Forging Your Own Creative Path On The Limit Is Not Enough

Paper Airplane Different Direction and Approach. Think Different & Leadership Concept.

The Limit Is Not Enough is determined to help you achieve your dreams. Especially if you’re a creative person trying to do it all – “a human Venn diagram,” as hosts Cate Scott Campbell and Christina Wallace say – working as an accountant and also playing the violin, for example, or a theater practitioner who’s gone into research and development. The guest in this episode, Mikhael Tara Garver, started her career in theater, directing plays and building immersive experiences for patrons, and turned that work into experiential marketing for brands. Cate and Caitlin sit down with Mikhael to learn how she got into this line of work, how she continues to keep herself creative and invested, and what might be next on the horizon for her.

Mikhael didn’t set out to become an “experiential architect,” as she calls it; instead, it arose from a need to raise money for her theater group to put on a play. So she created an immersive party that “gamified” spending money, and ended up raising two-thirds of her nonprofit’s budget from these events. At the same time, she was working full-time for a group of athletic clubs, and the owner “kind of saw in me the ability to think about marketing and sales in a way that was authentic and real...in which we’re actually trying to connect to the community,” she says. At the time, she considered all these different jobs as disparate parts of her life, “and now I realize those were the threads of a braid that was going to come together.” So she forged her own path forward, and is now launching her own experiential studio called 13 EXP. 

Mikhael obviously created her own way forward; how could someone listening, Cate asks, get into experiential work? Mikhael says to look for the people doing work that excites you, and ask if you can help. “We are becoming a field,” she points out, “so that means those of us who are leaders in it are much more accessible than leaders in other fields.” She feels that no matter what world you’re coming from, there’s room for your creativity to flourish. “I’m looking in the visual arts world. I’m looking in the social justice world. I’m looking in the entertainment world,” she tells us. “I’m really looking to see if you’re interested in not being in one world. If you’re curious...about all the worlds...then I’m interested.” 

Listen to the episode to hear more about the exciting, dynamic work Mikhael is creating, the surprising importance of spreadsheets in her narrative creation, how crucial organization is to her (“If my team and I are disorganized, then a person who I'm communicating with via email doesn't feel valued,” she points out), and many more inspiring stories, only on The Limit Is Not Enough

If you want to be sure you're listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what's trending by checking out the chart here. There's even a chart just for radio podcasts here, featuring all your favorite iHeartRadio personalities like Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey and dozens of others.

Photo: Getty Images


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content