Business planning is the easy part, now here comes the hard part: actually making the work! But it's supposed to be the fun part. How did we forget this?When you try to make creativity your work it can kind of feel like trying to force yourself to have fun. Nothing is less fun than TRYING to have fun. Fun is something that just happens... or do ...…

For years my goal setting strategy was less like a business tactic and more like a time capsule. I'd write my goals on my phone and then forget about them until a year later when I was making new ones.Upon seeing the previous years goals my reaction was "Oh yeah, I forgot I even wanted to do that... well that didn't happen..."LAST YEAR THOUGH t ...…

Does your story feel stuck? If you're feeling stuck it may be because you quit letting yourself dream. It may be because you're not really sure what your dream even is. Stories only start because the main character wants something. It moves the plot forward, it calls the hero to action, it pushes them through conflict and obstacles.And yet we o ...…

PART 2 of my conversation with my friend Suzy Ultman!THIS IS THE PART WHERE we go DEEP into Suzy's life story as she graciously shares her experiences with having a sibling with terminal cancer, moving through a divorce and finding a self worth fighting for. We also talk about how these formative life experiences translate to new depths in your ...…

This two part conversation with my friend Suzy Ultman is sure to go down as one of our all time favorites in the Creative Pep Talk Podcast Hall of Fame!It's no secret that I've been stressed out as of late, and that's part of the reason I reached out to my friend Suzy to be on the show. Suzy has this peaceful / intentional quality about her, an ...…

Do you feel like you haven't quite hit that level that you've been searching for in your creative career? Maybe you know you haven't quite made it where you want to go, but you're not really sure where you're stuck?In this episode, we discuss the 3 journey's every creative person much travel to get to the place we all want to go: CREATIVE TRANS ...…

The episode is CREATIVE REAL TALK. No music. No frills. One take. In this episode I share my current struggles, the lessons I'm learning right now in real time, and why I've been doing some unprecedented (for me) levels of soul searching in my life over the past 3 months.This is a very vulnerable / real / authentic episode. I hope it's a welcom ...…

This episode covers a grab bag of topics with lots of tactics, fresh ideas and new perspectives designed to get you jazzed about making stuff today!I hope most of these topics will hit you in the sweet spot, but I bet one or two of these will be exactly what you need to hear today.Some topics we cover in this episode:- Finding Your Style- Manag ...…

The New Year is an exciting time but often the excitement is short lived. We have such high hopes for all the changes we're going to make, but most often our hopes are crushed by someone who's very hard to defeat: OURSELVES!YES. The OLD YOU you want to leave behind is the number 1 thing standing in the way of the NEW YOU you'd like to become an ...…

This episode is just what you need if you want to make a living doing creative work you love, without having to win the creative career lottery of randomly going viral or being famous!Our guest for the show today is musician and podcaster Cathy Heller. I wanted to have Cathy on the show because she is a living breathing example of what it looks ...…

The most important part of business is sales and the number 1 rule in sales is this: BELIEVE IN YOUR PRODUCT! You see, if you TRULY believe in your product and believe it will enrich the lives of your customers, you'll see marketing as a public service. If you have something that will really make people's lives better, you owe it to them to spr ...…

It's the start of a new year and I don't know about you, but I feel the drive to take as much action as I can at the start of this season, to enable as much creative career growth as I possibly can.I built this episode to help you capitalize on that sometimes quickly fading new-year FIRE with 12 new ideas to help you spread the word about your ...…

They have been lying to you since you were born. You've been told "that's just the way it is" about taxes, school, work, and pretty much everything. But the truth is that nothing is ever "just the way it is", it's the way people before you decided it would be.The world isn't just the way it is, it's the way you make it and until you realize thi ...…

THIS MAY BE THE MOST EXCITING EPISODE I'VE EVER SHARED WITH YOU!!!If you've listened to 25 seconds of this podcast you've probably heard me mention his name: Seth Godin.Who is he? He is a world changer going around calling himself a 'marketer'. This man has had a bigger impact on the way I do business and marketing than anyone else and I owe hi ...…

In the movie Mean Girls, Regina George believes that these carb bars will make her lose weight, when in fact they are intended to make you GAIN WEIGHT!.Why does she believe this? Because Lindsay Lohan lies to her..My point? Don’t eat carb bars… AND believing a lie can have TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES EVEN ABOVE AND BEYOND NOT BEING PROM READY!.In the ...…

Today's episode is an interview with the brilliant mind that is Saiman Chow. I saw him give a talk at the ICON Illustration conference and my mind was seriously blown. I had to track him down and beg him to let me interview him.Saiman's illustration and animation looks like a beautiful chaotic brain, forever in play.This chat will inspire you t ...…

This episode covers a grab bag of topics with lots of tactics, fresh ideas and new perspectives designed to get you jazzed about making stuff today!I hope most of these topics will hit you in the sweet spot, but I bet one or two of these will be exactly what you need to hear today.Some topics we cover in this episode:- How to find your focus- W ...…

Guys I'm a little bit burnout. This year has been incredible career wise, but also completely and utterly exhausting. I'm not a stranger to burnout, but this latest experience has taught me something brand new about about it. I think this lesson is a game changer and we dive into it and more in this episode.If you're tired, hopeless or you've j ...…

When I think of artistic style, I think of Canadian illustrator Darren Booth. In my opinion, not many folks practicing today have as clear of an artistic voice as Darren.In this episode Darren walks us through how he developed this unique and authentic style. We also get to chat about the ups and downs of being a full time freelance illustrator ...…

Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time and visit myself at the start of my creative career path and give myself some encouragement, insight and tips. This episode is just that: exactly what I wish I could tell myself at the start of my journey. 11 tips, tricks and tactics for going further faster.This episode is designed to give you:- hop ...…

There have never been more opportunities to build a thriving creative career, but if you sit back and play it cool, you will miss them.I'm the first person to gag at the term influencer. I get it. I really really really do.But while we sit back and in our gag circles, these influencers, podcasters, youtubers and Internet personalities are takin ...…

Andrea Pippins is incredible American illustrator living and working from Stockholm, Sweden. In today's episode, Andrea tells her story and we chat about the lessons she learned on the way to going full time freelance and becoming a published illustrator. We talk about the power of a supportive community, putting yourself into your work, giant ...…

202 - For When You Feel Like Giving UpDo you ever feel like you've lost your way?When you hit obstacles, setbacks and dead ends, do you sometimes feel as if you've fallen off your path?For me, the creative career path is a roller coaster. There are so many circumstantial and emotional ups and downs, and if you ride every twist and turn, it can ...…

Finding your creative gift is the most important (and difficult) pursuit in your creative career, and in this episode, I will share all the clues that have helped me make progress on this journey.From podcast interviews to speaking at conferences, I am very fortunate to get to meet a lot of phenomenal creative professionals. For the longest tim ...…

How is it the 200th episode!? How have I been doing this for almost 4 years??!Whether I believe it or not, this is 200 baby! So to CELEBRATE it's only natural that we have one of the most CELEBRATED creative professionals on the planet, designer Michael Bierut!!!In this episode we explore how to make creativity that's valuable, why it matters t ...…

The first couple years of my creative career were about 99% CREATIVITY and 1% CAREER. Spoiler alert, that balance did not work! After crashing and burning, I was finally inspired to give the career / business side a serious effort.It was this season of my life that I stumbled upon a framework that completely changed my business. I want to share ...…

The relationship between art and money is a real tricky one. One of the the biggest challenges stems from the fact that involving money into the equation puts pressure on your creativity. This is a major issue because, neurologically speaking, your best creative work comes from a place of play... AKA the opposite of pressure.This means those of ...…

EXTREMELY SPECIAL GUEST ALERT!!! Incredible Illustrator / Youtuber Fran Meneses (AKA Frannerd) joins us for a long chat about all things creative career!We talk about:- How to make a deep connection with your audience and why it matters.- Imposter Syndrome and why no matter how far you go, it still shows up from time to time!- The breakthroughs ...…

As people who make THINGS, it's easy to be hyper focused on WHAT we make, but that should not be your only concern. WHERE you put what WHAT you make matters just as much.If you put the best restaurant in the worst location, it's going to fail, and the same goes for your art. Where you share your art matters, and in this episode we share ideas o ...…

It's funny that with the internet we've never been more connected, and yet also never been more tempted to isolate ourselves!In my experience, you can not build a thriving creative career or a powerful creative side quest without OTHER PEOPLE! You've got to get other people embedded into your personal projects to take them to the next level.In ...…

It's hard to get into art when it's being shoved down your throat.So, how do you get your work in front of new fans, customers or clients without directly smashing it into people's faces? You engineer organic growth. You make work that people want to voluntarily share. In this episode I share everything I've learned about doing just that.CREATI ...…

It's noisy and no one wants to be sold anything anymore. No company is looking for new untapped talent, they just seem to sit back and wait for the "best" to rise to the top of the internet.In this climate, how is a creative person supposed to break into a new market or win a new dream opportunity? Are we just at the mercy of people discovering ...…

GUYS!!! THIS MAY BE OUR BIGGEST EPISODE TO DATE!! I AM SO PUMPED TO SHARE THIS EPISODE WITH YOU!1 - We launch a new series today called "Creative Side Quest" In this series, we will walk through how to take a normal creative side project and add 4 layers of strategy that will transform it into a Creative Side Quest AKA your most powerful market ...…

In this episode I want to share with you the secret weapon I KNOW you have... that I'm SURE you're hiding :DThis episode contains 3 lessons on creating a deep connection with your audience, and how that's THE number 1 secret to building a thriving creative career!P.S. Next week we will return to "normal" episodes, but I was deeply inspired to b ...…

Today on the show, we have super special guest, Chicago based art director, designer and letterer Adé Hogue!!! Adé has worked with a very impressive range of clients, from Nike to PayPal, and his journey is incredibly inspiring. There are nuggets of wisdom and lots of vulnerability in this episode and I’m sure it’s going to be a new fan favorit ...…

Does planning make perfect? Or is it best to shoot from the hip? Should you meticulously obsess over the details or should you just let those creative juices flow???In this episode I want to share a principle that has helped me strike a balance and tap into my own personal peak creative performance. Your peak performance will be a different rec ...…

Being a creative person is incredible... except when it's not. To be a pro creative you've got to work hard and be a professional, but playing that part can sometimes lead to ignoring your needs and emotions.There's a secret I know about most creative people. They can look all cool and collected and pro when they need to, but behind that cool f ...…

Would the people that know you best, see 'you' in the art that you make? The self discovery and artistic development required to pull this off can seem like an impossible mountain to climb, so I asked artist Jon Burgerman, how has he done it?I don't know anyone who is as good as Jon at downloading their essence into their art and in this episod ...…

Do you have a sense that you've yet to realize your full potential? Do you often feel like you have much more to give but can't seem to figure out how to make it happen?These feelings have haunted me my entire life and over the past few years I feel like I'm finally unlocking some of my inner hidden gems!! In this stripped back / behind the sce ...…

Every journey has it's ups and downs and your creative career journey is DEFINITELY going to have some serious downs... or you're not doing it right!!This episode is about failure and how you can not only get through it, but start to embrace it as the secret to success!I also offer a tactic I found that helped me complete my yearlong goal in ju ...…

What do you do when something's broken? You take it apart. I think we all have a deep sense that EVERYTHING is broken right now and because of that we are deconstructing EVERYTHING!!For this reason, this year's 99u conference theme of "Challenging Everything" felt VERY APPROPRIATE to me. In this episode I want to share the breakthroughs I had w ...…

Anyone can deal with the good times, but it's how we deal with the hard times that defines our creative careers.In this episode I want to share tools for getting back up when the chips are down and you're feeling crushed. I've been dealing with some burnout and struggle and I hope these ideas are as energizing for you as they have been for me!! ...…

Do you ever feel like you're hiding behind the subjectivity of art? Like the fact that creativity is subjective, means no one can tell you you're bad or good. Right?I would say: wrong! Take the very creative world of food for example. Like what's good food and bad food might be up for debate to a degree, but ultimately undercooked poultry can o ...…

Chris Piascik has been doing a daily project for 10 years!! In fact, he's built an entire illustration career on the back of this project!In this episode, Chris shares the core insights he's learned about personal projects throughout this enormous journey!----CREDITSThanks to Yoni Wolf and the band WHY? for our theme music.Thanks to my man Nate ...…

Is it just me, or does it seem like people think creative work only matters if it's reaching insane amounts of people? Like if you've never made something that's gone viral, than you're not really in the REAL creative game? Like if you don't have a bonkers amount of followers on social media than you're creativity just doesn't really matter?In ...…

It can be extremely discouraging when you pour yourself into your creative work, and it fails to connect with an audience. In this episode I share everything I've learned about growing an audience, including specific examples and tactics I personally employ, as well as a few ideas I've been waiting to share for a long time! ----CREDITSThanks to ...…

Today's show features an extremely special guest!! JENI of JENI'S ICE CREAM!In this episode we hear Jeni's story and the breakthrough moments that lead to her extremely creative and successful business, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.There are so many aha moments and lessons from this episode, I know it's going to be one of your all time favorites! ...…

Did you know that you may be subconsciously sabotaging yourself? Well since you're doing it subconsciously, you probably don't!In this episode we talk about how to recognize your self sabotage and how to fight it. We also talk about Shiny Object Syndrome and why starting tons of things and never finishing any of them is killing your chances for ...…

Everyone wants to know the secret sauce to directly approaching those you want to work with. How do you contact the publishers, record labels, or clients you want to work, for in a way that actually works?In this episode I will share the only method that's worked for me and exactly how I've used it!We will also talk about the power of pivoting ...…

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Creative Pep Talk is teaming up with Elle Luna and Lindsay Jean Thomson for The 100 Day Project this year!!!!!In this episode, Lindsay and Elle both share how their personal stories have powerfully impacted their creativity and personal projects.Lindsay walks us through her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer and how i ...…