TEAM
MELISSA ZOLA
Melissa Joy Zola is an entrepreneur, creative director, and community builder whose work over the past 15 years has spanned hospitality, wellness, land stewardship, and experiential design.
She built a strong foundation in customer service and operations through her work with Stirling Property and spent the early part of her career developing creative projects through Zolo. Today, she is the founder and steward of Butterfly Mountain, a nature sanctuary dedicated to fostering connection, creativity, and transformation through retreats, gatherings, and immersive experiences.
Melissa is also the founder of Blue Water Industries, Inc. Through all of her work, she is passionate about creating spaces, products, and experiences that bring people together and inspire a deeper connection with nature, community, and self.
Founder & Visionary Steward 
BRYAN MIR
A director and producer whose collaborators have ranged from John Legend and Sara Bareilles to Slash and Jason Mraz, Bryan has spent his career bridging creative vision and flawless execution. He continues that work at Make.Believe.Pictures, pioneering indigenous content and original television.
At Created by Sound, Bryan is the operational and technical spine of cXs. As a founding partner, he oversees the day-to-day machine that keeps every department, platform, and production pipeline running — while setting and enforcing the quality standards for all content that carries the cXs name. He owns the full content workflow from ingestion to publishing, manages the user experience across the app, website, and marketplace, and leads the technical production of live events — A/V, staging, streaming, and capture. Equal parts operator and creative, Bryan also develops artist and facilitator relationships, contributes to live programming curation, and serves as the bridge between brand vision and the finished work the world actually sees.
cXo (Chief Experience Officer)
nXs (neXus: brand & cultural architect of cXs ecosystemNICK WARAKSA
An Emmy & Cannes award-winning filmmaker, Nick has spent his career at the intersection of story and impact — working with A-list talent, Fortune 500 brands, and indigenous communities whose UN-recognized cultural sovereignty was shaped in part by his documentary work, with original TV projects through Make.Believe.Pictures.
At Created by Sound, Nick is the architect of the whole. As a founding partner, he holds the brand's visual and cultural integrity, curates the BrandZaar, leads creator matchmaking no algorithm could replicate, and designs the full sensory landscape of live gatherings — ensuring every channel, from the app to the website, pulses with the same coherent frequency.
MITCH KIRSCH
Live Event ProducerMitch Kirsch is a veteran event producer with 32 years of experience creating immersive activations, TV specials, festivals, and global events across 30 countries and 5 continents. His credits include 13 Olympic Games, 6 Super Bowls, 4 World Cups, and 3 Rugby World Cups, as well as Executive Producer roles for Vice & Intel’s Creators Project, Summit Series, Station to Station, Aniwa Gathering, and Created by Sound. He has also led talent operations for major MTV, VH1, CMT, and global music specials, working with leading rock, pop, and hip-hop artists. Beyond entertainment, Mitch has supported numerous charitable initiatives, helping raise funds and awareness for causes including the Rainforest Foundation, Pediatric AIDS, PETA, Covenant House, tsunami relief, and 9/11 benefit events.