HI, I'M MITCHELL

I help creative people like you reclaim their passion, build their confidence, and achieve their breakthrough goals faster and more easily.

LEARN HOW TO CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU WANT TO BE FASTER AND MORE EASILY.

As you’ll find out below, I’ve been an illustrator and award-winning creative director. I’m also an author, creative thinking expert, consultant, and trainer who has helped talent at the world’s most innovative companies learn to think and solve problems more creatively. Most of all, what I am is an unshakable optimist dedicated to helping creative people realize their full potential.

Let me tell you my story...

TO THE BAKERY BORN

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a second-generation family in the bakery business. Bakery life was hard work and required dedication—though it also had its sweet moments (like cake for breakfast).

A BUDDING ARTIST

I was an introvert, which meant I needed a lot of creative alone time. When I wasn’t working in the bakery, I spent a lot of time in my room drawing. There, I taught myself by copying comic book art and the works of famous artists and illustrators from library books I’d brought home. In the bakery, I flexed my artistic skills in buttercream to decorate birthday and wedding cakes.

By high school, my talents had blossomed, and I was voted the best artist in my school by my peers—heady, serious stuff for a shy and self-conscious kid.

While my talent was beginning to flourish, I saw my mother set hers aside. When I was a child, she gave up oil painting, saying it was too hard. Though I tried many times to convince her of her talent and persuade her that painting could be fun, she never painted again.

To this day, I feel the pang of her lost creativity.

TALENT CAN ONLY TAKE YOU SO FAR

Riding the high of my abilities and my passion, I set my sights on art school. And not just any art school—my dream school was the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the best in the country.

My high school art teacher told me I’d never get in. I could have let her pessimism scuttle my chances, but I proved her wrong. I was thrilled when I received my acceptance letter. I was on my way.

But challenges lay ahead. As a largely self-taught artist from a working-class family, I naively believed that all I needed to succeed was drive and talent. At RISD, I learned the hard way that talent can only take you so far.

I’d gone from being the best artist in my school to one student in a school full of the country’s best young artists. As I struggled, my identity faltered. And classroom critiques were harsh: as one professor after another trashed my projects, I had a complete breakdown in confidence and spirit. Was I really good enough for an elite art school?

FROM BREAKDOWN TO BREAKTHROUGH

My career as an artist could have ended there. But it didn’t. In my darkest moments, I realized that this was not a time to despair. It was a time to stretch and grow, to do whatever was necessary to get to the next level of my abilities.

This insight changed my life. I stopped being afraid to try new things and take risks. I learned to treat failure as an invitation to learn and to embrace new possibilities.

This was what I needed to thrive at RISD. As it turns out, it was also the most important lesson of my life.

LEARNING THERE'S NO GOLDEN TICKET

I started my career as an illustrator. Eventually I joined an advertising agency that saw potential in my creativity and problem-solving skills. Over the next 20 years, I went from an assistant art director to an award-winning creative director working with some of the world’s biggest brands.

But success proved fleeting. In this industry, layoffs during economic downturns are routine no matter how good you are. At the peak of my career, I was laid off on a Friday along with 68 others. The next Tuesday was 9/11.

ANSWERING THE CALL

I’d spent 20 years as a corporate wage slave. It was time for another breakthrough, this time a wake-up call: what was truly important in life?

I followed my heart, leaving the advertising world to co-found my own creativity consulting and training company, SmartStorming. Using everything I’d learned about breakthroughs, I helped thousands of individuals in organizations around the world learn to embrace possibility, think more creatively, and innovate more effectively. (My clients included Google, Under Armour, Spotify, NBCUniversal, and Capital One, as well as graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management.) 

COMING FULL CIRCLE

My creative life has been the story of one breakthrough after another. I’ve learned what they take—and what they make possible. Now it’s time to help others do the same. We have so much innate potential, but so much can get in the way: negativity, doubts, limiting beliefs, setbacks, and so on.

I saw what happened to my mother. I know how setbacks feel. I understand how failure stings. I get what’s at stake.

And now I’m ready to take what I know about unlocking creativity to inspire, teach, and nurture creatives like you in a global community.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN

How far will you go when what’s holding you back no longer stands in your way? Let’s find out together.

YES, I'M READY TO LEVEL UP!