February 19, 2025 • 35 mins
Timothy Kimo Brien engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Emily Schneider, a specialist in visual storytelling and PowerPoint design. Their discussion reveals how traditional art principles can be effectively integrated into presentation design, transforming the way complex information is conveyed. Schneider articulates that the foundation of her work lies in understanding how audiences process visuals and information. By applying concepts such as color theory and layout strategies, she crafts presentations that not only captivate but also resonate with viewers on an emotional level. This approach reflects a deeper understanding of the human experience, emphasizing that effective communication transcends mere words and enters the realm of feeling and connection.
Schneider's insights extend beyond the technical aspects of design; she explores the emotional power of visuals in presentations. The episode highlights the necessity of knowing one’s audience and strategically designing presentations that evoke the desired response. Schneider encourages presenters to simplify their slides, focusing on key messages that create a lasting impact rather than inundating the audience with excessive information. This principle of simplicity is echoed throughout the episode as a vital takeaway for aspiring presenters, making it clear that clarity and emotional resonance are paramount in effective visual storytelling. The conversation ultimately inspires listeners to incorporate their own artistic sensibilities into their work, enhancing both their professional and creative endeavors.
Takeaways:
- Emily Schneider emphasizes the importance of storytelling in presentation design, making complex information engaging.
- Visual principles like color and layout enhance storytelling, allowing audiences to connect emotionally.
- Incorporating artistic sensibilities into business presentations can transform the overall experience for viewers.
- Less is more: reducing text on slides encourages audience engagement and retention of information.
- Understanding the audience's needs can help presenters craft more effective and impactful stories.
- Exploring inspiration from various art forms can enrich the visual storytelling process in presentations.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Custom Border Protection
- Pod Match
- Podcast Beacon
- Uppercase
- Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
Bio
a visual storyteller who specializes in PowerPoint design. I have a passion for turning complex content into captivating and beautiful presentations that resonate with audiences, blending storytelling with a keen design eye.
I've spent years honing my craft and believe that a well-designed presentation is much more than just slides and text. It's a strategic tool that can amplify your impact and drive business success. My expertise lies in seamlessly weaving narratives into visual aids, crafting compelling stories that engage audiences and leave a lasting impression.
I'm not just a designer; I'm a strategic collaborator who partners with businesses to elevate their communications. Together, we can transform your message into impactful presentations that captivate and inspire your intended audiences. My designs guide your audience to make informed decisions and empower you to tell your story with confidence.
In my podcast appearances, I love sharing the importance of a well-designed presentation and how setting up your story can lead to stronger messages, resulting in more sales, better...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Create Art Podcast interviewEmily Schneider. Hello, friend. This
is Timothy Keem O'Brien, yourhead instigator for Create Art Podcast,
where I use my over 30 yearsof experience in the arts and educational
world to help you tame yourinner critic and create more than
(00:25):
you consume today. In thisepisode, I'd like to introduce you
to Emily, who is a visualstoryteller who specializes in PowerPoint
design. Now, she has a passionfor turning complex content into
captivating and beautifulpresentations that resonate with
audiences, blendingstorytelling with a keen design eye.
(00:48):
Now, you may be saying toyourself, Tim, what's PowerPoint
got to do with my artisticpractice? Well, if you're anything
like me, I work a 9 to 5 jobfor the federal government. If you're
a listener from, you know, along time, you know that I work for
custom border protection. Anda lot of the presentations that I
give are to, let's say,stuffed shirts. But I'm also an artist,
(01:12):
and I want to incorporate myart into my day job. Well, Emily
is the perfect person to helpyou go about doing that. This conversation
that I have with her, she'sgoing to be talking about her artistic
background and how she bringsthat to the table when she's dealing
with her clients. So that'ssomething that we can all kind of,
(01:33):
you know, put into our toolboxand think about when we're doing
our artistic practice. Soright now, I'm going to get out of
the way. There's going to be alot of show notes there for you and
a lot of links, so check outthe show notes afterwards. But right
now, here's my interview withEmily Schneider.
(01:54):
Emily, how are you doing today?
I'm good. I'm so happy to behere. Thanks for having me.
Excellent. I'm excited to getthis because my. My day job is to
the right of me, and this ismy fun job right here. So I'm going
to learn both in thisinterview, for sure. Let's jump right
into it. And how do youincorporate traditional art principles
(02:18):
into your presentation designsto enhance that storytelling? I mean,
you know, I work in theartistic world and in the business
world. How do you make thosehappen together?
That's a really greatquestion. I've actually never been
asked that. But I think itstarts or I think my approach is
really like, it's rooted inwhat art should do for us. It should
make us feel something, thinksomething, do something, respond.
(02:41):
And so I apply those basicprinciples to the design world and
to my presentation work. Istudied visual communications or
graphic design in college. Andso it's understanding how people
digest information as well.Right? We read, you know, left to
right, top to bottom. So it'sbreaking up information and it's,
it's laying it out in waysthat we allow our audiences of the
(03:06):
people reviewing our work to,to like, it mimics the way they're
naturally processing, right? Imean, you can throw something, you
can make them curious, but ifyou set it up and it's totally bizarre,
they're not going tounderstand it and they're going to
tune it out. And so it's, it'sunderstanding human kind of centric
design or behavior. I geek outa lot about the neuroscience and
the data behind how weinterpret information and how it
(03:29):
becomes digestible andimpactful. And so I help my clients
lay out their stories to hitthose key parts. And, you know, knowing
that this podcast is reallyabout creating art, like, it comes
with, like, what color meansand how space and modular systems
can really allow us theability to focus in on something.
(03:50):
And so it's using a lot ofthose basic principles, but applying
them into an aspect that helpsa storyteller shine brighter.
And with that designbackground that you have, how do
you balance, you know,creating, you know, like a visually
appealing presentation, buteffectively communicating what you
(04:13):
need to, you know, what thatintended message is. Because, you
know, I think maybe, and I'mthe newbie here, I think a failure
is if I have this beautifullooking presentation and people are
looking at the pictures butthey're not following the message,
I've completely failed. So howdo you balance those two?
(04:33):
So I actually think that thechallenge, or my goal is to not make
one shine brighter than theother as a presenter, as somebody
talking through your work,whether you're on a zoom call or
you're in a keynotepresentation, right, and you're the
keynote speaker, or you're ina small meeting with your team, who's
all, you know, kind ofeverybody's on the same level. You're
not like a senior or whateverthat looks like. It's. As a human,
(04:55):
you connect to humans. And theidea of your slides is to reinforce
that message. It's to createthis harmonious experience. It's.
It's to support that andvisuals. I mean, we're 65% more likely
to retain information whenit's visually designed. So when you're
talking about data, you'retalking about growth from 2024 to
2025, and you say we've had65% more inquiries than we did last
(05:16):
year. Like, think about thePower of showing an emotional picture
and then pulling out thatnumber and designing it really intently
and making it reallyimpactful. And now you can talk about
all the different avenues orhow that number went in or how many,
you know, turnovers you had orwhatever that, whatever that, that
information that leads up tothat data. But when you highlight
(05:36):
the key and you just determineper slide and overall in your story
what those key focuses are,those priorities and those details,
and you focus in on that, youallow your, your, your voiceover
to be this story and that theslides, again, just reinforce and
support. And they don'tcompete, they actually complement.
(05:59):
I like that because you'retweaking my artistic side with, you
know, saying the wordstorytelling. We are telling a story
whenever we're doing thesekind of presentations. And so my,
you know, my artistic side isjust jumping up for joy, going, yes,
I can do this for my businessside of it.
Yeah. I mean, think aboutcolors, right? If you use complementary
colors, you're going tosupport this feeling or this emotion
(06:21):
or this thing. When you usecontrasting colors, you kind of start
to create this tension. Well,it's the same for your slides. And
as a presenter, what do youwant to create? What's that feeling?
One of the first things I workwith my clients on, who is your audience
and what that. What do youwant them to think, feel and do at
the end? And when they knowthat, then we know how to approach
it. We know if we're. We wantto create conflict. We want them
(06:42):
to be engaged. We want them toask these, like, really annoying,
not, I shouldn't say annoying,but really tough questions or no,
I want to like, tell themsomething that they feel excited
about. And at the end they,they buy into. I don't want them
to challenge it, I want themto believe it. Well, that creates
a whole different kind offlow. Right. As a painter, you're
going to pick a differentpalette of colors if that's what
you want people to do withyour work or feel, you know, and
(07:05):
so it helps to navigate thatand, and the colors come in play,
obviously, in the design worldtoo. But I think it's, it's tapping
into that emotional andempathetic connection of what art
does for us. And then it'sbringing it to life through. Through
a really articulate andstrategic story.
That's awesome.
In my previous life when I wasin academia, I was a lighting designer.
So when you say color, I'mimmediately thinking about my seven
(07:29):
hour lecture on color theorywith lights and just how. Just with
lights. Not even paint oranything like that. How you can change
an emotion or direct people tolook, look over here. Don't look
over on this side of the stagebecause we got to move the set over
here. So, you know.
Yes, totally. I love that.
(07:51):
So in what ways has yourartistic influences evolved over
time, and have they impactedyour approach to visual storytelling
for presentations?
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, Ididn't even know this world existed
when I was growing up. Right.I just knew it started with I liked
(08:12):
ceramics. I liked getting myhands dirty and building something
from nothing. And I maxed outall the ceramics classes, and the
ceramics teacher said, you gotto go into different avenues. And
so I started exploring.Luckily, one of the director of the
art department in high schoolkind of took me under her wing, and
she helped me see that, like,drawing is really important. Setting
shapes, seeing how things worktogether, using, you know, being
(08:35):
challenged by, like, can youdraw something where you only use
vertical lines? And a lot ofthese pieces, to be honest, are still
in my mom's home, which is socomforting because I can come back
and see how far I've come. ButI think what. Where it really stems
from is like, I've always beenthis creatively curious, empathetic
person, and so I see the worldthrough color, through emotion, through
connectivity. And I've paintedthis picture for myself in order
(08:57):
to understand concepts. And sonow I just get to use that in a very.
Not very transactional, but,like, it is. And simply put, it's
a transactional businessstory. And so the way I study or
the way I get inspired hasevolved. Right. It started with wanting
just to get messy and dirtyand creating something and not really
(09:17):
knowing where it was going.Then it kind of got into. I really
geeked out about art historyand understanding intention and purpose
and themes and. Right. Andwhen you learn about art history,
you learn about the culturalinfluences that move us and that
made different movements. Andit's really powerful, I think. And
just to think about how peopletook so much time to be intentional
(09:39):
with their strokes, withtheir. With the way they built things,
with the way things werecrafted. It's still like, I still
get so excited when I canlearn about it. I actually spent
some time over winter break atthe RISD Museum. The Rhode island
school designed their modernart museum. And it spans everything
from, like, things that weremade this year to, like. I mean,
(10:01):
there was like, ancientGrecian coins and skull. And not
skulls, but masks or shieldsand, like, helmets and stuff. And
it's. And like, there's anexpression, there's a story, there's
something there. And so Ithink when we can stay curious about
what it means and how theinputs affect the output, it really
helps to be inspired thesedays. To be honest, a lot of my inspiration
(10:23):
isn't necessarily in doingmore art because I spend a lot of
time doing my art as my job.But I. There's an amazing magazine
I love called Uppercase. It'sout of Canada. I. I get it at my
local library. She does four,four issues a year and she has anything
from textiles to painting toyou know, any kind of, kind of creative
(10:45):
outlet. And she shares and shehas these great stories. I love learning
and just getting patterninspiration or color combinations
from there. Dance, movement,music, it's another form of art.
It doesn't have to be alwayssomething that are visual. It's also
about the way we feel and thenthe way we express those feelings.
And then lastly, I know I'veanswered this question a lot. Again,
(11:05):
I kind of mentioned thelibrary. I'm a library geek. I love
working out there. Not workingout there, but working from there.
I still love working out, butnot. I don't work out at the library,
but our libraries have this. Alot of the libraries in my area have
a place called the makerspaceand they are amazing. If you have
a local library and you haveaccess to a makerspace, whether it's
(11:26):
your library or a neighboringlibrary, I can't recommend it enough.
I take, I have young kids, myfive year old, my nine year old,
myself. Sometimes we just gothere and we're like, they'll have
pop up projects or let'sfigure out the other. Last time we
went we learned how to do 3Dpen art and like you just get curious
and they have the supplies andit's not, it's low bar entry, it
(11:46):
doesn't matter what you comeout with. But taking that space away
from what? From always havingto deliver something that is right,
that is a. Like always havinga product in mind or like for me,
always having to like design apresentation. Right. There's a lot
of pressure sometimes, butgetting outside of that and taking
that break and getting outthere to be inspired differently
(12:07):
is so critical.
Absolutely. We, we have thathere in Fredericksburg. Absolutely
love it. They've got a podcastbooth and They've got the 3D printers
and the laser cutters and evensewing machines they have there.
You can do your sewing.
Like one of them here is a twostory building. So like upstairs
they have like all their likecool edge technology, 3D printers,
(12:30):
laser cutting, edging, likeall these model making materials,
wood burning stuff. And thenthey have like their tables where
you can work, work on stuff.They have button machines to sewing
and embroidery machines. Andthen downstairs there's an. It seems
like you're in a, in a sewingclass. Like they have a bunch of
sewing machines with the worktable. And then I say they have a,
like a Michaels arts and craftstore on crack where everything's
(12:52):
free, but they have shells andthey have figures and they have pencils
and they have coloring booksand then they have stamps. And then
they have, you know, the big,like in art school, we had those
big portfolio bins with thelarge sheets. They have drawers of
stuff and you just open themand you just can start exploring.
Like it's, it's amazing,especially as someone who you can't,
you know, the investment tohave all that in your house. But
(13:12):
then you start to like, boxyourself in. I've already boxed myself
in in this PowerPoint designspace. I want to have the freedom
to do other things. So that'swhat I love about those spaces.
It's fantastic. Everybodyshould check it out if they have
it in their local library. Ifnot, go get it or go to a library
that, you know that does have it.
So for sure.
And you've kind of alreadyanswered this question here for me,
(13:35):
but I want to harp on it justa little bit. Inspiration from other
art forms. What are youbringing in from the makerspace into
these business presentations?You know, another thing that you
mentioned, you know that youlove looking at dance and music and
(13:56):
all that. How does that filterinto this business presentation where
we're always thinking thatthese business folks are all, you
know, stuffed shirts, suit andties, and they are not really interested
in the quote unquote, artsyfartsy stuff. How do you bring that
into them or where do youbring that from?
Yeah, that's such a goodquestion. So I like to, like, kind
(14:17):
of like my short pitch islike, I. My magical knack is simplifying
complex information intoconcise, impactful presentations.
And what do I mean by that? Orwhy do I say that? Because as a kid,
to be honest, I was one whowas always curious about how things
worked and how parts gottogether. And in order to understand
how things work, you have tobreak them down. And so I have always,
always broken downinformation, concepts, things from
(14:41):
when I studied dance. Right,you broke that down from when I studied
art or when I do art. It'ssteps, it's processes. And so that's
what I bring into my world isI just naturally need to keep things
simple in order to understandthem. And now I think one of my most
guiding principles is less isalways more. Right? There's the magic
(15:03):
is in the simple stuff. Youcan layer, you can add it on, but
you've got to start basic. Andso when I can bring the concept of
color, the power of color, ofcolor blocking, of using fonts to
create a feeling or placementof things to create tension, you
do, you could, you can reallymake a lot of impact in a little,
in very simple ways inpresentation design. And it's, for
(15:26):
me, it's like, it'sinteresting question because for
me it's like a no brainer.Like I don't know how I do it because
it just is the only way I knowhow to think about it. But I think
it really roots intounderstanding like how things come
together. I mean, when youtalk, when you were asking me that
too, I was thinking aboutlike, I'm not a great cook, but I
do love cooking and I love,and I eat very healthy, which is
very colorful. And there areso many times where I'll look down
(15:48):
at my pan on the stove andI'll take a picture because the color
of the broccoli, right,there's like four different colors.
Broccoli is in this jar. And Ithink about how that looks or my
daughter will get enamored bythe color of the sauce that comes
out of. I mean, a bad exampleis like when you put milk into like
tricks or Cocoa Puffs andlike, right. Like it's like when
you think about how simplethings, things make such magic and
(16:09):
you get curious. I think itjust, it naturally inspires or empowers
me to think, to bring thatinto my work.
That's great. And I like thatwhole simple process because I've
noticed in presentations that I.
Do and maybe it's subtle or maybe.
Subliminal, but if I justchange that font a little bit or
if I, you know, I change thefont color because where I work we're
(16:34):
required to have, you know,certain borders and certain words
have to be certain templates.Exactly. We have to have these certain
templates, but the body of itand then how I actually present it.
I've had people say you're thebest presenter we've ever had because
you bring your personalexperience into the things that I'm
(16:56):
presenting and they reallyenjoy it. What is some challenges
that you've experienced withvisual storytelling? I would think
maybe one of them would Becultural differences. If you're presenting
to somebody that is from adifferent country or something like
that, you can't necessarilyuse the same thing that, you know,
(17:17):
we. We would use maybe like a.A Simpsons quote or something like
that. But any challenges thatyou've found and overcome?
Yeah, that's. That's aninteresting question. So I actually
don't write content, so myclients come to me with that. So
they've already. They'vealready. I might ask them who their
audience is, but they'vealready determined who that is and
what that need is. Mychallenge is like, to be honest,
is people over communicate.They think that overdoing things,
(17:39):
putting all this text or allthese pictures on the slide actually
like, helps make more of animpact. And it's really, again, going
back to that concept of lessis more. Less bullets, less words
on a slide. Allow youraudience to feel the thing, to see
it, to make it simple for themto digest, and then you build on
it. What I love about park,when it's not. It's a. Not a one
piece does it all. You getthis story right. It's pages, it's
(18:04):
slides that come together tocreate this harmonious experience.
So, you know, when clientssay, I have all these bullets and
I have all these words andthen I want all these pictures, and
you're like, well, thatdoesn't work, right? What is the
priority? Where are youtalking from? What is the point of
sharing all this? Same as, youknow, sometimes it's no words, you
know, mood boards, you know,especially like I think about when
(18:25):
I was working on my seniorthesis, like the amount of color
studies I did to create amood, to figure out if it was more
dark blue or more light blue.It's that kind of concept you've
gotta work through. And again,it takes time to be more confident.
At first, it took me a lotmore longer to do it. But like simply
saying, like, instead ofhaving all these words, like, what
(18:45):
if we just created this moodboard that gets the feeling across
about what this experience isgoing to be like for them and shows
them and gives them theability to picture themselves in
there. Again, if you can showsomebody something, they're going
to remember it way more than abunch of bullets. And all that they
remember from those bulletpresentations is it was overwhelming.
And I thought about somethingelse or to myself out or like, shoot,
(19:06):
I got to go back and figurethis out. Versus a stronger presentation
with more visual stories. Theyfeel it, they think about it, and
then they do something becauseof it.
That's Amazing. That's. We'regoing to bring you on over to CBP
and you're going to retrainall our whole 40, 60, 4,000 people.
Love it. Let's go. It soundslike a good project for the year.
Absolutely, Absolutely.Absolutely. What advice do you have
(19:31):
for those just starting out invisual storytelling and creating
these presentations? Whetherthey're working a full time, nine
to five job and they got tomake these presentations or they're
a freelancer on the outside.And like you said, your clients give
(19:51):
you the content and then yougo with it. Where does somebody start
with that?
So I think my advice forsomebody who's in there is the biggest
thing is to stay curious, keepasking questions, whether it's of
your client or reaching out topeople who are doing the work that
you think you want to do orgetting involved. I got into presentations
(20:12):
because I worked in marketingand we were making all these beautiful
campaigns and these key themegraphics and we had to sell it into
our client. And I startedbeing interested in what my leaders
were talking about in themeeting and how they were setting
it up. And then I asked if Icould be part of either eavesdropping
in or be part of building thedeck or helping them gather what
they needed. Right. Because itwas, I was really curious. So. So
(20:34):
it's asking a lot of questionsand then it's also raising your hand
and being like, can youexplain that to me? Because I love,
like, I don't mind ifsomebody's confused. And I, like,
that's the biggest complimentto say. Can you share with me what
your process is? How do you dothis? What would you do with this?
Right. I'm not asking you todo the work.
Right.
I'm asking you to help, kindof mentor me to figure out so I can
(20:55):
think differently. Like, putthat mirror up so I can reflect or
see it differently. So stayingcurious, raising your hand for help,
and then be an avid learner.Like, and what I love about learning
is like, you're never wrong.You just keep building on it. Whether,
especially now that I, like,run my own business. It's not even
just the work and learningfrom one presentation to the next.
(21:17):
Part of my goals this year isto spend 20 minutes every week taking
a training course. There's anamazing group out of UK called Bright
Carbon and they have a bunchof resources that you, you have to,
like, give them yourinformation, but you can watch their
tutorials, you can learn tips,you can get, you know, access, you
know, they'll share freeresources too. For where to find
pictures and inspiration andstuff. So staying curious, raising
(21:39):
your hand to learn more. Andwhen you learn more, the idea of
failure or of messing up, itkind of to me gets. It's. It's to
the wayside. Trust me, I havemy moments. But I'm so able to pivot
them and say, like, actually,this is an opportunity. How many
times have I written andedited it? Yesterday I wrote an email
and I had typos in it. Guesswhat I wrote quickly as oops, I'm
(22:01):
so sorry. I got so excitedabout talking to you and that I didn't,
you know, I messed this up orI meant to say it this way, sure.
But the other thing is that'snot my expertise. So I don't need
to know everything. I justneed to know and be confident in
what I believe in and show upand be ready to learn with somebody
else.
That's amazing. That'samazing. And I've been asking all
(22:22):
my guests about the impact ofAI on not only their art, but their
business work and their clientwork. What are you seeing as future
trends? Is AI really impactingwhat you're doing? Where is this
going to go for you?
(22:43):
Sure. So let me just caveatthat I am an optimistic person. So
this doesn't scare me. Iactually, like, I'm scared because
I don't know how to use it.Like, I want to know more. Right.
I actually have just upgradedmy ChatGPT so I could get better
prompts, so I could figure outmy tone. But what I love about AI,
for multiple reasons as acreative, it's an amazing brainstorming
(23:04):
tool, especially when you'rein your own bubble. It gives you
the opportunity to bounceideas up. What's another way to articulate
this? This is the concept fora logo. Like, are there other icons
that I could think about? Orhow else can I articulate light or
brightness? That's not justthe sun. Right. And you can iterate
and you can say, no, thatdoesn't work for me. And it starts
to learn who you are and itsaves you so much time and energy.
(23:28):
And when I can use my energyin the right way, it's so much more
powerful. I also use it.Again, I'm not a writer.
Sure.
I helps me write my scope ofworks. It helps me craft my emails.
Because if you can't tell, I'ma verbal processor who loves to do
art, writing emails that aresuccinct, to the point and help my
clients know what stage we'reat in this project. Or what I need
or whatever I might say it,but it's going to be a lot longer.
(23:50):
And they help me craft it andthen I can refine it and I can work
with that tool. From a designstandpoint, I've definitely asked
it, hey, this is the data myclients want. This is their goal
of this slide. What's the bestchart to say? Again, I am a master
of the PowerPoint, but I'm notalways an expert in every nuance
of how to show data properly.I'm not a data scientist, right?
(24:13):
I'm just the data design geek.And so I use it as a partner, as
a collaborator, as a tool tobuild upon what I already know. And
it's helped me have moreconfidence, streamlined my processes,
saving me time, saving meenergy, all those things. And from
a presentation standpoint, Iactually don't work with AI presentation
(24:33):
tools, but I know they're outthere and can't. And PowerPoint has
its own, like, copilot, andthen they also have, you know, the
slides on the side that willbe suggested. My only caveat is that.
Or what I'm not scared aboutis those are great spot starters.
Again, it's a great launchingpad. It gets, you know, how many
times do you have somethingthat you have to work on and you
(24:54):
just can't get started? Thesetools get you started, but they're
never going to replace theinnate ability of being a strategic
thinker, of knowing yourstory. What are those key points?
What do I want my audience tothink, feel and do? AI is never going
to be able to say, here's thepresentation I want, here's what
I need, and to set it up, thatworks for you as a presenter and
(25:16):
knowing your audience. And soagain, it's a great supporting tool,
but it's not the end all, beall. I don't think it ever will be.
Amen to that. I'm excitedabout AI. Like, like you said, I
use it for brainstorming stuff.
I use it for, you know, it's.
Something that I'm not anexpert in. You know, fix it up, make
it look good and then ship it.And I agree with you, it's, it's,
(25:38):
it's not going to replace you and.
Me, that's for sure.
Because, no, you know, theydon't have enough computing power
to replace us. You know,we're, we're, we're awesome.
So I also heard, and I don'tknow if this is true, but like one
AI is powered by humans, so,like, it can only do as Much as we
empower it. While it may besmarter or trained better, but also
it's like a few years dated,if that makes sense. So, like, it's
(25:59):
never going to be able toreplace, like, current events or
current trends because it'salways going to be a little behind
us. And so I think we're goingto have to keep paving the way and
we'll just again, bring italong, like, keep it on that leash
that's safe and close, but,like, we can still control it, but,
I mean, who knows? We'll see.Everything seems to blow up, and
then we reset. But, like,humans aren't going to be. There's
(26:20):
not going to be robots talkingfor us soon. We're not in the Jetson
world yet, so maybe one day,but I think we got a few generations
there.
I'm still waiting for myflying car. I don't know about you.
I'm still waiting for that.Well, we've talked a lot about, you
know, your clients and yourbusiness, and I'd like to dive just
for a couple moments here,personal art projects that you may
(26:41):
have going on that, you know,that you'd be interested in sharing
with us outside of the presentation.
Yeah. So again, I. To behonest, it's a little limited these
days because my energy is putin my output. And it's something
actually reflected on lastyear because I've spent so much time
doing the design work that Iactually, my. My time to, like, regroup
(27:04):
or recharge is, like, onwalks, so inspired by nature and
seeing how things move. Orlike, I pay attention. Like, I'll
pay attention to the mostnuance of things, like how the wind
is moving leaves. Right. Andseeing that beauty or seeing those
simple things in nature. Andthen we're also doing a remodel,
a home remodel. And so thattakes a lot of art energy and aesthetic
design. And especially it's sofunny to me because I didn't realize
(27:27):
how, like, 3D designchallenged I am. Like, the idea to,
like, sense where these newwall spaces are going to be, and
I'm actually building anoffice is. Is like, so beyond my
concept, but I can see it in2D. I'm like an amazing designer.
Right. I get that. But so it'sbringing this together. So it's been.
So that's like my big artproject because there's a lot of
vision and there's a lot ofthings and there's a lot of choices
(27:49):
to create that mood board orthat. That feeling. But I don't have
the outlets. Unless it's withmy kids. But I guess actually I do.
I love diamond art, paintingand sticker art, if you. But again,
my. My outlet of doing stuffis with my kids. It's. It's finding
a way to connect with themover coloring or drawing or doing
those things. So I don't. Idon't have, like, an art studio or
(28:11):
projects on that side at this point.
Understood. No worries at all.I completely get that as being a
dad of twin 10 year olds.
Sometimes it's just paint bynumbers and you're happy with it.
Throw it on the wall andpeople come by and go, hey, that
looks fantastic.
Great.
It's a paint by numbers. Enjoy.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right.
Well, Emily, thank you so muchfor talking with us here today. I
(28:33):
definitely appreciate it. Isthere any question that you wanted
me to ask that? I did not askfor you this time?
No. This is such a funconversation. Thanks so much for
having me, Tim. It was awesome.
You got it.
I love being rooted in art. Alot of these conversations I have
are based on business aspects,and it's so fun to think about it
from an art side because thereis. There's a lot that goes into
all. All that we do from avisual. From visual storytelling.
(28:55):
All right, well, thank you somuch for listening to this full interview
with Emily Schneider. I wantto thank her most importantly for
granting me some time with her.
She's.
She's an entrepreneur and she,you know, is at home working. So
her time is very valuable. AndI want to make sure that I say thank
you to her for that. And Iwant to say thank you to you for
(29:16):
sharing your time with Emilyand I in this conversation that we
had. I think a lot of us outthere kind of struggle with, you
know, being our. In our 9 to 5job and trying to bring our artistic
sensibilities into that job tomake it more interesting. Hey, we
all got to work, we all got toeat. So why not make it the most
pleasant experience that youcan by bringing that artistic background
(29:40):
that you have, those artisticsensibilities that you have right
into the C suite level? So Ihope you got something out of this.
I know I certainly got a tonof information out of this conversation.
And if you're wondering how Iget these great guests and these
great conversations, I use aservice called Pod Match. And what
(30:00):
that does is that allows me toconnect with other people on that
platform and have these greatconversations, have these great interviews
and give you this informationthat you're not going to get anywhere
else. So definitely check outPod Match if you're, you know, want
to be a guest on podcasts orif you're a podcast host and you
(30:21):
need some guests, definitelycheck that out for yourself. And
with PodMatch, I do receive asmall commission for the interviews
that I do. So I want to makesure that I'm very transparent with
you on that. You can use myaffiliate link in the show notes.
Again, if you use thataffiliate link, I do get a small
commission for that, but Iwouldn't be recommending it if I
(30:42):
didn't believe in it and if Ididn't use it. And here's proof positive
of the quality of guests youwill get on podmatch. Now as a podcaster
I use a another service calledPodcast Beacon and that helps me
share my podcast when I'm outat the grocery store or if I'm out
at one of my kids events andtalking with other parents and they
(31:05):
go, hey, what do you do? And Isay, hey, I'm a podcaster. Well,
it's better than having abusiness card or a QR code. All I
have to do is stick out myhand and there's my wristband right
there. And they just put theirphone over it and the magic happens.
The website comes up for themon their phone and they're good to
go. They don't have a businesscard to lose. They don't have to
(31:27):
scan anything. Who likesscanning stuff? I scan enough stuff
at the grocery store. I don'tknow about you, but I know I do.
Anyhow, Podcast Beacon helpsyou with that issue that you may
have as a podcaster andsharing your work with other folks.
So give them a look. Seeagain, I have a link in there in
the show notes. It is myaffiliate link. So if you do decide
(31:49):
to go with Podcast Beacon, Iwill receive a small commission for
that. And speaking aboutsharing podcasts with you, I run
another one called Find aPodcast about. You can find that@findapodcast
about.xyz. and that's where Ioutsmart the algorithm and help you
find your next binge worthypodcast. Go to Find a Podcast About
(32:11):
XYZ and find your next bingeworthy podcast. This is all made
possible by my new podcastconsulting and production company
called TKB Podcast Studio. Youcan go to TKB podcast studio.com,
see my whole portfolio there,see the services that I provide and
(32:32):
get in contact with me onthat. If you are thinking about starting
a podcast, I would love tohelp you out. I have years of experience
in doing it. And hey, you're,you're listening to one of my oldest
podcasts that I've been doingsince 2006. So definitely check that
out for yourself at TKBPodcast Studios. I always like to
(32:53):
say that we lead through thenoise through quiet professionalism.
Give us a look.
All right, you've made it tothat point in the podcast where I'm
going to let you get on withyour day. I'm going to get on with
my day. I appreciate your timeand I want to thank you so much for
listening to create ourpodcast. You know, recently, back
In January of 2025, wesurpassed 10,000 downloads and for
(33:17):
a podcaster, that just warmsmy cockles. So thank you for supporting
me and for being there and forbeing the other person in the room
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email me timothyartpodcast.comand let me know what you think about
(33:41):
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You can get links to it on theshow. Note, basically, I want to
(34:02):
make this a five star podcastfor you. I want you to get something
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(34:22):
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Notes for the survey.
It's the 2024 survey. I knowone of these days I'm going to update
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survey and I appreciate yougoing ahead and filling that out
(34:45):
for me. So that's it for theshow. I want to again, thank you
so much for listening. Now goout there, tame your inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Go out there, make some art for somebody
you love. And maybe aPowerPoint presentation.
Do it for yourself.
I'll talk to you next time.
Create Art Podcast interviewEmily Schneider. Hello, friend. This
is Timothy Keem O'Brien, yourhead instigator for Create Art Podcast,
where I use my over 30 yearsof experience in the arts and educational
world to help you tame yourinner critic and create more than
(00:25):
you consume today. In thisepisode, I'd like to introduce you
to Emily, who is a visualstoryteller who specializes in PowerPoint
design. Now, she has a passionfor turning complex content into
captivating and beautifulpresentations that resonate with
audiences, blendingstorytelling with a keen design eye.
(00:48):
Now, you may be saying toyourself, Tim, what's PowerPoint
got to do with my artisticpractice? Well, if you're anything
like me, I work a 9 to 5 jobfor the federal government. If you're
a listener from, you know, along time, you know that I work for
custom border protection. Anda lot of the presentations that I
give are to, let's say,stuffed shirts. But I'm also an artist,
(01:12):
and I want to incorporate myart into my day job. Well, Emily
is the perfect person to helpyou go about doing that. This conversation
that I have with her, she'sgoing to be talking about her artistic
background and how she bringsthat to the table when she's dealing
with her clients. So that'ssomething that we can all kind of,
(01:33):
you know, put into our toolboxand think about when we're doing
our artistic practice. Soright now, I'm going to get out of
the way. There's going to be alot of show notes there for you and
a lot of links, so check outthe show notes afterwards. But right
now, here's my interview withEmily Schneider.
(01:54):
Emily, how are you doing today?
I'm good. I'm so happy to behere. Thanks for having me.
Excellent. I'm excited to getthis because my. My day job is to
the right of me, and this ismy fun job right here. So I'm going
to learn both in thisinterview, for sure. Let's jump right
into it. And how do youincorporate traditional art principles
(02:18):
into your presentation designsto enhance that storytelling? I mean,
you know, I work in theartistic world and in the business
world. How do you make thosehappen together?
That's a really greatquestion. I've actually never been
asked that. But I think itstarts or I think my approach is
really like, it's rooted inwhat art should do for us. It should
make us feel something, thinksomething, do something, respond.
(02:41):
And so I apply those basicprinciples to the design world and
to my presentation work. Istudied visual communications or
graphic design in college. Andso it's understanding how people
digest information as well.Right? We read, you know, left to
right, top to bottom. So it'sbreaking up information and it's,
it's laying it out in waysthat we allow our audiences of the
(03:06):
people reviewing our work to,to like, it mimics the way they're
naturally processing, right? Imean, you can throw something, you
can make them curious, but ifyou set it up and it's totally bizarre,
they're not going tounderstand it and they're going to
tune it out. And so it's, it'sunderstanding human kind of centric
design or behavior. I geek outa lot about the neuroscience and
the data behind how weinterpret information and how it
(03:29):
becomes digestible andimpactful. And so I help my clients
lay out their stories to hitthose key parts. And, you know, knowing
that this podcast is reallyabout creating art, like, it comes
with, like, what color meansand how space and modular systems
can really allow us theability to focus in on something.
(03:50):
And so it's using a lot ofthose basic principles, but applying
them into an aspect that helpsa storyteller shine brighter.
And with that designbackground that you have, how do
you balance, you know,creating, you know, like a visually
appealing presentation, buteffectively communicating what you
(04:13):
need to, you know, what thatintended message is. Because, you
know, I think maybe, and I'mthe newbie here, I think a failure
is if I have this beautifullooking presentation and people are
looking at the pictures butthey're not following the message,
I've completely failed. So howdo you balance those two?
(04:33):
So I actually think that thechallenge, or my goal is to not make
one shine brighter than theother as a presenter, as somebody
talking through your work,whether you're on a zoom call or
you're in a keynotepresentation, right, and you're the
keynote speaker, or you're ina small meeting with your team, who's
all, you know, kind ofeverybody's on the same level. You're
not like a senior or whateverthat looks like. It's. As a human,
(04:55):
you connect to humans. And theidea of your slides is to reinforce
that message. It's to createthis harmonious experience. It's.
It's to support that andvisuals. I mean, we're 65% more likely
to retain information whenit's visually designed. So when you're
talking about data, you'retalking about growth from 2024 to
2025, and you say we've had65% more inquiries than we did last
(05:16):
year. Like, think about thePower of showing an emotional picture
and then pulling out thatnumber and designing it really intently
and making it reallyimpactful. And now you can talk about
all the different avenues orhow that number went in or how many,
you know, turnovers you had orwhatever that, whatever that, that
information that leads up tothat data. But when you highlight
(05:36):
the key and you just determineper slide and overall in your story
what those key focuses are,those priorities and those details,
and you focus in on that, youallow your, your, your voiceover
to be this story and that theslides, again, just reinforce and
support. And they don'tcompete, they actually complement.
(05:59):
I like that because you'retweaking my artistic side with, you
know, saying the wordstorytelling. We are telling a story
whenever we're doing thesekind of presentations. And so my,
you know, my artistic side isjust jumping up for joy, going, yes,
I can do this for my businessside of it.
Yeah. I mean, think aboutcolors, right? If you use complementary
colors, you're going tosupport this feeling or this emotion
(06:21):
or this thing. When you usecontrasting colors, you kind of start
to create this tension. Well,it's the same for your slides. And
as a presenter, what do youwant to create? What's that feeling?
One of the first things I workwith my clients on, who is your audience
and what that. What do youwant them to think, feel and do at
the end? And when they knowthat, then we know how to approach
it. We know if we're. We wantto create conflict. We want them
(06:42):
to be engaged. We want them toask these, like, really annoying,
not, I shouldn't say annoying,but really tough questions or no,
I want to like, tell themsomething that they feel excited
about. And at the end they,they buy into. I don't want them
to challenge it, I want themto believe it. Well, that creates
a whole different kind offlow. Right. As a painter, you're
going to pick a differentpalette of colors if that's what
you want people to do withyour work or feel, you know, and
(07:05):
so it helps to navigate thatand, and the colors come in play,
obviously, in the design worldtoo. But I think it's, it's tapping
into that emotional andempathetic connection of what art
does for us. And then it'sbringing it to life through. Through
a really articulate andstrategic story.
That's awesome.
In my previous life when I wasin academia, I was a lighting designer.
So when you say color, I'mimmediately thinking about my seven
(07:29):
hour lecture on color theorywith lights and just how. Just with
lights. Not even paint oranything like that. How you can change
an emotion or direct people tolook, look over here. Don't look
over on this side of the stagebecause we got to move the set over
here. So, you know.
Yes, totally. I love that.
(07:51):
So in what ways has yourartistic influences evolved over
time, and have they impactedyour approach to visual storytelling
for presentations?
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, Ididn't even know this world existed
when I was growing up. Right.I just knew it started with I liked
(08:12):
ceramics. I liked getting myhands dirty and building something
from nothing. And I maxed outall the ceramics classes, and the
ceramics teacher said, you gotto go into different avenues. And
so I started exploring.Luckily, one of the director of the
art department in high schoolkind of took me under her wing, and
she helped me see that, like,drawing is really important. Setting
shapes, seeing how things worktogether, using, you know, being
(08:35):
challenged by, like, can youdraw something where you only use
vertical lines? And a lot ofthese pieces, to be honest, are still
in my mom's home, which is socomforting because I can come back
and see how far I've come. ButI think what. Where it really stems
from is like, I've always beenthis creatively curious, empathetic
person, and so I see the worldthrough color, through emotion, through
connectivity. And I've paintedthis picture for myself in order
(08:57):
to understand concepts. And sonow I just get to use that in a very.
Not very transactional, but,like, it is. And simply put, it's
a transactional businessstory. And so the way I study or
the way I get inspired hasevolved. Right. It started with wanting
just to get messy and dirtyand creating something and not really
(09:17):
knowing where it was going.Then it kind of got into. I really
geeked out about art historyand understanding intention and purpose
and themes and. Right. Andwhen you learn about art history,
you learn about the culturalinfluences that move us and that
made different movements. Andit's really powerful, I think. And
just to think about how peopletook so much time to be intentional
(09:39):
with their strokes, withtheir. With the way they built things,
with the way things werecrafted. It's still like, I still
get so excited when I canlearn about it. I actually spent
some time over winter break atthe RISD Museum. The Rhode island
school designed their modernart museum. And it spans everything
from, like, things that weremade this year to, like. I mean,
(10:01):
there was like, ancientGrecian coins and skull. And not
skulls, but masks or shieldsand, like, helmets and stuff. And
it's. And like, there's anexpression, there's a story, there's
something there. And so Ithink when we can stay curious about
what it means and how theinputs affect the output, it really
helps to be inspired thesedays. To be honest, a lot of my inspiration
(10:23):
isn't necessarily in doingmore art because I spend a lot of
time doing my art as my job.But I. There's an amazing magazine
I love called Uppercase. It'sout of Canada. I. I get it at my
local library. She does four,four issues a year and she has anything
from textiles to painting toyou know, any kind of, kind of creative
(10:45):
outlet. And she shares and shehas these great stories. I love learning
and just getting patterninspiration or color combinations
from there. Dance, movement,music, it's another form of art.
It doesn't have to be alwayssomething that are visual. It's also
about the way we feel and thenthe way we express those feelings.
And then lastly, I know I'veanswered this question a lot. Again,
(11:05):
I kind of mentioned thelibrary. I'm a library geek. I love
working out there. Not workingout there, but working from there.
I still love working out, butnot. I don't work out at the library,
but our libraries have this. Alot of the libraries in my area have
a place called the makerspaceand they are amazing. If you have
a local library and you haveaccess to a makerspace, whether it's
(11:26):
your library or a neighboringlibrary, I can't recommend it enough.
I take, I have young kids, myfive year old, my nine year old,
myself. Sometimes we just gothere and we're like, they'll have
pop up projects or let'sfigure out the other. Last time we
went we learned how to do 3Dpen art and like you just get curious
and they have the supplies andit's not, it's low bar entry, it
(11:46):
doesn't matter what you comeout with. But taking that space away
from what? From always havingto deliver something that is right,
that is a. Like always havinga product in mind or like for me,
always having to like design apresentation. Right. There's a lot
of pressure sometimes, butgetting outside of that and taking
that break and getting outthere to be inspired differently
(12:07):
is so critical.
Absolutely. We, we have thathere in Fredericksburg. Absolutely
love it. They've got a podcastbooth and They've got the 3D printers
and the laser cutters and evensewing machines they have there.
You can do your sewing.
Like one of them here is a twostory building. So like upstairs
they have like all their likecool edge technology, 3D printers,
(12:30):
laser cutting, edging, likeall these model making materials,
wood burning stuff. And thenthey have like their tables where
you can work, work on stuff.They have button machines to sewing
and embroidery machines. Andthen downstairs there's an. It seems
like you're in a, in a sewingclass. Like they have a bunch of
sewing machines with the worktable. And then I say they have a,
like a Michaels arts and craftstore on crack where everything's
(12:52):
free, but they have shells andthey have figures and they have pencils
and they have coloring booksand then they have stamps. And then
they have, you know, the big,like in art school, we had those
big portfolio bins with thelarge sheets. They have drawers of
stuff and you just open themand you just can start exploring.
Like it's, it's amazing,especially as someone who you can't,
you know, the investment tohave all that in your house. But
(13:12):
then you start to like, boxyourself in. I've already boxed myself
in in this PowerPoint designspace. I want to have the freedom
to do other things. So that'swhat I love about those spaces.
It's fantastic. Everybodyshould check it out if they have
it in their local library. Ifnot, go get it or go to a library
that, you know that does have it.
So for sure.
And you've kind of alreadyanswered this question here for me,
(13:35):
but I want to harp on it justa little bit. Inspiration from other
art forms. What are youbringing in from the makerspace into
these business presentations?You know, another thing that you
mentioned, you know that youlove looking at dance and music and
(13:56):
all that. How does that filterinto this business presentation where
we're always thinking thatthese business folks are all, you
know, stuffed shirts, suit andties, and they are not really interested
in the quote unquote, artsyfartsy stuff. How do you bring that
into them or where do youbring that from?
Yeah, that's such a goodquestion. So I like to, like, kind
(14:17):
of like my short pitch islike, I. My magical knack is simplifying
complex information intoconcise, impactful presentations.
And what do I mean by that? Orwhy do I say that? Because as a kid,
to be honest, I was one whowas always curious about how things
worked and how parts gottogether. And in order to understand
how things work, you have tobreak them down. And so I have always,
always broken downinformation, concepts, things from
(14:41):
when I studied dance. Right,you broke that down from when I studied
art or when I do art. It'ssteps, it's processes. And so that's
what I bring into my world isI just naturally need to keep things
simple in order to understandthem. And now I think one of my most
guiding principles is less isalways more. Right? There's the magic
(15:03):
is in the simple stuff. Youcan layer, you can add it on, but
you've got to start basic. Andso when I can bring the concept of
color, the power of color, ofcolor blocking, of using fonts to
create a feeling or placementof things to create tension, you
do, you could, you can reallymake a lot of impact in a little,
in very simple ways inpresentation design. And it's, for
(15:26):
me, it's like, it'sinteresting question because for
me it's like a no brainer.Like I don't know how I do it because
it just is the only way I knowhow to think about it. But I think
it really roots intounderstanding like how things come
together. I mean, when youtalk, when you were asking me that
too, I was thinking aboutlike, I'm not a great cook, but I
do love cooking and I love,and I eat very healthy, which is
very colorful. And there areso many times where I'll look down
(15:48):
at my pan on the stove andI'll take a picture because the color
of the broccoli, right,there's like four different colors.
Broccoli is in this jar. And Ithink about how that looks or my
daughter will get enamored bythe color of the sauce that comes
out of. I mean, a bad exampleis like when you put milk into like
tricks or Cocoa Puffs andlike, right. Like it's like when
you think about how simplethings, things make such magic and
(16:09):
you get curious. I think itjust, it naturally inspires or empowers
me to think, to bring thatinto my work.
That's great. And I like thatwhole simple process because I've
noticed in presentations that I.
Do and maybe it's subtle or maybe.
Subliminal, but if I justchange that font a little bit or
if I, you know, I change thefont color because where I work we're
(16:34):
required to have, you know,certain borders and certain words
have to be certain templates.Exactly. We have to have these certain
templates, but the body of itand then how I actually present it.
I've had people say you're thebest presenter we've ever had because
you bring your personalexperience into the things that I'm
(16:56):
presenting and they reallyenjoy it. What is some challenges
that you've experienced withvisual storytelling? I would think
maybe one of them would Becultural differences. If you're presenting
to somebody that is from adifferent country or something like
that, you can't necessarilyuse the same thing that, you know,
(17:17):
we. We would use maybe like a.A Simpsons quote or something like
that. But any challenges thatyou've found and overcome?
Yeah, that's. That's aninteresting question. So I actually
don't write content, so myclients come to me with that. So
they've already. They'vealready. I might ask them who their
audience is, but they'vealready determined who that is and
what that need is. Mychallenge is like, to be honest,
is people over communicate.They think that overdoing things,
(17:39):
putting all this text or allthese pictures on the slide actually
like, helps make more of animpact. And it's really, again, going
back to that concept of lessis more. Less bullets, less words
on a slide. Allow youraudience to feel the thing, to see
it, to make it simple for themto digest, and then you build on
it. What I love about park,when it's not. It's a. Not a one
piece does it all. You getthis story right. It's pages, it's
(18:04):
slides that come together tocreate this harmonious experience.
So, you know, when clientssay, I have all these bullets and
I have all these words andthen I want all these pictures, and
you're like, well, thatdoesn't work, right? What is the
priority? Where are youtalking from? What is the point of
sharing all this? Same as, youknow, sometimes it's no words, you
know, mood boards, you know,especially like I think about when
(18:25):
I was working on my seniorthesis, like the amount of color
studies I did to create amood, to figure out if it was more
dark blue or more light blue.It's that kind of concept you've
gotta work through. And again,it takes time to be more confident.
At first, it took me a lotmore longer to do it. But like simply
saying, like, instead ofhaving all these words, like, what
(18:45):
if we just created this moodboard that gets the feeling across
about what this experience isgoing to be like for them and shows
them and gives them theability to picture themselves in
there. Again, if you can showsomebody something, they're going
to remember it way more than abunch of bullets. And all that they
remember from those bulletpresentations is it was overwhelming.
And I thought about somethingelse or to myself out or like, shoot,
(19:06):
I got to go back and figurethis out. Versus a stronger presentation
with more visual stories. Theyfeel it, they think about it, and
then they do something becauseof it.
That's Amazing. That's. We'regoing to bring you on over to CBP
and you're going to retrainall our whole 40, 60, 4,000 people.
Love it. Let's go. It soundslike a good project for the year.
Absolutely, Absolutely.Absolutely. What advice do you have
(19:31):
for those just starting out invisual storytelling and creating
these presentations? Whetherthey're working a full time, nine
to five job and they got tomake these presentations or they're
a freelancer on the outside.And like you said, your clients give
(19:51):
you the content and then yougo with it. Where does somebody start
with that?
So I think my advice forsomebody who's in there is the biggest
thing is to stay curious, keepasking questions, whether it's of
your client or reaching out topeople who are doing the work that
you think you want to do orgetting involved. I got into presentations
(20:12):
because I worked in marketingand we were making all these beautiful
campaigns and these key themegraphics and we had to sell it into
our client. And I startedbeing interested in what my leaders
were talking about in themeeting and how they were setting
it up. And then I asked if Icould be part of either eavesdropping
in or be part of building thedeck or helping them gather what
they needed. Right. Because itwas, I was really curious. So. So
(20:34):
it's asking a lot of questionsand then it's also raising your hand
and being like, can youexplain that to me? Because I love,
like, I don't mind ifsomebody's confused. And I, like,
that's the biggest complimentto say. Can you share with me what
your process is? How do you dothis? What would you do with this?
Right. I'm not asking you todo the work.
Right.
I'm asking you to help, kindof mentor me to figure out so I can
(20:55):
think differently. Like, putthat mirror up so I can reflect or
see it differently. So stayingcurious, raising your hand for help,
and then be an avid learner.Like, and what I love about learning
is like, you're never wrong.You just keep building on it. Whether,
especially now that I, like,run my own business. It's not even
just the work and learningfrom one presentation to the next.
(21:17):
Part of my goals this year isto spend 20 minutes every week taking
a training course. There's anamazing group out of UK called Bright
Carbon and they have a bunchof resources that you, you have to,
like, give them yourinformation, but you can watch their
tutorials, you can learn tips,you can get, you know, access, you
know, they'll share freeresources too. For where to find
pictures and inspiration andstuff. So staying curious, raising
(21:39):
your hand to learn more. Andwhen you learn more, the idea of
failure or of messing up, itkind of to me gets. It's. It's to
the wayside. Trust me, I havemy moments. But I'm so able to pivot
them and say, like, actually,this is an opportunity. How many
times have I written andedited it? Yesterday I wrote an email
and I had typos in it. Guesswhat I wrote quickly as oops, I'm
(22:01):
so sorry. I got so excitedabout talking to you and that I didn't,
you know, I messed this up orI meant to say it this way, sure.
But the other thing is that'snot my expertise. So I don't need
to know everything. I justneed to know and be confident in
what I believe in and show upand be ready to learn with somebody
else.
That's amazing. That'samazing. And I've been asking all
(22:22):
my guests about the impact ofAI on not only their art, but their
business work and their clientwork. What are you seeing as future
trends? Is AI really impactingwhat you're doing? Where is this
going to go for you?
(22:43):
Sure. So let me just caveatthat I am an optimistic person. So
this doesn't scare me. Iactually, like, I'm scared because
I don't know how to use it.Like, I want to know more. Right.
I actually have just upgradedmy ChatGPT so I could get better
prompts, so I could figure outmy tone. But what I love about AI,
for multiple reasons as acreative, it's an amazing brainstorming
(23:04):
tool, especially when you'rein your own bubble. It gives you
the opportunity to bounceideas up. What's another way to articulate
this? This is the concept fora logo. Like, are there other icons
that I could think about? Orhow else can I articulate light or
brightness? That's not justthe sun. Right. And you can iterate
and you can say, no, thatdoesn't work for me. And it starts
to learn who you are and itsaves you so much time and energy.
(23:28):
And when I can use my energyin the right way, it's so much more
powerful. I also use it.Again, I'm not a writer.
Sure.
I helps me write my scope ofworks. It helps me craft my emails.
Because if you can't tell, I'ma verbal processor who loves to do
art, writing emails that aresuccinct, to the point and help my
clients know what stage we'reat in this project. Or what I need
or whatever I might say it,but it's going to be a lot longer.
(23:50):
And they help me craft it andthen I can refine it and I can work
with that tool. From a designstandpoint, I've definitely asked
it, hey, this is the data myclients want. This is their goal
of this slide. What's the bestchart to say? Again, I am a master
of the PowerPoint, but I'm notalways an expert in every nuance
of how to show data properly.I'm not a data scientist, right?
(24:13):
I'm just the data design geek.And so I use it as a partner, as
a collaborator, as a tool tobuild upon what I already know. And
it's helped me have moreconfidence, streamlined my processes,
saving me time, saving meenergy, all those things. And from
a presentation standpoint, Iactually don't work with AI presentation
(24:33):
tools, but I know they're outthere and can't. And PowerPoint has
its own, like, copilot, andthen they also have, you know, the
slides on the side that willbe suggested. My only caveat is that.
Or what I'm not scared aboutis those are great spot starters.
Again, it's a great launchingpad. It gets, you know, how many
times do you have somethingthat you have to work on and you
(24:54):
just can't get started? Thesetools get you started, but they're
never going to replace theinnate ability of being a strategic
thinker, of knowing yourstory. What are those key points?
What do I want my audience tothink, feel and do? AI is never going
to be able to say, here's thepresentation I want, here's what
I need, and to set it up, thatworks for you as a presenter and
(25:16):
knowing your audience. And soagain, it's a great supporting tool,
but it's not the end all, beall. I don't think it ever will be.
Amen to that. I'm excitedabout AI. Like, like you said, I
use it for brainstorming stuff.
I use it for, you know, it's.
Something that I'm not anexpert in. You know, fix it up, make
it look good and then ship it.And I agree with you, it's, it's,
(25:38):
it's not going to replace you and.
Me, that's for sure.
Because, no, you know, theydon't have enough computing power
to replace us. You know,we're, we're, we're awesome.
So I also heard, and I don'tknow if this is true, but like one
AI is powered by humans, so,like, it can only do as Much as we
empower it. While it may besmarter or trained better, but also
it's like a few years dated,if that makes sense. So, like, it's
(25:59):
never going to be able toreplace, like, current events or
current trends because it'salways going to be a little behind
us. And so I think we're goingto have to keep paving the way and
we'll just again, bring italong, like, keep it on that leash
that's safe and close, but,like, we can still control it, but,
I mean, who knows? We'll see.Everything seems to blow up, and
then we reset. But, like,humans aren't going to be. There's
(26:20):
not going to be robots talkingfor us soon. We're not in the Jetson
world yet, so maybe one day,but I think we got a few generations
there.
I'm still waiting for myflying car. I don't know about you.
I'm still waiting for that.Well, we've talked a lot about, you
know, your clients and yourbusiness, and I'd like to dive just
for a couple moments here,personal art projects that you may
(26:41):
have going on that, you know,that you'd be interested in sharing
with us outside of the presentation.
Yeah. So again, I. To behonest, it's a little limited these
days because my energy is putin my output. And it's something
actually reflected on lastyear because I've spent so much time
doing the design work that Iactually, my. My time to, like, regroup
(27:04):
or recharge is, like, onwalks, so inspired by nature and
seeing how things move. Orlike, I pay attention. Like, I'll
pay attention to the mostnuance of things, like how the wind
is moving leaves. Right. Andseeing that beauty or seeing those
simple things in nature. Andthen we're also doing a remodel,
a home remodel. And so thattakes a lot of art energy and aesthetic
design. And especially it's sofunny to me because I didn't realize
(27:27):
how, like, 3D designchallenged I am. Like, the idea to,
like, sense where these newwall spaces are going to be, and
I'm actually building anoffice is. Is like, so beyond my
concept, but I can see it in2D. I'm like an amazing designer.
Right. I get that. But so it'sbringing this together. So it's been.
So that's like my big artproject because there's a lot of
vision and there's a lot ofthings and there's a lot of choices
(27:49):
to create that mood board orthat. That feeling. But I don't have
the outlets. Unless it's withmy kids. But I guess actually I do.
I love diamond art, paintingand sticker art, if you. But again,
my. My outlet of doing stuffis with my kids. It's. It's finding
a way to connect with themover coloring or drawing or doing
those things. So I don't. Idon't have, like, an art studio or
(28:11):
projects on that side at this point.
Understood. No worries at all.I completely get that as being a
dad of twin 10 year olds.
Sometimes it's just paint bynumbers and you're happy with it.
Throw it on the wall andpeople come by and go, hey, that
looks fantastic.
Great.
It's a paint by numbers. Enjoy.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right.
Well, Emily, thank you so muchfor talking with us here today. I
(28:33):
definitely appreciate it. Isthere any question that you wanted
me to ask that? I did not askfor you this time?
No. This is such a funconversation. Thanks so much for
having me, Tim. It was awesome.
You got it.
I love being rooted in art. Alot of these conversations I have
are based on business aspects,and it's so fun to think about it
from an art side because thereis. There's a lot that goes into
all. All that we do from avisual. From visual storytelling.
(28:55):
All right, well, thank you somuch for listening to this full interview
with Emily Schneider. I wantto thank her most importantly for
granting me some time with her.
She's.
She's an entrepreneur and she,you know, is at home working. So
her time is very valuable. AndI want to make sure that I say thank
you to her for that. And Iwant to say thank you to you for
(29:16):
sharing your time with Emilyand I in this conversation that we
had. I think a lot of us outthere kind of struggle with, you
know, being our. In our 9 to 5job and trying to bring our artistic
sensibilities into that job tomake it more interesting. Hey, we
all got to work, we all got toeat. So why not make it the most
pleasant experience that youcan by bringing that artistic background
(29:40):
that you have, those artisticsensibilities that you have right
into the C suite level? So Ihope you got something out of this.
I know I certainly got a tonof information out of this conversation.
And if you're wondering how Iget these great guests and these
great conversations, I use aservice called Pod Match. And what
(30:00):
that does is that allows me toconnect with other people on that
platform and have these greatconversations, have these great interviews
and give you this informationthat you're not going to get anywhere
else. So definitely check outPod Match if you're, you know, want
to be a guest on podcasts orif you're a podcast host and you
(30:21):
need some guests, definitelycheck that out for yourself. And
with PodMatch, I do receive asmall commission for the interviews
that I do. So I want to makesure that I'm very transparent with
you on that. You can use myaffiliate link in the show notes.
Again, if you use thataffiliate link, I do get a small
commission for that, but Iwouldn't be recommending it if I
(30:42):
didn't believe in it and if Ididn't use it. And here's proof positive
of the quality of guests youwill get on podmatch. Now as a podcaster
I use a another service calledPodcast Beacon and that helps me
share my podcast when I'm outat the grocery store or if I'm out
at one of my kids events andtalking with other parents and they
(31:05):
go, hey, what do you do? And Isay, hey, I'm a podcaster. Well,
it's better than having abusiness card or a QR code. All I
have to do is stick out myhand and there's my wristband right
there. And they just put theirphone over it and the magic happens.
The website comes up for themon their phone and they're good to
go. They don't have a businesscard to lose. They don't have to
(31:27):
scan anything. Who likesscanning stuff? I scan enough stuff
at the grocery store. I don'tknow about you, but I know I do.
Anyhow, Podcast Beacon helpsyou with that issue that you may
have as a podcaster andsharing your work with other folks.
So give them a look. Seeagain, I have a link in there in
the show notes. It is myaffiliate link. So if you do decide
(31:49):
to go with Podcast Beacon, Iwill receive a small commission for
that. And speaking aboutsharing podcasts with you, I run
another one called Find aPodcast about. You can find that@findapodcast
about.xyz. and that's where Ioutsmart the algorithm and help you
find your next binge worthypodcast. Go to Find a Podcast About
(32:11):
XYZ and find your next bingeworthy podcast. This is all made
possible by my new podcastconsulting and production company
called TKB Podcast Studio. Youcan go to TKB podcast studio.com,
see my whole portfolio there,see the services that I provide and
(32:32):
get in contact with me onthat. If you are thinking about starting
a podcast, I would love tohelp you out. I have years of experience
in doing it. And hey, you're,you're listening to one of my oldest
podcasts that I've been doingsince 2006. So definitely check that
out for yourself at TKBPodcast Studios. I always like to
(32:53):
say that we lead through thenoise through quiet professionalism.
Give us a look.
All right, you've made it tothat point in the podcast where I'm
going to let you get on withyour day. I'm going to get on with
my day. I appreciate your timeand I want to thank you so much for
listening to create ourpodcast. You know, recently, back
In January of 2025, wesurpassed 10,000 downloads and for
(33:17):
a podcaster, that just warmsmy cockles. So thank you for supporting
me and for being there and forbeing the other person in the room
while I do these interviewsand do these episodes. So thank you
so very much. If you'd like toreach out directly to me, you can
email me timothyartpodcast.comand let me know what you think about
(33:41):
the show. Let me know what youlike, what you don't like. If you
want to be on the show andshare your story with others and
if you think that would be abenefit to folks which you know hint
here it will be of benefit,then reach out to me. I'd love to
have you on the show. I'm alsorunning a survey. It's the 2024 survey.
You can get links to it on theshow. Note, basically, I want to
(34:02):
make this a five star podcastfor you. I want you to get something
out of it. I already get a lotout of it. I get to talk to you every
time I put out an episode andI get to talk to these wonderful
guests every time I put out aninterview. So if you have the time,
I would appreciate it if youcould fill out that survey. Let me
know what you want, what youdon't want and that way I can make
(34:22):
this show more of what youwant and so that way you can share
it with others becausehonestly, that's the best way to
discover podcasts. So checkthat out in the show.
Notes for the survey.
It's the 2024 survey. I knowone of these days I'm going to update
it to 2025, but for right now,you'll see it as a link to the 2024
survey and I appreciate yougoing ahead and filling that out
(34:45):
for me. So that's it for theshow. I want to again, thank you
so much for listening. Now goout there, tame your inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Go out there, make some art for somebody
you love. And maybe aPowerPoint presentation.
Do it for yourself.
I'll talk to you next time.
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