A Phil Svitek Podcast - A Series From Your 360 Creative Coach

In this episode, I dissect my first pre-production meeting on In Search of Sunrise. I talk about next steps, where I'm at, etc, while providing you with specific take-aways. I use the analogy that for me, the train is already moving and there's no stopping it. So listen and afterwards, please feel free to ask questions or offer opinions of your own, whether down in the comment section or by hittin...

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS for websites. And I highly recommend it. Yet, as simple as it is, sometimes there's just customization you need done. Or you don't have the time to build/alter your website so you need to hire a developer. In this episode, I share three resources to hiring WordPress coders: http://codeable.io , http://upwork.com and http://fiverr.com . I give you pros and c...

People often struggle for motivation. "I don't feel like running today" or whatever else it may be. This is because we're allowing our choices to be micro. Essentialists and Seth Godin are all about focusing on the macro. So rather than fight with yourself everyday to see if you'll run or not, make the macro decision to be a runner. That's it. This thinking applies to anything. Stop getting sucked...

Nowadays in editing we almost all the time end up mixing different file formats. Even if you're just editing iPhone footage from multiple phone's, each phone's footage is most likely different in some way (frame rate, resolution, codec, etc). While editing software prides itself on being able to take any footage and cut it into a timeline no problem, I sadly find there are always problems. Most ti...

Last week was Thanksgiving week, so yes, I talk about that. But beforehand, I discuss Emerson's TV and feature film pitch fest. I share the lessons learned from the experience and also how it's good to see people you know succeeding. We need more recognition and praise of that kind. To that end, I highlight how Jordan VanDina, who I went to school with, is creating content and honing his craft whi...

IDK why but there's always a debate that I hear around quality vs quantity, as if somehow they are separate. The truth is, quantity CREATES quality. Now, am I advocating to just aimlessly put out garbage work into the world? No! It's more nuanced than that. But the basis towards quality work is quantity. You have to make. And you'll make bad things. That's part of the process. Bob Dylan didn't alw...

This episode focus on podcast ads—not how to get ads for your podcast (that's a whole separate matter) but rather how to integrate them into your podcast. For years, host read live read ads were "baked in" the episode itself. Now with the advent of dynamic ad insertion, ads can be swapped out on the fly according to time, location, etc. This is great except when podcasters do it in such a way that...

There's a quote from Gomez in the movie TheAddams Family that goes something like, "Old business is old business and new business is new business and we do not discuss new business until next quarter." I thought about this quote recently and it made be refocus my efforts. I've been trying to move onto the next when I should be focused on my current projects. Those will keep me plenty busy. In this...

Simon Sinek says we over index on rugged individualism. After all, as he points out, there's entire sections in book stores dedicated to self help but never help others. Why is this? What affect does this mentality have on us and others? These are the questions I explore with this episode, even citing findings from Darwin to make some sense of this. So listen and afterwards, please feel free to as...

There's the old adage that says bring value to your audience. How do you do that? More specifically, how do you know what they need help with? The great news is that http://answerthepublic.com is your solution to that. In this episode I overview the website and teach you how to use it. So listen and afterwards, please feel free to ask questions or offer opinions of your own, whether down in the co...

What I love about the day and age we live in is that there's so many free ways to learn the craft we love. And one of the greatest resources as I and many others like to call it is YouTube University. No, it's not an actual program. It's literally just YouTube. But with this challenge, I want you to search for subjects you're interested in learning more about and find YouTube channels that teach i...

Best-selling author and poet Mary Karr was a guest on Tim Ferriss' show ( https://tim.blog/2020/11/11/mary-karr/ ) and she had such a brilliant piece of advice. Paraphrasing, she recounting making the choice to listen to the advice of happy people is she herself wanted to be happy. It's so simple and obvious yet so many of us push against that sound advice. Why? This is what I explore so you don't...

On a recent episode of the @goop podcast, James Nestor, a journalist and author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, explained the true power of our breath and its impact on our health ( https://goop.com/the-goop-podcast/how-to-maximize-the-power-of-your-breath/ ). In listening to it, I realized I was breathing incorrectly at night and have since applied a simple trick he talks about. Now I s...

I finished the 2nd draft of my script—In Search of Sunrise! I discuss the process and the differences from the first draft to the next. Then I talk about the next steps I'm taking. After that, I talk about writing a second novel and update you on what's happening with the first. Plus I talk about what it feels like to have a movie in the film festival circuit during Covid. So listen and afterwards...

Seth Godin often talks about how we trade for outcomes. I believe this to be true and I also have seen how career decisions can force you into certain lifestyles and vice versa. Is there anything wrong with this? Not necessarily, as long as you're aware. But most times, we operate on our natural default level and that's the insidious part. With this episode, I want you to become cognizant of your...

Actor Matthew McConaughey recently came out with a book called Greenlights ( https://www.amazon.com/Greenlights-Matthew-McConaughey/dp/0593139135 ). Among many of the gems held within, he talks about being less impressed and getting more involved. Too often we look to others to solve problems as if they're somehow greater, bigger, or whatever than us. This is false. It's not to say don't have resp...

Now that we've entered this digital world of Zoom, including the podcast space, I wanted to let you know that you can actually simply and easily record separate audio tracks. For any podcaster, this is especially beneficial because it allows you to clean up the audio rather than having everything baked in together. You can adjust individual volumes, take out any random noise (so long as it's not f...

Most of us, especially in high school, have been asked what we want to be when we grow up. An exercise that's quite common is to ask yourself what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail. It's aimed to take away the pressure. But the problem is that it edges us towards something glamorous  that feeds our ego because of course, we can't fail. This is problematic as Seth Godin points out. We...

In the business world, I've seen a lot of people stack meetings back to back to back. Heck, I've done it too. The thinking is that it's the most efficient method. Efficient isn't always the most effective ( https://philsvitek.com/stop-being-ineffective-in-your-life-and-get-things-done/ ). Because of this, I present to you two simple things you can do to have meetings be more effective: schedule ti...

Last week had most Americans glued to the TV as we awaited election results. Yet in spite of that anxiousness, I was able to be creative by setting aside a few hours to work on my script. I talk about that experience and what I learned. I discuss how I read books as well to keep my mind off screens. Plus I go over the results of Film Riot's MakeFilm competition. Then I tie everything together with...

Art matters. More specifically, your art matters. That's what I'd like to get across to you with this episode. I examine a thought from Jay Shetty which summarized argues that as humans the more we're exposed to the more possibilities we're aware of. This is my jumping off point to examine why your art matters to the world. So listen and afterwards, please feel free to ask questions or offer opini...

I use a specific outline when I go to write narrative pieces (novels, scripts, etc) and I thought why not share my template with you. Here is the link to download it: http://philsvitek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Story-Outline.doc . In this episode I teach you how to utilize it. So listen and afterwards, please feel free to ask questions or offer opinions of your own, whether down in the commen...

My vlog is a chance for me to share my creative journey with the aim of inspiring you as well as provide you with take-aways. On this edition, I talk about my anticipation leading up to the virtual table read for my feature script In Search of Sunrise. Here I lay out how to stay productive even when you're fidgety like me. And of course I talk about the table read itself: how it went and the thing...

Ethical fading is a term I learned thank to Simon Sinek's A Bit of Optimism podcast ( https://a-bit-of-optimism.simplecast.com/episodes/ethical-fading-with-lenny-wong-VjoQbepa ). In this episode, I share what the term is and how it impacts all our lives. I make the argument that each of us holds the power to raise the proverbial bar higher to a better set of standards. So listen and afterwards, pl...

There's times during filming where a line of dialogue is just not working. But how will you know when that's the case? Easy, the actor is stumbling over the line. Too often we blame the actor but generally, it's actually a sign of bad writing. The dialogue line in question may not be true to the character so it feels forces. Perhaps it's some other reason. But once you realize the true cause of a...