Love Your Work

Jon Bokenkamp (@jonbokenkamp) wanted to be a screenwriter. So, he decided it was his job. He sat at his desk from nine to five every day, writing frantically, and each night he went to another job. One that paid him. He waited tables. After three years, he sold his first screenplay. Then he sold some others here and there. Then the phone stopped ringing. After one failed script, he was contractually obligated to write one more. That script became The Blacklist (Netflix). It's a thriller on NBC starring James Spader. They're starting their fifth season this week. Spader plays Reddington, a veteran, private-jet-setting criminal who acts as an informant to the FBI, and who has a puzzling interest in agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone. In this conversation, we're going to learn: What was the mindset that Jon put himself in to make it through the three-year project of writing his first screenplay? How does Jon ward off his distractibility, and channel it into his writing method? I think it's a great lesson in how in creative work, the final product is totally different from the process used to get there. How has Jon's writing process changed now that he has a whole team, and basically has to write a movie a week? Jon is a Nebraska-native like me. Hopefully you won't mind listening to us reminisce a little about that strange place in the beginning. If not, skip ahead, and you'll hear some really great stuff on doing tough and long creative projects. Image: Flickr user Thibault     Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jon-bokenkamp-the-blacklist-interview/ 

I'm working on a new book. It's called Getting Art Done, and it's going to help you boost your creative productivity and make your masterpiece. Today I'm going to read a sample chapter from the first draft of Getting Art Done. It's about the voice inside your head, and how it can lead to your most explosive ideas. To learn more and preview Getting Art Done, visit gettingartdone.com. Join Love Your Work Elite Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/the-voice-podcast/

James Pearse Connelly (@jpconnelly, Instagram: @jpconnelly) is an Emmy-Award-winning television set designer. He's designed sets for shows like Bill Nye Saves the World, Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, The Voice, and Top Chef. I wanted to have James on the show to learn how he does creativity on a large scale, with literally moving parts, and an unforgiving production schedule. I figured that to do what James does, which is express the feel of a show through architecture and materials and fabrics and furniture, and to deliver on-time, James must really know his creative process. And you can tell from this conversation, he really does. Even if you aren't a designer, chances are you work on creative projects all of the time that have lots of unknowns in the beginning. The work James does just puts a magnifying glass on what it takes to make creative work come with less pain, no matter what medium you're working in. In this show, you'll learn: How do you create a design that supports an idea and serves the client, rather than one that just follows trends. How does James manage his creative vision across a whole staff? We'll really get inside James's head for some of his best set designs. How does he integrate a subtle design language into his concepts? This was a really fun part of the conversation because you'll see how designers "talk" using subtle cues in their work. In this case, I think you'll be surprised all you can glean from a spiral staircase. Join Love Your Work Elite I'll be holding an office hours hangout for LYW Elite members, NEXT TUESDAY, September 19th, 8pm. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/james-pearse-connelly/  

I've been working on a new book called Getting Art Done. Today, I'm going to share with you a chapter from the first draft of the book. This chapter about the importance of shipping your work. It's easy to fantasize about what a great creator you will be one day, while never really finishing your work in the present day. If you make it a point to ship work, won't the quality suffer? I share what I've learned by examining the paths of great creators, and what I learned by making a point of shipping myself. Join Love Your Work Elite I'll be holding an office hours hangout for LYW Elite members, September 19th, 8pm. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/success-ship-podcast/

L. David Marquet (@ldavidmarquet) had spent a year preparing to captain a submarine in the U.S. Navy. But at the last minute, he was assigned to a different submarine. Not only was it a different ship than the one he had prepared for, it was also the worst ship in its fleet. It was so bad, only three men had reenlisted. Since David didn't know the ship, and since the situation was so bad, he had to try something different. Instead of using the leader/follower model, he started using a new leader/leader model. Instead of David giving orders, and instead of his men asking permission, he started empowering each sailor to think for himself. You may have heard Jason Fried on episode 1 recommend David's book Turn the Ship Around. In it, David Marquet tells the story of how his leader/leader model turned the USS Santa Fe from worst to first. The year after David took command of the ship, 36 men reenlisted, instead of just 3. In the decade following, 10 of those men would go on to become submarine captains themselves. David was in Medellín, and I sat down with him to talk about this and more: How does the leader/leader model save mental energy for everyone involved? How can you encourage your micromanaging boss to use leader/leader? How did David go from being a submarine captain, to writing a book that USA Today calls one of the top 12 business books of all time. How did he learn to tell stories, and how did he actually get the writing done? Join Love Your Work Elite Each Love Your Work Elite member get their own personal RSS feed of bonus material, masterclasses, and early access to episodes. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Sponsors http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/l-david-marquet-interview/  

Love Your Work listener Gustav Dybeck is a design student from Sweden. He has an opportunity to do an internship for about 9 months, and he wants to make the most of it before he starts his career. You may have heard a clip a couple of episodes back on Gustav's favorite moment on Love Your Work. He was in Medellin awhile back, and since I originally pursued a career in design, Gustav was interested in hearing what I thought he should do for his internship. So, we talked about it in a cafe. A quick warning, there's a lot of background noise in this. It's was an off-the-cuff idea to record our conversation, so this episode is a bit of an experiment. We'll talk about: Experiences abroad: do they really make you more innovative? Working for prestigious firms: is it really worth it? If you don't pursue a prestigious firm, what should you pursue? What one experience did I personally have early in my career that completely changed my perspective about what I wanted to accomplish in design? Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a video (and audio) Masterclass with Poornima Vijayashanker. Poornima was engineer #1 at Mint, and shows you how make money off your idea from day one. Sign up at lywelite.com. Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Sponsors http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-internship-advice/

Daniel J. Wilson was working on a screenplay when I met him during a mini life in Buenos Aires several years ago. I'd soon learn that he was also an accomplished artist, with his work covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The London Times, and displayed all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Daniel has also worked in film, his IMDB page includes editing credits for a number of documentaries and TV series, co-producer credits for PBS's Frontline series, credits as an actor. He's also a competitive cycler, a former NYC Yellow Cab driver, and he's currently a PhD candidate in neuroscience. If that weren't enough, Daniel's got a new app. It's called Minutiae. It's a bit of an "anti-social" network. When Instagram encourages you to scroll through lots of photos and make your life look amazing, this app is dedicated to capturing the mundane, everyday details of life. I hear lots of people lament their varied interests. They're usually afraid to follow their curiosity because they're afraid of what they'll leave behind. I've experienced this a lot myself. As I've made the switch to designing in advertising and architecture, to designing for startups, to founding my own startup, to writing books, and starting this podcast – you always have to wonder if you're killing your career when you switch paths. Here's just a few things you're going to learn in this conversation: Daniel's app Minutiae is delightfully impractical. It won't get acquired and it won't go public. How do you get the funding to build an app that's not a business? Why did Daniel go through all of the work to get his NYC Yellow Cab license? He actually ended up working as a cab driver! Daniel's always switching from one field to another, and planning adventures in his life. Hear how he thinks about learning how to know the unknown. Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com.     Sponsors http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/daniel-j-wilson-interview/

It's easier than ever for creators to get their work noticed. But, it's harder than ever to actually get that work done. Think about it this way: You're writing a novel. You use Twitter and Facebook and write on your blog, and your work gets noticed. But, you have to put all of those distractions aside, and get to writing. If you don't, your novel will never become real. In this week's episode, I'll show you how to pick the right creative tool for the right creative thinking. Do your best work, without letting distractions knock you off-track. This article originally appeared on Medium Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com.     Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/choose-your-weapon-podcast/  

Almost 15 years ago, Getting Things Done started taking the internet by storm. Techies started buying binder clips and index cards in bulk. Today, "next actions" and "contexts" are commonplace in teams around the world. Just about everyone knows GTD stands for Getting Things Done. When I was trying to deal with wearing multiple hats as a designer in an architecture firm, I absorbed some GTD through osmosis to get on top of my daily tasks. A few years later, when I finally listened to the audiobook for GTD, I could feel my brain being rearchitected. I captured everything that was on my mind, and developed a habit of doing a "weekly review." Suddenly, my creative energy was unleashed. And so was my energy for thinking about the bigger picture, like what I wanted out of my life and my career. Millions of people have been impacted by GTD in this way. It's all thanks to our guest today. After more than 20 years as a productivity consultant, David Allen (@gtdguy) finally put his knowledge into book form with Getting Things Done, which came out in 2001. Since then, he's taken GTD global, with certified GTD consultants all over the world. One of his top people even lives not too far from me down in Colombia. Here's what we'll talk about in this conversation. GTD helps clear the space in your head for creative work, but what about actually getting creative work done? We'll learn how David used GTD to actually write Getting Things Done. GTD also helps clear your mind for making big life decisions. How did David use GTD to decide to move from the US to Amsterdam a few years ago. GTD suggests a lot of paper for keeping track of things. What does David think about digital management of GTD? Image credit: Vera de Kok Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at lywelite.com.     Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork http://casper.com/loveit http://pistollake.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/david-allen-podcast-interview/  

You've heard that multitasking is a myth. I'm here to tell you that the idea that multitasking is a myth, is somewhat of a myth in itself. When it comes to creative work, you can actually work on two projects at once. The trick is, you don't even know you're working on that second project. This article originally appeared on Medium. Join Love Your Work Elite Some levels of Love Your Work Elite now include a Masterclass video recording with Noah Kagan. I interview Noah about the formula he used to add tens of thousands of leads to his email list. Sign up at kadavy.net/elite     Sponsors http://pb.com/loveyourwork Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/multitask-creative-work-podcast/