influencer

Meditate On This (Vinson Lim interview preview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

There is a lot to be said about the importance of discipline, meditation and reflecting on your creative projects upon completion… Whether you shoot video, take photos, design logos or any of the other convention commercial arts, timelines and making the work count is a necessary evil of the job. People pay for expertise, and so you have to look at your art as a business in order to satisfy client needs, but what about the importance of inspiration?

Vinson Lim has come to accept that you need a healthy dose of both in order to achieve greatness as an artist. Truly talented individuals can live in the moment all they way, and produce high volumes of work too, but it’s even more important to take care of your health, and develop intelligent practices to maintain the workflow for years to come.

And so I asked Vinse the question – how often do you find yourself in a state of meditation when you work?

I wanted to see if he actively reflects on life or if there is simply rituals in place that fuel the fire and keep things going even when the spark of youth has left us. This is just a taste of our broader discussion on spiritual alignment, but I promise you’ll get a lot out of hearing what Vinse has done over more then a decade of shooting fashion photography, commercial product photos, living the weekend warrior life of wedding photography, and make artistic work too.

It’s an amazing introduction to the topic of spiritual alignment, and while this might be considered a heavy topic, Vinse has a great ability to present his thoughts in a meaningful way. But enough from me, it’s time for you to watch the video and see for yourself.

theories Summarized

Fun fact, I’ve known Vinse for quite a few years now, but it has been a while since we’ve been in touch. I’m truly impressed with how much he has matured in half a decade, taking on husband duties and now a father as well. But I’d rather not go into those details just yet, better to save them for the official interview, which I will be releasing next week!

That said, if you’ve enjoyed this introductory question and answer on the importance of meditation, please like and share the video, and of course leave some comments if anything really stood out or if you’ve got a good example of balancing inspiration and ritual in your own artistic practice.

More theories on the way, especially with this Our Lady Peace review coming out tomorrow! Check back soon!

Tim!

Buzz Feeding Time (Matthew Ankerstein, entrepreneur, influencer, podcaster interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Once upon a time bees where everywhere, but over the past few generations, we’ve been losing our honeybees to pollution, urban sprawl and host of other manmade factors that effect their environments. It’s a sad thing, considering that bees pollinate a vast majority of the plant life in this world. Where would we be without bees, after all dear readers?

Now this absolutely is not meant to be a depressing post, but I do want to wake you up!

You see creative cuties, there’s wisdoms in studying bees. By zeroing in on an analogy of the bee, my hope is that you’ll acknowledge that hard work and fostering community are invaluable, especially in an era of communication. And to someone like Matthew Ankerstein, bees can bring a lot more to this world as a metaphor. Matthew thinks it’s important to connect with lots of different business leaders, and he’s always been fascinated by business (Bill Gates was one of his idols growing up); on top of that, Matthew was also surrounded by the hardworking farm lifestyle from a young age.

He took this passion for business success, mixed in some neve-rending hard work ethic, and decided to marry the two concepts together during his time at post-secondary. That’s when he came up with the idea for Bee Influenced. His goal with Bee Influenced is to provide business leaders, students, and startups with resources to become better online marketers. By focusing on SEO, influencer marketing, podcasting, and email marketing Matt brings a solid set of topics to the table with his weekly show. And to make it even more memorable, he invites business leaders all over the world to share their stories in an easy to digest format – the podcast.

I even got to join in on the fun for an interview with him this summer!

But when I asked Matthew to get behind the hot seat himself and talk about dealing with the challenges that creative professionals face, he was over the moon. This is his interview, and his topic is working through adversity.

I still cannot believe how much insight Matthew has, and I’ve listened to our interview over and over in the editing booth! He has a great love for technology, an eye for strategy, and a willingness to serve others with humility.

We really do hope you enjoyed watching the back and forth between Matt and I, and highly recommend you share this post, leave a comment, and make a like? And if Bee Influenced seems like something you’d be interesting in visiting some more, check out his Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter and website yourself! Lots of ideas to pollinate there.

And special thanks to Matthew for being merry, motivating and merciless. His strategies, ideologies, and abilities are a breath of fresh air. Something to buzz about, for sure.

Tim!

When The Student Is Ready (Matthew Ankerstein influencer interview preview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Matthew Ankerstein is not your typical Edmontonian. He didn’t grow up believing that that things would be handed to him. Even though his family had a farm, and he was involved in minor league hockey, he wanted to make a difference in the business world and connect with more people.

If you visit his website (http://beeinfluenced.com/), you’ll quickly learn that he loves to read and learn new things. I’m paraphrasing a bit here, but in his own words, he states that a major influence in this way of thinking came from seeing his father balancing the business books – he thought to himself, I can figure out a way to do this myself, and so he went after a post-secondary education, but he also started to hit the books in his spare time too. Reading books from successful leaders like Warren Buffet, M. J. DeMarco, and Dale Carnegie, he quickly learned that he loved business and seeing businesses grow.

In his time at post-secondary he worked hard to make friends in the technology sector and in computer programming. The combination of this experience lead him to develop the Bee Influenced brand.

What started as a website for a school project, quickly evolved into a startup business about startup businesses… It’s a weekly blog that teaches individuals how best to build and market their online businesses. One element of particular interest on his website is the podcast that features entrepreneurs who have built successful companies.

Matthew takes their ideas and experiences and explains the strategies these people use in their own businesses. Which made me theorize that he probably knows a thing or two about recognizing authentic leaders from the phonies. In this preview question, I ask Matt how you can find these kinds of business teachers in life, and what to do when you run across a charlatan.

theories Summarized

If you’re like me, and you love learning new things, but can’t make sense of world of online marketing, life coaches, influencers, and all of the social media… then I think I’ve found the creative interview for you! Come back in a week for the full interview and all of the great discussions Matt and I had about growing your business, especially in times of adversity. He’s really got some good theories, and I can’t wait to share them. 

Tim!