Noticing The Obvious

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 - such as LÄMPIMÄMPI and PUPU!

My guest in this episode is Alan Weiss PhD. He’s a consultant, speaker, author, coach and I’m sure he won’t mind me describing him as this: all round straight shooter and truth teller when it comes to personal and business growth. We talk about: - the first ever consultant - the kind of people that welcome coaching - differentiating as a generalist in a competitive market  - being a contrarian and embracing volatility - being humble as an expert - learning vs doing - 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 a man of many skills 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. Tech in Asia has a content production platform providing editorial content, news and analysis. It also has an advertising agency unit delivering marketing and branded content for clients. 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 www.techinasia.com Achieving profitability after a cancelled IPO: https://www.techinasia.com/achieving-profitability-cancelled-ipo

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.

My guest in this week's episode is Tim Conley who is a speaker, trainer and a business coach who works with B2B service entrepreneurs. If you want to hear some straight shooting, clear and simple insights on personal and business growth, this is the episode for you. We talk about how - successful marketing does not require good ethics.  - nobody truly has vision. - our actions do not align with our beliefs. - we're afraid to define big goals. - successful leaders often ignore external opinion - we say we want the truth but not really!

In this first volume I had 11 excellent guests from the fields of entertainment, business & marketing and even neuroscience who shared valuable stories and insight.. For those of you who are new to this podcast, who haven’t listened to many episodes before this is a good one to start with. I’ve picked out some of the best bits from each guest .. and put them all together here for you in a highlights compilation.

Antti-Jussi Annila is a film director whose first film Jade Warrior (2006) had the highest budget ever for a first time director in Finland. Here, AJ talks about how he handled that pressure… while managing a very ambitious shoot in China. We also talk about lessons he learned during his filmmaking career and how they’ve helped him become a better creative leader.

Nikki is an experienced TV Presenter and Technology Communicator. We had a really cool chat about the importance of communicating, listening, freelance work, teaching our kids that it's ok to make a mess once in a while... and of course my favourite thing to talk about: why humans can't do the things we know we should do. Her website is www.nikkidean.com. And PlanitMum https://www.facebook.com/PlanItMum/

My guest today is Lee McAteer. He is the Associate Director at Tranmere Rovers football club in the English league. He is the founder of multiple successful companies including AmeriCamp, Wrestling Travel, Camp Thailand and Invasion. https://ultrainvasion.com/ This podcast was recorded at the end of March 2020 whilst Lee was stuck in Philadelphia waiting for a flight home to Manchester. He shares stories about how we started his companies and how he was once named Britain’s Best Boss!

Baran Korkmaz is the 17-year-old founder and CEO of ARWAY - a London based startup whose vision is to create context aware Augmented Reality solutions accessible to everyone. He talks about how he started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 14, building the first demo, getting national media attention and connecting with his co-founder.  He also shares what he learned from his first visit to Silicon Valley during the pandemic outbreak. Baran's company website is : https://www.arway.app/

Dima Syrotkin founder and CEO of Finnish startup Panda-Training recently read 33 books in 7 months. I asked him to share some of the things he learned from some of the best books: The Listening Society, Homo Deus, Atomic Habits and Poor Charlie's Almanac. Now might be a good time to share a quote which I actually forgot to do in the podcast: He who does not read has no advantage over he who cannot read. -- Mark Twain Connect with Dima on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimasyrotkin/ Visit me on: https://www.tanlay.fi

G'day! In this episode, I speak to Debbie Steer who is an Animation Producer based in Sydney - currently revitalising the hand-drawn industry in Australia. We became friends 13 years ago as struggling filmmakers in Manchester, England. Debbie shares her story of making the decision to move to Australia and then finding herself in Australia three weeks later! My favourite part is when she shares her mindset towards decision making. Thanks Debs! (Just FYI - I almost titled this episode, 'Debbie Does Sydney.' Then again, you probably would've preferred it!) 

I've noticed people finally doing things they've resisted doing for so long. What's changed? Just a global pandemic.

My guest today is David Blinov. He’s the Founder of The F Company - a Growth Marketing agency based here in Helsinki. It was really fun to talk to him- he’s a marketing nerd just like me, but unlike me he started at the age of 15! We talk about the importance of failing well, the importance of experimenting, the value of mentors. And we debate whether humans know everything we need to know by the age of 23. www.davidblinov.com www.thefcompany.com www.tanlay.fi  

This week I have a friend Marko Lauhiala who is the founder, CEO and CTO of a startup solving the problem of data organization in enterprises. We discuss what it’s like for him wearing multiple hats in the company, we discuss the importance of being able to understand data visually in order to put it into context… in business situations as well as personal situations. We also talk about running. Marko runs everyday - he’s pretty obsessed about it which I find very inspiring.  He reminded me how we are all capable of doing difficult things. You can find Marko at : www.relefant.net You can find me at: www.tanlay.fi  

Yes, it does. I was reminded of this recently. It's amazing how different a question sounds when it's asked by somebody other than yourself. This is why everyone needs a coach / consultant. Speaking of which, visit my website: www.tanlay.fi  

My friend Rachel recently started telling me about NLP. It was something that I was not familiar with but being a linguistic geek and a brain nerd, I was immediately intrigued. And I thought it would be a good idea to record it for the podcast. You can find Rachel Akili on LinkedIn. And you can email me on tan@tanlay.fi

There's research out there that suggests that the average human attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. Whether I accept this or not, I do notice that the amount of distraction (both internal and external) that's hitting my senses is relentless. This means I have to be vigilant and very selective with what I spend my attention on. I've had great ideas that disappear moments after they are born and I've seen other people - old and young - forget important information instantly. So I'm quickly recording this podcast so I don't forget these thoughts that are passing through my mind! If you're listening to this, I'm guessing you can relate. You can email me at tan@tanlay.fi to discuss or give feedback.

In this episode, I enjoy a chat with Tracey Tait - a marketing coach and trainer based in Newcastle, England. We discuss Tracey's approach to teaching and learning while working with business owners who have quit corporate jobs. She shares her observation on what's stopping most entrepreneurs from achieving what they want to achieve. You can find out more on her website www.traceytait.com  

Yes, it does. But Newton's First Law also says humans are industrious. So, as soon as we start noticing this, we should be able to motivate ourselves to do the things we want to do. Thank you, Sir Isaac!

This week I have my first guest on the podcast. His name is Leo Khirug. He's a scientist. He studies brains. He's very interesting. If you're interested in human behavior, evolution and science experiments on mice, I think you'll enjoy this episode.

This is the first episode of my podcast. I'm going to lay out my (selfish) reasons for doing this podcast. It's taken me a long time to get this out. I've procrastinated for a while. But now I'm publishing and hope I find the motivation to stick to my plan of publishing every 2 weeks. I'm extremely interested in noticing obvious things. Because those are the things we tend to miss.