Daily Creative with Todd Henry

Do you ever feel like you’re teetering right on the edge of burnout You’re running faster but not moving closer to your goals? Everything is so much harder than it used to be? As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. We believe that if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough. On this episode, Greg McKeown is here to help us sort through how to make our work more effortless. His new book is called Effortless.

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Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there’s a psychological force just as powerful―yet almost nobody has heard of it. It’s responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict.

In his new book Wanting, Luke Burgis draws on the work of French polymath René Girard to bring this hidden force to light and reveals how it shapes our lives and societies.

In this interview, we discuss the nature of mimetic desire, how it affects everything from creating to collaboration, and how we can discover what we truly want as creative pros.

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This year has brought a lot of "firsts" to our lives. One of the most prominent ones is that we had to learn how to work completely remotely for the first time. In the midst of all of these changes, anxiety has become an ever-present dynamic in the workday.

On this episode, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton are back to share how we can better manage anxiety in the course of our life and work. Additionally, they share practical tips for managers about how to create space for conversations about anxiety with team members, and to lead with empathy. Their new book is called Anxiety At Work.

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As a 24-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn’t stand the kitchen staff’s poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted out, “Chef, I have an apron company”—even though she had no company, no business plan—just a glimmer of a design idea and a business license. Through hustle and a willingness to leap into the unknown, she built that first order into the company Hedley & Bennett is today, making aprons and kitchen gear worn by many of the world’s best chefs and home cooks everywhere.

In this interview, we discuss Ellen's new book Dream First, Details Later and principles that anyone with an idea can apply to bring it into the world for others to enjoy.

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We all have things in our life that we'd like to change, but change can feel like a bit of a "black box". What is lacking for many of us, according to Katy Milkman, is strategy. We don't have an effective path forward to create the change that we want to see in our lives and work.

On this episode, we discuss Katy's new book How To Change and some practical strategies for accomplishing your goals.

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When collaborating digitally, there are a different set of rules. Your peers may not catch the subtlety in your email in the same way they would in a face to face meeting. Your team meeting may lack the same punch as an in-person collaborative effort. Formality and informality can be easily confused.

On this episode, Erica Dhawan shares some key principles for working effectively together as a remote team. Her new book is called Digital Body Language.

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How do you know an idea is the right one to take action on? How do you sift the really good ideas from the mediocre ones? Phil Libin has been a part of and led a number of companies that have created products that changed the way people work. (Evernote is one of my favorite tools of all time.) His most recent company All Turtles is the mission-driven product development studio behind the video service Mmhmm.

In this interview, Phil discusses his philosophy of product design, how to know when it’s time to act on an idea, and some of the best advice he ever received.

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Imagine sitting in a cab in New Orleans as the driver pulls out a small device, hooks it up to his phone, and begins raving about how excited he is to be able to take credit cards for the first time. Now, imagine that you are the co-founder of the company that made it possible.

Jim McKelvey is the co-founder of Square, a company that has opened a door for small businesses to take credit cards simply and securely. He’s also the author of a new book called The Innovation Stack in which he shares the core principles by which effective companies develop products that resonate deeply in the marketplace. In this interview, we discuss the founding of Square, that an innovation stack is and why it’s important, and what he’s learned from companies such as Southwest Airlines and IKEA about gaining a footing in a crowded marketplace.

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Why do two people look at the exact same circumstances and form two completely different opinions about what’s going on? Not only that, but why are those people often willing to defend their perspective to the very end, often causing tremendous misunderstanding and conflict? This is important to understand if we want to have effective collaboration and be able to lead well.

On this episode, Julia Galef shares how we can learn to see things more clearly by developing a “scout mindset”. Her new book is called The Scout Mindset.

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