Ep 87 The Brand After the Breakdown — T. Christian Helms on Illness, Empathy, and Building What Matters

Hello and welcome back to Morning Cup of Brand Spark, where we explore the moments that reflect us back to ourselves. Today's guest is T. Christian Helms, creative director and founder of Helms Workshop. He's a branding visionary who's helped build household names like Jack Daniels, Hershey, and Austin Brewer Works. But what makes this conversation special isn't just the brands he's built, it's how he's rebuilt himself. After a life-changing illness,

Christian discovered that creativity isn't about control or perfection, but about connection and purpose. So let's get started.

So Christian, before we dive into your actual story, what's in your cup this morning? It's morning for you, but evening for me.

I'm doing sparkling water. ⁓ I'm fully caffeinated at this point and there's a cutoff point that is very important. So I'm just sparkling water at the moment.

Okay, I'm heavily caffeinated at this point because it's evening for me. And can you tell everyone where you're joining from today?

in Texas.

Austin, how's the weather there?

It is hot, but it's not as bad as it had been, so we're theoretically sliding into fall.

Ooh.

At least you have sun, I hope. It's gray. We've entered the gray season here in Amsterdam.

yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's beautiful here. All good.

Jealous, not jealous. So, shall we jump into your story? Yeah? So, you've said before that your creative breakthrough actually came through an illness, right? And that really changed how you see branding, creativity, life, or even yourself. Can you take us back to that moment in time? What happened? And what did you start to see differently then?

You

Yeah, so a number of years ago, I randomly got hit with Lyme disease and also a disease called ehrlichiosis that also comes from a tick. Ehrlichiosis is even worse. And it was absolutely devastating. I mean, I couldn't walk across the room without having to lie down and rest. I couldn't think straight. The brain fog was insane. I felt arthritic and had all this neuropathic pain. It was terrible.

And for the longest time, we couldn't figure out what it was. So was flying all over the country, these different doctors, and they were taking guesses and giving me treatments and stuff that ultimately didn't do anything. And eventually in New York, a doctor said, maybe it's Lyme. And I was like, let's find out. And sure enough, it was Lyme and ehrlichiosis. ⁓

And how long

was

you started feeling it?

I was undiagnosed for over a year before we figured it out. And then when we did figure it out, the doctor said that it had been untreated for so long that it had done a good bit of permanent damage that probably wouldn't be reversible, which I did not like. So we got referred to doctor after doctor and eventually this great doctor in New York said, I've got one guy that I send people to when I don't know what that would do.

Wow.

No, no.

And his name is James. So he is basically a guy who healed himself with the same thing I had 30 years before. Just laying in his bed with a telephone, calling doctors and asking questions. And he built this insane protocol of diet supplements and weird exercise treatments that over time, coach me back to health. And you want to change your perspective, get really sick.

Well.

think you can't get out of it and then get life back and you just, you have this new appreciation for everything. ⁓ I hope I've held onto that since then. really tried to kind of paying attention to those moments of wonder and on ethnicity in the world that are kind of all around. If you're looking for them. But then the challenge was basically my agency was on autopilot, just barely moving along.

Wow.

Well.

I hadn't been out socially in three years. Um, to see anybody. Yeah. Cause I could move the conversation by the time you would ask a question, my brain would say, this is where you can something funny or witty. And then I would think what, I will say. And so the conversation has already gone way past. So it would be like, yeah, speaking from five minutes ago and it wouldn't make sense. So I just kind of clammed up and walked around like a zombie.

because of how you felt? Yeah, of course.

for you

It's too late.

So I didn't have any kind of social stuff left. We were a hot young studio that people were not paying attention to anymore because we went semi dormant. And I basically used a lot of the exercises that we use in building brands to kind of rebuild my life. ⁓ Mission, vision, purpose, audience, like who do you want to be surrounded by? What culture do you want to be a part of? And was able over time to really build

Awesome.

a better life and a better agency through doing that. And it's absolutely remarkable.

Wow, that's amazing the moment that your health made you see that even more.

Yeah, absolutely. It was pretty dire there for a while. So I was pretty excited to get out of it.

Eek.

Yeah, I bet. And I love how you talk about branding. You know, we're both in the space, so it's really awesome to talk to another brand strategist like myself. And it's really, really wonderful that you can tie back all of the different things that we do in branding and the meaning with all of that back into the meaning with your life. So it's not just market and marketing. It's really the human element, too. Did your own recovery influence the way you help brands?

today as well. So not just your own life, but how you're actually helping brands with the agency.

That's a great question. I get really emotionally invested in the brands that we build. We work with big folks like Disney, but we also work with small startups and founders. ⁓ And being able to really shepherd them through the brand building process and help them essentially achieve their dream is really powerful. So I don't know if it's changed my process in that a lot, but it certainly has developed a lot more empathy and emotional involvement in the brands that I build.

Awesome.

Well, you said shepherd them. I always say that I midwife brands. Because I

That was great.

small startups and with founders and women entrepreneurs mainly. I'm not working with the big corporate. So it's really awesome to get your perspective as well and how you're applying what you're doing to that too. Really cool.

Well,

because we're both on the inside, we know those are the more fun projects anyway. The bigger the brand, the bigger the company, the more hoops and approvals and all those things. So, the more fun ones are super, super fun.

Yeah. Yeah.

I always say that every brand that I build from scratch is my brand as well. When you know how that feels when you see a brand

Absolutely.

that didn't exist and five years later all of a sudden is on the cover of a magazine. That's the feeling of pride. And I have to say it's my brand too. Right. No.

Absolutely.

It never goes away. Like I've been doing

this for almost 30 years and I still get so excited when I see it alive out in the world. It just absolutely kills me.

But when you think about purpose and creativity, that's something that we usually design, right? Or is that something that we tend to uncover? And did your illness help you to realize that more?

Yeah, it's interesting. think there's this guy, Edward de Bono, who wrote this really great book about lateral thinking, about getting kind of into a creative head space. And one of his big tenets is that creativity is a learnable skill. It is not a gift. I don't know that I completely agree with that. I think some people have it more innately than others. But you look at a classroom full of kids and you say, how many of you are artists? All the hands go up. By college, nobody will raise their hand, maybe one person.

Mm-hmm.

So they kind of have it innately. We all have it as kids. I mean, if you have kids, you know how hilarious and random they are. But it kind of gets beaten out of us, you know? So it's a little ironic that we spend our adulthood trying to get back to that mindset we had as kids.

Yeah, that's for sure. I remember when I thought, well, I'm just not a creative person. I always thought I wasn't creative. That's coming from a marketing person, right? And when I was younger, and I've also been doing this for 25 years, I used to think, I do a lot of strategy, mainly strategy work, that that means I'm not a creative because I'm not sitting down and I'm not drawing. So I think you're right, the difference between what people think, what creativity is,

Mm-hmm.

There's a huge spectrum to what is creativity.

Absolutely, I agree 100 % and strategy is key. Without strategy, I wouldn't know what to do. I couldn't decorate a cake to save my life because it's just for no communication purpose, right? So I am a huge lover of strategy. I'm one of those weird person who has a half strategic, half creative brain. So that absolutely resonates with me.

So true.

That's awesome. And you can think back to one brand story that stayed with you over these years, mainly because it mirrors something human or something that you've learned about

you think of any?

man, there's so many. mean, one of our big tenants is to build brands that talk to people like they're people. Brands that have passion and curiosity and character and wit. So really most of our best brands all have a really meaningful story and such a rabid fan base of folks who are obsessed with them. And it's a pretty awesome culture to create.

And after everything you've lived and built, what does success mean to you now? So you've been through this change after your health scare and the mirror and seeing what your business could be and what's different. What does success mean to you now?

Yeah, I

I think success is, is far beyond wealth. It's about living a whole present, meaningful life, know? my purpose as a person is to create things that bring joy and value to people's lives. Like that's, that's what I try to do. And that can be a conversation. It can be telling a story. It can be building a brand. It can be just an interaction on the street. but it's something that I've always had in the front of my mind.

And have you learned anything specific about slowing down? You had to slow down during your illness.

Yeah, I mean, there was no choice. I only had one speed and it was very slow. Yes, I have in recent years gotten better about taking some time thinking about self care and those things. But I was not very good about that when I was young. I was peddled to the metal and working ridiculous hours and pushing really hard because in the beginning you want it so bad. You want it good. Yeah, it's great. And now, you know, I've done it enough.

You

Yeah, it feels awesome, right?

that there's a confidence there that we can do it again. And that relaxes you a little bit where you're not trying to force it so much. I always say that young creatives, they want to listen as little as possible, go away, design something they love, and then try to commit you to love it too. And as you get older, the best part of the process is discovery. It's walking into building a brand and saying, I don't know what this thing's going to be yet. Let's discover it together. That's the good stuff. That's your strategy right there.

Yes, that is the part I love, let me tell you. how do you manage that now, the balance with the agency, to keep yourself also balanced?

Yeah, I have an amazing team. The early days of the agency was me doing a lot of everything with a couple of people helping. And now I've got amazing leadership, an amazing culture at our agency that our team is fiercely protective of. And I've got a building full of killers, man. They are just brutally good at what they do and so supportive of each other. they make my job a lot easier.

because of their skill and passion and commitment.

They sound awesome.

They are a lot of fun. think one of the things that we talk about a lot is the brand building process should be fun and energizing and have a vitality to it. You shouldn't be drained. You shouldn't feel dragged down by it. And so many agencies have that, where it just is not a fun process for the clients. And we're very high touch, so we want it to be a great experience.

And our clients can feel that.

our energy is amped up because of what we're

workshops and our process. And they can totally feel if any single individual on our team is down in any way.

Yeah, absolutely. you know, we work so closely with our clients and we, you know, we're a little smaller than we could be. So we can be picky and choosy about who we partner with. ⁓ the funny side of that is I ended up being good friends with a lot of our, our clients and, you know, beach trips together with family and all that stuff. I was at an event, at a brewery that, that I branded, and was talking to folks and one of the brewers came up and he said, do you have any friends that you didn't work with?

Ha ha.

I'm like, yeah, his name's Jason, he can sign. His

They're all my friends now.

name's Jason, that's the one.

The one, but he's going to be next, don't you worry. Do you have any words of inspiration for anyone who's listening, whether they're an entrepreneur or they're a creative like us or they're in the marketing space like us, anyone that feels like they've sort of lost their creative spark in a way, maybe that they don't feel or see themselves in their work anymore, is there something that you would tell them?

There you go.

Yeah, I think if you're in that spot, it's time to swing big. I love the idea of the big, hairy, audacious goal. So a huge, yeah, exactly. You're not sure, know, like 50 % chance you are not going to be able to achieve it. And then you just run at it with just monomaniacal focus and think about every day, what do I need to do to make this happen? I think I got a little stagnant a number of years ago around the pandemic and I've kind of built a new

BHAG!

big, hairy, audacious goals for myself, which is motivating.

That's awesome. And I think if you're a maverick like me, that tends to be, we have no fear of the BHAGs

Absolutely. Yeah,

you've got to. You've got to be brave and bold. And you know, you've been doing this long enough. We're pirates at this point. Like we are, we are out just making it happen, stealing the seed. Nobody's ever done this before. Totally. Totally. We are pirates. are unemployable. We are running our jobs long enough that yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

Either come with me or you're back there.

the one-liner that's very true. We are unemployable at this point.

But before we wrap up, do you have a daily ritual that keeps you connected to this creative part of yourself? Because you said you had this split brain, right? The strategic brain and the creative brain. Is there something that you do every day that keeps you connected to the creative side?

Yeah, think oddly enough, exercise is really important. Moving your body can really help stimulate your mind. I'm to the point now where I've been doing this so long. I don't sit down and work. Stuff comes to me in the shower. It comes to me on a bike ride. It comes to me on the rolling machine. It just kind of happens organically in my head. And then you just got to it down on paper.

Yeah?

So taking that time really helps. Awesome.

Yeah, definitely. And

kids, like playing with the kids, like they're just brilliant. And then I make sure I take time to read every day, so.

and what age are your kids?

I've got a 14 year old and a nine year old.

⁓ okay, yeah, then the fun gamer age as well.

Yeah, it's

funny. The substantial age gap between those guys is because we went through lot of IVF and stuff to get our first to happen, like just years of trying. And we were basically told, you you guys are not going to be able to have kids naturally. Well, I go on this health protocol to get myself healthy. And all of a sudden and literally on Valentine's Day,

⁓

Surprise? ⁓

My wife walks into the living room, we're watching a movie and she holds up a pregnancy test and she says, what the fuck is this? And I told my doctor, he was like, yeah, I should have mentioned it. When I get people this healthy, lots of times that kick some stuff into gear and they have kids all the time. And I was like, you could have given me a head's Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

Surprise!

Thanks for the warning.

Awesome. Well, I definitely want to thank you for joining me. Is there anywhere that you'd like to send people to find out more about you and what you're doing?

sure to check us out online at helmsworkshop.com. It's fun site. You can find us on Instagram and all that fun stuff there.

awesome.

Thank you so, much.

Thanks for having me. You're great at this.

Thank you.

Well, that was Morning Cup of Brandspark with Tea Christian Helms. It's a reminder that creativity isn't just about perfection. It's also about your presence. So when the noise quiets down, purpose has a way of finding its way back in. If this conversation made you take a pause and breathe just a little bit deeper, I invite you to share it with someone who might need a little reminder that slowing down can be a creative act as well too. So until next time.

Keep your coffee warm and your clarity close. I'll see you soon.