Dr. Chalko lives in Mt Best, Victoria, Australia and holds a Masters degree in engineering and a Ph.D. in physics (laser holography). His professional interests span from lasers and vibration engineering to physics of consciousness. His passions include meditation, exploring limits of human perception, awareness and self healing. He plays classical guitar, enjoys windsurfing (he calls himself a speed addict), takes time to practice meditation, telepathy and astral travel. His hobbies include challenging paradigms and paradoxes in science on Earth, studying puzzling properties of stimulated electro-photonic glow around living organisms, using a Kirlian camera, discovering purpose of life, as well as organizing controversial seminars.

Dr. Chalko is from Poland, married a Russian woman and now lives in Australia.

We cover a lot of fascinating ground:

• Dr. Chalko shares with us a letter he wrote for his children on Christmas. A wonderful lesson to all of us - the greatest gifts come from within.
• We discuss the universe as a "network" that we can all tap into.
• The role of meditation and quieting the mind in order to "listen" to the universe and expand your imagination.
• We debate the information age versus the ideation age.
• What is consciousness? What is information? What is memory? And what are the roles of all three in ideation?
• The importance of understanding in developing imagination and in evolution of the individual and the collective.
• Acquiring understanding and the reward of joy.
• Finally, the role of "purpose" in our development of thoughts and ideas.

You can learn more about Dr. Chalko at these links:

http://thefreedomofchoice.com/

http://www.thiaoouba.com/medit.htm

http://selfhealing.net/

David and I have known each other a long time. And whenever we get together we always gravitate back to one topic: The Beatles. We're both big fans, but we also both study the band, admire their creativity and love the ingenuity they consistently presented to the world. We don't always agree as to which Beatle is the most talented or important, or which song is the best, but we do always have a provocative conversation. During this podcast, I loved how David was able to apply the Beatles' prowess to our marketing lives today.

David Lubars is the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at BBDO North America. For those not in the ad biz, here’s a run down of David’s storied career. He began his career in 1981.  He has since won every major creative award in the world several times over.  His work has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business 2.0 and Time, and has appeared on the cover of Archive magazine twice.

He has been named Creative Director of the Year in the trade publication Adweek; his BMW Films was made part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York City and won the first-ever awarded Titanium Lion at Cannes.  He has been the subject of feature stories in New York magazine, Creativity, Archive, Fast Company and American Executive. Before joining BBDO, David was President of Fallon Worldwide and Executive Creative Director of Fallon North America where he oversaw famous work for Citibank and BMW, among others.

Show notes:

• We begin by discussing what made the Beatles so inspiring.  They were the perfect mix of individuals.
• Part of the magic of the Beatles was that they put the work first and everything else second. Ad agencies in the beginning can learn from this.
• Importance of a "good vibe" in creativity.
• The John vs. Paul discussion.
• Parallels between the Beatles fanatical perfection as they crafted the songs, and the advertising business in executing great work.
• Revolver as the most creative album due to its experimentation.
• Solo they were nothing like the Beatles, and we speculate why.
• Memories of the Paul McCartney show in NY City 3-4 years ago and how he really sold it.
• Bob Dylan discussion on his prolific nature early on and how he lost it (or did he?).

Alyssa Toro is uniquely equipped to answer the following question: can food affect your ideas? She has not only made a career out of creativity, she is also certified as a Holistic Health Coach.Alyssa is a Senior Partner and Creative Director at Connelly Partners in Boston. She has almost twenty years experience in advertising and design at some of New England's most creative agencies, including Leonard/Monahan, Ingalls and Hill Holiday. For as long as her agency has been alive Alyssa has been overseeing all things creative for her clients. With an unparalleled passion for design, Alyssa and her creative teams approach every job with a unique perspective offiering solutions that range from brand identity to TV, digital and grass roots programs. When not chasing creative or her two children, Alyssa has found the time to get certified as a Holistic Health Coach. Oh, and she was a professional gymnast.

Show notes:

• Alyssa begins by educating us on what the brian needs for deep thinking.
• She talks about the difference between Primary Food and Secondary Food, where Primary Food is what "feeds" the brain through experiences and inspiration.  Secondary food is what we think of as food we eat.
• On the Secondary front, it's Omega 3 that really greases the skids in your brain for better focus.
• Alyssa then lists all the foods that contain this magical substance so you can have some close at hand when you're at work, ideating.
• She also talks about how "corn sugar" (as the makers of high fructose corn syrup would like you to call it now) can trick your brain into thinking it's not full, when it is. Evil potato chips!

Seth Schulman has made an art out of inspiring authors to better ideas. He believes anyone can do it, but that not everyone gives themselves "permission" to do it. The "professional" environment doesn't help with its overlay of expectations, fear and posturing, all filtering the ideation process. But fear not. Seth has some tangible tips and tricks that you can do to help with your own ideation. And you can start by getting rid of the ping-pong table.

Show Notes:

• We start with a description of the writing process and the typical problems writers face.
• We discuss fear in the corporate environment and "professionalism" and how both get in the way of pure ideation.
• Fear comes up as an enemy of ideation (again).
• Environment is an important contributor to inspiration and ideation - Seth explains why and how he uses the environment with his clients.
• The ad agency's typical pool table, ping pong table and dartboard have become part of the professional environment, which means they don't work as well to spur ideas.
• Seth has some pretty whacky (as he put it) tips and tricks to help you improve your ideation. You don't want to miss these.

 Bio: www.providenceword.com 

Seth Schulman is a professional ghostwriter and editor specializing in business books, personal memoir, how-to, popular health/science books, and fiction of all kinds. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, he has worked with authors across the United States as well as in Israel, Spain, and the UK. Titles to his credit include Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Places in the World (St. Martins); No Man’s Land: What to Do When Your Company Is Too Big to Be Small but Too Small to Be Big (Penguin/Portfolio); and The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It (Penguin/Portfolio). Book proposals prepared by Mr. Schulman have been purchased by a number of leading houses, including Penguin, Hyperion, St. Martin’s, Harvard Business School Press, Jossey-Bass, and New World Library. 

In addition to his book-length ghostwriting and editing work, Mr. Schulman has co-authored numerous Harvard Business School case studies on brands such as Russian Standard Vodka, Sony Playstation2, XFL pro football league, Revlon cosmetics, Peapod interactive grocery, Tata Consultancy Services, Kinko’s, and Hewlett-Packard. He has also written under his own name a novel, short stories, magazine and journal articles, newsletters, white papers, reports, blogs, and a book-length doctoral dissertation dealing with the cultural and intellectual history of 20th century Europe.

Mr. Schulman has served as a consultant on media and popular culture to Arnold Worldwide, Hill Holliday, Digitas, and other national advertising agencies. He has counseled writers for several years as a staff member of the Brown University writing center. He holds a PhD in European history from Brown University and a BA with distinction from Cornell University. His honors include membership in Phi Beta Kappa and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center.

What does a pig auctioneer, Jane Goodall, Vaclav Havel, a billiard ball and Paul McCartney have in common? They were all brought up as examples to explain and bring to life Dr. Bob Deutsch's fascinating views on ideation, creativity and the human condition. Show notes below.

But first, Dr. Robert Deutsch is a specialist in communication and culture who has worked on Pennsylvania Avenue, Madison Avenue and in the primeval forest. The Ad Club of New York has referred to him as “a truly revolutionary thinker.” And Adam Morgan, in his book, Eating the Big Fish, has called Bob a profound analyst of human nature and American culture.

Dr. Deutsch has written and spoken widely on what one sees when casting a “primal eye” on modernity, including its rituals and mythologies. He has contributed articles on human nature, the cultural moment and marketing to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe and The National Geographic Magazine. His commentaries have appeared on ABC’s Nightline, Good Morning America, and on the PBS series, Rights & Wrongs. He also lectures and is on the roster of the Washington Speakers’ Bureau as a keynote speech maker.

Dr. Deutsch’s academic training and experience has been interdisciplinary in scope, combining anthropology, cognitive science and media studies. Dr. Deutsch received a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

And he can be found at www.brain-sells.com.

SHOW NOTES

• He starts by defining creativity and its role in human evolution.
• Tradition and Innovation - the importance of having both in attaining sustainable innovation.  Pure innovation isn't useful at all. It has to be related to something familiar.
• The barriers to human creativity, including time.
• Paul McCartney as an example of innovation at work.
• The importance of raw talent in ideation.
• Dr. Bob discusses his "12 Qualities of Mind Required for the Innovative Corporation."
• He describes a study he did around "expertise" - what it is, what it means and how we can apply expertise to the ideation space.
• The role of serendipity in the creative process.
• Vaclav Havel's living in the experience in its own unfolding vs watching it from the outslde.
• Leave the data behind. The importance of story-telling, or creating a narrative, in developing ideas.
• The new "corporate creative" person.

David Baldwin is one of the most awarded copywriters and creative directors in the business today. Among many other things, hear him talk about his new company, Baldwin&, and how he's creating a creative environment, the importance of authenticity in communications, his concerns about how pitching is affecting the advertising industry, and, of course, his view on how to come up with better ideas (including the role of shitty ideas).

Prior to launching Baldwin&, David was the Creative Director for McKinny, Chairman of the One Club in NYC, the force behind The One Show. Alongside his creative advertising exploits, David is an executive producer for the film, Art & Copy, now available on DVD and premiering on PBS this fall, and was a guitarist/songwriter for the band Pants who’s CD, Twice the Snake You Need can be found on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Show Notes:

• New original music intro for the Ideasicle Podcast from Joe Kowalski.  This guy rocks. Check out more of his work here: http://soundtrack.onlyone-music.com/.  A big thanks to Joe.
• David talks about Baldwin& and what makes his new company different.
• He discusses creating "brand experiences" through authenticity.
• Building a creative environment organically - a company is not a building, it's people.
• A great bit about fear and inhibition being the dragons we need to slay when coming up with ideas.
• David talks about what he learned from Tom Monahan (podcast #1).
• The role of the shitty idea in coming up with great ideas.
• Our industry and how agencies have devalued what they do to the point of doing it for free during a pitch.

We continue our Ideasicle Podcast series with Gaurav Suri, author and fMRI specialist at Stanford University. Mr. Suri is the author of "A Certain Ambiguity" (Princeton, 2007), an award winning novel that examines how we know what we know--and if we can be certain about it. His next novel, in progress, examines the mechanisms of the human brain. How do we decide? Where do ideas come from? What makes us who we are?

Mr. Gaurav is involved with several fMRI studies at Stanford University that seek to isolate the drivers of human preference in the brain. He has also driven significant research on the role of emotion and affect in decision making.

Show notes:

• We begin by discussing how Gaurav became interested in the brain in the first place, and his book "A Certain Ambiguity."
• He discusses the mechanics of the brain - neurons, synapses, electric impulses, etc.
• He goes into fascinating detail about the difference between the cerebral cortex (the conscious brain) and the more primal brain (the unconscious).
• He gives us tips as to how to activate the primal brain to help us in our ideation.
• Gaurav invites any interested Creators out there to contact him with any questions or just to talk brain. You can reach him at: [email protected].

In this first episode, Will interviews Tom Monahan, a true expert in the field of ideas.  Tom is the founder and head creativity coach of Before & After, Inc. and a leader in the field of applied creativity. He does private consulting and ideation training for a list of leading companies and professional organizations. Tom's unorthodox approach to training has had toy designers doing origami, engineers playing mental leapfrog and media executives throwing rotten tomatoes.

Show notes:

• Tom starts by describing the prolific ideators he's worked with - David Lubars, David Baldwin, Kara Goodrich, Jim Garaventi and others.
• The balance of confidence and insecurity in creativity and ideation.
• Importance of talented people these days versus a "creative department."
• They discuss the impact of the democratization of executional tools.  Is a million dollar production necessary today?
• Tom talks about his company, Before & After, and techniques you can do to your mind to increase the chances of coming up with great ideas (e.g. the "Do It Yourself Lobotomy").
• Ideas in history happen when people wonder more and are pressed to do so.