“We served a multi-course meal on a subway traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan. We’ve created a life sized Monopoly board for a charitable gala in Panama. We taught drones how to both be a photo booth and how to shake and stir cocktails in case you wanted to have a drone make you a cocktail.”
Growing up and making your way in the world can be hard. That’s kind of what this show is about, see what people choose to do as they forge their path in this world. Most of us, and nearly every person I’ve had on this show, choose a path that has been walked by someone before us. That doesn’t change the fact that we need to be brave to do it, might have to leave something behind to pursue it, and need to give a lot of ourselves to succeed. It just means that we got the idea to walk down said path because someone else walked down that path before us. Today’s episode is with a truly unique person that had no such blueprint for his career. For that reason it’s hard to even explain what Michael Cirino does. Art, marketing, logistics, and one-of-a-kind experiences are all in a days work when you create your own blueprint.
“The way that I have stood out over the past few years is through these unique style experiences. A dinner party on the subway is a really hard thing to do. You know it’s going to be difficult…and then it’s way more difficult than you thought it would be because we made it that way. In doing that stuff these big brands and agencies started reaching out to us to do similar things for them.”
“It’s trivial and it’s silly, but it’s the right kind of trivial and the right kind of silly.”
Interview Contents
3:30 - A Razor, A Shiny Knife: Creative agency, entertainment company, and so much more.
4:40 - Examples of projects.
9:00 - Two types of companies.
14:15 - Michael’s background and the evolution of his company.
20:30 - Making money.
26:00 - Turning this all into a business.
30:00 - The story behind the name.
33:00 - How to work with big named brands.
34:50 - Idea generation.
38:30 - Drones, augmented reality, robotics.
40:30 - Unique experiences.
42:30 - Logistics is an art.
54:30 - Employees.
56:30 - Entrepreneurship is scary.
1:04:00 What Michael would have done if not this.
1:05:50 Advice for creating something that doesn’t even exist yet.
Links
THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Marcus Batson
Roxanna
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
