It’s great to have been relevant back then and to still be going right now.
Relationships are important. Nurturing your relationships and being reliable and creative can help you create an empire.
It certainly helped D-Nice do just that. He started out his career as a musician in the 90s just as the rap and hip hop scene was coming up. But when he wanted to make a change, it was the people that he knew that allowed him to build a career as a creative entrepreneur and photographer.
As if that wasn’t enough, he’s now a DJ too. The life of a DJ allows him access to take some incredible behind the scenes pictures.
D-Nice is the kind of creative that many of us could only wish to be, but his goal is to give back by inspiring the next generation of hip hop.
Take a listen to today’s episode to hear about how he changed his path, the importance of his friends, and what he wants his legacy to be.
I figured out early on it wasn’t enough for me to just be an artist.
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It’s great to have been relevant back then and to still be going right now.
Relationships are important. Nurturing your relationships and being reliable and creative can help you create an empire.
It certainly helped D-Nice do just that. He started out his career as a musician in the 90s just as the rap and hip hop scene was coming up. But when he wanted to make a change, it was the people that he knew that allowed him to build a career as a creative entrepreneur and photographer.
As if that wasn’t enough, he’s now a DJ too. The life of a DJ allows him access to take some incredible behind the scenes pictures.
D-Nice is the kind of creative that many of us could only wish to be, but his goal is to give back by inspiring the next generation of hip hop.
Take a listen to today’s episode to hear about how he changed his path, the importance of his friends, and what he wants his legacy to be.
I figured out early on it wasn’t enough for me to just be an artist.
[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/nickonken/d-nice” title=”How To Use One Creative Field To Build Another” artist=”D-Nice” image=”https://nionlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/60_D-Nice_NIONradio_02.jpg” color=”#de4b9b” ]







It’s great to have been relevant back then and to still be going right now.
Relationships are important. Nurturing your relationships and being reliable and creative can help you create an empire.
It certainly helped D-Nice do just that. He started out his career as a musician in the 90s just as the rap and hip hop scene was coming up. But when he wanted to make a change, it was the people that he knew that allowed him to build a career as a creative entrepreneur and photographer.
As if that wasn’t enough, he’s now a DJ too. The life of a DJ allows him access to take some incredible behind the scenes pictures.
D-Nice is the kind of creative that many of us could only wish to be, but his goal is to give back by inspiring the next generation of hip hop.
Take a listen to today’s episode to hear about how he changed his path, the importance of his friends, and what he wants his legacy to be.
I figured out early on it wasn’t enough for me to just be an artist.
[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/nickonken/d-nice” title=”How To Use One Creative Field To Build Another” artist=”D-Nice” image=”https://nionlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/60_D-Nice_NIONradio_02.jpg” color=”#de4b9b” ]

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Emanate is a creative-direction-led photography experience for entrepreneurs, speakers, and thought leaders in a moment of expansion. This isn’t about better photos. It’s about aligning how you’re seen with who you’ve become. For seasons of rebrand, visibility, and next-level leadership.
Magnetic Authority is a self-guided container for people who feel visible, but not fully anchored.
If your message keeps shifting, your brand feels inconsistent, or your presence doesn’t match your capability yet. This is where you build the foundation before you scale.
For founders, creatives, and leaders who want a trusted long-term partner. This isn’t coaching or traditional consulting.
It’s an ongoing creative partnership focused on bringing your personal brand identity to life.
Your brand. Your website. Your visuals.
All shaped as a direct extension of who you are. The work also includes a bespoke process of identifying and aligning the right experts when needed, so nothing gets built out of sync with your core.
Quiet. Precise. Highly Selective.

I spent a month training kung fu in Wudang at 47, the oldest and slowest learner in the room. What being a beginner again in midlife taught me about pace, comparison, and starting anyway.

You develop taste through thousands of reps of looking closely and deciding what works. A photographer’s honest answer on how taste gets built.

You make a personal brand more coherent by naming the identity underneath it, distilling a one or two word through-line, and bringing the four layers into agreement. The full path, in order.

You cannot pour from an empty well. Travel is how I refill mine. Here is why new places are creative input rather than a break from the work, and why output without input runs dry.

There is a difference between making something and performing the act of making it. Here is what I learned about the creative act, content, and why the resistance is the whole game.

AI can generate endless brand content, but it cannot construct the identity underneath it. Here is the real line between what AI can do for your brand and what only you can.

Burnout is less a willpower problem than a nervous system running with no recovery. Here is what I learned about creative recovery from social media burnout and a reset in Costa Rica.

Most brand photographers take good photos of you. Few capture who you actually are. Here is what to look for when hiring a brand photographer so your images match your authority.

Taste is less a gift than a discipline you build through thousands of reps of seeing. Here is what twenty-five years behind a camera taught me about the art of seeing.

Visual Frequency of Authority is the energetic signature your images transmit before anyone reads a word. What it means and why two people with the same credentials read so differently.

Every personal brand stalls in one of three gaps: Identity, Signal, or Infrastructure. Most people have the third and spend years fixing the first.

A month of kung fu training in Wudang, China taught me that the body learns at the speed of honesty rather than the speed of ambition. Here is what martial arts taught me about practice.
I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here.
I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here.