Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Makers Workshop
Business

Makers Workshop

Makers Morrow

In this long-form series, we interview individuals from behind the scenes of unique creative projects and businesses to uncover the incredible work that goes on in workshops around the world to create inspirational products, stories, and experiences. This is a chance to spotlight talented people who are quietly furthering human creativity in varying forms.

Play
Open in
  • 4 episodes
  • Avg 1 hr 2 min
  • English

Episodes 4

NewestOldestLongest
All4Unplayed4In progress0Played0
  • S1 · E4
    Yesterday · 1 hr 11 min

    Making the Right Connections: The Art of Creating Opportunity

    EPISODE 04 | SEASON 01 How do you create opportunities without forcing them? And why do some people seem naturally able to make the right connections, open doors and turn unexpected encounters into something meaningful? In Episode 04 of Makers Workshop, we sit down with Mairead Murray, producer and cultural strategist, to explore a career built around connecting people, ideas and opportunities across film, music, culture and business. Mairead has an instinct for bringing the right people together. But as we discover throughout the conversation, there is much more behind that instinct than simply knowing lots of people. It is about curiosity. Listening. Reading a room. Building trust. Understanding what somebody needs, sometimes before they have articulated it themselves, and knowing when to make an introduction, when to ask a question and when to leave something alone. For Mairead, the best opportunities aren't manufactured. They emerge from genuine relationships and considered moves. MAKING THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS At the heart of our conversation is a deceptively simple idea: relationships become valuable when you stop thinking only about what they can do for you. Mairead talks about approaching people with curiosity rather than an agenda, asking questions, remembering what matters to them and gradually building an understanding of where people, ideas and opportunities might intersect. Sometimes that means making an introduction with no immediate benefit to yourself. Sometimes it means recognising that two people should know each other. And sometimes it means having the confidence to make an ask when the moment is right. We discuss why networking can feel transactional, the difference between collecting contacts and actually building relationships, and why some of the most important connections develop long before there is any obvious commercial opportunity. It is a way of working that has taken Mairead into some extraordinary rooms. One of those encounters happened almost entirely by chance. THE FEAR OF REJECTION Of course, making the ask also means accepting that somebody might say no. Mairead talks openly about our natural sensitivity to rejection and how easily the possibility of hearing "no" can prevent us from doing anything at all. But rather than advocating taking every chance indiscriminately, she makes the case for something more considered. Read the situation. Understand the person. Think about whether what you're proposing could genuinely be valuable. Then, if the moment feels right, ask. The answer might still be no. And that's OK. THE ART OF CREATING OPPORTUNITY Ultimately, this episode is about much more than networking. It is about understanding how opportunity actually happens. The conversations you decide to start. The rooms you choose to enter. The people you introduce. The relationships you maintain when there is nothing immediately to gain. The judgement to recognise when an opportunity is there, and the courage to act on it. Mairead's career is a reminder that creating opportunity doesn't have to mean constantly selling yourself or aggressively chasing the next thing. It can be much more thoughtful than that. Be curious. Pay attention. Build genuine relationships. Make considered moves. And when the right moment presents itself, don't be afraid to ask. This is exactly what Makers Workshop is about. How things happen, how ideas become real, and the people behind them. Because behind many of the opportunities that look like luck from the outside, there is someone quietly connecting the dots. 🎙️ Episode 04 of Makers Workshop with Mairead Murray is available now. Watch on YouTube and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

  • September 15 · 53 min

    The Odyssey Expert: Why We’re Still Obsessed With a 3,000-Year-Old Story

    EPISODE 03 | SEASON 01 What makes a story survive for almost 3,000 years? And what can one of the oldest stories in Western literature teach us about storytelling, creativity and making work that lasts? In Episode 03 of Makers Workshop, we sit down with Erica Stevenson, historian, classicist, creator of MoAn Inc. and author of The Odyssey Effect, to explore her remarkable journey into the ancient world and the process behind turning a lifelong fascination with Homer’s The Odyssey into a book. Erica first read The Odyssey at 16 while a patient in a mental health hospital. Isolated on a ward, Homer’s story offered something unexpected: an escape. Through Odysseus, she could temporarily leave the hospital and travel somewhere else entirely. It created a deeply personal connection with the story that has stayed with her ever since. But Erica’s route from that first encounter to becoming an author was anything but straightforward. After studying classics, she planned to pursue a career in the circus, training as an aerialist for 15 to 25 hours a week alongside university. An injury changed those plans. She returned to the ancient world, kept reading and, after a conversation with a regular while working in a pub, started a YouTube channel dedicated to making classics accessible to people who might otherwise never engage with them. That journey eventually led to The Odyssey Effect, Erica’s new book exploring how Homer’s epic has shaped literature, art and popular culture, and why generation after generation continues to reinterpret and retell it. HOW DO YOU MAKE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT A 3,000-YEAR-OLD STORY? That question sits at the heart of our conversation. Erica explains why knowing your subject is only part of the job. The real challenge is understanding the person on the other side of it. She shares how she learned to switch off her “classics brain” and meet audiences where they are, including the brilliant story of teaching a room of completely uninterested schoolgirls The Iliad by getting them to rank the ancient Greek heroes by how attractive they were. Suddenly, they were searching the text, debating characters and, most importantly, caring about the story. It leads us into a much bigger discussion about storytelling, communication and why some ideas survive while others disappear. We explore why The Odyssey remains so relatable thousands of years after it was created, from Odysseus’ longing to return home to the flawed decisions he makes along the way. We also look at how our definition of a hero has fundamentally changed. In the ancient Greek world, being a hero did not necessarily mean being good, moral or noble. You could be deeply flawed and still unquestionably be considered heroic. Erica explains how religion, war and changing cultural values have transformed what society expects a hero to represent. THE MAKING OF THE ODYSSEY EFFECT As with every Makers Workshop conversation, we also want to understand how the finished work actually got made. Erica takes us behind the scenes of writing her first book. Given just three months to produce around 40,000 words, she spent her first month doing almost nothing but reading, her second writing the manuscript from beginning to end, and her third editing it. We discuss working with publishers, deciding what belongs in a book, writing for an audience rather than yourself, finding a less academic voice and learning to balance expertise with accessibility. THE PROCESS BEHIND THE WORK Ultimately, this episode is about more than Homer.It is about curiosity, storytelling, writing, learning, obsession and the process of making something. Her advice to anyone writing a book or embarking on a creative project is deceptively simple:Surrender to it. Allow research, experimentation and discovery to change the work. Rather than forcing an idea into the shape you imagined at the beginning, let the process reveal what it should become.

  • S1 · E2
    September 8 · 1 hr 8 min

    Hospitality CEO Sue Walter: How to Build a Community People Never Want to Leave

    EPISODE 02 | SEASON 01 Sue Walter is the CEO of The Roof Gardens, one of London’s most distinctive private members’ clubs, set 100 feet above Kensington High Street across an acre of historic gardens. Her career has spanned hospitality, people and culture, private equity, publishing, music, education and the public sector. She has held senior leadership roles at organisations including the Metropolitan Police, the Royal Opera House, Universal Music and several private members’ clubs, developing a reputation for building successful businesses around people, purpose and community. In the second episode of Makers Workshop, we sit down with Sue at The Roof Gardens to explore how leaders build world-class hospitality teams and create communities people genuinely want to belong to. Sue explains why kindness is the defining value at The Roof Gardens, how values must influence real decisions, and why the club will cancel the membership of anyone who treats its team or other members unkindly. We discuss the relationship between people and profit, why investing in employees is one of the most commercial decisions a hospitality leader can make, and how a strong internal culture shapes every part of the customer experience. The conversation explores leadership, employee engagement, customer experience, workplace culture, private members’ clubs, hospitality management, community building and the challenge of protecting a company’s purpose as it grows. Makers Workshop is a podcast about the people behind remarkable work. Hosted by Erik Stjernström and Julia Andersson of Makers Morrow, each episode is a conversation with someone who has spent their life creating, building or shaping something worth paying attention to. IN THIS EPISODE: • Building a world-class hospitality team • Creating a genuine sense of belonging • Why kindness is a powerful company value • The relationship between people, culture and profit • How leaders stay connected to employees and customers • Building trust through consistency • Attracting 1,500 members before opening • Why The Roof Gardens does very little traditional marketing • Protecting company culture during growth • Giving employees freedom without losing direction • Why micromanagement holds people back • Creating an exceptional customer experience • Turning negative experiences around • Building loyalty and retaining great people • The future of private members’ clubs CHAPTERS: 00:00 Preview 02:07 Welcome to Makers Workshop 03:08 Sue Walter’s unconventional leadership journey 06:48 How leaders influence company culture 11:13 Why people and profit are connected 15:07 Reinventing an iconic London venue 21:56 Protecting culture as a business grows 28:30 Kindness as a non-negotiable company value 34:36 Why people are searching for belonging 41:26 How The Roof Gardens attracted 1,500 members 45:21 Building a community without traditional marketing 49:25 Emotional connection and brand loyalty 54:42 Recruiting and empowering exceptional people 58:13 Why confident leaders avoid micromanagement 64:03 How employee retention shapes customer experience 68:34 Creating hospitality that makes people feel seen 73:37 Can a strong culture be recreated elsewhere? 77:01 How consistency builds trust 81:11 Balancing openness with professional boundaries 84:20 What people should take into their next role 86:49 Will the flamingos return? New episodes every Tuesday. Watch and listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. KEEP EXPLORING Subscribe to Makers Workshop for more conversations with remarkable people about the ideas, decisions and experiences that shaped what they made. Then take that thinking further with Made For Momentum by Makers Morrow. Discover practical tools, frameworks and exercises designed to sharpen your thinking, improve decision-making and turn momentum into action, whether you are building a business, leading a team, developing a project or bringing an idea to life. makersmorrow.com

  • S1 · E1
    September 2 · 57 min

    Legendary Music Producer Chris Kimsey: The Art of Knowing What to Leave Alone

    EPISODE 01 | SEASON 01Chris Kimsey has spent more than five decades behind the mixing desk, working with some of the most influential artists in music history, including The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Peter Frampton and Duran Duran.His career has taken him through some of the world’s most celebrated recording studios, including Olympic Studios, Abbey Road Studios, AIR Studios, Hamza Studios, Electric Lady Studios and Compass Point Studios, working at the heart of an era that produced some of rock music’s most enduring records.In the first episode of Makers Workshop, we sit down with the legendary record producer and sound engineer to explore a life spent making, recording and listening to music.Chris takes us inside the recording studio, sharing stories from his extraordinary career and reflecting on how records were made, the relationship between artist and producer, the importance of listening, and what has changed as music and technology have evolved.We also explore the craft of sound itself, from what makes a recording feel alive to why great sound matters far beyond the recording studio.Makers Workshop is a podcast about the people behind remarkable work. Hosted by Erik Stjernström and Julia Andersson of Makers Morrow, each episode is a conversation with someone who has spent their life creating, building or shaping something worth paying attention to.In this episode:• Five decades inside the recording studio• Working with The Rolling Stones• The relationship between artists, producers and engineers• How recording and production have changed• What technology has gained and lost• Why listening matters• The importance of great sound• Lessons from a lifetime spent making musicNew episodes every Tuesday.Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. EPISODE CHAPTERS Meet Chris Kimsey Breaking Into the Recording Studio Learning How Great Records Are Made Recording The Rolling Stones What Makes a Great Producer? Managing Big Personalities and Big Ideas Instinct, Creativity and Knowing When to Step In How Music Production Has Changed What Makes Great Work Last? 50 Years of Lessons From the Studio KEEP EXPLORING Subscribe to Makers Workshop for more conversations with remarkable people about the ideas, decisions and experiences that shaped what they made. Then take that thinking further with Makers Method by Makers Morrow. Practical tools, frameworks and exercises to sharpen your thinking, make better decisions and turn momentum into action, whether you’re building a business, developing a project or bringing an idea to life. makersmorrow.com

Showing 1–4 of 4 episodes