Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanna Brusikiewicz.
Suzanna, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I got started with a Bachelor of Design degree and wanted to put my graphic design skills towards a meaningful cause. It was tricky to find work like that out there, especially entering the workforce as a fresh graduate, but I landed on a fun and vibrant game studio called Nexon Publishing North America, the then-Canadian chapter of Nexon, the Korean video game publisher. I walked into a Receptionist/Cultural Administrator role, which I thought sounded really interesting, and felt was a good place to start. Through that role, I ended up learning a lot about cultivating a supportive, exciting and nurturing workplace culture. I didn’t realize how much that would serve me down the road. Almost a year into it, I transitioned into a newly-created Junior Graphic Designer role which was a huge win for me. Unfortunately, in 2008, the studio shut down during the recession, along with lots of other creative studios and agencies at the time. I ended up filing for unemployment but spent that year building up a studio venture of my own, with my partner Jonathon Corbiere. We’d met in school and both studied graphic design, and both nurtured an ever-growing desire to contribute something helpful to society with our skill set. So, we started Thought Bubble in 2009, now known as Thought Café.
Our premise was to use motion graphics and animation to elevate important messages and disseminate them to interested audiences on YouTube. We’d look for influential voices, create animated shorts from interesting things being said, and eventually started to build a client list that included Greenpeace, The David Suzuki Foundation, and more. We happened to stumble on a really intriguing person named John Green, who at time had written books, and ran a popular YouTube channel with his brother Hank called Vlogbrothers. He had made a video talking about healthcare reform that we felt clarified the issue really well. We animated it, sent it to him, he loved it and uploaded it to his channel. From there on in, our studio became an online presence. We garnered fans and dedicated audiences who loved what we were doing. In 2011, John approached us about being the graphics partner for a new channel they were launching called Crash Course. We said yes, and today, Crash Course has almost 10 million subscribers and just passed 1 billion total views last year. We couldn’t have anticipated the success of Crash Course, but it fit right in with our mandate. Together with the American arm now called Complexly, we put out up to five episodes a week in courses ranging from Philosophy to Games, to Anatomy & Physiology. All with the goal of offering free, supplemental education to students and avid learners alike.
Crash Course allowed our studio to grow to a point where we employed up to 25 full-time employees. We’ve worked with many more clients whose messages matter; like UNICEF, CBC, PBS, the UN, EU, Gates Foundation, and more. We’ve had the joy of creating animations for documentaries and TV series covering important issues we need to be aware of. And now, Thought Café is hitting its 10-year-mark, and we couldn’t be prouder. However, as a Co-Founder and CCO for the last decade, I’ve now stepped my role back to focus on cultivating a new passion that’s arisen in me, and I feel it’s important not to ignore such a calling. It might feel strange and different, but so far it’s brought me renewed joy to follow my heart along this new path of photography, writing, and sensuality. I now manage an Instagram account (@suzbubs) where I upload photos and write personal journals and poems, post YouTube videos of my self-love, confidence and personal growth journey, and I plan to build from there. I’ve documented my own journey with healing wounds and overcoming crippling insecurity, and I just want to share how far I’ve come with the world so it can inspire anyone else out there.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. With Thought Café, we were warned by everyone around us about the dismal prospects of seeing a business succeed. Our families wanted us to get stable, full-time jobs, and instead of building a strong, supportive foundation for ourselves in our first several years out of school, we struggled to make ends meet, took on some hefty debts, and endured a lot of stress. But at the same time, I was happier than ever to build and cultivate something I cared about, something I felt passionate about and believed in. Even if it failed, I felt it’d be worth it.
We had slow but sure growth. Early on I’d read a book called Rework, that talked about forfeiting to-do lists for action. Letting go of the need for complicated business plans and starting somewhere, anywhere. It was an organic, unorthodox process, and for a while, no one really understood what we were up to, but it paid off. Last year, we had to restructure our company and change a lot of things in order to see our way through the coming years. That was a really tough road to navigate as well, but we’re thriving. Challenges are par for the course, and they test your spirit and resolve, but as long as your passion doesn’t wane, you’ll reach those breakthrough moments. We’ve been lucky to enjoy years of stability, success, even awards along the way. I cherish those moments in the face of any rough patches we hit.
For myself, it’s been quite a challenging time of transition. Realizing your passion is changing isn’t an easy thing to face, bring out into the world, and then act on confidently. But I know that just as I wavered and shook in the face of uncertainty at the start of Thought Café, I’ll face some anxiety about my new venture too. This time, it’s highly personal. It’s just me. It’s just my writing, expression, and story. In similar ways, it’s not clear to everyone around me—myself included at times—just what I’m doing or building yet. But that’s the beauty of it. Every step of the way is meaningful. Once you establish what you’ve built, you get to ride that wave for as long as you can and enjoy the success and stability that comes, if it greets you. Inevitably, things will change again. Another calling might start to whisper, and new pastures might sing your name.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Thought Café and Suzbub story. Tell us more about the business, your role, and anything that sets you apart.
I co-founded Thought Café and function as CCO. My primary focus is branding, art direction, and overall creative team management. I’ve been intimately involved in Crash Course for most of its airtime, and have Creative-Directed a few series I’m really proud of over the years. As a company, we’re grateful for the fact that we’ve run as a not-for-profit. It was important to us early on to establish ourselves differently. We wanted to put values before profit and cause before cash. That doesn’t mean we don’t make a profit, it just entails some differences in structure and operations, and our Board of Directors isn’t bound to make decisions based on profit alone. Today, we focus mostly on factual content. We just want to put truthful voices, important issues, facts, and stories out there with an engaging animated aesthetic. We also work with VR and other innovative technologies and creative avenues, so we’re not limited to the primary medium we work in.
What also sets us apart from others is our presence, community, and fanbase. Because of our affiliation with Crash Course, we were lucky enough to cultivate a beautiful culture of fans that love and support our work, both through Crash Course and Thought Café. It keeps us going. And finally, our work culture. I learned the importance of that in my stint at Nexon, and covet how important it is to work with people who care about your cause, bring passion to the workplace, and can be themselves. It’s not always a simple task, but we’ve always tried to maintain as loose, accepting, and creative an environment as possible. The happier we are as a collective, the better our work gets. And the talented people that have graced our studio are some of the most amazing people I’ve met and had the honour to work with.
With Suzbub, I feel what sets me apart is my authentic expression of self. I’ve publicized in many ways my intimately personal journey over the last few years of my life. I’ve embarked on aspects of myself I wasn’t privy to before and opened up a treasure chest of modalities to work in — one of them being sensuality. I believe that sensuality as a practice can really nurture our wants and needs, and open us up to what our purpose is in life. What dreams we want to chase, and what things we’re good at. Our five senses are not only a way to navigate the world, but an effective way to navigate ourselves, too. My work with sensuality, self-love, and self-care has allowed me to reach a level of confidence and self-expression I never thought possible.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We’re exploring new technologies at Thought Café because the landscape of creative avenues is constantly shifting, and now, in more intriguing ways than ever before. It’s important to keep adapting to what’s in demand, what’s rising in popularity, and what might become the next staple. We’re not afraid of change, and I believe that that’s what’s kept us strong and in the game. It’s hard to say where YouTube will go, as it continues to be a crucial space for our work, but it’s absolutely wonderful and shocking to see the immense popularity of some of the content we’ve gotten to work on. YouTube is such an ever-expansive place, like our universe itself, there’s no telling how it might continue to branch out as countless people add their creative forces to it.
My personal work relies heavily on Instagram for now and will continue to, and I regularly study and assess the importance, role, and impact Instagram and other social media platforms have on our society and personal mental health. I feel that there’s already been a shift in expressing ourselves in a more authentic way. Nothing and no one is perfect. It’s okay to share when life isn’t sunny or easy. I’ve found the most connection and beauty in sharing when I’m going through trials and challenges and seeing others connect to that. I often write from my own, intimate space, and tell myself what I need to hear. Sometimes from actual life experience, other times from imagined ones. Things I know others are going through and might need guidance on. I think that like YouTube, Instagram will grow and change right along with us and our adapting needs and values, therefore we’re all carving its evolution, and I’m excited to see what that births.
Contact Info:
- Website: youtube.com/suzbub, thoughtcafe.ca, youtube.com/thoughtbubbler, youtube.com/crashcourse
- Email: [email protected], [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/suzbubs, instagram.com/thoughtcafe
Image Credit:
Thought Café, Suzanna Brusikiewicz
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