Joy Venture Podcast | Slagle Design

Have you ever felt like you were the weird one who just didn’t fit in with the crowd? If so CJ has an important message for you: weird wins.

CJ is a writer and author, creator, filmmaker, mover and shaker, and all around disrupter — and he’s doing all this with one goal in mind — and that’s to help misfits like you and me embrace our weirdness. Because in a sea of same, those of us who think a bit differently are needed more than ever before.

CJ recounts the long journey he’s been on, why he’s written a book to help others get weird, and where all this weirdness is leading. For CJ, it’s back to the classroom where the idea of fitting in has misguided generations of people. By building a media-based curriculum for schools that is rooted creativity, empathy and kindness — the soft skills that leading companies say will be needed in the automated workforce of the future — he wants to redefine what it means to be sweetly, uniquely and powerfully weird.

Jessica wanted to be a designer — a really good designer. And, like anyone with the talent and tenacity to fulfill that kind of dream, she went to art school, learned from great mentors, honed her craft, and eventually became that really good designer.

But what if there's more than that... more than just being a good designer? What if the dream was merely a stepping stone to something else despite the design skills she worked so hard to cultivate?  

Jessica recounts her journey from attending the small upstart School of Advertising Art in Kettering, Ohio, to the unheard of act of buying — fully purchasing — the same school she once attended. The move from maker to mentor wasn't easy and it certainly wasn't her expected career path. Jessica talks about weighing her new opportunities and rethinking what a career can look like if you take it one step at a time.

At the time of this recording, Jessica and her staff were preparing to officially open their doors to the new Modern College of Design — expanded and rebranded in time for the 2018-19 class. She talks about the risk and reward of these ambitious changes and the big, hairy, audacious goals she has for the school in the not-so-distant future.

So you think you're ready to embark on a joy venture, but there’s still something nagging at you. You’re not sure if you’ve truly discovered your joy. And before you dive in, you want to be certain that THIS. IS. IT.  

Spoiler alert: it doesn't work that way. 

In this episode, we get practical about discovering joy — and how you might figure out what your joy venture looks like through the process of discovery.  

If you're looking for five foolproof steps to discovering your joy or three hacks to launching the perfect Joy Venture — this isn't it. There isn’t a right way or a wrong way. But there is one definitive way — and it requires that you take action.

Like most kids growing up in middle America, Jeff loved to ride his bike. But unlike some, it’s a love affair that's never waned. When he was old enough to drive a car, he chose to keep riding bicycles instead. Jeff is a bike guy and gearhead through and through, and you could say that his lifelong passion borders on the obsessive — although that would be selling his story short. 

Jeff isn’t an entrepreneur the way they’re often idolized. Rather, he’s the once-plucky kid from the warehouse with an idea and an email, who was given a green light to go build something. That something was his dream job, and it would evolve into All-City — a bicycle brand under the QBP banner and named after the All-City Championship bike race Jeff founded in his bike-friendly city of Minneapolis. 

Jeff takes us on an unvarnished ride that holds nothing back about the steep valleys (getting laid off from his bike shop job, living in van and being flat broke) that sometimes need to be traveled before reaching the peak.  

His story is a street-smart testament to grit and determination, building community and fostering culture, and believing that dreams are meant to be fulfilled if you have the tenacity to power through the trials head-on.

In order to brave the woods successfully, you’d better walk into them with a plan, some goals and the right tools. It’s not an analogy on how to work with Brad and Krystal Woodard, owners of Brave the Woods, but rather a mindset of how they look to build a family-run business that’s going to fulfill and stretch them in all the right ways. 

Brad is the face and accomplished designer behind their action-oriented moniker while Krystal keeps all things non-design running and mapping out the journey, quick to push Brad out of his comfort zone for the sake of growing. 

This Boise, Idaho duo stopped in Columbus as part of a cross-country workshop tour and talked with us about what motivates them and how they are motivating others. From Kickstarting a children’s book to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan in The Philippines, to crowdsourcing Artists for Education with educational design for teachers to use in the classroom — doing good and building community are part and parcel of their craft. It’s those brave and unselfish acts that are key to their success and opening up opportunities that fuel their business, which also reveal new ways to do meaningful work and have a positive impact on others.