Digital Anarchy and Human Connection ft. Artist and Filmmaker Ivan Cash

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Impact Everywhere Podcast

5 min readSep 13, 2020

Meet Ivan Cash: Human Connection Specialist, Artist, Filmmaker, and Speaker. His focus is building human connection and reducing the overload of technology in the modern world. Ivan has a special gift for finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, and his eye for a great idea is second to none. After all, his projects are designed to go viral and he’s appeared on basically every major news source at least once.

In today’s episode, we hear from him about his approach to projects, the strategies he uses to make sure his important work is seen, and how he tries to live in the world in a more present way. Ivan has worked on numerous impressive projects, and he delves into several of these on this episode. One such project, also involving host Benjamin Von Wong, involved putting up “No Tech Zone” signs in a park and filming people’s reactions when they saw they’d be fined $100 for using their phones.

The latter part of the episode goes on to discuss the power of intentional time and methods for staying productive and focused during this period of uncertainty across the world. Ivan talks about the blessing and curse of being hyper-organized and his approach to staying on track with the work he has committed to. Ivan is such an inspiring artist and communicator, so you definitely do not want to miss this amazing chat. Join us at one of the links below for episode 25 of Impact Everywhere:

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Key Points From This Episode

How to maintain human connection during the pandemic (with less tech!)

Write letters, send postcards
Take calls without the camera on. We’re all a bit vain or self-conscious, so this helps us be more present for the conversation
Being constantly connected cheapens connection. Take intentional time and limit long, aimless hangouts. Prioritize deep, condensed time with people you care about

The importance of knowing what you want to be known for

“You become known for doing what you do.” If your deepest desire is to be a ballroom dancer, but all you showcase is hip hop, nobody is going to read your mind and hire you for ballroom dancing. You need to get out and do ballroom in order to get hired for it more. Use this same mentality when selecting projects to fit your ideal body of work.

How to make sure your work actually gets ‘seen’

Selection: Be particular about the ideas you want to pursue. Choose original ideas/projects that you find really interesting and you hope others will as well
Media: Know ahead of time which news organizations, magazines, etc. would be interested in your project and get ready to send it out right away
Presentation: Ensure the thumbnails and visuals are appealing. Create a short write-up on the project. If you can’t explain your idea in one sentence it’s too long

Ivan’s unique tips for staying organized and methodical

Keep just one project on the front burner at all times — all others back
Schedule as many meetings and calls as possible only 1 or 2 days a week — keep the other days more free form. Limits interruptions to creativity while maintaining a structure
Funnel as much communication as possible to one channel. This ensures you’re reliably responding on one platform and makes things less scattered

Tweetables

“I guess a lot of my work is self-soothing and self therapy, where the process of creating the work is healing for me as well.” — @ivan___cash[0:04:11]

“I have a lot of pride in the work I have done reaching a large number of people and it’s also a huge part of the creative goal for a lot of the projects I do.” — @ivan___cash[0:06:19]

“I am always chasing the power of a great idea, that is my drug more than anything.” — @ivan___cash[0:13:46]

Coming Up Next

Next week we’ll hear from Marcus Eriksen, a scientist, paleontologist, and ex-marine who is single-handedly responsible for creating the research that got microbeads banned in the United States. Marcus is also the co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute and will share stories around movements and how they happen. Be sure to visit Impact Everywhere’s website to access each episode’s audiograms and shareable graphics, as well as subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode. We’d also appreciate you leaving a review so we can hear your feedback. See you next week!