
Show Notes
“People want to feel heard. If you don’t create a collaborative space, they won’t come back.” — Stewart Cohen
How do you build a long, successful creative career when you are the brand?
In this episode, Rain sits down with director and visual storyteller Stewart Cohen to explore the balance between artistry and entrepreneurship. With decades of experience in commercial production, photography, and branded storytelling, Stewart has mastered the dance of creating great work while sustaining strong client relationships—and still making time for passion projects.
They discuss how personal work often leads to professional opportunities, the importance of trust and collaboration, and how to get authentic performances from real people. Stewart shares how his curiosity drives his creativity, why connection is the true metric for success, and why making stuff just for fun might be the smartest business decision you ever make.
If you're a storyteller trying to make it in a noisy world, this episode is packed with hard-earned wisdom.
In this episode, you will learn to: Balance creative work and client relationships by focusing on trust, collaboration, and communication. Use curiosity and personal projects to fuel professional growth and keep your creative spark alive. Make non-actors feel comfortable on camera by creating a safe, relaxed environment that encourages vulnerability. Understand how story-first branded content builds stronger emotional engagement than traditional marketing. Recognize the long game of creative careers and why real relationships outperform short-term wins.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Storytelling Lab
"You've got to manage both sides. You're the captain of the ship. You let the playful side talk and then you get it organized and manage it. People are dominant on one side or the other, and either side can be very bad if you go to the extreme." — Kim Krizan
"Advertising is the loudest, most publicly visible, and highest-stakes storytelling that your brand will do. And one misaligned ad can destroy and erode years of trust that you have built." — Rain Bennett
"Storytelling is local. But we are a global brand, so we do need consistency — and enough flexibility that everything can be used at a local level, because what resonates in China is not the same thing that resonates in Kenya." — Sydnye White
"You do the story that you want to do because you believe in it and it will find an audience. You have to be passionate about something and not try and hop off what's already out there. You have to absolutely 1000% have a vision." — Leslie Zemeckis
"The best of the writers know structures are important. And then they forget that they've been intuitively following a structure and tell the world you don't need structure. The rest of the people think they don't need structure and realize by the hundredth page they don't know what the story is going to be." —Anubhav Srivastava