Chelsea Clarke
Entrepreneurs often fall into one of two categories: They’ve got a brain for business or a knack for creativity. Few possess the know-how to combine the two—but that’s exactly what content creator, public speaker, and educator Chris Do has done.
And one better: He’s capitalized on it.
Beginning his career as a designer, Do launched Blind, a creative agency specializing in brand strategy, design, and animation in 1995. Under his leadership, Blind became synonymous with cutting-edge creativity, pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling across various mediums. The agency has garnered acclaim for its work with top-tier clients, delivering visually stunning and emotionally resonant campaigns. At the heart of Blind’s success was Do’s unwavering commitment to empowering creative voices—a planted seed that would grow to great heights later on down the road.
Since its launch in Los Angeles, one of the most competitive markets in the world, the brand has seen over $80 million in revenue. And while that number is nice, Do’s greatest accomplishment has come in the form of recognition for work he’s passionate about—not what’s in the bank. “My highest achievement has been to win an Emmy for art direction and design,” he says. “The award is important, but the work that we produced (a music video for the Raveonettes “Heart of Stone”) was one of my favorite projects.”
But that doesn’t mean the road to success has always been #blessed. Do learned some hard lessons along the way. “My one regret was opening a second office in NYC,” he says. “We were led to believe that if we had a New York address that local agencies would hire us. They didn’t, and it was a multi-year long endeavor to establish a second office.”
Any entrepreneur will tell you that there’s opportunity in failure, and the experience taught Do an unexpected lesson about branding. “I learned that you can not export your core competency,” he says. “No one from the LA office wanted to move to New York to build the second office, so everyone who worked there didn’t have any connective tissue to LA. The culture and vibe was totally different. We ultimately closed it and remained in LA.”
Do has always had an entrepreneurial spirit (and we mean always). “I made several attempts at entrepreneurship as a kid,” he says. “I tried washing cars, selling candy, and designing tee-shirts.” While he hadn’t exactly developed the business skills he’d need to take his projects global at that point, his desire for the life he saw portrayed in magazines and on TV meant that he’d need to build his own empire.
“I’m a first-generation immigrant/refugee from Vietnam. My parents and family fled Saigon in 1975. We started over in America with very little,” he says. “My parents emphasized the importance of education, working hard, and delayed gratification. I saw how hard they worked and the sacrifices they made to provide for my brothers and me.”
Which is perhaps where his penchant for being organized, methodical, and strategic was born—a signature to his creative process. His mix of business and creative savvy shows up in how he works, from conceptualization to execution.
“Creativity isn’t some magical act of inspiration and talent. Creativity, in my opinion, can be described in algorithms,” he says. “Great artists and designers understand this and create formulas or systems to help them understand their own process.”
“Great artists and designers create formulas or systems to help them understand their own process.”
Do’s process begins with problem-solving. He defines the problem, the parameters, and the desired outcome, then takes a deep dive into research to determine which themes to explore. Next, he launches his creative brain with daydreaming sessions, collecting image inspiration, and beginning sketching. Do collaborates with team members and clients along the way, then deploys what he calls the “onion skin” process. “We start ugly and progressively, and peel back layers to get to the refined core,” he says.
While design is an important aspect of Do’s identity, he says that underneath it all, his mission to be a leader has manifested as a desire to educate. And as it turned out, helping people was good for business, too.
Do’s most recent business, The Futur, is an education platform that empowers other creative entrepreneurs to build successful brands. Through courses, coaching, content, and community building, Do has helped over 60,000 entrepreneurs, from newbies to veterans, make their mark in their industry.
“I feel like I’m an extremely fortunate person. I’m living the American Dream—exceeding my own goals for life and business,” he says. “I feel a strong obligation to pay it forward and ‘send the elevator back down’ for the next generation.”
“I feel a strong obligation to pay it forward and ‘send the elevator back down’ for the next generation.”
As was his way as a budding entrepreneur, Do is constantly on the lookout for fresh projects to tackle. He serves as chairman of the board for the Anime Expo in LA; advises for SalesHood, an AI-powered sales platform; and is the go-to expert for conducting workshops in sales and pricing, branding, and business management.
And his latest endeavor is true to his nature: Ambitious and methodical—a skilled mix of business and creativity. “We’re working on our biggest initiative: The launch of Brand Lab™,” he says. “It’s a mastermind to help left-brained entrepreneurs build their personal brands. We describe it as ‘helping left-brainers think right.’”
That’s On Brand
Chris Do has built his empire by hacking the creativity algorithm so creative magic can be made methodical. Here are the three things he wishes every entrepreneur would do to brand themselves better.
Define your brand in two words that are uniquely you. Your two-word brand should be short, succinct, memorable, and provoke curiosity. It should elicit a “tell me more…” response. My two-word brand is “Loud Introvert.”
Define your brand narrative, which consists of three key story components.
- What is your backstory?
- What is your transformational story? This is the moment where everything changes and nothing will ever be the same again. This is when you leave the Ordinary World, cross the threshold, and enter in the New World.
- What trials and tribulations have you gone through? Which moments have you relapsed, then resurrected?
Define your personal style. This applies not only to your visual design (logo, color, pattern, typefaces), but also how you present yourself in the world. This can include your hair, hair color, jewelry, trademark shirt/jacket, etc. What you wear is how you are “packaged” to the world. It should tell a story and give people a sense of who you are.