Over twelve years Erik served as a congressional press secretary, Senate campaign communications director, political communications advisor at the National Association of Broadcasters, speechwriter in the George W. Bush Administration, and head of communications for the National Endowment of the Humanities.

During his political career Erik launched Brewing Culture, a “third-place” initiative to bring variety of beliefs and backgrounds together around great art and ideas. In 2006, Anschutz Film Group & Walden Media asked Erik to be the project manager for the movie Amazing Grace, a political thriller chronicling the heroic story of 18th century abolitionist William Wilberforce.  He and his team were heralded by the LA Times for crafting an unconventional marketing campaign and social impact effort to end modern-day slavery.

Erik served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for AFG/Walden Media in Los Angeles until 2008 when he and two others launched Different Drummer, an unconventional marketing and publicity firm. For the next ten years, across more than 100 entertainment projects, Erik led the vision and strategy of the fast-growing agency that included projects for all major movie studios, television networks, publishers, labels, and causes.

Expanding into production and distribution, Erik and four partners created Aspiration, executive producing the Sundance-premiered, NY Times Critics Pick film LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT starring Ewan McGregor. The company also distributed the festival-winning independent film Noble, with several new films in production.

Erik is the author and co-author of three books, including his most recent, DIFFERENT DRUMMER.  He and his wife, Monica, have three children and, after moving from DC to LA to DC to LA to NYC to Nashville over the past seven years, are glad to call Music City (aka “Storyville”) their home.

As a principal at Aspiration, Andy has been involved in launching dozens of independent and studio feature films and TV series including projects from Paramount Pictures, Participant Media, Sony Pictures, AMC, FOX, dick clark productions, Abramorama and National Geographic among others.

He is also leading Aspiration’s new Docs/ology initiative for curating, servicing and funding ‘praise-worthy’ documentary films.

In 2012 Andy created the Justice Film Festival, a film experience that promotes social justice and celebrates emerging filmmakers from around the world.  The festival just announced its 6th annual event in New York City at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture November 1-4, 2018.

Andy is a graduate of Taylor University, and has lived in Nashville for over 20-years with his wife Rebecca. They have three children. An avid record collector Andy has over 1,000 pieces of vinyl in his collection, and can usually be found visiting contemporary art museums and other sacred spaces during his travels.

In her time at the two agencies, she worked on more than 100 films with clients such as Roadside Attractions, Magnolia Pictures, Fox Searchlight, CBS Films, and Focus Features.

One of her career highlights was working on the awards team for the 2013 Academy Award Best Picture Winner, 12 Years a Slave. She also handled film publicity at the Sundance Film Festival & the Toronto International Film Festival, working on films such as documentary film The Queen of Versailles, Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and Lake Bell’s film In a World.

As a Belmont University graduate, Janeal returned to Nashville in 2014 and began working for Aspiration as a senior publicist and project manager.

In addition to her work on Emmy-nominated projects for Sesame Workshop, Livia has worked with Nickelodeon, Sprout, Universal Kids, PBS, Baby First TV, Out of the Blue, Fisher Price, and Amazon. Livia is also the Founder of the premier industry organization CHILDREN’S MEDIA ASSOCIATION and Chief Pebble Skipper of the development and production boutique PIXEL & PEBBLE.

As a student he worked on many short films and even interned for producers attempting to pull together a documentary film about now notorious comedian Bill Cosby just before the truth about his past reached the public.

After graduate school, Josh worked with New York City based company Andrew Lauren Productions for three and half years. While there he helped the team bring to life the independent film THE SPECTACULAR NOW (2013) and developed two commissioned projects with writer Taylor Sheridan. Deal also took part in developing several other projects and in the production of a documentary film before leaving the team in 2015.

Deal then transitioned to Nashville where he resides today. While with Aspiration Entertainment, he has helped to develop a digital film distribution platform called TheatriCast. Using the platform, Josh has distributed several documentary films, as well as the North American event film WORSHIP NIGHT IN AMERICA, starring Chris Tomlin.

As a Nashville based film and commercial producer, Josh continues to work on aspirational films and commercials.