Getting Work To Work

Every episode, I end with the same phrase, "Until next time, may creativity and curiosity fuel your life." Lately, I haven't felt curious and the tank certainly feels empty. So, what's the point of saying that phrase when curiosity seems to have left the building and all that's left is a rut-filled routine? Well, like any affirmation, repeating it helps keep the truth in the forefront of the mind:...

Recently, I called the non-emergency line for my county's sheriff department and guess who picked up on the second ring? That's right, our good friend, the cheerful AI assistant. There might have been a generic name like Claire assigned to the bot—sorry to all the Claires out there, trust me, it doesn't get more generic than Chris—but it took me a minute to realize I needed to say something to mov...

For the past ten years, a common theme on this podcast is learning. Whether we are learning something new or diving deeper into our craft, the ability to experiment and evolve our abilities lead to new ideas and expertise. This sounds like a great way to bring a sense of purpose to our lives, but a sobering question keeps me up at night: what if our society no longer values new ideas and expertise...

When was the last time you listened to the small voice of intuition? You know the one, the voice that gets you a little excited when considering something new. As creatives, we often find ourselves ignoring it for a variety of reasons. We shove it aside in favor of certainty. We faithfully follow our routines until they become ruts. We chase trends instead of original ideas. Before we know it, int...

You don't really think about what makes an artist unique until you see the tools of their creation up close. Recently, I visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and while looking at artifact after artifact I started to see a pattern: intense customization. Most artists memorialized in this shrine to music didn't buy their greatness off the rack, they shaped it through their own...

How do you discover necessary patterns of change in your life? For me, I journal, writing down emotions, successes, and failures throughout moments in time. For decades, I lacked consistency, but in late 2023, inspired by a video on my friend Jack's YouTube channel, I started a daily log of thoughts and ideas. Yesterday, I came across a notebook from 2019–2020, so I traveled back in time to see wh...

In this thing called life, we undoubtedly face endless questions: How do I write a funny joke? Am I funny? Where is Chris? What is the meaning of life? Here to help us find some answers to those questions and to talk about his latest audio projects— Reflections – Where is Chris? and The Meaning of Life —is the funnyman himself, gough. We dive right into our typical podcasting shenanigans filled wi...

As listeners of this show know, I love asking my guests what they are endlessly curiosity about, but what I rarely take the time to consider is that we could overload our curiosity. What do we do when this happens? Today's guest provides several insights into forming our personal answer to that question. Micah Kassell is a graphic designer, drummer, and a deeply creative soul fascinated with curio...

The best conversations not only have interesting questions, but also the necessary time and space to think and respond when answers present themselves. From "What most often brings you joy?" and "What are you endlessly curious about?" to "What is the space you need to give yourself today?" and "Why does where you are matter?" , today's guest and I dive deep into ourselves and share what we discove...

The longer your creative career lasts, the less written about your specific struggles. Writing and producing work for young professionals is enticing because there will always be an eager audience, hungry to succeed. They will 10x absolutely everything in order to keep up with the algorithm and crush the content calendar. The message never changes even though the audience does. But for the rest of...

What’s your gift to the world? What makes you uniquely different than everybody else? Why should I choose you? Three powerful questions from today’s conversation with John Ravaris, consultant, speaker, and author of Define Value, Drive Growth: Build a Business Clients Choose and Competitors Envy . In our conversation, John unpacks these questions and more, focusing on how uniqueness cr...

Years ago, I was having coffee with a friend and he asked me if I wanted his old 3D printer. It had been awhile since I modeled anything in 3D and I couldn’t visualize the process, so I declined with a simple statement, “I need to learn to see first.” I’m shaking my head at my ignorance. Have I learned to see yet? Nope, I haven’t. I haven’t even tried. What I di...

Of all the questions today’s guest asks in our conversation, the biggest of them all is this: “What does it mean to be alive?” Making his sixth appearance on the show, Christopher Butler is a designer, communicator, and deep thinker not afraid to ask tough questions and explore obscure topics. Our conversation begins with nature journaling, the joy of slowing down, observing, and...

What are the things you’ve studied, explored, or even built a body of work around, but ultimately moved away from? As creative professionals, we are wanderers and explorers, constantly searching and striving for new experiences and techniques. But what do we do when we feel the call to return to past areas of study? We are different than before, so why would we even think of doing this, let...

I want to prime you with a question asked by today’s guest during our conversation: “What does it mean for you to be fully expressed as a human being in whatever shape that takes?” So much of our life and work is spent in opposition to what we actually want, and yet the possibilities are truly endless. Sarah Bush is a mixed media artist who explores “the relationship betwee...

As a curious person, I am intrigued with what it takes to build skills and get good at a craft. Sure, there’s the initial impulse, the desire to pick up a guitar, make a leather bag, or design furniture, but at some point you need to start doing the work. You pluck and strum, sew and saw, cursing and crying as you suck beyond measure. But something in you tells you to keep going. Slowly, you...

What is the work you want to put out into the world so you can experience it? What’s keeping you from doing it? Today’s guest not only thinks you should do it, but he also genuinely believes in you. I know I needed to hear that. Ian Honeyman is a film composer, songwriter, and founder of Film Score Academy . In our conversation, we talk about his limitless curiosity and creativity for...

How would you describe your talent? I know, not a comfortable question to start with today, but I think a lot about what talent is and how we choose to celebrate it as a society. The simple view of talent is this: whatever you want to do, as soon you share your dream with the world, you’re immediately put into a category, a genre, an industry, and judged against the best and the brightest. T...

When I find myself getting in my own way or needing a creative pick-me-up, I tune into what Heather Crank is doing with art, AI, design, and technology. She was one of the first artists in my circle to adopt AI, and since we last talked on Getting Work To Work three years ago, she continues to forge her message of shaping the future of AI by using and understanding it. In our conversation, we dive...

As I examine my life, I find that I am in the middle of a massive pivot. I’m no longer who I once was, the young entrepreneur who wanted to work for anyone and everyone doing anything creative. I’m slowly becoming someone different, the thinker, writer, and artist who wants for more than just relying on formulas and routines to make ends meet. Yes, you could label this as a midlife cri...

How do you work through and process awful events that happen in your life? For today’s guest, author Liz Lazarus, she turns them into psychological suspense novels including her brand new book, Dawn Before Darkness . In our conversation, she shares her journey to becoming an author and the importance of educating while entertaining. She also talks about how she approaches multiple pursuits,...

The only prescription you need to get through today is one for laughter. Fortunately, dr. gough—fear not, it’s an honorary title—is in the house, pad in hand, to talk about his latest film, The Proposal , now available to download at beernutsproductions.com. We talk about stuff, lots of stuff, funny stuff, and even some serious stuff, all the while chuckling like two idiots who find everythi...

Today’s guests couldn’t have said a more profound statement during our conversation: “Art is our gift to the universe.” Ashley Wren Collins and Jordan Rockwell are the co-authors of She Wrote, He Wrote: A New York Love Story , here to talk about their shared love for art and romantic comedies. In our conversation, they talk about their creative partnership, cracking jokes o...

What got you interested in the work you do? Maybe you experienced a work of art that drove you to an easel or a grandparent put a camera in your hands and you couldn’t stop taking pictures. For today’s guest, it was watching a TV show about a doctor at a young age that led him to medicine. Dr. Kenneth Ro is a physician, creator of the RECLAIM Method, and author of PRIME: How to Win the...

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a friend about perfectionism. I asked, “What triggers perfectionism for you?” They shared some thoughts, generally around being a beginner, but when they asked the same question to me, I took it another direction. I responded, “When I’ve done things for a long time and feel like I need to prove myself.” It’s amazi...