The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Al Pittampalli is the author of Read This Before Our Next Meeting and Persuadable. He makes the case that most recurring meetings exist only because they are on the calendar, shows what happens when you cancel them for three weeks, and then argues that the scarce skill is not persuading other people but being genuinely willing to change your own mind. He also covers his six months in Seth Godin al...

Akshay Nanavati came back from Iraq with survivor's guilt, drinking a bottle of vodka a day, and a plan to return to war to justify being alive. He talks about how he climbed out of that, why he now treats pain and fear as tools rather than enemies, and what losing a fingertip to frostbite in Antarctica taught him about knowing when to quit. The conversation covers post-traumatic growth, seven day...

Akshay Nanavati is a former Marine who served in Iraq, came home with survivor's guilt and a bottle-of-vodka-a-day drinking problem, and now skis across Antarctica and sits in week-long darkness retreats on purpose. He explains why he thinks pain is the most effective driver of change available to a human being, why post-traumatic stress is not the same thing as post-traumatic stress disorder, and...

AJ Jacobs spent a year inside the world of puzzles - crosswords, corn mazes, the unsolved Kryptos code at CIA headquarters, and the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, where he competed as Team USA. He makes the case that a puzzle is a better frame than a battle for almost everything hard: disagreements, parenting, career decisions, changing your own mind. The conversation covers holding beliefs in...

AJ Jacobs spent a year living by the original text of the Constitution - carrying an 18th-century musket around the Upper West Side, writing with a quill pen, voting out loud at his polling place, and quartering a soldier in his apartment. He and Srini work through what the founders actually meant by free speech, privacy, voting, guns, and the Supreme Court, and how far those words have had to str...

Aerosyn-Lex Mestrovic is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has shown at MoMA and who has collaborated with Kenzo, Nike, and Kanye West. He talks about growing up a first-generation immigrant with no financial safety net, the business partnership that collapsed into police reports and threats, and how he rebuilt from it. The conversation digs into what a creative identity actually is, why most...

Business operations consultant Adrienne Dorison talks about growing up with an absent mother and a feast-or-famine household, and how that shaped a money story she had to unlearn. She walks through taking on student loan debt she didnt understand, paying it off, and why she started giving money away before she felt she could afford to. The second half covers why she left a fast-track corporate car...

Adii Pienaar built and sold WooThemes and Conversio, then nearly lost his marriage and his health chasing the next milestone. He talks about life profitability - treating your business as one line item in a wider life portfolio rather than the thing everything else gets sacrificed for - and why the measurement habits that work for revenue quietly wreck the parts of life that cannot be quantified....

Abigail Clarke is a somatic teacher and writer who rebuilt her own body after a spinal injury doctors said would leave her in permanent pain. She explains what embodiment actually means beyond the yoga-industry version of it, why telling a traumatized person to just breathe can make things worse, and how to tell the difference between listening to your body and making excuses. The conversation als...

Srini and co-host Greg Hartl walk through why Blogcast fm became The Unmistakable Creative: the show had outgrown the word blog, and the wrong name was costing them listeners, guests, and sponsors. Greg explains branding as the parking space you occupy in someone mind, why knowing your essence makes hard decisions easy, and why he thinks solo founders fail without a team. They also answer listener...

Srini hands the microphone to his roommate Matthew Cook and his girlfriend Laura Foster, who work through Mandy Len Catron's 36 questions that supposedly make two people fall in love. Their answers move from how they were raised and what they would change about it to what they actually admire in each other, and clips from past guests Megan Poe, Bob Goff and Jenny Taitz sit alongside them. Listen i...

Holly Shaw, performer and coach, discusses how she discovered her creative DNA through a lifelong relationship with performance—from childhood dancing at jazz concerts to conquering stage fright with an acting coach. She explores how creatives can uncover their unique wiring, treat intuition as a compass rather than a map, and why physical embodiment is the missing piece in the creative conversati...

Former NFL player Bret Lockett breaks down the mindset gap between athletes who flame out and those who build sustainable careers, using Tom Bradys systematic approach as the benchmark. The conversation covers the financial traps that bankrupt 80% of NFL players, the cognitive vs physical divide in professional sports, and why most athletes lack the business literacy to translate athletic success...

Andrew Thorp King, author of Failure Rules, shares how losing everything multiple times taught him that safety is an illusion and failure is the true teacher. He discusses the spiritual nature of money, the portfolio pursuits mindset, and why building multiple things creates resilience against life inevitable breakdowns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mega-project expert Bent Flyvbjerg breaks down why 99.5% of large projects fail on time and budget, drawing on 25 years of data. He reveals the planning principles that Frank Gehry and Pixar use to deliver world-class results—think slow, act fast, and iterate relentlessly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Economist Allison Schrager, author of An Economist Walks into a Brothel, discusses the psychology of risk tolerance through her framework of financial economics. She explores how our high school social choices reveal risk preferences, the difference between calculated risks and reckless ones, and why taking more risks often leads to becoming better at evaluating them. The conversation covers risk...

Marketing professor and author Ben Guttmann explains why we over-complicate our messaging and how to apply design principles to communicate with clarity. He breaks down the drill-built method for identifying emotional benefits, shares his controversial take on AI as unlimited stupid people, and reveals why features never sell but benefits always do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg breaks down the science of conversation and connection from his book Super Communicators. He explains why 80% of our conversations naturally align, how to use looping for understanding during conflict, and why super communicators ask 10-20x more questions than average. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cell biologist Bruce Lipton explores how subconscious programming shapes our lives, explaining the science behind beliefs and habits. He discusses his research on epigenetics, how environment influences gene expression, and practical methods for reprogramming limiting beliefs installed during childhood. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stanford professor Tina Seelig discusses how traditional education's obsession with grades and roadmaps kills creativity and curiosity. She shares her failure resume exercise, the dangers of pushing yourself past your limits, and how giving students $5 and two hours produced more innovative thinking than any lecture could. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Guillebeau, author of Born For This and creator of World Domination Summit, discusses finding your dream work at the intersection of joy, money, and flow. He shares his journey from juvenile delinquent to visiting every country in the world, the role of believing in your own success, and how to curate experiences that bring out the best in your community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

Brant Menswar explains why black sheep—those who feel like outcasts—are actually 100% authentically original. He shares his framework for discovering your five non-negotiable core values, the brutal self-honesty required to find them, and how losing his son to cancer clarified what truly matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The commissioner of the NBA 2K League shares how professional gaming has evolved from hobby to legitimate career path. Brendan discusses the league draft process, player development strategies, and why esports skills are more than just grinding hours—covering physical fitness, nutrition, and the emergence of esports schools in Asia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brad Montague, creator of Kid President on YouTube, shares how his small-town upbringing and key mentors shaped his creative path. He opens up about working with his brother-in-law Robbie, protecting a child from the pressures of viral fame, and why maintaining childlike wonder is essential for authentic creative work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toy entrepreneur Brad Pederson shares how building multiple toy companies and going through three bankruptcies taught him that struggles forge character. From launching a styrofoam glider as a kid to getting thrown into special loans by his bank, Brad unpacks why pride comes before the fall, how he learned to become antifragile rather than just resilient, and why courage is the cardinal virtue tha...