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

Are you happy? It’s a very general and basic question, I know, but are you happy? You may be wondering what happiness has to do with anything, especially creative success. Tune into this lesson and you’ll learn that happiness is truly everything. I, Phil Svitek, will highlight three simple rules I learned from Dan Millman’s book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. I’ll expand on what they mean...

I (Phil Svitek) hear lots of people emphasizing that you need a good group of friends or a strong community. And they’re right, but they’re underselling why it is so important and also how to go about creating that foundation. That’s my focus here because the creative industry is extremely collaborative. Even the professions that on the surface seem like solitary disciplines, such as writing or pa...

Have you ever found yourself debating whether or not you should take an opportunity? Some will preach to you that you must seize every opportunity that comes your way (including TV phenom Shonda Rhimes). Others like Greg McKeown, Warren Buffett and Tim Ferriss will urge you to be selective with your time. So who’s right? Well, I’ve found there’s a fundamental aspect about that which isn’t discusse...

Finances, it’s an area I (Phil Svitek) keep returning to but it’s because it’s super important. No, money is not the key to happiness, however it does relieve stress when you get to live life on your own terms by having financial freedom. In my 40th episode, I’m honored to interview Broke Millennial herself, Erin Lowry. I read her 1st book, Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial...

Have you ever been told you need to be more present?  Or that you’re too focused on the past? The past can carry positive emotions but for many artists, it can carry its baggage as well. It is through the lens of these negative emotions that we then begin to project what the future holds for us. This is bad because it makes us worry and stress, all the while taking us away from the present mo...

Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That is also the viewpoint of poet and creative coach Mark McGuinness. The 21st century has so much to offer artists so long as they stay the course and don’t get distracted. In today’s episode, I (Phil Svitek) interview Mark about the challenges facing all 21st century creatives and how to overcome them. Mark is someone...

It seems like everyone in the world hoards ideas. But how does that actually benefit them? It doesn’t and that’s what I (Phil Svitek) overview in today’s lesson. By ideas, I don’t mean your random thoughts or #fakelife on social media. I mean it in a much deeper and richer sense. Ideas, to me, encompass insights learned from life and concepts you generate. Yes, they make you vulnerable but there’s...

Failure is a nasty word to many. But why? Why do we have such an aversion to it? Why do we let it paralyzes us? Why is it that the fear of failure prevents artists from creation? And the fear of failure comes in many forms – sometimes it’s even disguised as procrastination. Make no mistake, our aversion to failure can have dire consequences. But then, WHY are we so afraid? Judgment? Self-pity? I’m...

Lauren LoGrasso believes that creativity is within everyone and it must be tapped into and utilized, whether traditional creative means or inventive and fun ways of doing “non-creative” tasks. Otherwise, if we don’t, we’ll suffer and become unhappy, eventually even depressed. But who is Lauren? She is a musician, producer, podcaster, actress and overall creative artist that I’ve known for at least...

Filmmaker Khaliel Abooboo is a very dear friend of mine. I’ve known him for a number of years after he joined AfterBuzz TV. Him and I (Phil Svitek) became friends early on and that friendship has grown tremendously over the years. But that’s not what makes him special. Khaliel has a spirit, joy and passion for creating content that infects everyone around him. And he’s ambitious in the projects he...

How can you challenge yourself daily and grow within your craft? It’s a question that plagues many of us especially when time, money and resources are limited. But in order to become an expert, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that we need 10,000 hours of deliberate principle?  Chances are you have, even if you didn’t know that it came from him. The theory is that in order to become a master of a ce...

Rob Greenlee, Vice President of Podcast Relations at Voxnest, joins me (Phil Svitek) on this special episode where the two of us discuss the state of the podcast industry in 2019. Rob highlights his journey into podcasting since the early beginnings and his work with Microsoft’s Zune. He recounts the growth that has happened and discusses what’s needed in order for the industry to continue to evol...

Creative people tend to have so many dreams, it can become easy to feel overwhelmed by all of them, which unfortunately leads to not accomplishing them. Productivity and freedom comes from you committing to your art and then you choose whatever else fits that benefits you in some way. It’s a simple enough answer but many of us fear committing to certain choices because it inevitably means you’re e...

There are two fundamental choices each of us gets to make in our daily lives - to either create or destroy. That’s really it. Everything else stems from there. I (Phil Svitek) showcase the power you gain when you decide to operate from a place of creativity rather than destruction - it’s precisely why it is one of my new year’s resolutions. I go into detail what it means to operate from a place of...

This bonus episode is an interview I did with Ally Nasta for another  show called Open Source Knowledge. That podcast is no longer active but  the information is very much still relevant because it’s a great  companion piece to Phil's latest lesson on budgeting. The interview goes  much deeper into finances so you can explore the concepts more  meaningfully. Here is the or...

This bonus episode is an interview I did with Ally Nasta for another  show called Open Source Knowledge. That podcast is no longer active but  the information is very much still relevant because it’s a great  companion piece to Phil's latest lesson on budgeting. The interview goes  much deeper into finances so you can explore the concepts more  meaningfully. Here is the or...

This bonus episode is an interview I did with Ally Nasta for another show called Open Source Knowledge. That podcast is no longer active but the information is very much still relevant because it’s a great companion piece to Phil's latest lesson on budgeting. The interview goes much deeper into finances so you can explore the concepts more meaningfully. Here is the original description from that e...

It’s a brand new year and many of us have made new year’s resolutions in order to accomplish what we want. But what about our finances? Have you thought about those? Budgeting is the first step to financial freedom and in this lesson I (Phil Svitek) highlight the methods that Financially Fit Foundation’s Chelsea Galicia used to teach me about my wealth management. It may seem like a scary or intim...

AJ Jacobs recently released a book called Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey where he chronicles his journey of individually thanking all the people responsible for his coffee in the morning. This includes the factory worker than ensures health safety measures. This includes the workers where the coffee beans originated from. It even includes the person who painted the lines on the road so tha...

Technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on how you use it and as I (Phil Svitek) note, too often creatives shy away from it. Their ambitions often times suffer because of it. It can take longer to accomplish something if at all. By learning technology, an artist can be liberated and achieve their greatest dreams. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is a strong advocate of learning technology as a me...

This weekend I (Phil Svitek) met with a lot of hosts during the AfterBuzz TV annual end of year summit. What I discovered was that many of them had the same fears and doubts which boiled down to this idea that they weren’t where they ultimately wanted to be or that they haven’t yet discovered their true purpose. It hit me that many artists must feel this way. I sure have and at times this feeling...

We all have everyday tasks that we must knockout (laundry, grocery shopping, responding to emails, etc). These are called maintenance tasks. But they don’t further you towards your dreams. So the question becomes, what options do we have to ease our lives with these maintenance tasks so we can tackle more of what are called growth tasks daily? Good question! And that’s what I (Phil Svitek) will te...

Procrastination is a beast many of us fight daily and unfortunately lose out to. We may have will power that allow us to gain small victories but the war ends up being lost via abandoned passion projects and other dreams. So how do we win this ongoing struggle and become more productive like the people we aspire to be, whether that be Oprah, The Rock, Kevin Hart, Tyler Perry, Maria Menounos or eve...

Keven Undergaro, AfterBuzz TV’s creator and one of the most influential people in my (Phil Svitek) life, foretold a decade ago that one day, if I subscribed to what he calls the samurai lifestyle, I’d be amazed at what I’d accomplish. First off, the samurai lifestyle is really simple. It demands a focus on the craft and eliminating distractions that take away from your work. Secondly, he was absol...

Films have the power to move and transform us. They certainly have moved me. In this lesson, I (Phil Svitek) highlight 10 films that have impacted me greatly. More importantly, I’ll extract the lessons learned from them and how you too can apply those same insights to help in your creative endeavours and life. The films include The Matrix, Unforgiven, The Marx Brothers’ Room Service, Risen, Gifted...