Episode 13: Tracy Call

In this episode, host Frank Sentwali sits down with Tracy Call, former pro athlete, founder and CEO of Media Bridge Advertising, and author of G Spot for the C Suite. Tracy’s story is a powerful example of how creativity isn’t just about art. It's about problem-solving, resilience, and reimagining what’s possible, both in business and in life

You’ll hear how Tracy built Media Bridge from a spare-bedroom startup into one of the Twin Cities’ most successful and innovative agencies, and how bold, human-centered thinking has fueled every step.

Frank and Tracy also talk about:

• What it means to foster creativity in the workplace
• Why everyone is creative — they just need permission and space
• How a career-ending sports injury led to reinvention
• Her bold “entrepreneur stress test” sabbatical
• The connection between imagination, sports, and creativity
• The birth of G Spot for the C Suite and its empowering message
• And MUCH more!

Tracy’s story is a reminder that creativity shows up in the choices we make, the ways we lead, and how we choose to bring joy to a complicated world.

About COMPAS
COMPAS (compas.org) is a nonprofit with 50 years of experience delivering creative experiences to millions of Minnesotans of all ages and abilities, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. COMPAS connects professional teaching artists with students, older adults, and other community members to inspire creativity and empower voices.

About Creativity on Tap
Creativity on Tap is produced by COMPAS. In each episode, Creativity on Tap brings together educators, entrepreneurs, elected officials, parents, and other community leaders to discuss creativity and answer the question: What is creativity, and how can it solve the unique challenges facing today's world?

Creativity On Tap is part of Creativity Saves the World, an initiative led by COMPAS to explore, celebrate, and emphasize the pivotal role creativity can and must play in shaping a world that prioritizes equity, justice, and inclusivity.

Theme music, "Krank It," was produced by COMPAS Teaching Artist Bionik.

#COMPASCreates #CreativitySavesTheWorld #CreativityIsForEveryone

Transcript

Creativity on Tap Podcast - Tracy Call

Welcome to Creativity on Tap. Creativity on Tap is a series of conversations produced by Compass about the value and importance of creativity. This year, Compass turns 50.

That's half a century of putting creativity into the hands of millions of Minnesotans. We are working really hard to ensure we'll be doing this for 50 more years. Creativity on Tap is a part of Creativity Saves the World, a year-long initiative led by Compass to explore the role creativity can and must play in solving the unique challenges of this era.

For more information about Compass and how creativity saves the world, please visit compass.org. That's C-O-M-P-A-S.org. Our guest this week is Tracy Call. Tracy Call is an author, former professional athlete, and the founder and CEO of MediaBridge, a Minneapolis-based marketing agency recognized nine times on Inc.'s 5,000 fastest growing private companies list. Tracy also played a pivotal role in Minnesota's successful campaign to defeat a state constitutional amendment that sought to ban same-sex marriage, reflecting her dedication to equality and inclusion.

MediaBridge has also expanded with two innovative divisions, MediaBridge Activate, which designs immersive brand experiences to foster connection and community, and MediaBridge Health, focused on purpose-driven strategies for the health care sector. These initiatives highlight Tracy's unwavering commitment to creating positive and lasting change through her work. In addition, last year Tracy published her debut book titled G-Spot for the C-Suite, an empowering guide for women in the workforce that draws parallels between great business and great relationships and how to achieve more of both.

Tracy, your bio is crazy and I know that like that's just the beginning. We could probably just do a 45-minute episode just reading your accolades and accomplishments. I'm so happy to have you as a part of Creativity on Tap.

I'm your host Frank Santuale and please welcome the amazing, inimitable Tracy Call. Thank you for coming along. Well, thank you for the invitation.

I'm always shocked when someone reads my bio out loud. I'm like, who is that? That's me? That's you and that's just like a fraction, right? I don't know, I think that's pretty much all. I think we got it all in there.

Well, we didn't talk about like you made an Olympic team and you know, we didn't talk about all of that. That's for another podcast. Exactly, exactly.

Well, you have such a diverse background from sports, as we just mentioned, to media and advertising. How has your journey shaped the way you approach creativity in your work and life? Well, I've never really thought of myself as a creative person until recently when I've been challenged with that. I've always thought that creativity is just like about the arts, right? But it's not.

It's not just about art. It's about problem solving and like really approaching problems from a different angle. And I think that over the course of the last few years, especially as I've gotten more and more immersed in the arts community, especially here in Minneapolis, it's become very apparent that everyone is creative.

They just have to be given permission and sort of that safe space for bold ideas to flow. And I think I'm actually new to realizing that about myself. So this will be the first time I actually articulate that out loud.

And this is not just a conversation in my head anymore, right? So here we go. We'll see all those sounds. Yes.

Well, let's backtrack a little bit and kind of start from the beginning. If you don't mind telling the listening audience, where are you from? How did you grow up? And what was kind of your young Tracy call journey? Yeah, I grew up in Anoka, Minnesota, just suburb of Minneapolis. I am adopted.

And so I think, you know, my whole life, I think there has been, creativity has played a big role in it because when you're an only child, you're forced to be creative. You spend a lot of time alone. I had a lot of conversations with myself.

I listened to a lot of music. And, you know, again, as an only child, you have to really tap into that, that creativity to entertain yourself. Sometimes my parents are very quiet people.

And if you get to know me, you'll realize that that's, that's not me. I live my life pretty boldly. So I think, you know, you asking the question just, I think amplifies this, this like new realization that I have been creative all my life.

And I just, I just didn't realize it. My parents were both elementary school teachers. I ended up going to college at Iowa state university on a journalism degree.

I did not get into the journalism program because I couldn't pass the test to get in. And I found out in my college years that I am dyslexic. And so I think that's another layer of how I've had to be creative my entire life, working through that learning disability, not even knowing I had it until like my dream of going into journalism school was not realized because of this.

And then having a professor really teach me how to be creative and how I studied, how to be creative and how I took in and actually like remembered information just even enough to pass tests just to get by. But what I was always good at is writing. And so, you know, I could, I, I was an A plus student when it came to long format, short format, any sort of writing, but you know, anything, multiple choice, I would just bomb because it would all just be completely mixed up.

So my whole life I've had to really, I think unintentionally until I realized this situation, be very creative and just even how I moved through life, survived and even just advanced academically. Yeah. It's interesting because whether you realize it or not, you've been constantly improvising and that's kind of the, you know, that's kind of the impetus of creativity is, is being able to think on your toes, improvise, like you said, problem solve.

I, I didn't you know, we have a little background, but I didn't know you were adopted and that we have that in common. I was also adopted and I know you adopted a son and my mother was adopted. So my mother was adopted and she adopted myself.

So, you know, us adoptees, you know, we make waves, you know, if we can, if we can get past that, excuse me, fighting off a cold, that weird adopted thing. And then we get into the world and we're like, yeah, we're boss. Yeah.

You know, it's funny because my, I remember as a child you know, my friends treating my adoption situation as a negative, like, oh, I'm so sorry you're adopted. And the way my parents positioned it with me, and I believe this to be true. And I've done the same with Lincoln because it is true is that I'm, I was, my birth mother loved me so much that she wanted to give me a better life.

And my adoptive parents waited so long for me because they really wanted me, you know, and like back then I'm like, were you an oops? Like, and that's okay if you were, but I was, I've always had this very positive sort of feeling around being adoptive and I adopted. And I think that that's really helped me in life in general, just having that self-confidence and like always feeling very, very wanted and loved, which I think goes back to that, having a safe space to be creative and removing those like that negative energy or anxiety in order to actually like tap into consciousness and like really be creative. I think that is outstanding.

We have so many parallels. Another day when we're not conducting a podcast episode, we're going to have to sit down and really talk because just listening to you, it's amazing how similar our upbringings were in that way. Cause I have a very similar experience.

That's, that's awesome. So you learned something new about you more and more. Can you share a pivotal moment in your career or personal life when you met a challenge and now that you're kind of looking back through that creative lens at your life where like creativity really helped you get over that hurdle? Yeah.

I would say all of 2010 was the most challenging year of my life. My Olympic dreams went down the toilet because I blew my knee playing rugby right after I had been invited to be in the 2010 world cup. And so everything I had worked for over the course of the two years leading up to that went down the drain in a matter of seconds.

My relationship with the mother of my son ended. And so I was reinventing myself really both personally and professionally. And it was, it was a really tough year.

And I think I asked, honestly, I'm still like, you look back at those, those, those times and ask yourself, how did I survive that? And turns out time doesn't stop. It just keeps going. And so you have to get creative, right? Really, I think where creativity came into play was figuring out how to co-parent during a really difficult situation and being really creative about that and not using the conventional ways of like luring up and getting a set schedule, like really making sure that we were centering our son and being creative with how we shared time and space with him to make sure that, you know, our decision to, to end the relationship wouldn't negatively impact him.

So I think creativity definitely played in there. And then also watching media bridge and starting my own business on my own. My, my ex and I split both personally and professionally.

And so I was starting over personally, I was starting over professionally and really like learning how to start, run and operate a business in a way that was unique to the market and definitely involved a layer of creativity that I don't think I realized then, but looking back now is very apparent. When you say unique to the market for our listeners who are not familiar with media bridge and haven't done the background research that, that I had a chance to do leading up to this, explain what you mean by in a way that was unique to the market. And maybe in, in the same vein, explain a little bit in detail what media bridge is and does.

Yeah, I'll, I'll start with the unique to the market. Cause what, what we did then when it was just me out of my spare bedroom is, is different than what we do now we've evolved over the last 15 years. Back in 2010, when I started media bridge I wanted to start an agency that was literally the antithesis of all the agencies that I worked with when I was on the other side selling media for what's now known as I heart one of the largest radio and entertainment companies in the world, I think.

And I really wanted it to be centered around clients. I saw enormous amount of waste coming out of agencies that I was working with when I was on the other side. They were more interested in the spots and the dots and the impressions and the cost per thousand and really less focused on really truly caring about their clients and sort of going to the extra level layer one, two, three beneath to negotiate favorable rates, to not charge these huge monthly fees that would take away from their working dollars to really help their business grow.

And so I wanted to start a business that would actually be an all boats rise together sort of mentality where with my client success would come my success. I would put in time up front. If a client had just a couple thousand dollars a month to spend and really bet on them.

And as they grew, I would grow and we would become profitable together, really forming more of a partnership instead of a client vendor relationship, truly a partnership with my clients. And that was very different than the way other agencies work. Most agencies have lots of monthly retainer fees and it just makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs and startups.

Right. Now we're that and also for more sophisticated, larger clients, you mentioned MB Health and just our Activate arm. We're attracting some of those larger clients and we are more full service now.

I was just a media buyer back then. Now the agency is an omni-channel agency with strategy and planning and creative and specialty divisions with banking and healthcare. And then we just launched MB Activate, which I would say is one of the most creative projects that I've been a part of and I'm really excited about.

And it's really all about activations in the community and we're focusing on the Twin Cities. So, you know, flash forward to today, very different, looked very different than it did back then. But still, we still take that creative approach with startups and entrepreneurial companies, really like leaning into the care factor instead of, you know, how much money can we gouge this client so we can hit our internal revenue numbers, which are important, but also, you know, shouldn't be the focus.

Really, that client should be the focus and what's best for them. What a novel idea, a humanist approach to the corporate world. Yeah.

And I mean, on the wall of our office, it says the best strategy is to care. And I really mean that, you know, when agency executives get asked about like, what's the best strategy, typically they go to some sort of like linear process where it's like, we first listen, then we plan, then we strategize and we buy, then we whatever, repeat. And really ours is to care, because not everybody is going to be able to take that same approach.

Wow. You put a lot of heart and thought into this entire creation that has just clearly grown exponentially and been recognized nationally, both as something unique and successful. So congratulations to you on that.

And absolutely, it sounds like you've been putting your creative juices to work the entire journey. How do you foster creativity in your staff, in your employees? Well, I think it just, it goes back to what I said in the beginning, that I think everyone is creative. And so I think there's a, you know, we, I hope the intention is to make sure everyone has permission to be creative, that everyone has a voice, and this is a safe space to bring forward bold ideas.

We may or may not say yes to that idea, but that idea could spark another idea. And so I think really just creating a safe space and making sure that, you know, our teams meet every week for what we call a level 10 meeting. We call a level 10 meeting because you want to get a 10 out of 10 rating on that meeting.

And the majority of that meeting is called issuing, IDSing, and issues aren't problems, they can also be opportunities. And so every week, each team has and should have at least an hour or more to really be creative and problem solve and, you know, like approach, you know, approach problems and solutions from a unique lens. And we have a specific cadence for that.

And so I think really just giving the team permission, creating the safe space, and actually creating time for creativity is really important. Well, you've answered like the next couple of questions in your last couple of answers. So I'm going to ask you one more question, kind of media bridge related.

And then I want to talk about your book a little bit because you've added author to the resume now. Your entrepreneur stress test was a bold move. Did stepping away from your business change how you view the creative process both personally and professionally? Oh, for sure.

We encourage every employee to take a clarity break every week, which is anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour to just step away with no technology and go sit down with a pencil and piece of paper and just like write whatever comes to mind. You know, think about like the best ideas you have are like during a massage or on a walk or during that time when your wifi is not working and you actually can't tap into your technology. Typically, that's when your most creative ideas come forward.

So this was that amplified. It was an entire month of quite literally uninstalling every single app on my iPad. I didn't even bring my laptop.

I had like Hulu, Netflix, my notes section, and that's about it. So completely disconnecting was probably the largest, most amazing clarity break that I've ever had. And it also forced the team to be creative and to think without me.

And then that gave autonomy to the team and confidence to the team to know that, oh, you don't need me to problem solve. You can actually be creative and solve your own problems. Like how cool is that? You know, like that's giving everybody some agency that they deserve.

Yeah. I'd like you to kind of talk a little bit about, I think what's not often mentioned is the relationship between creativity and imagination. And, you know, you talked about being a single child growing up.

And obviously when you're by yourself, you have to have a big imagination. And I went through kind of both. I went from single child to, oh no, now my parents who were divorced got married and both the people that they married had older children.

And so I went from single child to youngest child to middle child, you know, but, but talk a little bit about your thoughts about how creativity and imagination kind of play a role, you know, bouncing back and forth between each other. Yeah. I mean, I think that's exactly what you said.

I think they bounce back and forth between each other. I think creativity sparks imagination and imagination sparks creativity. And just like thinking of thinking back to my childhood that's exactly what happened.

I mean, I, I would have full on conversations with myself. Like, I'm not just talking about like, you know, like processing, I mean, like actually playing out scenarios with myself playing multiple characters, right. That takes imagination and also creativity, but I'd ask you the same thing.

Like, what do you think? What's the connection for you between creativity and imagination? I'm curious. Yeah, I, I think I agree a hundred percent. I think for me, I walked that balance being an athlete, you know, I think sports is where I first realized that my imagination sparks creativity, right.

And, and then creativity because, so I grew up Dr. B you know, I'm older than Michael Jordan era, right. So I grew up in Dr. J era. And there was no more of a creative force on the basketball court than Dr. J at that time.

And excuse me, and I'd be out on the, on the playground or in the driveway. If I was at my dad's house by myself and I'm imagining that I'm playing against Dr. J, but if you're imagining you playing against Dr. J, you have to create moves that will actually get around with this guy who's bigger than life in, in, in, in your imagination. Right.

Cause you've seen Dr. J in real life. He's like six, seven with an Afro that makes him six, nine, 16. Right.

So always having to play, like you said, talking with yourself, playing one-on-one with myself or me and Dr. J in my mind, right. So having to imagine a scenario and then create ways to problem solve this scenario. And so that gave me creativity on the basketball court.

And then I think being in the hip hop world, the movie beat street came out in 1984. And, and that's when I really fell in love with writing rhymes. Right.

And, and it was really the, the, the, the global sociopolitical messagery of Melly Mel in the title track that had me like, I not only want to write rhymes, but I want to write rhymes that change the way people feel about injustices in the world like that. Right. But I'm from Minnesota, so nobody's looking for a little rap artist in Minnesota, you know, in the 1980s.

And so I had to imagine a world in which I could be something that didn't exist where I was, and then try to be creative enough to, to, to write things that were authentic to where I was from. I like to say, Minnesota is kind of a brainiac state. So, you know, consequently the rhymes that I was writing, even as seventh, seventh grade and eighth grade had, you know, three or four syllable words that nobody was using in the rap world in the eighties.

And so I think, I think you nailed it that you, you, you, you, you have to see creativity, I think to spark imagination, but the imagination then wants you to invent new ways to be creative. And so that, that, that connection I think is, is so important. And then even still as an artist, it was spoken word.

We were always, when I came up in spoken word, there wasn't slam poetry, at least it wasn't known in Minnesota. So nothing was homogenized. And our goal was to try to create a style of delivery on, on Friday that would be different than our five friends and our cypher had created the previous Friday.

So you had to imagine outside the box how to be creative with words that in a way that wasn't done, but was inside of you because you just spent, you know, two, three hours hanging out with friends, sharing your latest works. So I think it's, it's all full circle. One can exist with the other and vice versa.

So I think I love that. I, I was, that sparked a memory and I was not sure where you were going when you said creativity and imagination first showed up for you in sports. I'm like, how is that possible? But I did the same thing.

I literally, my dad would not let me throw a ball against the garage door because he's very particular. And so I, and we had a two story house. So it was really nice.

So I would throw the ball up on top of the, of the roof and I would wait for it to roll down. And then I'd have to like gauge where to catch it. Then I got really fast as a child.

And I think that's what helped me become a really great athlete from, I would throw the ball over the house and I would try to run around the house, which was a little uphill and catch it before it landed. I only did it like a couple of times. It was so hard to do, but it made me a better athlete for sure.

Right. For sure. And were you imagining like, excuse me, this cold is kicking my butt.

Were you imagining like a whole game or of something like, where's it, where there are other athletes in your mind or was it just you versus gravity? It was me versus gravity, but like, you know, like I always had to come up with a way to practice. Cause I love sports and my parents are not particularly athletic. There came a point where playing catch with my dad just wasn't safe.

So, and, and as a child, like whatever we, I could talk forever. Now I'm like all the dots are starting to connect on all the ways I was using my imagination and creativity as a child to become a better athlete. That's so interesting.

I love it. You brought that up. This is what we do on creativity on tap.

We just chop it up and we go wherever it goes. And I love that actually you made me think about, um, because the thought occurred to me, um, initially when you were talking about when you started media bridge and what you saw that you didn't like necessarily in the I heart world. But when you were explaining it to me, I thought to myself, there's some competitiveness in this with Tracy, like not only were you trying to start something that was unique in kind of, um, it's, it's, um, values, but I kind of sense, and you can correct me if I'm wrong.

I kind of sense there was a little bit of, and not only am I going to be successful, but I'm going to show them that you can do things in this integral way and still be successful. Um, and, and it felt competitive. Is that an accurate description? Totally.

And I always, I always say that when I retired from sports, like the industry didn't know what it had coming because I took that competitive spirit and put it into like building and growing my business. Yes. And, and what you said is true.

Um, so much so that for whatever reason, like I don't get invited to industry things because they, a lot of the industry doesn't consider me an advertising agency or like them because we did it so different to begin with. Now I would say we're not doing it as different. Now we have an element of like, we still do it sort of that old way, but we've got, you know, we've got clients that are coming to us with multi-million dollars, you know, can't, that doesn't work for the, but these smaller entrepreneurial companies that works, but yeah, it's, it's interesting.

I had, um, there's a group of like all the CEOs of all the agencies in town that get together. It's invite only. And I've never been invited.

I've made the top 10, five, two, one list and revenue. We were number one, one year in the, in the twin cities for agencies. Yeah.

I don't even get invited these to these things. And I can't figure out why. And I asked somebody, I asked another CEO that's in the group.

I'm like, why, why do I not get invited to this or these, these things? I see the other CEOs that are, I'm, I'm totally qualified to be here. And, and she said, well, because they just see you as a media agency. And I'm like, Oh, what does that mean? Like, but I think just the way we've done it and the way we've grown has just been so different.

Um, and also I don't usually do interviews or podcasts. Like we're doing this because we're friends because, um, I, I like being sort of like the best kept secret, um, in, in the twin cities. And so like, it's never been about promotion for me.

And so like, part of this is my fault, right? I, I, I haven't been self-promoting on purpose a, because I'm, I'm, I'm not super comfortable with it. And B I think that the company is more than just me. It's me.

And like, not only the 50 people that are on staff, but the 20 people that were part of the building, you know, between year zero and 15, you know, like they were part of it too. So like, it's more than me. So it always just feels kind of gross to the, I don't know, self-promote, but yes, you're right.

I do think that I think media bridge has always been looked at as like something different, the other kind of the weirdo. And that's cool. Cause I think weird is weird is great.

I'm all for that. Weird is creative. There's no, there is no creatives without the weirdos.

Right. So, and, and on behalf of compass, thank you so much for, for agreeing to do this with us. We really appreciate it.

I really wanted to have you on for a long time for all kinds of reasons, but at the top of the list, I just knew it was going to be a really engaging conversation because you're a fascinating person. And speaking of fascinating, the title of your book, spot for the C suite. So first off, what, what made you decide to write a book? This is your debut book.

So what, what made you decide to write a book and then to take this really outside the box approach of again, drawing parallels between great business and great relationships and, and, and how to get the most out of, out of both in this really outside the box and, you know, eye catching ear catching way. So it started with a conversation with a friend of ours. My wife and I were having wine with a friend that was in town and she was complaining about her job and all the problems with her job.

And then she was complaining about her partner and all the problems with her partner. And I was just like, it, it just hit me this wave of creativity. I said, Oh my God, like, this is not anything new, but we have to like, we have to take what you're dealing with and like bottle it up and like put a creative title to it and write a book about it.

We're going to call it the G spot for the C suite for me. I'm sure happened for you. Like, no, you're not feeling, you're not feeling good at work.

You bring that home. You're not feeling good at work. You have a tough day.

You bring that home. Like it's all the same thing. It's like when people say I have a business coach or I'm working on personal therapy, I'm like, no, this is just life.

You're working life. Right. Right.

And I think, you know, we, we keep coming back to the tag word creativity. I mean, and it brings me backwards to the beginning of the conversation when you said, you're just kind of discovering that all along you've been a creative. And as we talk, it's kind of like, well, wow, every, everything that's come out of you is, is this, you know, fountain of creativity, you know, just talking about how you decided to write this book that that's creative thought in action.

Like my friend is, I'm listening to my friend complain about these issues they're having in these two arenas and your solution is well, not solution, but your vision is I'm going to write a book and help other people that, you know, we all go through that. And so I just think it's amazing that you're realizing, and it's probably gonna make you even that much more powerful for yourself, realizing how creative you actually are as you, as you have this epiphany. Wouldn't it be cool if everyone was forced to talk about it and think about it.

And then I think, I really think everyone would realize that they're creative. Like mine is just in media and marketing, right. Writing book and agency.

Like that's where my creativity is coming out. And I am like literally this last, how long we've been talking almost 40 minutes. Like I'm having realizations on how creative I actually am.

I just don't think that I think people think they have to be an artist or a musician to be considered creative, but really I bet, you know, the accountant that I work with that I don't particularly think is very creative. She's probably super creative. She has to figure out like how to give me the best tax return, right.

Like be really creative in that. So wouldn't it be great if you could have this conversation with like every human being and help them realize that they too are creative. And then through that they become more creative.

Absolutely. I mean that should be your mission. That's what we're doing.

That creativity saves the world. That's exactly what we're here for. It does.

Is that your tagline? That is the creativity on tap. That is what we're all about. Trying to help creativity save the world, you know.

Especially right now, right. Especially right now. Yeah, we're going to get into that too because I know you have strong feelings about our socio-political environment.

And we're all trying to think outside the box, you know, about how we can make a difference in our own way. And I know not just with Media Bridge, but in your personal passions and pursuits like traveling and traveling to places where you can immerse yourself in diversity and other cultures. Well, let's talk about that for a second.

I happen to know that you are a serious traveler. Can you just share maybe some of the other countries and places you've been just, you know, in the last couple of years or so and maybe what you have found unique about the different cultures you've experienced? Oh, wow. Okay, okay.

I mean in the last couple of years, I think we haven't been anywhere like all that. We go to Mexico a lot. We love Mexico.

We absolutely love the culture. We love the food. We love the people.

You know, we live in Minneapolis. So just like the non-creative answer is very convenient. Lots of direct flights.

But I think when I took that sabbatical, the first one, I've taken two. When I took the first one, we went to Lincoln. My wife Pam and I, Pam was racing in a world championship race for the aqua bike, which is basically an Ironman without the run.

And we went to Odense, Denmark and Berlin, Germany and Paris. And it was amazing. And I think that, you know, wherever we go, a couple of things, I love looking at the marketing to see like how creative minds work in other countries.

Because I think, you know, when you're just, you're working at an agency and like the same place with the same people and the same media channels, you just, you get, it's sometimes it's hard to sort of get out of that rut. And so I love looking at the out of home campaigns in other countries. I try to listen to the radio.

I will definitely turn on the TV to see like, how are they talking to their communities through advertising and marketing? That's always really fun for me. I mean, we love to explore the food. My son Lincoln especially is very adventurous more so than Pam and I. And so I love watching him tap into his creativity and imagination by saying yes to strange foods and weird foods and trying new things.

And he actually helps push us in that way as well. And I think just like always being open, making sure we're walking as much as we can and like actually immersing ourselves in the culture. So, you know, we've been to a few places.

We are, I'm really excited. We're going to Africa this summer. And so that's been a total bucket list.

We are going to Kenya and Rwanda. Okay. Yeah.

So, so we're really excited about that. And I'll, I'll let you know how that goes. That's going to be, I think that's, that's the trip of a lifetime, you know, like really like this is it, this is the trip of a lifetime.

And we've been trying to plan it for when our son is not ready to just like take off and leave us the last two years of high school. You know, we feel like the summer, the summer where he's like still feeling connected to us and with us before we lose him to independence completely. You better get it this summer then.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we're trying to create memories and connection with him.

And I can't remember what your question was, but yeah, I mean, we, we love to travel and I think it does spark, does spark a lot of creativity that I bring back with, with just even just from a tactical standpoint of like, I take pictures of billboards and I'll, I'll, I'll record interesting TV commercials and the way they produce things. And even just the way they lay out the menus sometimes is unique in other countries. But yeah, travel, travel is amazing.

I love travel and we love bringing people with us to exposing other people to, to new places. It's just like brings me tremendous joy. Again, the humanist approach to business, to travel.

I love it. We talked about, you know, checking out how advertisement, you know, connects with people in other countries and the creativity behind that. Bringing it back to media bridge for a second, you've worked with a wide range of clients.

Can you share a particular story about a creative campaign or moment that really stood out for you all? Oh boy. Just one. I mean, it can't get any more creative than your book title, but this is, this is creative for, I would say like, this is one of the most creative things that we've done, but it's not creative in like the artistic way.

It's more of a tactical, creative approach. So we started with a medtech company 10 years ago. It was a shelf product of Medtronic and they wanted to go to market direct to consumer campaign.

And typically what medtech clients do for marketing is very much online, digital, retargeting, SEO, PPC, just like very digitally focused because there's this like very clear one-to-one return on investment. You can actually see the clicks that are coming through from these digital campaigns. But we took a different approach and this was 10 years ago.

And 10 years ago, radio was really hot. It still is now. It's still like really, truly still one of the most effective mediums.

People don't believe me, but it's true. And I just said deja vu. I feel like we've had this conversation before, like maybe on the football sidelines.

But we decided to take a risk and use traditional radio as the primary medium and channel for this medtech company. And we wanted to be different. We found radio DJs across the country that suffered.

This was a sleep apnea solution, suffering from sleep apnea. It was kind of before influencers and ambassadors were cool. That's how we used DJs as influencers and ambassadors.

And we gave them the freedom for one minute, multiple times during their day part to tell their story and to connect the dots between their personal struggle and their story and this medtech product. Medtech products usually don't use radio. It was a creative approach to be different and disrupt the industry.

And it worked. It worked so well that they went from this like little baby, a couple of employees out of a tiny little office and I think Golden Valley to one of the most successful medtech IPOs to come out of the Twin Cities. Wow.

So I'd say that was a creative approach, also bold approach that worked. Yeah, that's ingenious. Like as somebody who's dealing with sleep apnea, like that's something, and I suppose at the time that was kind of a new thing, right? Because you said about 10 years ago, sleep apnea was kind of newly being discovered for how many people were affected by it and being diagnosed with it.

So that's ingenious because I'm sure you ran into a whole, you found, discovered there was a whole lot of radio DJs that deal with sleep apnea. And so they could really give personal testimony behind the advertisement. That was genius creativity.

And it wasn't rocket science, right? Because the demographic was like 45 plus. Yeah. And so most people, 45 plus, and especially if we're looking at the higher range of that, aren't going to necessarily trust the digital campaign where they're being retargeted as much as they are going to trust this radio personality that they have this relationship with.

They spend the morning with them telling them their story in an organic way, right? And so think about like your body and the decisions you make around healthcare. Are you more likely to react to a banner ad or are you more likely to react to your trusted on-air personality in the morning having a conversation about this product, helping to solve their sleep problems and ultimately their health problems. So it's not right.

Creativity isn't rocket science. It's actually just, I think moving from this mindset of like, how do we fix this to like, what's really going on and asking questions and being curious. I think we do a really good job of Awesome.

So imagination, creativity to creation. That's right. Pretty awesome.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to start a business in a creative field or really any field, but what would it be? Like if you were going to give advice to someone that wanted to start a business in advertising or marketing or, you know, anything that involves creativity, not necessarily in the arts. Okay, Frank. So what you don't know about me is I don't give advice because here's the deal.

If I give you advice and you take my advice and it doesn't work, whose fault is it? Mine. It's my fault. So I answer, give advice questions through more of a gestalt lens.

Okay. And I share my experience, my like lived experience. And then you and your listeners can decide whether or not you can, you want to apply that to your life.

So when I was first starting the business, I, there was a lot of ways that you can start a business in advertising and marketing, but I decided to start doing the thing I knew best. What was I the SME, the subject matter expert in at the time it was media buying specifically radio. Cause I came from radio.

And so I started my business, not trying to be everything to everyone, not changed chasing that shiny object or that shiny ball that was out there, but really focusing on where's my expertise. What can I absolutely deliver on? What can I crush the competition? And sorry about that. I had muted that for an hour.

What can I crush the competition? And really focusing on that and not trying to be everything to everyone or chase that hot thing or that shiny ball. So that's what I did. Okay.

And we'll take that for what it's worth. Sounds like I need to give the writing. Cause that's what I crushed the competition in.

There you go. So what's next for media bridge? And how do you see creativity shaping the future of advertising? Well, I think great question. Thanks for asking it.

I appreciate that. It was a softball lob into this new division. Then David know that you did that we just launched called MB activate.

We're over a year in now. And it's all about, you know in real life connections and creating those connections in our community. So I think post pandemic, I think people are finally ready for real to come out and connect with community again.

The loneliness epidemic is something that you hear about everywhere. And all the time people still, you know, working remote, working from home, they need to get out. They want to actually connect.

I think people are starting to finally feel safe again. And now with AI in play, there's, there's all this talk that like, oh, we're becoming robots. And I completely reject that.

I feel like AI is freeing us and giving us time and saving us time. So we have time to actually connect in real life with people and be in community with people and build relationships with people. And so MB activate is just that it's an activations agency that is focused on in real life events, activations, installations, community events, really just bringing joy to the community, helping companies and brands re-imagine the way they do conferences or they do business development.

Like gone are the days of just going to a basketball suite to hobnob and do business development. That's boring, right? Like how can we really bring joy to the community and like tie brands in, both allow them to plug in to it and also create awesome experiences for, for them and also the community. We are about to launch in the next couple of weeks, a really cool new brand that is sort of like a spinoff of MB activate actually going to be creating joyful events in the community.

So to transition to like what's going on right now, politically, I think that, you know, the only thing I can control right now is my community and bringing joy to the community. The only thing that I can think of that's within my control that could combat all the fear that's going on right now in our community is joy. And so that's what I can control.

That's what I can contribute. And so we're going to be bringing joy to the community through really fun, free to the community activations, primarily in Minneapolis to get people back downtown, to show them this is not a scary place to be. It's a joyful, safe, amazing town that's rich in culture and rich in arts and rich in creativity.

And we're going to actually put our money where our mouth is and create some really cool experiences. So stay tuned. I will send you the information so you can be in the know before everyone else, before we launch it.

So yeah, I'm like, if you can't tell, most excited about that right now and the MB Activate arm and like really showing brands how to show up in the community, how to make meaningful connections and also like providing access to the rest of the community through these like really cool activations that we're going to be doing. I think that is awesome. And it just kind of segued into the last question that I want to ask you.

And it is about kind of where we're at politically and socially as, you know, kind of, in my opinion, battle lines have been drawn, so to speak, between those that see the collective good in one way and those that see collective in another. What do you think going forward is going to be the roles of creative minds and people in positions to make a difference? I mean, it is about bringing joy. Like, we just have to focus on bringing joy.

And it goes back to my advice that I give to entrepreneurs. Like, what is that thing that you do best that you can bring to your community, whether or not it's just your family that you like, the people that you live with and bringing joy to each other? Because joy is the number one way to combat fear. Joy.

Absolutely. I read an article. I can't remember who that talked about no longer was this.

It was a journalist. No longer were they trying to actually debate somebody from the other side that had an opposing opinion because it's just gone. It's gone so far down the road of, like, doesn't matter how much debate there is and how much, how many facts there are and all the evidence and all the proof and all the video footage and all that, whatever.

Like, it just doesn't matter anymore. Right. And so at this point, like, laughter and joy is the only way forward.

So there was this hilarious, creative commitment and imaginative commitment to the only response to the fear is laughter. Like, literally just laughing in someone's face if they're saying something absolutely ridiculous, like, there's no sense in debating anymore. Just smile and laugh.

And I've been doing that. And it's been working. Nice.

It's working. You know, just focusing on, like, what can you control and how can you bring joy to the community? Beautiful, beautiful. Where can people go if they want to learn more about MediaBridge and where can people go to purchase your book? Oh, OK.

Yeah, this is not where I thrive. So we are on Instagram. I think it's MediaBridge lower line thing ad, I think.

I think if you just search MediaBridge, you'll find us on Instagram and Facebook for sure. Those are our primary platforms. You can buy my book.

My website is TracyCall.com. So it's T-R-A-C-Y-C-A-L-L.com. I got that. Yeah. So that's it.

That's it. Thank you so much, Tracy, for taking time out of your busy schedule to hang out with us on Creativity on Tap. You've been listening to Tracy Call.

She is the CEO of MediaBridge. And MediaBridge has taken off. And as you can tell, she is quite an engaging personality and discovered that she is a creative in her own right.

Oh, no. Yeah. Right.

Again, thank you for joining us, Tracy. I am your host, Frank Centwally. Thank you for listening to Creativity on Tap.

Creativity on Tap is a series of conversations produced by Compass about the value and importance of creativity. This year, Compass turns 50. That's half a century of putting creativity into the hands of millions of Minnesotans.

We are working really hard to ensure we'll be doing this for 50 more years. Creativity on Tap is part of Creativity Saves the World, a year-long initiative led by Compass to explore the role creativity can and must play in solving the unique challenges of this era. For more information about Compass and how creativity saves the world, please visit compass.org. That's C-O-M-P-A-S dot org.

Thank you for listening. Peace.