The Futur with Chris Do

A woman still resents the friend who broke her trust years ago. The story she tells about it is that people tear you down when you shine too bright. Chris Do hands the room to Dr. John Demartini, who runs his method on her live and in front of everyone: narrow the story to one specific act, find where she has done the same thing herself, then account for what that act actually gave her across care...

There's a version of Hawk Tuah Girl in every algorithm feed: one clip, one accident, one viral moment that turns into an identity overnight. Chris Do says that's not a strategy, it's luck, and luck runs out. What actually holds up over years comes from solving the same problem for the same person long enough that your name becomes the answer. Chris explains his own 90-day blueprint for finding tha...

Brittney Carlini taught herself Photoshop to make thumbnails for her husband's YouTube channel because they couldn't afford to hire anyone. Now she builds tension into every frame she designs, a bar of soap forged from steel, a jet-powered go-kart racing a closing railroad crossing, the eye of a man about to swallow a pill. Chris compares the work to movie poster marketing, the cracked egg on the...

Joanna Wiebe invented conversion copywriting, and after eight years of barely-there YouTube growth, she grew her channel 3,000% in three months. She demonstrates the problem-agitate-solution and desire-obstacle-solution frameworks live with Chris, argues that voice of customer data beats clever taglines every time, and outlines the three-part moat she's building against AI: a book, YouTube, and st...

Brooke Hopper is Adobe’s first Senior Principal Designer, and one of the people building Firefly from the inside. She tells Chris why Adobe licenses every image it trains on and pays the artists behind it, why she still gets bad results out of the tool she helped build, and why she's skeptical anyone should learn taste from a machine. She makes the case for designing for "intentional friction" ins...

John Lee went from selling prawn crackers and used game cartridges as a teenager to closing property deals with none of his own money, and eventually building a career across real estate, sales training, social media, and AI. In this conversation, Chris Do and John break down WIIFT (What's In It For Them), a mentor lesson that reframed John's failing investor pitches by moving the ask from "do you...

Matt Essam, author of The Creative Studio Roadmap, joins Chris Do for a live episode recorded in front of a studio audience to break down the pillars of turning a solo creative business into one that scales: differentiation, communication, and delivery. Chris and Matt pull audience members into the hot seat to work through real pricing blocks, story-driven positioning, and the shift from selling y...

Dr. Justin Sung was a practicing physician before he became one of the most-watched learning coaches online, and in this conversation he takes apart the biggest myth people believe about how they learn: that everyone has a fixed "learning style" they should lean into. Justin walks Chris through what actually drives fast, durable learning: the discomfort of overwhelm, the discipline of turning conf...

Matt Gray built and exited companies, grew audiences into the millions across three ventures, then turned that same systems thinking toward his own personal brand and scaled it to over 3 million followers. In this conversation, Matt walks Chris through the full arc: getting sober and using a messy, unstructured writing practice as the starting point, learning to ship imperfect content instead of w...

Chris Do welcomes stylist and archetypal coach Kimberly Parry to explore the deep connection between clothing, confidence, and identity. Parry walks through her Succeed with Style framework, the psychology behind why people sabotage a new look the moment they try it on, and the Bro Pro, Faux Pro, and GOAT archetypes she uses to help clients figure out who they actually are before they touch a clos...

Most people build a brand around what they do. Chris Do says that's exactly why no one remembers them. In this episode, Drigo sits down with Chris to dig into the philosophy behind his new workbook, Unbland Yourself, and what it actually takes to stop blending in and start building a brand that compels some people and repels others by design. Chris breaks down the three principles of personal bran...

Tyler Chou spent nearly 20 years as a Hollywood attorney at Disney, Buzzfeed, and Skydance before a midlife crisis and a layoff pushed her into the creator economy. Now she's the legal strategist behind some of the most valuable creator-led businesses on the internet, including one valued at $100 million. In this conversation, she and Chris break down what separates a YouTube channel from a real,...

Chris's cousin, Chau Nguyen, was one of the first guests ever on this podcast. Now he's back, nearly a decade later, with a different kind of company. After exiting Campus Special for $20 million and watching his VC-backed follow-up fail, Chau started messing around with an old Ford Bronco in his garage and accidentally built Vintage Modern, a custom vehicle company doing $60 million in revenue, s...

Most creatives wait until the very end of a sales conversation to bring up price. By that point, they've been half-present the whole time, one ear on the client and the other on the clock, trying to find the right moment that never comes. Chris breaks down why that pattern hurts you before you ever quote a number, and what it actually looks like to bring up budget, scope, and price upfront without...

What happens when two people who've both manifested real results sit down to compare notes? Chris and Jodie Cook dig into the mechanics of manifestation; not as a spiritual exercise, but as a practical framework for getting what you want without becoming obsessed with it. From vision boards to agency exits to the danger of desperation, this one gets surprisingly tactical for a woo topic. Timestamp...

In this episode Chris breaks down one of the most studied sales moments in sports history: how Nike's Sonny Vaccaro walked into a room as the clear underdog and walked out with Michael Jordan's signature. Using scenes from the film Air, Chris unpacks the psyop, the competitor takedown, and the negotiation move that changed the business of sports forever. Plus, a real-world story from a friend that...

Matt Lakajev is back. His first appearance on The Futur was a hit, and this time he brings a complete framework for one of the most common creative business problems: niching down. Not the vague "pick a niche" advice that floats around online, but a step-by-step formula for identifying whether your offer is even viable, who your ideal client actually is, and how to signal to them so clearly that t...

Chris Do and Jule Kim sit down to talk about the one question most people avoid asking themselves: what are you actually supposed to be doing with your life? Jule is a coach who has spent years watching clients struggle to answer this, and she's honest that she's still working through it herself. What follows is a real, back-and-forth conversation about focus, latent talent, the danger of building...

Most experts are invisible. They've put in the work, they know their field cold, and nobody has heard of them. Matthew Byrd built his authority from an entry-level position in land surveying to founding a global industry conference, and the path wasn't a big platform or viral moment. It was consistency, proactive networking, and content rooted in real expertise. In this episode, Chris and Matthew...

Chris Do identifies the invisible distance between who a creator is and who they present to the world, a phenomenon he calls the authenticity gap. He explains that performing for acceptance rather than showing up authentically leads to creative burnout, attracted the wrong audience, and inconsistent growth. By examining the difference between performance marketing and long-term brand building, Chr...

Most people think they're world-class. Most people are wrong. In this conversation, Chris sits down with Jodie Cook, entrepreneur, powerlifter, and author, to break down what it actually means to operate at the very top of any field, and what separates the truly elite from everyone else who just thinks they are. They get into the five markers of world-class performance, the four stages of competen...

Chris Do speaks with Mikon van Gastel about the critical gap between being a design practitioner and a strategic business leader. Van Gastel, co-founder of Sibling Rivalry, shares insights on how to "lead the witness" during pitches, the shifting value of experience in a millennial-driven market, and why the future of advertising lies in immersive ecosystems like the Sphere. Listeners will learn h...

In this episode, Chris Do speaks with entrepreneur and #1 New York Times Best Selling author Marie Forleo about designing a business and life centered around joy and fulfillment. Marie unpacks the dangers of a scarcity mindset and explains how reframing our relationship with money unlocks new levels of abundance. They explore the reality of being a multi-passionate creative, offering a framework f...

This episode explores the growing anxiety creatives feel around AI and reframes the conversation toward long-term relevance and value. Chris Do breaks down six high-income creative skills that AI cannot replace, emphasizing that these are not job titles but human capabilities to strengthen and lead with. He explains why strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and original creativity remain ess...

Chris Do sits down with artist and designer Scott Clum to explore the evolution of snowboard and skate culture's visual language. In an era increasingly dominated by AI and push-button gratification, Clum champions the tactile, utilitarian process of making art and embracing the beauty of mistakes. Drawing from his 40-year career shaping brands like Sims and Morrow Snowboards, he unpacks the cruci...