how Chris built his design agency and ultimately The Futur. But at what cost? To quote Chris, “I worked like an animal.” That lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but to Chr...

How do you make decisions about your life? Do you follow what brings you happiness and makes you feel good? Or do you remove emotion from the process and remain focused and objective? Most of us land somewhere in the middle on that spectrum. Juggling the pursuit of our ever-changing interests while working a job that pays the bills. But what happens when your time is equally split between the two...

Rich Cardona is a retired Marine, podcaster, and NFT enthusiast. In fact, his podcast NFTs for Newbies, is one of the most popular shows on the subject. In this fun and informative conversation Rich takes us into the budding world of NFTs. He explains what an NFT is, how they work, and helps make sense of the jargon associated with them—gas fees and all. It is a fascinating new world, filled with...

Have you ever tried improv? Neither had Chris, until he met Erin Diehl. Erin is a former experential marketer and veteran improviser that conducts workshops leveraging improv techniques to improve employees’ skills in corporate settings. That’s right. She brings improv to the corporate world. One of her many mottos: Inspire, don’t perspire. In this episode, Erin shares her story of starting out sw...

Aaron Duffy is the Executive Creative Director and co-founder of boutique creative agency, Special Guest. He also works as a director with acclaimed production company, 1st Avenue Machine. In this inspirational chat, Aaron shares the story of how a project he wasn’t excited about (and nearly turned down) propelled his career forward and landed him a coveted Super Bowl ad. Sponsored by Real Vision...

Nick Harauz is a content creator, video editing expert, and student of the creative process. He's also a certified Adobe, Apple, and Avid trainer and founder of Creative 111; a company that specializes in video and motion graphics training. You might recognize him from instructional videos all over adobe.com. In this episode, Nick and Chris talk about the challenges of teaching (and learning) onli...

Carlos Segura is the founder of award-winning design firm, Segura Inc. He also founded digital type foundry T26, whose fonts you can find everywhere. Over the last 30 plus years, Carlos has built (and lived) an extraordinary life and career. And he’s done it on his own terms, whether you like it or not. In this candid conversation, Carlos shares what he’s learned along the way. From surviving the...

Tuna Bora is an acclaimed Turkish visual artist whose clients include Google, Nike, Netflix, and Coca Cola. She’s won awards for her unique design work on several VR and AR projects and continue to explore new creative spaces. In this conversation, Tuna shares her story of immigrating to the United States alone in hopes of pursuing a career working in feature film animation. But after graduating i...

You might better know Jen and Amy Hood by their clever business name: Hoodzpah. The California-born, Kentucky-raised twin sisters co-founded their brand identity and type design studio because they had to. And before they were ready to. In this episode, Jen and Amy talk shop with us about how Hoodzpah came to be, the source of their entrepreneurial spirit, taking joy in doing the work, and how the...

Rochelle Moulton is a brand strategist and business coach that helps people (and their businesses) build authority. In this episode Rochelle shares how she prepares for important presentations, her experience self-publishing a book, the parallels of building a brand and building authority, and why having a vision for your business is imperative to its success. She also walks Chris through a niche-...

A great presentation will inspire you. It will leave you feeling excited, energized and most importantly: wanting more. But a bad presentation will put you to sleep. Ashley Smithers specializes in presentation design. She's helped people prepare for TED talks, design important fundraising decks, and even worked with former vice presidents on their presentations. In this clubhouse discussion, Ashle...

We last we spoke with Anthony way back in 2018, in episode 148 to be exact. At the time, he felt stagnant at his current job. Though his needs were met, there wasn’t much opportunity for growth. Cut to three years later: the world is a different place and Anthony is now right where he wants to be. But where is that? Did he remove those golden handcuffs in pursuit of something more? Did he ride out...

Welcome to our second installment of 5 rounds. In this episode, we welcome creative sales coach (and Futur Pro Group member) Ivy Malik to the show. Her mission: grill Chris Do with a series of five tough questions. And she does not disappoint. Ivy tasks Chris with questions about how to be your true self in both public and private, why he dislikes the current state of educational sales, the role e...

If you were to order an expensive meal at a nice restaurant, but then asked if they could knock 50% off of the price, how would your waiter respond? Probably not well. Of all the possible replies, the most likely one would be, “I’m sorry, we can’t do that.” Which is not surprising. So then why do people in the creative business bend to such requests from clients? In this fun Clubhouse talk, Chris...

Have you ever read a lengthy paragraph from a book and then sort of woken up and asked yourself, “Wait. What did I just read?” You and us both. Reading is a fantastic way to learn, but if you don’t retain that precious information then what is the point? In this Clubhouse discussion Chris shares his approach to reading books. How he reads, his note taking method, and why he suggests you read a boo...

In the corporate world, climbing the proverbial ladder seems common. To get ahead (and make more money) you must climb through the ranks. But in the creative industry, it feels different. We pursue a career in the arts because we're passionate about things like design, photography, and animation. We enjoy making things ourselves. But is that enough to sustain a long career? Will we be aged-out of...

The concept of branding has been around since the dawn of human existence. It is hard-wired into us. Or as Patrick Hanlon refers to it: it’s our primal code. Patrick Hanlon is what many in the creative advertising world call the OG of branding. He is the founder and CEO of primalbranding.co, an acclaimed branding group with an impressive roster of Fortune 100 companies. Patrick also authored a boo...

Adam J. Kurtz (aka Adam JK) is a designer, artist, and speaker whose illustrative work is rooted in honesty, humor and a little darkness. In this episode, we welcome Adam back to the show to talk about what it’s like writing a book about optimism when it feels like you’re living in an end-of-the-world movie. Adam and Chris also discuss their experience with therapy (and the immense benefit it has...

This episode comes from a discussion held on Clubhouse. The topic: perfectionism. Where it comes from and why it hinders your growth. Better said (and by Winston Churchhill), “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” In this talk, Chris is joined by The Futur Pro Group members Martha Cristina Garza, Jule Kim, and Lola Bakare. Each of them share their experience with perfection getting the best of the...

This episode comes from a livestream we hosted via YouTube in early 2020. In it, Chris fields questions from a group of design majors visiting from Loyola Marymount University. The Q&A covers topics like the difference between art and design, demonstrating your value to clients, what to charge for your work, and why there is truly nothing new under the sun. Sponsored by Storyblocks - https://www.s...

David Schwarz is an award-winning creative leader and one of the founding partners of acclaimed experience design agency, Hush. He’s spent his career designing brand experiences that integrate content, interactivity, architecture and technology. But what is experience design? It depends on where you are and who you ask. From where David stands experience design is about creating an immersive, thre...

Once in a while we come across a story that we believe is worth sharing, even though it might not fit within the topics we generally talk about. Kyle Quilausing’s story is one of those. He’s gone from triumph, to tragedy, and back again. A sequence of events that touches on a recurring theme for our show: resilience. How we each find our way out of a dark place and the belief that it is never too...

What does it take to run your own YouTube channel? According to Charli Marie, putting in the work is a good place to start. We know that’s not the advice you wanted to hear. But that’s the practical truth. You have to do the hard work. By day, Charli is Creative Director at ConvertKit. A creative marketing platform made for creators. And also by day, she is a YouTuber on a mission to help designer...

In the final round, Mo and Chris discuss what success means and how you can reverse engineer someone else’s. If you’re thinking, “but how do I effectively do that?” then you are asking the wrong question. There are no shortcuts. The path is tough and you will struggle. There is no way around it. But the reward you get, is efficiency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho...