Creative AF // Discussions at the intersection of creativity and mental health

The sports industry is one of the most exciting and fulfilling careers that anyone could have. But this business is so much more than the 16 NFL games put on by a team during the year, or the 162 MLB games in a season. In order to fill those stadiums with people, make them look beautiful for an entire season day in and day out, entertain 70k people for every second a play isn’t occurring, and push the 24/7 social media content machine to be the best in all of sports, it takes a team of people working sometimes non-stop to make this happen.

When Will Posthumus was deep into his 11 year tenure as one of the leading live event and video producers in the country in professional and collegiate sports he never thought one simple timing misstep in a commercial break of an NFL game would lead him to re-evaluate the entire career he had built up to that point!

Hey everyone, I’m Jon Willey and this is Creative AF. A podcast that dives smack dab into the messy intersection of creativity and mental health, sharing stories of your highest highs and lowest lows.

Roxy Dominguez is a name that some of you may know and many of you not, but I can guarantee you’ve seen her work if you are a fan of baseball or MLS soccer. In her first real job after college Roxy would find herself on a World Series Winning team in 2017 with the Houston Astros, as part of one of the premier design teams in all of sports at the time. But with those highs, came many lows, and many changes over the next few years.

From a young age Roxy grew up in a very strict household where she became somewhat of a homebody and introvert but not always by choice. Roxy’s family was what she calls a traditional Mexican family where dating young or going to parties was simply not part of the culture. But creativity and art were never stifled.

From a young age Roxy used her time in school and her access to magazines and yearbook club as a place to learn about the essentials of design and dabble in many different types of mixed media. With a family who loved sports and played sports growing up she had always had an affinity for sports, but honestly never played much of anything. Living in Texas in her childhood home and finishing an associates degree in fine arts, Roxy went away to the University of Houston to dive into a more focused degree in graphic design, and her parents moved there with her...

Created by: Jon Willey

Recorded and Edited by: Jon Willey

Hey everyone, I’m Jon Willey and this is Creative AF. A podcast that dives smack dab into the messy intersection of creativity and mental health, sharing stories of your highest highs and lowest lows.

What you will hear at the beginning was a recent post from our guest on this episode, Alex Krahling. Alex is on her way to fast becoming one of the most influential young design business owners I’ve certainly known, and is doing it all while teaching others her secrets and the reasons why doing something for yourself first and foremost is THE most important part of your journey as a creative.

I first met Alex when Surf Melendez and I were invited to come down and have these classes at Miami Ad School pitch campaign ideas to us. Alex and her friends Steph and Bre went out of their way after their pitch to invite Surf and I to lunch in Wynwood and we’ve kept in touch ever since!

While her story is one of success and ownership now, it wasn’t always perfect. Alex battled through some extremely low points in her life that all seemed to hit her all at once. But her competitive spirit and hard working, make ideas happen NOW ethos really propelled Alex into the next and current phase of her life, which in all honesty is one that I strive for as well and we should really all strive for at some point in our career.

But Alex wasn’t always in the design space and didn’t even study design in undergrad... She started out like many of us, loving to make cool shit!

Hey everyone.... Welcome to a special bonus episode of creative AF. During my years in sports medicine one of the things I learned that I completely underutilized during that time was mindfulness, meditation and progressive relaxation techniques. Probably because throughout these techniques I would tend to fall asleep to be quite honest. But 20 some years later I’ve learned how important these exercises can be for our mental well being.

As I’m recording this today it’s the morning of November 3, 2020. We have no idea what the outcome of today will be but we do know that all of this craziness has worn on us. We are exhausted, scared and many of us feel completely lost. So I want to take a few minutes to help bring some focus back during these times.

There will be two exercises I’ll take you through. One on anger, and one on dealing with negative thoughts. Take some time to find a comfortable place, even if it’s as your desk, a couch, your favorite chair, or even your floor. Find a place where you can relax and connect to something that will help ground you over the next 15 minutes or so.

As you go about the rest of your day, remember to acknowledge the feelings your are feeling, name them, understand the thoughts and feelings that are behind them, and continue to move forward. Have a great day and we will talk to you soon

Sammy Silverman is a name that should be super familiar to most people listening, but what you may not know is his story around his anxiety and how it caused him some pretty major burnout. As you will soon see, Sammy is extremely well spoken and insanely smart.

Those traits took him from a full-time intern to one of the top creatives at The Ohio State University. This was a program that in the early wave of social media, really took off and became one of the preeminent programs in the country, leveraging not only a high energy coaching staff and leader in Urban Meyer, but also some truly unique personal branding for the student athletes and recruits. But with that dedication seems to always come a level of work that no-one would wish upon anyone else. Sammy was deep in the grind and as you’ll hear it really changed who he was as a human.

Speaking of that, I wanted to start this podcast a little differently and just ask Sammy, how he was really doing during this crazy time in our history...