We’ve all heard the phrase, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Maybe this one as well, “You can’t do everything yourself.” Over the past 18 years of business, whenever I was confronted with the idea of turning my business of one into a team-based endeavor, I wanted to prove that I could be the exception. I didn’t want to bring anyone else in for multiple reasons, but mainly because I didn’t know where to start. In today’s episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to talk about how freelancers and solopreneurs can start to build a team around their work, in their own way, supporting what matters most to them.

What are the team dynamics that allow individual performance to thrive?

Building teams isn’t just something you read about, it’s something that you need to do, actively and intentionally.

1. Find your reason for building a team.

• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

Where is the foundation of your happiness? For me, happiness was solely found in my mind. But after being introduced to today’s guest, I learned that there is a strong connection between happiness and the body. Janice Kaplan is the author of What Your Body Knows About Happiness: How to Use Your Body to Change Your Mind, a new book diving into this topic with a wide range of stories, interviews, and studies. In this conversation, we explore a few of the mind-blowing studies and the myths dispelled along the way. We also talk about Janice’s approach to reinvention throughout her career, context-dependent memory and learning, the partnership between brain and body, how form creates function, and why creativity is enhanced by moving our bodies.

• Janice Kaplan

Today’s guest on Getting Work To Work is none other than the Australian sensation, gough. He’s the writer, director, and visionary behind BeernutsProductions.com and is here to talk about his latest audio project, The Body Corporate Meeting. He dives into how he mined real-life situations for comedy gold, why he approached the recording of the piece as an old-fashioned radio play, and the difference in writing and producing audio and film projects. We also look at his first film project, The Advertising Meeting, and talk about how his style has remained the same for ten years, but is also different. Most importantly, we crack jokes at my expense and marvel at my ability to drown in my own crapulence.

• Beernuts Productions
  • The Body Corporate Meeting

Here to celebrate his 20th appearance on Getting Work To Work and his latest film, Local Heroes, is the self-described king of the jungle, gough. As a writer, producer, director, and actor for BeernutsProductions.com, gough always finds a way to not only make me laugh, but also inspire me to create meaningful work. In our conversation, we begin with a lightning round of questions about Australia’s wildlife. We also talk about his uncanny ability to recall details throughout his life, bad advice his guidance counselor gave him, important ways for actors to push the boundaries of their craft, and several behind the scenes stories of Local Heroes and the Beernuts Productions podcast.

• Beernuts Productions on Getting Work To Work

As long as I can remember, I’ve been intrigued with exploration. Growing up in the middle of nowhere, exploring the woods around the house was just the beginning. The starry nights captured my imagination, the road atlas showed how to get around the surrounding areas, and the globe revealed everything else. But exploration comes in multiple flavors because I should also mention the digital discoveries made in the 1990s through the personal computing, World Wide Web, and smart phone revolutions. As I get older, discovery looks a lot different. Sure, I want to see the world and experience as much as I can, but there are also discoveries to be made deep within myself. Not to mention the way work comes to life when you turn down the distractions and tune in to the resonate tones of mastery. In today’s episode of Getting Work To Work, I want to dive into the topic of exploration in our craft, and how being in the right place at the right time, can change everything.

1. Prepare Your Workspace for the Discoveries You Want to Make

• Remains of Sandy Irvine believed found on Everest after 100 years

What do you do when your creativity is broken? On top of that, what do you do when you rely upon your creativity to make a living? Earlier this year, my creativity not only cracked, but shattered into a million pieces. I paused all my side projects, calling it creative hibernation. I kept producing work for my recurring clients to the best of my ability, but also got a job to help pay bills. As I talked with people about what I was going through, the messages I received went something like this: “Me too, I’m glad I’m not the only one.” In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to explore how my broken creativity manifests itself, and the tiny action steps I’m taking to put it all back together again.

1. Pause all non-essential projects and allow yourself to rest and refuel.

• Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing—Including You by Brad Stulberg

What are the big questions that drive your mission and life’s work? Are you someone who focuses on finding solutions to the massive problems in the world or someone who wants to be the very best at your craft? In today’s episode of Getting Work To Work, I explore not only the big, philosophical questions that drive social entrepreneurship, but also the everyday stories and steps we can take to make a difference. Rebecca van Bergen is the Founder and Executive Director of Nest, “a nonprofit that understands the importance of handcraft and the meaning it can hold for every life it touches.” In our conversation, Rebecca shares her origin story of founding Nest and why she felt the need to support artisans and makers around the world. We touch on the role curiosity plays in social entrepreneurship, the fact that everyone is connected to craft, the relationship between automation and the need for uniqueness, imposter syndrome, and how Nest continually develops programs that are human-centered and focused on real change. Most importantly, she shares stories that illustrate just how impactful the work of Nest is around the world.

• Nest

It’s been a month since the last episode of Getting Work To Work. Every time I sat down to write, nothing came, so I said, “Maybe next week?” Eventually, I gave myself some grace and trusted that when something needed to be said, it would show up. And it finally did, yesterday, on a forklift, in the early morning hours. After finishing my work, I scribbled down some notes, mainly tiny lessons I have learned about myself and others over the past few weeks. I’m going to share these with you, with the hopes that maybe these small lessons are actually bigger than they appear. But we’ll let purposeful action and the cascading nature of time be the judge.

1. Burnout recovery is slow work.

• Midjourney prompt for episode art: cosmic lessons echoing throughout the universe –ar 16:9

Today’s guest needs no introduction because he’s been on the show 19 times now, but I’m going to do one anyway. A legally blind filmmaker from Australia, gough is on Getting Work To Work to talk about his latest film, The Harsh Reality of Re-enactment Acting. We discuss his inspiration for the film, how he used editing techniques to land some jokes, and insights into the actors and the Beernuts Productions family. We also talk about the most recent episode of his podcast where he answers questions from social media including several from yours truly, why the best creative work takes longer than you think it will, fixing problems instead of shelving projects, and what goes into creating a budget for a film.

• Beernuts Productions
  • The Harst Reality of Re-enactment Acting

I believe that conversations find us when we need them most. Tony Luna is a creative consultant, educator, author, and producer who helps emerging and mid-career creatives to discover and reinvigorate the work that ignites the flame of their soul. In our conversation, we touch on Tony’s lifelong study and pursuit of creativity. He shares numerous stories that touch on the beauty of failure, the importance of cross-discipline collaboration, why mistakes are necessary, and how we can keep our creativity alive throughout our entire creative journey. Regardless of where you find yourself in your career, it is my hope that Tony’s wisdom will build a bridge between where you are today and where you want to go tomorrow.

• Tony Luna Creative