Rob Kaczmark - The Catholic James Dean of 2008

The bridge between Catholic media and relevant teen culture

by Kyle Heimann

The first time I saw Rob in person, he was clad in his business dress clothes and sporting a mohawk in downtown Chicago. I realized right away that this guy had style, a style that wasn’t imitating pop culture but one that pop culture imitated. He was a pioneer; ahead of his time. Every time I see him, he looks different with a new part of his hair bleached or a new style. Now he shares this gift, a gift of style with the Catholic community.

Rob Kaczmark isn’t your average Catholic. In fact, I would consider him an extreme Catholic. Actually, I think extreme should be his middle name. Everything this guy does is extreme.

He doesn’t just get a pogo stick, he gets an Xpogo which can jump 7 and a half feet in the air. He doesn’t just get a unicycle, he gets an off road unicycle that goes down mountains and steps. This is a man that owns PowerJumperz; springy stilts that let you take 9 foot strides and jump 6 feet high. He drives a Harley . . . do I need to keep going?

With all of this extremeness you may wonder how this fits into his faith, you may wonder how many times he has broken bones, you may wonder if he can break dance; I will show you, once and yes, he can.

Rob’s passion for life and his enthusiasm to take everything he does to a level most people don’t know exists is what makes Spirit Juice Studios so valuable. Catholic media has suffered for years from amateur quality, boring CD covers, bad fliers, and cheesy videos. Consider Rob a legal steroid shot for your media and you might start to see how your media would be able to compete with all the other media that passes a teenager’s senses.

It may seem like Rob was born for this, and that his whole purpose in life was to produce Catholic media that made peoples’ eyebrows raise and say, “Wow!” That his vocation was to take an industry that has survived off the slogan, “Not bad for a Catholic __________,” and turn it into, “You mean this is Catholic?” But he hasn’t always been doing this.

Three years ago, Rob was working in an office on the 11th floor of the Sears Tower. On the side he would DJ proms and weddings which kept his finger on the pulse of the newest secular music.

Even then he was very active in ministry. “I was doing a lot of youth ministry as one of the adult leaders at St. Germaine, as an 8th Grade CCD teacher, helping with retreats and some occasional youth rallies with a nun from the daughters of St. Paul,” explains Rob.

Then, several years ago, Rob started Spirit Juice Studios with his behind-the-scenes cohort, Bernie Czerwinski. Spirit Juice started out as a radio program that aired on the Catholic Radio Station, “Relevant Radio,” in the Chicago area.

“Bernie was on the phone with Leanne (one of Bernie's friends) talking about different possible names for this ‘young, hip, Catholic Radio show’ and well, she goes, ‘I got the perfect name for that radio show, how bout "Spiritus,"’ and Bernie goes, ‘yea "Spirit Juice" I like it.’ and Leanne goes ‘NO, I said “Spiritus,”’ then Bernie was like ‘’na that’s dumb, I like "Spirit Juice,"’ and the rest is history,” tells Rob.

The show was a fun, and hip look at Catholic music geared towards young people. Interviews, inspirational stories, full songs and remixes were combined with energetic personalities to make a fun show. Rob quickly grew a fan base and learned that there was a need for quality production in Catholic media and, well, that he was quite good at it.

So, what makes a guy that is making good money working in the Sears Tower quit his job to pursue a career in ministry?

“Well I really fell in love with God at Medjugorje,” explains Rob. “That place basically showed me that everything that was taught to me was real. I became passionate about it when I realized how much stuff out there in the church was presented in such a lame, boring, unattractive way. I basically was like, ‘man someone's got to start stepping this stuff up’.”

And step it up, he has done.

The problem was finding the income to support going full-time. “Direction for our Times flew me out to Ireland and basically wanted me to create a youth program for them,” says Rob. “It was at that point when I was like, ‘Yea, I think this could work.’ They originally wanted me to work for them but I felt called to not just serve them but the entire Catholic Community by providing digital media for them.”

But as Rob shares, knowing if a ministry can go full-time is tricky. “There are two things that I would consider before going full-time. You must have the burning desire, but it must also make sense,” explains Rob. “I had the burning desire for awhile but it didn't make sense, I had to wait a while before it made sense. Patience is a virtue.”

Since switching to full-time ministry, Spirit Juice Studios has been helping other ministries connect with their target audiences through top-notch media. The team has expanded with Rob still running the show. Now, Spirit Juice employs people that specialize in areas such as video, audio, and graphic/print art and the result has been some of the most attractive media the Catholic community has seen.

Rob’s business partner, Bernie, has worn different hats throughout the life of Spirit Juice Studios. “Right now he basically oversees everything and makes sure the business doesn't fall nose first. When things start to come apart he is the glue. In the future, he hopes to be more hands on with some of the projects,” explains Rob.

Another project that Rob has been working on over the years is “Experience the Stations.” Rob was DJing for an event at Navy Pier and Anna Scally from Cornerstone Media, was there. “I chatted with her for a while” he explains, “and we shared different projects we had done. She gave me a CD called “stations of the cross.” It had a reflection from Christ, then a personal reflection for a kid, then a modern secular song. It was really great except for one thing: every year she would update the music to include only songs from that year (2002 or 2003 etc.) Although I thought it was a great idea, I still thought it could be improved, a couple different ways; one, by not limiting the songs to just a certain year, and also by adding a visual component to it. And well 5 years later, nearly 8,000 Chicago'ans have experience the stations like never before.”

One of the services Rob and friends provide is a podcast called “the jUiCER.” This Spirit Juice podcast comes out about 3 times a month with four different regular shows to promote Catholic ministries (mostly music related).

The first and the original podcast is the “SPiRiT jUiCE EPiSODEs.” Currently on episode 37, these are full radio shows with 3-4 songs, interviews and inspirational stories. They often feature an artist or event and are very entertaining.

The “SPiRiT jUiCE SLUSHY” is a fun remix of a Catholic talk. The Spirit Juice team takes an ordinary talk from a Catholic speaker and drops a beat in the background and does some effects with the vocals to make it sound like something that would be played in a club.

Humorous personalities, Kilo and Sr. Mary Margaret, put together “Cd REVIEWS” where they “smuggle” some of the best Catholic music for your enjoyment. They give their review, play some samples and answer the listener mailbag to bring you a fun look at some Catholic music.

The final regular post on the podcast is the “FREE REFILLS.” This is a free mp3 from a Catholic artist. In the first 3 months of this year, the podcast gave out 4 different songs from artists that young people will enjoy. The podcast as a whole and the free refills in particular are a great way to learn about and get some free new Catholic music.

It’s worth noting that the podcast is not only for young people although it is specifically created with them in mind. The music is all professional recordings and spans different genres that young people enjoy. The podcast can be found at the Spirit Juice website or by subscribing on iTunes.

Yes, Rob has been doing great things for the Catholic community and the demand for his services has never been greater. Positive feedback, thrilled returned customers and glowing word-of-mouth reviews has kept the Spirit Juice staff busy and growing.

Rob’s equipment and ministry isn’t all contained to a studio, he also does many on-location events. Whether it is live audio or video recording, or sound reinforcement, Rob has quality equipment to get it done right. In fact, his live sound rig has kept growing to include an incredible light and sound production for dances or concerts. Spirit Juice also has a full-on video production with projectors, computers and lots of fancy faders and switchers to make an event top-notch.

Spirit Juice Studios has become a full-service production studio with Rob at the helm.
Good equipment and software doesn’t come cheap but now, Spirit Juice Studios has everything necessary to create amazing digital or print media. With a state-of-the-art studio in the Chicago area, Spirit Juice has the means to record, film, edit, print and duplicate anything for the web, DVD, CD or print.

“I have a motto, ‘nothing is worth doing unless you are going to do it well.’ A lot of successful business people have that same motto but not many ministers. Most people of care/ministers believe so much in God and faith and helping people that any idea to help more people seems great, and just getting the message out there is more important than how the message is presented. We, as ministers, must discipline ourselves in dedicating ourselves to making sure the message is presented in an effective way. After all, the Devil puts a lot of hard work and time in presenting his message why shouldn’t we?”

www.spiritjuicestudios.com

Here's a sample of the work SpiritJuice does in this video about World Youth Day called World Youth Day 2008 (Chicago Style):



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