Topaz Adizes on Questions for Connection

Topaz Adizes is an Emmy Award winning writer, director, and experience design architect. Topaz is currently the founder and executive director of an experience design studio called “The Skin Deep,” which produces incredible, heartwarming, thoughtful, emotional videos that you can find on YouTube. They have over 1200 videos online, some of which are referenced in today’s conversation. I mention that experience design architect piece because at the beginning of this conversation, we talk about this concept that he created called “The And.” “The And” is a series of cards that you can purchase, and there are 199 questions in these boxes. These cards contain powerful questions that are meant to help build connections amongst human beings. In the beginning of this conversation, we reference the cards and how I might use them people with people in my life. He has also played in this writer/director space. His works have been selected to Cannes, Sundance, IDFA, South by Southwest, and featured in New Yorker Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. So, he is certainly an artist at heart. He is someone who loves to document life, and he has gone towards this space of bringing people together for connection. So, at his core, Topaz is a deep thinker, a thoughtful guy, who wants to make this world a little bit better than he found it.

Topaz had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“Giving people the freedom to walk away, to not answer, to not respond, is really imperative so that you create this space for people to explore” (7:55).

“There’s a lot said in the space between. We don’t have to articulate everything to feel everything” (8:15).

“Two things are required to have a cathartic conversation: creating the space and well-constructed questions” (10:45).

“Don’t ask a binary question” (17:20).

“Ask a question as a gift” (17:50).

“It’s much easier to shake a hand than a finger that’s pointing at you” (17:55).

“Be aware of the questions you’re asking” (22:05).

“The answer is shaped by the question you ask” (24:10).

“Good relationships lead to a more vital life” (29:25).

“Try to connect two things that are not usually connected” (29:35).

“I traverse this journey (of life), I learn from it, and then hopefully I can convert these sources of pain that have created hunger in me to then offer a gift” (38:10).

“The energy I put out did not come back to me in excess” (43:30).

“Why not just change one person’s life profoundly?” (29:50).

“What could I do today that would make my grandkid’s life better?” (51:50).

“I don’t think about my legacy, I just think about the future” (53:55).

“Big changes come from micro changes consistently” (54:30).

“What we do now does echo into the future to people that you will never meet” (56:30).

“I’m going to do my best to put the effort out. And then whatever happens, happens” (1:06:40).

Additionally, you can find “The Skin Deep” website here and follow them on all social media platforms at @TheSkinDeep. Lastly, you can find Topaz’s personal website here.

Thank you so much to Topaz for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.