If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching


A pool of melted crayons on a hot porch. 

That’s where the spark ignites—a small, searing memory that grows into a compass for a creative life that refuses to wait for permission. We pull the thread from that moment through school punishments, false starts, and the long apprenticeship with failure to reveal a simple truth: you don’t get your start, you make it.

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If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

What happens when you refuse to sand down your edges? 

 The conversation moves from Eddie Murphy’s Raw to grocery-store temptations, from the pull of the wine aisle to the quiet dignity of choosing Topo Chico and showing up clear. The throughline is honesty: say the thing you mean and build a life that can hold it.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

A single question from a leatherworker cracks open a universal creative dilemma: do you keep taking every paid project, or do you specialize, raise your standards, and build a reputation that actually lights you up? 

We don’t sugarcoat it. Safety can feel sensible, but it often locks you into survival mode. The ache you feel is growth—proof that you’re outgrowing the small container of doing everything for anyone. It’s time to choose the craft you want to be known for and design a path that supports it.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

Some doors open because you knock. Others open because you knock, wait a year, and keep making brave work while you do.

Today we share the true story of how a cold, unglamorous submission—dropped at a museum coat room—turned into a call from a curator, ten pieces accepted into the collection, and five on the wall at the Museum of Modern Art. No gala, no plaque, just persistence, a sense of humor, and the courage to ask for what you want.

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If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

Holiday platitudes fall flat when the world feels divided and your own history makes joy hard to hold. 

We open the blinds anyway. This conversation moves from candor to craft: how to reject toxic positivity without surrendering to cynicism, and how to build a daily practice that actually lifts you out of the dark.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

Forget waiting for happy hour to feel alive.

We dig into a simple, radical practice that restores joy to your work and your life: celebrate everything. Not just the wins. The messes, the near-misses, the chores, and the doodles that make you grin for a second before you move on. When we stop deflecting praise and start marking small moments, the process becomes the reward—and that’s where momentum lives.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

A year on the mic reveals a simple truth: audiences don’t want polish for its own sake, they want a real voice with a real opinion. 

I look back at twelve months of The Right Questions and unpack the habits, mindsets, and small decisions that made weekly publishing possible. From capturing ideas in the car to writing six to ten pages before I record, I share the practical scaffolding that keeps me clear and the human moments—flubs and all—that keep it honest.

SUBSCRIBE to get my weekly "Love Letters," hot updates and my well loved and popular Newsletter.

Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

What if that knot in your stomach isn’t a warning sign, but the call to adventure you’ve been waiting for?

We unpack the hero’s journey as a living, repeatable map for creative people who feel out of place, “too weird,” or stuck in roles that shrink their voice. Instead of chasing someone else’s path, we look at how early shame steals play, why many of us refuse the call to our own work, and how disruption—job loss, heartbreak, grief—often becomes the doorway to a truer self.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

A simple truth with sharp edges: comfort can make a person small.

The opening provokes, then builds a case for recovering the muscles that tech convenience quietly atrophies—solitude, memory, intuition, and the courage to risk being wrong.
This exploration digs into how constant connectivity burrows into daily life, why reviews and surveys sneakily replace judgment, and what’s lost when turn-by-turn directions drown out an inner compass. The conversation moves from critique to craft, urging a shift away from outsourcing conviction and toward training instinct. 

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching

What happens when the people who made you braver step into the same room?

We trace a creative life through friendships that challenged our taste, sharpened our voice, and taught us how to make work that lasts. From early days on the AIGA board to classrooms at SVA, I unpack the small acts that compound into confidence: record the first try, record the last try, and honor the miles between.

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Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!