The Creator's Journey tracks

Kelly Fredrickson is a fireball of energy, enthusiasm, and encouragement in her role as SVP in Marketing for Bank of America as she leads creative teams to produce work that drives a consistent brand voice in all communications as well as throughout the customer experience. 

But at the same time, she is also a cool balm of support for the take care of the essential elements that sustain and grow their capacity to be even more impactful through their creative contributions.

In addition to her current role working on the client side of the advertising relationship, she has also spent many years working on the agency side as well, for Modernista!, Hill/Holliday, and Heater Advertising. But after a 28-year career in advertising and marketing, Kelly hit a wall and found herself asking the question: “Why is this not working for me anymore?” She wanted to dig deeper and with the support of her boss, she enrolled in a yearlong certificate class in positive psychology at Kripalu Whole Being Institude.

The work she did through that program laid the foundation for a bigger life project called, “My Year of Whittling”. It’s a process of cutting away what doesn’t matter in your life so that you can focus on what does.

I started reading Jonathan’s blog more than five years ago, then began listening to his podcast, The Good Life Project – which were audio uploads from his video interviews with amazing guests. I was also privileged to join he and his wife, Stephanie – along with about 250 other campers - at their first Camp GLP event in the summer of 2014. Since then, I’ve come to bask in the delight of and develop deep relationships within an incredible tribe of thoughtful, intentional, open-hearted people on multiple different levels of engagement – both personally and professionally.

Jonathan is the author of three highly acclaimed books, Career Renegade, Uncertainty, and most recently, How to Live a Good Life. He’s been a lawyer, yoga instructor and studio owner, and serial entrepreneur since he was still in school.

My introduction to Sean Kernan and the breadth of his work was at a business conference sponsored by the American Society of Media Photographers almost a decade ago. Sean gave an inspiring talk about photography and showed images from his book, Among Trees. He then called everyone up to the front and asked for volunteers to do a movement exercise. I hesitated for a moment, then thought, I’m here to be uncomfortable and grow and threw myself into the mix. For the next few minutes Sean walked a group of us through a process of interactions that transformed my thinking about creativity and connections with other people. A few years later ASMP held another iteration of the conference and I went, almost exclusively, because Sean was presenting. Sean did not disappoint.

When his most recent book, Looking into the Light: Creativity and the Photographer was published I was excited to see if it brought a similar energy and insight into the exploration of seeing. As with my previous experiences, Sean delivers the goods.

Sean is not only a successful photographer, recognized for his work in both the commercial and exhibition art worlds. He has also worked in theater, written four books, produced and directed two documentaries, and taught at several universities as well as the esteemed Maine and Santa Fe Workshops.

As the Content Director and Executive Producer at Core Creative in Milwaukee WI, Andrea Nordgren is foremost a storyteller with a desire to inspire people through the work she creates.

Andrea wrote her first script in 5th grade and and spent her teenage years drawing and painting until starting out her career as a graphic designer back when Macs were still black and white. Besides taking a 5-year hiatus to work as a drug and alcohol addiction counselor in both New York and Chicago, she has spent 27-years in advertising — on the client as well as the agency side — all with a focus on visual storytelling. An experienced producer and director, she has worked on numerous award-winning TV spots, videos, and documentaries for a variety of clients and causes.

In addition to her work at Core Creative, she also owns an indie film production company called Heroine which is dedicated to telling social justice stories.

Leyla Rosario is a producer, director, and writer. Currently she is a producing motion content at HUGE a digital agency providing strategy, marketing, design, and technology services to Fortune 100 companies. The range of projects she produces include everything from virtual reality, live action, documentary-style, and animated pieces. 

Before coming to HUGE, Leyla also worked at McGarryBowen, Zemoga, and JWT/New York. Client accounts she’s worked on through the years include Kohl’s, HP, Google, Verizon, Chevron, and Staples.
Leyla also has a passion for international travel, dance, boxing, biking, and a huge fascination with weddings.

Jessica Coulter is a Creative Director/Copywriter at BBDO New York where she has spent the last several years creating iconic campaigns for brands including Foot Locker, HBO, Snickers, Lowe’s, Twix, AT&T and FedEx, among others. 
 
Prior to BBDO, Jessica worked at Saatchi & Saatchi New York developing memorable creative campaigns for JCPenney, One Laptop Per Child, Progresso Soup and others.

Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, Clios, AICP, Effies and Communication Arts.
 
Jessica is one of 2016 Business Insiders’ 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising. She was recently named one of 10 rising female stars in advertising by The 3% Conference and The One Club. She was also invited to attend The United State of Women Summit put on by The Obamas this year.
  
When she's not knocking out award-winning work for brands, Jessica enjoys writing comedy and is very intentional about creating a wholesome home environment for her husband, their young daughter and their dog, Walter.
 
Jessica is also the only guest I’ll likely ever host who has moonlighted as an NFL cheerleader, a world champion burlesque dancer as well as dong sketch comedy all while working as an advertising creative.

What is the most consistent, if not the biggest, single obstacle to pursuing and achieving the deepest desires of your heart? For many people, it is the fear that when they ask for help in accomplishing something they need or want - whether it’s for a raise in pay at work or funding for their start-up venture or even just seeking advice on a vexing situation – that they will be turned away or rejected in some form. If you’ve ever faced that fear in one form or another, my guest today, Jia Jiang, has experience and helpful advice that can guide you through that process on your creative journey.

Jia burst into the public’s view within days after he started documenting his ‘100 days of Rejection’ project and then posting his efforts on his blog and on YouTube. Each day, Jia would ask someone for a seemingly preposterous request in an attempt to steel himself against rejection and to learn to live more fearlessly. One of his early lessons was that even the most ridiculous request stood a much better chance of being granted if you’ll simply ask in the right way. The experience and lessons learned eventually led Jia to writing his bestselling book, “Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection”.

I met Jia Jiang at the World Domination Summit in Portland OR in 2015 during a workshop he was leading on dealing with rejection. It wasn’t just a lecture. He had the group go out on the streets and practice the process of asking for things from people that would surely cause us to face rejection. He called it our ‘rejection therapy’ session. Although the exercises weren’t the same ones you might experience in your daily life – for example, walking up to strangers and asking for money – the process still lit up the same parts of the brain and brought on the same response of avoidance that we do face every day.

Gretchen Rubin started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized what she wanted for her own happiness was to be a writer.

Although I’ve only been following Gretchen’s work for the past two-and-a-half years, her most recent book, Better Than Before, has had a wondrous impact on my own habits and interactions with other people. What I love about her writing is her ability to distill and convey complex ideas in a way that’s accessible to such a wide range of readers.

Gretchen also has two previous bestsellers, Happier At Home as well as The Happiness Project, which is an account of the year she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. It spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list.

Along with her sister Elizabeth Craft, Gretchen also hosts her popular weekly podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin which has been named one of iTunes “Best Podcasts of 2015.”

Neisha Tweed is a Creative Strategist at Facebook where she works with global brands and advertising agencies.

Over the last 10 years she has accumulated a huge trunk-load of awards for her copywriting and creative work at a number of ad agencies including mcgarrybowen, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, GlobalHue and Ogilvy & Mather. She also taught writing at the Miami Ad School for 3 years.

As a skilled communicator, creative director, and writer, Neisha is constantly pushing herself and others to be amazing. This perspective spills over into her passions for mentorship as well as diversity and inclusion in the advertising and tech industries. To this end, for the past 5 years, she has written and curated advice for up-and-coming creatives at her blog, Baby Food For Creatives, a guide on how to get in and stay in the advertising business.

I first learned of Neisha while watching the 2015 3% Conference Next Creative Leaders panel discussion which she was a part of. Not only did she have great contributions to offer, she brought it with lots of energy and fun.

Laura Peña is a storyteller who creates video-driven experiences for live events worldwide and also produces motion graphics for web series and online videos through her New York City-based company, JelloMonsters, which she founded just a few years ago.

She places a high value on creative collaboration and loves the process of bringing ideas to life. Which she has done numerous times for well-established clients including MTV, Rolling Stone magazine, Marvel Comics, MasterCard, Samsung and AOL.

Her work has been recognized by a number of publications and she was selected in 2010 by the CURVY Design Book as one of the top 100 women designers in the world.

Her ultimate desire is to create work that is not only smart and beautiful, but also work that creates social Impact.

To that end, Laura splits her time between New York City and the Dominican Republic, where she is developing a mentorship program to empower girls through the art of video and animation.