Getting Work To Work

How big are your thoughts and dreams? More than that, what actions are you taking to bring them to life? Today’s guest is all about the relationship between thoughts and action. Andrea Liebross is a coach, podcaster, and author of She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and into the Extraordinary. In our conversation, we explore how she uses the acronym TRUST to guide her clients, and even herself, from generating thought options to taking action. She also shares what led her to coaching and starting her business, several tools she uses to help people get unstuck, the difference between stuck and progress stress, and why sometimes labeling a goal as a priority can help it get accomplished.

What do you do when you are struggling more than you want to admit to others? When you feel like you have nothing left to give, yet still need to put on a brave face and move forward throughout the world? Like many people within and around my circle, times are weird, tough, and tricky. The struggle seems to be both endless and deepening. Unfortunately, these feelings often lead to quick solutions—new business offerings, a course or mastermind or program with magic answers, and the power of positive thinking, otherwise known as mindset—but lack a lasting resonance in our lives. So, what are we to do instead? Especially in an environment where it doesn’t seem we are allowed to be human. I’ll be talking about all these big questions in today’s episode of Getting Work To Work.

Is it okay to not be okay and admit that?

What do you do when you feel like you can’t do what you do anymore?

What is the point of creativity and curiosity when there are so many serious issues going on in this world?

Why do my problems matter when there are wars and rumors of wars that I should be speaking out against on social media?

With all the serious problems going on in the world, is it okay to bring up your own problems or should I just keep shoving them down until there is a better time?

You know you’re in for a powerful conversation when the person describes themself as “a Katamari ball of learning on a journey to build a creative life by creating cool things, building relationships, and helping people. Rob Garrott has been in the world of motion design and education for much of his career. After leaving a job as a Content Manager for LinkedIn Learning, he set out to learn character animation and how to infuse emotion into motion. Our conversation begins with us sharing who taught us how to swear before talking about blogging as a form of therapy, learning how to break free from systems, and returning to his creative self. We talk about identity and the stories we tell ourselves, the difference between learning on the job and studying a subject, being creative on purpose, and why he prefers not to return to a previous version of himself.

What are the popular sayings that knowingly—or unknowingly—guide your life? Maybe something like “stay in your lane” inspires you to become really good at following orders and not getting too curious. Or a popular phrase from The Mandalorian got you repeating “this is the way” so much that you constantly search for the right way to do something. Another saying that trips us all up—”you must know the rules to break the rules”—can keep us locked into the status quo if we don’t eventually break the rules. These are three of an unlimited amount of phrases, mantras if you will, that guide our daily actions. Examining the phrases lodged in our brains allows us to forge a new path to where we want to go. But how do we break free from the scripts, especially when doing something new goes against everything we know?

Not only is curiosity a driving force of this podcast, but in this episode, it infuses every morsel of experience and wisdom from today’s guest, Casey Silveria. From his early days growing up on a farm and working in corporate finance to his work today helping visionary farmers achieve their financial aims, finding the answers to the most profound questions drives Casey. In this conversation, we talk about the values he learned on the farm that he still uses today. We also touch on the importance of learning from other industries and bringing that knowledge and understanding back to our businesses, the obligation to never stop learning, the necessity of farming and agriculture, fostering trust with people through transparency and energy, and the power of gut instinct.

I don’t know about you, but I’m telling stories in my brain about myself again. Ten days into the new year, I feel like all my faults and imperfections are fully displayed. My mind is flooded with questions. What am I doing wrong? What changes do I need to make so that things will be different? Why couldn’t I learn the lesson the first or even the fifteenth time? But in the middle of my pity party, I remembered a book recommended by Elizabeth Blake-Thomas in an earlier interview on Getting Work To Work: Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection. Page after page, the message seeps in ever slowly: I can discover freedom in the acceptance of my imperfections.

How driven are you to create something that’s never been seen before? Mercedes Austin is endlessly curious about inventing a new pattern and fuels that search for uniqueness with humility, resilience, and dignity. She is a mosaic artist and founder of Mercury Mosaics, a company on a mission “to redefine your expectations of what tile is and how it can transform a space.” In this conversation, Mercedes shares where her love for tile and mosaics came from and how she turned a one-woman operation into a thriving business. We talk about entrepreneurial resourcefulness, communicating your vision to others while simultaneously learning to let them contribute, transparency in business, and how investing in personal creative time can help you solve business problems and be more innovative.

While everyone is flexing on social media with their “New Year, New You” content, I started the year falling on my ass, literally. Sure, it hurts, but with pain comes introspection and insight, and the willingness to throw out the playbook, on day one. As a society, we are entering a challenging year. We are inundated with pain, fear, and rage across all walks of life on a daily basis. How are we to respond with our creativity and curiosity? How can art, beauty, and love stand a chance in an ocean of anger? The answers to these questions aren’t easy to find—and they definitely don’t fit into the perfect 10-slide Instagram carousel—but we can start to see a path toward possibilities as we look to transform pain into love, every chance we get.

As business owners, there is a lot to learn daily, and one area that is often confusing is digital marketing. Fortunately, there are experts like today’s guest who communicate in ways that make the topic accessible. Andrew Maffettone is the Founder/CEO of BlueTuskr, a marketing agency for e-commerce sellers, and the host of The E-comm Show podcast. We pick up the conversation with his curiosity about the customer journey. We then discuss omnichannel marketing and the challenges of marketing a business online and offline. Andrew also shares the lessons learned running his agency, the early days of learning marketing promoting shows as a touring musician, and some positive ways marketers will use AI in the future. Finally, he gives some insight into what it takes to plan for marketing all year long.

Welcome to the middle of the dead week! You hanging in there? Full of food and waiting to kick off 2024 with all the energy you can muster? Naturally, I’m thinking about next year while wrapping up this year, just like every other content producer still producing work this week. But I want to give, hopefully, a little bit of a different spin on the “how to level up your 2024” message. I want you to do the work that matters to you, but I also want you to stay true to your convictions, boundaries, and vision. In this episode, I will share ten ways to push yourself a little bit harder and forsake the rules other people have placed on you that keep you stuck in the wrong game.