June 28, 2024 • 34 mins
Curious about the secret sauce behind captivating brand stories? Join us as we sit down with Evan J. Cholfin, the visionary CEO and founder of LUXHAMMER. Discover how a childhood passion for stop-motion movies led him to become a leading force in the film, television, and marketing industries. Evan shares his journey from early career milestones, like producing events that opened doors to Hollywood projects such as “Moneyball” and HBO’s “The Night Of,” to the critical role of continuous creativity.
Get an insider’s view on innovative strategies that transform brand perceptions and drive massive engagement. Learn about the groundbreaking campaign that struck a chord with millennials for JW Marriott, and how a Marvel-meets-Incredibles film for Supermouth inspired kids worldwide to brush their teeth. Plus, hear the behind-the-scenes tale of artist Yassan’s record-breaking GPS art journey for Japan Airlines. Evan also opens up about his process for immersive brand storytelling and the creative brainstorming techniques that keep his ideas fresh and compelling.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, welcome back.
This is Julie Barron, host ofthe 7 Picker Builder Show, and
I'm here today with my friendEvan Sholfin.
Hey, Evan.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I am so thrilled to talk with you today.
I know you're the CEO andfounder of Luxhammer.
You've worked on unforgettableridiculous films, tv branded
entertainment.
You are like the mastercreativity genius and I want to
dig into that today.
But welcome and tell us alittle bit about what you do
with your business.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, definitely so.
Thanks for the awesome intro.
We're a film and TV andmarketing company and we help
brands grow and reach over abillion people.
We work with personal brands toFortune 500 companies and help
them to achieve their goalswithout the expense of major ad
agencies, by creating contentthat moves the needle through
(00:50):
the power of storytelling, andyou're 22 times more likely to
remember something that's toldin story form.
So we treat your target marketlike an audience and we ideate
and we produce the content thatresonates with your target at a
deeper level to meet your goals.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Awesome, I love that.
And yeah, it's so true withstorytelling, it's just how our
brains are wired and how we'rewired as human beings that you
know we resonate with thingsthat are more in story format.
But how did you get into thisworld?
Like, tell us a little bitabout your journey.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, so I actually started when I was five years
old and playing with my Legosand my dad's video camera making
stop motion movies, and Icontinued to make movies with my
friends as a hobby throughoutschool and I always saw it as
(01:50):
exactly that a hobby, not aserious career path.
And I also put on benefit eventsin high school and in college.
One of them was for the BonnieBonnie rates rhythm and blues
foundation and, um, we continueto put on events in college and
(02:13):
one of the events I put on, thehost of it was a screenwriter
and actress, uh, and her name isEvelina Fernandez.
She saw the work I'd doneproducing that event and she
knew I was interested in filmand asked if I wanted to help
produce her next movie.
So I was 22 years old and gotthat opportunity.
(02:39):
That I couldn't believe and Ijumped right in headfirst and
that was really my firstopportunity to do film school
before film school.
And then I decided to go backand get a degree in it and get
my MFA over at USC and go totheir Peter Stark producing
(03:00):
program and then from there thatkind of launched my career.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I love it and that's so cool.
I think so many of us have kindof fallen headfirst in the
things that we love, almost byaccident.
That tends to be, I think, thebest ways to get there, at least
from my own opinion.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, by
accident or by design, you knowwe definitely wanted to
incorporate people from theentertainment community when we
were putting on that event andthat was such a great way to
spotlight the issue that we weredoing.
(03:39):
And I knew that by doing thatit would open up some doors and
it wasn't intentional that I wastrying to leverage that into a
job within the industry, but itcertainly didn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
For sure, and I know you've worked on some amazing
projects.
Can you share with us some ofthe more memorable ones that you
can think of?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
yeah, definitely so.
I worked on movies, uh that youmay know, such as Moneyball,
the mini series, the night ofwhich was on hbo, and um many
more.
I was the executive in chargeof uh, developing and producing
(04:40):
film and television based onSega's video games as well, for
about eight years.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Awesome, very cool, and in those roles you need some
serious creativity, likeobviously with the storytelling,
with the visuals and just ingeneral to be curious.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And creativity I really look at as something
where you combine two disparateideas and that really requires
exploring the world around you,and that could be reading a lot
Reading books, traveling, goinginto nature, watching other
(05:38):
movies and series andexperiencing theater, dance,
sports, reading science,journals.
It could be historical accounts, attending talks and
conferences Literally, reallyanything that could spark your
imagination and experiencingreally a lived experience and
(06:01):
really trying to understand whowe are as people, and I think
that's really what is key tounderstanding what makes us tick
.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Definitely yeah, because the more you pull in
that human element, the morepeople can relate to it and the
more it resonates with them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, and it helps you to get outside your own head
and look at things through adifferent lens.
When you're, especially whenyou're traveling, I think that
makes a big difference.
Because you're especially whenyou're traveling, I think that
makes a big difference becauseyou're seeing through other
people's eyes.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah.
Yeah absolutely, and I wouldsay how do you?
So that's how you pull increativity, but how do you stay
creative, like through all theseyears, you know?
Do you run out of inspiration?
Or how do you spark that inyourself?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, I do, I make a creative habit.
So really that means each daycoming up with a certain time
and place where I make thatsacred to be creative, to be
creative, and for me that is atthe crack of dawn, before any
(07:08):
distractions, and, you know,just having that time where I
can.
I've just woken up and I've had, you know, maybe still in a
(07:30):
dream state a little bit, and itspending even just an hour or
an hour and a half each day andforcing myself in the beginning,
because it's it's likeexercising.
You know, sometimes when youfirst start it's it's not easy
and you have to exercise thatcreative muscle and keep doing
it and then, as you keep doingit, it actually becomes easier.
Your mind starts going toplaces that you didn't expect
(07:54):
and unlocking a whole wealth ofcreativity.
So continuing that and havingthat space that you give
yourself, I think is really theperfect way to continue that and
be creative.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
No, I agree, and I think a lot of us forget about
that or don't think about beingintentional about that creative
time.
But I know for myself, I didprofessional photography for a
while and that was very much alearned skill.
I started from literal scratch,like, taught myself photography,
went to train under some of thebest photographers and at one
(08:33):
point just to kind of add on toyour story there but at one
point you know, this masterphotographer was saying well,
when you're posing, people iswhat we were talking about, and
I'm preaching to the choir, I'msure, but you know, the first
handful of pictures that you'regoing to take are crap, frankly.
So like, just take them, get ridof it, and then you dig a
(08:53):
little deeper in your creativityand I ended up learning just a
hack, kind of similar to you,where I didn't do it first thing
in the morning, but as I wasdriving the photo shoots, I
would literally safely drivingpicture posing people right and
like run through, basically runthrough those shots in my mind
on the way to the shoot.
And so my brain was alreadyteed up and wired to like okay,
(09:14):
I've already thrown away thefirst bunch of crappy, you know
arrangements in my mind, and sonow I can actually get the good
stuff.
So I found that very helpfulfor myself, and so now I can
actually get the good stuff, soI found that very helpful for
myself.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and you mentioned something about you
know that first attempt beingtotal crap.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And I call that writing your vomit draft.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's really important to do that.
Just get it all out on the pageor get it all out there and not
be afraid to just do it anddon't turn on your critical mind
until after you're done.
Get it all out, because onceyou turn on that critical part
(10:07):
of your brain, then you're goingto start analyzing it and
picking it apart and you'llnever get it done.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So you really have to let it flow Totally.
I know, I know, and I alwaysfound, like two-thirds of the
way through the photo shoot, I'mlike really turned on, like
creativity wise, and it's I'mgetting more, you know, daring
in what I'm trying to do.
And the more you do it, likeyou said, you know, the easier
it gets, the more you kind ofget in that groove.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, definitely.
And and also just finding thatkey, that thing, that reason why
that speaks to you know whyyou're doing it is so important,
so important, uh, whateveryou're working on, you know
(10:49):
whatever you're creating andit's true about, uh, anything
you know with a movie, but it'salso or tv show, but it's true
about business you know, whenyou're creating something, you
really have to have that reason,deeper reason why and that is
what kind of lights that fire inyour belly and creates that
(11:09):
passion, you know, and that thatreason you get up in the
morning and when you find thatkey, it really ignites that that
feeling and allows you to.
When you're having a bad day oryou're going through the
(11:30):
struggles of entrepreneurship orleadership within your company,
it allows you to always go backto and say this is why I'm
doing this, and I think thatalso is really important when
you're building anything.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
A hundred percent, and I'm curious, what would you
say that?
Your why is Like have you cometo that clarity of realization
for yourself?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, there's really two ways I look at it.
One is the way I look at storyand that's what the two key
ingredients within story, whichI call truth and spectacle.
So the spectacle is the thingthat gets people to watch it.
And then truth is tapping intosomething about who we are as
(12:20):
people and exploring thatthrough their actions, of the
choices they make, the obstaclesthey have to overcome.
And the other thing is reallymy reason why I tell stories in
the first place, and it's reallyto help make the world a better
(12:41):
place and to help other peopleto make the world a better place
.
And so, if I can helpindividuals, if I can help
companies, if I can help, youknow, it really could be at any
scale.
That's really my modus operandi.
(13:02):
Yeah, no, I love that and thankyou for making the world a
better place.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
That's really my modus operandi.
Yeah, no, I love that and thankyou for making the world a
better place, Because we allneed to do that.
And I love that truth andspectacle.
Like I think back to the moviesthat I've loved, you know,
through the years, and there isthat truth of something that
resonates on the human natureand like, oh, I hadn't thought
of it that way.
And the spectacle is, you knowwhat draws you in and what you
(13:28):
see in the trailers and likewhat is that attention grabber?
So I think that's really coolhow you put that.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, and obviously getting creative feedback is
always part of the process too.
It's important to be able toget and give, learn to give good
feedback, like to equate it tobeing an auto mechanic in a way
(14:05):
and you know, oftentimes incompanies we're working with
creatives and to give feedbackthat's constructive, you really
have to learn a way that's goingto be beneficial to them, and
so I've sort of developeddifferent methodology that you
(14:25):
know you're.
You wouldn't if you receivesomething.
You know it's easy to say, oh,I don't like this.
But if you were an automechanic and you received a car
from someone, you wouldn't say,oh, I don't like your car.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You would open up and look under the hood and see
what's working, what's not, andbe able to make a recommendation
, a diagnostic, and be able tohelp them to see what can be
done and go from there.
And the more that you learnabout what they do, the better
(15:07):
that you can diagnose theproblem.
Yeah, for sure, absolutely sohaving someone that does that on
your team sometimes, if youdon't do it yourself is really
important.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, yeah, no for sure, and being in tune to
what's lying underneath it, notnecessarily like the wrapping
paper, it's what's inside.
But yeah, and I'm curious, youmentioned about business, but
how have you seen storytellingrelate to business, like what
are some ways that you use it inbusiness?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, definitely, from our perspective, it's
really it's really integral tobusiness and it's such an
important way to to tell storiesand communicate messages across
business, and we've done it inso many different ways.
You know we've communicatedmessages.
(16:08):
You know I've been fortunate towork with companies like JW
Marriott, for example, and Iproduced this Jackie Chan style
action heist comedy for them,which people did not expect the
JW Marriott to do.
Our goal was to change brandperception from a place that was
(16:33):
a bit stodgier to a place that,at the time, millennials would
be interested in hanging out at,and so we worked with this
incredible group calledSubstance Over Hype, a group of
movement-based artists off ofYouTube, and they've everywhere,
(16:54):
from dancers to people who haddone stunts on the Spider-Man
movies and every kind ofmovement you name it.
And what was really cool is thatwe worked with them and created
a script and a story and itincorporated organically the
(17:17):
brand's philosophy within thestory.
Incorporated organically thebrand's philosophy within the
story and the the philosophyreally paraphrasing.
But the company really is aboutthe employees going to great
lengths to serve their customersand in this case it was
hyperbole.
It was two bell hops stoppingan art heist from happening, but
(17:42):
it showcased in a very fun waywhat the company was really
about and it ended up getting250 million media impressions
globally and $34 million inearned media value.
So it was a massive hit forthem and it was something that
(18:10):
it raised search 65% year onyear and the brand sentiment
went up 2% months of its targetdemo, so it was certainly
something that worked, but beingable to tell a fictional story
in that case was a really coolway to communicate the brand
(18:32):
message and to do what?
Instead of your typical brandvideo, so to speak.
It was something that wasreally special.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It sounds like it, and it sounds like it definitely
stood out amongst all the othervideos out there.
So an enraging success and someawesome ROI.
So congrats on that for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Thank you, yeah, and recently I got the opportunity
to work with a startup calledSupermouth and they're actually
oral healthcare brands and theybasically wanted to work, uh, to
(19:17):
get kids to brush their teeth,uh, and so, uh, the whole thing
that we created for them wasthis whole branded entertainment
universe, and so we did a filmfor them and it was this really
cute family adventure that itwas kind of like a marvel meets
(19:41):
the incredibles sort ofsuperhero adventure.
Uh, that incorporated, uh, youknow, brushing teeth and we.
So we made the film and then weand we also did all kinds of
other content we launched it asa film at a film festival.
(20:05):
We had a premiere at the filmfestival.
We actually did a live eventand we took characters that were
in the movie and the kids gotto meet the characters and be
involved in the story as itcontinued and help defeat the
bad guy Cavitar, spreading sugarbugs throughout the lobby and,
(20:28):
uh, in the theater and um, andto defeat him, and, uh, we
created, we commissioned a songfor the movie and create a music
video and even did a comic book, and so we pushed all this out
in PR and it reached just over 1billion unique visitors monthly
(20:52):
across media.
So for a startup to be able toreach that level is pretty,
pretty mind blowing.
So we were very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And just think of how many more clean teeth are out
there because of that.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, yeah, and that was my favorite thing was seeing
the smiles on kids faces whenthey were watching the film, and
and how many of them wereoverjoyed to get to play with
the, the, the products from theclient, yeah, right at the
screening, and, uh, you know,getting toothbrushes and floss,
(21:34):
which was pretty cool I lovethat.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
so I'm curious for your storytelling process, like
are there you know, tips orthings that you can share with
us?
I mean I've worked with massiveagencies through the years
where we're doing like stickynotes and storyboarding and,
like you know, or journaling orlike what.
What things have you found workreally well?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
have you found work really well?
Yeah, it begins with what Icall a brand immersion meeting
and really getting to know I aska lot of questions of the brand
to get to know them and tounderstand what makes them tick.
It requires really justunderstanding, as if I worked at
the company and I could be ableto say, you know, be able to
(22:26):
speak whatever to whatever thecompany's biggest challenges are
, especially from a marketingperspective, and to understand
what is going to communicate,whatever message they're trying
to communicate, and then comingup with a solution that's going
(22:51):
to ultimately achieve thatmarketing objective.
And that creative spark cancome like like I was talking
about earlier, can come fromanywhere, but oftentimes I'll go
through 300 different ideas inone day and then whittle that
(23:12):
down to 30, and the next day andthen whittle that down to three
that we actually present to theclient.
I know that when we worked withJapan Airlines, it was one of
those opportunities where I wascreative director and I had an
(23:34):
opportunity to come up with anidea to help raise awareness for
the airline outside of Japan,where they had said that they
had zero awareness, and so wewere creating this global
campaign and I wanted to createthis global artwork, and I had
(23:59):
an inkling of an idea of how todo it, and so I basically looked
at several different artistsand I came across a perfect
brand ambassador and thisJapanese artist named Yasan and
he had traveled all across Japan.
And he had traveled all acrossjapan back a few years before
(24:27):
our campaign by foot, by bus, bytrain.
However, he could and trackedhis gps data and it's he
uploaded that to google maps,spelled out the words marry me
across all of japan, and sothat's how he proposed his
girlfriend at the time, whichwas pretty incredible and put
everyone who had ever proposedto anyone to shame.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Right, that's like the ultimate.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So, fortunately, she said yes.
So cut to a couple of yearslater and we gave him the
opportunity to break the worldrecord that he had set and this
time, travel and break his worldrecord 14 times over, traveling
(25:12):
to 34 stops worldwide acrosssix continents, meeting people
in each of the stops who wouldpush the button on his phone to
activate the next leg of hisjourney.
And he tracked his GPS data onhis flights.
And he traveled around theworld in 41 days, mind you,
(25:34):
which is incredible upon itself.
And then got home, which isincredible upon itself.
And then got home, showed hisfamily, his two adorable
children and his wife.
He uploaded the data to GoogleEarth and it spelled out the
word peace.
So the campaign was Peace onEarth, and that's how he shared
(26:06):
this message from him and JapanAirlines to raise awareness.
And you could follow the entirejourney on social media and his
travels.
And that was something thatthat took a lot of thinking and
a lot of, you know, ideation.
But you could kind of see mycreative process going from okay
(26:30):
, well, we have to do somethingbig, how are we going to do this
?
And along the way, thinkingabout, okay, how are we going to
actually pull this off?
And it went to a practicalplace and then searching and
finding the way to do it.
(26:50):
And then, once we found that,then it became a very big
logistical challenge to actuallywork with Japan Airlines to
figure out, okay, how are wegoing to get him on all these
different flights and how are wegoing to book his travel and
(27:11):
send our small team around theworld to follow him and document
his journey?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That's awesome.
And to what you mentionedearlier, just that the sheer
volume of ideas that you gothrough to begin with and scrap
and then whittle it down to thegood ones and then the really
good ones.
I think.
So often we're so hard onourself that, like the first
idea sucked, okay, forget it.
Right, like we need to shiftour perception and and focus you
(27:41):
to be able to give us room tocome up with those, the garbage
we're talking about before, like, without being critical of
ourselves, to get to the gemsthat come later.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, absolutely, and I always encourage my team to
do the same thing to not beprecious with, especially with
campaigns.
Not to be precious with ideas,because ideas are just that and,
at the end of the day, it's theexecution that really makes the
(28:17):
difference.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, for sure, and I'm curious.
I mean, you've got thesemassive campaigns that have been
super successful and haveaccomplished amazing things, but
what does success look like toyou?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, that's actually a fantastic question.
You know, I've thought a lot.
I've actually thought a lotabout that and for me I would
say you can have all this stuffin the world, but true success
(28:51):
to me is really being able toform lasting memories with
yourself and your loved ones.
I think that that's somethingthat you can have, all this
stuff, but you can lose stuff,but keeping those memories and
being able to cherish them isreally something that I love to
(29:12):
hold on to.
That's success to me.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I love that.
Is there a particular memorythat strikes a chord with you?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
that strikes a chord with you.
Well, definitely my proposaland getting married to my wife
and getting to, there's certainmemories with my dad and my mom
as well, my family that I holdon to.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, that's awesome, I love it and.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'm curious if you had the attention of the whole
world for five minutes, whatwould you tell them?
I would that that you havethere's.
There's this acronym thatsomeone had come up with and
(30:13):
it's actually from a friendnamed Chris Winfield and the
acronym is HOPE and it standsfor Help One Person Every Day,
and I love to live by that.
I love that acronym, and ifeach person tried to do that and
(30:38):
help one person every day, Ithink that would definitely help
to make this world a betterplace.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Absolutely.
That was a powerful message andin a very tiny, teeny little
way.
I went to Dunkin' the other dayand I make it a practice every
time I go to Dunkin'.
Almost every time I always payfor the person behind me, like I
don't know, the person don'tcare, just always pay for them.
And it was like a week ago Iwent and the person in front of
(31:06):
me paid for me Again, completestranger, and I'm like, oh,
that's really cool.
Like you know, it doesn't oftenhappen the other way around, so
you never know how far thatcircle came back around to.
You know, to bless my day.
So yes, I like that a lot toyou know to bless my day.
So yes, I like that a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
That's incredible.
I love that story.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, so how can people find you how?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
can they work with you?
Like, how can they connect withyou online?
Yeah, they can find me via mywebsite, luxhammercom, that's
L-U-X-H-A-M-M-E-Rcom, and theycan also find me on social media
.
Instagram's easiest, it's justLux hammer LLC.
Also on LinkedIn, evan Charlton.
(31:51):
So any way you want to reachout to me is fine, I carry your
pigeon.
That works too.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Smoke signals.
Take them all, that's right,awesome.
Well, thank you, evan, forbeing on today.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
This was really a lot of fun to chat with you.
Yeah, likewise, thank you somuch for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, absolutely, and if you found value in this
episode, please do share it.
That's how people find us, andyou can find me at
sevenfigurebuildercom and I willsee you on the next.
Well, welcome back.
This is Julie Barron, host ofthe 7 Picker Builder Show, and
I'm here today with my friendEvan Sholfin.
Hey, Evan.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I am so thrilled to talk with you today.
I know you're the CEO andfounder of Luxhammer.
You've worked on unforgettableridiculous films, tv branded
entertainment.
You are like the mastercreativity genius and I want to
dig into that today.
But welcome and tell us alittle bit about what you do
with your business.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, definitely so.
Thanks for the awesome intro.
We're a film and TV andmarketing company and we help
brands grow and reach over abillion people.
We work with personal brands toFortune 500 companies and help
them to achieve their goalswithout the expense of major ad
agencies, by creating contentthat moves the needle through
(00:50):
the power of storytelling, andyou're 22 times more likely to
remember something that's toldin story form.
So we treat your target marketlike an audience and we ideate
and we produce the content thatresonates with your target at a
deeper level to meet your goals.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Awesome, I love that.
And yeah, it's so true withstorytelling, it's just how our
brains are wired and how we'rewired as human beings that you
know we resonate with thingsthat are more in story format.
But how did you get into thisworld?
Like, tell us a little bitabout your journey.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, so I actually started when I was five years
old and playing with my Legosand my dad's video camera making
stop motion movies, and Icontinued to make movies with my
friends as a hobby throughoutschool and I always saw it as
(01:50):
exactly that a hobby, not aserious career path.
And I also put on benefit eventsin high school and in college.
One of them was for the BonnieBonnie rates rhythm and blues
foundation and, um, we continueto put on events in college and
(02:13):
one of the events I put on, thehost of it was a screenwriter
and actress, uh, and her name isEvelina Fernandez.
She saw the work I'd doneproducing that event and she
knew I was interested in filmand asked if I wanted to help
produce her next movie.
So I was 22 years old and gotthat opportunity.
(02:39):
That I couldn't believe and Ijumped right in headfirst and
that was really my firstopportunity to do film school
before film school.
And then I decided to go backand get a degree in it and get
my MFA over at USC and go totheir Peter Stark producing
(03:00):
program and then from there thatkind of launched my career.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I love it and that's so cool.
I think so many of us have kindof fallen headfirst in the
things that we love, almost byaccident.
That tends to be, I think, thebest ways to get there, at least
from my own opinion.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, by
accident or by design, you knowwe definitely wanted to
incorporate people from theentertainment community when we
were putting on that event andthat was such a great way to
spotlight the issue that we weredoing.
(03:39):
And I knew that by doing thatit would open up some doors and
it wasn't intentional that I wastrying to leverage that into a
job within the industry, but itcertainly didn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
For sure, and I know you've worked on some amazing
projects.
Can you share with us some ofthe more memorable ones that you
can think of?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
yeah, definitely so.
I worked on movies, uh that youmay know, such as Moneyball,
the mini series, the night ofwhich was on hbo, and um many
more.
I was the executive in chargeof uh, developing and producing
(04:40):
film and television based onSega's video games as well, for
about eight years.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Awesome, very cool, and in those roles you need some
serious creativity, likeobviously with the storytelling,
with the visuals and just ingeneral to be curious.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And creativity I really look at as something
where you combine two disparateideas and that really requires
exploring the world around you,and that could be reading a lot
Reading books, traveling, goinginto nature, watching other
(05:38):
movies and series andexperiencing theater, dance,
sports, reading science,journals.
It could be historical accounts, attending talks and
conferences Literally, reallyanything that could spark your
imagination and experiencingreally a lived experience and
(06:01):
really trying to understand whowe are as people, and I think
that's really what is key tounderstanding what makes us tick
.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Definitely yeah, because the more you pull in
that human element, the morepeople can relate to it and the
more it resonates with them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, and it helps you to get outside your own head
and look at things through adifferent lens.
When you're, especially whenyou're traveling, I think that
makes a big difference.
Because you're especially whenyou're traveling, I think that
makes a big difference becauseyou're seeing through other
people's eyes.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah.
Yeah absolutely, and I wouldsay how do you?
So that's how you pull increativity, but how do you stay
creative, like through all theseyears, you know?
Do you run out of inspiration?
Or how do you spark that inyourself?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, I do, I make a creative habit.
So really that means each daycoming up with a certain time
and place where I make thatsacred to be creative, to be
creative, and for me that is atthe crack of dawn, before any
(07:08):
distractions, and, you know,just having that time where I
can.
I've just woken up and I've had, you know, maybe still in a
(07:30):
dream state a little bit, and itspending even just an hour or
an hour and a half each day andforcing myself in the beginning,
because it's it's likeexercising.
You know, sometimes when youfirst start it's it's not easy
and you have to exercise thatcreative muscle and keep doing
it and then, as you keep doingit, it actually becomes easier.
Your mind starts going toplaces that you didn't expect
(07:54):
and unlocking a whole wealth ofcreativity.
So continuing that and havingthat space that you give
yourself, I think is really theperfect way to continue that and
be creative.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
No, I agree, and I think a lot of us forget about
that or don't think about beingintentional about that creative
time.
But I know for myself, I didprofessional photography for a
while and that was very much alearned skill.
I started from literal scratch,like, taught myself photography,
went to train under some of thebest photographers and at one
(08:33):
point just to kind of add on toyour story there but at one
point you know, this masterphotographer was saying well,
when you're posing, people iswhat we were talking about, and
I'm preaching to the choir, I'msure, but you know, the first
handful of pictures that you'regoing to take are crap, frankly.
So like, just take them, get ridof it, and then you dig a
(08:53):
little deeper in your creativityand I ended up learning just a
hack, kind of similar to you,where I didn't do it first thing
in the morning, but as I wasdriving the photo shoots, I
would literally safely drivingpicture posing people right and
like run through, basically runthrough those shots in my mind
on the way to the shoot.
And so my brain was alreadyteed up and wired to like okay,
(09:14):
I've already thrown away thefirst bunch of crappy, you know
arrangements in my mind, and sonow I can actually get the good
stuff.
So I found that very helpfulfor myself, and so now I can
actually get the good stuff, soI found that very helpful for
myself.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and you mentioned something about you
know that first attempt beingtotal crap.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And I call that writing your vomit draft.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's really important to do that.
Just get it all out on the pageor get it all out there and not
be afraid to just do it anddon't turn on your critical mind
until after you're done.
Get it all out, because onceyou turn on that critical part
(10:07):
of your brain, then you're goingto start analyzing it and
picking it apart and you'llnever get it done.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So you really have to let it flow Totally.
I know, I know, and I alwaysfound, like two-thirds of the
way through the photo shoot, I'mlike really turned on, like
creativity wise, and it's I'mgetting more, you know, daring
in what I'm trying to do.
And the more you do it, likeyou said, you know, the easier
it gets, the more you kind ofget in that groove.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, definitely.
And and also just finding thatkey, that thing, that reason why
that speaks to you know whyyou're doing it is so important,
so important, uh, whateveryou're working on, you know
(10:49):
whatever you're creating andit's true about, uh, anything
you know with a movie, but it'salso or tv show, but it's true
about business you know, whenyou're creating something, you
really have to have that reason,deeper reason why and that is
what kind of lights that fire inyour belly and creates that
(11:09):
passion, you know, and that thatreason you get up in the
morning and when you find thatkey, it really ignites that that
feeling and allows you to.
When you're having a bad day oryou're going through the
(11:30):
struggles of entrepreneurship orleadership within your company,
it allows you to always go backto and say this is why I'm
doing this, and I think thatalso is really important when
you're building anything.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
A hundred percent, and I'm curious, what would you
say that?
Your why is Like have you cometo that clarity of realization
for yourself?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, there's really two ways I look at it.
One is the way I look at storyand that's what the two key
ingredients within story, whichI call truth and spectacle.
So the spectacle is the thingthat gets people to watch it.
And then truth is tapping intosomething about who we are as
(12:20):
people and exploring thatthrough their actions, of the
choices they make, the obstaclesthey have to overcome.
And the other thing is reallymy reason why I tell stories in
the first place, and it's reallyto help make the world a better
(12:41):
place and to help other peopleto make the world a better place
.
And so, if I can helpindividuals, if I can help
companies, if I can help, youknow, it really could be at any
scale.
That's really my modus operandi.
(13:02):
Yeah, no, I love that and thankyou for making the world a
better place.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
That's really my modus operandi.
Yeah, no, I love that and thankyou for making the world a
better place, Because we allneed to do that.
And I love that truth andspectacle.
Like I think back to the moviesthat I've loved, you know,
through the years, and there isthat truth of something that
resonates on the human natureand like, oh, I hadn't thought
of it that way.
And the spectacle is, you knowwhat draws you in and what you
(13:28):
see in the trailers and likewhat is that attention grabber?
So I think that's really coolhow you put that.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, and obviously getting creative feedback is
always part of the process too.
It's important to be able toget and give, learn to give good
feedback, like to equate it tobeing an auto mechanic in a way
(14:05):
and you know, oftentimes incompanies we're working with
creatives and to give feedbackthat's constructive, you really
have to learn a way that's goingto be beneficial to them, and
so I've sort of developeddifferent methodology that you
(14:25):
know you're.
You wouldn't if you receivesomething.
You know it's easy to say, oh,I don't like this.
But if you were an automechanic and you received a car
from someone, you wouldn't say,oh, I don't like your car.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You would open up and look under the hood and see
what's working, what's not, andbe able to make a recommendation
, a diagnostic, and be able tohelp them to see what can be
done and go from there.
And the more that you learnabout what they do, the better
(15:07):
that you can diagnose theproblem.
Yeah, for sure, absolutely sohaving someone that does that on
your team sometimes, if youdon't do it yourself is really
important.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, yeah, no for sure, and being in tune to
what's lying underneath it, notnecessarily like the wrapping
paper, it's what's inside.
But yeah, and I'm curious, youmentioned about business, but
how have you seen storytellingrelate to business, like what
are some ways that you use it inbusiness?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, definitely, from our perspective, it's
really it's really integral tobusiness and it's such an
important way to to tell storiesand communicate messages across
business, and we've done it inso many different ways.
You know we've communicatedmessages.
(16:08):
You know I've been fortunate towork with companies like JW
Marriott, for example, and Iproduced this Jackie Chan style
action heist comedy for them,which people did not expect the
JW Marriott to do.
Our goal was to change brandperception from a place that was
(16:33):
a bit stodgier to a place that,at the time, millennials would
be interested in hanging out at,and so we worked with this
incredible group calledSubstance Over Hype, a group of
movement-based artists off ofYouTube, and they've everywhere,
(16:54):
from dancers to people who haddone stunts on the Spider-Man
movies and every kind ofmovement you name it.
And what was really cool is thatwe worked with them and created
a script and a story and itincorporated organically the
(17:17):
brand's philosophy within thestory.
Incorporated organically thebrand's philosophy within the
story and the the philosophyreally paraphrasing.
But the company really is aboutthe employees going to great
lengths to serve their customersand in this case it was
hyperbole.
It was two bell hops stoppingan art heist from happening, but
(17:42):
it showcased in a very fun waywhat the company was really
about and it ended up getting250 million media impressions
globally and $34 million inearned media value.
So it was a massive hit forthem and it was something that
(18:10):
it raised search 65% year onyear and the brand sentiment
went up 2% months of its targetdemo, so it was certainly
something that worked, but beingable to tell a fictional story
in that case was a really coolway to communicate the brand
(18:32):
message and to do what?
Instead of your typical brandvideo, so to speak.
It was something that wasreally special.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It sounds like it, and it sounds like it definitely
stood out amongst all the othervideos out there.
So an enraging success and someawesome ROI.
So congrats on that for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Thank you, yeah, and recently I got the opportunity
to work with a startup calledSupermouth and they're actually
oral healthcare brands and theybasically wanted to work, uh, to
(19:17):
get kids to brush their teeth,uh, and so, uh, the whole thing
that we created for them wasthis whole branded entertainment
universe, and so we did a filmfor them and it was this really
cute family adventure that itwas kind of like a marvel meets
(19:41):
the incredibles sort ofsuperhero adventure.
Uh, that incorporated, uh, youknow, brushing teeth and we.
So we made the film and then weand we also did all kinds of
other content we launched it asa film at a film festival.
(20:05):
We had a premiere at the filmfestival.
We actually did a live eventand we took characters that were
in the movie and the kids gotto meet the characters and be
involved in the story as itcontinued and help defeat the
bad guy Cavitar, spreading sugarbugs throughout the lobby and,
(20:28):
uh, in the theater and um, andto defeat him, and, uh, we
created, we commissioned a songfor the movie and create a music
video and even did a comic book, and so we pushed all this out
in PR and it reached just over 1billion unique visitors monthly
(20:52):
across media.
So for a startup to be able toreach that level is pretty,
pretty mind blowing.
So we were very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And just think of how many more clean teeth are out
there because of that.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, yeah, and that was my favorite thing was seeing
the smiles on kids faces whenthey were watching the film, and
and how many of them wereoverjoyed to get to play with
the, the, the products from theclient, yeah, right at the
screening, and, uh, you know,getting toothbrushes and floss,
(21:34):
which was pretty cool I lovethat.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
so I'm curious for your storytelling process, like
are there you know, tips orthings that you can share with
us?
I mean I've worked with massiveagencies through the years
where we're doing like stickynotes and storyboarding and,
like you know, or journaling orlike what.
What things have you found workreally well?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
have you found work really well?
Yeah, it begins with what Icall a brand immersion meeting
and really getting to know I aska lot of questions of the brand
to get to know them and tounderstand what makes them tick.
It requires really justunderstanding, as if I worked at
the company and I could be ableto say, you know, be able to
(22:26):
speak whatever to whatever thecompany's biggest challenges are
, especially from a marketingperspective, and to understand
what is going to communicate,whatever message they're trying
to communicate, and then comingup with a solution that's going
(22:51):
to ultimately achieve thatmarketing objective.
And that creative spark cancome like like I was talking
about earlier, can come fromanywhere, but oftentimes I'll go
through 300 different ideas inone day and then whittle that
(23:12):
down to 30, and the next day andthen whittle that down to three
that we actually present to theclient.
I know that when we worked withJapan Airlines, it was one of
those opportunities where I wascreative director and I had an
(23:34):
opportunity to come up with anidea to help raise awareness for
the airline outside of Japan,where they had said that they
had zero awareness, and so wewere creating this global
campaign and I wanted to createthis global artwork, and I had
(23:59):
an inkling of an idea of how todo it, and so I basically looked
at several different artistsand I came across a perfect
brand ambassador and thisJapanese artist named Yasan and
he had traveled all across Japan.
And he had traveled all acrossjapan back a few years before
(24:27):
our campaign by foot, by bus, bytrain.
However, he could and trackedhis gps data and it's he
uploaded that to google maps,spelled out the words marry me
across all of japan, and sothat's how he proposed his
girlfriend at the time, whichwas pretty incredible and put
everyone who had ever proposedto anyone to shame.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Right, that's like the ultimate.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So, fortunately, she said yes.
So cut to a couple of yearslater and we gave him the
opportunity to break the worldrecord that he had set and this
time, travel and break his worldrecord 14 times over, traveling
(25:12):
to 34 stops worldwide acrosssix continents, meeting people
in each of the stops who wouldpush the button on his phone to
activate the next leg of hisjourney.
And he tracked his GPS data onhis flights.
And he traveled around theworld in 41 days, mind you,
(25:34):
which is incredible upon itself.
And then got home, which isincredible upon itself.
And then got home, showed hisfamily, his two adorable
children and his wife.
He uploaded the data to GoogleEarth and it spelled out the
word peace.
So the campaign was Peace onEarth, and that's how he shared
(26:06):
this message from him and JapanAirlines to raise awareness.
And you could follow the entirejourney on social media and his
travels.
And that was something thatthat took a lot of thinking and
a lot of, you know, ideation.
But you could kind of see mycreative process going from okay
(26:30):
, well, we have to do somethingbig, how are we going to do this
?
And along the way, thinkingabout, okay, how are we going to
actually pull this off?
And it went to a practicalplace and then searching and
finding the way to do it.
(26:50):
And then, once we found that,then it became a very big
logistical challenge to actuallywork with Japan Airlines to
figure out, okay, how are wegoing to get him on all these
different flights and how are wegoing to book his travel and
(27:11):
send our small team around theworld to follow him and document
his journey?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That's awesome.
And to what you mentionedearlier, just that the sheer
volume of ideas that you gothrough to begin with and scrap
and then whittle it down to thegood ones and then the really
good ones.
I think.
So often we're so hard onourself that, like the first
idea sucked, okay, forget it.
Right, like we need to shiftour perception and and focus you
(27:41):
to be able to give us room tocome up with those, the garbage
we're talking about before, like, without being critical of
ourselves, to get to the gemsthat come later.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, absolutely, and I always encourage my team to
do the same thing to not beprecious with, especially with
campaigns.
Not to be precious with ideas,because ideas are just that and,
at the end of the day, it's theexecution that really makes the
(28:17):
difference.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, for sure, and I'm curious.
I mean, you've got thesemassive campaigns that have been
super successful and haveaccomplished amazing things, but
what does success look like toyou?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, that's actually a fantastic question.
You know, I've thought a lot.
I've actually thought a lotabout that and for me I would
say you can have all this stuffin the world, but true success
(28:51):
to me is really being able toform lasting memories with
yourself and your loved ones.
I think that that's somethingthat you can have, all this
stuff, but you can lose stuff,but keeping those memories and
being able to cherish them isreally something that I love to
(29:12):
hold on to.
That's success to me.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I love that.
Is there a particular memorythat strikes a chord with you?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
that strikes a chord with you.
Well, definitely my proposaland getting married to my wife
and getting to, there's certainmemories with my dad and my mom
as well, my family that I holdon to.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, that's awesome, I love it and.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'm curious if you had the attention of the whole
world for five minutes, whatwould you tell them?
I would that that you havethere's.
There's this acronym thatsomeone had come up with and
(30:13):
it's actually from a friendnamed Chris Winfield and the
acronym is HOPE and it standsfor Help One Person Every Day,
and I love to live by that.
I love that acronym, and ifeach person tried to do that and
(30:38):
help one person every day, Ithink that would definitely help
to make this world a betterplace.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Absolutely.
That was a powerful message andin a very tiny, teeny little
way.
I went to Dunkin' the other dayand I make it a practice every
time I go to Dunkin'.
Almost every time I always payfor the person behind me, like I
don't know, the person don'tcare, just always pay for them.
And it was like a week ago Iwent and the person in front of
(31:06):
me paid for me Again, completestranger, and I'm like, oh,
that's really cool.
Like you know, it doesn't oftenhappen the other way around, so
you never know how far thatcircle came back around to.
You know, to bless my day.
So yes, I like that a lot toyou know to bless my day.
So yes, I like that a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
That's incredible.
I love that story.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, so how can people find you how?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
can they work with you?
Like, how can they connect withyou online?
Yeah, they can find me via mywebsite, luxhammercom, that's
L-U-X-H-A-M-M-E-Rcom, and theycan also find me on social media
.
Instagram's easiest, it's justLux hammer LLC.
Also on LinkedIn, evan Charlton.
(31:51):
So any way you want to reachout to me is fine, I carry your
pigeon.
That works too.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Smoke signals.
Take them all, that's right,awesome.
Well, thank you, evan, forbeing on today.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
This was really a lot of fun to chat with you.
Yeah, likewise, thank you somuch for having me.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, absolutely, and if you found value in this
episode, please do share it.
That's how people find us, andyou can find me at
sevenfigurebuildercom and I willsee you on the next.
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