The Accidental Creative

At some point, every brand realizes that it's time to do a "refresh". However, there are any number of factors that can make a change difficult if not nearly impossible. You already have brand equity with your customers or clients, you have invested heavily in your brand design and assets, and rocking the boat can mean accountability if everyone ends up in the water. How do you know when it's time to make a change of brand? On this episode, we're fortunate to have Blake Howard. He is the co-founder and Creative Director at Matchstic in Atlanta, and also the host of the new podcast A Change Of Brand on which he interviews leaders from companies who have made a significant shift within their brand and asks about the challenges and opportunities they encountered along the way. On this episode, Blake shares some of the biggest lessons that he and his team have learned while working with companies who have made a significant change to their brand. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/creative. Offer valid through March 31, terms and conditions apply. This episode is also sponsored by Skillshare. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/AC and get a free trial of Premium Membership.

In the world of "on demand" work, television is certainly one of the most pressure-packed environments. The next show comes at a regular pace, and there's no room for a "plan B" when the ideas just aren't flowing. You must deliver, every day. Gavin Purcell (showrunner and writer for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, I Love You America with Sara Silverman) knows this world well. As a 13-time Emmy nominee (and multiple-time winner), and a key collaborator with TV's biggest names, he has helped create some of the most beloved moments in recent TV history. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of systems, why we need to get rid of the "romantic" notion of creating for a living, how to adapt when things go off-plan, specific tools and methods that he uses to produce work every day, and resources he relies on to help him stay fresh and creative. This episode is sponsored by Bambee. Get your free HR compliance audit at Bambee.com/accidentalcreative. This episode is also sponsored by Policygenius. You could save 50% or more by comparing insurance quotes, and feel good knowing that your loved ones would be taken care of if anything were to happen. Go to Policygenius.com to get started.

As we've mentioned many times on this podcast, things are not necessarily going back to "normal" after Covid. In fact, there are a number of ways in which our world of work has shifted that are likely to remain the same long into the future. We've had to adapt to new technologies, and learn how to make them work in the absence of face to face communication, but those same technologies will be powerful complements to our workflow once we return to being around one another more consistently. On this episode of the AC podcast, Phil Simon shares what this new world of work might look like in the near-term. He's the author of the new book ReImagining Collaboration, and on this episode we discuss what leaders and creative pros need to know about the post-Covid work world. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Visit Indeed.com/creative and get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post. Offer valid through March 31, 2021. This episode is also sponsored by Stamps.com. Visit Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code Accidental for a free four-week trial.

Given the number of surprises and twists that 2020 brought us, it might seem like a foolish exercise to try to predict what will happen next. However, there are some people who have their finger on the pulse of the creative community and how work is happening and will likely continue to happen over the coming years. Scott Belsky is the Chief Product Officer at Adobe, where the team has been doing extensive research into how the creative community has adapted to remote work and is striving to create tools to facilitate where the world of creative work is headed. On this episode, we talk about some of the tactical ways in which creative pros have adapted to the circumstances we find ourselves in, why some things have changed forever and others are likely to revert to the way they've always been, and how creative pros can adapt their mindset to help them deal with what comes next. This episode is sponsored by Headspace. Headspace is meditation made simple. Get a free one month trial at Headspace.com/accidentalcreative. This episode is also sponsored by Skillshare. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/AC and get a free trial of Premium Membership.

We all want to make 2021 a great year. We have plans, dreams, ambitions for the coming year, but the reality is that if we don't develop new habits we won't get new results, especially when so much seems out of our control. Steven Kotler has spent his career studying peak performers and analyzing how they are able to achieve such seemingly impossible things. In this conversation we discuss his new book The Art Of Impossible and the fundamental elements of peak performance, how to develop a mindset that allows for new possibilities, and how to point your focus, action, and habit in the same direction. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Listeners can get a free $75 credit to boost your job post at Indeed.com/creative. (Offer valid through March 31.) This episode is also sponsored by Bambee. Go to Bambee.com/accidentalcreative right now to schedule your free HR audit.

After 2020, a lot of people are asking questions about life, work, and the choices they are making. Some are even beginning to consider whether it's time to move on to a new kind of work. But where do you even start to consider a career change? How do you find the intersection of your skills, your interests, and the opportunities in the marketplace? Today's guest, Ashley Stahl, is a career expert and has developed a framework to help anyone discover the kind of career that they are best suited for. In the interview, we discuss everything from how to seek opportunities to how to identify the kind of work you are best suited for to how to interview well. Her new book is called Youturn. This episode is sponsored by Stamps.com. Get a four week trial plus free postage and a digital scale. Go to Stamps.com and enter promo code Accidental.

The pandemic hasn't really changed the direction of the marketplace, it's mostly just accelerated it. Many of the strategies companies are employing to deal with remote work are ones that were already inevitable a year or two ago, but have now become necessities because of the state of the world. The change that we've all been thrust into can be destabilizing if we aren't able to adapt to the new reality. On today's episode of the podcast, David Burkus shares key insights from his new book Leading From Anywhere. It's important that managers learn to understand how these new complexities affect the mindset and workflow of the people they work with, and develop strategies for helping their teams thrive, especially since it's unlikely the workplace will ever go back to "normal". One of the key insights we discuss is the importance of developing empathy for the people on your team. The workplace is often the "great equalizer", in that we all have access to the same enviroment, the same resources, the same tools, and the same people. However, when we work remotely, each person is in their own environment and some are most definitely better equipped than others to deal with the pressures of the day. While one person may live alone with plenty of space and ultra-fast WiFi, another might be living in a two-bedroom apartment with small children who are doing remote school at the kitchen table. We must learn and adapt to the unique needs of the people on our team if we want to help them succeed, which means we can't simply layer the same expectations on everyone on the team. We must commit to a posture of continuous learning, then adjust as we go. Regardless of when the pandemic ends, we will all need to learn to "lead from anywhere". Hopefully, this episode will help you along that journey. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Want qualities job candidates fast? You need Indeed. Right now, our listeners get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/creative. (Offer good through March 31, 2021.) This episode is also sponsored by Skillshare. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/AC and get a free trial of Premium Membership.

Have you ever felt anxious about your job, but you don’t know why? Everything is going well, or at least according to plan, and there is nothing obvious that should be causing anxiety. Yet, when bedtime rolls around, you struggle to get to sleep, and you have a perpetual sense that you’re falling behind. Falling behind? Behind what? That’s the question I was asking myself early last year. Pre-pandemic, I was on the mark to have a record year. Things had been going great, and I was able to help more people and teams and see more impact from my work this year than I ever have. By all accounts, I should have been on cloud nine. Yet, somewhere in the back of my mind, I noticed anxiety creeping into my thoughts, my planning, and the writing I was doing for my new book. At the exact moment that I should have felt peace and space I was experiencing the opposite. That’s when I realized that I was keeping score. This is an old habit, and one that dies hard. I was paying attention to a lot of little markers that have nothing whatsoever to do with my core work, or my effectiveness, or the impact that I’m trying to have with my clients or the people who read my books and listen to my podcasts. Instead, I was paying attention to things outside of my lane, and allowing them to pull me off-course and rob me of the joy and satisfaction that I should have been experiencing. Here are a few of the unhealthy ways I tend to keep score. See if you can relate: How THEY Are Scoring When someone else gets something – a contract, an offer, an endorsement – that I wanted, it bothers me. It’s as if there is only so much of it to go around. As much as I encourage my clients to focus on their own lane, I have to admit that it’s easy for me to let my peripheral vision distract me. I’ve had to develop the discipline of reminding myself that they are not responsible for my body of work, and I am not responsible for theirs. Stay. In. Your. Lane. I’ve seen this play out in teams when someone gets a coveted promotion, or is celebrated for a project, or gets more than their share of esteem for the amount of contribution they truly made. It pulls the team apart, and people begin to withhold because they feel as if they aren’t being treated fairly. They aren’t. Business isn’t fair, just like life isn’t fair. There will be things that you get that you don’t deserve, and things you deserve that go to someone else. There’s probably someone else right now keeping score on what you’re getting that they’re not. The sooner you learn to embrace the inherent unfairness of the workplace, the sooner you can simply focus on bringing your best every day and letting the chips fall where they may. I love this quote from the Bhagavad Gita, which I first heard from Steven Pressfield: “You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work.” Are you paying too much attention to how they are scoring? Things I Can’t Control This is another one. I tend to track things I can’t control, and get anxious about things that I couldn’t change if I wanted to. It’s one of the curses of being a systemic thinker – I always worry about the governing dynamics, even when they are well beyond my ability to influence. Inside of organizations, I see this play out as a general fear about market trends, or about the new company leadership (seven or eight levels above), or about the person on the team who simply doesn’t like you. There is nothing that can be done about any of these things – aside from diligentl...

There probably aren't many people reading this who will be deeply saddened to see 2020 in the rear view mirror. This has been quite a year, for certain. Now, it's time to set our sights on the future and to think about how we will prepare ourselves for whatever is ahead. It's time to steel our resolve and establish the practices that will enable us to bring our best each day in the coming year. On today's episode, Brian Johnson is here to talk about how to optimize your life and pursue wisdom in 2021. If you want to accomplish anything in your life, you need to build the infrastructure to facilitate it. Nothing happens without the supporting mechanisms, disciplines, and practices to bolster your effort. As much as we love the romantic notion of "winging it" or "making it up as we go", talent and instincts only get you so far. If you want to create deep impact, and to sustain that impact for a long season, you need to support your effort with practices. Your practices do a few things for you: * Increase your capacity. When you do something over and over, your capacity to do that thing increases over time. So, if you want to get better at study, then study. If you want to be a better writer, you write. If you want better relationships, you set disciplines around how and how often you engage with others.* Increase your agency. When you obtain a sense of mastery in one area, it tends to increase your sense of agency to change other areas of your life as well. If you want to up your confidence, start doing one or two small things very consistently and very well. * Increase life satisfaction. A lot of research points to the reality that small, everyday wins create a sense of deep engagement and enjoyment. If you want to feel deeply engaged with your life in 2021, just choose a few small, healthy habits or practices to implement and do them well and often. You'll notice an uptick in your mood and your sense of overall wellbeing. Here are the questions I challenge you to consider over the coming week: What 1-2 new practices will you implement in 2021 to help you achieve your goals? (Will you start studying? Develop better exercise habits? Start a small writing practice each day?) What will you stop doing in 2021 so that you have more space to do the things you want to integrate? You can't just layer things into your life - you need to regularly prune. Let's make 2021 a great year! This episode is sponsored by Literati. Go to Literati.com/creative for 25% off you first two orders. This episode is sponsored by Patreon. Create a steady, reliable income and the freedom to make what you love. Sign up today at Patreon.com.

Well, it's been quite a year, huh? I don't think many of us had any idea what 2020 had in store when we confidently welcomed the New Year. It's been a non-stop string of unexpected twists. And truthfully, this is the year that's felt more like five years. And, it's often the moments of deepest stress and pain that can generate the most learning, growth, and emotional resilience. I know that for me and my family, this year has opened the door to new ways of embracing life and togetherness, and has helped us to hold less tightly to things that seemed indispensible before while simultaneously opening ourselves up to new ways of experiencing life. We've seen an explosion of driveway firepits, with neighbors spontaneously gathering outdoors (at a safe distance!) just to claim a few brief moments of community. We've learned to connect with others from afar using technology that seemed almost gratuitous before physical distancing became the norm. So, as I reflected on 2020, I realized that I had five big, key learnings for the year. That's what I share on this episode. * Diversify your portfolio (before you need it). It's important to ensure that you aren't putting all of your eggs in one basket. Even if you work for a company, you should be thinking about diversity of income stream in the event that something happens to your primary one. Don't allow everything to hinge on one linchpin. * Have a "break the glass" strategy. Many people were (all of us?) were surprised by the onset of the global pandemic. This should cause all of us to re-think our contingency plans in the event of another unexpected disaster. * Embrace the flow of the river. Focus on things inside your circle of influence, and focus less on things in your circle of concern but beyond your influence. * A stimulated mind = a stimulated life. The moments when I was most engaged this year were moments when I was studying or absorbing material that caused me to think in new ways. * Don't judge others by your measure for yourself. We need to extend grace to one another and recognize that we're each carrying a unique burden. In this episode, I dive deeper into each of these five learnings and offer some next steps for application. This episode is sponsored by Headspace. Get a free one-month trial at Headspace.com/accidentalcreative. This episode is also sponsored by Patreon. Start creating on your own terms today at Patreon.com.

Freelance work offers tremendous opportunities, but also some unique challenges. It can be challenging to stay connected to others who can help you grow, find new prospects, and develop your skillset. On this episode, Amanda Malko (head of Mailchimp & Co and Mailchimp Academy) shares some practical tips for staying connected with others during this time, learning from the best practices of others, and finding new business opportunities during these uncertain times. This episode is sponsored by Skillshare. Visit Skillshare.com/accidental and get a free trial of Premium Membership. This episode is also sponsored by Literati. Go to Literati.com/accidentalcreative to find your perfect book club and sign up today.

Anyone else starting to experience a bit of "Zoom fatigue"? Many of us have been staring into cameras now for months on end, whether for meetings or pitches or even just casual interactions with friends, and it's becoming a bit daunting. If your work requires you to capture and hold the attention of someone who is on the other end of a video call, you need to understand the principles of effective interpersonal communication, especially those that are non-verbal or non-intuitive. On this episode, behavioral investigator Vanessa Van Edwards is here to share the scientific principles of succeeding with people. Vanessa is the author of the best-selling book Captivate, and she also delivered the very popular (and perhaps unfortunately titled, given the current circumstances) TEDx Talk You Are Contagious. We discuss the verbal and non-verbal ways in which we connect with others, and some practical tips for being more effective whether in-person or on a video call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cef35Fk7YD8 This episode is sponsored by Headspace. Go to Headspace.com/accidentalcreative for a free one-month trial with access to Headspace's full library of meditations for every situation. This episode is also sponsored by Patreon. Find the creative freedom to do your best work, and the financial stability to make it possible. Visit Patreon.com to learn how.

It is often the case that the quality of our life is tied to the quality of our decisions. If we can learn to make better decisions, we can position ourselves to take advantage of opportunities and minimize the potential of unforced errors. On this episode, Annie Duke shares deep insight into how to make better decisions from her new book How To Decide. We discuss: * Why good decisions might still result in bad outcomes, and vice versa. * How to think about hindsight bias and how it affects our perception of decisions.* Why decisions that seem bad to others might actually be good decisions for you.* How the paradox of experience can lead to unforced errors and bad decisions. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Right now, Indeed is offering our listeners a free seventy-five dollar credit to boost your job post, which means more quality candidates will see it fast. Learn more at indeed.com/creative. (Offer valid through December 31.) This episode is also sponsored by LightStream. LightStream believes that people with good credit deserve a better loan experience. Learn more at LightStream.com/accidental.

In times of uncertainty, we look for voices of clarity. Over several coming episodes, we're going to be speaking with individuals who have the ability to speak a bit of clarity into the present uncertainty, and who can offer strategies for navigating through the next several months of instability. On today's episode, Dorie Clark shares what she is hearing at this moment from business leaders, and offers insights for diversifying your portfolio of revenue sources to create more marketplace stability. Dorie is the author of several books, including the best-seller Entrepreneurial You, and speaks and consults globally to some of the largest companies in the world. This episode is sponsored by Literati. Go to Literati.com/accidentalcreative to find your perfect book club and sign up today. This episode is also sponsored by Patreon. Start creating on your own terms. Sign up today at Patreon.com and find the steady, reliable income and the freedom to make what you love.

We have more tools available for time management than at any point in human history. However, managing our time is a fool's errand if we're not investing that time in ways that create future value. Things like creativity, insight, and even life satisfaction must be considered, not just efficiency. However, many people and organizations sacrifice effectiveness on the altar of short-term efficiency. David Kadavy has just released a book in which he argues that we must manage our ability to bring our full creative faculties to whatever work is in front of us rather than simply focusing on managing our time. His book is called Mind Management, Not Time Management, and covers the principles of maintaining focus, creativity, and viability each day. In our conversation we discuss: * Why we inevitably hit a point of diminishing returns with our creative efforts, and how to prevent it.* How Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday, and why it's a perfect illustration of the four phases of creativity.* Methods for capturing every idea as it appears so that it doesn't slip away.* How to structure your days to take advantage of your best creative hours rather than force-fitting your tasks into a pre-determined template. This episode is sponsored by Literati Kids. Go to Literati.com/creative for twenty-five percent off your first two orders and pick your kids book club today. This episode is also sponsored by Patreon. Find the creative freedom to do your best work, and the financial stability to make it possible. Sign up today at Patreon.com.