Podcast

Episode 164: Managing Your Team

June 25, 2024

If you are making a change in your business, you have to have everyone be ready. If you are fortunate enough to need to hire a team or have a team, you have to understand The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. Let’s talk about Herbie one more time. Original Episode Number: 102 | Original Air Date: […]

Read the full article →

Episode 163: Perfectionism vs. Vision

June 18, 2024

Perfectionism lives within so many artists. Cliches abound: “Perfect is the enemy of good”, “Be the best”, “Profit and perfect are mutually incompatible.” Really it is a conversation about Creation versus Craft. Enter Jiro Loves Sushi.

Read the full article →

Episode 162: Be Grateful: Shun The Non-Believers

June 11, 2024

Creative business is built on the microscopic. For so many creative businesses, the very idea of serving more than 500 customers in a year is silly. Most are built on less than 50. And yet we speak in platitudes and generalities not radical authenticity. We do it because we have framed the conversation in terms of fear and rejection. How about we consider being grateful as we shun the non-believers. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 161: Emotional Resonance, Professionalism, Stillness, A Flashlight And Generosity

June 4, 2024

Emotional resonance is what separates you, the artist, from the rest of us.  While you have a gift at your craft, that is not why you are paid.  You are paid to be professional, to make us feel and to feel while not getting lost in the emotion of the moment.  Simultaneously, engaged and removed from the situation. Enter stillness, a flashlight and generosity. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 160: When Is It Time To Quit?

May 28, 2024

As we come to Fall, so many creative businesses are confronted with the challenge of whether it is worth it to keep going. There are no easy answers but there is a framework to think it all through. No story today, just straight talk. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 159: Value Delivery

May 21, 2024

Transparency is not Saran Wrap. It is being secure in what you charge and then knowing how you are going to earn it. As clients get smarter, value is not about being relative to competition, it is about knowing what you earn and when. Let’s talk bananas. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 158: Learn To Leap With Dick Fosbury

May 14, 2024

I am going to talk about a story that is near and dear to me. I have told this story and its importance to creative business many times. I have even told it at a college commencement speech I was so honored to give a few years ago. It is the story of Dick Fosbury and his path to winning the gold medal for the high jump in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. You might say, huh? What does this have to do with my business? Well, close your eyes, jump over the bar backwards and lets find out if you will land safely. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 157: Treating Great Customers Better

May 7, 2024

Most creative businesses are caught in the new client trap. They take on a project and then use the success of that project to get another (and another). Very little is ever offered to the great client to treat them better. It does not have to be this way. Let’s talk about Soul Cycle and Peloton. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 156: Risk, Vulnerability And Purpose

April 30, 2024

Every business takes a risk, that is the very nature of business. The question is whether you are properly paid for that risk. If risk is being vulnerable then the choice to be vulnerable has to be yours. Otherwise, you turn singular risk into exploding risk. Defining risk requires purpose and purpose requires intentional idiosyncracy. Listen in…

Read the full article →

Episode 155: Erase The Box

April 23, 2024

When we contemplate what is next, too often we want to be derivative of what has come before. Sure, we need to acknowledge the benefit of history, ultimately though we have to stretch beyond the realm of possible. Let’s talk about the movie War Games. Listen in…

Read the full article →