No Time to be Timid

I don’t think I’ve ever had a guest who checks off more of our manifesto principles than David Peck. The riskiest thing you can do is play it safe. There’s more than one right way. Don’t expect a linear path. Constraints are opportunities. Make your mark now. He’s lived every one of those, and in our conversation, I asked him how.

David is a fashion designer — Taylor Swift launched a campaign wearing his work — and the host of the podcast Inside the Design Studio. He’s also the chair of the board of the Paris College of Art, and, as of November 11, an author. His first book, Artful, lays out a method he calls ART (Assemble, Refine, Try) for designing a life that actually reflects who you are.

I wanted to talk to him about his belief in edits over overhauls, because I blew my own life up to get where I am, and I was curious whether there’s a gentler way. David had his own drama on the way to his current wisdom: he grew up in an Independent Fundamental Baptist household so strict that Southern Baptists seemed liberal by comparison. He became a classical music major he never meant to be. And even without a formal art education, David was named designer of the year at Parsons Paris with a senior thesis built from Photoshop collages – something that had never been done before. 

The part that hit me hardest, though, was hearing how Artful actually came together. David didn’t sit down and decide to write a book. He started a TikTok nobody was watching just to give himself permission to say things out loud. Then a podcast. Then a lead magnet about his annual “word of the year” practice, which I downloaded myself two days before we recorded this. And somewhere in assembling all of that, the book found him. It’s basically proof that you don’t need the big idea upfront. You need to start putting the small ideas somewhere.

Takeaways

• Start even if you’re not ready.
• Give yourself permission to do things differently than everyone else.
• Figure out the methods that work best for you. 
• Find platforms where you can experiment and take risks.
• Don’t wait for long stretches of time to begin.
• Apply his ART framework to your life: Assemble, Refine, Try
• Understand that what you think is the end, might just be the beginning. 
• Trust your gut, not your fear. 

Resources and links

• David’s book:
   Artful, available November 11th at davidpeck.co/artful
• David’s podcast:
   Inside the Design Studio with David Peck, available wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube
• Follow David:
   @shopdavidpeck for his fashion design
• @itsdavidpeck for any announcements about Artful 
• Get the free manifesto: triciaroseburt.com/manifesto
• Sponsor: Interabang Books, an independent bookstore in Dallas (interabangbooks.com)
• Find us and subscribe on Youtube 
• Watch my TEDx talk, How I Redeemed 35 Years of Regret; you can also view it at triciaroseburt.com 
• Leave a comment and share it with your friends — it helps the story reach a broader audience Subscribe to, review, and spread the word about No Time to Be TimidResources:

Our coach:

Macy Robison: https://macyrobison.com/

Welcome to the first compilation of Manifesto Minutes, short pieces built around the principles of the No Time to Be Timid Manifesto. I share how tea bags, rusted umbrella parts, and masking tape became my art supplies, and what Twyla Tharp and Grandma Moses taught me about creating with limits. I read a favorite passage from The Natural Way to Draw about valuing effort over results, and tell you how a garden became a metaphor for clearing out negative thinking. I also explain how we’ve remodeled our house by subtraction, and I close with a story from photographer Laura Wilson about the difference between percolating and procrastinating.

TAKE AWAYS:

• Think about what you can do with the time, money, and resources you have right now. 
• The effort you're expending isn’t for one particular creative work, like a drawing, it’s for the experience. Give yourself some grace as you fumble and stumble along.
• Creative energy that we don’t share goes to waste. As we say in the manifesto: make your mark now.
• The painter Hans Hofmann said, “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” It works for my home, my writing and drawing, and how I help clients with their messaging. How can you simplify your world?
• Remember, we will all die. That's not meant to be grim. It’s a nudge to act on ideas, because time is finite.
• There’s percolating, and then there’s procrastinating. If you’ve got something to work on, start.

Resources and links

• Get the free manifesto: triciaroseburt.com/manifesto
• Sponsor: Interabang Books, an independent bookstore in Dallas (interabangbooks.com)
• Find us and subscribe on Youtube 
• Watch my TEDx talk, How I Redeemed 35 Years of Regret; you can also view it at triciaroseburt.com 
• Leave a comment and share it with your friends — it helps the story reach a broader audience Subscribe to, review, and spread the word about No Time to Be Timid

Credits

Written and produced by Tricia Rose Burt. Produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Executive producers: Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks to the Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship contributors.




 

What can a Jack Russell with resource guarding issues teach you about creativity?
Our dog Jiggy came into our home speaking a completely different language than the two Jack Russells we had before him. We kept talking to him the old way, and it wasn't working. He bit my husband four times, and we even talked with our trainer about behavioral euthanasia. When his life was on the line, we had to learn his language and a whole new way of communicating.
In this episode, I share how that experience changed us, and why it applies to artists and entrepreneurs too. If your story isn't connecting with your audience, you may need to learn a new language. Maybe sculpture isn't right anymore and film will be more powerful. Maybe in-person works better than online. Read the room, listen, and adapt.

• Support our sponsor: Interabang Books — interabangbooks.com
• Please watch my TEDx talk, How I Redeemed 35 Years of Regret; you can also view it at triciaroseburt.com
• Leave a comment and share it with your friends — it helps the story reach a broader audience!
• Subscribe to, review, and spread the word about No Time to Be Timid

No Time to Be Timid is written and produced by me. Our episodes are produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Our executive producers are Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks also to the contributors to my Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship, which helps make this podcast happen. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

We kick off the season with Krista Monson, a choreographer, director, producer, and former artistic director of Cirque du Soleil's O at the Bellagio for more than 13 years. I saw Krista speak several years ago, I knew she'd be a perfect fit for the show. 

As Krista says, she has a background in "big spectacle" and is in the business of emotions. We talk about the risks that shaped her career, like leaving a successful career in Edmonton for Los Angeles with a one-year-old, and later trading huge stages for intimate storytelling. She now creates memoir documentaries through her company, Sincerely Yours Memoirs. And like me, Krista has her own manifesto! Her "creative survival kit," features eight mindset tools she relies on when things get hard. She also challenges one of my manifesto principles ("logic can work against you") and explains why small, ordinary stories matter as much as large ones. 

TAKE AWAYS

• Perceived setbacks can actually be what opens doors for you

• Nurturing relationships is critical to success 
• It's easier to face fear than regret
• There are benefits to being a small fish in a very big pond
• The smallest details matter

Krista's Creative Survival Kit

1. Pay attention to "just." It can be an apology ("I'm just doing a freebie"), or it can help you take a first step.
2. Stay curious. Be an observer of life, both physical and emotional.
3. Keep perspective. Build a relationship with the sublime, whether that's awe, wonder, or looking at the stars.
4. Have a high regard for people. No one creates alone.
5. Listen, to others and to yourself.
6. Courage. This includes the "four rooms of change": contentment, denial, confusion, and breakthrough.
7. Care. Connect what you're doing to something you care about, even if it's just paying the rent.
8. Embrace creative chaos. Sometimes you go two steps back to go five steps forward.

RESOURCES AND LINKS

• Download the No Time to Be Timid Manifesto
• Sincerely Yours Memoirs:
• Sponsor: Interabang Books, an independent bookstore in Dallas (interabangbooks.com)
• Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RwjGgviLdfk

Credits

Written and produced by Tricia Rose Burt. Produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Executive producers: Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks to the Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship contributors.

My producer/composer Adam Arnone and I are sitting down to talk about what's coming this fall. We're talking a longer season (September all the way through May) and a brand-new mix of episode types so you never run out of brave.

Here's the lineup:

•  Guest interviews every other Thursday 
•  Solo casts — just me, talking straight to you, filling in the gaps
•  Manifesto Minutes — quick, punchy courage boosts on Instagram (Mon/Wed/Fri), soon coming to YouTube, YouTube Shorts, and audio too

Adam and I also get into how much my interviewing style has changed since Season 1 (spoiler: nerves → confidence), how I actually pick guests and how it's never about obligation, always about the creative spark. We also talk about why every single guest is a living, breathing reflection of the No Time to Be Timid manifesto.

And the season kicks off September 24th with a guest I am SO thrilled about: Krista Monson, who spent 13 years as the artistic director of Cirque du Soleil. If that's not a masterclass in creative courage, I don't know what is.

I also give a quick update on where you can catch me next: Podcast Movement in New York, sitting on a panel with past guest and Homemade podcast host, Shannon Cason.

• Support our sponsor: Interabang Books — interabangbooks.com
• Please watch my TEDx talk, How I Redeemed 35 Years of Regret; you can also view it at triciaroseburt.com
• Leave a comment and share it with your friends — it helps the story reach a broader audience!
• Subscribe to, review, and spread the word about No Time to Be Timid

No Time to Be Timid is written and produced by me, Tricia Rose Burt. Our episodes are produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Our executive producers are Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks also to the contributors to my Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship, which helps make this podcast happen. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

In this episode, I reflect on a full-circle reconnection more than 20 years in the making — and on two people who convinced me, once again, that art has the power to change the world.

The first is Joni Doherty a former colleague from my teaching days at Franklin Pierce University, who commissioned my very first one-woman show decades ago. After losing touch for two decades, we reconnected when Joni — now Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — recommended me as a guest on a podcast hosted by the second powerhouse in this story: Bill Cleveland.

Bill is a pioneering arts activist, author, and founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, where he trains artists to become community leaders and creative change agents. I share what moved me most from our conversation together on his podcast, Art Is Change — particularly Bill's work bringing art into prisons, and the sense of self-esteem and agency it restored in prisoners serving life sentences.

Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor 

Interabang Books — a Dallas-based independent bookstore named one of the country's top five by Publishers Weekly. Shop their curated online collection at interabangbooks.com.

Credits

Written and produced by Tricia Rose Burt. Produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Executive producers: Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

Exhausted by grief and life, I’d already decided to miss my niece's wedding in Cairo. Then the phone rang. A story about saying yes anyway — whirling dervishes, hand-fasting ceremonies, doing my best at Arabic, and the surprising discovery that across ten countries and four continents, we're all the same. 

Last October, I was running on empty. Six months after losing my mother, four months after clearing out her house, and still in the middle of planning where to scatter her ashes, I got word that my niece — living in Germany, engaged to a man from Egypt — was getting married in Cairo. I was thrilled for them. But at that moment, I just didn’t think I could summon the energy to attend their ceremony halfway across the world. 

I’d already made up my mind to stay home and send my  husband as the family representative — until a phone call from my niece changed everything. In this episode, I share how a spontaneous "yes" turned into one of the most moving experiences of my life: officiating my niece's wedding at a 12th-century citadel in Cairo, surrounded by 100 guests from ten countries, a Zaffa dance procession, an actual whirling dervish, a Celtic hand-fasting ceremony, and my own valiant (if imperfect) attempt at an Arabic welcome.

It's a story about grief and joy showing up in the same season of life, about the plans we make versus the ones that find us, and about a dance floor in Cairo that looked a lot like a dance floor back home.

No Time to Be Timid is written and produced by me, Tricia Rose Burt. Our episodes are produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Our executive producers are Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks also to the contributors to my Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship, which helps make this podcast happen. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

We're re-airing one of our favorite conversations: Season 4 guest Devin Finigan, chef and owner of Aragosta at Goose Cove in Maine. Since we first spoke with Devin, Food & Wine named Aragosta the #1 hotel for food and drink in the country, and her cookbook, A Kitchen on Goose Cove: Recipes from the Heart of Maine, has officially been released.

This episode also holds special meaning for me, as I open up the episode with a tribute to my late mother, Sadie B — a lifelong food lover whose recipes, generosity, and "never let anyone leave hungry" spirit set the stage for a conversation with a guest who embodies that same philosophy through her cooking.

Devin never went to culinary school. She dropped out of art school, followed her instincts, signed a restaurant lease she couldn't really afford, and built Aragosta into an award-winning destination — all while staying true to her own vision. If you've ever wondered what it looks like to take the unconventional path and make it work, this is the episode for you.

Manifesto Connections

Calls to Action

Credits

No Time to Be Timid is written and produced by Tricia Rose Burt. Episodes are produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Executive producers: Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

I take you along to Foxboro Stadium for a World Cup match between Paraguay and Germany — my first live World Cup experience. Between the multicultural crowd, the national anthems that had me tearing up, and Paraguay's stunning underdog upset in penalty kicks, I stumble onto an unexpected connection to the show's whole theme: the World Cup actually ranks players on a "creativity" score, rewarding risky, original play over safe, predictable passes. Turns out even professional athletes know playing it safe is the real risk.

No Time to Be Timid is written and produced by me, Tricia Rose Burt. Our episodes are produced and scored by Adam Arnone of Echo Finch. Our executive producers are Amy Grant, Nancy Perot, and Sage Wheeler. Thanks also to the contributors to my Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship, which helps make this podcast happen. No Time to Be Timid is a presentation of No Time to Be Timid Productions.

I open up about giving my own TEDx talk at TEDx Portsmouth in May — built around a question that's haunted me for 35 years: what if I'd said yes to a free demo reel offer from a major New York radio station back when I was 28? I walk through what it cost me to play it safe, the audacious move I made to finally set things right, and how you all responded. 

Memorable Moment

One of my fellow speakers, Steve Turner, said it was easier to run a 250-mile marathon than to give this talk — and he did it anyway, stumbles and all, to a crowd that loved him more for it. He made a huge impact and proved that people want to see humanity far more than perfection. 

Calls to Action