We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Daniel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.

Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The name Zandolee was a name given to a small lizard back in the 1920’s and 30s from my home country Trinidad and Tobago

Ryan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always been a creative at heart. My first love has been that of a musician. I was a Reggae Hip Hop Artist in an earlier life. lol So I also valued creative work. My degree is in Broadcast Journalism, electronic Communications and a minor in Graphic Design. Somewhere along the curves I was hired to create a video for the Miss America Chapter in MN. And ended up sticking around for about 10 years. I had lauched the Zandolee Media brand and was invited to participate in a wedding fair by one of the board members, who turned out to be the owner of a wedding franchise called The Wedding Guys.

This timely connection helped us get our feet wet in the Wedding Video Industry and there’s been now looking back since. This transition happened during the 2008 crash and now we have a commercial and a wedding department.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think as creatives, our art only works if it’s transparent and vulnerable. This is the nature of every piece of art, every song every sung and every stick figure drawn in preschool. We wear it all out on our sleeves and because of this creatives feel the sting of rejection more than most and the wounds induce lingering fear that cause many to drop out. My solution/ copping mechanism is humility. We’ve go to let go of the delusions of grandeur and simply embrace the pieces of our brokenness. On our 1,7 Podcast we talked about the whole being greater that the some of it’s parts. The parts are messy and most creates are told to hid or ignore their broken parts. But I’ve found that embracing the shatterness of our lives lead us to the whole. The Whole picture of our selves and at least for me I’ve realized the the Whole of me is great than the some of all my issues.

Any advice for managing a team?

The creatives that join our team understand that we are asking them to be singular in creating greatness around everything that we do. So as the owner of the company they can count on me matching their efforts not just with words but also with pay. I am a firm believer in doing the best you can for your associates. The goal of the brand is to provide value to the market and the market in return will reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zandoleemedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zandoleemedia
• Facebook: Facebook.com/zandoleemedia
• Other: @zandoleemedia00

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Zandolee Media. Alexander Just, Kelsey Hanscom