Today we’d like to introduce you to Calia Brencsons-Van Dyk.
Hi Calia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My career began in the arts and media, where I learned how to bring people, ideas and ambitious projects together. I went on to spend more than a decade producing television, including *The Martha Stewart Show*, and later worked across film, coaching and personal branding. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to receive industry recognition, including an Emmy and an award for empowering women.
Today, I bring that experience to Caliativity Productions, where I coach creative entrepreneurs and help them shape a personal brand that feels true to who they are and where they want to go. My book, *Personal Branding for Creative Entrepreneurs*, offers an eight-week guided journey to help readers find and express their creative signature.
I’m also building DONE. Quantum Security with my husband, Joel. We’re developing a practical way for organisations to prepare for the risks posed by quantum computing without needing to become quantum experts themselves.
These may seem like different worlds, but the heart of the work is familiar: bring the right people and ideas together, make the complicated clear, and help an important vision become real.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. After years in television and creative production, my work now spans promoting *Personal Branding for Creative Entrepreneurs* and building DONE. Quantum Security with my husband, Joel. Sharing the book means helping creative entrepreneurs see how a clear personal brand can support their work. Moving into quantum security has meant learning a new technical language and finding clear ways to explain why the work matters.
Building a company brings its own challenges: limited time and resources, long funding processes, and the patience it takes to turn a working prototype into something customers can use. Through it all, I’ve had to balance ambitious work with family life and the many responsibilities that come with it. My family has always been the most important part of my life. I have never compromised that, and I never will.
The team has always made the hard work worthwhile. I love bringing people together and finding a common language that helps us take the story—and the work—to the next level. I’ve learned to keep asking questions, value the expertise each person brings, and remember that progress often comes in small, steady steps.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Caliativity Productions and Creative Agency, Ltd.?
My work has long centred on helping founders tell the story of what they’re building: what makes it matter, who it serves and how to make its value clear. Through Caliativity Productions, I coach and mentor entrepreneurs to communicate their ideas with clarity and confidence. My book, *Personal Branding for Creative Entrepreneurs*, brings that approach to readers who want to shape and share their own creative signature.
Now I’m extending that experience into our next adventure: DONE. Quantum Security. As co-founder and CEO, I’m helping build a UK- and US-based company that makes quantum security easier for organisations to understand and act on. We’re developing an evidence-led security gateway to help regulated organisations protect selected data flows and keep clear records of that protection.
At heart, the work is connected: bring the right people together, find a common language, and help a promising idea become something others can understand and use.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve spent much of my life helping people tell their stories: finding the heart of an idea, bringing the right people together and helping an audience see why it matters. I’ve done that through television and creative production, and now through Caliativity, where I coach and mentor founders and creative entrepreneurs. My book, *Personal Branding for Creative Entrepreneurs*, grows from that same belief: a clear story can help people see the value and possibility in what they’re building.
I’ve never thought of storytelling as separate from taking risks. Every meaningful story begins before you know exactly how it will unfold.
One of my biggest risks has been carrying that experience into a very different venture: helping build DONE. Quantum Security in the UK and the US. Quantum security is complex, and many people don’t yet know why it matters. I believe stories can make the unfamiliar feel human—and help organisations see what’s possible before it becomes obvious.
For me, risk is being willing to tell that story, keep learning, and invite others to help shape what comes next.
Pricing:
- One-to-one coaching: £250 per hour
- Monthly coaching retainer: £900 per month
Contact Info:
- Email: calia@caliativity.com
- Instagram: @caliativityproductions
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Caliativity/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caliabvandyk/
