Unique Genius: The Business of Creators

In this episode of Unique Genius, Thinkific CEO Greg Smith sits down with Lisa Nichols, world-renowned motivational speaker, bestselling author, and CEO of Motivating the Masses. Lisa shares her incredible journey—from overcoming self-doubt and adversity to becoming one of the most sought-after public speakers in the world.She reveals the secrets behind her Science of Speaking techniques, how to captivate an audience with storytelling, and why authenticity is the key to true impact. Lisa also opens up about the challenges she faced on her path to success, including powerful stories from her Broadway show, When My Soul Speaks.If you're looking for inspiration, motivation, and actionable steps to elevate your communication skills and personal growth, this episode is a must-watch!

In this episode of Unique Genius, Thinkific CEO Greg Smith sits down with Jam Gamble, a renowned speaker, coach, and founder of the Slay the Mic program. Jam shares her journey from working in education and special needs support to becoming a sought-after public speaking coach. She dives into how she helps people break past their "vocal roadblocks," overcome self-doubt, and truly own their voice.From launching a six-season TV show by accident to coaching individuals worldwide, Jam’s approach is deeply transformative. She discusses her unique "Who is Your Kanye?" framework, which helps people identify the voices in their life that have held them back. This episode is packed with insights on confidence, communication, and the power of storytelling—whether you're a creator, entrepreneur, or just looking to express yourself more freely.

In this episode of Unique Genius, Thinkific CEO Greg Smith interviews Justin Tse, the founder of a thriving media company and a content creator with over 150 million views on YouTube. Starting his career at just 13 years old, Justin turned his passion for tech into a business empire, collaborating with top brands across tech, travel, and lifestyle.Discover how Justin scaled his YouTube channel, diversified his revenue streams, and navigated the challenges of transitioning from a solo creator to leading a team. Justin shares his insights on balancing creativity with business, the importance of starting young, and how he continuously reinvents himself in a competitive industry. Whether you’re a budding creator or a seasoned entrepreneur, this episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiration.

In this episode of Unique Genius, Kristen Bousquet shares her inspiring journey from starting a fashion blog as a teen to leading Social Suite, a vibrant creator community. Learn how she transitioned from relying on brand deals to generating 75% of her income from memberships and courses. Kristen offers valuable insights into niching down, overcoming creator burnout, and building recurring revenue streams. Perfect for creators looking to monetize their expertise and thrive in their craft.

In this episode of Unique Genius, Thinkific CEO Greg Smith engages with Taylor Loren, a seasoned brand marketer and creator, to explore her dynamic career trajectory. Taylor shares her experiences from leading social media strategy at Later, a prominent social media scheduling platform, to working with brands like Hootsuite, Shopify, and Girlboss. As a former Director of Content Marketing, she has helped shape the digital marketing strategies of major tech companies and entrepreneurs alike. Taylor discusses her journey from corporate roles to establishing her own consultancy focused on brand marketing and content strategy. She delves into the challenges and triumphs of transitioning from a high-profile career to entrepreneurship, offering valuable advice on building a personal brand, developing effective content strategies, and leveraging social media for business growth. Listeners will gain practical insights into the evolving digital marketing landscape and learn how to apply these strategies to their own ventures.

What if math was more than formulas and repetition? In this episode, Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific, sits down with Po-Shen Loh—a leading math educator and coach of the USA Math Olympiad team—who’s transforming math education to teach students real-world problem-solving skills.Through his interactive online courses, Po-Shen helps students think beyond “practice makes perfect,” using math competitions like MATHCOUNTS and AMC to inspire creativity, curiosity, and off-script reasoning. Discover how his innovative approach is equipping the next generation to thrive in an AI-driven world.

Sunny Lenarduzzi, a pioneer in teaching social media marketing on YouTube, shares her incredible journey from burnout to building a multimillion-dollar business. As one of the first to create social media tutorials on YouTube, Sunny talks about how she turned her passion for empowering others into a thriving business. She opens up about the challenges of maintaining a personal brand, the pressures of content creation, and how she found her true calling by helping others monetize their expertise through online programs.Sunny reveals the secrets behind creating a lasting legacy, focusing on results-driven strategies instead of fleeting personal fame. Whether you're a content creator, entrepreneur, or someone looking for sustainable success, Sunny’s insights will help you build a peaceful, purposeful, and profitable business. Don’t miss her powerful advice on personal branding, overcoming burnout, and scaling your business with true impact.

Poet. Public speaker. Writer. Entrepreneur. Diandra Marizet Esparza wears a lot of hats. But it’s her work as a globally-recognized leader in the environmental movement that’s truly inspiring. As the co-founder of Intersectional Environmentalist, a non-profit climate justice collective, Diandra has helped cement culture, art, and storytelling as powerful tools for environmental advocacy.In this episode, Diandra discusses everything from the origins of intersectionality (0:55) to examples of intersectional environmentalism (4:18) and its role as a form of social accountability (8:25). She also shares her journey from the fashion industry to the environmental space (14:55), her core values in building her organization (22:10), and how she’s shepherded it through many changing business models (27:35). But it’s her thoughts on reframing products as offerings (36:28) that may resonate most strongly with entrepreneurs and creator educators, along with her advice about identifying your own “offering” and turning it into something that can benefit others (37:23)Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Diandra Marziet Esparza.

Imagine turning an award-winning career in conventional media into a thriving social media empire. That’s exactly what Jessica Chen has done. After picking up an Emmy for her work as a TV news reporter, Jessica pivoted to the creator-educator space, becoming a “LinkedIn superstar” and reaching an audience of more than 2 million people around the world through her communications coaching company, Soulcast Media.On this episode, Jessica shares her decision to leave her stable and successful career to launch a business around communications coaching (7:10), intentionally using Linkedin to grow an audience (2:48), her decision to keep her business small and intimate (15:05), which key trait she looks for in hiring (15:45), how she divides her time during the day (24:30), and much more. She also speaks abouts the experience of writing and publishing her first book (16:35), which is coming out this year.Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Jessica Chen.

How do you define “failure”? It’s a fraught term for anyone in business and entrepreneurship — but it’s an even bigger bogeyman in the creator-educator space. So why not reframe your failures as learning opportunities or springboards to future success? That’s exactly what multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, self-proclaimed queen of pivots, and former marketing exec turned creative leadership coach Tori Lazar has done. As the founder of coaching studio How to Fuck Up Well, Tori dives into her mission to destigmatize failure (19:58). She also discusses the importance of trial and error (5:26) and why even coaches need coaching sometimes (10:31). Other topics include: how to monetize what you’re really good at (15:15), leveraging existing networks for success (17:50), and why it’s critical to pay yourself first (27:10). Finally, Tori talks about her own biggest failure — which she calls the hardest experience she’s ever been through — and the lessons she learned from it (35:55).Press play to tap into the Unique Genius of Tori Lazar.

It’s the dream for anyone in the creator-educator space; being successful enough to step back from the day-to-day without worrying about your business. But that’s exactly the kind of freedom XayLi Barclay has found, and she did it by helping other entrepreneurs effectively stand out and make a genuine impact in the digital realm.As a hugely successful visual content creation coach, XayLi offers up rare insights into a wide variety of topics, including the benefits of recurring revenue (6:25), the importance of community (7:35), how to find your audience (8:27), knowing when and how to hire (18:44), and recognizing your own value (15:42). Watch the entire video and you’ll also learn how XayLi was inspired by the entrepreneurship of her own family while growing up in Trinidad (1:05), and perhaps most poignantly, you’ll hear her emotional words of reassurance for the “scared little kid inside of all of us” (25:17).So go ahead and press play to learn from the Unique Genius of XayLi Barclay.

Imagine taking a $1,200 pandemic stimulus check and turning it into a multi-million dollar business. Creator and entrepreneur Ellie Diop did exactly that in 2020 by launching Mommy to Millionaire and Ellievated Academy Online, teaching millennial women how to fund and scale their own businesses. Ellie made her first million in 10 months, hit over $3 million in her 1st year, and now has vastly exceeded that. How did she get there?Ellie breaks down her business values (22:21, 24:16); the importance of authentically connecting with her audience, understanding their evolving needs, and giving them value (2:24, 11:45, 15:30, 30:15, 32:00). She also explains how to hire a team (21:50, 26:50, 27:40, 29:01) and build standard operating procedures and systems that work so she can move her brand to a direction where it doesn't only have to be her (19:35, 36:30). Other topics include the importance of having multiple revenue streams (9:42), her definition of sustainable success (17:27, 30:15), using ChatGPT as a thought partner (33:35), and much more. Listen in to learn from the Unique Genius of Ellie Diop.

This ex Instagram & YouTube employee is one of the world’s top creators educators with 650K+ followers and 300M+ views. He’s interviewed the likes of Logan Paul, Paris Hilton, and Mr. Beast and now coaches creators how to crack the code on going viral and grow their audience and income. Today we are flipping the script and putting Jon Youshaei in the hot seat to learn the secret to his incredible viral success. Jon breaks down how to land a big name guest (4:18), the value of experimenting with different content formats (11:10), the lack of digital media education in universities (15:30), how to hire and build a great team (17:31) , how to package videos (26:21), and struggling with perfectionism as a creator himself (36:20). Listen in to learn from the Unique Genius of Jon Youshaei.

Learn from your peers about how to run and scale a sustainable creator educator business. Every two weeks, you’ll get actionable insights from the world’s top creator educators as they share what’s worked, what’s failed, and what they’re focused on for the future.Join Thinkific CEO Greg Smith as he asks these high-performing entrepreneurs like Jon Youshaei, Ellie Diop, and XayLi Barclay and asks them the tough questions: “What makes a strong creator business? How do you define your purpose? Should you let your values guide you or should you follow the data?”Listen in as they share intimate stories about their own successes and failures, setbacks and celebrations, to help you unlock your own Unique Genius.