127: Protect Your Idea Factory, Build a Creative Flywheel, and Go Behind-the-Scenes of Book Publishing with Todd Henry
Free Time with Jenny Blake
Daily Creative - A Practical Guide for Staying Prolific, Brilliant and Healthy
Tod says that we need to practise pruning in our life. He gives business owners permission to drop something altogether. Tod: Think of building an audience like making friends. Let it be easy, let it be fun and build with love.
Today’s guest is an expert in cultivating creativity — and in remaining consistent over the long arc of content creation. Todd Henry is the author of six books, and today we’re talking about how to stay motivated in the publishing industry, where the market reflects winner-take-all dynamics, and the long tail is verrrry long.
More About Todd: Todd is the author of six books, including The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, Herding Tigers, and Motivation Code, and host of The Accidental Creative podcast and the Herding Tigers podcast. He empowers companies and teams to be creative, prolific, and brilliant in their work through his books, podcasts, and keynote speaking. He is the host of the 17-year-running Accidental Creative podcast, and today we’re going behind the scenes His new book, Daily Creative: A Practical Guide for Staying Prolific, Brilliant, and Healthy, encourages you to thrive as a creative through daily practice.
🌟3 Key Takeaways:
- Solve a problem that people know they have; frame your products and services in terms of how they accomplish a job that people need done.
- Your creativity is one of your most precious resources. Protect your Idea Factory and measure the quantity and quality of ideas you generate
- Set Wildly Important Goals; Todd’s are: quality, awareness, and revenue diversity. Every day you should be figuring out how your work will help you achieve them.
📝Permission: Practice pruning; there’s probably something you’re doing right now that has already served its purpose and run its course. You hereby have permission to drop it!
✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Outline your business model as a flywheel. For help with this, read Jim Collins’ fantastic monograph, Turning the Flywheel.
📘Books Mentioned:
- Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business
- Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
- The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice
- Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
- Louder than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice
- Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need
- The Motivation Code: Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work
- Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't
- The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
🔗Resources Mentioned:
- Todd on the web, Instagram: @toddhenry, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
- Todd’s Podcasts: The Accidental Creative podcast, Herding Tigers podcast
- Articles: NYT on the long tail of book publishing: Will the Biggest Publisher in the U.S. Get Even Bigger?
- Video: Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talks: Your Elusive Creative Genius, Success Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating
🎧Related Podcast Episodes:
- 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte
- 123: “Pricing is Branding” — Anti-Time Management with Richie Norton
- Pivot 051: Die Empty with Todd Henry
- Pivot 088: Artist Seth Price on Finding Freedom in Bad Ideas, Balancing Commerce and Creation in Business
- Pivot 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »
🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
❤️Consider joining Jenny’s private BFF community, where you’ll get access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend! https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/127
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The AI-powered Podcast Player
