Episode notes
John Lee went from selling prawn crackers and used game cartridges as a teenager to closing property deals with none of his own money, and eventually building a career across real estate, sales training, social media, and AI. In this conversation, Chris Do and John break down WIIFT (What's In It For Them), a mentor lesson that reframed John's failing investor pitches by moving the ask from "do you have the money" to "here's what's in it for you," turning years of rejection into funded deals. They also get into how to tell a real pivot from quitting too early, why doubt (not lack of skill) is…
Podcast
The Futur with Chris Do
The Futur · Tech & Science · English
The Futur Podcast is a show that explores the interesting overlap between design, marketing, and business. Our host (and CEO of The Futur), Chris Do, hold candid conversations with inspirational people from the worlds of design, technology, marketing, business, philosophy and personal…
More from The Futur with Chris Do All episodes →
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7 Oct 2026 · 44 min
Your Betrayal Works for You w/ Dr. John Demartini | Ep 454
A woman still resents the friend who broke her trust years ago. The story she tells about it is that people tear you down when you shine too bright. Chris Do hands the room to Dr. John Demartini, who runs his method on her live and in front of everyone: narrow the story to one specific act, find where she has done the same thing herself, then account for what that act actually gave her across career, money, family, friendships, health, and identity. Twelve minutes later she is not forgiving as a favor, she is thanking the friend, and she means it. Dr. Demartini has spent fifty-two years on…
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30 Sep 2026 · 4 min
Going Viral Won't Build Your Brand w/ Chris Do | Ep 453
There's a version of Hawk Tuah Girl in every algorithm feed: one clip, one accident, one viral moment that turns into an identity overnight. Chris Do says that's not a strategy, it's luck, and luck runs out. What actually holds up over years comes from solving the same problem for the same person long enough that your name becomes the answer. Chris explains his own 90-day blueprint for finding that thread: a month to experiment, a month to narrow in, and a month to commit fully. He ties it to Seth Godin's "The Dip," the flat, unrewarding stretch where most people quit right before the payoff…
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23 Sep 2026 · 29 min
The Truth Behind Scroll-Stopping Thumbnails w/ Brittney Carlini | Ep 452
Brittney Carlini taught herself Photoshop to make thumbnails for her husband's YouTube channel because they couldn't afford to hire anyone. Now she builds tension into every frame she designs, a bar of soap forged from steel, a jet-powered go-kart racing a closing railroad crossing, the eye of a man about to swallow a pill. Chris compares the work to movie poster marketing, the cracked egg on the Alien poster, the shark in Jaws, neither of which appears in the actual film. The two land on where exaggeration turns into a lie, and whether AI tools now generating thumbnails in seconds will ever…
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16 Sep 2026 · 30 min
Why Your Copy Isn't Converting w/ Joanna Wiebe | Ep 451
Joanna Wiebe invented conversion copywriting, and after eight years of barely-there YouTube growth, she grew her channel 3,000% in three months. She demonstrates the problem-agitate-solution and desire-obstacle-solution frameworks live with Chris, argues that voice of customer data beats clever taglines every time, and outlines the three-part moat she's building against AI: a book, YouTube, and stages. She also names the mistake founders make when they hire someone to fix a problem they should be solving themselves, and makes the case for personality over polish in a world where AI can…
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9 Sep 2026 · 26 min
Why AI Can't Teach Taste w/ Brooke Hopper | Ep 450
Brooke Hopper is Adobe’s first Senior Principal Designer, and one of the people building Firefly from the inside. She tells Chris why Adobe licenses every image it trains on and pays the artists behind it, why she still gets bad results out of the tool she helped build, and why she's skeptical anyone should learn taste from a machine. She makes the case for designing for "intentional friction" instead of removing it, defines what agentic AI means past the buzzword, and names what she wants gen AI to do for designers: less content generated for its own sake, more time spent on the ideas…
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26 Aug 2026 · 44 min
Scaling A Solo Creative Business w/ Matt Essam | Ep 448
Matt Essam, author of The Creative Studio Roadmap, joins Chris Do for a live episode recorded in front of a studio audience to break down the pillars of turning a solo creative business into one that scales: differentiation, communication, and delivery. Chris and Matt pull audience members into the hot seat to work through real pricing blocks, story-driven positioning, and the shift from selling yourself to selling your process, live and in real time. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:02) - Freelancer vs Business Owner (03:10) - Charging By The Job (05:37) - What Are Phantom Loops (09:14) -…
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19 Aug 2026 · 35 min
Stop Studying, Start Learning w/ Justin Sung | Ep 447
Dr. Justin Sung was a practicing physician before he became one of the most-watched learning coaches online, and in this conversation he takes apart the biggest myth people believe about how they learn: that everyone has a fixed "learning style" they should lean into. Justin walks Chris through what actually drives fast, durable learning: the discomfort of overwhelm, the discipline of turning confusion into questions, and why understanding something is not the same as remembering it. They get into how this applies to neurodivergent learners, what makes a great teacher versus a great…
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12 Aug 2026 · 43 min
Perfectionism Is Killing Your Brand w/ Matt Gray | Ep 446
Matt Gray built and exited companies, grew audiences into the millions across three ventures, then turned that same systems thinking toward his own personal brand and scaled it to over 3 million followers. In this conversation, Matt walks Chris through the full arc: getting sober and using a messy, unstructured writing practice as the starting point, learning to ship imperfect content instead of waiting to get it right, building a content waterfall system that turns one piece of work into dozens, and eventually structuring an offer simple enough to sell off a single Google Doc. It is a…
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5 Aug 2026 · 39 min
The Psychology of Personal Style w/ Kimberly Parry | Ep 445
Chris Do welcomes stylist and archetypal coach Kimberly Parry to explore the deep connection between clothing, confidence, and identity. Parry walks through her Succeed with Style framework, the psychology behind why people sabotage a new look the moment they try it on, and the Bro Pro, Faux Pro, and GOAT archetypes she uses to help clients figure out who they actually are before they touch a closet. Timestamps: (00:00) - Intro (01:27) - Fashion vs Image vs Style (06:00) - What Swag Really Means (09:03) - Why Men Resist Change (14:14) - Fashion and Identity Formation (21:56) - Coaching…
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29 Jul 2026 · 33 min
The 3 Rules of Personal Branding Nobody Tells You w/ Chris Do | Ep 444
Most people build a brand around what they do. Chris Do says that's exactly why no one remembers them. In this episode, Drigo sits down with Chris to dig into the philosophy behind his new workbook, Unbland Yourself, and what it actually takes to stop blending in and start building a brand that compels some people and repels others by design. Chris breaks down the three principles of personal branding, the one-word framework that anchors everything, why owning a specific space matters more than being broadly good, and the surprising reason your clothes are a tool, not a choice. Timestamps:…
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