Love Your Work

Peter Bragiel wanted his own travel show. So, he got a camera and started traveling. At first, not much happened. Peter Bragiel just kept stowing the tapes away in a box. But, eventually, his adventures got bigger, and his videos got better. He's travelled the entire trans-Siberian railway, he's canoed the entire Mississippi river, and he even rode a tiny scooter, with a maximum speed of 29 miles-per-hour, across the United States. Peter's adventures are released on his YouTube channel, under the brand In-Transit TV. And Peter makes a living off of these travel videos. He's worked with brands such as Range Rover and American Express. He also learned Spanish using Rosetta Stone, as preparation for a sponsored trip to Cuba. (He ended up crashing a vintage car during the shoot. You'll hear about that, and what they did about it.) This week's episode is a great story about making dreams happen. How did Peter finally get the courage to publish his videos? How does he plan bigger and bigger trips? Why did Peter – who worked as a runway model in Milan, and an actor in Los Angeles – reject the gatekeepers and choose himself? I can't help but feel, after listening to this conversation, that Peter and I are a lot alike. It seems like he has always felt compelled to travel and make videos, even if it didn't immediately make sense. I know I'm always spending hours on things that don't immediately make sense. I especially liked hearing about how things he wrote in his journal years ago, eventually came to light. I think this is important to be aware of. Your subconscious is always trying to tell you something about your destiny, so it pays to listen. Sponsors http://kadavy.net/freshbooks http://kadavy.net/treehouse Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/peter-bragiel-interview/  

Rejection hurts. Sometimes it hurts a little more than other times, but it still does hurt. But, rejection is a part of life. If you never get rejected, you’re not really trying. In 2016, I quadrupled my creative output. But, I got rejected harder and more frequently than any year before. I’m hoping for bigger and better rejections in 2017. I reviewed my 2016 rejections, and it didn’t feel good. I had to relive them all at once. But, it was a valuable exercise, and — if nothing else—you can take some sadistic pleasure in reading about them.   Sponsors http://kadavy.net/freshbookshttp://kadavy.net/treehouse Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/top-rejections-podcast/    

Hugh MacLeod (@hughcards) is a hero of mine, who helped me find my own path. It was 2004, I was sitting in a gray cubicle in Nebraska. And I discovered a PDF on the Internet called "How to be creative." I read it, and it was one of the most moving and inspiring things I had ever read. You know how sometimes you read something and you're like "yes! That's exactly what I was thinking! Except I didn't have words for it." This little PDF was like that for me. It was subversive, and edgy, and bold, and spoke to the non-conformist part of me that wanted to live outside of the template. And it had these brilliant little cartoons in it. They were all the same format. And small. Very small. It turns out they were all drawn on the back of business cards. Hugh MacLeod, the man behind this PDF had been drawing these cartoons for 7 years by this point. I came across his blog, called Gaping Void, and found more bold thinking and brilliant cartoons there. It was one of the blogs that inspired me to start my blog in 2004. I even put it in my "blog roll." You see, there was no Twitter or Facebook, so that's how you would connect people and ideas. You'd just put a link to their blog on your blog. And that's how you would say "listen to this person. This person has things to say." Since then, Hugh's cartoons have been seen everywhere. He's built a consulting business around the cartoons, helping companies define and express their culture. Companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Volkswagon, Zappos, eBay, and Intel. Hugh even illustrated a book with Seth Godin. Well, I'm very excited to be connecting you with Hugh MacLeod's ideas today. Listen to this interview to discover how to overcome perfection paralysis in your work. How do you discover your creative DNA? How do you fill your work with the universal truths of human experience, to make it resonate with others. And ultimately, how, and why, do work that serves others.   Sponsors http://kadavy.net/freshbookshttp://kadavy.net/blogtutorial http://kadavy.net/treehouse Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/hugh-macleod-interview/    

I talked about minimalism with some of my guests. I talked about it with Craig Benzine on episode 39, and with James Altucher on episode 53. I'm not an extreme minimalist. I don't count the number of things that I own, trying to keep the number down. I consider myself to be a practical minimalist. I have just enough things to improve my focus, but I don't have so many things that it hurts my focus. I recently went minimalist when I sold most of my things and moved to Colombia. In this episode, I'll share just how being a practical minimalist helps me focus. This post originally appeared on Medium. You can find it and follow me at kadavy.net/medium   Sponsors http://kadavy.net/freshbooks http://kadavy.net/treehouse Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/practical-minimalism-focus-pod/    

Vinnie Lauria found his calling after backpacking around Asia. He had just sold a company. He had just gotten married. He feared that if he spent a year traveling, he'd run out of money, and he'd run out of momentum. He worried it would be career suicide. But his wife, Kristine, pushed him to seize the day. They sold everything, gave up their apartment in The Mission and hopped on a one way flight across the Pacific, planning to come back in a year. Throughout his travels, Vinnie kept doing what he does best. He was meeting entrepreneurs everywhere he went – Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, India, you name it – all over Asia. Along the way, he stumbled across a unique opportunity. He noticed there was a gap in funding for entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. All of the Venture Capital firms were risk averse, and didn't invest with a Silicon Valley mindset. Meanwhile, there was an explosion of early-stage startups hungry for funding. So, with no investment experience to speak of, Vinnie partnered up with some friends and started a Venture Capital firm. Golden Gate Ventures is an early-stage VC firm in Southeast Asia. They've invested $60 in over 30 companies in 7 countries, including TradeGecko and Redmart. He and Kristine now live in Singapore, with their two children. They never did move back to San Francisco. Vinnie is a really close friend of mine. A year after I moved to California, I was pretty lost. I didn't like living in San Jose, and I didn't like the direction my startup was going in. I couldn't bear to give up and move back to Nebraska. Meanwhile San Francisco was just up the road, if only I had the courage to make the move. Around that time, I met Vinnie, and spent a lot of time with him and his now wife, Kristine. They were both adventurous, and had a bold perspective on living life. I did move up to San Francisco, and fulfilled a life-long dream of living in a bustling city. Vinnie always offered inspiration when I needed it. You'll see he's not afraid to do things that many people consider risky. He values adventure, and he's a big advocate of putting yourself in a situation where you have no choice but to succeed. As Vinnie likes to say "when you jump, the net appears." Listen to this episode for inspiration on making big changes in your life. Vinnie will share his story of quitting a secure job at IBM and moving across the country with no plan. We'll talk about how he used to live and work with as many as 12 people in a 3-bedroom apartment. He'll share his unique methods for managing the roughly 1,000 new people he meets every year, and how best to connect them. Overall, you'll hear how a guy from Long Island ended up founding a VC firm in Singapore.   Sponsors http://kadavy.net/freshbooks http://kadavy.net/ac http://kadavy.net/treehouse Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/vinnie-lauria-interview/    

In this episode, the host reflects on his creative output in 2016 and discusses strategies for maximizing creativity. He shares how he quadrupled his creative output by disconnecting from technology and following a weekly routine. The speaker also explores how they redesigned their world to enhance focus and creativity, including rearranging their phone icons and living in a foreign country. Learn how to overcome distractions and develop healthy creative habits to unlock your full potential.

Noah Kagan shares strategies on managing mental energy for peak productivity and creativity. He discusses maximizing creative output, optimizing time management, simplifying decisions, breaking digital distractions, and investing in well-being. The conversation includes tips on sleep, reading habits, and finding balance between work and recharge. Noah also explores the benefits of alone time, navigating creative pursuits, and taking action on projects.

Over the past year, pretty much every week, I've released a new episode of Love Your Work. This will be my last episode this year. I'll be taking a break for a few weeks. We've come so far since exactly one year ago, when the first batch of episodes debuted. The show has now been downloaded over 200,000 times! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have seen some of the growth charts. The downloads just keep growing week after week. I'm thrilled that the show is resonating with people, and I appreciate the subscribes and the reviews. I've had a great time over the past year, and I've learned so much from our guests. The show is really taking off, so why am I taking a break? I thought I'd share my thought process. I think it will make a good mini-episode in itself. Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/see-you-next-year/  

There's this sort of productivity meme going around that you should make your bed. But, isn't making your bed kind of a waste? And isn't making your bed especially wasteful if you're busy? Here on Love Your Work, I've spent the past year interviewing some of the most successful entrepreneurs and creators. People like James Altucher, Jason Fried, Ryan Holiday, Laura Roeder, billionaire Steve Case, and many more. I wanted to get to the bottom of this meme. Today, on a very special episode of Love Your Work, we ask: do you really need to make your bed to be successful? Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/make-your-bed/  

One of the best ways to impact others, while making money, is through building online courses. And, if you're considering writing a book, developing an online course is a great way to validate your idea, and see if your advice works. But, building online courses can be totally overwhelming. It seems there's so much you need to know about developing it, and marketing it. Then, there's all of the technical nuts and bolts for collecting payment, and delivering the course. Like many things, your vision of what your online course could be can get in the way of you even starting. I learned the hard way just how much energy you can waste with things that don't add value to your course. And, what I learned can be applied to product development at large.   Sponsors http://wpengine.com/pre http://kadavy.net/freshbooks http://kadavy.net/video Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/8-things-online-courses/