The Creative Shift with Dan Blank

Today I’m excited to welcome back onto the podcast author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. She gets really honest about how she navigated multiple book launches, changing editors and publishers, and what she considers when making a book deal. She also talks about her creative process and the road that lead to her latest novel: Fierce Little Thing. … Continue reading "“It’s the hardest book I’ve ever had to write. It stirred up a lot in me.” My Interview with Miranda Beverly-Whittemore"

So much of the work I do with writers and creators is to help understand how they can effectively share their creative work and their mission with the world. To those who will be moved by it. Helped by it. Feel less alone because of it. Today, I simply want to reflect on the journey … Continue reading "Podcast: Becoming Who You Are"

The title of this podcast is The Creative Shift, and today I am excited to share the story of one author whose life has been filled with creative shifts! Yang Huang grew up in China, came to America and moved to four corners of the country as she trained to become a computer engineer at … Continue reading "“I kept writing because publishing wasn’t my goal. Writing was my goal.” My Interview with author Yang Huang"

Today I want to talk about the value of having collaborators and mentors as a part of how you create and share. This week I have been considering something I think is critical to how we find success as writers and artists: that we tend to thrive when we collaborate with others, and failure is … Continue reading "Podcast: “Who Will Take Care of You?”"

When I asked Nikki Grimes if she had a sense of permission to create as a child, she replied, “It wasn’t a question of permission, I was compelled. I was in and out of foster care, yet there were things I needed to say.” Writing, poetry, and visual arts were her way of doing that. … Continue reading "“Reading and writing were my survival tools.” 80 Books Later, This is the Story of Nikki Grimes"

Welcome to a new season of The Creative Shift podcast. Today, I want to share what to expect this season, and how I’m doubling down on the podcast. This is a process of challenging myself to give more creative energy to the things that matter most, and consider how this podcast can be most useful … Continue reading "Doubling Down: Welcome to the New Season of the Podcast"

Today I want to talk about the concept of a creative reset, and share advice on how to make incremental improvements to your work. I will frame this all in my own creative reset, which I last shared on this podcast in December. You can find out more about my work at wegrowmedia.com and on … Continue reading "How to Navigate a Creative Reset"

This is the third time I’ve interviewed artist and writer Rebecca Green, and each time we have tracked how she is transitioning her career to find more personal fulfillment in the creative process, as well as greater success. Today we talk about the risks she is taking in focusing more on certain kinds of artwork, … Continue reading "“I had to think, what kind of artist am I, and what do I want to be doing?” My interview with Rebecca Green"

Angela Abreu is a writer, and founder of the Dominican Writers Association. She shares her own story of launching her poetry book, and how she turned it into a performance, selling 100 tickets with huge support from her network. She talked about the value of being a part of a literary community and how that … Continue reading "“I had the supportive community, because I had been supporting them for all these years.” My interview with Angela Abreu"

Emma Gannon is an author and host of the podcast Ctrl Alt Delete. She shares her journey to becoming a writer, and what it is like to switch to writing novels after a successful nonfiction career. Along the way, she was “rejected once a day” from magazines she submitted work to, only to find people … Continue reading "“I had so much creativity waiting to come out.” My Interview Emma Gannon"