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The Accidental Creative
Three Career Investments Creative Pros Should Make
Three Career Investments Creative Pros Should Make

Three Career Investments Creative Pros Should Make

I am frequently asked for career advice, and I very, very rarely offer it. Why? First, because I only intimately know my own path and those of a few others. Second, because all advice is local. What works for one person will be misery for another. With that in mind, this episode features three career investments that I think every single creative should be making now, and should continue to make consistently. These are the three aspirations that you should be chasing in order to ensure that you are positioning yourself to do increasingly meaningful and valuable work.

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The Accidental Creative
Getting Things Done (with David Allen)
Getting Things Done (with David Allen)

Getting Things Done (with David Allen)

If you do complex creative work for a living, you probably have some kind of system you use to help you organize your work and ensure that nothing is slipping through the cracks. But how reliable is that system? If you can't rely on it completely, then it's not really working for you. On this episode, David Allen is back to share some additional insights about Getting Things Done, and to discuss his new book (along with Mike Williams and Mark Wallace) Getting Things Done For Teens. 

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The Accidental Creative
Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)
Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)

Leading With Emotional Courage (with Peter Bregman)

In the uncertainty of today's marketplace, it's a challenge to show up each day with confidence and clarity about who you are and what you're trying to accomplish. On this episode, Peter Bregman helps us understand how to cultivate the emotional courage necessary to do brilliant and brave work, lead with precision, and unleash the best in everyone around us. 

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The Accidental Creative
The Road Back To You (with Ian Morgan Cron)
The Road Back To You (with Ian Morgan Cron)

The Road Back To You (with Ian Morgan Cron)

Self-awareness is a valuable asset if you want to lead well, create effectively, and live a good life. However, many people move through life reactively without a clear framework for how they're wired and what truly drives them. On this episode, Ian Morgan Cron shares insights from his book The Road Back To You, gives an overview of how the Enneagram framework can help you identify what drives you, and offers tips for applying that self-knowledge to life and work. 

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The Accidental Creative
How To Have The Right Idea at the Right Time (with Allen Gannett)
How To Have The Right Idea at the Right Time (with Allen Gannett)

How To Have The Right Idea at the Right Time (with Allen Gannett)

If you solve problems for a living (which most of us do), then ideas are critical to your effectiveness. But how do you increase the odds that you'll have the right idea just when you need it? On this episode, Allen Gannet will help us better understand the dynamics of creating under pressure with insights from his new book The Creative Curve.

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The Accidental Creative
How Expectation Escalation Keeps You In Your Comfort Zone
How Expectation Escalation Keeps You In Your Comfort Zone

How Expectation Escalation Keeps You In Your Comfort Zone

Are you comparing your in-process work with the absolute best thing ever created in your industry? How about this one... have you ever had a manager express disappointment that you only over-delivered a little instead of a lot? If so, you might be experiencing something called Expectation Escalation, and it is probably preventing you from taking risks, experimenting, and iterating your way toward brilliance. On this episode, we discuss how it affects you and what to do about it. 

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The Accidental Creative
The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)
The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)

The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)

If your organization is like most others, expectations are rising and resources are probably dwindling. We're trying to cram more activity into our days, but often feel like we're only falling further behind. On this episode, Geoff Woods is here with practical advice for making sure the most important things get done each day and that you don't go through your days in reactive mode. Geoff is the host of The One Thing Podcast, which is based on the best-selling book The One Thing. 

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The Accidental Creative
How Dissonance Steals Your Creative Edge
How Dissonance Steals Your Creative Edge

How Dissonance Steals Your Creative Edge

Have you ever had a sense that things just aren't adding up? Your brain is sending a signal that there's a gap between what you're doing and why you think you're doing it. That's a dynamic I call dissonance, and it can quickly rob you of your ability to engage fully and freely in your creative work. On this episode, we dive into a few of its sources and how they affect you.

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The Accidental Creative
Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)
Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)

Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)

Annie Dillard once wrote "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." However, many of us struggle to find a good balance with our time. We always feel like we're running behind, and that we lay our head down each night a bit behind where we awoke that morning. On this episode, time expert Laura Vanderkam is here to help us understand how people with a healthy perspective on time allocate their hours effectively. Her new book is called Off The Clock.

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The Accidental Creative
Why Empathy Is Essential (with Michael Ventura)
Why Empathy Is Essential (with Michael Ventura)

Why Empathy Is Essential (with Michael Ventura)

Every so often, a word becomes so common in the marketplace that it begins to lose its meaning. I believe that empathy is one of those words. On this episode, SubRosa CEO Michael Ventura shares insights into how to leverage empathy to thrill and delight your clients and customers and creative change in the world. Michael's new book is called Applied Empathy.

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The Accidental Creative
Choose Wonder Over Worry (with Amber Rae)
Choose Wonder Over Worry (with Amber Rae)

Choose Wonder Over Worry (with Amber Rae)

How much time do you spend worrying every day? For many of us, the answer is "too much". When you worry, you disengage parts of your mind and perspective that are necessary for creative brilliance. On this episode, Amber Rae shares how to identify those voices of worry in your head, and how to instead choose to focus on possibility. Her new book is called Choose Wonder Over Worry.

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The Accidental Creative
Getting To The Best Idea (with David Moldawer)
Getting To The Best Idea (with David Moldawer)

Getting To The Best Idea (with David Moldawer)

Ideas are often plentiful, but great, concise, well-presented ideas are rare. Sometimes you need another person to help you shape your work into something that can achieve maximum impact. David Moldawer is just such a person. He's an editor, and a writer, and he helps authors simplify and communicate their very complex work in a way that it can be received. On this episode, we talk about how to find your voice as an artist, a common fallacy that prevents us from success, and how to best position yourself for creative success. 

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The Accidental Creative
How To Finish (with Jon Acuff)
How To Finish (with Jon Acuff)

How To Finish (with Jon Acuff)

There's so much discussion about how to get started, how to overcome creative block, and how to find your motivation, but you know what's rarely discussed? That's right - how to finish when things get hard. Today's guest Jon Acuff has written the book on the topic, and he's here today to discuss his creative process, and some core principles for finishing challenging long-arc goals in your life and work. 

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The Accidental Creative
Friend Of A Friend (with David Burkus)
Friend Of A Friend (with David Burkus)

Friend Of A Friend (with David Burkus)

Networking. Just the word can sometimes bring chills to introverts like me. We tend to think of networking as "slapping palms" and "swapping business cards" and the whole thing often feel a little... swarmy. However, today's guest David Burkus is here to tell us how to think differently about networking, and how we can leverage both our strong and weak ties to help us accomplish our professional goals. His new book is called Friend Of A Friend.

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The Accidental Creative
Find Your Creative Voice With These 10 Questions
Find Your Creative Voice With These 10 Questions

Find Your Creative Voice With These 10 Questions

We must actively search for our creative voice, and clear a path for it to emerge. It is uncovered, not manufactured. We may not even like what we discover at first, but by embracing it we will position ourselves to occupy the unique space for which we’re wired.
Here are a ten questions that will help you uncover clues to your unique contribution.

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The Accidental Creative
Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)
Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)

Unsafe Thinking (with Jonah Sachs)

You're probably really skilled at what you do. However, this can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can take shortcuts that help you create more value faster for your clients or organization. On the other, the more skilled you are the easier it can be to slip into ruts and "safe thinking." On today's episode, Jonah Sachs, author of Unsafe Thinking, will help shake us out of our creative ruts and help us think more boldly.

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The Accidental Creative
How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams
How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams

How To Eliminate 90% of the Tension On Creative Teams

Many of the e-mails and questions we get at Accidental Creative revolve around one question. Actually, it’s one question asked from two different perspectives: How can I get them to understand me?

The them in the question is either “my manager” or “my creative team” depending on who is asking the question. There is a lot of time spent lobbing shots across the organizational bow, from both sides, but there is often a significant dearth of real communication.

So with that in mind, on this episode I we share a simple way to eliminate 90% of this organizational tension. It begins by understanding the main question being asked by the other person in any given interaction.

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The Accidental Creative
How To Plan Your Day In 10 Minutes
How To Plan Your Day In 10 Minutes

How To Plan Your Day In 10 Minutes

If you were going to purchase a house or a car, you would probably step back and consider how you're going to re-organize your finances to ensure that you're preparing yourself properly and will use your money effectively. However, many people are much less intentional abou thow they spend their day than how they spend their money. Yet, which is more valuable? How you spend your day is how you spend your life. On this episode, you'll learn a very simple 10 minute method for planning your day effectively so that you bring your best creative value to your clients and organization. 

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