Pickles & Pasta with Steph and Jay
Welcome to Pickles & Pasta—a podcast about living creatively, loving boldly, and staying grounded in a world that often feels anything but.
Steph and Jay met (or as Jay says “reconnected”) just before the pandemic and have been building a life—and a creative partnership—ever since. Together, they live, work, and support each other’s ventures while navigating the messy, beautiful chaos of modern life.
No agendas. No sides. Just real conversations—sometimes deep, sometimes hilarious, always honest.
This is their space to talk about creativity, connection, relationships, and everything in between.
Pull up a chair. Let’s dig in.
About Steph
Stephanie Rado Taormina is the CEO and founder of Have Some Fun Today, a lifestyle brand inspired by her late father's mantra to live boldly and joyfully. With over 25 years of experience in branding, fashion, interiors, and entrepreneurship, she brings a sharp creative vision to everything she touches.
A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Stephanie has reignited her fine art career since 2021—creating emotionally driven abstract work and building a growing marketplace for contemporary art. While integrating her artistic voice into the evolution of HSFT, she also maintains an independent studio practice focused on exhibitions, fine art prints, and creative collaborations.
As co-host of the podcast Pickles & Pasta with Steph & Jay, she brings thoughtful, unscripted insight to conversations about creativity, culture, and navigating modern life.
About Jay
Jay Schweid is a native New Yorker, creative entrepreneur, and cultural shapeshifter with a career that’s anything but conventional. From launching JCS, a bespoke racket service trusted by tennis icons like McEnroe and Agassi, to co-founding The Spot—a legendary South Beach lounge with Mickey Rourke—Jay has always lived at the intersection of bold ideas and real-world impact.
He went on to create high-touch concierge and event services for celebrity and HNWI clients, and in 2012, launched ephelants, a media company focused on streamlining film and commercial production. Built to challenge industry inefficiencies, ephelants fuses creativity with technology to empower storytellers at every level.
Now, Jay is building Village—a visionary entertainment platform that will revolutionize how projects move from concept to distribution. By bringing together creators, fans, and investors,Village is designed to democratize the entire entertainment ecosystem and give everyone a seat at the table.
On Pickles & Pasta, Jay brings sharp insight, unapologetic creativity, and a relentless curiosity for what’s next.
Pickles & Pasta with Steph and Jay
Pickles & Pasta EP30 - Process, Partnership & Turning Sparks into Reality
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Pickles & Pasta EP30 - Process, Partnership & Turning Sparks into Reality
In Episode 30 of Pickles and Pasta, Jay and Steph talk about what it actually looks like to take an idea from concept to execution, and how two creatives can approach the same goal in completely different ways.
Steph shares her hands-on process: capturing sparks on Post-its, brainstorming in ChatGPT, experimenting with materials, and letting ideas incubate before shaping them into collections. She also opens up about how her vision for Have Some Fun Today is shifting toward a more art-forward, crafted approach, and how she’s building multiple creative “buckets” at once, including art, design, and a children’s book.
Jay breaks down his process from the other side: seeing the full arc early, asking questions as quiet market research, and architecting the bigger ecosystem around a project. Together, they unpack why collaboration matters, how the right partners fill your gaps, and why translating a visual brain into “computer language” can be the hardest part of bringing ideas to life.
The episode ends with a rapid-fire round on personal habits they want to improve, business priorities they keep pushing, and what they’re determined to do before spring.
Topics Covered:
- Types of creatives and why process matters
- Steph’s idea-capture system: Post-its, notes, incubation
- Evolving Have Some Fun Today into a more art-led brand
- Collections, merchandising, and future product spin-offs
- Jay’s “architect” approach: vision, systems, strategy
- Working with teams to bring ideas to life
- Translating design instincts into digital execution
- Rapid fire: habits, priorities, and before-spring goals
If you’ve got ideas but struggle with the “how do I actually make this real” part, this one will help you find your process and your people.