Steffen Stäuber

Welcome back to MOE Podventures!In episode 6, Darren Robson talks to MOE Trustee Steffen Stäuber - Founder and CEO of Create Meaning, who has dedicated his life to all forms of creativity.Steffen begins the episode by talking about his childhood and how he spent it in the highly entrepreneurial town of Stuttgart Germany, the home to famous manufacturers such as Porsche and Bosch. We learn how he developed a love of graffiti and an ability to use art and beauty to unleash his rebellious side and ask questions of society and its ideals.We hear how from struggling at school (not wanting to sit still and study) Steffen segweyed into graphic design through an internship and found his calling of being a creative. However, his experience of working in advertising started to not sit too well with him as he began to identify manipulation was at work to get people to buy ‘stuff’ they did not need.Moving through the episode, Steffen talks about taking control of his calling and moving to freelancing with a definite focus in mind “What do I do that’s meaningful? With learnings I must create solutions that make a real difference”. By not finding the answers, with the commercial work he was undertaking, he began to travel. In his 30th year he left everything behind and all he had built - with the first part of his journey being about curiosity, and the second being about digesting and going deeper into his own inner journey. This transformative adventure involved meeting people along the way who inspired Steffen to look to the old wisdom traditions for the answers he was seeking to the question: What is it we need to build and how do we lead?Steffen continues by explaining how he discovered timeless insights and an appreciation that these wisdoms simply needed applying in a different context – that many ancient wisdoms are as valid today as they always have been in overcoming challenges and successfully relating and living together as human beings, of us working together as a collective.Bringing all the learning and insights to his business, Steffen shares how he now adopts ancient wisdoms to contemporary business challenges to provide holistic answers and empower future decision-makers to create meaningful impact.This episode of MOE Podventures is all about curiosity and finding your calling – how by questioning the system, and being true to your own philosophies, you can create a personal and professional life which reflects your true beliefs to create entrepreneurial impact.