Lidia Scarlat is a Moldova-born producer who has built a career spanning animation, motion, VFX and live events — from stage visuals for the Swan Lake Ballet to screen visuals for Jurassic World theme park, often in the very same week. ~ 
Raised in a family of artists during Moldova's turbulent post-Soviet transition, she talks with Radim about how "everything is temporary and it will be fine" became a defining philosophy, why producing means jumping off the cliff before the artist ever can, and how showing up — not waiting to be discovered — built her entire career. 

They also get into AI's growing role in creative pipelines and why taste, direction and storytelling remain the parts no machine can touch.

TAKEAWAYS

• Growing up in post-Soviet Moldova, Lidia's family shielded her from real instability while instilling the belief that everything is temporary and will be fine
• She comes from generations of artists — a polymath great-grandfather, actor grandparents, ballet-dancer parents — yet chose producing as her own way into the arts
• Producing means saying yes before anything exists — no team, no roadmap, just the intuition that you'll figure it out
• Nobody gets discovered by waiting; showing up to conferences and communities, starting with Motionographer and later OFFF, built her entire network and career
• She deliberately gives opportunities to artists without polished portfolios, because desire and hunger can't be faked or bought
• Learning to ask "stupid" questions early, instead of pretending to understand, became one of her most valuable production skills
• Every project is treated as its own "mutant" — pipeline and pace are built around the people and personalities involved, not a fixed process
• On AI: she's watched teams move from fear to curiosity, using it to iterate concepts faster, while believing taste and storytelling remain irreplaceable
• Her real measure of a good project isn't the outcome alone, but whether she'll love looking back on the process of making it

Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic

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Lidia: Yeah. I love building the conditions for other people, artists to dare, right? I think that's, probably my daring aspect.

'Cause, people think that Being a producer is being in the safe seat. 

No, it's actually jumping off the cliff first. 

 I think it's, usually as a producer you say yes before anything exists. You have no staffed team yet. There's no roadmap. Every project at the beginning is really a mutant.

 You don't really know what you're putting up with, but you have some acquired intuition of the fact that you're gonna figure it out. ​

Radim: Welcome to Daring Forever, a podcast about being human, wired for wonder, capable of courage, perpetually becoming. It's about the waves that knock us under and the strange stubborn grace with which we surface. My name is Ryan Mallenich. I'm an author, creative, and an eternally curious human being on a mission to speak to incredible people whom I call forever daring humans, those in pursuit of an extraordinary life.

Every week, I share an interview that is packed with amazing stories, value, and I can only ask you, how will you dare forever? This podcast is inspired by my upcoming book titled Daring Forever, which is now available for pre-order out in October

​

Radim: My guest today discovers she loved what happens behind the camera long before she wanted to be in front of it, and she's built an entire career chasing that curiosity. Lidia Scarlett is a producer who has spent years turning ideas into finished work across the creative industries, moving from project to project by simply showing up.

In this conversation, we talk about growing up in a family of artists, why producing means jumping off the cliff before anyone else does, and why nobody gets discovered until you show up We get into asking the questions about AI's role in the creative pipelines and why you should dare to say yes before anything exists.

It's my pleasure to share with you my conversation with Lidia Scarlett​

Radim: Hey, Lidia, it's so great to see you today. Welcome to Daring Forever. How are you doing? 

Lidia: Likewise. I am doing great. I'm excited because after every, you podcast recording or,, going on stage or, talking to people in general, I always feel very energized.

So I'm excited for the way I will feel after this podcast. 

Radim: That's a very interesting way of seeing things, and I hope that we do it, justice so you don't come out disappointed. 

Lidia: No, no, no. It's gonna be... I think it's gonna be amazing 'cause, you know, when you start going, introspective into conversations like these, you step out of your usual routine and your usual, you know, task list, and emails don't exist for, like, an hour of, or how long we're gonna be here.

 Uh, that's a good, stop and talk or stop and think or stop and share moment, and I think we need that. So I'm happy that, you're giving the space to make this happen, so thank you, Adam. 

Radim: I love this because my format. I go a couple of steps back before we go, few steps forward in understanding who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

And as I told you just before we started recording, I've met you a couple of times in person. I know a little bit about you, and there's a lot I don't know about you. And this is, kind of my, almost naive ways of conversations going, " Let me discover who this person is," and h- hopefully, and find new ways of finding the stories and philosophies that haven't been spoken about for quite a long time.

So Lidia, for those who have may not heard of you, who are you? What do you do? How would you introduce yourself? 

Lidia: All right. I usually say that at heart I'm a producer. I think on paper I'm pretty much a producer as well. So I'm a producer that, loves to make things happen in all sorts of creative industries.

 it all started, I think, when I was four years old and I recorded a song at the national radio in Moldova, my home country, and I saw, like, the huge studios, the radio. We had, like, Soviet legacy radio and TV studios. So I stepped into those, and I was singing a little song about a snowman. And I saw that, surreal space, like a different landscape, like a parallel world to the usual routine home kindergarten environment.

And I was like, "What is this planet?" So it all started back then with, the enthusiasm of stepping into a world that is behind closed doors, where kids don't usually go, right? So I recorded that song. Somehow that got me into, like, being a TV host for, like, a kids show. And there I was like, "Oh my God, this is so amazing."

Like, everything is so not lifelike, but at the same time, this is life for several hours, during the recording what I loved most was looking at what the people behind the scenes were doing. So there was this godlike voice that would, call out all the cues. there were the people behind the cameras who knew exactly what they were doing, but they were not talking amongst themselves.

They just knew what to do. And I'm like, "How is this magic happening?" So that, I loved what was going on, in the backstage world, and I was like, "I wanna do that." I putting on lovely little dresses and, you reading a script off of a prompter is cool, but I really wanna see what that person, the director over there is doing, you overseeing this whole production.

So I think that's, where I got, a little bit of a taste for, what's going on behind the scenes. So that's, where I started. 

Radim: what you describe, it I've been on a few live, recordings and Channel 4 in, in the UK, and you see, the live talk shows and the kind of stuff that happens in, at that moment in real time.

And you see the runners, the, the camera operators, and what you describe kind of gives you almost, these goosebumps because it's like an orchestra of its own because you see- Everything being so tight and so rehearsed and people being such professionals that you admire it.

Like, you're just like, "Oh, how does it go?" And like, so can, totally understand even from a different sort age perspective that seeing that stuff is really interesting. But what you just described quite beautifully, you said, "Look, a song when I was four years old." And I'm like, wait a minute.

 No four-year-old just happens to be on a stage singing a song about a snowman that's being recorded for the TV and then become a little bit, of a TV presenter, right? So let's go into this because you have clearly taken to it quite easily like a duck to What, what sort of family are you from that this didn't seem anything unusual to you?

Lidia: It did seem unusual to my parents 'cause I was basically, I will say kidnapped, but I'm not, I'm, I'm not litigating against anyone. I was basically taken from kindergarten because I could sing like, you kindergarten educators can tell what you're sort talented at. So I could sing and they were like, "Okay, we got this recording to do at the national radio station."

 So they just took me out, they grabbed me out from kindergarten and put me into that studio without telling my parents. You that's back in the days when there was no, WhatsApp chats with parents. So they came to pick me up, and I was not there, so they waited for me. And I remember, you not caring at all.

I thought things are just happening to me, and they were so amazing. anyway, I came back and they were like, "Oh, there you are. We were so stressed." But they did not think that was exotic because I do come from a, family of artists, several generations I think of artists. my great-grandfather was what we call like a Renaissance man.

 He tapped into all of the possible arts except the digital ones 'cause that was back in time. call an art he was part of it, you know, from photography to, theater, opera singing, jewelry making, painting A amazing, amazing man. I want to write a book about him, and I hope I get 

to do it at some point.

 so that was, like, one of the generations then. My grand- grandparents are actors. My parents were ballet dancers. So I grew up with the idea, do not become an artist, because being an artist in Moldova, in, post-Soviet Moldova, is not a thing to do. That's not a job. That doesn't pay. You can sing songs with your friends, but do not become an artist.

 so I became a producer instead. Cannot go too far from the artist. 

Radim: I don't think you've gone too far from the artist. But you mentioned post-Russian Moldova a few times. What was it like to grow up? And actually, for some, it might be a helpful geography lesson, a geography pointer. Where do we find Moldova, and what's the history there?

Obviously, what you're describing, you live in a post-Russian Moldova, so there's an independence. what was the feeling in the air like at that time? 

Lidia: Yeah, I was born, right when independence was happening. so Moldova is sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine in Eastern Europe.

And, it I can only describe from my lived experience. So I remember it being quite a crazy time. crime was pretty high up. burglars were going into apartments. T-t-though that hasn't happened to us, but, we've had people, you trying to open the doors while you were sleeping.

 the social situation was tense. Uh, people were coming out into a country that didn't know, you know, how to step, by itself independently. it was crazy. And my parents and my, all of my family and my friends' families, they somehow made it. They somehow got to be the heroes of our childhoods because I think I had a happy childhood despite the environment that was happening around me.

 it was pretty stressful. Th- I think the biggest stress was the fact that you you couldn't really trust, the people on the streets, or you don't walk alone at night. the scarcity was pushing people to some, crazy extremes. And that memory of, like, being afraid that someone may break into your house was kinda rough.

 that's why in Moldova, maybe in some other Eastern European countries as well, but I know for sure in Moldova, we all have double doors at our apartments, you just so we trick the burglars into, oh, one more door. Moreover, if you lived on the last floor, the top floor of your apartment building, that was the most vulnerable spot because burglars would prefer that 'cause there's nobody coming in from upstairs so there's more chances they would have more time to break into flats.

 So we were staying at the top-top level of our apartment building, and we had to build, What do you call those? Like grid... 

Radim: bars, yeah. Like a- Yes ... like a prison bars, yeah. 

Lidia: So we had to build, like, prison bars basically on the floor where our apartment was and a couple of our apartments were just so we can demotivate people to try and break in.

 you I look back at it and I'm like, "What a surreal time." 

Radim: Yeah. I mean, this has taken us in a totally different dimension. because it's given me an idea of a question, because how did you and your family offset that heaviness? there's a lot of creativity and expression in your family.

 was that part of escapism or was that necessity? It It seems like your people found a way to get through it, not only physically through building, you mesh doors and, barriers. But it sounds like there was something that people looked to the other side and found, a way to see through this and, and live through it.

Lidia: Yeah. Um, All credits go to the family and the community and the neighbors. everybody was very supportive. I don't know my neighbors these days the way I knew them back in the day. You the community was everything. and I think Maybe that's why we love celebrations that much.

Like, whenever we could party and have a good time and forget about the bad things, we would all jump into it. And so I think for, the family it became a way of coping with it, putting up with it, knowing that it was temporary and that things would change, and this is a moment of transition that we gotta protect our our close friends and family, and things will get better.

 I always grew up with the idea that no matter what happens, everything is gonna be fine. And I think that reassurance and to grow up with that reassurance is so powerful. It gives you so much, such a shield that stays for the long run. So I have no idea how they did it, but, you friends and family, kudos to you.

You did amazing. and of course things have changed. You These days Moldova is a safe place. It's a beautifully thriving, place. Everything is happening fast. We're very nimble. I love the place now, know, the harsh times that we went through did not demotivate, pushing through and vouching for it 

Radim: listening to you and you're describing a perfect making of a producer because you mentioned the word temporary and everything will be fine.

You this is just temporary and everything will be fine. And I guess in a way, what you're describing to, some listeners might be quite chaotic upbringing. You we are not always lucky to grow up in a place that's safe. You know, there's some element of unsafety in everywhere you look.

Sometimes you just don't know it. I mean, in your case it was quite prevalent and very, very clear and, and it was quite easy to feel it, if that makes sense, right? Because surrounded by it and, was there daily, but it went away and the chaos that came with it subsided a little bit.

now, as you say, Moldova is in a totally different place now, which is great to hear and I can see that what, you guys sort produce and what I can sort see coming out of Moldova is, exceptional. And I think it's, that element of being open to, to elements, right?

Because you sometimes you have some of those countries that are way too proud and they're like, "Okay, we don't collaborate so much," whatever. Um, but the element of your own sort journey for that time, es- did you have any way of your own escapism?

Did you, did you gravitate towards any element of creativity or, and any way of, output that, would give you a light in all of that? 

Lidia: Yeah, I think so. I w- again, I think m- m- my family did a very good job at protecting me from the, outside dark forces. So the childhood was happy.

And I think also in, kindergarten and in school, there was always an artistic element to our daily lives. we would do a lot of music and theater in school besides, the maths and the literature and whatnot. so I think that was, good community builder. We would do set up plays, which were pretty complex with proper costumes rented out from the National Opera House.

 Things are happening in Moldova in a slightly different ways, and it's easier, you know, to knock on the door of the opera house and be like, "We need someone dressed as a fox. Do you happen to have a fox costume for a child, please?" So 

I think that artistic element was, you could say that it was- an escapism in a way, but it was not a conscious one.

We were not, searching for things to distract ourselves with. It was more like, "This is the reality. We do what we gotta do. look at us, things are getting better." You know? And things were changing towards the better pretty fast, so we could feel that transition into moving on with our lives and learning and doing the best that we can and just putting up, at that age, with school 

Radim: It makes me think about all of this because, yeah, having grown up in a similar country and obviously not as plagued with crime or, you know, problems, but I'm sure it was there too.

 It's only on reflection when you try, to think about what, what we did and how we did it, of course, no one, really knows the escapism is there. It's only on reflection when you realize, oh, that's how we're trying to find our times or our feet or our places in the world by being free to explore, you as in your case, knocking on opera house and going like, "Hey, we need a fox costume.

 Why not?" Because I think we are more resilient than we think in that early ti- in those early years because we don't know anything different. We don't have the comparison, so, you know, oh, we we should have this, or we should have had that because you live within a society that pretty much is all cut out the same.

 So I was thinking, yeah, is it a question to ask? Because on reflection, you've got no idea if you're looking for escapism because it's only when time come- goes past and you realize, oh, that's what it was, of course. 

Lidia: Exactly. Plus, I believe maybe for, Czechia as well, but ba- exactly at that time, we started being flooded by international media quite a lot.

So we were listening to artists that were not Moldovan and, Cartoon Network came along. What a beautiful pastime to watch colorful cartoons on TV in English. Nothing was dubbed. So it was like, well, this is a different world happening on our TVs right in front of our eyes. There was nobody outside when some cool cartoons were on TV.

And also, again, this was before the whole internet era. This was when kids were playing outside and inventing their own little games. Everything was a gamified experience that came naturally. I actually found out about internet from my grandmother. we were at a stadium and she heard some teenagers say that they go to this internet cafe thing.

 And she was like, "Liddy, you should check out what the internet cafe is. Sounds like an interesting new place." I'm like, "Thanks, Grandma." She was my innovative thinker, uh, propeller. And here we are today. 

Radim: Well, we got to love Grandma for the interest. I remember seeing a computer which was plugged into the internet at a radio station back in my hometown, which was like 1995, and like the, thing at the time used to be like, " Let's surf the internet."

 And I'm like, "How do I surf the internet?" Because it's a bit like having a car with no roads to go. Like, where do I go? What am I looking for? You just, you haven't got a clue what you're looking for. But- I wanna tap into what you said about that, influence of other cultures and different languages.

 What did that feel like to have all of a sudden Cartoon Network on the TV and going, "Oh, this is different"? 

Lidia: Oh, it was curious. it was not a conscious understanding that this belongs to a different world. It was part of our world. It was something that was accessible through a remote control.

 now, again, looking back at it, I'm like, "Well, that's cool." Probably my cartoony way of talking is because of Cartoon Network. Or there were, you know, telenovelas on TV later on, a little bit later on, and my mom was like, "Oh, stop watching this," like, " soap operas" during-- you a waste of time." And then, you I learned Spanish and Portuguese from those soap operas.

So it was, it was cool. Absorbing that in a moment when there was... that kind of content was not competing with, TikToks and Instagram It also created a shared cultural moment. Everybody was watching the same things on TV. We would go back to school and talk about all the momentums or, like, the, end of a series, and everybody was chatting about it.

 I still feel like we do have those momentums nowadays in TV series or in films, but back then, those were big events, you know? We were talking about the content that we would be consuming all the time. That was part of everybody's life in sync. 

Radim: that was a good part of life because everyone, as you said, was watching the same thing.

So it wasn't when you ask friends now like, "Have you seen that thing on Netflix or on Hulu or whatever?" You're like, "Which?" Like, the, 175 square at the bottom. It's-- the urgency is no longer there because at that time, which the TV was only happening at that moment, and then you have to watch it.

 When you mentioned soap operas, did ever the Argentinians thought, " We're gonna make this stuff for, for us, and then there'll be kids in Czech Republic and Romania, Moldova, and everywhere, like, in Europe watching it going- Milagros? What is this? 

Lidia: Yes, exactly. But those conversations, that, that part of my life, like sweeps itself into today so often because, you know, at conferences I get to meet, you know, Spanish speakers or Portuguese speakers or, I worked with Marcel at State and a big part of his team speaks Portuguese, like the Brazilian Portuguese, and I then come along and I say that I watched that and that soap opera, and they're like, "Oh my God, wow, why?" So we're all connected. the whole being exposed to the wider bubble than the tiny little country of Moldova at that age, in time proved how small the world eventually is.

 It's big and small at the same time, but I think that in our industry, it's so small. We bump into each other all the time, and it feels far. we feel geographically far, from the other. But when we start, moving around, it's actually, hey, I know you and you and you, and that gives such a comforting feeling.

For someone coming from a small country, it's so comforting to see that the bigger world, the big, big world is also quite small. 

Radim: You're so right because- , you can be part of the global conversation so easily now, ' cause all you have to do is, to have the willingness to show up.

Because to have the cross-pollination of ideas, the cross-pollination of creativity, it's only made better by people who show up and take part. And the most comforting part because it doesn't really matter where you're from anymore. It, didn't matter before because if you applied yourself and if you wanted to do something, if you wanted it really bad, you would go and get it, So there's lots of stories of people that can do it really well. But what I really wanna get into is, like, How do we go from you being taken out of a kindergarten, despite your parents not knowing, being fascinated with producers, the TV sets and everything, uh, discovering Cartoon Network, teaching yourself speaking Spanish and Portuguese from novelas, and that's all making of a producer now.

So how do we trace you to the industry, from that time? wa- what was your entry? 

Lidia: Yeah, I think I stayed connected to the television and radio world in Moldova after, hosting the TV show. You end up being there, more or less present in one way or the other. at some point, I starting recording songs as a teenager, so I went off to interviews at different TV stations.

And again, I was always fascinated, more fascinated by what was happening behind the cameras and how does, live broadcast work, and how do they put out some edits so fast? I was here a minute ago, and now everything, you know, is, edited and put nicely together and packaged with a graphics package.

 So I think that how, I got into, thinking, "Oh, maybe I can produce commercials." And I think I was in, the final years at school when I started producing some commercials, then I went into being a radio host, then I went to study media. And, it works itself out from there, from student projects to, internships and work experiences, and always looking out for the next cool big project to be part of.

 I was never really seduced by the idea of just going into a company and, you attaching myself to a company, to a role in a company. I was always curious to tap into different roles and try different, various different projects, and no matter where they happen, I would be willing to go there and be part of them.

 And I think that kind of trait is, like, lingering around still today. the projects that I work with are so different. in the same one week, I was doing the stage visuals for the Swan Lake Ballet and the screen visuals for Jurassic World theme park. So s- ballet and dinosaurs on one single email page.

 that sums up the variety and the contrast of the work that keeps on happening. 

Radim: That's incredible. so what's interesting that you said you didn't fancy having a role in a company, but you fancied being free to pick and choose what you want to do, but, what tickles your fancy.

 How did you get to those projects? how did they found you? How did you find them? 

Lidia: I think the biggest sort of catalyst for getting to work on cool projects is showing up, as you were saying, showing up to conferences, meeting people, telling them, "Hey, I'm here. I'm a producer. If you have a cool project, let's chat."

 Everybody needs producers, I think, or at least at some point, everybody needed producers. So I got to know several amazing studios, got to work with them. everybody needs more than producers usually. You know, studios also roll from project to project, and sometimes their internal capacities are not enough.

 So my sort of niche became producing plus, so I would always also source for talent, curate talent, bring in talent that I worked with. Back in the days when I was working at a Moldovan animation studio, I would try to bring people who I knew into all the new projects. So I became like a temporary ad hoc animation or design department for studios that needed to increase their capacities for a particular project.

 And that shaped into a business model that I don't think existed necessarily. I'm not entirely sure I know how to formulate it these days, but it's a producer plus network that moved me from project to project. 

Radim: I love you saying that all it takes is sh-showing up. what I want to know, how did you know where to go to be seen?

Cause you talked about going to conferences because you, clearly navigate your future. You, you invented your future. But whilst you knew quite clearly what you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it, it's that moment of, "I'm gonna go there and hope for some contacts.

I'm gonna go there and, hope to do that." So how did you know where to go? Or, what was the feel that pointed you towards the future? 

Lidia: actually, I think I know exactly the answer Several years ago, I discovered Motionographer.

I looked at the amazing motion work that was being done around the world, so I started looking to who is doing those works, who are those studios, who are those artists. I was like, "Maybe one day I can work with them. I can help make those projects happen." So I started looking into their stories, and I saw that they're speaking here and there, and, you know, a lot of paths led to OFFF.

So I was like, "Let's go to OFFF." And eight years ago, I went to OFFF for the very first time. Uh, when I went there, I was like, "Oh, I wanna be on that stage one day." I feel I feel so connected and disconnected from this world at the same time. Connected because I wanna be part of it, disconnected because I'm not yet part of it.

That was me eight years ago. And then random this year I was on stage moderating a panel at OFFF, and I was like, "Oh 

my God, this is a dream come true."

Radim: It was a- And- Yeah, it was a great pleasure to hand the stage over to you because we did that interview with PJ Richardson just before you. And I think what's amazing that you're projecting is, is that trajectory taking you forward, and even done, you don't have a defined beginning, middle bit, and the end.

 You know the energy that wants you to take you there. You know? So So I think what Even when you mentioned with Motionographer, it's like having the idea where you're gonna sow your seeds and actually show up in the places where the connection can be done.

Because I purposely asked that question because there's just still in 2026, we still have lots of people who maybe unknowingly just be sitting behind their portfolios hoping that someone will come and find them. And in 2026, if ever, it's really hard to see people waiting to be found unless you're sitting on a pot of gold and incredible talent, yes, you will be found.

 But I don't think it's ever been more important to actually go out and really d- design your future, uh, invent your future, because it is out there, and you understand, you're one of the people proving the fact that I wanted to be a producer, I wanted to do this type of work, and I'm doing it. 

Lidia: Yes.

Nobody is looking for you. unless you put yourself out there, nobody's gonna discover you. I feel like if we go back to childhood times, I feel like there was that kind of a narrative that, oh, talents get discovered. You know, there's, like, headhunters, that you should just wait to be discovered by, as a music artist, for example, by an amazing producer that will then propel you into your beautiful super-duper future.

 that doesn't happen. Nobody knows you exist. you could have the most beautiful portfolio, but if you don't put it out there, it's not gonna be seen by anyone. And at the same time, you can lack a beautiful portfolio and be very seen by people just because you show up, you join the conversations, you're someone people may want to work with.

 I've done that countless of times. I've given, opportunities to artists who do not have portfolios just because I feel that they have that desire which you cannot buy with anything, and that they're jumping at the opportunity. And when they're jumping at the opportunity, they're like, " Let me prove to you that I can do a great job."

And I'm like, "All right, you got my attention. You got my attention. Let's do it." And I've seen amazing projects when, you social media management company did the craziest, beautiful looking 3D designs, like surreal 3D designs. I'm like, "Wow, that was not exactly part of your About section on your website, but I'm happy that this opportunity presented in front of you," and they performed, you know?

, As a producer, I know what it's like to look at a portfolio and be like, " This is the person I wanna work with, and that I'm not sure because I don't see what I'm looking for in their portfolio." s- for a production, rational thinking, yes, we usually choose based on what we see in someone's portfolio But the reality is that sometimes the hidden gems may surprise you in the most beautiful ways.

 So I'm always trying to keep an eye out for, opportunities in projects that allow, creatives to make that jump outside of what they're visibly already putting out there in order to raise the bar for themselves and, you know, prove to the team that, "Hey, I actually can do this. I just haven't had the opportunity to do it yet."

Radim: . As you're telling me this, I'm thinking about the five chapters of Daring Forever, which is Daring Forever, permission, acceptance, curiosity, and gratitude.

 You are displaying all of them so beautifully here because you've elected yourself to give yourself permission to be exploring the world and actually finding where you want to be, accepting yourself in the world, actually saying, "Look, this is, this is who I am, where I'm from, this is what I can do for the world."

 that curiosity that's taking you to places where only you could go because you realize that with the unique mix of the, your sort childhood background, the skills you did, the skills that you've learned, the, curiosity that you've sort picked up along the way has taken you to a very unique, singular place where you're very much driving your future.

Like you can decide where you want to be, how you want to dare to show up, and how you wanna dare to put people together. Because putting in permission now in other people's lives and in other people's creative worlds is something so remarkable because it comes from a place of gratitude.

Because you recognize that the hungriest talent might not be the best talent, but it's the hunger that makes the talent really good in long term, rather than someone who's re-remarkably excellent and go, "Yeah, you know what? I don't really exactly care." So I think, putting it to the format of the, of book, uh, your life is beautifully lived that way, in my opinion.

Because I think there is a definitely way of searching for daring forever or daring creativity in a way that it's not the silly, crazy, you know, reckless. It's actually very calculated, formulated idea of like, who do I wanna be in the world, and how do I wanna show up? And I love what you've told me so far because it very much feels that even though the shapelessness of a word producer, you know, you could produce many different things.

 But it's the way of actually being able to go and connect with people and actually create these environments, which is something you can't, you fake, right? 

Lidia: Yeah. I love building the conditions for other people, artists to dare, right? I think that's, probably my daring aspect.

'Cause, people think that Being a producer is being in the safe seat. 

No, it's actually jumping off the cliff first. 

 I think it's, usually as a producer you say yes before anything exists. You have no staffed team yet. There's no roadmap. Every project at the beginning is really a mutant.

 You don't really know what you're putting up with, but you have some acquired intuition of the fact that you're gonna figure it out. You don't know the answers, but you kinda know where the questions are gonna be and how they're gonna pop up. as producers are saying yes before, before anything else happens, and you know, that jump happens very early for producers, and if we don't take that jump, if we don't take that leap, then the artist's leap doesn't happen within that project.

 So I think it's a beautiful kind daring thing to do to say yes to a project which feels like this transformer of a thing that could become anything, and then you dive into the conversations with, you know, the creative director or all the stakeholders to understand what is it that we're actually doing, but yes, let's do it.

Radim: That is fascinating because I wanted to know about you obviously being a producer and having people skills and soft skills, like how do you get this across the line, but you totally took that question away from me because you said, "I'm the one who jumps off the cliff first." So, having worked with so many producers and companies before, I I somehow didn't connect the dots.

 So when you get a proposal of a new project, what state is it in? Because it sounds like there's only an idea, really. 

Lidia: It's usually just an idea. Sometimes that idea is beautifully packaged as a briefing paper, which a lot of times is just information about the company that is the client.

You Here's the big thing about us, and we want a rebrand." No further details at this point. Like, " do you wanna help us make it happen?" Sure. Yes. Let, let's figure stuff out. sometimes the initial briefs are not exactly what the people, what the companies, are actually looking for.

You know, is there a deeper problem that they're trying to solve? We don't know yet. So a lot of times things start with, deep dive and, like, come to Jesus kinda conversations with the client to understand what is it that they're actually looking for. is the briefing paper that they sent over, you know, like a ChatGPT version of someone's notes?

 it's always different. But sometimes you do get a very clear, you know, deck of, instructions that are ready to be executed. I love those projects. They also are a bit scary because that means someone already knows what needs to get done. then as a producer, you're like, "Okay, let me see if I can align with that.

I don't I wanna show that I understand, I get what, where they're coming from. And at first, in my first years in this craft I was afraid to ask questions because I thought that suggests that I may not know the answers. And the longer I'm in this, the more I understand that you gotta ask all the questions, even if the questions are stupid.

If it helps, put a disclaimer out there saying, "I'm gonna ask some obvious questions," but do ask the questions because, 80% of the times you may think that the answer may be A, but the answer is actually F. And nobody, appreciates it when a question is not asked at the right time. And, you asking questions about a specific project or about a specific need actually shows that you're thoughtful and care, and you're anticipating things that can be answered early in the process rather than coming back to them at the end where it's like, "Oh, wait, that's what we were supposed to do?"

 we cannot read people's minds, you if we say think of an apple, you may think of a red one. I will probably think of the logo of the apple, you know? we're in separate thinking territories even if the questions seem obvious. But I love putting all the questions out there. You never know how they may not even have the answers at that time about the most obvious things to put on the table.

Radim: I think the realization where in your younger self that asking question is your superpower, not a sign of weakness, It's so liberating because my TEDx talk, really went back to my early, creative years, and I realized to actually find even just a resilience in creative process, asking questions, relentless questions, you know, crazy questions all the time is your superpower.

Because you then got nothing to worry about did anything go wrong because I didn't understand. Like, having the opportunity to question it, not to probe everything from every angle. your case, as you agree, like, you find that the people who give you the initial answers were not aware of the questions that you can think of because we see the reality from different perspectives.

Like, our minds are still processing, like, how, what is in this concept. And therefore, like, having more questions actually opens up a lot more horizons, a lot more possibilities in everything that we do because I think it's still easy you when you're young to, to say, "Look, I'm gonna pretend I know everything."

Do you know the answer? Of course. Yeah, I'm nodding. I should be saying no, but I'm nodding. Then you realize, why did you do it wrong? Like, because I thought I did it right. Like, no, no, no, no, no. It's just I think one of the early super skills And you can learn as a creative or as a human, just say, "Look, I don't because nobody else knows. Like, it's not my weakness. Like, Just because I've been here for five seconds doesn't mean I'm a superhero and I know everything about everyone. It's that ability to ask is incredible. And you know what? the theme of asking questions in, in different ways of life, of, projects, of creativity, is almost one of the recurring themes of this season, because daring forever or daring creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum, and it's usually something that happens over there that you want.

And as you said, we don't know what we're going to do, which I call the now, and then you realize how. How are we gonna do it? Okay, we'll find out. But I think that beautiful unknown in this, goes back to that permission, acceptance, curiosity, gratitude, because most of us are so lucky to be doing this for a living and being able to solve people's problems and being able to ask lots of questions.

Lidia: Exactly. And there's so many ways to produce a cake. You know, you can have multiple ways, multiple pipelines.

Um, how do you choose the one that is accurate for a particular project? we're not in the conveyor type of business. Every single project needs a different approach, and it's those questions being asked and those discussions had. You different pipelines can happen based on different personalities of the people who are in those Zoom calls.

 someone may feel like they need to know all of the schedule from day one, and then you build around that reassurance. Whereas others, they really just wanna nail down what the actual need of the project is. So a lot of the times, like, projects start without any pipeline even being real, and then you assemble it based on the understanding of the personalities involved.

 what is this beast that we are creating? do we want to have, a more aggressive or, dynamic pace to the project, or is this a more zen type of project that we're building? So there's so many different ways in which the same project can be produced based on who is part of it, what's the end goal, what's the effect that we want to have from it.

Radim: So now is my time to ask the question that I wanted to ask earlier, which is, this is a people business. This is a creative people business, and it's always pays worth to understand yourself before you go and work with others, because I always say that not just the creative industry, is full of unresolved people trying to do something together without really understanding each other, let alone themselves.

 And within the creative processes, you you got the geniuses, you got people who are incredibly talented, you got people who are more pragmatic, you know, people who are more lo- logical, more system-based, and you put them all together and go, "Go, make magic." And be like, "Oh, how do we do this?"

So I wanna know from you, how how did you learn to understand people? How did you learn those soft skills, and how do you apply it, and how do you know? I mean, you jumping off the cliff first, but you still have to hold the ship together. So people and production, how do we get on with this?

Lidia: I think we like working with people who we like. It's easier for us to work with people who we like, because again, every project is a different mutant at first, and when you don't have the answers to all the questions, that is a vulnerable position to be in. And being in that position with strangers may come across as, you know, you may impose that on yourself.

You may think that they think that you don't have it together just because you're still figuring out the answers to the questions. So that blocks you thinking, "Oh, they probably think I'm not a no bueno of a producer right here." And sometimes it's easier to work with people who you have been through the trenches with because they know that, ah, you're you're gonna shine after the third client meeting.

 And until the third client meeting, you're still, you know, build- drawing the sketch of this project So I think it's easy to work with people who you like working with, people who you've worked with in the past. But I'm always loving getting to know new people and knowing getting to work with new people because in that case, that, you know, broadens your understanding of how people function, how different people communicate, what are the priorities for, different stakeholders.

I love reading and taking notes from people's emails, like their writing style. I'm like, "Oh, I wish I could write like that." I'm like, I have this, document of, like, cool emails that people wrote. Just, like, phrases, you know, when they're on vacation, and they have, this cool phrase.

I'm like, "Oh," like, you gotta work with multiple people to get to collect, different personalities, and I think it comes back to the curiosity that you mentioned. we are in a-- one of the most joyful industries. We get to create beautiful things if projects allow, we get to create beautiful things.

Oftentimes when working with brands that are not necessarily creative brands, we are the best part of their week, right? Our Zoom calls are their best Zoom calls. Like, they come in with a joy of being part of something that is outside of their routine, and I treasure that. That's why I love working with very different people from very different backgrounds and, walk them through this beautiful world of creative industries that we're still figuring out ourselves.

Radim: 100%. 100%. thought at first you gave me a bit of a cop-out answer because you said, "Look, we just only work with people we like." I'm like, "Oh, that's easy." I mean, that's one way of keeping out of trouble. But then you said you could keep it wider because as you were, telling me your reply, I was thinking about did the love for telenovelas and seeing a different world across and across the screen, did it teach you, did you prepare you for cultural differences?

Or did... cause we all have a different flavor of human, right? With, depending where we are. you ever, find any recognition or pattern recognition in how people are, how people carry themselves in different parts of the world through such thing as, you know, watching TV at a young age?

Lidia: Yeah, I'm s- I feel like I'm so agnostic to that. I feel like there's so many different characters in different regions. And, a lot of the times maybe it comes down to the type of project. I know some, corporate branding projects may have different, types of conversations in them.

 But no, everybody's, super different. You asked earlier how do we get to build a sense of how to talk to people, and I think that comes from, the type of friends that we build when we're teenagers maybe. Those personalities that are shaping our personality in time.

 But also just being, open about knowing the people who you talk to. And of course, in projects, we never start a new project by asking, you What's your favorite color?" And stuff like that. You know, everything is always about business in a way. But you still get a feel of, ah, this call allows for a little bit more humor.

That kind of call is-- should be, straight on point. If we can finish 10 minutes earlier, everybody's gonna be the happiest. This call actually needs five minutes of talking about the cats and dogs. it's super different. I wish I could know a pattern that may make life easier, but, I don't yet.

Maybe your next book, Radim. 

Radim: Maybe, maybe. got a question about being a producer and a variety, ' cause if you're creative, you sometimes have your niche, you have your preference, signature style. And having known a few producers, they go where the wind takes them. Like, literally, like, I'm working on this, I'm working on that, and it's got nothing to do with, you know, one another.

 But I guess the process of problem-solving is applicable to most of situations and most projects. But the execution and the meat and the sausage, if, that make any sense, almost doesn't matter to them because it's the final outcome that they're producing. So in your case, do you have preferences on the projects you work on, or you just take anything, that, you can solve?

Lidia: That's a great question 

Radim: Did you say no to many things? 

Lidia: I don't like saying no. I say no when things get busy. I don't like saying no, but at the same time, I like projects that are loud and bold and, that afterwards that I can also talk about them and, wave the flag of that project.

 I think I've been lucky to not have projects come my way that would, make me be like, "Uh-uh, not my kind of stuff." Maybe that was some sort of an intuitive curation that I kind put myself in front of maybe. Yeah, I haven't said no to things in a long time. 

Radim: I think so what you just said, I think makes perfect sense because you live and breathe what you want to do and what you do, and therefore the right opportunities find you. And I think it almost feels similar to a signature style because you're known for solving certain, problems. If you're a signature style, you have most of let's say 95% of inquiries will be similar to your signature style.

 The producers that I've mentioned, they're usually-- the, the people I know, they're very happy to be diverse. So I think they get approached by more diverse things. You know? I think this is, what you project in the universe comes back to you in the same way. You know? if you're really passionate about, as you said, your loud projects when you can fly the flag afterwards, you in my opinion, the universe will normally find you there. But if you say, "Look, I'm happy to produce something which is totally out of my wheelhouse normally, people will be like, " Okay, yeah, I mean, if, that's what you got, then we'll, catch up with you."

So when you said that, I was like, yeah, there's, we've got different perception of reality. We've got different humans, different flavors of humans. That's how it works. Of course, it makes sense now. 

Lidia: I, I'm diving from project to project, and I don't even know what my wheelhouse would be.

I know that I usually work with people who trust the fact that something can be done, and even if it's a hybrid unclear thing at the beginning, it's still something very cool that they're passionate about. And somehow, the projects that are not that exciting kind of filter themself out.

 sometimes, client doesn't follow through cause they're not that excited about their own project. It's like, all right, we're gonna work on, big cool stuff that, you know, everybody actually wants to make it happen. 

Radim: I like the answer. I like the answer because, yeah, you're right.

I thought about it similarly with the clients who come in on hot and they're like, "We need all of this done real quick." And then you do the first draft, obviously you sign a contract, everything, and then six months later they still haven't seen the first proof. They're like, " Wait a minute. I thought you guys were in a hurry," right?

Because again, asking and probing and getting to find out who you're working with matters in that way. when I think about your role in the creative process, and obviously we've got this cloud of emergency of AI, your role is safe because you're in a people business.

You're you're pulling the strings behind the scenes. But how have you seen changes with the, you Gen AI and all of that stuff coming into process? Because yes, we know from the insides, obviously from behind the scenes in, the world of motion and creativity, that having the ability to have AI to actually upscale to, basically add an extra engine to what you do is excellent.

 You just don't necessarily obviously hope that it will produce creative ideas. But from your side of things and, you being, you said, in the trenches with the same people for quite a while, what have you seen the change, the attitudes, the hopes and fears, the excitements? What have you seen? 

Lidia: I've seen all of that.

 I've seen, um- a sense of, proud frustration at the beginning with like, "Oh, AI cannot do what we do." And then a sense of curiosity, "Wait, but can AI help us do what we do better?" And then a sense of fear of like, "Oh my 

God, AI will just do what we do." 

 I think it's a flux and it's a mix of all of these things together.

I was in an, insightful conversation for, the recent launch of the, Stash annual magazine, and that conversation was about the future of production with AI. And Ed Ulbrich at Moon Valley was so insightful. He was so passionate about how AI is actually gonna make great artists better and how it's gonna empower the creative community because, you there's AI slop and we're not even looking in that direction.

We're thinking about how AI automate the things that we don't like doing, or how can they make us think faster? A lot of the studios that were in that roundtable conversations, they were saying that, yes, we use AI for, getting through to the main concept faster. You know, we iterate faster concepts, ideas.

 We iterate previews. Instead of rolling into Pinterest boards, we roll into, prompted images that we prompt and we see tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. So as curators and as art directors and as creative directors, it's a faster way to get to the initial stage of the actual production. I've seen that being used extensively around studios.

 I've seen, tech leads using AI to make some of their processes faster, but it's not something that you can just hop on a, into a browser and prompt and get it done. It's still node-based formulations to make, your 3D pipeline, for example, work faster. I'm curious. I'm very curious about where this all is gonna go.

I'm very curious about how, we can focus on the taste of understanding art and visual and audiovisual work rather than just execute on it. So I think those who have an executor mindset should quickly switch into, you know, learning directing, screenwriting, scriptwriting, storytelling because those are the things that are, not replaceable.

humor, situational, anecdotal storytelling AI can go that far with it At 

Radim: the beginning of the conversation, you told me that at the time of, uh, Moldova's transition period, you recognized that things were temporary and everything would be fine. It seems like this transitional period with our creativity with AI and everything that we're trying to learn is temporary and everything will be fine.

Because when you think of the true reason why and how do we create, why we create and who we create it for, we've always had sets of tools. We had Photoshop filters and plugins and things and, you render farms and whatever. Like, we were always on the way to something. And I think the idea that somehow all of that would stop after hundreds and thousands of years, maybe that was too big a number.

 But, to have an idea that that will all of a sudden stop is ludicrous, right? Because it's how we make a sense of the landscape, all of us together with everyone having, again, their own perspective, asking their own questions, not always agree on everything because we have different reality and a different way of seeing reality.

So yeah, I can only close up this conversation saying, well, whatever you're feeling is temporary, and it will be, it'll be fine. Lidia, I really enjoyed this conversation. Thanks for coming on and chatting to me because we normally would have this conversation around a dinner table somewhere at a festival, and it's something that I wanted to record and share with the world because what you do, again, shows, whoever might be listening to this t- today or in the future, that there is another way of actually working with creative people.

 there's another way of creating magic and actually being able to share it with the world. So thank you for what you do, and thank you for being here. 

Lidia: Thank you so much. Yes. I hope with AI or without AI, I hope that I can continue, you know, building that container in a way for artists to dare, to take the risks that they want to take, and ultimately love the work that they're doing.

And yeah, I was thinking after you asked me about what kind of projects, you know, do I love working on. I love working on projects that I love looking back at. either process-wise or ideally process-wise plus the end result, you When you look back and you're like, you have that museum like a personal museum of projects that you look back at and you're like, "Ah, so gorgeous," that's the kind of stuff that is, you know, never done solo.

So I'll keep on making space for people to do their best work so that we can all look back at that with a happy face and be like, "Yeah, we made that." 

Radim: Speaks of your passion. Speaks of everything. Thank you so much. 

Lidia: Thank you

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Radim: Hey, thank you for joining me on this episode of the Daring Forever podcast. As always, I'd love to know your thoughts, questions, and even suggestions, so please get in touch via the show notes or social channels. This episode was produced and presented by me, Radim Malinich. The audio production was done by Neil McKay from Seven Million Bikes podcast.

Thank you for being here, and I hope to catch you on the next episode

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