1:30 Shanna talks about the risks associated with “winning” at your New Year’s Resolutions.

3:00 What is a New Year’s Resolution anyway?

8:00 How habits tie into resolutions. How good are you at habits?

8:30 How big changes cause so many follow-on shifts that you can’t predict what will happen.

10:00 Marina uses parenthood as an example of making a big change where you can’t anticipate what happens -- and how it sometimes turns out better than you anticipated.

14:30 Why Shanna thinks a year is too far to commit

19:30 Marina and Shanna share their New Year intention-setting rituals

28:00 The art of building the ritual of review and breaking down how to track progress

30:30 How caring about your “resolutions” matters more than what they are.

Today, for the Grand Finale of our first season, we have a guest we’re both super-excited about - Charlie Gilkey!

Charlie is the founder of Productive Flourishing, that’s been enabling Creative Giants realize their impact on the world for over a decade. He’s a speaker, author, Business Strategist and Podcaster. His work has a way of validating your actions, calming your deepest fears, and moving you to push and reach further that you thought possible.

Show Notes:

1:23  The power of analytics and building a narrative

 6:40  Is there a magic number, a critical mass, where analytics start to be a strategy tool? The balance between one on one conversations and quantitative data. And the Prince Qualifier

 10:45  What are you missing using only qualitative data? What about using quantitative data only? In other words, why do you need both?

 14:11   A liberating insight about the combined power of passion and attrition on the internet.

 19:10  Why "a thousand true fans"?

 19:30   Let’s say you DO get to be yourself and do that thing you love. It comes packed with a new kind of fear.  What kind of courage do you need THEN?

 22:10  “You have to be Functionally Delusional to be a creative entrepreneur”  -  we talk about stoicism, facing rejection (especially if you’re female!) and placing your self-worth at the mercy of your last project outcome.

 30:00  The BS myth around success, the deceptive link between price tag and value, and  why these are a dangerous way to educate creative folks

 The new Momentum Planners. (They’re awesome! We use and love them)

37:03 Where do we struggle most in big projects?

Here’s the link to the Momentum Sprint program

Charlie's links:

Productive Flourishing

Productive Flourishing Podcast

Creative Giants Campfire on Facebook

Charlie on Twitter

Discussing Failure and What Constitutes “Successful Failure”

1:45 - Shanna’s “superhuman” reaction to failure.
3:05 - The correct ‘philosophy of failure’.
5:44 - How to avoid the feeling of failure when comparing yourself to others.
8:50 - Marina’s Hebrew catchphrase that encapsulates the philosophy
9:30 - Shanna’s thoughts on how to avoid the paralysis that can be caused by the fear of failure (or the fear of success)
13:00 Hedging as a technique for avoiding failure
18:15 Marina’s example of a ‘failed’ launch and what she learned, as well as the perspective she’s gained
21:02 Why the emotional reaction to failure can’t be allowed to derail the learning process.
21:43 How mental models play into the philosophy of failure.
24:00 How “It wasn’t Your Fault” implies that there *is* fault to be leveled-- and that’s damaging to the process of learning from failures
26:00 “Every attempt is worth it, because it brings you some kind of result.” It’s just difficult to express.
27:30 The place for emotions in the learning process
32:30 How to view failure in business or creative processes-- it’s a lot like rebuilding a motor, which is to say, both mechanical and magical.
35:30 A few techniques for tracking down failure processes -- until Marina reins in Shanna’s rambling ;)
39:30 Wrap-up: 3 types of failure

This week we interview Dr. Kirsten Milliken of PLAYDHD fame. She's a phychologist, and ADHD Coach, and Author and a champion for PLAY.

3:51  Working better and playing better - alone or with another person?

6:26 Play beyond ball and sandbox - the playful mindset and why it’s so powerful

9:21 Does “play” always equal “fun”? What’s the difference, and how to use this to your advantage?

14:15 Geeking out on efficiency and what’s the federal government thinks about it (ahem…)

16:13 Pushback to the idea of Play - really?!

21:03 How the entire generation benefitting from “ADHD-oriented” systems and coping techniques

26:55 Would Play help you sustain MOTIVATION? Yes! For example…

34:10 There’s this lie we tell ourselves about being productive in a specific way. It never works. What does?

Kirsten's links:

Your ADHD Life 

PLAYDHD - the book (get it on Amazon)

Create your Playlist!

Kirsten on Facebook (you may even catch her shiny new podcast episodes, if you follow her!)

Ever thought of DECADENCE as a Planning tactic?  

0:25 Why Decadence in the first place? 3:01 The Framework for using Decadence as means of Getting Things Done Marina’s blog post about Decadence as a tactic (and a #MomWin) 6:10 what happens when you give yourself permission to think decadently 7:50 the edge Decadence provides over linear planning - and when to use it 10:32 Would a visualization of Decadent Outcome prevent you from execution, by triggering the reward center in your brain, sapping the motivation to do the thing? 13:00 Shanna’s relaxed and effective method of using visualization to get unstuck 15:25 A lightweight version of Decadence - is there such a thing, and when it’s appropriate 19:30 A oak sap as a centerpiece for Shanna’s metaphor of building a business 23:54 How you cope when visualization brings up catastrophic scenarios? 28:40 What happens when you realize you’re living your worst-case scenario already? 32:09 Shanna’s outlook on Murphy’s law, coyotes, ravens, and other brave sailors, tinkers, and possibly spies 34:58 Using Decadence sparingly - why?

Wolves are Pack Animals -- We Need To Connect First

With us this week is Helen Tremethick, founder of The Communications Distillery, word weaver and client communicator extraordinaire.

2:00 The insight that made Helen better at business 7:00 The importance of having people who know what we’re going through 8:45 How Helen’s love notes create diehard fans and allies 11:00 How ‘hearing between the words’ is how people can connect with their clients 15:00 The emotional roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship 17:30 Helen’s top secrets to productivity: a blueline notebook and regular office hours 19:00 Pushing back against the hustle mentality and towards supportive systems so that you don’t need to hustle 19:40 How cancelling her data plan helps her maintain boundaries between work and play 23:30 Removing notifications or at least only whitelisting the most important contacts 25:00 Helen’s biggest business advice pet peeve 27:00 How trying to ‘lone wolf it’ feeds the inner critic 28:30 How to create graceful connections in a saturated landscape 32:30 Learning the ingredients of a conversation (or be the victim of formulaic marketing) 37:35 How much research is required to really ‘know’ your customer avatar? 40:40 How frequently to revisit your copy

Links:

The Communications Distillery

Helen’s Captivate framework

How we sew our systems and tools together

01:10 - How Marina plans and her favorite tools 06:30 - Marina’s physical workspace 09:45 - “Once you know the trick, it’s not a trick anymore” - As true of Gantt charts as it is of shoes 10:45 - Shanna’s physical workspace -- Austin Kleon’s two-workstation method 14:45 - How Shanna realized that working by hand made her more productive 15:15 - Marina and Shanna discuss the pros and cons of Gdocs and why it works for one of them and not the other. 19:00 - The difference between our methods of writing 21:10 - More nuanced discussion of planning, and how to be strategic about it 23:00 - Comparing and contrasting our methods of planning with our clients -- How we connect the big picture to the small picture for ourselves and our clients. 28:15 - Why Shanna uses two workstations, and why it’s useful as well as necessary 29:45 - How to ‘do honor’ to the different types of work you need to do, and start

With us this week is Michelle Nickolaisen of Bombchelle.com, freelancer, creative and woman-about-the-internet.

0:30 Michelle’s favorite nerdy thing: D&D live play podcasts. The Adventure Zone, Friends at the Table, Godsfall for the diversity and the writing/creative skill involved. 5:00 The comparisons between indie creatives and freelancers or microbusinesses 7:15 How Buffer is a great example of an indie business that stole a market from its juggernaut competitor and went on to not only dominate but change the business landscape. 9:15 By 2025, freelancers are going to be 50% of the workforce 9:45 Marina tells the story of a short-lived mentor who could not grasp the personality of (Michelle’s) digital business. 14:00 Michelle discusses how a counter-culture personality makes her own place in business 20:00 The major turning point for Michelle, when she realized that she could get paid only to write, not as a part of a bundle of services. 23:00 The ‘secret’ that everybody KNOWS but nobody DOES (except Michelle) 27:00 How “just be yourself” turns into “how to be a quirky caricature of yourself” and not the authenticity we’re looking for. 30:00 Michelle’s template and tools for filling your client funnel 34:00 A handful of handy rules of business thumb 38:30 Michelle’s system for gathering the data to manage her business direction (Streak, Evernote, Google Analytics, Mixmax) 42:30 Why when you get into a given app, you should have a specific use case in mind for it. Ex: Evernote and its competitors Bear, Write!

Michelle’s Links:

Bomchelle.com (freelancer advice and tools) Chelleshock.me (portfolio site) ChelleshockStudios.com (creative projects) Her non-fiction book on systems for small business Rock The System Her fiction novel Freelancer Planner and the Dry-Erase Calendar to go with

Two polar Opposite approaches to time management (0:36)

Losing momentum from task to task - how to transition better (5:06)

Building Personal Transition rituals (11:07)

“Clear to Neutral” ritual - what’s the most important part? (13:24)

Building a time-structure: where to start? (hint: with your personal Focus Patterns) (17:06)

Allow and plan - both time and energy -  for processing NOVELTY (20:52)

Shanna’s secret sauce for time and energy management (24:00)

How does your executive function plays into energy management (26:53)

Our (very different!) approaches to using stories as biz operation tactic (30:38)

With us in this episode is Joel Zaslofsky, author of Experience Curating, Head of Operations at the largest online enclave of multipotentialites The Puttytribe, and Shanna’s long-time mastermind partner.

In this show you’ll hear:

1:30 The nerdiest thing that Joel is obsessed with 4:30 Why Joel hand-transcribes his favorite parts of podcast episodes 13:00 Comparing our personal systems with the Quantified Self movement 17:00 A spirited discussion on categorizing as a means of control (does it control anxiety or create it?) 24:15 Joel’s biggest “better at business” lesson 27:15 Shanna + Joel’s example of finding collaborators and partners in crime 30:00 What ‘doing it yourself’ PROBABLY looks like behind the scenes 34:00 How introverts can find people to get with

If you’d like to see more of Joel, check out:

JoelZaslofsky.com His book, Experience Curating

Join the Puttytribe!

Show Notes

Automation - The magic of IFTTT (If This Then That) (1:05)

Build an Automation or outsource to a VA? It depends  (3:14)

The Love Affair with Data is making you a CONNECTOR (5:14)

How having Dory’s short-term memory, made Liv’s first business successful (8:43)

What to look for in a CRM, even if you’re just starting out (16:35)

Tracking important conversations in social situations: 2 strategies (19:41)

The importance of Break-off Points in your pitch (24:17)

Hiring: the “Snowball method” of learning to Let Go (26:47)

You can find Liv at TechnologyMadeEfforless.com, and check out her Signature, Scalable program here.

Every problem is figure-outable (00:44) 


The exact steps for figuring out and fixing problems (04:00) 


Why you need to be empowered to customize your solutions for you (10:32) 

Why you need to recognize when you've collapsed multiple processes under one task (13:15) 

Why you are good at figuring things out (18:24) 

What habits of thought allow processes to flow (21:45) 

(23:26) Learn what kind of habits go along with the given outcome

How Shanna became a person who has habits (25:45) 


How to overcome the problem of “now or not-now.” (29:56) 


Shanna’s favorite question for project planning (29:10) 

Why improving processes can get addictive even if your right brained (33:00) 

The problem-solving training of rock-climbing (34:58)

Episode 1: Structure of Business – What Does and Doesn’t Need Structure

The key aspect of business that REQUIRE structure (0:58)

The three biggest things you want to perfect when starting out (3:48)

Why an immediate success can be dangerous (7:05)

What to do when client communications threaten to turn you into an emotional wreck (11:58)

Email templates that helped Marina save HOURS of agony  - in case they’ll offer it again (17:18)

CRM and Communication-proofing system that Shanna’s perfected (18:56)

When to get out of the comfort zone and stop tweaking stuff that already works (25:40)

What MONEY-related systems are non-negotiable (29:41)