<p>Joanna Pieters asks highly successful creatives: why *do* we create? We talk about the real stories behind the public success, how to get your work noticed, how to get people on side, how to build a tribe, and how to create more of the work that you believe in.</p>
<p>You’ll also discover the latest thinking on innovation, brain science and creative productivity. Whether you want to revolutionise your job, inspire your team, complete a novel or start a business, the Creative Life Show gives you the practical tools, the inspiration, resources and motivation to unleash your most powerful creative expression. Get more resources, inspiration and motivation at  www.creativelifeshow.com.</p>

Brain-food for creatives too curious to be conventional

The Creative Life Show

David Nichtern is a Emmy-winning songwriter and composer, serial entrepreneur, and one of the world's leading teachers of Buddhism. So what does it really mean to bring together creative spark, practical business-building and a profound spiritual practice? And what do you do when you have to choose one at a time? 
David Nichtern joins me to answer some of those questions, and we also get to meditation - how *do* you fit it in? - starting vs completing things, harmony and dissonance, and the power of habits to create focus. 
This is a wonderful, inspiring conversation from a man who has spent his lifetime teaching and inspiring others to fulfil their spiritual, financial and creative goals. 

The Creative Life Show: inspiration and resources for connection, creativity and flow in your life and work

Creativity, spirituality and money, with David Nichtern

'I took myself right out of this life and started again - basically putting myself back together'.

What do you do when your brilliant life goes off the rails? Kay Hutchison had the high-powered TV career and the lifestyle to match, when she realised it was all wrong. 

Kay launched into a journey of personal discovery that went from from sound-baths to yoga, writing to silent retreats, as well as facing some difficult truths about her past. One result was writing her first book, while another was setting up her own small publishing and media business where she can be 'herself' rather than return to the corporate world that was her home for so long. 

This is a great listen if you ever feel that life is running you, and that you need some kind of a change.

I've worked with so many bright, creative people who've found themselves trapped in a corner that they never expected. The way out for you may not be yoga, voodoo or writing, but you'll come away believing that deep within you is a creative power that you can use to get your life back on track, and more determined to go and find it. 

Taking charge of your future, with Kay Hutchison

From the outside, Marianne Cantwell looks like a classic 'laptop lifestyle' entrepreneur, travelling the world with her business. But it's her much less common approach of embracing empathy, sensitivity and an inner voice that has made her the founder of a loyal and enthusiastic tribe - Free Range Humans - a sought-after speaker and bestselling author.

Marianne shares the story of how, after her first book was a huge, unexpected success, she expected to find herself thrilled and energised. But she found herself sinking into brain fog and apathy, with nothing to say and nothing to write. She talks about the journey to rediscover herself, to recognise 'depression' for what it was, and how it transformed her business and life

Marianne is - like me - an ENFP and HSP, highly sensitive person. That means we have sensory systems that take in a huge amount, whether in our environment or other people's emotions, but need to manage our energy with care and mindfulness. We have a terrific conversation about what this has meant for Marianne, and in particular, during a bout of depression.

We also talk about the joy of being HSP, how we handle big events, enthusiasm, collaborative working, and Marianne's 'work-arounds': finding a way of doing something that isn't the usual, but brings so many more rewards.

Can you be an empathetic, sensitive person and still run your own business? Yes, says Marianne Cantwell, who has written the book to prove it

Love your superpowers, with Marianne Cantwell 

21 years ago Harriet Kelsall was making jewellery on the side of her day job in IT. Today she’s founder of her highly successful bespoke jewellery company (where she still finds time to design), as well as in-demand creative business mentor and Chairman of the British National Association of Jewellers. She’s been a driving force behind Fairtrade gold, and is the author of an award-winning book on How To Start A Creative Business. 

I adored talking to Harriet. She’s fun, bright and endlessly positive. She’s also dyslexic, which, she says has been a big advantage in her journey. 

We talk about: 
* The early days of her company (and why her first ring had a rabbit on it), and how she found a niche which no-one else was in. 
* The most important question to ask if you want to launch or grow your creative business 
* How dyslexia has given her a huge advantage in her life and business 
* Finding a vision that’s inspiring and realistic 
* Harriet’s ‘embarrassing’ writing process (my tip: I suspect a lot of creatives will relate to this!) and her unorthodox route to getting her book published. 

Sign up for updates for every episode at joannapieters.com 


Fun, fearlessness and founding a joyful business, with Harriet Kelsall 

Judy Apps is a successful consultant and writer, helping people to communicate, and I wasn't expecting her story of years of what felt like failure and lack of direction. She tells the tale of her early career studying opera, and how an audition in Italy sent everything off the rails. We explore how nothing in your life is ever wasted - and how the directions you thought you'd given up on can provide the threads for you to weave something more magical and effective than you ever thought possible. 

As creatives, we HAVE to be able to communicate with people around us to get our work known. But the very idea can fill us with horror. Judy dispels myths about networking, meeting people, and shares how we can communicate more authentically and effectively. 



How to reinvent yourself, even when you feel you've failed, with Judy Apps

This is for you if you have way more interests, skills and things you want to do that the rest of the world can really get their head round. Waqās Ahmed spent five years researching extraordinary people to write The Polymath, a book that flies the flag for living a life of multiple areas of skill and interest.

Being a polymath, he says, may be the single best way to personal fulfillment. What's more, in a world of AI, the ability to see and join links between apparently unrelated fields will become ever more important. 

Waqās shares his own journey of turning his career upside down, rejecting the traditional job he'd found himself in to follow his passion for painting. That in turn opened up opportunities that took him around the world as a political journalist, art curator and now book author. 

Find the full transcript at creativelifeshow.com

The joy of multiple passions, with Polymath author Waqās Ahmed 

Can you really become an award-winning, million-selling novelist without a publisher or an agent? Yes! Mel Sherratt tells me how she went from redundancy to selling over a million copies of her novels, and building the life that she'd dreamt of since childhood. 

But we also talk about what happens when your success isn't quite lined up with what you TRULY want to do. I wasn't expecting Mel to tell me what she did about what she REALLY wants to write about - and why she's finally got the confidence to go for it. 

A million book sales without a publisher, with author Mel Sherratt

If there’s one thing that stops creative people releasing their full talents, it’s anxiety.

When anxiety takes over, you say NO to things. You stop having great ideas. You don't do the things that allow other people to experience your work. 

Anxiety isn't easy to cure - but one of the best things to do is find ways around it. 

That's exactly what my guest Matthew Barley has done. An anxious child, teenager and adult, he's become one of Britain's leading solo musicians, in demand around the world for his boundary-less, innovative, generous collaborations. 

We talk about: 
* The time 16 doctors told him his career was over 
* The flash of insight that turned his life around from his lowest point
* The one thing that Matthew *isn't* afraid of, even when everything else is terrifying 
* Why he was the shortest-serving principal cellist in the history of the London Symphony Orchestra 
* The biggest lesson he took from The Beatles, that's allowed him to continue to develop his work in ever-new directions 

The Creative Life Show with Joanna Pieters

Anxiety, creativity and the power of yes, with Matthew Barley

The Times called Alan Rosenthal 'one of Britain's top foodies' for his food columns and recipe books, his brand Stewed! and his work developing food and restaurants for big UK companies. Alan joins Joanna Pieters to talk about creating a life in food that isn't about being either in an office or a fine-dining kitchen, and about what makes his own life either rewarding or frustrating. He also shares how the sudden shock of losing his father took him away from his own creativity, and how it's taken several years to have the courage and the commitment to follow his passion again. 

The Creative Life Show: brain-food for creatives too curious to be conventional

A passion for food, with chef and writer Alan Rosenthal

When Kathryn Nicolai decided to launch a podcast Nothing Much Happens: Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups, she didn't plan much fuss or fanfare. After all, she was a yoga teacher, not a writer. Since she was a small child, she'd told herself bedtime stories to get to sleep, and that's what she was sharing with other people to help them doze off. 'A little creative project, that's all', she thought.

13 episodes later, it had been listened to over a million times. That's an extraordinary number for any new podcast, never mind a little indie one from someone with very little public profile.

There are some terrific lessons in our conversation. Kathryn's just launching her second series of Nothing Much Happens, and we talk about how she's approached it. We get into exactly how she writes and records, and how she's gone from almost no social media presence to having a community of fans who can't get enough. We also talk about Kathryn's journey of discovering herself as a writer, and how it's already become central to her daily life.

She recalls: "My brother sent me a text a couple of weeks after I launched and he said, why does your voice make me cry? And I said, I don't know, but I cry when I read them sometimes. And it's just that feeling of being in that really open, vulnerable emotional space that just opens the floodgates for me."

I learn about aphantasia for the first time, which Kathryn has: a condition where she doesn't visualise pictures in her head. We talk about how she brings the senses and emotions in her stories so powerfully to life, in tales where, literally, nothing else much happens.

Whether you've got a niggling dream you'd like to bring to life, have an urge to launch a podcast yourself, or just want to know that anything really is possible, this is such a great listen.

Find out more at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

The Creative Life Show | brain-food for creatives too curious to be conventional

Kathryn Nicolai: becoming a writer, aphantasia and launching a hit podcast

How do you create when the world seems to be full of destruction and pain? How do you keep going when there are so many distractions? Today I talk to the wonderful Anna Kunnecke about the stories we tell ourselves and how we can turn them to our benefit.

We talk about showing up 'as a grown-up' even when we just want to hide. We also contemplate the challenge of finding time for our dream when we have a life full of other demands. How should we prioritise our creative work when we have clients who need us, sick kids, bills to be paid, and a million injustices are calling us? How do we create beauty in our lives, no matter what else is happening?

Anna's approach is human, vulnerable and full of both pain and joy. But it's also full of practical ideas and ways of turning our stories and our lives round in small, practical, joyful ways.



Anna Kunnecke: writing, beauty and the unexpected joy of order

Newsweek named him as one of 15 people who make America great and he was Obama's first appointment to the National Council of the Arts. Yet Aaron Dworkin was just a violin undergraduate with no money or connections when he had the idea for The Sphinx Organisation, to transform representation in classical music. He talks about how hundreds of rejections never dented his determination, and the piece of mail that changed everything. 

You’ll be fired up and inspired by:
* Why music practice was the the perfect preparation for taking on a huge, challenging project
* The huge role that mentors play in his life, and how he finds them
* The significance of partnerships rather than sponsors (and this is SO valuable, not matter what you want to launch)
* How to get people to give you money (“Who has more money than the president of the World Bank?”)
* Performance poetry and his latest science fiction novel

We also talk about how he keeps his outsider position and uses it to keep challenging and making change. Feeling powerless? This is a great listen if you’re not sure how to get heard for something that REALLY matters to you.

The Creative Life Show: brain-food for creative adventurers 

Aaron Dworkin: 'You can do anything', music, mentors and 500 rejections

Marsha Shandur was living as she'd dreamed of for nearly 15 years: a job as a successful radio DJ, a life full of live gigs and music, on the brink of the big time. But there was something missing. (Whisper it: she was getting bored).

So she took off. She moved continent, with no plan and no job. And that's how she started her journey that's led to her business as a much-loved storytelling coach, in demand by private clients and events to help them build trust and connection, and make it FUN.

Marsha and I have have a blast talking about:

* The beginnings of True Stories Live (with just 3 people in the audience) and her brand YesYesMarsha
* The difference between your zone of excellence and your zone of genius - and how to find yours.
* Why talented creative people get stuck: finding themselves doing highly competitive jobs that should be fun, but aren't - and what Marsha did to get out of it
* The SINGLE biggest mistake that most people make telling their stories (and this is so easy to change in your own)
* How to to get started with a story that's compelling, relevant and fun, even if you're feeling as interesting as a white bread sandwich, or as overwhelmed as a kitten in a wool-basket

Marsha is SUCH fun, and full of practical, useful tips on how to make your story work for you, to get you the creative life you really want.

Your zone of genius and how to rock your story, with Marsha Shandur

Monica Michelle had a thriving, six-figure photography business which she loved. She adored the families, the kids, the women who she did boudoir photos for, as well as the events and the travel she was in demand for.

She'd had to give on a career as a dancer, but that was ok. But now, her body started going wrong. Gradually she had to start reducing what she did, as every part of her became weaker and more painful.

Then, the diagnosis. And a period of deep introspection and wondering what on earth to do with the energy and creativity that had always driven her.

If you're expecting a sad episode, don't! Monica is joyously positive, and the host of a fast-growing and successful podcast, an author and illustrator. This is a brilliant lesson in how to reinvent yourself, and find new outlets for your creativity, no matter what life throws at you.

Being unstoppable, with Monica Michelle

Senior ad man, and CEO of one of Britain's leading design companies, or bestselling author and photographer? Roger Mavity is both, and joins me to debunk some creativity myths, mischief making in the toilets (literally), and taking no nonsense from clients. (Ever tempted to take on work from a client who's not respecting you? Listen now!)

Roger demonstrates brilliantly the different sides that creative people can have, simultaneously. Maverick or master, productive or procrastinating? All of it, together.

Roger Mavity: creativity myths and making mischief

Mia Michaels, multiple Emmy-winning choreographer is best known for her appearances as judge and choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance and the Broadway show Neverland, and she's worked all round the world with stars from Madonna to Prince. She joins me to talk about the greatest creative challenge she's ever faced: now. Instead of climbing the next mountain with guts and determination, as she always has done, she's pausing, listening and waiting to what's ready to be born. We also talk about the importance of fear, the 'vortex of craziness' that uncertainty brings, and what brought her to write her first book: 'a guide for exceptional, excellent misfits'. 

Mia Michaels: fear, courage and being a unicorn in a world of donkeys

'A writer who is not writing is a danger to herself', says Michaela Chung. She's the creator of the hugely popular website IntrovertSpring, author of two books and in-demand expert on how to thrive as an introvert. She joins Joanna Pieters to talk about her own creative and writing life. 

Michaela shares how a creative crisis led to growing her website from 5 thousand visitors per month to 19 thousand, in just 30 days. It's a process she still repeats every time she feels blocked, bored or frustrated - which, she says, still happens regularly. 

We also talk about the overlap between introversion and creativity, balancing our inner artist with our inner manager, and what happens when we stop feeding the 'writing dogs' inside us. 

Get the full notes at www.creativelifeshow.com 

Creativity, introversion, and going all-in, with Michaela Chung

Sophie Sabbage lived and breathed books as a child: they healed her and made sense of her life. And yet it took decades and the diganosis of a terminal illness that made her finally sit down and write. The result was The Cancer Whisperer, a bestselling book that was translated into 11 languages and transformed her life. 

And yet there was another book waiting: one that she'd promised her teacher and mentor to write as he was dying, ten years before. Lifeshocks is 'her greatest creative work', and yet she had to overcome myriad deep-seated fears that stopped her writing. 

This is a great listen if you've ever felt intimidated by what you want to create, felt that you're somehow not good enough, or simply felt that you haven't yet found what you're called to create. 

Find the full show notes and The Creative's Distraction Buster at www.creativelifeshow.com

Claiming the story that's yours, with author Sophie Sabbage

Darren Henley doesn't much care for how things were done 'before' - he wants to know what people want now. He was journalist-turned-manager of a controversial, immensely popular classical music radio station, and now spends at least half his time touring England visiting arts, culture, libraries, in big cities and tiny rural communities.

As chief executive of the Arts Council of England, Darren Henley oversees hundreds of millions of pounds going into culture each year. He's also a vocal campaigner for the power of creativity to shape our world from education to loneliness. Somehow he also finds time to write: with over 30 books to his name, his latest has just been published (and we talk about how he manages to fit it all in).

I met Darren in his office, a room full of books and sunlight, but no desk. That stands instead in a corner of the open-plan office outside - even here he's all about connecting with people.

We could have talked for hours about the importance of creativity in our world, but I wanted to find out a few things. In particular, how do you write over 30 books when you've already got a more-than-full-time job?

We also talk about the power of books for impact and credibility. If you've been thinking you've got a book in you, then here's some good motivation as to why it's a great thing to do.

The Creative Life Show: celebrating creativity in a less-creative world

Darren Henley: 30+ books, a radio station, and the most influential UK arts job

One day in her 20s, Carrie Brummer picked up her paint brush in her sister's basement, with the knowledge it might be the last time. Facing an operation that could take her sight, and possibly her life, she immersed herself into creating two self-portraits. 'I just felt free', she recalls.

It was when they were selected for a national tour that she began to reflect on what had been holding her back until that point: perfectionism, a sense of 'should', or, as she says, 'a really loud inner critic'. She talks about how it led to everything changing: she started to travel, to explore, to do the things she wanted to rather than being the 'good girl' she'd always been.

Carrie went on to create the online art school and community Artist Strong, where she teaches and supports thousands of artists. Unlike so many online communities, Artist Strong is extraordinary in how supportive it is, and how free of self-promotion. Carrie's driving principle remains to help artists discover their own voice, rather than showing them what they should be doing.

I've been a lurker in the Artist Strong community for some time now, and I'm always in awe of how Carrie combines sensitive and encouraging feedback with building a tremendously strong community. I found her, even more than I'd expected, thoughtful, caring and deeply self-aware.

Beating perfectionism and building a community, with Carrie Brummer of Artist Strong 

Do you get to the end of the day feeling that you used your time and energy in the best possible way? Although we’re making decisions every moment of every day, most of the time we’re not conscious of what goes on behind our ‘rational’ thinking.

Michael Nicholas thinks, writes and speaks about how we make decisions. But it goes far deeper than that. We look at how our deepest beliefs about ourselves and the world are holding us back – all the time.

The way we think about ourselves has a huge impact on how we experience stress. Short-term stress, he says, is good and even healthy. Those deadlines, then, are serving their purpose.

But the problem for us comes when we’re living in a continual state of fear. We may not be worrying about being eaten, but we do worry about all sorts of other things: have I got that structure right? What will my agent think of that title? Should I be pitching for that job, or will it be just another rejection? It’s easy to descend into overwhelm, and hard to climb out again.

Living with those kinds of stresses are having a huge impact on our life, our work and our creativity. Michael has a wonderfully human, sympathetic approach to how we can change the way we respond to the world, so that we can achieve more of what we want, with less stress.

Michael has a a story that’s probably also familiar to many of us. We’re about to do some work – writing, painting, presenting – and we realise that it’s been done brilliantly before. So brilliantly, in fact, that we can’t see where we can do anything better (what do you do when the main book in your field led to a Nobel Prize?). That’s the dilemma he faced when he was commissioned to write his second book, which became The Little Black Book of Decision Making. He found a solution that’s allowed him to show and develop his reputation, with an angle that I found compelling and relevant.

How to make better decisions and beat overwhelm, with Michael Nicholas

You've launched your creative business, you've grown it to six-figures and more... then you find that someone else has stolen it. That happened to dancer, choregographer and voiceover artist Jonathan Tilley. But it started him on a journey that's led to an entirely different creative journey mentoring other creatives in how to get themselves known.

Jonathan is a classic highly creative person: his mind races non-stop, full of creative ideas, joining the dots, seeing possibilities. He does that for himself - he talks about how his businesses have evolved, and keep changing and developing. And he also does it for his clients, helping them find the stories behind their own personality and style.

Jonathan also has a brilliantly incisive and insightful mind. I love his way of combining the head and heart in business; ‘I do business from the heart, but the head comes along after’ he says.

We explore:

* How he manages that balance between head and heart, and the role of instinct in what he does
* The role of curiosity and never-ending learning
* Lady Gaga
* When to invest in something
* Jonathan’s ‘uncomfortable bracelet’, and how it prompts him to stretch himself
* Where social media is going for creatives. Jonathan has great advice on the platform he thinks is going to overtake Facebook, and how he approaches any new social project

Find all links and more at 39-finding-your-creative-brand-jonathan-tilley

The Creative Life Show: creativity podcast for and about highly creative people to get in inspired and successful 

Finding your creative brand, with Jonathan Tilley

Amrit Singh was a jobbing designer when a friend introduced him to the live-streaming app Periscope. In just 2 years he's attracted over 3 million viewers watching his live art and inspiration sessions. It's led to his own thriving art business, an international career as a speaker, two books and big-name clients queuing up to book him.

Amrit shares the story behind his apparently meteoric success, including the self-doubts that made him hide his face and his own art on camera for over a year.

Amrit Singh tells me about the huge leap of faith in himself it took to start going public. Rather than diving deep in, he slowly developed what he was doing as he gained confidence.

We talk about:

* The racism and prejudice Amrit experienced online, and how he turned that into a positive
* How he used Periscope to build a loyal, enthusiastic following that allowed him to launch his art brand
* Why he didn't share the art that was most important to him for over a year
* How he keeps the joy in his creative work, even when he's doing it live for an audience
* How being a positive voice in the world is at the core of all his work

This is a fantastic, inspiring listen if you've ever felt that you should be more visible, but you're too young/old, you're the wrong colour/gender/face shape, you hair/face/head-wear isn't appropriate, or whatever else is getting in the way of your real potential.

The Creative Life Show: inspiration and resources to beat creative frustration and build connection, creativity and flow in your life and work

How to get 3 million viewers and still create with joy, with artist Amrit Singh

You’ve got a huge vision for a creative, project, you know you have the skills, and you get fantastic feedback – and then all the people in positions of power try to change everything about it. What do you do? You go and build a community of the people who do believe in it.

Filmmaker Elena Rossini spent 8 years making her critically acclaimed film on the global beauty industry, The Illusionsists, 6 of those with nothing but rejections.

We talk about how TV studios told her they loved what she was doing – but wanted to replace her with a man. How they wanted to replace all the experts and thinkers so important to her with celebrities instead. How the film festivals rejected her continually. And how she found her own path to building, crowdfunding and launching a film that has been shown around the world, and which has put her on international stages as a guest and speaker.

There’s so much other great stuff too, including:
The business she launched within 24 hours

How she attracted interest from high-profile celebrities to support The Illusionists, including Stephen Fry

How she used Twitter to build a community that supported her at every step – from introductions to funding

How women are continually underrepresented in film, and Elena’s determination to change it

How building a community changes everything, with film director Elena Rossini

Creatives work best when they collaborate, right? And isn’t it the ideal to work with a friend you know and like? Jordan Lloyd’s work as a highly specialist photography colourist relies on strong relationships, but he’s learnt the hard way. He shares the story of a journey into entrepreneurship with a friend that went disastrously wrong, and the crucial difference between working with a friend, and working with someone likeminded who becomes a friend.

We also talk about Jordan’s work bringing to life extraordinary historic images. How do you go about recreating something that we know only in sepia tones?

* Why Jordan doesn’t see himself as an artist, but instead getting into the mind of the photographer who created the original image
* The role of aesthetic judgment in his work
* The hours of detailed research that goes into just one picture – from advertising archives to museum shelves


Should you work with a friend? Lessons from the front line, with Jordan Lloyd

Geetika Agrawal has possibly the coolest business ever. Vacation with an Artist connects artists and craftspeople around the world with curious, engaged travellers who want to immerse themselves in learning or deepening a skill.

She'd been dreaming about it for years, and a place on a work/travel programme gave the chance she wanted. But, three months into a year-long trip round the world, signing up artists and preparing to launch, she froze.

Geetika and I talk about hitting the crisis point that's so easy to reach in a creative business, when you've got multiple ideas, different partners, big ideas, but you're still only human. You'll also find out:

* How YouTube and singing got Geetika through an immediate crisis
* How she deliberately simplified her environment so she could use her focus for the thing that mattered
* The importance of the right support system - and how it wasn't necessarily the one that Geetika thought was important
* The headache of finding a name for her business - and what to do when everyone hates what you love

We also talk about how it feels to launch a creative business that you've been working on for months - and how it isn't necessarily the big triumph it feels it should be.

How the coolest creative travel business nearly didn't launch, with Geetika Agrawal of VAWAA

Creative people sometimes get lost. Really lost.

Wolfgang Wild was one of those. He'd spent years flitting between jobs, searching for the fulfilment he could never find.

Then he had a moment of realisation, asking himself a question that he'd asked himself plenty of times. But this time, he was so frustrated, that the answer that came was crazy and impossible. So crazy that he dismissed it.

But it led his to where he is now: the successful, in-demand creative founder of Retronaut, the archive photography blog that became a huge success within weeks of launching, and which has led to all sorts of other projects.

Retronaut wasn't born out of a grand plan, but a genuine passion. Wolfgang and I talk about:

* Spending years in the creative wilderness, being fired and made redundant, finding endless jobs that seemed to fit his skills but which just didn't fulfil or satisfy him
* A crucial turning point of a frustrating question, and realising the answer was something so impossible it wasn't worth even considering, but led to a whole new direction
* How he built Retronaut to a huge global success after a moment of truth in a remainder bookshop


We also talk about the pursuit of happiness, why we can allow ourselves to choose the emotions we want, and Wolfgang's transformational 6-minute daily practice that allows him to get way more done. 

How to follow your intuition when the answer is crazy, with Retronaut founder Wolfgang Wild

If you do creative work of any kind, the way you value your own skills is crucial. Anabel Roque Rodriguez has practical, inspiring advice on how to take back control when it feels as though the world doesn't value what you do.

We have a terrific conversation, including:

* The myth of the poor, suffering artist, and why we have to say no to it
* The legacy of ‘art as sacrifice’, and why it’s so damaging - especially for women
* How to plan for times without paid work, and how to use them to your advantage
* The trap that most creatives make in pricing their own work
* Why creatives are so reluctant to negotiate prices, and what to do instead
* When to work for free or a reduced fee, and when to say no
* Why ‘exposure’ is the worst reason for taking on work
* The importance of taking control of your own career, from TODAY


Even though I have conversations regularly with my clients about how to value and price their work, time and energy, this conversation with Anabel made me re-evaluate my own work and how I approach it.

Join the Creative Life Community at www.creativelifeshow.com


Do you truly value your work? with Anabel Roque Rodríguez

Noah Scalin is the co-creator of the brilliant Creative Sprint process, an artist, author and creativity consultant. Until now, it's been a  free 30-day live series, but he and his sister Mica Scalin have just published Creative Sprint, a book of six month-long sprints, with lots of thought-provoking stories and ideas. Part of the principle between Creative Sprint is about sharing as a way of fast-tracking your work and making it better and better.

If you're doing creative work, at one point you need to get it out there. But for many of us, we want to get it to a point we're satisfied with ourselves before we show it to anyone else.

We've got it all wrong, though, says Noah Scalin. He says we've got to change the way we think, to discover the enormous benefits of sharing our work early and frequently.

Noah and I explore:

* Why sharing can make your work much faster
* How to draw people to you by putting your work out
* The importance of finding a safe space to share
* The fear that stops you sharing
* The role of self-reflection

We also talk about the Creative Sprint process, and why it's so powerful, whatever kind of creative work you do. If you're thinking of joining it, or would just like to be more creative and more energetic, you've got to listen to this.

Are you sharing your work in progress? Here's why you should, with Noah Scalin

If you have a dream of expanding your creative work into a new area, but don’t believe it will ever happen, this is the perfect episode for you. Becoming an author hadn’t ever crossed Alice Stevenson’s mind, but after writing two beautiful, reflective, travel books, she’s added a whole new dimension to her work as a successful illustrator.
Alice and I talk about her journey from initial scepticism, through working out to what her book should even be about, to the process of writing it, and, eventually, repeating the process with the second one. Was it easier? No, she says – and we talk about the huge overwhelm of a much more complex second book.
Alice has wonderful advice on pushing beyond your creative comfort zone in a way that’s stretching but manageable.
- How to know when you’ve got trapped in over-thinking your creative work
- How fear leads to not being able to focus on any one project
- Ways to free your creative thinking when anxiety overwhelming you
- The importance of commitment in a creative process
- How to separate your ‘sensible’ inner voice from your ‘stressed’ one
We also talk about Alice’s own creative processes that she used to stop self-doubt from overwhelming her, and to keep her creative vision fresh.
This is a fabulous, encouraging episode about overcoming creative self-doubt and believing in yourself. I love Alice’s gentle, positive energy, and the simplicity with which she approaches her writing.

How to beat self-doubt but stay true to yourself, with Alice Stevenson

There are two essential themes in this week's show with Rob Eastaway: the power of ideas, and getting a big creative idea off the ground with a partner who's much bigger than you are (and yes, it is possible!)

Rob shares how he approached London's National Theatre to stage his live, interactive maths show for teenagers as part of one of their hit shows, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He talks about how he negotiated endless levels of red tape, paperwork and approval to prove that he could be trusted to work with one of their biggest brand shows. If you've ever had a dream about working with someone really high-profile, and wondered, could I make it happen? this is an essential listen.

We also talk about IDEAS. We have them all the time, but how do we have the right ones that will help us solve our current problem?

What you'll learn today:

* How to launch a successful creative project with a partner much bigger than you
* What you need to do to persuade someone else to work with you - and what you must NEVER do
* Why your own head limits the ideas you have - and how to get out of a thinking rut
* Practical ways to kick-start your ideas - whether you're on your own or working with others

Kickstart your own creative ideas by joining 15 days of creative inspiration at www.creativelifeshow.com. 


How to have unlimited creative ideas, with Rob Eastaway

Imagine signing up to perform a show 8 times a week for 6 months. Then imagine doing it for a year more, and another and another, but still having to keep your performance as fresh as the first night. William Rycroft did just that, clocking up an extraordinary 1700 performances in the award-winning theatre show War Horse.

Will joins me to talk about exactly how he kept his creativity alive day after day, as well as the terrifying experience of realising that he'd become too comfortable with it.

We talk about going to sleep on stage and why being able to do something on auto-pilot is so dangerous. You'll learn what what you do when you think you've exhausted every creative possibility you can think of. We also talk about how a performance in William's final week was the most nerve-wracking experience in his life, and why his experience was the greatest thrill he could imagine as an actor.

If you're in any kind of job that has repetitive work, you'll find this episode hugely inspiring. Where do you look for new ideas? Where do you start when you realise you've tumbled into a rut? And you'll learn how to turn your experience, as Will did, into learning about stretching yourself and challenging yourself, in ways you never dreamed possible.

Kick-start your own creativity with 15 days of creative inspiration, free at creativelifeshow.com. 

How to do a show 1700 times and still stay creative, with William Rycroft

Willpower. We have it or not, right? And some days, it just vanishes. 
I’ve been fascinated by the link between willpower and creativity for years. How much is getting our creative work out down to self-discipline, and why do we so often decide to do something we regret later, from eating chocolate to not replying to emails?
And how much can we change the amount of willpower we have?
Ros Taylor is the ideal person to help explore this. Willpower, her eighth book, has just been published, and I invited her on to talk about the willpower she needed to get it written, as well as what willpower means for us as creatives.
We’re caught often time between looking for the ‘aha’ moments and the need to just get work out. We easily get overwhelmed by all the other things we have – client work, other people’s agendas, all the non-creative work that we need to do to make our creative work possible. Within all that, we need to know how to make our work fresh and inspiring again.
Ros and I talk about her own experience of needing to structure her work to find time to write Willpower, at a time when everything else was pressing in around her (and she’d turned it down several times).
We also get into a lot more detail about what willpower means for us as creatives. It turns out that rather than looking for willpower itself, there are other things we need to focus on which create the environment for us to have the willpower we need.

You'll learn: 
The exact process Ros used to write Willpower, despite finding herself hugely overcommitted - and knowing she's not someone who can write in short bursts, on planes, or between other work.
- The 'three week rule' for changing anything
- How you can change your level of willpower - but the essential condition to make it effective
- The power of relaxation for willpower, and why it's non-negotiable for creative work
- Why optimists persevere longer than pessimists, and what that means for you
- Techniques and habits to turn yourself into an optimist, with Ros's own story of how she did it

Get all the show notes and downloads at www.creativelifeshow.com

Willpower: the secret power to change your life, with Ros Taylor

Kerry Nicholls is a leading contemporary choreographer, in demand all over the world for her inspiring, challenging work with dancers on the cusp of major careers. Yet at 23, with a surprise pregnancy, she was told by everyone she should forget her career. She set out to prove them wrong, finding a path through the practical, financial and emotional challenges of being a creative, performer and single parent. She talks about her determination to prove that parenting would provide her creativity with a new depth and richness, and how the skills she learned have taken her to a level that she believes she would never otherwise have reached. Find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

How to prove your critics wrong, with Kerry Nicholls 

Do you love being a creative but hate having to put yourself 'out there'? I've brought in the brilliant Emma Stroud to talk about the importance of telling our own stories as creatives. Should we wear our heart on our sleeve, or let our work speak for itself? And how do we know when we've given away just a bit too much? Emma shares her own story of getting totally stuck by fear, and what she learned by spending a day going round London dressed as a banana.

Here are some of the great value bombs you'll find in this episode:

- The value of giving yourself permission - whether to be silly, serious, or just to have fun in your work
- How to use structure to reduce fear, and stop your emotions taking over
- Why your story is definitely interesting to the rest of the world - and how to find it
- Why you don't think you're good at public speaking, and what you can do about it
- What to do if you want your creative work to speak for itself, but you know it's holding you back
- How to decide what to share, and what to keep private
- Emma's liberating diary format that makes sure she finds time for all the important things in her life

Find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com, and download your free Creative's Distraction Buster - because creative brains are different. 

How to beat your fear of being boring, with Emma Stroud

If you've dreamed of escaping from a traditional job to the seaside to make a living from your creativity, this is for you. Artist and 'professional doodler' Moose Allain and his wife Karen did just that. They have a thriving business based on Moose's world of playful, off-beat cartoons, crazy puns and reflections on what’s going on in his life and the world. 

Find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com.

We talk about:

- How Moose built his Twitter community to over 78 thousand followers, and how that has become the core of his business
- How to use Twitter when you don't want to sell on it
- The role of traditional galleries in Moose's work and launching his business - but why he no longer sells in them
- How Moose worked with Unbound to crowdfund his new book in just a week
- How Moose has used crowdfunding as a way to create collaborative art

My favourite quote (because I love Moose's blend of words and drawing): 'it’s about playing around with lines. They may be drawn lines or they may be written lines’

The joy of a full-time creative business on Twitter, with Moose Allain

Wouldn't it be great to get more focus in your creative life? That's why I've invited the terrific Dr Jenny Brockis, author of the bestselling Future Brain, to come and talk how we creatives can get more focused and more creative in our daily life and work.

Download The Creative's Distraction Buster: 5 steps to eliminate distraction and work in the best way for your brain at creativelifeshow.com.

We have a great conversation, and Jenny shares some fantastic tips and advice. We talk about:

* The brain difference in creative people, and what that means for focus
* Why focus is a double-edged sword for creatives, and how to manage it
* How to get more creative focus in your daily life
* When you want less focus rather than more (yes, really)
* The one thing that all of us - creative or not - need to do for our brain health

We also talk about Jenny's own journey about walking away from a successful medical career with nothing more than an idea that she needed to do something different, and how she used a year of living creatively to build a whole new direction and life.



How to get more creative focus, with Dr Jenny Brockis

When you're a professional creative, sometimes things go HORRIBLY wrong.
Katharine Coleman is a leading international glass artist, with nerves of steel. If you think that your medium is hard, just try working with something that can shatter with one false move.
So don’t listen if:
- you don’t want to hear a hair-raising story of a catastrophe-ridden, high-profile commission (you might hear me gasp in horror at one point)
- you believe that if you haven’t started by your 40s, there’s no hope
- you think that you need to keep yourself isolated from other creatives in your field
 
But listen now if you want to know:
- The lessons from how one of today’s leading craftspeople went from a geography PhD and household chores to having work in the world’s major collections and galleries
- How Katharine broke into the establishment after years of rejection
- How founding a network of glass engravers around the world has led to ‘five times the impact’

How to survive a catastrophic commission, with Katharine Coleman ​​

Photographer and storyteller Laura Dodsworth was a successful wedding photographer when she felt pulled to create a far more terrifying project: photographing 100 women and talking to them about their bodies. It became the hugely successful Bare Reality, and an entirely new creative journey. Find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

Laura and I talk about the stream of rejections that followed. Agents, galleries, publishers and even friends all turned down her idea, with plenty of them questioning why anyone would buy it. We talk about how she kept going despite all the setbacks, her doubts and fears.

We also talk about how she overcame her professional fears to go in a direction that was so different to her normal commercial work.

But she also shares what it takes, and what she did to achieve:

- A crowd-funding campaign that reached its target in just one day
- A bestselling book
- Media interest from around the world
- Workshops, talks and even a play

We also talk about Laura's new project, Manhood, where she talks to 100 men about their bodies and their stories, and the whole new set of fears that came with it.

If you're feeling called to create work that's different to your normal direction, or if you have no idea how you can ever make it work, Laura's story is an essential listen.

The courage to crowdfund a bestseller, with photographer Laura Dodsworth

What does it take to get 2.3 million views for a TEDx talk? Top voice coach Caroline Goyder joins me to talk about how to create presence and authority as a creative, and the story of her own books (including the long journey to be published) and online success. Get all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com.

As creatives, speaking in public means often having to put non-verbal ideas into words. That brings plenty of challenges. How do we talk about design or art, music or movement, in a way that brings them to life? How do we convince other people to believe in our work simply by standing up and talking about it?

And yet, if we don't, our voices remain unheard. 

Being able to speak powerfully in front of other people changes everything. It means we can get ourselves the jobs we want, or the partnerships we need. We can get clients or funders on side and convince get other people to believe in our ideas. Not least, we open up a whole world of media opportunities, interviews, and even paid speaking opportunities. 

Whether you're comfortable talking in front of others but would like to get to the next stage, or the thought fills you with horror, Caroline has essential tips for you.

How to talk brilliantly about your creative work (even if you hate it), with Caroline Goyder

What do you do when your values clash with your lifestyle - but you love it? Dave Evans talks about how he went from high-profile Silicon Valley creative who never saw his kids to running the Life Lab at Stanford - a journey fraught with wrong turns and misplaced independence trying to solve everything himself. Get all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com.

Dave has taken thousands of Stanford students through a programme which applies 'design thinking' to organising your life. Forget planning, forget visions, forget the idea that you need to discover your one passion - this approach is about small steps, testing things, asking questions and seeing what happens.

Whether you're frustrated in your current work and want to try something different, or want to live a bit more fully, this is a great episode. Dave shares his own battle with his passion for work: 'I realised, I was an alcoholic working in a liquor store', and how it took him years to find the balance he wanted.

You'll learn:

- The difference between an engineering problem and a design problem, a gravity problem and an anchor problem, and why understanding those is crucial to working out what to do with your life
- How to work out which of your many possible lives is the one you want to live
Why curiosity underpins everything in your life
- The cycle of growth, and how to move from being, to doing, to becoming.
- The difference between wayfinding and navigation - and which one you need when you don't have a map

Be more creative!

I’ve created 15 days of creative inspiration to give you daily inspiration and motivation, with reflections to help you go deeper into your own creative life and work. Each morning for 15 days I'll send you some music, art or poetry to surprise, inspire or motivate you - some you'll know, some you won't, and all of it is work I love. Sign up at www.creativelifeshow.com – it’s completely free.

Stop planning, start playing, with Designing your Life author Dave Evans

Painter Norman Perryman describes himself as 'a musician who was born an artist'. He creates live performances with classical orchestras and musicians, live painting to the music. On today's Creative Life Show we talk about how he goes about creating a new art form, and how he goes about convincing other people to support something they've never come across before. 

We also talk about the commission Norman received during his wife's battle with cancer, to paint the singer and leukaemia survivor Jose Carreras. He tells me about the process of painting through grief and the loss of his wife, and how the experience affected his work.

Norman talks about how he faces up to the ever-present risk of depression, and how he pushes himself to take risks to move his work and his life forwards. 

You can see Norman's work at creativelifeshow.com, where you can also sign up for the free email course 15 days of creative inspiration. 

Creating art through pain with kinetic painter Norman Perryman

Roxanna Panufnik is one of Britain's most popular classical composers. She’s particularly known for her works for choirs, and next year will see the premiere of a new opera, Silver Birch, which draws on stories of World War 1 as well as contemporary experiences of war and its impact on families. You can find all the links at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

Roxanna tells me about the time when, faced with an ideal new commission, she spent weeks of agony sitting in front of a blank piece of paper, asking herself whether her career was over. We talk about how she got herself out, and what she does to keep that kind of block at bay.

We also talk about the central role that emotion plays in Roxanna's work, and how she manages her energy and own emotion to stay healthy and productive. We talk about how the importance of the right collaborators, and how finding the right text - or the wrong one - can make all the difference to her creative work.

Roxanna Panufnik is one of the most disciplined and yet fun creators I've talked to so far. In a life full of high-profile commissions, professional demands on her time, three children and a busy personal life, she's made a conscious decision to look after own own mind and body.

Making emotion the heart of your work, with composer Roxanna Panufnik

What if your moods and emotions were just signposts to how to live a fuller life? I talk to Andy Gibson, founder of Mindapples, about how looking after our minds is just as important as our bodies to lead full and creative lives - and how we can make prioritising our mental health a normal part of our routines. 

The power of sensitivity, with Andy Gibson of Mindapples

Leading life coach, author and editor of one of the UK's most successful - and thought-provoking - women's magazines, Suzy Greaves shares her story of how her first book went disastrously wrong. We talk about how her inner critic scuppered what seemed the opportunity of a lifetime, and how it nearly led to her giving up writing and coaching. Suzy shares frankly and openly how she had to overcome her own demons to write her next book, as well as the practical steps she took to keep her fear and resistance under control. 

We also talk about the challenges and joys of having to create new content every month for a successful magazine. Suzy shares how she takes her team to a place of vulnerability and openness to create stories that separate Psychologies from other magazines. 

Coming back after rejection, with Psychologies editor Suzy Greaves

How's your brain doing? Today I'm talking with Neil Pavitt about how we can make the most of our grey matter to make us more creative and less stressed.

Neil's new book Brainhack is a fast, fun user's guide to the brain, and I quiz him on how we can put his tips into practice in our creative lives. Get all the details at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

Neil spent many years as a writer and creative director in creative agencies and companies including Saatchi & Saatchi and BSkyB. We talk about how he overcame the frustrations and self-doubt that could so easily creep in. Agencies often revolve around high-powered creative relationships, but what happens when those burn out?

We also talk about the conflict between stress and creativity - and yet how we need deadlines to get things done. You'll hear how you're not nearly as objective as you think you are, and why cognitive bias is ruining your decision making.

And if you're sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for someone else to arrive, you'll hear why you should stop checking emails and start gazing out of the window instead.

If you want to use your brain even more effectively to make you the most creative and productive you can be, start here.

Power up your creative brain, with Brainhack author Neil Pavitt

Can you be creative running a 'functional' service business? Joanna Pieters talks to Emma Hammett about her journey from nurse to author, regular TV guest, columnist and founder of award-winning company First Aid for Life.

Emma shares how her first attempt at hiring went disastrously wrong when someone took all her creative ideas. We talk about how it was nearly the end of the company, but how she turned it round to make her business the success it now is.

We also discuss the importance of systems to make a creative business rock-solid. Emma shares some of the long journey to move from in-person training to creating online programmes, a move that has transformed what she can do. We talk about how she builds a team to compensate for what she describes as her natural scattiness, and the support network she has built around her.

Oh, and she tells the story of First Aid for Dogs and First Aid for the Zombie Apocalypse... 

Find more details and links at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

What to do when someone steals your work, with Emma Hammett

If you'd like to solve your problems with more creativity, curiosity and fun, my conversation with writer, speaker and educationalist Richard Gerver is for you. Download your highlights guide at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

When you were five, you were full of creativity, fun and ideas. You were curious about everything, you took risks and didn't worry about making mistakes or being 'wrong'.

And yet, as adults, we see curiosity too often as a luxury that we don't have time or energy for. So what goes wrong?

Author and speaker Richard Gerver found fame as the head teacher responsible for turning a long-term failing primary school into an internationally innovative, successful model of education. Richard's vision for how we can reconnect with our inner child is at the heart of his third book, Simple Thinking.

Richard and I talk about the power of creating the right environment around you, and how having the right people to challenge your thinking and complement your skills can make all the difference. He shares his experience of taking over a school and a team with years of failure behind them, and how he overcame the inner battles and practical challenges of turning things round.

Grab your crayons and your sense of fun, and let's go!

How to rediscover your inner 5 year old, with Simple Thinking author Richard Gerver 

Nicola Peel is an environmentalist, film-maker and self-described solutionologist, based in the Amazon. She’s spent her career finding solutions to questions like: how do we get clean water when all the local water is untreatable? How do we deal with plastic rubbish, and how do we turn it onto a resource? Her projects have had an impact around the world.

What I love about Nicola’s work is how she starts at the grass-roots level, but always with a bigger vision. We talk about how it regularly brings her into conflict with collaborators who want to make quick local progress, and how she insists on prioritising long-term sustainability.

Nicola chooses to work by herself, but far from alone. She’s become a very active and powerful hub to bring together experts and local people, ideas and solutions from around the world. She shares how a chance trip to an unusually tidy village in Guatemala became the start of an eco-brick movement that’s now having an impact around the world - and how she’s moved on to an even more powerful project which turns plastic rubbish into a source of income for the poorest communities.

Nicola is deeply practical and resilient problem-solver, even when the problems seem never-ending. She shares her journey creating rainwater filtration systems, and how each stage just seemed to open up another layer of challenge.

We also talk about how to deal mentally with problems that could seem overwhelming, and where Nicola gets the inspiration and motivation that keeps her going.

This is an essential listen if you’ve got far bigger ideas than you’re currently able to make happen.

Get more information at http://creativelifeshow.com/012-how-have-huge-impact-working-alone-nicola-peel

How to have a huge impact working alone, with Nicola Peel

Top handbag designer Shona Easton shares the frustration and opportunities that came from going from freelance to setting up her own label of bags. As head designer for one of the biggest UK fashion chains, her bags sold thousands, but in 2002 she launched her first range under he own name. 
Shona shares her experience of frustrating freelance work and being asked to create designs that didn’t resonate with her at all, but feeling obliged to take the work. We talk about her breakthrough that led to her to setting up her successful own label, and how that has fundamentally changed how she works.
At the heart of her success is how Shona combines her free-spirited approach with strong relationships. She shares how relationships have led to suppliers, customers, and how she works with her team members to make her business successful while allowing her to travel almost full-time.
We talk about how many of the issues that creatives have in combining their creativity with running a business, including why basing your business model on a large corporate is a struggle and how she balances creative work with day-to-day commercial demands.
If you’re employed or freelance, Shona has essential advice for you on how to work with buyers and managers, and how to stop frustration getting in the way of your own creative voice by speaking up.

From freelance frustration to your own design label, with Shona Easton

How would your life be different if you could get your creative work finished? Mike Monday, international DJ and producer, had a lousy job, no money and a computer full of unfinished tracks when he decided he'd had enough, and set out to make music his life. He now works with musicians and producers to get their music finished and out of the door, with a practical, powerful system to release their creativity and get things done. We talk about how to break through the distractions and inner critic that stop us completing work, and how to put in place the rock-solid habits that make sure you'll make progress, no matter where you are now. Find all the show notes and extra resources on focus and more at www.creativelifeshow.com. 

How to get your creative work finished, with Mike Monday

Novelist, playwright, journalist, librettist and blogger, Jessica Duchen has been writing professionally for nearly 30 years, during which time the world for writers has changed beyond recognition. 
 
While many writers have given up, defeated by decreasing rates, increased competition and the impact of new technology, Jessica has found ways to take her writing into new directions. 
 
Core to her success has been finding new ways of presenting her work. She’s turned her novels into plays and concert versions, and often creates expanded versions of her journalism for her own community. 
 
Jessica’s fifth novel, Ghost Variations, is set in 1930s Germany, based on a true story and full of spirit messages and real-life characters. After publishing four with a traditional company, she's now working with the innovative publisher Unbound, which uses a crowd-funding model while keeping conventional editorial standards. She shares what an extraordinarily uplifting experience it has been, and how she got her novel fully funded in just 12 days. 
 
Despite this, Jessica describes herself as being very uncomfortable with the unknown. We talk about how relationships have been core to expanding her work, and allowing her to go in new directions. She also shares her frustration about the publishing world, and how she has refused to compromise on her core values to be more commercially successful. 

How to succeed as a writer in tough times, with Jessica Duchen

Laura Kriefman's Mass Crane Dance was an extraordinary creative spectacle, attracting 10 thousand people and 4 million online to watch three cranes perform a synchronised dance over Bristol docks. And yet not long before, Laura had given up her work as a choreographer and dancer, frustrated by no one being willing to fund her or believe in her vision. 
We talk about the transformation that brought her back to creating work, and that has taken her to a new, internationally acclaimed level as as creator and speaker. We also discuss how to take a team with you into innovative, risk-taking chaos, and finding the comfort there, and how to get other people to understand your vision. 

What to do when no one believes in you, with Laura Kriefman

'Wherever there is great inspiration and there is our soul’s purpose, not far away there will be tremendous resistance.' That's the core of today's conversation with Nick Williams, author of 13 books and 'coach, spiritual advisor and encourager' to individuals and companies including McKinsey and the NHS

There's a myth that when you're following your passion, everything becomes easy. Not so, says Nick. We talk about the ever-present doubt and resistance that accompanies all creative work. Rather than trying to get rid of it, Nick talks about how he focuses on knowing his purpose and habits that allow him to get his work done.

At the heart of Nick's work is a very clear, consistent message about finding purpose in what you do. We talk about how focusing on that one message has opened up endless scope for creativity and inspiration - completely the opposite from the common fear of having a niche becoming limiting. 
 
I also ask Nick about the challenge that leaders face in trying to develop self-expression and creativity, particularly in cultures that only value success, and where vulnerability is unlikely to be considered a virtue. 
 
I love Nick’s honesty in this interview. Even before we started the recording he was keen to point out that he doesn't see creative block something he’s overcome, but instead as resistance that he has to overcome all the time. You’ll hear his take on resistance as a natural part of creativity, and some of the ways he uses to overcome it. 

How to handle creative resistance, with Nick Williams

If you tried to pin a label on Maggie Semple, OBE, she’d be leaping away to the next big thing before you could get anywhere near. Dancer, choreographer, high-level public servant, blue-chip leadership and diversity consultant, justice advisor, fashion label founder. Alternatively, epic badass who takes on big, bold issues, because, as she says, ‘why wouldn’t you?’
From running public consultations on nuclear power stations to championing the impact of clothes, Maggie is driven by a huge desire to connect with big ideas and their impact on people. Blue-chip and public sector consultancy isn’t often seen as a creative role, but Maggie disagrees. We talk about how she calls on her background in choreography for a language and imagery that helps to disrupt boardroom thinking, and the creative buzz she gets from being in the moment.
We also talk about how she set up a fashion label, and how she answers her critics who see it as ‘frivolous’.
But that doesn’t stop her from experiencing creative frustration or blocks. We talk through how she uses her inner drive and values to overcome it.
If your creative life is about values and purpose rather than job titles, and variety rather than a single focus, this is an essential listen.

You'll also learn: 
- How Maggie deals with fear in a situation that’s new to her
- How principles of respect, confidentiality and progress drive her work
- The importance of relationships in building her business and her team
- The need for self-awareness as a confident, straight-talking woman, and how that can sometimes be a barrier that has to be overcome
- How Maggie defied her critics to set up a fashion label after a background in blue-chip consultancy

The power of taking on big issues, with Maggie Semple

Jez Rose, The Behaviour Expert, is internationally in-demand speaker and coach who spends his time getting inside our heads and showing us to rewire them for the better.

Jez’s third book, Flip the Switch, is all about how we can expand the gap between the thing that threatens to make us angry, or confused, or distracted, and our own response to it. It’s about how we can deliberately make small changes in our behaviour that dramatically changes the result we get: the choice between allowing ourselves to be derailed, or staying on the path we want.

What I love about Jez is that he just leaks creativity. You can feel the energy coming out him - our conversation is full of stories and tips, where he just takes an idea and runs with it.

And yet it wasn’t always this way. We also talk about his experience of depression as a teenager and young man, and how he made some very conscious choices to move away from that. We also talk a lot about the importance of purpose in your life, and its connection to creativity.

If you’re someone who is forever coming up with ideas but can’t always turn them into action, or someone who gets easily derailed by other people or events, you’re going to love this episode.

How to change your life by changing your reactions, with Jez Rose

This episode is essential listening if you ever feel that there’s just too much stuff getting in the way of you achieving what you want to, and particularly if you find yourself prioritising what other people want from you. 
 
Grace describes herself as a ‘naturally disorganised productivity coach’, becoming an expert by learning because she needed to. She’s the author of two wonderful books on productivity, including her most recent one How To Be Really Productive, published by Pearson, and she’s a much in-demand trainer on how to get things done in a way that’s practical and real. 

We talk about the crucial difference between people-pleasing and collaboration. It's essential to achieving any kind of success, and can be a huge barrier to achieving the things that are important to you.
 

How to stop people-pleasing and be really productive instead, with Grace Marshall

In a rut? That's where artist, author and activist Noah Scalin was, at that time a frustrated, bored graphic designer. Desperate to get himself out of a rut, he committed to creating and posting a new piece of art each day. What started as a personal record became A Skull A Day, a viral hit. It led to a series of books on practical creativity, including 365: A Creative Journal, which has just been republished and expanded. We talk about the power of small beginnings and tight boundaries to free up unlimited creative ideas, no matter how stuck you're feeling right now. 

How to find unlimited creativity when you're totally stuck, with Noah Scalin

Let's talk about getting stuck, lighting your creative fire and what this is all about. Head over to www.creativelifeshow.com/intro for your Unstuckness Audit worksheet - an awesome tool for working out exactly what's blocking your creativity, and your next steps to becoming more creative, connected and successful