The Bear Cave Ep. 1 - Oliver Mando

The Bear Cave kicks off with its very first episode, featuring Oliver Mando and host Miles Finn.

In this opening conversation, Oliver shares his journey from growing up in Zagreb to studying in Shanghai and Singapore, building a music studio in a bomb shelter, working in music and events, and eventually finding his way back home and starting his new role at AISZ.

Oliver and Miles explore international school life, following your passions, the value of authentic learning, and how schools can create real opportunities for students to discover who they are. They also dive into AISZ’s 60th anniversary, the school’s refreshed brand identity, upcoming community projects, spirit wear, the gala, and the bigger vision behind building a culture at AISZ.

A conversation about creativity, community, change, and what it means to help students find their place in the world.

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:16

Let's do this. Come on. This is awesome, man. The Bear Cave. Excited to be here.

Speaker 0:21

The Bear Cave.

Speaker 3 0:22

Yeah.

Speaker 0:22

The Bear Cave. We made it happen.

Speaker 3 0:25

Yeah, we've been we've been talking about doing this for a long time. This is just like uh hello everyone. We are um Oliver and Miles. My name is Miles Finn. I'll be your host for today's journey into the podcasting world.

Speaker 4 0:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3 0:37

Um we are cave. We've been talking about doing the Bear Cave for a while, probably since we started. You and I both started here at AISZ together. So we've had a while to talk about this. And then when my ninth grade medium film class finally got these microphones and this whole setup, we were like, hey, we need to, we need to do something to also, you know, showcase what's happening in the school and give other people an opportunity to come and uh talk and share their story, which is super cool. So uh yeah, so that's where the Bear Cave idea kind of started. But you and I get to be the first episode, which is cool.

Speaker 1 1:10

Yeah, we will, we will. So introduce it all. I think Nadine also was like, we used to do a podcast in old school. And we were like, oh.

Speaker 3 1:18

I've never heard of a school doing one, but it like makes sense. Like you have enough interesting people, and I think in an international school community anyway, like you have so many interesting perspectives that are cool to like have on a show like this. Definitely, yeah. But so how did you I'll talk about like my journey to getting to AIC at some point too in this episode, because I think that that's kind of like cool to get us going. And and I think everybody, like I said, has an interesting story to tell. But how did you get to hear what else have you done to like bring you to AIC? Because I think that that's like it's it's inter you've told me your story, but they haven't listened to your story. So I'm curious, like, what is that like?

Speaker 1 1:57

For sure. Well, I um I I wasn't originally in international education, yeah. I was in events management, organizing events in Asia, lived in Singapore for quite a long time, um, and worked in like this kind of marketing, events, agencies, world, uh, big brands, corporations, kind of like Emily and Paris in real life. You know, and I'm Emily, but not the fancy way.

Speaker 3 2:24

Like, like But the shoes, man, the shoes are always on point.

Speaker 1 2:28

But the the events were Emily in Paris style, but they don't show uh in the show, they don't show how much you bleed in these kind of jobs, you know, from like uh working seven days and sleeping three hours per day and all this stuff, you know. But but the end result is like pretty, pretty fun. Like it's fun, you know, to be a part of like a Cartier launch or whatever, you know. So um that's fun. Um, but I was always a part of education because I'm I'm a musician myself, and I was always educating kids um on how to produce music, play guitar, a little bit of drums, you know, and I would I would worked at these little kind of production studios where kids would come and want to learn certain recording skills, etc. So that that was my kind of segue into education. And then um my girlfriend at the time, she worked at um American International School in Singapore called SAS.

Speaker 2 3:22

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 3:23

Um and I kind of suggested like, hey, why don't we um try and move to Europe, you know? And we looked at it seriously and we looked at Zagreb uh because I'm from here and it's my home base, so to move a little bit, change perspective a bit. And she applied for a job in um the American school here, here AIZ. Um they didn't have a position for her, so we're like, okay, let's keep looking further. We kind of didn't look more in the meantime. Unfortunately, we split. So um, but I was still keen to move closer to home and move back home. Uh, but we stayed on good terms, and I asked her, like, hey, do you by any chance have a contact from the person from AIZ? Because I just want to apply uh and see what they have uh that's been that's uh openings that they have. Um and she sent me a contact from Hannah, our HR, sent her an email within like two hours. Hannah comes back and says, Hey, crazy you should ask. But we just have uh the person that ran communications events marketing, uh, has announced that she's leaving. So we have an opening in two weeks.

Speaker 3 4:30

So the timing was just perfect. It was just like it worked out exactly what we're gonna do. It was just supposed to.

Speaker 1 4:34

I still remember I was like in Singapore, I was sending the email, you know, like uh, and I just sending random emails to different companies applying for jobs.

Speaker 3 4:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:42

And Hannah just came back and said we have an opening in two weeks, and your CV looks great.

Speaker 3 4:46

Amazing.

Speaker 1 4:47

And it went from there.

Speaker 3 4:49

And you've had some super cool stuff that you've been working on here, which is awesome. And that's uh I've got questions that I want to like ask you about later because like there are some super cool projects that you've got working on that I'm I'm excited for the rest of the community to get a chance to check out too. Um, have you like had you had other international education experience? Like, did you go to international schools as a kid? I did, yeah.

Speaker 1 5:10

So my family and I I grew up in Zagreb, uh, but due to my parents' work, um, at some point they got an offer to go to China when I was about 15, 14, 15, yeah, to move to Shanghai. And they said, sure, let's do it. You know, I mean, they asked the whole family, they were like, Are we ready for this move? Because at the time, I mean, that was like 2000 and what, 13. Very little families in Croatia that we knew were moving to Asia, right? You know, it was just like a very random proposal. Yeah, and um, all of our friends and family friends, they were like, You guys like are why you know, like what are you doing? You know, like stay here. Yeah, why are you going there? You know, what kind of world is there? Right, exactly. I mean, it's not like people didn't know China, but Shanghai has really been um only built in the past what uh like 50 years or like uh 40, 30 years. It was like if you see the pictures from like 2000 up to now, it's like it's a completely different two different things, right? Like it's just wild how much it grew.

Speaker 3 6:08

So continuing to grow, and continuing to grow.

Speaker 1 6:10

And then when we showed people pictures of Shanghai, they were like, What is it? Yeah, like they didn't believe it, you know, the buildings and all this stuff. And me and my sister we were super excited, like, let's go, let's get out of here. Um, not that we have anything against Croatia, but it was just like It's an adventure, it was fun, yeah.

Speaker 3 6:26

Me and my sister we were like, Yo, we have And as teenagers, like to get to go on an adventure like that, yeah.

Speaker 1 6:31

Yeah, so we were like, Yeah, let's go.

Speaker 3 6:33

That's amazing.

Speaker 1 6:33

Um, so we packed up our things and went.

Speaker 3 6:35

Yeah, you know, and so you were there from 15 on top of the I was there until now, until I was 17. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 6:42

Stayed there for two years. I went to a British school there. Cool. The whole thing, uniforms, uh, my man just a very British school.

Speaker 6:51

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 6:53

A great school, nonetheless, like a very, very fun school. Um, and then we moved to Singapore for another few years, and I finished school there. Cool. And another British school that I was there, you know, a pretty that one's even stricter, like a very rich history, very rigorous, yeah. Um, but great, like music programs and everything. So like we just thrived in that environment because my sister's into filmmaking, she went to film a lot and did some movies with the school and um music, music production. They had a music studio in the school, so I was just living in there, you know.

Speaker 3 7:26

That is like, and so you did you start working with like because you and I have talked that you love working with logic and doing like music production and stuff like that. Did you so you started doing music production there? Were you like starting to create your own music there? Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 7:39

So, like in Singapore, um people until you move to Singapore, you don't really know about this. But Singapore, every house legally has to have a bomb shelter. Oh due to some historical reason. Like I guess there was some alert before in wartime that like you bombs were coming, and Singapore's a very small, it's a city country, you know, and they could be occupied very quick if something went wrong. So they just have this very rigorous, like sort of uh military is mandatory for good for boys, two years of military, uh, and every house, every every building has to have a bomb shelter for the citizens. So we lived in a house and we had a bomb shelter in two two levels below the ground.

Speaker 2 8:22

Wow.

Speaker 1 8:23

Um, and it was this room that's pretty big. I mean, it's probably like a quarter of the black box. Sure. And it was just useful people use it for storage. Yeah, and I just asked my parents, like, can I use it for music? Yeah. Like I I want to get a drum kit, you know, I want this. And it's like relatively soundproof, too. That's amazing. I mean, it's you can hear it in the house, but you can still pad it up, close it. Uh, it's it's quite okay. Yeah, so they were like, Yeah, cool. Um, so I equipped it with like I brought all my guitars, um, got a used set of drums, uh, saved up some money, went to buy this kind of like uh I forgot what's the Tascom 2000, uh US 2000 uh interface for like 150 bucks and some used one, you know? Yeah, uh borrowed some microphones from the school. The the the sound engineer there was like, yeah, yeah, take. We have some old stuff, like don't even bother bringing it back. Basically, I was like, Cool.

Speaker 3 9:19

So you're just like we're getting this whole studio together.

Speaker 1 9:22

So I had a studio, yeah, small studio, and I had no idea what to do.

Speaker 3 9:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:26

Uh, but somehow, like, I was learning little by little, and all of a sudden, like, word around school got that like Oliver is recording music, you know. So all my friends, people that record that want to sing and stuff, they were just living at my place after school, just playing. Come down into this bunker with me.

Speaker 3 9:43

Let's let's play music in this bunker. Like, that is so cool. For real, yeah.

Speaker 1 9:46

So that was a cool experience.

Speaker 3 9:48

That is a super cool experience, and like with such a it's a you it's a unique one for sure, but like that is also it tells so much about who you are as a person, which is cool.

Speaker 1 9:57

Yeah, like it was this like you know, the community creative in your own way, and like you, you were able to bring people in, and like, yeah, that's the part that I love about and I made so many of them, like one of them still my close friends, you know, till today that we still I mean, we don't live in the same city, but we still talk and communicate. I mean, we were uh we stay in touch and we probably will remain friends forever. So um, yeah, but that experience gave us close together, yeah. That's just that was a cool experience for sure.

Speaker 3 10:23

Yeah, but so do you feel if you have conversations with students at AISZ, do you feel like you are able to relate to them a little bit better because you went through an international school experience? Yeah, definitely because of like IB experience particularly. For sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 10:36

Before I B, it's different. Like I went through like a British education system, so it's uh quite different to the American. Um, but and the uniforms and all that, like it's very different here where you see kids are like free to wear whatever they want. Basically in British school, if you like, you know, I once I went to school in like brown leather shoes instead of black, and the the the principal that time he came to me and he was like, This is getting a little extreme. Oh my god, and here I am wearing like sneakers and stuff, you know, like it's very different.

Speaker 3 11:07

That's so funny.

Speaker 1 11:08

Uh, but IB I can relate for sure. Yeah, I know exactly what they're going through uh when I see them like hustling, just rigorous, like there's just so much that's happening with that. It's it's a it's a big program, but at the same time, it's uh it's very different to like, for example, in Croatia, you have 17 subjects. I had seven when I when I went to high school here, I had like 17 subjects, and all of them were like textbook in hand, read your stuff, go and write on the exam, what you learn. And the practical part was missing. And maybe I'm wrong, but that was my first year, my first half of the first year, which I was in Croatia for high school, and then we moved. Yeah, uh, and maybe later the practical comes in, but um, to my sort of what I saw my friends go through, and everybody was like struggling with subjects they don't want to do. Yeah, um, and in IB, it's like when you choose your six subjects, you choose whatever you want to take, and then you just standard level, higher, higher level. And the standard level is the ones you maybe don't care for so much, but the higher level is the one that you really are like passionate about. So you can imagine mine was you can guess at music, yeah, business. And I think I took higher level, I took higher level language, literature, English, you know, or something like this.

Speaker 3 12:22

But that's so cool. Like that that can so quickly relate to what you're gonna do with the rest of your life, yeah, which is amazing. And for some kids, I know that it that it can stress them out too. But then I feel like they're like we here, I think have such a good team that just kind of like helps you talk through like okay, like you don't like that. That's fine. You tried it, let's go on and maybe try something else. So you I mean you're not shopping around for classes per se, but like you still get the opportunity to like try things out, which is really, really neat.

Speaker 1 12:48

Well, yeah, that's stressful because you're like, what if I change my mind in like uh five years and I don't want to do it? Well, that's the good part about it. You still do those six, and like even though I did standard level physics, um, technically when I was applying for universities, they looked at that standard level physics. Uh, and if I wanted to go down the route of physics, I could have because of the standard level.

Speaker 3 13:10

Well, and you had had the idea. In some way, I could have, yeah.

Speaker 1 13:12

Like it's it will I couldn't have probably gotten into like top science schools with that. They were requiring a lot more, but you can still pursue that route somewhere else um and get to the place of like success in a way.

Speaker 2 13:26

Right.

Speaker 1 13:27

Uh so it's not like the higher level defines you forever, and also it's not like IB defines you at all in a way, like the final point count determines where you're gonna go. So, like, even if in the end you really determine you want to go into a totally different route from what you've like you've done English and business and music like me, I was looking at like law schools, for example. Because I was like, oh, I wouldn't mind being a lawyer, and I know it relates to English a little bit, but like at the same time, you know, um I still considered it. Um, and they looked at my overall score, which wasn't the best, so I couldn't get in. And then I went the route of like, you know, I mean it was it was decent. I think I got like 35 points or something like this, which in my school was like quite low. Really? Yeah, kids were like just getting 40s, you know, like yeah, that's crazy. I forgot how much, but it was around there, like 35, and um I got into a and then it was between like music, business, and culinary. Oh very randomly. And then in the end, I went to the music, a music university, and cool changed my life for sure. Keep rocking with the yeah, so like one advice is like I wasn't like at the end of my year in my high school, we had this um presentation like on stage, I guess where you graduate, and then they put which school you're gonna go to on the screen. Sure. Where you got in.

Speaker 2 14:53

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:54

And everybody had like, you know, Cass's business school, Cambridge, uh UCL, yeah, Imperial, like all of these big names in London. Right. And mine was this university called like Bim London, you know? And everybody's like, What's that? Yeah, you know. But you just gotta do your thing. Yeah, but honestly, best decision of my life. Yeah, I was interested every single day in what we learned.

Speaker 3 15:17

For sure.

Speaker 1 15:18

It got me into like record labels. I worked at record labels during university, I worked at the one of the most famous music venues for two years in London, Royal Albert Hall. So like hundreds of shows during my work. Yeah, met tons of famous musicians, made tons of connections that later helped push me like towards the route that I took. Uh, so if anybody thinks that the name of the university is like something that's gonna define you for the rest of your life, sometimes, like probably kids that went to Cambridge can get into some really crazy companies straight away and start making good money and stuff. But uh if you're go if you're just doing it out of fear, I think maybe it's also maybe you should go the route that I took, which is continue with your passion because that passion is gonna get you that success ultimately, you know. And those kids that went to Cambridge that are passionate about a Cambridge subject, which they took, um, they will find success in it because they're so passionate about studies and high-level education and all this stuff, you know. Whereas I was more into like getting to work, you know, and working with musicians and working on events and things like that.

Speaker 3 16:27

So yeah, so I mean you just find that you find that thing that you're passionate about. Pursue that with your full heart. And like that's that's the that's the most that you can ask, which is so important. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Yeah, that's that's quite the story. Like mine is mine is very different than that, because I so I'm from a small town in Iowa, um, like 5,000 people total. Um, my wife is the school counselor here at AISZ. We went to high school together. Um high school sweetheart. Exactly. Yep, exactly.

Speaker 1 16:58

So, like how long have you guys been together?

Speaker 3 17:00

So we started dating in 2020. Close. Yeah. So yeah. So we've been 17 years? Yeah, we've been together for a long time. Wow. She's a pretty cool cat. She's super we gotta get her on the podcast. Yeah, for sure. That would be fun. That would be fun. We record Haley and I record one too. And actually, I just told her we have to record uh an episode tonight.

Speaker 1 17:23

And I didn't know that before.

Speaker 3 17:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:25

When we first started talking podcasts, I was like, cool. He's just a guy into tech like me. Yeah, and Haley told me he dabbles, yeah, he dabbles in mics and recording music and stuff. Yeah, I was like, cool. And then somebody like recently, maybe like a few months ago, told me, check Miles' Instagram. And I was like, Oh, that's legit. Like, I was like, the followers, the podcast, is that yeah, we go crazy with it. I mean, we go crazy with it. It's so funny. I was like, Oh, this is Joe Rogan, I'm talking about well, and like that it's so wild.

Speaker 3 17:54

Like, so long story short, I had this social media like boom in 2022 where I had I I mean the the video I posted some random. I'll I'll tell the story. So I had I was revealing what musical that we were gonna do with my high school that I was at at the time in Indianola, Iowa, um, central Iowa, just south of Des Moines. And we were announcing what musical that we were going to do, and I put all of these different options up on a whiteboard behind me. And so every day I was doing like a reveal. So like I would take two musicals down off the board out of the 13 options that I had up on the board behind me. And so it got to the final day where I had pulled all like math, I had pulled 10 of them off and there were three left. And I got to the final, there were two options left, and it was gonna be between one of these two. And I pulled both of those options down, and then I like chaos ensued. And and so that video got recorded. That that whole process got recorded with the intention of like, if I have students that miss this musical reveal, they're gonna be sad and they're gonna want to see what it is. And so, like, I put it on on my TikTok, which I had only done teacher stuff on my TikTok. So I was like, this isn't inappropriate for a student to follow me because I'm just gonna be posting music stuff. I'm not gonna be having conversations with any students, anything like that, because there is a line, and teachers are sometimes not very good about that. I am I was smart and thought about that right away before we started. But the concept was uh I'm gonna post these videos so that if my students want to see what the musical reveal is, do that. So I posted that. And then like an hour later, I had a friend text me and was like, Hey, have you looked at your video recently? And I was like, No. He's like, That's a it's at a million views an hour later. And I was like, No way. And so then it just kept going. And and to date, it's at like 75 million views. That's wild. And so from there, I'm like, that's on TikTok, right? That's on that's on TikTok. So that started there. And then from there, I just like more and more things started happening. Like I started recording uh videos of me doing different like pop warmups with my with my choirs, and so they would sing like Hey Jude by the Beatles in a in a choir style, or we'd do like Mr. Bright Side by the Killers in a in a choir style. And those those would regularly get you know one to 10 million views. Like, and so it was just crazy. And and I just got to be Mr. Finn. I just got to like be myself in front of the camera, and people seem to really, really like that. Wild.

Speaker 1 20:28

It's funny how life like it's like when you chase something too much, yeah, it doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 20:34

And then something but this one just like pop right in my lap. Like it just happened perfect. Yeah, it was so crazy.

Speaker 1 20:40

That's a good lesson too. I mean, yeah, for life. Like sometimes I also realize when I when I chase something so much, and when in my head it's like that's all I want. Like, yes, there is an element of like if you work hard, right? You're gonna get to it at the end of the day because you just put in so many hours, but sometimes it's just organic, right as long as you're passionate, you know, like and it just yeah, or luck takes over.

Speaker 3 21:05

But I think that idea of like or like being organic is so true because I think so many people try to like force themselves into this idea, yeah, that's maybe not necessarily authentic to themselves. And it's so it's more important to let like I I was having fun just nerding out about musicals in front of my kids. And and that that me being comfortable enough to be that person in front of my students is what people latched on to.

Speaker 4 21:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3 21:31

Um, and not saying that like your whole goal is to be viral on TikTok. That's not the whole goal. Your whole goal is to be authentic to yourself and good things will happen from there. Exactly. And I think that's you know, that's a good, that's a good message to take. And I I mean like that's that's like with you with with pursuing whatever career path made the most sense to you. Like, there's a reason that the guy who creates the the bunker studio, the guy who creates a studio in a bomb shelter, goes and stills one to and Still wants to pursue music later because you had that authentic passion for it. And I think that that's you know something that you can take later in life. Yeah. Look at us getting all like, we got a little message here.

Speaker 1 22:10

I've seen how this can turn into like two hours easy.

Speaker 3 22:14

100%. Yeah. Because we could just roll on it on ideas for forever. Yeah. Um I wanted to ask you. So I want to I want you to talk a little bit about some projects that you're working on because you have some really, really cool stuff coming out. And I want to make sure that we we talk about that so that people that are maybe, I mean, obviously you don't have classes. So like students don't necessarily talk about Oliver, the guy that's this doing communications.

Speaker 1 22:37

They just see me randomly walking around and they're like, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 22:40

So I mean, like, first, I talk about that. Like, what what are you doing here at AISZ? Like, what's your what's your shtick? What's the stuff that you do?

Speaker 1 22:48

So the role is called communications manager. That's kind of the umbrella, but that entails the school kind of marketing, the school uh PR events, um, and just in general, like making sure that we are progressing in in the in terms of school branding and design and things like that.

Speaker 3 23:13

So by the way, you're crushing right now.

Speaker 1 23:15

Thank you. Seriously, man, like it's so it's so impressive.

Speaker 3 23:19

Like you're you're rocking out with it. And like to see all the work that you're going through, like knowing just a little bit of of what you're doing behind the scenes, like I'm thoroughly impressed, man. You're you're killing me.

Speaker 1 23:30

It's just me. I'm kind of it's not just and it's not even fully me. I'm I'm the kind of project manager, you know. I I think of I hear an idea, I take it and I make it happen, you know, with people's expertise, you know. And I will have an idea also. Um, and I get it kind of um, I get the leadership team in AIZ to hear me out, to hear my proposal, and if they like it, or they give me feedback, and we come come up with something cool together. Um, and then I just employ the best people that I can find to make it happen. So, for example, um right now, this year is big for us because it's 60 years of AIZ. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that is the whole focus of the year. Um, it's refreshing. It's kind of we love the history of our academic excellence, of everything that we've done, of moving different campuses, coming to this beautiful modern campus. And it's just refreshing everything to be essentially the one of the most modern schools in in Europe, in the region. You know, that that is the goal ultimately, to really be at the forefront of education and innovation for our for our students.

Speaker 3 24:41

So, one thing before you keep going with that, like it is it is wild to me coming from the American public school system to to AISZ how it is so important to have such a strong brand to draw people in. Whereas, like in my small town of Iowa, exactly this is where you're going. Whereas like this is like, no, we want to show people the amazing stuff that we're doing so that we can bring more people in because we want as many people as possible to experience this.

Speaker 1 25:09

But that was the way, you know, when we moved to Asia, when we moved to China, the way we considered schools was, you know, like I mean, the my parents' work, uh, my mom's job actually, um they they basically said, like, you can pick any school. Yeah, you gotta just go and see what which one works for the kids the best.

Speaker 3 25:27

So you got to shop around a school. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1 25:30

Yeah, which is essentially what happens in the international school market because it is a private schooling system. So essentially, whatever is gonna help the students bring out the best in them, yeah, is gonna draw them to the school. And what drew me into the school is the music program. Amazing. So as soon as we heard there is a recording studio, there is instrument rooms, there is immediately I told my parents that's the one. Yeah, that's the one. That's the one. Yeah, and where I saw in different schools where they don't put emphasis on the music program at all, and they basically don't even have one that that good, I was like, that's not for me. Um, and it almost got to a point where me and my sister would go to different schools because I just I didn't want to go without the music program. I just was so obsessed with the music side that I was like, this is my I need this outlet in my life, you know, like and I need to make friends who are the same. So we are essentially trying to establish the same thing here. Yeah, it's already established. I mean, there's plenty of things that we're doing that we have been doing and that are attracting different kids, but it's just that diversity of choice. Um, and we have a lot of modern day roles in the world that probably have not kind of seeped into education yet in terms of people who want to be really TikTokers or influencers or bloggers, or I mean blogging has been a thing, but um vloggers, um, podcasters, you know, things like this is exactly why we're doing this, you know, because you can teach teach kids how to set up a podcast and what other school is doing that. Like I don't think there's that many.

Speaker 3 27:01

Yeah, seriously.

Speaker 1 27:02

So for a kid who is super into podcasting and interviewing people and wants to be that person to bring the community together and showcase the beauty of different life, uh, you know, and life stories, this is the place for them.

Speaker 2 27:16

Right.

Speaker 1 27:16

Because they're gonna come here and they're gonna say they have a podcast today, yeah, and I can run a podcast. Yeah, you know, it's it's wild.

Speaker 3 27:23

It's not something that every school is.

Speaker 1 27:24

No, it's such a beautiful concept that you you see a kid come in and just like their eyes light up because they see something, they see a corner for themselves in the school, right? And that's something that we're trying to achieve.

Speaker 3 27:35

Yeah, so you're finding ways to showcase that more.

Speaker 1 27:37

That is yeah, that is my core kind of purpose here is to establish as many of the things that are gonna um empower students to get involved and ultimately find their place in the universe, essentially, you know, whether it's what it is. That's what school is. That's what it is, right? I mean, that's what it ultimately is. It it shouldn't be the book and sit down and read and write on the test. It should be, uh hey, I've gone to university with my CV already starting to be built and a portfolio because I've ran a podcast for a year, right? Or I help to run a merchandise store at the school, I help to design clothes for the school, you know, like it's it's how cool is that? You know, what school do you walk out of and you say, hey, I've you know, or like I've helped organize the gala for the school, the 300 people attended.

Speaker 2 28:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 28:25

So ultimately it's and it's not like we want to kind of employ kids, you know, it's not like we're gonna make them actually do some heavy work.

Speaker 3 28:33

But giving direct life experience, like that's that's something that I think sometimes misses sometimes is missed in a general education system, you know, where you don't necessarily have the ability to to like lock into these these unique things that are gonna be directly relevant to you the rest of your life.

Speaker 4 28:52

Yeah.

Speaker 3 28:52

Um, but I think one thing that I have seen, like I was just talking to a math teacher the other day that was was explaining to me um multiplicate multiplication of fractions. And I was like, that is an incredibly boring subject. And he's like, No, it's not, and let me explain why. And he showed me like a real world example of it that I was like, I had never thought about it that way. Because the the schooling system that I had gone to, it was like, you're so you have to know the concept. If you don't know the concept, you can't pass the class. Like it was super gray, like, or not super gray, it was super black and white. And and the way that this teacher talked about it was like, no, it's like like, have you ever made a recipe before? Yeah. Okay, let's talk about the math that goes. And I was like, oh, oh my God, like it totally makes sense. And so to know that there are teachers here that are like directly helping students apply their learning in their class to real world examples like this, or I mean, like even a math teacher being able to do that is is wild to me. Yeah, and you know, and is is so cool to see that happening here. We've got some incredible teachers.

Speaker 1 29:56

And I mean, not to say that public systems don't have no, you know, like there are some truly incredible people I've met that taught me in my public schooling when I was a kid that got me super. I almost wanted I was so so passionate about becoming a historian just because my old history teacher when I was a kid, shout out shout out to pro Professor Tanderic. She was in in Bucko at school. She really was incredible in the way she told stories about like ancient Egypt, Greece, even like Croatian history up to like kind of the recent stuff, the world wars, etc. I mean, it was just incredible paired with like trips and with a very minimal, I would assume there was zero budget, you know, with the school to like do much other than just be a very incredible storyteller and go on an occasional field trip with the kids. Um, and I know not everybody was interested, but to me, she was like always I was like in the class like this, you know, listening. And I know I made her angry a few times because I like to talk to people and I like to I love to ask her so many questions about stuff, but I'm sure she saw that I was passionate about the subject, yeah, because for sure, and she was an incredible teacher. I'm sure she still is. Um, but uh yeah, that's the kind of community that this school is building for sure. I think that's the people like every teacher is like that. Yeah, that's the wild part.

Speaker 3 31:25

But for you to be able to feature stuff like that, like what sort of what sort of work are you doing on the regular? Like I've I've been thoroughly impressed with with you showing up to events after school and doing social media for that. And that's I think those are like more obvious ones. Like because when you when you think communications and and marketing, like you kind of assume that it's going to be social media is obviously playing a big role in that. So I think that that's that's one that people are maybe going to be a little bit more accustomed to. But like, what are some things that you're doing that that you would say are maybe that you're excited about with this role?

Speaker 1 31:56

I guess the most the kind of core of everything was the branding of the school. When I came into the school, I saw that whatever I do, it's gonna that branding is gonna like you know be like the octopus.

Speaker 3 32:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:07

Just everything that I do comes from that.

Speaker 3 32:10

It's related to that.

Speaker 1 32:11

It's related to the school brand guideline, essentially. For sure. And I saw that the guideline, first of all, wasn't that clear. Um, like we had a clear guideline, but then we had variations of a lot of things. Um, and we had a clear guideline, but like things like seven school colors. You know, so to me, I was like, it just kind of was tricky to make people like tie everything into like this is AIZ, right? Uh, without, you know, I mean, seven colors, you can imagine. And I saw the jerseys are of different colors and all this kind of stuff. And like, how do you get a community built with seven colors of jerseys and what is gonna be on the stand? Seven colors? Which team is representing what color, you know, or what color is representing what team. So my first goal really was to clean up that brand a little bit and create a solid brand guide with like a dominant color, cool, um, and some like fresher look, you know, and not change it, not reinvent the wheel, but just add a little bit of, you know, varnish. Yeah, a little spice, a little space.

Speaker 3 33:17

Throw a little spice in there.

Speaker 1 33:18

Yeah, WD40. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, smooth and everything else.

Speaker 3 33:22

But seriously, and that's kind of the whole purpose is just to like be able to one, give it longevity, but also make it like easily recognizable, like this is us.

Speaker 1 33:30

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So that's the one of the I guess first objectives, and we did that. We have a new clear brand guide now. Dominant color is blue. Yep. Go Bears. Go Bears. Go Bears. Yeah, we have one bear logo, not six. Yeah, exactly. Um, the school logo is still the same. Bear logo is pretty much the same, but it's just kind of became very clear. Like dominant color, main corporate logo, school logo, main athletic logo with athletic font, and that's it.

unknown 34:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1 34:03

You know, like there's no clarity, no nonsense. You know, it's just clear. Yep. So now whatever we're using, it's gonna have that on it. So, you know, and then it it went from there, you know. So, like, um now the main campaigns for the 60th anniversary, we're building a history wall which is gonna showcase, you know, highlight years of our past 60 years as a school. Um, and it's gonna be in the in the hallway between the admin office and the French classrooms. Yeah, yeah. That's great. So we're gonna build it on the side, you know, where just on like the first floor. Where AI is yeah, just outside there, on the left side. Yeah. Where there's a little glass door and it's showing people eating food inside. Oh, yeah, in the in the teacher's lounge.

Speaker 3 34:47

Perfect. We're covering that up. I actually heard this, and then the teachers that were like that normally eat in there were like, Yes, thank you. Yep, go to pee. Thanks.

Speaker 1 34:58

Yeah, that's awesome. We're covering that up with a history wall, but it's gonna be a beautiful wall. It's gonna be this big blue structure. From one side, you'll be able to see like a perforated um message, it's almost like a staircase. Oh, and you'll be able to see the letters on every section but connected to this one message, you know? Yeah, and then from the other side, you're gonna see the years. Very cool. It's gonna be lighting from top to bottom. Dude, it's gonna be a nice world. Yeah, so this is like my events experience. Yeah, this is what we would do for like luxury clients. Sure. So I was like, hey, why not have the school have an elevated history? Because I saw another school had like a history wall, but it was like almost like pasted onto a wall. Sure, it was just white walls.

Speaker 3 35:42

This is our history, like, no, we make it like when you walk in, you want to be like, wow, what's that? Right. You know, and like we are standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us. Like, you want to be able to showcase what has happened before and then continue to grow, right?

Speaker 1 35:58

So that's that's uh now that you said that, we are gonna have two empty panels at the end that are gonna basically say legacy is yours to make.

Speaker 3 36:07

Uh-huh. Something like that. Look at them go. Look at them go.

Speaker 1 36:10

I mean, the idea is that it's not just showcasing the history, but it's also inspiring the kids at the school that the greatness that they achieve at this school is remembered and potentially will be shown on our history wall as well. So uh we thought about it. So that's one of the kind of structures that we're working on. That's great. Uh, we're working on the media wall, which will be at the entrance instead of our current COVID wall that we have. Um, so it's gonna replace that and it's gonna showcase like it's gonna be this big branded wall with a TV that's gonna showcase upcoming campaigns, activations taking place at the school. Currently, we have 60 years of 60 acts of kindness.

Speaker 2 36:52

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 36:52

So that's gonna be the first campaign shown. Um, and there's gonna be a QR code, ideally, um, that students can submit their sort of acts of kindness and stuff. You know, whatever campaign we're collecting. Oh, sure, sure. Like your your most your favorite memories from this year at the school or whatever, that on the side where the yonder pouches get taken off. Yeah, uh, that's where the kids can scan the QR code and just submit like a quick picture with a text saying, like, I really loved the moment when we beat another basketball team. Yeah, you know, or something like this. A cool memory, a picture that they already took, they submit it to me, and uh, we collect a cool like collection of stories, you know, to highlight on the wall. Yeah. So that's the media wall. That's awesome. We're also working on um a merchandise store.

Speaker 3 37:39

Yeah, which I'm pumped about. That's a big thing. Which is great. I mean, that was something like in the States, there was always like, okay, the football team has their season, and so now you can buy all this football gear, or here's the baseball team's gear. And it was like every season you could buy a hundred t-shirts. Like it was always just like so many different options, which was crazy. And so that was something I had to get used to coming here is that like, oh, I can't get an AIC shirt anywhere. Like, what do I do that? So I was like, yes, when that came out. So that has to happen.

Speaker 1 38:09

I mean, that's that just had to happen. It's smart, yeah, it's brilliant. You know, yeah, we we just um everybody was kind of begging for merchandise. People were like, what do we have? And yeah, we do have like corporate stuff, like pens and stuff and like stickers, right? But I think clothing items were a massive, like something that the school just was like really warning, um, the school community, and now it's opening. So yeah. So we went ahead, like the process was we opened an online platform. Um, and uh basically through that online platform we featured like a select amount of products, and we are only launching it now to staff first to test. Yeah, just for this month.

Speaker 3 38:50

Make sure the website's working, make sure all the website is working nice. That's it, yeah.

Speaker 1 38:55

Exactly. Like that that's the main thing for me is I went to the factory where they're printing the stuff, tested all the product, but now I want to see how it looks with the print. Right, just correct a few items before it actually opens for the general public, you know.

Speaker 3 39:08

Teachers will be sometimes blatantly, but the they'll be the most honest with you. They will give feedback, they will give you your like the exact feedback that you need.

Speaker 1 39:17

You know, we see sometimes more than you need, but in place where we say they don't have a hair on their tongue. I've never heard that. Yeah, they don't bite their tongue for sure. They will say this doesn't work or this whatever. Yeah, so so it's helpful, super helpful. I got a lot of feedback and it was taken on board, changed, ready for the ready for the official launch. Yeah, so now we're kind of already like geared up for that. Geared up for it, yeah. So it's launching soon to the community, and then the idea is that hopefully we'll have spirit wear days, people wearing spirit wear all the time. Basketball games, people show up in their hoodies and fleece and t-shirts. So that's the idea. And of course, most importantly, is then being able to feature cool collections like our bridges program, which is our special ed program. Um basically now partnered with Best Buddies, which is this company that um basically, I mean, it's an initiative to uh, you know, help kids with special needs and um uh neurodivergent uh children and students. So they partnered with us, and we are their kind of official now um entry into Croatia. They weren't present in Croatia before, and they give us rights to utilize their um basically their licensed uh logos, etc., onto our merchandise now. So we're gonna do a collection for best bodies, and all of the proceeds from that will go back to best bodies to support their uh program, you know, and just uh support the kids uh who are part of the program.

Speaker 3 40:52

That's so cool.

Speaker 1 40:53

So, like these are this is the idea, you know, like directly applicable stuff.

Speaker 3 40:56

Like that's that's gonna be helping people.

Speaker 1 40:58

So students interested in design ultimately, who want to do clothing design, yeah, who want to become, you know, fashion designers or open their own merchandise stores, they can come and they can say, Hey, uh, Mr. Oliver, can we open can we do a t-shirt design? Yeah, and then we can launch it, you know. That's it, you know, and then that money can go towards student council for their whatever they're planning, you know, or something like that. So um it's just to build this community around it as well.

Speaker 3 41:26

Yeah, that is so cool. Especially with like the sporting events, and now you just have a wave of the same color of blue is gonna be cool. Yeah, and like some just more again, uniformity there, I think is. Yeah, and not to say it's always gonna be like just blue clothes. For sure.

Speaker 1 41:41

Like we want to enable, I think we're I'm gonna enable soon like white, gray, black, yeah, even something.

Speaker 3 41:47

Or just having that logo will be just more relevant.

Speaker 1 41:50

Yeah, exactly. You know, uh, and when we do things like um uh Pink Awareness Month, right? Uh then we're gonna do pink uh t-shirts, especially for that. You know, like it's it's cool. Like you can do a lot of things with like a merchandise store. It features your branding, and people are wearing it and they're proud to wear it and present it. And it's not just it is a marketing tool that you can then take outside of school, and different parents will see it and say, Oh, American School of Zagreb sticks to like other people's uh mind a little bit, and they go and research it and potentially come to us and bring us new students.

Speaker 3 42:24

But the best is to build the culture, it's building the culture, right? You know, and then and then letting the culture speak for itself, I think is is that's that's what you're doing.

Speaker 1 42:32

I would say the primary purpose is building the culture.

Speaker 3 42:34

And that's one thing I'm I've been thoroughly impressed with Darren. Just like he he was talking the other day about like the idea that when we are all experiencing the same thing, like when we're all wearing the same shirt or whatever, that we have a bigger sense of community because of that.

Speaker 4 42:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3 42:51

Obviously, there are so many other things at play, and I'm well aware of that. But the idea that concept playing into building culture, I was like, you know, I never thought about that. Coming from the American school system, like you just everyone had a purple shirt on, you know, like, okay, that makes sense, or purple and yellow were our were our colors. And so you're talking about like the the having seven school colors. I was like, yeah, I didn't even think purple and yellow are like my high school was black and orange. So it was like used, I was used to just like two colors max, or one color was your primary and then one is your like secondary. But yeah, exactly. Being able to being able to then connect that to community is pretty is pretty wild and and not something that I had necessarily thought about.

Speaker 1 43:28

Yeah, exactly that. Yeah, yeah. So that's that's another project. I think the sort of biggest one I'm working on at the moment is the gala. Yeah. We're gonna have the big gala night to celebrate 60 years at the Sheraton Hotel.

Speaker 2 43:41

That'd be cool.

Speaker 1 43:42

That's a cool one. This is where I get to really like uh showcase my direct, you know, like expertise in events organizing. Um, so that's fun. Yeah, that's great. Uh, and that's gonna, you know, like I'm working with designers to create like key visuals, uh, building a ticketing platform. For that, you know, it's a lot of these things. Another um thing that we're working on is the the flag carrying day, I think that's what they call it.

Speaker 3 44:09

Yeah, I've seen pictures of it.

Speaker 1 44:11

I haven't experienced it like International Day or something, which is quite cool, also. Yeah, yeah. But we have a lot of campaigns happening, uh happening in the school, so that's very excited for that. Yeah, yeah. And more, honestly, there's more that we now are in discussion. This is just the first year, like that's the cool thing.

Speaker 3 44:27

You can just keep building up.

Speaker 1 44:28

I know it can be a lot for some people who have been here for a while, and yeah, so say like things are changing too fast, you know, and change can be scary.

Speaker 3 44:35

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 44:36

So I do recognize that, and I'm not here also to and it's not just me. I mean, there's a lot of people working on changing things, but we're not here to also like change everything that the school was about before.

Speaker 3 44:47

Um continuing to build upon, we're continuing to build up upon what has been exactly like the foundation has been built. We're just we're not crushing the foundation and then rebuilding, you know. It's like we're building on the beautiful things that have already happened.

Speaker 1 45:02

Yeah, it's important to remember that like ultimately if we don't change, others will go to a place that embraces change more and modernizes and brings things that others are interested in. So it is important, you know. Like we see the Budapest school, we see the Belgrade school, we see the Paris school, we see all these schools around us, Vienna. You know, like there are schools that are everyday like completely like kind of re-branding, rebuilding, refreshing, bringing in new ideas. And we want to be in that conversation, like we want to be proud to be in this school and say, hey, we are like really, I mean, we have been certified the only, I think, um, fully carbon neutral campus or something like that, you know, like in in in Europe.

Speaker 3 45:49

For sure. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 45:50

Wild, you know. I mean, we're here, right? So why not build more of that, you know, and do some things that other schools just never even thought of doing.

Speaker 3 45:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 45:59

And ultimately what's gonna happen is other schools are probably gonna see this podcast and be like, hey, we gotta start a podcast.

Speaker 3 46:04

We need the podcast, you know.

Speaker 1 46:06

I mean, maybe some schools have it. I don't want to say like we're not the first. Right, right. But I'm sure that we're gonna inspire uh friendly competition. Yeah, and what it is, it's not to be better than them, it's everybody just pushing each other to be as best as we can be for the kids, yeah.

Speaker 3 46:23

Exactly. And that's I mean, if you have if that's the goal in mind, you're never wrong. You know, you're never wrong. And that's that's the beautiful thing. It's like we're we're doing all of these things for the betterment of our school community and for the betterment of the of the experience that the kids get to have. Exactly. You know, like I'm excited for my son to get a chance to come through this school. He's a four-year-old, he's in pre-K right now, and just like to see all of the the changes that are happening, I'm like, this is somewhere that I want to send my son. This is somewhere that I want my son to get a chance to experience, which is a beautiful thing to say. Yeah. And it is it is really important.

Speaker 1 46:56

Yeah, like if your son really wants to like follow in your footsteps and do something as cool as what you're doing, and like he's gonna have a place to learn. Exactly.

Speaker 3 47:04

But you know, and like and spread his wings and not follow in my footsteps, too. You know, and that's the cool thing is that he he has the opportunity to like try it and try the things that that really trip his trigger and and get him excited about exactly whatever he's doing, which is cool.

Speaker 47:21

Yeah, all right.

Speaker 3 47:22

Should we wrap this thing up? Let's wrap it up.

Speaker 47:24

Let's do it. I think it felt right. It was great here. Yeah, yeah. That was awesome.

Speaker 3 47:28

You're the man. Um, okay, so I had we are gonna try to replace. I don't know what our schedule was for releasing episodes. You and I have talked about a couple different things, I think. Um, but we're gonna try to make this a relatively regular thing, yeah, bringing on different guests and things like that.

Speaker 1 47:46

I mean, as we go along, I hope to make it even more like more and more frequent, you know. Like maybe now it'll be once every three weeks or four weeks, but I would say you never know. Like if we record one a week, or it's gonna go faster and faster. I guess how the editing also, you know, like if we get in the groove of like quick edit, quick edit, right, put it together, release. Yeah, and we hope to have it what on Spotify, yep, Apple Podcasts, Apple, get it on YouTube, everywhere, whatever it's gonna be.

Speaker 3 48:14

But yeah, we got it recorded and people can see us, which is cool. But yeah, and we'll we'll uh we'll have some fun guests that are coming on, we'll have a chance to do some fun things and have more fun conversations, which I'm excited about.

Speaker 1 48:26

That's the idea, all walk of life from the school, from the school community, from even around the school community, you know, just anybody who wants to share a story and uh bring some new perspective into this and to the students or to whoever is watching.

Speaker 3 48:42

For sure.

Speaker 1 48:42

That's that would be great.

Speaker 3 48:44

That's huge. Yeah, that's gonna be awesome. Well, thanks for being my first guest, man.

Speaker 1 48:48

Thank you for being my first host. Hey, first is this your first podcast ever? Dude, my man. Welcome to the game. I've never done this. It's so fun. Once I was on like some radio or something for like a quick uh like snippet, yeah, because like my my girlfriend at the time, she was a radio DJ.

Speaker 2 49:05

Oh, sure.

Speaker 1 49:06

And then she let me just try out the booth a little bit and just say something into the into the mic, and it was fun, but never for real. So this one is official. It's cool.

Speaker 3 49:17

It's cool. All right, man. Thanks for being here. You're awesome. Uh thank you.