“I applied to and started the TV program at Haslett High School near Lansing, Michigan and taught TV production there for 13 years. Then at age 38, I began telling my wife that I was not having as much fun at my job any more. This had been my only job. I wanted to do something bigger. I wanted to do something different but still creative. She encouraged me to go for it.
“I resigned from the school on a Friday and got an office at an incubator on Monday. In the beginning I had no idea what I was doing. But I did know that we needed to work on our brand and get our brand messaging out there, networking as much as we possibly could. We talked a lot about how important that creative piece is to our brand. Knowing that was a big help for us to figure out who we were early on.
“I still say this to my staff all the time: ‘I think we're all creative here at Michigan Creative even if, for example, you wouldn't want me doing your graphic design. But I love to write, I love to shoot videos. A lot of people don't have that creative piece of their brain and we shouldn’t take our creative abilities for granted.’
“Now we're also helping other companies establish who they are and how they go out into the world. As I think you know, in today's world it's more important than ever to establish a brand and brand message.”
Brian Town is an author, speaker, educator, and the founder of Michigan Creative, an award-winning branding and marketing agency specializing in web development, video, branding, and social media marketing, designed to help businesses systematize their lead generation and scale their profits.
As a fractional CEO, Brian works with dozens of clients who want to scale without building out an entire marketing department so that they can stay focused on their areas of expertise and serve their clients and customers.
In his forthcoming book, "The Lonely CEO," Brian shares his insights and best strategies for avoiding resistance, solidifying your belief in yourself as the right person to run your company, and systematizing your marketing and hiring processes to grow and scale a sustainable business.
“I went to law school at age 49 at Washington University School of Law, which is an Ivy League-level law school. I graduated with a 4.0, the highest GPA in my class. When people ask me how I did that while doing all this other stuff at the same time, I like to joke and say ‘I cheated.’ At Orientation they told us we should spend four hours per class per week preparing for lectures. I spent eight hours preparing. Most people say, that’s not cheating. Yes, but nobody does it. If you want to be the smartest person in the room, you have to be the most prepared person in the room. See, there’s nothing extra-ordinary about me. I was a below average student in high school. I just start with the conviction that failure is not an option and I cannot be outworked. Then I move on to: ‘I’m going to out prepare everyone.’ You see, the harder you work, the luckier you get.”
Stephen Nalley is the owner and Managing Partner of Black Briar Advisors, which is a Small Business Administration and Veteran’s Affairs Certified-Disabled Service-Connected Veteran-Owned Company. He has owned and operated over 200 hotels across the United States and has managed over $2 billion in Hotel & Resort Assets. He is the author of "Relentless Pursuit," where he describes the secret to success as knowing what you want and having a compelling reason why and the discipline to sacrifice what we want right now for what we really want later.
“We ended up with over 2,000 recruiting firms buying our training model. But after 2 years, I was just bored out of my mind! Once a month we were doing the exact same 5-day training. I missed doing the executive searches myself. That’s just what my passion was, that’s what I loved doing and where my talent was. So, we ended up re-acquiring our old company. I think one of the goals every human should have is to find something they sincerely love doing, and then doing it well enough that they can make a living from it. I found that! I found that in the executive search business.”
Gene Rice’s business career includes working for a Fortune 100 firm–where he was promoted 5 times in 7 years–to co-founding Rice Cohen International, a successful executive search firm. He has placed over 1,000 C-level executives while mentoring many young professionals. In 2008, Gene and his wife started a nonprofit charity, The Plant a Seed Inspire a Dream Foundation, which has enabled over 800 children from low-income households to pursue their passions. Gene and his daughter, a teacher, have recently co-authored the book “Grad to Grown-Up.”
Guest James Cloud: "I guess you could say I might unconsciously have developed a mission that I hope that my books will help throw light onto the question of how did the Holocaust happen in a developed, civilized country like Germany.”
James Cloud is a retired educator with more than 30 years of experience. He was born and brought up in Las Vegas, New Mexico, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In 1942, he entered Miss Cone's first grade class, a Jewish teacher that would spark his interest in the war and understanding the people struggling on both sides.
As a young adult, he traveled to Germany, learned the language, and was accepted into the Institute of Arts in West Berlin. While living in Germany, he worked as an interpreter for the British military mission during the Cold War years and developed an intimate knowledge of both East and West Berlin.
He began writing his first novel, Brandenburg, A Story of Berlin, at the age of 80, bringing together his impressions gained over a lifetime of teaching and interacting with many nationalities and cultures, most especially with German Jewish people. The second novel, Brandenburg II, The Ninth Circle of Hell, came shortly after, and he is currently (2024) working on his third novel in the series.
Guest Dawn Cook Causey: “Empathy, which is the key dimension of EQ–emotional intelligence–has been until quite recently so dramatically underutilized in our day-to-day communications, in spite of the fact that it is the root cause of so many communications issues. With almost every client I have worked with over the many years I have been coaching, I find that I spend a large amount of time helping them understand and then improve their capacity for empathy. A while back I even coined the idea, ‘Empathy is the difference between compliance and commitment.’ I truly believe that. If you are unable to meet somebody half-way during a discussion or debate, you will find it exceptionally difficult to influence them.”
Dawn Cook Causey is an ICF certified professional executive coach with six certifications in emotional intelligence. Her mission in life is to raise the bar on emotional intelligence in leaders around the world. She likes to say she is in the polishing business, helping leaders and teams shine their brightest by making the best choices every moment of every day. Her personal motto is, it’s your choice, so make it count.
"The challenge for most people is figuring out where is the intersection of 1) what they love to do, 2) what they are also really good at doing, and 3) what will people legitimately pay for."
Jennifer Allwood has built her business in phases into what she considers a dream life. It all began with her fascination with HGTV, her love of decorating, and a trip to a Home Show. And yes, from being laid off her job as a software analyst. A passionate cheerleader of women, she adds biblical truth to the modern day “dream big” mantra. Her no-nonsense approach to doing things you are scared to do and saying yes to God is helping women everywhere build the life and business of their dreams. When she’s not coaching her nearly 3,000 clients each month, she’s living the dream in Kansas City with Mr. Magic (her husband, Jason) and their four wild kiddos—Noah, Easton, Ava Grace, and Ariana. Oh, and their Goldendoodles, Stella and Lola, the best dogs on earth.
"The New York office asked me if I’d like to transfer there as supervisor and a pay raise that was literally three times greater than what I was earning at the time as a 25-year-old ‘newbie' in the world of advertising. My immediate response was: 'No thank you, I want to make movies.' Soon thereafter I accepted a job as a production assistant on a TV show called 'Dream On' which was featured on HBO, for a tiny fraction of the salary I was offered in the ad business. My gut told me that if I took that high-paying job, I would be shackled by the proverbial ‘golden handcuffs’ and never be able to pursue my passion for the film and TV industry. My gut was spot on and I have been creating a career that I love every day ever since.”
Tim Tortora has spent his impressive career in the entertainment industry garnering extensive financial and producing experience before releasing his second book “An Effective Guide to Build Your Path in The Film and TV Industry.” His latest book and companion Community guides aspiring filmmakers through the black box that is building a durable network in film and TV production.