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The Accidental Creative
Four Ways To Stoke Curiosity
Four Ways To Stoke Curiosity

Four Ways To Stoke Curiosity

I (strongly) agree that the future belongs to the curious, but would add that so does the present. Curious people are able to parse experience and recognize Reality behind reality; what’s truly going on in patterns and systems. They are able to ask great questions, and are willing to trade them in for better ones when they’re not satisfied with the answers. So with that in mind, how can we stay poised, leaning forward, and in a state of productive curiosity? On this episode, we explore four ways.

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The Accidental Creative
Three Weekend Rituals That Will Refresh Your Creativity
Three Weekend Rituals That Will Refresh Your Creativity

Three Weekend Rituals That Will Refresh Your Creativity

Weekends are not only a great time to rest, but also to recreate (as in “re-create” yourself, and to regain your focus and enthusiasm for your life and work.) By instilling a few simple checkpoints, or rituals, in your weekend, you can spark your creative juices and ensure that you’re clear-headed and focused heading into your next week.

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The Accidental Creative
Disrupting Yourself Before You’re Disrupted (with Mike McDerment)
Disrupting Yourself Before You’re Disrupted (with Mike McDerment)

Disrupting Yourself Before You’re Disrupted (with Mike McDerment)

In 2015, a strange new competitor appeared to challenge cloud accounting software company Freshbooks' dominance in their space. The new company, called Billspring, had a fresh look and feel, and seemed poised to pose a serious threat to Freshbooks. However, all was not quite as it seemed. On this episode, CEO and Founder Mike McDerment shares the story of how an unlikely competitor completely re-invented the face of the company.

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The Accidental Creative
Making Echoes
Making Echoes

Making Echoes

Leadership and legacy are not just what you do, but also how you do it. It will be determined by a series of choices you make over your life about how to spend this moment – here, and now. The challenging thing is that each moment feels like a throwaway, because another one follows closely on its heels. How you choose to engage here and now speaks more to your character than whatever residual stuff you leave in your trail.

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The Accidental Creative
The Bullet Journal Method (with Ryder Carroll)
The Bullet Journal Method (with Ryder Carroll)

The Bullet Journal Method (with Ryder Carroll)

The creator of the Bullet Journal Method is Ryder Carroll, and he’s on this episode of the show to help us understand a bit about how to use journaling to organize our lives and accomplish our goals. He’s just released a book called The Bullet Journal Method, and we’ll be discussing how to better organize your days, and how to know when to launch a passion project into the world.

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The Accidental Creative
The Messy Middle (with Scott Belsky)
The Messy Middle (with Scott Belsky)

The Messy Middle (with Scott Belsky)

There is no shortage of advice about how to handle the start of a project, or how to push through and finish one, but what about that grey area in-between? What about the challenges and problems we encounter in the space between? On this episode, Scott Belsky is back to share wisdom from his fantastic new book The Messy Middle that will help you navigate the most challenging pitfalls of any creative endeavor.

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The Accidental Creative
Discover Your Productive Passion
Discover Your Productive Passion

Discover Your Productive Passion

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What keeps you going even when you face difficulty and overwhelming odds? For many people, the answer is something other than the tasks or the job. Rather, it's something deeper and more closely knit to their sense of purpose. On this episode, we discuss a few questions you can ask to help you identify your "productive passion". 

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The Accidental Creative
Inside Apple’s Creative Process (with Ken Kocienda)
Inside Apple’s Creative Process (with Ken Kocienda)

Inside Apple’s Creative Process (with Ken Kocienda)

Over a period of fifteen years, Ken Kocienda had a front-row seat to the development of some of the most innovative technology in history. As a team member, he was responsible for helping develop the software on the iPhone, including being personally responsible for the development of the iPhone keyboard and autocorrect features. In this interview, he shares insights into how Apple's creative process works, what it was like to pitch and demo to Steve Jobs, and how we can all learn from Apple's successes and apply some of their methods to our own life and work.

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The Accidental Creative
Get Rid Of Ghost Rules
Get Rid Of Ghost Rules

Get Rid Of Ghost Rules

Do you ever find yourself doing things for inexplicable reasons, or making decisions in your work that you can't really explain? It's possible that you're living with "ghost rules". These are invisible narratives that limit your thinking and creating, and can - over time - cause you to underperform. On this episode, we share a few sources of ghost rules (from the book Herding Tigers), and how to begin to overcome them.

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The Accidental Creative
Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)
Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)

Make Maps, Don’t Just Follow Them (with Wes Kao)

As much as we'd all love a simple and easy to follow plan for career success, the reality is that we're all mostly making things up as we go. However, that doesn't stop many people from slipping into comfort mode instead of pushing for creative growth and personal challenge. 

On this episode, marketing consultant Wes Kao shares how to embrace map-making as your core mode of operation, why it's important to have a "spiky" point of view, and how to present your ideas so that others can receive them.

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The Accidental Creative
What To Do When You Fail
What To Do When You Fail

What To Do When You Fail

Everyone loves to win. The accolades, attention, and rewards are addictive. However, if you’re trying to do the work you’re capable of doing, you’ll eventually fail. If you’re leading a team of capable, driven people who are stretching themselves creatively, you’re probably going to fail often to hit your mark. You will eventually fail.

On this episode, we share four important questions to ask in the moment of failure to help you move forward and grow as a creative pro and a leader. 

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The Accidental Creative
How To Quit Your Approval Addiction
How To Quit Your Approval Addiction

How To Quit Your Approval Addiction

Which do you value more: being liked, or being effective? For many creative pros, they'd say that being effective is their highest ambition, but the reality is that they do many things simply for the sake of approval from others. You can be both liked and effective, but you can't chase both at the same time. On this episode, we share three ways in which you can quit your approval addiction and unleash the work you're capable of.

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The Accidental Creative
Four Ways To Reclaim Creative Energy
Four Ways To Reclaim Creative Energy

Four Ways To Reclaim Creative Energy

When was the last time you purposefully pruned your life (and project list) so that you had the time, focus and energy you needed for your most important work? Doing this on a regular basis is difficult, because each pruned idea and project feels like you’re abandoning a child, but this kind of ruthless dedication to energy management is what’s required in order to sustain over the long-term. On today's episode we share four quick questions to help evaluate a project for potential prune-ability.

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The Accidental Creative
Why Many Creative Pros Struggle With Discipline
Why Many Creative Pros Struggle With Discipline

Why Many Creative Pros Struggle With Discipline

Discipline is sometimes perceived as a “dirty word” because it’s interpreted as pushing through the muck, doing the unenjoyable activities first, and forgoing the chocolate cake for the steamed broccoli. However, I think this is a gross misunderstanding of the word. Discipline simply means making an agreement with yourself, and keeping it. On this episode, we share three reasons why creative pros often struggle with discipline, and what to do about it. 

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