Sean Sullivan (19s):
Welcome to Converge Coffee with Sean Sullivan. I am here with Ryan Hunley. He is the owner, an art director at Second Street Creative in Indy based creative boutique, specializing web, and brand development. Well, he has collaborated with the clients from all over the world. Ryan takes special pride in his work focused in Indianapolis. Ryan serves as the board of directors of the speakeasy central Indiana's premier coworking organization, and recently helped to open the new downtown location and servicing hundreds of local entrepreneurs and thought leaders. He also serves on the committees and volunteers with urban initiative, Indiana and the Denver hunt legacy foundation. Ryan, thanks for being on the show.

Ryan Hunley (59s):
Yeah, I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me today.

Sean Sullivan (1m 2s):
If people could only see, so I can only describe your outfit as it's like the trendy, but not hipster. It's kind of like that. Cool. Like I want to do business with the guy that I know this guy can do. Can he's got, he's got style. He's got flare. It's not the nanny. It's Ryan Hunley so, but you know, I kind of want to dive in 'cause, you know, you didn't mention this before, but I always know that you did Creative Mornings here in Indianapolis and you helped start that. And if you want to give a little backdrop of what Creative Mornings is feel free, but it's, you know, kind of what was the initial vision of Creative Mornings in Indianapolis and how has that changed even with this year or what kind of some, you know, initiatives and obviously listeners we'll get into 'em Ryan's other ventures with Second Street Creative and the speakeasy two.

Sean Sullivan (1m 51s):
So Ryan, you know, taking it away.

Ryan Hunley (1m 53s):
Yeah. Thanks again for having me, Sean, it's an honor. And pleasure to chat with you today. Creative Mornings is a breakfast, a lecture series that happens once a month. So pre pandemic days. We would gather typically the last Friday of every month at a local venue, a different local venue every month. And there is a international theme. So they're around 300 chapters all around the world. And everyone talks about the same theme in different ways, all around the world, all at once. So, you know, the theme could be Converge or it could be community, or it could be, you know, anything, ah, identity and you pick a local speaker, we pick a local speaker and we put them on stage and we let them do their things.

Ryan Hunley (2m 39s):
So they talk about their own narrative. Experience their take on the theme sometimes. And just anything else that they want to cover. And yeah, that's just a beautiful exchange of ideas. It's a beautiful community that helps push our city and, and, and our little tribe. And Community forward really wonderful. And we get to shine light on the people, places and ideas that, that really make the city special is important to us, that we, we provide that platform to folks that don't always get a platform to speak. So I think one of the things about Indianapolis that we could do a better job of is, is shining light on folks in ideas that are a little bit more behind the scenes.

Ryan Hunley (3m 22s):
We seem to here from the same people, same companies a lot. So this is, you know, we really take it as a, a, a, a point of pride to shine light in those places that, that don't often get lit up. So it's very important. We used the platform in that way. It's been six years now that creative mornings has been going on. Obviously the last nine months have been a lot different than any of the months before we have shifted to a virtual events. We don't have them every month. We do something every month, but not a full blown virtual events, just because folks have some zoom fatigue these days, for sure. But, you know, hopefully next year 2021, we can get in person meetings fired back up.

Ryan Hunley (4m 6s):
But yeah, it's just a, a wonderful community. Uhm, I got connected to it By I spoke at it originally and just kind of got looped in and, and I joined the team after that and then ended up being the director eventually, I guess it's been three or four years now that, that I've had the pleasure of being able to run Creative Mornings

Sean Sullivan (4m 33s):
Yeah, I absolutely love it. Like I think I've, I've gone to a few and it, it really involves the diversity and not just diversity in the sense of UC, like more of these days, like this year, especially with, with skin color or, or, or race or gender, it's more in a sense of like what you just perfectly set it in a sense of shine, like ideas in places that haven't been hadn't been seen and it's just different perspectives. And I thought that was kind of really cool because I mean, I've heard even some of the people who say the same things, aren't even say the same things or asked the same questions time and time again, how did you grow this business?

Sean Sullivan (5m 13s):
How did you do this? And it's always almost the same kind of answer. So it's really great that with creative mornings, as another outlet for people to say, you know, I want to do, I want to venture into something it's different. And I think it's really cool that, I mean, you worked with, you know, designers and people who are, I feel like are more creatives in a sense, but not necessarily are, you know, they have some time to the title is a designer art director or whatever, but some of them are a lot or just involved in the creative aspect of our city too, which I thought was really, really cool. And obviously Creative Mornings but going into the next Creative site is, you know, I always like origin stories.

Sean Sullivan (5m 57s):
I think everybody kind of likes orange and stories. I think that's why Marvel has made a lot of money at that. But you know, you know, first of all, you know, for a second Street Creative, you know, why did you start the company and kind of what's your, your, your vision now for the company as you kind of move forward after, you know, 21?

Ryan Hunley (6m 16s):
Yeah, I know there's a lot of shared DNA there with Creative Mornings, which is another reason that I think I am able to sustain. Both of them is at essence, both of them are about storytelling and then we're about providing a platform for folks and empowering them to share their story and their voice and make the most impact on the world that they can. So with Second Street, Were, you know, I am able to do that through brand development, through website development and, and you know, brand design. So a second Street I actually started in college. So in the early, early two thousands and I did it all through college, just, this is kind of like a little side hustle to help, help pay down loans and, and expenses in college, you know, build like $400 annually at that point.

Ryan Hunley (7m 6s):
But then when I got out of school, I worked at an ad agency for a few years, maybe just a couple and was doing secondary on the side during that time as well. And then in 2008 in the middle of the recession, you know, it just, it had to talk with my wife about it. And we just kinda decided, you know, working for an agency is not any more secure in a recession and then doing your own thing. And ah, as crazy as that sounded that it seemed like an opportune time to just jump out on my own And and fire up Second Street full-time so that was what 12 years ago, 13 years ago kept it small and nimble ever since then, so that we can weather a situation like this situation.

Ryan Hunley (7m 50s):
We have been in the last, you know, nine months with the, with the pandemic able to adjust and, and, and reinvent and be agile in ways that are a little bit more difficult when there's a ton of overheads. So proud of that, you know, we work with all the different types of businesses, companies, organizations, we do stuff with tech education, nonprofit, world retail, anything and everything in between. But at the end of the day, it boils down to sit down with someone and developing enough of rapport and enough have a sense of, of a trust, a lot of trust that they M that they end up, you know, collaborating with us to tell their stories. So it's not, that's not all that different from the magic that happens with, with creative mornings and just been really fortunate over the years to have worked with some really wonderful clients from indie, go to the IPS, to homespun, to all types of independent retailers, restaurants, and contractors.

Ryan Hunley (8m 45s):
And it's, it's really just been a pleasure getting to get to collaborate with folks on telling their story.

Sean Sullivan (8m 52s):
I love it. And you know, you've mentioned lot about storytelling Community and I'm kind of a kind of read the phrase, the question, because it, did it make sense when I read it and I'm like, Oh no, I don't want to set you up for a, a little of a loophole here. So you know what the building through Community through storytelling. How do you, like, here's the thing? How do you build community through storytelling? If you want to give an example what you've done, even with your own company, you know?

Ryan Hunley (9m 18s):
Yeah. I think, I think a lot of that is just reeducation. I think storytelling and creativity fall hand in hand with one another. And there's just so many folks out there that believe that creativity or, or the right to a story as is, is just the privilege of the designer, the developer or the art director. But, but in actuality, creativity is not relegated to ad agencies or artists. It's the undercurrent of the community. Everyone is Creative, every person is Creative. Every person has the story to tell So no one owns creativity. It's not like some magical spontaneous power that certain people are born with. And certain people aren't, it's just kind of like a way of an undercurrent. And I think it's driven by interconnectedness.

Ryan Hunley (9m 59s):
It's a discipline, it's a process and learning how to jump on that wave and write it is really the key to storytelling. And the more you can get across the table from someone commune with someone, get to know them, the easier it is to jump on that wave and for us to support one another. And that, because I think, you know, an effective storytelling requires collaboration. It requires context, and that's very difficult to do when you're off in your own silo, stuck in your own world. We call that the curse of context. Sometimes Were when we try to tell our own stories without any external input or a reference, sometimes we get caught up in understanding everything in a way that only we can, and that doesn't always make sense to someone, you know, from the 30,000 foot level or with an external perspective.

Ryan Hunley (10m 49s):
So I believe it's important to foster those communities, whether it's through creative mornings, through my work, with the speakeasy through Second street, Creative through, you know, the work in my own walls of my own home, kind of cultivating a, a community and a place that people feel safe and supported and empowered to, to be true to themselves.

Sean Sullivan (11m 12s):
I love it. And I've actually noticed a trend in that the last few weeks I've noticed just with companies, even the own interviews and you hit it on the head, the curse of context, I've, I've fallen in that trap to just doing paid media. And sometimes I always have to ask, you know, external team members, what's the context in this, what's the context in this, because even if it doesn't seem significant to somebody else is significant to the recipient. And so they think that is so that's so cool that you, you hit upon that in the creative process, especially is that it doesn't have to be boxed into an agency, which I think is kind of cruel of how adaptable and flexible you are in that sense. And so, you know, no more grilling questions here, kind of you, you were starting to paint a portrait here, everybody where, you know, from an offline background, it could be something that's online, offline, whatever insights, you know, pivots thing, anything that you kind of want to share with listeners, you know, if, you know, from that creativity of undercurrent of community, you know, anything that you have kind of seen, even with clients, yourself, the community, the indie community that you want to kind of speak to you.

Sean Sullivan (12m 22s):
I mean, the platform yours right now for that.

Ryan Hunley (12m 24s):
Oh, Hm. Yeah. Maybe, maybe too things that I didn't want to hit on a little bit. We were getting towards this a little bit, but just the concept of identity, I think I'm is something that I continue to work on and that I, I will continue to work on my entire life. And I think accepting that for folks it's is really important that we are, we are complicated people, humans are complicated. And, and I think understanding that were more than the work that we do is really, really important. So I would just encourage everyone out there to understand that and to work on complicating their own sense of identity, there's their identity and their community.

Ryan Hunley (13m 7s):
Don't be reduced. Just two, the one thing you do and what people get to know different facets of you now, definitely, you know, you don't have to overshare, I think is also important to be protective of those things that are closest to your heart. But one of the most beautiful things with Creative Mornings is its allowed me to complicate my identity in the community. Like I'm not just the guy who makes logos or websites. Like there are plenty of people that only know me from the work that I do with Creative Mornings and it sort of a nonprofit volunteer realm, let's say things. So it just remembering that and, and granting yourself the grace of being a complicated person and not being defined only by your work is something that I think about a lot.

Ryan Hunley (13m 47s):
And I talk to a lot of my peers without, umm, so that would be one thing, another one Cause I related to kind of the entrepreneurial spirit of Indianapolis, which is a rich history and a rich future, I think, and that, that sense of the entrepreneurial drive and our, our quest to become, or, you know, further our reputation of being this, this great city when it comes to business development. I think we all needed to be careful about what I sometimes referred to as the arrogance has the new idea that ah, oftentimes again, without contexts, because we were in our own head so much, we think we have some new fangled, a great solution to an age-old problem.

Ryan Hunley (14m 32s):
We marketed it and we promoted it and we create a website in a business plan in a podcast for it. When in fact there's already like 12 other organizations doing work around that issue that maybe we don't even know about. So taking the time to do some research and see if there are other folks already working in that realm. And if you're truly committed to bettering that, cause you're your best place. And in that effort may be supporting someone else's effort and understanding that, you know, as a city, we sometimes need more soldiers and less idea people. I think that there's, there's a certain amount of arrogance sometimes and assuming that that we can fix everything inside our own head. And sometimes we just need to sit in the back of the room and listen in and shut the hell up for a little bit and see what, what work other folks are doing and how we can collaborate with them.

Ryan Hunley (15m 22s):
So that would be something that I hope for the city that we, that we can do a better job of. And it's something that I myself have to work on a lot and challenge myself to be intentional and doing that sometimes. So yeah, those two things I think are a couple of ideas that we kick around a lot and in my family and then my kind of broader community is that sense of identity in that, that arrogance of the new ideas.

Sean Sullivan (15m 44s):
Yeah. I absolutely agree with you. I actually struggled with that in my twenties. And I think a lot of us struggled out with, in our twenties. It's like everything is new to us and rather than taking a backseat and, and listening, there's obviously opportunities to voice what we, what we believe in and what we can see. But it's, it's also, I think it's so much so a more important, I think, you know, if you see in a board room or do you see a group of people, I almost see, you know, not the person talking, I see the person who was actively listening as one of the strongest people in the smartest people, because what they have done is that they're, they're taking in different pieces of information and formulating the best, like the best route to kinda go down rather than saying, Oh, we should do this when there's other people who have done it.

Sean Sullivan (16m 40s):
And I think you kind of hit on the head that, you know, you know, there's, it's like, basically I've just loved the drive, like loved the Indy, you know, entrepreneurial drive. But at some times you have to kinda take a step back and seeing, you know, what are, what yeah. What other people are doing, like is just not indie it's, we're, we're a world. And even with 2020 happening, its kind of were all of a sudden together and you know, we have to see the inner connectedness. And I think that you kind of hit upon a lot of things, even with Creative Mornings in any of your own jobs is that, you know, everything's local, but it has a very open-minded international and very active listening attitude about everything that you've kind of touched on.

Sean Sullivan (17m 24s):
And so just want to say, you know, a true Testament to you as we lead into the next part of this Episode everybody and its about it's about Ryan and I I'll think a lot of people know this, but I think you, you go by sometimes B Ryan Hunley and for the longest time I thought your name was a Brian

Ryan Hunley (17m 43s):
And you and everyone.

Sean Sullivan (17m 45s):
And I was like, okay, we were just going to keep it as Ryan. So I mean, you don't have to mention what the B or you can, you know, mention it later or, you know, leave that a secret it. And hopefully it's not like, you know, a long drawn out name. Like it would be like he is for like, someone's name is Elmo because they don't want to be called Elmo. But you know, it's more about your work. Like you've, you've hinted on things about your work, but what's kind of the first thing that kind of you yourself kind of brings, you know, comes to mind as you, you know, in the morning, you know, you know, when you're working on client projects that you're working on creative mornings, so you're doing things for the speakeasy or the Denver hunt foundation. Like what is kind of that first initial thought that kind of goes through your head?

Ryan Hunley (18m 26s):
Sure, sure. Nothing glamorous with the B it just stands for Benjamin can kick that off real quick. I'm going to go back to that when I grow up, probably. So I think in terms of schedule and morning and you know, I think centering myself is a really important, you know, getting to wake up next to, you know, my wife, that person I care about more than anyone else in the world, is it as always, it's a centering experience. And even with this pandemic, like spending as much time as we have all together, I have to two daughters, a twelve-year-old and a 10 year old, its just a reminder of like what what's really important, you know, like as things have fallen, fallen off our, our schedules just 'cause, you know, were not meeting or attending list, a board functions and social functions.

Ryan Hunley (19m 24s):
It's just like, Oh yeah. You know, I really quite like these people and everything that I do that keeps me busy as is really about them and about kind of a cultivating community for all of us to share. But at the same time, it's important that we share our own little community together. So the, the, the sort of centering aspect of it, it's really important to me. Like at the end of the day, me choosing between this shade of orange and that side of shade of orange isn't is important. And as women in my house feeling supported and loved and cared for and, and supporting and loving and caring for myself to. So yeah, so that, that sort of center and experience I've gotten it pretty into meditation this year, which is something that I would have liked scoffed at or laugh at myself saying five years ago.

Ryan Hunley (20m 12s):
But as someone who bounces from idea to idea pretty quickly, the intentionality and discipline required to, to sit still and to just concentrate on breathing for 15 or 20 minutes has been really, really good for me during M this all this time we'd been spending it at home has been, it's been great I'm so those are couple of the things that are that important to me. I would say that helped kind of kick the day off. Right.

Sean Sullivan (20m 41s):
I like it, you know, what do you do as a hobby? And it could be, you know, it could be anything. I think some people, you know, put the nuances of putting people in the bucket of like, Oh, you probably do something artsy. If your Creative, if you do something like out of left field, you know, feel free to share it because I think, I mean, we're human you're right? Like we're, Were, we're complicated. Yeah. So is yours.

Ryan Hunley (21m 4s):
I do artsy shit all day. So by the time the end of the day comes like a, I would like to sweat. I would like to shake all of that off. I, I like to run, ah, I'm a pretty, a committed snowboarder. So once a year, at least I get out to Colorado, typically all by myself and, you know, spend some time at the top of the mountain. And that is a very important, almost spiritual experience for me every year. So that's a, that's a big hobby. Yeah. I, you know, running and snowboarding our, our, our pretty important to me in terms of the refueling me to get me a set up for success the rest of the year.

Sean Sullivan (21m 49s):
Well, you've hinted on health already. So I can't ask that one, but I mean, anything that you want to kind of expound upon with your meditation, anything that you've kind of learned from that or anything you've kind of learned with, you know, just kind of the consistency of just like living your passion every year, what snowboarding got it.

Ryan Hunley (22m 4s):
Yeah, I would, I would, I would expand on that by saying, I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to that. Like, I don't want people to be impressed by that at all. Like I've just gotten into it and you know, I'm sure there's a million things that can be doing better with it, but it's, it's been great for me that, that, that intentionality is just so important when we were spending so much time at home with kind of a homogenous and monotonous schedule being, being committed to doing stuff like that. Even when it's hard, has been really important in terms of keeping, keeping me sane. But yeah, I think, you know that when it comes to health stuff, I think that a, that, that comparison issue, his is the biggest thing for me and for everyone else is just like, you gotta, you gotta do what works for you in the more you are paying attention to the Instagram feeds and this class in that class in, well, this person's doing it this way and that person is doing it that way like that.

Ryan Hunley (23m 3s):
That's going to Rob you of all the joy that comes from kind of a curating it for yourself. So, you know, I think when help health stuff comes through, it's just, it's just a matter of, again, that, that word grace like allowing yourself to, to, to be adaptable enough to, to, to bend it toward what works for you and not comparing it to other things. Yeah.

Sean Sullivan (23m 29s):
I like it. I like how you expounded on that too, because a lot of people just say, Oh, just give yourself grace, but they never give you an example of how just allowing yourself to, you know, to get sweaty and just do it and, you know, enjoy it rather than trying to always try to master so well. So, you know, so Ryan, you know, thanks for being on the show, talking about Second, Street, Creative, you know, talking about speakeasy kind of hinting on a few things about Creative Mornings M and your involvement in a community and just different things of kind of what, how the different parts of F of what you influence, but not as technically not who you are, but people have resonated with who you are.

Sean Sullivan (24m 14s):
And I think that's extremely important of how the distinction with that, as well as just, you know, giving, you know, allowing people to see who you are, allowing people to see who you are and what you want them to kind of, you know, understand in a sense of concept of identity and also understanding that, you know, being too ambitious without doing your research, it could basically shoot yourself and your own Foote. And then, you know, just about you. I mean, now we know that the B stands for a venue, so were, were good on that. And so, you know, thank you for talking about, you know, what influences you with work hobby and health too. So I think the listeners will get a lot of a kick out of all this stuff. And so thank you for being on this episode and I'll absolutely man, thanks for having me and to all the Converge Coffee drinkers out there.

Sean Sullivan (25m 1s):
That's a wrap.

0 (25m 8s):
Yeah.