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Shabnam Mogharabi      

Founder & CEO, The Joy Brigade; Co-Founder of SoulPancake; Entertainment Entrepreneur, Producer & Author

Shabnam Mogharabi is an entertainment entrepreneur and producer with 20 years of experience leading mission-driven media companies.

Mogharabi co-founded the uplifting content studio SoulPancake with actor Rainn Wilson. She ran it as CEO for nearly a decade, amassing 1B+ online video views and dozens of Emmy and Webby Awards on its content slate before a successful exit to Participant Media. During her tenure, she was named The Hustle's Entrepreneur of the Year, and SoulPancake was named to Inc5000's Fastest Growing Businesses and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Media.

Currently, Mogharabi is the founder and CEO of The Joy Brigade, a consulting and advisory firm that helps early- and mid-stage media, entertainment, and tech companies with strategy, business planning, culture, content creation, and storytelling. Her clients have ranged from an independent children's media start-up to a Series B documentary studio to large national news platforms.

Mogharabi sits on the advisory boards of for-profit startups Seed & Spark and Sunset Vibes Swimwear, the Wayfarer Foundation, and national non-profits Tahirih Justice Center and Girl Rising. She is a lifelong student of positive psychology and a highly sought-after public speaker on the subjects of joy and purpose.

Mogharabi is a Henry Crown Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She began her career in journalism, where she ran large editorial newsrooms. She has always been drawn to companies whose mission and culture align with her personal values and desire to tell stories that create hope in a depleted world. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two littles, and a nutty mutt named Ziggy.

Speech Topics

Storytelling for Marketers

A society is influenced by and reflected in its stories. As individuals, and as marketers, understanding the art and science of storytelling can be a powerful personal and professional tool. Storytelling can play an important role in your company, meetings, and cultures, as well as in helping your business spread ideas and engender brand loyalty. In this keynote presentation, entertainment entrepreneur and producer Shabnam Mogharabi will offer insights into how and where to leverage storytelling as a marketing tool, what powerful moments lead to the strongest stories, and how to find opportunities for storytelling to impact your internal teams. Leveraging real-world examples, case studies, videos, and interactive exercises, she will give attendees the tools they need to tell memorable, impactful, and effective stories.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Discover tips and tricks for becoming a better storyteller
  • Understand the 4 EPIC moments that lead to the most memorable stories
  • Learn when and how to leverage storytelling as a marketing loyalty tool
  • Gain insights into the power of story for building stronger team cultures

How to Harness the Power of Joy

We are more distracted, lonelier, and anxious than ever in history. And the past few years has only exacerbated this mental health crisis. In today’s world, embracing the power of joy is an act of rebellion. In this insightful, interactive session, entertainment entrepreneur and storyteller Shabnam Mogharabi will share practical tips and easy-to-implement learnings from her work creating uplifting and inspiring video content about what it takes to truly bring more joy into your life both personally and professionally. Shabnam believes that joy is more than an emotion; it’s a propelling and powerful force for good. And in this keynote, she will show attendees how to harness the power of positive psychology to shift their perspective away from toxic positivity to a meaningful mindset change.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand why joy is a state of mind, not an emotion
  • Discover a matrix of tools to help you create a more psychologically positive response to events in your life
  • Learn methods for practicing gratitude and vulnerability in your day-to-day interactions and relationships
  • Gain specific insights and inspiration to overcome the hardwired “anxious” voice in our brains

Know Your Why, Know Yourself

Every day we are bombarded with messages that a life without purpose is a life without direction and meaning. Companies are being urged to stand for something in order to survive. The pressure is on - personally and professionally. It seems that knowing your purpose unlocks your superpower. But what if you don’t know what that purpose is… or how best to find it? In this personal development session, entrepreneur Shabnam Mogharabi pulls back the curtain on the purpose myth to reframe what it means to know yourself. By pulling lessons from her own experience and her time leading a purpose-driven entertainment studio, SoulPancake, Shabnam will help audience members figure out their personal “why” and develop a personal plan to fulfillment by investing in our basic human need to be of use.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Discover how the world’s best leaders think about their personal purpose
  • Learn how to unlink your “why” from the “what” that you do every day
  • Understand and engage in a helpful framework for defining your own personal purpose
  • Engage in a strategy around being more “useful” as a path to fulfilling your purpose

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