Episodes

Do you ever feel like you have to force yourself to make something? It’s such a shame because, for most of us, the reason we wanted a creative practice in the first place was because we were so desperate to spend as much time making things as possible! This episode is for you if you: 1 Have become apathetic about making things 2 Feel lost about what path to take next creatively 3 Need a tool for uncovering your creative sensibility This is Part 1 of our 3 Part Series on Finding Your Creative Sensibility by Finding Your Taste

Most of us feel like social media is constantly requiring us to redefine ourselves, but in this episode we will explore how to achieve our goals by redefining what we think of as social media. This episode contains specific strategies and tactics for showing up online in ways that others aren’t and how to rethink your approach for a new year.

Today on the show we have podcast legend Guy Raz of How I Built This and The Great Creators! This episode is for you if: - You feel like the creative path is so random, if it feels impossible where to go next - You feel like new skills are necessary and then obsolete before you can even start to learn them - You’re burnt out and you need a fresh treasure trove of new inspiration to get you going

This episode is for you if you: - You’re looking for your big inflection point in your creative practice - The competition is too steep and you’re not talented enough to even try - The speed of the world is overwhelming you - You struggle with Imposter Syndrome - You’re worried or curious about AI Art

Have you ever longed to have a creative style that is as FULL OF LIFE and COMPELLING as the style of your creative heroes, but when you go to find your own style, it feels impossible or the style you DO HAVE just doesn’t measure up? If this is a problem you face in your creative practice, THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU!!!

If you’ve always longed to make deeper work, that’s not just a tad cooler than the last thing you made, or a bit cooler than the work of your peers, this episode is for you. In this episode we explore how to make your work more creative not by reinventing the wheel, but by finding renewable strategies in the work of your heroes. This episode is for you if you: 1 - Feel like your creative sphere has become a meaningless popularity contest of artists trying to out-cool each other. 2 - You want your work to move people? but don’t know how that’s done. 3 - You feel like your work is missing something crucial that’s holding you back. 4 - You want to explore what it looks like to utilize the psychology of how people engage with creative work to deepen the way it hits people.

This episode is for you if you: 1 - Are having trouble getting into the flow state. 2 - Can’t find the willpower to level up your skills. 3 - Have lost interest in your creative practice. How does one become more creative? This is a question that gets asked a lot in the creative community, but what does it even mean? It’s SUCH A HUGE QUESTION! In this episode we kick off our Creative Master series that aims to tackle this HUGE QUESTION by breaking it down into 4 chunks. CHUNK 1? SKILL ACQUISITION.

Our chat with journalist, cartoonist and graphic novelist Malaka Gharib. After reading her latest book “It Won’t Always Be Like This” - a graphic memoir about her summers in Egypt with her dad - Andy wanted to chat with Malaka about her creative process, storytelling and how the different ways she’s fit in large projects like graphic novels into her life with a day job working at NPR. This episode is for you if you’re: Struggling to fit in creative work into your schedule Interested in making more potent and personal creative work

Two questions that plague creatives: 1 - How do I find motivation to get through longer projects? 2 - How do I determine the best type of work to make next? In this episode we explore 1 idea that aims to help you accomplish both, with a tactic that you may not even be aware of!

Every creative field worth entering seems heavily guarded by industry gatekeepers and established artists with the goal of keeping you out. How do you find a way in when everything seems designed to keep you out? In this episode I share all the ideas that have helped me break into the many sectors I’ve worked in throughout the past 15 years. If you’re stuck and can’t find a way into the world where you want to work within, this episode may help! Creative Pathfinder Series Episode 3 of 3

Some of the most inspired creative work you’ll ever do will happen before you touch your materials. You’re familiar with your art, but have you fully mastered the art of crafting personal creative prompts for your own work? Every piece of work starts with an idea for what to make a piece about, and that idea is as important creatively as the work you make when you pick up your creative instrument. If this is true, how do you craft a powerful prompt that will unlock your best work or at least something interesting to make next? This episode explores a framework for doing just that. Creative Pathfinder Series Episode 2 of 3

Asking yourself “what do I want?” Or “what is my creative goal?” can be a kind of chaotic and overwhelming type of Pandora’s box for creatives. We’re just too good at coming up with new ideas for possible futures! How do you know what to work on next? In this episode we explore a working backwards approach to finding the next area of focus. This was helpful in my own practice at this very moment. Hope the same is true for you! Creative Pathfinder Series Episode 1 of 3

Do you ever feel like you’ve run out of creativity or that you have nothing left to say? If you need a creative refuel, this episode with writer, poet and music enthusiast and critic Hanif Abdurraqib is for you. In this episode we share 3 tips for staying full creatively by exploring lessons from Hanif as well as from the musician’s he interviews in his incredible podcast Object of Sound.

This episode is for you if: 1 - You feel pressure to go viral with your work or appeal to everyone. 2 - If you’re unhappy with where you are in your practice and need a big breakthrough fast. 3 - Need a creative prompt that will help you create work that helps you get the opportunities you’re perfect for.

In this episode we answer these 3 questions: 1 - How do you make deep work that connects, when everyone has short attention spans now? 2 - How do you find a style that sticks? 3 - How do you manage your time and accomplish everything you do?

This episode is for you if: - You’re burnt out by everything you’re trying to keep up with - You’ve tried adding everything you can think of to your creative practice and you still can’t seem to progress any further - Your “To Do” list is 8 miles long and never ending

This episode originally aired May 12, 2021. Do you ever look over your portfolio or back catalog of work and just feel sick of it all? Do you fear your work is irrelevant? It’s easy in times like these to rush to making new stuff that’s on trend, but in this episode I want to introduce you to a solution that is essentially the opposite of that. In this episode we talk about: • How to get in touch with the invisible thread running through your work • Why priming yourself with the right inspiration before making work is essential and how to do it • The practice that separates good art and transcendent work • How to learn to hit your creative target more often • The trick of taking your best work and riffing on it

This episode is for you if: 1 - You’re fed up with the slow pace of your career progress or creative growth. 2 - You’re desperate to go full time in your field because you don’t have enough time in your day to do the art you want to do. 3 - You need new ideas where to look for where your next creative path breakthrough is going to come from!

This episode is for you if: 1. Feel overwhelmed by all the creative work you have to produce and post to “stay relevant” 2. Feel like you’re always rushing with not enough time to come up with anything good or beyond surface level 3. The general state of social media, media companies and creative jobs is depressing or stressing you out!

This episode is for you if: 1. You’re sick of the best jobs going to the most connected this episode is for you. 2. The algorithm and the extreme pace and demand of online culture is killing your creative spirit. 3. Your creative practice isn’t giving you the full depth of what you’re after creatively 4. You want tips on how to find people in your creative world who you can deeply bond with!

How did an artist whose primary medium is drawing, go on to collaborate with a legendary rapper like Kendrick Lamar, choreograph a ballet for the Boston Ballet and even being invited to give a TED talk? From this conversation, it seems the answer is to defy how people think about what you do. When the world thinks of a drawing, they think of a static image, but for Shantell Martin it’s a dance, it’s a path, it’s a living journey and it’s maybe even a question. This episode will inspire you to defy your own labels and challenge you to see your work in a way you’ve never perceived before! If you need a fresh perspective that brings new fire to your practice, this ones for you!

Do you ever feel like you’re doing a MILLION THINGS but it all AMOUNTS TO NOTHING? You’re running in a million directions and getting nowhere? You feel pulled to post and create and make and launch 80 different things and it all seems in conflict with each other? In this episode I want to share a super simple tool that can help you organize your efforts to get it to compound in the same direction, as well as eliminate stuff that isn’t working. Listen to this episode if you feel: - Your work is better than is reflected in your followers or finances - Stretched in too many directions and your head is spinning

Have you ever been swimming and lost your sense of up while underwater? It’s incredibly panic inducing. This feeling is something I experience in the creative process sometimes too. Nothing makes sense. You have no sense of how to make any choices within a piece of work. It all looks wrong. If this ever happens to you, or you’re feeling particularly ungrounded in your creative practice today even, this episode will give you a practice for defining guidelines in your work before you enter the creative process. This practice has been incredibly useful for me, and I hope it does the same for you!

The best students I ever had really had a clear sense of their influences. In the old days really studying and imitating your masters was seen as an essential part of the creative path. But what happens when you get stuck in this phase and can’t seem to break out into something that feels more truly yours? What do you do then? In this episode we are going to explore exactly what to do when your creative hero’s are overshadowing your presence in your own work, and the fun and surprising solution to breaking out of this rut.