Love Your Work

Sometimes an idea pops into your head, and you think to yourself, "nah, that's insane!" Then you move on with living your regular life. We all have these ideas. Sometimes we don't even notice them. In The Heart to Start , I called the source of these crazy ideas "The Voice." The thing is, sometimes these crazy ideas are what you call "asymmetrical": It doesn't take much to try them out, but the po...

What does it really take to "make it" as a creative entrepreneur ? I often have people asking me for ideas on strategies for how to smoothly transition from their day jobs to making their art for a living. Is it possible? What do you have to do? I always feel like I have an answer that they don't want to hear. But here it is anyway, in this week's episode. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supp...

Nathan Barry (@nathanbarry) knows better than anyone: Sometimes, you're working hard on something, and it's just not happening. How do you decide whether to double down, or shut down? This is what Nathan was asking himself two years after launching his email service, ConvertKit . He was bringing in only $1,500 a month, and he was losing customers every month. It was time to decide: Double down, or...

It's no surprise that we procrastinate on things that we don't want to do. But why do we procrastinate on things we do want to do?: Our hopes, dreams, and aspirations. I call it aspiration procrastination, and there's a fascinating theory from psychology that can help you understand why you put off your dreams, and what you can do about it. I'll talk about it in this week's episode. Love Your Work...

Steve Stewart was manager of the band Stone Temple Pilots. He guided them from being an unknown funk band to a multi-platinum powerhouse whose sound is synonymous with 90's grunge. With Steve by STP's side, they sold over 25 million records, for nearly half a billion dollars in sales. But then the Internet happened. The record industry wasn't selling many CD's or records anymore. Fans were becomin...

You've heard the advice to find your passion. You've probably also heard the advice that finding your passion is bad advice. But if you shouldn't "find" your passion, what should you do? Isn't passion important? New research tells us exactly what is wrong with "finding" your passion. It's the subject of this week's article. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now...

Brave is a new browser that's reinventing the attention economy. Brave does block ads, but it's not just an ad blocker. It also blocks scripts that slow down your browsing experience, invade your privacy, and leave you vulnerable to hackers. Since much of the internet currently runs on the ad-supported model, Brave doesn't stop there, with the blocking of ads. They've invented a cryptocurrency tha...

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Just ask me, as I'm on my temporary exile in Peru right now, since having my Colombian visa rejected. If we can't plan something in our morning, if we can't plan something when we visit a website, then where do we get the idea that we can plan things as complex as our lives? Or as complex as a big project, such as a book? When things don't go as planned, you g...

BJ Mendelson (@bjmendelson) is author of Privacy: And How to Get it Back . One of the key themes we've been exploring on Love Your Work over the past three years has been just how it is that creators get paid. This was certainly top of my mind when I doubled down on writing and podcasting and moved to Colombia with no clear business model in site. To understand how creators get paid, we need to un...

Socializing is good. But socializing as a default — out of some Fear Of Missing Out — is not good. If you can find the discipline to pursue your work, while others are just killing time, you will have mastered The Art of Staying In. The Art of Staying In is deciding not to go out and socialize just because it's the default thing to do. Instead, you use that time and energy to take control of your...

Adam Conover (@adamconover) had good things going for him. He had just graduated from college, and his sketch comedy group was a hit. So many people were watching their videos! This was before YouTube, so they kept on having to find new places to host the videos, there was so much traffic. But then the group broke up. At first, Adam wasn't worried. Since he had so much success, he figured he could...

After publishing my first book, it took me six years to publish my second book. After publishing my second book, it took me only six months to publish my fourth book. I published three books in the past six months, and I learned a ton along the way. I'm going to share it with you today. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I...

Phil Thompson (@Cape_ Horn_ CHI) is the illustrator and business mind behind Cape Horn Illustration, which sells Chicago wall art . Today we have a great discussion on making art that sells. Phil's portfolio of products includes maps of microbreweries in Chicago, marathon maps for all of the major marathons, and "home portraits." His work has been featured on the sets of major motion pictures like...

You heard me talk last week about morning routines, with the co-author of My Morning Routine , Benjamin Spall. I have a new morning routine I've been practicing this year, and it's been giving me some of my best ideas yet. The amazing part is I'm able to do this routine before I even get out of bed. I'll tell you why in this essay.     Sponsors http://earthclassmail.com   http://weebly.com/loveyou...

Benjamin Spall is co-author of the new book, My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired . He and his co-author have interviewed 300 successful people from business, fitness, and the arts. People like Biz Stone, Arianna Huffington, General Stanley McCrystal, and Marie Kondo. The way you spend your first hour of your day sets the tone for the rest of your day. But there seems...

Clear prioritization inspires clear action. But how do you decide what's the most important todo item to tackle first? For me, I like to listen to my body. It's the subject of this week's essay.     Sponsors http://weebly.com/loveyourwork   http://earthclassmail.com   Show notes:  http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/listen-body-podcast 

You've heard about the importance of working with people who come from different perspectives. But will that automatically lead to great work? It's not so simple. Our guest today, Shane Snow , was curious about why diverse teams are supposedly so powerful, when they're in fact hard to pull off. That's why he wrote this new book, Dream Teams . In this book, Shane really breaks down what makes a tru...

I have a new book! STEEM is revolutionizing the way creators get paid. I've cashed out over $4,000 from writing on the STEEM blockchain. The most amazing thing is – nobody had to pay me a dime. You heard me interview STEEM co-creator Ned Scott on episode 71. I explained how to make money on STEEM on episode 110. This short read is an updated and slightly expanded version of that free episode. Grab...

If you've heard about stoic philosophy, you've heard about Seneca. Stoicism is in many ways about being indifferent to pleasure or pain. One thing that's pleasurable is getting free things. Free things like Facebook. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the mainstream is really waking up to the true cost of "free." If something is supposedly "free," you're paying for it in some other way, whethe...

Tim Kasher's (@timkasher) work is deeply embedded in my creative DNA. When I was a young 20-something sitting in a cubicle in Omaha, Nebraska, Tim's work and his success was there to inspire me to find my own creative voice. Tim is one of the pioneers of indie music. He's the frontman of Cursive . Of all of the Cursive songs out there, you're most likely to have heard "The Recluse." https://www.yo...

I was forced to leave Colombia, but now I'm back. Thanks everyone for the help over the past week. I'll explain shortly what happened, and what my situation is now. If you're interested in an even more in-depth, though somewhat redundant overview, delivered after a good night's sleep, watch this Facebook live . If you've been considering supporting the show, now is still a good time. This snafu ha...

Human productivity has its limits. You can only type so fast. You can only fill out a spreadsheet so fast. But creativity is infinite. It takes no time to have an idea, but not all ideas are created equal. Traditional productivity and creative productivity seem to be at odds with each other. This week's essay explores why productivity is limited, and creativity is infinite. Free Creative Productiv...

A short note for you listeners. I got kicked out of Colombia. I hope to keep bringing you a high-quality show. Thank you so much for your support. If you want to help keep the show coming, please support on Patreon at kadavy.net/donate

Is the educational system a waste of time and money? Most people can agree that schools are inefficient, boring, and expensive. I personally love learning, but I always hated school. Yet, if you're like me, you're probably initially resistant to the idea that we should spend less on the educational system. Our guest today, Bryan Caplan (@bryan_caplan), wants to make the case for spending less time...

As humanity progresses, we're always finding new resources to optimize. Time is one resource we optimize. But the idea of time management has become so ubiquitous, it's hard to imagine what it's like to not manage our time. By understanding that time management as we know it hasn't been around forever, we can be prepared for the next resource to be optimized. I talk more about that in this week's...