Getting Work To Work

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I have a chat with Peter Lang, CPA, accountant and owner of The Designer CPA about taxes, finances, and what creative professionals need to do on a regular basis to be financially successful. We touch on the importance of communication, confidence, and value as well as what it means to work on your business, not just in it.

One of the subjects I love learning about is creativity, specifically how to generate new ideas. Recently, I was reading the book Curious by Ian Leslie and I was captivated by the comparison of our long-term memory to a database and that creativity arrives when our subconscious accesses our mental databases and generates new ideas that we couldn’t have considered. So, the question is, what’s in your mental database?

After several days spending time with friends and family, eating way too much food, and taking many chances to relax and recuperate, I find myself this morning stuck in my mind. I’m not really sure what I’m thinking about, what I want to say, or even how I feel. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to work on connecting the disparate thoughts that are banging around my gray matter.

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I have a chat with Liston Witherill about sales and how he helps agencies and consultants move beyond the referral and establish systems of predictable growth. From understanding and effectively describing problems to having an established sales process with goals at the end of each phase, Liston dives deep into how creative professionals grow in their understanding of referrals, inbound marketing, and outbound marketing.

A few weeks ago, I was having coffee with a friend and was sharing my 2019 vision for Chris Martin Studios: “Say no more often and be my authentic self.” In response, the question was interesting: “What if they don’t like you?” In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to explore this question, the fear behind it, and how you can actively work to be your authentic self in spite of this question.

A common theme of reflection in my life and in the lives of many creative professionals is perfectionism, the idea that there is some level or ideal that we can achieve and must be, in order to “make it.” For me the internal dialog is something like this: “If I’m perfect, then everything will work out. If I’m not perfect, I’ll be fired, called out, belittled, poor, broke…” But the more I push perfection aside and embrace action, everything seems to work out.

In today’s interview episode of Getting Work To Work, I have a chat with Australian comedy filmmaker gough of BeernutsProductions.com about his latest film, Prostitution – The Untold Story. We talk about everything from Batman and the universal appeal of Michael Caine, being able to not take yourself too seriously, the timeless nature of nonsense, and the essence of great comedy.

Earlier this year, I spent some time reflecting on how to approach unlearning what I no longer need to know so that I can learn new things. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to return to the question, “How do I unlearn in order to learn new things?” and see if the answers are the same. Spoiler alert! Turns out they aren’t and instead of focusing on context, goals, and habits, I’m looking at life and learning completely different.

There’s a part of me that is extremely idealistic, in love with utopian ideals, constantly pondering questions about going beyond the bare minimum: What do you dream of? What impact would you like to make? What will you do after you make ends meet? How will I leave my corner of the world a little better today? These questions are at the heart of today’s episode inspired by a quote from the book, Humans are Underrated by Geoff Colvin: “Just think what more we could do.”

As a content creator, I think about what it takes to succeed and how the odds are stacked against me due to the sheer amount of content being released on a daily basis. It leads me to ask, “Why bother?” This feeling gets magnified when I read articles proclaiming the death of things from the two-hour film to our attention spans, celebrating immediacy and instant gratification. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to answer the question—why bother?—by addressing the commodities of conformity.