Creative Minds Podcast

When I was in high school I was the kid sports teams asked to join the team if they needed people to fill spots. It wasn’t because I was the best, it was because they knew I did everything and enjoyed playing all the things. I remember once wondering how it was even possible to be doing as many things as I was doing. Oh, and I think I broke my nose playing volleyball once.

Well, listening to Kathy Smart of Live the Smart Way talk, I can’t help but wonder how in the world she’s managed to do as many things as she’s done while continually moving on to more and more things.

It began when she introduced gluten-free foods to the store she worked at. Then she realized people weren’t experiencing these foods the way they could be experienced so became a chef to prepare them. Then from there to personal trainer and then to the logical next step in the life of a Do All The Things person to creating her own cookbook.

What impressed me most (or a top five thing at least) about Kathy was the come-right-out-and-say-it self-belief she has. While she has had moments where she’s questioned the rationality of some of her undertakings, never has she doubted that she’d succeed. Ne-ver.

Take a listen and learn about the Coffee With Mom business rule and the highlight of her cool things she’s done list. Stick around to hear her talk about the Live The Smart Way Expo she decided to organize for those looking to eat smart, move smart and live smart. Because the other things she’s done just weren’t enough.

She’s an amazing woman even if she does have too many nice things to say about Chris for my liking.

In summary: Stay tuned for more. Her ideas have no limit.

We spoke to writer, Black Hockey Jesus, about his journey through writing, addiction and fatherhood.

We are back after our Holiday break and ready to rock 2015! In this episode, Mike and I catch up on everything that happened during our break, including the fact that Mike (Santa) bought his daughter a new drum kit! Parents will understand the problem with this.

Because of the podcast, Mike and I were able to work with Nabob on their Respect The Bean campaign and we both created short videos for the coffee giant. You can view them at Canadian Dad and Puzzling Posts, respectively.

Other topics we cover include the wildly popular Serial podcast, our upcoming trip to the Dad 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, our goals for 2015 and how we deal with creative slumps. It felt great to be back and we hope you enjoy this episode!

If you’ve ever participated in a monthly creativity challenge---think National Novel Writing Month, you’ll know that often the best takeaway is having completed the challenge at all. I once completed National Novel Writing Month after starting the 50,000-word story with “Bill sat in the street with his donkey by his side.” I don’t look at that story very often but think of the accomplishment on plenty of occasions.

Austin Light, our guest for Episode 25 of the Creative Minds Podcast, has a little bit more than memories of a cramped drawing hand from his own exploits in Inktober. Over the past few weeks, his Movie Title Typos artwork has made its rounds across the internet, making his Reddit-thread inspired work well-known around the world.

The illustrations themselves are amazing, the story behind how it happened over the course of a few days is equally intriguing to hear about. From sharing a few sketches on Instagram to having thousands of emails asking for his designs on shirts, Austin goes through the strange process of becoming internet famous.

While I get plenty of creative inspiration from an image like the ones he put together for Ron Man, T. or Obocop, it’s obvious Austin has creativity beyond Movie Title Typos. In this episode he talks about his creative process, how he got into writing and illustration in the first place and how when it comes to creativity, there’s always room for growth.

One of the messages that sticks with me most from this episode is his discussions around making sure the creative things you do are things that also make you happy. When you’re being creative, be creative for you. When you’re happy, it’s more likely the others will be happy. If you laugh, they’ll laugh. If you cry, they’ll cry.

With that in mind, it’s worth repeating that the Movie Title Typos series is extraordinary and worth checking out as you listen along to the story behind the pictures.

This week on the show, Chris talks to Matt Schneider and Lance Somerfeld from the NYC Dads Group. Matt and Lance talk about how they went from teaching public school to becoming at home dads. Lance also has some big news to announce right off the top of the show!

After seeing a lack of support for at home fathers, Matt and Lance founded the NYC Dads Group which is now home to some 1,100 dads across New York. They run fatherhood meetups, boot camps, workshops and more for veteran and expectant fathers.

From the success of the NYC Dads Group, they then launched City Dads Group and have now helped dads in 15 cities across the US start their own dad groups. Listening to their story and their vision is inspiring and made Mike and I want to start our own group back here in Canada. More to come on that soon.

We close out the show talking about Movember and how a large group of us dads are teaming up together to spread the word about the importance of finding a cure for mens health issues. It was a pleasure to have Matt and Lance on the show and we hope you come away inspired to make a difference in the world.

We had a blast on the podcast with Kat Inokai and Heath Horejda from The Bump and Hustle! Kat talked about her role as managing director of Retrograde Films and their new award winning film, Ten Thousand Steps, while Heath, who is an actor, takes us behind the scenes at the audition process.

We talked a lot about our definitions of failure and why you need to just throw fear to the side and take some shots at the things you really want to accomplish. We also got into our favourite movies and superheroes in one of the most inspiring episodes weve had to date. Kat and Heath are completely infectious in the best possible way and we know you will love listening to them and come out of it motivated.

I hope you enjoy and as always, if you feel like heading over to iTunes to show us some ratings and review love, we would certainly appreciate it and may even give you a plug on the next episode!

This week we were privileged to speak with the warm up comic for The Ellen Show and Life of Dad co-founder, Tom Riles! We had a great chat about Toms journey from an intern at the Conan OBrien to working as the warm up comic for shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol and Ellen DeGeneres.

Tom gives me permission to crush former Mets star, Dwight Gooden, in the Life of Dad fantasy football league. We also discuss Toms daughters battle with congenital heart disease and the series of events that led to the creation of Life of Dad, the first social network for dads.

Finally, we get into Toms career, including his time with the Groundlings, running the live auction at Derek Jeters Turn 2 Foundation Dinner and a great behind the scenes look at The Ellen Show, including his epic ping pong showdown with Justin Bieber.

Yeah, thats right, we said it! This week, Mike and I have assigned homework to our listeners. Get out there and make something that youve been wanting to make and then show it to us! Whether its a podcast, YouTube video or an origami lightning bolt, make something!

We also dig in to the podcasting panel I sat on at the Blissdom Canada conference and how I randomly blurted out that I was starting a new podcast for my Kindness Canada website and even booked a couple guests already...

Also, some of you have left very kind reviews for us on iTunes and we are going to start reading them on the show because we are so flattered by your generosity. This weeks review was from Pam Dillon. Thank You, Pam!!

We talk to award winning author, illustrator and daytime Emmy nominee, Todd Parr, about his line of inspirational childrens books and also about his creative artistic process.

Todd talks about flunking out of art class, self doubt and the road that led him back to his passion of creating art with inspirational messages for young children. He also shares some great tips on how to deal with fear in your creative process.

All of Todds work and incredible messages can be found on his website, ToddParr.com

In this episode we chat with the co-founder of XY Media and the Dad 2.0 Summit, Doug French, about how to silence your inner editor. Doug talks about how he turned his blog into a growing media company, started the biggest fatherhood conference in North America and even started a new comic strip with his two sons.

Doug shares some great insights about letting go and creating, regardless of what your inner critic thinks. This episode is perfect for anyone who is struggling with creativity and needs a nudge to let it all out.