The Creative Life Show

Can you be creative running a 'functional' service business? Joanna Pieters talks to Emma Hammett about her journey from nurse to author, regular TV guest, columnist and founder of award-winning company First Aid for Life.

Emma shares how her first attempt at hiring went disastrously wrong when someone took all her creative ideas. We talk about how it was nearly the end of the company, but how she turned it round to make her business the success it now is.

We also discuss the importance of systems to make a creative business rock-solid. Emma shares some of the long journey to move from in-person training to creating online programmes, a move that has transformed what she can do. We talk about how she builds a team to compensate for what she describes as her natural scattiness, and the support network she has built around her.

Oh, and she tells the story of First Aid for Dogs and First Aid for the Zombie Apocalypse...

Find more details and links at www.creativelifeshow.com. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/014-when-someone-steals-your-work-emma-hammett

What do you do when your values clash with your lifestyle - but you love it? Dave Evans talks about how he went from high-profile Silicon Valley creative who never saw his kids to running the Life Lab at Stanford - a journey fraught with wrong turns and misplaced independence trying to solve everything himself. Get all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com.

Dave has taken thousands of Stanford students through a programme which applies 'design thinking' to organising your life. Forget planning, forget visions, forget the idea that you need to discover your one passion - this approach is about small steps, testing things, asking questions and seeing what happens.

Whether you're frustrated in your current work and want to try something different, or want to live a bit more fully, this is a great episode. Dave shares his own battle with his passion for work: 'I realised, I was an alcoholic working in a liquor store', and how it took him years to find the balance he wanted.

You'll learn:

- The difference between an engineering problem and a design problem, a gravity problem and an anchor problem, and why understanding those is crucial to working out what to do with your life

- How to work out which of your many possible lives is the one you want to live

Why curiosity underpins everything in your life

- The cycle of growth, and how to move from being, to doing, to becoming.

- The difference between wayfinding and navigation - and which one you need when you don't have a map

Be more creative!

I’ve created 15 days of creative inspiration to give you daily inspiration and motivation, with reflections to help you go deeper into your own creative life and work. Each morning for 15 days I'll send you some music, art or poetry to surprise, inspire or motivate you - some you'll know, some you won't, and all of it is work I love. Sign up at www.creativelifeshow.com – it’s completely free. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/stop-planning-start-playing-designing-your-life-dave-evans/

Painter Norman Perryman describes himself as 'a musician who was born an artist'. He creates live performances with classical orchestras and musicians, live painting to the music. On today's Creative Life Show we talk about how he goes about creating a new art form, and how he goes about convincing other people to support something they've never come across before.

We also talk about the commission Norman received during his wife's battle with cancer, to paint the singer and leukaemia survivor Jose Carreras. He tells me about the process of painting through grief and the loss of his wife, and how the experience affected his work.

Norman talks about how he faces up to the ever-present risk of depression, and how he pushes himself to take risks to move his work and his life forwards.

You can see Norman's work at creativelifeshow.com, where you can also sign up for the free email course 15 days of creative inspiration. | Show notes: https://awesound.com/@joannapieters/norman-perryman?auid=aM5sWQD0

Roxanna Panufnik is one of Britain's most popular classical composers. She’s particularly known for her works for choirs, and next year will see the premiere of a new opera, Silver Birch, which draws on stories of World War 1 as well as contemporary experiences of war and its impact on families. You can find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com.

Roxanna tells me about the time when, faced with an ideal new commission, she spent weeks of agony sitting in front of a blank piece of paper, asking herself whether her career was over. We talk about how she got herself out, and what she does to keep that kind of block at bay.

We also talk about the central role that emotion plays in Roxanna's work, and how she manages her energy and own emotion to stay healthy and productive. We talk about how the importance of the right collaborators, and how finding the right text - or the wrong one - can make all the difference to her creative work.

Roxanna Panufnik is one of the most disciplined and yet fun creators I've talked to so far. In a life full of high-profile commissions, professional demands on her time, three children and a busy personal life, she's made a conscious decision to look after own own mind and body. | Show notes: https://awesound.com/@joannapieters/018-roxanna-panufnik?auid=aM5sWQD0

What if your moods and emotions were just signposts to how to live a fuller life? I talk to Andy Gibson, founder of Mindapples, about how looking after our minds is just as important as our bodies to lead full and creative lives - and how we can make prioritising our mental health a normal part of our routines. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/017-Power-of-sensitivity-mindapples-andy-gibson

Leading life coach, author and editor of one of the UK's most successful - and thought-provoking - women's magazines, Suzy Greaves shares her story of how her first book went disastrously wrong. We talk about how her inner critic scuppered what seemed the opportunity of a lifetime, and how it nearly led to her giving up writing and coaching. Suzy shares frankly and openly how she had to overcome her own demons to write her next book, as well as the practical steps she took to keep her fear and resistance under control.

We also talk about the challenges and joys of having to create new content every month for a successful magazine. Suzy shares how she takes her team to a place of vulnerability and openness to create stories that separate Psychologies from other magazines. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/016-back-after-rejection-psychologies-editor-suzy-greaves

How's your brain doing? Today I'm talking with Neil Pavitt about how we can make the most of our grey matter to make us more creative and less stressed.

Neil's new book Brainhack is a fast, fun user's guide to the brain, and I quiz him on how we can put his tips into practice in our creative lives. Get all the details at www.creativelifeshow.com.

Neil spent many years as a writer and creative director in creative agencies and companies including Saatchi & Saatchi and BSkyB. We talk about how he overcame the frustrations and self-doubt that could so easily creep in. Agencies often revolve around high-powered creative relationships, but what happens when those burn out?

We also talk about the conflict between stress and creativity - and yet how we need deadlines to get things done. You'll hear how you're not nearly as objective as you think you are, and why cognitive bias is ruining your decision making.

And if you're sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for someone else to arrive, you'll hear why you should stop checking emails and start gazing out of the window instead.

If you want to use your brain even more effectively to make you the most creative and productive you can be, start here. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/015-creative-brain-brainhack-neil-pavitt

If you'd like to solve your problems with more creativity, curiosity and fun, my conversation with writer, speaker and educationalist Richard Gerver is for you. Download your highlights guide at www.creativelifeshow.com.

When you were five, you were full of creativity, fun and ideas. You were curious about everything, you took risks and didn't worry about making mistakes or being 'wrong'.

And yet, as adults, we see curiosity too often as a luxury that we don't have time or energy for. So what goes wrong?

Author and speaker Richard Gerver found fame as the head teacher responsible for turning a long-term failing primary school into an internationally innovative, successful model of education. Richard's vision for how we can reconnect with our inner child is at the heart of his third book, Simple Thinking.

Richard and I talk about the power of creating the right environment around you, and how having the right people to challenge your thinking and complement your skills can make all the difference. He shares his experience of taking over a school and a team with years of failure behind them, and how he overcame the inner battles and practical challenges of turning things round.

Grab your crayons and your sense of fun, and let's go! | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/013-rediscover-inner-5-year-old-richard-gerver

Nicola Peel is an environmentalist, film-maker and self-described solutionologist, based in the Amazon. She’s spent her career finding solutions to questions like: how do we get clean water when all the local water is untreatable? How do we deal with plastic rubbish, and how do we turn it onto a resource? Her projects have had an impact around the world.

What I love about Nicola’s work is how she starts at the grass-roots level, but always with a bigger vision. We talk about how it regularly brings her into conflict with collaborators who want to make quick local progress, and how she insists on prioritising long-term sustainability.

Nicola chooses to work by herself, but far from alone. She’s become a very active and powerful hub to bring together experts and local people, ideas and solutions from around the world. She shares how a chance trip to an unusually tidy village in Guatemala became the start of an eco-brick movement that’s now having an impact around the world - and how she’s moved on to an even more powerful project which turns plastic rubbish into a source of income for the poorest communities.

Nicola is deeply practical and resilient problem-solver, even when the problems seem never-ending. She shares her journey creating rainwater filtration systems, and how each stage just seemed to open up another layer of challenge.

We also talk about how to deal mentally with problems that could seem overwhelming, and where Nicola gets the inspiration and motivation that keeps her going.

This is an essential listen if you’ve got far bigger ideas than you’re currently able to make happen.

Get more information at http://creativelifeshow.com/012-how-have-huge-impact-working-alone-nicola-peel | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/012-how-have-huge-impact-working-alone-nicola-peel

Top handbag designer Shona Easton shares the frustration and opportunities that came from going from freelance to setting up her own label of bags. As head designer for one of the biggest UK fashion chains, her bags sold thousands, but in 2002 she launched her first range under he own name.

Shona shares her experience of frustrating freelance work and being asked to create designs that didn’t resonate with her at all, but feeling obliged to take the work. We talk about her breakthrough that led to her to setting up her successful own label, and how that has fundamentally changed how she works.

At the heart of her success is how Shona combines her free-spirited approach with strong relationships. She shares how relationships have led to suppliers, customers, and how she works with her team members to make her business successful while allowing her to travel almost full-time.

We talk about how many of the issues that creatives have in combining their creativity with running a business, including why basing your business model on a large corporate is a struggle and how she balances creative work with day-to-day commercial demands.

If you’re employed or freelance, Shona has essential advice for you on how to work with buyers and managers, and how to stop frustration getting in the way of your own creative voice by speaking up. | Show notes: http://creativelifeshow.com/011-handbag-design-label-shona-easton