The Creator's Journey tracks

Jean Freeman is the CEO of Zambezi, one of the largest female-owned businesses in the advertising industry, and has been twice named Small Agency of the Year by the industry publication, AdAge. She has been recognized as a leading advocate for the advancement of women in the advertising industry. In addition, she's been named to Adweek's Disruptors List, included in the “100 People Who Make Advertising Great” by the 4As, received the 3 Cheers Award from The 3% Conference, and named a Working Mother of the Year by She Runs It. Jean has also been a frequent contributor to trade publications and a respected voice on a number of issues including women in the workplace, leadership, and building a sustainable business.

Ryan Berman likes to help stuck people get unstuck. As the founder of Courageous Brands, a consulting firm that encourages and helps companies develop more courageous brands and branding – as well as before that, a branding agency called i.d.e.a. - Ryan has spent a career developing meaningful stories for household brands including Hilton, Major League Baseball, PUMA, Subway, and UNICEF. He works from the foundation of belief that courage can be the ultimate competitive advantage, regardless of who you are or the business you're in. His book ‘Return on Courage' dives into the process of drawing on courage to do more impactful work, both personally and in your business. Using the methodology unveiled in his book, Ryan also launched Sock Problems: a charitable sock company that allows people to address various problems in the world when they purchase their themed socks.He's a man of many talents, interests, and even more enthusiasm!

Chris Denson is a man of many talents and interests.After earning a degree in packaging engineering and working for a few years as an engineer for Daimler-Chrysler, he packed up his Isuzu Rodeo and moved to LA based on a passing invitation from a TV executive who invited Chris to meet with him if he ever came to LA. Although the meeting never materialized, Chris stayed and began his illustrious career riding life's roller coaster as an innovator in the marketing world. While still in college, Chris began doing stand-up comedy in clubs, a pursuit that he continued for a number of years into his career. Most importantly, it was that work that built his skills and confidence in writing, developing a sense of timing, and dealing with rejection from others. He then carried those gifts into screenwriting, production, and building an expertise in marketing based on thoughtful innovation. In 2014, Chris launched his podcast, Innovation Crush, where he hosts conversations with leaders in the world of innovation. This year, he also released his book, Crushing the Box, 10 Essential Rules for Breaking Essential Rules. In our conversation, we dig into several areas that we share in common: persistence in the face of adversity, curiosity and asking more effective questions, a willingness to live in a moderate amount of uncertainty, constantly learning through an abundance of ‘micro-failures,” and the positive and negatives of being multi-hyphenated polymaths.

Nicole Ogoff is the Chief Marketing Officer and a Managing Partner at Story Worldwide in New York, a creative branding agency known for authentic story-making on behalf of its clients. Nicole has built a reputation around her relentless pursuit of effective solutions for her clients which she does by giving enormous attention to details and setting high expectations for both her team and client relationships.Although I highly value intelligence, there are a lot of brilliant people out there, especially in the world of advertising and branding. Finding people like Nicole who are smart and excel at building deep human connections with their teams as well as clients is much rarer to encounter.As much as I'm obsessed with the story-making process and the impact that narratives have on our lives, I've found very few ways to measure their effectiveness for a business that uses engaging stories to connect with its audience and customers.Listening to a presentation at the 3% Conference by Nicole and Jacqueline Lieberman, the Managing Director at Story Worldwide, got me excited about sharing their approach with you on this episode. They talked about their process of business story-making and, more importantly, of measuring impact for their clients using an assessment process that I've not experienced. One of the insights was the way they use the twelve archetypes of narrative character development to identify a brand's personality.

Humor is REALLY challenging to get right, and it doesn't take much to have an advertising message fall far off the mark and turn people away from it altogether.Kate Baynham is an Associate Creative Director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and has created work for clients such as Frito Lay, Adobe, Nintendo, Sonic and the Ad Council. For her work on an AD council campaign to curb bullying called, I Am A Witness, she's won awards at the One Show, the Art Directors Club, a yellow pencil at the Design & Art Directors Awards as well as a Cannes Lion.And most recently, Kate, along with her creative partner, Hanna Wittmark, was named one of the Next Creative Leaders by the One Club and 3% Movement. We talk about the importance of taking a strong point of view and her deft use of humor in the work she creates.

The process of composing music – not just writing a song, but composing and layering all of the music and audio effects that move our emotions along – whether it's in a 30 second TV commercial, video game trailer, or a feature length movie score is a craft that, I believe, is vastly under-appreciated for its ability to move the viewer into and along with the story being presented. As I've moved increasingly more into the motion film area of storytelling - after most of my career producing still photographs alone - my appreciation of having the appropriate music accompany the projects we were filming started to rise considerably. But I also realized that I wasn't alone in my ignorance of all the subtle aspects of effective audio production, especially the scoring and layering of original music.I've invited my guest, Andrea Saparoff, to talk about some of what goes on behind the mysterious curtain of music composition for commercial projects. Based in Los Angeles, Andrea is a composer and sound designer working primarily in the advertising and film/TV industries and has completed projects for scores of clients including Cheerios, Canon, AmEx, Nike, and City of LA as well as films for Lifetime and Hallmark. You can find examples of her work at http://saparoffmusic.com.

This is the second of a two-part series with my guest, Anissa Ferris, focusing on the power of the Enneagram personality tool to create awareness, both for yourself and others, that will transform your relationships and create opportunities for greater meaning and impact. If you've not listened to the previous episode, I highly recommend you do that first to give yourself some background on our discussion. In that first episode, Anissa provided an overview of the Enneagram and why it works so well to create awareness and understanding. But more importantly, she explained how that awareness can help you be more effective while burning less of your emotional energy to get your work done. In this episode, Anissa, a psychotherapist and certified Enneagram instructor, goes into a description of each of the nine Enneagram personality types and describes the strengths and challenges each type faces, and how they tend to interact with each other. We'll discuss both the healthy and unhealthy versions of each type, and how each type uses core strengths to most effectively engage in the world. We'll try to cover in roughly an hour the information Anissa spends a half-day or more going over in the workshops that she leads.

I first met Anissa Ferris at a birthday celebration for a mutual friend, but her reputation had preceded her since my wife Linda had already spent most of two Saturdays in Anissa's workshop on the Enneagram, a powerful tool to increase self-awareness and help us understand others.After only a brief conversation, I was equally taken with Anissa's enthusiasm for how understanding and applying the Enneagram process can transform lives.I immediately signed up for her next workshop.Anissa holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work. In 1998, she opened her psychotherapy practice in Raleigh, NC, focused on working with adolescent and adult women dealing with stress, anxiety, depression and grief.She offers practical guidance to her clients through support and insights that help them to solve problems and achieve positive change.Her chief aim? To help them develop greater self-awareness that then leads to making more conscious and useful choices and living a more fulfilling life.Anissa has also been a certified Enneagram teacher in the narrative/oral tradition since 2013. She finds the Enneagram very helpful in providing clients a paradigm for personal growth and lasting change.“The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system for self-awareness and understanding others. It describes the structure and dynamics of nine distinct personality patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that represents these nine strategies that we can relate to ourselves, others and the world.”As an avid gardener, Anissa uses the illustration of a kinked hose to explain how as human beings, we become equally twisted up and kinked.“We all do this. We lose our flow. We all have certain gifts that we can offer the world. The Enneagram really highlights what our gift is. When we're kinked up – stressed out, angry, fearful, sad – that's the kink in the hose. Instead of pausing and going to where the kink is and undoing it, we often jerk on the hose and try to pull out the kink. We all know how that goes. It doesn't work.‘The Enneagram helps you identify where the kink is. Some of us are kinked up with fear, some of us with anger, and some of us are kinked up with a frustration that we're not affirmed or seen. When you put the power of the Enneagram to work, you don't have to walk all around the yard looking for the kink. You'll know exactly where it is.”Building on the work of psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankel, Ferris explains that the Enneagram provides the awareness needed to make healthy choices in our lives. "Frankel said that in-between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space is the power to choose. If we can learn to pause, for even a moment, as we make decisions about how to respond, we can lead a more intentional life.”Each of the Enneagram personality types offers a different lens on the world. “If we can understand how we see the world and then maybe understand that we can learn from someone else and how they see the world, that creates the potential to work together.”

I first encountered Nilofer Merchant's work through her 2013 TED talk, “Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation”. I then had the opportunity to meet her last year after her keynote presentation at the 3% Conference in which she laid out her passion for The Power of Onlyness, which happens to be the title of her most recent book. The sub-title of the book, "Make Your Wild Ideas Mighty Enough to Dent the World", is what we talk about in this episode.Nilofer is personally responsible for launching more than 100 products, netting $18B in sales and has held executive positions at Fortune 500 companies including Apple and Autodesk as well as startups in the early days of the Web. She continues to serve as a consultant and advisor to numerous companies including Logitech, Symantec, HP, and Yahoo.She is also an avid hiker and wilderness backpacker as well as a lover of all-things-bacon and of dark-chocolate-covered-orange-peels, especially when they're eaten in France.

I met Becky Buller after her band played at a bluegrass festival I was attending a few months ago. We had just wrapped up filming interviews with some musicians for a project when we slid into some seats for the start of her show. Several people had told me not to miss her performance and, holy hot-strings Batman, I'm glad I didn't.Her smooth vocals and fire-y hot fiddle playing along with the tight harmonies and musicianship of a well-meshed band, she tore up the stage. The more I learned about her, the more I wanted to shoehorn into her calendar so that we could have a chat. This past year, Becky became the first person ever to win in both instrumental and vocal categories at the International Bluegrass Music Association awards, winning both the Fiddler and Female Vocalist Of The Year. In 2015, Becky was named Songwriter of the Year.In addition to writing for her own band's originals, she has also had her songs recorded by some of Bluegrass's best, including Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Josh Williams, and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.Becky graduated in 2001 with a public relations degree from East Tennessee State University, where she took part in their Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music program. If you love what you hear, check out the Becky Buller Band's tour schedule online at her website BeckyBuller.com.

Here are two questions for you to consider. What will you do with the time you have left? And, are you willing to start right now?Those questions are central to the life and work of Kirk Souder. Kirk is the co-founder of enso, a mission-driven branding company partnering with companies such as Google, Kahn Academy, Pepsi, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy.He's also a transformative coach and a co-facilitator of Soul Purpose 2017, a workshop designed to connect leaders with their next act in purpose, meaning, and impact.Prior to starting enso, Kirk was an Executive Creative Director with Wieden + Kennedy/Shanghai, as well as an Executive Creative Director with GMMB and Hal Riney & Partners.In 2006, Kirk completed his Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. And since 2007, he's been a volunteer with The Freedom to Choose Project in which twice a year he facilitates self-awareness workshops with women in a maximum security prison.

Karen Goodman followed an unconventional path into the world of advertising. She studied sociology and public policy at Duke University before deciding to explore a career in advertising after being inspired by Jennifer Anniston's role in the film, Picture Perfect. Currently a Creative Director at Havas /Chicago, Karen has also led creative work at Under Armour, Pappas Group, Johannes Leonardo, and R/GA, working on projects for Google, Nike, and Walmart among others.Karen is a champion for female creative talent and leadership in the industry. In January 2016, she founded the Washington DC chapter of SheSays, a global networking platform for women and, along with hosting monthly panels throughout DC, has grown the community to over 500 people.A colleague said of Karen that she has an innate ability to explain complex issues in relatable terms, a quality that, in my view, is sorely lacking in most forms of communications today. I can also say that when we met in NY last fall, I was immediately taken with her gentle ability to put people at ease and draw them in to conversation.

I met Rachael O'Meara at the World Domination Summit in Portland, OR, a few years ago. She hosted a break-out meetup session around the topic of her current book, entitled Pause, in which she explains how pausing can boost your emotional intelligence and ability to act, feel, and communicate authentically and responsibly through the process of creating space in your life for rest and reflection. The sub-title of the book is, “Harnessing the power of giving yourself a break”, which well describes the book and her leading of the meet-up.Not only was, and is, the topic a relevant one for my life, I'm finding out that nearly, if not every, person I know needs a better understanding of how to take breaks, both large and small, in order to bring a fresh perspective and balance to their lives.In addition to being an author, Rachael is a sales executive at Google San Francisco for the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and trains colleagues on emotional intelligence and how to be more aware to enhance performance in all areas of life. She is also a regular contributor to Huffington Post, has a podcast on the practice of pausing, and speaks and leads workshops on the topic as well.It has taken me a couple of months to read Pause because I wanted to take my time and apply the principles as I was absorbing them. It's been thoughtful and challenging, but a fruitful process to apply to my life.

Deb Lucke is a writer and illustrator of children's books with an interest in bad behavior and horribly embarrassing incidents. She says that since her own childhood had plenty of both, she is never really short of material.Deb is the creator of the graphic novel series, The Lunch Witch, the story of a failed witch turned lunch lady who is shocked to find her most evil intentions undone by a ten-year-old with thick glasses and unfinished homework. The second book in the series, Knee-Deep In Niceness, was released last Halloween. She is currently at work on a third book. The series has been optioned by Amblin Pictures.The School Library Journal placed The Lunch Witch on their Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2015 list and the New York Public Library included it on the Top 100 Titles to Read and Share 2015.In addition to illustrating and authoring several other books, Deb has done illustration work for numerous editorial clients. Her work was included in American Illustration 32 and The Society of Illustrator's 2015 Cartoon and Comic Annual.In a previous life, Deb was an award-winning art director at several ad agencies including Ogivly + Mather and Hill Holliday. She is also the writer and director of a short film, The Creation, which appeared in fifteen film festivals and aired in the US, Canada, and Japan.

Molly Scannell is a creative director who's worked with a number of ad agencies including SapientNitro and Mullen. She has nearly 20 years experience working in visual and user experience design with a long and diverse list of clients including John Hancock Investments, Chrysler Group, Lane Bryant, Liberty Mutual, Smithsonian, Yale School of Management, and CBS.In addition to being a competitive rower for the past 20+ years, her abundant energy also flows into her role of mothering three amazing daughters. As a result of pursuing her own personal art projects and then posting the results on Instagram, she has developed a personal following that has not only encouraged more art work but also given her career a bump.

This show is a departure from my regular format where I talk with one guest about his or her mindset around the process of creating impactful work. In this episode I'll be talking with five different creative leaders about their thoughts on one topic, the issue of how to get back on track creatively when you've been de-railed from your plans or process, for whatever reason. Whether you're in the middle of your own creative process, consulting with a client, or facilitating a discussion in an intimate Mastermind group, the issue of how to create and ship your work is, from my experience, an ongoing concern. And one of the primary concerns is how to get back on track once you're derailed.I'd love to have your feedback on this episode since it is a change of pace. If you have any suggestions, thoughts for future episodes, or possible guests to recommend, please email me at Charles@CharlesGupton.com. You can find out more about each guest on today's show in the show notes for this episode at TheCreatorsJourney.com.

For more than twenty-five years, DeMane Davis has created national and international advertising campaigns as well as written and directed commercials and independent feature films. Her current production company is Sweet Rickey.Both of her full length feature films, Black and White and Red All Over and Lift, which starred Kerry Washington, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.She's also a freelance copywriter and creative director who recently won a Clio Award for her work on the marketing campaign for the prescription medication Viberzi. A few of her long list of clients include Bank of America, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and American Eagle

Victoria Maddocks, has extensive experience in publishing, advertising, design and retail, focused primarily in the beauty and skin care market. She is currently the Vice President, Global Creative Director of Philosophy, a beauty brand that inspires women to look, live, and feel their best.Prior to joining Philosophy, Victoria worked in a similar position with Kiehl's, also a beauty brand. She was instrumental in taking the brand from one store in the U.S. to over 300 brand-owned stores in 35 countries around the world. In addition to running her own branding and consulting firm, The Victoria Maddocks Agency, she has also worked with Gucci, Estée Lauder, Victoria's Secret Beauty, Saatchi & Saatchi and The Arnell Group.In short, Victoria understands the power of great design and how to turn it into sales and profit.In addition to her keen business acumen, she brings a vibrant energy and inspirational leadership, not just to The Creator's Journey, but everywhere she goes.

I don't know of anyone with more passion for the work they're doing than Mara Lecocq. Mara is a former creative director at the branding agency, AKQA New York on accounts for Nike, Starbucks and Verizon. But she quit her high profile position to go freelance as a creative director so that she could devote more attention towards inspiring and helping to empower young girls through a project she launched called Secret Code, which we'll discuss in detail.Prior to her work at AKQA, Mara worked at the branding agency BETC in Paris and at DDB in Toronto. To date, Mara has already been named one of the Next Creative Leaders by the One Club, one of Mashable's Rising Stars in advertising, and was part of the Cannes Lions 'See It, Be It' initiative focused on aspiring female leaders.

Lisa Congdon has been on my radar for several years.As a fine artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon is best known for her colorful abstract paintings, intricate line drawings, pattern design & hand lettering. She works for clients around the world including the MoMA, Harvard University, Martha Stewart Living, Chronicle Books, Simon & Schuster, and Random House Publishing, among many others. She exhibits her work around the country, including shows at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Bedford Gallery in California.Lisa writes a popular daily blog about her work, life and inspiration called Today is Going to be Awesome. And she she seems to me to be quite a force on Instagram.She is the author of six books, including the starving-artist-myth-smashing Art Inc: (Which I thoroughly enjoyed...) It is The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist, as well as the illustrated books The Joy of Swimming, Fortune Favors the Brave, Twenty Ways to Draw a Tulip, A Collection a Day, and the first book of Lisa's that I read, Whatever You Are, Be a Good One,. Her seventh book, A Glorious Freedom: On Being a Woman, Getting Older, and Living an Extraordinary Life will be released by Chronicle Books later this year. She was named one of 40 Women Over 40 to Watch in 2015. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Kelly Fredrickson is a fireball of energy, enthusiasm, and encouragement in her role as SVP in Marketing for Bank of America as she leads creative teams to produce work that drives a consistent brand voice in all communications as well as throughout the customer experience.  But at the same time, she is also a cool balm of support for the take care of the essential elements that sustain and grow their capacity to be even more impactful through their creative contributions.In addition to her current role working on the client side of the advertising relationship, she has also spent many years working on the agency side as well, for Modernista!, Hill/Holliday, and Heater Advertising. But after a 28-year career in advertising and marketing, Kelly hit a wall and found herself asking the question: “Why is this not working for me anymore?” She wanted to dig deeper and with the support of her boss, she enrolled in a yearlong certificate class in positive psychology at Kripalu Whole Being Institude. The work she did through that program laid the foundation for a bigger life project called, “My Year of Whittling”. It's a process of cutting away what doesn't matter in your life so that you can focus on what does.

I started reading Jonathan's blog more than five years ago, then began listening to his podcast, The Good Life Project – which were audio uploads from his video interviews with amazing guests. I was also privileged to join he and his wife, Stephanie – along with about 250 other campers - at their first Camp GLP event in the summer of 2014. Since then, I've come to bask in the delight of and develop deep relationships within an incredible tribe of thoughtful, intentional, open-hearted people on multiple different levels of engagement – both personally and professionally. Jonathan is the author of three highly acclaimed books, Career Renegade, Uncertainty, and most recently, How to Live a Good Life. He's been a lawyer, yoga instructor and studio owner, and serial entrepreneur since he was still in school.

My introduction to Sean Kernan and the breadth of his work was at a business conference sponsored by the American Society of Media Photographers almost a decade ago. Sean gave an inspiring talk about photography and showed images from his book, Among Trees. He then called everyone up to the front and asked for volunteers to do a movement exercise. I hesitated for a moment, then thought, I'm here to be uncomfortable and grow and threw myself into the mix. For the next few minutes Sean walked a group of us through a process of interactions that transformed my thinking about creativity and connections with other people. A few years later ASMP held another iteration of the conference and I went, almost exclusively, because Sean was presenting. Sean did not disappoint. When his most recent book, Looking into the Light: Creativity and the Photographer was published I was excited to see if it brought a similar energy and insight into the exploration of seeing. As with my previous experiences, Sean delivers the goods.Sean is not only a successful photographer, recognized for his work in both the commercial and exhibition art worlds. He has also worked in theater, written four books, produced and directed two documentaries, and taught at several universities as well as the esteemed Maine and Santa Fe Workshops.

As the Content Director and Executive Producer at Core Creative in Milwaukee WI, Andrea Nordgren is foremost a storyteller with a desire to inspire people through the work she creates.Andrea wrote her first script in 5th grade and and spent her teenage years drawing and painting until starting out her career as a graphic designer back when Macs were still black and white. Besides taking a 5-year hiatus to work as a drug and alcohol addiction counselor in both New York and Chicago, she has spent 27-years in advertising — on the client as well as the agency side — all with a focus on visual storytelling. An experienced producer and director, she has worked on numerous award-winning TV spots, videos, and documentaries for a variety of clients and causes.In addition to her work at Core Creative, she also owns an indie film production company called Heroine which is dedicated to telling social justice stories.

Leyla Rosario is a producer, director, and writer. Currently she is a producing motion content at HUGE a digital agency providing strategy, marketing, design, and technology services to Fortune 100 companies. The range of projects she produces include everything from virtual reality, live action, documentary-style, and animated pieces. Before coming to HUGE, Leyla also worked at McGarryBowen, Zemoga, and JWT/New York. Client accounts she's worked on through the years include Kohl's, HP, Google, Verizon, Chevron, and Staples. Leyla also has a passion for international travel, dance, boxing, biking, and a huge fascination with weddings.

Jessica Coulter is a Creative Director/Copywriter at BBDO New York where she has spent the last several years creating iconic campaigns for brands including Foot Locker, HBO, Snickers, Lowe's, Twix, AT&T and FedEx, among others.  Prior to BBDO, Jessica worked at Saatchi & Saatchi New York developing memorable creative campaigns for JCPenney, One Laptop Per Child, Progresso Soup and others.Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, Clios, AICP, Effies and Communication Arts. Jessica is one of 2016 Business Insiders' 30 Most Creative Women in Advertising. She was recently named one of 10 rising female stars in advertising by The 3% Conference and The One Club. She was also invited to attend The United State of Women Summit put on by The Obamas this year.  When she's not knocking out award-winning work for brands, Jessica enjoys writing comedy and is very intentional about creating a wholesome home environment for her husband, their young daughter and their dog, Walter. Jessica is also the only guest I'll likely ever host who has moonlighted as an NFL cheerleader, a world champion burlesque dancer as well as dong sketch comedy all while working as an advertising creative. 

What is the most consistent, if not the biggest, single obstacle to pursuing and achieving the deepest desires of your heart? For many people, it is the fear that when they ask for help in accomplishing something they need or want - whether it's for a raise in pay at work or funding for their start-up venture or even just seeking advice on a vexing situation – that they will be turned away or rejected in some form. If you've ever faced that fear in one form or another, my guest today, Jia Jiang, has experience and helpful advice that can guide you through that process on your creative journey.Jia burst into the public's view within days after he started documenting his ‘100 days of Rejection' project and then posting his efforts on his blog and on YouTube. Each day, Jia would ask someone for a seemingly preposterous request in an attempt to steel himself against rejection and to learn to live more fearlessly. One of his early lessons was that even the most ridiculous request stood a much better chance of being granted if you'll simply ask in the right way. The experience and lessons learned eventually led Jia to writing his bestselling book, “Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection”. I met Jia Jiang at the World Domination Summit in Portland OR in 2015 during a workshop he was leading on dealing with rejection. It wasn't just a lecture. He had the group go out on the streets and practice the process of asking for things from people that would surely cause us to face rejection. He called it our ‘rejection therapy' session. Although the exercises weren't the same ones you might experience in your daily life – for example, walking up to strangers and asking for money – the process still lit up the same parts of the brain and brought on the same response of avoidance that we do face every day.

Gretchen Rubin started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized what she wanted for her own happiness was to be a writer.Although I've only been following Gretchen's work for the past two-and-a-half years, her most recent book, Better Than Before, has had a wondrous impact on my own habits and interactions with other people. What I love about her writing is her ability to distill and convey complex ideas in a way that's accessible to such a wide range of readers.Gretchen also has two previous bestsellers, Happier At Home as well as The Happiness Project, which is an account of the year she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. It spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list.Along with her sister Elizabeth Craft, Gretchen also hosts her popular weekly podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin which has been named one of iTunes “Best Podcasts of 2015.”

Neisha Tweed is a Creative Strategist at Facebook where she works with global brands and advertising agencies.Over the last 10 years she has accumulated a huge trunk-load of awards for her copywriting and creative work at a number of ad agencies including mcgarrybowen, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, GlobalHue and Ogilvy & Mather. She also taught writing at the Miami Ad School for 3 years.As a skilled communicator, creative director, and writer, Neisha is constantly pushing herself and others to be amazing. This perspective spills over into her passions for mentorship as well as diversity and inclusion in the advertising and tech industries. To this end, for the past 5 years, she has written and curated advice for up-and-coming creatives at her blog, Baby Food For Creatives, a guide on how to get in and stay in the advertising business. I first learned of Neisha while watching the 2015 3% Conference Next Creative Leaders panel discussion which she was a part of. Not only did she have great contributions to offer, she brought it with lots of energy and fun.

Laura Peña is a storyteller who creates video-driven experiences for live events worldwide and also produces motion graphics for web series and online videos through her New York City-based company, JelloMonsters, which she founded just a few years ago.She places a high value on creative collaboration and loves the process of bringing ideas to life. Which she has done numerous times for well-established clients including MTV, Rolling Stone magazine, Marvel Comics, MasterCard, Samsung and AOL.Her work has been recognized by a number of publications and she was selected in 2010 by the CURVY Design Book as one of the top 100 women designers in the world.Her ultimate desire is to create work that is not only smart and beautiful, but also work that creates social Impact.To that end, Laura splits her time between New York City and the Dominican Republic, where she is developing a mentorship program to empower girls through the art of video and animation.  

I first learned about Mitch Joel while reading Chris Brogan's book “Trust Agents” and immediately bought and consumed Mitch's first book, “Six Pixels of Separation” and then later his 2013 release, “Control, Alt, Delete” which was named one of the best business books by Amazon that year.Mitch is President and the chief Media Hacker of Mirum – a global digital marketing agency operating in 20 countries with over 2500 employees. Marketing Magazine has dubbed him the "Rock Star of Digital Marketing" and called him, "one of North America's leading digital visionaries." He is a columnist for the Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, and The Huffington Post. After attending the very first PodCamp conference in 2005?, he started his weekly podcast also called “Six Pixels of Separation” and has incredibly, racked up over 500 episodes and counting. Mitch also produces a blog post nearly every day with a combination of original and well-curated content. And has done so for 13 years.

Laurel Stark is a self-proclaimed word nerd. She's worked as a copywriter – both on staff and as a contract Creative Director – for more than a dozen companies and ad agencies. But she more than just a wordsmith. At heart, Laurel is a very strategic storyteller who considers overall design and the user's experience in everything she creates or collaborates on. I first encountered Laurel's leadership watching a video of a panel discussion she was co-facilitating at the 2015 3% Conference called the ‘Next Creative Leaders'. As I did a little digging into Laurel's work, I was intrigued by a number of things that I want to explore in our conversation today.

Lissa Cowan is a storyteller. She's worked as an editorial director in the book publishing industry, as a copywriter, and as a magazine writer for numerous publications. She's also published her own novel, Milk Fever. All of this experience has combined to give Lissa a solid grounding that gives her the expertise to help other writers find their footing and confidence.That's why I'm excited to have Lissa join me on today's episode to share her thoughts on how we creatives can find our voices and deal with the uncertainties and noise in our heads – while still producing and shipping our work. Her love of reading and her list of recommended books sealed the deal to make me want some time with her mind.

Peter Coughter has worked in the advertising and communications field for many years, including his role as a principal in the ad agency Siddel, Matus & Coughter for 20 years. Peter also worked as a TV director prior to that. In 1995, Peter left the agency he helped found and started his current enterprise, Coughter & Company, to help ad agencies and other companies learn how to more effectively present their ideas and business communication solutions to their clients. Peter's clients include most of the most influential advertising agencies in the U.S. and abroad.Education and development of up-and-coming talent is of great importance to Peter. To that end, he's been a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Brand Center since 1997 with an apparent mission to help students as well as professional creatives understand that they need to invest a portion of the time they spend in creating great work into learning how to present it in a way that ensures it actually gets used.I first learned about Peter's work while I was filming a conversation with a creative director for The Creator's Journey. He was raving about Peter's book, "The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills That Win Business." I immediately bought and consumed it, and have been looking forward to the opportunity to have a conversation around the topic for the show.

Rachel Gogos is a serial entrepreneur and brand strategist with a passion for helping business owners and individuals discover, develop, and market their authentic souls online. With over 20 years of marketing and communications experience, her career started at the United Nations headquarters in New York City – where she helped create the look and feel for the organization's first website. She's held writing and editing positions at The Wall Street Journal and DowJones.com as well as launched four companies including her current company, brandiD, which she started in 2007.She was also a contributing author to the #1 selling personal branding book on Amazon.com, Personal Branding For Dummies.I met Rachel in the summer of 2014 after participating in her workshop on branding at the Good Life Project Camp and started following her work on social media. We've had a couple of chats since then, and I've found her to be a most generous and kind soul. If I didn't already have a strong inclination to be a fan, I'd certainly be convinced by one of Rachel's top three convictions: “Life is too short for bad coffee and bad company. Surround yourself with great people.”

Travel Videographers Dorene Wharton and Troy Young On How Travel Can Change Your Perspective“We just encourage small steps. Small things can lead to so many big things. There are just so many little steps that have equated to so many large things for us.” ~ Dorene WhartonThe World Domination Summit, held each summer in Portland, Oregon, is a wonderful place to meet some pretty amazing people. That's where I met Dorene Wharton and Troy Young, my guests today. They were leading a MeetUp gathering of people interested in living and working as fulltime travelers. Down-to-earth and practical, Dorene and Troy were helping folks navigate the process of shifting from employee to self-employed while traveling.Less than a year earlier, they had resigned from their jobs, sold virtually all of their possessions (ncluding their home in Toronto) and headed for Thailand, the first stop on their new adventure. Prior to that, Dorene had worked in advertising and marketing, and Troy in broadcast television.As of right now, they've settled in Medellin, Colombia, as a base to travel the region and focus more attention on creating high-impact videos and marketing consulting for the travel industry.Dorene and Troy talk about how travel can be the biggest accelerator for change in your life and how there's nothing stopping you from trying something new.

I met Nicholas Sailer just minutes after his presentation at Creative Mornings/Raleigh several weeks ago. He'd just rocked the space at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh talking about his new book “A Story Each Day”.Although the handful of stories he read were riveting, just about all I could focus on were the mindset and processes he must have had in place to generate an original story every day throughout 2014, when his project was initiated. In 2015, Nicholas posted each of the stories that he'd written on that date, from the year before. Throughout the year, he built a following for the project, launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish the collection, then had the project completed and in circulation by the end of the year. All this while working full time as a creative leader at Betabox Labs. Nicholas is an accomplished filmmaker as well, having won recognition for a couple of short films, including an official selection screening of his film 'The Strong One' at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2012.

Before leaving the advertising agency environment, Nadine Prada worked in the roles of both art and creative director at some of the most recognizable agencies in the world including Ogilvy & Mather, Arnold Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Young & Rubicam. During that time she racked up numerous awards for ad campaigns created for clients including Dove, American Express, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Tylenol.But six years ago she left that world to become a freelance art director so that she could devote more attention to her own vision as a painter. Nadine is also passionate about encouraging other artists to create and make a living from their work and to educate the public about how to demystify and enjoy art. We met as presenters at Essential Edge, a conference for artists in Raleigh this past year and I was intrigued with both her work and thought processes. I immediately asked Nadine to carve out a time that we could chat some more.

Willie Jackson On The Power of Empathy“I would recommend observing the things that make you feel something. What makes you angry, what frustrates you, what's intensely triggering for you, and why? And as you sit with those things, and as you look at the common elements between them, ask yourself how this shows up in your work, if at all? Are there common elements here? Do these observations relate to your work in any way? I would start there as a means of infusing purpose and passion and meaning into the work that you do.” ~ Willie JacksonMy conversation today is with Willie Jackson, the founder and publisher of Abernathy, the magazine for black men. I knew I wanted to talk more with Willie when, after sending him an email about 9 o'clock one night, he phoned me immediately to chat about the possibility of us having a conversation for this show.Willie is a take-action, live-in-the-moment guy who sizes up information quickly and apparently makes smart decisions! Willie's formal education, and most of his real-world work, has been in the area of technology solutions, including stints at W3 Edge, a Boston-based interactive web development and marketing agency. He served as chief technology officer of The Domino Project, a publishing company in New York City started by marketing guru, Seth Godin, and has been an IT consultant with Accenture in Atlanta, Ga.What peaked my interest in sitting down with Willie for a conversation is his move to being a writer and publisher, and the processes he relies on to build a publication's voice.Willie tells us that the trajectory of our lives and the adventures we experience and the quality of our lives is largely defined by how we deal with fear and uncertainty.Through storytelling and through empathy, Willie believes we can affect change in the hearts and minds of people.

Pam Slim on Creating a Body of Work“The purpose of our lives is to create a body of work that we're proud of, and the definition of a body of work is everything you create, contribute, affect and impact throughout the course of your life.” ~ Pam SlimAlthough I just met Pam Slim for the first time when she was in Raleigh, N.C., recently for a stop on her "Indispensible Community Tour," I've been following her writing for several years, including reading her book, “Body of Work,” when it came out in 2014.Pam's blog and her first book, “Escape from Cubicle Nation,” came out of her work as a consultant to large corporations such as Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab and Cisco Systems, where she worked with thousands of employees, managers and executives.Through the years, she has coached thousands of budding entrepreneurs, in businesses ranging from martial art studios to software start-ups, and is here today to encourage creative leaders to focus on processes that will build a more cohesive and impactful body of work.Pam advises listeners to get clear about what they want to create, what form it needs to take, and what work mode is required. Then, she says, just do the work and get it out into the world!She also reminds us that we're in community, whether we like it or not. Be strategic about who you're connected with.

Vanessa Fortier on Storytelling in Advertising "Work hard. Be yourself. Don't take yourself too seriously!" ~ Vanessa FortierVanessa Fortier has been a Creative Director with The Martin Agency, based in Richmond, Virginia, for the past five years and has overseen award-winning advertising campaigns for Benjamin Moore Paints and Walmart. Before coming to The Martin Agency, Vanessa worked for ten years at Saatchi & Saatchi NY as Creative Director, primarily on global accounts for Olay, Iams, and Eukanuba.Vanessa landed her first job out of school at Leo Burnett Chicago, where she cut her teeth on McDonald's, Kellogg's, P&G, and Hallmark. As a wife and a mother of two girls, Vanessa keeps a variety of balls in the air as she juggles the mix of home and office priorities that many leaders do.Vanessa believes that advertising is really about storytelling, even with the advent of new technologies and channels of communication. Big data is at its best when it informs an awesome strategy, she says, while the ability to execute an idea is as important as coming up with the idea.

Marissa Boisvert On Cultivating Self Awareness“When we produce authentic work, we reach our audience. In my own experience in working with people, I have found the more we cultivate presence -- the more we're able to be in the moment -- the more we're authentic, we're confident, we're focused, and we're listening. And when we're present, we learn how to manage extremely active imaginations, which most highly creative and artistic people for sure have. We don't want to stifle the imagination. We want to redirect and focus it.” ~ Marissa BoisvertMarissa Boisvert is a behavior change specialist and certified integrative health coach. Coming out of her training at Duke Integrative Medicine, as well as her experience as a professional dancer and yoga instructor, Marissa followed her curiosity to discover the link between mindful awareness and art. She found that in order to tap into your true creative potential, you must develop your self-awareness.Through her company, WANA, an acronym for Where Awareness Nourishes Artistry, Marissa now helps creative leaders, artists, and visionary thinkers learn the practice of working and living in the moment.In this episode, Marissa talks about the need to “meet the moment” if you want to reach your full creative potential. She cautions that we need to become aware of where resistance is holding us back, while at the same time allowing ourselves to enjoy the creative process.

Charlie Gilkey On Finding Your Yay-Sayers“You don't get to do everything. Limit your work to the essential best work projects and focus on getting those done. Pick three and go after them and finish them. When the year rolls over, pick three more and do it again. The more you can focus on a fewer amount of things that matter – that really, really matter to you – the better you're going to be.” ~Charlie GilkeyCharlie Gilkey is an energetic mix of Army officer, philosopher, and entrepreneur.His website, ProductiveFlourishing.com, is one of the top websites on planning and productivity for professional creatives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners.His strong suit is helping creative, small business owners deconstruct their businesses and rearrange the puzzle pieces so that their time is spent on the activities that matter most to both the business and the people running it. In short, he helps people take meaningful action on the stuff that matters.Although I've read his blog and followed his work for several years, we met for the first time this summer at a three-day conference run by Stephanie and Jonathan Fields called Good Life Project Camp. Charlie led a workshop focusing on steps that leaders need to take to consistently finish and ship their best work. It's a theme that I speak and write about and wanted to hear Charlie's take on the topic. It was a talk that was instructive, encouraging, and validated my experiences.Charlie encourages us to seek out the “yay-sayers” in our lives who support and believe in our work. He also reminds us that creativity thrives in structure. All of us have processes and routines in our lives. The key is finding the ones that best channel and harness our creativity.

Tania Dakka is a copywriter and owner of Badass'D Digital Ink. She's known for her love of bourbon, bikes, and business, and is the copywriter business owners call on when they need the words that transform their talents into money.

Lou Jones on Remaining Relevant“We have to constantly worry about remaining relevant in the way we're communicating and in what we're communicating. And the biggest hurdle is fear. We literally have to learn how to be less fearful and get out of our own way.” ~ Lou JonesIn this episode, Lou Jones, a Boston-based commercial photographer, talks about a career that has spanned several decades of disruptive change in business, technology and life. Of the creative leaders I've known over the years, I don't know many who've been more thoughtful about assembling the right people and processes that provide the resources to allow multiple projects to overlap while consistently shipping impactful work from each endeavor.He's photographed assignments for numerous Fortune 500 corporations and major magazines from around the world. Lou has also published a number of books, and has photographs in the collections of several museums. He has been named a “Legend Behind The Lens” by Nikon, and has also served on the board of directors for a number of museums and trade organizations, including the American Society of Media Photographers, which is how we met 30 years ago.Lou observes that talent is really only a small part of what leads to success. Whether a client hires you revolves just as much around relationship -- and whether you can problem-solve and get the project done regardless of obstacles. You have to speak the language of your client. He cautions us as creators to not let someone else's opinion of our work define our perception of ourselves -- or our confidence in our own opinion of our work.

Tess Vigeland On Knowing When To Quit“If I've learned nothing else, it's this -- you know deep down inside yourself when something is wrong. Or when something is right. I think at first our instinct is to flee that, particularly if listening to it means there's going to be real hard change. But there's a reason it's there. And if you do nothing else the rest of your life, listen to that. We listen to everybody else and what they think about us, what we think they're saying about us. Listen to yourself!" ~Tess VigelandTess Vigeland has worked in and around public radio for over 20 years, with 11 of those years as a host of NPR's "Marketplace." In August 2012, she walked into her executive producer's office and handed over a letter of resignation that started her on a new journey of discovery, one that led her from, “If I'm no longer the host of Marketplace ...,” to “Who am I now?”In 2013, Tess took the stage at the World Domination Summit in Portland, OR, to regale an enthusiastic crowd of entrepreneurs and world changers on the topic of leaving a steady job and paycheck for the dark unknown of pursuing a path of discovery and change. An editor for Random House just happened to be in the audience that morning and out of her talk, Tess recently published her book Leap. Although Tess will tell you her book is not a “how to quit your job and start a new chapter in your life” book, it does recount her journey to date as well as vignettes from dozens of other people she interviewed about what they've experienced since making their own “leaps.”Because The Creator's Journey is focused on the processes that creative leaders use to ship their best work, I talk with Tess about one of the most difficult processes – the process of knowing when to quit something that may, by all appearances, appear to be going extremely well, but that's causing your heart to stagnate and die.

Heath & Alyssa Padgett on Facing Down Big Challenges:“Don't be afraid of what other people say or what other people think. … Instead of trying to do what everybody else is doing, figure out what works best for you. You are unique and you do have something to offer to people and it doesn't have to be what everybody else says it is.” ~ Alyssa & Heath PadgettIn May 2014, Alyssa and Heath Padgett were married. Four days later, they hit the road in their first home together, a 1994 Coachman Leprechaun motor home. Months earlier, they had both agreed that they wanted to quit their jobs and leave Texas, where they'd grown up. They wanted to be fulltime writers, and their initial jobs out of college weren't moving them any closer to that dream. Their idea to travel morphed into a seven-month honeymoon road trip to all 48 states. But they realized they couldn't travel aimlessly for that long. So Heath came up with the idea to work a different job in every state and film a documentary entitled “Hourly America” about their experiences. They were able to find a sponsor to help cover some of their costs. I met them in Portland, OR, while we were attending the World Domination Summit in the summer of 2014. We were working together on the film team covering various stories during the conference. My wife, Linda, and I were inspired by their vision and hutzpah, and have been following their exploits both on the road and off.In this episode, Heath and Alyssa talk about tackling a creative project with hutzpah, dealing with conflict when you're living in an RV, and pushing aside the excuses that keep you from pursuing your passion and taking that big risk. When something seems too big, and too crazy – it's all about taking small steps every day, finding someone to encourage you, and putting some skin in the game to push you to commit on a bigger level.

David Baldwin on Leaning Into What's Scary“I hope what I leave is relationships. That's what I value in life. To this day, I have people I hired into this business, who are at the highest levels, that I'm still dear friends with and talk to all the time and value their input and opinions. That's what I love. Advertising people are the funniest, smartest, most sarcastic people – they're just such an amazing group of weirdos and misfits. I just feel so lucky to have been around them and to know them.” ~David BaldwinDavid Baldwin, one of the most recognized copywriters and creative directors in the advertising business today, is the founder of Baldwin& in Raleigh, N.C. The agency was named Ad Age's Small Agency of the Year after only three years in business, and was awarded the Four A's O'Toole Award for best body of work from a small agency after only five years in business.A former chairman of the One Club in New York City, David was also an executive producer for the Emmy-award winning film, Art & Copy. He's also an associate producer for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning film, The Loving Story.David is also a guitarist/songwriter for the band Pants, whose CD “Twice The Snake You Need” can be found on iTunes and Amazon.com. His work and writings have been featured in numerous publications and college textbooks on advertising. To add to his accomplishments, David is also the co-founder of Ponysaurus Brewing Co., a nano-brewery in Durham, N.C.In this episode, David talks about leaning into the scary things and compartmentalizing the terror to give yourself courage to explore what you don't know about or understand. He shares the best advice he's ever been given – and explains how his award-winning agency is more like a rock band than a family.

Dr. Caneel Joyce is the founder of Kickass Enterprises, a boutique consulting firm that helps startups and mission-driven innovators grow in smart, powerful, and sustainable ways.“It's a single player game. You need to solve a problem for one single person using your product alone. If you solve it for that person, other people will also have that value. And then you can start thinking about what will happen if everybody starts using that product together and how you'll change the world. But if no one person wants to use it, you'll never be able to do it.” ~ Caneel Joyce

Steve Sandstrom is the founder and executive creative director of Sandstrom Partners in Portland, Oregon – one of the leading branding and design firms in the United States. The firm's clients have included Converse, Nike, Coca-Cola, Tazo Tea, Miller Brewing Company, Bacardi, ESPN, Levi Strauss, Nissan and Sony Pictures.The firm has been featured in nearly every major publication covering branding and design, including Graphis, Communication Arts, Adweek, How, Creativity, One: A Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. Steve currently serves on the board of directors for The One Club and has hauled in an endless stream of awards and recognition for his work over the past two decades. And to top it off, he's a cool guy to chat with.“Everybody's worried about offending a creative person, like we have super thin skin. But I've never really known anyone who's really good at advertising, or who's really good at design, who doesn't want to solve the problem -- the business problem. Who would put their own needs ahead of that? It doesn't work that way. You won't be in business very long if you are that way.” ~ Steve Sandstrom

Patricia Sarnataro is a multi-disciplinary artist blending a distinctive sense of fashion with her talents as a costume designer, image consultant and interior designer. A native New Yorker, she's worked on numerous stage productions on Broadway, including productions of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Dangerous Games and Grease, along with scores of off-Broadway and major theatrical productions around the country.In addition to her work on a plethora of TV commercials, television shows and feature films, Patricia also works with private clients to define and design their personal style and living spaces at home and work. Apart from her commercial design work, Patricia is also a painter, creating works that are so detail-specific, they can easily be mistaken for photographs.In today's episode, Patricia talks about balancing the many creative disciplines she enjoys as well as the challenges and opportunities that freelancers face. She encourages creators to be compassionate and gentle with themselves and to get out of the way and allow their art to come into the world.“Have faith in yourself. Keep on doing what you're doing, whatever it is. Be kind to yourself. Be compassionate to yourself and your work, whatever that may be – and don't give up. Just keep on being a seeker of what's inside and what's outside.” ~ Patricia Sarnataro