Daily Creative with Todd Henry

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.

What are the marks of a successful team, and how can leaders and collaborators work together more effectively and more consistently?

Today's guest is David Burkus, author of Best Team Ever! He shares the core elements that every great team needs in order to succeed.

In this episode, I am thrilled to have back to the show legendary author, entrepreneur, and marketer Seth Godin. Seth is the author of 19 bestselling books, including his latest release, The Song Of Significance, a thought-provoking book about seeking significance both individually and as a team.

It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we believe that we are running out of time. The ironic thing is, we are. Every single one of us has a finite number of days on this planet, and each new day means that we are getting closer to our inevitable end. I don’t say this to depress you, but rather to instill a sense of urgency about how you approach your days. 

If you knew you had exactly one year left on this planet, what would you do? And, why aren’t you doing it? To be fair, we have to behave responsibly and with an eye on the future, which is why I despise the advice “live each day like it’s your last.” However, as you consider your ideas, your dreams, your relationships, your ambitions, which of them are you deferring action on until a more convenient time? In truth, that time may never come. 

On this episode, I share a simple technique for pursuing your goals and making them happen.

There are numerous forces impacting the world of work and we are watching the workplace shift beneath our feet in real time. While it’s anyone’s guess what the future of creative work may look like, we are starting to gain some sense of the landscape as marketplace experts deliver real-time research on trends and patterns. One such expert is with us today to help us understand where things may be headed.

Phil Simon is the author of the book The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping The Workforce and he’s here to share what his research reveals about how we will all be working in the coming decade.

Before that, I answer a listener question about how to get ideas heard in a workplace that often defers to those in power instead of following industry best practices.