Meet David Dylan Thomas | Founder, CEO, David Dylan Thomas, LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with David Dylan Thomas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David Dylan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I had been doing talks and workshops for a while, but my employer was taking most of the profits from that while I was drawing a salary. Eventually the math started to work out where while the amount they were making off each event was a pittance to them, it would mean real money to me, to the point where I was really leaving money on the table by *not* going out on my own!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I chose this question because it covers both aspects of what I do as both a speaker and a filmmaker. As a speaker, I got where I am by being in a rock band in high school and getting over stagefright early. That plus a fascination with topics as broad as design, decision making, and social justice, and all the threads that tie them together helped me get where I am. More specifically, I gave talks as part of my job for several different companies, and even as my day job focused on helping clients out with UX and content strategy, I increasingly became fascinated with cognitive bias and how the brain works. This eventually led to me doing a podcast on the topic, which then led me to giving talks on the topic, which then led me to writing a book called Design for Cognitive Bias, which combined what I learned about cognitive bias with my day job. Off the strength of that book, I was able to go full time giving talks and workshops on inclusive design.

As far as my filmmaking goes, that’s always been challenging as it has never produced a meaningful income (hence the day job) but has always been very fulfilling. I’ve made micro-budgeted movies (never more than $100k or so) in numerous genres including action, comedy, drama, documentary, and horror. My latest film, White Meat, is my first attempt to make a full-fledged, full budgeted (close to $10 million) film, which is a social justice horror/comedy about enslaved people who come back from the dead as zombies but only eat white people!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Kind of depends what they were into but I’d likely take them to some of the amazing art museums here in Philly, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Barnes Foundation or the Rodin Museum. I’d probably also take them to some of our cool record stores and bookstores, such as Harriet’s or Uncle Bobby’s, both Black owned bookstores, and our Black owned comic book store on South Street or one of our Black owned coffee shop chain Good Karma Cafe (noticing a theme here?).

I’d probably also take them to place like Double Knot or the Continental or Han Dynasty for great food (there are many, many options here), oh and definitely Dim Sum at Ocean Harbor in Chinatown (again, so many great options there). I’m not a foodie, but even I know about some of the great eats because there are just so many.

We’d also check out some of the parks and most likely I’d want to take them on a tour of some the great abolitionist history of Philadelphia, much of which can be found in Old City, including standards like The Liberty Bell but also lesser known spots like the Presidents House or the AME Church.

We’d likely hit up the zoo as well.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife, Nina, is a lot of the reason I do what I do, both from an inspirational standpoint – as a pediatric neuropsychologist, she helped me get interested in the brain – and from a financial standpoint – as the families primary source of income, her work allows me to take the risks inherent in starting my own business. Also, she’s awesome!

Website: https://whitemeatmovie.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviddylanthomas/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddylanthomas1/