Headsmack: Conversations with Misfits

Brandon Triola almost threw away his creative dream before it began. Now he's on a mission to save every creative professional from making the same mistakes he did.As the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Forrest.co, a global brand and marketing consultancy serving B2B tech companies, Brandon has spent the last 15 years building award-winning brands for bestselling authors and publishing giants like Thomas Nelson and Baker. His strategic campaigns have generated millions of dollars in revenue for personal brands and global tech firms.But his journey wasn't always decorated with accolades. After crumpling up multiple scholarship offers to prestigious art schools and battling two mental illnesses as a young creative, Brandon faced a harsh reality: creative talent alone doesn't translate to business success. Through failure, persistence, and hard-won lessons, he transformed his creative career into multiple successful businesses and a multimillion-dollar consultancy.His bestselling book, Save The Creatives: 8 Uncommon Keys for Achieving Abundant Success and Bulletproofing Your Career Against AI as a Creative Professional, has maintained its position in the top 10 of Amazon's bestseller lists for over a month. The book's title came from an unexpected source—his editor pointing at the hat he was wearing during a manuscript review—proving that sometimes our best ideas are right in front of us.In this conversation, Brandon shares the raw truth about caring too deeply for your work, why emotion can be both your greatest asset and biggest liability, and the uncommon keys that separate struggling creatives from those experiencing abundant success. He also discusses his vision for building a creative culture where unlimited PTO isn't just a perk but a reflection of values, and why the future of creativity isn't about competing with AI—it's about becoming irreplaceable.Brandon lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife and four kids, runs a free community for creative professionals, and maintains an above-average jump shot for a 36-year-old dad.Guest LinksGet the Book from AmazonForrest.coSavethecreatives.comSend us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Mark MacDonald brings 40 years of ministry, marketing, and communication experience to this powerful conversation about church branding and effective communication.Most churches today aren't known for anything meaningful in their communities. They're speaking a language their audience doesn't understand, building websites that confuse rather than clarify, and creating content that sounds like everyone else. Mark MacDonald, founder of BeKnownForSomething.com and bestselling author, has spent four decades helping thousands of churches across North America cut through the noise and discover their unique thread.In this episode, Mark reveals the exact mistakes churches and businesses make with their websites, why being clever leads to confusion, and how to structure your communication so people actually listen. He shares practical insights on everything from SEO fundamentals to email marketing psychology, and explains why the most important thing you can do is say less so people will listen more.Whether you're leading a church, running a business, or trying to make your message heard in a noisy world, Mark's wisdom will transform how you think about branding, communication, and connecting with your community.Link: https://beknownforsomething.com/Send us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Heather Russo, wealth strategist and founder of Generation One, transforms how high achievers think about money. Starting with $25 monthly IRA contributions at 18 and overcoming $217,000 in debt, she discovered that traditional financial advice from experts like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey was keeping people stuck in cycles of scarcity. In this powerful conversation, Heather exposes the fundamental flaws in conventional retirement planning, reveals how to identify and plug money leaks most people never see, and shares the mindset shift that took her from financial stability to true wealth. She breaks down why it's not about side hustles or making more money—it's about flowing your money differently and investing in yourself as your greatest asset. Whether you're drowning in debt, feel financially stuck despite a good income, or want to break generational poverty patterns, this episode delivers actionable strategies to accelerate your path to financial freedom.Free Gift: https://www.iamgenerationone.com/secretLink: https://www.iamgenerationone.com/offers/2jm5HnJR/checkoutSend us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Bob Hamp is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, author, and founder of Think Differently Academy, and in this episode he delivers one of the most paradigm-shifting conversations ever featured on Headsmack.Blending neuroscience, change theory, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and kingdom theology, Bob explains why most personal growth fails, why religion often produces shallow solutions, and how true life change happens at the level of thought process, paradigms, and the heart—not willpower or behavior modification.You don’t need better thoughts.You need a different thought process.Freedom isn’t fixing your life.Freedom is becoming yourself.Most people are solving the wrong problem.Jesus didn’t come to fix behavior.This episode will mess with your categories—in the best way.This is a conversation about identity, freedom, and learning how to live from the Tree of Life instead of the Tree of Knowledge.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Technical Setup02:42 Personal Background and Family Challenges05:43 Exploring the Podcast's Theme and Guest Introduction11:14 Bob Hamp's Journey and Misfit Experience17:19 Integration of Faith and Counseling23:08 Transformational Thinking and Logic29:04 Kingdom Logic and Its Implications29:18 The Power of Connection and Faith30:35 Understanding Kingdom Logic31:33 The Unseen Forces Around Us34:28 Tuning into Spiritual Frequencies34:58 The Pace of Life and Spiritual Connection39:11 Thinking Differently vs. Thinking Different43:38 The Impact of Paradigms on Perception46:48 Tools for Transformative Thinking54:45 The Tree of Life vs. The Tree of Knowledge57:30 The Source of Life vs. Knowledge01:01:25 Understanding Freedom01:05:26 The Heart's Role in Freedom01:14:18 Roadmap to True FreedomGuest Link: https://tdacad.com/Send us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Martha Krejci transformed from GoDaddy tech executive to million-dollar entrepreneur after a single video changed everything—her daughter's first steps, captured while she sat in another corporate meeting. As co-founder of Sales-Driven Local and the Martha Krejci Company, she's mastered the art of organic business growth without paid advertising. In this powerful episode, Martha shares her framework for building sustainable home-based businesses, discusses the mindset shifts required for entrepreneurial success, and reveals her ambitious Invincible Families Project aimed at helping 500 families achieve financial freedom. From her insights on personal branding to the crucial difference between information and transformation, Martha delivers actionable strategies for anyone ready to break free from corporate constraints and build a business that truly serves.BIO: Martha Krejci is a business coach, growth strategist, and CEO of both the Martha Krejci Company and Sales-Driven Local, specializing in helping entrepreneurs build sustainable home-based businesses through organic marketing strategies. After spending five years in a leadership position at GoDaddy where she talked to thousands of business owners daily, Martha left corporate life after missing her daughter's first steps to build her own digital agency focused on SEO, website strategy, and content marketing. Featured in Oprah Magazine, Fast Company, Cosmopolitan, Shape, Huffington Post, and as a regular contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines, Martha achieved her first million dollars in revenue in less than a year using strategies she now teaches openly. Author of "The Home-Based Revolution" and "The Invincible Family Project," she's currently working with 500 families through her ambitious year-long transformation program, documenting their journey from corporate dependency to entrepreneurial freedom.LINKS:The Avatar Analyzerhttps://www.igwithmartha.com/avatarSocial Links: Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/livinthedreamwithmarthaTwitter:https://twitter.com/themarthakrejciIG:https://www.instagram.com/themarthakrejci/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/themarthakrejci/Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClIlacksGohHcNHu3-myNvgWebsite:https://withmartha.com/Send us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Marty Neumeier is the internationally recognized author who literally wrote the book on brand strategy. His work The Brand Gap has been read by 25 million people, and Zag was named one of the top 100 business books of all time. After decades helping giants like Apple, Google, and Adobe build legendary brands, he's now disrupting the publishing industry itself with a bold new approach to bringing stories to market.In this episode, Marty dismantles the myth that companies own their brands. The truth? Your brand lives in the minds of your customers, and they decide everything. He explains why marketing directors can't do brand strategy, why most brand extensions fail, and how the AI revolution is creating an urgent need for authentic human connection. We also dive deep into his fascinating new novel Octavo, a Renaissance thriller featuring Leonardo da Vinci that's being published using a radically different model inspired by Silicon Valley venture capital principles.This conversation will challenge how you think about brands, creativity, technology, and the future of human relationships in an increasingly artificial world.BIO:Marty Neumeier is an internationally known writer, designer, and educator whose mission is bringing design principles to a world in transition. Since 1985, he has worked with creative companies like Apple, HP, Adobe, Google, and YouTube to build their brands and foster innovation. In 1996, he founded Critique Magazine, the first journal on design thinking. After writing eight influential books on brand strategy, including The Brand Gap (read by 25 million people) and Zag (named one of the top 100 business books of all time), he co-founded Level C, a brand mastery program. Now based in Mexico, he's writing thrillers in his spare time, including his latest novel Octavo, a Renaissance murder mystery featuring Leonardo da Vinci that's being published using an innovative Silicon Valley-inspired model.LINKS:martyneumeier.com (Personal)liquidagency.com (Company)martyneumeier.substack.comlevelc.orgSend us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Kevin Murphy, an internationally recognized artist, transitioned from a construction job to painting iconic album covers, like the Rolling Stones'. He discusses how grit outweighs talent and shares insights on building a scalable art business. With a commitment to mentoring, Kevin critiques traditional art education and emphasizes mastering foundational skills. His journey from financial struggles to success offers inspiration for artists and dreamers alike, reminding them to embrace their potential and burn their plan B.

In a world where everyone’s shouting, silence equals irrelevance. Bill Harper knows this better than anyone. With over 36 years in the brand and marketing trenches — and more than $2.5B in client revenue to prove it — Bill has cracked the code for challenger brands to dominate markets already flooded with competition.In this episode, Bill shares the power of positioning, why no one buys the best product, and how to win by saying what no one else dares to. From Geico’s edutainment to Liquid Death’s anti-boring playbook, this is a masterclass in market disruption.His takeaway? Stop talking about yourself. Solve a specific problem. Say it with conviction. Then use AI to scale the message — not to create it.If you’re ready to stop playing safe and start making waves, this is your blueprint.---Guest Bio:Bill Harper is a veteran brand strategist and founder of BrandBossHQ, where he helps small and midsize businesses crush larger competitors through his Challenger Brand Domination Plan. Over his 36-year career and five agencies, Bill has helped more than 500 brands generate over $2.5 billion in new revenue by combining strategic storytelling, marketing insight, and AI-powered tools. A former art director turned educator and keynote speaker, he’s on a mission to level the playing field for SMBs by showing them how to think differently, say something bold, and become unforgettable.Link: http://www.brandbosshq.com/Send us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

From Homeless to Nine Figures: What Damion Lupo Learned the Hard WayDamion Lupo isn’t your average entrepreneur. With over 70 companies under his belt and multiple 9-figure ventures, he’s built wealth, lost it all, and built again—stronger.In this episode, Damion dives deep into what makes or breaks a business. He shares how chasing money nearly destroyed him, why trust is the fastest path to scale, and how embracing failure is the secret to reinvention. His framework? Solve real problems, hire the best, focus obsessively, and never stop learning.Whether you’re in your first year of business or bouncing back from burnout, Damion’s story proves that reinvention isn’t just possible—it’s powerful.Guest Bio:Damion Lupo is a lifelong entrepreneur who has founded over 70 businesses across multiple industries, from real estate and finance to construction and retirement planning. A bestselling author of 12 books, he is the creator of the EQRP®—an innovative self-directed retirement solution—and the co-founder of FrameTec, a tech-driven company revolutionizing home construction. After losing a $25M portfolio and experiencing homelessness, Damion rebuilt his life with a mission-driven mindset, helping others break free from financial slavery and build lasting freedom.Link: turnkeyretirement.comSend us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website

Entrepreneurs struggle to scale because they rely on tactics, funnels, and closers instead of systems and human connection. Many feel like sales just “isn’t them.”Imagine having a sales machine that works whether you’re online or not. Imagine building a team that sells with heart. Imagine finally getting back your time—and your confidence.This episode delivers the blueprint. Jim Padilla unpacks how to stop selling and start solving—and how doing so can change your business and legacy. Stick around—this one will shift your sales paradigm.---Guest Bio:Jim Padilla is a renowned sales strategist and founder of Gain the Edge, known for generating over $500 million in client revenue through high-performance sales teams and systems. His expertise in influence stems from a rough early life—foster care, street life, and jail—where reading people became a survival skill. Jim transformed that skill into a calling, helping mission-driven entrepreneurs scale ethically and sustainably. He’s also on a bigger mission: building “opportunity cities” to empower ex-cons and aged-out foster youth with purpose, training, and employment.Link: https://gtenow.com/salescallaudit-diySend us Fan MailPaul Povolni (Voppa) is the founder of Voppa Creative and a creative leader with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy and design. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, he has worked with clients internationally, leading teams in award-winning branding while serving as a coach and speaker. Paul delivers workshops and keynotes on brand strategy, creative thinking, and organizational culture, and hosts The Headsmack Podcast: Conversations with Misfits. His work centers on helping organizations lead with Clarity, Creativity, and Culture.Headsmack WebsiteVoppa Creative Website