Darren McStay shares his story of discovering acting classes as a way to deal with introversion and panic attacks.

Today Darren is experiencing success with several acting roles in Finnish film and television, as well as through his entrepreneurial venture, 'Improve Your Voice' coaching services.

Hosted by Heidi Akselin.

Joel Willans is an author, creative director and the founder of various popular online communities including Very Finnish Problems which is one of Finland’s most popular social media brands.  Here we discuss the divide between sales and marketing, selling to Finns vs selling to non-Finns, launching and growing a Facebook page to 15 thousand fans in one month organically. But, my favorite part is when Joel talks about discovering some of the happiest words in the world!

My guest in this episode is Alan Weiss PhD. He’s a consultant, speaker, author, coach. We talk about: - the first ever consultant - the kind of people that welcome coaching - differentiating as a generalist in a competitive market  - being humble as an expert - small town Finland in 1963 (!) ... and more.

Risto Kuulasmaa is an entrepreneur and executive coach with a background in events, media and tv production. He has also just launched 3 travel startups in the midst of a global pandemic.

Katja Presnal is an American Advertising Award-winning business and marketing strategist who has worked with Fortune 100-companies and startups. She recently launched Insider Society success accelerator for women entrepreneurs and her book Big Rich Money: How To Turn Your Business Intentions Into A Profitable Company (together with Candice Kilpatrick Brathwaite) comes out in August 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katjapresnal/ https://presnal5.com/

My guest in this episode is Andrew Deutsch CEO of Fangled Tech. We discuss some philosophy behind sales and marketing. How do we deal with the differences in selling with humility vs with boldness? Should we be mindful of adhering to culture differences when selling internationally? Is there a drawback to being too humble? And somehow we found ourselves discussing tactics behind selling a pig.

Ben Burns is an award winning designer, strategist and current COO at The Futur - a group of creative professionals that teach practical design and business education to a global audience. Here, Ben talks about starting his career in design, and then becoming a police officer in Savannah GA - working in narcotics, going undercover - before coming back to design and ultimately changing the world of design education. https://www.mrbenburns.com/ https://thefutur.com/

In this episode my guest Jaakko Tapaninen is an entrepreneur and content marketing consultant who helps executives build thought leadership. He was producing a popular Finnish-language podcast 10X Finland for several years before recently relaunching it as the Hybrid Times Podcast.

In this episode my guest is Minna Kaitala - an independent branding and marketing consultant based here in Helsinki. Minna shares key points to building a memorable brand - to avoid being generic, have an opinion and prepare to go all the way with it. - to be consistent over a long period of time. www.minnakaitala.com

Kim Oguilve is the chief marketing officer at Maria 01; a not for profit startup coworking community in the center of Helsinki that hosts over 150 tech companies and VCs and is now the Nordic's largest startup campus. We discuss what marketing means to her, how and why she is making diversity and inclusion a part of her organisation’s business strategy, and also I ask her to name a few of the coolest Finnish startups that she has recently come across.

Anna Rosa Lappalainen is a product builder, business builder, service designer, communicator, negotiator, business development expert, and serial entrepreneur with many interests in emerging tech and the startup community in Finland. I've worked with her in the past and really enjoyed it because she's so passionate when it comes to talking about business and marketing and growing startups.

Ramin Sohrab is an award-winning filmmaker, actor, martial artist and stunt cooridinator. He was born in Tehran, grew up in Helsinki, and found himself lost in terms of direction despite owning a successful marketing and PR company. Here, he tells the story of finding his way again. http://raminsohrab.com/

In this episode, Steven Keys talks to me from his home in the south of England. He is truly a man who is, by his own words, juggling many balls. He has been in sales most of his life, he has been a professional motorbike racer, owned and operated a successful bike dealership and these days he's a television writer, director and creator. He joins me now to talk about the art sales - or the way Steve puts it: Dream making!

Daniel Bogado is a Brit-born Paraguayan and producer/director of multiple award-winning documentaries for major broadcasters around the world. He's also an old friend from film school.  Here, we talk about his Netflix hit 'Killer Ratings.' We discuss the nuances of telling a compelling story through documentary. And Danny shares his opinion on the power of media to influence the masses.

Tim Conley is a business coach and mentor. Some of the points we cover in this episode: - the influence of media on creating fear and anxiousness - lack of knowledge is not a flaw - intervening in a situation with unknown variables - the importance of core principles to live a good life

Amandine Flachs has been involved in the startup ecosystem for 10 years as a community manager, growth consultant, and now as a founder herself. She’s from Paris and lives in London. We talk about: - personal branding - networking and communicating - video games - building your product vs talking about your product https://www.flachsconsulting.com/

Nathaniel Fetalvero is a writer and producer at Tech in Asia- a media company based in Singapore serving Asia’s tech and startup community. Some topics we covered: - what new technology is currently at the top of Nat's mind  - does technology make people more lazy or more productive? - how Myanmar is developing as the final frontier in South East Asia - what common traits Nat has noticed among successful Asian startups

My guest is Juho Paasonen, the current Design Lead at a 400-year-old national institution that is the Finnish Postal Service Group: Posti. Juho talks about starting his professional career at the age of 17 which led to working as Interaction Designer at Google before returning to Finland to build a creative design team at Posti. We discuss the differences between making art and making design, and what's required from good design leadership.

My guest in this episode is Dr. Melissa Farmer. She is a clinician-scientist with roots in sexology, pain research, and neuroscience. She is also co-founder of a Health Tech startup dealing with chronic pain. Lots of cool human psychology stuff in this episode including: - how to fast track information into your brain - why the brain tends to notice negative situations more - the principles behind neutralizing traumatic memories... and more!

Riku Vassinen is currently the Managing Partner of Ogilvy Africa. We talk about attitudes towards advertising and marketing in his native country of Finland. He shares some thoughts and opinions about working in Europe, Asia and Africa. And since we are both basketball nuts we had to talk a little bit about Michael Jordan and the impact of media hype in the NBA.