Episode 23

Finding Uncommon Inspiration w/ Brandi Sea

Welcome to Works in Process / Ep 23

"Start with Words. Don’t try starting with ideas. If you try starting with an idea without a concept or a plan, you’re just going, you are going to continue to experience more imposter syndrome. Create concepts using a word map and then understand how to insert the uncommon inspiration and stop just searching where everyone else’s searching!” — Brandi Sea

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That’s my guest Brandi Sea, Brandi is an award-winning designer, educator, and creative leader. She's been recognized for her poster design work. In 2017, she was also awarded a prestigious Albuquerque 30 award from the American Advertising Federation, which celebrates the 30 greatest ideas of the year. Brandi has also worked as an adjunct professor at her Alma mater Southwest University of Visual Arts teaching advanced design concepts. She began her design career in 2001 and is actively involved in her local design community. 

Brandi uses her 20 years of experience to help fellow creatives map out a plan to discover uncommon inspiration and produce more captivating design concepts to create standout work through her podcast: Design Speaks. With her online course, her YouTube channel, and her blog, Brandi works to empower designers with the tools they need to stay inspired and create the work that gets through. 

In this episode want to learn more about her ability to see inspiration and unusual things and how she developed The Strategic Process™ and approach for designers who look to strengthen their creative confidence so they can present design work that gets approved the first time.

Enjoy!

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Mentions

The Strategic Process™

Design Speaks podcast.

Follow Brandi Sea at Personal Website  / Twitter / Instagram / Facebook

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Credits

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Like what you just heard? Support the process and rate us on Apple Podcast and Spotify!

About the Works in Process Podcast:

A podcast series by George Garrastegui, Jr. — designer, educator, and curator. Works In Process is a collection of discussions that explore the creative process. I interview individuals to gain more insight into the ways they work and the projects they produce.

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Transcript
Brandi Sea:

Start with words.

Brandi Sea:

Don't, don't try starting with ideas.

Brandi Sea:

If you try starting with an idea without a concept and without a plan, you're

Brandi Sea:

just going, you are going to continue to experience more imposter syndrome.

Brandi Sea:

Imposter syndrome never goes away.

Brandi Sea:

Let's just start.

Brandi Sea:

There never goes away.

Brandi Sea:

But if you work at having a way to fight off the fact that you have an

Brandi Sea:

idea, um, Fixes that like, if, if designers could learn one thing, even

Brandi Sea:

in this process, it would be how to create concepts using a word map,

Brandi Sea:

because that will absolutely changed the rest of everything that you do.

Brandi Sea:

And then understanding how to insert the uncommon inspiration and stop, you

Brandi Sea:

know, just searching where everyone else's searching is like, if I could

Brandi Sea:

teach the entire design world two things, it would be those two things.

George - WIP:

Welcome to Works in Process.

George - WIP:

The podcast where I asked the hows and whys behind creative work.

George - WIP:

Take a ride with me designer and educator, George Garrastegui as I

George - WIP:

learned from my guests, there's not one way to being a creative, but an

George - WIP:

endless possibilities feel by passion, determination, and of course, process.

George - WIP:

And that was today's guest.

George - WIP:

Brandi Sea, Brandi is an award winning designer, educator and creative leader.

George - WIP:

She's been recognized for her poster design work, including judges choice

George - WIP:

at the 2016 Adobe creative jam.

George - WIP:

In 2017, she was also awarded a prestigious Albuquerque 30 award

George - WIP:

from the American advertising Federation, which celebrates the

George - WIP:

30 greatest ideas of the year.

George - WIP:

Brandi has also work as an adjunct professor at an Alma mater

George - WIP:

Southwest university of visual arts teaching advance design concepts.

George - WIP:

She began her design career in 2001 and is actively involved

George - WIP:

in her local design community.

George - WIP:

Brandi uses her 20 years of experience to help fellow creatives map out a

George - WIP:

plan to discover uncommon inspiration and produce more captivating design

George - WIP:

concepts to create standout work through her podcast design Speaks her online

George - WIP:

course, her YouTube channel and blog.

George - WIP:

Brandi works to empower designers with the tools they need to stay inspired

George - WIP:

and create the work that gets noticed.

George - WIP:

Today, I want to learn more about our ability to see inspiration and unusual

George - WIP:

things and how she developed the strategic process and approach for designers

George - WIP:

who look to strengthen their creative confidence so they can present design

George - WIP:

work that gets approved the first time.

George - WIP:

Now let's get into our convo.

George - WIP:

Hey, Brandi, welcome to the Works in Process podcast.

Brandi Sea:

Hey, thank you for having me.

Brandi Sea:

I'm super excited to be here.

George - WIP:

No, no, thank you.

George - WIP:

Glad to finally get you on the show.

George - WIP:

I know it's been a minute.

George - WIP:

We were trying to figure out how to connect and it's

George - WIP:

great to finally get you on.

Brandi Sea:

I know.

Brandi Sea:

You'd think we would be less busy when we're doing so many things, you know, not

Brandi Sea:

in person, but I think it's the opposite.

Brandi Sea:

So it happens.

Brandi Sea:

I'm glad that we finally connected.

George - WIP:

Definitely so glad.

George - WIP:

So before we get started, let's break the ice each episode, I'd like to

George - WIP:

start with a rapid Q and a session.

George - WIP:

Are you ready?

Brandi Sea:

Oh, I love this kind of stuff.

Brandi Sea:

I'm so ready.

George - WIP:

Awesome.

George - WIP:

Coffee or tea,

Brandi Sea:

Oh, coffee.

George - WIP:

eggs, or cereal.

Brandi Sea:

Are we talking breakfast or any time?

Brandi Sea:

Eggs.

Brandi Sea:

I guess I like cereal because it's easy, but I like eggs if

Brandi Sea:

I, if I don't have to cook them.

George - WIP:

Building brands or consulting them

Brandi Sea:

Ooh, consulting.

George - WIP:

analog or digital

Brandi Sea:

Yeah, these are hard analog.

George - WIP:

strategizing or podcasting.

Brandi Sea:

I don't see how those are related, but let's go strategizing.

George - WIP:

Okay, cool.

George - WIP:

And now some quick word association.

George - WIP:

So the first thing you hear of when you, first thing you think of, when

George - WIP:

you hear these words, creativity,

Brandi Sea:

Strategy,

George - WIP:

determination.

Brandi Sea:

perseverance

George - WIP:

Business,

Brandi Sea:

pleasure,

George - WIP:

Failure

Brandi Sea:

learning

George - WIP:

community,

Brandi Sea:

Love

George - WIP:

education,

Brandi Sea:

variety,

George - WIP:

mistakes,

Brandi Sea:

a lot

George - WIP:

skills,

Brandi Sea:

analog

George - WIP:

history,

Brandi Sea:

research,

George - WIP:

opportunity,

Brandi Sea:

travel

George - WIP:

accessibility,

Brandi Sea:

fairness.

George - WIP:

future,

Brandi Sea:

design,

George - WIP:

and last but not least process.

Brandi Sea:

Crucial.

George - WIP:

Nice.

George - WIP:

Nice.

George - WIP:

I like just doing this because it's kind of throws people off a little

George - WIP:

bit and they don't really focus too much on what you're going to

Brandi Sea:

so great.

Brandi Sea:

Some of those surprised me.

Brandi Sea:

I was like, I don't know.

George - WIP:

I know,

George - WIP:

sometimes when you get to that, you're like really, I never thought about

Brandi Sea:

Yeah, no.

Brandi Sea:

I said as they came out of my mouth, though, they all make sense for how

Brandi Sea:

I think so works out well, and I'm going to have some Not-tea right now,

George - WIP:

Some Not-tea um, so as we continue,

George - WIP:

I want to get a little bit into what I call your origin story.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And find a little bit of how you've been introduced to art and design.

Brandi Sea:

how I became a superhero.

Brandi Sea:

You mean?

George - WIP:

Well, Okay.

George - WIP:

That maybe that's the bigger question.

George - WIP:

How you became a superhero in art and design, but were, where did you grow up

George - WIP:

and where you creative or artsy as a kid?

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

So I I'm born and bred in New Mexico, which for those of you who are not

Brandi Sea:

great at geography is not Mexico.

Brandi Sea:

And we are a part of the United States.

Brandi Sea:

Um, I grew up around Santa Fe, which is the capital, um, in a Hispanic family.

Brandi Sea:

And I have always been artsy creative.

Brandi Sea:

My dad's a avid collector of art of all sorts, and he's, he's got

Brandi Sea:

his own construction, um, design build construction company.

Brandi Sea:

And so I always saw him, you know, working with plans and creating things.

Brandi Sea:

And I have always loved to draw to paint.

Brandi Sea:

Um, I mean every kid loves to color, I think, but I really was

Brandi Sea:

fostered in that by my parents to kind of pursue creative things.

Brandi Sea:

So.

George - WIP:

Awesome.

George - WIP:

Awesome.

George - WIP:

Um, so do you think your family or school played a larger role in you

George - WIP:

becoming a designer or were you saying.

Brandi Sea:

Oh, becoming the designer.

Brandi Sea:

So my family was very, very supportive in my endeavors.

Brandi Sea:

So they always wanted to steer me in whatever direction I

Brandi Sea:

was, you know, leaning towards.

Brandi Sea:

So they definitely supported my career in every possible way,

Brandi Sea:

but I did go to design school.

Brandi Sea:

So.

Brandi Sea:

I think it's probably a healthy mix of both.

Brandi Sea:

My parents supported my creative, my creativity from the time that I was

Brandi Sea:

like three years old and didn't want to wear a match socks because I thought

Brandi Sea:

it was more fun to do mismatch to, you know, high school where I was doing

Brandi Sea:

art classes and all of that stuff.

Brandi Sea:

So, yeah, I think it was probably a pretty good mix of both.

Brandi Sea:

I knew I wanted to be a designer since I was 10 years old.

Brandi Sea:

My dad took me with him to work and he just happened to be remodeling, um, on

Brandi Sea:

some floors underneath a design studio that was on the second floor, took me

Brandi Sea:

up to meet those owners just for fun.

Brandi Sea:

And I saw them making business cards.

Brandi Sea:

That's like, that's a ten-year-old you don't really know what that is.

Brandi Sea:

So at 10 years old, I decided I wanted to be a business card maker.

Brandi Sea:

Like that's what I thought it was.

Brandi Sea:

And I would like go home.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

I would go home and like cut out pieces of.

Brandi Sea:

In the shape of like business cards and like make that.

Brandi Sea:

So I'm very blessed that I have always kind of known what

Brandi Sea:

I want to do and I'm doing it

George - WIP:

So what was your first creative job and

George - WIP:

how did you stumble into it

Brandi Sea:

my first creative job.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

So I wouldn't say I stumbled into it.

Brandi Sea:

Um, I'm, I've been involved with AIG for a long time.

Brandi Sea:

When I was in college, I was a junior in college and they AIG, I have a

Brandi Sea:

student group that I became part of.

Brandi Sea:

And through that they had a mentorship program where they would

Brandi Sea:

insert designers that were going to school and to sort of like an

Brandi Sea:

internship with a design firm locally.

Brandi Sea:

So I started doing that my junior year, uh, with a design firm

Brandi Sea:

called bad dog design in Santa Fe.

Brandi Sea:

And after a few months, you know, I guess the school was amazing and I was

Brandi Sea:

learning really well, but I stopped being an intern and she actually hired me my

Brandi Sea:

senior year of design school as though I was, she was like, you don't need to

Brandi Sea:

be sorting like Pantone, swatch books.

Brandi Sea:

You should, you know, come in these meetings, help me strategize,

Brandi Sea:

like help me do some design work.

Brandi Sea:

So I wouldn't say I stumbled.

Brandi Sea:

I think I worked super hard to do that, but it was something that I don't think

Brandi Sea:

that I would have been here without that experience with a designer in the field.

George - WIP:

And then when did you consider yourself a creative?

Brandi Sea:

Oh, Hmm.

Brandi Sea:

Probably always.

Brandi Sea:

Um, I would say I wouldn't, I wouldn't have considered myself a

Brandi Sea:

creative professional until like I actually graduated, even though

Brandi Sea:

I had been doing paid client work since I started in college.

Brandi Sea:

I don't think that, you know, the imposter syndrome is super real when

Brandi Sea:

you're, I mean, it's still real, right.

Brandi Sea:

Let's be honest.

Brandi Sea:

But especially when you're in school, You're like, well, I'm not really a

Brandi Sea:

professional yet, even though someone's paying me to do this, I have a process,

Brandi Sea:

like I'm doing this stuff, but I don't have my degree or I don't have

Brandi Sea:

a job or someone isn't like actively telling me you are a professional.

Brandi Sea:

So I would say I've always called myself creative.

Brandi Sea:

I've always felt like I am a creative, but creative professional.

Brandi Sea:

Probably not until after I graduated from college.

George - WIP:

So that's the distinction you kind of put onto it, right.

George - WIP:

Creative versus creative professional.

Brandi Sea:

Because I think everybody's creative everybody in their own way.

George - WIP:

Agreed.

George - WIP:

And I think people, I think that's where I did the delineation.

George - WIP:

Right,

George - WIP:

Like not being creative, but becoming a creative, um, awesome.

George - WIP:

Awesome.

George - WIP:

Thank you for that quick intro to, Brandi where you started in, you know,

George - WIP:

not old Mexico, but in New Mexico.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

So many people.

Brandi Sea:

Do you speak English?

Brandi Sea:

Did you grow up speaking English?

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

It's the United States of America.

Brandi Sea:

Yep.

George - WIP:

Right, So I followed Design Speaks the podcast actually,

George - WIP:

before I knew who was behind the voice...

Brandi Sea:

Oh my gosh.

Brandi Sea:

I didn't know that.

Brandi Sea:

That's amazing.

George - WIP:

it's interesting to kind of see, how we've had certain

George - WIP:

connections being part of the AIGA and, then being realizing like,

George - WIP:

wait, is that the same Brandi?

George - WIP:

That's part of this, that's actually that.

George - WIP:

And I'm like, Oh crap.

George - WIP:

It's all the same person.

George - WIP:

So can you just give us a really quick intro to like, how'd you

George - WIP:

get started with the podcast.

Brandi Sea:

Oh man.

Brandi Sea:

-Okay.

Brandi Sea:

Buckle up because it's more than just podcasts.

Brandi Sea:

So in 2015, I was being really frustrated in my design career by some bad actors.

Brandi Sea:

Let's just say in the design biz, locally that I knew were

Brandi Sea:

ripping off other people's work.

Brandi Sea:

And they were getting paid and getting lots of clients, but they

Brandi Sea:

were doing really sketchy stuff.

Brandi Sea:

And I was just getting really frustrated because at the time I felt like those

Brandi Sea:

kinds of people were taking my business.

Brandi Sea:

I know now that's not the kind of business I want to begin with, but

Brandi Sea:

then it was still just like, oh, why are these people getting work?

Brandi Sea:

They're not doing things right.

Brandi Sea:

And there came a point where I decided, instead of just complaining, what

Brandi Sea:

if I just do something about it?

Brandi Sea:

Like maybe I can take the high ground and perhaps this person or these people,

Brandi Sea:

maybe they don't really actually know.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Brandi Sea:

Maybe they don't know that it's not okay to get a thing off Google and like sorta

Brandi Sea:

like twist it and make it your own.

Brandi Sea:

Um, so I thought, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm going to do a blog.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to start a blog and like start writing about these frustrations, but in

Brandi Sea:

a productive, like constructive criticism sort of way to help, maybe the people

Brandi Sea:

understand in the world that do these kinds of things, how to be better and how

Brandi Sea:

to do things better and how to have better processes around these kinds of things.

Brandi Sea:

From there, I was asked if I would be willing to do a YouTube channel.

Brandi Sea:

They're like, I love your blog.

Brandi Sea:

I love your design tips.

Brandi Sea:

It would be so cool if you did a YouTube channel.

Brandi Sea:

And I was like, I don't know.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know about that.

Brandi Sea:

And my husband's a video producer and he was like, we can do it super easy.

Brandi Sea:

Like we'll just set it up and record a whole bunch in a day.

Brandi Sea:

And like, they don't have to be long.

Brandi Sea:

It'll just be really easy.

Brandi Sea:

So from there I started doing the same thing.

Brandi Sea:

Quick design tips.

Brandi Sea:

They called it design tip Tuesdays, and just three to five, maybe seven minute

Brandi Sea:

videos on YouTube where I'm doing the same thing, taking the frustrations that I

Brandi Sea:

have with the design industry or designers that I really want to help them be better.

Brandi Sea:

I want to help them grow to do things, you know, have some

Brandi Sea:

design ethics around what they do.

Brandi Sea:

And from there I realized that being on camera was fun, but it's different when

Brandi Sea:

there's someone sitting in front of you.

Brandi Sea:

So I talked with my sister and asked her if she would be willing

Brandi Sea:

to do a podcast with me and act as the non-designer who comes and

Brandi Sea:

asks questions maybe about things.

Brandi Sea:

So the podcast was kind of an answer to my frustration with.

Brandi Sea:

Clients and the world at large, that don't understand slash don't value what we do

Brandi Sea:

maybe, because they don't understand.

Brandi Sea:

So again, taking these frustrations that I have and trying to give the world

Brandi Sea:

benefit of the doubt that like, maybe they just say XYZ or ask these things because

Brandi Sea:

they don't know, they don't understand.

Brandi Sea:

So I want to help show them how design speaks in the world, what

Brandi Sea:

it tells us, why it's important.

Brandi Sea:

You know, we encounter it from the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close

Brandi Sea:

our eyes every day, something is designed.

Brandi Sea:

So that is where that started is her bringing these questions about, you know,

Brandi Sea:

why does design cost so much and all of that stuff and it sort of evolved.

Brandi Sea:

So that was in 2017.

Brandi Sea:

It's actually five years this month, which is crazy.

Brandi Sea:

And, It sort of evolves because she started learning things.

Brandi Sea:

She became a member of a creative team herself, and she was no longer like the

Brandi Sea:

non-designer non-creative professional.

Brandi Sea:

And so it sort of morphed into something new.

Brandi Sea:

Um, she left in at the end of 2019 and I got a new co-host.

Brandi Sea:

And so the target audience for me has shifted from being, for kind of

Brandi Sea:

the world at large people that don't understand to being very targeted to

Brandi Sea:

solo designers or designers that work on smaller design teams that need

Brandi Sea:

support, that need advice that need better processes that need better ways

Brandi Sea:

to ask questions and things like that.

Brandi Sea:

So currently I am in the process of, and this is actually the first time I've

Brandi Sea:

said this live anywhere, so it's okay.

Brandi Sea:

We're going to just tell the world now I'm still going to be doing the podcast,

Brandi Sea:

but I'm going to be starting video first.

Brandi Sea:

So I'm going to be doing YouTube.

Brandi Sea:

Designed speaks first and then taking that and turning that into the audio podcast.

Brandi Sea:

So I'm going to be back in front of people talking just like, I am like this to the

Brandi Sea:

world on video more and sort of having the podcast to be a companion to that.

Brandi Sea:

So hope that answers your question.

Brandi Sea:

I knew it was going to be a long answer cause it wasn't just, I woke up today

Brandi Sea:

and said, I want to start a podcast.

Brandi Sea:

It was definitely a progression of things.

George - WIP:

No.

George - WIP:

And the progression I think is, is, is real.

George - WIP:

And it's interesting how you, you know, the impetus was the frustration, right?

George - WIP:

In your local design community and feeling like you had something to

George - WIP:

say, and, a blog is different ? Like you can be a writer and you can

George - WIP:

position yourself with words, but then putting yourself in front of a camera.

George - WIP:

And then shifting that to a YouTube channel is very different.

George - WIP:

Right?

George - WIP:

You do have a script, you are still doing that, but maybe the idea of being

George - WIP:

in front is not everybody's forte.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

Was that a big challenge for you?

George - WIP:

Was that something that came naturally shifting from the blog because

George - WIP:

you had something to say, but then now being in front of people in

George - WIP:

a way where like, how do I look?

George - WIP:

How do I sound?

George - WIP:

How do I, you know, for me, I talk with my hands, Right.

George - WIP:

So it's a definite thing.

George - WIP:

You have to be careful, you know, you hold coffee, so you don't move...

Brandi Sea:

No, honestly go watch all of my old YouTube channels.

Brandi Sea:

My husband told me you need to hold something.

Brandi Sea:

Cause he's, he's a video producer.

Brandi Sea:

And I was, I was always holding like a pen or something and I'm like doing this or,

Brandi Sea:

you know, Hispanic talk with their hands.

Brandi Sea:

And so I'm just like crazy.

Brandi Sea:

And he was like, here, you have your coffee, hold your coffee.

Brandi Sea:

And so I would just hold my coffee all the time.

Brandi Sea:

So, um, yeah, getting, getting comfortable.

Brandi Sea:

I think that the hardest thing for me, I don't really love reading scripts.

Brandi Sea:

I don't like exactly word for word, knowing what I'm going to say.

Brandi Sea:

I'm not ever going, you know, I've presented a lot.

Brandi Sea:

I've done some keynote speaking.

Brandi Sea:

Now at this point, I've spoken in front of groups of people.

Brandi Sea:

And I realized that in order for me to be very comfortable, I need to just

Brandi Sea:

have an idea of what I'm going to say.

Brandi Sea:

And then I can let my own voice out and let me out.

Brandi Sea:

And it always works out way better.

Brandi Sea:

That way.

Brandi Sea:

In the beginning, I was basically taking things that I wrote

Brandi Sea:

trying to memorize them and then getting in front of the camera.

Brandi Sea:

Cause it was only like three or five minutes.

Brandi Sea:

Like I can do three to five minutes, but the like your literal voice sounds.

Brandi Sea:

different When you are trying to read and process and talk.

Brandi Sea:

So I don't even think still that I have that completely down.

Brandi Sea:

I've definitely gotten a lot better at it.

Brandi Sea:

And that's something that I'm going to be exploring in this new iteration,

Brandi Sea:

getting back to Youtube more regularly in conjunction with the podcast,

Brandi Sea:

because I have a lot of written content.

Brandi Sea:

I have hundreds and hundreds of posts of all kinds and things I've

Brandi Sea:

written that I've never talked about.

Brandi Sea:

So I'm going to be using the things that I wrote as a sort of script

Brandi Sea:

to be in front of the camera.

Brandi Sea:

But I think that Instagram and Tik-tok have really boosted my confidence even

Brandi Sea:

more than just being on YouTube for all these years, because it feels less formal.

Brandi Sea:

Right.

Brandi Sea:

And I can just show up.

Brandi Sea:

So I think now is the perfect time for me to try and do that.

Brandi Sea:

You know, it just takes practice and I was not comfortable.

Brandi Sea:

My voice was, I can't even watch them.

Brandi Sea:

My voice is super flat and I just, I'm just holding my coffee

Brandi Sea:

cup and I just look really stiff.

Brandi Sea:

So I had good things to say, but I think that hopefully I've upped

Brandi Sea:

my, my confidence level on that.

George - WIP:

oh yeah.

George - WIP:

Delivery is such a hard thing to, to consider and when you're thinking about

George - WIP:

that, and that's why I was wondering the shift between written comments.

George - WIP:

You know, to, um, visual content compared to then shifting to a podcast, which

George - WIP:

is it's different because they're just healing, hearing your voice or the

George - WIP:

inflections and things are different compared to hearing your voice,

George - WIP:

but then seeing what you look like.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And, and doing all those things and, and noticing all the

George - WIP:

idiosyncrasies that you do on video.

George - WIP:

And you're like, oh my God.

George - WIP:

Right?

George - WIP:

Like I moved my hands, I do this, I look to the side.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And you start to start to scrutinize yourself a lot.

George - WIP:

So when you start to see all the different variations and, you know,

George - WIP:

it's, it's not easy to do that.

George - WIP:

And I, and I think, know, one of the reasons know, I haven't done really a

George - WIP:

video version is because of all of that.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And I think it's because of the practice that you have to say.

George - WIP:

right, and I think the intention is right.

George - WIP:

To have like an outline to kind of keep you honest, but then, know,

George - WIP:

if you're, if you're to scripted..

George - WIP:

know, You're you're to figuring out, like, if I said the wrong word, do I stop?

George - WIP:

Do I do this, do it.

George - WIP:

And you know, that's, that's part of the, the, the practice of doing

George - WIP:

it live and not caring so much.

George - WIP:

And I like to hear that, know, you said that like TikTok has

George - WIP:

made it less formal for you.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And the idea that you're not really so focused on perfection, let's

George - WIP:

say, and just really getting the content out is really the point...

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

George - WIP:

which I think is important.

George - WIP:

Right?

George - WIP:

Because social media sometimes allows us to like, create this,

George - WIP:

false person of who we are.

George - WIP:

And it's, it's nice that you're saying, well, actually social media is allowing

George - WIP:

us to be just like, just be who I am...

Brandi Sea:

Yeah, for me, it's definitely done the opposite.

Brandi Sea:

And I think that, that, honestly, that did start with the podcast because in

Brandi Sea:

the beginning we were really doing a lot of high-end high level editing,

Brandi Sea:

where we're taking out all the ums, all the Oz, all the like silences, all

Brandi Sea:

the likes, because I say like a lot, you're going to notice that it just is.

Brandi Sea:

And I think over, over the years, my husband was like, we need to just talk.

Brandi Sea:

You need to probably just practice trying not to say.

Brandi Sea:

Um, and ah, and really think before you speak so that we don't have to do so much

Brandi Sea:

editing and you're a professional speaker.

Brandi Sea:

It's good to practice trying not to say those things anyways

Brandi Sea:

and not use editing as a crutch.

Brandi Sea:

So that was very much for me, like a challenge to get better at speaking,

Brandi Sea:

get better at thinking through how I'm going to say things without coming

Brandi Sea:

an online and realizing that even if you are silent instead of saying,

Brandi Sea:

um, or like it's way better overall.

Brandi Sea:

And people get to hear you, they get to see the authentic you, and then it

Brandi Sea:

doesn't sound like you're reading from a script because if it's overly edited

Brandi Sea:

too, sometimes I think that it does sound like someone's just reading from

Brandi Sea:

a thing and you get discouraged maybe as a fellow content creator going, man,

Brandi Sea:

they, they like have this down, not realizing that they are probably almost

Brandi Sea:

100% editing out anything awkward or weird or uncomfortable about the things.

Brandi Sea:

So I think that getting that in the podcast and then having the whole Tik

Brandi Sea:

Tok stories on Instagram and now reels and things like that from my brain

Brandi Sea:

and in conjunction has been very much.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

I know I can do this.

Brandi Sea:

This is how I talk.

Brandi Sea:

This is just how I am.

Brandi Sea:

I'm goofy.

Brandi Sea:

I'm quirky.

Brandi Sea:

I'm weird.

Brandi Sea:

Loud and bold.

Brandi Sea:

And sometimes I say things, people don't like, but that's just what I, what I do.

Brandi Sea:

And I've never, ever been one to overly curate on Instagram.

Brandi Sea:

I've I do like to curate my feet a little bit.

Brandi Sea:

Cause I like color and I like rainbow and I liked the way that looks, but that's not

Brandi Sea:

to give a false perception of anything.

Brandi Sea:

That's literally, because that's what I like.

Brandi Sea:

So I think that, yes, it has done the opposite for me.

Brandi Sea:

I'm not really worried about any kind of perfection, if anything, it's less.

Brandi Sea:

So, because if everyone's doing the perfection thing, right.

Brandi Sea:

That was really big a while back.

Brandi Sea:

I'm like, I'm not going to do that because I want to be against what

Brandi Sea:

everybody else is doing, which is also another part of my personality.

George - WIP:

right.

George - WIP:

It's almost like editing is like the Photoshopping

George - WIP:

of, you know,

Brandi Sea:

100%.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

Let's fix all of this and make it sound like you're a fantastic

Brandi Sea:

speaker and they hire you to speak and you can't do it live.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And, and I think the practice is a big deal.

George - WIP:

And you know, both of us as educators, I think one of the things that I, I try to

George - WIP:

instill in my students is the fact that, to be more comfortable with presenting

George - WIP:

the content and right as content creators, as we're talking as we're

George - WIP:

guest speakers and things like that is to actually know the content though, right?

George - WIP:

Like, you know, if you don't know the content, it is going to come

George - WIP:

out in the way you present the information, because it's going to

George - WIP:

sound like you need to practice.

George - WIP:

It's going to sound like you're unsure.

George - WIP:

It's gonna sound like you're not willing to take that, that risk.

George - WIP:

And the fact that, like you mentioned, having the ability to take a pause instead

George - WIP:

of the ums likes and all of those things is really, you know, owning that you may

George - WIP:

need time to think you may need time to reflect and, or you may need time to.

George - WIP:

Figure out what you said and maybe make an edit on the fly, but it's a

George - WIP:

definite different thing than saying, well, I'm going to stop and we'll cut

George - WIP:

it and post and, and all of this stuff.

George - WIP:

So I think owning the content, right.

George - WIP:

And you're talking about, you have all of this stuff that is gonna, that you've

George - WIP:

written in blogs and stuff like that.

George - WIP:

They just haven't really come out.

George - WIP:

So using that as a big, you know, a stepping stone, right?

George - WIP:

You already have that.

George - WIP:

So it's part of you, it's already in you.

George - WIP:

So it's not like you have to practice that.

George - WIP:

And I think that's a big thing that, you know, listeners should understand is

George - WIP:

the fact that I think one of the reasons that people are tapped for speaking

George - WIP:

engagements and stuff like that is because of their perspective and points of views.

George - WIP:

And it seems like that's now going to shift a little bit into, you

George - WIP:

know, how that's shifting from just an auditory format to, you know,

George - WIP:

um, consider the video first, right?

George - WIP:

Like we're websites were like mobile first, and then

George - WIP:

you worry about the desktop.

George - WIP:

You're going to do video first and then worry about the podcast.

George - WIP:

interesting.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

That's going to be, we'll see it, it is a TBD.

Brandi Sea:

I'm starting to plan the episodes for this next season, so we'll see how that goes.

Brandi Sea:

But yeah.

Brandi Sea:

Going back to what you were saying.

Brandi Sea:

Understanding why basically knowing your reasons, so understanding

Brandi Sea:

why you do what you do when you present makes presenting anything.

Brandi Sea:

Whether it's a project or I don't know, whatever the thing may be a

Brandi Sea:

cake to somebody that's like a baking expert, like knowing why you did

Brandi Sea:

something, it takes the stress away.

Brandi Sea:

If you already know why you did something, you shouldn't matter why people are asking

Brandi Sea:

you because you have an answer for them.

Brandi Sea:

That's why I really love, especially anytime I get to do speaking

Brandi Sea:

engagements and they have a Q and a session, I'm all about that because

Brandi Sea:

I love answering people's questions.

Brandi Sea:

And that's where you get to establish, like, if there's anybody

Brandi Sea:

out there that like, wants to.

Brandi Sea:

Um, educator of any kind or a voice, you know, that is recognizable and

Brandi Sea:

an influencer, a design influencer, you have to be prepared for people

Brandi Sea:

to ask you why about everything.

Brandi Sea:

And when you can answer why without having to look at notes, without having

Brandi Sea:

to do any of that stuff, that's when you start to establish your credibility.

Brandi Sea:

And that's when people want to hire you because they go, oh, this person

Brandi Sea:

knows what they're talking about.

Brandi Sea:

They didn't have to go back through some, you know, some old

Brandi Sea:

book from a professor, you know?

Brandi Sea:

So stuff like that is really valuable, knowing your reasons.

George - WIP:

I totally agree.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

I think it's just a great way for us to be considered , experts or, or versions

George - WIP:

of ourselves that really understand brands or design or society or culture.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

Where we don't have to look back to, you know, our notes or research

George - WIP:

the book or things like that.

George - WIP:

So I think, you know, part of it is just the practice to get there.

George - WIP:

The, do it more often, is, is really what gets us there.

George - WIP:

Right?

George - WIP:

And, and so as you're doing this right, you said about five years,

George - WIP:

know, definitely it seems like a nice shift for you to have to start

George - WIP:

thinking about this new approach.

George - WIP:

And know, as we, we think about the podcast and, and you know, when you

George - WIP:

said it's not just a podcast, right?

George - WIP:

It's like a whole entire like ecosystem for you.

George - WIP:

There's a blog, there's a podcast, there's an approach you're doing

George - WIP:

TikTok and reels and videos and, you know, changing from long form short

George - WIP:

form and all of this stuff like that.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

When did you figure out you had this knack for like cultivating ideas?

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

That's interesting that you ask it that way.

Brandi Sea:

I, I am a creative director and that has always been

Brandi Sea:

something that I have had in me.

Brandi Sea:

I've always, I've always had the ability to think bigger to my personality.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know what you know about the Enneagram.

Brandi Sea:

I know some people feel weird about it.

Brandi Sea:

I'm an Enneagram three, which just helped me understand me better, ultimately,

Brandi Sea:

because I am, I am an overachiever.

Brandi Sea:

I always want to do more.

Brandi Sea:

In high school.

Brandi Sea:

I played three sports and was captain of two teams and was just

Brandi Sea:

involved in all sorts of stuff.

Brandi Sea:

And I like to think big and have good ideas and have my hands in lots of things.

Brandi Sea:

So in that I think that.

Brandi Sea:

When I became a business owner of my own thing, which was in 2012, the, it was

Brandi Sea:

overwhelming at the thing, the amount of things I needed to do, you know,

Brandi Sea:

before, when you're an art director or creative director in a, in a more

Brandi Sea:

like office place, they bring you the stuff you, you have like a manager that

Brandi Sea:

brings you clients or a project manager or marketing director or whatever.

Brandi Sea:

And then as the art or creative director, you direct the people that work under you.

Brandi Sea:

So that was like my experience.

Brandi Sea:

And then that's something I still love to do.

Brandi Sea:

But when you, when I took it home and was opening up my own business, all of

Brandi Sea:

a sudden, there's all sorts of things to do that are very overwhelming,

Brandi Sea:

all the boring businessy stuff.

Brandi Sea:

But then I realized I can do what I want.

Brandi Sea:

I can do whatever I want with this.

Brandi Sea:

And as these different opportunities, right over the years have come from blogs

Brandi Sea:

and YouTube and podcasting and Instagram.

Brandi Sea:

I was, I was on Instagram since the beginning, just posting weird filters

Brandi Sea:

on my daughter's shoes or something because I was very artistic then in

Brandi Sea:

whatever year, that was 2007 or eight.

Brandi Sea:

And I think that I don't have a problem coming up with ideas and

Brandi Sea:

figuring out a more things I can do.

Brandi Sea:

My problem comes from reigning it in.

Brandi Sea:

I have, I have.

Brandi Sea:

So like I have an Evernote full of ideas of things that I want

Brandi Sea:

to do with this business or things that I hope I can achieve.

Brandi Sea:

I'm in the process of writing a book.

Brandi Sea:

And so there's just a lot that I know is just in my personality.

Brandi Sea:

That's just the.

Brandi Sea:

Person that I am.

Brandi Sea:

I, I like to cultivate ideas for myself, but I really love to help other people

Brandi Sea:

cultivate their ideas and build them up to be able to do things that like

Brandi Sea:

they did not even know were possible.

Brandi Sea:

And so that's really, that's really, I think my, why is helping people to

Brandi Sea:

understand how to harness and take control of that creativity, not just be

Brandi Sea:

like, oh, I'm a creative, but I also do design and I know that's creative, but I

Brandi Sea:

can't really control when I'm creative.

Brandi Sea:

I just sort of when I'm feeling and I'm feeling it and you know, I don't

Brandi Sea:

like that idea because I, I know that we are required as design professionals

Brandi Sea:

with clients, with deadlines.

Brandi Sea:

We don't have that freedom.

Brandi Sea:

Like we really don't to kind of free flow and, oh, well, you know, client

Brandi Sea:

today, I just wasn't feeling creative.

Brandi Sea:

Um, so we're going to have to push off that deadline like another week.

Brandi Sea:

See if I can like drink some coffee, maybe go for a walk it's in fresh air.

Brandi Sea:

Cause I'm just really not feeling inspired, like, sorry.

Brandi Sea:

That does not work.

Brandi Sea:

Whether you're working for yourself or you're working for an agency

Brandi Sea:

or you're working in house.

Brandi Sea:

The real world of creative professionals is that we still have deadlines.

Brandi Sea:

I've had to do it for me and understanding how to do that for

Brandi Sea:

myself has helped me understand how to help other people do the same.

Brandi Sea:

And I know that I don't even know if I answered your question.

Brandi Sea:

I get off.

Brandi Sea:

Hopefully that answered your question about creativity.

George - WIP:

I mean, you know, we're talking about cultivating ideas and it

George - WIP:

looks like you, you, you have endless opportunities to cultivate ideas.

George - WIP:

And what you talked about is the reigning it in, right.

George - WIP:

The editing process, the honing, the honing it down.

George - WIP:

And I think that's really at the heart of what your strategic process is.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And so can you tell us a little bit about what this is the strategic process and how

George - WIP:

it's helped you reign it in, as you said,

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

So the strategic process is what I call is basically my name for the

Brandi Sea:

creative process that I have the design.

Brandi Sea:

I would rather call it like a design process.

Brandi Sea:

I think the creative process is a bit broad and could be applied to any, you

Brandi Sea:

know, illustrator or fine artist, painter photographer, but a design process that

Brandi Sea:

strategic is just really different.

Brandi Sea:

And I think that when I ask people about their design, their processes, a lot of

Brandi Sea:

these steps, you know, will be similar.

Brandi Sea:

The process that I have, I basically developed for myself over the years

Brandi Sea:

that like now I'm trying to teach people is something that is a very

Brandi Sea:

structured step by step, by step process, to being the most creative.

Brandi Sea:

And I know that like, for people that don't understand how this works, it sounds

Brandi Sea:

really how can you have a step-by-step process for being more creative?

Brandi Sea:

If a lot of people feel like if you're putting me in a box, you're limiting my

Brandi Sea:

creativity and I want to like get out.

Brandi Sea:

I want to think outside of the box and what this process does for me, what it has

Brandi Sea:

always done for me is it creates the box.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know about you, but when I say this to people, usually

Brandi Sea:

they go, oh yeah, you're right.

Brandi Sea:

If I were to just tell you, you know what, I need a house, build

Brandi Sea:

me a house or let's go cake build.

Brandi Sea:

Like Napoleon dynamite.

Brandi Sea:

He's going to, you know, Pedro is going to build her a cake or something.

Brandi Sea:

Just build me a cake and you go, okay, what kind of cake?

Brandi Sea:

Just fill me a cake, have fun.

Brandi Sea:

Do what, do what you want.

Brandi Sea:

Okay, cool.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to go sit and stare at the aisle of things that I need to buy.

Brandi Sea:

And I don't know what cake to get.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know what to put on it.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know what to put inside it.

Brandi Sea:

I don't know what shape you want.

Brandi Sea:

Like, there's just so many options.

Brandi Sea:

If I told you then, okay, I need a cake.

Brandi Sea:

It's going to be for a 16th birthday.

Brandi Sea:

I was really hoping it could be some sort of fruit you could decide on the fruit,

Brandi Sea:

but it needs to be a, probably needs to be pink and gold with some like black

Brandi Sea:

accents, um, for a 16 year old's birthday party, it needs to feed about 30 people.

Brandi Sea:

All of a sudden now.

Brandi Sea:

You probably already, even though I don't know if you're a baker or not, you

Brandi Sea:

probably already have like a picture and some ideas of what's going into this.

Brandi Sea:

And that's what this process does.

Brandi Sea:

It creates a box that you can work inside.

Brandi Sea:

So now, you know what the sides are, you know, the size, you know, the

Brandi Sea:

colors, you know, the fillings and the ingredients and the theme, which is the

Brandi Sea:

concept, you know, all of those things.

Brandi Sea:

And even if you and I, and 10 other designers had those same parameters,

Brandi Sea:

every single one of those cakes is going to be different because

Brandi Sea:

we are all different people.

Brandi Sea:

And that's what this process does.

Brandi Sea:

And I really, the reason that I came up with this process while I was using

Brandi Sea:

this process all through college, I sort of learned the, the start of this is

Brandi Sea:

the design brief, which I think a lot of people have variations on the design

Brandi Sea:

brief, but there are certain questions that I always start with in this.

Brandi Sea:

Mainly like, what are some adjectives that you would use to describe your brand?

Brandi Sea:

What are some things that you would like your customer, your dream customer

Brandi Sea:

to think about crafting a color story after you learn all this stuff, a

Brandi Sea:

target audience story, understanding on a deep level, who they are, not

Brandi Sea:

just demographics, psychographics, like the dumb bullet point marketing

Brandi Sea:

stuff, but like understanding the person because there is a real human

Brandi Sea:

on the side of every design that is someone you're trying to speak to.

Brandi Sea:

All of those things in the creative brief were something

Brandi Sea:

that I learned about in college.

Brandi Sea:

But the thing that really is the linchpin of this process that I use is that I

Brandi Sea:

use a word map method to find a concept, the guiding concept for all of the

Brandi Sea:

variations of the design, from the word.

Brandi Sea:

Besides the concept, then you use the concepts to help you find your

Brandi Sea:

typefaces, your colors, your images, and graphics, all of those things.

Brandi Sea:

Before you ever start touching the computer, does that to design before

Brandi Sea:

you sketch, before you do anything.

Brandi Sea:

And then this thread of uncommon inspiration goes through the

Brandi Sea:

entire process from the word map to researching brainstorming.

Brandi Sea:

Um, there's a step for sleep, which is like a crucial, crucial element to this.

Brandi Sea:

But for you, after you do your research and your style reference hunting, I don't

Brandi Sea:

call it inspiration because I feel like that's a completely separate element.

Brandi Sea:

Um, sleeping on that and not looking at those references and then waking up

Brandi Sea:

and sketching allows your brain to work them into your very own gray matter so

Brandi Sea:

that you can then sketch from your own.

Brandi Sea:

And not just look at something here in sketch or open up Pinterest

Brandi Sea:

and go, I really like that.

Brandi Sea:

I'm just going to change this font and then I'm going to

Brandi Sea:

take, you know, use that idea.

Brandi Sea:

That's not inspiration.

Brandi Sea:

That's still just like taking someone else's ideas and altering it.

Brandi Sea:

So after sleeping and sketching, then the rest of it is, is very, very common.

Brandi Sea:

It's narrowing your options, right?

Brandi Sea:

Executing your design, presenting it to the client.

Brandi Sea:

All of that stuff is pretty standard.

Brandi Sea:

But the first three, four ish steps, maybe even five up through sketching.

Brandi Sea:

Cause there's a lot of designers that don't sketch anymore.

Brandi Sea:

All of these things are something that makes this process really

Brandi Sea:

special and any person that has ever tried it has been helped by it.

Brandi Sea:

And there was a point where I realized that this is really, really

Brandi Sea:

unique for me to use it, but my nature of wanting to educate and

Brandi Sea:

share and help designers be better.

Brandi Sea:

Made me not want to keep it to myself.

Brandi Sea:

So I've been sharing that for years to help other designers.

Brandi Sea:

Like, I don't want it to be my secret sauce.

Brandi Sea:

Like I want to give it to everybody and help them, you know, learn this

Brandi Sea:

thing so that they can stop being frustrated because creativity is so hard.

George - WIP:

I mean, first off, can I applaud you for, you know, bringing

George - WIP:

in Napolean Dynamite, vote for Pedro.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah,

George - WIP:

'cause I think, you know, I, I literally, I think

George - WIP:

we watched the movie a couple of

Brandi Sea:

same.

Brandi Sea:

Yep.

Brandi Sea:

I just showed it to my 12 year old nephew and he was all about it.

George - WIP:

yeah.

George - WIP:

Um, but what I'm hearing also is obviously, you know, um, designing

George - WIP:

for yourself for designing, what are parameters creates a heavy burden on

George - WIP:

the creative to kind of figure out where to start, where to figure out how

George - WIP:

to adjust and, and what you're doing with your, your mind map method, right?

George - WIP:

Is like you said, you're creating the box.

George - WIP:

You're creating the, the rules, the where, like, how far can I go?

George - WIP:

It's within my own confines.

George - WIP:

Cause you figured that out.

George - WIP:

And then you can maybe decide that maybe I need to adjust the box

George - WIP:

because now I want to take it.

George - WIP:

a little bit further, but at least you have a place to start.

George - WIP:

And I think that's one of the biggest things that I notice is one figuring.

George - WIP:

A place to start with all the ambiguity that comes from either clients or really,

George - WIP:

Especially when we're doing our own work.

George - WIP:

And we're like, we want to be able to do something because we don't really

George - WIP:

have the right, because we don't really have, we kind of say, I want to do this,

George - WIP:

but we don't really put it in the same lens that we would do a creative brief

George - WIP:

for a client because we know there's goals and metrics and objectives.

George - WIP:

And when we do it for ourselves, we don't necessarily think of those goals, metrics,

George - WIP:

and objectives, but there are, and I think this allows us a way to start the

George - WIP:

conversation, especially with ourselves.

George - WIP:

Like you said, especially hard for ourselves to say,

George - WIP:

what do I want to achieve?

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And as you ended your, your, your conversation really quickly, it was

George - WIP:

like, you knew this wasn't something that you wanted to keep inside.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And so why do you think it was important for you to help other creatives, you know,

George - WIP:

with figuring out this and who are those.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah, I think it really all goes back to my original

Brandi Sea:

goal when I started the blog.

Brandi Sea:

Yes.

Brandi Sea:

That was frustration with bad designers, in my opinion, doing things poorly.

Brandi Sea:

But my goal in those, in all of the things, all of the content I've created

Brandi Sea:

over the past seven years has been to help designers be better and to stand

Brandi Sea:

out and to use their voice and to not use other people's work as a crutch

Brandi Sea:

to start trying to create their own because you're never, you know, You're

Brandi Sea:

never going to be able to do something different if you're following everybody,

Brandi Sea:

that's doing everything the same.

Brandi Sea:

And so I think that that's, that's been the heart of it is I want to

Brandi Sea:

help designers be better and be able to, you know, creativity is hard.

Brandi Sea:

Why are we making it harder on ourselves by, by thinking that like, if I just

Brandi Sea:

sit here long enough, I'm going to be hit by a bolt of inspiration.

Brandi Sea:

And then I'm going to, you know, create the best work I've ever created and

Brandi Sea:

the client's going to be blown away.

Brandi Sea:

And I'm just going to have a thing, make a thing on the computer, present it.

Brandi Sea:

And you know, all the stars will align and everything will be fantastic.

Brandi Sea:

It just that's the way we act.

Brandi Sea:

And that is why people think that what creative professionals, primarily

Brandi Sea:

graphic designers do is like open up Photoshop and hit the magic design button.

Brandi Sea:

And all of a sudden, there it is.

Brandi Sea:

And,

George - WIP:

Wait, wait, you don't have that button.

Brandi Sea:

oh man, you know what I do, but I'm keeping it to myself.

Brandi Sea:

So I'm just telling people that it doesn't exist.

Brandi Sea:

I think that it's like, yeah, we are all creative.

Brandi Sea:

Right?

Brandi Sea:

Like we talked about everyone's creative.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

So now we've shifted into creative professionals, but we're still acting

Brandi Sea:

like we did at five years old where we can just sit in front of, on a, you know,

Brandi Sea:

at our little desk with crayons and make whatever we want and expect our mom to go.

Brandi Sea:

This is going to be the greatest thing ever.

Brandi Sea:

I'm saving it for the rest of my life.

Brandi Sea:

I'm sorry.

Brandi Sea:

That's not how it works.

Brandi Sea:

And in order, you know, it's all about practice.

Brandi Sea:

It's all about cultivating a process where you can sit down and know that in the next

Brandi Sea:

30 minutes with this method that I have, like, I can create a concept from there.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to find colors and graphics and the typeface

Brandi Sea:

category that I want to research.

Brandi Sea:

And now I know that when I sit down, I can create something because I'm

Brandi Sea:

going to start by creating a word map.

Brandi Sea:

Then I'm going to create a concept then I'm going to have, you know,

Brandi Sea:

and it just is like this waterfall effect that happens naturally.

Brandi Sea:

I don't have to sit here with a blank piece of paper and try and

Brandi Sea:

think of an idea because that's where, that's where the wall is for

Brandi Sea:

people is, you know, and that's why brain even brainstorming sessions.

Brandi Sea:

I'm not really for brainstorming sessions.

Brandi Sea:

Unless you have a clear, a clear idea of what you're trying to do.

Brandi Sea:

You're just throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks.

Brandi Sea:

And while it may be a fun brain exercise in a group to, you know,

Brandi Sea:

just kinda shoot the breeze and talk about options and things.

Brandi Sea:

I still think, and know from experience that when you start from this place and

Brandi Sea:

have a concept and some parameters first, then do the brainstorming with the team.

Brandi Sea:

Then you go, okay.

Brandi Sea:

Our concept is, I don't know, shiny unicorns.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

Well now we know we're working with shiny unicorns.

Brandi Sea:

Now, what can we do with that?

Brandi Sea:

As opposed to, okay.

Brandi Sea:

Folks, we need an ad campaign for a 10 to 15 year old girls.

Brandi Sea:

Give me something.

George - WIP:

right, right.

George - WIP:

All right.

George - WIP:

We need to be focused right.

George - WIP:

Instead of ambiguous.

George - WIP:

And I think this, um, one of the things that I'm hearing also is the idea that,

George - WIP:

you know, some of the processes that we use are still art processes, not design

George - WIP:

processes.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And, you know, Right.

George - WIP:

As we all grow up, we, you know, we're, we're sitting in front of our desks.

George - WIP:

We have crayons, that's art, right?

George - WIP:

That's there's no intention.

George - WIP:

It's just to get something out of your head and put it on paper.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

But when you're looking at design there's purpose, there's intention that.

George - WIP:

I think one of the things that when you were talking, I was reminded

George - WIP:

of when I was in art school, one of the most daunting things was

George - WIP:

having that literal blank canvas.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

It was a brand new, you open it from the plastic.

George - WIP:

And it was like, I don't want to do anything to mess this white canvas up

Brandi Sea:

dont want to touch it because they're afraid that

Brandi Sea:

even one line that's wrong.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to have to erase it.

Brandi Sea:

Then I'm, it's ruined.

George - WIP:

she was like, the first thing you need to do is get

George - WIP:

the dirty water from, your your can and put it all over your canvas.

George - WIP:

So you don't think of that as a perfect thing anymore that you cannot mess up.

George - WIP:

And once you do that, it changes your mindset to be like, oh,

George - WIP:

I can put a mark on that.

George - WIP:

So I think it's really important that you brought some of those things up.

George - WIP:

And do you think this, this process that you're uncovering, that you figured

George - WIP:

out, um, changes if you work for a large or a small client or even yourself

Brandi Sea:

No that like there there's and I know I'm biased because it's my

Brandi Sea:

thing, but there is literally no one, no group, no client, no project, anything

Brandi Sea:

that needs a concept this works for.

Brandi Sea:

So if you are a screenwriter or a, you know, a movie producer or an author,

Brandi Sea:

obviously this works for authors.

Brandi Sea:

Cause it's a, it's a literary method.

Brandi Sea:

Like I, I took a literary method because I love literature.

Brandi Sea:

I love English and I have figured out a way to use it,

Brandi Sea:

to create creative concepts.

Brandi Sea:

And so this is not just for design or designers.

Brandi Sea:

That is my world.

Brandi Sea:

That is who I know and love.

Brandi Sea:

And that is what I, I know, but I have, I have had other people ask if this

Brandi Sea:

would work for them and various other creative professions and it does work.

Brandi Sea:

So to answer your question, if you use it for yourself, treat yourself like

Brandi Sea:

a client and you are then the client and it works for a personal project.

Brandi Sea:

It works great for a personal project because often those

Brandi Sea:

are the ones we don't know.

Brandi Sea:

Right.

Brandi Sea:

I just want to make something.

Brandi Sea:

Um, and I use it all the time for my own personal projects.

Brandi Sea:

If you have, if you are in a position where you are just like me

Brandi Sea:

and you're working by yourself for clients, it really works for that

Brandi Sea:

too, because you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of a lot of times.

Brandi Sea:

Um, you are.

Brandi Sea:

Having to try and figure out stuff on your own.

Brandi Sea:

It also works with teams because the word map method is incredible to do

Brandi Sea:

with teams where you're trying to come up with a concept as a group.

Brandi Sea:

And then you come up with that concept and those parameters together, it also

Brandi Sea:

works for agencies like, so the size of the project, the size of the agency or

Brandi Sea:

the creative practice, like it doesn't matter because it's about having a

Brandi Sea:

thing that creates those parameters.

Brandi Sea:

So you're trying, you're not starting with an idea.

Brandi Sea:

It helps you craft a plan so that you can figure out your ideas.

Brandi Sea:

And everybody needs that every, every organization that does creative work

Brandi Sea:

as a business needs a way to set up those parameters on a lot of people

Brandi Sea:

go from the brief to the ideas or the brief to the sketches or the brief

Brandi Sea:

to the computer or the brief to the marketing plan and what this process.

Brandi Sea:

Is instead of trying to bridge that gap, like instead of there being this gap where

Brandi Sea:

you jump from the brief over into starting the creative work or starting the , you

Brandi Sea:

create a bridge with this word mat method.

Brandi Sea:

That gives you a way to get from here to there, where you're not just making

Brandi Sea:

these random creative brain leaps from one thing to the other, hoping it makes sense.

Brandi Sea:

You are using a strategic plan that says, now I have a concept

Brandi Sea:

that gives me the parameters.

Brandi Sea:

I need to cultivate those ideas and those, those things even better.

George - WIP:

And so, you know, with this, right, your ability to share, your,

George - WIP:

your methodology and and have a course that helps, know, people think about

George - WIP:

their own strategic strategic process.

George - WIP:

, if there was one thing, what, one thing do you want creatives to take away from

George - WIP:

being empowered by your strategic process?

Brandi Sea:

Start with words.

Brandi Sea:

Don't, don't try starting with ideas.

Brandi Sea:

Um, well, if you try starting with an idea without a concept

Brandi Sea:

and without a plan, you're just going, you are going to continue to

Brandi Sea:

experience more imposter syndrome.

Brandi Sea:

Imposter syndrome never goes away.

Brandi Sea:

Let's just start there and it never goes away.

Brandi Sea:

But if you work at having a way to fight off the fact that you have an

Brandi Sea:

idea, um, this fixes that like if, if designers could learn one thing,

Brandi Sea:

even in this process, it would be how to create concepts using a word map.

Brandi Sea:

Because that will absolutely changed the rest of everything that

Brandi Sea:

you do, and then understanding.

Brandi Sea:

And that's a whole other topic, how to insert the uncommon, inspiration and

Brandi Sea:

stop, you know, just searching where everyone else's searching is like, if I

Brandi Sea:

could teach the entire design world two things, it would be those two things.

Brandi Sea:

And my process like the pro the strategic process is not meant

Brandi Sea:

to replace anybody's process.

Brandi Sea:

I'm not going here.

Brandi Sea:

Mine's better forget everything, you know, and just plug this into yours.

Brandi Sea:

It's a, here's all the way this entire thing works.

Brandi Sea:

These two things will be crucial if you insert them into your own process.

Brandi Sea:

And the rest of this is bonus ways, you know, different ways of thinking

Brandi Sea:

about research, different ways of how to present to your clients, but

Brandi Sea:

things that they're already doing, that maybe they can just improve

George - WIP:

So powerful, right?

George - WIP:

I mean, you update, I asked you for one, you gave me two,

Brandi Sea:

Sorry.

Brandi Sea:

I can't, it's like, for me, it's like they, they work in tandem with each

Brandi Sea:

other because the reason that the word map method works so well is because

Brandi Sea:

every single persons are different because our brains are all different.

Brandi Sea:

So those word maps, if, like I said before, with like the other example, if

Brandi Sea:

we're all working on the cake, right, they're all going to look different.

Brandi Sea:

And the same goes for this word map.

Brandi Sea:

I've done this in workshops with two dozen people where I give them

Brandi Sea:

the start, you know, all the things they need to start the word map.

Brandi Sea:

And every person comes up with a different concept and therefore, a

Brandi Sea:

different design, even though the, the starting parameters are the same because

Brandi Sea:

everybody's brains work different and make those connections in different ways.

Brandi Sea:

In that word map.

Brandi Sea:

And so that's the beautiful thing about how that plays into our experiences,

Brandi Sea:

our creative voices, and takes that once you take that and work in your own

Brandi Sea:

uncommon, inspiration, understanding what you, what you see in the world

Brandi Sea:

that inspires you, capturing those things, and then being able to access

Brandi Sea:

those, like when you need them for your projects, instead of just getting on

Brandi Sea:

Pinterest or be hands and going, I'm designing a cake for a 16 year old girl

Brandi Sea:

help, like basically is what we do.

Brandi Sea:

And then it's like, oh, I like that one.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to do something like that.

Brandi Sea:

And this takes that out of the equation and it puts you and your voice front

Brandi Sea:

and center to solve your client's problem to appeal to their audience.

George - WIP:

I love that.

George - WIP:

I love the idea that we're not looking at other things to be

George - WIP:

inspired by or to potentially steal, you know, and not on purpose.

George - WIP:

But obviously when you look at inspiration, sometimes it

George - WIP:

just creeps into your brain.

George - WIP:

And you're trying to empower us to be more of us being the person that's

George - WIP:

really, um, dictating and understanding the needs and using our own voice first.

George - WIP:

And that's a really powerful I, that I think know, our listeners

George - WIP:

should really understand.

George - WIP:

So as we start to, you know, finish off our conversation, I just have some

George - WIP:

final questions that I want to get into and learn some more insight from you.

George - WIP:

So as a designer, podcast, or educator and business owner, what is something new

George - WIP:

that you'd like to explore creative-wise?

Brandi Sea:

Yeah, man I actually have a list of things that

Brandi Sea:

I want to learn this year.

Brandi Sea:

One of them is NFTs, which is probably something that a lot of creatives

Brandi Sea:

are trying to understand right now.

Brandi Sea:

I really want to, I haven't worked with Premiere, Premiere Pro like

Brandi Sea:

editing videos since I was in college, even though that's, you

Brandi Sea:

know, that's my husband's thing.

Brandi Sea:

And he usually edits my videos for me, but I really want to be able to

Brandi Sea:

do that on my own if I decide to.

Brandi Sea:

So if, um, if he's not able to do it, cause he's at work and I just

Brandi Sea:

want to throw together a quick video.

Brandi Sea:

I want to relearn, I guess, the Premier Pro stuff so that I can

Brandi Sea:

be a little more self-sufficient on the pro side of video editing.

Brandi Sea:

I can edit just pine on it, on tech, talk on the little apps I

Brandi Sea:

have on my phone, but I really wanted to learn some more of that.

Brandi Sea:

And I really want to get better at copywriting.

Brandi Sea:

That's something that I'm, I've never been great at.

Brandi Sea:

I can run.

Brandi Sea:

I'm writing a book.

Brandi Sea:

I know how to write things, but copywriting for marketing and business

Brandi Sea:

purposes is kind of a whole other level and a different approach.

Brandi Sea:

So I think that I know how to strategize.

Brandi Sea:

I know how to direct creative and things, and then understanding how to use that

Brandi Sea:

in a, in a more copywriting sort of sense, or that those are like the top

Brandi Sea:

three things that are on my list for really getting better at right now.

George - WIP:

awesome.

George - WIP:

As a creative, what are you still inspired by?

Brandi Sea:

Why are you giving me softballs?

Brandi Sea:

Um, I am inspired by this is gonna sound goofball, but if people

Brandi Sea:

follow me, they know this is true.

Brandi Sea:

I'm inspired by everything I have.

Brandi Sea:

This is the other thing when it comes to the, this is what uncommon inspiration is.

Brandi Sea:

Uncommon.

Brandi Sea:

Inspiration is finding and seeing inspiration in everything and everywhere.

Brandi Sea:

Even over the pandemic.

Brandi Sea:

I am.

Brandi Sea:

I'm a high risk person, so I wasn't really able to go anywhere

Brandi Sea:

for almost a full year, just having to stay in my neighborhood.

Brandi Sea:

And thank goodness.

Brandi Sea:

I have a nice house that I was holed up in, but that really

Brandi Sea:

challenged how I find inspiration everywhere, whether it's movies.

Brandi Sea:

And I see a color palette that I really appreciate if it's, if I'm out for a walk

Brandi Sea:

and I see shadows that are creating an interesting pattern, I capture those and

Brandi Sea:

I can save that for later when I travel.

Brandi Sea:

So I guess the one, one thing that I love the most is travel, but in that

Brandi Sea:

there's, there's really no difference between that and using those same

Brandi Sea:

methods of like awareness when I'm traveling and using that at home.

Brandi Sea:

So if I go downtown to my own downtown, which compared to New York, where

Brandi Sea:

I've been as a completely different downtown, but switching on your

Brandi Sea:

awareness goggles and being ready to receive inspiration everywhere.

Brandi Sea:

So that's the other thing where the whole finding a concept and having

Brandi Sea:

those parameters really is impactful.

Brandi Sea:

And your design ideating is that if I have a concept and I know my colors and

Brandi Sea:

I know sort of the kind of graphics I'm looking for, I can then if I have the

Brandi Sea:

opportunity, take a pause, go visit.

Brandi Sea:

Or I've, I've definitely gone on trips while I'm like at

Brandi Sea:

that point on a client project.

Brandi Sea:

So I've got my parameters all set, and then it's like, okay, taking a break.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going on a vacation for the weekend.

Brandi Sea:

I have now tuned in.

Brandi Sea:

My awareness Perceptor to bought concept those colors, those sort

Brandi Sea:

of graphics and images and patterns and textures and things that I

Brandi Sea:

need to be on the lookout for.

Brandi Sea:

So now I can go out into the world and go, oh, I don't know what was it?

Brandi Sea:

Shiny unicorns or something.

Brandi Sea:

I'm looking for shiny things.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to take pictures of reflections on water.

Brandi Sea:

I'm going to take pictures of maybe how the sun bounces off these windows

Brandi Sea:

in this high rise, apartment building.

Brandi Sea:

So to answer your question, I find inspiration literally everywhere.

Brandi Sea:

I could look around in any given space and tell you what I find inspiring and why.

Brandi Sea:

And that is really the key is not just feeling inspired, but knowing why it

Brandi Sea:

inspires you thinking about how you can use it later and capturing it.

Brandi Sea:

So you have your own little inspiration library that you can access.

George - WIP:

I think one of the big things I just heard, right.

George - WIP:

Is that the, the being able to receive inspiration, right.

George - WIP:

I think being aware that there is inspiration all around us and two

George - WIP:

things, one, just noticing that your surroundings are there to inspire you...

George - WIP:

but then also being very strategic and knowing that if you have something

George - WIP:

that you're working on, you have.

George - WIP:

Something to go to, to look out for those things, right?

George - WIP:

So there's almost like two things going on.

George - WIP:

One being, just allowing yourself to, to take in the world and not be

George - WIP:

so focused on just like our phones or this, or, you know, all the crap

George - WIP:

that's happening in the world, but actually being inspired by all this.

George - WIP:

But then also saying, if you are working on a client project or your

George - WIP:

own work now, actually going out and looking for the things that will make

George - WIP:

it, you know, beneficial for you.

George - WIP:

So it's no longer just computer-based, which I think is so, which is so

George - WIP:

empowering because I think we're, we're so used to saying, well, how can I use

George - WIP:

the outside influence to gain inspiration?

George - WIP:

And you're giving us the tools, right?

George - WIP:

You're just letting us say that you Understand you see it but

George - WIP:

you have to now understand it.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

That's like thing...

Brandi Sea:

Understand it and then use it because a lot, I think, I think,

Brandi Sea:

again, going back to the, we are, we often think because we are artistic

Brandi Sea:

that we, we fall back on these art based methods that don't help us.

Brandi Sea:

And then we get frustrated because we go, oh, well, oh, I'm feeling really stuck.

Brandi Sea:

Okay.

Brandi Sea:

I'm just going to go for a walk, clear my head.

Brandi Sea:

Okay, great.

Brandi Sea:

Um, you're probably still going to be stuck when you

Brandi Sea:

come back because that's great.

Brandi Sea:

You got some fresh air and maybe, you know, sometimes clearing our head that

Brandi Sea:

way does like bring some sort of clarity.

Brandi Sea:

But how often do you come back and just feel a little

Brandi Sea:

bit better about being stuck?

Brandi Sea:

You're just like, oh man, that felt good.

Brandi Sea:

Talk to some friends around the water cooler, like, alright, I feel

Brandi Sea:

like I can tackle this being stuck thing a little better now, but you

Brandi Sea:

don't have any way to get unstuck.

Brandi Sea:

You're still just stuck.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

So dealing, dealing with that right now, the conversely of what you considered

George - WIP:

a soft ball with the inspiration is what do you still struggle with?

Brandi Sea:

I think that I struggle with my time more than anything.

Brandi Sea:

So what I have found is beneficial and this, this is something that I tell people

Brandi Sea:

all the time and the process is the reason that this strategic process works so well.

Brandi Sea:

And the reason that it, I think has something that I have needed

Brandi Sea:

over the years is each step you can put time parameters on.

Brandi Sea:

And or so in the research phase, because I, depending on if I'm searching for

Brandi Sea:

style references or looking up like an era or something like that, if I'm

Brandi Sea:

searching for style references, I often go through my own photos of things that

Brandi Sea:

I've taken and also use some lovely books that I have here on my bookshelf.

Brandi Sea:

And even that I set parameters of, I'm only going to look at five books.

Brandi Sea:

I'm like, choose them very specifically for whatever the

Brandi Sea:

project is that I'm working on.

Brandi Sea:

And then I'm going to stop because otherwise I can look at all because

Brandi Sea:

of the tendency to find inspiration everywhere and finding things

Brandi Sea:

interesting about, just about anything.

Brandi Sea:

Setting time parameters has been really key.

Brandi Sea:

And that is probably where I struggle the most.

Brandi Sea:

So I use everything from the Pomodoro timer, depending on the projects...

Brandi Sea:

to I have set playlists for each step in the process.

Brandi Sea:

So there's a, there's a playlist for working on.

Brandi Sea:

You know, figuring out the design brief after I have the conversation

Brandi Sea:

with the, with the client, like making sure all my things are filled in,

Brandi Sea:

I have a playlist for the word map, which is like an hour and six minutes.

Brandi Sea:

If I'm not done with the word map in an hour and six

Brandi Sea:

minutes, which is a long time.

Brandi Sea:

And I usually don't need that much time.

Brandi Sea:

I stop.

Brandi Sea:

So usually the time stuff is, is not great.

Brandi Sea:

I need like an assistant to tell me, like, time's up, stop working.

George - WIP:

I love the idea though, of setting playlists, where it's

George - WIP:

like you using, you know, one part of your brain, but also, you know,

George - WIP:

figuring out a time or within that.

George - WIP:

But also not just having this like weird ambiguous, like clock ticking down and

George - WIP:

having that like pressure of time versus like at least still enjoying yourself and

George - WIP:

saying, Hey, when it's over, then that's my, you know, time to spending on it.

George - WIP:

That's a great technique.

George - WIP:

I really think that that can empower a lot of people to kind of utilize music

George - WIP:

as a way as a timing method versus just, you know, oh, here's another little

George - WIP:

app that I need to get on my computer or set a timer on my phone with this

George - WIP:

really annoying, you know, um, alarm.

George - WIP:

And I think that's a great way to adjust.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

Well, I've written a lot and talked a lot about how do you use it to

Brandi Sea:

hack your brain, because not only is it something that you can use,

Brandi Sea:

music is a huge part of my process.

Brandi Sea:

Um, it's sort of like the, the underlying contributor to, to the

Brandi Sea:

process is it can act like Pavlov's dog.

Brandi Sea:

When I turn on, when I start the playlist for the word map, my

Brandi Sea:

brain immediately shifts into we're using words for things right now.

Brandi Sea:

And all of that music is strictly.

Brandi Sea:

Um, instrumental.

Brandi Sea:

So that the words you're hearing, aren't impacting what

Brandi Sea:

you're working out on the page.

Brandi Sea:

So for the word map, I have this certain playlist that is this,

Brandi Sea:

as soon as I turn that on, I know that's what I'm working on.

Brandi Sea:

So it also eliminates the trying to get into the zone and like trying,

Brandi Sea:

which is something that's also super hard for creatives is like

Brandi Sea:

getting into that creative space.

Brandi Sea:

And if you have a playlist that, you know, works that, you know, inspires

Brandi Sea:

you, that, you know, you know, triggers something, use that thing.

Brandi Sea:

So then when all the way, you know, I have all these different playlist.

Brandi Sea:

So by the time I'm actually designing and creating something on the

Brandi Sea:

computer, it's time to do that.

Brandi Sea:

The playlist that I have, there is very upbeat it's songs that I know well that

Brandi Sea:

I don't feel the need to try to listen to the lyrics to, but there are lyrics.

Brandi Sea:

And as soon as I hit play on all each and every one of these playlist

Brandi Sea:

that I have set up for these steps in the process, very strategically.

Brandi Sea:

My brain knows what it's working on and it knows what it's supposed to be doing.

Brandi Sea:

So not only is it a good timekeeping thing, but it's also a really

Brandi Sea:

great brain hack to just like, okay, brain, this is what you're

Brandi Sea:

supposed to be doing right now.

Brandi Sea:

Let's do this,

George - WIP:

Love it love it.

George - WIP:

That's a great brain hack.

George - WIP:

And so one last question.

George - WIP:

What advice would you give a younger Brandi entering the industry?

Brandi Sea:

uh, younger Brandi.

Brandi Sea:

Ooh, no one's ever asked me that asked me when I would tell young designers,

Brandi Sea:

oh boy, what would I tell young me?

Brandi Sea:

I would tell young me that it doesn't have to be perfect before you share it.

Brandi Sea:

What, whatever it is that is definitely still, that's a struggle that I've

Brandi Sea:

gotten a lot better at sort of that we talked about before, but.

Brandi Sea:

Even right now, as we sit here, I'm sitting on three completely finished

Brandi Sea:

design projects that I've been wanting to share with people on Instagram or

Brandi Sea:

wherever and thinking, how am I going to share that what's going to be best?

Brandi Sea:

Like, should I talk about it on YouTube channel?

Brandi Sea:

Should I put it on a, on a real or a slideshow?

Brandi Sea:

Like, even though I'm not worried about the work being perfect, there's still

Brandi Sea:

a level of like, just do something, just share it, just say something.

Brandi Sea:

And so I would tell young Brandi, it doesn't have to be perfect to share it.

George - WIP:

Agreed.

George - WIP:

Agreed.

George - WIP:

I think the, the, the perfection thing does get a lot of designers and

George - WIP:

especially when you're putting stuff on social, because that aspect of social

George - WIP:

as a place where everything looks polished and we get so caught up in that.

George - WIP:

And I think what we do, you know, what you're doing with process and mind maps

George - WIP:

and what I'm doing with talking about, you know, the, the reasons behind the stuff

George - WIP:

that we do, you know, is to get into those conversations and those uncomfortable

George - WIP:

moments that we all know happens and elevate those more often than just the

George - WIP:

perfect, finished beautiful thing that we see because too much of that means that

George - WIP:

people are focusing on that goal and not really focusing on producing great work.

George - WIP:

And I think there's a big difference in between those.

George - WIP:

So though that is definitely something that.

George - WIP:

Affects all of us, right.

George - WIP:

Just like imposter syndrome.

George - WIP:

Um, that is amazing.

Brandi Sea:

Yeah.

Brandi Sea:

I always tell people it's not practice makes perfect it's practice makes

Brandi Sea:

progress because perfection just isn't even a thing that exists.

Brandi Sea:

So there's, there's that,

George - WIP:

So lastly, where can our listeners find out more about you

George - WIP:

Design Speaks podcast or the strategic.

Brandi Sea:

uh, yeah, you can basically find all of my stuff

Brandi Sea:

at BrandiSea.com and it's Brandi with Sea like the body of water.

Brandi Sea:

S E A if you just search Brandi, see, you can find all of my stuff, connect

Brandi Sea:

with me on basically any social thing.

Brandi Sea:

I'm I primarily do a lot on Instagram and TikTok, but I do

Brandi Sea:

interact a lot on LinkedIn as well.

Brandi Sea:

My course is linked on my website.

Brandi Sea:

It should be linked in the bio of my Instagram account.

Brandi Sea:

And the podcast is called Design Speaks podcast and is available

Brandi Sea:

anywhere you like to get your podcasts.

Brandi Sea:

So I think that's everything my YouTube channel is Brandi Sea, so again, if you

Brandi Sea:

just search me on almost any platform within reason, you'll probably find me

George - WIP:

Definitely.

George - WIP:

Right.

George - WIP:

And when I was doing research for this, right, when you look, you just

George - WIP:

type in Brandi Sea that's all you get you just to get Brandi's information

George - WIP:

and the podcast and everything.

Brandi Sea:

Because there's only one me.

George - WIP:

Exactly.

George - WIP:

So you're doing a lot of a great job in controlling that, that content.

George - WIP:

And, you know, once again, thank you so much for, for taking the

George - WIP:

time to chat and really, you know, shed light on how this process

George - WIP:

really unlocks people's creativity.

George - WIP:

And, You know, I can't wait to see more how you're shifting the

George - WIP:

podcast from, you know, strictly auditory to, you know, video first.

George - WIP:

And what

Brandi Sea:

You heard it here.

Brandi Sea:

First folks.

George - WIP:

Yes!

George - WIP:

You heard it here first and we'll, hopefully we'll get this episode out

George - WIP:

by the time it's actually going live.

George - WIP:

So, you know, to kind of be a great kismet moment, but I will continue

George - WIP:

to follow your journey and support you in your creative community.

George - WIP:

Overall, Thank you so much again, for being on this episode.

George - WIP:

This has been works in process.

Brandi Sea:

Thank you for having me.

George - WIP:

I'd like to thank my guests, Brandy Sea, I can't wait to find out

George - WIP:

what's in store for the podcast and it's transition to a more visual content.

George - WIP:

If you want to learn more about the links, the people and the organizations

George - WIP:

mentioned in our conversation, please check out the show notes of your podcast

George - WIP:

player or visit our website wip.show.

George - WIP:

The Works in Process podcast is created by me, George Garrastegui Jr.

George - WIP:

And the content and transcriptions have been reviewed by Or Szyflinger.

George - WIP:

You can find Works in Process on all media platforms, such as

George - WIP:

Apple, Spotify, Google, and more.

George - WIP:

And if you liked the episode, feel free to give us a rating on

George - WIP:

apple podcasts, it really helps.

George - WIP:

I appreciate you taking the journey with me and I hope

George - WIP:

you enjoyed this conversation.

George - WIP:

Until next time.

George - WIP:

Remember, it's not always about what you create, but how you create it.

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About the Podcast

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Works In Process w/ George Garrastegui, Jr.
How Creatives Work.

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About your host

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George Garrastegui

George is an educator, designer, advocate, and curator looking to elevate the creative process by shifting the focus to how we work over what we produce.