What does it mean to do different? Inspired by a recent interview with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, I’m going to explore four important characteristics of being a creative professional in today’s episode of Getting Work To Work: absorbing the history of your craft, considering what would be the norm or standard creations, discovering how you will do something different, and actually doing it.

If I were to produce a parody of Lord of the Rings, I’d probably call it Boredom of the Screens. Instead of a ring of power, I would have a screen of power that serves as a tool to bring to life the darkest desires of the user, but ultimately it binds everyone together not in illumination, but in control. Before you think I’m going to give a rant about technology or that I’ve gone off the deep end and ran out of ideas for Getting Work To Work, I want to share an idea about how we can perhaps use screens to augment our lives instead of controlling them.

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I talk with Karim Hassanein, a Senior Marketing Coordinator for Bora Architects and a Board Member of Open Signal, about the importance of sharing stories of others in order to spread understanding across the full spectrum of humanity. We also get into how the design of a space impacts how stories are shared, the binary nature of digital world, the healthy nature of collaboration, and why we need to define what success is and what is enough.

How do you take all of your disparate interests and bring them together into a cohesive whole? This is a question that sums up a few thoughts and conversations I’ve had this week. In a world of ones and zeroes, we seem to be in pain if we don’t fit into a binary model. I see this in creative businesses a lot. There’s a lot of anguish when there is confusion with defining niches, audiences, or offerings. Instead of worrying about what’s right, what if we made our own map?

Nothing inspires more dread and contempt within the introverted creative professional (myself included) than the word and subsequent action: network. Networking conjures up images of business cards, small talk, and the overly-enthusiastic sales person. Regardless of the negative connotations of networking, it is a critical function of your business development. You need a network, you need other people, and they need you.

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I talk with Danielle Evans, a multidisciplinary creative director and dimensional lettering artist about how artists are taste making for the future. We dive into the deep end of conversation and creativity touching on the physics of creativity, the importance of being motivated when we are surrounded by inspiration, managing internal and external tensions, and how we are the best students of our own lives.

Inspired by Company of One by Paul Jarvis, I’ve been thinking a lot about simplicity. While I talked about how to keep things simple recently, I thought I’d take another approach at simplicity because as Jarvis notes: simple isn’t easy. Just brainstorming ways to present this topic simply and clearly created a layer of complexity that simultaneously drove my point home and led me on the journey to strip away what was unnecessary.

Why do I create the things I do? From actually making podcasts, newsletters, and short films to dreaming of creating online courses, films, and products that help creative people get their work to work, I sometimes get trapped in research, validation, and permission. Understanding your motivation and your why is an important part of the creativity journey and in this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to explore the reasons for why I create and what trips me up.

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I talk with Lizzie Larock—a positive psychology creativity coach and photographer—about her reverence for the creative process, the importance of play, and breaking free from the day’s expectations in order to see awe-inspiring, creativity-inducing moments. We dive deep into permission, perfectionism, rejection, failure, and curiosity’s connection to mindfulness.

What are you committed to? — a simple question that cuts to the core of who you are as a creative. With this lens of reflection, I can’t help but look at my creative projects and statements of work as well as relationships with a desire for change and impact. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I am going to share six areas, and a few stories, that illustrate how commitment shows up in your creative work and life.