Les Watson’s passion for and expertise in self-management and productivity comes from over 30 years of experience as a trainer, speaker, facilitator, and coach in self-management, motivation, and communication. He is the author of Get Back An Hour In Every Day and facilitates the acclaimed Creating Success Program. Les talks with me about identifying your tendency and how it can cause trouble as you manage your time; how parents can take care of themselves first even in a busy household to make ...
Jan 01, 2025•58 min•Ep. 270
If you feel like you've lost the joy in the holiday season, you may be overlooking the very simple secret to finding it. I explain how to reclaim it in this short episode (spoiler: it applies to more than just the holidays!). Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! The first round of my Make Bad Art course is underway and we are having a fabulous time, with moments of creative insig...
Dec 11, 2024•8 min•Ep. 267
My guests today are Lisa McMullin and Alfie Shaw, both of whom write for Big Finish Productions, creators of audio dramas ranging from established series like Doctor Who , Sherlock Holmes , and Dark Shadows to original dramas featuring the Air Transport Auxiliary from World War II and Marcus Tullius Cicero in Ancient Rome. Lisa started her career as a drama teacher before moving into dramatic writing—she’s written for TV series like Death in Paradise and the Sister Boniface Mysteries as well—and...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 266
When the world is falling apart around you, it's not just okay to take care of yourself—it's necessary. I'll tell you why in this short episode. Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! The first round of my Make Bad Art course is underway and we are having a fabulous time, with moments of creative insight all over the place! If you'd like to know when I'm offering it again—which I w...
Nov 13, 2024•6 min•Ep. 263
Freelance writer Amy Weinland Daughters mostly wrote about college football until she decided to try her hand at, in her words, “a hilarious time travel novel.” That novel, You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story That Never Happened , turned out to be a catharsis, giving her a whole new look at her childhood and her family. It’s gone on to win the Silver Winner for Humor in the 2019 Foreword INDIES and the Overall Winner for Humor/Comedy in the 2020 Next Generation Indie Award. Amy and I talk abou...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 261
Story lover Lucinda Sage-Midgorden and I met here on Follow Your Curiosity last year. We got together this past week for a short conversation for her Patreon about why you should think about making bad art and embracing anti-perfectionism. What does that mean (and not mean), and how might it change your life? For that matter, how are we defining perfectionism—it’s often not what we expect it to be (as I learned myself when I was training as a Kaizen-Muse coach, to my great shock and, yes, horror...
Nov 03, 2024•23 min•Ep. 262
What happens when you make bad art? Sometimes you get really good art by accident! Here's a real-life story of a time when that happened to Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, and why you should consider Making Bad Art yourself. Source for this story. Want to come Make Bad Art of your own, and lose perfectionism and harsh self-judgment in the process? Join us starting November 4, 2024! You don't have to be an artist, and you can't fail at bad art (unless you don't do it at all). I promise!...
Oct 30, 2024•7 min•Ep. 260
Four years ago, artist and art therapist Darcy Wade joined me to talk about her own journey with art and creativity, including how her discovery of expressive arts brought her back from a period of disconnection with her creative side and helped her recovery from addiction. Darcy has since moved from North Carolina to Colorado, where she’s now undertaking fundraising efforts to help folks back home in the wake of the destruction from Hurricane Helene. She talks to me about the history and artist...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 259
I recently had a chance to get a very different perspective on something I dearly love doing—by not doing it. I thought it would be torture. I was wrong. I tell you what I discovered in this short episode. Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! My Make Bad Art course starts on November 4! Are you tired of contorting yourself to meet others’ expectations? Do you want to remember your own wild, imperfect self? And reclaim your curious, adventurous, creativ...
Oct 16, 2024•9 min•Ep. 258
My guest this week is Dr. David Weill, the former director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford University Medical Center. He’s currently the principal of the Weill Consulting Group, which focuses on improving the delivery of pulmonary, ICU, and transplant care. He’s also the author of the new novel, All That Really Matters , which follows his memoir, Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant . David talks with me about how he made ...
Oct 09, 2024•55 min•Ep. 257
In Western culture, we don't often think of creativity as something controlled, but the truth is, there's a place for chaos and control in our creative process. In this slightly-longer-than-usual pep talk, I give a couple examples of the push-pull of chaos and control, and how they can both be helpful—and detrimental—to our creative work, and why it's worth experimenting with a little more of one if you're used to working primarily with the other. Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all...
Oct 02, 2024•14 min•Ep. 256
Paul Pape is an artist, designer, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the creative industry. He’s created thousands of personalized products for clients worldwide as well as companies such as Disney, Universal, and Nickelodeon. In recent years, he’s shifted to empowering creatives, companies and corporations, sharing his expertise and insights to help them embrace innovation, reverse the creativity crisis and make life and work FUN again. Paul talks with me about failure as some...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 255
In August, I talked about reading War and Peace over the course of this year at a pace of roughly one chapter a day—the value of small steps in practice. Since then, I’ve noticed a little more about what happens to your project—and to you—when you take those consistent small steps, and I’m here to tell you about it in this short episode. Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!...
Sep 18, 2024•7 min•Ep. 254
When you hear the words “children’s chorus,” you probably think of a pretty straightforward group of kids making music. If you’re in Wilmington, Delaware, you have good reason to think of a whole lot more. Wilmington Children’s Chorus Executive Director Lianna Magerr and Artistic Director Kimberly Doucette join me to talk about how they’ve gone beyond the rehearsal room to create an organization that reaches more than 500 kids in the Wilmington area, many from low-income neighborhoods, with the ...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 253
Simple, but not always easy: the key to progress or success is just to keep going. I'll tell you why in this short episode. Simon Haisell's year-long War and Peace read can be found here . Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!...
Aug 21, 2024•5 min•Ep. 250
Actor, activist, musician, and artist Michael Broussard joined me back in 2021 to talk about his one-man show, Ask a Sex Abuse Survivor , and what he’s learned about destigmatizing trauma abuse through art. A few months ago, he mentioned to me that he’s been focusing on pulling the rug out from under himself artistically. He’s back today to talk about just what that means and how it’s actually been influencing his work all along, and his upcoming game show project. We talk about game shows over ...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 249
Sometimes your creativity can be like a clogged pipe. I'll give you one way to keep it flowing in this short episode. Sign up for one of this month's Unconventional Inspiration Circles here , and invite a friend! Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!...
Aug 07, 2024•5 min•Ep. 248
Journalist Warren Berger, who has written for publications such as the New York Times, Wired magazine, and Fast Company, has a question for you. In fact, he has a lot. He’s literally written the book on questions (three of them, to be exact), and recently updated his book, A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION, for its tenth anniversary. Warren joins me to talk about why questions are important—even more important than answers. We get into why kids stop asking questions, just what a “beautiful” question is,...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 247
Sometimes life, and the world around us, gets to be too much. I hereby give you permission to take a break when that happens. Sign up for one of this month's Unconventional Inspiration Circles here , and invite a friend! Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!...
Jul 24, 2024•4 min•Ep. 246
Judith Turner-Yamamoto, an award-winning author hailing from a mill town in rural North Carolina, began her writing journey as an art historian, learning to appraise and describe what moved her. Her debut novel LOVING THE DEAD AND GONE, a Mariel Hemingway Book Club pick, is the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medalist in Southern Regional Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize and awarded an honorable mention in General Fiction. Her writing assig...
Jul 17, 2024•58 min•Ep. 245
A lot of creative work happens in solitude, but it doesn't have to be that way. Community can be one of your greatest creative tools--I explain why in this short episode, and issue an invitation as well! Sign up for one of this month's Creative Community sessions here , and invite a friend! Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!...
Jul 10, 2024•9 min•Ep. 244
My guest this week is Steve Cole, a bestselling children’s author of more than 200 books. Those books cover many styles and children’s genres, with titles including the Astrosaurs and Young Bond ranges, Go to Sleep or I Let Loose the Leopard , and most recently, Drowning in my Bedroom . Steve is also the creative consultant for BBC Books' Doctor Who list, as well as project editing and writing titles. Steve and I talk about how TV influenced him as a child, beginning his career in editing, how h...
Jul 03, 2024•55 min•Ep. 243
Too often, in our creative lives (and everywhere else), we think we have to go it alone. It's okay, though, to ask for help, and I tell you why in this short episode. Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Read this week's post: Get in Trouble If you'd like to: Engage with your creative dreams with ease and joy Feel both more confident in yourself and your work, and more vibrant th...
Jun 26, 2024•5 min•Ep. 242
My guest this week is Simon Guerrier, a writer and producer who has written numerous books related to Doctor Who , produced five documentaries for BBC radio, and more than 70 audio plays for Big Finish Productions, as well as comics and short stories. He also chairs the Books Committee for the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Simon talks with me about how he got his start in writing and producing—including just what a producer does—the value of negotiating arrangements that work in everyone’s be...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 241
This is one of the simplest tips, but one of the hardest to do, with ourselves most of all. Here's why we should give it a try anyway. Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Read this week's post: Get in Trouble If you'd like to: Engage with your creative dreams with ease and joy Feel both more confident in yourself and your work, and more vibrant than you have in years Take time e...
Jun 12, 2024•10 min•Ep. 240
My guest this week is Dominic Glynn, a prolific composer for film and television. Dominic got his start working on Doctor Who , and has provided music for titles as diverse as Red Dwarf and The Simpsons . Dominic tells me how his career began in the mid-80s as a self-taught musician, how incidental music works, what it’s like to write for an orchestra, and more. Read this week's article, on why you should make bad art, here . Want to Reignite Your Creative Spark? Contact me here . Episode breakd...
Jun 05, 2024•58 min•Ep. 238
Every last one of us got through school, and probably work, by knowing the answers most—if not all—of the time. Is that actually necessary? NOPE. And it can even hinder your creative process. I'll tell you why in this short episode. Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Read this week's post: What tech has taken from us, and how to get it back. If you'd like to: Engage with your c...
May 29, 2024•7 min•Ep. 237
Ellen Kaplan is an actress, writer, and director, and professor emerita of acting and directing at Smith College. She performs and directs internationally, in places like Pakistan, China, Israel, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Puerto Rico, and she recently edited the new book Theater Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons. Ellen joins me to talk about her work in and out of the classroom, dealing with “the shoulds,” how easy it is to get in our own way, why we are each a culture unto ourselve...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 236
We're all told that we have to finish the things we start. But is that true? NOPE. I'll tell you why in this short episode. Could you leave a review? It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks! Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks! Read this week's post: What tech has taken from us, and how to get it back . If you'd like to: Engage with your creative dreams with ease and joy Feel both more confident in yourself and your work, and more vibrant than y...
May 15, 2024•7 min•Ep. 235
It's so easy to keep doing the same thing, or even to actively avoid taking the unknown path. The courageous option is usually the one with the bigger payoff, though. I look at the difference in this short episode. Join me for a free "Permission to Play" workshop on May 5, 2024 (repeated on May 11, 2024) at 1pm eastern! It’s easy for adults to forget that it’s okay to play, and that lack of play can keep us stuck! Join us for approximately 90 minutes so you can reconnect with your playful inner ...
May 01, 2024•6 min•Ep. 232
