The love of comfort is often the enemy of greatness. We can look successful to everyone around us, but deep down know that we're essentially "phoning it in" and have stopped growing, challenging ourself, and chasing aspirations. We've settled in.  In...

Do you have a minute to think? It's a good question, and it's difficult to answer. I think most of us - especially right now - have days full of meetings and obligations. Now that meetings are essentially frictionless, more are added to our calendar. After all, the...

To gain attention for your work (or your message) you must stand apart from everyone else. There is no place for being another in a line of similar messages. How do you separate yourself from the pack? Today's guest is Mike Michalowicz, author of the new book Get...

How do you share your idea in a way that it will resonate with your intended audience? Whether you're a leader, a marketer, a designer, a writer, or a product developer, it's not your idea that matters it's whether others understand it and feel compelled to...

Many creative pros love the work they do, but strongly dislike talking about or marketing that work. Today's guest John Jantsch has been teaching small business owners and freelancers how to market for decades, and on this episode he shares a simple framework for...

You've likely heard the old advice "you can't change other people." Today's guest would beg to differ. Through decades of coaching, he's developed a method to help you help other people change and achieve the results that they want. Peter Bregman is the author...

This is the second part of a nine part series on Todd Henry's book Die Empty. In this episode, we look at the effect that aimlessness can have on your day to day work, and how to identify a portfolio of productive passion that drives you forward in life....

The average person lives about 4,000 weeks. How does that fact make you feel? More importantly, how might knowing that your time is so finite cause you to choose to live?  There are so many tools at our disposal for time management, but often our efforts only...

This week we begin a new series covering Todd Henry's 2013 book Die Empty. For each of the next nine episodes, we will be discussing a core principle from the book and how it applies to life and work. Today we discuss the three modes of work, and why each is...

When we talk about the creative process, what we're really talking about is the ability to connect dots and make intuitive leaps. Sometimes those dots are previous projects we worked on, or experiences we had, and sometimes they are from things that we've read or...

On today's show, Todd Henry discusses the difference between bold creative work and brave creative work. This applies both to the work we do as professionals as well as how we lead others.  Then, Todd turns to discussing the three core elements of brilliant...

How do the best of the best do what they do? It's easy to watch and admire top performers, but we can actually do more than that. We can decode how they got there. Today's guest is Ron Friedman. He shares insights about how we can reverse engineer the...

When you have a number of ideas, how do you know which one to pursue? On this episode, we discuss creative process, practices, and how to know when an idea is right with A/J Jackson. A/J is an American filmmaker, musician, songwriter, record producer, and perhaps...

Does what you listen to affect your ability to generate ideas and be productive? According to today's guest, the soundtrack you choose can impact your creativity significantly. Will Henshall is the founding member of the band Londonbeat and the founder of...

Brilliant performers in any field often have rituals or practices that they fall back on to help them perform consistently at their peak. When you are charged with doing complex work every day, rituals can bring order to your world and help you focus more...

It's been a long year, and many creative pros are experiencing some level of creative burnout. It's taken everything we have to deliver on expectations over the past year, and as we now return to a sense of "normal", the uncertainty and expectations are likely to...