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The Accidental Creative
How To Keep A Creative Project On The Rails
How To Keep A Creative Project On The Rails

How To Keep A Creative Project On The Rails

No matter how well things go in the course of a project, there are always ways in which you can go off the rails. This is especially true when you're leading other team members or a client through a complex web of decisions. Sometimes, there are circumstances beyond your control that force you to go backwards and re-visit some of your earlier work. However, you should always ensure that a project isn't going off the rails because of a lack of diligence on your part. On this episode, we share four practical tips for keeping your creative project on the rails as you make difficult decisions. 

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The Accidental Creative
5 Ways To Shake Up Your Creative Process
5 Ways To Shake Up Your Creative Process

5 Ways To Shake Up Your Creative Process

Over time, this pressure to produce every day can cause us to fossilize around bad habits. We get into a rhythm – the bad kind – that causes us to move mindlessly through our days without much thought for our process. On this episode we share five places where you might be experiencing “fossilization”, and some remedies for dealing with them.

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The Accidental Creative
Push Through The Second Wall
Push Through The Second Wall

Push Through The Second Wall

There are two walls that creatives hit when engaged in making something meaningful. The first wall, and the most obvious one, occurs before or very early in the process. It’s what causes us to shrink back from engagement and to instead seek something – ANYTHING – that will immediately relieve our need to feel productive. It’s much easier to check e-mail, make a call or re-shuffle the papers on our desk than it is to bare our soul to the blank page, the blinking cursor, or the empty art board. However, the second wall can be the one that really keeps you from producing your best work. On this episode, we share some strategies for surmounting it and pushing through to your best work. 

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The Accidental Creative
Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race
Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race

Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race

It’s not enough to make daily, measured progress on your work if it’s not deliberate progress. If you’re not moving in a meaningful direction, then failure is a likely outcome. While most professionals know this, it often doesn’t affect how we approach our work. Instead of defining our work effectively, we are instead carried along by the flow of it from day to day. Instead of determining the problems we are trying to solve, we tackle big, conceptual challenges and thus set ourselves up for failure from the start.

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The Accidental Creative
Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)
Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)

Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)

Have you ever had a goal or an ambition, but you simply couldn't figure out how to get moving on it? Or, have you ever encountered a hurdle that you simply couldn't jump over or go around? Today's guests, Jason and Jodi Womack, help people gain momentum in their life and career, and on this episode they'll share how to deal with the expectation escalation that comes with technology, how to determine the direction of your life and work, and why relationships are critical to effective productivity. 

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The Accidental Creative
Complete Your Conversations
Complete Your Conversations

Complete Your Conversations

An unbelievable amount of focus, time, and energy is spent in many organizations relitigating decisions that have already been made and should have been final. Not only is this a massive sinkhole for the team's resources, it's a drain on its emotional engagement and a drag on its sense of mission. On this episode, we discuss the dangers of incomplete conversations and how we as leaders, collaborators, and freelancers working with clients can hone our focus by completing conversations. 

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The Accidental Creative
Craft, Comparison, and Creativity (with Dave Barnes)
Craft, Comparison, and Creativity (with Dave Barnes)

Craft, Comparison, and Creativity (with Dave Barnes)

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.

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The Accidental Creative
Asking The Best Questions (with Jordan Harbinger)
Asking The Best Questions (with Jordan Harbinger)

Asking The Best Questions (with Jordan Harbinger)

As a creative pro, it's your job to advocate for your client, your company, or your audience. That means refusing to settle for less than the best, and pushing until you get the results that you're striving for. On this episode, Jordan Harbinger, host of the Jordan Harbinger Show, shares his thoughts about how to ask questions that get quickly to the heart of the matter and how to be an advocate for the people you serve. 

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The Accidental Creative
6 Rules For Chunking Your Time
6 Rules For Chunking Your Time

6 Rules For Chunking Your Time

A time chunk is simply a dedicated amount of time, an hour or two if possible, to immerse yourself in the important, but not urgent work on your plate. Rather than relying on the non-time-committal nature of a task list, time chunks ensure that you will spend a certain amount of focused effort making progress each week. You know that interruptions or other distractions won’t get in the way, because you’ve built a bulwark against them.

On this episode, we share 6 simple rules for establishing (and keeping) time chunks on your calendar so that you make progress on your critical creative work.

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The Accidental Creative
The Questions We Avoid
The Questions We Avoid

The Questions We Avoid

In many ways, the quality of your work is defined by the questions you ask. Those who ask the best questions ultimately get closest to the heart of the situation, and in many cases ultimately win. However, you are also defined by the questions that you choose to avoid. If you run away from important questions because they're uncomfortable to address, then you might compromise your body of work and never fully achieve your potential.

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The Accidental Creative
Do What Only You Can Do (with Jen Gotch)
Do What Only You Can Do (with Jen Gotch)

Do What Only You Can Do (with Jen Gotch)

When you are growing a business, it's tempting to allow yourself to get pulled into the million little things that demand your time. However, there is something that your business needs from you that only you can do, and you're the only one who knows what it is. On today's episode, Jen Gotch (co-founder of Bando), shares her thoughts about social media, growing a business, leading creative teams, and how to keep yourself inspired and focused when your business is too big to be small, and too small to be big. 

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The Accidental Creative
25 Questions That Will Help You Get Unstuck
25 Questions That Will Help You Get Unstuck

25 Questions That Will Help You Get Unstuck

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.

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The Accidental Creative
Your Customer’s Secret Language (with Jeffrey Shaw)
Your Customer’s Secret Language (with Jeffrey Shaw)

Your Customer’s Secret Language (with Jeffrey Shaw)

Who is your ideal customer? If you're a freelancer, a small business owner, or even someone designing or writing within an organization, this is a critical question. But you can't stop by identifying that customer, you also need to understand how to communicate in a way that will resonate deeply. In other words, you need to uncover their "secret language". 

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The Accidental Creative
Podcast: Marking The Moment
Podcast: Marking The Moment

Podcast: Marking The Moment

At times, it can feel like life and work is one long string of projects and tasks. You have your eyes fixed forward, and you're thinking about the next thing you're going to do, the next hill you're going to climb, or the next project you're accountable for delivering. However, when your work is just one long series of things to do, you have no rhythm. There's no seasonality. On today's show, I discuss the value of building moments of reflection and celebration into your work. 

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The Accidental Creative
Podcast: Thoughts On Business Travel
Podcast: Thoughts On Business Travel

Podcast: Thoughts On Business Travel

If you travel for business, you know that it can be both stressful and frustrating. However, if you have some core principles that guide how you approach travel it can also turn your time “on the road” into space to help you be more prolific, brilliant, and healthy. On today’s show, I share a few principles for traveling well and staying emotionally (and physically) healthy.

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The Accidental Creative
Podcast: Unbranding (with Alison Stratton)
Podcast: Unbranding (with Alison Stratton)

Podcast: Unbranding (with Alison Stratton)

How do the best brands in the world inspire loyalty? And, why do some brands just seem to fall apart even though they seem to be doing everything right? On today's episode, Alison Stratten is here to share a few stories of brands who have leveraged comfort, cost, convenience, and convergence to grow incredible customer loyalty. Alison is the co-author of the new book Unbranding. 

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