Brian Andreas
founder, StoryPeople
In every issue of Evolved Enterprise Insider, we’re going to be profiling one of our exceptional Evolved Enterprise Catalyst CO|alition members.
The idea is to give you the opportunity to sneak a peek behind the curtain and see how our own members are actually implementing the Evolved Enterprise principles in their businesses behind-the-scenes.
In this first issue, we want to introduce you to Brian Andreas.
Brian is an artist, writer and philosopher who’s known for combining inspiring storytelling with his unique style of art.
He currently has 3 businesses: StoryPeople, A Hundred Ways North, and Brian Andreas Studio.
The mission behind Brian’s businesses is really to inspire people to connect with their inner creativity and authenticity. It’s about getting people to connect more with each other and themselves by getting rid of “should’s”, “have-to’s”, and other culturally-imposed inhibitions.
Brian does that not only through his unique combination of stories and artwork… but also by holding workshops to help people tap into their inner creativity and learn how to feel more alive & present.
The idea is to inspire entire communities by spreading messages that spark important conversations between people in the community.
One example of that was his Buy 1, Give 10 initiative. Anyone who bought 1 full-size print got 10 mini-prints to spread around as catalysts for conversation. Here’s what it looked like:
StoryPeople has worked with a lot of non-profits and charities in the past. Brian would often get approached by cause partners wanting to commission artwork for their cause, but he stopped accepting those offers because it wasn’t aligned with what he really wanted to do.
Now, he is looking to be more proactive in choosing the right causes that fit the business’s purpose more closely.
Brian says one of the toughest things has been turning down highly profitable opportunities that he doesn’t really want to do. He says that has actually lead to more opportunities in the long run, and that’s driven a significant amount of the company’s growth.
His business has capitalized on opportunities they never had before due to a restricted sense of business – things like licensing agreements, expansion into overseas markets and more.
Brian’s also been able to align his team with the business’s core values of creating an open & authentic conversation where everyone works on ideas together. The idea is to have open, ego-free collaboration – to the point where by the end of it no one knows whose idea it was to begin with.
With his customers, Brian seeks to lead the community by example through showing them a way of treating each other that is caring and built on love. People want to be a part of a community that treats each other well, and it inspires tremendous loyalty.
A lot of what StoryPeople and A Hundred Ways North does revolves around working with local communities and organizations. They’ve helped organizations that have been amorphous to gaining clarity of purpose through their stories.
Most importantly, Brian focuses on creating art that has a positive message. He’s noticed that positive messages sell more, because people really want the experience more than the thing itself.
