Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

FOR EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT: Subscribe at [http://unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm) to get a quick note from Jay every Monday morning.

 

TODAY:

Your creative intuition is a powerful guide. So why does it occasionally seem like you're wandering in circles, unable to move past a single piece of a project? It just doesn't feel like you can get it RIGHT, so you keep agonizing over that part of the work.

 

Today, we learn about the Art of the Unfinished. We assume that, to ship something successful, we need to share only the good stuff, the completed stuff. But new Unthinkable contributor Cara Hogan joins us to share a story that refutes that -- the story of the George Washington painting on the US dollar bill.

 

Then, we hear from two product managers, Adam Sigel and Karen Rubin, about how they involve others in their process. If your default setting is to believe your ideas are wrong, how do you keep shipping your work? We'll find out from them.

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

Professor Patricia Hills: [http://www.bu.edu/ah/profile/patricia-hills/](http://www.bu.edu/ah/profile/patricia-hills/)

Cara Hogan on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/CaraHogan27](https://twitter.com/CaraHogan27)

Adam Sigel on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/adamsigel](https://twitter.com/adamsigel)

Karen Rubin on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/karenrubin](https://twitter.com/karenrubin)

What did you think of this episode? Say hi to me (Jay) on Twitter: [http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo)

or go behind-the-scenes with making it each week on Snapchat: [http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo)

 

SUPPORT FOR THIS EPISODE:

[RightSideShirts.org](RightSideShirts.org) - empowering kids to be more creative and helping art programs in need.

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Creativity

Craft

George Washington

Government

History

Painting

Self Portraits

Art

Content Marketing

Product Management

Design

Business

Intuition

SUBSCRIBE at [unthinkable.fm](https://unthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm") to get a quick note every Monday morning containing new episodes, exclusive bonus content, and new experiments to join.

 

TODAY:

 

Tom O'Keefe is one of the most well-known people in all of Boston. But ask people around town if they know Tom O'Keefe, and they'll say no. This is the story of a simple side project that vaulted Tom from behind-the-scenes in his work to front-and-center, including invites to Fenway Park parties, free rooms at Mohegan Sun, and the radio industry wishing they were as influential as Tom.

 

(Slingshots are short stories about a creative side project that led somewhere surprising or unexpected. They run every other week as part of Unthinkable.)

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

Tom's Twitter: [twitter.com/bostontweet](https://twitter.com/bostontweet "http://twitter.com/bostontweet")

Tom's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/bostontweet](snapchat.com/add/bostontweet "http://snapchat.com/add/bostontweet")

Jay's Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](twitter.com/jayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

Jay's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo "http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Business

Restaurants

Radio

Baseball

Red Sox

Public Speaking

Marketing

Media

Twitter

Entrepreneurship

Startups

2008 Crash

Technology

Creativity

Intuition

Boston

FOR EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT + CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS: Subscribe at http://unthinkable.fm to get a quick note from Jay every Monday morning.

 

TODAY:

As humans, we're wired to seek out experiences that make us feel comfortable. But in order to hone our intuition and follow it in our creative work, we need to constantly make ourselves slightly UNcomfortable. We need to push outside our comfort zone to grow and create better and better work.

 

Today, we go outside our echo chamber to hear a story from Jim Mourey, professor of marketing at DePaul University in Chicago, about how he made guests at his mom's BBQ uncomfortable to change the amount of food they ate. Then, we hear from Tim Washer, creative director of Cisco and a comedian who trained under Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert's lead writer, on why you need to constantly follow the fear.

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

Jim Mourey's site: [http://www.jimmourey.com/](http://www.jimmourey.com/)

 

Tim Washer's Twitter: [https://twitter.com/timwasher](https://twitter.com/timwasher)

 

Tim Washer's speaker page: monumentalshift.com/tim-washer

 

Jay's Twitter: [http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo)

 

Jay's Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo

 

SUPPORT FOR THIS EPISODE:

RightSideShirts.org - empowering kids to be more creative and helping art programs in need.

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Marketing

Intuition

Standup Comedy

Art

Psychology

Cultural Fluency

Academia

Creativity

Craft

Content Marketing

FOR EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT + CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS: Subscribe at [unthinkable.fm](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm") to get a quick note from Jay every Monday morning.

 

TODAY:

Hear the story of a creative side project that saved a startup. Crew co-founder and CEO Mikael Cho talks about Unsplash.com, a photography side project that now boasts billions of photo views each month and salvaged a startup heading for bankruptcy. The project is so widely used today that a photo on the site gets viewed more times than a photo on the cover of TIME Magazine ... but it all started with a ridiculously small amount of time and an even smaller budget.

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

[unsplash.com](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funsplash.com "http://unsplash.com")

Mikael's company: [crew.co](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcrew.co "http://crew.co")

Mikael's Twitter: [twitter.com/mikaelcho](https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fmikaelcho "https://twitter.com/mikaelcho")

Jay's Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjayacunzo "https://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

Jay's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsnapchat.com%2Fadd%2Fjayacunzo "http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")

 

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Side Projects

Startups

Photography

Creativity

Craft

Intuition

Art

Technology

Content Marketing

FOR EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT: Subscribe at [unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm") to get a quick note from Jay every Monday morning.

 

TODAY:

Too often, creative people idolize the IDEA of being creative. But our jobs aren't to "be creative." Our jobs are to CREATE. In other words, we need a bias to act. But that's much easier said than done. Until you hear our stories today...

 

Today, we go outside the echo chamber with executive coach Heather Legge. Although she coaches some of the most powerful women in business, she uses a subtle trick pulled from -- of all things -- golf, in order to build creative momentum for her clients. Then, in our feature story, we hear from a side project master: Alec Brownstein, creative director at Dollar Shave Club. His experiments have shaken the internet, getting passed around the big agency world on Madison Ave, inside Google globally, and all around the world. 

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

Heather Legge's site: http://www.envisionsuccessinc.com/

Heather Legge's Twitter: https://twitter.com/esiresults

Alec Brownstein's site: http://alecbrownstein.com/project.php?cat=3

Alec Brownstein's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jusfonzin

The Google Job Experiment explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRwCs99DWg

Jay's Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

Jay's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo "http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")

 

SUPPORT FOR THIS EPISODE:

[RightSideShirts.org](http://rightsideshirts.org "http://RightSideShirts.org") - empowering kids to be more creative and helping art programs in need.

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Momentum

Google

Dollar Shave Club

Golf

Mitt Romney

Side Projects

Creativity

Craft

Intuition

Art

SUBSCRIBE: unthinkable.fm to get a quick note every Monday morning containing new episodes, exclusive bonus content, and new experiments to join.

 

TODAY:

Scott Monty is one of the world's most forward-thinking marketing minds. He spends his time helping big brands evolve, whether that was in-house at Ford or today as a consultant. So why is he so obsessed with the past? And what is he doing building a side project that historians and NBA players alike seem to love?

 

(Slingshots are short stories about a creative side project that led somewhere surprising or unexpected. They run every other week as part of Unthinkable.)

LINKS TO KNOW:

 

Scott's side project: [http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/](http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/)

 

Scott's newsletter and related mini-podcast: [http://fullmontyshow.com/](http://fullmontyshow.com/)

 

Scott's Twitter: [http://twitter.com/scottmonty](http://twitter.com/scottmonty)

 

Jay's Twitter: [http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo)

 

Jay's Snapchat: [http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo)

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Marketing

Media

Newsletters

Technology

Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Blogging

Podcasting

Creativity

Intuition

SUBSCRIBE AT [unthinkable.fm](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm") to get a quick note every Monday morning containing new episodes, exclusive bonus content, and new experiments to join.

 

TODAY:

In a noisy world like ours, you don't just want to be the best of the best. You want to be the only one who does what you do. Today on the show, we explore the need to zig when others zag -- the need to own some white space and be original rather than incrementally beat others who do something similar.

 

First, we talk about penguins. Because, I mean...penguins. Then we go outside the echo chamber for some tropical house music from DJ Viceroy. Then we hear the story of writer and marketer Finn Dowling of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, as well as Eddie the Terrible -- a tiny dog at the shelter that got some big internet fame, all because of one very hilarious blog post.

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

Far Side penguin comic: [goo.gl/WuhnTk](https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgoo.gl%2FWuhnTk "https://goo.gl/WuhnTk")

Viceroy's music: @[viceroymusic](https://soundcloud.com/viceroymusic)

Viceroy's site: [www.viceroymusic.com/](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.viceroymusic.com%2F "http://www.viceroymusic.com/")

Eddie the Terrible blog post: [hssvacc.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-full…e-reasons.html](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhssvacc.blogspot.com%2F2014%2F12%2Fa-full-disclosure-blog-three-reasons.html "http://hssvacc.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-full-disclosure-blog-three-reasons.html")

Jay's Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

Jay's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsnapchat.com%2Fadd%2Fjayacunzo "http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")

 

SUPPORT FOR THIS EPISODE:

[RightSideShirts.org](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2FRightSideShirts.org "http://RightSideShirts.org") - empowering kids to be more creative and helping art programs in need.

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Penguins

Music

Grateful Dead

Rock and Roll

The Far Side

Cartoons

DJ Viceroy

Tropical House

Writing

Blogging

Viral Content

Creativity

Craft

Intuition

Art

While we're on hiatus from releasing new episodes, here's a closer look at the thinking and inspiration behind making the show. Be sure to subscribe at [http://unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm) for our emails each Monday morning -- we're sharing the entire framework and process behind making the show run while we tinker on new episodes!

 

SUBSCRIBE: [http://unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm)

 

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: [http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo)

 

SAY HI: [http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo)

 

TODAY'S EPISODE SYNDICATED FROM: [https://soundcloud.com/louderthanwordsjohnbonini](https://soundcloud.com/louderthanwordsjohnbonini)

A message from Jay about the future of Unthinkable. Be sure to subscribe at [unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm).

The story of how Scott Belsky created Behance, a global community of creatives focused on making ideas happen.

(Slingshots are short stories about a creative side project that led somewhere surprising or unexpected. They run every other week as part of Unthinkable.)

 

LINKS TO KNOW:

[Behance.com](Behance.com)

Scott's Twitter: [twitter.com/scottbelsky](twitter.com/scottbelsky)

 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW:

Get a note from Jay every Monday morning, plus links to the newest episode of Unthinkable. Subscribe at [unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm)

 

GO BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Follow Jay on Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo") or Snapchat: [Snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2FSnapchat.com%2Fadd%2Fjayacunzo "http://Snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")

 

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Creativity

Tech

Startups

Design

Designers

Portfolios

Venture Capital

Uber

Pinterest

Warby Parker

Creative Missions

Product Design

User Experience (UX)