IN-Q
IN-Q is a National Poetry Slam champion, award-winning poet, and multi-platinum songwriter. His groundbreaking achievements include being named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of the world’s most influential thought leaders, being the first spoken word artist to perform with Cirque Du Soleil, and being featured on A&E, ESPN, and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He’s inspired audiences around the world through his live performances and storytelling workshops. Many of his recent poetry videos have gone viral with over 70 million views combined.
As a songwriter, IN-Q’s hit single “Love You Like a Love Song” by Selena Gomez went multi-platinum, winning him a BMI award. He has written with renowned artists including Aloe Blacc, Miley Cyrus, Mike Posner, and Foster the People. His songs have accumulated over one billion views on YouTube alone.
Leading organizations including Nike, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Lululemon, Live Nation, Shazam, The Grammy Foundation, and many more have brought IN-Q in to motivate their teams through his keynote speeches and acclaimed storytelling workshop, a transformational bonding experience for companies who want to share their story more authentically.
Ultimately IN-Q writes to entertain, inspire, and challenge his audiences to look deeper into the human experience and ask questions about themselves, their environment, and the world at large.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful. Wild. Alive.
3 things Nature taught you?
Presence
Presence
Presence
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Eden in Utah. I have spent so much time over there. It is such an integral part of my life.
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii. That road for me is filled with life. It is so beautiful, vibrant and alive. It feels like a neon sign for nature.
Kenya. I was recently on a safari there and I have never experienced anything like this. It is a particular nature, that is raw and truly powerful. I really felt small but also part of it.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Relaxed
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Gratitude
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Power. Not that I feel powerful, but that I am amazed by it. The physical sensation of experiencing the hugeness of the sound all around you is breathtaking.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Brings me back to a childhood memory.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest the best, though honestly, it is the jungle that calls me.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
11
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Well, I don’t remember much for my childhood, unfortunately. But there is indeed one memory that comes to mind. My mom and I went camping. She is really not your outdoorsy type. Anyhow, we ended up in the forest of California, somewhere up north. I was 7 I think. We set up camp and during the night, there was this insane storm, pouring rain like crazy. There were lightings and thunder. Bang and Boum! We stayed up all night. My mom was so scared that she made me sleep with my sneakers on because she thought that the rubber would protect me, not conducting the electricity in case lightning would hit us. I felt so small and so vulnerable.
Nancy Hala
Nancy Hala is a brand builder, author and plant-powered cook. She’s the co-creator of The Pillar Life, a life-guidance system designed to ignite the eight pillars of a happy life, and co-host of The Sheri + Nancy Show podcast, where she and her lifelong friend, Sheri Salata, have conversations with experts, teachers and uplifters about making all the rest of their dreams come true.
Nancy is also the creator of BrandStory, her signature approach to brand strategy, storytelling and audience building that helps small business owners and entrepreneurs articulate who they are, what they do, and why it matters.
3 words to describe Nature?
Centering. Lush. Romantic.
3 things Nature taught you?
It is so joyful to be part of something bigger and grander and more permanent than myself.
We are meant to be restored and replenished by the natural world, and it is available to us for that purpose, at all times.
True beauty is often jagged (like a mountain range seen from a distance) or falling down (like a forest crisscrossed with old trees on their journey back to the earth), or full of blank spaces (like the sky on a particularly clear day).
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The forest behind my house, which is full of tall pines and moss-covered branches and (in my imagination) goes on for miles and miles.
The wide, sparkly lake at the center of the town where I live, which makes me feel Queenly whenever I drive around it…the majesty rubs off on me.
The ocean shore at Manzanita beach, especially when the fog rolls in and the dogs are chasing tennis balls into the foamy surf.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Completely awakened, and the Chi of it runs through me like a current of energy.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Like I wish I could fly, so that I could land on each of the branches of the tallest trees.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Brave, to be standing in front of a volcano.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like every single moment in life – every blink, every breath, every quiet space – is more precious than we can ever comprehend.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like laughing
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like burrowing into blankets, or better yet UNDER blankets, with a flashlight and a book.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I am each one. If I think of my body: The Ocean is my head, because it makes me dream wider and further than anything else. The mountain is my limbs, because I feel rooted and carried by the very fact that a mountain exists. The desert is my belly, because every time I see a desert I think it looks like the center of the world. And the forest is my lungs, because it’s my favorite thing to breathe in.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
Well beyond 10. Ten times 10.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I climbed trees as a child, almost every day. I named all the trees in my backyard and I loved them, very much. There was an oak tree named Charlie and I often took a book, a pillow, and apples or peaches or plums to the sturdiest branch I could reach, and read all afternoon. One day I climbed a soaringly tall pine tree (named Bruce) on the side of my house. I ended up at the absolute top of it, so high I could see all the streets and houses of my neighborhood. I was scared for a few minutes, because it was too high and precarious for me at that age (even I knew that) and for years later I marveled that I was able to scale so high and get down safely. And no one ever knew I climbed that tree, not my mother or father or any adult in charge, and the secrecy of my daring act still feels delicious, all these years later.
Sharad Kharé
Sharad is the co-founder of media company Kharé Communications. Beside creating content for companies such as Indochino, Innovative Fitness, Microsoft, Goldcorp, UN Women, Emily Carr University, Oncosec, Draper University, TEDx, Rick Hansen Foundation, Arkay Packaging and many others, he has been producing legacy documentaries and interviewing some of the world’s most interesting individuals. His infectious positive energy and communicative talents has allowed to sit down with people such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Jack & Suzy Welch, Chip Wilson, May Musk, Dr. Ron Burnett, Tim Draper, Bing Thom, and many more.
Sharad has a Masters in Communications and coaches storytelling & branding to leaders in private industries and public companies.
He is the co-founder of “The Indigenous Collective” and has been a prolific collaborator with the Indigenous community, directing and producing video projects that capture First Nations stories and culture. His past projects include the documentary Breaking Down Walls, Building Bridges (BCIT), Diversity Circles project video series, James Hart: The Dance Screen (Vancouver Art Gallery, and an Indigenous-women awareness video featuring Ellena Neel (BWSS).
Sharad is currently the President of TIE Vancouver, a global entrepreneur group that mentors and advises some of the most active entrepreneurs in the world.
3 words to describe Nature?
GREEN, BLUE, GOLDEN
3 things Nature taught you?
EVERYTHING HAS LIFE
WE MUST FEED THE EARTH AS WE FEED OUR OWN BODIES
THE SUN IS LIKE A GOD TO ME
3 most treasured Nature spots?
SANTA MONICA PIER
THE BEACHES OF GOA
DEER LAKE WHERE I GOT MARRIED
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
CALM AND RELAXED
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
LIKE EXPLORING
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
LIKE I AM SO SMALL IN COMPARISON
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
LIKE I AM CLOSE TO GOD
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
ANXIOUS FOR THE NEXT ONE TO COME
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
LIKE THE AIR HAS LIFE
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
OCEAN
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
WHEN I WAS YOUNGER WE HAD A FOREST CLOSE TO OUR HOME. MY BROTHER, MY NEIGHBOURS, AND I WOULD EXPLORE IN THEIR WITH OUR BIKES AND PRETEND WE WERE CHARACTERS OF THE HOBBIT. WE WOULD ALSO SEARCH FOR ANIMALS THAT LIVED THERE BUT WE NEVER FOUND ANY.
Farhoud Meybodi
Farhoud Meybodi is an award-winning writer, director, and executive producer focused on storytelling projects that inspire social change. Over the past decade, he has collaborated on a variety of television and digital projects that have been seen over two billion times, raised millions of dollars for terminal illness research, and even helped overturn an unjust Presidential Executive Order. At his core, Farhoud believes in the power of mainstream storytelling to entertain and help heal the political-social divide of the present day.
3 words to describe Nature?
Hallowed. Life-giver. Muse.
3 things Nature taught you?
Resilience
Inner-peace
Patience
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Astara, Iran
Delphi, Greece
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
A sense of deep reverence and gratitude
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Like I’m in divinity’s sacred cathedral
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Humbled yet resilient, like Frodo taking in the awesomeness and fiery peril of Mount Doom after a long long journey through darkness.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Older
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Microscopic
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Like I’m hearing the whispers of my ancestors
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Jungle
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10 - My happiness, balance, well-being, and sense of self are deeply and intrinsically connected with Mother nature. She is EVERYTHING.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a little kid, maybe five or six years old, my parents would take us to Yosemite, CA every year for an epic camping trip with friends and extended family. Over the course of a week, twenty of us would swim in Yosemite Falls, hike the Muir Trail to Half Dome, and roast marshmallows around the campfire, telling ghost stories while taking the grandeur of the seemingly limitless starry night. These trips are some of the most magical memories of my youth, and we didn’t have mobile phones, personal computers or WIFI to get in the way of the experience.
This was also around the time I was obsessed with the film, The Karate Kid. One time, I remember hiking down to the river with my friends — and while they ran around, having fun, I opted instead to sit on the banks of the roaring river by myself. I remember feeling the urge to close my eyes, breath deeply in and out, and move my hands up and down out ala my hero at the time, Daniel Larusso, just like he before his big championship match in the film. When my friends finally found me, sitting there doing my Karate Kid breathe-work, they laughed at me like I was some confused weirdo. In hindsight, I think I was just a little ahead of the curve — recognizing the beauty of nature and tapping into the stillness within to savor the special moment. Also those kids who mocked me are now probably spending tons of money each month on yoga and Qi Jong breathe work classes. :)
Max Stossel
MAX STOSSEL is an award winning poet + filmmaker, and one of the leaders of Time Well Spent, a movement to align technology with our humanity. His work has spanned across 14 languages, has won two Webby Awards, multiple film festivals, consistently goes viral, and influenced the way digital media organizations tell the stories of mass murder in the news.
Before entering the worlds of poetry, film & digital activism, Max was a media strategist with an extensive background in social. He ran social for Budweiser, where he drove a 3,400% increase in average engagement, before being trained by Gary Vaynerchuk and creating social strategies for Dove and several Fortune 100 brands. He has written on the subject for Quartz and The Huffington Post.
The merging of these fields allows Max to provide a fascinating perspective on modern content and culture. He is currently helping select brands tell their stories in his style via video, speaking at schools, corporations, & events and helping content-focused brands stop wasting their money and start focusing their content resources effectively.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful, Peaceful, Evolution
3 things Nature taught you?
Balance, Adaptation, that everything has it's opposite
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Kauai, Inca Trail, San Blas Islands
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Breath-y
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Small
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Alive
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Warm
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
5
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was at summer camp as a kid a skunk got caught in the baseball batting cage net. My friend and I went to try and free it and SURPRISE! It sprayed us. We had to bathe in tomato juice and every room I went in before that smelled for the rest of the summer.