Talent alone is not enough to guarantee that you'll make a living. Regardless of your chosen career, you have to figure out how to translate your skills into something marketable - something others will pay you for.

Is it possible to make a good living making art you love? Lisa Congdon says "YES!", and she shares specific strategies for how to do so in her book Art, Inc.

Over the summer, we are re-visiting the podcast archives, dating back to 2005. This interview originally with Lisa Congdon originally released in August, 2014.

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Great work isn’t enough on its own. Whether you lead, design, write, strategize, or sell, if you want your idea to be heard, you have to go the extra mile to ensure that it’s framed to resonate with the right audience. In this episode, you'll learn some strategies for ensuring that your idea is best positioned to succeed with the people you are trying to reach.

The concepts and strategies in this episode are from my book Louder Than Words.

It seems like every week someone is predicting the disruption and ultimate death of an entire industry due to technological advancement. With the advent of AI, many are predicting that the creative industries will be disrupted in ways that will leave creative pros clamoring for work.

But, is that really true? Yes, disruption is real, but maybe we can learn from those who have experienced this kind of turmoil and apply their insights to the current marketplace.

Today’s guest is Don Donahue. Don’s background is in the music and entertainment business, and he’s lived through multiple industry disruptions. On today’s episode, he shares some wisdom about how we can learn to adapt and thrive in the face of disruption. 

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At some point in your career, you’ve probably had “that boss”. You know… the one who’s either obnoxiously aggressive and issues orders from on-high like the ruler of a small kingdom, or the one who wants so desperately to be liked that they refuse to speak the uncomfortable truth. Maybe – just maybe – you’ve even been guilty of being that boss from time to time.

Kim Scott is here to help. She’s the author of Radical Candor, and on today’s show she will show you how to avoid Ruinous Empathy, Obnoxious Aggression, and Manipulative Insincerity and create a culture that thrives.

This episode is a replay from 2017.

I was saddened to hear today of the passing of Rodriguez, the singer-songwriter who was the subject of the documentary Searching For Sugar Man. I wrote about his story in my book Die Empty, and on today's episode I share his amazing journey and the importance of embracing invisible impact.

It's been almost ten years since my book Die Empty released, and in the decade since that phrase has often been misunderstood and mis-applied to mean "you're not hustling enough!" or "collapse exhausted at the end of each day!" That couldn't be farther from the message of the book.

On today's episode, I re-visit some key principles from chapter one of Die Empty and how they can help each of us build a body of work that we can point to with satisfaction and pride.

This week features three episodes from the summer of 2014. In the first section, we discuss the value of competition and how it can actually be your friend and help you become better at what you do.

In the second section, we discuss the importance of making decisions and committing to them. 

In the final section, I share a few principles for how to deal with bad ideas before they ruin a meeting or project. 

This week is a replay of a 2021 interview with Oliver Burkeman. His book is now available in paperback.

The average person lives about 4,000 weeks. How does that fact make you feel? More importantly, how might knowing that your time is so finite cause you to choose to live? 

There are so many tools at our disposal for time management, but often our efforts only make us feel more busy and overwhelmed.

Today’s guest is Oliver Burkeman. We discuss existential overwhelm, the efficiency trap, and how to reclaim just a little bit of sanity in a world obsessed with better, faster, more. His new book is the instant NY Times Best-seller 4,000 Weeks. 

How do you handle feedback? We need other people in our lives to tell us the truth. If we immediately get defensive when they tell us something we don’t like, we will lose key allies in our journey of growth. If you manage a team, your trigger happy ways will eventually destroy the culture of your team. On this episode, we share a few strategies for dealing with feedback in a healthy way.

This is a replay of an episode from 2022.

There continues to be a re-shuffling happening across many industries right now. Over the past few years, I've worked closely with a number of companies and have discovered that there are five key reasons why many creative people are choosing to leave their job, even when it's not in their own best interest to do so. On this episode, I share these five reasons, and offer some practical advice both for managers and creative pros about how to deal with them.

1. Overly Controlling Manager
2. No Clear Path of Advancement
3. Organization Is Out Over Its Skis
4. Toxic Culture
5. They Are Not Seen/Known.