Creative Warriors

We live in a “hustle culture” that praises getting little sleep, sacrificing everything, and working nonstop. If you watch Shark Tank, you’re familiar with their advice to work 90 hours a week if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur. But putting so little priority on personal relationships and self-care is ultimately toxic and unsustainable. We have to redefine the American Dream. It isn’t about acquiring material possessions; it’s about the right to be happy now. Establishing boundaries in your professional and personal life to protect your health and happiness and the ability to prioritize relationships is necessary to living an abundant life. Instead of a work/life balance, we should be focusing on work/life boundaries. To dive deeper into the idea of being successful in your professional life and your personal life, I’ve brought on author, speaker and 25-year business veteran, Carlos Hidalgo. Carlos co-founded his first company in 2005 leading it to two consecutive Inc. 5000 Awards before departin

Many people think PR is either going to get you on the Today Show, or get you in magazines which hardly exist anymore. It feels like a mystery that couldn’t possibly work for them. As a result, they don’t attempt to engage in media relationships at all. But it’s time to reset our minds regarding PR. We can all benefit from it, and it’s not limited to an article written about you. How you appear on social media is part of PR. It’s your image and reputation. PR needs to be a part of your company from the ground up as it can both give you legitimacy and open you up to new opportunities. To dive deeper into the idea of utilizing PR as a creative entrepreneur, I’ve brought on author and venture capitalist, Heather Burgett. Heather is an award-winning publicist and host of "The Shine Strategy" Podcast. She is also the founder and CEO of The Burgett Group & PR Stars. To learn how to be a PR Star, download this episode now. THE CALM WARRIOR   “Press begets press.” - Heather Burgett Highlights - Recognition is a

So much of our success depends on what’s going on inside and how we react to the challenges along the way. If you don’t work on your mindset, you’ll end up giving up when facing adversity. You might even be too afraid to start. Unless you spend time figuring out your ultimate goal, visualize that goal, and take action to accomplish it, you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels. Your path to your goals likely won’t be a straight line. For example, I wrote my book Lingo for creative entrepreneurs, and now I’m being hired by companies to work with their HR departments. I would have never thought I’d end up working in these areas, but if I had never started I would have never found this new path. I had to have the confidence to begin writing my book and the belief that I could follow through. To dive deeper into the idea of changing the inside to affect the outside result, I’ve brought on author and venture capitalist, Kenneth Aldrich. He is the cofounder of the International Stem Cell Corporation, a publicly-tra

You know the common term to level up your business? In this episode, I lay out the 4 levels of business development from zero to $1 million to everything in between. It's only important that you reach the level YOU want to. You'll gain an understanding of each level, what it may feel like to you at this level and how to level up if you chose to do so. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Mentions- Dorie Clark article Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Often it's not which is why you're

We often think of wisdom as flowing downhill, but that’s not the case. Young workers and more seasoned employees have so much to offer each other, especially with the fast-paced changes in technology today. Instead of judging different generations, turn those feelings into curiosity so that you can learn. The world needs a different perspective on aging. We are going to be younger longer; it’s time to think of middle age not just as a time to “wind down” but as a new opportunity to grow. By continuing to try new things and explore perspectives, the aging generation can avoid becoming “elderly” and instead be a “modern elder.” To dive deeper into the idea of creating a new narrative around age in the workplace, I’ve brought on rebel hospitality entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming one inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. After running his company as CEO for 24 years, he sold it an

The whole idea of work/life balance is a misnomer. Or is it even work/life balance that you strive for? Perhaps it's more of a relationship between money and lifestyle. As you'll hear in this episode, there's a time to attain and a time to attune. And it very well may be that at different stages of life, while one is in attainment mode that work/life balance is a struggle. Whereas when one is in the attunement stage of life, you may be more interested in the relationship between the life you want to live and how hard you're willing to work to support your lifestyle. Which begs the question- are you fitting life into work or work into life? The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is

There is no known answer to anything. We often look to “experts” to show us the way when we’re feeling insecure. But this can cause us to lose our intuition in the process. At the end of the day, you are what separates you and your product apart from others. You have to understand your own essence of sales or all the strategies in the world won’t work. You need to know what you’re preaching, you need to know your values, and you have to have a clear vision. Once you’ve boiled yourself down to your core, you can start to find ways to leverage it into something powerful. To dive deeper into the idea mastering sales, I’ve brought on “The Alchemist Entrepreneur” Dov Gordon. Self-taught and self-bootstrapped since 2001, Dov has been helping experts and entrepreneurs whip their marketing into shape. Relying on fundamental psychological principles, he teaches simplicity over complexity with a discerning eye, delivering high value in every interview. To learn how to develop a constant flow of ideal clients by getting

Why has failure been glamourized? As if it's some badge of honor, a rite of passage or something we need to go through as Warriors. It's not. It's all in how you look at it. I share how I look at "failure", or don't see it at all actually. You'll understand once you listen and will realize you have far more control than you might think to see it as you chose. No more "fail fast" theories. You don't need to fail fast. You can Master Fast. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of

I’ve grown to have an aversion to the term “likemindedness.” If you only hang out with people who share your views, you’ll never be challenged. The bigger challenge is being around people who think differently and still being able to find alignment.  When people have different opinions, emotions can run high. There are a lot of cliché phrases saying you can’t manage other people’s emotions, you can only manage your own. But when you’re in a conversation with someone, you can either escalate their negative emotion or neutralize it. There are concrete skills you can learn to help you navigate the reactions of others in order to come together for the benefit of the team. This is called meaningful alignment. To dive deeper into the idea of meaningful alignment, I’ve brought on speaker and author Susan Steinbrecher.  Incredibly intuitive and infectiously optimistic, Susan successfully blends high-energy content with a keen understanding of the client’s needs in her speaking engagements and consulting. Her compelli

The power of a single word. The power to change your perspective. My hope is that thinking in terms of thresholds as you go through changes in life, particularly in midlife, will help you embrace the process. Which can at times be painful, frustrating and scary. Perhaps it's because you've been thinking you're going through a transition instead of a threshold. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Often it's not which is why you're not converting traffic

As most of you know, I’m a true systems guy. But not many people think of creativity as something that can have a system. Most assume that it’s something that “hits” you out of nowhere instead of something that you can plan out. However, there is a way to develop a process for creative problem-solving. Making creativity a systematic part of your life and business is invaluable. After all, what the world really needs is creativity leaders, not thought leaders. The people who truly change businesses and the world are disruptors- they create new dots that connect to the dots that already exist. Once you combine your analytical mind and your creative mind, you’ll be able to see new ideas through to fruition. To dive deeper into the idea of creating systems for creativity, I’ve brought on founder and CEO of OpenGenius, Chris Griffiths. He has helped thousands of people worldwide drive business growth using highly practical innovation processes, including teams and individuals from Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companie

My book, LINGO is a branding and marketing strategy. But this episode is about your inner lingo. Meaning, I believe it's incredibly important to pay attention to the energy behind what you say and think. That's your inner lingo. To accelerate getting what you want out of your business and life, you want to align your inner lingo with your outer lingo and the thoughts in your mind. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Often it's not which is why you're n

Gratitude is a personal practice that takes place internally. It can retrain your brain away from negativity and make you more aware of the good around you. So how can we take gratitude and give it an exponential effect? One way to make it active is by sending thank-you notes. I often think about sending thank-you notes but rarely make the time for it. However, I believe that when the world develops in one direction, the opposite is also true. We are becoming an electronically-based world, which is why people, more than ever, treasure handwritten notes. Once you get in the habit of spreading thanks to people in your past, present, and future, you’ll become more joyful. To dive deeper into the idea of spreading thanks, I’ve brought on change agent, author, and speaker Elena Anguita. In 2017, she launched the Spread Thanks revolution, a movement to encourage personal gratefulness through the sending of daily thank you notes. Her enthusiasm and professionalism are putting this simple, yet transformational practi

We often wear perfection like a badge of honor. But is it really? Or is it a negative fuel source cloaked in a great outcome? This conversation with a friend over Sunday brunch may give you a different perspective and reframe perfection to excellence. I explore the difference and challenge you to consider the difference in your own life between perfection and excellence. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Mentions - Denise Jacobs book, Banish Your Inner Critic Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your idea

I suck at improv. I’ve dabbled in it here and there, but I love it because it challenges me in all the ways I need to grow. I’ve been known to “prescribe” improv to clients, but they often don’t end up taking a class. The fear of looking stupid holds a lot of people back from even trying it. Improv offers a huge number of lessons about life and business. It’s another tool to add to your toolkit to broaden who you are. After all, if you work out the same muscles day in and day out, there will be a plateau where you don’t see growth. We have to constantly push ourselves to try things that challenge us in new ways and knock us off our balance. To dive deeper into the lessons of improv, I’ve brought on improvisational comedy expert Norm Laviolette. As co-founder and CEO of Improv Asylum, IA innovation and A.G.E., Norm brings corporate as well as military experience toward the continued development and expansion of Improv Asylum’s theatrical and IA Innovation’s business divisions. Prior to a career in comedy and t

Being vulnerable is difficult for everyone, but it can be especially hard for businesses to embrace. They often think that vulnerability will take away their power. They’re convinced that being honest and authentic will limit their results. But being completely upfront with your customers actually maximizes your results. With apps like Yelp and many of the retail sites showing reviews, we are truly in a “transparency age.” People will trust you more if they feel that they are being told the good and the bad. Humans’ brains are wired to automatically distrust people they feel are “selling” them something. To dive deeper into the idea of transparency, I’ve brought on an award-winning sales leader, Todd Caponi. His expertise is in building the revenue capacity for technology companies. He has served in senior leadership roles, helped one organization to a successful IPO followed by an exit valued at almost $3B, won the American Business "Stevie" Award for VP of WW Sales of the Year, and is also a former owner/op

Inspired by a week of events and conversations, I talk about acceptance within ourselves and from others. Similar to my TEDx Talk where I suggest that when we allow ourselves to see what others see in us, that it can help us expand beyond our self-limiting expectations, when we are accepted by others it helps us accept ourselves.  The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Mentions - Billy Porter Tony Awards Karaoke Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO o

Welcome to the 500th Episode of Creative Warriors! In just under five years, we have over a million downloads and 500 episodes. I was planning on getting a “big name” or celebrity to celebrate this milestone, but I realized that none of that really matters. What matters is the community of warriors we have built in over 200 countries and all the people behind-the-scenes who make this all possible. On this episode, I share my favorite interview, my most difficult interview, and the time someone killed a fly in the middle of an interview! I talk about the insecurity that led me to begin the podcast in the first place and open up about my struggle to live authentically. I also dive deeper into my personal life and history than I ever have before. I’ve brought on my producers, Colin Thompson and Enid Cortes from Kast Media, my booker Cheryl Kaiser, and logo designer Rachel Dennis. I didn’t know how it was going to go, but there are things we talk about that anyone who listens can take and apply to their business.

This question, "What do you own?", is both practical and philosophical. I cover multiples sides of the importance of ownership from why it's important for your business to knowing how what you own can help you carve out a place for yourself in the world. The Talking Stick is in your hands now. Let us hear from you. Be part of the conversation - Join our community Facebook group, Creative Warriors Unite, at www.joinwarriors.com and share your feelings and continue the conversation. Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDX LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Often it's not which is why you're not converting traffic and leads to clients and attracting your most profitable customers. Fill out the simple LINGO Review applic

A lot of us Creative Warriors have lots of passion but no initiative. We have a dream and a talent, but we often don’t know where to put our energy. We can’t tell the difference between passing fancies and things that are worth doing. Fear can also hold us back from putting all of our energy into something because we’re scared that we’ll get stuck on the wrong path. If taking the first step to allow opportunity to unfold is difficult, know that baby steps are a great way to start. It’s like a pianist doing scales or a basketball player practicing their shots. You have to start with the basics and do them over and over to build up to your big dream. In his book Initiative, Joshua Spodek gives us concrete exercises, like the pianist’s scales, that we can do that develop passions and take initiative. To expose us to some of these initiative exercises, I’ve brought Joshua onto the podcast. Joshua Spodek, PhD, MBA, TEDx speaker, wrote the #1 bestselling Leadership Step by Step, hosts the award-winning Leadership a