Three Life-Changing Daily Practices
What you choose to do every day deeply matters.
Three Life-Changing Daily Practices
Articles about The Accidental Creative
Your Quarterly Checkpoint
Your Quarterly Checkpoint
One practice that is prescribed in the book The Accidental Creative is a checkpoint every three months to get ahead of commitments and ambitions for the upcoming quarter. On this episode, we walk through a Quarterly Checkpoint and offer some questions and prompts to help you plan for brilliance in the coming months.
Take Notes Like a (Creative) Pro
Take Notes Like a (Creative) Pro
How to use your notes to spark brilliant ideas.
Why Community Is Critical For Creative Pros
Why Community Is Critical For Creative Pros
We tend to think of creative work as a solo sport. It's something that, in large part, has to be accomplished alone. However, the extent to which we stay connected to others can play a large role in our personal creative process, and in helping us tackle our goals. On this episode, we share three core strategies for developing relationships that will help you thrive personally, and in business.
Three Tensions Every Creative Pro Faces
Three Tensions Every Creative Pro Faces
When you do any kind of difficult, problem-solving, creative work, tension is inevitably present. How you deal with that tension will determine whether it makes you stronger and more focused, or whether it sucks the wind out of your sails. On this episode, we share three tensions that every creative pro encounters daily, and how to deal with them while recognizing that they're not going away.
3 Ways To Gain Creative Focus
3 Ways To Gain Creative Focus
You have a finite amount of attention to spend on your work.
Organize Your World With a Weekly Checkpoint
Organize Your World With a Weekly Checkpoint
Many creative pros charge through their work over days and weeks without ever stopping to assess whether they're on the right course. In this episode, I share a simple method for instilling a checkpoint into your life to help you ask critical questions about the work you're doing and the life you're living.
Overcoming The Fear Of Launching Work
Overcoming The Fear Of Launching Work
On this episode, I re-visit a conversation with Julien Smith about the launch of his company Breather, and share three core principles to help you put your valuable work into the world every day.
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.
Atomic Habits (with James Clear)
Atomic Habits (with James Clear)
On today’s show we have a guest who can help us better understand the habits that form the foundation of our success or failure. His name is James Clear, and he’s just released a book called Atomic Habits, which is about the small changes we can make in our daily life to create big change on the other side. It’s a guidebook to healthier habits in life and work, and our conversation with James is coming up in just a moment.
The Big Idea: The Accidental Creative
The Big Idea: The Accidental Creative
Today we're beginning a new podcast series called The Big Idea, in which we'll cover the core concepts from each of Todd Henry's first four books. This episode is devoted to the first book, The Accidental Creative.
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".
Eliminate Unnecessary Complexity
Eliminate Unnecessary Complexity
Things rarely get more simple. They typically only get more complex. This applies to our creative process as well, and unnecessary complexity can have a terrible effect on our ability to gain mental traction. On this episode, we share three ways unnecessary complexity can creep into your process and how to begin to identify and overcome them.
Dropping Insecurity Work
Dropping Insecurity Work
I first heard the phrase "insecurity work" from Scott Belsky a number of years ago. He defines it as work that has no intended outcome, doesn't move the ball forward, and is quick enough to do without realizing. It's most common to slip into insecurity work when you feel overwhelmed or perhaps even unequal to the creative task at hand, and it gives you the illusion of progress but actually robs valuable resources necessary to produce value. On this episode, I share three sources of insecurity work and how to recognize and address them.
Letting Go and Moving Up
Letting Go and Moving Up
A creative career (and a life) have seasons, but it's often tempting to hold onto something long after it's grown stale simply because you're too comfortable to make a move. On this episode, we share insights from the book Louder Than Words about how to know when it's time to let go and move up the growth curve.
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.
Creativity For Its Own Sake (with Srini Rao)
Creativity For Its Own Sake (with Srini Rao)
Many people begin their career as a creative pro amazed that they get to do work they love, and get paid for it. Then, at some point, it becomes more about making a living than the joy of creating. On this episode, Srini Rao discusses the importance of embracing creativity for its own sake with insights from his new book An Audience Of One.
Running Down A Dream (with Tim Grahl)
Running Down A Dream (with Tim Grahl)
There are a number of creative battles that must be won in order to get from where you are to where you want to be. Unfortunately, many creative pros are "taken out" of the game because they aren't prepared for what's inevitably going to come there way. Tim Grahl has been in the trenches for years, and on today's episode we discuss some of the common pitfalls creative pros face in building something great with insights from his new book Running Down A Dream.
Your Legacy Is People
Your Legacy Is People
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.
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.