Create Your Art

Cody Brahnam had zero followers when he posted his first tweet about supply chain margins. One reply turned into a consulting client, then a 3PL contract, then a borrowed warehouse, and today Ship Smarter is one of the fastest growing fulfillment companies in Indianapolis. In this episode of the Create Your Art Podcast, Darren sits down with Cody to unpack the first domino, how cognitive reframing helped a self-described "ops guy, not a sales guy" sell millions in services, why servant leadership became his growth strategy, and why the worst thing that can happen when you use your voice is that nobody sees it.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS: 
⚡️ Your biggest startup cost is time, not money. "Everyone's got the same 24 hours in a day. How are you going to spend it?" 
⚡️ Reframe what scares you. Cody stopped "selling" and started solving problems, and his sales process hasn't changed since day one. 
⚡️ The first domino is small. "I'm not a sales guy, but I've sold a lot of millions of dollars of services. It's because I just took that first step." 
⚡️ Content is digital real estate. Something you post today can help someone years from now.
⚡️ Fundamentals beat dashboards. Keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is helping people. 
⚡️ Use your voice, even if it shakes. "The worst thing that can happen is that nobody sees it."

⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 
00:00 - Cold open
00:57 - Meet Cody Brahnam
01:50 - The real cost of growth
03:45 - From Chomps to a pipe dream
05:14 - The tweet that changed everything
07:03 - What a 3PL actually does
08:56 - Why logistics is an art
10:45 - The Create Your Art hat story
12:24 - The voices that say you can't
14:53 - Cognitive reframing and selling
17:33 - Wantrepreneur to first domino
20:49 - What hitting send felt like
22:37 - Content as digital real estate
24:01 - Helping as the foundation
25:24 - Pressure is a privilege
27:15 - Who you're becoming
29:38 - Being where your feet are
32:51 - Sponsor break
33:18 - Under the hood of Ship Smarter
36:42 - Radical accountability
38:37 - Unloading the container
41:23 - Small town servant roots
43:17 - Fundamentals beat dashboards
46:01 - Day one in the living room
48:38 - The warehouse at Sunday lunch
51:26 - The tape gun
51:51 - Quitting the W-2
54:14 - The domino effect
56:01 - Youth as an insecurity
57:24 - Use your voice, even if it shakes
58:10 - Where to find Cody
59:59 - Who Ship Smarter serves
01:01:43 - Final takeaways

CONNECT WITH US:
Website: https://1898creative.com
Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper 

CONNECT WITH CODY:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-branham
Ship Smarter on X: https://x.com/shipsmarter

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HASHTAGS:
#createyourart #entrepreneurship #firststep #servantleadership #ecommerce #3PL #personalbrand

Chad Temple spent 33 years as a pastor before he stepped out to launch indyNetwork, and the fear that showed up was the same one he felt as a teenager throwing a party nobody came to. In this conversation with Darren, Chad opens up about the voice that told him he was a phony, the "doorway conversations" that happen before anyone commits to showing up, and the fear he says was harder than any business risk: what his adult kids would think when they finally saw him afraid.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ The fear of being exposed as a fraud does not go away with age or experience, it just changes shape.

⚡️People decide whether to commit to something in the doorway, before they ever fully step inside.

⚡️Real leadership is not the absence of fear, it is doing what you said you would do while afraid.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:01 the voices that show up when you step out.

02:25 the party nobody came to.

04:20 the cost of encouragement versus the cost of doing it.

04:50 the fear of what his kids would see.

08:59 what actually answers the fear.

CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

CONNECT WITH CHAD TEMPLE:

Website: https://www.indynetwork.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076282504518

Instagram: @_indynetwork_

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC0MK0GHY_DlzWIEeA9SueVA

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HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #findable #leadership #fatherhood #ministryleadership

Chad Temple spent thirty years walking the same routes, knocking on the same doors, showing up for the same families, long after most people would have quit or moved on. In this segment, he tells Darren the stories that explain why. A pay phone in the Bronx. A neighborhood that stayed loyal after a full year of silence. A route captain who drove straight into a crime scene asking "is it one of my kids." A blizzard that didn't stop a promised Snickers bar from getting delivered by hand. This is a conversation about what it actually costs to become the kind of person or organization a community can count on without asking twice.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ Consistency, not charisma, is what makes you unforgettable to the people you serve

⚡️ Trust survives a gap in contact when it was built on years of showing up before that

⚡️ The decision to follow through has to be made before the hard moment arrives, not during it

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

CONNECT WITH CHAD TEMPLE:

Website: https://www.indynetwork.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076282504518

Instagram: @_indynetwork_

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC0MK0GHY_DlzWIEeA9SueVA

If this episode helped you, please:

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HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #faithfulness #consistency #communityimpact #showupanyway

Most people building something new are chasing the moment it finally looks impressive. Chad Temple, founder of iNDY Network and Darren's father in law, spent thirty three years knocking on doors in Indianapolis neighborhoods before any of it looked impressive at all. In this episode, Chad and Darren talk about the leap from three decades at one church to founding a network that strengthens, connects, and unleashes twenty one partner ministries across the city, the fear that never fully goes away no matter how long you've been doing the work, and why the big splash was never actually the point.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ Consistency compounds. The families who trusted Chad's team did so because they showed up on the same day, at the same time, for years, not because of a single big moment.

⚡️ The fear of being seen as a fraud does not disappear with experience. It just becomes something you have learned to work alongside.

⚡️ Effort matters, but it is not the whole story. Chad's "stirring the water" analogy reframes how much credit any of us should take for what we build.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction and meeting Chad Temple

01:21 - Thirty three years running outreach in Indianapolis

04:15 - The thread of consistency over time

17:50 - Why the big splash was never the point

22:02 - The leap from the church into iNDY Network

35:29 - The fear of being seen as a fraud

48:21 - Stirring the water: a different take on effort and trust

52:00 - Strengthen, connect, unleash in practice

01:05:03 - Encouragement for anyone standing at the edge

💼 CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

CONNECT WITH CHAD TEMPLE:

Website: https://www.indynetwork.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076282504518

Instagram: @_indynetwork_

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@iNDYNetwork⁩

If this episode helped you, please:

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HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #indynetwork #indianapolis #ministryleadership #consistency #entrepreneurship

Erik Cooper started college as a music major, graduated with an accounting degree, spent two or three years at a CPA firm, and then landed in full time ministry completely by accident. Twelve years later, a phone call brought him back to the family business he now leads. He never saw any of it coming, and that turns out to be the point. Darren sits down with his brother Erik, president of The Stone Table, to talk about open doors, gray hair, royalty checks that barely cover Chili's, and why not being able to see the whole plan might be the most useful thing that ever happens to you.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ Conviction rarely arrives before the decision. Erik had no early whisper about ministry. He had a plan that specifically excluded it.

⚡️ Nothing in your background is wasted and nothing in it is sufficient. The music and the accounting both mattered, and neither looked like preparation at the time.

⚡️ Internal restlessness came first, external confirmation came second. He was already paying attention before there was anything to confirm.

⚡️ Whatever forces you to trust more is working for you, not against you.

⚡️ You only see the shape of it in arrears. Obedience for the next step is the entire assignment.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 The plan that did not include ministry

00:52 A recovering accountant with an accounting degree

01:50 The call back to the family business

03:14 What about Erik

03:41 The family pattern of walking through open doors

04:11 Why you do not get to see the whole picture

05:37 What twelve years in ministry actually meant

06:03 The music major who graduated in accounting

07:25 Writing songs before writing songs was cool

07:50 The forty seven cent royalty check

08:17 When God winks at you

09:08 Seeing faithfulness in arrears

💼 CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

The Stone Table: https://www.thestonetable.org

CRF: https://crf.net

If this episode helped you, please:

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HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #faithandwork #businessasmission #nextstep #calling #entrepreneurship #thestonetable #findable

Erik Cooper spent twelve years in full-time ministry, then walked back into the business world and could not answer one question. Why does God care at all about renting apartments? The search for that answer led him to a room in Seymour, Indiana, where six grown men wept at the front after he shared some notes he describes as terrible. It also led to The Stone Table, a giving organization that has channeled millions into global missions over the last decade.

Erik is president of The Stone Table and serves in executive leadership at Community Reinvestment Foundation, the nonprofit affordable housing company his father Dave Cooper co-founded in 1992. He is also Darren's older brother, which makes this the second half of a family story that started last week.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ You never feel ready, and readiness was never the qualification for the next step

⚡️ Insecurity in a leader is not a private problem, it costs the people around you

⚡️ The message you assume everyone already knows is usually the one nobody has said out loud

⚡️ You cannot replicate what someone built, but you can replicate why they built it

⚡️ Culture takes three to five years to shift, and moving faster can break what you inherited

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open

00:52 Welcome to Create Your Art

01:47 Comparing notes with Dad's episode

02:45 What pulled him out of twelve years in ministry

04:05 A recovering accountant with a degree in it

05:28 The conversations that started before anyone said them out loud

06:57 Walking through the next open door

08:24 What a decade in music ministry actually meant

10:18 Writing songs before every church wrote songs

12:35 Why you only see it in arrears

13:31 The day he walked in as the dumbest guy in the room

15:58 Dealing with your fears before they hurt someone else

16:50 Why are we really in this business

18:08 Was affordable housing the point or the opportunity

20:01 Selling the portfolio and the next pivot

20:45 Sponsor break

21:15 The art of creating a new reality

22:18 Different artistic skills for different seasons

24:13 None of us reflect the fullness of our creator alone

26:23 The artist in us is an insecure little child

27:48 How CRF actually works in thirty seconds

29:12 Pastor Tom Paino and a second mantle

31:49 You do not step in because you are worthy

33:18 Why they named it The Stone Table

36:37 Channeling is the big word there

37:36 Why does God care about renting apartments

38:29 The books that started to answer it

39:26 Six men weeping at the front of the room

40:23 Fifty years in business and nobody told him

41:12 A different seat, the same calling

44:00 Honoring what came before without going stale

46:15 Three to five years to shift a culture

48:09 Be humble, be patient, be courageous

52:23 Your first domino

💼 CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

The Stone Table: https://www.thestonetable.org

CRF: https://crf.net

If this episode helped you, please:

💬 Share your biggest takeaway in the comments

🔔 Subscribe for weekly content strategy insights

📲 Share with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to hear this

HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #faithandwork #businessasmission #marketplaceministry #leadership #succession #callingandwork #entrepreneurship #thestonetable #podcast

At 48 years old, Dave Cooper started the work that would define the next 30 plus years of his life. Before that, he taught ninth grade business math for exactly one year, audited hospitals for a health insurance company in Philadelphia, and became a CPA only because a job required it. He never planned any of it. He kept walking through the next open door and letting the room tell him the truth. Darren Cooper sits down with his dad to trace the 25 unremarkable years that made the remarkable ones possible, and to answer the question a lot of people quietly ask themselves. Is it too late for me?

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ Starting at 48 is not a late start, it is an accumulated one

⚡️ You cannot think your way to clarity, you have to walk into the room and let it answer

⚡️ Quitting a job in twelve months is not failure, it is being willing to be corrected by reality

⚡️ The season where nobody is watching is usually the season doing the most work

⚡️ Availability opens more doors than qualification does

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Some people are washed up at

26 00:45 - Graduating in 1968 and the year of teaching ninth graders

02:00 - The Medicare audit job and the move to Philadelphia

03:25 - A homecoming, a joke, and a phone call from Indianapolis

04:44 - The ketchup factory lesson

05:35 - Becoming a CPA at night while working full days

07:03 - An empty office, a dark winter, and what have I done

08:28 - What kept him from retreating

09:17 - That must be where your son gets it

💼 CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

If this episode helped you, please:

💬 Share your biggest takeaway in the comments

🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on creating your art

📲 Share with a fellow creator who needs to hear this

HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #firstdomino #bryanneale #podcasting #getunstuck #entrepreneurship #creativeentrepreneur

At forty-eight, Dave Cooper had a resume full of half-finished chapters and no master plan. A ninth grade teacher who quit after a year, a ketchup factory shift he never forgot, a CPA firm he walked away from over lunch. Then one dinner conversation became Community Reinvestment Foundation, a nonprofit real estate engine that now sits on more than a hundred million dollars and funnels millions into missions work around the world. Darren sits down with his dad to trace a life built one open door at a time, and the quiet conviction that turned the next logical step into a legacy.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ The failure is almost never in the process. It is the failure to start.

⚡️ Going broke is a math problem, not a verdict on who you are.

⚡️ You climb out of a hole one step at a time. The trampoline never works.

⚡️ The first domino is smaller than you think (a registration page, a seventy-five dollar LLC, a phone call).

⚡️ You will never feel ready, so that cannot be the requirement.

⚡️ Discipline creates freedom, even for a visionary.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - The lunch where he quit

00:48 - Welcome to Create Your Art

01:46 - Thirty years, millions given, one conversation

09:27 - Starting at forty-eight and why it is never too late

10:55 - The ninth grade classroom he left after a year

13:48 - A joke at homecoming becomes a job in Indy

19:48 - Quitting over lunch and calling home

23:08 - Building a nursing home company from the next step

28:52 - A quick word from 1898 Creative

30:00 - Setbacks, a lost deal, and a plane crash

44:56 - How he pushed through discouragement

50:09 - Why he built it to give it all away

54:46 - The closing charge for anyone sitting on an idea

CONNECT WITH DARREN:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

ABOUT CREATE YOUR ART:

This podcast exists to help mission-driven entrepreneurs and service providers find their voice and create the impact they're meant to make in the world. Hosted by Darren Cooper, founder of 1898 Creative.

If this episode helped you, please:

⬇️ Drop your "art" in the comments — what's the thing you're here to create?

✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations with industry artists

📲 Share with a fellow creator who needs to hear this

Ready to start your podcast? Book a call at https://1898creative.com

HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #entrepreneurship #legacy #faithandwork #missions #startnow #buildsomething

Most people never fail at the plan. They fail at the start. In this conversation, Super Bowl official and sales coach Bryan Neale breaks down the idea he has taught from stages for years: the first domino. It is the smallest possible action that turns a stuck idea into a moving one, and it is almost never the thing you think it is. From registering for a marathon to buying a podcast kit to his own decades long climb to the NFL, Bryan shows why waiting to feel ready is just a polite way of never beginning.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ The failure is rarely in the process. It is in the failure to start.

⚡️ The first domino is the first action, and it is usually the smallest one. ⚡️ Planning the whole path scares people out of ever beginning.

⚡️ You will never feel ready, so readiness cannot be the requirement.

⚡️ Small, steady movement beats one massive push every time.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Little action beats massive action

00:52 - Climbing out of bankruptcy one small step at a time

01:10 - The first domino principle explained

01:40 - Why register is the real first domino for a marathon

02:34 - The seventy five dollar first domino for starting a podcast

03:52 - What the road to the NFL taught Bryan about starting

06:02 - The flying lessons demo and why you will never be ready

💼 CONNECT WITH US:

Website: https://1898creative.com

Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenandrewcooper

🎙️ CONNECT WITH BRYAN NEALE:

Website: https://www.bryanneale.com

Blind Zebra: https://blind-zebra.com

The Advanced Selling Podcast

If this episode helped you, please:

💬 Share your biggest takeaway in the comments

🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on creating your art

📲 Share with a fellow creator who needs to hear this

HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #firstdomino #bryanneale #podcasting #getunstuck #entrepreneurship #creativeentrepreneur

Most people think the reason they haven't started the business, the podcast, or the book is that they aren't ready yet. Bryan Neale, founder of Blind Zebra and a Super Bowl NFL referee, went bankrupt before he built any of it, and he is convinced readiness was never the requirement. In this conversation, Bryan and Darren dig into the reframe that pulled Bryan out of shame, why the first domino is never the one you expect, and how a lifelong visionary discovered that discipline is what creates freedom. If you have been almost starting something for years, this one is for you.

➡️ FREE CONTENT CLARITY AUDIT https://link.1898creative.com/widget/bookings/1898-creative/audit

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

⚡️ The failure is almost never in the process. It is the failure to start.

⚡️ Going broke is a math problem, not a verdict on who you are.

⚡️ You climb out of a hole one step at a time. The trampoline never works.

⚡️ The first domino is smaller than you think (a registration page, a seventy-five dollar LLC, a phone call).

⚡️ You will never feel ready, so that cannot be the requirement.

⚡️ Discipline creates freedom, even for a visionary.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open

00:41 Welcome to Create Your Art

02:06 Standing at the center of a Super Bowl

02:30 Why the pressure is in the buildup, not the game

04:40 Reps, the ten thousand hour rule, and an empty stadium at 6am

09:00 Before Blind Zebra, there was bankruptcy

15:42 You are not a bad person, you just cannot add

20:00 The first domino is never what you think

25:52 A word from 1898 Creative

27:50 The birth of Blind Zebra

33:10 Building an operating system, and discipline creates freedom

45:27 Detach and play the next play, and the 24 hour rule

50:52 What he would tell you, and the war of art

53:36 Why you have to use video, and closing

CONNECT WITH Bryan Neale:

Bryan Neale and Blind Zebra: https://blind-zebra.com

Bryan's podcast: The Advanced Selling Podcast

ABOUT CREATE YOUR ART:

This podcast exists to help mission-driven entrepreneurs and service providers find their voice and create the impact they're meant to make in the world. Hosted by Darren Cooper, founder of 1898 Creative.

If this episode helped you, please:⬇️ Drop your "art" in the comments — what's the thing you're here to create?✅ Subscribe for weekly conversations with industry artists📲 Share with a fellow creator who needs to hear this

Ready to start your podcast? Book a call at https://1898creative.com

HASHTAGS:

#createyourart #firstdomino #BlindZebra #podcastforcreators #juststart #entrepreneurship #foundstory #salesleadership #courage #contentcreation