The Artsy Now Show: Creative Entrepreneur Maniacs!: Recent Episodes
Heath Armstrong
I firmly believe that everyday is a bonus round. I create because I'm alive. I believe in the freedom of self, and that life is more than a miracle.
I interview creative minds all around the world who live on their own terms- so that you and I may absorb the lessons and change the world.
Live your life as if you had to live the same life all over again.
In this show, I cover mindfulness, productivity, habits, creativity, living off the grid, quitting that miserable job, location independence, strategy, automation, and personal development.
You learn as I learn, and I hold nothing back.
Fist pumps are the only requirement.
www.artsynow.com
My guests have appeared on CNN, NBC, Fox News, NY Times, Huffington Post, ABC, PBS and much much much more.
The Kickstarter is FINALLY live :)
www.ragecreate.com
Or, search Rage Create or Sweet Ass Domination Deck on Kickstarter!
Early Bird Rewards now Available!
Search Never Stop Peaking for the new podcast feed!
Hey everyone, my new show Never Stop Peaking: Motivation that Doesn't Suck is available on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, Spotify, and more!
We are launching a Sweet Ass Kickstarter at :
www.ragecreate.com
Check out the new podcast:
Website Link: www.heatharmstrong.com/podcast
iTunes: www.heatharmstrong.com/itunes
Stitcher: www.heatharmstrong.com/stitcher
Spotify: www.heatharmstrong.com/spotify
Google Play: www.heatharmstrong.com/googleplay
I'll see you over at the other feed :)
The Paradise pack is here!
www.heatharmstrong.com/paradise
It's an INSANE set of tools to help you create your freedom lifestyle, travel the world, and make money from anywhere. If you sign up before May 30th at Midnight, you get access to the exclusive Mastering the Paradise Pack Workshop.
This episode is about how I saved $15,000 to pay off all my debt in under 2 years. It's the exact GAME I used to do this.
www.heatharmstrong.com/destroyyourdebt
And, don't forget to enter to win a FREE YEAR OF HEADSPACE + 2 Free Sweet Ass Journals! It only takes a few seconds to enter.
www.sweetassjournal.com/win
Cheers!
Get the FREE 2 hour audio guide for The Sweet Ass Journal to Develop Your Happiness Muscle in 100 Days: www.heatharmstrong.com
Check out the Guide, Journal + all the free bonus material (Including a fillable PDF, print-at-home trackers & more): www.sweetassjournal.com
Stay tuned to win a few free physical journals at www.sweetassjournal.com/win
on May 24th! This episode is a collaboration with Paul Lam from the Path Hunters podcast. We talk about my story and the creation of The Sweet Ass Journal to Develop Your Happiness Muscle in 100 Days.
Welcome back! New sweet goodies at SweetAssJournal.com + HeathArmstrong.com/freeguide. Plus, an awesome Interview when I was on That Marketing Dude show about Amazon FBA and location independent lifestyle. Check back in later this week for info on The Sweet Ass Journal :)
You can get the free audio guide to the Sweet Ass Journal at HeathArmstrong.com
Sexy funk music from Bensound.com
Check out PathHunters.com!
-The truth behind my transition from shit to sunshine
-How to transition from shit to sunshine in your life
-How to double-stuff and face-f**k resistance gremlins with your arsenal of secret weapons
-How to build your freedom empire
I wanted to share my story on The BHM Show (Big Healthy Me) w/ my friend Bryan Teare. He teaches personal optimization and health, and we dissected the success and battles throughout my path to creating freedom and health.
Visit www.fistpumps.com for a chance to win a copy of my book where I dissect 100+ interviews with creative entrepreneurs and the habits that make them the happiest people in the world.
Check out the BHM blog:
http://bighealthyme.com/blog/
I am taking a hiatus from social media to solidify my dreams. This is how you can become one with your dreams as well.
My book: On Happiness! How to Retire Your Job, Retire Your Mind, and Fist Pump to the Life You Love.
www.fistpumps.com
It is no secret that I am a HUGE fanboy of Honoree Corder. And I should be, right? Her principles and strategies have allowed me to envision my future, set smart and measurable goals to work towards, and ultimately track and accomplish my those goals to bring my vision to reality.
What I once thought was impossible is now REAL. I’ve put my notice in at my ‘career job.’ I’m selling my house and moving to the beautiful Northwest. I’m starting my journey of a 24/7 location independent freedom lifestyle. It’s surreal.
I’m not any smarter than you, and I don’t have any skills or talents that I didn’t work my ass off to achieve.
The point is, it’s all attainable if you BELIEVE it is. Once you believe, it is just a matter of taking action on a consistent basis.
Honoree Corder understands this because she started from the bottom JUST LIKE US. She doesn’t have a college degree or divine superpowers (although I’d argue the second), but she has mastered the principals required to become the happiest, healthiest, and most prosperous writer possible.
In this episode, we discuss these core principals and how they not only work for writers, but for everyone. We also discuss the topic of her newest book “Prosperity for Writers,” and how these principals can be used to create massive abundance in your career.
Put your sarcasm hat on, cause Honoree is wildddddd.
Highlights * 10:30: Honoree talks about her reasons for writing the kind of books she writes. * 15:00: How writing to an avatar can be an effective method in writing a book. * 20:01: The fate of her first published book in 2004 sans title as it was a self-published and self- edited book and how the book had a rebirth with a competent editor. * 22:15: How the right keywords propel sales to rocket highs. She shares what happened to one of her books as soon as the right keywords were found. That book was languishing around for 6 years until they got the category spot on. With the right keywords, that book sold out immediately. * 27:23: The “starving artist” is not a rule. Honoree believes that knowing the right people, knowing your craft and knowing things can make a prosperous writer come out of any writer. * 30:33: Her mindset about money and abundance when she was still in networking. One’s checkbook balance is a good indicator of where one is in the scheme of things. However, Honoree totally believes that we have it in us to pause and assess where we are, what’s important, then we can empower ourselves and change ourselves for success. * 36:31: Honoree shares B.O.L.O. and how doing this can change anyone’s life for the better. She also shares how B.O.L.O. can turn around one’s perspective. She has another one – F.A.M.E. with F for Focus. Listen how she blends the idealistic affirmation with the practicality of focus. * 46:23: Why the dirty first draft is not an issue. She advises to just get the words out. She promises that you will be amazed at the thoughts in that draft and the pride it brings to you in being productive. * 49:50: Honoree’s method for writing ideas. She has a logical and convincing approach to imparting ideas. * 56:00: Honoree explains tithing as a spiritual practice that works on the principle of giving away something so it can comeback at least double or tenfold. Honoree talks about an incredible experience of how tithing worked for her and shares how “Miracle Morning” came to be because of tithing.
Creative Influences * The 8-minute Writing Habit by Monica Leonelle
To help Godzilla create a successful writing business… * Step 1: Decide what you want to give back, Godzilla.
Advice from the show… * Sometimes, only a juicy swear word will do. * Write about what you know, and write like you are talking to a friend. * Use what works for you, and discard the rest. * Every single aspect of success starts with the mind first.
Honoree’s Links… * Prosperity for Writers on Amazon * Prosperity for Writers Journal on Amazon * Honoree’s Website * Honoree’s Twitter * Honoree’s LinkedIn
Life is a massive journey of creation. We are all products of creation, and we are all living for creation. However, there is seldom a clear path that paints the way for our dreams, our happiness, and the meaning our existence.
We all get lost. It is the root that allow us to create ourselves just as we please.
After all, we cannot find ourselves unless we lose ourselves.
Mike Brennan was absorbed in the magic of arts as a child, and he loved making others smile. By creating, he was able to bring out more smiles in those around him, and it brought him peace.
He always had a vision and drive for working in the arts the rest of his life, but life takes unexpected twists that bring mass confusion.
In this chat, Mike and I discuss the struggle and confusion of growing up as an artist, and all of the blindside magic that life throws at us. He also gets into his creative techniques and his campaign to create a new piece every single day.
Highlights * 09:29: Mike reminisces about his childhood and how his talent for drawing, already very much in evidence then, shaped his decision to seriously pursue art – much to the initial dismay of his Dad. * 18:30: About how the book “The Creative License” gave him a different perspective of his art and how it had spurned him to a different level of creativity. * 20:21: About the start of Mike’s social drawings with line art through an iPhone app and how he had used this momentum to keep on going with other art projects. * 24:00: How it feels doing live paintings during a concert when all eyes are on him. * 27:30: How it is to be a graphic designer and surviving the nitty gritty details of living. The constant conflict between being true to his art and the practical concerns of career questions. * 32:54: About how knowing yourself and investing time to get to know yourself can help with goals and tracking progress. * 36:30: Shares how small goals can be important in the battle to be on track, how he keeps 5 small things to be tagged as “Done” on his whiteboard on a weekly basis and also to remember to celebrate the ticking off of each of these little milestones. * 41:20: Shares his definition of success and how it is achieved by staying on course no matter how difficult. * 45:01: Talks about how it is to lose a passion and a dream and how his faith showed him another path. Certainly, it was not graphic design nor art but God’s design because suddenly Mike finds himself in full-time ministry work and loving it. Listen as he talks about how he started a church. * 51:18: Listen as Mike shares how it was for him to go back to the design world after ten years of doing ministry work. The crazy polarity of these two interests was just too much in one resume. Amazingly, all turned out for the best and now Mike is the graphic designer of a church! Mike attributes this astonishing twist of fate as the hand of God in his life. * 56:10: Mike shares his thoughts about how to put the true value on a piece of work that is also almost a piece of himself.
Creative Influences * Danny Gregory – author of “The Creative License”
One hour to create something, with anyone… * “My immediate go-to would be Van Gogh. His passion… and his creating from heart. I would love to be a fly on the wall. The opportunity to collaborate would be like – tremendous. I would not even know how that would look, but it would be something incredible.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… “I will do a painting for the wanted poster of Godzilla. Then I will make Godzilla watch the last two Godzilla movies that were made and he would probably just pack it in himself.”
Advice from the show… * It has been part of my journey to embrace, ‘You know what? I am a mess and I love it! * There is no such thing as an overnight success. * Would you do what you love to do, even if no other person gets to know about it?
Mike’s Links… * Mike’s Twitter * Mike’s Website * Mike’s Instagram
Colin Gray is full BEAST MODE when it comes to podcasting. He has been deeply involved in it since the mid-2000’s, and he’s a huge influence and resource for how I started this podcast.
Colin is superior at creating valuable content with ZERO fluff, and he is a humble and sincere teacher for anyone looking to start or grow a podcast as a hobby or career. He’s one of the few who have figured out how to make money from podcasting, and he does an incredible job teaching others how to reach this point and sustain it.
He’s the founder of ThePodcastHost.com and the PodCraft Podcast, where he covers a wide variety of valuable topics ranging from selecting podcast equipment to building a website for podcasting.
In this episode, we talk the ropes of podcasting 101 for beginners, the power of creating your podcast and the effect it can have on your life, and tips, tricks, and resources from the mastermind Colin himself.
Word!
Highlights * 06:20 : A brief background on how Colin took his educational and technical background to teach web design and development in a university then moving from that to podcasting, * 10:49 : How podcasts can be beneficial to people’s lives and Colin’s very helpful strategies in setting up and maintaining a podcast, * 15:52 : A run-through in the process of how to start a podcast for beginners, * 22:20 : Colin shares his key points during his talk in Manchester about breaking the rules of podcasting, * 29:34 : About hosting in different feeds and his best practices in managing multiple podcasts, * 33:19 : His tips and approach for someone who doesn’t have the knowledge of recording software, and * 38:21 : Colin’s advice for podcasters to grow their audience.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… “Being a podcast and audio producer, I am surrounded by a thousand meters of cable in my office, so I’d make some sort of net made out of those able, catch him and trap him down.”
Advice from the show… * People claim sometimes that all you need to do is have passion, but that’s not true in this case. The approach that I always teach is strategy. It’s making plans. It’s sitting down before you set up your podcast and working out what you want to go over. * Podcasting is difficult. It takes time to create, it takes time to build the audience that you need to be able to make a living out of it or even just to get the reward that you want to get- even if it’s not profit. * At the start, keep it as simple as possible. The key is, at the very start, you want it easy so that you will get your content out there every single week. * I often tell people to do the 10-episode plan because you will get little feedback in those first 5-10 episodes. By the end of that 10, keep asking for feedback and you will start getting it. This is what will push you forward towards your 100th episode.
Colin’s Links… * Podcraft * Podcast Courses * Article archive: Podcast Planning Category. You can get other categories in the right hand column from here. * Colin’s interview with Harry Duran in Podcast Junkies * Colin Gray: Breaking the Mould Event in Manchester * Colin’s Suggested Headset: Sennheiser PC8 * Suggested editing softwares: GarageBand for Mac and Audacity
What does simple feel like?
The expression is light, and it seems uncomplicated, but there is no doubt that the heaviest barricades in the world litter it’s path.
Heavy situations. Heavy thoughts. Heavy emotions. Heavy worries. Heavy fights. Heavy stress. Heavy distractions. Heavy minds. Heavy hearts. Heavy lives.
I do believe we can simply live and co-exist with heavy things, but this is not the goal.
To overcome the weight of distractions, and to truly feel light and free, you cannot just simply live.
You must live simply and be simply YOU.
I sit with a sense of determination and reason. I’m aiming for the ultimate high through a portal of floor level attachments in a house that once hosted many great walls of distress and madness.
I’m glad I’ve cleared my dwelling.
I’m in love with the new order.
I have learned so much.
To ground yourself, you must truly disconnect from materials and situations that are idolized by the masses.
Possessions are not trophies or dreams.
What if you could cherish your productivity, focus, and mindset and function from the core elements of natural life?
Hidden deep beneath your puddles of conscious and subconscious lust, jealousy, envy, and procrastination, you will find a stream that guides you to an ocean of clarity, awareness and meaning.
It’s pure.
Take a moment to place your hand over your heart.
Focus on your beautiful breath.
Love with all of your ability.
Love from your head to your toes, from the sky to the core of the earth.
Notice every space.
Notice the magic required for your precious mind and body to dance together in harmony.
In this moment, try to reflect on the sheer idea and principle of your life in existence. Try to comprehend your place in this miracle.
I don’t think there is a word or adjective that can describe how lucky we are to be here.
Maybe you feel alone, or maybe you feel within something much greater than yourself.
I have no doubt you are not alone.
I am here.
You and me.
You have a force inside of you capable of shifting the energy of the entire world.
You have a voice inside of you loaded with confidence, security, and precision- all weapons of ongoing creation.
This voice is OF you.
It’s your pure voice.
It’s simple.
It’s direct.
It’s on a mission to smile.
It’s a transition from ‘God Money I’ll do anything for you’ to a symphony of creation, love, and meaning.
It’s a treasure map to bring your vision to reality.
It’s a golden ticket to the land of understanding.
It’s YOU, through and through.
When you were born, you were pure and 100% unique.
But, like anything else, your shell was destroyed by normality and ‘reality.’
As an infant, life is as you choose to perceive it, but you eventually grow into the power of your influences and surroundings.
You become them, and they become you.
They are more developed. They have the advantage.
You begin to dress in the luggage of others.
The awareness that was once your choice is now stapled to your forehead by textbooks, organized religions, breaking news, and forceful education.
Your position and situation in the world begins to just “happen” as allowed and you become the product of everyone else.
Heavy things fall down on you, and you absorb and accept them. You become a function of them.
Very rarely is this a simple, happy product.
Some people play dress-up forever, but you don’t have to.
You know those times when your mind is conversing like two separate beings?
Yes, it really is.
Your muse and your heart never stop fighting for you, and these conversations are their way of winning your attention.
When your inner voice presents questions, possibilities, and visions, you need to pay attention to these alarms.
They are the purest form of you.
No dress up. No fear.
The guidance will help you break through the shell of clutter, distraction, and “reason” and lead you to a path of absolute happiness and meaning.
Imagine a simple life of pure, unfiltered love.
Why is it that society teaches us to label a stress-free life of happiness, true love, contentment, and clarity as unrealistic…
..or as dreams
..or as wishes
..or as impossible
..or as fairytales?
We were all born with the purest right to happiness, and they want us to think we are crazy for believing in it.
They want us to believe we are crazy for loving, smiling, and maximizing the beauty and miracle of life.
I’m here to tell you that you are not crazy.
WE are not crazy.
When you are simple, you are magical.
You are magnificent.
You are sumptuous.
You are beautiful.
You are brilliant.
Your vision is triumphant when all others are blind.
All of those dreams, wishes, and fairytales are real, and if you follow and believe in them, the key to happiness is yours.
They represent you and the magic of creation in it’s purest and SIMPLEST form.
The seed of life.
It is your birthright. It is your superpower.
You never lost it- it has just been covered by those heavy things.
So- break through the chains of your influences and distractions, and utilize your ability to live simply and be simply you.
You are now focused, precise, and meaningful.
You are the purest form of you – the miracle you were presented to this world as.
It’s never too late to utilize the magic of your birth.
Be simple. Be you.
Love simple. Love you.
————————————–
Share this with someone in need. Let them know you care and that they aren’t so crazy after all.
I’d love to hear thoughts in the comments section below. I’ll take them all to my heart, and I’ll reply with gratitude.
-Heath
Being happy is the only thing that matters in life. REAL happiness. / / You can make changes RIGHT NOW in your routine to work towards becoming the happiest version of yourself. / / In this 2-part episode, I uncover all of my practices and techniques for creating and sustaining happiness. / / Morning Routines / Mindfulness / Win Lists / Vision Boards / Minimalism / Family/Friends / Habits / Fitness/ Diet / Fear & Gratitude / Alter Egos / Creative Hobbies / & more. / / www.artsynow.com
Being happy is the only thing that matters in life. REAL happiness. / / You can make changes RIGHT NOW in your routine to work towards becoming the happiest version of yourself. / / In this 2-part episode, I uncover all of my practices and techniques for creating and sustaining happiness. / / Morning Routines / Mindfulness / Win Lists / Vision Boards / Minimalism / Family/Friends / Habits / Fitness/ Diet / Fear & Gratitude / Alter Egos / Creative Hobbies / & more. / / www.artsynow.com /
(www.artsynow.com/112 for shownotes)
For the last couple years, your smart phone has been eating your brain. It has been your best friend, your library, your GPS, and a medium for blasting music, face-timing, or even hardcore stalking your friends.
We are ALL guilty of allowing our faces and brains to be devoured by our phones. Sometimes, we sit without thinking, constantly refreshing feeds over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It’s okay. It’s not your fault. The phones are designed to be addicting. The designs are working.
In a way, we’ve lost the familiarity with what it truly feels like to be alive and connected to this incredible, beautiful Earth.
“Mental minimalism gives you that space to get rid of everything else that is causing unnecessary stress, distraction and lack of focus and lets you do what it is you love.” – Jorge Selva
As a child, Jorge was obsessed with the rocks, formations, and the natural Earth, and it eventually led to a passionate degree in Geology. One day, he caught himself in the middle of a chronic brain-frying refresh session, and he realized that his smart phone was depleting his focus and relationship with nature.
Longing for a larger sense of aliveness, Jorge decided to test his strength away from the smart phone.
It felt good. Really really really really really good.
It felt so good that he decided to dedicate his future to helping others rediscover what it’s like to feel alive, focused, less distracted, and more aware.
Jorge is the co-founder of Minium, the creators of the world’s first modern minimalist phone. The phone is designed to maximize focus on areas that matter the most, allowing more time for real-world interaction, aliveness, and extreme clarity.
In this episode, learn about Minium & the process of creating the phone, and the underlying magic of minimalism.
Highlights * 05:47 : How Jorge and I got connected through a Twitter advertising, * 08:35 : A rundown on his personal experiences from being born in Nicaragua, to moving to the mid-West, realizing his passion for the outdoors through Geology, how it dawned on him that he was addicted to iPhone and finally moving into a stress-free life by coming up with a minimalistic phone, * 18:06 : Why he thinks less can be so much more, * 20:30 : The research they have done to gauge the state that we are in in terms of entertaining distractions, * 25:45 : The process of creating their phone and how they put their ideas out, * 28:26 : The Minium phone’s core features and how they trimmed down to these main items, * 34:47 : How their project aims to develop mindfulness and meditation and * 45:39 : Timelines from prototype to launch.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents…
“I will run around and find quicksand or some unstable rock ledge where he will fall while trying to grab me.”
Advice from the show…
- “Mental minimalism gives you that space to get rid of everything else that is causing unnecessary stress, distraction and lack of focus and lets you do what it is you love.”
- “There are a lot of feelings of discontent for a device that should be helpful.”
- “Technology is amazing, and we are not saying that people should entirely disconnect, we are just finding ground where we have felt we are more productive, creative, happy and able to experience connections more deeply.”
- “Phones should not be as distracting as they are.”
- “Technology, if made in a more mindful way, can have a more positive effect in our lives.”
Jorge’s Links…
- Minium Website (sign up to be a beta tester)
- Jorge’s Email (give Jorge your thoughts on the minimalist phone)
Everyone longs for more inspiration, motivation, passion, and ultimate meaning in life. It’s an incredibly hard journey, but when we link arms and unite behind an army of positivity, our dreams start to become real life.
Valerie Groth is one of those gems who leads the rebellion against resistance, inconfidence, procrastination, and negativity. She understands the sacrifices and uncomfortable transitions that must be made when creating a life of meaningful happiness, and she is dedicating her life to helping others reach their mindful and physical peaks.
Valerie is the founder and host of The Inspiration w/ Val Podcast, a motivational and inspirational speaker and coach, and the founder of The Ryan Banks Academy which was funded and supported by the World Domination Summit earlier this year.
In this episode, Valerie and I dive into the meaning of creating YOUR journey, and the core values necessary to bring them to reality. We talk about inspiration, motivation, mindset, and Valerie’s take on kickstarting a transition from lost and confused to meaningful. We also talk about her passion and drive to change the world with the Ryan Banks Academy, and the process of living larger than ourselves.
Valerie’s words and wisdom are taught from ground-level experience, and I’m ecstatic to introduce her to all of you dreamers.
Please share this with someone you really love and care about.
Creative Influences * 29 Gifts – How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
To defeat Godzilla with her talents… * “I live in downtown Chicago, so I will try to get him lost in the midst of the high rises to throw him off my case. Or, maybe I can sit down with him and talk to him about why he feels the need to be destructive and how we can focus on the positive.”
Advice… * Doing realistic things are great for your sense of self-confidence and self-worth, but when you do things which seem totally outside of the box, outside of your comfort zone… and those which seem impossible, that’s when you truly have those huge shifts of perception. * For those kids, things seem hopeless. It’s like the ‘growth versus fixed mindset’ piece..if that’s all you know and people keep telling you that you’re worthless, it’s really difficult to break that. * It is easy to think that you are not the best out there, but there’s always going to be people who will be a few steps behind you who you can teach, coach, and help. * We’ve all done things for the wrong reasons, and a lot of that is because we don’t quite understand our core values and are not very introspective to know who we really are. * You can’t see the label of the jar you are in.
Val’s Interview Links & Resources * Website * Email * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
Highlights * 06:37 : How it felt getting the grant and recognition for the Ryan Banks Academy after taking a leap of faith to do the things that seemed impossible. * 10:23 : The Ryan Banks Academy backstory and Valerie’s motivation in building the academy up. * 14:14 : Sharing her glimpse of the life of the kids at the other end of the spectrum and her passion to change the pattern of this fixed mindset. * 16:00 : From being a kid wrapped up in shallow things to being a teacher who changes lives, Valerie shares how the change happen in her life, where her calling came from and the immense satisfaction she finds in helping people. * 18:29 : The mindset that she applies to be able to be a good coach for others and her advice to those who still do not have the confidence to move forward and become one. * 22:19 : The exercises and process she employs in coaching people to change their mindset. * 26:05 : The importance of coaches having coaches. * 27:23 : Habits that Valerie finds valuable including meditation. * 32:24 : Activities she recommends to de-stress such as taking care of your health, showing gratitude and writing down an optimal list of the things you can do.
What is the rush? Why is EVERYONE constantly freaking out? Why are YOU freaking out?
Are you going to allow these high-stress situations to play a role in the rest of your life?
Is completely losing your cool in an overwhelming rush of anxiety and sweat going to make all of your problems and situations better?
If you pause and think about it, what is the reason for burning your energy and bowing down to a worse-case-scenario mindset?
You wouldn’t let a distracting stranger on the street come set his fat ball-sack on your chin, so why do you allow the stress gremlins to party all over your pretty face?
What is SO AWFUL that you must yell and frown at, criticise, and curse everything around you?
I do it too. We all do.
Why should everything have to suffer because we aren’t strong enough to judge a situation for the beauty inside?
There is a lesson in everything.
Situations don’t have to end with nuts on your chin.
We don’t have to judge from a negative scale.
One breath is powerful enough to birth a pause in any amount of madness, and these pauses are the building blocks of the Savior we know as Awareness.
When you are aware, you are in a position to think, react, and make decisions that root the artillery necessary to destroy the “world-is-ending” mentality.
Your awareness is the catalyst for the inner belief that you CAN become and accomplish so much more in this beautifully composed masterpiece called life.
In reality, the world is NOT ending – species are.
The world is only fighting to rid of parasites that threaten the beauty of her existence. She is fighting the soldiers of negativity like a cancer.
Only us that are aware will understand this movement, and it is the awareness that will position us to unite and truly discover what it means to be free. We can fight for every moment and bring back the purity and teachings of all situations.
We can grow from these teachings.
We can conquer every moment and eliminate stress.
YOU can conquer every moment and eliminate stress.
So whoever you are, and wherever you are, be fully aware.
BE ALL IN, ALL THE TIME.
Dedicate your energy beyond measure to your awareness and the return will be infinite.
Be confident there is light in all situations and that you own the upper hand to whatever stress, pain, or discomfort you may be feeling.
You have the power to decide and control the state-of-mind you live in.
The situation is ALWAYS yours.
When you are dedicated to yourself and your awareness, the fight for happiness will flow in waves to all those around you, and they will add their magic to the dance.
They will be aware and powerful beyond reason, and they will pass the cup too.
We all need the water. It symbolizes humanity in unity and peace for each moment.
Our moments.
Your awareness in each breath is a drastic force in the quest for harmony. It is much bigger than you.
When you understand awareness, you have the tools to be free.
When you use these tools, you are free.
Be all in, all the time, or the nuts will dominate your chin.
GK dreamed of being a Voice-Over actress when she was young, but like most of us- she didn’t really think it was possible. She fist-pumped through school with the thought of becoming a doctor, studying micro-biology and molecular genetics. However, her creative itch for voice-overs never left, and she made a decision that most of us never believe we can make.
Screw the traditional career. Follow your dreams.
In this interview, you will learn how GK framed her mind to step away from the “safe” plan and attack her passion. We also get into methods and resources for starting a career in voice-overs.
GK is well known for using her magical voice to bring characters to life, including roles in Happily N’Ever After 2 (2009), Resident Evil 5(2009) Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Toothed Cave (2014). and Bleach, Memories of Nobody. She’s also worked with a massive amount of entertainment, food and beverage, and retail clients including Fox, Sesame Street, Warner Brothers, HBO, McDonalds, Subway, Nike and Walmart. Prepare yourself.
To defeat Godzilla with her talents…
- “I will use my most soothing Disney mom voice and lull him to sleep.”
Advice… * People are willing to help if you will just tell them what you want to do. * Constant rejection wearies the soul.
Interview Links & Resources * Voices.com – Audition for voice-overs. * Voices123.com – Audition for voice-overs. * Voicebank.net – Listen to other voice-overs and study them to increase your skillsets / Audition for voice-overs. * GK’s Instagram * IMBD * GK’s Website * GK’s Super-Fabulous Twitter * GK’s Linkedin
Highlights * 9:57: G.K. shares how she transitioned from Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics to voice over. Voice over was a dream since she was 5. Luck was with her because living in L.A. made it so much easier for her to break into this field and people were willing to help just as soon as she tells them what she wants to do. She was a novelty in a place where everyone wanted to appear in movies while she only wanted her voice heard.
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15:15: G.K. candidly shares how much she gets paid for her scream in a commercial and how, sometimes, it is such a stab in the heart to learn how much a celebrity earns for a similar job. Going legit in this business for her is all about going to auditions and having jobs lined up regularly. She also shares how having an agent really helps her get a steady stream of work.
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20:05: G.K. has been doing voice overs for 11 years now and she shares how it was in the beginning when she had to tell her family she is giving voice over her best shot. She also reminisces on how it was then to be in this very competitive career, auditioning and getting rejected. She goes on to share how staying upbeat was a constant challenge when faced with one rejection slip after another.
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24:27: G.K. shares the one simple but effective tactic she keeps that helps with her success: being amazed by the simplicity of how “being nice” to people can bring positivism in your life. G.K. has an amazing appreciation and awareness of her blessings that simply bring more good stuff in her life.
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29:00: Validation is something we all look for and G.K. is no different. She talks about how it was to carve a career before the watchful eyes of parents who just did not get it and then how one day, they finally saw it her way and realized shedid have a career!
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34:29: G.K. has a home studio now but in the early days she made the rounds of studios and does the recordings over those places. G.K. shares her tips for anyone looking to get into voice over as well as useful websites to constantly work on the craft.
There is a struggle much bigger than this pen. There is a struggle that lingers like the tide of an ocean under the dark spell of a creative hurricane. It reminds me of my mortality, existence, and progress.
This struggle connects all cries and frowns from myself and others alike, and it cooks them up to serve to others with a steamy side of bullshit.
The struggle is not sincere, nor does it care who I am or where I’m going.
It doesn’t care about you either.
It operates to dismantle the world from discovering the good energies of happiness that birth and flourish within the fruits of life. It operates to burn all bridges that we create, in arms, to support the cross-over into a life of contentment and meaning. (The life you dream about.)
When these bridges are obsolete, and we fall out of unity with one another, the struggle takes control of the current situation.
However, it can NEVER be in control of our future situations.
Thoughts and actions stapled to the back of negativity within the struggle produce an illusion that leads us to believe we are comfortable in the situation.
Do you procrastinate? Illusion.
How many times have you made an excuse to get out of doing something you fear may be difficult? Instead, you take the easy way out and do the bare minimum or nothing at all.
The result: 99.9% of us live our entire lives within this illusion. (I made the number up, but it has to be close.)
But why?
Life is about overcoming fears and obstacles and improving our minds, bodies, and souls every day. If it wasn’t, we’d all still be wearing diapers and shitting everywhere, waiting for Grandma to come wipe our asses because it’s easy.
The secret is only the “thought” of negativity is real. It only exists because we allow it to.
It is true that there will always be the cancerous “thought” of negativity ready to quadruple-stuff our asses in an attempt to destroy the positivity and world-changing efforts of our linking arms.
You can look at it two ways.
- For every negative, there is a positive.
- For every positive, there is a negative.
You can choose to see the beauty in negativity, or you can choose to see the negativity in beauty.
When it comes thinking, you have a definite choice.
We learn how to develop to the next level of happiness off the back of current situations that may involve a taste of negativity. However, it’s our ability to see the beauty in the negativity that makes all the difference.
Some people think life is a constant cycle of failures in an attempt to find success.
Great people know life is a constant cycle of success founded within the trenches of failure.
Some people think they aren’t capable of success because they never welcome the thought.
Great people own the thought, and they shape the world with heart, passion, patience, and love.
You will be as great and successful as you believe you are, and it’s pretty awesome to find success in everything.
It’s easy.
It’s so much easier than having Grandma wipe the shit off your ass.
Look- it’s unbelievable the miracle that we are even here right now, and our time is a guaranteed limitation. You will make choices the rest of your life before, during, and after every interaction, conversation, and situation.
To be happy, you must love the choices you make, and believe in them.
You must see the gold in every bad lemon. You must laugh hysterically when negative thoughts and interactions have handicapped your hours, days, or even weeks because it’s truly magical that you have the ability to be present in the situation to begin with.
The negative thoughts will always check in and out, but it is your beliefs that will occupy the throne.
I often hear the quote: “Things can always be better, and things can always be worse.”
I don’t think so.
If you train your mind to cherish every breath, moment and struggle that you encounter, things can never be better, and things can always be worse.
If you live in a mindset where things can never be better, and things can always be worse, you will never struggle again.
That, my friend, is true happiness.
This life is true love.
We shall take on the world together.
Having a solid supporting cast is always important, and the people you surround yourself with can be a major key to your development and success. From the fundamental lessons of our childhoods to top tier business professionals, those who influence us help dictate the direction we are heading in life.
Minal Mehta and Shahil Petal of have diagnosed the importance of teamwork and used the principles to turn their creative passion into a fist-pump worthy business, BollyX.
Minal and Shahil met as undergrads at Berkeley and are both award winning choreographers. They built their business around their love for dance and exercise, and even made it to the semi-finals on America’s Got Talent. Minal went to Harvard Business School and worked at Amazon prior to founding BollyX, while Shahil actually dropped out of his MBA program at MIT to join Minal on founding the project. They now have over 300 instructors and trainees spreading the BollyX love all over the country. You can check out their website to find a class near you!
This episode is deep in the process and mindset of believing in yourself and working with like-minded dreamers. We get into the motivation and tactics behind designing a team that will allow you to turn your passion into a business.
The road is never easy, but Minal and Shahil are certainly helping us skip a few grades with their experiences.
To defeat Godzilla with their talents… * Minal: “I would rally the powers of teamwork and build an army. We would go out there and conquer this beast together.” * Shihal: “With BollyX-ing. We will get Godzilla to dance BollyX with us.”
Advice… * A great success is basically a bunch of small, unglamorous tasks that you do everyday. * Passion can only get you so far. * Surround yourself with people who lift you and encourage you. * Every failure is one step nearer to the big win.
Interview Links * BollyX’sWebsite * BollyX’s Twitter * BollyX’s Instagram * Shahil’s LinkedIn
Minal:
- Biopage in Bollyx Website
- Media: Team Aao Na from UC Berkeley’s Hindi Film Dance Competition (2005)
Shahil:
- Media: Performing Slumdog Millionaire’s “Jai Ho” on NBC’s America’s Got Talent
- Ishaara on America’s Got Talent
The Magic of Moments
Sometimes, sometimes is hard.
Sometimes we are present in the moment, but then the moment passes. Are we still connecting to it? Are we feeding off of it?
Are we still using the roots of our past for the next big triumph?
Moments are built off experiences in the present state of consciousness.
Creativity has the power to bloom the most beautiful moments in our lives, but creativity is also the product of a moment.
Nevertheless, we get lost in these moments because they are brief tastes of comfort. We feel security in the present state of affairs because it makes us feel good. It slaughters all extensions of pain.
Then, we lust for more.
More simplicity. More love. More comfort. More peace of mind.
The moment passes.
Is time an almighty force beyond our control, or can we use mindfulness and gratitude to secure a moment forever?
Maybe there is magic in the interconnectedness of the transitions we make in and out of these precious moments.
After all, isn’t life just a monstrous web of moments all working towards a common destination…or should I say… power?
Maybe that common power is a miracle- the product of all moments that we, together, create and share.
Pay attention to, love, and mature within your moments, because they will set you free.
To you, what does it mean to be free? At what milestone are you inclined to remove the trap from the top of your brain and the center of your heart?
In our physical state of being, we cannot move backward into a situation of real-time. However, we constantly allow our minds to backtrack and recess at the first hint of stress, rejection, and the possibility of failure.
The scary part isn’t failing, it’s succeeding among our wildest dreams.
In our moments of failure, we reason with comfort and security. We recognize the outcome when something doesn’t work, and deep down we are wired to accept it.
We ignore it because it’s easy.
Why are we so willing to strip down to our bare asses and sled down the mountain that we just spent massive amounts of energy, time, and enthusiasm building?
In the moment, why is it so easy to quit?
The answer doesn’t lie deep in the secrets of humanity, only bearing its head to a lucky blind man on rare occasions. The answer is a mindfuck, wired deep into our DNA, designed as a sense of comfort and security for survival.
We had to feel fear to develop and survive as a species.
I get that.
But we also had to be fearless to be the successors over those who weren’t.
As soon as we tap into the super intelligence that creates the magic of our reality and existence- the mind, the body, and the connectivity of our neurological system and the earth itself- we discover that our entire existence is the creation of all powers and matters surrounding us.
We are a deep ocean of freedom and success with endless outcomes and possibilities.
Each one of our experiences interacts with, relates, and ultimately produces energy that binds all of life AS WE KNOW IT.
We make the decision to filter any given situation as we see fit to our liking or disliking. We know it as we choose to know it. We love it more than anything, and we hate it more than everything.
How you choose to engage and react at any moment will dictate the outcome of your actions.
You have all the magic and power in the world wired inside of you, ready to paint all of your moments with freedom.
You don’t have to climb a mountain to find the promise land; you just have to decide when you’ll find it.
Take this moment, and make it yours.
Sometimes we seek answers from others, and they just aren’t there. But, it’s not that the answers aren’t available.
Those we seek answers from are blind with doubt, resistance, and uncertainty about what may happen if a certain answer is given.
I want you to know that you do not need permission from others to create your dreams.
You do not need permission from others to lend support to others who are creating their dreams.
There will always be a discomfort in walking towards the opposite direction of those you love, especially in a situation that has been the setting of your entire life.
But..
Things are always uncomfortable before they are comfortable.
Everything you have ever dreamed of is sleeping on the other side of your comfort zone.
The brilliance that sits on the magic shelf of your creativity will become youin your quest to transition into the person you most desire.
They will always doubt you. They will always think you are crazy. They will always think your decision is childish, immature, sporadic, risky, and ultimately wrong. Even if they are your closest family or your best friends, the support is often on the opposite side of the possibility canvas.
Sometimes it’s because they are scared of the unknown. Sometimes it’s because they are jealous of your drive to break tradition and taste the true meaning of life.
And sometimes they resent it simply because they LOVE you, and they MISS you, and they want the very best for you whether they know what it is or not.
And this is all okay.
Because when you take that step and break away from the norm- when you defy resistance, fear, and the force against your transitions, you are creating motion to heal yourself.
You are cutting the chains of restriction in a common life and creating a path that was not available before.
You are birthing new ideas, energy, creativity, and life that was not in existence until the moment you took action.
The sum of this process creates and shapes new opportunities that supply and plenish your precious mind with a type of happiness that is rarely discovered by most. This level of happiness sets the stage for significant changes in the world, all of which are the result of you choosing to follow your heart when they told you not to.
I want you to know that you are not alone.
I want you to feel the love, support, and strength of us around you who are also pushing the envelope.
You will realize that everyone else, or ‘they,’ … they will start to notice the changes that surround you.
They will start to wonder why you haven’t broken.
They will start to be intrigued by your magical movement and your ability to create a life carved and protected by this rare form of happiness.
And next…
They will start to wonder if it’s real.
They will start to wonder if it’s possible to happen to others.
They will feel your strength, and smiles, and infinite love for life, and they will start to wonder if it’s possible in their life. They will ask questions, and they will wrestle with doubt. The fear will hit them like a brick wall on crack.
But, they will want it more than ever for themselves. They will start to love the idea of this free life, and they will crave it.
Soon enough, they will be faced with a decision to either separate from the common shell of tradition and fight for the life they love, or once again fall to the feet of the resistance gremlins and drown in a life of falsely perceived ease, comfort, and what is considered the norm.
It is those of you who make the decision to create the life you love that will carry the torch that ignites the world to seek healing.
Your decision is the secret to discovering the essence of happiness and the meaning of what life can be like when you embrace the heart and live on your own terms.
Your decision is a catalyst for those behind you who will also change the world.
All of us have been on both sides of the wobble, and there is only one way to shift your position.
Believe in your heart. Believe in your dreams.
Believe that this is much bigger than yourself.
Believe in more.
When you realize you are more, so does everyone else.
And now you are loved more than ever.
Every once in a while I have a conversation with someone, and I can tell their brain is functioning in the future. Tlacael Esparza is one of those dudes who thinks and acts upon the next generation of creative forces.
He is the co-founder of Sunhouse and the future of drumming technology ‘Sensory Percussion’ – a modern take on electronic drums that captures the true expressive nature of drumming.
–> Check out the Kickstarter campaign HERE (it’s badass) <– Along the journey, Tlacael has danced with fear, doubt, and a battle that seemed impossible to stand. With weapons of intense persistence and vision, he can now proudly pump his fists knowing that his brain-child is alive..and changing the future of drumming.
This episode is a remarkable take on the process of taking this futuristic product from idea to creation. It is one big bundle of awesomeness.
Creative Influences * Nicholas Jaar * Brian Blades * Tony Williams * Elton John * Nasheet Waits * David Byrne
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I will hook up the pavement to sounds and make him scare himself with his own percussive madness on the streets.”
Advice… * Musicians should not be hampered by technology in the creative process. * Setting unattainable goals and then failing and working through them was (sic) our process. We get noticed for our successes, but every single one of them is built on the back of multiple failures.
Interview Links * Tlacael’s Website * Tlacael’s Instagram * Tlacael’s Twitter
The definition of ‘digital nomad’ is:
“Digital nomads are individuals who leverage telecommunications technologies to perform their work duties, and more generally conduct their lifestyle in a nomadic manner.”
Fabian Dittrich had a passion for travel and everyday excitement, but he was trapped within a job that wouldn’t allow the lifestyle he longed for.
So guess what Fabian did? He crushed his resistance and abandoned his ‘job’ to adventure around the world- seeking others currently living and creating on their own terms.
Fabian is involved in many badass projects, but he is most known for creating the world’s first NOMAD COMPANY, traveling in a defender throughout South America and documenting his quest for world domination on StartupDiaries.org.
His defender is known as the ‘rolling office’ where he cruises around magical lands all over the world, interviewing others who are living and creating the exact lifestyle of their dreams- no strings attached.
If you want a swift kick to the ass to get you motivated to fight for your dreams, this episode is definitely for you.
Creative Influences * Howard Marks
Advice… * Why do we humans, lock ourselves in cages, at our desks, while no other species is doing it? * It is awesome to push the boundaries of what work means. * There are thousands of possibilities.
Creativity helps maximize your health, AND health helps maximize your creativity. In a nutshell, the process of creating is good for you, and it’s a topic that should be taken seriously by all of us, not just the ‘creatives.’
Now – If I had a crush on a dude (and I do), it would be on none other than Shawn ‘The Batman’ Stevenson.
Why?
- He speaks like a super-hero.
- His abs were used to mold the Batsuit for the last 75 years.
- He saves lives with his podcast (The Model Health Show) and constant teachings, and not just in Gotham.
In all seriousness, Shawn Stevenson is changing the world. He was overweight and unhealthy when diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in his back, and he took the weight upon himself to defy the odds the doctors gave him.
Degenerative Disc Disease is commonly referred to as ‘unfixable’ by most Doctors, but Shawn doubted the system. He put all of his effort and faith into researching and dissecting his problems. Not only was he able to reverse his disease, but he also built the foundation for a life of meaning that would evolve into helping others become the happiest and healthiest version of themselves.
From mental health and psychology to physical fitness and nutrition, Shawn has dedicated his life to creating and delivering the absolute best health information available in the world. He also makes the health information simple, clear, and easy-to-understand for EVERYONE.
I’m not dropping mad compliments because he makes me feel like a fangirl (and he does), but my life has seriously changed since I discovered his podcast. I have been able to apply his methods and teachings to every possible aspect of my life, and I’m the absolute best version of myself because of it.
Health and fitness can be a long, continuous battle, but Shawn has created a way for everyone to look, feel, and function at their highest levels.
I’m batman-pumped to release this episode where Shawn and I tackle the benefits of combining health and creativity.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I have to try and find out what he wants. Everything on the planet wants to be happy. I’ll try to find out what Godzilla is looking for. Maybe he is looking for a Godzillaette. Maybe we gotta find a giant lizard that he can get it on with!”
Advice… * You’ve got to use what you have to get what you want. * The mind is different from the brain. * You have to be creative to survive! * It’s a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. -Einstein
Interview Links * Shawn’s Website * Shawn’s Twitter * Shawn’s Instagram * Shawn’s Facebook * Shawn’s IOS Podcast
Sometimes the biggest distraction preventing us from a true life of living on our own terms is the idea that money can get us there alone.
A few months ago, Steve Grand was introduced to me by my cousin Derek Warren who suggested that I have Steve on the show. After diving into Steve’s background and his massive influence on millions of people embracing their sexuality, I was mesmerized by Steve’s focus, drive, and dedication to helping others create the life they truly love. Naturally, my head exploded when I found out he had one of the top three most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time, raising over $300k to support the production of his album.
My cousin Derek is a phenomenal writer and a long time fan of Steve and everything he stands for. You should check his blog out here where he writes about his experience living with Asperger’s. Derek is also openly gay and proud, and I thought it would be awesome (and a honor) to have him write the introduction and post for Steve’s show-notes. He is a much better writer than me! woot woot.
Subscribe or listen to the episode on itunes here.
Show-notes by Derek Warren
Steve Grand is an independent singer/songwriter from the Chicago suburb of Lemont, Illinois. I have seen him perform twice, both times were in the city of Pittsburgh. I instantly knew that he has tremendous potential in the music world. I knew it from when he greeted the crowd, to when he took the final bow. His passion for music began at the ripe age of 4. Below, he describes his memory of riding in the car with his father, listening to some of his favorite bands.
“Listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys, he saw how a song could transport someone through time and space to a moment in the past. He could tell you what shirt he was wearing, the name of the girl he was dating, and what the weather was like,” he says of his dad’s musical reminiscences. “That’s what first sparked my interest in songwriting. It was the first time I encountered music’s unique ability to provide a temporary escape from reality.”
When he was four or five, he saw Schroeder, Charlie Brown’s piano playing friend tickling the ivories, and became obsessed. He wanted a piano so badly, that he made them, dozens of models of them, out of campaign posters, crayon, tape and glue, most of them bigger than the tiny, future musician. “I thought it was so cool to be able to make sounds and play a song just using your fingers,” says Steve.
His parents got the hint and bought him an old, beat-up, upright piano. After a lifetime of piano lessons, Steve became an accomplished singer and songwriter, playing in school bands, and later, performing in churches and jamming at jazz venues around town. He penned heartfelt tales of heartache and romance, longing and love, living out his childhood dream and making music with his fingers.”
Being openly gay and a vocal advocate for LGBT rights, the mainstream music world has yet to embrace Steve’s intention to cross the societal boundaries between gay and straight. Such boundaries came to light when he was in the eighth grade. Growing up in a Catholic family, his parents struggled to come to terms with his sexuality. I came out after I graduated from high school. I questioned it throughout all of my four years, but I never found the confidence to face the truth and reveal it to anyone. His debut single “All American Boy” gave me the ability to recognize and express a feeling, one that is so familiar to so many gay people. It is that feeling of unrequited love (towards a straight man) and knowing that love will never be true. The self-funded and produced music video has a very American feel with country roads, whiskey, hot men, the American flag and a campfire.
His debut album “All American Boy” was released in March of 2014. Funding was obtained via Kickstarter and it became one of the most funded album projects for an independent artist. Each one it’s different in its feel and lyrical content, but they all reflect the passion that is so eloquently expressed in the title track. The title track, along with the toe tapper “Stay” and the up tempo “Run” are my personal favorites. To promote the album, Steve continues to perform at Pride festivals around the world. This is a true testament to his desire of helping people feel loved and that their voices deserve to be heard!
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Thanks to Derek and Steve!
Creative Influences * The Rolling Stones * The Beatles
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “Find common ground with him and make him chill out.”
Advice… * It is amazing to be able to make a difference. * Try to reach within yourself to put out something compelling and people will respond to that. * The internet can be harsh; the people can be harsh.
Interview Links * Steve’s Website * Steve’s Facebook Account * Steve’s Twitter Handle * Steve Grand’s Instagram
Christian A. Brown has written creatively since the age of six. In 2010, he quit his job in the health and fitness industry to care for his mother who was diagnosed with cancer. Their battle and journey together is what triggered Christian to unlock his love for creative writing full-time, dedicating his life to his passion.
He is the best-selling author of Feast of Fates, volume 1 of the Four Feasts Till Darkness series.
So far, Feast of Fates has sold over 5,000 copies in 5 months, and he's now nominated for an Indie Book of the Year award. His second book in the series will be released in a few months.
My conversation with Christian is powerful and magical across the board. We dissect the transition that Christian made from his old 'ordinary' life to the heart-heavy fight for his mother's life which changed his outlook on everything, allowing him to discover his true calling. He is 100% transparent, and he pours his feelings, emotions, morals, and values into his writings.
Christian is also a master of conquering self-doubt, and he does an incredible job of exploring his techniques in this episode.
We also get into the power of mindfulness, obstacles and struggles when writing a book, and how cats should run the world. :)
LOOOOOOK! You can be creative.. and awesome.. and still be in the thick of your battle to change the world. You don’t have to be rich to celebrate success through passion.
Assuming you are not a serial killer, and that you are a good person, you should celebrate your uniqueness. – Jenny Jelly
All of us are climbing the mountain, armoring ourselves with the Muse while battling resistance. It’s good to keep a warm tribe around for the journey, and Jenny Jelly and Tim Trueheart are filling that bill.
If you want to laugh, fist pump, find massive inspiration, experience failure, taste the creative rose, or even wonder down a road of recovery from alcohol or other substances.. you best be wobbling your ears to this episode RIGHT NOW!
You can tell by the length that Jenny, Tim and I had a massive blast when recording this. It is super random, super real, and a gigantic rollercoaster through the struggles of real creatives.
Jenny and Tim are the creators of The Jelly Vision Podcast, and they are dedicating their lives to teaching and inspiring within this beautiful canvas we call MOTHA EARTTTTH.
To defeat Godzilla with their talents… * Tim: I am going to use my blackness and unite all my black brothers and Godzilla just has to go the other way. * Jenny: Find a commonality, like I have remarkably short arms, so I will show them to Godzilla who also has short arms and we can hug each other!
Advice… * You cannot be a fake if you are named Trueheart. * Assuming you are not a serial killer and you are a good person, you want to celebrate your uniqueness. (Jenny’s) * Keep in mind that not all roller coasters are safe, you could plummet to your death. (Jenny’s) * Use the fear to fuel creativity. (mine)
Interview Links * JellyVision.com * Jenny Fukumoto’s Website * Jenny Fukumoto’s LinkedIn * Jenny Fukumoto’s Twitter Handle * Tim Trueheart’s Website * Tim Trueheart’s Twitter * Tim Trueheart’sFaceBook
Highlights * 7:58: How Tim and Jenny started this 5-year relationship from how Tim catapulted Jenny into hosting and Jenny just found that she loved it! Jenny was optimistically starting her “brick and mortar business” when Tim, of all the joints in the world had to walk into Jenny’s and as they say, the rest is history. Though she had to give up the joint after the landlord lost his patience, what she started here was what gave her solid foundation for the eventual online business. Listen to her interesting experiences as she shares the triumphs and pitfalls of a true brick and mortar business as opposed to the ephemeral online website business. What Tim and Jenny built in their dogged pursuit for business survival in the financially strapped atmosphere of 2008 has actually lived on in the artists and their creations who became members of their thriving community back then. It is a heartening story of entrepreneurs who never say die but just move on to occupy a different body when the first one dies out. * 18:55: I brainstorm with Jenny and Tim on great learning scenarios to enable children and parents learn about setting up a business, maintaining it, improving on it or just being aware of the benefits that a particular skill offers. Listen to us as we bounce ideas off each other on how to make a brick and mortar place turn up revenue while being a place where parents and kids can truly get value for their money through its classes, lectures or workshops. There are awesome ideas about doing multi potentialitites and being able to do more than one thing and be ahead of everyone! Listen to us share ideas about getting started, what it takes to put the foot forward and start that journey. Jenny has “The Tens” to help her start on whatever course she wants to go/do and her explanation of what this is all about can make a listener want to try them out immediately! * 34:07: Listen to the new angle about addiction and recovery. Tim discusses self-mastery and recognizing resistance. We really have an important discussion here about addiction and how to make mental adjustments so people can channel anxiety, anger or boredom and come up a winner over them. There is also an interesting side comment here about Arnold Schwarzenegger insight on being focused to the point of completely forgetting how it affects the people around us. * 43:07: Hey, guys! Listen to my take on getting started on anything – especially on resolving to do something that is not exactly giving instant gratification. I share my experience on resolving to get out of a 15k debt that I thought I can work off in 5 years but now I have almost 8 grand in just 5months and there is a certainty that this will all work out right and I in a few more months I do not have to sleep dead tired, enslaved to a debt. This is a truly powerful example of being focused and I share how I did it! * 58:17: Tim and Jenny share some of their thoughts about the people they have encountered in the 5 years they have been doing their podcast. It is interesting that both completely agree on the basic traits that their guests have in common to sustain their focus. There is 1 trait that stands out among these people and Tim has a pretty insightful comment about it.
Are you using your relationship or sexuality to fuel energy for magical creative experiences? If you aren’t, you better start right now! Did you know confidence, happiness, intimacy, romance, sensuality, and sexuality all tap directly into your creative forces?
Drs. Rob and Janelle Alex, Ph.D. are dedicating their marriage and their lives helping others discover the power and importance of sexuality and how it affects health, creativity, and longevity. It’s an incredible conversation full of humor, intellect, and a lifetime of values.
Rob and Janelle also explore the process of creating “magical babies” and how sexual energy can directly result in powerful visions, ideas, creativity sprees and more.
This is NOT taking the act of love to a whole new intellectual level and leaving all the fun behind! Intimacy, sensuality, and orgasm are all accounted for!
Rob and Janelle have authored 125 books together and are the co-hosts of The Spiritual Peak Center podcast, Authors Talk About It Podcast, andMission: Date Night Podcast. They have been hosting podcasts since 2011. Their online programs include Intimate Wealth™, Money Magic 90-Day Programs, 33 Days to Unleash Your Sacred + Sexy Power Animals™, Shape of Your Relationship and Transcendent Lovemaking™
To defeat Godzilla with their talents… * Janelle: We will create a sigil, do a ceremony before making love and will have amazing transcendental lovemaking experience before Rob can go out there to Godzilla, and I will record the whole thing. * Rob: I will create a love monster to come in and give Godzilla a little bit of uhm.. so Godzilla will be a little less angry.
Advice… * Laugh and have fun, even if we fall down flat on our asses. It is okay to just get back up.
Interview Links * Rob & Janelle’s Linked In * Rob and Janelle’s Twitter Handle * Rob & Janelle’s Facebook * Rob & Janelle’s Email
Bri Seeley totaled her car, and she couldn’t have been happier. She believes that things happen for a reason, and every situation is a stepping stone to a much larger plan. She lives through her vision.
She takes frequent calls early in the morning where she has conversations with her friends in future tense. She lives the life she dreams of creating because she knows it will come true if she sets her mind to it.
I am a very visionary person, and I’m also in love with prioritizing life and creating the perfect moment, every moment.
Naturally, Bri and I had a conversation of visionary fireworks.
She quit her job to pursue The Inspirational Woman Project where she interviewed 99 women about finding their inner power of inspiration. She then created a coffee table book featuring all the interviewees and successfully funded the project with a Kickstarter campaign.
Listen to this interview if you want your mind to be blown, pumped up with mega inspirational dynamite.
If you don’t listen, you are about as exciting as a dead moth on a cardboard box.
From butt-chugging and fratire to using baby cries to torture prisoners of war, my conversation with Tucker Max started out as exciting as his personality would lead you to expect. It’s a roller coaster of awesomeness on multiple levels.
Before I left Tennessee to move to Lexington (Tucker’s home town), I had a buddy request that I read Tucker’s book “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.” I did, and I praised Tucker’s ridiculous humor and shenanigans along with the rest of the world. Never did I think I’d be chatting with him four years later.
Despite the media and world perception of Tucker being a face-down pants-down raging alcoholic hellion with no respect for anything beyond bitches, hos, and blackout bonanzas, he is quite the opposite.
Most people say he’s “grown up,” but I think it’s way beyond a simple label. The dude was fucking brilliant when he released his books, and he knew exactly the effect his stories would have on the world. He knew how to make people laugh and intrigue them beyond belief. He mastered the game of publishing, selling and creating a revolutionary money-making brand.
He didn’t do this by chance.
He’s a brilliant author and entrepreneur with a drive for constant personal development and success. He always has been.
I took this episode as an opportunity to diagnose how Tucker handled his transition from college frat boy superhero to happily married father and CEO of the brilliant Book in a Box- a hands free service to turn your ideas into a published book.
I think Tucker made like $20k in the amount of time we chatted.
I also learned that I was a much heavier drinker than him in the past :X
To defeat Godzilla with his talents…
- “He is a lizard, right? Why don’t you just use ice? I mean, he must be like any other reptile. I will wait until it is night time and dump ice on him.”
Advice… * Alcohol tastes good in the mouth, I don’t need to pour it in my butt. * If you ever want to torture someone, try “baby crying” noises.
Interview Links * Book in a Box Website * Tucker’s Website * Tucker’s Facebook Page * Tucker’s Twitter Handle
Highlights * 15:15: Tucker vehemently denies that he drinks more than me but admits to having demons like everyone else. Listen to him reminisce about his way of dealing with personal demons and how he came to the realization that achieving financial success does not equate to personal happiness. Tucker, being Tucker, says he compares coming to that realization to a near-death experience with a caveat to be careful with near deaths because you might just get the death experience without the “near” part of it.
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22:22: “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” Tucker’s first book was an eye-opener except that it took him more than a decade to open his eyes to the real need to have an authoritative how-to- turn-ideas-into-a-book-without-actually-having-to-write-one. He comes up with fascinating insights on the difficulties of being a writer. Listen to how a colleague ropes Tucker into this project by pointing out the preposterous absurdity of his raison d’etre. This was the birth of Book in a Box and the amazing unfolding of this project to its eventual ground swell to some sort of writer’s bible is narrated by Tucker in his irreverent but nonetheless sincere awe for how his process actually answers a real need.
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30:05: Listen to how Book in a Box is packaged. This is bigger than itself. It is an awesome project with a complete set of services from concept to interview to outline to actual writing by someone else, to book form to publishing. Listen to Tucker get serious about how he amazes even himself with the success of this project.
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39:00: Despite Tucker’s success with Book in a Box, he wants to expand his mission and talks about his future plans. Listen to him give his no holds barred opinions of certain books that made it to the New York Bestseller List too.
At just 27 years old, Tom Corson-Knowles has written over 25 books. He is the grandmaster blaster of self-publishing, and he is teaching others all over the world how to dominate the marketing and publishing of ebooks. His course on publishing has sold over 19,000 times, and he is the best-selling author of The Book Marketing Bible, The Kindle Publishing Bible, Secrets of the Six-Figure Author, Rules of the Rich, Facebook For Business Owners, and Schedule Your Success.
He is also the founder of TCK Publishing and he host of the Publishing Profits podcast.
He is all value and no fluff, and that’s what I love about him.
In this episode, we cover Tom’s 11 steps to publishing on Kindle. Right after, I was so inspired I beasted out a 28-page ebook in just 1 weekend.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD “11 STEPS TO KINDLE PUBLISHING DOMINATION” AS HEARD ON THE PODCAST EPISODE :)! You will learn so much in this episode!
Creative Influences * Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
To defeat Godzilla with his talents…
- “I will get scientists to assess his strengths and weaknesses so I can figure out a way to defeat him.”
Advice… * If you want to be successful, ask the right questions to the right people. * Success is different for everyone. * Success is freedom.
Interview Links * Tom’s Website * Tom’s Twitter Handle * Ebook Publishing School Website * Publishing Prophets Website
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD “11 STEPS TO KINDLE PUBLISHING DOMINATION” AS HEARD ON THE PODCAST EPISODE :)!
http://www.artsynow.com/ujramdas
“If you don’t have a vision in your mind right now that is as clear as reality, then you are going to get sucked into someone else vision. Either that or you are going to be floating around in life visionless.” -UJ Ramdas
You know how I am constantly talking about visualization, the 5-minute journal, and how it has completely revolutionized my life? Well, UJ Ramdas is the dude who created the journal.
At the beginning of my journey last year, I discovered this journal through Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning (the exact system I’ve used to create my routines and habits that have set a pace for my successes.) Since, I have used the principles of the journal as an anchor for happiness and productivity.
UJ and his journal teach us the power of the mind, visualizations, and our ability to create the life we love.
By using UJ’s principles and reviewing the 5-mine journal on a daily basis, there is no way magic won’t take over your life.
Learn all about it in this phenomenal chat with UJ.
Creative Influences * The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam * The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “With a powerful explosive or something that has pyrotechnic stuff.”
Advice… * The anticipation of doing it is more pleasurable than actually doing it. * There is no reason to believe that if a person has a positive outlook, he will remain positive no matter what. * We just need to ask ourselves if we have done our best.
Interview Links * UJ Ramdas’ Website * The Five Minute Journal * UJ Ramdas’ LinkedInAccount * UJ Ramdas’ Twitter Handle
Highlights * 8:49: How the idea of the 5-minute journal came about while UJ and a friend who shared a common habit of jotting down the day’s events in a journal were bouncing off ideas, and the realization that this habit should be shared as this could help people since this habit have kept them both on track with their goals, * 10:29: How UJ came up with a system to bring motivation and therapy together, to effect behavioral change that lasts. * 14:41: Why the 5-minute journal was created to effect solid behavioral changes in one’s life, why it begin with an exercise and UJ belief that it is only through clarity that one can have peace in one’s life. The mental gymnastics that UJ has come with are simple but thought provoking mental exercises on self-awareness that few of us truly appreciate until we put them to practice, * 21:00: What the five-minute journal gives us including the key to positive thoughts through mental exercises that will not require us to go to Tibet to study meditation for years,and a tool that gives us value for time and takes us through a five-step process of attaining clarity of thought for maximum self-awareness in order to effect consistent wanted behavior, * 25:35: How the 5-minute journal makes us plan our days and guides us on how to start them with anticipation and true eagerness, since, without self-awareness, our days tend to run together in an endless pattern of meaningless repetitions, * 28:20: How the 5-minute journal is effective in making a person aware that it is behavior that either made your day a good one or a so-so one, * 32:37: Why some people believe that they are already positive creatures and do not need any more lessons on the subject and how UJ explains that it is unreasonable for anyone to expect that just because one is positive, one will remain thus forever. He explains that we are the composite of our experiences and we need refresher courses like a car’s engine needs maintenance, * 34:17: The need of man for affirmation to stay positive and how the 5-minute journal gives clear and concise instructions to address this. UJ also gives a compelling argument on how we amplify negativism through the setting of impossible goals for ourselves and advises to go for small but attainable goals, * 38:40: Why, at the end of the day, the 5 minute journal is our truth serum; his warning of the trap we set on ourselves – of being too hard on ourselves, of expecting too much from ourselves and his advice on how the 5-minute journal is only a tool to evaluate our behavior for the day and not a tool for self-flagellation, and * 42:00: The revelation of two of the best people he could hope to take an interest on his work:Hal Elrod and Tim Ferriss, how they got to know of his 5-minute journal and the heartening way they had been so outspoken in their support of this work.
www.artsynow.com/georgholzmann
If you are interested in podcasting..today is your lucky day!
I’ve been anticipating this conversation for a while, and I’m proud to have finally connected with Georg Holzmann, the founder and creator of Auphonic.com.
Georg has accomplishments that blow most dreams out of the water. He is from Graz, Austria and is the mastermind behind the development of the super sweet podcast and audio tool called Auphonic. Georg develops next generation audio algorithms using a combination of music information retrieval, machine learning, signal processing and big data to create automatic audio post production software for broadcasters, podcasts, radio shows, movies, audio books, lecture recordings, screencasts and more.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I would play a very loud tone to smash his brain.”
Advice… * If it’s done, it is not too difficult anymore.
Interview Links * Auphonic and Loudness Standards with Georg Holzmann * Georg’s Twitter Handle * Auphonic Website * Georg’s Blog
Highlights * 7:09: About Georg, the creator of Auphonic, the very system that I use for my podcasts and how he been fascinated with sounds and sound processing even as a child. How his love of music, the advent of new technology and easy access to information via the Internet have taken Georg and to new heights of creativity to improve sound production, * 11:48: How being an enthusiastic podcast listener has enabled Georg to recognize the challenges faced by podcast users and how it dawned on him that he could do something about this in a really significant way, hence, the conceiving of Auphonic, * 14:28: What Auphonic is: the actualization of Georg’s desire to enhance the quality of the delivery of sound to the listener, to save time on uploads and generally making it easier for the user to work on his show – just as I discovered to my delight, * 19:00: The increase in volume of users which dismayed Georg the first time because he suddenly realized the amount of service required until he got the scales right and reacted accordingly;and how Georg ran into trouble when radio stations start to use a big amount of files, and just keeping abreast of the service would require endless working hours, and * 27:20: Georg’s future plans, which sounded like a Herculean list of tasks, including more enhancements for Auphonic such as adding more languages and more new algorithms, a desk version of the system and about a hundred other innovations with me doing my best to convince Georg to turn his brilliant mind to an app like “podclear” and add or combine it with Auphonic to save me a lot of time when doing my podcasts.
—> Download the FREE mp3 of “Blind” from Kyle’s album “Strength of the Absurd” here! <— There is magic in everyone, and Kyle Scott is absolutely putting his to use. Connected to me via Kristin Keen of Rethreaded, he’s contributing his life to causes much larger than himself.
In this episode, we dive into Kyle’s transition from Indiana to India and his experience with the world changing Sari Bari. Through arts and crafts, Sari Bari is committed to helping victims of the sex trade discover new opportunity away from the dark world they know. Working with Sari Bari inspired Kyle to create an album under the name ‘Kamal’ which was given to him by the women of Sari Bari.
I love Kyle’s description of the process, so I only feel it is necessary to share it here:
“I began writing some of these songs over five years ago in India. Because most of the music on this album was inspired by those in Kolkata who called me Kamal, it only felt natural to embrace the moniker musically. The name has become very dear to me, especially when spoken by the women of Sari Bari. Along with listening to the record, I would encourage you to take a moment and learn more about the incredible women who inspired much of the music at www.saribari.com”
“Strength of the Absurd” is a phrase I stumbled upon in Soren Kierkegarrd’s book Fear and Trembling. From the moment I read the phrase, I knew the words were right. They embodied a feeling, a stubbornness in me that I couldn’t put into words myself. There is a certain “foolishness” with which I see the present and look to the future. At the end of each day, I can’t help but rest my hat on the absurd. It is a paradigm I now cannot escape, a posture which has grown out my time alongside the women of Sari Bari.
In the face of tremendous courage and suffering, I sat down and penned some verses, songs that begged for something more and marveled at the strength of those who tirelessly believed in it. This music will forever remind me of the fact that the unknown and unseen, which haunted me in the past, are now the sinews that hold me together in the present. ”
Kyle…you are the dude, dude. Stream the full album now.
Creative Influences * Bob Dylan * Sam Beam * Ryan Adams
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I will play him a slow song and put him to sleep.”
Advice… * Life has been a series of happenstances. * Experience is a catharsis; it is therapeutic. * Positivism can get you to your goal. * Believe in the impossible. * If you look at the enormity of the problem, it looks impossible. So look at the smaller picture and tackle just the smaller one. * There is a new frontier out there on the net; go out there and you can make anything happen with your artwork.
Interview Links * Kyle’s Website * Stream the Album “Strength of the Absurd” * Kyle’s at Jimpstudio * Kyle’s LinkedIn Profile * Kyle’s Facebook Account
Highlights * 14:50: The evolution of Kyle’s album being a five-year journey of searching for meaning, from his safe college life in the US, to Honduras, to India and back to the US, * 16:32: Why Kyle is thankful for the chance to visit India and how it has impacted his life, influenced his music and changed his view of what he could live with or without, * 24:45: About Sari Bari, a women’s center in India for victims of the flourishing global sex trade; and how his stint as its administrative and financial personnel provided him with indispensable experience that opened his eyes to how it is with the less privileged, the least empowered and the truly oppressed, * 31:54: How he humorously explains his ambivalent emotional response to the name given to him (Kamal, meaning “Lotus Flower” in Bengalese) by the women of Sari Bari and how he came to the decision to use it as his name for his album, * 39:27: The lucky break that came his way when he made a video of his album and placed it on Kickstarter, * 43:11: How Kyle demonstrates quite effectively in his album that experience is a catharsis and that it should not be a crippling thing and how he expresseshisadmiration, passion and respect for the women of Sari Bari through music and lyrics, * 45:22: A background on Kyle’s album title, “Strength of the Absurd”, why it is such an apt title for what Kyle wants to happen to people when they experience the paralysis of gut-wrenching problems, and his explanation on how he finds therapeutic value in being able to create music, and * 48:42: The abundance that is synonymous with America, the disorientation this can bring to anyone who has seen the poverty and oppression of people in other countries and about his future plans for his music and the freedom that he gets from it.
—> Download the FREE mp3 of “Blind” from Kyle’s album “Strength of the Absurd” here! <—
Get the step by step sequence Bram used to get 35k website visitors upon launch in just 48 hours!
Overnight success takes ten years in the making, but it sure as hell peaks its head out a little early on some occasions.
Bram Kanstein is in the aftermath of one of the most successful Product Hunt launches of all time, and he's here to tell you exactly how he did it.
Bram is the founder of StartupStash.com, a website of goodies for startups and entrepreneurs that hit 290 up votes on ProductHunt.com and 2.6k unique visitors within the first four hours. At one point, Business Insider wrote a story about Startup Stash and it triggered over 300 views/minute.
All of this didn't just happen by chance. Bram used his mastermind to devise a plan for his launch with a relentless pursuit of any success. Hold onto your boxers and panties because he's dropping value bombs left and right in this episode. (free-ballers.. we've got love for you too :) )
Cheers, Bram.
To defeat Godzilla with his talents...
- "Do something with his short hands. Take him down with his handicap."
Advice... * Some people spend too much time looking for something when that something is right below their noses. * Anyone looking to build an app should really understand how to do it because it is simply expanding one’s own solution. * The best way to get feedback is by leveraging your own possibilities. * Don’t be afraid to ask; you never know what that person may know or who he knows * You don’t want to build an app that resembles a big app and you know you will never be bigger than that app. * Be involved so you know the people and you have a base. * Most ideas start when you are not behind your computer. * Bram’s personal favorite tools: MailChimp.com, Twitter.com, Slack.com, Trello.com and Marvelapp.com
Interview Links * StartupStash Website * Bram’s Twitter Account * Bram’s Website * Bram’s Product Hunt Account * Bram’s LinkedIn Account
Highlights * 9:40: What Startup Stashis: an for app builders to use when starting an app and initially conceived as an app that anyone can basically click with 10 suggestions on what to use, * 12:01: How Startup Stash came about including that it was a result of an idea for a directory that would make information more manageable, very much like a list of tools and resources, * 14:15: How Startup Stash started by outlining 50 categories for its tools and filling out 40 categories with 10 products per category, * 15:50: WhatBetaList.com was used for including sending out feelers through the use of excel sheets and though time consuming, why it was worthwhile because data can be imported to the website and it got them 700 subscribers, * 17:02: The way Startup Stash was made, which was mainly through focusing on its content and then creating a landing page for it, when it was launched and how it immediately went viral, * 22:40: The unexpected reaction of companies and sites which brought about a surprise bonus of adding companies and sites to the tool list in Startup Stash (The companies thought it was great being featured in Startup Stash and Tweeted the app to their members and their members tweeted it to their friends), * 24:33: The amazing numbers Startup Stash garnered after 4 hours of launching: 290 uploads, 26,000 unique visitors and 60,000 page visitors, * 26:00: The press Bram was able to garner including Business Insider and ProductHunt.com, * 32:08: The best ways to get feedback, why timing is a big part of launching a product and mistakes people make when starting to make an app, and * 39:28: Why Twitter is the best starting point for anyone looking to build a course.
http://www.artsynow.com/annajh
Download the free guide "8 Ways to Use Fear for Fuel in Creativity" now!
YEEEEEEEES! You are SO welcome here.
As an artist, and usually any type of creative, there is a daily battle against resistance, fear and even self-confidence. As creatives, we manifest our entire lives through art because we truly LOVE it. Creation is a part of us, and without it..we would feel lifeless.
Sadly enough, artists are expected to conform to guidelines, rules, and structure when it comes to methods of creating. More than ever, artists are ashamed of admitting their relentless desire to live through their passion. The media sabotages the meaning of "art" and floods the label onto anything and everything possible, seriously handicapping the world's perception of every unique production of our subconscious.
Anna JH is super charismatic Founder of Creoddity.com, and she's leading a charge to help other artists gain the confidence and means to live through their passion. She's a multi-talented artist with an amazing sense of humor, and she's bringing her 'creoddity' to others just like her to bring confidence, pride, and beauty back to the foundation of creativity.
Anna is truly remarkable with a super bright and colorful personality. I'm so excited to introduce her to you.. !! :) !! :) !!
To defeat Godzilla with her talents... * "I will definitely have to throw paint on his face.”
Advice... * An art gallery is where you go to look at the people and not the art. * Great art is capturing something that cannot be captured any other way. * What you want is on the outside of fear. * The good things that happen, happen in the most random of ways. * There is no excuse not to do something. * Stop being a wimp!
Interview Links * Anna’s Email Address * Creoddity Twitter Handle * Anna’s Twitter Handle * Creoddity’s YouTube Account
Highlights * 10:30 : Creoddity as a social platform for unknown artists being, in Anna’s case, the painters, sketchers and basically anyone else who puts their art on paper as opposed to musicians or writers, * 12:55: Creodddity as a creative community wherein members help and support each other get past their fears of going public with their creations or just simply allow a debate to get over artistic frustrations, * 13:25: The epiphany that Anna heard when she realized that painting is what she wants and what she will do for the rest of her life, driving her to ensure that she can make money out of it, * 14:00: The frustration of finding out that there were so few free opportunities for new artists to market their talent or products, * 14:55: The art society that Anna’s locality was made up of -- mostly people with graying hair that she felt she could not fit in being only 25, * 15:45: About the publication of art through Twitter and how it became the predecessor of Creoddity by providing information on making the most tools available to artists, * 18:12: The gratification that one can feel or get when people share a video you have made, * 20:00: Embracing social media and doing it properly by having a Twitter page because it is possible to share art and get feedback y connecting/interacting with other artists, * 22:30:The typical artist’s fear of getting negative feedback and what she did to surpass this: think positive because from her experience, the majority of community members are more supportive than negative, * 26:02: The great satisfaction in knowing that somebody appreciates your work, even if it is only one person sharing a video you have done, * 27:15: Another typical fear of an artist: the feeling of shame to admit to something as mundane as wanting to make money out of their art, * 28:35: Expounding on the needs for artists’ education to cover lessons on how to market their product or provide the tools necessary to market their products, * 30:00: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all social media platforms that an artist can use to publicize what he does or what he can do, * 32:40: The driving force of Creoddity and the usual stereotypes of artists, * 40:00: What art is for her and the people who influenced Anna when she was 16-18 in Britain and how they made her think out of the box so much so that all the confidence she has now, she owes it to them, * 45:16: The art found in YouTube.com/Creoddity, which covers drawing tips, portrait ideas and funny videos about art and the art world, * 50:55: Tips on handling creativity blocks including not trying too hard because it will just make it harder and latching on to what you are feeling and using it, * 53:12: The dilemna between wanting to create art and having to consider something as mundane as financial matters, * 57:52: Artists joining a social community for various reasons: some to get feedback, some to get recognition, others simply to get together with people sharing the same interest, and * 59:00: Ana’stips to be organized including keeping a list or writing down random ideas on a roll of paper.
http://www.artsynow.com/wp-admin
Most lifestyle entrepreneurs crave the dream of freeing ourselves from financial imbalance, stress, and hand ties. We want a life full of passion and meaning, and it's certainly possible, but it all starts with creating a business foundation that is scalable and financially sound, even when we step away to enjoy the world!
Evelyn Ivy is the Founder of Lifestyle CPA and the author of Lifestyle Entrepreneurship: A CPA's Perspective. She specializes in the five levels of lifestyle entrepreneurship and how to increase your margins and remove yourself from your business.
Evelyn is a CPA, has a Master's in Business, a Master's in Accounting, a Master's in Educational Technology, along with a few Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and Business.
Creative Influences * Rich Dad, Poor Dad
One hour to create something, with anyone... * "It’s my dream to have an empire so if I can have Warren Buffet as an adviser, that would be great."
To defeat Godzilla with her talents... * “If he would listen and sit down, I will tell him the cost of his destruction and tell him that I can help him turn things around for his benefit.”
Advice... * I need freedom but I also need the money to finance my freedom. * You have to have a solid marketing base. You have to have a steady stream of clients, you need to know how to read the numbers,manage your metrics and know how to plan basing on that. * Start small and build gradually. * You cannot work just to make enough money to earn a living. You are never going to grow. * Its trial and error but the key is knowing how to package your services and product and knowing how to sell it.
Interview Links * Evelyn’s Website * Evelyn’s Twitter Handle * Evelyn’s Email
Highlights * 09:19 : Where the whole concept of starting a lifestyle business came from, how she started breaking free from her 9 to 5, and the challenges she faced early on especially with having just three clients, * 11:33 : Things she put in place to cut back on her lifestyle to help her business grow including moving to Springfield where the cost of living is low and keeping a budget, * 14:54 : The freedom that a savings account can do for you, the methods she has in place in saving and the different savings she has including emergency, travel, automated and ‘just-because’ savings, * 18:04 : The main benefits of Evelyn’s lifestyle and a success story from a client she had helped in the past, * 19:57 : How you can start building your path from simply earning a living to going out and being financially independent by starting small and planning well, * 24: 11 : Packaging your product and services towards the liking of your customer and the techniques she uses in getting to know what her customers want, and * 26:45 :How minimalism can work for business as well and the most common issues Evelyn sees in her clients including subscriptions, info products, and buying items that don’t sell.
As promised in the show, you can download your free pdf guide with all of our methods, tips, and tools discussed in the episodes here -> How to Make More Time For Creatitivities – 20+ Time Hacks, Productivity Tricks, Lifestyle Practices and More Today is a bright day!
I am humbled to have connected with the brilliant and multi-talented Kent Sanders on the show, and we masterminded our way to two hours of struggles, victories, and incredible processes on how to make time for your creative side.
Kent and I put our champion hats on and combined topics of his powerful extended ebook ’How to Make Time for Your Art’ with our inner experiences on the subject, including the strategies and tools we use to accomplish extreme productivity, allowing us to spend more time with the therapy of creation.
Kent is a multi-creative, working in music, arts, writing and teaching, and he is very specific when it comes to drilling down to the needs of artists.
In this show, we dive into HUGE value by discussing 20+ ways to make time for creating in a two-part beastly episode.
This free guide was built as a basis of our combined input on the episode, and we broke each topic down and added actionable steps and tools that we both use to clear up more time for creating.
Also, Kent is giving our listeners his free ebook “5 Steps to De-Clutter Your Workspace” on his website here:http://www.kentsanders.net/artrepreneur-podcast/ This episode was so beastly, I had to break it down into two separate releases. Part 1 is posted seperately :)
http://www.artsynow.com/kentsanders
As promised in the show, you can download your free pdf guide with all of our methods, tips, and tools discussed in the episodes here -> How to Make More Time For Creatitivities – 20+ Time Hacks, Productivity Tricks, Lifestyle Practices and More Today is a bright day!
I am humbled to have connected with the brilliant and multi-talented Kent Sanders on the show, and we masterminded our way to two hours of struggles, victories, and incredible processes on how to make time for your creative side.
Kent and I put our champion hats on and combined topics of his powerful extended ebook ’How to Make Time for Your Art’ with our inner experiences on the subject, including the strategies and tools we use to accomplish extreme productivity, allowing us to spend more time with the therapy of creation.
Kent is a multi-creative, working in music, arts, writing and teaching, and he is very specific when it comes to drilling down to the needs of artists.
In this show, we dive into HUGE value by discussing 20+ ways to make time for creating in a two-part beastly episode.
This free guide was built as a basis of our combined input on the episode, and we broke each topic down and added actionable steps and tools that we both use to clear up more time for creating.
Also, Kent is giving our listeners his free ebook “5 Steps to De-Clutter Your Workspace” on his website here:http://www.kentsanders.net/artrepreneur-podcast/ This episode was so beastly, I had to break it down into two separate releases. Check back on Monday for Part 2 of the episode
http://www.artsynow.com/kentsanders
http://www.artsynow.com/mattweir
Last fall I was working around my house when I saw a late-night special on the tube with a sculpture that was blowing my mind with his talent. Luckily, it showed he was in Louisville KY which immediately gave me a spark to reach out and see if I could get him on this show.
I’ve always been fascinated with the arts, but sculpting in particular really fascinates me.
After a few months, Matt reached back out and we were able to collaborate on this episode. It’s hilarious how small the world is, because just a few minutes into our conversation, I realized that Matt had traveled to Costa Rica with Lindsay’s parents (my gf).
How insane is that??
Anyway, Matt’s talents are astonishing and highly praised. I don’t really have to say much about him..just look at his work..
We talk processes, techniques, evolution, pushing away from the religion and parent mold, and keeping focus on creating.
Creative Influences * Craig Kaviar * The Bright Foundry * On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin * The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I would make a nice, well-crafted female Godzilla to distract him and I would sneak around him when he goes for the female Godzilla”
Advice… * Art making is great but artists also make waste not just in great sculpture but also in bad sculpture. All of it is essentially our footprint. * I think about materials as an author might about words, sentences,chapters of a bookand characters in a story. The more I diversify, the more languages I speak, the more I can compose a concept to the most diverse audience. * Science is a profound thing and a lot of people don’t know about it. If they did, lots of things in the world would change. * Self-sustainability is death. If you are not working with a community, you will have no connections to the world around you and so you are dead. It’s a terrible state. * Create like a god, command like a king and work like a slave. –Constantin Brâncuși
Interview Links * Matt’s Website * Matt’s Email * Earth Measure by Matt Weir * BFA Exhibition Show – Reproduction Stress and the Death Drive: Go with the Flow
“My creations are based upon in-depth research and visualizations which are birthed into material form through the use of color, line, and symbol.
My hope is that they will entice you to think, feel, pray or contemplate the many ways in which Spirit and Beauty permeate our world.”
We all have our ups and downs, and Damon Powell has most certainly discovered the light in situations that once seemed so dark. As an artist and a Theologian, he is constantly exploring deep and emotional experiences that bleed right onto the canvas of his work.
I am such a fan; I’ve had one of his paintings set as my desktop wallpaper since I last talked with him.
“All of my visual works are birthed from a deep understanding of the myriad ways that the spiritual and aesthetic intersect. These spiritual insights are often gained through prayer, meditation, or readings and research into various theological and philosophical texts. Each piece is based upon in-depth research and visualizations, which are birthed into material form through the use of color, line, and symbol. Many of my creations are attempts to convey complex theological concepts through provocative visual form. My hope is that they will entice you to think, feel, pray, or contemplate the many ways in which Spirit and Beauty permeate our world.”
Powerful, dude.
Creative Influences * Albrecht Durer * Da Vinci * Michelangelo * Aaron Douglas * Coltrane
One hour to create something, with anyone… * “I would want to do an editorial illustration with Nikki Giovanni and illustrate one of her poems.”
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I would draw a giant skyscraper over the edge of a cliff and when he charges in, he would fall through down to his death.!”
Advice… * Symbols can communicate in a lot of ways which you can’t even say in words. * You do more than you can say. * Everything is aesthetics. Aesthetics is not just about beauty, it’s about relationships and harmony. * Stick to your guns and put it out there. You never know what somebody’s going to like. * It is possible and it is not easy but if you want it bad enough and you get the right support, you can do it. * When one door closes, another one opens but sometimes you’re not looking as you are still looking back at the other door. You got to turn around. * You can divorce art from religion, but you can’t divorce religion from art. * Don’t give up and never stop believing that you can.
Interview Links * Damon’s Website * Damon’s Facebook Page * Damon’s Twitter * Damon’s Blog
Highlights * 06:48 : Sparking his creativity during his childhood, trying out music but finding his niche more in the art world, and how his art is influenced by his educational background, doctrine and his training, * 11:24 : Why he finds meditation as a necessity when preparing to do his art, the stories and concepts behind his works, and the most important things he learned in the programs that he went through, * 15:35 : About his online gospel radio station and how it keeps him grounded, * 16:47 : The tough situations that he sometimes goes through and what helps him get back into the flow, * 18:25 : His major goal of leaving his day job and the steps and methods he has in place to get to this goal, * 22:32 : The mediums he use for his art and the processes he has in place when creating them from concept, research, sketching, composition, layout, up to narrowing down the medium to use, * 27:15 : About a particular instance that he was emotionally attached to his work and how hard it was to let go with peace until he completed the whole series, * 28:54 : The meaning behind some of the symbols he incorporates in his work and why he finds it useful and important to insert them in, and * 31:21 : A brief overview of his past struggles and how he got over his burden and towards sobriety.
http://www.artsynow.com/fitspark
SO! Feeling drowsy? Is your energy tanking towards the big stinky garbage can? You want to feel fit, healthy, and on top of the world, but you just don’t have any time?
Today is your lucky day.
No joke, Tammy Uyeda has created an app that will solve your problem. Not only did she build it to solve her problem, but also the app directly correlates to anyone who thinks they don’t have time to work out and feel awesome.
Tammy is a Physiotherapist, Certified Group Fitness Instructor, and mom of three busy kids, so she knows what it’s like to feel too busy to boogie with the fitness.
FitSpark is a revolutionary, new high intensity interval training (HIIT) fitness app that helps to eliminate barriers to exercise:
- Short, fast, efficient workouts (only 7 – 20 minutes long!)
- Requires little to no exercise equipment
- No membership required
- Hundreds of videos provide new workout options each time!
In this episode, we dive into the importance of health and the process of creating the app (despite Tammy having 0 previous app experience.)
Get ready to fist pump.
Creative Influences * Chalene Johnson’s Marketing Impact Academy, Smart Success Seminar * Amy Porterfield
One hour to create something, with anyone… * “The FitSpark health is my main parent company and I would like to spend more time in developing the bridge between fitness and physical therapy and really give people the tools they need to maintain and improve their health.”
To defeat Godzilla with her talents… * “Burpee challenge! Let’s go, right now, Godzilla!”
Advice… * I just want to make it easy for people and reduce the barriers to exercise because once you have any barrier at all, it becomes the barrier that you cannot exercise. * I found out how important mentors are and how it’s valuable to have people around me that are willing to share their expertise with me. It’s been key to getting me this far and keeping me sane. * The power of the internet is amazing. No matter what specialty or what interest you have, there’s possibly there. * The key is just being realistic about what you can accomplish. Don’t do number two until you finish number one. * Time and time again in my life I see that, if something didn’t work, something else will come that is better, and so I don’t dwell in the fact that I have failures. I just keep going and realize that it wasn’t meant to be. I just keep my face to the sun. * I have such a belief in active lifestyle, in preventing injury and minimizing illness that that’s truly where my heath lies right now. * Moderation is key.
Interview Links * FitSpark Website * FitSpark Twitter * FitSpark Facebook * Tammy’s Instagram * Tammy’s Twitter * Tammy’s Email Address
Highlights * 05:48 : A rundown of what the FitSpark app is all about, Tammy’s goals in coming up with the app and how it can help you be motivated and accountable for you to keep on working out regularly, * 09:36 : The benefits of exercise and how it impacted her productivity and why we should remove the barriers and our excuses in not exercising, * 13:56 : Her background and specialties, how she started getting presence in social media, and how a homework project evolved to designing an app, * 20:37 : The process of going from idea to fruition including steps such as beta testing and daily meetings hammering the details of the app, * 23:58 : What the name FitSpark stands for her and the hardest things she had encountered during the whole development process, * 26:00 : How she manages being a mother of three, having a day job and being an entrepreneur, * 35:13 :Why she treats failures as things you simply have to learn in life, and * 37:44 : What she does in combination to diet and fitness and how she balances both through moderation.
Currently Creating in: United States About a year ago I evaluated that I was tired, overworked, unhappy, lost and ultimately living a life of nonstop drifting through procrastination, pointless routines and a very bright corporate American future.
A few months later, I sorted out my “crazy” and “unrealistic” visions and pledged to battle resistance and trek towards the life I once thought was impossible.
One of the “unrealistic” visions that I have been dedicating the last year (and all future years) to is creating a life of location independence and traveling the world. I want to (and will) taste the creativity of all cultures and landscapes that stretch across the globe. I will play my part in changing the world.
About 4 months ago I came across a podcast that has undoubtedly 100x’d my drive to make this vision a reality (like when you dominate coins in Sonic), and I’m honored and bit anxious to introduce you to the dude behind the magic.
Jason Moore is the founder of the Zero to Travel Podcast andZerototravel.com, the co-founder of LocationIndie.com, and a champion of all things digital nomadic, location independent, travel hacking, and awesomeness. He has an unbelievable talent for sharing his experiences and ramping up the education of anyone who might be interested an on-the-go lifestyle of fist pumping and epic scenery.
I tried my best to get a summary of all the incredible topics that Jason regularly covers on his podcast and website for this show while also diving into his story and how his baller lifestyle came to fruition. World domination, travel hacking, budget traveling, wonders of the world, fist pumping and everything in between, here’s to Mother Earth.
Creative Influences * The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin * The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmers
Advice… * Travel does a lot of things. One thing it can do is make you introspective because you find ways to communicate with people. * Travel is something that can open up a whole new world, artistically, creatively and personally and can be fulfilling in so many ways. * The reality can be your dream, depending on what you want. * It’s all about setting yourself up with the ability to do what you do from anywhere. * It’s all about consistency, persistence and taking action when it comes to these things [travel]. If technology is not limiting you, you don’t want to limit yourself by not taking advantage of what’s out there. * Travel is definitely something you can do and is not as expensive as you think.
Interview Links * Zero to Travel Website * You Tube Site * Facebook Site * Twitter Account * Jason’s Email * Extra Pack of Peanuts Website * Location Indie Website
HIGHLIGHTS
- 09:53 : Why travel is hugely inspirational and important for Jason and how necessary it is for him to have creative outlets,
- 11:12 : The things you can get out of travelling, the whole new world it can open for you and how it can be fulfilling artistically, creatively and personally if you conquer your fear of travel,
- 13:55 : His background, the misconceptions he learned about travel, the turning point in his life when he decided to commit to the idea of travelling, landing in the event marketing industry which paved the way for him to pursue his goals and the rest of the story of how he got wrapped up with the nomadic lifestyle,
- 21:38 : The awesome benefits, as well as the set of challenges, of having a location independent lifestyle and the keys in pulling off running a business on the road,
- 27:19 : Different people he had met during his travels, the different ways they made money as nomad entrepreneurs or artists and examples of the things they have accomplished,
- 33:08 : Great tips and tricks to travelling to places in as little budget as possible including airfare and credit card travel hacks, manufactured spending, travelling during shoulder seasons, being ‘incognito’ when using your browsers, and
- 48:49 : Some of his favorite places that he had visited including Argentina, Buenos Aires, and Norway.
Currently Creating in: Ireland “Every day I wake, I am so thankful for the life I have, my amazing husband, Paul, who supports me in everything I do and I have been gifted with this amazing opportunity to help others prevent and recover from illness. I work on all areas of nutrition. So whether you’re lacking energy, recovering from cancer, or a sports enthusiast looking to perform better, I am here to help.” – Jenny McElvaney
You know those people who you meet for a reason? I think Jenny is that person for a massive amount of people – past, present and future.
She is dedicating her life every day to establish a new awareness for health and nutrition amongst her family, friends, audience and anyone in the world who is willing to listen.
In 2009, at the age of 35, only eight weeks before she was due to get married, Jenny was diagnosed with a rare form of Breast Cancer. She was told the only preventative measure was major surgery.
With the guidance of a nutritional doctor across the seas in Florida, Jenny decided to take her life into her hands and to use food and lifestyle changes as her medicine.
With this, she discovered immediate changes in her energy, clarity, mental well-being, hair, skin and overall health.
“Cancer isn’t a death sentence,it’s a life changing opportunity. It opened my eyes to life and all the wonderful things that come with it, and learning about nutrition has been one of them. I spent almost 20 years in the multinational industry and as my health changed, so did my perspective. The work was challenging and rewarding, but it wasn’t “me”. So today, I run my own Nutrition Clinic and am also working on qualifying as a Personal Trainer.”
If you’ve listened to my show before, you know how excited and motivated I get to talk about Health and its overall effect on every aspect of our lives. I am truly humbled to have connected with Jenny in this episode of the podcast, and I look forward to many more holistic conversations with her in the very near future.
Jenny, you are doing an angel’s work.
To defeat Godzilla with her talents…
- “I would invite him to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day and would give him some green Guinness and get him some really good quality Irish food.”
Advice… * A lot of people wait until they get sick to look for help around their diet and they just get caught up in the whole rat race and just work and sleep and don’t realize that their body is all they have. * Try and eat local. * Taking baby steps, even one step a week, towards the right direction is better than nothing at all. Eventually, your whole life will transform. * Spend your money wisely. Spent it on good quality products that you can afford. * We need variety. Eat the rainbow, eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can.
Interview Links * Jenny’s Website * Jenny’s Twitter * Jenny’s Facebook * Manufacturers Replace BPA with Still Highly Toxic BPS
HIGHLIGHTS:
- 08:00 : Starting off with her story on how she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in 2009, making the decision to respect her body more by not going through the surgery of removing her ovaries and breasts and changing her diet, lifestyle and mindset overnight, and helping transform other people’s lives as well by becoming a nutritional therapist,
- 13:00 : The common things she wants to flag people such as substituting fruits and vegetables with supplements, eating low fat diets, consuming lots of bread and unhealthy snacks on the run,
- 18:26 : Things we should be eating more often, primarily vegetables and things we should be doing more such as reading labels on sugar and fat content,
- 23:46 : The nutritional benefits of meat and which types you should go for,
- 26:50 : Why we should avoid fastfood and stick with the healthy options, and where we can start if we want to transform our lifestyles,
- 33:35 : The importance of water and how it relates to our health and energy, the kinds you should be getting, the quantity you should be consuming, and how you’d know if you are hydrating the right way, and
- 38:45 :Actionable meal plans and what to look for when you are putting your meals together.
iTunes | Play on Soundcloud
Currently Creating in: United States & Ireland What are the two driving force behind connecting you to your audience? Most would argue trust, but David Nihill is certain it’s humor. I think I agree with David.
He is the master of causing a ruckus among the crowd after a show, allowing them to feel as one with his message ultimately channeled through hilarity and the assassination of ‘boring.’
Oh yea, he’s fundamentally teaching others how to do the same thing. If you want to take your audience to another level, David is your new Daddy. He might not change your diaper, but he sure will spank you into success if you need it.
He’s a comedian and a public speaker geared to helping others transition from the struggle of feeling terrified in front of an audience to walking around with massive fists pumping in extreme satisfaction, just as he did.
Like most of us, he found his corporate job so terribly boring that he was falling asleep without even having a reason to feel tired. Enough was enough, and he established Funny Bizz to help others like him create the life they love, full of laughter and excitement.
He’s traveling around the world, running his conference, writing books and dominating so much it’s funny. See what I did there?
Awesome episode.
Creative Influences * The 10,000 Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell * Kenny Robinson * James Altucher’s How to Self-Publish a Bestseller: Publishing 3.0 * Tim Ferriss’ The Four Hour Work Week * J. Jacobs
One hour to create something, with anyone... * "I love everything that Tim Ferriss has put together so I’d love to pick his brain on a lot of stuff."
To defeat Godzilla with his talents... * “I’d default to my stereotypical advantages and bring him to an Irish back, feed him way too much Guinness and wait until he falls asleep drunk.”
Advice... * We are hardwired to remember story. If you give me a number of facts in any way, it is not as memorable when you present those facts and bundle them as a story. * Brevity is levity. Get to the point quicker. * Make your story relatable so you can find your own voice quicker. * Just get started. Whether it’s your own blog or something, you just need to get some content out there. If you have self-confidence issues, do it under a fake name. * When you find something that you are passionate about, there’s no more getting burned out, you just love doing it. The line that separates work and passion blurs into one that you just get excited about with what you are working on and get lost in it.
Interview Links * Book link here * Blog link here * Conference and FunnyBizz here * Udemy course link here with 25% off * FunnyBizz Website
Highlights * 18:18 : The fun he had working with Funny Bizz and the core goals of the company, * 09:35 : A background on his career experiences and how he fell into writing despite being dyslexic and public speaking despite the fear of being in front of an audience, * 12:36 : The process he went through in starting, marketing and publishing his book in Udemy, * 14:14 : The power of storytelling and humor and why they are essential for content developers, * 15:39 : The needs David identified upon coming up with Funny Bizz as a platform for comedians and public speakers and how they went about to set their services up to help their target market, * 18:33 : The techniques they teach to people in crafting a more memorable story including funneling, linking your own personal stories in your content, making the stories relevant to your audience, * 22:07 : Steps he put in place to rocket his book to bestseller status including giving away free codes in Reddit and the other aspects he tackled in the book to propel you to become a more effective public speaker, * 27:16 : David’s advice on how you can get started if you are interested in content development including testing the waters, using a pen name, and just getting your word out there to get feedback, * 33:20 : How he went about travelling to 40 countries by outsourcing and building passive income streams and the lessons he learned during this time, and * 41:09 :The thing that burnt him out more than anything and how things can change for you as well.
The setting: Forecastle Music Festival, 2014 Louisville, KY
“I have to get that dude on my show!” – me
“Who?” – Lindsay
“That baller in the yellow shart.com dress over there! Look how brilliant that marketing is!! I think I’ve seen him in a yellow speedo before.” –me
“Oh my god yea- that dude! I see that yellow bug he drives everywhere…” – Lindsay
“Genius,” – me
“Guinness? Yes..that too.”
This is precisely the exact conversation Lindsay and I had when gazing amongst the fantastic people watching of the stellar festival last summer. At the pinnacle of the entire crowd was the man, the myth, the notorious legend Todd Schleuning, marketing his startup like the fearless champion that he is. I salute you, sir.
Well, I fulfilled my wish and was able to bring the mack-daddy-daddy-mack Todd on the show for a blast of a conversation about his super creative t-shirt framing startup Shart.com. From Phish, Jeff Tweedy, Jenny Lewis and Reinwolf to the process of planning out an idea and kickstarting a creative business, there is a never a dull moment in this episode
I admire Todd and Cheryl’s drive and inspiration, but most of all their ability to recognize the importance of establishing ongoing creativity in the process of raising their family. The co-authored “The Misphits: Story of Snake,” which they hope will be the first in a series of children’s books, and they boldly include their children in their shart.com family marketing efforts.
Sherman, Sheryl, Shoney, Shoney and SherkinShart are here to take over the world in the cleverest way possible.
Creative Influences
- Wilco
- Jeff Tweedy
- Modest Mouse
- My Morning Jacket
- Jake Bugg
- Reignwolf
To defeat Godzilla with his talents… * “I will just lay down in a fetal position, it’s Godzilla! Or, I can make him laugh or give him a Shart.com t-shirt.”
Advice… * In writing, there are no rules. You can create something and do whatever you want. * To be able to be honest in business is great. * Have the ability to talk to people and be comfortable doing it. * Go after any free money you can, do these pitches. * Get out there and go crazy.
Interview Links * Shart’s Website * The Misphits Website * Shart’s Facebook Page * Shart’s Twitter Page * Tood’s LinkedIn Profile
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Todd:
- 19:09 : About The Misphits, the trait and values they aim to spread through the book and what he loved most about writing it,
- 21:24 : Being a role model to his three girls and the part they played in daddy’s achievements,
- 24:06 : Finding crowd funding platforms to be useful in his projects: Fiber for Shart and using Kickstarter to raise funds for The Misphits project and ending doing a second run when their first did not turn out as successful due to raising the goal too high,
- 28:25 : The process of getting Shart together including decisions to be made in purchasing the domain and getting the best business ideas from a drunk teenager,
- 36:48 : Sharing more of his previous Kickstarter campaign experience and things you should know if you are looking into doing one such as doing tons of research,
- 42:46 : About Shart and how a Woodstock 1994 t-shirt birthed the idea of the project,
- 46:57 : The habits he has in place to help him out in is daily routines including honesty, consistencyand organization,
- 54:51 : Sharing best practices which worked for him including learning how to pitch, using unique marketing styles and leveraging social media, and
- 1:00:50 :Recalling the first creative thing he did and the most difficult times in his life.
It’s never too late to start loving and caring for yourself. Our lives can be revolutionized at any point to create the spark, desire and passion that we all live to experience.
Vera Deans Vucicevic is living proof that we can turn a hectic, high-stress and fast paced life into one of beautiful patience, creativity and peace. It’s so easy to let life consume us, especially when responsibilities create our agenda, but Vera has figured out a way to bring light and color back into play.
She has spent her life raising her family and making ends meet, and particularly spending massive amounts of time with her son who has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. Through persistence, daily habits and a new attitude to be mindful to herself, Vera discovered that bringing creativity back into her routine has developed into a therapy like practice.
Not only that, she has opened up a new relationship with her son by sharing, collaborating and bonding through art. J
She is a freelance artist and photographer and is changing the world with every breath.
Harley Eblen is happy, healthy, overenthusiastic and outrageously inspirational because he decided to be that way. His story is powerful because it takes on the personality of two extremes, one with a deep taste for fear, low self-esteem and depression and the other for positivity, mindfulness and creating a life of love.
From living in a shack in a backyard on his own and trying to discover the true fundamentals of life, Harley made a shift at just 17 to change his situation and goals and made a trip across the ocean to pursue the best version of himself.
His story is a rollercoaster of extremes through veganism, triathlons, health kicks, entrepreneurship and self-awareness.
He’s on his way to doing big things in this world. Keep your eyes on him.
Check out Harley’s website and projects here, including the People Who Matter show.
Richard Sirgiovanni is the creative mastermind of Sirg productions and the brilliant and lovable upcoming TV series and major motion picture THE GRIMPS. His passion as a cartoonist set the foundation to kickstart the children's animated rock n roll TV show.
By night they're 4 cool, charming, irrepressible musicians on the verge of stardom. By day, they're hairy, scary and tiny. They lived 500 years ago, cursed by the evil Spectar because he was jealous of their music and celebrity. So he cursed and turned them into ugly little grimps, to be banished from society for eternity.
Until 500 years later their friend and wizard, Magic Alex found a temporary spell to change them back to humans, but from only sunset to sunrise…but with one glitch, they are still tiny…here comes The Grimps to sing and laugh their way into your hearts.
You might also remember our previous guest Dylan Sirgiovanni – Richard’s son. There is nothing more special than passing down the fire to create the life we love from generation to generation.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Richard:
· 06:02 : About his cartoon creation, The Grimps, the reasons and purpose of him coming up with the show, and the crowd’s response so far,
· 08:39 : The influence he had on his son, Dylan (co-founder of the app, Bleepr ), in putting him in the creative and entrepreneurial field,
· 10:45 : His first music influencers who got him absorbed in music that he ended up playing in bands, how he started being seriously interested into comics which resulted to him enrolling in an art school in New York and how these two interests led him to the conception of The Grimps,
· 15:45 : Revealing The Grimps’ subtle references to rock and roll and where the characters’ name originated,
· 17:05 : The show’s backstory and storyline including the character’s double lives, their secrets and how they were instrumental in shaping the music history without the world knowing it,
· 22:02 : The process of putting up an animated show from developing the storyline, deciding on the characters’ personalities, designing the characters, writing the episode synopsis which will later on be turned into scripts, developing a pitch bible, doing marketing videos and publicity, recording songs and finding a network to get it into production,
· 28:25 : His goals for the show and the positive things that he would want to come out of it and
· 31:15 : Habits he has in place which keeps him focused and grounded.
List of Creative Influences:
· The Beatles
· The Ed Sullivan Show
· Madonna
· Bon Jovi
· Cyndi Lauper
· John Lennon
· Keith Emerson
· Paul McCartney
· Keith Moon
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
I would like to do something musical and artistic with John Lennon because he also started out as an artist and a cartoonist. Another one is Walt Disney as I am a big fan.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
Being a cartoonist, I would take my big eraser out and erase him as he comes.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
· When you are putting up a show, in the beginning, you’ll be wearing all the hats but that’s the fun part..the creative process is the fun part.
· The hardest part of creating an animated show is that it’s so expensive. You can’t just go out there and produce an episode as easily as people may think.
· I stay focused on the belief that this is going to happen and when a thought of negativity comes in, I knock it out. It can happen tomorrow so just don’t give up. Life is too short to do something mundane and something that you don’t like. That’s not living.
· Just do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
· The Grimps Website
· The Grimps Twitter Account
· The Grimps Facebook Account
· The Grimps YouTube Page
Why not try something off the wall, bizarre, completely different from anything else you’ve ever experienced? SWITCH!
Sandra LaMorgese isn’t a traditional success story. For her, dreams and aspirations came to fruition only after making a complete lifestyle switch that would unleash powers in life she never thought possible. With the background as an under-appreciated, underpaid and overworked woman managing a small business, Sandra made the decision to open herself up to love rather than fear.
“When I lost everything, I saw that as an opportunity to create the life of my dreams.”
She went from 5% relax and 95% work to 95% relax and 5% work.
Sandra is the author of “Switch: Time For A Change”, a memoir of how her later profession as a dominatrix ultimately allowed her to change her previously blind adherence to “the rules,” and to enter into a whole different kind of contract with a truer version of herself. Sandra was able to change her thoughts, feelings and beliefs in order to embrace a passionate and fulfilled life.
She has been featured on The Howard Stern Show, New Jersey Life Magazine, POSE Magazine and The LYFE Magazine, among other media highlights, in addition to writing numerous articles on the topic of life transformation, health, beauty, vitality, intimacy and sexuality.
One of the most interesting and inspiring women in the world. ;)
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Sandra:
· 06:47 : Being a firm believer that we can have what we want as long as we are open to possibilities and doing away with judging others,
· 10:10 : Her detailed story about her unexpected switch from working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day and having no life to breaking the rules and being a dominatrix, starting from losing her business in a heartbeat, how the idea of being a dominatrix came about, how she braved the ‘dungeons’ to become a dominatrix and how working as a mistress for a year changed her completely with all the amazing experience she went through,
· 25:20 : Sharing more about her eye-opening experience when she got introduced to BDSM, how this led her to shed off her prejudice about the whole thing and how it led to healing,
· 28:40 : About suppression and the importance of coming out to the open as it impacts the physical state of the body and can contribute towards your creativity, and
· 37:12 : Daily activities she has in place to be able to create the life she lives including not listening to the voice of fear.
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
I would sit down with Jesus and we would create some kind of app.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
As he’s too dominant, I’d put him into submission and then he’d be happy.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
· We can have what we want but you have to be open to all the possibilities. Don’t stick to your limits of what you think is available as everything is possible.
· When you are living in shame, guilt, anger and suppression, all of these create illness in the body. Come out slowly and bring it out to the open as it is very healthy.
· Understand that everything you need is inside of you – health, success, love, happiness, creativity. You are more powerful than you think. Pull it out and wake it up.
· When I lost everything, I saw that as an opportunity to create the life of my dreams.
· Just keep going. No one that ever did it, or was going to do it, or planned to do it ever knew how to do it; they just knew they were going to do it.
· Be open to all possibilities and you’d be amazed at what you can create. Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you want change in your life, you have to start changing your beliefs, your thoughts and your feelings about different things.
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
Sandra’s Website
Sandra’s Twitter Handle
Sandra’s YouTube videos
Grey Cross – Episode 79
Summary of Show:
A lifetime can be a masterpiece of creativity. As a child, Grey Cross was turned away from his itching passion for creativity by the typical conservative “you can’t do that for a living” argument that so many children fall victim to. As he evolved and grew into a need to rediscover his passion and true calling in life, Grey set himself loose from the life he knew and hit the road for years of uncertainty, soul searching and self-reinvention. Through travel, minimalism, writing, photography and a huge evolution of painting and sculpture through touchable art, Grey advanced through various stages of creativity and arrived at a place of contentment.
I absolutely adored talking with Grey about his years of floating and self-discovery and the powerful message he is conveying through every piece of art he touches. His work is simply astonishing.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Grey:
20:56 : Loving the arts when he was young but stumbling when told not to pursue it early on. Discovering how detrimental this sort of negativity is to the younger generation,
23:21 : Having a wonderful relationship despite being married young, being miserable by straying from his passion, and how he mended this by a decade of soul searching,
25:21 : Key lessons he learned on the years on the road including taking chances, surviving a minimalistic lifestyle, working with limited resources and being himself,
29:50 : How discovering himself contributed to his creativity , pursuing photography when he got to New Orleans, and finally finding his contentment in painting,
33:12 : The stages he went through in his art career from creating touchable art, to luminescent art, finding interest in Crayola and metallic art until he got to coming up with 3D pieces,
39:12 : The messages his artwork conveys and concepts where some of his artworks are based on,
42:20 : The length of time it takes him to complete his pieces, the biggest battles he faced and the habits he has in place, and
53:15 : His future plans of designing a course to match artists of talent with children of talent.
List of Creative Influences:
The Art of the Long View
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
I would like to study under Yayoi Kusama and watch her process as she makes amazing art.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
I would use the same solution as they use when they fight giant forest fires but instead of using water, I will take a container that’s slightly heated, fill it with super glue, take it up with a helicopter and release the glue on top of the monster until he ceases to move.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
· If you have talent and ability, you can take it somewhere if you get past the stumbling blocks of life that will be placed in front of you.
· The great thing about art is that you can create something, and then you can totally wipe it out and do something different.
· Sometimes we have to be a poor, starving artist to appreciate that creativity can come from the craziest things.
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
Grey’s Twitter Account
Grey’s Website
Billy Martin’s, formerly Poppy Z. Brite, (Grey’s Partner) Wikipedia Site and Personal Website
Lara Loest – Episode 78
Summary of Show:
Lara Loest gets it. She decided to make the leap from the traditional 9-5 after discovering the magic inside “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” After working with podcasts, Lara founded Show Notes Made Easy, allowing her to apply her talents from remote locations, on her own schedule. She is a successful entrepreneur, writer, and trainer. She has run several businesses of her own and thrives on the entrepreneurial spirit.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Lara:
05:03 : Her educational background, starting off her career in working in an ad agency, how her life changed when she picked up the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and how it prompted her entrepreneurial journey,
07:13 : How she started writing show notes for podcasts and how she grew her clientele,
09:07 : The systems and processes she has in place in managing her task list and the tweaks she does to make things work for each podcaster,
13:14 : Weighing pros and cons between WordPress and Squarespace,
15:51 : Her short and long term goals for the company in line with the future of podcasts, and
18:53 : What her typical day looks like including meditating and keeping her life in perspective by finding things to be grateful for.
List of Creative Influences:
· The Prophet
· Rich Dad, Poor Dad
· The Art of Charm Podcast
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
I will co-author a book with Abraham Lincoln.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
I’ll have my podcasters talk about ways of defeating Godzilla, write show notes for that and then broadcast it everywhere so we can arm everybody to get ready to defeat him.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
I like to get market feedback on the product before creating another. I want to give the market what it wants when it tells me what it wants.
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
Show Notes Made Easy website
Lara’s Facebook Account
Lara’s Twitter Account
Charlotte Eriksson (The Glass Child) – Episode 77
Summary of Show:
Charlotte is different. She uses her head for thinking on a much larger scale than most, and she relentlessly pursues the beauty of her creativity in a world that seems to appear as a dark canvas to the average challenger. Fear..doubt..?? Maybe, but you’d never know it. She has an extremely likable and mysterious shadow attached to her character, wrapped with the charisma of the world’s most inspirational youth. Her voice and musical talent could save lives.
The Glass Child left everything she had at 18 years old to move to London and dedicate her life to her music and art. She started her own record label, Broken Glass Records, released 5 EPs, released her critically acclaimed debut full-length ‘I’d Like To Remain A Mystery’ in February 2013, had her single ”I Will Lead You Home” reaching #2 on the Swedish ITunes chart. She has lived on the streets and friend’s couches, and even organized a music tour around Europe hosted in the homes of her fans. She independently published her first book “Empty Roads and Broken Bottles: In search for The Great Perhaps” and was named Breakthrough Indie Artist Of The Year by Lemonade Magazine.
You will love her.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Charlotte:
07:07 : Her artistic journey so far from moving to London at 18 years old to pursue her dream, living and playing on the road, releasing a record, writing a book and building a fan base online,
09:49 : Using up her money for rent and ending up crashing in friends’ couches and floors and in train stations and airports in order to support her passion,
13:22 : What music means to Charlotte and why it such a driving force in her life and in her world,
15:11 : How she separates music and the business side of it and how she learned about how to market her product,
17:55 : Lessons that she would impart to aspiring artists and musicians including knowing exactly what you want to be, who you want to be and what kind of music you want to do; and focusing on the core people who matters,
23:49 : Her unique ‘house concert’ tours and how she built her fan base through social media and via her crowdsourcing campaign,
26:59 : The ‘typical’ day in the life of Charlotte and how setting up goals and breaking it down day by day help guide her through her tasks
31:35 : The biggest struggles she had faced and the lessons she had learned along the way including getting over the fear of rejection and just keep pushing on even if the task at hand requires going out of your comfort zone,
36:23 : Her position on music being given away for free and her tips on other ways artists can monetize and bring in revenue, and
42:21 : About her book, “Empty Roads and Broken Bottles” and the process she went through in completing her work.
List of Creative Influences:
· Ben Harper
· Counting Crows
· Brand New
· Ani diFranco
· Jack Gilbert
· Virginia Wolff
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
Chris Martin is such an amazing songwriter and I would love to be in a room with him while he is writing a song as it would be such an honor.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
I would confuse him by talking in sentences with Swedish and English and once he is, I would make my move. Or I could turn him on my side and we would be a monster team and would take the world together.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
· Music is everything to me. It’s how I make sense of myself and my world.
When you lose the passion of why you are creating what you are creating, you need to sit back and reevaluate what you are doing.
The first thing you need to figure out is what you want to stand and be known for.
Realize that no matter how good you are, 90% of the world will not understand you but you just have to learn to accept that and focus on the 10% who will love what you are doing.
Everything that I have learned, I learned through struggles and the mistakes I have done.
Prove to people that you can become exactly who you want to become and you can build a life which is exciting. Even if there are a lot of struggles, if you have a passion which is so deep, it will always drive you.
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
· http://theglasschildofficial.com/
· http://www.facebook.com/theglasschild
· http://www.twitter.com/justaglasschild
· Email: theglasschildmusic@gmail.com
· http://www.youtube.com/aglasschild
Michael Klein – Episode 76
Summary of Show:
From the cores of childhood creativity to curating Microsoft’s first art collection, Michael Klein has earned his place amongst the world’s top creative. He turned a small fascination for art into a lifelong journey of creative accomplishments, including writing, lecturing, art educating, curating, artist advocacy and building the foundation for the Michael Klein Gallery.
As a student, Michael challenged himself to create opportunities that didn’t exist, and through his persistence and will to try anything, he was able to dominate his fears and achieve goals that once seemed surreal.
This interview is super stellar, so don’t miss it. Michael is truly a master.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Michael:
06:06 : Michael’s journey to the world of arts starting with when his fascination with art began, a notable field trip 1969 which made an impact in his life, ending up in NYU to study art, being in the Whitney Independence Study Program, getting into the William’s program for graduate school, deciding to be a museum curator, ending up back in New York as a museum director, running his own art gallery in Soho, taking a sabbatical at 45 years old and moving West to be the curator for Microsoft,
14:18 : His stories and inspiring words on perseverance, persistence, making your own opportunities and never saying never,
18:30 : His advice in how to create a life that you love including starting at home, getting over the fear of rejection, and building a network which you could, later on, turn into a livelihood,
20:56 : Figuring out your schedule and how you work best to set up a daily routine which could drive maximum productivity, discipline and something you can enjoy,
24:31 : How running through brick walls, making new mistakes and overcoming obstacles should be embraced as it can develop you more,
26:03 : The steps he put into place when he was in Microsoft to make him successful including learning the culture, learning technology, assessing problems and developing business plans in line with these challenges,
31:23 : How his contributions helped the employees in Microsoft and the programs he had spearheaded to spark their interest in art, and
34:12 : The areas of opportunities that he sees in artists including their ego, emotions and their difficulty in stepping back to criticize themselves and be objective.
List of Creative Influences:
Robert Morris
Dan Flavin
Hilton Kramer
Louise Nevelson
If you could spend one hour creating something with anyone from the past or present, who would it be and what would you create?
I adore Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Mozart so I’d like to have dinner with them and create an opera.
If you had to battle Godzilla, how would you use your creativity or talents to defeat him?
I think he is just a misunderstood monster so I always loved Godzilla. I’d take him to dinner and feed him whatever he wants.
Favorite Quotes and Advice:
· You make the opportunities. You open the door for yourself. It’s very easy to say, “Nothing is out there”, “I can’t do it”, “Everyone says no” but there’s always somebody who’ll say yes. I’m a firm believer that if you want it badly enough, you will get it. If there’s a will, there’s a way.
· We have the ability to create our lives. It’s not as if you’ll just open a door and land exactly where you want to be. You have to build it, you have to build a network.
· Obstacles are growth spurts. You can’t live life without having obstacles.
· Making art requires courage. - Matteis
Links to Guest Videos / Publications
· Michael's Website
· The Little Gallery
· Michael's Facebook
· Michael's Tumblr
Kristin Keen is a champion when it comes to changing the world and playing a role in a part much bigger than humanity. After moving to India, she witnessed the horrors and reality of the sex trade, and she took it into her own hands to bring light to the darkness.
She is the Founder and Executive Director of Rethreaded, a non-profit organization that sells goods made by women who have found freedom from the sex trade. Products include beautiful hand-sewn blankets, pillow cases, and scarves made from Indian saris; wool purses and tote bags from Bolivia, handmade journals and cards, and a range of unique, one-of-a-kind creations made from recycled t-shirts.
Kristin is doing amazing work in contributing to the society and in bringing permanent change in the lives of women. Globally, Rethreaded has positively impacted the lives of over 2,200 women.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Kristin:
09:35 : How she began with her mission starting in the streets of Kolkata after her world was shook witnessing first-hand the evils happening in this red-light district, and putting up Sari Bari (now employing 100 people) together with her friend, Sarah Lance, to provide a safe haven for women who want to make a change,
16:30 : How Sari Bari is organized and put up as a viable business to support women coming out from the trade,
18:59 : The amount of commitment it takes, the cost you have to sacrifice and the things that you need to know if you are being stirred to create change abroad,
20:37 : Lessons she learned and the things she could?ve done differently when she started this mission including learning the language and immersing in the culture,
22:05 : Breaking the cycle locally through Rethreaded, how they won in the One Spark Festival, and how they are growing the business to support more women, and
31:13 : Their long-term plans including recreating their store across the country to help as many people as much as they can.
So you want to self publish but don't know how? Well, you are just one big lucky ducky today. Tim Lewis did too, and he re-created himself to figure it out! He is the founder of Stoneham Press Ltd, a London-based company formed to publish books and provide services and tools to self-published authors to allow them to publish, market and manage their publications more successfully.
Nothing is every easy, and tragedy happens everyday when it's least expected, creating gigantic roadblocks for big visions, dreams, goals and lifestyles. In this episode, Tim shares his journey through life and his experience of living through the tragedy of losing his wife. The hard reality shift repositioned the way Tim looked at the world, and his vision was never the same again. He took initiative to leave his corporate job and create the life he loves, and he's doing it with the intent to help others along the way.
Cheers Tim!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Tim:
11:31 : Tim?s back story starting with his corporate job, his wife suffering a major hemorrhagic stroke in 2009 and passing away in 2011, to finally making the leap in leaving his company after being there for 15 years,
22:40 : His transition period and stumbling into the book, Write, Publish, Repeat, which inspired him to explore Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP),
26:03 : Writing his first book, Timeshock: I Want My Life Back, and the practices and the processes he went through to start and publish the book,
30:12 : Working on his blog, planning to develop an app, publishing his full-length novel and all the ideas that Tim is looking to get into,
40:24 : His previous interest in screenplay and his practical tips and key take-aways in his journey in self-publishing so far, and
46:20 : How it feels publishing a book, the pricing tiers in Amazon and the right perspective you should have in getting your content out there.
It takes time to learn how to strengthen attention, so do it without expectation or attachment to results and just accept the way things are.
Molly Knight Forde's outlook on life is simply breathtaking. She is nothing short of masterful when it comes to analyzing the world through awareness and mindset. Not only does she make insides melt with her intricate and soothing piano melodies, Molly sparks motivation and meaning into every conversation she engages. She's also a muse, motivational coach, public speaker, muse, meditation mentor and the founder of The Awareness School.
She found meditation and practical awareness under the guidance of Master Teachers from various schools of transformation, and she has experiences in Zazen, Irano Egyptian Yoga, Hatha Yoga, and the Gurdjieff Work.
I had a blast discussing the power of mindfulness in advancing talents, such as playing the piano, and everyday mindfulness techniques to take your consciousness and happiness to a level most don?t even know exists. Master the art of choice and co-create your destiny!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Molly:
09:20 : Molly's journey so far: growing up in a dysfunctional family in the deep South, learning to play the piano unintentionally after getting in trouble at 13, giving her first solo piano recital at 16, living in Paris for 8 years where she first opened up to yoga and meditation, moving back to Seattle with two kids in tow and being introduced to whole new kind of art which turn her world from black and white into color,
20:29 : The importance of meditations in terms of developing your productivity and anxiety levels, the different ways to practice mindfulness and the challenges when starting out,
25:00 : Mindfulness techniques to develop your awareness such as having an external cue and pausing after an activity,
34:11 : How her life changed after she practiced mindfulness and how she started and maintained her rhythm,
43:32 : How vision boards and declaring things can train your brain and make things happen; decluttering and the distractions technology can bring,
49:45 : About the Awareness School, her in-person and online mentoring services and their big plans for their retreats, and
55:29 : Her advice for musicians who are looking at tackling the music world.
A Dee (The Artful Dodger) is credited with being one of the first aerosol writers to come out of the UK in the 80’s. Transferring depression in urban areas with bright colors and innovative urban art, A Dee started catching media attention at a young age.
He took his skills and transitioned them as a weapon for following his passion, and he soon worked creatively for large corporations such as LucasFilm, BAA Heathrow Airport, MTV and The South Bank Show. In addition, A Dee has created many backdrops, album sleeves, logos for music acts and record labels, and is very passionate about producing urban art workshops and various art projects for young people for encouraging and developing their creativity.
Currently, A. Dee is heading a campaign for an artist run community arts-hub called Negative Space where creative people can connect, irrespective of style, format and discipline.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with A. Dee:
- 09:37 : Working with artists all over the world and setting up their art space to help young artists get their footing in the art world through promoting and selling their work in the studio in their community,
- 13:44 : About his partners, Gerome and Olga, their background, where their passions are coming from and the good things about doing workshops with young, local kids,
- 17:38 : Sharing his background from his roots in Ghana, West Africa; growing up in a family wherein you are expected to have a proper career; how he became a black sheep after announcing that he wants to be an artist and sticking to his guns anyway; learning the value of hard work, compassion and art which led him to the workshops that they are running to spread the message of each one, teach one,
- 19:53 : Getting noticed through calligraphy and how he got the chance to work with LucasFilm,
- 24:36 : Their vision for Negative Space, the art space that they are developing, such as helping artist in marketing, curating their work, basic contracts and financials, and
- 28:22 : Their plans for Negative Space including launching a Kick Starter campaign to set up running costs and setting up international exhibitions.
Steve bird takes memories and turns them into works of art. After all, our memories are some of the most important parts of our lives.
After coming to the realization that his career in theatre wasn't exactly what he dreamed it would be, Steve took the initiative to recreate himself and learn how to paint again. He soon realized that painting came natural when working off photographs, and he found opportunity to preserve the memories of others through turning their pictures into beautiful portraits.
He learned how to use and engage an audience on social media, and he triggered interest in his service by painting pictures for free and seeing how people reacted. Well, his passion is back full throttle now, and #ipaintyourlife is starting to take hold.
Congrats, Steve.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Steve:
06:22 : His life story as a jack of all trades who started off as a young artist being greatly influenced and inspired by his art teacher,
13:50 : Being bitten by the music bug and putting art behind for a decade after music took over his life,
17:55 : Enrolling in a university to study art and getting out with a PhD while progressively going into film making,
21:28 : Leveraging on social media to raise money for his wedding and his honeymoon by starting out a project where people can see him paint the photos they send,
27:40 : How he captured his audience by engaging them and how it is being at the peak and most productive part of his journey as an artist,
32:11 : Gaining followers in Twitter and using Facebook Groups to showcase his work and the advice he got from fellow artists such as engaging people to gain their trust rather than just saturating the internet,
38:07 : Remembering the first painting he sold back in the 80s and the elation it brought him when people compliment your talent by buying them,
38:50 : The most difficult thing in social media and remembering the time when he was commissioned to do the biggest group portrait he has done plus an additional 40 paintings which all stemmed from one chance meeting at a car park, and
48:15 : Failures which made him stronger and trials which made him appreciate hardships because of the lessons they come with.
Education is the toy. Curiosity is the box.
Henrique Bertulani has accomplished basically anything an artist could possibly accomplish at his age. From Brazil to Germany, and Egypt to the United States, Henrique has dabbled in art studies, exhibitions, curating, anthropology, art cooperative projects, teaching, street murals, charity work, professional field hockey, art workshops and so much more.
One of the most interesting people I?ve ever listened to speak, Henrique is full of fire and passion and firmly believes that EVERYONE can create the life they love with a little curiosity and drive. He walks us through why phases are so important to artists and how to make art feel.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Henrique: / /
06:46 : How he has grown to become an international artist by starting his career at 19; sharing his observations on the differences of how art is expressed in various countries such as Egypt, Brazil, the Middle East, Europe and the US; and his experiences in art censorship, notoriety and inhibitions,
17:46 : How a mural project of painting a 100-foot wall grew from an initial four artists to ten and his views about self-censorship and creating artwork for money, /
21:06 : The advantages of teaching art to children and how art can change even the most delinquent one, /
23:00 : An in-depth walk through The Seven da Vincian principles and concepts which serve as essential element of genius: / -Curiosity (Curiosita) ? An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning. / -Demonstration (Dimonstrazione) ? A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and willingness to learn from mistakes. Trial and error. / -Sensation (Sensazione) ? The continual refinement of the senses as the means to enliven experience. / -Smoke (Sfumato) ? Not letting your ego get the better of you, learning from each other and gaining willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty. / -Art and Science (Arte/Scienza) ? Taking your view of science, art and logic and transforming it to your imagination. / -The Body (Corporalita) ? The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. Balancing the body and mind. / -Connection (Connessione) ? the knowledge, recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. / -39:22
Surrealism, frottage and the now neglected approaches that renowned artists had applied in their time to achieve perfection, /
-48:00 : How a mural he painted in Rio de Janeiro brought about admiration to the art process and changed the perception and the lives of locals, and /
-1:04:30 : Seeing the power artists wield by going to places lacking art, developing an out-of-the-box mentality and assessing whether you are aiming for money or being an art advocate with the goal of elevating the cause.
Have you ever wanted to see which of your friends is closest to you, then invite them to join you without having to call them all individually? Well, Dylan did, so he created a system to solve the problem.
Dylan is the co-founder of the baller and clever Bleepr app which allows you to pinpoint close friends on a map from nearest to furthest without stalking them. You can then engage with in conversations and invite other friends to the chats, which are all temporary.
He comes from a family that fully supports his journey to entrepreneurship, and he?s giving each day a run for its money with energy and enthusiasm.
Good vibes 4 $ho.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Dylan:
06:12 : The influence his brother had on him in shifting gears from being an industrial engineer to becoming an entrepreneur, / 12:43 : What Bleepr is all about, how the idea sparked and the cool features of the app, / 15:07 : The biggest roadblocks in being in the app space and the things he hold on to to be able get going despite these challenges, / 17:33 : Bleepr?s long term goals including building an awesome community and expanding their platform by building more apps, / 21:43 : Personal habits that he has in place such as writing to-do lists and going to the beach with his dog, / 25:48 : The fast timeline and the steps it took for Bleepr to take form from doodling, Photoshop designs until the product launch, and / 30:17 : Things which he would?ve done differently knowing what he knows now.
The figgity funk-daddy mack Artrepreneur today is none other than Paul Brown.
Wait for it
He has six little rugrats, yet he still finds the time to create the life he loves. Yep, I bet your mind is blown.
Paul is a designer and artist for HappiJar app, and also diddles as a cartoonist, photographer, musician and writer.
If he can do it, you can too. My fist is pumping for you, Paul.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Paul:
06:33 : How he balances six kids, working from home and learning new interests such as writing, photography and playing a guitar, / 10:28 : How HappiJar, a gratitude app which helps you record and share you happy times in a virtual jar, came to fruition, and how fun it is do art and work with his old time friends, / 15:16 : How he accomplishes things and set aside time to do his projects and the advantages of having online critics during the development of his artworks, / 21:03 : Other projects he is working on and sharing some of his struggles in completing his works, such as getting to the end goal but jumping from one task to another without guided directions, and how he battles these opportunities, / 26:18 : The process in creating the HappiButtons and the feeling when he accomplishes the button designs, seeing his artwork up in Twitter and getting the download results, and / 30:28 : His version of the artist block and the challenges and fun he has in pimping out super hero logos.
In 2007, Steve Chou and his wife put up an online store to leap away from their normal day jobs upon news of their pregnancy so she could take care of the baby. They didn?t want to give up their lifestyle, so they put their champion hats on and blew the roof off the houuuuseeee. Within the first 12 months, they made $100K to replace her salary, and then started teaching their methods to others.
Steve runs MyWifeQuitHerJob.com and the My Wife Quit Her Job podcast, and he has grown his audience to over 180,000 monthly readers. He has built an incredible online platform for walking newcomers through starting their own online stores, and he?s got all the evidence in the world to back his brilliant methods.
Oh yea- he's an electrical engineer at a startup in Silicon Valley for his regular job. #Baller
Summary of Show: / / Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Steve:
05:54 : Fun background about Steve?s venture in music, his self-defacing Chinese speeches and how MyWifeQuitHerJob.com started and evolved,
11:49 : How he ended up launching his info product, ProfitableOnlineStore.com, starting with zero content and 35 original subscribers and how it grew to 500 students after 3 years,
13:43 : Stories about people he had helped find products to sell online despite having no experience or skill in designing web pages or launching businesses,
16:54 : Sharing the common traits of the successful people he had in his own podcast including persistence, willingness to do leg work for their businesses to succeed, and having a long-term mentality,
21:03 : Designing micro-processors for a living, playing the piano, the skills he picked from the debate team, being into sports, and learning how to love reading,
25:12 : His ultimate long term goals geared towards spending more time with the family without giving up his tech background,
30:38 : Lifting and playing ultimate frisbee to keep his work-life balance, and
34:14 : About drop shipping and other options when going into e-commerce and his advice how to make the most money in this line of business.
"Art represents the postcard from the journey the artist took."
Alan John Hewitt lives to make art, and he views it as a meditative practice that holds his life together. As a full time gardener, Alan sees creativity in everything around him, and he's constantly educating himself and providing the value back to the world through self publishing, poetry, music, photography and art.
I truly enjoyed my conversation with Alan because he's a prime example that we can all make ourselves into much more of who we are. He embraces the world, he aims high, and he teaches the power of surrealism in creating. Cheers Alan!
Summary of Show:
5:00 : A background on Alan's geographical origins, how his creativity was first triggered and how he makes the most out of his down time on his day job by listening to podcasts on philosophy, sciences, literature, politics, internet marketing, history and big ideas, 08:36: How podcasts inspired and drove him to establish his own publishing company and release three books,
12:34 : How his typical day looks like from breakfast to gardening to completing a drawing, a poem and creating music,
15:44 : How he gave up one show at a time until he gave television up to practice his many different mediums and produce art regularly -- drawing, painting, graphics, photography, poetry, sculpture and music, and
29:05 : How he conquers the artist block and how he defines creativity: learning the fundamentals of art to make it come alive and listen intently to art.
Our Artrepreneur Now is singer-songwriter Naomi Psalm who released her 4th CD in May of 2011, two singles in 2012 and 2013, and completed two music videos. Naomi won top vocalist for the 2012 Ladylake Indie Awards and is here to share to her experiences in being a music traveller and her battle with self-doubt.
Naomi has an insanely powerful story about being told she wasn't good enough and then turning around and using that feedback to light her fire inside.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Naomi: / / 05:13 : Growing up in a hippie household, creating poetry at the age of 8, playing the guitar at 13, and how her mom helped her get out of her comfort zone, / 09:31 : Traveling to numerous countries in a medical ship at the age of 19 after dropping her whole life only to be put down as someone who can never be a lead singer, / 13: 37 : The favorite places she had been and how she was able to relate to the Norwegian lifestyle, / 15:03 : How negative criticism drove her to fight back and to succeed on what she is passionate about, / 18:23 : Our discussion on the current state of the music industry, the power of the internet and how it can help you grow your fan base and your community to get your art out there, / 21:50 : Her personal battles with self-doubt and the lessons she learned from her past to get to where she is right now, and / 28:10 : What the best part of the music industry for her and about her current endeavors such as her tours and her records.
My transformation to minimalism and living simply.
When you have less stuff, you have less distractions. When you have less distractions, you have more awareness. When you have more awareness, you pay attention to things in life that matter the most, like forming stronger relationships and engaging in higher levels of creativity.
When you start to combine the engagement of strong relationships with high levels of creativity, you will continuously open up new doors that lead directly to clarity and meaning in life. And, when you live your life with a clear intent, you will undoubtedly discover that the pursuit of happiness you dream of is not only possible, it's absolute.
Pual kemp is the mack-daddy of the app and podcasting world. If there was a Michael Jackson of Europe, it would undoubtedly be Paul. Connected to me by the wonderful Amber Ludwig before I started this show, Paul has been my go-to mentor for anything and everything. He also taught me that 'suspenders' in the UK aren?t quite like 'suspenders' in the US. Google it if you don't believe me '
Paul has a traditional background of corporate America, and is super inspiring because of his story giving up his six-figure job to create the life he loves.
Now, he has dominated over 80 native apps for himself and clients, is the founder of TheAppGuy.co, the creator of 'The App Guy' podcast where he interviews celebrity millionaires, authors, app developers and start-up entrepreneurs, and the host of The Entrepreneur Dad podcast which provides stories of parents who also seek a lifestyle of online digital nomads.
I am elated to present to you again, my Mastermind friend who remains down-to-earth despite his success - Paul Kemp!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Paul: / / 08:50 : A discussion on how people are tempted to copy those who are successful and why we should opt to find our own journey and style, / 10:26 : Feeling a void during his time in the corporate life and how he transitioned from being a salaried employee to his amazing platforms to pursue his calling, / 19:24 : The wonderful experience of being in an entrepreneurial team and how his happiness had declined when his previous company had grown as he was swamped into the corporate culture, / 21:02 : His experiences during the time that he was doing odd jobs including being injured from falling from a roof, / 23:45 : How he got started in Internet Marketing, how he moved to making apps, and finally finding his niche in podcasting, / 29:24 : The most valuable takeaways he had from all the episodes he had recorded and some of his most memorable favorites, / 34: 35 : The most effective thing he has done in growing his podcast and some of his influencers in pushing him to just get things done, / 39:40 : Sharing details about some of the apps he built, their successes so far, his exit strategies to monetize them further, and basically just the fun you can do with apps as a solopreneur, and / 53:40 : Our thoughts about the negativity of the radio and the television and all its FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and how his love affair with podcasting started and how it changed his life.
Kiffanie Stahle is making the law fun again. She is the ultra-inspiring and creative Founder of The Artist?s JD and Stahle Law where she helps creatives realize that the law isn?t a big scary Godzilla. After college she adventured to National Parks all over the Western United States, utilizing her passion for photography and travel.
The Artist's JD is dishing legal advice, tools and action plans to help your creative business grow and succeed.
Kiffanie is one of the COOLEST guests that I?ve ever connected with! ;)
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Kiffanie: / / 05:08 : Her goal of breaking the mold and busting the lawyer stereotypes by empowering people and making them look at the law differently for their businesses to thrive, / 09:20 : Sharing her obsessions for pickling fruits, having a soft spot for vintage Law and Order and her background on being a wildlife biologist, / 11:45: Her adventures when she spent an entire summer touring the National Parks of the Western United States and how she quickly transitioned to being in the law school literally right after that, / 15:22 : Working for the California Lawyers for the Arts on her first year in law school, gaining exposure through that program and continuing on with her eyes fixed on her goal of opening up a law firm right after she graduated, / 20:10 : Creating The Artist?s JD platform and enjoying spreading the message, / 22:22: Being a big visualizer and a goal setter, and how visualization boards and baby steps can help you get to the goals you have set, / 28:07 : The most common problems that she helps artists on such as copy cats, contracts, LLCs and trademarks, and / 34:55: Her big plans for The Artist JD such as membership sites and incorporating community aspects around it to teach and empower the creative community about the law.
Dan Norris likes to drink beer and celebrate life, and he absolutely should. He is the founder of WP- Curve, one of the world?s fastest growing WordPress support companies, and a previous founder of informly, a web app that enabled business owners to get easy access to complex information about their business.
Dan is also the author of The 7 Day Startup, and was voted as Australia?s top small business blogger by Australia?s largest business magazine, Smarter Business Ideas, in 2013. He has a brilliant and hilarious personality, as our conversation ranges from horses and bourbon to the process of creating and accelerating WP-Curve when Dan?s financial situation was just about to bite the dust.
This one is for Australia.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Dan:
06:43 : Founding WP Curve in 2013, the coverage of their services and how they were able to grow the company and maintain its success, / 12:55 : About his previous start up, Informly, and how bad decisions influenced the shutting down of the company, / 14:28 : How he met Alex, his co-founder and their long term goals for WP Curve, and / 18:42 : Our discussion about getting out of your comfort zone, figuring out what you are good to help out other people and how podcasting can broaden your network and help you out with your ventures.
Our electrifying Artrepreneur for this episode is David Esquire - the owner of Esquire Photography, an international award-winning and published photojournalist and writer, a drummer in a dance-rock band, model for Ralph Lauren, a street dancer in nightclubs and had the opportunity to photograph rock bands including Duran Duran, DJ John B, Orgy, Gary Numan, Robyn, Limp Bizkit, Suicide Machines, People Mover out of the UK and more. / This interview is the tits because David and I connected on a supreme energy level that isn't very common. We dive into his life of creativity through he eyes of the google glass, and why breaking the rules is the most important action you can take in life ?
The time has come! I'm overly joyed and humbled to release my episode of The Artrepreneur Now with the lovely Amber Ludwig (Vilhauer- she recently tied the knot ) / Amber was the very first person I reached out to about recreating myself and following my passion. She alone completely shifted my perception on what is possible in life. Shortly after, Amber connected me with Paul (The App Guy) Kemp who eventually convinced me to start his very show. Things have been escalating ever since.
Amber runs a multi-six-figure company NGNG (No Guts No Glory) Enterprises and has supported over 1000 entrepreneurs including bestselling authors Mark Victor Hansen, Brendon Burchard, Bill Walsh, Adam Markel, Lisa Nichols and Les Brown. She is the campaign manager behind several #1 bestselling books and coaches clients on developing products in support of Amazon Bestseller campaigns.
I have followed all of Amber's marketing strategies from day 1 of discovering her talent, and I highly stress everyone else reach out to her. She's truly a remarkable, world-changing person.
If networking were a person, it would be John Corcoran. At just 23 years old, John landed a gig as a writer for President Clinton in the White House, and his background wasn’t stacked. He has defined the importance of personal relationships in business and life in general, and he teaches us how to build these relationships to maximize income and clients without marketing or “selling” ourselves.
From a creative standpoint, John started out as a cartoonist and shared the art room with Brandon Boyd, the lead singer of Incubus. He is the founder and creator of the Smart Business Revolution podcast and website – one of the most value packed shows on iTunes. John has appeared in Forbes, Lifehacker,The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Art of Manliness, Boost Blog Traffic, and Dumb Little Man.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with John:
· 05:42 : His memories of always wanting to be a creative entrepreneur since he was a kid and of being a cartoonist and an editor in his high school newspaper,
· 08:45 : How it was being classmates with Brandon Boyd and attending the first Incubus gig,
· 13:40 : How he integrates writing as his creative expression in his life in being a practicing attorney and how he incorporates this in his blog and podcast,
· 12:47 : The importance and the power of interviews in regard to writing and growing your networks, and he shares his systems and tools in tracking his networks such as ‘the conversations list’,
· 19:10 : The steps to take to network if you are starting from scratch beginning with having the right mindset and being clear with your goals,
· 23:57 : Habits he puts in to place in order to preserve his connections, and
· 30:48 : Usual mistakes people make when networking and the right approaches to go about it.
Honoree Corder writes like she talks, and she talks like a superhero. She is the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious best selling authore of over a dozen incredible books, and she’s the grandmaster blaster of goal setting and bringing vision to reality. She coaches for results, and results she gets. She has a brilliant out-take on living simply and minimzing distractions, and she brings the energy to everything she touches ;)
Her best sellers include Vision to Reality: How Short Term Massive Action Equals Long Term Maximum Results, If Divorce is a Game, These are the Rules, Tall Order! 7 Master Strategies to Organize Your Life & Double Your Success in Half the Time,The Successful Single Mom book series, The Successful Single Dad, Play2Pay, and Paying4College.
Her results-oriented philosophy and ground-breaking 30-Day Jump Start and STMA 100-day Coaching Programs have been embraced by people in a wide variety of industries and businesses, to rave reviews and exceptional results.
Bump your fists together for Honoree Corder!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Honoree:
05:50 : In line with the 100-Day Action Coaching Program, she shares how she placed her own goals and the processes and systems she has in place when she is writing books,
12:05 : Having her first business success in her early 20s, having her first exposure of being a professional business coach by being hired as one the CEO of their company, transitioning to coaching and speaking, being a single mom and battling her self-esteem issues, self-publishing her first book and selling 11,000 copies before it hit the printer, and the strings of books that followed,
22:52: The importance of establishing sustainable habits, having someone to hold you accountable, setting up achievable goals, and all the things we should do to reach our personable goals,
27:45 : How it feels to see a coachee succeed,
31:05 : How she views commitment and how impossible things can come to pass if you set your mind into something,
35:43 : Being an advocate of not letting your things own you and living a simplified life, how she went about getting rid of 80% of the things she didn’t need and lived off of the 20% that was left, and
43:03 : A brief breakdown of what STMA is including it’s vision, purpose and other elements of the plan.
Melissa Krivacheck is a baller, and she’s teaching us exactly how she does it. She’s a two-time international best-selling author of "Be Ballsy! How Not To Suck At Love, Success, & Happiness" and "Be A Baller! The Blueprint To Have It All", a speaker, a coach to entrepreneurs from all walks of life, and the founder of Briella Aarion.
Melissa is a brilliant mind and was selected as a Top Ranked U.S. Executive by the National Council of American Executives in 2014. She’s also been featured on hundreds of news/media outlets, on the cover of multiple magazines, and now lands on this figgity funky show that I’ve been so proud to create and host. She is currently on the BOLD! book tour featuring Les Brown and other great authors.
I admire Melissa for her direct, bold attitude and vision, and I’m super pumped to share this interview with you ;)
Cliff Lin a composer who has been featured on numerous films, trailers, commercials, games, and records and had worked on popular projects such as The Expendables 3, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, Prometheus, Sucker Punch, Green Lantern, Conan: The Barbarian, Transformers, The Golden Compass, Hell Boy, and Abduction. A dropout of Berklee, Cliff wanted to create his own methods for learning and collaborating through music. Moving back into his parent’s house, he stayed true to any opportunity that presented itself through constant production and persistence of sending his work to companies all over the country. Eventually, he discovered an opportunity for an internship in NYC and booked the flight immediately. One thing triggered another… and Cliff started his world domination.
Check out his trailer production music AND his side project band City Girl. They are both incredible.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Trajan King has been dominating the Internet since 1995 and has worked successfully with clients such as eBay, Adobe, Honda, Symantec, Oracle, AMD, Apple Computer, and Yahoo! He is the CEO of InvincibleStartup.com and ExactConversion.com.
Trajan is working everyday to provide non-stop value for startups and entrepreneurs looking to expand their products, brands, and businesses. Through invinciblestartup.com, Trajan and his crew provide courses, guides, strategies and mentorship to the lifeblood of any startup.
This interview is seriously stacked with value -and I'm completely honored to have had the opportunity to chat with Trajan. (such a baller ass name too, right? :) )
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Trajan: / / 4:30 : How it is being a consultant in the Silicon Valley, working with 15 startup companies, being a CEO ExactConversion.com, and managing InvincibleStartup.com to train and mentor entrepreneurs to help them get off the ground, / 07:40 : Learning from his mentor early on, the lifelong impact a coach can bring and the importance of having one, / 10:45 : About his team and their mentoring methods such as video-taped interviews, entrepreneurial video courses and doing all of them hand in hand with mentors, / 13:06 : Tips in growing our internet business such as building our email list through social media to build an audience, starting lean and building up from customer feedback, / 22:35 : A discussion about the startup pyramid: the contrast between how startups are usually done and how Trajan believes it should be done basing on his experience, / 28:25 : SEO and what works in driving traffic to your websites: making your content personable and unique, being active and connecting your content to social media and focusing on conversion, and / 32:29 : Why we should take the effort to build our About Us section in our websites and include credible data, contact information and chat at the very top of our pages and other tips and tricks which would lead to conversion.
Back on Episode 13, I had the pleasure to interview the amazing saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Scesney. Shortly after, I went to see Jacob play in a trio with 2 incredible musicians- opening for Paul Rodgers at a nearby amphitheater. One of those cool dudes was the incredible Taylor Tesler - the grandmaster blaster of shredding the guitar in every fashion possible. The trio (The Casey Abrams Trio) took us on a roller-coaster through funk, blues, rock-n-roll, jazz, melodic vocal harmonies and incredible laughs. I think the entire crowd fell in love- especially the cougars.
Since, I've kept in touch with Taylor and am honored to have him on the show. Taylor has an incredibly inspiring story because his musical career sort of skyrocketed because he wasn?t afraid to put his talents out in front of others, and he was willing to take opportunities early even though they may not have been ultra appealing. He has a sense for music that I highly respect, and his outlook on living simply is ultra inspiring. He puts his family first - and to that.. I nod my head good sir.
I hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did. Keep shredding Taylor.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Taylor: / / 09:43 : Being born with music in his soul, playing guitar since he was 10, loving the violin on his 4th grade, and about their gigs and tours so far, / 15:05 : His prime influencers in music, / 21:28 : How he met Casey, hitting it off with him immediately and their explosive first show together, / 24:16 : How taking a chance and being open to opportunities, even if it?s not ideal, took him to where he is today, / 25:53 : Recording songs with his brother, who is from upstate New York, and the endless possibilities of creating music and art despite the distance, / 29:19 : Being well-rooted and in touch with reality, living in the moment in everything that he does, and how this all helps in his creativity and the quality of his life, and / 41:12 : What he feels is the best part of music and the euphoric feelings it brings.
If you want to turn life into an EPIC ADVENTURE and turn your job into a combination of excitement and success from ANY location, Jason Berwick is the man with your plan. He has diddled in the entrepreneur-sphere in nearly all ways possible, and he takes great pride in creating opportunities that allow him to sustain a life as a digital nomad. Oh yea- he teaches what he learns too and truly cares about his audience.
Jason is the Co-Founder and CEO at Gator Digital Labs and the author of Top 7 Mistakes Newbies Make When Trying to Quit Their Job and Build a Business. In 2010, Jason was earning a fantastic living in his cubicle 10-12 hours a day- but like most people ? the job made him feel stuck, bored, tired, and out of touch with the beauty of living. After trying everything from meditation to self-medication, Jason finally pumped his fist in the air and jumped ship. Since, he has started businesses, failed businesses, tried day jobs again, started more businesses, succeeded businesses.. and traveled non stop. He is finally in the driver seat of an EPIC adventure, and he's taking us all with him on Jason's Epic Quest.
I've formed an incredible relationship with Jason since crossing paths, and I have learned some extremely valuable insights from him along the way. He is a real, humble dude and I can?t say enough amazing things about him. Join me and follow his quest; you will learn oodles and oodles and oodles of goodies.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Jason, adventurer by nature, entrepreneur at heart: / / 04:57 : How he came to a decision to live a happier life by quitting his job after the realization that money cannot make any difference, / 06:35 : His biggest venture to date and how his web designing marketing company developed him and taught him what he knows now, / 08:15 : Leaving his company in good terms with people and how being a list-maker propelled him to move forward, / 11:34 : Trimming down the fat in his life and the satisfaction he got from fitting everything he owned in his jeep, / 15:28 : What he considered as his biggest mistake when we quit his job and the lessons he shares to everyone out of that experience, / 23:39 : His methods in engaging with his community, his favorite areas in the internet and plans of his next ventures and his ultimate goals, and / 27:07 : How to drive successfully traffic, levering on social media and the importance of networking.
When using the term ARTREPRENEUR, Tony Barber fits the description better than any other guest in the history of this show. He has a gigantic arsenal of artistic experience under his lifetime belt of creativity- including rocking out in Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs & other music endeavors; designing and inventing non-stop toys and products including the revolutionary ARTristic Easel , the soft toy version of Bananas In Pajamas; the new paper craft Rose Twirler tool, and the Cut N Hold tape dispenser He is a Children's TV Presenter and has also authored over 30 children's books, craft books, short stories and poems, and successfully sold a dead seagull in a box to 699 kids at school as his first entrepreneurial experience? and this is just to name a FEW ? Oh yea- we can?t forget the Exploding Teacher's Bum Series..
It is HIGHLY recommended that you listen to this interview RIGHT NOW!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Tony: / / 03:33 : His story about moving to Australia and his unforgettable trip by sea, / 06:05 : His first marketing lessons and entrepreneurial exploits at the age of 11 in the form of selling a dead seagull to 699 kids in school, / 12:00 : The first time he sold an artwork which he entitled, Exploding Teacher Bums Pictures, and realizing from then on that he can build a career out of this talent, / 14:02 : How he went about writing his book, his publisher?s feedback and the controversial cover and title: How to Draw a Bully-s Bonkers Without Actually Killing Them, / 18:11 : The three principles in designing and creating products and the lessons he learned over time in not being too emotionally attached to ideas, / 19:28 : His processes, systems and strategies when coming up with his inventions including staying small but gaining big from licensing and royalties, / 31:15 : The classic marketing case of how he came up with ARTristic Easel, how he followed it through with market research and his powerful stories of how fulfilling it is to know that his invention can change lives, / 46:55 : Loving his majestic failures and why we should value to humor and people?s marvelous craziness, / 55:08 : Being thankful for the experience of being a rock and roll star in a band and having a number one record, and / 57:38 : The process he goes through when he creates a song and how we should keep our zeal burning as we can motivate people through our passion.
Kendra Kantor is changing the world. She is a creative writer and a wellness mentor for creative women who suffer from depression, anxiety, and other disorders. She helps women take action towards becoming the person they want to be and living a life full of creativity and happiness. With the help of her mother, she reversed her mindset and overcame her struggles, eventually leading to the creation of her mentor programs to help others who share similar battles with depression/anxiety.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Kendra:
03:46 : How she started developing depression anxiety at the age of 13, going through therapy and medication, going to art school for photography and creative writing and how it made her depression worse, going through postpartum depression and finally getting the epiphany of helping women who are going through the same state,
08:08 : The struggles of having an online business especially marketing herself,
14:05 : Her plans which didn’t pull through and the lessons she learned from them,
17:23 : Setting aside time for art and practicing mindfulness as the main habits she cultivates to keep things together,
19:49 : How her mom served as her influence to be a creative artist,
21:00 : The individual processes she incorporates to her clients and the daily struggles she continually battles in her business and personal life,
25:03 : Learning from her clients and their differences experiences and the pointers and recommendations she has for people who are trying to get better, and
28:22 : How she transitioned to this business, the support she is getting from her husband, and the things she would want to change if she can go back to the past.
Our Artrepreneur now is Thomas Griffin, Founder of Art Square, a social marketplace which connects artists with professional photographers to get their images digitized and online.
Thomas first ventured into the art world when he started the online art gallery, Emineo, in 2012. He then brought on technical co-founder Christopher Smith and rebranded Emineo Art Gallery to what ArtSquare is today. The platform functions as a print on-demand service: prints of original works aren’t made until they are sold, so costs stay low for both the artist and ArtSquare.
This interview is slammed with amazing quotes from Thomas. Cheers dude.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Thomas:
06:33 : His introduction to buying and selling art in college through eBay, starting an online college gallery and the fulfilling feeling of helping artists gain stability in their career,
10:35 : How he learned frictions points to gain insights on how to solve problems and analyzed what are valuable to artists to gain participation to this online commerce that he built,
12:38 : Always wanting to be an inventor, starting to be an entrepreneur in college and learning what makes him feel alive and makes him excited in working with creative people,
19:25 : His challenges and the scariest things that he went through such as raising investment for the business and moving to the West Coast,
24: 32 : Keeping up with the daily grind and harder aspects of balancing a business and his long-term vision for Art Square,
30:15 : Figuring out his life hacks by going to the beach, reading fiction, travelling, working out, playing sports and getting rowdy in the weekend, and the culture he is building in Art Square, and
39:25 : His experience in crowd funding and the things that he would do differently if he could go back to the past.
Erin Frey hangs out with aliens, signs, plays guitar? and she Fences. Oh yea.
She is a brilliant creative Writer in Residence and Head of Research at Lift.do, and she works alongside Tony Stubblebine, the founder of the platform. Now, I don't want to call Lift just an 'app' because the power behind this tool is revolutionary. It has helped more than 75,000 people put goals and habits into action, and it has been a huge anchor in the recreation and transformation of my life in particular. It?s simple, it?s clean, and it gives you a nice big kick in the ass when falling off track with your goals and visions. It also encourages and rewards you in unbelievably clever and cunning ways, kinda like moms and pops use to do back in the day.
The crew over at Lift is currently releasing a book called ?The Strongest Mind in the Room? which dives inside the minds of elite athletes, CEOs, artists, and experts who are using mindfulness and meditation to boost performance, increase productivity, expand their creative side and improve as leaders. You can get a free chapter now at book.lift.do :)
Do you lift, bra? You should.
Don't be a big silly goose, listen to my ultra inspiring ,energy packed interview with Erin right nizowwwww.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Erin: / / 03:53 : How she got connected with Lift and her journey using the data and insights from their app to come up with content and goals for creating the book, / 07:13 : How mediation can help you achieve more at work, how it affects your performance, productivity, creativity, and leadership abilities, the range of people they interviewed from artists, software engineers, and lawyers, and what their book is all about, / 09:33 : The most popular habits they have learned from their data including meditation, exercise, reading, setting priorities / 11:34 : The roadblocks which could prevent you from successfully meditating / 13:14 : The changes and benefits she had personally experienced when she started meditating regularly, / 16:14 : How you can build the habit and other micro meditations that you can do if you do not have the time, / 18:17 : Sports and activities which tie up with meditation such as swimming, playing the guitar or running, / 20:44 : Her preference of using guided meditations in a group setting and practicing mindfulness exercises, and / 26:49 : Her current goals and her future career aspirations including starting songwriting and singing.
Jamie Skinner, the guitar and lead vocalist of a 3-piece London-based pop punk band called FUSS, is bringing back the punk love to the rock and roll scene. He takes us on a journey the struggles of a young artist, building a fan base, writing through passion, and breaking expensive guitars.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Jamie:
05:00 : Coming up with a band named Fuss but finding no members at the onset so had ended up doing everything by himself until he came up with the album, Behind Closed Doors, / 06: 05 : Being inspired to teach himself how to play after listening to Green Day; playing in a band at age 13; and a discussion about how radio is being saturated more with pop music nowadays, / 13:18 : Aiming for their music to be self-sufficient and about their dream of being able to play in their band full time, / 14:45 : Giving out their EP, The Mega EP, free last October 6 and their strategy in earning revenues in other channels other than their music to build a following and expand their fan base, / 18:56 : About their second album, What the Fuss, set to come out soon, and how his team mates served as bouncing boards for ideas and made song writing easier, / 21:32 : How he met his band mates, Joe Papworth and Charlie Southard ; who the wildest is among the three; and about their first gigs as a band, / 26:32 : The equipment they are using and some expensive but memorable ?in the moment? decisions made, / 29: 15 : The band?s ultimate dream of living off from their music and other more realistic dreams of touring the UK to do gigs outside of London and to play at the Reading and Leeds Festival, and / 36:02 : About the time he lost passion and wrote stuff just to have a portfolio of songs; and the most important lessons he had learned in his journey so far
"Every morning that we wake up is an amazing thing that we are given. Every single day of our lives are precious moments and we have no guarantees on how many of those we will have."
Jeena Cho is the swiftest Lawyer on the block and she's taking a huge competitive advantage through mindfulness and meditation. After coming to the United States as a young child, she learned to speak English by watching Law and Order? and everything else is domination. She is also an incredible author and is soon to release her newest book The Anxious Lawyer where she teaches the principles and secrets of using mindfulness and meditation to effectively deal with anxiety and stress among the law profession.
Since the interview, Jeena and I have become amazing friends and, and I have been practicing her meditations daily (which immediately results in relaxation and fist pumping.)
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Jeena: / 04:11 : Her family migrating from South Korea in 1988; growing up in Astoria, Queens; and being inspired to fight the evils of the world while learning English through her favorite TV show, Law and Order, / 07:20 : How she got introduced to mediation while in law school but fell out of habit after graduating and how Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) changed her life after she tried it out due to an anxiety disorder diagnosis, / 14:48 : Her favorite part in cultivating a meditation practice, including developing an appreciation of life as she never had before, / 20:58 : The mixed reactions of people in her circle after she started teaching meditation, / 22:17 : About the book she is currently writing, The Anxious Lawyer, an eight-week guided program on how you can bring mindfulness into your everyday life, / 24:20 : The differences of approach in writing The Anxious Lawyer and the first book she had published, and the challenges and inner struggles she faces regularly to finish it, and / 33:12 : A side story from Jeena about her trip to Burning Man and having the realization to pursue what truly makes her happy.
"We love art. We want to make it accessible to as many people as we can. We want to promote work that is truly and uniquely beautiful. We want to give talented yet unknown artists a chance to profit from their skills, efforts and insight. We want to give you an easy way to own a piece of remarkable art printed with quality, sustainable materials."
Dmitri Tcherbadji is one hell of a creative. He the founder of ArtSocket, a platform for discovering unique and beautiful artwork/prints froma ll over the world. He is also a contributing artist to ArtSocket?s collection, a musical composer, a film creator/director.. and he's hopping all over the world.
Cheers Dmitri.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Dmitri: / / 03:43 : Dmitri?s background from being born in Russia in the mid-80s to parents who worked in Bolshoi Theatre, to being disenchanted with art after immigrating to Canada, and becoming excited with engineering and math, / 11:50 : How he excels at photography, his art form of choice, and the message, feel and experience that his art projects convey, / 14:10 : About Art Socket, how it evolved, progressed and what he ultimately wants to accomplish with it, / 17:37 : How he goes about finding the artworks, getting submissions and how he gets his collections going, / 23:11 : The most interesting places he has been in from a creative perspective, / 27:20 : Stand out experiences and the things he learned so far, and / 39:08 : About the app, Eureka, which aims to transform how the technology, products and content are discovered.
Miabo Enyadike is the Artrepreneur in the spotlight today. She is an international artist, a qualified interior decorator, an art blogger, an author and an awardee of the Ford Foundation Prize and grant for Contemporary Art by the Nigeria Art Institute Terrakulture, in Lagos Nigeria.
She found herself overwhelmed with all the creative art requests she was receiving from her other co-workers, and she established enough business to break away from the job and create full time. She's a creative mastermind through and through, and her interview is incredibly inspirational. Check it out!
Summary of Show:
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Miabo:
04:12 : A peek on her journey so far: leaving high school at the age of 16, wanting to be a lawyer but not meeting the requirements, ending up being admitted for arts in a university and graduating with honors, working in an oil industry only to end up going back to being an artist and opening a gallery, / 09:17 : How it felt leaving the oil industry after her boss asked her to focus on her art, / 13:25 : Starting with small decorative paintings, moving to handmade card-making, gradually moving to gift tags and then finally adding in recycling in her line up of crafts, / 22:47 : The message her artwork conveys including people being able to do all things through recycled arts, being creative from within through her drawings and paintings and the overall message she wants to share on how she goes about her creations, and / 26:05: How to go about an art exhibit without having a gallery, without knowing anybody and just armed with flyers and social media.
So, you know how you are always trying to stuff flasks and other important items down your pants so you can get them into concerts? I?ve been waiting to say this for a long time, but the solution is finally here: The SpeakEasy Briefs. Unzip the Party!
Dan Goldman and Jeff Schneider are the mad scientists behind the Speakeasy Briefs, men?s boxer-briefs designed with a private zipper pocket for holding various items, including a passport, a wallet, A FLASK, ...Airplane bottles?? The possibilities are endless.
The Speakeasy project first launched on April 25th, 2013 on Kickstarter and was able to more than triple the $10,000 Kickstarter goal into $32,616. Jeff and Dan are ballers with diverse experience and knowledge, and they sure as hell hate Reno. :) Listen to the episode- it's fantastic.
Summary of Show:
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Dan and Jeff: / / 3:19 : How Dan and Jeff met at USC and how entrepreneurship and their business spirit brought them together to create the SpeakEasy Briefs, / 5:22 : About their product being a solution and a good alternative to the problems concert-goers have when going to music festivals and travelers when travel belts simply won?t work for them, / 8:52 : The process they went through on how they turned their conceptualized idea to fruition by checking out stores, going to the tailor, building prototypes, field testing and validating them and deciding to go with crown funding after they decided to have it mass produced, / 10:47 : The reasons why they opted for crowd funding including market validation, acquiring their first customers, low initial cost, and all the value that a bootstrapped entrepreneur can get through this channel, / 14:23 : The steps they took to get their crowd-funding going starting from research, directing traffic to their project page, building momentum by tapping the powers of the media in spreading the campaign towards other networks, / 21:24 : How it felt like reaping success after all their theories came into fruition, and / 23:45: Where they see themselves in the future and where their company is headed.
Jeff Steinmann is a legend and the author of How to Quit Working: A Simple Plan to Leave Your Job for a Life of Freedom. He is also the mack-daddy of the The How to Quit Working Show that features interviews with lifestyle fanatics who left their soul-sucking jobs to dominate the world of freedom in creating the life they truly love.
Jeff has a fantastic taste for business development, marketing, sales, scalability, and entrepreneurial consulting. In addition, he does a little scribing over at The Huffington Post, Lifehack and Medium.
He is a top tier role model for entrepreneurial enthusiast and relentless creatives, and has figured out the ultimate way to capitalize on Life.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Jeff:
2:10 - How he manages having a podcast, writing a book, doing consultations, writing for Life Hack and Huffington post, and letting people know that there are many other options out there than just having a job,
06:25 - Going through 13 years of college, getting into the corporate word and being unhappy despite the growth in career and money, and finally leaving his 9-5 job on April 15,2012,
09:52 - The things he did to prepare himself in quitting his job, the things he did wrong including not getting the validation he needs despite of the concepts and ideas he had in place, and the lessons he want to pass on to folks preparing to do the same,
13:39 - Starting with the things you are good so you can provide value as a beginning of a business idea and getting out of your comfort zone to be able to get the wheels rolling,
20:49 - The things he learned from the opportunities he encountered, the fruits he gained from listening to feedback and how it changed his business processes,
27:19 -The contributions and competencies he gained from corporate life and how he leveraged on them when he moved to the entrepreneurial world, and the value of selling as a skill.
Seth McBee is lighting up the streets with inspiration and LED's. He is the co-founder of You Saw Me, a start-up concentrating on the design, manufacturing, and marketing of their first patented product: a reflective vest (The Verve) with custom-color LED lights embedded inside for athletes, police, military, and various other consumers. Its 60 custom color, waterproof LEDs can be seen from over a mile away in any direction.
With engineering backgrounds and entrepreneurial bugs, Seth and his partner Kevin are putting everything they have into a strategic process wrapped with product development, market research, and future scalability.
These vests are so?.f*g... awesome.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Seth:
06:06 - Being a young entrepreneur, filing patents back in 2009, studying Engineering at the University of Maryland, bringing his talents to Virginia as a nuclear engineer, and finally landing in Lexington in 2013 to pursue his passion,
/ 10:07 - Where their idea originated and how customer feedback influenced the development of their product,
/ 14:21 - About their first prototype, the processes and halts it went through and the next versions which came out after their tinkering,
/ 17:29 - The challenges he faced including the rejections, discouragements, critics and all the ups and downs, and the things he learned and what he considers his successes so far,
/ 22:54 - Networking, partnering with startup incubators such as Awesome, Inc., and the support he got from the community,
/ 28:48 - Lessons learned from his unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign and how it led them to be featured in the Fast Company website,
Cynthia Miltenberger is no newbie when it comes to being an Artrepreneur. She created Art Moves Everywhere for all children, with an emphasis on those in remote areas with limited resources. The foundation is an educational and inspirational tool which provides children a chance to enter the world of the arts through experiencing creative people, places and ideas all while deepening their connections within. It also signifies a core of learning about the awareness and oneness of cultures, communities, traditions, history, and instilling self-worth.
Cynthia held movement workshops for 826LA and the Hammer Museum. She serves as a ballet faculty member at Synthesis Dance and Performing Arts Center and Los Angeles City College. In addition, she is a volunteer representative for Step Up Women?s Network and Transformational Art Technologies, another outlet to empower children and women. Arts activism, her love for children, and pure passion for dance is the inspiration behind her first children?s dance educational book.
Art moves everywhere.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Cynthia: 04:36 - Her story on how she dreamt of becoming a rock star when she was a kid to being led to the creative arts by adversity and humility, and her advocacy of showcasing the art to those who do not have access to it,
/ 08:40 - My realizations after watching the Jaden Carlson band and how it related to Cynthia?s cause, and how the arts had helped Cynthia overcome issues in her life,
/ 11:12 - How Art Moves Everywhere was conceptualized from her fear and how workshops, educational cards, and games stemmed from this book,
/ 14:34 - Her commitment to herself to do at least one thing a day to get to her goals and the role of social networking in helping her achieve this,
/ 21:06 - About her cause and how it was fueled by hardship and adversity, as well as The Flea?s contribution towards the advocacy of getting children exposed to the arts regardless of social and economic background,
/ 24:48 - Sharing Hal Elrod?s story, Cynthia?s own personal early morning routine, uniting families through the Art Moves placemats, battling the pre-conceived idea that dance is gender-based with her students, and how she aims to show that arts connect to everything else in the world,
/ 33:22 - Being inspired by the imagination and resilience of Walt Disney, following your instincts, her mission of getting role models in the fore front to make a difference, and how a visualization board can push you towards the realization of your goals, and
/ 42:45 - Her passion to pursue her purpose in life by utilizing her talents to the fullest, being a product of being influenced to do something she didn?t love and how her mom supported her to take up dancing and how she got through all the challenges in dance school.
We all have those things that happen in life that really make us reflect on how we are currently living. Are we doing everything we should be? Are we following the path we were created to follow? Are we concentrating on bringing positive energy to the world and making a difference where it matters the most? Are we wasting away?
I owe everything to 2 strangers that physically and mentally saved my life on different occasions. It's chilling to think about, but the lessons learned are priceless. We aren't here to judge others or be a cancer to society, we are here for love, peace, and unity.
Our Artrepreneur Now, Rachael Kennedy, is a local artist in Lexington, Kentucky who turns ordinary old windows to colorful, magnificent keepers. She is painting herself a new life with the perfect Vue. I met Rachael at a small music festival, and was totally blown away to find out she had just started her creative endeavors. Perfect fit!
Despite her #1 priority of being a wonderful and badass mom, she is creating the life that she loves on the side through persistence and constant family support. Learn how she is revolutionizing herself at this particular phase of her life, and how she is chasing what she enjoys despite the initial fears and doubts.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Rachael:
04:08 -The thrill of finding her niche and discovering what she excites her: window painting,
07:15 - How she got started with her art, the uncertainties which came with it and where she got the support she needed to rid herself of the doubts,
10:15 - Why old windows are her medium of choice and how she dumpster dove her first canvas,
15:03 How her art got her off of trouble through redirection,
19:20 - Why free flow does not work for her all the time and how working with a transparent medium can give you freedom, and
25:14 - The multiday process of making window art from finding the most interesting windows, sanding, multiple painting, up to varnishing.
Jacqueline DuPlessis is the definition of an artrepreneur- dominating fear and following her creative dreams with no boundaries. At only 29 years old, Jacqueline has traveled all over the world in pursuit of higher meaning, continuously conquering items on her bucket list and bringing gumption to others. She's a marketing strategist, a business and personal consultant, a singer-songwriter, and a pioneer of creating the life we all LOVE. Words can't describe this one.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Jacqueline:
03:53 Born and raised in South Africa, she shares to us how she dreamed of traveling when she was young, how she landed in the US at 18 years old and how she worked her way up after starting from the bottom - literally cleaning bathrooms,
05:28 Courage, initiative, resourcefulness and the deeper meaning behind her definition of the word 'gumption' and why she chose this word in her publications,
09:32 Powerful quotes which serve as her inspiration in following her passion, how she made it possible to pursue her goals of long-term travel, and how it led her to the creation of The Gumption Workbook,
17:00 Ticked off items in Jacqueline's bucket list so far and the greatest challenges she had faced in her travels together with what she does to plan for these hurdles,
21:50 Laptops, dependable adapters, Trip Advisor, Fancy Hands, Adioso, Hotels.com, Agoda.com, and all the tools and resources she uses to support her as she travels around
28:45 A major tip in searching using an incognito browser to save big time on plane prices, and
33:39 Her guidance on how to simply decide, remove excuses and just take action.
William Goggins and Denzel Smith are dropping creative bombs all over Atlanta with their apparel company, Denote. Denote Clothing Co. is the collective artistic combination of both street taught and traditional artists and is inspired by graffiti and skateboard subculture. From Queens of the Stone Age influences to pioneering massive parties, William and Denzel know how to make an interview interesting. Rise against!
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with William and Denzel:
04:01 Meeting Andre from Outkast and how they kept it together despite being star struck,
06:52 How they came up with name ?Denote? instead of the original idea, ?Bad Seed?, and how the name signifies and highlights what they do,
10:23 Meeting through graffiti and skateboards, tightening their bonds through their campus troubles, and taking each other?s artistic influences and skills for Denote to come into form,
5:47 Starting off on fire, the struggles of sustaining the business, and advice on how to make it work,
19:32 The process of how they create their clothing and how great ideas can come out from the failed ones,
3:45 Using their shirts as mediums to get their beliefs out and how each is an emblem of a different story,
5:01 Seeing their company as a driving force and an umbrella for their creative outlets, how it defines them as a person, and, as far as artistry goes, how it signifies the truth,
25:58 The back story behind one of their craziest shirt designs
Reflections of my journey from being a scared poop pants loser to becoming a creative champion. This episode includes my thoughts about self investment, failing, and believing in yourself.
Drew Lewis is a wizard, and he doesn't wear pants. He successfully birthed and sold a web design and marketing company out of college, followed by a decision to head west in pursuit of extended excitement in the creative media circus we call Los Angeles.
He currently holds the role of New Media Director at Wunderman Irvine, where he leads the charge in emerging media, creativity, and spell casting. Drew continues to slip bourbon in his coffee while working on clients such as Shell Gasoline, Hilton Hotels, Land Rover, Dodgers Baseball, Southern California Edison, Toshiba Laptops, Jenny Craig, Callaway Golf, Southwest Airlines, Mattel, Solspot, Invisalign, Oakley and Special Olympics.
His accolades have included 3 Lester Wunderman Awards, Cannes Cyber Finalist, several Gold National ADDY Awards, ECHO Award, and WPPed Cream Award.
Drew has served on a broad spectrum of speaking engagements including SxSW, CES, Digi Day, Digital Hollywood, and locally for the OC Ad Federation. He also has been published in various online magazines and had given a variety of lectures.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Drew:
Pre-Interview Chat
03:04 About his campaign, Loyalty is Dead. Long Live Loyalty, his experience in South by Southwest (SxSW) , and the interesting topic, Verified or Go Home, which he had proposed for his next appearance,
09:54 Sharing shows we both like to listen to such as stories about developing confidence until you can execute in This American Life and healing stories in Reset.me with Amber Lyon,
13:03 Stories which inspire him, how he learns from other people, and how he shares the same struggles like we do in turning ideas into actions, and
19:55 A discussion about the book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook and how the author, Gary Vaynerchuk, blew his mind during one of his talks.
Interview Proper
25:20 His college background, how he started the company, FusionCorp Design, right after college, and how he took the leap of faith and ended in California to work in an advertising company,
32:20 Researching and consuming content to get over being stumped,
35:50 ? His learnings from his sculpture class about cutting losses and just moving on,
40:46 How he makes his fears fade by having a bouncing board through his friends to talk his fears away,
43:12 His choice between Willy Wonka and Richard Simmons and the key marketing take aways you can learn from the former,
45:40 The high points in being in advertising including the parties and speaking engagements in South by South West, and
49:05 Tips on how to get started in advertising, learning how to be creative despite of your background and tools which you can use to help you be more productive.
Dr. George Szekely is a prolific painter, an author, and a pioneer in developing creative changes and methodologies for art teaching. George was at the forefront of the first art educators to emphasize the importance of children's play and home art in artistic development and as the foundation for school art practice.
To name a few of his achievements, Dr. Szekely has been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association, an Emanual Barkan Prize-winning author, a Victor Lowenfeld Award recipient for his lifetime achievement in art education and was named A National Treasure by student chapters of the NAEA.
Since 1978, he has been Area Head and Senior Professor of Art Education at the University of Kentucky.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with George:
03:54 A glimpse of his childhood and how the Hungarian revolution led him to meet an art teacher who shared his love for Pez and whose footsteps he followed.
07:11 The long journey from Hungary to Vienna to the classrooms of New York, how his teacher, Mr. Williams, had changed his life completely through his great faith and confidence with George and encouraged him to go on the to the high school of Music and Arts where he was classmates with Peter, Paul and Mary.
09:24 His life in the village in the early 60s including bumping into Claes Oldenburg?s first store, getting to Columbia and being one of the pioneers in building Soho and how it all ended during the Lindsay administration which brought him to Kentucky.
13:46 How he got back on his feet starting with small spaces in grocery stores and waking up in the wee hours to work on his writing.
17:07 How he became an unintentional teacher in New York and how he came to love it after his experiences.
25:14 How he prepared for teaching, incorporating play in classes, celebrating children?s art and what kept him in this profession for years.
41:24 -The non-traditional techniques and tools George uses in his artworks.
Beth Sistrunk began her artistic endeavors as a child in rural Ohio. Quoted from her website, she shared that for her, beauty is the essential driving force of her work: "I'm always chasing beauty in my work. For me a painting should be beautiful. It should captivate the viewer, if only for a few seconds. And for those few seconds let them forget themselves, their worries, their troubles and transport them to a place of beauty and peace."
Beth is a master oil painter residing in Naples, Florida and she had excelled in prestigious art awards and contributions such as the Art Renewal Center's 2012/2013, The National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Society for "Recipe for a Beautiful Day," and a Creative Achievement Award for "Essence of the Sea" at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Her artwork portrays unbelievable detail, depth, and obvious passion through creating.
Beth is blowing minds with her talents.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Beth:
04:51 Starting out with crayons during her childhood to playing trumpet and piano during her adolescent years, Beth talks about how she cannot live without creativity and art.
06:15 Leaving her goal of being a veterinarian or a marine biologist, she shares how she got started and pursued arts despite the scary transition.
09:18 How she overcame her struggles and the push backs through hard work and with the help of her better half.
16:03 Her great goal of having a permanent piece in a museum and what she is currently doing to be able to get to this point including finding a great teacher and mentor.
19:19 The fundamentals that she worked on to hone her skills and the habits she developed to keep her long term goal.
21:25 A step-by-step process on how she goes about creating her art and insights on where and from who her techniques are derived from.
27:33 The substance behind her art, the emotional impact of her narratives and the hidden secrets that adds interests to her paintings.
32:46 Hiring teach sooner, exposing her younger self to the arts and some of the things she may do differently in from her past.
Harry Duran decided to create his own world revolving around what he loves. A huge music advocate and a DJ for 20 years, he took initiative to pioneer his first mobile application, Know Your DJ, and venture out into world of the envelope-bending entrepreneurs. After attending an New Media Expo, Harry kickstarted the ?Podcast Junkies? podcast where he interviews fellow podcasters about their passions, lives, advice, insights and more. He also loves Alex Grey. Can't beat that.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Harry:
4:24 - How it feels being able to follow his dreams and his key take aways with the whole experience of developing apps and building a podcast
8:15 - Why he decided to attend the New Media Expo, how it changed his outlook and how it jumpstarted his podcasting career
12:20 - The importance of validating your idea with other people and how overthinking can mess things up sometimes
13:43 - The hardest part in launching a podcast and the challenging aspects you will meet upfront
15:44 - Productivity tools which helps him be efficient and breaking down the processes that he has in place to shave as many minutes of his day as he can
19:50 -His experience of having a virtual assistant, the importance of putting SOPs in place, and the list of tools and resources he uses in building systems in place for his VAs
22:56 - Getting up early, turning his Gmail off, taking care of his health and all about his regimen to always keep his focus
30:00 - The things he has learned in his journey so far including finding the value of the people you meet and also thinking how you can add value to others
Yan Huang created a Dragon Ball Z fan site as one of his first projects when he was just a child and eventually busted up some servers with 10,000 unique visits per day (Server weren't what they are today!) He's an award-winning marketer, business consultant, speaker, and the founder of Gray Hat Web, a Los Angeles design and marketing agency. He has 14 years of experience creating and marketing websites, and has worked with Inc. 500 and Fortune 500 companies.
Yan and I get funky on this episode with email marketing, leveraging in social media, and the great Tupac Shakur.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Yan:
Registering for an LLC and deciding to start his own business at 18 years old (19:50),
His experiences in expanding his email list, some mistakes that marketers do in email distribution, and what email service he prefers the best (25:26),
The importance of being in all social media platforms and which one is the most useful to be in (34:43),
His styles in approaching the different audiences of the various social media channels (36:20),
Using YouTube videos as an avenue for community service and outreach (41:40), and
His overall mission in creating value and changing the lives of others. (49:50)
Anthem Salgado is a BALLER. He is the founder of ArtofHustle.com where he brings out the creative champion in EVERYONE and equips them with new perspectives and valuable tools, cultivating fresh leadership in our communities. He hosts the Art of Hustle podcast where he interviews creative entrepreneurs about passion, marketing, creativity and hustlin'. A marketing guru, Anthem is using his creative talents to kickstart others into building the life they love. Marketing + Management + Mindset + Money = Hustlin'
Everyday we hustlin'.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Anthem:
07:56 – Basic classes on how to assemble artist kits, how to translate a resume into a biography, how to write artist statements the proper way and the lessons he teaches in the Art of Hustle
09:52 - The things which inspired Anthem to put up a podcast including his love to express himself and opportunity to show everybody that you are not hustling alone
13:05 – Learning to wear the four different hats in business to be able to run a business successfully and other advice for people who want to be their own boss
14:50 - Figuring your business model first to determine who your target audience is and deciding the methods on how to reach them after that
18:00 - The value of staying in motion and striving for excellence in everything we do
19:50 – Two great things to do when you get stuck in your creative process and ways to cultivate your brain: Do something completely radical or different, or practice stillness for the awesome idea to come through
As a young child, Angela Mazzi had aspirations of becoming an acrobat in a circus and an astrophysicist. It turns out her creativity branched in a new direction and allowed her to build her life as a creative architect, a career coach, an author, and the Founder of The Patron Saint of Architecture.
In this episode, she teaches us about the importance of help, the power of community, Feng Shui and her mission to design our surroundings to maximize the creative harmony of human existence.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Angela:
How she got involved in healthcare, developing her blog and what evidence-based design is all about, (7:36),
The process of writing her first book, her target candidates and how she self-published it in Amazon after 4 months (13:13),
Expansions, online workshops, live speaking engagements and all her long term goals for The Patron Saint of Architecture (18:15),
How it feels to change and improve people?s lives through her coaching and mentoring program (19:17),
Starting her day with meditation, writing down a list of the things she wants to do, taking stock on where she is on her major goals and other personal habits that you can learn from (23:00), and
Feng Shui, environmental anchors and the link between evidence-based design and psychology (27:33).
Over my years of scaling the interwebs and building an awesome empire, I've realized that there are so many crucial pieces that keep my drive and journey in place. This is somewhat of an index of all the tools, resources, and products that I really believe in and couldn't do my boogie without. I hope they will guide you in keeping it super funky.
I will continue to update this section on the website as I discover new amazing goodies, so check back often! www.artsynow.com
A native of Russia, Veronica Winters has blessed the United States with her presence and unmatchable creativity. She is an amazing visual artist and and takes us on a roller-coaster through oil paintings, colored pencil techniques and the fascination of drilling emotions into artwork.
In this episode, we talk about discovering yourself and how it can lead to opening new doors, the art of teaching something back to the community, and how she made her trip from Russia and created the beautiful life she loves by following her dreams.
Here are the highlights of my funky conversation with Veronica
Self-improvement, traveling, developing a national art program, the items in her creative bucket list, and her ultimate long term goals (7:35),
How she landed where she is despite her unplanned path of becoming an artist due to the economic situation in Russia (11:55),
The crash of the Soviet Union and the impact of this in the choices she had made in life (13:57),
What her style is, how she developed it and how she gets her creative juices flowing (17:39),
Her daily habits in her everyday routine to keep up and stay on top of her game(24:15),
Knowing what artists want to know and learning how to communicate them through the books and publications she had written (31:30).
Alex Frommeyer is always looking ahead when it comes to technology. He is dedicating his life to riding the wave of creativity through binding product development with personal connections. An engineer and the founder of Beam Technologies and Uproar Labs, Alex has pioneered the very first connected toothbrush -The Beam Brush- which maps brushing behaivor and provides rewards for good oral care. He takes pride in stepping back from any situation and applying himself where he finds interest, and he's on a mission to change the way people look at health habits forever.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Alex:
Alex shares his background, what Uproar Labs is all about, how their team built their skill sets over the years, and the difference between digital and physical companies (5:45)
Goals in creating the Beam Brush, the first app-connected toothbrush dedicated to mapping brushing behavior and providing rewards for good oral care, and how his team goes about the data gathering (10:40)
A discussion on the reason why rewards or incentive system is proving to be an engaging aspect for users of this generation (15:30)
The elements of 'stickiness' and the key learning we can take away from the gaming industry (20:00)
The unusual order of the first steps he took in starting his entrepreneurial life (22:40)
How getting out of his comfort zone, pushing out the criticisms, and being stubbornly confident in tackling his dreams took him to where he is today (28:55).
One of the biggest influences behind the start of The Artrepreneur Now podcast, Steve P Young is an app developer, an entrepreneur, a marketer, a father, and a baller. While commuting on the train to his full time job, Steve started his journey editing podcasts with 1 hand and holding the laptop with the other. From growth hacking to the production of his first solo app, his story is one of the most inspiring in existence. Joining a Mastermind and hiring a business coach was the turning point of him leaving his corporate job, and he is now a full time hustler (the good kind.) :)
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Steve:
The craziest thing and the most eye-opening experience which happened to him so far (10:55)
How to spike your downloads through tapping on email list and other impactful methods on how he grew his audience (12:55)
Starting with something simple and small and all the best lessons he learned from his guests (15:30)
The things he had done to get back some of his free time such as getting help through outsourcing and the use of Auphonic (17:40)
How he separates his time between podcasts, apps and other tasks (21:00).
When Donnie Schexnayder was just 8 years old, he discovered a prime example of how NOT to teach. Armed with the unforgettable experience and a burning passion to change lives, Donnie has created a life impacting students and teachers alike with zest, ensuring that every learning experience is enjoyable the way it should be.
He is the founder of StartTeachingGuitar.com and the host of the STG podcast. He is very adamant about make a living doing the things that we love and keeping the balance between being creative and attracting clients to market your skills.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Donnie:
His creative bucket list and his ultimate goal in having more guitar teachers aware that there is help available and you don't have to do it alone (08:30)
All about his experience in his younger years which motivated and drove him to do what he does (10:05)
Start with teaching for family and friends, asking for feedback and testimonials and all his tips and advice for folks who wants to start teaching guitar (15:15)
His methods in attracting new students such as word of mouth referrals and online marketing (18:30)
Making the lessons all about you, boring your students to death and the common mistakes people make when they try to teach guitar (20:52)
How continually teaching himself with new skills and finding mentors can be habits which can make a difference (26:30)
What he would do differently if he could go back in time (29:28)
Taking Atlantic City by storm, John Demko (Bass/Vocal) and Joe Straczynski (Saxophone) have pioneered their own twist on Jamband music- The WORLD'S Heaviest Jamband!
John and Joe went to college together and have traditionally played for personal fulfillment. We cover a roller-coaster of topics in this episode including having realistic goals, the value of music, the insane ground-up promotion process, if musician compensation is fair, and of course, who among them smells the worse!
Here are the highlights of my conversation with John and Joe:
Their favorite pieces of equipment and those they simply can't do without (12:19)
Their ultimate long term goals and where they see themselves in the future (18:30)
What music means to them and how important this is in each of their lives (21:10)
Lessons they learned in the past which resonated with them the most (25:15)
Their thoughts about Spotify and other free streaming sites and if musicians are really getting what they deserve (28:30).
Jam on, dudes.
Discover your inner champion!! We all have a champion in us, and it's time for you to bust yours out. This special episode takes you through my journey and experience recreating my inner champion, and all the lessons and insight I have learned from it. Let's Boogie.
Laurel Saville is an award-winning author of numerous books, articles, essays, and short fiction. She is a teacher, a marketing and advertising guru, and a cancer survivor.
Coming from an unconventional childhood, Laurel found refuge in books and libraries and there she found her spark as a writer. She shares that the best thing about writing is the ability to create worlds that others can find and enjoy. Writing novels and short stories isn't the easiest path to make a living, so she chased jobs that involved writing-public relations, marketing, brand development, advertising- as she believes that any type of writing can be a good ground in honing your craft in a variety of ways.
Here are the highlights of my interesting conversation with Laurel:
Going back to graduate school during her late 30s to spend more energy on her literary side.
How she quit her job, all about her literary pursuits and how she lived her dream life though it entailed never knowing what the next day would bring or how much money she was going to make.
The pros and cons about being a freelancer.
Experiencing cancer and the most important thing it taught her: to be less tolerant, less forgiving, a little more selfish and make situations better for herself.
Her habits, the steps she is taking to continually educate herself and the advantages of pursuing education.
About her book, the 100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers: Insider Secrets for Working Smart and Staying Creative.
Dave Lent is the top shooter when it comes to living life in the now. With over 40 years of film under his belt, he has mastered how to live life by staying loyal to his passion, and he is in it for the long run to teach others the same. His revolutionary documentary "The 5 Keys to Mastery" explores a set of universal principles applied by some of the most accomplished people in any industry, including BB King, Carlos Santana, Linus Torvalds, Paul Reed Smith & more.
Failing in business and forced to retire from football due to health issues, Dave experienced depression at a young age. During these low points, he was introduced to the concept of video production and fell in love with a camera forever. Eventually he moved on to capture some of the most daring and remarkable film, including an inmate being stabbed right in front of his lens, on his journey inside the San Quentin prison.
In this episode, Dave walks us through how Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" turned his life around and allowed him to navigate with clearer vision. He also shares how the book, Elements of Style, taught him how to eliminate needless information with the lens and with everything else in his life.
In addition, he breaks down The 5 Keys to Mastery:
Surrender to your passion - your passion is your calling.
Practice, practice, practice -perfect your craft.
Get a guide - get people to help you learn faster and better.
Visualize the outcome - get it out of your head in a form that you can see it every day.
Play the edge - push your boundaries constantly. Comfort is the enemy of the artist.
The world needs more people like Dave.
Bouncing all over the world in search of greater meaning, Erik Stenqvist has finally found peace and enlightenment in the culture of Thailand. A professional high-stakes poker player and mindset/life coach, Erik uses a combination of the two to excel within both trades and push the possibility envelope of life. Through native Ayahuasca experiences in Peru to bonding with local cultures through spirit, Erik shares with us the power behind following our true calling.
'Whichever path you take, make sure it has heart. Do it so you feel it.'
Erik is a breathing example of what this podcast strives to create in all of us.
It was a wild summer in 1976 in London. Rick Cassman and his band Straight Eight formed and would soon sign to Pete Townshend's Label 'Eel Pie Records.' Meanwhile, a younger rebellious punk crowd including Mick Jones and Sid Vicious was starting to transform Rock-n-Roll for the ages. Rick and the Straight Eight were in the thick of it all.
They geared up for an upcoming tour in support of The Who, and then Keith Moon died. Rick was actually with Pete Townshend the day the news broke, and he shares the story on this show. Straight Eight would later go on tour in support of Queen in 1981, eventually disbanding and parting ways a few years later.
Today, Straight Eight is defying all odds. They have reunited for a new album and tour, and most importantly- to finish what they started. Highly entertaining and inspirational, Rick Cassman takes us back to the 70s and spills it all, including his experiences at the Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd shows at the Royal Albert Hall.
'You are going to get knocked down. Everyone gets knocked down- That is life. Always bid yourself up and be confident and believe in what you do.'
Josh Kilen had a dream of being a writer as a child, but naturally grew out of it to pursue the creation of a firm focusing on consulting, web design, logistical management and marketing. It wasn't until he had children of his own that requested bed time stories that he sparked his dream for writing back into reality.
Josh has since published several fiction and non-fiction books in relation to creativity with children and writing, and he continues to pioneer the age of marketing based off personal relationships rather than unconnected masses.
Salvador Sanchez and his friend Chris Ortiz made a big move from Austin Texas to Lexington Kentucky to open A Cup of Commonwealth - a premium coffee joint with a pay-it-forward mentality. Through core values and principles, the coffee shop has served as a staple for giving back to the community and creating an atmosphere that attracts all types of creatives.
The shop has a wall with hundreds of coffees that were purchased by strangers for anyone who may meet the criteria on the cup, whether this requires doing a Michael Jackson dance or being enrolled in one of the local University classes. They even allow local artists to display their work on the shop walls.
Every coffee shop should take some notes from Salvador and Chris.
Josh Earl goes hard, period. If he is interested in something, he will find an opportunity to create a business out of it. From hand-crafting $300 straight razors to capturing 167k email addresses on a viral online giveaway, Josh is setting an example for the idea of endless possibilities.
Venturing out from Journalism, Josh saw opportunity and took initiative to teach himself how to program. He then combined his talents and released several books, netting him over $30,000 on the side.
The best part? He has a full time job and a family that comes first.
Much Respect, Josh.
If you hate meditation then I want you to put on your champion pants and listen to this episode. The first of several special episodes that I will be releasing in conjunction with my interviews, I wanted to reach out and let everyone know that it's definitely funky and completely okay to hop out of your comfort zone and do something different. Find out how I went from thinking meditation was for the wooks, to using it as a practice for stress relief, increased productivity, and overall mental wealth. Keep it heady babes and brews.
Steve Nixon is teaching the world his passion- Jazz Piano. From touring 17 countries as a musician to reaching over 120 countries with his online video lessons, Steve helps us explore the power of expanding a brand by experimenting with marketing and product creation.
He's shared shred sessions with names like Buddy Guy, Jaimoe Johanson, and BB King, and he has taught over 10,000 piano lessons. We even get into videotaping Godzilla and crazy tour stories of 'making it rain.' Steve is the man.
Daryk is hilarious, blunt, and not afraid to push the envelope. He will go to any extent to create, even if it requires a little dumpster diving session to find plywood to paint on. Anything can be a canvas.
Like most artists, Daryk is in the thick of sustaining a life as a creative, and he shares with us his visions, habits, highs, lows, and everything in between.
'Art is not a way to make a living... it's about a way to make your parents mad if you don't have the balls to be gay.'
Keep it funky Daryk.
Kerri Koczen and Danielle Roos are taking initiative and changing the world. Together they founded Yellow Rose Productions- a theatre and improv company focused solely on depicting real world problems to increase awareness with the audience and help the world recognize truth.
Their first production, 'Princess Cut', examines the reality of the slavery and sex trafficking of a young girl inside a Knoxville, TN sex ring. The true story hits the local audiences hard because it opens up an entirely new perspective on the types of activities that are happening in the community. Not only are Kerri and Danielle creating the productions, but they are running campaigns to spread the awareness. They even have open panel discussions after the productions where audience members can engage in detailed conversations with professionals, including FBI agents, who are working to fight these cases every day.
Truly one of the deepest and moving conversations I've ever had a chance to take part in, the respect I have for Kerri & Danielle is infinite. Listen now, take action- and help these two increase awareness by sharing their story and getting involved!
This will change your life. If you listen to any show on this podcast, listen to this one immediately.
Hal Elrod, his story, his books, his podcast, and his morning strategy have literally revolutionized tens of thousands of people's lives all over the world, including mine. Hal was pronounced dead for 6 minutes after getting hit head on by a drunk driver. After being told he might not ever walk again, and that he would suffer brain damage, Hal took his first step 9 days later and went on to run a 52-mile marathon.
He is the most inspirationally powerful, insightful, motivational, and bluntly honest human I've ever encountered, and he has created a system that makes it unbelievably easy to tap into a life of expanded opportunity, unlimited happiness, reborn success, and profound changes in ANY and EVERY area of your life, all before 8 am.
From the bottom of my heart- thank you Hal.
Brian Lu aka 'DJ Bluz' made a slow transition from his full time job to following his true passion full time. Not only does he share with us the nitty gritty ups and downs of his journey, he spills his guts about his experience and the road to self-sustaining an income. He has developed a new way of looking at opportunity- one that has led him to un-traditional gigs at places such as yoga studios, cardio workouts, gallery openings and more.
Whether it be relaxing to a little Marvin Gaye to ease the mind, or recognizing that the future is built in the 'now', Brian is taking his gut feelings and hanging on for the ride of his life. Play on, Brian.
We don't put much thought into the things that we consume every day, but if we start to put a little bit of thought into it, we can drastically change our experience with life. - Greg Bastin
Greg Bastin made a transition from high stakes poker to masterminding the creation of OpportuniTEAS, a series of premium, all natural super teas, to pursue his quest to make a difference through helping people perform better, feel better, think clearly, and sustain more energy. He focuses on optimal health and providing the most effective products through full consumer awareness.
Greg covers the importance of nutrition in everyday life and it's direct relation to productivity and success. He also touches on marketing strategies, product development, networking, the 80/20 rule, the value of failures, and converting passion to energy. Touche Greg.
Jacob Scesney lives with the intentions of crossing off bucket list items every day. At only 21 years old, he has toured all over the world and shared the stage names like Seth MacFarlane, Casey Abrams, Robben Ford, Christian Scott, Warren Hill, and Shadmehr Aghili, and he has also made appearances on the show Glee. A multi-instrumentalist, Jacob has a serious gift for music, especially the Saxophone. He will shred your face off.
From the Tom and Jerry show to Bebop legend Charlie Parker, Jacob covers all of his influences, his networking advice, and why being a positive person is the most important gateway to success. Scesney 4 President
Roger Lee was upset when he opened his rejection letter from the art school that he applied to for visual arts. The Funky Twist: he applied to the same school for dance as a backup plan and got accepted :) The Rest is nothing but History!
Roger has built up a dance community around his website RogerLeeDance.com. He is a professional dancer, choreographer, entertainer, author, and focuses on helping others overcome their fear for dance. Everything from flash mobs and parties to graphic designs and promos, Roger is well on his way to making a staple all over the world. Bombs Away.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, that is when it's time to pause and reflect. Nancie Kang takes pride in being different and making every working day a blast. She works as a grip on film production sets, tv commercials, music videos and more, including the hit series Nashville on ABC. An all around pound town champion, Nancie supports camera work, scene and lighting setup, and travels the world with every opportunity. She a baller.
Kelly turned in her two-week notice and headed to Dubai on a whim. What happened? She built a monstrous styling company, Style Me Divine, through following her passions and solving problems for others. She has been involved with styling for The Brit Awards, The Grammys, The Dubai Film Festival, The Style Stakes, and was nominated for Female Entrepreneur of the Year by Visa. Kelly has also appeared on The Discovery Channel, The Luxury Travel Channel, and The Million Dollar Weekend. She rules.
Patrick 'Peanut' McInerney, or Patrick Mack, is a serial Artrepreneur. He followed his passion for skateboarding from the beginning and never looked back. Moving to NYC from Knoxville, TN, Peanut established Wood Skateboards and several other endeavors. He played a roll in the design of the SKATE app by Nike, and is the boss daddy of all things skateboarding. And music. And skateboarder people. Amen.
Through hard work and persistence, Anna graduated from Texas A&M in just 3 years and went on to study in the Medical Field. Anna is very adamant about investing in herself, and she has capitalized on every opportunity ever presented to her. She has built her life as an Entrepreneur through her super successful photography business, and also pursues another passion as a physicians assistant. Cheers to that, Anna.
Gary Darna had a problem as a collector- he couldn't ever show off his collection and find what he wanted at the same time. Well, he created his own solution, and that solution exploded into a business. CompleteSet.com is a treasuremap for collectors and allows them to display what they have, find what they need, and also purchase what they want. Life is good for collectors now :)
Are you a musician that wants to expand and leverage your talents? Budi is the Ace when it comes to expanding musical brands through modern media and social platforms.
He is the founder of Heroic Recordings, a record label out of Holland, and the author of the the very fantastic "Soundcloud Bible." In this episode, we dive into Budi's journey as an Entrepreneur as he teaches us his valuable methods for expansion and success.
And of course... how he will defeat Godzilla with his talents. :)
Do you feel alive? Kim Nicol teaches us how to change and recreate our lives through happiness and smiles - just by being curious and kind with ourselves. She teaches us how to love ourselves.
Kim said ByeBye to her career as an Attorney to pursue a life of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga. The best part is, she now teaches these high stress jobholders that she once worked with how to relax, love life, and truly feel alive.
From Fortune 500 companies to the aspiring artist next door, she has a message that can change anyones life.
"It’s like discovering a super power you already have, but forgot about. I help you find it, access it, and use it skillfully." -Kim Nicol
Blake Addington is the Lighting Designer for the band The Werks, and he is one of the youngest in the game. His story is wild and is focused throurougly on studying the greats of his trade, including Jefferson Waful of Umphrey's McGee and Chris Kuroda of Phish. Blake is the Funk Master Flex of the Lighting world, and he's just getting started.
"Everyday is a bonus round" for Sohrab Mirmont. After seeing his uncle work on a movie when he was 5 years old in Iran, he realized the excitement was something he wanted to pursue the rest of his life. At just 19 years old he won Audience Choice at the New York International Film Festival in 2005 for his film "The Beautiful Wind." His newest film "The Freemason" starring Sean Astin is making an impact all over the world. Godzilla is no problem for Sohrab.
Franklin is a scientist, surfer, painter and plays keyboard for the band Shaky Feelin'. He shares with us some crucial advice he received from John Wooden as a child, and why being persistent and never giving up is the only way to accomplish your dreams.
The Artrepreneur Now explodes with creativity as Heath Armstrong interviews today's Artsy Entrepreneurs. Jam packed with inspiration, motivation, advice, resources, and high energy - The Artrepreneur Now is guaranteed to make you laugh, think, take action and accelerate your dream life. From aspiring Artists and Musicians on a daily struggle to mega-successful Hollywood Directors, Everyone has value worth sharing. Visual Artists, Musicians, Actors, Dancers, Designers, Stylists, Filmmakers, Authors, Bloggers, Bands, Photographers, Programmers- you name it! Find out how they would defeat Godzilla with their Talents! Create Yourself! Keep it Funky!