Meet Brian Thibodeau

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian Thibodeau. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian below.

Hi Brian, so excited to have you with us today and we are really interested in hearing your thoughts about how folks can develop their empathy? In our experience, most folks want to be empathic towards others, but in a world where we are often only surrounded by people who are very similar to us, it can sometimes be a challenge to develop empathy for others who might not be as similar to us. Any thoughts or advice?

The creative ego wants what it wants. Sometimes it even demands it. But the rigid box of empathy (the brief, the rules, the limits) isn’t a cage… it’s the gateway to freedom.

Empathy is the most underrated skill in my industry of creative branding and advertising… and maybe in life.

Every project begins with a brief. It’s the empathy document. The first crack at stepping inside the consumer’s head, knowing you’ll spend the next 180 hours trying to connect with them through headlines, CTAs, colors, images, music, casting specs (and whatever else it takes). The brief is the most critical step in the process… and the one most likely to get ignored. Because creativity is a game of tension, risk, and transgression.

Artists are rule breakers by nature. We were the kids tagging desks, pulling pranks, passing notes, falling asleep when the teacher was talking. Fast forward to a career in advertising and not much changes. Endless strategy decks. Budget texts pinging your phone at midnight. Account managers panicking over timelines. Bosses to impress. It’s still the same mix of chaos (just in a fancier package).

The badge of brashness might get you in the room… but eventually it times out. I’ve worked inside the biggest agencies on world-famous brands, and after a decade I can tell you… it doesn’t mean sh*t.

So where does empathy fit in? Empathy is messy… especially when it collides with ego and subjectivity. Walking away from the holding company ecosystem to start my own shop forced me to see who and what actually mattered. I’ve hired AND fired. I’ve won AND lost. I’ve felt important AND I’ve felt broken.

As an entrepreneur, my goal is simple: be a better dad, husband, friend, and community member. Not online. In real life. With real people. Solving real problems. Sharing real joy.

That’s why I created Purpose Labs. Free 90-minute consultations to reframe how brand owners see their business. Loosely based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the participant becomes the hero while I guide them (then flip it back and remind them they’re also the guide in their own customer’s story). It’s kinetic empathy at its finest.

From there came Art of the Audience. A group workshop where participants use improvisation to create products and messaging together. Improv itself is empathy in motion… flow, anticipation, listening. It forces us out of our own way so we can build for the right audience.

And now I’ve taken on a new role: brand captain for what I call team Save the Planet. With my company, Atlast Wild (atlastwild.com), I’m making a hard pivot from corporate global brands to community-based ecotourism. Helping thoughtful brands tell their eco-stories in ways that educate and shift behavior for the betterment of humanity and the planet. IMAGINE THAT. I’ve even launched a podcast (Atlast Wild on Spotify) to share how land shapes people’s stories and inspires new ones.

Here’s the truth: life is the brief. And it’s one we’re all accountable to. The ROI isn’t clicks or conversions… it’s peace, wellness, joy, and success.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a champion generalist. That means my ambitions stretch wide (creative director, art director, designer, painter, illustrator, bigfooter, conservationist, father, animal lover… and whatever comes next). I’m led by interest and curiosity.

Right now I help businesses lean into ecotourism and tell their stories in ways that educate, inspire, and shift behavior. The collective ROI? Saving the planet and becoming happier humans.

I host a podcast called Atlast Wild (subscribe on Spotify). But Atlast Wild is more than a podcast… it’s a think tank and a branding studio. Because saving the planet (and our integrity as humans) is no small task. It requires heads together, hands in, and the right team around the table.

With a background working on some of the biggest brands in the world, I’ve flipped that experience to help businesses stay independent. I encourage them not to sell out to conglomerates… but to support their local economies and stand tall on their own story. That’s the future worth building.

Check us out. We do workshops, design, brand identity, video production, positioning statements… all with one goal: get your team aligned and inspire your customers to tell the real stories of their experience.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, the three most impactful qualities for me were:
1. Curiosity (asking questions, pulling threads, not being afraid to admit I didn’t know something).
2. Resilience (taking the hits, the rejections, the bad clients… and showing up again anyway).
3. Range (being a generalist, trying lots of things until I figured out what stuck and where I could bring the most value).

My advice for anyone early in their journey:
Don’t go into debt. Ask questions. Live within your means. Try lots of stuff… eventually commit to one thing for a while. Every four months, check in with yourself and ask, How’s that working out for you? Adjust, don’t shortcut. The journey is the point.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

A book that shaped me is Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire. It’s satire, but it’s also philosophy wrapped in a wild story. The big nugget for me was this: life is brutal and absurd, but it’s still on us to choose how we respond. The line that stuck, “we must cultivate our garden.”

That’s everything. Don’t get lost in lofty theory or wait for perfect conditions. Focus on what’s in front of you, tend to it, grow it. That perspective has shaped how I build businesses, raise my kids, and create work. It’s not about optimism without limits… it’s about action, care, and responsibility in whatever patch of earth is yours to steward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.atlastwild.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atlast_wild/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bthibodeaucreative/
• Other: https://www.bthibbs.studio