Productive Flourishing Podcast

Today’s episode is a reading of a previously published post on Productive Flourishing named “What I’m Here to Do”. The post shares some stories that have informed why I show up in the world the way I do — I’m a bridge builder that helps people flourish. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [00:46] Follow Charlie as he remembers his arrival at the elite United-States Military Academy (West Point)...

In today’s episode, Jason Van Orden joins me and shares what he’s learned about influence and helping others become top influencers in their field. Given that we often teach what we most need to learn, we also discuss what his work has revealed for him and the surprising tensions that have come up for him on his thought leadership journey. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [00:48] Charlie int...

Angela joins me on today’s episode to learn how to align your goals and projects with your seasonal energy. This is a bit of a follow up from episode 102 with Megan Roop, based on questions readers have been asking us. But, it’s also prompted by the transition from summer to fall that we’re currently in, here in the Northern hemisphere. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [00:52] SaneBox will s...

Angela joins me for this Q&A to discuss how to form a success pack, how to brainstorm your goals, and the biggest leadership lesson I’ve learned in business. We made the switch to Angela joining me on this because it’s way more fun doing these with someone else and you’ll soon hear how much better the answers are. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [0:47] Clean up your Inbox with SaneBox!...

Thanks so much for joining me on this quick episode. On this solo riff, I talk about why productivity gets a bad rap, and how instead of focusing on all the reasons why productivity is bunk, we’re better off focusing on finishing the stuff that matters. Ready? Let’s do this!      Key Takeaways: [0:25] SaneBox can help sort your mail for you, so email can finally make sense again! [1:28] Why produc...

In today’s episode, Arna Baartz joins me to share her journey, from a child of creative parents to an artist who teaches people to become more emotionally intelligent. Along the way, we discuss how she weaves in being a mother of 8 children, and her discovery and exploration of the art of Kundalini. Ready? Let’s do this!    Key Takeaways: [0:48] SaneBox can help sort your mail for you, so email ca...

Thanks for joining us today! In this special episode of The Creative Giant Show, Charlie does a Q&A session with topics ranging from: triggers, the root of people’s resistance, and how to reconcile one’s innate nature with what seems to be an almost unnatural act of being an employee. Are you ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [00:54] SaneBox can help sort your mail for you, so email can f...

Srinivas Rao returns to The Creative Giant Show to jam about his new book, Unmistakeable: Why Only Is Better Than Best. We dive right in and discuss how ‘only’ isn’t enough, how the myth of easy creativity keeps us from doing our unmistakeable work, and the neurotic creative process the Unmistakeable Team goes through to ship their work. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [00:52] SaneBox can s...

Megan Roop joins Charlie today to talk about how quiet adventures helped her find herself battling the pursuit of being perfect. Along the way, she’s woven her experience with the Peace Corps, selling outdoor equipment, teaching yoga, and helping people overcome eating disorders, into a unique body of work. Listen in as we discuss the nourishing nature of being in nature, and how honoring the seas...

In this special edition of The Creative Giant Show, Charlie reads from the Productive Flourishing blog post, Get Up and Take Care of Your People. This gripping story tells of how a combat experience in the military revealed to him both parallels and valuable lessons in leadership, which apply today in the battleground of business.   Key Takeaways: [00:51] SaneBox™ Email Management‎ advertisement....

The tables are turned in this episode, as Andrea J. Lee puts me in the spotlight. The questionnaire becomes the questioned . This one is coming right after I started sharing more of my thoughts on race, identity, equality and justice. So, a good bit of the conversation focuses on how we might show up as our full selves in our work. If you find yourself at a loss for how to engage with the world, w...

Whether we’re content creators, managers, leaders or customer service reps, we’re all in the teaching business. Breanne Dyck joins me again, to continue the conversation about making better learning experiences that work for our learners and work for us. Hint - it’s not about the content. A quick plug here - come join us at The Creative Giant Campfire, our free Facebook group.  We’ll be having con...

In this episode, Lisa Robbin Young and I discuss the blog post she wrote for Productive Flourishing on the 3 Types of Creative Entrepreneurs. Even if you don’t consider yourself creative or an entrepreneur, this is worth the listen because we’re really talking about different modes of creativity and why it’s important to lean into the kind of creative that you are. And by the way, if you’re human,...

A common growing pain for Creative Giants is the pressure to be just one thing in the world. To just be a doctor or a writer or a programmer or CO or whatever it is. The truth of it is that we’re all multi-dimensional, so resisting that only leads to us living less rich lives. Dusti Arab joins me today to share her Creative Giant journey and how she’s weaving it all together. A quick plug here, a...

Peter Droppers said, the only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, and malperformance. In a similar vein, it seems that businesses and organizations naturally tilt towards complexity, much to the dismay and frustration of the people and those who interact with them. You can’t beat complexity with more complexity. Ken Segall joins me today to share how leaders...

There are two myths about being a successful creative that get us into a lot of troub. One, that doing it by yourself is better and two, that having a creative partner would make life so much easier. It turns out that neither is true, at least for most people. Leah Heinz and Naz Murphy join me today to discuss how their uncomfortable friendship is the source of their personal and professional grow...

Today’s episode is a rerun of one of my favorite episodes, episode 3 with Seth Godin. We’re doing a rerun today for several reasons: 1) I wanted to share some of our past episodes, that were fantastic, with new listeners who may not have scrolled all the way to the bottom of the episode list to see this one; 2) I think it’s time for everyone to reconsider how they’re not picking themselves; and 3)...

While a lot of career paths aren’t linear, Creative Giants in particular often seem to have dramatically, nonlinear career progressions. One of the reasons for this is that we’re often actually pursuing multiple passions or growth edges at once. Kristoffer Carter (K.C.) joins me today to share his journey from a corporate sales guy to creative powerhouse and back to a corporate catalyst for mindfu...

The pursuit of happiness is often tied to the acquisition of more stuff. But we should instead be asking how the stuff in our lives prevents us from being happy, creative and connected to the ones we love. Courtney Carver, from bemorewithless.com , joins me to discuss how simplicity and minimalism is a path to love and freedom. It’s not about letting go but getting back. She also prompts me into r...

It’s easy for coaches to not walk their talk. Especially, since we are so focused on transformation and transitions. While the outcome of transformations and transitions are great, the process isn't comfortable for anyone, including the coaches who facilitate said growth. Andrea Lee joins me today to share her transition from one of the top pioneering business coaches to a blank_er_ slate as a hum...

This is our first Q & A episode and I’m excited about it. In today’s episode I discuss: 1) creative ways to use the results from your productivity heat map, 2) how I suggest people approach heat mapping when their schedule is largely determined by somebody else, and 3) what tools I use for blogging. At the end of the episode I’ll let you know a few of the other questions I’m going to be answer...

Think about what comes to mind when I ask you to think about a marketer or sales person. Be honest! Did you think of a smart, soft spoken, insightful woman? If not, I hope today’s episode changes that for you. Sonia Simone is a marketing trend setter and founding partner of Rainmaker Digital, formerly Copyblogger Media. Throughout our conversation, she reveals how a risk averse, introverted and in...

This is a jam between Angel and I on what happens when you go against your daily rhythms and having awareness and synchronicity with your natural biorhythms. We also chat about creative energy, adapting to schedule shifts, peak creative times, “screen sucking”, schedule optimization, and more. Ready? Let’s do this!   Key Takeaways: [0:32] Thank you to SaneBox.com for sponsoring episode #88. [1:40]...

As uncomfortable as it is to make big changes in life no matter what those changes are, fear kicks into overdrive when you’re changing great careers and great jobs. Michelle Bushneff joins me today to share her purpose-filled pioneering journey from software companies to Athleta to her own consultancy and now back to more full-time positions. We explore the difference between passion and purpose,...

A lot of our decisions revolve around enhancing our own freedom. The challenge is that there are two distinct kinds of freedom that are often in tension and lead us to making decisions that keep us from flourishing and being our best selves in the world. In today’s solo riff, I’m going to explore the two concepts of freedom and how they lead to different outcomes.   Key Takeaways: [0:49] Thank you...