Episodes
200 - Why Caring Matters w/ Michael Bierut
How is it the 200th episode!? How have I been doing this for almost 4 years??! Whether I believe it or not, this is 200 baby! So to CELEBRATE it's only natural that we have one of the most CELEBRATED creative professionals on the planet, designer Michael Bierut!!! In this episode we explore how to make creativity that's valuable, why it matters that you care about your craft (even if it's not what the audience cares about) and how to stay excited about your work even after you've reached majo…
199 - There are 4 Creative Business Types, Discovering Yours Changes Everything
The first couple years of my creative career were about 99% CREATIVITY and 1% CAREER. Spoiler alert, that balance did not work! After crashing and burning, I was finally inspired to give the career / business side a serious effort. It was this season of my life that I stumbled upon a framework that completely changed my business. I want to share this discovery with you and it's my hope that it has an even greater impact on your creative career. This episode also includes my top recommendation…
198 - 17 Ways to Tap Into Your Creative Joy (Even When the Pressure is On!)
The relationship between art and money is a real tricky one. One of the the biggest challenges stems from the fact that involving money into the equation puts pressure on your creativity. This is a major issue because, neurologically speaking, your best creative work comes from a place of play... AKA the opposite of pressure. This means those of us that get paid to be creative for a living face a unique battle: how do we stay loose when the pressure's on? How do we consistently execute at our …
197 - Imposter Syndrome, Connecting w/ an Audience & Noticing Inspiration w/ Frannerd (Fran Meneses)
EXTREMELY SPECIAL GUEST ALERT!!! Incredible Illustrator / Youtuber Fran Meneses (AKA Frannerd) joins us for a long chat about all things creative career! We talk about: How to make a deep connection with your audience and why it matters. Imposter Syndrome and why no matter how far you go, it still shows up from time to time! The breakthroughs that lead to this point. Daily tactics for noticing inspiration P.S. This podcast art is a collaboration between myself and Fran. I did the letter…
196 - How to Break Into New Territory (Side Quest Series FINALE)
As people who make THINGS, it's easy to be hyper focused on WHAT we make, but that should not be your only concern. WHERE you put what WHAT you make matters just as much. If you put the best restaurant in the worst location, it's going to fail, and the same goes for your art. Where you share your art matters, and in this episode we share ideas on how to get the most out of WHAT you make, by finding the right way to distribute it. CREATIVE SIDE QUEST SERIES PART 5 This is part of our Creative…
195 - A Super Underused Tactic for Career Growth (Side Quest Series Pt 4)
It's funny that with the internet we've never been more connected, and yet also never been more tempted to isolate ourselves! In my experience, you can not build a thriving creative career or a powerful creative side quest without OTHER PEOPLE! You've got to get other people embedded into your personal projects to take them to the next level. In this episode I will give you several tactics for involving collaborators in your side quest and why it makes all the difference. CREATIVE SIDE QUEST…
194 - How to Make Work that Spreads (Side Quest Series Pt 3)
It's hard to get into art when it's being shoved down your throat. So, how do you get your work in front of new fans, customers or clients without directly smashing it into people's faces? You engineer organic growth. You make work that people want to voluntarily share. In this episode I share everything I've learned about doing just that.
193 - How to Win Dream Opportunities (Side Quest Series Pt 2)
It's noisy and no one wants to be sold anything anymore. No company is looking for new untapped talent, they just seem to sit back and wait for the "best" to rise to the top of the internet. In this climate, how is a creative person supposed to break into a new market or win a new dream opportunity? Are we just at the mercy of people discovering us? Or can we actively make stuff happen in our creative careers? In this episode, I want to share a strategy for developing work that can tackle the…
192 - The Lesson that Changed My Creative Career (Side Quest Series Pt 1)
GUYS!!! THIS MAY BE OUR BIGGEST EPISODE TO DATE!! I AM SO PUMPED TO SHARE THIS EPISODE WITH YOU! 1 - We launch a new series today called "Creative Side Quest" In this series, we will walk through how to take a normal creative side project and add 4 layers of strategy that will transform it into a Creative Side Quest AKA your most powerful marketing tool!
191 - You're Hiding Your Secret Weapon for Growing Your Audience
In this episode I want to share with you the secret weapon I KNOW you have... that I'm SURE you're hiding :D This episode contains 3 lessons on creating a deep connection with your audience, and how that's THE number 1 secret to building a thriving creative career! P.S. Next week we will return to "normal" episodes, but I was deeply inspired to bring you one more "messy" summer episode!
190 - How to Push Past the Hard Times w/ Adé Hogue
Today on the show, we have super special guest, Chicago based art director, designer and letterer Adé Hogue!!! Adé has worked with a very impressive range of clients, from Nike to PayPal, and his journey is incredibly inspiring. There are nuggets of wisdom and lots of vulnerability in this episode and I’m sure it’s going to be a new fan favorite! We talk through Adé’s journey, the secret to getting your best work, the blood-sweat-and-tears of freelance and how his engineering background sets …
189 - Finding Peak Creative Performance
Does planning make perfect? Or is it best to shoot from the hip? Should you meticulously obsess over the details or should you just let those creative juices flow??? In this episode I want to share a principle that has helped me strike a balance and tap into my own personal peak creative performance. Your peak performance will be a different recipe than mine, but hopefully my process will help you find yours!!! This episode comes from personal experience, studying best creative practices of …
188 - Why You're Off Track
Being a creative person is incredible... except when it's not. To be a pro creative you've got to work hard and be a professional, but playing that part can sometimes lead to ignoring your needs and emotions. There's a secret I know about most creative people. They can look all cool and collected and pro when they need to, but behind that cool facade there is often a volcano of emotions. I know the truth about you... you're emo. You may not listen to My Chemical Romance (anymore) but you sti…
187 - How to Get More YOU into Your Art w/ Jon Burgerman
Would the people that know you best, see 'you' in the art that you make? The self discovery and artistic development required to pull this off can seem like an impossible mountain to climb, so I asked artist Jon Burgerman, how has he done it? I don't know anyone who is as good as Jon at downloading their essence into their art and in this episode I chat with Jon about what the process of getting to this place looks like.
186 - The Key to Unlocking Your Creative Super Powers
Do you have a sense that you've yet to realize your full potential? Do you often feel like you have much more to give but can't seem to figure out how to make it happen? These feelings have haunted me my entire life and over the past few years I feel like I'm finally unlocking some of my inner hidden gems!! In this stripped back / behind the scenes style episode I share the clues that have helped me make progress in my journey of creative self discovery.
185 - Your New Secret Weapon for the Hard Times
Every journey has it's ups and downs and your creative career journey is DEFINITELY going to have some serious downs... or you're not doing it right!! This episode is about failure and how you can not only get through it, but start to embrace it as the secret to success! I also offer a tactic I found that helped me complete my yearlong goal in just a few months!!!
184 - Challenge Everything!! 00:0053:36
What do you do when something's broken? You take it apart. I think we all have a deep sense that EVERYTHING is broken right now and because of that we are deconstructing EVERYTHING!! For this reason, this year's 99u conference theme of "Challenging Everything" felt VERY APPROPRIATE to me. In this episode I want to share the breakthroughs I had while at 99u this past month and how they've impacted my outlook in my day to day creative career and my big picture perspective as a person. In th…
183 - How to Relight Your Fire!
Anyone can deal with the good times, but it's how we deal with the hard times that defines our creative careers. In this episode I want to share tools for getting back up when the chips are down and you're feeling crushed. I've been dealing with some burnout and struggle and I hope these ideas are as energizing for you as they have been for me!! Even if you already feel good today, I hope this episode takes you from good to great!!
182 - Why You've Got to Get in the Game!!!
Do you ever feel like you're hiding behind the subjectivity of art? Like the fact that creativity is subjective, means no one can tell you you're bad or good. Right? I would say: wrong! Take the very creative world of food for example. Like what's good food and bad food might be up for debate to a degree, but ultimately undercooked poultry can objectively kill you! That is undoubtedly "bad food". I believe that in the world of professional creativity, value is more objective than you think an…
181 - The Power of Persistence w/ Chris Piascik
Chris Piascik has been doing a daily project for 10 years!! In fact, he's built an entire illustration career on the back of this project! In this episode, Chris shares the core insights he's learned about personal projects throughout this enormous journey!
180 - Do the Opposite of "Going Viral"
Is it just me, or does it seem like people think creative work only matters if it's reaching insane amounts of people? Like if you've never made something that's gone viral, than you're not really in the REAL creative game? Like if you don't have a bonkers amount of followers on social media than you're creativity just doesn't really matter? In this episode I want to argue the opposite. I want to prove to you that deep impact is better than wide appeal when it comes to your creativity. I also …
179 - How to Grow an Audience
It can be extremely discouraging when you pour yourself into your creative work, and it fails to connect with an audience. In this episode I share everything I've learned about growing an audience, including specific examples and tactics I personally employ, as well as a few ideas I've been waiting to share for a long time!
178 - How to Create Art People Crave w/ Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Ice Cream
Today's show features an extremely special guest!! JENI of JENI'S ICE CREAM! In this episode we hear Jeni's story and the breakthrough moments that lead to her extremely creative and successful business, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. There are so many aha moments and lessons from this episode, I know it's going to be one of your all time favorites!! Thank you so so much Jeni for taking the time to give so much to the Creative Pep Talk Audience! You are so amazing!
177 - Are You Sabotaging Yourself?
Did you know that you may be subconsciously sabotaging yourself? Well since you're doing it subconsciously, you probably don't! In this episode we talk about how to recognize your self sabotage and how to fight it. We also talk about Shiny Object Syndrome and why starting tons of things and never finishing any of them is killing your chances for progress. I also share my method for knowing what to focus on today.