Ep. 1: The Origin Story with Tori Barker

Welcome to the creative visionaries podcast. My name is Tori Barker, a digital marketing specialist, business owner, mom, and you guested it, a creative visionary. This podcast is about inspiring business owners, building connections, sharing success stories, and motivating others. Join me on this journey as we tap into your true potential and unleash your inner visionary. I wanted to kick off this first episode as my origin story. And for those of you who don't know me, I wanted to give you a little history and a little background into who I am. Um, so as you know, I'm Tory Barker, I'm the founder and owner of creative marketing, which is a digital marketing agency. And my history I come from about 15 plus years of corporate marketing experience , uh, in various industries. And , uh, it wasn't until about three years ago when I started my business that I , uh, really identified myself as a business owner and an entrepreneur. Um, I had gotten to a place at my current , uh, job that I felt like I wasn't reaching my potential. I couldn't quite put my finger on , uh , why I wasn't happy. Um, I was in an , uh , industry that I loved. I was in a field , uh , marketing that I loved, but I just didn't feel fulfilled. And , um, so I was ready to move on to something new on at the time I started looking for new job opportunities and nothing really seemed to fill , uh, that void or get me excited about what I would get up and go , uh , to work to do so after long conversations. And for those of you who don't know me research, I'm a huge research person. Um, lots of research looked into, well, why don't I start my own business? And , um, so that's where creative marketing came from. And , uh, when I started creative marketing in 2019, luckily I started in digital , uh , realm of marketing cuz shortly after that, as many of you know , uh, the global pandemic of coronavirus had <laugh> hit our country and our world and everything around us , um , and businesses were completely shifted and changed , uh, to an online platform and a digital platform, which , um , was a blessing for me to be able to, to help , uh , companies in that aspect. I actually started a podcast with my , um, partner in crime, my friend, Kyle Thompson, and the podcast that we started was the two of us together. And it was called one more thing. And we both were at a transitional point in our lives. Um, I was transitioning from the corporate marketing world into a role as a business owner and , uh, you know, starting my own business and she was doing the same. She had just come out of , um, remission for , uh , cancer, her. And so she was looking at a whole new perspective on life and , um, what that next half of her life was gonna look like , uh , post cancer and what her new career goals were gonna be. And so it was kind of a transformative , uh , podcast that we had done and it was really fun , um, bantering back and forth with her. She's so full of energy and it's just , uh , it was a great experience. And so from that podcast, you know, kind of fizzled out as some podcasts tend to do, but , um, we kind of got that podcast bug. Um, I love listening to podcasts. Um, I would find myself on my way to my J O at the time, listening to podcasts in the car and time that you spend in the car during traffic getting to work that 20 minutes gives you a great opportunity to listen to podcasts and, and kinda learn and, and just absorb different , um, different stories and whatever it might be that , that you're listening to. Um, I also listen to podcasts when I'm walking, cause it's kind of nature and inspiring and just kind of gets you in this for me , um, this motivation to get things moving and, and , um, start new things and follow through with whatever goals and journeys that I have in mind. So anyway, so that started , um, you know, my podcasting host sort of bug and after her and I , um, stopped doing our podcast, I still had this yearning feeling of, gosh, I really gotta get into doing a podcast. And so for about a year now, I have been contemplate and trying to figure out what that next podcast would be. And that's where the creative visionaries podcast came from. And , um, the recent book that I had read called rocket fuel by Gina Wickman and Mark Winters is talking about visionaries and integrators and those two roles in a business. And it wasn't until I read that book that I really associated myself as a visionary and it was eyeopening and exciting and thrilling for me to finally feel like visionary were as something that I actually could relate to. And it made sense on the things that I did in my day to day life, the thoughts that I had for ideas and these crazy thoughts of, you know, what if we did this and how could we do that? And I never really knew what those , uh , meant <laugh> , um , and reading this book really put , um, perspective on, yeah, that's like a visionary mind. And so I wanted to have the opportunity and the platform to connect with like-minded people and share success stories, and share , um, you know , conversations that people would love to hear. I think that it's inspiring to talk to other people. And so my goal with the creative visionaries podcast is to bring on other business owners. Other people not necessarily have to own business, but who are visionaries and talk to them about , um, what they feel makes them a visionary, what excites them about being a visionary struggles that they might have , um, business successes, personal successes, failures , um, cuz a lot of times we don't learn things or grow until have failed or um, not been able to achieve something. So I wanna be able to talk about all those types of things and introduce new people to my audience , um, introduce new people to myself. Uh , this gives me a huge platform to have new connections and new relat that I can build with people that I may not have had the opportunity to do so. And that's really what I love. Um, so much about podcasting is that it gives a voice to so many people and to anyone really, I mean a podcasting, a platform, anyone can do it. Um, there are some technical aspects of it, of course, but if you have a voice, if you have something to record your voice, then you can do a podcast. And if you have a message that is worth sharing and that people can relate to, then I think that you should share that voice, share that message. I hope that this first episode and the origin story of creative visionaries, creative marketing, and myself gets you excited about what's to come. I myself personally am very excited to start sharing more and more with you and introducing you to some of the great guests that I have lined up. But before I bring on a guest to one of my episodes, I wanna take the opportunity to do another solo podcast and talk to you about success versus failures. And I wanna share some of the successes and the failures that I have experienced as a business owner in the last three years, because I think , think it's important for you to know and to understand that you're not always going to be successful. You have to fail in order to succeed. And I want people to understand that there are people out there that can relate to you and have been in the same situations that you have, or maybe going through similar struggles that you might be. So once again, thank you for the opportunity to let me introduce myself, start to share my story and bring you into the creative visionary world. Thanks so much for listening to the creative visionaries podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe, leave us a review or share with a friend. Also make sure to visit us online@creativevisionariespodcast.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, and stay tuned for more episodes to come and remember, it's time to tap into your true potential and unlock your inner visionary.