On episode 42 of Leading Matters,  we chat with Macaela VanderMost, the founder of Boston’s Newfangled Studios. Macaela’s take on the importance of story, how clients and agencies must work collaboratively to find and tell the right story, and why purpose is the ultimate fuel to any tale worth telling.

Awesome episode today, and I have to start out by thanking previous guest Jay Acunzo because if not for his podcast Unthinkable, I would not have met Macaela. I’ll link up her appearance on Unthinkable in the show notes so go listen to that one as well, but what I can tell you is that when I heard her discussing creativity, the way she encourages her team to search for story, and the investment that Newfangled makes in building out a story beyond what might be the final deliverable to the client captured my interest, admiration, and attention. But there were so many questions that I wanted to ask Macaela so I invited her on the show. I’m incredibly grateful to her for agreeing to be on and know that you will find this episode of Leading Matters compelling and informative.
The biggest thing to listen for here is the practical way in which we, as professionals in search of communicating well to our marketplace, must discover and craft our narrative.

HIGHLIGHTS

Who is Newfangled Studios
A team of passionate story tellers who specializes in weaving their clients’ narratives through video and motion graphics.

Who Ultimately Owns Story the Agency or the Client
That might be the wrong question to ask, especially when first getting started. Macaela believes that the client agency relationship is one that must be built on trust. Only when that trust is established can story be placed centric. The client, Macaela believes, is the ultimate story owner, but nurturing it and developing it must be of mutual interest between two very involved partners.

Can Purpose be Found In Any Product or Service
Yes. It is that simple, and purpose is the core of the story.

What Should You do When First Considering Video
Remember that the medium is visual, and work to leverage the visual aspects of communicating via video. Even if it is the way in which we are looking at the camera video is communicating emotion.

Addressing the Creativity Deficit
Budgets matter, but if we allow the resources of time and money to become our crutch, we will ultimately limit the amount of creativity that we can inject into our communication. This doesn’t mean we have to invest more time or money, it means we have to be committed to getting out of both time and money the best story possible. By placing the element of story first we nurture creativity.

Engage Your Employees Through Video
Macaela says that video might be a great alternative form of engaging and communicating with your employees. It can help leadership to think just a little bit more about the very real impact that decisions have on lives of the workforce, and will help leadership better communicate in a way that allows employees to be heard.

Show Notes
Macaela VanderMost on Unthinkable.
The Staples direct mail Make More Happen campaign.