PODCAST

What happens when you combine the soul of an artist with the mind of an operations architect? In this episode of Purpose & Process, host Tony Baker sits down with longtime collaborator and creative operations leader Joe Lamb, whose career has spanned pivotal roles at Amazon and Nike "mega-studios". Joe shares his journey from photographing shoes in a Kentucky warehouse to leading global-scale studio operations and launching Nike’s ICON Studio in Los Angeles, its advanced in-house content studios. Along the way, Joe unpacks the overlooked value of patience, humility, and pattern recognition in leadership—and why investing in your team’s growth is non-negotiable.

Key Takeaways:

✔️ How repeatability and creative freedom can co-exist

✔️ Why 'innovation culture' looks different inside creative teams

✔️ Lessons from building (and rebuilding) scalable studio systems ✔️ The value of trust and transparency with stakeholders

✔️ Future-facing leadership in the age of automation and AI

Whether you’re a studio leader, creative contributor, or someone navigating the business of creativity, this episode is full of thoughtful insights you won’t want to miss.

The Mindset of Mastery; What separates a good artist from a truly world-class creative? Photographer, director and visual artist Timothy Hogan joins Tony to explore the intersection of the challenge mindset, mastery of your craft, and creative longevity.

Hey friends! Tony Baker here. I’m so glad you’ve dropped-in, because I truly believe creative professionals can accomplish amazing things when we support each other. That’s exactly why I've shifted into this new direction for myself.

Matt Seidel conversation, teaser. A sneak-peek into the first minute or so of my conversation with Los Angeles based photographer, Matt Seidel.

Simple-done-well. Matt & Tony discuss how simple portraits are not only the most powerful type of portrait, but also the most difficult to pull-off well.

In this short clip Los Angles based photographer Matt Seidel describes how he would set-up his ideal photo shoot.

Tim discusses his concept of the “Threads” that each of us have in our lives and the importance of recognizing how important they are to helping us stay on-track to fulfilling our purpose.

In this quick clip of my conversation with Los Angeles based director/photographer, Timothy Hogan, I’m discussing with Tim the “real job” of a commercial artist.

In this clip of my hour-long conversation, photographer/director Tim Hogan describes how he appreciates a tough project. That challenge helps him get his creativity flowing.

Yes, I'm a photographer myself, and I know a TON of professional photographers, too. But when the latest need for photos of myself came up, rather than asking a photographer friend to do a (free) session with me, or setting-up an elaborate self-portrait set ... I HIRED a commercial portrait photographer! The experience was fantastic and I learned a LOT from being a 'paying client'. It was surprising! I think all photographers should hire another photographer on occasion. It's surprising what you'll learn!

This is one of the simplest things to understand, but almost always goes overlooked. Studio leaders will come to the same conclusion about the most valuable part of the studio, but I cut to the chase in this quick video so we can better understand what needed to maintain a studio's value to the larger organization, stakeholders, internal clients and external customers.

The easiest & cheapest way to subconsciously trigger your team into giving you their best performance. No … really!!

Something to consider when promoting a great contributor into a management or Leadership role.

Whether in life or an adventure, motorcycling, do you want to keep your focus on the horizon so you don't get tripped up by the tiny obstacles on your path.