You know the saying: “Great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ?”
Well, each episode of our CP Salon Series is a stress test on this notion. Years ago, when Amy began conversing in social media and answering questions directly in messages about personal style, the conversations surprisingly led to a bigger place. Once people began to understand their personal style, they started to question the path they had chosen in life. Wondering if a career in bio-tech marketing, forensic accounting, or choosing to stay at home to raise kids, was, or would become, fulfilling. Over thousands of conversations later, with individuals in different careers and walks of life, core commonalities emerged. The conversations we have aren’t an endeavor to build a list of “key success elements for any career.” Rather, they’re an opportunity to discover that when you strip back the facade, the title, or what we imagine to be the world’s fanciest, sexiest career, many jobs are far more aligned than they are different. It’s those very elements, at the core, that stoke our passion, keep us motivated, and allow us to thrive. And when you understand this, the possibilities of where you can apply your determination open up exponentially.
A few weeks ago, Amy, our Creative Director, Matt, and I flew down to Austin, TX to shoot and produce the second episode of this series. For those unfamiliar with the first episode, I would highly suggest taking some time to read over and listen to the first episode featuring Samara Cohen CIO of ETFs & Futures at BlackRock and Oscar winning producer, Wendy Finerman.
One of the most riveting aspects of producing our Salon Series episodes is searching for and choosing prospective guests. In this case, Fermin Nunez was a guest I had placed on the docket since the inception of the project. I worked for Fermin in Austin and knew his story well, and we knew, given his incredibly inspired and unique career path through the restaurant industry - currently the head chef/owner of two of the best Mexican restaurants in the country - that he would act as a great counterpoint to whoever we sought as the co-guest for the conversation. Chef Fermin and other leaders at his restaurants have had a deeply impactful effect on my career and outlook on life - the lessons I learned in the time I worked for him have served, and continue to serve me, throughout every move I make whether at Tibi or in my other creative pursuits.
Once Fermin was locked in, we began to think about who could act as an interesting antithesis to his experiences throughout his career in the restaurant industry. Cecelia Cox was the immediate and natural suggestion from the team. Based in Austin, Cecelia is well-averse in the Tibi world and a powerhouse of a businesswoman, donning a storied career thus far in the creative field of marketing, currently leading Google as the Head of Brand Marketing. So, I reached out to Cecelia and turns out she was both very familiar with Fermin’s restaurants and super game to be involved. The two could not have had different paths, on paper, to achieving the successes that they have - which was perfect, and precisely what we were looking for.
Chef Fermin grew up in Mexico, northern Mexico, in Torreón, Coahuila to be exact. He has worked all over, for the best chefs, having spent a majority of his career at La Condesa, Uchiko, and Launderette, three longstanding establishments in Austin, TX. There Fermin would cultivate deep relationships within the industry and later open Suerte with restaurant partner Sam Hellman-Mass in 2018. Chef Fermin’s vision for Mexican cuisine in America, told through Suerte and now Este/Bar Toti, has had an undoubtably immense impact on kitchen culture in the U.S. and our approach to telling the story of one of the most diverse cuisines in the world through the medium of food, arguably its most profoundly rooted heritage.
Cecelia, on the other hand, is the Head of Brand Marketing at Google - she launched the discipline for Google in 2017 and has since released productions like Google’s original documentary series, Search On. Search On highlights stories of people around the world using Google technology to solve big problems, answer hard questions and take action. Before Google, she was the VP of Marketing and Communications at Brit + Co, an online publisher focused on creative content for millennial women. Cecilia has spent over 10 years of her career at Google - she is a Texas native, having studied at the University of Texas, receiving her BS in Advertising. Hook ‘em.
The discussion framework touched on four main topics:
Skills
Your “proprietaries” - the skills that are uniquely your own and often not the first things people think about when describing your industry.
Principles
Those that guide your work vs. those that guide your life.
Risk
Taking risks and peak moments of riskiness thus far in life.
Success vs. Humility
Subjective indicators of success
Have you made it? When do you know?
Producing this episode with Matt was no easy feat as our two-man crew traveled to Austin with all the gear necessary to shoot and produce the episode live in the enchantingly beautiful Este Garden, located behind the restaurant – an ambitious location given the uncontrollable factors inherent in recording outdoors. Matt and I visited the garden the day before to scout out the best spots for the scene, our camera placement/microphones, and the nearest electrical outlets. The morning of the shoot we got up early to buy a few last minute extension cords that would run from the parking lot to the center of the garden, powering our production equipment, and by 10 am we were ready to go.
The sun was in the perfect position and the lighting looked great…for about 20 minutes. Turns out, the sun moves across the sky throughout the day, an integral piece of information I ignorantly did not consider. Thus, you will see me acting as an umbrella stand for the back 80% of the conversation. All jokes aside, however, the setting could not have been a nicer backdrop for what is a truly rich and honest discussion about the various trajectories that one takes on their journey. I almost wrote “on their journey to success”, but one of the key takeaways, for me at least, from this conversation was that the definition of success is an ever evolving and moving target. Neither Fermin nor Cecelia feels as though they have fully achieved their goals, because as they have progressed throughout their careers, their objectives have changed, and with the wisdom and knowledge they have gained, so too have their definitions of success. Enjoying the ride, leaning into help when traversing the unknown, and maintaining integrity in every move you make are three essential and prevalent themes that rose to the surface throughout my several comb overs of the audio - themes the two guests embody and represent to their core.
2024 was a year of trials and experiments as we explored further how what began as style conversations, so seemingly simple on the surface, had us all craving to explore the connective tissue underlying how we think, rather than what we think. As we inch closer to 2025, I am thoroughly excited to continue to double down on compelling franchises like the Salon Series. We already have several incredible guests lined up for the first half of the year, and we plan on establishing a more consistent cadence for the release of these episodes now that we have a better understanding of how the sausage is made. Looking back at the past twelve months, I feel honored and proud to work with such a courageous and open-minded team of creatives who possess a uniquely determined ability to bring forth ideas from their conceptual stages into tangible realities. Our creative team has grown immensely, not in size, but in knowledge and experience, and we only get better with time - so, thank you for bearing with us and for following along on our explorations of this new media realm. At the end of the day, we do this because we love to, but also because we hope, and deep down know, you all will love it too.
Episode 1.2 of the CP Salon Series can be found here on Tibi.com.
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