Love Your Work

Srdja Popovic (@SrdjaPopovic) is a revolutionary. He played a big part in overthrowing Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. He now coaches activists around the world in non-violent resistance techniques, through CANVAS (Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies).

This may seem out of left field to have a political activist on the show. It's not meant to be some thinly-veiled political statement. Rather, I think anyone who is trying to get people on board with their message can learn a lot from the techniques of revolutionaries.

I recently read Srdja's book, Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World, and was blown away by the inventiveness and deft strategy of the techniques he shared. It's a fascinating book whether you're trying to overthrow a dictator, or you're merely trying to get people to read your blog.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• We think Rosa Parks's courageous stand was a spontaneous event. Learn how it was actually a strategic hit, designed for maximum effect.
• If you're trying to get people on board with your message, branding is everything. Learn how a movement like Occupy Wall Street missed a golden branding opportunity.
• Effective activists choose tactics that have the most influence, with the smallest risk. Learn Srdja's brainstorming techniques for homing in on these tactics. It's a valuable exercise for any influencer.

• Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World by Srdja Popovic
• Slobodan Miloševic
• The World's Greatest Unreported Hyperinflation
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Otpor!
• Occupy Movement
• Democratic Opposition of Serbia
• Blitzkrieg
• Multi-level Marketing
• 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
• Gene Sharp
• Montgomery bus boycott
• NYU
• Harvard Kennedy School
• Colorado College
• Arab Spring
• Civil Rights Movement
• Laughtivism
• Ghandi Salt March
• Why Dictators Don't Like Jokes
• Toys cannot hold protest because they are not citizens of Russia, officials rule
• Occupy Wall Street
• We are the 99%
• Orange Revolution
• Milk
• Harvey Milk
• James Lawson
• Sudanese protests
• Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies

Image Credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals. Start supporting Love Your Work at patreon.com/kadavy.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/srdja-popovic/

We live in a world rich with information, and algorithms help us find the things that fit us. Algorithms help us decide what books to buy, what music to listen to, and even who to date.

But are algorithms always a good thing? If they aren't, how can you be "anti algorithm." I talked about this concept a little bit with Tyler Cowen back on episode 155. Now I'll expand on it.

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/anti-algorithm-podcast/

How do you market something when you don't know what it is, or who it's for? If you're anything like me, you feel driven to create, but it's only through the process of creation that your vision takes form. It's only through putting that creation out into the world that you begin to realize what it means.

This makes it a challenge to market your creations. If you don't know what it is, you don't know how to sell it. If you don't know who it's for, you don't know how to speak to those people.

I'm honored to have the legendary Seth Godin back on the show. His first appearance was exactly one-hundred episodes ago, on episode 77. My first conversation with Seth proved to be a breakthrough moment for me. The things Seth said to me gave me the courage to self publish The Heart to Start, as well as other, shorter books.

I'm still digesting this conversation, but I think it will prove to be another breakthrough. It helped me answer a lot of questions I had from reading Seth's most recent book, the instant classic, This is Marketing.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• What are "status roles," and how can you use them to help your product spread? Seth will tell you why status is more than just money and materialism.
• Why is "specific" a kind of bravery? If you don't know "who it's for," you might simply be hiding from a fear of failure.
• Seth calls me out with very direct advice that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Find out why Seth doesn't want me to sell out to easy money.

• This Is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Paul Cézanne
• Jackson Pollock
• Permission Marketing
• Seth's Blog
• The Marketing Seminar
• In search of the minimum viable audience
• Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
• Samuel Beckett
• Waiting for Godot
• Kickstarter
• Keith Johnstone
• Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone
• The Godfather
• Breaking Bad
• Microfinance
• WaterHealth International
• Akimbo
• The Podcast Fellowship
• J. K. Rowling
• Harper Lee
• Earnest Hemingway
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
• Free Prize Inside: How to Make a Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• How blind auditions help orchestras to eliminate gender bias
• Can 10,000 hours of practice make you an expert?
• Akimbo - The Big Sort: Why taxonomy matters
• Akimbo - Interoperability
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Domino Project
• altMBA

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/seth-godin-podcast-2/

I'm launching a new email series. Summer of Starting will help you get out of your own way, stop procrastinating, and start creating.

Sign up before May 24th at summerofstarting.com

Big creative projects are daunting. It's easy to burn out, and procrastinate. The problem is, creative problems don't get solved in one go.

In medicine, there's a concept of the "minimum effective dose." It's the minimum dose at which the medication will elicit a response. If you follow Tim Ferriss, you hear him mention minimum effective dose often.

You heard about the minimum effective dose of weight training back on episode 160. Now I'm going to tell you about the concept of minimum effective dose, as applied to your creative projects. I call it "Minimum Creative Dose".

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/minimum-creative-dose-podcast/

Vincent Van Gogh was a loser and a failure. He failed as an art dealer, and as a preacher. He even got fired and banned from his own family's business.

On top of it, Van Gogh had terrible health problems. His gums were sore, he was losing weight, and he had a hacking cough. He was also prone to psychotic episodes, during which he was institutionalized for months at a time.

Vincent never really found his place in the world. He died young, at only 37.

I recently read an incredible biography of Van Gogh. By the end, I was left wondering, what can you possibly learn from this tragic life?

Steven Naifeh is co-author if the incredible [Van Gogh: The Life] (@VanGoghTheLife). It's a 900-page treasure chronicling the life of an artist who is so revered, tourists bring their relative's ashes to spread over his gravesite in Auvers, France.

Steven and his co-author and partner Gregory White Smith spent more than a decade compiling Van Gogh's biography. To do so, they had to sort through mountains of letters and literature from the period of Van Gogh's life. Since neither of them spoke Dutch, they worked with more than twenty translators and researchers to complete the book.

The result is a Van Gogh biography of unparalleled depth, painting in intricate detail the outer and inner life of Vincent Van Gogh.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Most people think Vincent Van Gogh died in obscurity, but that's not true. Why is it that, as he languished in an asylum, Vincent's work was actually exploding in popularity.
• Many people also believe that Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide. How did Naifeh and Smith come to change the opinion of even the most studied Van Gogh historians.
• What can you possibly learn from the tragic success of Vincent Van Gogh? Steven shares insights about what he and his late partner and co-author learned from studying Van Gogh's life. It's surprising, and touching.

• Steven Naifeh
• Van Gogh: The Life - Book
• Van Gogh The Life - Website
• Van Gogh The Life - Instagram
• Van Gogh The Life - Facebook
• Claude Monet
• Jackson Pollock: An American Saga
• Jackson Pollock - Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?
• Theo Van Gogh
• Van Gogh Letters
• Albert Aurier Article
• Grave of Vincent and Theo van Gogh
• The Potato Eaters
• Van Gogh Museum
• Paul Gauguin
• German Expressionism
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Georges Seurat
• A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
• Camille Pissarro
• Émile Bernard
• Paul Signac
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Salon
• Paul Cézanne
• Alfred Sisley
• The Eight Impressionist Exhibitions, 1874-1886
• Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
• Manic Depression
• Absinthe
• Syphilis
• Syphilis and the use of mercury
• Gregory White Smith
• Wheatfield with Crows
• Tree Roots
• Museum unconvinced by Van Gogh death theory
• John Rewald
• Loving Vincent
• At Eternity's Gate
• Don McLean - Vincent ( Starry, Starry Night)
• Vincent Di Maio
• NCIS: Provence: The Van Gogh Mystery
• Luck Unites a Couple for a Lifetime of Great Collaborations
• Almond Blossom

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/vincent-van-gogh-podcast/

Do you want to love Mondays? If you already love Mondays, do you want to keep loving Mondays? I'm launching a new newsletter that will help you do just that.

It's called Love Mondays, and it's a weekly boost of inspiration to help you find the mindset to make it as a creative entrepreneur. If you're already on my email list, you've already been enjoying these.

Many of them include one of the more than 11,000 highlights I've built up over years of reading about how history's greatest artists and thinkers have carved out their own unique places in the world.

Others are the gems pulled out of conversations you've heard right here on Love Your Work.

Those of you already getting these emails know I told you about how Georgia O'Keeffe decided to quit modeling to double down on art. I've told you about how professor Dean Simonton's work shows that quantity of creative work leads to quality of creative work. I've shown you how neuroscientists have discovered that the best predictor of so-called "insight machines" is brain patterns that show a high level of self awareness.

Today, I'm going to give you an insight from comedian Steve Martin. If you ever feel like your big break will never come, this will keep you going.

And if you'd like to get a boost in your inbox every Monday morning, go sign up for the Love Mondays newsletter at kadavy.net/mondays

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/introducing-love-mondays/

Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) woke up one day and realized two things: The world seemed to be filled with more and more anger and distraction every day, and – to make matters worse – consistently doing creative work wasn't getting any easier.

Austin had already written three New York Times bestselling illustrated books. Millions have already learned to Steal Like an Artist – the title of his first book – and they'd learned to put their work out there with Show Your Work.

Austin wasn't sure how much more he had in him. That inspired him to write his new book, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why making something for yourself is technically making something for someone else. Learn about the many different ways that focusing on your own creative expression can reach others.
• How can you be a valuable asset to the creators you admire? Austin shares a specific story that shows you why you have more to offer than you might think.
• What one thing can you do in the morning – or rather, not do – to do your best work yet?

• Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon
• Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
• Austin Kleon
• Austin Kleon Newsletter
• A/B Testing
• The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax
• Leave A Message
• Studs Terkel Radio Archive
• Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel
• Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
• Honoré de Balzac
• Seth Godin
• This is marketing by Seth Godin
• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
• Stephen King
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon
• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
• Lynda Barry
• Dan Chaon
• Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club
• Role Models by John Waters
• Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book by Walker Percy
• Walker Percy's problems of reentry
• Frankenstein
• Ryan Holiday
• Morning Pages

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/austin-kleon-podcast/

If you do particular actions on a regular basis, you'll change your identity. For example, if you make it a habit to write every day, you'll eventually see yourself as a writer.

But it can work the other way around, too. If you change your appearance, you can change your identity. If you change your identity, you can change your actions.

In this week's episode, I share my own experience of changing my identity, in order to change my actions.

Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals.

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/identity-actions-podcast/

David Allen (@gtdguy) has built a legacy. He's created a system that helps millions of people get more of what they want out of life. Getting Things Done, the book, has sold millions of copies. And there's an entire cottage industry of GTD apps and consultants, all over the world.

Even if you've never read or heard of GTD, you or someone you work with probably operates with "next actions," and "contexts."

David and I talked more about the GTD system back in his first appearance on the show on episode 85.

This time, we'll be talking about David's accidental legacy. How does somebody create something that spreads like wildfire and changes the culture?

Today, we'll talk about:

• Your day to day actions are guided by meaning on various levels. How can you think about the different levels of what's meaningful to you, and how can you think about what actions you need to take to make those things happen?
• Why does David's screensaver say "let go?" Following a system like GTD may feel like it's for control freaks, but learn the difference between being in control, and under control.
• What was the one email David got that made him decide that GTD was ready to scale globally?

• GTD
• Getting Things Done Summit
• Getting Things Done Coaching Programs
• Merlin Mann
• 43 Folders
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
• Franklin Covey
• VitalSmarts
• Top Gun
• Howard Stern
• Will Smith
• Robert Downey Jr
• Julie Flagg
• GTD Summit
• Marshall Goldsmith
• Dan Pink
• Charles Duhigg
• Cady Coleman

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected].

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/david-allens-getting-things-done-legacy/