On The Portfolio Life this week, I’m chatting with Peak Performance Expert, Eric Partaker. Eric helps entrepreneurs become better leaders using behavioral science and techniques from the worlds of elite sports and the military, where peak performance is key. Eric is the author of the new book The 3 Alarms: A Simple System to Transform Your Health, Wealth, and Relationships Forever. Check out his website at www.ericpartaker.com. What we’re talking about: How dedicated effort, planning, and...

On The Portfolio Life this week, I’m talking to Elida Field, a professional artist whose work has been featured in the White House and on magazine covers. She’s currently working on her first book, Nobody Dies in Art Class. To learn more about her work, check out www.elidaart.com   What we’re talking about: How reaching out to other artists and influencers can help you grow. Why so many people have preconceived beliefs that they’re not “artists” when they really are, and how you can fight...

The act of finding the deeper part of you that never fades may be the most important task of your life. It is certainly the best place from which to create.

We're at the end of the 5-day Paid to Create challenge and so far, we’ve identified why we create, the importance of making money off our art, how to know what to sell, and to whom. Now, it’s time to sell.

Before you figure out what you want to sell, you need to first figure out what people are willing to pay for. Your job is to create something unique, something that at first meets a felt need of a person but then, in some way, goes beyond what they thought they wanted.

To start a business, you need more than passion. Getting paid to create really is about getting clear on what people want. Before we get into the super practical work of actually accepting money from other people, we need to get clear on what we have to offer.

There are, I think, roughly three kinds of creators in this world, each with their own path. Today, I want to share with you two things. First is the three kinds of creators, and the second is the path to building an organization around your work.

Why do we create? To share a thought: an idea, a story, a paradigm. To help another person, perhaps, simply by saying something others are unwilling to say. This week, I'm hosting a free, 5-day challenge to get you to take action. My goal for you is to go from zero to one. To get unstuck in a significant way that will allow you to create momentum in your work so that you can finally get paid to create. To find out more, check out goinswriter.com/paidtocreate.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what words can do. They can cut a person down or lift them up. They can overwhelm another with beauty or devastate their soul. I am always searching for the words that want to be said because when you find them, they can change everything.

This past week, I shared the news of my marriage ending. This has been the hardest decision of my life, something I was nervous to talk about publicly, but how people responded more than surprised me.

Distraction is no friend to a writer. But we all have had our dance with her before, haven't we? She is everywhere, all around us, from the devices we use to the websites we visit, to how we consume our news and media. If we are going to truly do work that matters, however, we can't just fight distraction. We have to understand it. In this episode, you'll hear: How most distraction starts from within and why all behavior stems from the relief of discomfort. Why time management is pain...

These days, I seem to be going through a personal renaissance, re-thinking who I am, what I do, and my contribution to the world. I keep running into other writers, artists, and creative professionals who seem to be struggling with the same thing: What does nurturing your creative life in a pandemic actually look like?

Before you can create anything, you must first create yourself. The process of changing your life—of pursuing a vocation, finding a true love, even making a career transition—always begins with an understanding of who you are. But it doesn’t stop there.

What if the point of becoming a professional artist or writer was not what you thought it was? What if success wasn’t the ultimate goal? What if each phase of your journey, even the frustrating ones, was a necessary stage to better understand what it is you’re here to do? In creative work, there is a spectrum from “starving” to “sellout,” and somewhere in the middle is where most of us find ourselves. How do we make sense of this? When you give yourself fully to your vocation, I think, what...

The world is in crisis, and many people are telling you to do something new. But what if you didn’t have to do that? What if, instead of pivoting into new and exciting opportunities, we who make things considered this a call to our true work? What if we doubled down on our strengths, taking these familiar skills deeper than we thought they could go, seeking new ways to do old things? What if we asked, “What role is being required of me right now?”—and then did that?

How do you respond to something like a pandemic? A crisis when the whole world goes upside down. What role is being required of you when you feel like the thing that you offer the world isn't even needed? In this week's episode of The Portfolio Life, I interview my longtime friend and mentor, Michael Port. Michael is a best-selling author, fantastic speaker, and co-founder, along with his wife, Amy, of an organization called Heroic Public Speaking, where they train communicators on how to...

Hello there from quarantine. You might be feeling some shame for being unproductive or lazy or depressed during this time of crisis and social distancing. Please allow me to make you feel better. I am doing this worse than you, promise. How are you coping in these times of uncertainty? What stable, stupid, and new things are you doing to stay sane? I’d love to hear about it.

Is it an act of bravery to merely survive a crisis? Maybe. But if you have the potential to be remarkable, why wouldn’t you be? Now is the time to give your greatest gift to the world.

“What did you do with this crisis?” This may be what our children ask us about this time. And as you'll see, a crisis is an opportunity to create something new. Links from this episode: If you are a creator and in financial need, check out this fund that ConvertKit just created. Also, if you have the means to contribute, please do that. I’ll be making a donation later this week as I know these are hard times for many of my friends. For a little levity, I am launching a cooking show on...

We don’t need more books in the world; we need better books. We don’t need another mystery novel or cancer survival story or career advice tome. We don’t need another seven steps or four laws or twelve rules for anything, really. Sorry. We just don’t. The world is full of bad books, and we don’t need any more of them. This is a job. It’s a calling, a sacred responsibility that ought to be taken seriously. If you can get out of it, you should. When Augustine became bishop of Hippo, he wept....

This week, my first ghostwriting project, The Successful Speaker, comes out. This was a collaboration with Grant Baldwin, the leading expert on what it takes to build a successful speaking business. It was a lot of fun, but what I didn’t expect was how much it would make me a better speaker. For more information on The Successful Speaker, visit www.speakerbookbonus.com.

I tend to think of life as a journey these days far more than a destination. If I could summarize what I believe about almost everything in life, it would be this: Clarity comes with action. This is harder than it sounds. Do I quit my job or not? Do we make that big move or stay here another year? Do I take the risk, letting go of my fears of what I want, or is that selfish? How do you know what the next step is? The wisest people I’ve met have all said the same thing: You don’t. You may...

"Why do we need art?" In a world that seems to more and more focused on "work works," is there still a place for beauty? Do artists matter anymore? I think they do.