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2021 Speakers
Week one
Week Two
Week three
Week four
Week five
mario quezada
prep-crastination
Mario Quezada is a Level C Brand Specialist, an award-winning Creative Director and owner of Made X Maker Branding Agency in Honolulu, HI. He received his BFA in Graphic Design / New Media from Pasadena Art Center College of Design.
Leveraging his 25+ years of experience working in the advertising and entertainment industries as a Creative Director, he crafts meaningful brands from the inside out.
With a unique “People Forward” approach, Mario believes “placing people at the forefront of your brand’s focus is the bulletproof way to succeed in life and business.”
Mario has worked with the industry’s top entertainment studios and brands; Disney, Warner Bros., Fox, Universal, ABC, NBC, Google, Ford, Microsoft, Al Gore, Conor McGregor, Hawaiian Airlines, Toyota and the Make-A-Wish Foundation to name a few.
Mario has been on numerous award-winning teams that have won awards such as Cannes Grand Prix Cannes Lions, Silver Cannes Lions, Webbys, Cleos, One Show Interactive, and many w3 Awards.
When Mario isn’t creating meaningful brands, he’s chasing after his kids, throwing around heavy weights, coaching designers and business owners, creating content for social media, making sourdough bread, or cooking for his family.
daniel harmon
lessons learned: i started selling potatoes
Daniel Harmon is Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Harmon Brothers, a Provo, Utah-based ad agency behind the most viral ads in internet history. Under Harmon’s creative direction, the agency’s groundbreaking ads have collectively driven more than 1.5 billion views and over $400 million in sales.
While receiving his degree in Advertising, Harmon learned from his door-to-door sales job that the key to successful salesmanship was truly believing in the product. Harmon then started his ad career as a copywriter at DDB Chicago and VSA Partners where he worked on campaigns for global brands such as McDonald’s, Dell, Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson, Avery Dennison and GE Healthcare. Following this, he transitioned to a business to business sales manager for an interstate battery franchise, where Harmon learned how to develop and nurture long-term relationships with customers. But it was his work on a breakout campaign for Orabrush that paved the way for the definitive work that would follow.
In 2013 as a co-founder of Harmon Brothers, he helped write and creatively direct a campaign for Poo~Pourri that revolutionized the way products are marketed. Harmon Brothers has produced internet advertising blockbusters such as Squatty Potty, Purple, Chatbooks, FiberFix and Poo~Pourri. He is also the host and creative teacher at Harmon Brothers University, a new school for creators seeking to learn the Harmon Brothers method.
Harmon believes his greatest accomplishments are being married to his beautiful wife and raising their six children.
taryn davis
leveraging processes for strategic outcomes
Taryn is a consultant to small businesses for process improvement and internal infrastructure development. She works with entrepreneurs to reorganize problem areas of the business using processes and systems to generate predictable results.
With a background in continuous improvement and change management, Taryn is skilled in working with all levels of a business to ensure that the internal infrastructure of the business is equipped to maintain the changes necessary for sustained growth.
She is passionate about reconnecting entrepreneurs with the joy and creativity that sparked their businesses in the first place.
van cooley
your old stories
Van Cooley is an Identity Coach and Community Facilitator guiding Creative Entrepreneurs and Unconventional Agencies. She makes space for people to express their Blend of Magic with purpose so they can thrive. Seeing beauty in the mess and inspiring courageous action. A calm storm.
michael janda
building an agency, developing processes
Michael Janda is an award-winning creative director, designer, agency owner and author. In 2002, he founded the creative agency Riser, which provided design and development services for clients that included Disney, Google, Warner Bros., Fox, NBC, ABC, National Geographic and many other high-profile brands. Following 13 successful years, Michael sold his agency in 2015. He now spends his time writing, speaking, and mentoring to help freelancers and agencies navigate the complex world of design.
Prior to founding his agency, Michael served as a Senior Creative Director at Fox Studios where he managed the design, editorial and development teams for the Fox Kids and Fox Family brands.
Michael’s book, Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff They Don’t Teach You In Design School But Should, was published in 2013 and has been one of the top-selling design industry books since its release. In 2019, his book, The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing: Price Creative Work with Confidence. Win more Bids. Make more Money., was released in English. A Russian version was published in 2020.
His work, book and agency have received awards and recognition from Inc. 5000, FWA, Awwwards, HOW Magazine, Print Magazine, Ad News Magazine, Huffington Post, Promax/BDA, AIGA 100, Addy Awards, Webby Awards, and BusinessQ Magazine.
Michael lives in Utah with his wife of more than 20 years, their three sons, and a collection of more than 150 bobbleheads.
anat rodan
uncover your uniqueness to find your ideal client
For more than 20 years, I obsessed over design, creating wow moments for people. I fell in love with colors, shapes and words at a very young age. Turning problems into beautiful solutions was my way of expressing myself and helping others.
Then, suddenly, I lost my passion for design. On a journey to find my lost love, I came across brand strategy, the missing piece I didn’t even know I was craving.
Translating strategy into design is a natural and organic process for me. Connecting the two gave me the opportunity to work at a completely different level.
When I realized that other creatives found my process intriguing and valuable, I decided to share it with them, so they could apply it to their own and their clients’ businesses. When they asked to learn more, I started teaching them my thought process.
It’s been a transformative journey. By being curious, open and stepping out of my comfort zone, I uncovered who I was, what I can do and why I’m doing it. I invite you to think about the possibilities for yourself.
My name is Anat Rodan, I’m a coach, brand strategist, designer and teacher. I help passionate and caring creatives uncover their uniqueness and apply it to everything they do.
jacob cass
affiliates: growing a company through partnerships
Jacob Cass is a brand designer, strategist, educator, business coach and the founder of JUST Creative, an award-winning branding & design firm that doubles as an industry-leading blog. Jacob helps brands grow & get results by crafting distinctive logos & brand identities that are backed by strategy. He recently rebranded San Francisco and Puerto Rico, and also branded New York’s Digital District. Other clients have included the likes of Disney, Nintendo and Jerry Seinfeld. Jacob has spoken at TEDx, been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur and has been awarded LinkedIn’s “Best of” for branding.
For him, design is a lifelong journey of continuously honing his craft, as well as educating other fellow designers & business owners to build on theirs, which has allowed him to build a large and loyal following, including his website which has been viewed over 55 million times. Jacob is an avid traveler and has traveled to 87 countries.
Jacob co-hosts the JUST Branding Podcast that helps designers & entrepreneurs grow brands, and has interviewed leaders such as Chris Do & Marty Neumeier, on the topics of branding & strategy.
Jacob is a business coach and helps creatives level up through 1:1 coaching and in a group setting, in his Inner Triangle Group Coaching Mastermind.
ashwin chacko
face youur giants
Ashwin Chacko is a seriously playful connector, bringing people together through positive storytelling with Illustration & Design. Championing creativity to shape culture through Talks l Books | Videos | Workshops.
Ashwin Chacko is a storyteller & motivational speaker based in Dublin. Ashwin specializes in positive visual storytelling. He helps companies connect with their audience through illustrations & design. He is interested in uncovering the social interactions that drive culture. He seeks to capture these moments in bold lines & shapes, his compositions focus on a strong use of characters intermingled with typography and patterns. He likes to de-scribe his work as; positively playful.
Select clients include, Facebook, Adobe, Nike, Dublin City Council, United Nations and more.
He most recently launched his new book Little Optimist, A pocket full of Joy. 30 days of creative meditative in pocket sized book. Positive ideas to propel you forward, full of joy and encouragement.
His children book Everybody has Fear will be launching later this year!
david mooney
resilience and recharge for entrepreneurs
I am an entrepreneur with 18 years of thriving and sometimes grappling with the question of how to have resiliency and sustainability, both on a personal level and for my business, as I ride the waves of a full commitment to growing a profitable business from work I am deeply passionate about. I have studied deeply psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology and somatic practices as a central strand to my business and also as research into sustainability, resilience and health maintenance for entrepreneurs and sole traders who inevitably face the stresses and strains of running a business solo.
My university background is International business and languages with further qualifications in psychotherapy. I have 18 year experience as an entrepreneur having set up three successful businesses, one as a social entrepreneur to create a nationwide social enterprise to promote alcohol and drug free nightclubs in Ireland. The 10 year venture led to 40,000 members and collaborations with the Irish government and voluntary organisations to create a national strategy for social change. I currently run a social enterprise in Ireland and Europe to promote local community, mental health programs as well as somatic resilience and health. I currently have local hubs in 18 European countries. I took part in the European School of Social Entrepreneurs program for select programs for 4 years and integrate these tools and practices when working with entrepreneurs.
In the past 3 years I have been integrating the latest neuroscience understanding of how we as humans are hardwired and how this influences how we deal with and our responses to stress and the responsibility of running an enterprise. I am passionate about making the very useful information about neurobiology, neuroscience and psychology much more accessible and applicable to running a business. My goal is to bring the subtleties of this knowledge into day to day language and simple tools and practices that anyone can use to improve their capacity to be both healthy and run, grow and scale a successful business.
craig heyworth
scaling your business with a fully remote team
Director of Yeti, a brand strategy and experience design company, working with clients large and small across the globe.
Yeti brings ideas to life for people crazy enough to have them. Yeti joins forces with entrepreneurs struggling to design, create, and market their ideas, so together we can build their ideal company that generates monster revenue.
In addition to Yeti, Craig’s part-owner and CTO of Pet Insurer, America’s leading price comparison website for pet insurance.
Craig has a history of building businesses from their first dollar to their multi-millionth.
reggie ballesteros
unifying multiple audiences around your content
Reggie is an engineer turned San Francisco wedding photographer with a passion for educating photographers at all skill levels. With every client, he seeks to understand how they define love and how they allow it to manifest itself in their lives, relationships, and passions — using photography to visually communicate that unique love in a bold and emotive way. As an educator, it’s his mission to teach 1 million people to become photographers: He wants to help change the way people see the world around them. He has a knack for being able to simplify technical concepts into digestible pieces of educational content. Through the power of the internet, he believes in educating the photography community worldwide by sharing his knowledge and process to the masses. Reggie is an official ambassador for Fujifilm and has partnered with brands like B&H Photo Video and Moment.
shawn ramsey
shifting the way entrepreneurs communicate
Shawn Ramsey combines 20 years of communication and consulting experience, a strong entrepreneurial background and a powerful collection of coaching skills to help clients find their authentic voice, tell their unique story and chart their own personal and professional paths.
Throughout her career, she has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, guiding them through the ups and downs of their entrepreneurial journey.
Prior to starting and leading her own PR & Marketing firm for 13 years, she led communication efforts for multiple high-growth entrepreneurial companies, served as director of marketing for an early-stage investment firm and worked for a global public relations agency where her passion for entrepreneurship sparked.
Today, Shawn is a communications consultant and coach for entrepreneurs through her firm, The Art of Moxie, and leads strategic communication efforts for UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Entrepreneurship (Eship) Center. Shawn holds a MA in Communication (Marshall University), is a certified Positive Psychology Coach (Wholebeing Institute) and a Certified Professional Coach (Center for Coaching Certification). She is Reiki 2 certified (in the USUI Reiki System of Natural Healing) and continues to explore a variety of Energy, Intuitive and Shamanic modalities to complement her more traditional education and skillset. This unique background allows her to provide a powerful level of value and insights as she takes a wholistic approach to guiding clients on their road to success.
mike jones
delegating without micromanaging
I love Jesus, my sweet wife & kids, being creative, drawing, designing & branding! Throw in sports & food, especially good southern bbq – life gets no better! #Blessed
