BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Hustle Culture Is Broken. Do This Instead. You can sprint for a season, but you can't for a lifetime. Knowing the difference is critical to leading well. What if the key to lasting creative success isn’t in how fast you go, but how well you rest? This week on the Daily Creative podcast, I discussed with Chris Ducker what it really means to be a “Long Haul Leader.” Here are a few key learnings: 1. “Hustle can be a season, but it shouldn’t be a lifestyle.”There’s a...
8 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Turn Doubt Into Your Creative Superpower Doubt is not weakness. In fact, it can be a gateway to better decisions, sharper leadership, and more fulfillment in life and work. When most of us think about doubt, we imagine hesitation, second-guessing, or even weakness. These are enemies of progress for anyone aspiring to become a valuable leader. Yet, beneath the surface, doubt is the creative pro’s hidden ally, often signaling opportunity. In creative organizations,...
15 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Are You a Moment, Or a Mountain? A hit can make you famous. A habit can make you timeless. Here's how to avoid being a moment and instead become a long-standing mountain. Not long ago, I found myself in conversation with someone who was having “a moment.” You know the kind I mean—the big splash, the sudden surge of attention, the cultural spotlight shining brightly. They had just experienced a breakthrough that put them on the map, and everyone wanted to be near...
22 days ago • 5 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Time Anxiety (and How To Deal) Ever feel like time is just slipping away and that you may be falling behind? You're not alone, and dealing with time anxiety is key to a healthy, productive creative process. If you’ve ever tried to outrun your own calendar, you know the brutal truth: time always wins. In the latest episode of Daily Creative, I interviewed Chris Guillebeau to explore the slippery, often maddening feeling that there’s never enough time for creative...
29 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Lessons From Future You Getting out of the "world behind your eyeballs" can help you unlock ideas and pathways that were previously invisible. What if the smartest leader in the room is the one who knows how to step outside their own story? In this week's episode of Daily Creative, I was joined by L. David Marquet, author and former nuclear submarine commander, to dissect the overlooked superpower of "distancing." Marquet calls the dynamic of being stuck in your...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Cover Bands Don't Change The World Why imitation is so tempting, and how to overcome the urge to chase after what's "popular" and do work that resonates. There's a phrase I've often used when talking to creative pros and leaders. It was even a chapter title in my book The Accidental Creative: “Cover bands don’t change the world.” It always gets a knowing laugh, sometimes a nod, and occasionally a visible jolt—like I’ve just poked someone squarely in their ambition....
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Why Your Superpowers Become Supernovas Brilliant creative pros are most likely to over-index on what got them where they are, and fail to develop the skills that will get them where they want to go. Have you ever watched someone with all the talent in the world unknowingly derail their team, their influence, or their career? I have. And here’s the kicker: they weren’t sabotaged by their weaknesses.They were sabotaged by their strengths. This week on Daily Creative,...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT A Series of Small Hunches Why chasing "likes" or a big objective might actually prevent you from achieving your goals. There’s a moment in this week’s podcast episode that stopped me cold. We were talking about the invention of the Like button—yes, that tiny gesture we now make billions of times a day without thinking—and Martin Reeves, author of Like: The Button That Changed the World, said this: “None of the people who contributed to its invention thought they...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT You Are Not A Machine (and Neither Is Your Team) The best work results from rhythmic effort, occasional sprints, and dare I say it... FUN. A few years ago, I walked past a whiteboard where someone had scribbled, “We are not machines.” It was half-erased—probably someone’s shoulder brushed past it—but I’ve never forgotten those words. Lately, they’ve been echoing louder. We live in a world that rewards output, speed, and optimization. That’s especially true if...
2 months ago • 3 min read