Getting Work To Work

As a creative person, how do you think about the future? Do you embrace technological advancements, such as AI assistance and enhancement, or do you shut yourself off from them because of fear or stubbornness? What does creativity look like in an AI-driven world? I love asking big questions of my guests. Today, I’m exploring the future with Albert Bramante. Albert is a talent agent and psychology professor who helps actors, students, and creators unleash their potential by integrating psychology, performance strategies, and AI. In our conversation, he shares an optimistic view of AI and technological advancement, fueled by his curiosity about the next big thing. We talk about mindset and productivity, understanding self-sabotage, how to get out of your comfort zone, the impact of giving up too easily, and when AI assistance becomes a creative crutch.

“There’s no such thing as failure, only feedback.” – Albert Bramante

I spend a lot of time in my work week thinking and writing. Yesterday, as I was writing my Chris Martin Studios newsletter titled “Old Tech and Some Bullsh*t,” I pulled a book off the shelf and started reading the introduction. I was hoping for some inspiration, it was about craftsmanship after all, but I couldn’t find a way to connect it to my main idea. So, I left it on the workbench. Today, struggling with an idea for a monologue, I saw the book sitting there, I picked it up, wrote down some of the quotes about craftsmanship, and before I knew it, I had something to say about being a beginner and the wonder of craftsmanship.

How do people work? With that knowledge, how do we give them what they need? Today’s guest is no stranger to asking questions and learning to listen to what is and is not being said. With a background in journalism, film production, and entrepreneurship, Steven Puri is on a mission to help millions of people find their focus, achieve more, and have a healthy work life through The Sukha Company. In our conversation, Steven tells the tales of his time in Hollywood and what led him to the world of technology and app development. He shares lessons that we can all learn from including make it 1% better, it’s always about the other thing, tenacity over talent, and how organizing principles can guide your work to not only completion, but also provide deeper meaning. If you are looking for more from your life and work and not sure where to start, join Steven and I on this conversational journey.

As an adult, I’ve never been much of a sports fan. I’d occasionally watch whatever big game was happening, so I could talk to others about it, but my focus has always been work—what I’m working on, dreaming about, and obsessing over—and I think I’ve been missing out on a ton of life lessons. This year, I’ve really been getting into baseball, watching Cleveland Guardians games and talking with my dad and brother on group chat about them. With 162 games scheduled this season, my initial feeling watching people go to the games was, “How do they find time to go?” But quickly that shifted to, “How do I find time to watch?” It’s slowly taken over my afternoons and I’m not mad at it. I get to connect with family, yes, but I also experience important lessons that aren’t taught in any other arenas, the main one being how to lose.

You have a 160 games in a season, you lose, no big deal, show up tomorrow and see what you’ve got.

Sometimes I get the impression from social media that running a business is easy, but nothing could be further from the truth: entrepreneurship is hard work. Today’s guest shines a light on the realities of business and how we can use tools, technologies, and success squads to stay focused on what matters to us in uncertain times. Laura Zavelson is a business strategist who has taken everything she’s learned in 25 years as a founder, entrepreneurship professor, and business consultant and created a framework that helps you intentionally design your business to go where you want to go. We dive into our conversation talking about our mutual membership in Generation X—the generation between boomers and millennials—and her love for how we organize information. Laura also shares deep insights about how technology can assist strategy, the two types of entrepreneurship, the importance of building a business on the foundation of money, meaning, and flexibility, and how you can change your business as you evolve and grow.

Earlier this week, I was writing a newsletter about how irrelevance comes for us all. I was looking at The Future of Jobs Report 2025 from the World Economic Forum, which reports in-depth not only about jobs, but also the core skills necessary for today’s working environment and into the future. In the middle of the list of core skills in 2025 was dependability and attention to detail and near the bottom was reading, writing and mathematics. While they may be core skills today, they are shifting in a negative direction over the next five years. This got me thinking about our expectations, not just as creative entrepreneurs, but workers, in general: We have no time to be wrong; failure isn’t an option. Humans are error-prone, AI will be quick and correct.

Today on the show for the 22nd time and to celebrate our 7th anniversary with copper and wool is the Australian filmmaker, gough. He is the purveyor of jokes and awkward pauses, appropriately inappropriate mockumentaries about any topic he chooses (nothing is sacred and no one is safe), and the comedic genius behind BeernutsProductions.com. Gough just released his latest film, A Day in the Life of a Personal Trainer, and he shares several behind-the-scenes stories about it. We dive into why he chose to remake the film with a new script and as much of the old cast as possible. Take notes, because he also shares how to make the chunkiest smoothy possible; you probably won’t want to drink it. Most importantly, he gives a lesson in how to behave when filming at actual businesses.

It’s been a month since my last monologue and I’ve got a lot on my mind. That’s why starting this week, I’m changing the release schedule of Getting Work To Work back to what it was before I burnt out and paused the show last year: monologues on Wednesdays and interviews on Fridays. This allows me to continue lining up interesting conversations with people all over the world, but also process what’s going on in my brain and heart. But first, a story.

Jack Kent calls himself a cartoonalist—part journalist and part cartoonist—and at the end of the day, he recaps what he went through in a journal. On December 15, 2023, he shared his journaling practice in a video on his YouTube channel called Start A Journal Now! Unlock your inner potential! I was inspired and challenged by Jack himself in the comments: “Time waits for no one. You should fall back into practice! The hardest part of a habit is just starting it. How many times has a chore that you keep putting off just nag and nag at you? And then when you start the chore, it’s actually not that hard. Start that journal habit and you’ll see it’s pretty easy to keep up!”

Since that day, before I go to bed, I write down what I did. It’s often short, a few sentences, but the habit is there. Fortunately, I’ve only missed one day, primarily because I had just started a new job and I was physically exhausted.

Flipping through the days, I can see what was on my mind, but mostly what I did. I see the recurring patterns of being tired and bored, but mostly what I see is just how delusional I am. Let me explain.

One of the prevailing narratives that guides my days is that I’m lazy and unproductive. I make a weekly to-do list on Sundays, fill each day as full as I can, but also allow unknown and urgent tasks to derail an already packed day. There are days when I’m just too tired (as I often write about at the end of the day) and instead watch a show or baseball in the morning or afternoon. But most days, I tell myself one story throughout the day and at night, the truth comes out: I do way more that I allow myself to see.

I believe that conversations show up when you need them the most; I needed today’s episode. Over the years, I’ve talked a lot about creativity, the creative process, and business, but I haven’t spent enough time on the subject of life. That’s what today’s guest really explores in this episode. Pia Leichter is a creative partner, coach, author of Welcome to the Creative Club: Make Life Your Biggest Art Project, and founder of Kollektiv Studio. We talk about authentically showing up, creating a space for openness, and what the concept of flow looks like in our lives. You’ll even get a taste of Pia’s coaching style as we explore my creative block around the book I’m writing.

Is it possible to get smarter by thinking dumber? That’s the premise of Dumbify, a weekly newsletter by today’s guest, David Carson. David is an entrepreneur and marketing innovator who applies unconventional thinking to how businesses solve problems. In our conversation, he unpacks what dumb thinking is, the evolution of Dumbify—from collecting patterns and mental models to finding stories to bring those concepts to life—why clever is the enemy, and dumb stands out. If you’ve ever sat around wondering what potato chips can teach you about business, then this conversation is for you.