Craft Talk

Ben Artreche serves as the Creative Director at SanRico Film & Music. At the core, Ben (or Beni to some) is a storyteller. In this interview, we talk about Beni’s experiences in storytelling, from being a young writer, to a theater major, working as a data analyst, lessons of being a dad, all the way to growing into a creative leader amongst his peers. Most importantly, Beni is someone that I deep...

Oh well hello there! After being away for over a year, I drop in to say hi, and catch you up on what this next phase of Craft Talk is going to be. Thanks for listening!

For this episode, I'm joined by Michelle Laforest of Laforest living. Michelle runs an eco-based small business that up-cycles furniture into unique custom pieces that’s inspired by nature and living life more slowly with intention. She hopes to empower and inspire others to look at the world through a more sustainable lense and see that you can create something beautiful in the strangest of place...

For this solo episode, I share a story about 3 words that have helped me stay grounded and centered during a challenging period in my work career. In some roundabout way, these 3 words actually helped me quit my job! If you have an overwhelming challenge ahead of you or just feeling stuck in general, I hope that my story encourages you to find power in these small reminders and help you continue o...

Heba Abusedou is the Founder of iSimplify Presentations, a boutique consulting agency working with clients to build a skill that they’ll utilize for life. During our conversation, Heba shares her thoughts on how her natural sense of curiosity has helped her build the skills to become a better presenter. This discipline goes beyond PowerPoint slides. Having curiosity shifts the way we communicate w...

For this solo episode, I decide to take the opportunity to reintroduce what Craft Talk is and share WHY it exists. The quick and rehearsed answer is INSPIRATION. Inspiration to learn from others and to absorb people’s experiences and thought processes regarding their respective disciplines, in an effort to find ways to improve my own. This version of my “Why” can be empowering and certainly feels...

For this interview, I am so honored to speak to my guest, Jon Lake about all things self-growth. Jon is an environmental scientist and is in a constant pursuit of growth through meditation, travel, plant based eating, song-writing and endurance sports.  This conversation takes us on Jon’s current journey and unpacks some of the ups, the downs, and everything in between. We touch on different...

For this interview, I’m joined by professional drummer and podcast editor, Nahshon Thomas. Nahshon or @shondrums, who currently resides in Southern California specializes in both session work and live performance, and plays with notable artists such as Benjah and Zea Sy Classe In our conversation, we broke down Nahshon’s process when it comes to his craft. Through his experiences, he’s gained valu...

I’m super excited to have Dominique Yahyavi on the Craft Talk Podcast. Dominique builds products that help small businesses and entrepreneurs run the creative side of their business. He is a designer and engineer from Stanford and before starting Pixelcut and Spark Camera , he worked at companies like Apple, and Ideo We had a great conversation about Dominique’s journey in building his own busines...

For this episode of Craft Talk, I am joined by singer-songwriter, Mark Harrell. Mark is based out of Holland, Michigan, and performs original music with his band “Mark Harrell and The Hundred Star Hotel”. During this conversation, we dove into Mark’s story and learned about how songwriting became a source of healing from a dark past. Early in his teens, Mark fell heavily into drugs and alcohol. Fo...

Do you find yourself always feeling like you're not being "productive enough"? I know I feel like this all the time, even though it may not necessarily be true. There are a lot of factors that may play into this. Our tendencies, experiences, and our current capacities are all woven together, and if we get stuck in this pattern long enough, we can actually start believing that no matter what we do,...

For this interview, I am joined self proclaimed Word Nerd, Isaac Knox. Isaac is an emcee, battle rapper, standup comic and also the cofounder of an improv freestyle company called “Free Daps” In our conversation, Isaac shared the story on how music, emceeing, and freestyling became a part of his life.  Over years of developing his craft, he has been able to land amazing opportunities performi...

For this episode, I am joined by Bronwyn Kelly, a talented illustrator based out of Ottawa, Canada. One of the most impressive things I learned about her in this interview is that Bronwyn started digital illustration only 5 months ago! While on maternity leave, Bronwyn dusted off an iPad that has been sitting on the shelves for a couple of years, and decided to start creating art. Understanding th...

For this episode, I’m so excited to be joined by the one and only, Emilee Petersmark. Emilee is a talented singer-songwriter performing as a solo artist as well as a member of the band, The Crane Wives. She is also a visual artist specializing in watercolor, marker art, and digital illustration. In this conversation, we talked about the current state of Emilee’s life. Accustomed to the hustle of b...

I’m very excited to be joined by a West Michigan based sandwich themed Instagram account, Mr. Big Sandwich. This page showcases some of the biggest and most unique sandwiches this side of the state has to offer and is managed by Jon Wilson and Tyler Ingersoll. Since its inception, their Instagram account @mr_big_sandwich has continually been growing and to their surprise, has opened up many opport...

This solo episode is less about sending a message, but more of sending a reminder. A reminder to those that feel that overwhelming feeling of wanting to do it all, but never feeling like there’s not enough time to do it. How do we juggle everything that we want to do with everything we have going on. For me personally, it’s about juggling my creative ventures as a musician, producer at Dogtown Stu...

In this episode I am joined by Writer, Poet, and Educator Josh Corson. Josh is currently in his Master’s Program at the University of Pittsburg and has been teaching classes for 2 years as a part of his program. Our conversation went through Josh’s experiences from starting out as someone who flunked out of his classes to discovering his true passion of writing that led him to become an educator a...

For this episode, we are talking all about event management with Crystal Grajales. Crystal is an Event Manager in Orlando and has worked for some of the most recognizable brands in Hospitality such as Disney and The Ritz Carlton.  She's also the cohost of a podcast called “Talk To Me Mija!” Crystal’s role as an event manager requires the perfect balance of paying close attention to the detail...

Finding your unique tone of voice is probably one of the most daunting ideas in the back of a creative’s mind. If we have a message to communicate, how do we do that in a style that’s our own without sounding too much like a carbon copy of our influences? Sometimes it helps to identify what we’re dealing with first before we can understand where we fit in the equation. For me, it helps to visualiz...

For this interview, I talk to Jacob Betts about the world of craft coffee! A self proclaimed “coffee geek”, Jacob works in the specialty coffee field and has had a love affair with the art form for many years. Outside of the shop, he is also the Director of Digital Media of a non profit organization, and he is also a singer-songwriter and is a member of the band, The American Hotel System. We had...

For this interview, I'm joined by  my friend Alex Vivaldi aka“El Connoisseur”. Alex wears many hats and his craft includes being an Audio Engineer, Producer, Podcast Host and also a Twitch streamer. In this episode, our main topic of conversation is about his experience with gaming and streaming. We had a great discussion about why we think the world of gaming, e-sports and streaming have become w...

For this episode, I’m joined by super talented singer songwriter, JonPaul Wallace and we had a super fun conversation. Outside of his main passion of music, he also recently graduated from Oakland University with a degree in Finance and Marketing. In addition to that, he is currently one of the managers at his family’s pizza and ice cream shop. During this interview, he shared his journey from get...

This solo episode was recorded during a time when it felt impossible to schedule the next interview for Craft Talk. Up until this time, the excitement of starting this new audio interview series pushed me to get a handful of interviews knocked out really fast. However, after releasing 5 episodes, it got more and more difficult to schedule the next one. Why is that? What do we do when the work feel...

Sheli Báez is a bi-lingual voice actor based in New York City. She has been on a wide variety of projects ranging from broadcast radio , TV, animated shows, toys, educational software, and many other mediums. In this interview, Sheli shares how she accidentally  stumbled into the world of voice over work, and how it eventually transformed into a career that brings her a lot of joy and fulfillment....

Kurt Brown, sometimes known as “Big Kurt” is a golf professional, social media personality and also a Lululemon Ambassador. Currently he is the Director of Instruction at Encanto Golf Course in Phoenix, Arizona. In this episode, Kurt shares his journey of being a lifelong golfer and talked about the ups and downs, the challenges and wins that led him to the path of where he is today. We also discu...