How do you step up to being more creative in your day-to-day life?
To answer this question, I’ve called in creativity guru Mark McGuinness. I stumbled across Mark in the blog series Lateral Action, which is about creativity and productivity. Mark is the founder and principle of Wishful Thinking, a coaching service for creative businesses and professionals. He even has an MA in Creative and Media Enterprises from the University of Warwick, and is the author of a popular e-book called How to Motivate Creative People [Including Yourself].
Mark started his practice as a hypnotherapist and some of his best sessions were with creative types, such as artists, actors, writers and filmmakers. He saw that his enthusiasm was up, his clients were getting results, and it was a strong sign that he was in the groove of doing his Great Work.
During our conversation, Mark shares valuable insights on creativity:
- Forget about being creative. Start creating.
- The “cash and sex” theory of balancing creativity in your career
- Getting a good system to keep the cash rolling in
- The TOTE model for managing projects
- How exercise helps creativity (and how you can find the motivation to hit the gym).
Connect with Mark on his website www.wishfulthinking.co.uk, his blog lateralaction.com, or on Twitter @MarkMcGuinness.
Tech journalist Gina Smith had never been on TV when she was asked to appear on PBS to debate Steve Ballmer of Microsoft about Windows ’95. It was a gutsy move, but she said yes because she was determined to let consumers know her criticisms of Windows ‘95. After the interview, she was worrying “Whoa, should I have actually done that?” when ABC called and asked her to be the tech correspondent on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. And that’s how Gina started her TV career: by saying yes to opportunities, taking risks and sharing her passion.
Gina is also the New York Times bestselling author (with Steve Wozniak) of iWOZ: From Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and Had Fun Along the Way. She’s a radio host, wrote an award-winning column for the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, wrote a book about DNA, and now she’s a partner in First 30 based in San Francisco, which is an incubator firm for tech start-ups.
During our conversation, we talk about Gina’s serendipitous career journey and her current role at First 30, and:
- How getting a text from a friend who met Steve Wozniak at a Grateful Dead concert turned into a book deal
- Bringing great ideas to life: getting the guy who’s been working in his basement for 7 years a patent, an expert team, and a million dollars in funding
- The Purple Cow: what Gina looks for when deciding which projects to back
- Ripping the band-aid off: how to reject people without making them resent you
Learn more about Gina’s company at www.first30services.com.
Listen to my interview with Gina Smith
Today I’m talking to Mark Pearson, publisher and president of Pear Press. I came across Mark because I was interested in a book he published by John Medina, a N Y Times bestseller, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work.
The business model of traditional publishers is to publish 100 or so books per year, knowing they’ll have a few great books, a lot of good ones, and some bad ones.
Pear Press is doing things differently, and it’s a fascinating, admirable approach. They only publish one book per year, and they pursue it with full-hearted gusto. It’s gotta be a quality “great” book that can knock it out of the park and hit some bestseller lists.
In this interview, Mark and I discuss:
- Standing out in a sea of 800,000 new books published each year
- “Cut out the crap”: the advice Steve Jobs of Apple gave to the CEO of Nike, and what publishers can learn from this lesson
- Why exercise is important for the brain and taking a break from your desk is not slacking off
Visit Pear Press at www.pearpress.com.
Listen to my interview with Mark Pearson
These crayons rock the house in about 12 different ways. Recycled. Funky. Community-based. Genius.
Make sure you check out the short video to see how they’re made.
And buy some for anyone in your life who loves a crayon. (Which is most of us.)
We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
~ Walt Kelly
I get a regular dose of quotes from Quotes of the Day, and this one showed up today. I actually laughed out loud – it’s such an elegant reminder of the possibilities that exist in every nook and cranny for Great Work if only we stopped motoring along at a gazillion miles an hour, paused for breath, and looked around us.
Opportunities for connection. For impact. For fun. For friendship. For meaning. For difference.
So no excuses then.
