WRITING FROM | Seattle, WA
WORKING ON | Listing our niece Beck and getting ready for Cally & Sami’s wedding!!
LOOKING AHEAD
Feb 17 - 23rd | Seattle, WA
Feb 23 - 25th | Los Angeles, CA
Feb 25 - 26th | Atlanta, GA
Feb 27 - April 4th | Chattanooga, TN
:: YEARLY GRATITUDE ::
We are always so grateful to have an extensive list of smart, thoughtful and attractive guest curators. While the program is a lot of work, it’s also a lot of joy — We love hearing from other people who inspire us, and getting to spotlight individuals who are out there making us think a little differently.
At the end of each guest curation, we ask about some fast favorites — games, books, podcasts and albums. In this edition of Strands of Genius, you’ll find some highlights from last year — and we’ve got the full list available at this Google Doc. A great place to start if you’re looking to inject a little more awesome into your life, if we do say so ourselves. (And we do!)
GUEST CURATOR 2023 PICKS
:: GAMES TO PLAY ::
Codenames | Recommended by Nicole D’Alonzo, Founder, 19 Minute Yoga
Deep Sea Adventure | Recommended by Ryan Lewis, Senior Editor, World Famous
Ticket to Ride | Recommended by Alana Gleason, Senior Strategist, The Martin Agency
Salad Bowl | Recommended by Claire Sellers, The Dream Doula or founder of Claire Sellers Coaching
Uno | Recommended by Heather LeFevre, Freelance Creative and Well-Being Strategist
Happy Salmon & Hanabi | Recommended by Maury Giles, Chief Growth Officer
We’re big fans of board games, and many of our hangs (day or night) are centered around a game of some kind. Codenames seems to be a big favorite amongst all of our friends, because there’s more strategy than Cards Against Humanity, but it’s also good for big groups (even when you have people that are drinking and/or not paying that much attention.)
Ticket to Ride, Wingspan, and Splendor continue to be my favorite strategy games. Splendor is great because it’s pretty easy to learn, whereas Wingspan is best experienced by playing with someone who *already knows how to play* rather than just reading the instructions and trying to set things up. Ticket to Ride sits in the middle, with a gameplay that’s only slightly more complicated than Splendor.
Deep Sea Adventure was a new one for us this year! We didn’t get to play it enough to feel like we had really unlocked the strategy, so we can’t wait to play it a bit more.
And of course, Salad Bowl is always a fan favorite. It’s your own DIY Monikers - where you have people write down 3-5 people, place or thing on a number of different slips, divide into a few teams, and then throw all of those pieces of paper into a big salad bowl. Set a timer for a minute and see how many your team can get through before passing to the next team. Round 1 you can use as many words as you’d like (EXCEPT) the name on the paper. Round 2, you throw all the originally slips back into the salad bowl, but this time you can only use one word. Round 3, it’s charades and gestures, with no talking whatsoever. Our friends love this because it’s easy to execute with big groups and small groups and requires nothing besides a pen and paper :)
You can find all of our favorite board games over on our Amazon storefront: Playas Gonna Play (see what we did there?!)
:: READING RECOMMENDATIONS ::
Where Good Ideas Come From by Seven Johnson | recommended by Hugh Garry, Director at Storythings
A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young | recommended by Hugh Garry, Director at Storythings
On Not Knowing: How artists think | recommended by Steve Chapman, Artist, writer and speaker.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | recommended by George Webster, Founder of BITW
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir | recommended by Tim Leake, Founder & CEO @ Lightbulb (LetsLightbulb.com)
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig | recommended by Phillip Bates, Freelance Senior Art Director
:: PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS ::
The Missing Crypto Queen by Jamie Bartlett | Recommended by Richard M. Afun, New Business & Marketing Assistant @ Iris
My Dad Wrote a Porno | Recommended by Chelsea Brown, Independent Brand Strategist
“The Thing About Pam” by Dateline | Recommended by Nicole D’Alonzo, Founder, 19 Minute Yoga
Where should we begin? with Esther Perel | Recommended by Nassia Karanikoli, Strategic Planning Director @ DDB Athens
99% Invisible | Recommended by Hugh Garry, Director at Storythings
The White Pube | Recommended by Anna Rose Kerr, Creative Founder @ studioaro.se
Shedunnit | Recommended by Sophie Gallagher, Creative Strategy Director @ Slingshot Media
:: WHAT ARE OUR GUEST CURATORS LISTENING TO ::
Happier Than Ever -Billie Eilish | Recommended by Natasha Cormier, National Head of Trade Marketing @ News Corp Australia
Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout | Recommended by Hugh Garry, Director at Storythings
Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! by the Mint Chicks | Recommended by Anna Rose Kerr, Creative Founder @ studioaro.se
Superdream by Big Wild | Recommended by Tom Critchlow, Independent Consultant & Founder SEO MBA
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets. | Recommended by Matt Haze, Comedian, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Haze Creative
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:: CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS ::
As we start to plan for Strands of Genius guest curators this year, we’d love your suggestions! Hit reply and let us know:
Your nomination’s name (You can absolutely self-nominate)
A reference link of some kind (portfolio, LinkedIn, other social channel)
Why you think they’d be a good fit as a guest curator (short & sweet is fine!)
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)