The Creative Coach with Dan Brophy

Damien Woolnough is the the former editor of Vogue.com.au, deputy editor of Elle magazine and fashion editor of The Australian.   2018 has seen Damien step out from behind the masthead of other magazine titles to launch his own online publication: Marry the Man, a luxury lifestyle online platform and one-stop-shop for the increasing wave of men looking to do just what the title says - perfectly timed with the changing of the law in support of gay marriage in Australia earlier this year.   Marry the Man is defined by its well-curated lifestyle content and colourful, beautifully simple design. It is a timely and unique offering with a built-it, niche audience of traditionally double-income-no-kids earners looking to spend - making it incredibly desirable to perspective advertisers.    This is a great conversation for anyone looking to launch their own online platform, or those interested in the digital publishing space for fashion and lifestyle.

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My guest today is journalist, author and documentary filmmaker Kale Brock.   Kale cut his teeth in the media landscape as a teenage presenter on the TV series Totally Wild - AKA my childhood dream job.   This year has seen Kale tour the country to promote his feature-length documentary The Gut Movie, a cinematic and widely accessible investigation into how our gut health can influence everything from our immunity to our happiness.   Kale is my favourite kind of creative. He is a renaissance man with a can-do attitude; researching, writing, presenting and shooting content that has filled two published books (and counting) as well as a steady stream of short film, podcast, vlog and blog content that has filled his channels to the point that has carved out a niche as the distinct voice in the gut health space - which is one of the fastest growing areas of health and wellness.   If 'Quit Your day Job is a philosophy then Kale is living it: the perfect example of what happens when you marry what you love to do with what you are good at with the change you want to see in the world.   As in my own story, it was an ill-fitting corporate job that gave him the ‘dark night of the soul’ which encouraged his first great leap towards quitting his day job and moving towards a lifestyle in which he could define his own hours, work on his own terms, establish a passive income stream and most importantly create work that he believes in.

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My guest this week is designer, artist and pop-phenomenon Stavroula Adameitis - though you may know her by her pop art moniker, Frida Las Vegas (www.instagram.com/fridalasvegas).   I have long been a fan of Stav’s creative output, from her illustration, to her actually LOL-inducing Instagram captioning for said illustration, to the practical application of her aesthetic through jewellery design and now fashion and textiles and a foray into the “serious art world” through gallery shows and neon-fused illustrated artworks.   There are a few people in the world who gave me more life as a creative. She is one of the most focused and dedicated practitioners I have observed, a master class in leveraging your skills to earn an income to facilitate a creative practice that speaks to your soul.   I wanted to talk to Stav about the practical side of how she structures her day and designs the life to facilitate the work. She shares wisdom around motivation, determination and how to tackle the process of moving into a career path that is aligned with your what you’d not only love to do - but what you NEED to do. 

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Gwendolynne Burkin is part of an exciting generation of Australian fashion designer that came up a the late 90s independent fashion boom time alongside alum such as Akira Isagowa and Lisa Gorman.   But since then, a lot has changed in the Australian Fashion industry. Many of the names defined that period - how we dressed, what our high streets looked like, and the way Australian style was defined in the eyes of the world - have disappeared due to influences like highly competitive off-shore production, and inevitable defeat of online shopping by fast-fashion and overseas mega-brands.   For Gwendolynne to still be in business 21 years later is a small miracle, due mainly to a series of creative business reinventions. I wanted to talk to Gwendolynne about what it was like coming up in that era of promise - and how she has managed to continuously adapt and evolve within her industry in order to do what she loves.   This is a great episode for anyone who is looking to start their own business - especially one based around artisanal skill set.  When you ARE 'the machine’ at the centre of your business - how do you ensure that you are taking care of your biggest asset?   For some creatives, neglecting wellbeing for the sake of heightened productivity may mean you are getting results at the cost of your health.  You need to ensure you are supporting your passion - not just creatively but also physically, mentally, nutritionally and with rest. It’s up to you to take care of your greatest asset. 

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Jez Smith is a photographer. He as created arresting images of world-famous talent such as: Christy Turlington, Cate Blanchette, Serena Williams, Miranda Kerr, Megan Gale and Jennifer Hawkins. And he has shot for publications like: Vogue Italia, Hapers Bizarr UK, Instyle, Elle, GQ and The Australian's Wish Magazine (my personal favourite).   When it comes to shooting high-end fashion photography in Australia, Jez Smith has a reputation for being one of the best in his field.    Why then, after almost 20 years building that reputation did he decide to move afield and relocate back to London for fresh start?   This episode explores a theme that has come up a lot with my guests of late, and that is self-preservation & self care - which is not only necessary for those looking to forge a career doing what they love. It’s as important – if not more important – for those who are already working within the field of their passions - because your livelihood depends on your ability to create.     This episode is all about stepping back and taking stock - which is not a ‘one time only’ occurrence. Over the course of your creative career, you may need to do this on multiple occasions.    It was interesting for me to be reminded that no matter how successful you are are you still need to be responsible for your well-being.  I’m really appreciative of Jez’s openness in talking about issues that were very personal to him – this is a great conversation for anyone who is wrestling with not only the question of HOW  to do what they love for a living - But WHY. 

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For as long as I’ve known her, Mel Brady has been a stylist. However in the last couple of years, she has made the transition to model. And while this doesn’t sound too unusual in this, the era of ‘the slashie’, what is unique about this situation is that Mel is her mid-fifties… which has then meant she has added another slash to her career catchphrase: activist.   Because, I found out, being a women in your fifties who decides not to fade into sexless oblivion IS is act of social rebellion - particularly, it would seem, in the eyes of the media.   And thus the Embrace Age movement was born, in which Mel has rallied women from around the world to share their ideas of just how they choose to see themselves through the media.   I wanted to talk to Mel about the growing popularity of this grey-roots movement - and the career in styling and image-making that got her to this place of proudly authoring her own content.   This is a great episode for anyone who is looking to use their skills to forge not only a career - but a path towards the change they want to see in the world.

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What does it take to make work that is excites people on a national and international level? What are you prepared to do in order to make work you are truly proud of?   My guest this week is theatre writer and director Declan Greene. He has a body of work that spans every major theatre institution in the country.   He got his start in Melbourne’s literal and figurative underground - staging plays in underground carparks and building sites - and is now of the best regarded theatre makers of his generation. But that doesn’t mean he’s lost his edge.    Declan's work still crosses genres and formats and merges high-brow and low-brow culture, queer performance art, multimedia, in-jokes, bad language, pop art and surrealist absurdity - but always with a view to comment on society or humanity or the profanity of culture - or all of the above.   His recent direction of Blackie Blackie Brown - written by Nakia Lui and currently showing at the STC - is no exception.  It melds Japanese manga iconography with Tarantino themes for a tale of aboriginal revenge on white-settler injustice. The play is simultaneously visually astounding, shocking, thought-provoking funny and tapping of some current-day zeitgeist that makes it feel truly progressive.   Next up, in July this year, the MTC will stage Declan's adaptation of the Lars Von Trier film, Melancholia.   And it is Declan’s tenacity that I am most admiring of.  In the decade, he has amassed a huge body of work - averaging the release of two plays a year.   When I sat down with Declan for this interview last year, around the time of the release of his play The Homosexuals, I wanted to find out what his creative process looks like in a practical sense - how does he manage to average multiple major works in a year… and before someone was paying him to do so, how did create a lifestyle in which he could get good in the first place?   This episode is great for anyone looking to get active in a their ideal career space by pooling passion and resources amongst your creative community. There’s never been a better time to ‘screw it - just do it’.    

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to make work that is excites people on a national and international level?

What are you prepared to do in order to make work you are truly proud of?

 

My guest this week is theatre writer and director Declan Greene. He has a body of work that spans every major theatre institution in the country.

 

He got his start in Melbourne’s literal and figurative underground - staging plays in underground carparks and building sites - and is now of the best regarded theatre makers of his generation. But that doesn’t mean he’s lost his edge. 

 

Declan's work still crosses genres and formats and merges high-brow and low-brow culture, queer performance art, multimedia, in-jokes, bad language, pop art and surrealist absurdity - but always with a view to comment on society or humanity or the profanity of culture - or all of the above.

 

His recent direction of Blackie Blackie Brown - written by Nakia Lui and currently showing at the STC - is no exception. 

It melds Japanese manga iconography with Tarantino themes for a tale of aboriginal revenge on white-settler injustice.

The play is simultaneously visually astounding, shocking, thought-provoking funny and tapping of some current-day zeitgeist that makes it feel truly progressive.

 

Next up, in July this year, the MTC will stage Declan's adaptation of the Lars Von Trier film, Melancholia.

 

And it is Declan’s tenacity that I am most admiring of.  In the decade, he has amassed a huge body of work - averaging the release of two plays a year.

 

When I sat down with Declan for this interview last year, around the time of the release of his play The Homosexuals, I wanted to find out what his creative process looks like in a practical sense - how does he manage to average multiple major works in a year… and before someone was paying him to do so, how did create a lifestyle in which he could get good in the first place?

 

This episode is great for anyone looking to get active in a their ideal career space by pooling passion and resources amongst your creative community. There’s never been a better time to ‘screw it - just do it’.

 

 

Lillian Ahen AKA Flex Mami is a DJ, an MTV host and a content creator... and a social media genius.   Having come from a background working in PR to realising that she may as well just use the skills she was applying to working with brands on behalf of influencers for herself, she has launched and continued to reinvent her own career, leveraging off her self-identified USPs and boldly going after the sort of opportunities she once helped create for others.   Flex has been that frustrated creative working in a firm and feeling like she wanted more - and what she had forged for herself in only a few years is pretty inspiring. And one of my biggest take-aways is that it’s all about your mindset.  This is a great episode for anyone who is looking to build a profile, leverage their skills into income stream by partnering with brands - and more than anything about bracing yourself with the right attitude and self belief to make the most of the myriad opportunities that are out there in this, the wild wild west of influencer marketing. 

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What does it take to be one of the most in-demand creative thinkers in Australian radio?   I thought I’d ask Sam Cavanagh. He’s been a producer at Southern Cross Austereo since the early 2000s,  and is best known for producing his good mates Hamish and Andy, but has has also acted as producer and a creative consultant on a countless other radio shows across the Austereo, Hit and Triple M networks. Sam Cav is revered in his industry. There’s no one who does what he does better.   I wanted to chat to Sam about the practical day-to-day processes that go into being a leader in his field.    How does he plan his day? How does he stay on top of a never ending to-do list? When does he find time for exercise, personal reflection and the gathering of inspiration that will fuel his next great idea?   The challenges that Sam faces in a creative and logitically demanding role within a fast-paced environment are relatable to us all - not just those in the radio industry.  It is often our lack of systems and processes that prevents us from getting on top of our workload to be top of our game.   Sam is a big-picture creative thinker who knows how to get the most of his day - the of people he works with. I’ve looked up to him for a long time, so it was an honour to have a chat to him for Quit Your Day Job.

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