What All High-Achieving Creatives Have In Common: Writer Madeleine Dore Shares Surprising Findings on Creativity

Madeleine Dore is a writer and interviewer exploring how we can broaden the definition of a day well spent. As a labour of love, Madeleine spent over five years asking creative thinkers how they navigate their days on her popular blog Extraordinary Routines and podcast Routines & Ruts. The lessons culminated in her first book, I Didn’t Do The Thing Today. Madeleine continues to write, speak and ask questions—but mostly tries to hold things lightly.

In this conversation, Madeleine Dore shares what she learned after spending five years interviewing creative thinkers about their routines and reflections. Her findings may surprise you. Madeleine shares the commonalities that she found across the board with these high achieving creatives, the freeing concept of the “day artist” and what we can actually learn from our impulse to “compare and despair.”

This episode is sponsored by HSL Digital. Do you know what kind of marketing support you (really) need?

Jen Hatmaker, New York Times Best-Selling Author, On Dreaming Big Dreams

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Jen Hatmaker is the author of 12 books, including the New York Times bestselling “Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life,” “For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards,” and “7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.” Jen is also the creator and happy host of the award-winning For the Love! Podcast with Jen Hatmaker, delighted curator of the Jen Hatmaker Book Club and sought-after speaker who tours the country every year speaking to women. She and her husband, Brandon, founded the Legacy Collective and also starred in the popular series “My Big Family Renovation” and “Your Big Family Renovation” on HGTV. Jen is a mom to five and a zealous resident of Austin, Texas, where she and her family are helping keep Austin weird.

Hustle Hack: If you are a writer or any kind of creator, I’m gonna take a wild guess and bet that Jen’s advice to just keep going on your creative journey lit a fire in you, like it did me. I think it’s so easy to just look at the next big thing on our plate and pin all of our hopes and dreams on it but remember, you may not be at the part of your story where the protagonist really begins to fly. Keep putting your time in. Keep focused on what you know is your calling. Keep writing. Keep creating. Keep learning and sharpening your saw. 

Moment of Grace: Jen pointed out that you can’t produce creative work if you’re not giving yourself space to do it. You simply have to say “no” to things to build the margin you need to think, write, and let creativity happen. If you pack your schedule wall to wall you make no room for happy accidents, spontaneity, or the creative connections you make when you allow yourself space to breathe.

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Kayla Grizzard, Actress & Founder of The Hang On Mentorship, Overcoming Feelings of Inadequacy, and Why You Should Choose Yourself

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Kayla Grizzard is an actress, mommy, wife, crafter, singer, worship leader, dancer, artist, and “Friends” fanatic, but the title she loves most is disciple. She is a graduate from Liberty University as a theater major and has the opportunity to share the stage with amazing people like Quentin Earl Darrington and Laura Osnes and performed on stage at the Tony Award winning theater, Dallas Theater Center. She and her husband moved to New York city and started a ministry called THE HANG that ministers to artists in the city. Although she still loves to perform, she knows she is sitting in purpose with this directive from God.

Hustle Hack: Kayla shared her practice of relaxed readiness. I love this concept. Be prepared. Work on your craft. Do what you can do to be ready when the doors open. And then relax. Hold those aspirations with a relaxed hand. And be ready to say “yes” to the doors that open and the opportunities that await you.

Moment of Grace: I LOVE that Kayla shared Sutton Foster’s quotation: “Get a hobby.” In fact after this interview ended I went and watched that entire commencement speech on YouTube. I recommend it! Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to create art. Don’t wait for someone to pick you. Pick yourself! Create opportunities for yourself. Want to write? Start a blog. Want to perform? Write a 10-minute play. Of course keep pursuing opportunities that you want to pursue—whether that’s Broadway or professional writing or whatever it may be. But in the meantime, choose yourself. 

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This episode is sponsored by Get Your Dream Off the Ground eCourse.

Cam Jones of YouTube Channel Goal Guys On Goals and Serving Your Audience

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Cam Jones is a YouTuber based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With his YouTube channel “Goal Guys”, Cam produces educationally centered content that focuses around self improvement and learning new skills. Through his videos, Cam has garnered millions of views, thousands of returning subscribers, and has carved out a full time career producing online video content. In addition to his YouTube work, Cam also consults and produces video content for numerous brands like Squarespace, Audible, Blinkist and many others.

Hilary sat down with Cam Jones of YouTube's Goal Guys to discuss how he hacked YouTube and built a personal development channel that has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and garners millions of views. Cam shared how his curiosity turned into a hobby which then turned into a freelance career. He also shared what he has learned about achieving goals after creating almost 100 videos on the subject. 

Episode Highlights

"What's really rewarding about what I do is the creative freedom, the control I have and the ability to connect with people and help other people through my videos which is like, not a lot of people get to do that which is really, really cool. I always try to focus on a holistic approach and not just numbers and growth, which is really easy to focus in on." -Cam Jones

"I get so many people who talk to me who are like 'I would love to start a YouTube channel. I've always wanted to do this'-- or even outside of YouTube. 'I've wanted to start my own business' or do all these different things, but they've never actually done it or they've always put these barriers in their way. For instance, in my field, with video stuff, a lot of people are like 'I'm going to do it once I get this camera lens' or 'once I get this camera upgrade' or 'I'm going to do it once I get a little more money' or 'I'm going to do this, this, this and this.' So it's really, really easy to procrastinate and put things off. Yeah, it's like, my career was built on like, a $300 entry level Canon camera and so--you can't make excuses. You've kind of gotta work with what you've got and take it step by step." -Cam Jones

"I've had people ask me how do you get started in freelance writing? How do you get anyone to take a chance on you? The first thing you do is start a blog, like put something out there. Go on Medium, or whatever. You have to invest in yourself first before anyone else will invest in you." -Hilary Sutton

“Bring value. It's really easy to try to hop on trends but I think you need to find something that you enjoy doing. If you're looking for something that's going to be long term and satisfying work for you then I think you need to do something you love and try to bring value to people because there's so many people--especially on YouTube--that rise really quickly and fall really quickly, that are like on one wave of a trend, a flash in the pan. But if you want something solid and stable focus on quality, on bringing value to people, because that's stuff that's going to last." -Cam Jones

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Monica Kang, Startup Founder & Author On Rethinking Creativity

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Monica Kang is a passionate educator, speaker, community builder, and an author of Rethink Creativity. Driven by her own all too common experiences of feeling stuck and uncreative at work, she’s determined to change the status quo of the modern workforce. When she’s not speaking at events or delivering programs, you can find Monica teaching her students entrepreneurship at BAU International University, growing the creative ecosystem in DC through local events, or enjoying a chocolate croissant.

In this episode Hilary unpacks Einstein's approach to creativity and interviews creativity expert Monica Kang. 

Episode Highlights

"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." -Jim Rohn

"Creativity is contagious." -Albert Einstein

"What inspires you? What discourages you? When you know what discourages you, you can protect yourself." -Monica Kang

"The more time I spend with people who believe in me, of course it’s easier to believe in myself." -Monica Kang

Connect with Monica Kang:

MonicaHKang.com

LinkedIn

RethinkCreativity.co

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This episode is sponsored by Get Your Dream Off the Ground.

Author & Time Management Expert Laura Vanderkam On How to Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

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Author and productivity expert, Laura Vanderkam shares some practical strategies from her new book Off the Clock on how to feel less busy while getting more done. 

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including Off the Clock, I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours (which I loved). Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the podcast Best of Both Worlds (which I love). She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

Hustle Hack: Try planning your week on Friday afternoons. Most of us are pretty checked out for the weekend by this time of the week. It’s hard to get productive work done then. Why not use that time to plan and prioritize for the week ahead? That way when you get back to your desk on Monday morning you won’t feel scattered trying to figure out what is most important to tackle. You’ve planned your week already. 

Moment of Grace: Each week make a list of priorities for the following week in three categories: career, relationships, and self. Look over your calendar and see where you can drop these priorities in. It’s easy to make a list of priorities for work but it’s critical to also think through priorities for yourself and your relationships. You can even add subcategories including your spiritual life, health, and spouse, for example. 

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This episode is sponsored by the Side Hustle Starter Kit.