Unique Genius: The Business of Creators Thinkific

Poet. Public speaker. Writer. Entrepreneur. Diandra Marizet Esparza wears a lot of hats. But it’s her work as a globally-recognized leader in the environmental movement that’s truly inspiring. As the co-founder of Intersectional Environmentalist, a non-profit climate justice collective, Diandra has helped cement culture, art, and storytelling as powerful tools for environmental advocacy.

In this episode, Diandra discusses everything from the origins of intersectionality (0:55) to examples of intersectional environmentalism (4:18) and its role as a form of social accountability (8:25). She also shares her journey from the fashion industry to the environmental space (14:55), her core values in building her organization (22:10), and how she’s shepherded it through many changing business models (27:35). But it’s her thoughts on reframing products as offerings (36:28) that may resonate most strongly with entrepreneurs and creator educators, along with her advice about identifying your own “offering” and turning it into something that can benefit others (37:23)

Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Diandra Marziet Esparza.

Imagine turning an award-winning career in conventional media into a thriving social media empire. That’s exactly what Jessica Chen has done. After picking up an Emmy for her work as a TV news reporter, Jessica pivoted to the creator-educator space, becoming a “LinkedIn superstar” and reaching an audience of more than 2 million people around the world through her communications coaching company, Soulcast Media.

On this episode, Jessica shares her decision to leave her stable and successful career to launch a business around communications coaching (7:10), intentionally using Linkedin to grow an audience (2:48), her decision to keep her business small and intimate (15:05), which key trait she looks for in hiring (15:45), how she divides her time during the day (24:30), and much more. She also speaks abouts the experience of writing and publishing her first book (16:35), which is coming out this year.

Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Jessica Chen.

How do you define “failure”? It’s a fraught term for anyone in business and entrepreneurship — but it’s an even bigger bogeyman in the creator-educator space. So why not reframe your failures as learning opportunities or springboards to future success? That’s exactly what multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, self-proclaimed queen of pivots, and former marketing exec turned creative leadership coach Tori Lazar has done. 

As the founder of coaching studio How to Fuck Up Well, Tori dives into her mission to destigmatize failure (19:58). She also discusses the importance of trial and error (5:26) and why even coaches need coaching sometimes (10:31). Other topics include: how to monetize what you’re really good at (15:15), leveraging existing networks for success (17:50), and why it’s critical to pay yourself first (27:10). 

Finally, Tori talks about her own biggest failure — which she calls the hardest experience she’s ever been through — and the lessons she learned from it (35:55).

Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Tori Lazar.

It’s the dream for anyone in the creator-educator space; being successful enough to step back from the day-to-day without worrying about your business. But that’s exactly the kind of freedom XayLi Barclay has found, and she did it by helping other entrepreneurs effectively stand out and make a genuine impact in the digital realm.

As a hugely successful visual content creation coach, XayLi offers up rare insights into a wide variety of topics, including the benefits of recurring revenue (6:25), the importance of community (7:35), how to find your audience (8:27), knowing when and how to hire (18:44), and recognizing your own value (15:42). Watch the entire video and you’ll also learn how XayLi was inspired by the entrepreneurship of her own family while growing up in Trinidad (1:05), and perhaps most poignantly, you’ll hear her emotional words of reassurance for the “scared little kid inside of all of us” (25:17).

So go ahead and press play to learn from the Unique Genius of XayLi Barclay.

Imagine taking a $1,200 pandemic stimulus check and turning it into a multi-million dollar business. Creator and entrepreneur Ellie Diop did exactly that in 2020 by launching Mommy to Millionaire and Ellievated Academy Online, teaching millennial women how to fund and scale their own businesses. Ellie made her first million in 10 months, hit over $3 million in her 1st year, and now has vastly exceeded that. How did she get there?

Ellie breaks down her business values (22:21, 24:16); the importance of authentically connecting with her audience, understanding their evolving needs, and giving them value (2:24, 11:45, 15:30, 30:15, 32:00). She also explains how to hire a team (21:50, 26:50, 27:40, 29:01) and build standard operating procedures and systems that work so she can move her brand to a direction where it doesn't only have to be her (19:35, 36:30). Other topics include the importance of having multiple revenue streams (9:42), her definition of sustainable success (17:27, 30:15), using ChatGPT as a thought partner (33:35), and much more. 

Listen in to learn from the Unique Genius of Ellie Diop.

This ex Instagram & YouTube employee is one of the world’s top creators educators with 650K+ followers and 300M+ views. He’s interviewed the likes of Logan Paul, Paris Hilton, and Mr. Beast and now coaches creators how to crack the code on going viral and grow their audience and income. Today we are flipping the script and putting Jon Youshaei in the hot seat to learn the secret to his incredible viral success.

Jon breaks down how to land a big name guest (4:18), the value of experimenting with different content formats (11:10), the lack of digital media education in universities (15:30), how to hire and build a great team (17:31) , how to package videos (26:21), and struggling with perfectionism as a creator himself (36:20). 

Listen in to learn from the Unique Genius of Jon Youshaei.