Dave Barnes is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter and recording artist. His songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, and he earned a Grammy nomination for song of the year for God Gave Me You, as recorded by Blake Shelton. On this episode, we discuss the craft of songwriting, the intricacies of collaboration, the temptation of comparison, and how he hones his practice every day.
Workloads and expectations are increasing. It’s not a cliché, it’s a fact. It’s the single biggest (confidential) complaint that I hear when spending time with companies. I was speaking at a conference in Florida, and in the short Q&A at the end of my talk a man stood and said “We are doing more with less. We have fewer people than ever, but our project load continues to increase. However, the quality of our work is not allowed to suffer. What should I do?” On this episode, we share some principles for dealing with a crushing workload. What do you do when you're overwhelmed?
If you lead a team of people, you have the responsibility to keep your flame burning bright and hot.
No matter how talented and driven you are, sooner or later you're bound to feel stuck. When you'e at a standstill, the worst thing you can do is to keep staring at the problem and digging yourself deeper into a rut. On this episode, Todd Henry shares 25 simple, but effective questions to help you get out of your creative rut and get moving on your work.
Why the right mix of Stability and Challenge is essential to brilliant work.
What does it take for a team to produce consistently brilliant creative work? Just talent? A fun and vibrant culture? Sheer will? Actually, in "create on demand" organizations the answer is often something else. Something surprising.
You've probably heard them before. You might even believe them. However, the myths that exist about creative people in the marketplace can affect your ability to engage in and do your work effectively. On today's episode, I share five common myths about creative people, how they limit our ability to bring value to our clients and organization, and what we can do about them.
It's getting close to the end of the year. How many of the things you planned to accomplish this year actually got done? For some people, the list is long, and it's because they failed to engage in all three kinds of work necessary in order to remain effective. On today's episode, I share the three kinds of work and the traps that we fall into when we fail to engage in them.
Have you ever been in a meeting, and introduced an idea, then felt the urge to discount or qualify your idea with "well, that's just my opinion", or "just my 2 cents"? Or, do you find the need to apologize anytime you speak up or offer an insight? Please stop. If you're in the room, you have value to contribute and you shouldn't feel the need to apologize for your existence.
Over the course of this summer I'm going to share a few legacy episodes of The Accidental Creative podcast. These are some of my favorite conversastions of the past 12 years. Today's episode features a 2008 sit-down conversation I had with Peter Block.
Peter Block is a man who wears many hats. He is an internationally coveted speaker, a consultant to the biggest corporations in the world, and a best-selling author. Lately he’s also been making a name for himself as a citizen by facilitating conversations within communities. In this interview, Peter discusses uncovering and acting on what matters.
It's such a joy to have Seth Godin back on the podcast. In this conversation, Seth shares insights about the nature of doing creative work in the face of uncertainty, and how to succeed with the smallest possible market instead of aiming for big.
He also shared a bit about his altMBA program, an intensive, 4-week online workshop for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead.
Your career is going really well, and you're knocking it out of the park with your projects. Then suddenly, one day you realize that your work just isn't quite giving you the same spark or gratification that it once did. Everyone around you is happy with what you're producing, but deep inside you know that you're kind of phoning it in. Why does this happen to even the best and brightest people in the workplace? On today's episode I share the two places where creative pros get stuck, and what you can do about it.
We're all influenced by the greats of our craft. Every writer has a hero, as does every designer, leader, and musician. However, we often fail to think deeply about why those particular heroes are so influential on our own work. In today's episode, I share a few ways you can probe the depths of your influences to hone your own craft.
When you're stuck on a project and need an idea, what do you do? Do you stare at it, beating your head against the desk and straining for insight? There's a better way. Today's guest, Nick Tasler, shares a phenomenon called The Kafka Effect and how it can help us generate creative ideas and make valuable new connections.
One three letter word might be killing your creative output. Worse, it's the reason your team doesn't want to collaborate with you, and it's the thing that's preventing you from doing the best work of your life. On today's episode, I share what this three letter word is and some ways you can spot it before it derails you.
Your human instincts are fine-tuned for survival, not innovation. This is handy when you're escaping a lion in the wild, but not so great when you need to come up with an amazing new idea for that client project you're working on. On today's episode, Adam Hansen shares a few insights for how to overcome those baked-in instincts with tips from his book Outsmart Your Instincts.
Where do great ideas come from? More importantly, how do you put them out into the world where they can actually impact people and change the world? Today's guest, Scott Berkun, has spent many years studying these topics, and he's just released a (great) new book called The Dance Of The Possible. On today's episode, we discuss the nature of creativity, how to get unstuck, and how to embrace the dance that is the creative process.
Have you ever been at a cocktail party, had someone ask you what you do for a living, and wished you could come up with something impressive-sounding to wow them? Adam Stelztner probably never experiences that. He's an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on flight missions including Galileo, Cassini, and Mars Pathfinder, and the Mars Exploration Rover project. He has a lot to say about innovation and leadership.
While tips and tricks don’t matter if you don’t have a clear sense of why you’re working and what you’re trying to accomplish, they can help you gain a clearer head and more precision in your daily work. Here are a few that I use every day and that have drastically changed my productivity.
If you make things and share them, your heart will at some point be broken. If you never share, it will harden. Your choice.