Ep.16 The secret to building an award-winning creative team
In this episode, Carole Issa talks with Mike Tosetto, Director at Never Sit Still about how he went from running a one-man band creative studio business into building a 7-figure award-winning creative team.
Mike is the director and founder of Never Sit Still, an animation studio based in Sydney, with a client list including Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Spotify and Event Cinemas. He has previously chaired the Australian Graphic Design Association in NSW, spoken at Node Fest, The Design Conference, and many other industry events. And in 2020, his studio was awarded the Studio of the Year by AGDA, one of the highest creative accolades an Australian studio can be awarded.
Listen to the full episode here 👇
Some key themes that Carole explores with Mike:
02:23: Where does the name ‘Never Sit Still’ come from?
06:01: How is it that you succeeded in being ok to let go of doing the work yourself and delegating it, so moving from being the technician to wearing the business owner’s hat?
09:20: How do you deal with rejection?
10:49: What was the thinking behind the way you positioned Never Sit Still and did you get it right from the get-go?
13:51: You’ve recently entered the market in the US, what is the difference between the US and the Australian market?
17:27: What are the values that you live by that you carried forward in your business?
23:37: Where would you position yourself on the scale of being highly risk-averse to being a high-risk taker? How did this play out in your business?
26:13: What’s your approach when it comes to hiring new team members?
29:26: What’s your approach when you notice that a team member is not performing?
31:36: What does the word leadership mean to you?
33:12: What are the non-negotiable for you in business?
35:12: A book that you love and why?
37:13: If you were to throw a 30-day challenge to our listeners, a challenge that will create a high impact in their life. What would that challenge be?
And so much more than that.
The secret to building an award-winning creative team
With Mike Tosetto | Director of Never Sit Still
About Never Sit Still
We are an energetic and collaborative team of animators based in Sydney. We specialise in motion, design, illustration, and storytelling for brands. We work with designers, creative directors, studios, musicians, developers, and companies from all over the world to help tell their stories.
We’re experts in the field of motion design for brand. From global brands to startups we can adapt and deliver to existing brand strategies just as effectively as we can help define them. We’re fluent in visual and verbal identity systems and the translation of static concepts to moving images. Whether building motion guidelines, systems or toolkits for internal teams, our knowledge of strategic brand thinking, and its potential to move, is what sets us apart.
While motion design for brand is at the heart of our offer, we have a diverse skillset that can cater to any creative brief. From opening titles, to visual effects for film, to frame by frame animation for advertising campaigns, if it moves on screen, we make it.
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