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Mick Unplugged is a thought-provoking and inspiring podcast that invites listeners to embark on a transformative journey beyond the conventional concept of 'Why' and into the empowering realm of 'Because.' Hosted by the engaging and insightful Mick Hunt, this podcast is perfect for those who are not just dreamers but doers, leaders, and anyone aspiring to make a significant impact in their personal and professional lives.
Each episode of "Mick Unplugged" delves deep into how understanding and embracing your 'Because' – your core driving force – can turn aspirations into actions and dreams into realities. Listeners can expect to gain practical advice on how to identify their own 'Because,' learn to make it a daily focus, and understand how it can fuel their journey towards success and fulfillment.
Whether you're looking to find deeper motivation, set meaningful goals, or simply seeking inspiration to overcome challenges, "Mick Unplugged" offers valuable insights and tools to help you on your path.
Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mick Unplugged. We'll help you identify your because so you can create a routine that's not just productive, but powerful. You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.
Intro:So let's unleash your potential. Now here's Mick.
Mick Hunt:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mech Unplugged where we explore the journeys of visionaries and change makers. Today, I'm extremely excited to introduce an extraordinary entrepreneur, activist, and futurist. With her innovative approach to storytelling and deep commitment to empowering women globally, she's made a profound impact through her company, 2 Parent Productions, and her initiative, Badass Businesswomen. Please join me in welcoming the dynamic and and inspiring Jessica Kozorick. Jessica, welcome to Mick Unplugged.
Jessica Kozorick:Mick, I've been looking forward to this.
Mick Hunt:Me too, miss badass.
Jessica Kozorick:Yes. That's my favorite term when somebody calls me. That's like it's like the ultimate compliment for me.
Mick Hunt:Love it. So let's just go into it. So let's talk about that initiative, Badass Businesswomen. Like, what was the inspiration behind it, and what impact have you been making globally with them?
Jessica Kozorick:Yeah. So it was in 2010, and I had written a book in 2007 about marketing with video on the Internet. And at the time, it was the first book I had ever seen or read about that's about marketing with video on the Internet. It was before YouTube was a real household name. And so I was being invited to speak at a lot of groups like marketing groups, professional groups, South Florida Interactive Marketing Association, American Marketing Association, Network of Business, American Women Business Owners.
Jessica Kozorick:I was giving all these speeches, and everybody wanted me to join their group, but I never felt at home in any of the places. And I really wanted to hang out with women like me who really had goals in life and really wanted to push their own, like, productivity and capacity to achieve and stuff like that. So I just started my own group, and it's it's funny because it either attracts someone. It's either magnetic or it's repulsive. People are like, oh, I don't want anything to do with that.
Jessica Kozorick:So, you know, I like that, though. I wanna know who are my people.
Mick Hunt:I love it. So, you know, I'll make unplugged. We talk about folks because. Right? Like, I think that understanding your why, and I'm using air quotes, your why, is very superficial.
Mick Hunt:It's your because that drives you. It's your because that gives you your reason and purpose. So what is Jessica's because?
Jessica Kozorick:You know, I I listen to one of your podcasts about the religious gentleman. I forget his name, but he was talking about his the actor. And he was talking about his journey and his because and I was thinking to myself, you know, I'm not a religious person. I'm not a Christian. But my because, my religion is really like social service.
Jessica Kozorick:And what I've discovered as a 44 year old person is that I have a very specific area of expertise that's extremely rare, which is I can make short documentary films about nonprofits that help them raise more money up to 1,000,000 of dollars extra because we're able to tell their story and send their donor right to the front line of what what the where those donations are actually going. So I realized that I could both, you know, charge money for this, but I could also donate it for free as, like, a pro bono thing. And my investment, if I donated, like, a $20,000 project per se, then the nonprofit would be able to leverage this for so many other things, writing grants, getting new board members, putting it on their home page, putting it on social media, using it as part of fundraising campaigns in emails. And so my real because is using technology to make the world a better place.
Mick Hunt:I love it. I love it. That's amazing. So speaking of that company, right, 2 Parrot Productions, what's been one of the most impactful projects that you've worked on, and and what was the difference that that made?
Jessica Kozorick:Wow. I have just you know, one of my clients is the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County. They, 1 year, raised the the first year I did the videos for them, they raised an extra $750,000 year over last. And multiple people, I bought the size that it was really because of the video. So knowing that one of my nonprofits had $750,000 potentially because of something I helped them do And knowing how many young people in those communities were impacted by their capacity to get free meals, free tutoring, free transportation, free mentoring, all those kind of things.
Jessica Kozorick:I feel like it's this I never even really ultimately know the ripple effect of my work. I make a video for a nonprofit in Florida, and it helped build traction so that Miami Dade County was able to ban fracking permanently from the entire county, and my video was seen by all the legislative bodies through all the campaigns as the primary talking piece. So we're able to, you know, accomplish a number of different things through these videos, and I always love hearing the stories of of what nonprofits were able to do when they had a video like this to tell their story.
Mick Hunt:That's awesome. So, you know, following you for a while now and doing a lot of of reading about you and seeing the thing the amazing things that that you've done, I always say this about extremely successful people, and I'm gonna say this about miss badass over here on the other line. You don't get there without challenges and then triumphs of those challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges that you face in your career, and and and what'd you do to overcome them?
Jessica Kozorick:I'd have to say that I've sold a lot of things in my in in my career. I've sold like a $75 monthly membership for an information project. I've sold event tickets for conferences and speeches. I've sold workshops. I've sold online learning systems.
Jessica Kozorick:I've sold video productions. I've sold branding. I've sold all these different kinds of things, and she never you never really know what's gonna generate the money. So I I find that I have to dedicate a lot of time to marketing myself and just sort of putting my name out there and doing these things that may or may not bear fruit. But, you know, like, I always tell people that one of my biggest challenges has always been networking and sales.
Jessica Kozorick:And so for me to put myself out there and to go to events, to meet people, to be able to share the power of what I do, to be able to to get clients on board who understand the value that I bring to the table. It's a series of constant disappointments, all the people that say no to me. You know? But unless I have 10 people that say no to me, I won't have the 1 or 2 people that say yes. So I I think that in terms of an ongoing challenge, it's dealing with the daily, weekly, monthly rejections that you need to deal with to continue to be on target to accomplishing the things you want to.
Mick Hunt:I love it. And, you know, I tell people almost that same thing every time. Right? Life is never easy. Sometimes life be life and as as my mentor Les Brown will say.
Mick Hunt:Right? Life be lifein' sometimes, and you have to be very careful when people paint the picture that success is easy. And if you do these 1 or 2 things, like, success is gonna happen, and and you're never gonna have adversity. Life is about adversity. It's about how you respond.
Mick Hunt:And and to me, it's the power to keep going and to persevere, and and that's one of the things that I'm so admired about you is just that perseverance to to keep going. So kudos to to you, Jessica, on that.
Jessica Kozorick:Thanks. Yeah. I created my first documentary film when I was 18 years old, and I'm 44. So you do the math. I've been doing documentary films for a long time.
Jessica Kozorick:And I think, you know, part of what you're talking about with life be lifing and it's about adversity. One of my goals is to be hired as full time faculty at Florida International University, which is a huge public institution down here in Miami. And I've applied for jobs there. I have not gotten a job there, but I every chance I get, I'm telling people at FIU, hey. Listen.
Jessica Kozorick:I'm here because I wanna get hired. I've been doing research with this institution since 2015. It's now 9 years I've been involved with this school. I wanna be officially on board. And so I think part of also perseverance is saying what you want because you have to repeat it over and over again so that your whole community can get behind you so that you can get the the alert that the position's open so that you can get the chair to recommend you so that you can get all the letters of recommendations that you need so you can line up the stars like you want them to.
Jessica Kozorick:But the chair of the department, when I was talking to her, she said, you know, thanks so much, Jessica, for being willing to teach adjunct this fall, and I know you're here for a full time position. We just gotta get your foot in the door, and I'm here to help you. And, man, when you can have, like, a bunch of people around you, like, all wanting to help you get to where you wanna go, that's mastery.
Mick Hunt:Absolutely. You know, you've traveled to over 60 countries covering humanitarian issues.
Jessica Kozorick:That is true.
Mick Hunt:How have these experiences, like, shaped your perspective on global activism? And and what are some things that you want the listeners to know about what's going on, not just in our country, but some of these other countries that you're going to invoke change in?
Jessica Kozorick:First thing that I want people to know about is my nonprofit. So I own 2 pair of productions for 20 years. My nonprofit is called Eyes on Your Mission, and what our one of our programs is we donate video production services to nonprofits. And therefore, these nonprofits are able to take this donation, which is valued at $20,000, and they're able to take this short documentary film and raise funds, raise awareness, get the word out there, help them get more money, all those kind of things. And and so that grant is open.
Jessica Kozorick:If you're listening to this, it's in 2 2024. It's open from May 16th to July 18th. So if you are a nonprofit or you know a nonprofit, I'd really suggest you go to just Google eyes on your mission video grant, and it'll pop up on Google. But I really recommend that you check that out because there are so many cool things that I could tell you about and so many projects and so many destinations and so many characters and so many causes and issues and complex ecosystems. But I think that the overarching message, my overarching message is to really inspire all these nonprofits to try and get their story told, whether it's through us or whether it's through somebody else.
Jessica Kozorick:I'm even going so far as to people who don't win our grant. We pick about 3 to 5 nonprofits every year, and we'll be picking those in the fall and July, August. But we really recommend that you go and check that out, and and and we're we're even providing, like, coaching for proposals on ways to get projects cofounded and stuff like that. So, you know, that's my big message is is no matter where you are, video camera can tell your story in so many ways that text and photos can't?
Mick Hunt:Wholeheartedly. In a from a business perspective, I always thought the business leaders and their staff about the power of video. I could be having a very bad day. I could be in a bad mood, and Jessica sends me an email this text. I'm gonna take it in my mood.
Mick Hunt:Right? Jessica could be the happiest, most go lucky person on the other end. But because I'm in a bad mood, I'm gonna take it that way. But if Jessica sends me a video, now Jessica is bringing me into her world, into her heart, into her place of happiness. And video is that powerful.
Mick Hunt:I mean, so much so that I tell people again all the time, I would much rather you send a video via text or email than to send a worded script because you don't know how someone's day is going or what just happened, and and you don't wanna leave things up for chance. What do you think about that, Jessica?
Jessica Kozorick:Well, I could not agree more. Video has always been my preferred medium for a long time. I just think it's so rich and there's so much you could do with it. It's it's really about not only being able to send a video, but like you just said, to be able to impact someone's mood. And that is if you are a video person and you are a masterful video person, like I consider myself a masterful video person, you can take someone on an emotional roller coaster ride.
Jessica Kozorick:And you do that with script and words. You do that with music. You do that with visuals. You do that with animations. And a combination of all those elements, you know, you can start someone out as shocked, then you they could be dismayed, then they could be upset, then they can be relieved, then they can be so happy, then they can be generous.
Jessica Kozorick:You know. If you know how to do video and be able to tell the story, even just with the music alone it makes such a big difference. And you can take somebody on an emotional roller coaster ride. And if that's what it takes to open up people's wallets and get them to donate to charity, then, yeah, that's what my life's all about, you know, is is the power of video to take people on an emotional roller coaster that makes them wanna be generous to the nonprofits in their life.
Mick Hunt:Love it. Jessica, you are one of the busiest people that I know, and I mean that sincerely. You're one of the the busiest people that I know. How do you balance your diverse roles from being an entrepreneur, an activist, an artist, which we haven't really gone into yet, and an athlete, which we haven't gone yet. How do you balance all of that?
Mick Hunt:Because I know that there are a lot of listeners that are also how are they balancing the diverse roles that they have, whether it's being a a business owner, a business leader, and then having to come home and be a parent or a big brother or a big sister, how do you keep yourself grounded in all the busyness that you have?
Jessica Kozorick:I have really good time management skills. I think that's at the heart of it. And you also have to know how to take care of yourself because I used to just push it and push it and push it and stay up late and sleep for 4 hours and then get up, and I would get sick. That's what I noticed many years ago, like a decade ago. And I really realized that I had to not only schedule my time mentally where I had to be creative, but also I had to schedule my time where I had to be creative, but also I had to schedule my time off.
Jessica Kozorick:And so as a result, like, even in my calendar on Sundays, I have the whole day blocked off for to do nothing other than what I feel like at that moment. And so the combination of really scheduling things, and I I have a list. Like, I'm sitting in front of a list. Today's checklist, Wednesday. It has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 items on this checklist for today.
Jessica Kozorick:And so I I also manage a really active to do list. I probably update my to do list on my computer 3 times a week, and then I print it out and I write notes on the side, and then I reintegrate it and prioritize. So it's like, it's a function of time, good time management skills, good prioritization skills, and good sort of, like, organizational skills, being able to organize a to do list and things like that.
Mick Hunt:Love it. So I know when I introduced you, I said you're a futurist. And I know there's probably 600 people listening right now. They're like, what's a futurist? Right?
Mick Hunt:But as a futurist, and and I'm gonna let you tell that story now, what trends do you foresee in the fields of, like, digital media and entrepreneurship as we move into 2024, 25, 26, 27?
Jessica Kozorick:Well, my big passion project these days has to do with artificial intelligence. I am, as, you noted, I'm a pretty busy person because I also am 2 years into my doctoral program at Florida International University, and I'm gonna be graduating next year with a degree in, it's a doctorate of business administration. Yeah. So it'll be doctor Kazorek. And I'm, really excited about that, but I'm writing my dissertation about college students' anxiety around employing artificial intelligence in the classroom for schoolwork.
Jessica Kozorick:So it's sort of like college students meets artificial intelligence meets mental health. And I got a degree in artificial intelligence from Kellogg Northwestern, University, the Kellogg School of Business. And so about 5 years ago for the last 5 years, I've been really heavily studying artificial intelligence, and especially I've been looking at lately the, you know, the image generation and the video generation. And we just did a project for one of our grantees called the EOD Warrior Foundation. It's called EOD stands for explosive ordinance disposal.
Jessica Kozorick:It's a a military thing. So it's basically like we made a mini military movie, cinemagraphic. It was very fun. We did use AI to generate images of bombs exploding and people handling bombs and images that you wouldn't be able to capture in the field because it's just too dangerous to have a photographer leaning over that. So we were able to do some really cool stuff with AI for the production.
Jessica Kozorick:Also, you know, you mentioned entrepreneurship. I also have a partnership with the network for teaching entrepreneurship, Nifty, and I went into one of their classrooms and taught their students how to use AI to generate business commercials for their ideas, for their entrepreneurship ideas. So, yeah, I love going into between doing the production myself, between going into classes and teaching students, and then my own schoolwork. I've been doing a lot of, like, I did this lava flow, very dramatic image presentation one time. So artificial intelligence is where my head's at.
Mick Hunt:So speaking of AI, it's not even a buzzword. Like, AI is here. Right? What are some pitfalls that you could give people as far as advice of what not to be doing with AI? Or what are some things to stay away from?
Jessica Kozorick:I think I would put it in, like, a positive context of what's the one thing to do when you're looking at AI here. And I think it's to give it as much input as you can and as much context as you can. Like, when I'm talking to AI, I'm like, hi, you know, Dolly. I'm Jessica, and I'm a doctoral student at Florida International University. And I'm working on an assignment to do such and such and such, And I would like to do horizontal, and it should be all the way to the edges.
Jessica Kozorick:And I like this, and I like that. I guide the AI as much as possible so that the images it gives me, or the text, or the video is as unique as possible. Right? So it's not just coughing up something unimpressive. I think when AI becomes impressive is when the human being really dumps as much information.
Jessica Kozorick:Even if it's just a brain dump, it doesn't have to be complete sentences, doesn't even have to make sense. It could just be a series of, words. And that's when you get the most interesting stuff out of AI that's like, wow. This is cool. This is unique.
Mick Hunt:Totally agree. And I tell people this. My piece of advice is don't be lazy. And, essentially, that's what you're saying. Right?
Mick Hunt:Like
Jessica Kozorick:Mhmm.
Mick Hunt:Be descriptive. Make it your own. And and I always say make it unique. Like, you don't wanna create something, whether it's a visual, an article, or whatever that anyone could do because then you're no longer unique. AI kinda took over.
Mick Hunt:Yeah. Right? Like, you should be working in conjunction and almost I like to use my AI prompts as like employees. Right? This is what I need you to do.
Mick Hunt:This is how I like it. This is kind of my ended expectation or my end result. Yeah. So love it. Alright, Jessica.
Mick Hunt:I'm gonna get you out here on 2 things. Number 1, miss badass, and I'm trying to make sure I call you a badass at least 20 times because
Jessica Kozorick:I want you
Mick Hunt:I want you yelling at me badass over there. What advice would you give to young women who aspire to make a significant impact in their communities and beyond? So future badasses out there.
Jessica Kozorick:I would say find your people and find your community. You know? Like, whether whether it's a networking thing, whether it's a group thing. I think the more mentorship you can have, the more referrals you can get, the more people that wanna help you. Just like we talked about earlier about being being vocal about you want.
Jessica Kozorick:I have I have this thing on my to do list. It's a quote from one of my mentors. And it says, what are you trying to make happen? You have to see it, feel it, and say it. And so I think that my to do list is just like an expression of what I'm trying to make happen.
Jessica Kozorick:And you have to see it in your own mind. You have to be able to feel it in your own body and then say it to the people around you so that they can help you get to where you wanna go.
Mick Hunt:Amazing. And then lastly, Jessica, where can people follow you? Where can they find you? What's something you want people to do to support you?
Jessica Kozorick:Please send any nonprofits you know to our video grant. We have pro bono video grant services where we donate the whole project. We have co funded projects, and that's you can find that on eyes on your mission dot org, or you can just type in eyes on your mission nonprofit in Google, and, you know, it'll come up. That's open from May 16, 2024 to July 18, 2024.
Mick Hunt:Amazing. And I'll make sure that that's all in the show notes so that everyone can go to eyes on your mission dot org. I'm gonna one up it, Jessica. I'm also gonna contribute there too. So I'm gonna help support the cause.
Jessica Kozorick:Oh, yay. Good. Thank you.
Mick Hunt:Miss badass captain Sulu, it's amazing to have you here. Love the fact that you took a moment out of your busy schedule. I I'm very thankful for you, and I know the listeners are as well. So thank you for being a part of the show today.
Jessica Kozorick:Well, thank you for being an inspirational force in the universe because you're got some great interviews, and I enjoyed preparing for this.
Mick Hunt:There we go. And for all the listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. No one leaves it.
Intro:Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launch stay
Jessica Kozorick:inspired,
Intro:and stay unplugged. Stay inspired, and stay unplugged.