Guy Kawasaki Speaks About His Career Journey, Remarkable People & Canva

Guy is the Chief Evangelist of Canva, podcaster, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He has had a rich career history, working at a jewelry manufacturer, then working at Apple Inc. as their software evangelist and their chief evangelist while starting new companies in between. Now, Guy is currently at Canva while also representing Mercedes as a brand ambassador and hosting his podcast “Remarkable People”.

Remarkable People obviously focuses on remarkable people, where Guy interviews such individuals as James Goodal, Margaret Atwood, Andrew Yang, Stephen Pinker, and many more. Guys' goal is to reward remarkable people by showcasing their amazing lives and lessons and how they got where they are today. Guy has 37 years of exposure to these talented people and he has connections that allow him to be able to interview the great minds of today through his exposure to the world, and the fact that so many great people have been on the show is a great incentive too. “The more I go along, actually the easier it gets,” Guy says that he'd rather seek out these people rather than them come to him, he finds that anyone who asks to be on the show, probably should not be.

For marketers who are interested in listening to related “Remarkable People” episodes he suggests:

• Dr. Robert Cialdini, The Grandfather of Influence
• David Aaker, The Father of Modern Branding
• iJustine, Digital Influencer & Youtuber
• Gary Vaynerchuk

Guy thinks the biggest shift when it comes to marketing over the years is social media. “Social media just changed marketing, I think completely, for the better and the worse,” he argues. The good is that you can earn your respect using social media in a fast way with content generation or articles. The bad thing is, the trolls and fake news have shown us how much of an echo chamber social platforms can be.

When it comes to Canva, it works as a fantastic tool to produce and design all sorts of graphics. But Guy says that it was never their intent to put graphic designers out of business. “What we wanted to do was democratize design, and empower everyone,” Guy explains, but you can use Canva for everything. Although important brand assets like logos and brand guidelines are something you can’t just hop onto their platform for, you need expertise and a trained eye. It's a matter of knowing what you can do yourself and what you need a professional for, but for collateral like signs, social media posts, infographics, and much more it is a fantastic tool. Guy argues that Canva offers an opportunity for anyone to become a designer, and for designers to empower themselves to become even better. Guy has the “Guy’s Golden Touch”, as he calls it, everything he touches is gold because he knows the difference between the good products and the trash.

If anyone is interested in using Canva, you can subscribe to their free version which offers most of the Canva technology or the paid which offers a wide selection of stock photos and allows you to input your brand guides.

Written by Juliana Bermudez