Story World Explorers

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, John Cates!  John is the founder and Creative Producer at Cates Collaborative, which offers creative services and video production.  He specializes in creating content that genuinely reflects a company’s story through video, and recently added animation to the list of services offered. We spoke about storytelling being a buzz word in the video...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Jacob Krueger !  Jake is the founder of Jacob Krueger Studio in New York City which is a studio that offers Screenwriting Workshops, Master Classes, Creative Coaching and Hypnosis for Writers.  In addition, Jake is an award winning screenwriter, playwright, producer and director.  We’ve known Jacob for 4 years, having met him at Catalyst Stori...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, James Kinloch !  James is Managing Partner & Co-Founder of ART by Capital Digital. The letters of ART stand for; Accurate, Relevant & Tested in their content based on data, strategy, tactics, tools & more.  He’s worked in the field of advertising for 15+ years, traveling & working in amazing places within WPP such as Africa, Am...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our very good friend, Sofia Monroe !  Sofia is the Founder and Executive Producer at Daymaker Productions, which is an independent company where Art, Marketing, Philanthropy and talented, innovative minds meet to create quality content for social and community impact, commercial and entertainment purposes.  We spoke about filmmaking, the power of gratitude and...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Steven Adams!  Steve is the co-founder and a manager/producer at Alta Global Media.  He’s in the film industry working with a multitude of production houses to take projects from script to distribution, attaching talent he manages along the way.  We spoke about how everyone working on films are storytellers, how creatives need to get out of th...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Matt Granados!  Matt is the founder of Life Pulse, INC and author of the book “Motivate the Unmotivated”.  Matt views his work as life-saving, going into companies and helping management motivate their employees with win-win solutions and help individuals find work/life integration.  We spoke about how to achieve work/life integration, how to c...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Arthur Wagoner!  Arthur is one of the founders of a company named Garden of Beardin, who’s purpose it get men of all ages interested and involved in gardening.  Traditionally, gardening is seen as a feminine activity, but Garden of Beardin is aiming to tear down that stereotype.  We spoke about what it means to be a man, how community gardens h...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Becky Sarwate!  Becky is a middle manager at Trans Union in the marketing communications department, an author, theater critic, and adjunct professor at Northeastern Illinois University.  Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, notably about the needs for change in education to be less theoretical and more practical, the functions of...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Thom Kennon!  Thom is a former Madison Ave strategist turned “Post-advertising business militant”.  His marketing company, Free Radicals Marketing, approaches analytics and customer insights by digging deeper than most strategists, helping brands understand customers desires through deep listening.  This then translates into insights that go b...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our friend, Kelsey Hoff.  Kelsey is a writer who helps solopreneurs and entrepreneurs in writing blogs,content writing, and other marketing materials.  In addition to this, she also teaches a few classes to help here target market learn how to write from their unique brand voice.  We spoke about how the lines between personal and business is blurring on social...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Mario Vallejo.  Mario is the founder of Photon Software, an app developing company, boxApp, a VR hosting service, and Spectra, a hosting service focused with built-in analytics.  We spoke about the flaws in the educational system and how to fix it, always wanting to learn more, and the importance of app analytics.  A seriously hilarious and in...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Craig Barnard-El.  Craig is the membership director at The Metropolitan Club in the Willis Tower and former Owner/President of Ultimate Athletics.  We spoke about success and struggles in his entrepreneurship endeavors, why hiring your friends puts your strain on your friendship, and the importance of diversity and inclusion in the private clu...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Carlos Chinchilla.  Carlos is a fashion photographer located in Chicago, but frequently does work in New York and across Europe.  He also teaches courses on fashion photography and modeling.  We spoke about how fashion photography is about capturing the clothes, how modeling is a lifestyle, and how you artists should wake up every day thinking...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guests is our new friend, Matt Elwell.  As a keynote speaker, instructional designer, and facilitator, Matt Elwell has been using Applied Improvisation to improve organizational performance and culture for over 15 years.  We spoke about the benefits of developing soft skills in teams, how improv has made him a master of paying attention, and how to move your company’s...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Rachel Steininger.  Rachel is the Founder and Lead Coach/ Consultant of Lekwaa LLC.  She focuses on customer experience strategies, coaching employees of all job titles to be brand ambassadors.  We spoke about her work with employees, common objections from them and their bosses with getting more involved, and how empowering employees helps a b...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our good friend, Josh Greiveldinger.  Josh is an actor and producer who recently made the move out to LA from his Midwest roots.  We’ve worked with Josh on a few films, most notably Hiraeth directed by Peter Hongisto where Josh was the stunt coordinator.  We spoke about life trying to make it in LA, his show the Lockdown, and how actors can separate themselves...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Jeff Gomez.  He is the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment and is one of the world’s leading experts in story and narrative design. He works with C-suite executives, creative visionaries, and global leaders to maximize the effectiveness of brand narratives. He develops vast fictional story worlds and designs highly successful transmedia franc...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Kristin Summers!  Kristin previously was a music supervisor out in LA working on many different projects of many different sizes.  She is currently a financial advisor, teacher, and mentor to up and coming musicians.  We spoke about music in film, what filmmakers need to do to properly license music, and the benefits of financial planning. Foll...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Marcel Krawczyk.  Marcel is the founder of a remote marketing agency named Little Jack Marketing.  Marcel has been in marketing under the Little Jack banner for the past ten years, with employees in Chicago and across Europe.  He is from Oak Park but currently lives in Croatia.  We spoke about creating and staying consistent with content, using...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guests should look familiar!  We are revisiting Jeremy Kanne and Andy Hite to get updates of how they are dealing with being quarantined.  With Jeremy we spoke about the challenges of being productive while being stuck at home & self-care.  With Andy, we spoke how about how entrepreneurs pivot when they need to, and how he’s expanding his practice with new ideas to...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guests are our good friends, Tony Paolella (Tony P) & Greg DeKalb.  Tony and Greg are the co-founders of Tony P’s Networking Events and Appointments IQ.  They are master networkers and well known throughout Chicago for their events and ability to connect people.  This was a Skype conversation, adhering to Illinois shelter-in-place order, so no six pack.  We spoke a...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is our new friend, Colleen Fahey.  Colleen is the US Managing Director of Sixième Son; a sonic branding company.  Her work consists of creating a sound vocabulary for brands that revolve around its core values.  This is a sound DNA that can be translated to create ear prints, sounds for product components (on/off, etc.), scores for advertisements and much more. ...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s podcast guest is our friend, Matt Feo.  Matt is the Director at Essex Realty Group, Inc. as well as a musician.  He is a young and focused entrepreneur, who uses his passion for music as a creative release for his career.  We enjoyed a sixer of Stella Artois during our conversation.  We spoke about the challenges in being true to yourself and your goals, not giving int...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s podcast guest is our good friend, Peter Hongisto.  Pete is an indie filmmaker, photographer and storyteller.  We’ve worked on short films with him in the past together, notably Hiraeth which we reference often throughout the podcast.   Pete doesn’t drink, so we had a six-pack of Goslings Ginger Beer that gave the conversation a zip of ginger.  We talked about independe...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s guest is the always inspiring, Andy Hite.  He is a Life and Business Coach, as well as the Creative Director at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, IL.  As a coach, he helps his clients focus on action orientated tasks to get them to the places they want to go.  Being a morning podcast, we didn’t have beer, but some classic Konrath coffee. We spoke about what a life...