566 - Mikel Cirkus

When you're Mikel Cirkus it's nice to never be wrong. From being fired to creating his own space at Firmenich Flavors as Global Director of Conceptual Design Mikel has used his ability to solve problems and bring new ideas to light for as long as he can remember. Unconventional hand models that act as resumes, fictional branding for trending tastes, and trips to Hipsterville USA fill this episode with a life led by a fearless adventurer who collects inspiration from around the world. This all came from learning how to pitch himself and Mikel hasn't looked back ever since and he joins us to share a small piece of that outlook that will keep you from aging out of what is cool. Stay curious.

Talking Points

• What exactly do you do anyways at an anonymous business to business company?
• Being an ingredient in a distinct product. 
• Finding the bigger challenge of design as a concept. 
• Round out the story to connect the trend to the product. 
• A visual for a PowerPoint guide for a customer's frame of reference. 
• The dream autonomous creative position. 
• Keeping your customers your customers and engaging meetings that deliberately go longer then planned. 
• Freelancing and at-home overhead that makes you reinvent yourself. 
• Can idea and execution be two separate jobs?
• The New York Times has an address for you to send a resume to by that's not what they're really looking for. 
• Pitch yourself. 
• Breaking into the world you want to be in. 
• Email jockeys, designers, and the competitive edge that gets you an incredible gig for eighteen years and counting. 
• The devil is in the Details of everything you've ever learned. 
• Finding the job you want to put your name next to. 
• Opportunistic trend hunting on a global scale eighteen years later and hundreds of years ago. 
• How to know what the future holds. 
• Following the trend from the edge to the masses and increasing customer awareness. 
• Hipsterville USA and a cold brew coffee analogy for exemplifying the path to every level of consumer. 
• Sell the thinking and get asked for by name. 
• There's no metric for success when you can't be wrong. 
• Existing in the preface, building the story, and becoming the authority of that space. 
• Finding real time, organic innovation. 
• What does it represent?
• The real play for Tomorrowland was over at California Adventure. 
• Never aging out of cool, getting your own tag, and the post design space. 
• Stay curious to stay inspired and remove coincidence. 
• Exploitation, gentrification, and the new colonialism that will never end. 

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