The Futur

Do you know the difference between a freelancer and a small business owner? We won’t spoil it for you, but there is an important mindset distinction. And it can change everything about the way you do business. In tis deep dive episode, we talk with former software developer and author, Jonathan Stark. If you’re a long time follower of The Futur, then you’ll recognize that name. Jonathan’s mission is to rid the world of hourly billing. And in this Q&A session, he explains how you can do that. Transcend the hired gun, competing on price, and become someone who’s paid for the quality of their ideas. Jonathan also fields other questions about how to find new leads, figuring out who you should market to, and the pros and cons of specializing. If you’re raking it in and loving life, then give this a casual listen. But the rest of us should listen more carefully and use these free nuggets of knowledge to help our creative business pursuits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” This poignant quote from Mark Twain taps into the theme of this episode: grit. As in fortitude, guts, backbone Think about the most accomplished people that you admire. What drives them? What is that endless source of fuel that keeps their fire burning? Especially through the darkest and coldest of nights. Our guest today, Mario Quezada, is a brand strategist and owner of a small design and branding agency in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also an alumni of Art Center College of Art and Design. The same prestigious design school that Chris Do attended. In this episode, Mario and Chris talk about their experience growing up, feeling lost, and dealing with the ugly racism that the world showed them. They also swap stories about their unique experience at Art Center. The culture, the smell of the building, and the teachers that challenged their thinking and opened their mind to the possibilities of graphic design. Like Mr. Twain said: courage is re

This deep dive episode comes from a livestream we held way back in 2019 on The Futur’s YouTube channel. Our guest, Michael Janda, is the author of the best-selling book Burn Your Portfolio. He’s also a seasoned ad agency executive who helps creative entrepreneurs make more money with less stress. In this episode, we aim our focus on pricing creative work. A topic that every creative professional has struggles with. Michael walks you through a step by step process on how to price your work and how to parse all the variables that come with it. Things like production cost, market value, and client budget, to name a few. If you ever find yourself lost in the bidding process or pulling numbers out of thin air, then get ready to get schooled. Because you’re about to get a crash course in pricing creative work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever heard someone say that an idea “has legs”? What they mean is that the idea can endure and stay relevant over time. Because that’s what good ideas do—they stick around. Jason Harris is the CEO and co-founder of acclaimed ad agency, Mekanism. They do fantastic and progressive work for some of the best clients around. Brands like Peleton, Jose Cuervo, and Ben & Jerry’s. As a seasoned ad man, Jason knows a good idea when he sees it. And he knows how to present that idea to a client while be a true collaborator in the process. In this episode, Jason shares what he’s learned from running an agency for over 15 years. He talks about the power of branding, building community, and why great storytelling is at the heart of his agency’s success. It’s not often we get to speak with people in Jason’s shoes. If you work at agency—or aspire to start your own some day—then pay attention to this one. Because to survive and thrive, it takes more than just putting out great work. Learn more about your ad choices.

If you’ve followed us for a while, then you’ve probably heard the name Blair Enns a few times. Blair is a business consultant, speaker and author of the acclaimed book, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. And if you were to ask Chris Do what one book you should read is, it would be that one. We’ve had Blair on the show before, but we wanted to share this deep dive livestream with you because it’s filled with invaluable information. The insights that Blair shares and the perspective he offers is unmatched. You can actually hear Chris’s giddiness during their conversation. They cover a lot of ground in this talk. Discussing things like specializing vs generalizing, how to measure the value you bring to the table, pricing the client not the job and, of course, value based pricing. But the best part is that these are universal business concepts. You’ll find them everywhere outside of the creative industry, but Blair does a fantastic job of contextualizing them for people like us—the creative professional. We sugg

When you hear the term “high performance” you might think about professional athletes. People who go through intense physical and mental training to prepare their mind and body for the game. Not to sound like a meme, but what if we told you that you could borrow similar training techniques to improve your creative performance? Well, according to Erik Korem, there are plenty of parallels between creatives and athletes. High stress, long hours, and intense mental focus. And although he comes from a sports science background, having coached professional NFL players and olympic athletes, the concepts translate. Eat well, rest well and take care of yourself. In this episode, Erik offers tips for how you can become more adaptable, why rest is critical to your success and how your brain and body play an important role in creativity. High performance creative. It’s got a nice ring to it. Thank you to Gusto for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Lear

Dustin Lee is the founder of RetroSupply Co, a marketplace for retro brushes, textures, fonts, and more. Over the years, he’s carved out a unique position in the creative tool market. When you search for retro or vintage brushes for Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate you’re going to bump into his website. It's a great example of finding your niche. Dustin’s conversation with Chris centers around how creatives can start to think about passive income. But unlike a lot of other talks you have heard or read on the subject, Dustin gets into tactics. Like how to choose the right product, building something that stands out, and overcoming the aversion to marketing. If you're interested in using your creative skills to generate passive income, then this episode will make you happy. Grab your notebook (or laptop) and get ready to take notes. Thank you to Gusto for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone

2020 normalized the concept of remote work. Many people were forced to take their office home and find new ways to do business and stay connected. Whether they liked it or not. But before the pandemic, remote work wasn’t all that common. Which makes our guest, Cameron Pierron, quite the anomaly. Cameron worked remotely before it was cool. Like, in 2001. And he worked with big names, like Kyle Cooper and Danny Yount. Titans of the motion design industry. All from his home in the mid-West. In Kansas City. This conversation is from 2018, which feels like it was 10 years ago, but we’re willing to bet that people still believe you need to live on the coast, in a major city to work with big companies on high profile projects. Spoiler alert: not true. In fact, it’s far easier to to land those jobs now more than ever. And Cameron is a testament to that statement. He still lives in the mid-West, is self-taught, and continues to work with some of largest companies in the world. In this episode, Cameron walks us through

This is part two of a two part series where we reverse the roles and have our beloved founder and The Futur CEO, Chris Do, answer the questions. If you haven’t listened to part one, stop what you’re doing and go listen to that episode first. In part two, we pick up where we left off. With Chris’ vision of what The Futur, both the company and the concept, looks like. He and Anneli discuss the power of company culture, engaging with internet trolls and why mission over money is the best path forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’re a regular listener of the show, then you know our format: Chris Do talks with an interesting guest while carefully poking and prodding them with questions. All in hopes of learning as much about their experience as humanly possible. But today, we’re flipping everything on it’s head. In this two part series, the roles are reversed. Our guest, and Futur Pro Group member Anneli Hannson, will interview Chris. Think of it like a deep dive into the mind of Mr. Do. The person, the businessman, and the educator. In part one, we get to hear Chris’ origin story. About how an introverted refugee became the confident teacher and YouTuber you admire today. It’s easy to make assumptions about people, especially when you haven’t walked in their shoes. And this is probably the closest you can get to wearing Chris’ sneakers. He shares personal stories about his family fleeing Saigon, living life as a cultural outsider, and why it’s so important to have—and to follow—your own internal compass. Learn more about your

Have you ever heard of The Game of Life? It’s a multiplayer board game that was invented by Milton Bradley in the 19th century. The idea was to simulate a person going through all of their life experiences. School, marriage, jobs, and so on. And you, the player, get to decide what they do. Eric Siu lives his life as if it were a game. It’s no surprise that he is a big gamer, but he’s also an incredibly successful marketer and businessman. Eric runs a marketing agency, a software company, and is the host of two successful podcasts. And the secret to his success? Gamification. Applying the concepts of leveling up to yourself and your business. Everyone starts as a Level 1, but how far you go is up to you. In this episode, Eric and Chris go deep into marketing tactics. From targeted ad buys to good old SEO and everything in between. But most importantly, they talk about what you can do with your creativity and how to apply it to marketing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you hear the term sound design, you might think of fight sequences from action films. Like a fist landing on someone’s face, the cocking of a shotgun or even a building exploding into a giant ball of fire. But you probably don’t think about the subtle atmospheric sound design that permeates your screen. The icy wind underscoring an arctic journey. The ambient noise of a crowded outdoor market unique to Bangkok. Great sound design often goes unnoticed. It takes you out of your seat and submerges you into the story. Adding a new invisible ingredient to the experience. Our guest in this episode is Dallas Taylor. You may know him as the host and creator of Twenty Thousand Hertz, a lovingly crafted podcast revealing the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds. He’s also the Creative Director of Defacto Sound, where he has led thousands of high-profile projects ranging from blockbuster trailers and advertising campaigns to Sundance award-winning films and major television series. In

Streaming great music is easy to come by these days. You can search for almost any artist you want on Spotify or Apple Music and listen to them in a few seconds. The Beatles, Metallica and even Tool all have their discography up in the proverbial cloud. But there’s one place online that’s home to a unique genre of music. Music that’s streaming all day, every day. Whether you're listening or not. Chillhop Music is a music label based out of Rotterdam. They work with artists who primarily make relaxing beats and music to help you, well, chill. They stream this wonderful and mellow music 24/7 on YouTube. And over the years, have amassed over three million subs. In today's episode, we talk with the man behind the music label: Bas van Leeuwen. Bas majored in international business, but is slowly and deliberately finding his way back to creativity. He and Chris talk about where Chillhop came from, how they work with artists and, of course, the business behind it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas

This is part two of our fascinating talk with illustrator, children’s book author and creative entrepreneur, Arree Chung. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, go do that first. In this second episode, Arree talks us through his business plan and the unique opportunity he had to teach kids (and their parents) how to be creative. And how doing that earned him over $400K in 36 hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arree Chung is an illustrator, children's book author and creative entrepreneur. He’s also a member of The Futur Pro Group. But more importantly, he’s a shining example of how to find the silver lining in a bad situation. Like say, a pandemic. It’s no mystery why businesses across the planet have been decimated. And our guest is no exception. But what he does excel at, especially during these miserable times, is pivoting his way out of it. Arree’s remarkable story comes with many twists, turns and tough life lessons. Like leaving a salary of $120K a year to pursue happiness that only pays $30K. All while shouldering hundreds of thousand of dollars in tuition debt. But like we said, there is a silver lining. Which is why he now happily pays $8K/month in Zoom bills. And he does it debt free. Is that enough mystery for you? We think so. You’ll have to listen to this two part episode to really appreciate it what that means. Thank you to Gusto for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Koen Bok is the CEO and founder of the free web-based prototyping tool, Framer. Their mission is to bridge the imagination gap, so that you, your team and even your client are all speaking the same language. In this episode, Koen shares what life was like as a young kid, growing up in the Netherlands who is fascinated by computers. A fascination that developed into a legitimate business that was ultimately acquired by Facebook. Thanks to Gusto for sponsoring this episode - gusto.com/futur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lauren Hom is an accomplished hand lettering artist, designer and founder of Detroit-based studio, Hom Sweet Hom. She initially started in her career in advertising, working at one of largest agencies on the planet. But what started as a dream job, quickly became less and less dreamy over time. And exciting new opportunities were ripe for the taking. Thanks to Gusto for sponsoring this episode - gusto.com/futur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a companion episode to our previous chat with The Minerva Project managing director, Ayo Seligman. We had a great follow up conversation with professor Christine Looser, but it felt too long and too complex for a regular episode. So we’re releasing it as a bonus. If you haven’t listened to Ayo's episode, then go listen to that one first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ayo Seligman is the managing director of brand and creative at Minerva Project. If you’re not already familiar with it, Minvera Project is an educational innovator that is redesigning the way people learn. Ayo tells Chris about graduating from UCLA’s design program and how starting a zine on the internet landed him a job at one of the most prestigious design firms in the world. Thanks to Gusto for sponsoring this episode. gusto.com/futur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hayley Akins runs an online education company called Motion Hatch. They help motion designers with their businesses and creative careers. Hayley and Chris discuss her journey from studying film production, working for Google and the transition from full time to freelance to ultimately, starting her own community focused business. Thanks to Gusto for sponsoring this episode - gusto.com/futur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices