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 about three episodes a week. Drew's show, called Sleep With Me, has millions of listeners. He's one of Patreon's top creators with almost 4,000 patrons. Sleep With Me has been featured in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. While Sleep With Me is an incredibly successful podcast, you'll see in this conversation that the success is no fluke. Drew has worked incredibly hard. Find out: How did Drew motivate himself to finally get started, even after procrastinating for years. How did Drew use Motivational Judo to trick himself into making one episode after another? What self-talk did Drew use to keep himself going and finally quit his day job, even after making the podcast for three years, without pay? This conversation is like a perfect blueprint of my latest book, The Heart to Start. If you've read the book, you'll see lots of familiar concepts playing out in Drew's story. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://weebly.com/loveyourwork http://theprepared.com Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/drew-ackerman-interview/

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. By the way, I have a "short read" about how to write a book. It's called How to Write a Book. It's on Kindle, paperback, and it's now on Audible! So if you enjoy this essay, check out that short read. It takes less than an hour to read so it won't get in the way of you writing your book. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://theprepared.com Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/three-things-book-writing/

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. Eventually, Charlie found a way out of anxiety, and a way into not just a healthy work/life balance, but a healthy work/life integration. Charlie's secret weapon: Play. If you're anything like me, your initial thought is: Huh? Play? I don't need to play, I'm an adult! Charlie is such an advocate of play that he's written two books about it: Play it Away and Play for a Living. In this playful conversation with Charlie, you'll find out: What does Charlie mean by "play?" I hadn't realized how central play was to my life and work until I had this conversation. How can play actually help you build skills? Being playful can sharpen your skills in reaching goals. How did Charlie overcome workaholism and adjust to a healthy relationship with a high-profile life? We'll also talk about what Charlie learned working with Tim Ferriss, how to think up irresistible book titles, and the power of improv. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://weebly.com/loveyourwork http://theprepared.com Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/charlie-hoehn-podcast/

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 Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://theprepared.com Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/free-range-words/

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 Ego is the Enemy. Since then I've come to realize that ego is the number one enemy that can hold you back from reaching your creative potential. Your ego will keep you from being accountable to yourself and what you want to accomplish. It will direct your attention outside of you, and cause you to blame others. It will cause you to make limiting excuses for yourself. But if you're able to bypass your own ego, something magical happens. You start to concentrate on what you can control. You start to see a connection between your actions and the results you get. This is what I loved so much about Cy's book, No Ego. It's a powerful book for keeping ego from ruining your workplace, but at the same time it's a powerful book for keeping ego from ruining yourself and sabotaging your own potential. Love Your Work now an Alexa Skill! To add the Love Your Work skill to your Amazon Echo, say "Alexa, enable Love Your Work." It's very important, by the way to use the word "enable," and not "add." Also, you can search on the Alexa app, or visit kadavy.net/alexa 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 Write a Book." It will show you how to use self motivation to overcome writer's block and make your book real. Buy How to Write a Book at kadavy.net/wab. Again, that's kadavy.net/wab Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/cy-wakeman-podcast/

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, enable Love Your Work." It's very important, by the way to use the word "enable," and not "add." Also, you can search on the Alexa app, or visit kadavy.net/alexa 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 Write a Book." It will show you how to use self motivation to overcome writer's block and make your book real. Buy How to Write a Book at kadavy.net/wab. Again, that's kadavy.net/wab Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/take-your-own-advice-podcast/

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 what Maneesh is doing is he has a much larger mission. He says he wants Pavlok to "upgrade humanity." He wants to use technology to change behavior for the better. The broken economics of technology products The ill effects and broken economics of technology is a topic I've talked about often. I dreamt of a "behavioral revolution" wherein technology might change behavior for the better, back on episode 22. But, I lamented that the economics were broken, something I debated with Nir Eyal, who is author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products back on episode 21. Silicon Valley's ideas for how to fix technology Now here's where I go on a long aside, and I might sound a little more angry than usual, but I think it's important. Three years now after I first wrote about the behavioral revolution, there's starting to be buzz in the mainstream media about the ill effects of technology. I think the most recent election and the rise of fake news made people take notice, and they're starting to get it. There was a recent piece in the New York Times, "Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built," wherein many Silicon Valley elites are featured, talking about their "union of concerned experts called 'Center for Humane Technology.'" Truthfully, I didn't read the whole article. Their mission is noble, but my general understanding of the topic is that they believe there should be a sort of designer's "code of ethics," that product designers would somehow magically follow. I say this because I've long been familiar with the work of Tristan Harris, who is the founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Tristan used to be an in-house ethicist at Google. I did invite Tristan to be on the podcast a couple of years ago. There was talk of him coming on, but I think it eventually fell through the cracks for him. He's obviously had no problem finding more press exposure, with this New York Times piece. He was even on Sam Harris's podcast, so you can listen to that one if you want to learn more. I don't have anything to add to that conversation, though I was annoyed that the conversation was entirely focused on this idea of ethics, and there was no talk of the economics that force the hands of tech companies and the people who work at them. Fix the economics of digital distraction I believe ethics can only take you so far. As long as there are big companies that answer to shareholders, what is profitable will be what gets done. The larger an organization becomes, the less you can rely upon the consciences of the individual actors. I shouldn't be surprised that the Silicon Valley elite are calling attention to themselves over the very problems they created, and coming up with what I think are hamfisted solutions for those problems. After all, those of us with a conscience refused to do the damage in the first place. I left Silicon Valley more than ten years ago. It would be revisionist to say it was because of the damage technology was going to do. I didn't know precisely where technology would lead, but I did know that after being involved in the initial excitement of the Web 2.0 movement, which was all about using technology to connect people, my work in tech felt increasingly without purpose nor positive impact. I talked more about these feelings in episode 16, entitled Earn it. So, if the Silicon Valley elite had been able to detect the vacuousness of the companies they were building, if their hunger for meaning had been stronger than their hunger for wealth, they wouldn't be in the positions they are in. And since they ended up in these positions through this blindness, they're coming up with these inelegant solutions. No, I don't think ethics will solve the problems of tech. I think the economics need to be fixed. As long as it is profitable to build products that divide us and affect our emotional and physical health, those are the products that are going to be made. Blockchain may fix the broken economics of technology But a shining star of hope has emerged, and that is blockchain technology. Blockchain technology may enable what is good for us to become profitable. I've talked about blockchain technology and its potential to fix these economics. I discussed it with Steemit CEO Ned Scott on episode 46, and have shared my experiences with earning from my writing in my Steemit tutorial on episode 110. By the way, a Bloomberg columnist reached out to me based upon that Steemit tutorial. I was quoted in a Bloomberg article "Websites That Pay Users With Blockchain Aim to Disrupt Facebook." My quote:

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 Write a Book." It will show you how to use self motivation to overcome writer's block and make your book real. Buy How to Write a Book at kadavy.net/wab. Again, that's kadavy.net/wab Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/cascading-motivation-podcast/

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 incubator and accelerator programs around the world in developing markets. By the way, I'm one of the mentors in Nomadic Mentors. I've done a trip to Greece and to Serbia where I spoke and helped entrepreneurs. After John traveled the world, he served as the Innovation Advisor to the Obama White House. He set up a program at The Pentagon for making government innovation happen in months, rather than decades. Now that John has had that success, has traveled the world, and has seen firsthand how governments work, including very intimately with the U.S. government, and a trip to North Korea that you're going to hear about, what is John dedicating his time to now? He's actually running a site for "prepping." You may have seen some reality shows with shifty-eyed people prepping for nuclear fallout or a zombie apocalypse. This is not that. John affectionately refers to himself as a SANE "prepper." If you go to his site, which is at theprepared.com you can see that John is quite sane. He provides incredibly-detailed and practical information on all sorts of disaster or emergency-preparedness supplies. On theprepared.com you'll find prepping checklists for emergencies such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and car accidents. You'll find detailed reviews of supplies such as water storage containers and non-perishable food. You'll find everything you need to be informed on how best to prepare you, your family, and your home for an emergency. This is a very long conversation. John has really seen The Matrix, so to speak, that rules our daily lives. Hear about: How he lived in Silicon Valley on $2.85 a day. How did he end up working at the White House? What was his trip to North Korea like, and why wasn't he, as an American, allowed to use the bathroom on one ocassion? After all John has done, why has he decided a "prepper" site was the next project for him? Self Motivation Webinar March 7th I'll be sharing my best self-motivation tips from over a decade as a solopreneur in my brand-new webinar, Self Motivation for Solopreneurs. It will be on Wednesday, March 7th 2018 at 3pm EST. Learn more and sign up at kadavy.net/motivation. Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/john-ramey/

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 The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/eight-writing-mantras-podcast/

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. Regular listeners know that I recently self-published for the first time. In the process of self-publishing, I've discovered a whole new world. I used to think that self-publishing would be a step down for me. After all, I had a traditional publisher for my first book. It was nice to have the vote of confidence, and the advance check, from the publisher. And it was nice to have the support on editing, design, and distribution. But it turns out there's more and more opportunity in self-publishing. You have full control over your writing, and you're going to be responsible for your most of your marketing anyway. You actually have more control over that as a self-published author. There are more six-figure authors than ever. A recent survey from Written Word Media found that, in 2017, the number of authors making $100,000 or more jumped by 70%. In this episode, you'll learn: Why is "self-published" the wrong term. I keep saying "self-publishing," and I'll probably keep saying it, but Joanna prefers the term "indie author." Why is that? How can you hit the New York Times' best-seller list as an indie author? Joanna has done it. She explains why she thinks it's not such a big deal. Why have pen names? As I said Joanna publishes under three different names, which I think is a very cool and interesting way to break down creative resistance. But I was surprised to hear why she does it. Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/joanna-penn-podcast/

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 around, with my new book The Heart to Start, I had a lot to learn. Fortunately, it turned out that I had already built many of the skills I needed to self-publish. I'm glad that I never stopped learning. Whether you dream of publishing a book, or of doing something else, today's article will help inspire you to keep learning. Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Love Your Work currently costs $260 a month to produce, and supporters are covering half of that! Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/never-stop-learning/

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 The Art of Charm. (Jordan now hosts The Jordan Harbinger Show). Jordan examines relationship-building and networking to be more effective in business, and in life. The Art of Charm received a brief mention here on Love Your Work when Hollywood set designer JP Connelly shared his favorite podcasts on episode 91. In this episode, Jordan shares: Law is a prestigious profession with a rich history. Did Jordan hesitate to start podcasting instead? Jordan has interviewed folks such as Shaquille O'Neil, Larry King, and Robert Cialdini. How does he connect with influencers, and how can you do the same? When it comes to building a platform such as a podcast, what really makes a difference in growing the show? Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Love Your Work currently costs $260 a month to produce, and supporters are covering half of that! Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jordan-harbinger-podcast-interview/

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 earning money for my writing lately on the STEEM blockchain, on a social network called Steemit. You heard me talk to STEEM's CEO, Ned Scott back on episode 71. I recently cashed in over $1,000 in STEEM cryptocurrency. Today I'll be giving a basic introduction to making money on Steemit. You'll learn: Where does the money come from? I cash in the STEEM Tokens I earn, but why are they worth anything? What are the various forms of STEEM, and what are they for? I'll talk about STEEM, STEEM Power, and STEEM Dollars. Once you earn STEEM, how can you convert it to USD? I'll give you the gist in this episode, but for step-by-step instructions, visit the original post for my beginner's guide to STEEM Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Love Your Work currently costs $260 a month to produce, and supporters are covering almost half of that! Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/steem-beginners-podcast/

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 first-time Audible customer, you will get a 30-day trial, in which you can pick The Heart to Start as your trial book. By the way, signing up through my link helps support my work. I'll earn a $5 bounty if you sign up for the free trial, and if you choose HTS as your first book AND become a customer of Audible for at least 61 days, I'll earn another $50 bounty. Here's the link again.

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 listen to it over here. In this episode, we'll talk about: The different kinds of work: What is making, mapping, and meshing? What's your style when it comes to executing your ideas? If you're weak on one kind of work, and strong on another, what's the result? And how do great creative leaders create an environment where their people can be creative and effective? The killer tip from this is that "great leaders have great rituals." Buy The Heart to Start on Amazon You have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/toddy-henry-podcast/

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 have something to offer the world. Break through fear, self-doubt, and distractions to finally make it real. Buy The Heart to Start. Donate on Patreon Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/2018-get-started/

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 want to eat healthier" or "I want to lose weight." If you want to make something a reality you have to break it down into actions. Specificity makes behavior easier to change. Our motivation changes. You might start off trying to build good habits and feel very motivated, but your motivation will wane. You may have felt very motivated by something – such as the New Year – but that will pass. Or, life gets in the way, and that causes your priorities to change. What are some of the hardest good habits to build? What is a good habit? Well, that's up to you. But some of the most common good habits that people want to build are writing, and meditation. Yet they're the hardest. It's up to you what you consider to be a good habit. If you need help deciding on one popular habit: Should you make your bed? I've got you covered with that episode. Since I wrote a book about building writing habits with the aim of writing a book, I'll use that as an example to apply BJ's concepts in this post. The "swarm of bees" approach to build good habits We fail to build good habits because we think to vaguely. For example, we might say we want to write a book. You can't just sit down and write a book, especially if you're a beginning writer. An even more vague goal you might hear from people is that they want to "eat healthy." Neither of these are habits. These are outcomes. They are the results of taking actions, but they aren't actions themselves. So, it becomes mentally impossible to use them to "build good habits," if you aren't intentional about it. Fogg uses a concept, in his tiny habits training program, he calls the "swarm of bees." You start with your vague outcome. Fogg calls it an "aspiration." Write it down on a piece of paper. Then, write down a bunch of behaviors you could do that would help lead to that aspiration. It looks like this slide from Fogg's TEDx talk. [caption id="attachment_4474" align="aligncenter" width="750"] The "swarm of bees" is an outcome surrounded by behaviors that could lead to that outcome.[/caption] In this slide, the aspiration is "health outcomes," which could be something like losing weight. Let's think of the swarm of bees as something like writing a book. Outcome: Write a book Behaviors Sit at computer. Put fingers on keyboard. Type. Read about how to write a book. Read about how to publish a book. Do market research. and so on... Not all behaviors are habits: Three categories of behaviors As you come up with behaviors to match your aspiration, you'll find each behavior falls into one of three categories: One-time behaviors: Things you do just once, such as buy a book or schedule an appointment. Behaviors over a period of time: Things you do over a period of time, such as mow the lawn regularly over the summer. Habits: Things you do habitually with no time restriction. Brushing your teeth, meditating, or writing. Pick behaviors that are a good match for you, to build good habits Now you have an outcome you want to reach, and you have a list of behaviors that will bring you closer to that outcome. Next, you need to pick a behavior that you can build into a good habit. But you don't want to pick just any behavior. If you want to build good habits, the behavior has to be a good match. Fogg recommends choosing a behavior with the following three characteristics: The behavior has an impact: A good behavior will take you toward your aspiration. Since you already did the swarm of bees exercise, this will be a given. The behavior is something you can do: The good match for you is a behavior that you're capable of doing. If you're a beginning writer trying to write a book, trying to build a habit of writing 5,000 words a day might be too much. The behavior is something you want to do: If you don't want to do the behavior, you can't build it into a good habit. How many days does it take to build a good habit? It depends! Despite what you might hear about how long it takes to build a good habit, there is no set number of times or days. (Commonly you hear the myth of "21 days" to build a good habit.) It really depends upon the habit you're building. Some habits are instant: The moment you touched a smart phone, using it became a habit. When Fogg got a new rocking chair, sitting in it instantly became a habit, because it was so much better than his other chair. Other habits can take more time to take root. Good habits are like the roots of a plant More accurately, both good habits and bad habits are like the roots of a plant. Any plant needs to take root in order to survive. You want to pull the weeds (the ba

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 tell you about when I got stuck trying to start writing my first book, Design for Hackers. Our friend Noah Kagan, who you've heard on this show, ended up showing me how I was standing in my own way. You can buy The Heart to Start on Amazon. There's now a paperback version, so if you picked it up on Kindle and want a physical copy, now you can do that. Also, I really truly appreciate all of the reviews that have been pouring in on Amazon. If you've read The Heart to Start, please click on a star rating on Amazon. It would be a HUGE help. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors: http://brandfolder.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/linear-work-distortion-podcast/

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 your art, and the approach that you take can drastically affect when you'll find success. I recently picked up David's book, Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity, and I found it so fascinating, I had to have him on the show. David's theory is that there are two totally different approaches to making one's art: You might be a conceptual innovator, in that you take a concept and run with it. Or, you might be an experimental innovator – you might be tweaking for a lifetime, trying to figure something out. You may have heard about Galenson's work on Malcolm Gladwell's podcast, Revisionist History. There's an episode that uses Galenson's theory to explain why Leonard Cohen's song, Hallelujah took so long to become popular. In this talk, you'll learn: What makes someone a conceptual innovator? What about an experimental innovator? Who are some well known innovators in each category? You'll hear about Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Bob Dylan, Picasso, Alfred Hitchcock, and many more. Can you change your innovation style? Or are you just better off embracing your style? Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors: http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://readwise.io/heart http://brandfolder.com/loveyourwork Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/david-galenson/

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 self-doubt, or I'd find a way to procrastinate. My new book is called "The Heart to Start: Win the Inner War & Let Your Art Shine". It's available right now on Amazon at kadavy.net/heart. Please, please go get this book. It's the result of a lifetime of learning, and many months of work. It's short and to the point, and I really think it will help you reach your potential. Thank you to all of the early readers of the book. Many people provided feedback and edits, and I could not have made the book what it is without you. After you check out the book, I'd deeply appreciate an Amazon review. Especially those of you who have already read it. I've probably already asked you for a review, but I want to remind you – please, please write a review on Amazon. When you have a book on Amazon, reviews are everything. You've gotta have reviews, because they help boost the book in Amazon's discovery engine. So when someone is looking at a related book, they see The Heart to Start. So please buy the book, and please leave an honest review. Again, you can find it at kadavy.net/heart. And I'll have a sample chapter for you on today's show. Mockup credit Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://brandfolder.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/heart-to-start-mockup/

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 accurately I'm a big advocate of mini-lives – living on a different place for a month or more at a time. It's a great way to grow and it just makes life interesting. But travel isn't always easy. You have to find a place to live and work, and it can be more fun if you have others to share the experience with. Libryia's company, Wanderist is organizing another trip. In fact, there are two opportunities to come through Medellin, so hopefully some listeners will check it out. In this conversation, we'll talk about: How did Libryia turn rejection into opportunity? She wasn't able to travel in other programs, so she made her own program. How does Libryia travel, even as a single mother? She has a refreshing point-of-view about seeing parenthood as a source of inspiration, rather than as a limitation. When you travel, you want to be safe. How does Libryia think about traveling to places that others might see as dangerous? Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://readwise.io/loveyourwork http://brandfolder.com/loveyourwork Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/libryia-jones/

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 important creative work during my peak creative time. I can then arrange the rest of my life and work to serve that peak creative output. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/seven-mental-states-podcast/

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 explore other things. I didn't make it a part of my personal brand, so to speak. In fact, one of my passive revenue streams was an online dating blog that I wrote under a pseudonym. Our guest today, Pat Flynn (@patflynn), has a different approach. He's all about the passive revenue. He's been setting up passive revenue streams since 2008. He started with a training e-book for an architecture exam, and he's got a security guard training website, courses for marketing a food truck business, podcast playing software for podcast websites, so many more things, including his latest book, Will it Fly, a Wall Street Journal best-seller, which shares what he's learned about knowing whether a new business endeavor is worth following. Pat has been sharing his income reports every month since he started. These days he's earning close to a quarter of a million dollars a month, with all of the businesses I mentioned, and more, including his extremely popular podcast, Smart Passive Income. In this conversation, we'll talk about: How did Pat start making money by sharing what he was learning? You can learn a lot about why you don't have to be a so-called expert to help people. Pat went from the well-established profession of architecture, to making money online. What leaps did he have to make to transition from a profession that was so important to his identity? How does Pat think about transparency? What gave him the idea to start sharing his income reports online? Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors: http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/pat-flynn-podcast-interview/

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 is you want to do. It can come from different sources. Don't let your dreams hold you back. Let them evolve. (Listen to Peter Bragiel's episode) Don't let the expectations of others drown out your inner voice. (Listen to Jason Fried's episode) Turn your weaknesses into a superpower. (Listen to Maneesh Sethi's episode) Decide If you're going to find your calling, you need to decide to pursue it. The chance of success needs to be more compelling than the alternatives. Bounce back from rock-bottom. (Listen to Elise Bauer's episode) Put the risk in perspective. (Listen to Laura Roeder's episode) Make measured changes. (Listen to Jeff Goins's episode) Do Once you've discovered your calling, and you've decided you're going to pursue it, you have to actually do it. But how do you break through all of the fear and distractions to make it happen. Make the most of your best mental energy. (Listen to Dan Ariely's episode) Scale back your goals. (Listen to Seth Godin's episode) Have a clear picture of success. (Listen to Tucker Max's episode) Just do it. That's how you get things done. (Listen to Jame Altucher's episode) Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/find-your-calling/

Ross King is author of the book The Pope's Ceiling. It tells the story of just how Michelangelo managed to paint 12,000 square feet of ceiling with little or no experience as a painter. I think there's a dangerous belief in creative work. And that is the belief that certain artists are simply gifted, and that that alone explains their greatness. It's easy to look up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and conclude that Michelangelo lived up to his reputation as the "divine one." That he wasn't human. That he was actually a god of sorts. Today, we'll talk about the process that Michelangelo actually took to complete this seemingly impossible masterpiece. In this conversation, you'll learn: How did Michelangelo curate his reputation as a "divine" painter. He really wanted people to believe that, and he shaped that perception. Michelangelo started painting the ceiling with little or no painting experience. He knew he would have failures along the way. How did he turn his failures into success in the project? Even though Michelangelo didn't have experience as a painter, he had built up a bag of tricks to draw from. Learn how he used his other experiences to make his first attempt at painting a success. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, bonus masterclasses, office hours with me, and a discount on the Love Your Work T-shirt. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://storyblocks.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/michelangelo-creative-process/

About two years ago, I was on a retreat in Mexico with some friends. We were each exploring what we wanted to do in our lives and careers. It took all week for me to admit it to myself: I wanted to double down on being a creator. I wanted to have conversations on this podcast, read books, and write books. I wanted to make my creative output the top priority in my life. So, I moved off to Colombia to set up everything so that I could be fully-focused. I had spent a lot of time in Medellín before, during a few "mini lives" I had done here. I always found that I got more work done here, and that it was better work, too. So, as I was doubling down on being a creator, Medellín was the clear choice. In this article, I'll share with you how I picked the city where I could have the best creative output. Whether you feel like moving to another country or not, it will give you things to think about in optimizing your own creative output. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://storyblocks.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/creative-city-podcast/

Rob Hunter (@vegashacker) and I met ten years ago in a cafe. Well, I met him on Craigslist, really, but then we met in person in a cafe. We had both left our jobs at the same time. We were both determined to make it on our own. So, we spent several months wandering from cafe to cafe in San Francisco. We'd put in twelve hour days, not making a dime, and it was one of the most exciting times in my life. Today, I have this podcast, a best-selling book, another book on the way, and I can live wherever I want. Today, Rob is one half of Focused Apps. Their hit iOS games include Hit Tennis, and Emoji Me, which has 40 million downloads. Rob is also location independent. We both left our jobs at the same time. We both wanted to make it. But as you'll see in this episode, we had two very different mindsets, different approaches, and different paths. Listen to this episode to learn: When you start on your own, you better have some kind of vision of where you're going. What did we expect to achieve from the beginning? Starting on your own is a risk. How did each of us think about risk, and what our options were? How did that shape our approaches? When did we finally feel like we "made it?" How did we finally get there? About HALF of this conversation hit the cutting-room floor, so if you're an LYW Elite member, watch out for the uncut episode with bonus material. I focused this episode around our different approaches and paths, but in the bonus material Rob shares his lessons learned from making many, many, apps that didn't work, as well as a couple that did. LAST CHANCE to get the Love Your Work T-Shirt 30% off when you Join Love Your Work Elite Through October 31st, get a coupon for 30% off the new Love Your Work T-Shirt when you join Love Your Work Elite. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://videoblocks.com/loveyourwork http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/two-boostrappers/

I've talked a little on this show – especially in the early days – about the idea of "mini-lives". Basically, you go live your normal life in another city for a month, or two months. Or, in the case of our guests today, about six months. Mike and Megan left their jobs in Washington DC, and before they decided to go anywhere else, they wanted to live a mini life. And, they came to Medellín. I sat down with them in a cafe to hear their story. You're going to hear: Their philosophy behind living a mini-life. What did they want to get from the experience? How did they make the decision that the financial investment was worth it for them? What have they learned from the experience? How has it really tested them? If you've been considering planning a mini-life, check out the bonus content for this episode on LYW Elite. About twenty minutes of this conversation ended up on the cutting-room floor. I shared some tips I've learned over the years for planning a successful mini-life. Get the Love Your Work T-Shirt 30% off when you Join Love Your Work Elite From now through October 31st, get a coupon for 30% off the new Love Your Work T-Shirt when you join Love Your Work Elite. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://videoblocks.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/mini-life-medellin/

Ian Leslie (@mrianleslie) is author of Curious: The Desire to Know, and Why Your Future Depends On It. If you've ever had a lot of free time, you know how scary it can be. The very first day that I was on my own, more than ten years ago, I woke up to just vastness. I had a whole day ahead of me that I needed to fill up with something. I figured I'd have the best shot of making it if I just followed my curiosity. I figured if I started with curiosity, I could keep myself from getting off track and wasting time. I also figured I would end up somewhere special, and most importantly, I'd be doing something I loved. So I followed my curiosity and I ended up combining my interests in design, in programming, and in entrepreneurship. That became my first book, Design for Hackers. Following your curiosity can be really powerful, but how do you deal with having disparate curiosities? How do you make sure you're being productively curious? Ian wrote the book on being productively curious. In Curious, Ian Leslie explains what curiosity is, why it's important, and why there's a growing curiosity divide: Some people are getting curious, while others are getting less curious. The more curious will be at a distinct advantage as the world gets more complex, and traditional work gets more scarce. In this conversation, we'll talk about: What's the difference between diversive curiosity and epistemic curiosity? One can get us off track, while the other can really pay off. If you have lots of varied interests, how do manage your curiosity? You want curiosity to pay off, but you don't want to be merely distracting yourself from being productive. A popular opinion these days is that you shouldn't bother memorizing anything, because you can look it up. Ian explains why he disagrees with this. Learn why a well-stocked mind is your best tool for breakthrough insights. I talked to Ian for more than an hour, but that's more than we were able to put in the show today. We pay by the minute for editing the podcast, so we edited the conversation down to the most critical elements about being productively curious. But, if you are a Love Your Work Elite member, be sure to listen to the full, uncut interview for some bonus listening. There are some GEMS in there. In particular, towards the end, I asked Ian how he thinks about writing book proposals. I've struggled myself with writing book proposals. It seems like you have to write the whole book, before you can write the proposal, before you can get the book deal to write the book for real. Get the Love Your Work T-Shirt 30% off when you Join Love Your Work Elite From now through October 31st, get a coupon for 30% off the new Love Your Work T-Shirt when you join Love Your Work Elite. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/ian-leslie-interview/

I recently passed my tenth year as a self-employed independent creator. I don't recommend it. I say that, and some people don't believe me. When I wrote this post that I'm sharing on today's show, some people thought it was some kind of a click-bait strategy. I think it's because this post kind of takes a turn. It starts off sounding a little grim, but it ends up sounding hopeful. The thing is, I never expected so many people to read this post. As of right now, it has over 46,000 views on Medium. When I sat down to write this a couple of months ago, as my tenth anniversary was approaching, I did so with genuine questions in my mind. I wanted to know if I had made a horrible mistake. I wanted to find out if I had been fooling myself. It was really a journal entry for myself. I didn't submit it to any publications, where it was sure to be read. But, sharing some of my most uncomfortable thoughts is my job as a writer. So, I just put it on my main feed on Medium. At least it was out there, but I wasn't thrusting it into the world. Publishing this post was a lesson that the power of a post is enough to carry it. I think it's easy to forget that when the popular wisdom is to make sure you share on all of your social channels, and ask people to upvote, and maybe even send it to your friends. I did none of those things, and this one still took off. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/ten-years-podcast/

Jon Bokenkamp (@jonbokenkamp) wanted to be a screenwriter. So, he decided it was his job. He sat at his desk from nine to five every day, writing frantically, and each night he went to another job. One that paid him. He waited tables. After three years, he sold his first screenplay. Then he sold some others here and there. Then the phone stopped ringing. After one failed script, he was contractually obligated to write one more. That script became The Blacklist (Netflix). It's a thriller on NBC starring James Spader. They're starting their fifth season this week. Spader plays Reddington, a veteran, private-jet-setting criminal who acts as an informant to the FBI, and who has a puzzling interest in agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone. In this conversation, we're going to learn: What was the mindset that Jon put himself in to make it through the three-year project of writing his first screenplay? How does Jon ward off his distractibility, and channel it into his writing method? I think it's a great lesson in how in creative work, the final product is totally different from the process used to get there. How has Jon's writing process changed now that he has a whole team, and basically has to write a movie a week? Jon is a Nebraska-native like me. Hopefully you won't mind listening to us reminisce a little about that strange place in the beginning. If not, skip ahead, and you'll hear some really great stuff on doing tough and long creative projects. Image: Flickr user Thibault Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jon-bokenkamp-the-blacklist-interview/

I'm working on a new book. It's called Getting Art Done, and it's going to help you boost your creative productivity and make your masterpiece. Today I'm going to read a sample chapter from the first draft of Getting Art Done. It's about the voice inside your head, and how it can lead to your most explosive ideas. To learn more and preview Getting Art Done, visit gettingartdone.com. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/the-voice-podcast/

James Pearse Connelly (@jpconnelly, Instagram: @jpconnelly) is an Emmy-Award-winning television set designer. He's designed sets for shows like Bill Nye Saves the World, Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, The Voice, and Top Chef. I wanted to have James on the show to learn how he does creativity on a large scale, with literally moving parts, and an unforgiving production schedule. I figured that to do what James does, which is express the feel of a show through architecture and materials and fabrics and furniture, and to deliver on-time, James must really know his creative process. And you can tell from this conversation, he really does. Even if you aren't a designer, chances are you work on creative projects all of the time that have lots of unknowns in the beginning. The work James does just puts a magnifying glass on what it takes to make creative work come with less pain, no matter what medium you're working in. In this show, you'll learn: How do you create a design that supports an idea and serves the client, rather than one that just follows trends. How does James manage his creative vision across a whole staff? We'll really get inside James's head for some of his best set designs. How does he integrate a subtle design language into his concepts? This was a really fun part of the conversation because you'll see how designers "talk" using subtle cues in their work. In this case, I think you'll be surprised all you can glean from a spiral staircase. Join Love Your Work Elite I'll be holding an office hours hangout for LYW Elite members, NEXT TUESDAY, September 19th, 8pm. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/james-pearse-connelly/

I've been working on a new book called Getting Art Done. Today, I'm going to share with you a chapter from the first draft of the book. This chapter about the importance of shipping your work. It's easy to fantasize about what a great creator you will be one day, while never really finishing your work in the present day. If you make it a point to ship work, won't the quality suffer? I share what I've learned by examining the paths of great creators, and what I learned by making a point of shipping myself. Join Love Your Work Elite I'll be holding an office hours hangout for LYW Elite members, September 19th, 8pm. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/success-ship-podcast/

L. David Marquet (@ldavidmarquet) had spent a year preparing to captain a submarine in the U.S. Navy. But at the last minute, he was assigned to a different submarine. Not only was it a different ship than the one he had prepared for, it was also the worst ship in its fleet. It was so bad, only three men had reenlisted. Since David didn't know the ship, and since the situation was so bad, he had to try something different. Instead of using the leader/follower model, he started using a new leader/leader model. Instead of David giving orders, and instead of his men asking permission, he started empowering each sailor to think for himself. You may have heard Jason Fried on episode 1 recommend David's book Turn the Ship Around. In it, David Marquet tells the story of how his leader/leader model turned the USS Santa Fe from worst to first. The year after David took command of the ship, 36 men reenlisted, instead of just 3. In the decade following, 10 of those men would go on to become submarine captains themselves. David was in Medellín, and I sat down with him to talk about this and more: How does the leader/leader model save mental energy for everyone involved? How can you encourage your micromanaging boss to use leader/leader? How did David go from being a submarine captain, to writing a book that USA Today calls one of the top 12 business books of all time. How did he learn to tell stories, and how did he actually get the writing done? Join Love Your Work Elite Each Love Your Work Elite member get their own personal RSS feed of bonus material, masterclasses, and early access to episodes. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/l-david-marquet-interview/

Love Your Work listener Gustav Dybeck is a design student from Sweden. He has an opportunity to do an internship for about 9 months, and he wants to make the most of it before he starts his career. You may have heard a clip a couple of episodes back on Gustav's favorite moment on Love Your Work. He was in Medellin awhile back, and since I originally pursued a career in design, Gustav was interested in hearing what I thought he should do for his internship. So, we talked about it in a cafe. A quick warning, there's a lot of background noise in this. It's was an off-the-cuff idea to record our conversation, so this episode is a bit of an experiment. We'll talk about: Experiences abroad: do they really make you more innovative? Working for prestigious firms: is it really worth it? If you don't pursue a prestigious firm, what should you pursue? What one experience did I personally have early in my career that completely changed my perspective about what I wanted to accomplish in design? Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a video (and audio) Masterclass with Poornima Vijayashanker. Poornima was engineer #1 at Mint, and shows you how make money off your idea from day one. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me [email protected]. Sponsors http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-internship-advice/

Daniel J. Wilson was working on a screenplay when I met him during a mini life in Buenos Aires several years ago. I'd soon learn that he was also an accomplished artist, with his work covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The London Times, and displayed all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Daniel has also worked in film, his IMDB page includes editing credits for a number of documentaries and TV series, co-producer credits for PBS's Frontline series, credits as an actor. He's also a competitive cycler, a former NYC Yellow Cab driver, and he's currently a PhD candidate in neuroscience. If that weren't enough, Daniel's got a new app. It's called Minutiae. It's a bit of an "anti-social" network. When Instagram encourages you to scroll through lots of photos and make your life look amazing, this app is dedicated to capturing the mundane, everyday details of life. I hear lots of people lament their varied interests. They're usually afraid to follow their curiosity because they're afraid of what they'll leave behind. I've experienced this a lot myself. As I've made the switch to designing in advertising and architecture, to designing for startups, to founding my own startup, to writing books, and starting this podcast – you always have to wonder if you're killing your career when you switch paths. Here's just a few things you're going to learn in this conversation: Daniel's app Minutiae is delightfully impractical. It won't get acquired and it won't go public. How do you get the funding to build an app that's not a business? Why did Daniel go through all of the work to get his NYC Yellow Cab license? He actually ended up working as a cab driver! Daniel's always switching from one field to another, and planning adventures in his life. Hear how he thinks about learning how to know the unknown. Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com. Sponsors http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/daniel-j-wilson-interview/

It's easier than ever for creators to get their work noticed. But, it's harder than ever to actually get that work done. Think about it this way: You're writing a novel. You use Twitter and Facebook and write on your blog, and your work gets noticed. But, you have to put all of those distractions aside, and get to writing. If you don't, your novel will never become real. In this week's episode, I'll show you how to pick the right creative tool for the right creative thinking. Do your best work, without letting distractions knock you off-track. This article originally appeared on Medium Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com. Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/choose-your-weapon-podcast/

Almost 15 years ago, Getting Things Done started taking the internet by storm. Techies started buying binder clips and index cards in bulk. Today, "next actions" and "contexts" are commonplace in teams around the world. Just about everyone knows GTD stands for Getting Things Done. When I was trying to deal with wearing multiple hats as a designer in an architecture firm, I absorbed some GTD through osmosis to get on top of my daily tasks. A few years later, when I finally listened to the audiobook for GTD, I could feel my brain being rearchitected. I captured everything that was on my mind, and developed a habit of doing a "weekly review." Suddenly, my creative energy was unleashed. And so was my energy for thinking about the bigger picture, like what I wanted out of my life and my career. Millions of people have been impacted by GTD in this way. It's all thanks to our guest today. After more than 20 years as a productivity consultant, David Allen (@gtdguy) finally put his knowledge into book form with Getting Things Done, which came out in 2001. Since then, he's taken GTD global, with certified GTD consultants all over the world. One of his top people even lives not too far from me down in Colombia. Here's what we'll talk about in this conversation. GTD helps clear the space in your head for creative work, but what about actually getting creative work done? We'll learn how David used GTD to actually write Getting Things Done. GTD also helps clear your mind for making big life decisions. How did David use GTD to decide to move from the US to Amsterdam a few years ago. GTD suggests a lot of paper for keeping track of things. What does David think about digital management of GTD? Image credit: Vera de Kok Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com. Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork http://casper.com/loveit http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/david-allen-podcast-interview/

You've heard that multitasking is a myth. I'm here to tell you that the idea that multitasking is a myth, is somewhat of a myth in itself. When it comes to creative work, you can actually work on two projects at once. The trick is, you don't even know you're working on that second project. This article originally appeared on Medium. Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at kadavy.net/elite Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/multitask-creative-work-podcast/

By now you've heard that you need 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become a master of your craft. The story you don't hear is that it also takes 12,500 hours of deliberate rest. When you rest, you let what you've learned sink in. The ties connecting concepts get stronger, and weak connections get cleared away. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is author of the book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. He's also a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and founder of The Restful Company, where he helps companies use deliberate rest to be more creative and productive. I picked up Rest to help with research for my upcoming book. You should pick it up, too. It's fascinating. It's packed with research and stories about why rest is critical to creative productivity. I had to have Alex on the show to learn more, and have him break it down for us. In this conversation, learn: Why should you be deliberate about using rest to make your work better? What's the hypnogogic state, and how did the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí use it to get more creative ideas? Why did Ernest Hemingway always stop writing when he knew what was going to happen next. When's the best time to take a nap for optimal creative output? How long should the nap be? Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at kadavy.net/elite Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/alex-soojung-kim-pang/

It's so easy to get caught up in ruminating over what we might do. I know I ruminated over starting this podcast for more than FOUR YEARS before I finally took action. Fortunately, the guests here on Love Your Work are all doers, and they tend to encourage doing, instead of thinking. Having that constant reminder has helped me take action in growing this podcast, and in writing my new book. But, sometimes doing, instead of merely thinking about doing, is easier said than done. That's what this article is about. Join Love Your Work Elite Love Your Work's audio hosting expenses are now fully listener-supported! Next up, let's make our publishing assistant costs listener-supported, too. Be an even bigger part of the show, and hear raw, ad-free interviews, weeks in advance. Sign up at kadavy.net/elite Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/stop-thinking-start-doing/

Bernadette Jiwa (@bernadettejiwa) thinks there's been an obsession with data in entrepreneurship over the past several years. When we're not sure about something, we're encouraged to run tests. I've even heard the advice before "test everything." Really? Test EVERYTHING? If you really know anything about statistics, you'll know that many things in a budding venture don't have a large enough sample size to be tested. If you're testing literally EVERYTHING, you'll get nothing done, and your company will have no vision. Bernadette is author of the new book, Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights into the Next Big Thing. In it, she teaches you how to harness the power of your intuition, recognize opportunities other people miss, and create breakthrough ideas. Seth Godin (who you heard on episode 77) calls Hunch "a modern classic." You can buy Hunch at kadavy.net/hunch. In this conversation, I talk with Bernadette about: Why did a hat salesman in New York do a better job at predicting the election results than data scientists like Nate Silver did? How did the shopping cart get invented? If the inventor had gone with the initial data, we might be stuck hauling baskets all over Whole Foods. Hunch is Bernadette's sixth book, so she has lots of publishing wisdom I was eager to soak up. She'll share her personal story about happily returning her advance check to a publisher. They wanted her to compromise her values. We'll also hear what Bernadette learned working closely with Seth Godin. She was the editor of Seth's giant book, "This Might Work." Join Love Your Work Elite Love Your Work's audio hosting expenses are now fully listener-supported! Next up, let's make our publishing assistant costs listener-supported, too. Be an even bigger part of the show, and hear raw, ad-free interviews, weeks in advance. Sign up at kadavy.net/elite Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork http://casper.com/loveit Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/bernadette-jiwa-interview/

There are a lot of voices out there in entrepreneurship encouraging you to "Hustle." I really don't like this word, and I think it sends the wrong message about just what you should be aspiring to in your life and work. One thing you want to aspire to is to not pay too much for shipping costs in your business, and cut down on hassles. Join Love Your Work Premium Would you like to hear raw, ad-free interviews, weeks in advance? Just join Love Your Work Premium. For a small amount per month, you'll get access to ad-free interviews weeks in advance. Just go to kadavy.net/premium to sign up. Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-hustle-podcast/

You've heard it before. The story of the starving artist. You may even believe it yourself. You may think that to keep your creative integrity, you have to give up on making money. Jeff Goins (@goinswriter) is returning to the podcast today to tell you about why that's not true at all. In fact, instead of being a starving artist, you can be a thriving artist. Learn in this episode: How is it that Michelangelo was actually a multimillionaire by today's standards? How did writers like John Grisham launch their careers while having a day job? How can you get leverage with publishers, record labels, and other gatekeepers, so they're chasing after you instead of the other way around? What can you do to put yourself in the "thriving artist" mindset? Jeff's new book is called "Real Artists Don't Starve" and you can get it at kadavy.net/dontstarve. Sponsors http://freshbooks.com/loveyourwork http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jeff-goins-podcast-interview-2/

The world around us can program certain goals into our minds. If we aren't careful, we can end up with goals that have nothing to do with our happiness. You might not even realize that you expect to become a billionaire someday. You might be better off admitting to yourself that's not what you want. Join Love Your Work Premium Would you like to hear raw, ad-free interviews, weeks in advance? Just join Love Your Work Premium. For a small amount per month, you'll get access to ad-free interviews weeks in advance. Just go to kadavy.net/premium to sign up. Sponsors http://freshbooks.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/never-a-billionaire/

I first discovered the work of Seth Godin about 13 years ago. Since then he's helped me think about how to make work that's remarkable – The Purple Cow. He's shown me how to think about having a direct relationship with my customers – with Permission Marketing. He's shown me how to push through when things get tough – with The Dip. Plus, countless other things. He's written so many books, Tribes, The Icarus Deception, All Marketers are Liars, just to name a few more. He writes a blog post every day. I still love going to Seth's blog because it looks like it came out of another time. It's on typepad. He doesn't even have a custom domain. Still, it's one of the few sites that I visit directly just to read what's there. While people are screaming about how you've gotta figure out a Snapchat strategy, Seth just sticks with good old-fashioned words, and he's so good at it. Seth has been at the forefront of how technology changes how we communicate with one another. He started his first email newsletter in 1990. In fact, he invented the concept of getting emails from companies. Throughout his career, he's pointed out and described what this new paradigm makes possible. You have to Unleash the Ideavirus, you have to tell stories, you have to build your tribe. But in more recent years, he's focused more on helping people overcome the emotional barriers of actually putting this advice into practice. This is what I was interested in figuring out coming into this interview. What caused that shift? How does Seth think about doing generous work? How do you gain the courage to do something that might not work? I also wanted to dig back further into Seth's origin. I'm still struck by how far ahead of his time he was way back in the 80's and 90's, and how long it took for some of those concepts to gel and become true. It's a good lesson that if you want to do work that resonates with people, sometimes it takes a long time. Here are the three links that Seth sent me about publishing: Advice for authors Advice for authors Why (some) Kickstarter Campaigns Fail Join Love Your Work Premium Would you like to hear raw, ad-free interviews like this one with Seth Godin, weeks in advance? Just join Love Your Work Premium. For a small amount per month, you'll get access to ad-free interviews weeks in advance. You'll also get access to fully-produced episodes a couple of days in advance. Just go to kadavy.net/premium to sign up. Sponsors http://freshbooks.com/loveyourwork http://www.casper.com/loveit Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/seth-godin-podcast-interview/

Some of you already know that I'm writing a new book. Getting Art Done will help you overcome Resistance and bring your work into the world. I had much of my own Resistance to fight to get this book project underway. I spent three months working on a book proposal, then I failed to get a literary agent. That was a tough blow, but what really flipped the switch for me was the conversation I had with Seth Godin. You'll be able to hear that entire conversation with Seth next week, so be sure you're subscribed. Join Love Your Work Premium If you'd like to hear the raw, unedited, ad-free interview with Seth Godin (coming June 8th), you can do that right now. Just join Love Your Work Premium. For a small amount per month, you'll get access to ad-free interviews weeks in advance. You'll also get access to fully-produced episodes a couple of days in advance. Just go to kadavy.net/premium to sign up. Sponsorshttp://freshbooks.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/no-nyt-best-seller-podcast/

Not too long after moving to Colombia, Danny Michelwicz got obsessed with cacao, the raw material that's used to make chocolate. Since then, he's been learning about the craft of sourcing cacao and making chocolate, learning about his new country in the process, and working to have an impact on an underserved region. I went into this interview thinking I'd talk with Danny more about how his business, Tilín Cacao, has been a source of adventure, but we actually ended up talking a lot about the chemistry of chocolate, and how it's made. There's a lot of interesting thoughts in here about finding a neglected opportunity, pursuing it with a sense of artistry, and making something unique and hard to replicate. Try Danny's Chocolate Danny has a shipment going to the United States later this summer. You can preorder for a huge discount. Just go to tilincacao.com/loveyourwork. I don't have any financial relationship with Danny's company, but I do love the chocolate. Join Love Your Work Premium If you'd like to hear the raw, unedited, ad-free interview with Seth Godin (coming June 8th), you can do that right now. Just join Love Your Work Premium. For a small amount per month, you'll get access to ad-free interviews weeks in advance. You'll also get access to fully-produced episodes a couple of days in advance. Just go to kadavy.net/premium to sign up. Sponsors http://kadavy.net/premium Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/danny-michlewicz-tilin/