Getting Work To Work

Do you ever feel like you’re making the same mistakes over and over again? Yeah, me too. There are some parts of my life and work where curiosity and experimentation are endless, but when it comes to money, I’m stuck on a treadmill of feast and famine. I know enough of the lingo to talk a good game, but really, I’m still doing business like I did when I started 20 years ago. Unde...

There’s a lot that holds us back as creative individuals, but today’s guest thinks one question is the death of our creativity: who cares? The work begins when you shift from asking the question to stating, “I care.” As a literary publicist, Kim Dower—also known as Kim-from-L.A.—is celebrating 40 years of putting authors on the map, booking them on shows, and getting their...

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about publicity? After I think about celebrities, perfume ads, TMZ, and shameless attention-seekers, I say, “I guess it’s not for me.” Thankfully, today’s guest is on the show to make me laugh and correct my thinking because PR is for everyone. KJ Blattenbauer is a publicist, author, and speaker who helps founde...

Rejection is on my mind today. Yes, it’s because I got rejected for something I actually wanted. But there’s also a deeper reason: Somewhere along my creative journey, I learned to minimize rejection by playing-it-safe, making my dreams small, and maximizing my chameleon tendencies. Recently, Shae Omonijo shared a short video on Substack about her plan for 2026: “Collect 1K rejec...

How do you respond when moments of disruption happen in your life? Do you shake your fist at the sky, bemoaning, “Why me?” Or do you get curious and ask, “What’s around the next corner?” During every pivotal moment in the life of today’s guest, he learned what it would take to not only escape the assembly line, but to build a life worth living. auGi Garred is a...

When you cross paths with someone whose mission is incredibly clear, it’s hard not to want that clarity for yourself. Scott Proposki is a photographer, entrepreneur, and author; his mission is to help photographers all around the world to build a business to last a lifetime. In our conversation, Scott shares stories from his journey living the photography dream—National Geographic, events at...

2026 is upon us and it’s not just a new year thrusting us toward change, it’s everything: society, culture, technology, relationships, work, life—it’s all dynamic, frenetic. Some of us start the year clutching our resolutions tightly, convinced that this is the year we actually live up to them. Others rely on the thesaurus to shift the psychological burden from resolution to some...

When was the last time you got permission to have fun in your business? For me, it’s been too long, so I’m grateful for today’s guest. Dawn Andrews is a business strategist, executive leadership coach, and podcaster who approaches her business as a playground to explore new tools and technologies that not only help herself, but also her clients. In this conversation, Dawn softens...

Have you ever wondered what gough would do? I do, too. Fresh from his birthday celebration, gough is back on Getting Work To Work , again, to talk about his year-ending projects: a short documentary about a blind man traveling to see the greatest rock band in the world, an audio drama about the seedy underbelly of the podcasting world—sounds about right—and the Beernuts Productions podcast. We tal...

Sprinkled throughout today’s conversation is a phrase I absolutely love. No matter the situation or the statement, the response is simple, “Let’s talk about it.” Chanda Coston is a Navy Veteran, PMP, and Business Strategist who helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs—especially women over 40—turn chaos into clarity and grow businesses that make sense (and money). In our time tog...

I’ve been slowly waking up to the reality that I’ve been running my business and living my life on autopilot for far too long. It’s been six years since I really felt like I was in control and not operating by the whims of others and the seat of my pants. But here I am, staring at 2026 off in the distance, ready to shake the sleep from my eyes and do something completely differen...

I always enjoy meeting people who think deeply about the work they do, but also have a lot of fun doing it. Izzy Poirier is a designer, brand strategist, zine publisher, and community builder. From her earliest years, she’s been intrigued with the nature of people, their stories and identities, and making sure that they have a place to belong. In our conversation, we talk about the intersect...

Even if you’ve never had a hamster for a pet, you’ve witnessed the spectacle of them running in a hamster wheel. They step inside a giant wheel in the center of their captivity and run, and run, and run. It’s so adorable when they do it. But what if I could tell you we have human hamster wheels, in the center of our captivity, and we run, and run, and run? They aren’t liter...

You might look at today’s title and think I’m trying to be humorous or sensational or clickbait-y, but I’m absolutely serious. It’s such an important question that it demands me to say it aloud right now: Is your business killing you? When you first start your business, you don’t think about the ways it overtakes your life, you let it gladly, because that’s the...

It’s that time of year again, when pumpkin spice invades your latte, kids dress up like their favorite heroes, villains, nightmares, and corporate superstars hoping for a bag full of candy, and gough, your favorite Australian filmmaker, shows up on Getting Work To Work to talk about his latest film, Trick Or Treat . Armed with the biggest budget in the history of BeernutsProductions.com, a s...

Weaving through the design, data, stories, and statuses on social media, I witnessed the human need to be seen; the longing to be discovered. I like this word, “longing.” I recently came across a book by Sue Monk Kidd called, Writing Creativity and Soul and she writes a lot about longing as a creative, a writer, woman, and a mother. What a word to sit and reflect upon: Longing. Merriam...

How far am I willing to go? How much work am I willing to do? Two powerful questions today’s guest asked herself at the start of her writing journey as she considered what it meant to be a writer. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is a writer, podcaster, teacher, and publisher on the show to talk about writing, podcasting, and her latest book, Pool Fishing , a collection of stories connected by place...

I’ve heard this phrase way too often in the past 25 years: “If you’re ignoring [enter the trending or disrupting technology], then you’re already behind.” While the phrase may be technically true, it does require a major assumption: equality. It assumes that every person has equal access to the technology, responds with openness and trust instead of skepticism and cau...

How do you push creative boundaries and embrace opportunities as they come? You solve problems and focus on the people around you. Today’s guest on Getting Work To Work , Josh Simons, is no stranger to the creative business world. According to his bio, “he ran a record label, publishing function, film production company and was the lead singer of Australian indie rock band Buchanan.&#8...

“Can I pick your brain?” Of course, you absolutely can. But I’ve noticed a lot more professionals expressing disdain for people reaching out and wanting to ask a few questions. But before I dive into a rant based upon passing comments and not a lot of data, I’m going to speak about the type of creative industry I want to be part of, one that is built upon the sharing of kno...

Their mission may be simple—”We Tell Makers’ Stories”—but hidden in every photo, interaction, page, and podcast is an unquenchable fire to build a global community. Kate and Jack Lennie are the visionaries behind We Are Makers , an independent print publication and podcast featuring makers all over the world. In our conversation, we talk about the power of storytelling and what m...

How do you get better at your craft? Sounds like a potential start to a not so funny joke, but I’m serious: How do you get better at your craft? With skills that rely upon your hands and time—like woodworking or pottery or painting—you just have to do the work, go through the process, and see what comes out the other end. Is it good or is it crap? Probably. But in the digital world, it&#8217...

There is often a moment in every interview on Getting Work To Work that stops me in my tracks. In today’s interview with Kimberly Lau and Linda Young, they dropped the mic twice with these two mind-blowing moments: “We have enough clothing on the planet to clothe the next six generations” and “Since we opened nine months ago, we have saved 2,500 pounds in textile waste from...

What did Arthur C. Clarke have to say in 1968 about communication in the distant future? Buried in the middle of a single page in 2001: A Space Odyssey , on a trip to the moon, is an interesting description of Clarke’s imagined future and our realized present. It’s always uncanny when science fiction gets something right, but that’s not why I’m bringing this up. Instead, I&...

As much as I love imagining dystopian and doomsday scenarios of AI overtaking humanity, talking with experts about positive implementation strategies is a better use of my time (and mental health). Building upon an education in Data Science and Analytics and AI ethics, Ben Tasker currently “leads a Data & AI Academy that upskills and reskills more than 36,000 employees in the public util...