(re)wind: Ty Stiklorius on Managing the World’s Greatest Talent 🎶
taking care with all the gifts of John legend, Lindsey Stirling and more…
Welcome to THE IDEALISTS. (re)wind,
Hi, I’m Mark McDonald, Producer of THE IDEALISTS. and this week is my takeover of our special (re)wind series newsletter. It’s astounding to think we are at episode 66 of the podcast. In all my years with the BBC and NPR, I’ve never worked on a show quite like this—it’s truly unique in making a space to honor visionary women, and so as we make our way toward the 100-episode milestone, our team has been digging through the archives and curating the episodes we love the most to celebrate how far we’ve come.
This week’s guest is Ty Stiklorius, CEO of Friends at Work, a 21st-century management and social impact firm, which handles some of the world’s most respected and beloved artists, including John Legend, Lindsey Stirling, Charlie Puth, and the list goes on.
I selected this episode because I love how much Ty embraces ideals so seemingly contrary to “Hollywood”, yet she proves them so economically viable—i.e., the contrarian notion that instead of maximizing shareholder value we should actually be thinking about workers, the planet, and the whole enterprise of production. She tells the story of her company, of wanting to establish social impact projects and meaningful internships for young people, and a potential investor’s response was, you need to do philanthropy on your own time. It was a moment that crystallized things for her—that because of her roots in Quakerism and having an MBA from Wharton—she could do something very different in the industry, as it were.
Ultimately, that became the driving ethos behind her company, Friends at Work, and taking a holistic approach to managing artists. Friends at Work functions as the CEO for all their clients, handling everything from digital strategy to tour planning, to brand strategy, to advertising, to social impact strategy, and provides a full-scale infrastructure for them.
In reflecting upon her decision to listen to her gut and really cultivate her sense of deep inner knowing and imagination, she realized she could build a work culture that serves a more humanistic purpose with a greater sense of ownership, equity, responsibility, and autonomy for all involved.
I found this conversation genuinely inspiring when I first heard it and now, even more, as I think about how we grow THE IDEALISTS. into a more humanistic and imaginative enterprise.
You can listen to the episode here.
With gratitude,
Mark
p.s. we’ve been developing a reflection diary for your most transformative self-inquiry.
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