There are three messages creativity can communicate, and these messages are what connect us as human beings. Which is to say, without the arts—without the ability to creatively express who we are and what we care about—we lose a bit of our humanity. 

We are all hyphens. That's what Chase Jarvis, founder of CreativeLive, amazing photographer, and best-selling author of Creative Calling, told me in our recent conversation: we are all hyphens, and I couldn't agree more.  In this episode, I have a chat with my friend, Chase Jarvis, a brilliant photographer, entrepreneur, author, thinker. Chase is a bit of a Renaissance Man. We have a fantastic conversation about creativity, the arts, and the business world and why we need you to do your...

Whether you’re bored, out of work, or simply wanting a more fulfilling career, I believe that by embracing a portfolio life, you will finally have the peace and contentment you seek in your work.

When it comes to achieving goals, many of us may be thinking about them the wrong way. You and I have been told that you can have everything you want in life if you work hard enough and persevere long enough. But is this really the way life works? Is that even what you want? How often in life do we set our stubborn sights on some goal — a relationship, a kind of work, or even something we want to possess — and as soon as we get it, we are disappointed?

All good stories involve dying. The often-literal death of a mentor requires the hero to grow and move on in his journey. But there is also the shedding of a character’s old identity in exchange for a new way of being. Not to mention, the loss of friends and foes throughout any adventure is a necessary part of the process. Death is a part of every great story, and so it must be for all great lives.

A few weeks ago, I did an episode of The Portfolio Life called "Don’t Build an Empire, Find a Few Friends Who Care." It was about how the secret of marketing and getting your ideas to spread is really just about having a few friends who care. You want to create remarkable work and put it into the right hands to get it to spread. So, in the email that I wrote for that podcast and blog essay, I asked people to email me a question, something that they were struggling with or need help with, and...

Often, we think the way to stand out from the pack is to be better. And sometimes that is the answer: to become an improved version of who you were yesterday, to do what the “other guy” is doing with a few added features. However, this is often a losing strategy, as you are making iterative improvements on someone else’s work. A better way to become world-class at what you do is to change the game completely. Don’t be better; be different. 

I've often wondered what would it be like to be a nomad and travel the world. I did this for a brief time in my early 20s and then stopped, and recently I've been falling back in love with travel. I’ve bumped into some really interesting people who have traveled the world. I've learned that travel is not so much about the places you go or the people you meet, but instead, it's about the person you become. In this episode of The Portfolio Life, I talk with Matt Kepnes, aka Nomadic Matt. Matt...

"Just be yourself" is probably the worst advice we could ever receive or give a person. Few of us actually know who we really are. And yet, if we can acquire this art of self-awareness, everything changes. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." But how do I do that? For full show notes, click here: https://goinswriter.com/unbearable-lightness/

Recently while speaking on stage, I heard myself say something I didn’t plan on sharing. I didn’t rehearse it. I didn’t have it in my notes. It just came out. The line was: “Sometimes, the good has to end before the better can begin.” Full shownotes available here: https://goinswriter.com/pruning

The best marketing you can do for your work is not to build an empire, but to find a few friends who care. We all want to reach the masses and see our work get into the mainstream. We want to have an “impact.” But the only way to reach the many is to first reach the few. This is all marketing is: Finding a handful of misfits who appreciate your work before anyone else does, then giving those people the tools to help spread the message. The way we get a Harry Potter, Apple Computer, or...

Whether you want to write books, make art, or share your music with the world, having an email list of fans is a must. Email is the most effective way to communicate with your people. Social networks come and go. Marketing trends fade. But email is forever. Today, I want to share with you how to pull all of this together. Full show notes here: https://goinswriter.com/elist

It’s one thing to understand the importance of email marketing and quite another to actually build an email list that allows you to reach a large audience. One of the best things I ever did as a blogger was to build my own email list. It gave me the power to no longer beg for attention, but be able to communicate regularly with an audience of people who wanted to hear what I had to say. Not only that, it changed my life and work forever. Full show notes here:...

Over the years, I’ve seen all kinds of marketing fads come and go. MySpace FriendFeed Xanga1 Google Plus Blogging Podcasting Some of these have come and gone and come back again. And some have stayed gone. But do you know what has always remained? Email. Email marketing is the best, most reliable way to grow and communicate with an audience online. Full show notes here: https://goinswriter.com/enewsletter/

You need an email list. It's just that simple. If you want to write a book that sells thousands of copies or more, you need people paying attention to your work. If you want your message to spread, you need people's permission to communicate with them. And if you want your words to change something, then you need an audience. The best way to do all that is by building an email list. Full show notes here: https://goinswriter.com/email/

Is it possible to live life on your own terms? Can you do what you want when it defies the expectations of others? Is the way you’re living right now a story that others would want to tell? And how do you do all this with bills to pay and responsibilities to manage? In this episode of The Portfolio Life, I talk with my friend Lex Latkovski (who also happens to be a member of my Tribe Writers Mastermind). Lex has been to 80 countries, all 50 U.S. states, lived as a Zen monk for 16 months,...

As you may know, I’ve been traveling quite a bit this year. It’s been fun to meet many of you at the various events I’ve spoken at or attended. One question I keep hearing is: “What’s your favorite writing tool?” It’s always good to ask what’s working for someone, but this question represents a popular misconception about creative work. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/jarvis

You didn’t fail. The goal was to learn something, so if you learned, you succeeded. It’s only when the unexpected happens and we don’t learn from it that we really fail. The reason why you may not have achieved what you set out to achieve was that you were measuring (and therefore expecting) the wrong thing. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/quick-win/

Why does anyone buy anything? Because the cost of not having it is greater than the cost of acquiring it. This is true for almost everything but especially for sales and marketing. If you want to thrive as a creative professional, you need to understand what it takes for someone to buy from you. Otherwise, you just might starve. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/close-sale/

When is it time to launch your latest product? The answer is before you think it’s ready. This is where you make your product public. Is it a book? A course? A new coaching program? Now is the time for you to let the world know. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/quick-launch/

Digital products have changed my life. Courses. Ebooks. Coaching programs. Masterminds. Membership sites. All of it. Making things and sharing them on the Internet has revolutionized the way I live, learn, and earn a living. And if you aren’t taking advantage of this revolution right now, you are missing out on a lot. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/walkthrough/

How do you create something from nothing? You don’t. You always start with something. Creation comes from chaos. And so will your next book, course, or big project. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/scratch/

One of the challenges of being a creative professional is that you aren’t always sure what people will buy. It often feels like a game of Roulette, in which you have to create a lot of work, hoping someone will buy something. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could sell something before you ever created it? Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/minimum-viable-product/

So many people set out to create a product—whether it’s a book, a coaching service, or an online course—and assume they know what people want. Don’t do that. Instead of assuming, just ask. Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/test-it/

People don’t typically buy what they need. They buy what they want. Which is why I love the saying: “Sell them what they want, give them what they need.” But how, exactly, do we do that? Full shownotes: https://goinswriter.com/first-product/