Love Your Work

Drew Ackerman (@dearestscooter) has a podcast so boring, it will put you to sleep. That's why it's so successful. Almost five years ago, decided to make a podcast. Drew suffered from insomnia, so he wanted to make a podcast that would help people fall asleep. Drew wrote stories and droned on, and gradually began to earn new listeners. Today, he's produced over 650 episodes. He's kept up a pace of...

I've written a couple of books now, and the process is nothing at all like I expected it would be. I think misconceptions about how to write a book prevent many people from writing their books. Just imagine all of the unwritten books that are locked up inside of people around the world because of these misconceptions. So in this week's essay, I share what I wish I had known about writing a book. B...

Charlie Hoehn (@charliehoehn) was on top of the world. He was working with popular authors like Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi, and he was helping launch books to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. The problem was, Charlie was miserable. His need to succeed drove him to sacrifice sleep and abuse performance-enhancing drugs. His body was breaking down, and he became crippled with anxiety....

I've talked on the show many times about how creative work gets paid for. The "free" mentality forces the hand of creators, and it's often not healthy for the people who read their words. Reading everything for free is like eating every meal at McDonald's. I talk more about my own journey of avoiding "factory-farmed" words, instead buying "free range" words, in this week's article. Free Creative P...

Cy Wakeman (@cywakeman) is the founder of Reality Based Leadership . She wrote a book called No Ego . No Ego is a leadership book, which is an unusual read for me since I'm a solopreneur, but I couldn't put it down. You might hear me talk about ego from time to time. I think my conversation with Ryan Holiday back on episode 31 was the first time I was really thinking about ego. He wrote the book E...

Today's essay is about the power of taking your own advice. I've got an interview coming up next week with Cy Wakeman ( @cywakeman ). Cy is the founder of "Reality Based Leadership." She wrote a book called No Ego , which I thoroughly enjoyed. Today's essay is based upon a quote from that book. Love Your Work now an Alexa Skill! To add the Love Your Work skill to your Amazon Echo, say "Alexa, enab...

I'm very glad to have my friend Maneesh Sethi back on the show. You first heard Maneesh way back on episode 13. Maneesh is the founder of Pavlok. Pavlok started out as a wearable device that shocks you out of breaking bad habits. You may have heard me talk about using [ Pavlok ] to break my Facebook habit. It's very effective, because being shocked is not pleasant. But what really excites me about...

Big creative projects are daunting. It's hard to find the motivation to make them happen. I talk about a trick I use to make creative projects practically complete themselves. I call it cascading motivation, and it's the subject of this week's article. New Short Read: How to Write a Book I just published a little "book." It's more of a pamphlet, really. It's a Kindle Short Read called "How to Writ...

John Ramey ( @jpramey ) found success as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He dropped out of college with only one semester left, moved to Silicon Valley, and built a successful startup. After he sold his startup, John traveled the world helping budding ecosystems promote entrepreneurship. He ended up setting up a program called Nomadic Mentors , which pairs experienced entrepreneurs with incubat...

Getting writing done is a battle with your mind. If you're a perfectionist, it can be a very tough battle. But if you have phrases you can tell yourself, you can win that battle. I think of them as "mantras." They're little things you can say to yourself when you get stuck. They'll keep you moving. In today's article, I'll tell you eight mantras to overcome perfectionism and get writing done. Buy...

Joanna Penn ( @thecreativepenn ) is one of the leaders in helping self-published, or I should say "indie" authors, find their way. She has been self-publishing since 2009. She's written 27 books under 3 different pen names, and she earns a multi-six-figure income. She writes about writing and running an indie author business at thecreativepenn.com , and she has a podcast called The Creative Penn ....

As regular listeners know, I recently self-published for the first time. I traditionally-published my first book, Design for Hackers , and I had a good experience. I liked having the extra support for getting my book laid out and printed, and onto shelves around the world, and as a first-time author, I really needed the vote of confidence and accountability of a publishing contract. But this time...

Jordan Harbinger ( @jordanharbinger ) started out as a lawyer, but made a big change. You heard about another lawyer who made a career change, Jodi Ettenberg, back on episode 23. Jodi became a food and travel writer. Jordan Harbinger did something different. He quit his job as a lawyer to become a podcaster. A very successful one at that. If you listen to podcasts, you've probably already heard Th...

Something that has been on the top of my mind the past few years is how creators can make an honest living from their work. You heard me talk with Hooked author Nir Eyal back on episode 21 about how technology is fragmenting attention, for example. These economics incentivize creators to be outlandish or even dishonest. But, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies may change all of that. I've been ear...

Join Audible and listen to  The Heart to Start free at http://kadavy.net/audible Hey there, just wanted to let you know that the audiobook version of The Heart to Start  is now available on Audible!   I know many of you have been anticipating this, as audio is such a convenient medium – it probably explains why many of you discovered my work through my podcast.   If you sign up over here as a firs...

Todd Henry ( @toddhenry ) has written a ton of books. My personal favorite is called Die Empty , and it's all about finding the urgency to pursue your creative destiny. His newest book is called Herding Tigers , and it's all about leading creative people so they can do their best work. He also has a great podcast called The Accidental Creative. In fact, he interviewed me on the show, and you can l...

We're in only the second week of 2018. There's optimism in the air, and you have a fresh well of energy and motivation for making change in your life. Have you thought about starting something? Maybe you want to start writing, or you want to start a company. How can you make 2018 the year you finally get started? I'll share three easy ways in today's article. Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You h...

BJ Fogg ( @bjfogg ) is a behavioral scientist at Stanford University. He specializes in "Behavior Design," which aims to influence people for the better through insights about human behavior. In this podcast episode, BJ breaks down how to build good habits. Why do we fail to build good habits? Most resolutions to build good habits fail for two reasons: We think too vaguely. We think things like "I...

Many of you have checked out my new book The Heart to Start . I got tired of hearing the advice "just get started," and I wanted to break it down for people. It shows you how to bust through all of the mental distortions and distractions that stand in the way of you getting started. Today, I'm going to share another sample chapter. This is from Chapter 10 of The Heart to Start , and I'm going to t...

David W. Galenson is an economics professor at The University of Chicago. He's also a visiting professor at other schools, such as MIT. David is an unusual economist in that he studies the economics of art. Have you ever noticed how some young geniuses have rapid success? Have you wondered when your work will finally get noticed? It turns out, there are two totally different approaches to making y...

Today, I'm very happy to announce that I have a new book out. Have you ever heard the advice "just get started?" Have you ever been left wondering "yeah, but how?" This was me when I was first starting on my own. I knew that the best way to make progress toward my dreams was to just get started. But that seemed easier said than done. It seemed each time I tried to start, I'd run into a fear, or a...

Libryia Jones ( @wanderwomanic ) has made it easier for people to have the experience of living in different places. Last year, she organized a trip for her and and more than thirty others to spend a year on the road. They lived in places like Prague, Cape Town, and my personal favorite, Medellin. If you've been listening to this show for awhile, you know that I'm a big advocate of travel. More ac...

The past several years, I've been really fascinated with optimizing creative output. It all started when I wrote my first book, Design for Hackers. I had been creative on command working as a professional designer, but when it came time to write a book, it was harder than ever. Since then, I've noticed that if I arrange my life and work according to mental states, I can be sure that I do my most i...

One of the key things that I did early on in my career as an independent creator was set up passive revenue streams. If it wasn't for this passive revenue, I never would have been able to free up the time to explore, so I never would have come up with my first book, Design for Hackers , and I probably never would have found the time to make this show. I looked at the passive revenue as a way to ex...

For this very special 100th episode of Love Your Work : How do you find your calling? I've been trying to get to the bottom of this over the past two years, and I think it boils down to a three-step formula that I'll present in this special episode. Discover To find your calling, you need to discover what it is you want to pursue. Usually, it seems, you don't just wake up one day and know what it...