Love Your Work

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141. Stone Temple Pilots' Manager: Blockchain Will Reinvent the Music Industry. Steve Stewart of Vezt. Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Steve Stewart was manager of the band Stone Temple Pilots. He guided them from being an unknown funk band to a multi-platinum powerhouse whose sound is synonymous with 90's grunge. With Steve by STP's side, they sold over 25 million records, for nearly half a billion dollars in sales.

But then the Internet happened. The record industry wasn't selling many CD's or records anymore. Fans were becoming a bigger part of helping music spread, and free music was key to the new success equation.

Steve had to stand by helplessly as big music industry players shot themselves in the foot, and tightened their budgets in the process. But now, Steve is trying to fill in the gap that free music created.

Now, imagine that Justin Bieber paid you. With Steve's new company, that could become true. Steve is now CEO of Vezt. With Vezt, music fans like you can buy a share of the future earnings of a song. So if you're a Justin Bieber fan, you could at some point buy a share of his song.

(In case you're wondering, you can't "short" a song, these aren't stocks you're buying.)

We're going to learn more about how that works in today's conversation. Find out:

What artistic decisions did Stone Temple Pilots have to make in order to become a huge success? I take Steve back to the early days, and we find out why early-90's music critics have called him to apologize.
How does Vezt fill in the hole that music-sharing created? Fans have become a part of the music promotion process, with Vezt, they'll start getting a piece of the pie.
Blockchain companies are hot now, but the blockchain is not always relevant to the business model. What about blockchain technology makes Vezt possible?

Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported!

Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Thank you supporters! To help, go to kadavy.net/donate.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

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Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/steve-stewart-stone-temple-pilots-vezt/

140. Grow Your Passion. Don't "Find" it. Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

You've heard the advice to find your passion. You've probably also heard the advice that finding your passion is bad advice.

But if you shouldn't "find" your passion, what should you do? Isn't passion important?

New research tells us exactly what is wrong with "finding" your passion. It's the subject of this week's article.

Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported!

Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Thank you supporters! To help, go to kadavy.net/donate.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Sponsors

http://backblaze.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/dont-find-your-passion/

139. Brave: The Browser That Will Pay You. Jonathan Sampson of Brave. Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

Brave is a new browser that's reinventing the attention economy. Brave does block ads, but it's not just an ad blocker. It also blocks scripts that slow down your browsing experience, invade your privacy, and leave you vulnerable to hackers.

Since much of the internet currently runs on the ad-supported model, Brave doesn't stop there, with the blocking of ads. They've invented a cryptocurrency that could change creative monetization forever. You can use the Basic Attention Token, or BAT, to pay creators whose content you consume most – or, as a site owner, you can earn BAT. In fact, I've earned some BAT myself.

In the future, Brave says they will be paying you for browsing content. Now how does that work!? We'll talk about that and more in today's conversation. I'm talking to Jonathan Sampson (@bravesampson), who is Brave's Senior Developer Relations Specialist. We'll talk about:

How did we end up with an internet where we need a browser like Brave. Brave's founder and CEO invented Javascript, yet Brave blocks a ton of Javascript. How did that happen?
Brave claims to save you about $23 a month, and give you a browsing experience up to 8 times faster. Where do those gains come from?
How is it possible that Brave could pay you for browsing the web? Where would the money come from, and who will be missing out on that money?

I've been using Brave regularly for a few months now, and I really enjoy it. As we'll talk about in this conversation, if you'd like to support the work I do, download Brave at kadavy.net/brave. If you stick with it for 30 days, Brave will reward me with $5 worth of BAT. Again, that's kadavy.net/brave.

Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported!

Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Thank you supporters! To help, go to kadavy.net/donate.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Sponsors

http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://backblaze.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-brave-browser/

138. Things Don't Go As Planned. That *Is* the Plan. Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Just ask me, as I'm on my temporary exile in Peru right now, since having my Colombian visa rejected.

If we can't plan something in our morning, if we can't plan something when we visit a website, then where do we get the idea that we can plan things as complex as our lives? Or as complex as a big project, such as a book?

When things don't go as planned, you get new information. You can use that information to make a new plan.

So, in this week's article, I'm suggesting that you make things not going as planned part of the plan. It can take you places you never expected to go.

Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported!

Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Thank you supporters! To help, go to kadavy.net/donate.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Sponsors

http://backblaze.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/plan-for-the-unplanned/

137. Privacy. Why Does it Matter to Creative Entrepreneurs? BJ Mendelson Aug 02, 2018

Show notes

BJ Mendelson (@bjmendelson) is author of Privacy: And How to Get it Back. One of the key themes we've been exploring on Love Your Work over the past three years has been just how it is that creators get paid. This was certainly top of my mind when I doubled down on writing and podcasting and moved to Colombia with no clear business model in site.

To understand how creators get paid, we need to understand the entire economy of content. How does content get monetized, and how much or how little of that monetization makes it to creators?

We've talked about how the economics of content shape technology in my essay on the Behavioral Revolution. We've talked about how those economics promote digital distraction in conversations with Hooked author, Nir Eyal. We've talked about new models for monetization – such as cryptocurrency-based compensation – with Steemit CEO Ned Scott, and with Maneesh Sethi from Pavlok.

Today, we're going to dig into privacy. When you understand how your privacy is being invaded to keep the web running, it becomes more clear just where things will be going in the future, and what you can do as both a creator and consumer of content to make that a bright future for yourself and your fellow creator.

In this conversation, we'll learn:

What are the ways that our privacy is invaded to keep the web running. Why does it matter?
What can you do to protect your privacy, and encourage companies to search for other ways to monetize?
Is the online advertising industry in for a day of reckoning? What trends should you, as a creative entrepreneur, be aware of?

Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported!

Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Thank you supporters! To help, go to kadavy.net/donate.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Sponsors

http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://backblaze.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/bj-mendelson-privacy/

136. Master The Art of Staying in Jul 26, 2018

Show notes

Socializing is good. But socializing as a default — out of some Fear Of Missing Out — is not good. If you can find the discipline to pursue your work, while others are just killing time, you will have mastered The Art of Staying In.

The Art of Staying In is deciding not to go out and socialize just because it's the default thing to do. Instead, you use that time and energy to take control of your life and your work.

If you master The Art of Staying In, two things will happen.

One, you'll suddenly have a lot more time and get a lot more done. And two, you'll suddenly be in control of your destiny.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Donate on Patreon Supporters are currently covering more than half of production costs for Love Your Work. Support the show, get early access to episodes, as well as bonus masterclasses and office hours with me. Sign up at kadavy.net/donate.

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/stay-in-podcast/

135. Adam Conover from "Adam Ruins Everything" on Creative Mindset in Comedy Jul 19, 2018

Show notes

Adam Conover (@adamconover) had good things going for him. He had just graduated from college, and his sketch comedy group was a hit. So many people were watching their videos! This was before YouTube, so they kept on having to find new places to host the videos, there was so much traffic.

But then the group broke up. At first, Adam wasn't worried. Since he had so much success, he figured he could easily build a career in comedy.

But he slowly learned that he was wrong. It was slow going.

Today, Adam has his own hit show, Adam Ruins Everything, on TruTV. On Adam Ruins Everything, Adam takes a well-researched and hilarious approach to straightening out popular myths and misconceptions.

Adam has "ruined" Tylenol, pure bred dogs, and diamond engagement rings, just to name a few things. Adam Ruins Everything starts its third season on TruTV this fall.

So what happened? How did Adam work his way back to success in comedy?

In this episode you'll learn:

How did Adam discover that "ruining" things was his calling?
What mindset did Adam have that helped him bounce back from failure to find success again?
In businesses where personal connections are important, why does Adam tell you NOT to suck up to successful people.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net."

Sponsors

http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/adam-conover-podcast/

134. 24 Things I Learned Publishing 3 Books in Only 6 Months Jul 12, 2018

Show notes

After publishing my first book, it took me six years to publish my second book. After publishing my second book, it took me only six months to publish my fourth book. I published three books in the past six months, and I learned a ton along the way. I'm going to share it with you today.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/self-publishing-lessons/

133. Make Art That Sells: Phil Thompson of Cape Horn Illustration Jul 05, 2018

Show notes

Phil Thompson (@Cape_Horn_CHI) is the illustrator and business mind behind Cape Horn Illustration, which sells Chicago wall art. Today we have a great discussion on making art that sells.

Phil's portfolio of products includes maps of microbreweries in Chicago, marathon maps for all of the major marathons, and "home portraits." His work has been featured on the sets of major motion pictures like "The Big Sick," and "Blockers."

Phil also happens to be my mastermind partner. We've been talking every two weeks about how to balance our individual artistic visions with what the market wants. We've learned a lot in our conversations, and I'm really excited to be sharing Phil and his work with you today.

Today, we'll talk about:

How do you "validate" your art. Hear about Phil's first experiments in selling his artwork online. What did he learn from his first success, and what did he learn from his first big failure?
How do you make your art marketable? Learn to think about what your art does for someone. How does that translate into sales?
How can you turn your interests into profitable art? I love how Phil has been able to take his curiosities – whether it's running marathons or learning about Chicago architecture – and he's been able to use those curiosities to fuel profitable art.

Free Creative Productivity Toolbox

I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools

Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.

Sponsors

http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork http://weebly.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/phil-thompson/

132. Stay in Bed & Have Your Best Ideas Ever Jun 28, 2018

Show notes

You heard me talk last week about morning routines, with the co-author of My Morning Routine, Benjamin Spall. I have a new morning routine I've been practicing this year, and it's been giving me some of my best ideas yet. The amazing part is I'm able to do this routine before I even get out of bed.

I'll tell you why in this essay.

Sponsors

http://earthclassmail.com http://weebly.com/loveyourwork

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/stay-bed-podcast/

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