Corey Blake - Vulnerability is Sexy - Episode 22

Gratitude Through Hard Times - A podcast by Chris Schembra

Corey has been storytelling for two decades since he graduated from Millikin University with a BFA in theatre in 1996. His epiphany moment in storytelling came after he played the lead in a show at Millikin called “Jeffrey.” Three months after the show closed, Corey was called by a theatre 90 minutes away who was putting on the same show, but whose lead had fallen ill. Corey was asked to drive down immediately, block out the play that afternoon with their actors, and put on the show that evening. With the help of his previous director, Corey performed the leading role, on stage for the entire two-hour show, in front of 300 people that night. He was never afraid of taking the big swing again.Working in Los Angeles for a decade, Corey was the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor (his work won Belding, Addy, Cannes, and London International Advertising awards), before working as a film producer and director, as an author and award-winning publisher, and now as the founder and president of Round Table Companies.Check out Corey’s TEDx talk, Vulnerability is Sexy and keep an eye out for Corey's HERMES and ADDY award winning short documentary by the same name.Corey is the co-author of numerous books, including Edge! A Leadership Story (Finalist 2008 National Best Books Awards) and From the Barrio to the Board Room (Finalist, 2012 International Book Award) and its companion comic book Mi Barrio (Winner, 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards; Winner Best Graphic Novel, 2012 International Latino Book Awards), which are being used around the country in schools and youth prisons to inspire at-risk youth. Corey's projects have been profiled or showcased in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Barrons, Wired, USA Today, and on NPR and Bloomberg TV.Corey is a member of the The Young Entrepreneur’s Council, the Stagen Integral Leadership Academy (Black Belt award recipient for Leadership), and is a sponsor of Conscious Capitalism and Social Venture Network. Corey is also a recent participant in the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland’s 18-month GTP program and now works with the Institute on programming for leaders. He is a frequent speaker and facilitator; his passion is using storytelling to create epiphany experiences and identity shift in people and organizations. Check out where Corey will be this year.