This week Marijke launches a kickstarter campaign to share a collection of 100 of those comics in a book called Zoo You Mind? 

We talk about how she got started as an artist, how receiving feedback from her audience gave her confidence to return to drawing comics, and what she learnt from asking for help.
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Find and follow Marijke online:

website | instagram | LinkedIn 

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Links and show notes from the episode:

• Back Marijke's Zoo You Mind? Kickstarter campaign
• Artists mentioned: Egon Schiele and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Gina teaches how to find your voice - both the external voice that has something it wants to sing and the internal voice which has something that it's longing to say. In this episode you'll hear some of Gina's story - how she came to be a performer and singing teacher with a love of learning and sharing other people's stories. [You can read a full transcript of this episode at https://www.studiotimepodcast.com/blog/ginamorgano]

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Find and follow Gina online:

website | Instagram | podcast 

Self Care for Singers Facebook Group | The Practice Society
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Links and show notes from the episode:

• The Practice Society is a new collective of curious, dedicated and service-oriented artists ready to dive deep into cultivating purposeful practices in art and life. Through community and conversation, this introductory summer membership explores the pillars of Identity, Wellness and Growth. Artist citizens will receive the tools and accountability to build and support the lifestyle and creative practices that will sustain them for the long-haul, helping them to claim agency over their creativity and make meaningful contributions through their humanity and artistry.
• Be a Curator: Gina's blog post about creation and curation
• Your $5K Hour: Why some people pay £385+ to see Beyonce

Learn about the Audience by Design workshop here.

Dana and I talk about one of her earliest memories of using words to document and process her lived experience, the lesson she learned from a Bulgarian hairdresser, and how the process of uncovering your primary verb can help you do more of the work that you were born to do.
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Find and follow Dana online:
website | Instagram
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Links and show notes from this episode:
Sara Dittrich — From passive seeing to active looking, from passive hearing to active listening
Why Fish Don't Exist — A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
Dana speaking at Creative Mornings — Your Shade of Blue
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Art (and artists) need an audience. Your art won't put itself in front people who want to engage with it by accident. For your work to have more significant impact in the world, part of your creative practice — part of being ready — should include building an Audience by Design.

Learn about the Audience by Design workshop here.

We talk about her work with Tim Russell at Innovative Voice Studios and how they collaborate to create programs that empower their clients to take ownership of all aspects of their creativity. Jenna explains how she filmed a covid-safe version of her show "Get Happy" and also shares what she has learned from studying Judy Garland.
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Find and follow Jenna online:
website | instagram | studio
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Links and show notes from this episode:

• Young People's Theater Workshop
• Jenna describes that she didn't realise how important singing and performing were to her life until she stopped doing them temporarily.
• NYU Steinhardt
• Operating out of fear instead of intuition
• Innovative Voice Studio with Tim Russell
• How the Covid 19 pandemic encouraged Jenna and Tim to extend and expand their offerings to serve performers beyond the NYC area.
• Building programs that people can participate in online and in person.
• Learning to sing as a vehicle for learning to be a human. Preparing for a Broadway audition can teach you things that are applicable across a variety of industries and markets around the world.
• Learning about auditioning for Broadway can teach us to treat ourselves and each other with humanity and respect.
• "I use my voice to help others find theirs."
• IVS is showing leadership in the Broadway community by engaging Equity & Diversity Strategist Shavanna Calder, and creating the Artist Expansion Fund to support BIPOC artists
• Get Happy - The Songs of Judy Garland, performance for East Lynne Theater Co.
• Filming the Covid Safe performance in a theatre with no audience to be watched by people online
• The costs of Judy Garland's legacy
• The lessons Jenna has taken from Garland's humanity
• The difference of getting to know an artist as a Human First
• Future planning
• Why Jenna would tell the younger version of herself not to fear failure

Art (and artists) need an audience. Your art won't put itself in front people who want to engage with it by accident. For your work to have more significant impact in the world, part of your creative practice — part of being ready — should include building an Audience by Design.

Learn about the Audience by Design workshop here.

We recorded this episode shortly after the Nov 2020 Presidential Election and since then Stephen has continued to document the people and events in Washington, including the January attack on the US Capitol.
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Find and follow Stephen online:
website | instagram | newsletter

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Links and show notes from this episode:
Senator Cory Booker
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Toddler at the Lincoln Memorial

Irving Penn - was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique. His work has been exhibited internationally and continues to inform the art of photography. [source: Wikipedia]

Credits: Thanks to Kayle Clements for the editing assistance.

Please direct any compliments or constructive criticism about Studio Time to matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

After getting to know each other during an online creative workshop earlier this year, they began looking for projects they could collaborate on.

One such project is The Gift of Shared Kindness, a product inspired by a creative Christmas gift Gail made for her father a few years ago. It’s a gift you can give to someone who doesn’t need more stuff in their life. Instead this is a gift that is designed to be re-gifted in a way that Gail and Manu will explain - the beauty here being that the more you give it away, the more valuable it becomes.

As a special bonus, this is the first episode of Studio Time that comes with a free recipe! You’ll find instructions on how to make Gail’s exceedingly satisfying snack mix in the show notes below.

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Find and follow Gail & Manu online:
Gail: Born Free Newsletter | Manu: Instagram

The Gift of Shared Kindness:
Etsy Store | Shared Kindness stories on Medium

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Show Notes from this episode:

Sweet & Fruity Snack Mix

10 oz  Sunflower Seeds

10 oz  Pumpkin Seeds

8 oz  Almonds, sliced

10 oz C Dried Montmorency Cherries

10 oz C Dried Wild Blueberries

1/3 C Maple Syrup

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cinnamon

Mix seeds, nuts, syrup, vanilla and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.  Place on shallow rimmed baking sheet.  Bake at 250 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.  Stir at 10 minute intervals.

Cool.  Stir in dried fruit. Package.

Sweet and Savory

8 oz Pecan Halves

8 oz Whole Cashews

8 oz Whole Natural Almonds

2 tsp Dried Thyme

2 tsp Dried Rosemary

1 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

¼ C Maple Syrup

Mix all ingredients by hand in a mixing bowl.  Place on shallow rimmed baking sheet.  Bake at 250 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.  Stir at 10 minute intervals.

Cool and package.

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You can visit the show website at www.studiotimepodcast.com | Email any questions or feedback to matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

Our careers took us off in different directions and we haven’t been in touch for a few years, this conversation is the first we’d shared in ages. I’m thrilled to see how Bec's career has flourished and I’m grateful for the knowledge and insight she shares from her own experience working with artists and brands known across Australia and throughout the world.

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Find and follow Bec online:
The Comms Department | Instagram | Twitter
You've Got This: The essential career handbook for creative women

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Links and Show Notes from this episode:

• Delivering on what you’re promising
• How to be more PR-able
• The power of consistency
• Ways to build trust with your audience
• Tips for dealing with a crisis from someone who does it for a living
• “If you’re feeling nervous, be of service.”

Part author proceeds from "You’ve Got This" are donated to these two charities that support women:

Life Changing Experiences

Fitted For Work

Send any compliments or constructive criticism about Studio Time to matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

Angelica and her colleagues usually do in person workshops with inmates, helping them create presentations that they then showcase to peers in their facility. The COVID 19 pandemic forced prisons to limit access to visitors and the regular workshops had to be cancelled, but Shining Light devised a way to continue to serve their artists and alumni on the inside and create a piece that they are able to share with the public for the first time.

Creations of a Caged Bird is the hour long presentation featuring work written and devised by inmates that has been performed and produced by artists like Angelica. It’s available on youtube and I’ve shared the link in the show notes. Creations of a Caged Bird is powerful and very moving and I wanted to learn more about it.

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Find and follow Angelica online:
Website | Instagram

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Links and show notes from this episode:

Shining Light
Creations of a Caged Bird
The Quaranzine - the only Sunday publication you know you can read cover to cover. We aim to bridge the gap between insightful editorial columns and comedic relief for your pandemic life. 

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

Email any compliments or constructive criticism to matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

In this conversation, Jay talks about the years he spent not believing he was creative and we talk about how he’s grown his business over the past four years—including when and how he thinks about outsourcing tasks, so he can focus on what he does best.

Jay shares his thoughts on building habits versus making commitments, getting intentional about what he wanted to achieve when he began the Creative Elements podcast, and reflects on how all the high profile guests he features on the show spent years in the trenches before they began to recognise the level of success they’re known for now.

Jay has a lot to share about building community, having built his own online community and advising other brands and businesses on how they establish successful communities of their own.

You can find Jay on twitter and instagram @jayclouse. If you enjoy this episode I’d love for you to reach out to Jay and tell him so.
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Find and follow Jay online:
Website | Twitter | Instagram
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Links and show notes from this episode:

Jay Clouse: How to Build an Online Community

Jobs to be Done Framework

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

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Find and follow Ari online:
Website | Instagram

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

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Find and follow Leya online:
Website | Instagram

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about the teacher that fostered Napoleon’s talent early on, and how he was able to return the favour a few years later to help her set up City Voices, a non-profit that provides arts education at no charge to many more young people in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.

Napoleon describes how the contracts he booked straight out of school offered him stage experience and also showed him the rest of the regional theatre business - from the box office to the kitchen. He talks about why he decided to do a post grad MBA in entrepreneurship and became known backstage as the accounting kid.

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Find and follow Naopleon online:
Website | Instagram

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

Recorded over the course of 6 weeks, this episode documents Halle’s journey from being someone with an idea for a podcast through to the launch of her very first episode. I was able to check in with her at a number of points along the way to follow her progress and discover the questions she was asking.

I was able to reach out to some colleagues who host their own podcasts, and tap into their collective insight and experience to get Halle some really helpful advice and useful answers. I’m proud to welcome back to Studio Time the voices of Drew Alexander Forde, Lili Torre, Peter Shepherd and introduce you to Molly Beck. I look up to all four of these podcasters and the way they show up for their own audiences and I’m grateful for their willingness to contribute here so generously. It’s a great reminder that the people in your network have an abundance of wisdom and experience to share - and there’s no prize for answering every answer on your own.
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Find and follow Halle online:
Instagram: Halle | Let's Take It From The Top
Listen to the Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

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Featuring special guests:
[listen to their shows & reach out on instagram]
Lili Torre: The Dreaded Question | instagram
Drew Alexander Forde: Faking Notes | instagram
Molly Beck: messy.fm | instagram
Peter Shepherd: The Long and The Short Of It | instagram

Read a full transcript of the episode here.

In the places I studied, no one really talked about how you could be a contemporary composer and make a living while doing it. Until I met Kayle.

He is a Production Music Library Composer - which means he writes musical cues that go into the libraries that provide music for television, film, advertisements and other media.

With music that has shown up on shows as fun as Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and as well...prolific, as The Young and the Restless - Kayle has been writing music for screen since 2013.
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Find and follow Kayle online:
website | email
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Links and show notes from this episode:

Listen to Kayle on Spotify
Listen to Kayle on Apple Music

TAXI: The world's leading independent A&R company

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

She describes her home studio vocal booth, the logistics of being the voice of Samsung’s virtual assistant Bixby, some of a voice actor’s tricks of the trade and we explore what it means to be a voice over ally.
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Find and follow Stephanie Roberts online:
website | instagram
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Links and show notes from this episode:

Glossary:
auralex - acoustic foam panels and soundproofing solutions

Listen to:
Stephanie Roberts on The Dreaded Question podcast with Lili Torre Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Timothy Huang on Studio Time Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Learn more about Voiceover or Voice Artists:
The many voices of Jodi Benson
I Know That Voice - Voiceover Documentary Trailer

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

On June 19, Tim releases a brand new recording of American Morning on all the platforms you go to find music. He describes it as half cast recording, half concept album. For my money, this recording celebrates the show’s history and imagines its future. Tim has captured everything he’s learnt about the show so far and demonstrates how it can sound when it goes to a full production.

We don’t discuss it in any detail here, but I highly recommend you go to timothyhuang.net and read the incisive and insightful articles and blog posts Tim shares there.
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Find and follow Timothy Huang online:

facebook | website | instagram | twitter
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Links and show notes from this episode:

Glossary -
TYA: Theatre for Young Audiences

Cast -
Alexander Sage Oyen
Thom Sesma

Previously on Studio Time:
#17 Timothy Huang — Never. Stop. Writing.
#38 Thom Sesma — Take the Next Step

Find Timothy's published sheet music online at newmusicaltheatre.com and contemporarymusicaltheatre.com and listen on soundcloud or at his website timothyhuang.net

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

Find and follow Gabe Anderson online:
gabethebassplayer.com | email | Hum Love playlist
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Links and show notes from this episode:

• Belmont University
• The Seinfeld theme was improvised 
• The Kicks (band)
• The Kicks YouTube Channel
• Seth Godin speaks about being a Linchpin
• Hum Love Spotify playlist

Read a full transcript of this episode here.

I didn't feel right releasing an episode today that didn't acknowledge the pain and frustration many of us feel as we try to come to terms with the racism and division that keeps showing up in our culture. Here's how I'm trying to process what's going on and how I might respond.

Find and follow me online:
The Infinite Creative | instagram

Links and show notes from this episode:
The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh

Read the episode transcript here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Drop me a line matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

I post regular thoughts to help you design a career that sustains you creatively, emotionally and financially at The Infinite Creative newsletter. You can read and subscribe here.

Thanks for listening!

Now he’s finding his own voice and returning to his classical music roots. Charles just completed a 100 day cycle composing original solo piano works which he plans to record, release and tour in the near future.

Learn about what it’s like to tour with pop superstars and hear Charles’ advice for musicians who want to play in those arenas.

Find and follow Wilson Charles online:
Instagram | Patreon

Links and show notes from this episode:

• Full Sail University, Florida
• Kevin Antunes
• Jessame Berry
• Greg Phillinganes - watch this 🤯
• Darrell Smith
• Cirque de Soleil’s Michael Jackson Immortal
• Publisher Billy Mann

Read the episode transcript here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Drop me a line matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

I post regular thoughts to help you design a career that sustains you creatively, emotionally and financially. You can read the posts and subscribe here.

Thanks for listening!

If, after you’ve listened, this sounds like something you would like to explore further, Lili is offering a workshop called “Doing It Also” for artists who want a fulfilling parallel career that utilises their unique skills. You can find the details at lilitorre.com

Find and follow Lili online:
website | instagram: @lili_torre @thedreadedquestion

Links and show notes from this episode:

• TDQ: Succeeding Out of Sheer Panic with Ally Bonino
• TDQ: Finding the Positive with Ryan Everett Wood
• Jen Waldman Studio
• Town Stages Creative Fellowship
• Robin Sokoloff, Founder of Town Stages

Visit the show notes and read the episode transcript here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Drop me a line matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

I post regular thoughts to help you design a career that sustains you creatively, emotionally and financially. You can read the posts and subscribe here.

Thanks for listening!

I created Studio Time for Carly and artists like her. Her story hits all the points in the introduction I repeat in every episode. By taking a series of very small steps she is creating a big impact for herself and others.

She has taken an unconventional approach to building her network and furthering her career, which has created new opportunities for her as an actor, and has blossomed into a business that supports her while she is building a better world for her fellow creatives.

As of the time of recording, the next session of Carly Valancy’s Reach Out Party begins May 17, 2020. For details about this and future sessions you can go to valenceandco.com/upcoming. To represent the global nature of the Reach Out community, there will be two sessions daily to cater to whatever timezone you’re in.

Find and follow Carly online:
website | instagram

Links and show notes from this episode:

• Reach Out by Molly Beck
• This is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Carly has been a guest on The Dreaded Question Podcast with Lili Torre twice! 
• Register for Carly Valancy's Reach Out Party

Visit the show notes and read the episode transcript here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Drop me a line matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

I post regular thoughts to help you design a career that sustains you creatively, emotionally and financially. You can read the posts and subscribe here.

Thanks for listening!

He made his Broadway debut in the original production of La Cage Aux Folles and since then Thom has managed to spend most of his life in rehearsal studios, on stages large and small, and in front of cameras on tv and film sets around the United States. His work has ranged from classical theatre to splashy musical comedies, from police procedurals and hospital dramas to soap operas and sitcoms.

There’s an old idiom that says “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” In Thom’s case, you should understand that just one mile in his shoes is nothing. He and his wife Penny have travelled the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the 500 mile journey across Northern Spain…twice. I was grateful to learn some of what he discovered along the way.

Find and follow Thom online:
website | instagram

Links and show notes from this episode:

• A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago - John Brierley
• The Way - film about the Camino starring Martin Sheen
• The Brothers Karamazov -  Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Rebirth - Kamil Ravikant
• Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Email matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

Thanks for listening!

Jenny and I talk about how COVID 19 has infected her with a new love for comedy and get creative about the many ways she can spread that comedy with others in the age of Social Distancing.

We discuss things to consider when setting up a Patreon account and how to invite your biggest fans to support you in whatever ways they can.

Find and follow Jenny online:
website | facebook | instagram

read the book: Funny Mummy
join facebook group: Funny Mummies
watch the web series: How Me Parent Good
show your support: Patreon account

listen to the podcasts: Funny Mummies | Let’s Talk 

Links and show notes from this episode:

• read Jenny's blog post "Dear people who love the arts but are overwhelmed right now"

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. Email matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

Thanks for listening!

This interview was recorded toward the end of last year. We get to talk about his new album and how he has created a tradition of musical Theme Nights that are a major feature of the musical landscape in Sligo.

In light of all that has changed since we spoke, Kieran will host Theme Night 26, ‘Ireland in Song’, online for the first time  so you don’t have to be in Ireland to attend. Details are here on Kieran's facebook page. Tune out for the livestream on Thu April 23 at 8pm Dublin time (3pm NYC, Fri Apr 24 5am Sydney).

Find and follow Kieran online:

website | blog | instagram | youtube

Find A Year of Wednesdays on Spotify and Apple Music
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Bonus: Barb Jungr (from Studio Time ep 10) has just released a new song In My Troubled Days, which can be found on Spotify and Apple Music

Today, he is in demand as a speaker. His TedX presentation “How To Magically Talk to Anyone” has been viewed over 3.2 million times on YouTube.

He is the author of the book “Three New People: Make the Most of Your Daily Interactions and Stop Missing Amazing Opportunities” and Brian just launched Season 3 of his fantastic podcast “Beyond Networking.” 

I’m thrilled to share this episode with you. Brian touches on many ideas that are relevant to our work as artists and to our lives as humans. Connection is a really important theme for me, and it’s at the heart of everything I do. My reason for creating Studio Time was to provide a vehicle or a platform to connect you with your fellow artists and their ideas.

In this episode

• Brian explains what a successful career looks like for a magician
• We talk about the concept of getting your reps in as an artist
• How the art and science of Human Connection changed his life and career
• We discuss what you should think about the next time you hand someone your flyer or business card 
• Brian introduces the idea of “perspective taking” and explains why magicians are so good at it

Find out more about Brian, his book, podcast and video content at human connection.blog

Links and show notes from this episode:

• TedX presentation: “How To Magically Talk to Anyone”
• Book: “Three New People: Make the Most of Your Daily Interactions and Stop Missing Amazing Opportunities”
• Podcast: “Beyond Networking”
• YouTube Channel
• Brian’s interview with Seth Godin “Where You Are and What You Do”
• Brian recommends you check out the incredible magician Nate Staniforth
• “Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want” by Nicholas Epley
• “Talking To Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. You can reach me (Matthew) here.

Thanks for listening!

In this episode Louise explains when she first got interested in names and we talk about artists who have changed their names and in doing so, changed their stories. Louise tells me what a trademark is and explains why you might want one, pointing out why today’s attention economy makes it essential to have a name that is remarkable.

Louise shares some great principles to consider when naming your next show, album, business or even baby (for instance which name is more trustworthy - one that begins with the letter B or the letter C?) and discover the right way to get feedback on your name ideas so that you end up with a name that gets noticed, talked about, and remembered.

Find out more about Louise, her book and her work at wordglue.co

Links and show notes from this episode:

• Ken Segall - Former Apple Creative Director and author of Think Simple & Insanely Simple
• Bruno Mars
• Judy Garland
• The benefits and protections of trade marking the names you use and why you should consider trade marking your name 
• Prince
• Why the attention economy makes it essential to have a name that is remarkable
• Alvin Tofler-coined the term infobesity
• How having a name that stands out can help you compete against CocaCola’s $2B marketing budget - maybe closer to $6B?
• Be brave not blah
• Choose a name worthy of discussion
  • Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch - Australian wine to match with game meat 
  • Hand Job Nail Salon & Spa - San Francisco
• “Do you like this name?” isn’t the right question to ask. Don’t ask people for their opinion. Opinion doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is “Does this get noticed (by those you seek to serve)?”
• Tips on how you can get helpful feedback on your naming ideas
• The process the brain takes when it hears a new name:
  • An attentional cue is fired…Do I notice this?
  • A feeling happens…What do I feel?
  • We make meaning of it…What do I think?
• Rent a Head - creativity idea promoted by Todd Sampson to get you unstuck. Imagine you are your favourite expert in the field where you need advice/support - what would they do in this situation?
• What is your relationship with your name?
• Why Louise stays out of the baby naming game - Abbisiddy, anyone?
• A name is an evolving thing
• Our names evolve over the course of our lifetimes, as does what we want that name to represent and communicate 
• Stage names and nom de plumes
• Le Gateau Chocolat
• Meow Meow
• Freedom to act differently, behave differently , be braver 
• Robert Zimmerman > Robert Allen > Elston Gunn > Bob Dylan 
• The power of 3 syllables 
• Is a name that starts with B more trustworthy than one that starts with C?
• We want names that stick. Names worthy of being talked about
• Ken Davenport - The Producer’s Perspective Blog

Her love of rap, classic rock and pop music led her to studying Entertainment Business. She worked in the music department of the major talent agency ICM Partners before leaving to follow her heart into the world of acting and theatre.

Since then Priya has been on a very intentional path to build the career she wants and develop a platform where she can help everyone feel like they can belong in the theatre, whether they are making the work or experiencing it.

With Kevin Schuering and a team of collaborators, Priya filmed a sequence of numbers from the musical "The Last 5 Years" to plant the seeds of possibility and open people’s eyes (including mine) to broadening the scope of who can tell the stories of the pieces we already know and love.

Just like her blog Sunday Night Sonder, this episode with Priya gives you a chance to get to know the person behind the work. Learn about what drives her, what she believes in and what she hopes to achieve.

Find and follow Priya online:

website | subscribe to Sunday Night Sonder

Links and show notes from this episode:

• Demons vs Daemons from Priya’s Blog
• Let’s rethink the casting of existing theatre pieces. Why aren’t there a greater variety of actors playing these roles. Is it because the script says they must be played by an able bodied white actor, or is that just the only way it’s been done until now? How might we broaden the scope of who can tell these stories?
• We discuss The Last 5 Years Project that Priya filmed with fellow actor Kevin Schuering, directed by another Studio Time guest, Billy Bustamante
• Finding a team of collaborators who are possibility driven
• Why Priya and Kevin wanted to share The Last 5 Years through the medium of video
• Using the constraints they were given in terms of budget and time to their advantage
• How to think about “when you are ready”
• Planting seeds of possibility about what could happen and what things could look like
• Knowing who your work is for and not for can turn negative feedback into fuel
• Priya’s artistic home, the Jen Waldman Studio
• Discovering My WHY Changed Everything - Studio Time ep 4 featuring Jen Waldman
• The power of building a community around the ideas you believe in
• An unconventional path to becoming a theatre-maker
• Running Towards the Bang - Studio Time ep 16 featuring Peter Shepherd
• What Priya learned from working in Entertainment Business about gatekeepers
• Cultivating and nurturing your audience
• GIving the audience a chance to see themselves represented, not just in the way they look but by what they believe in and what they fight for
• Sunday Night Sonder - inviting people to get to know the artist behind the work
• Being intentional about Building Your Career (listen to Priya on The Dreaded Question Podcast with Lili Torre)
• The difference between a platform and a career
• Why sonder can be difficult to practise with the people closest to us
• How might we seek opportunities to challenge our conscious and unconscious expectations and biases?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this episode. You can reach me (Matthew) here.

Thanks for listening!

In this episode Shereen talks about her unconventional path to becoming a leading lady of the stage, the solidarity she has always felt with the character of Eliza, her dance (or should we say aggressive movement) with imposter syndrome, being faced with the  challenge to conform growing up as a middle eastern woman in post 9/11 America and the opportunity and responsibility she finds herself with as she travels the nation representing the Middle Eastern identity.

Breaking the 'Historical Mold' of Eliza Doolittle - by Shereen Ahmed for The Ensemblist

Find and follow Shereen online:
website | instagram

Links from this episode:
Imposter Syndrome

Jen Waldman - Ep #4 Discovering My WHY Changed Everything
Peter Shepherd - Ep #16 Running Towards the Bang
Bart Sher - Director
Laura Benanti

In the spirit of inclusion, I have included a transcript of this episode for the benefit of anyone who might not be able to listen to this podcast. If you know anyone who would like to read this episode, please point them towards studiotimepodcast.com/blog/alieb

Side note: In our conversation, we talk about ABLE, the docu-series which highlights the powerful artistic contributions being made by people with disabilities. At the beginning of October 2019, ABLE: a series is available to watch in the United States. If you live in other regions, you'll need to search your local Amazon Prime platform. It's not accessible on the Australian site right now, but hopefully it will be before long. I do recommend you check the show's website to find out the most current information whenever you listen to this episode.

Find and follow Alie B. online:

aliebgorrie.com & alie b.'s instagram | ableaseries.com & able: a series instagram

Links from this episode:

Red Mountain Theatre Company's Human Rights New Works Festival

Alie B.'s blog A Cockeyed Optimist

Transcendence Theatre Company

Peter Shepherd - Ep #16 Running Towards the Bang

Jen Waldman - Ep #4 Discovering My WHY Changed Everything

Seth Godin - Linchpin

Sam's Room

Able: A Series' co-creator Kallen Blair 

Alie B. on The Dreaded Question Podcast with Lili Torre

LEAD Conference - Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability

Brene Brown

Peg Leg Bates - wikipedia and youtube

Billy also creates and captures images as a photographer through his business Billy B Photography and teaches at the Jen Waldman Studio.

In our conversation we talk about being an artist first, colour conscious casting, discovering how you can best be of service to a project that you believe in and leading with purpose.

Find and follow Billy online:
billybustamante.com | billybphotography.com | instagram

Bradley and I talk about how the belief and encouragement of just one person can alter the trajectory of your career, we talk about the true value of prizes and awards, and how to choose projects that allow you develop specific skills that will then benefit your work globally.

In this episode:

• understanding who is your bio for and what should it communicate to them
• how the power of one person believing in the work you do and what you might create can alter the trajectory of your career
• how to find the resilience to keep developing a project over many years and iterations until it finds its feet
• how to recognise the signposts along your journey that direct you to keep going
• the real value of prizes and awards
• how to find projects that will give you the opportunity to develop specific skills that you can apply globally to the work you do
• the value of having a collaborator who will push you to do better work and help you find
• what having a predefined constraint can do for your creative process

You can subscribe to the Making Musicals Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

If you enjoyed this episode, you might like to listen to Episode #09 with Eddie Perfect

Upside.fm is a podcast that looks at whether it’s possible to build a start up outside of Silicon Valley

Book tickets for Becoming Bill - playing at Brisbane Powerhouse Arts Aug 14-25, 2019

Find Bradley online:

website | instagram | facebook 

With her husband Jeromy, Lyndy left New York City and returned to her hometown of Lexington, Kentucky where the grass is not only greener...there actually is grass. Her career expanded to include direction, choreography and teaching and Lyndy was invited to work on productions at Universities and Regional Theatres.

In 2015 Lyndy and Jeromy launched the Lexington Theatre Company, which presents a season of music theatre each summer. They match together today's Broadway stars with tomorrow's Broadway hopefuls to bring wonderful theatre talent to the Lexington community and provide quality training and a pathway towards a professional career for aspiring artists.

Notes and links from this episode:

• what Lyndy learned going into her first long running show
• surviving your first year as an aspiring performer in NYC
• the importance of holding loosely to your goals while letting each experience lead you to the next and being open to discovering opportunities that may surprise you along the way
• the long and heart-wrenching audition process that led to Lyndy making her Broadway debut in the 2006 Revival of A Chorus Line
• listeners in the US can watch Every Little Step on Amazon Prime (not available to view in Australia)
• in Knock Down the House AOC says “for every ten rejections you get one acceptance, and that’s how you win everything” 
• the process of keeping an audition log to track when you book the job and when you get cut (and why)
• being prepared for disappointment can help you deal with the bumps in the road you will inevitably face
• the way you decide what jobs you’ll audition for may change based on what stage you are in your career and other life factors you need to consider
• the importance of making sure you’re aligned with what the project is going to be and making sure that it’s going to support the type of life you want to live
• why Lyndy and Austin Eyer decided to write Broadway Swings as a tribute to and resource for those performers who work as swings in theatre shows
• how teaching programs can help young performers train their “swing brain” and gain an understanding of what is required of a swing
• what Lyndy loves about Broadway and theatre and what she would love to change
• why Lyndy and her husband Jeromy Smith decided to form the Lexington Theatre Company to bring music theatre to that part of the world and provide training opportunities for the next generation of performers
• thinking about feedback from a position of service and always keeping empathy in mind
• the importance of having an appreciation for all the people and departments that are contributing to making your show or project the best that it can be
• once you’ve reached your goal or fulfilled your dream, how do you think about what’s next?
• the value of a great mentor - how Wayne Bryan from Music Theatre Witchita helped Lyndy and Jeromy get the Lexington Theatre Company off the ground, bringing them back full circle to Kentucky

You may also like to listen to the previous episodes of Studio Time that we referenced:

Listen to Jen Waldman, visit her website and discover her podcast with Peter Shepherd The Long and the Short of It

Listen to a fellow Oklahoma City University alumni Drew Wutke
SYTYCD Choreographer Al Blackstone tells the story of his audition journey to book a job on Wicked in this episode

Follow:

Lexington Theatre Company website | instagram | facebook

Read Broadway Swings

Her book Beyond Talent is full of advice, examples and practical tools to advance a career in music.

Notes and Links from this episode:

• Why Angela decided to compile the answers to the questions she was most commonly asked by musicians and turn them into a this book
• What initially being turned down by a number of publishers (before signing with Oxford University Press) taught her about rejection
• Adam Grant's Work Life Podcast episode "Bouncing Back from Rejection"
• The Tools and Coming Alive by Barry Michels and Phil Stutz
• Read more about Resistance in Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art
• What happens when you get the exact thing you wanted and worked towards, only to discover it's not what you thought it was going to be?
• When is the right time to begin thinking about and planning how you might build your career?
• Answering the artist's eternal dilemma "How do I describe myself?"
• Try this exercise before taking your next promotional or headshot photos
• Check out an example of great photography on Joshua Roman's website
• Why getting clarity about how you want to market yourself and your work creates a better connection with your audience and better performances
• Where music schools might be failing their students
• Why the selling part of "selling out" isn't the problem. It's when you discover you've fallen out of integrity with why you became an artist that you need a reset to get back on track.
• Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanney
• Angela's book Beyond Talent - Creating a Successful Career in Music

Follow:

Angela Beeching's website | Blog | Musicians Making It facebook group

He recently wrote “So You Want to be a Musician…unsolicited advice for aspiring musicians” a book filled with invaluable lessons and professional insights from a life devoted to the art of making music.

Dobbs earned a masters degree from Julliard, and has enjoyed a career spanning six decades conducting symphony, opera, ballet, music theatre and chamber ensembles. He has trained and encouraged young performers throughout his career. 

In this conversation we talk about some of the themes from his book, learn how rather than him discovering his niche as a musician, the niche found him - and Dobb’s shares some wonderful anecdotes about the people and situations that have made up his career.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Leon Barzin - Dobb’s conducting teacher for two years. In this clip you can see him conducting and hear about his work with the National Orchestral Association
• Berlioz Requiem
• Stravinsky Agon 
• Kathleen Ferrier - English contralto
• Patrice Munsel - American coloratura soprano
• Photo of Bubbles - the original Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess. Here he is tapping in the 1937 film Varsity Show.
• The Sydney Morning Herald remembered Ruth Pearl (Franks) here in 2008 and on this New Zealand site

Conductors referenced in this conversation include:

• Claudio Abbado (conducting Mahler 3 with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra)
• Dimitri Mitropoulos
• Leonard Bernstein
• Pierre Monteux
• George Szell
• Bernard Haitink
• William Steinberg

Follow:

You can learn more about Dobbs and purchase “So, You Want to be a Musician” at dobbsfranks.com

She was the engine behind the social movement Change Day Australia which reached 146 000 people who all pledged to do one thing that could make a difference for the people they worked with. Whilst Mary works with more health care professionals than artists, she can teach us how making intentional small changes in how we approach our work can produce really big results.

Notes and links from this conversation:

• TedX Talk: Three Elements for the Alchemy of Change
• Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking - book and TED talk
• Compassion Revolution Conference and Reel Feels Film Festival
• America - the story of a 93yo Mexican woman and her grandsons: trailer and  review 
• Morning Pages is a practise introduced by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way

Follow:

Freer Thinking website | Join the Revolution at Compassion Revolution | Mary’s TedX Talk

In a Pryor Life is an incredible book - Richard introduces readers to the larger than life characters who populated his life in Peoria where he grew up with his mum, and the well known names he rubbed shoulders with when visiting his father in Los Angeles. 

As an author he’s not afraid to lay himself bare, and the stories and anecdotes that Richard shares are honest, sometimes shocking and other times very funny. I thoroughly recommend the book as a fascinating read.

In this episode we touch on some of the stories from his early years and how they were influenced and shaped by his colourful family. We learn how he began to establish his own identity as a young adult, and how learning to love and accept himself on his own merits allowed him to push beyond his self destructive behaviour and live life on his own terms.

Links from this episode:

• Richard’s father - Richard Pryor
• Stirred Crazy
• In a Pryor Life website - find out more about Richard Pryor Jr, other interviews and articles and purchase your own copy

Follow Richard Pryor Jr:
twitter | instagram | facebook

What did you think of this episode? Send me an email matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

In this conversation Kristy explains how she came to leverage her hard earned experience in the world of dating into the concept and script for her first web series. She explains how quickly the writing and filming was done and then how she raised the funds and support to invest in proper post production and a well planned marketing roll out.

We talk about the show’s preview screening and how the feedback she received from women differed from the feedback she received from some men and we dig into stereotypes and gender expectations, especially in comedy.

Show notes and links:

• Deadhouse Films is a passionate group of filmmakers led by industry innovator Enzo Tedeschi
• Noam Dromi and Legion of Creatives
• Shane Abbess
• Drew Wutke on Studio Time Ep #19
• Kirsty Stark on Studio Time Ep #22
• Fiery Hawk comedy sketch about the audition process
• Something Fishy a twisted little film by Kristy Best
• How to Know if You’re Dating a Narcissist 

Follow:
instagram | facebook | twitter | linkedin

Just some of those stories include a post apocalyptic adventure series, a comedy series about an uber driver on the autism spectrum who’s looking for love and a transgender student’s first day at high school.

Kirsty describes how she has reverse engineered her way through what may have otherwise been insurmountable obstacles to get her projects made and why she chooses to keep her company in South Australia when others might move to Australia’s eastern states or even further afield.

In this episode:

• My Neighbor Totoro - trailer and wikipedia entry
• The Babysitter’s Club
• Epic Films
• Wastelander Panda - ABC iview Australia | Watch on YouTube
• Ella Macintyre joined the Wastelander Panda team as Social Media and Impact Producer to help leverage the initial attention the prologue was receiving on YouTube.
• Studio Time Ep 06 Liz Bojanic — Superpop and the Band Invented By Its Fans
• Pozible - Crowdfunding for Creative, Community and Passion Projects
• Kirsty describes the strategy Epic Films used to increase the goal amount they sought through crowdfunding while minimising any risk that they’d miss their target and end up with nothing 
• The Wastelander Panda team devised their first three episodes to achieve specific goals (crowd pleaser, showcase of director’s skills and painting a picture of the greater WP story world) designed as answers to the questions they knew they’d be asked before other partners would come on board to make future episodes
• Kirsty’s Tips for First Time SXSW Attendees
• Kirsty explains how she will ‘reverse engineer’ a process, by starting at a desired end point and then working her way backwards, asking questions about what will happen at each stage of the process
• Madman Production Company
• Mentors: Sophie Hyde and Rebecca Summerton from Closer Productions
• the power of thinking about why people might say no and countering their objections ahead of time…actually transforming the objection into the compass that shows us what we need to do to move towards our goal
• ask what is behind the criteria you are being asked to meet, and look how you can address this with the resources you have (or have access to)
• Goober - ABC iview Australia
• Studio Time Ep 04 Jen Waldman — Discovering My WHY Changed Everything
• Jen Waldman & Peter Shephen discuss Content Dictates Form on their podcast The Long and the Short Of It
• Goober’s writer Ben Crisp
• Creating the story world and bible for Wastelander Panda
• First Day - ABC iview Australia, watch this wonderful interview with actress Evie MacDonald
• Julie Kalceff - First Day’s writer and director
• Prix Jeunesse - Internation Children’s Television Festival
• Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
• Why I (Kirsty) Still Live and Work in Adelaide
• Matchbox Pictures

Follow:

Epic Films

Email Studio Time: matthew@studiotimepodcast.com

In this conversation we talk about how Xira released her first single only 18 months after she began songwriting, how important it is to get over yourself and share your ideas sooner rather than later, the benefit of surrounding yourself with the right team and how embracing something brand new and having the courage to start as a beginner again kickstarted her songwriting career.

Xira on Triple J Unearthed

Follow:
facebook | instagram | spotify | apple music

Michael tells the story of how his afternoons playing badminton got him arrested in Zurich, and how changing his planned research at Oxford led to him discovering and championing the work of pre-war and exiled German composers and lyricists that might have otherwise been buried under the weight of their moment in history.

Michael learned more in his first twenty five or thirty years than most of us will learn in our entire lifetime, but then perhaps more importantly has dedicated the forty odd years since then in sharing his knowledge, experience and insights with students, colleagues and audiences in New Zealand, Australia and around the world.

In this episode we discuss:

• The book that introduced Michael to the layabout Oxford lifestyle - Max Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson
• Limelight 
• David Bollard - New Zealand born Australian Classical Pianist and Teacher
• Swedish Playwrights Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• The Berliner Ensemble, the German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin
• The New York Times writes about a recent collection of Brecht’s Poetry, mentioning that “translating Brecht is no easy task, especially in the early rhyming poems that borrow their form from Dante and Shakespeare. The Domestic Breviary is full of ballads that are meant to be read out loud, preferably while smoking, to lute or guitar.”
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by Brecht
• John WIllett - one of the two major (English language) Brecht scholars in the world (obit from the NY Times in 2002)
• Rudyard Kipling
• Robyn Archer AO
• Cameron Goodall bio and Arts Review profile

For more episodes of Studio Time, please visit our website.

In this wide-ranging conversation Drew and I talk about the power of community and the importance of protecting spaces where people can feel safe to express themselves. We discuss the benefits of diversity and inclusivity, and Drew shares some advice he learned from Stephen Sondheim and Mother Teresa.

In this episode:

• Marie's Crisis Cafe
• Florence Birdwell
• Ron Raines
• Heather Botts
• Kristin Chenoweth
• Kelli O’Hara
• Jan McDaniel: Professor of Vocal Coaching OKCU
• Goodspeed’s Music Direction Intensive
• Catherine McDaniel: Instructor in Voice OKCU
• “I have found that keeping a community of great colleagues and people who you trust professionally is what will bring you good work, bring you joy and bring you less stress.“
• Jen Waldman Studio - Studio Time Episode
• The Long and The Short Of It Podcast hosted by Jen Waldman & Peter Shepherd (thanks for letting me use the clip!)
• Christina DeCicco
• Michael John LaChiusa
• Listen to Little Fish on Spotify 
• For Tonight - a new musical  (the song featured in the episode is "For Tonight" music and lyrics by Shenelle Salcido and Spencer Wililams)
• Erin Clemons - Studio Time Episode | instagram

Follow Drew:

website | instagram

Al talks about walking away from your comfort zone to throw yourself into something new, which is what he did when he made the transition from Broadway dancer to choreographer. We talk about what happens when you outgrow your dreams and how Al uses his work to bring people together to provide a shared experience that is meaningful. Along the way we talk about some of Al’s greatest teachers and mentors and auditioning for Madonna. 

In this episode we discuss:

• Jason Parsons
• Pina Bausch - the work Al refers to is Masurca Fogo. The NY Times reviewed it here and you can watch some clips from the piece online.
• Tremaine Dance Conventions and Competitions
• Doug Caldwell - interview and tribute video
• “The best story I have (from LA) is auditioning for a Madonna video. It was one of my first auditions. She was there, and she had all the boys line in a row and take their shirts off. Then she asked us one at a time what we thought about the war in Iraq.”
• The Gyrotonic Method
• Gaga - the movement research developed by Ohad Naharin (Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company). You can watch Mr Gaga, a documentary about Naharin on Netflix.
• ‘meet cute’ - Wikipedia explains the term “in film and television, a meet cute is a scene in which the two people who will form a future romantic couple meet for the first time.” I like this explanation from George Axelrod “Dear boy, the beginning of a movie is childishly simple. The boy and girl meet. The only important thing to remember is that—in a movie—the boy and the girl must meet in some cute way. They cannot...meet like normal people at, perhaps, a cocktail party or some other social function. No. It is terribly important that they meet cute.”
• Watch Al’s Winning Work from the Capezio ACE Award Brown Eyed Girl
• “As I’ve developed a language as a choreographer I’ve also developed my style as a teacher. When I’m in a class, my role is to inspire, to give a challenge, to give information and to motivate. Ultimately as a teacher I’m drawn to bring people together to have a shared experience that is meaningful.”
• “When I’m making anything i try to think about who I’m making it for and how I can connect to them or tell a story that will mean something to them.”
• Freddie Falls In Love
• The Joyce Theater (Manhattan) - book tickets to Freddie Falls In Love Jul 23 - Aug 4, 2019
• 10 Hairy Legs (all male modern dance company) perform Brian, choreographed by Al
• The Pizza Dance
• Mr Bojangles

If you’ve never seen any of Al Blackstone’s choreography, begin with this teaser and then head to alblackstone.net to see more.

Follow:

website | instagram 

In this episode we talk about the artist’s obligation to contribute to important conversations, how he transformed a news report into a musical and the importance of finding someone who believes in you and the work you do.

Find Timothy's published sheet music online at newmusicaltheatre.com and contemporarymusicaltheatre.com and listen on soundcloud or at his website timothyhuang.net

Follow:

facebook | website | instagram | twitter

Instead of talking online, Peter and I recorded this episode face to face in Melbourne - which was a first for me - so you might notice that the audio sounds a little different.  As someone who really enjoys The Long and The Short of It and the articles he writes at humanperiscope.com, I was pleased that we got to dig into some of Peter’s favourite themes and magic questions starting with how he thinks about Imposter Syndrome.

Peter hasn’t trained as an artist in the same way as some guests on this podcast, but I think the themes and questions we talk about in this episode are going to resonate with many of you listening, especially if you seek to grow and make a greater impact as you move through the world, however you choose to measure that impact. 

In this episode we discuss:

• Pete’s Podcast The Long and The Short of It
• altMBA
• Imposter Syndrome
• Art Thinking by Amy Whitaker
• Levelling Up
• Pete’s magic questions include:
  • What is the Hard Part?
  • Who’s It For?
  • What’s It For?
• Whiteboarding Podcast Episode: Website | Apple Podcasts Link
• Reveal - Peter’s new workshop for performing artists and creatives
• Erin Clemons on Studio Time: Ep 12. Knowing When To Say No
• Sonder   
• Jen Waldman on Studio Time: Ep 4. Discovering My WHY Changed Everything
• One of my favourite lines is “People don’t change because you tell them to. People change because they fall in love with a different version of the future.”

Follow:

website | podcast

In this conversation Bonnie describes the path that brought her LA (twice), and how her actor survival job grew into a career and business that has helped thousands of professional actors navigate their way through a notoriously competitive industry. 

We unpack some of the key topics from Bonnie’s book Self-Management for Actors, including

• Getting clear on your bullseye
• Having a daily plan for how you’re going to run your business
• Studying the success of those who’ve gone before you
• Web presence
• Launch at 85% 

While much of this advice is given with actors in mind, the concepts are transferable, no matter where your focus lies. This advice will help you develop a clear strategy to move towards your own goals.

As a gift to Studio Time listeners, Bonnie has offered this free resource 11 Days of Free Upgrades to Your Acting Career.

In this episode we discuss:

• Getting clear on your bullseye
• “You teach the industry who you are by everything you say yes, and more importantly everything you say NO to.”
• “A lot of times at the beginning everybody thinks they have to say yes to everything. So they end up not to creating a brand because of saying yes to things all over the dartboard and then they wonder why buyers don’t understand how to cast them.”
• Having a daily plan for how you’re going to run your business
• Studying the success of those who’ve gone before you
• “Success leaves clues.”
• Paying attention to someone who you could call a pace car is a really great way to have someone who is role modeling for you that it can be done. Then at any intersection where you say “No-one has ever done it this way that I want to do it,” I go “Great, now that’s where you’re going to make your own road.”
• Web presence
• “You don’t have to have a website, but you have to be google-able.”
• "Content is the one way you can make sure you will always be found. If you’re putting enough content out there...if you’re an actor that has a web show that you want to put together and you consistently post to youtube each week, that becomes a DOMINATION that you have on the web that’s actually really beautiful."
• Rock your headshot. Your headshot is your business card and number one piece of marketing material.
• Your Actor or Artist Survival Job
• Launch at 85%
• "You’re never going to get things out into the world to find what they could be if you keep waiting for them to be perfect."
• Self taping: not just for actors anymore. 

Follow:
website

In this conversation you’ll hear how representing the truth of our own humanity in all its nuances as artists we can create space for others to do the same. There are lots of fun stories here, including those about pixie dust and Meryl Streep. But the thing that has stuck with me from this conversation is the idea of the artist as advocate. I think the thing that separates artists from entertainers is that artists are sharing ideas that they believe in and ideas that need a voice. 

As we move into the new year, I invite you to think about your own work as you listen to this episode. What are you going to be an advocate for this year?

In this episode:

• Rabbit Hole - a play by David Lindsay-Abaire
• Kate Bornstein 
• Shakina Nayfack
• Emotional Creature - Eve Ensler
• Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan
• Tuacahn - check out this clip that gives you an idea of the setting for this amphitheatre
• “I was singing Neverland one night and I saw a shooting star while I was singing. It doesn’t get any more magical than that. It’s badass.”
• “If you are at an intersection of enough marginalised groups, it makes it very hard to have the freedom and support that you need to be an actor. You have to have a certain amount of privilege to pursue this career.”
• Ricki and the Flash - film where Em played opposite Meryl Streep

See Em's postcard HERE

Follow:

Em Grosland website | instagram

Michael talks about his training as an actor and how in his position at the New School on Broadway at NYU he seeks to replicate the best of the education he received and reimagine the rest. His education and outreach work is continued through the programs that  Broadway Inspirational Voices fund and facilitate in public schools and in partnership with Ronald McDonald House.

We’re in the midst of the Holiday Season as this episode is released and as soon as you’ve finished listening to Michael’s story, I urge you to go to wherever you download or stream your music and listen to the choir’s wonderful recordings. Search Broadway Inspirational Voices and fill your home with joy, hope and love. Happy Holidays to you all.

Follow:
Broadway Inspirational Voices

Erin has been part of the Broadway and US Tour productions of some musicals that I’m sure you’ve heard of or seen, but to step into the next phase of her career she’s making the decision to say no to many of the opportunities that she previously would have accepted. This is the story of a smart, talented and engaging human who I think will inspire you with her candour, her vulnerability and her courage.

In this episode we discuss:

• People who value life outside of work: ie. Kellie O’Hara, Audra McDonald & Daniel Breaker
• The Hamilcast: Ep 109: Yo, this one’s mine
• Finding a balance between your work and personal life
• Studio Time Ep 4. Jen Waldman — Finding My Why Changed Everything
• If you’re interested in finding your own why, check out this TED talk by Simon Sinek, read more about it in Start With Why and then perhaps get together with a friend and Find Your Why.
• Finding your why helps your process. It helps you know what you will do and will not do - which is something actors can really find joy in.
• Erin’s husband Collin created the theatre program at Baychester Middle School
• “I’m a big believer in the body manifesting things that the mind is already thinking, even if we don’t know it consciously.”
• “I was giving up a lot of my time for not the exact dream that I wanted to be living”
• The Long and The Short of It Podcast hosted by Jen Waldman and Peter Shepherd
• “I want to be doing the exact thing that I’m capable of doing”
• “Sometimes you’re on the right bus but you’re not in the right seat.”
• Discover more about the work of Jen Waldman at Jen Waldman Studio and Pete Shepherd at his website here
• Erin debuts her solo concert Mixology of Love at 54 Below, Jan 11 @ 11.30pm
• 24 Hour Musical NYC
• The power of “sprinting” to show you how much you can do and achieve in next to no time when you set your mind to it.
• Erin describes how not going to one of the “top acting programs” in college turned out to be the perfect decision for her. Sometimes it’s right to defy conventional wisdom.
• “Your time could be used so much more valuably if you take the wasted time that you spend going in for everything that you see and really put your energy toward the things you feel passionate about, the things that light you up. If you go toward those things with fire, I think that will be so much more rewarding than just letting everything land where it will.”
• “I’m looking at the people who came to this industry knowing exactly what they wanted right out of college and those people are the ones who end up doing exactly what they wanted because they had a clear vision of who they wanted to be and what kind of work they wanted to do.”
• The time you save by saying no to opportunities that aren’t right for you can be used for create your own work, getting together with friends and creating work, working on yourself in other ways, doing your own concerts, being a part of readings, learning an instrument, becoming a more interesting person.

Follow:
Instagram | Mixology of Love: 54 Below (NYC) Jan 11, 2019

In this episode we discuss:

• How Andy and I shared childhoods that were similar in many ways
• How his teacher and mentor Frank Ford helped him discover what sort of theatre-maker he could be
• Andy introduces me to the idea of the shadow of success
• He shares the three things that Simon Abrahams told him to do when his company Slingsby was faced with massive funding cuts and how those things changed the fortunes and the future of the company
  1. Start a fundraiser - There’s nothing like a crisis to encourage people to be supportive
  2. Charge more for what you do 
  3. Build Community - through running workshops
• We discuss the freedom of building a relationship of trust with your audience
• What it means to create captivating theatre for a village audience
• And most of all the value of observing, embracing and reflecting your individual and our collective humanity

Follow:

Slingsby Theatre Website

In this episode we discuss:

• Barb’s introduction to music via the family radio
• The story of her parents moving to Britain after WW2 to build new lives
• The course she studied as an undergraduate - it certainly wasn’t music!
• How jazz and cabaret might be considered musical “approaches” rather than musical genres
• “I think where the edge is, is where things are interesting...and where you can think and where you can fly or jump off.”
• Nicolas Roeg - film director
• Cal McCrystal - theatre and film director
• Bill Hicks - comedian
• What Barb learned from sharing stages with comedians such as Alexi Sayles and Julian Clary
• Being invited by the British Arts Council to tour to the Sudan, Malawi, Cameroon and the Yemen
• On touring to different countries: “Oh God. It just takes the ceiling off your house! You see the world differently.”
• “I think all discoveries are really just about yourself... People go to Antarctica to find themselves... All quests are the same... We’re all basically just coming to terms with ourselves.”
• Why the term ‘solo artist’ can be a misnomer
• “The thing about your ‘own thing’, is that it isn’t just your own thing. I’m always working with musicians... It’s not like I’m standing there on my own on a stage.”
• When it comes to other songwriters there are many women whose songs Barb loves to listen to and sing, but she hasn’t chosen to record a ‘massive body’ of any of their work the way she has with men such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel.
• “In a moth-like, flame-like way, I’m drawn to disturbed laser-like ways of looking at the world.”
• On what fans enjoy about her work: “There’s something in the flavour of what any of us do that other people relate to.”

Follow:

twitter | facebook | website

He describes the challenge of preparing two projects simultaneously, and as can be expected, it took us some time for to find a moment in his crazy schedule to record this interview. I’m very grateful to Eddie for making time on his Thanksgiving Weekend to speak with me from his New York apartment...and taking a moment away from his family, who you might occasionally hear in the background.

In this episode Eddie describes how he got started writing songs for his music theatre classmates, the joys and the challenges of collaborating on not one, but two musicals and I think you really get a sense of the master juggling act he’s pulling off. He’s a juggler with a BIG set of balls.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Broadway’s newest Boy from Oz, Eddie Perfect.

In this episode we discuss:

• Eddie’s first exposure to theatre - family pantomimes at the Alexander Theatre in Melbourne
• Writing songs for classmates at the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts
• His preference for writing from a brief, whether from a singer or giving a context for the situation or scene you want the song to serve
• “I love singers and it’s fun writing for a particular voice.”
• “One of the most satisfying things I do in my life is sitting in my little corner of whatever room I’m in making demos. I really love it, it’s like my little shed.”
• Finding an “Australian voice” in music theatre both in terms of accent and in content
• The lack of support, system or pathway for creating new musicals in Australia
• the possible impact for the Australian industry if productions by companies like Global Creatures have some significant wins overseas 
• Pitching and winning the role of composer/lyricist for Beetlejuice
• Mr Bungle
• Finite and Infinite Games - James P. Carse | Amazon | .pdf
• How to deal with the pressure and anxiety inherent in sharing your work with the world
• The place that awards have in helping you stay in the game
• What it’s like to be in the room (and the community) where it happens
• Juggling concurrent rehearsals for King Kong and Beetlejuice
• “There’s certainly enough on one show to keep you busy beyond your wildest imagination. Doing two shows is way too much - but I survived.”
• Who Eddie looks to for feedback, and his system for seeking and processing it
• “It’s hard. It’s so collaborative, and it’s such a strange dance, and the stakes are so high. It’s sort of terrifying but it’s also really lovely. There’s a real closeness that comes with that sort of collaboration.”
• Everything Was Possible - Ted Chapin | Amazon
• How you process the feedback you haven't asked for. How do you decide which feedback to pay attention to?
• Explore the visual design of Beetlejuice

Find Eddie’s shows online:

King Kong: Alive on Broadway

Beetlejuice

Follow Eddie Perfect:

Eddie Perfect website twitter

In this episode we discuss:

• Performing with Paula Abdul on the Late Late Show with James Corden
• The process of rehearsing for the Straight Up Tour, including how they rehearsed with the LED screen technology 
• The audition process leading to Tash booking the Paula Abdul tour
• “Paula is an artist, a dancer and a choreographer all in one. We’ll literally be doing a count of eight and her eye will flick to you if you make a mistake. She’s got shark eyes”
• What it’s like to be on tour - the fun of hanging out on the tour bus and the challenge of enduring the long overnight drives between cities
• How to cope with your sleep being constantly disrupted by the travel schedule
• How and why Tash made the decision to leave her successful career as a performer in Australia to move to Los Angeles
• “I had always wanted to move to America...You watch the American Music Awards and all that stuff and you go Oh God, I’d love to dance for artists like that.”
• How getting to the final round at an audition to perform with Lady Gaga at the Grammy’s helped Tash see that she was on the right track
• “It’s tough to be so far away from home and to be really hustling more than you’ve ever hustled in your whole life for something that you want.”
• “You might be on top today but in a week, when that’s done, you’re starting from scratch.”
• Why some people give up before they can realise their dreams
• How the limitations of Tash’s O1 visa (which mean she can only be employed as a dancer) may have helped her hustle in LA
• What does Tash’s day to day/week to week hustle involve?
• The difference Tash notices between colleagues and friends in LA and Australia and the importance and value of having a group of loving, supportive friends
• “You definitely need a circle that’s there to love you, no matter what’s going on.”
• The injury that threatened to end Tash’s career as a dancer
• “I guess dancing’s always been the one main thing in my life. So if I’m not Tash Marconi, working and being this dancer that people watch...then who the heck am I and what am I going to do with my life?”
• How a last-minute audition gave Tash the push she needed to resume her career
• The value of sharing what you’ve learned with other people
• “The whole time i was going through that injury i kept thinking I need to share what I’m experiencing, and I need to push maybe more than I would have pushed myself. So that one day if someone else has the same injury they can see that it’s been done before and they will get back there. Maybe I’m someone to help them do it.”
• Why Tash writes her blog and who she’s writing it for
• “I think vulnerability is the most powerful thing you can have and it has the ability to change people’s lives and the world that you’re in.”
• How to cultivate and maintain a positive mindset, including her affirmation routine 
• Blog post: Could I Borrow Your Map? 
• “I have to accept where I am now, where I want to be, and love that place in-between. I plan to love the discovery, the unknown, and really trust that every step I take is going to lead me on the path that was drawn just for me.”

Find Tash online: instagram | blog

Scott embodies many of the qualities that I think are essential for an artist to thrive. He is intentional about the work he is doing, who it is for and why it's meaningful. I know that his wisdom and generosity have made a difference in my life and with any luck, in this conversation I've offered him the chance to do the same for you.

In this episode we discuss:

• Matthew speaks with Scott on the Creative on Purpose Broadcast
• two teachers who made a difference in Scott’s life
• discovering Stoicism and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations via his 7th grade Latin teacher
• the guitar teacher who knew exactly what Scott wanted and was able to get him there as quickly as possible
• “There were teachers that just were not going to allow me to settle for less than the best  that I was capable of. And that was a completely new experience for me.”
• “I was going to do everything i could to listen to the aspirations and the intentions of the people I was teaching and try to get them to achieve their goals.”
• Music is a language. We learn language by using language. 
• At the earliest possible moment we should do what we do in public in front of others, share our talents with an audience and attempt to collaborate with others
• We don’t work music, we play music
• Part of playing is embracing the idea that sometimes things may not work out just the way we want, sometimes we will embarrass ourselves and make mistakes, but this is the path towards excellence. As musicians we have the opportunity to enhance our lives by enhancing the lives of others through sharing this gift
• Standing up and being seen. Speaking up and being heard.
• If you’re not nervous, you don’t care. And if you don’t care, you don’t belong up on stage
• Anxiety can be viewed as a gentle tap on a shoulder reminding you that what you’re doing matters
• If you serve the song instead of trying to make the song serve you, things generally go better
• Take all of your ego concerns out of the equation and concentrate instead on the craft. That’s really where the magic happens, where we truly begin to improve our own well being and our sense of happiness and accomplishment in what we do
• Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
• The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
• Footprints on the Moon - Seth Godin
• What To Do When It’s Your Turn - Seth Godin
• The balance of teaching what a student wants to learn vs what you believe they need to know
• Setting the hook: helping the student learn something that they’re already invested in within the first few lessons
• It’s important for us all to see that we are teachers. If we can accept that, we can seek to be the best teachers that we can be and enhance and elevate the lives of others
• Guided Guitar Lessons
• Creative on Purpose
• altMBA - an intensive, 4-week online workshop designed by Seth Godin for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead.
• “Working with others in collaboration makes good work great work”
• There is a system and a process that I’ve used to thrive in creative endeavours that a lot of people find difficult
• We have to have integrity and we have to engage others with empathy, We’re charged with the idea of service to others, not just serving our own selfish needs, wants and desires.
• Endeavor - Scott’s new book. How you can identify, develop and start delivering work that matters to the people you care about.
• Sometimes i think it’s best that we don’t turn the things we’re most passionate about into our job or career.
• I think it’s the holy grail if your vocation ends up being your career.
• “Cultivate your well being by aligning your values, your talent and your tribe.”
• What it means to be human, and what it means to be happy
• The Stoic Creative - Scott’s first book
• Negotiating the tension between wanting to stand out and needing to fit in
• Fear only shows up when you’re putting yourself on the hook, because fear wants to keep you humble and hiding.
• The importance of curiosity and courage

Follow:
Creative on Purpose website podcast 

Endeavor Book website 

Her work in the studio has contributed to the success of hit albums and her songs have been featured in hundreds of tv shows and films.

Liz and Andrew recently took to the stage of the world famous Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood at the debut live performance of their new band All Good Things. In this episode we discuss its origins as "the band created by its fans", we break down the odds of "making it" in the music industry, discuss the best skill to have as a songwriter and consider how having the rug pulled out from under you can actually be the catalyst that leads to your next success.

In this episode we discuss:

• The origins of the ‘epic rock’ band, All Good Things
• The European music market’s appetite for rock music (Tim Henwood from Palace of the King was my guest on Studio Time ep #01)
• How the #agtarmy got started. The band has pockets of fans who are also into comic books, super heroes, wrestling, anime and military and through keeping engaged with their fans online their audience has grown
• “We spend a lot of our day, when we’re not in the studio, reaching out to our fans”
• Classic Rock call All Good Things “the band invented by their fans”
• Why Liz and her husband Andrew left Port Douglas in tropical North Queensland to move to LA
• Sandy Roberton - Producer Manager
• Production Team The Matrix
• Avril Lavigne - listen to “Let Go” on Spotify
• “We discovered that what we were doing, was in fact being producers.”
• “All we really want to do is make music.”
• Breaking down the odds of those who “make it” in the music industry
• “The competition is definitely a lot fiercer now”
• The best skill to have as a songwriter is to know when it’s NOT working…when to toss an idea or put it aside
• “Taking the emotion out of it took the longest, and was the hardest thing to learn. But once I got the hang of it, that was when we really started to write good songs”
• ‘Tonight’ - Now and then there’s a song that you don’t have any faith in…that just has a life of it’s own
• The benefit of taking a break when you’re feeling creatively stuck
• Tips on how to keep your ideas fresh
• How long it usually takes to write and produce a song from start to finish
• All of the emotions and people’s life experiences are universal.
• “Write from your heart. Try to remember back to a time when you felt like that and how you reacted, because chances are that’s how everybody reacts”
• How the business model of being a songwriter and producer changed with the advent of digital downloads and then streaming
• “People are really diversifying in the ways they’re making money”
• Advice to someone coming into the industry now: diversify, have a lot of strings to your bow, and don’t be dazzled by the big label artists. Don’t be afraid to be on something you think is great with an independent artist.
• Often you’ll make more money releasing your music yourself than you ever would working with an artist who’s signed with a major label
• Thoughts on the change in the US political climate from someone who chooses to be an American citizen
• “We realised that the ugly side of America that we thought belonged in the history books was in fact alive and well. It had just been dormant, waiting for a leader.”
• Liz’s first experience as an activist was as a coordinator of the Women’s March of Los Angeles which brought together 750,000 women
• “It’s funny how something as un-rock and roll as having a kid can be the catalyst to make you work more efficiently, make better business choices and become a more responsible citizen. It’s funny how that works out.”

Discover:

SuperPop: website youtube
All Good Things: website instagram youtube spotify 

Ali trained as a classical soprano and performed as a Young Artist with Opera Australia before she was lured into the world of cabaret.

Her credentials on that circuit are held in such high esteem that she was appointed as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival - for two years she steered the ship alongside Eddie Perfect and for a third she took the wheel on her own.

Ali performs around the world, and I have joined her in various cities around Australia as well as Hong Kong and Edinburgh, where she is a festival favourite. I talked to her in Melbourne, where she is rehearsing Lorelei, the show she convinced Victorian Opera they should make.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with the soprano who ran away with the circus, Ali McGregor.

In this episode we discuss:

• "I think all art is a conversation, It really only finds its true calling when it has another’s gaze (or ears) upon it."
• How the opera singers from Covent Garden who sang after-hours at Wilton’s Music Hall inspired Ali’s show Opera Burlesque with Antoinette Halloran and Dimity Shepherd.
• At one time [when you went to the] opera you’d play cards, drink and eat salami in the balcony. You’d throw stuff at the stage if you didn’t like it and cheer if you did. Opera is such a refined, high art these days that I think it’s lost some of its bawdiness.
• Miss Behave Game Show
• Any art has its extremes
• I’m a big believer in collaboration and really finding fantastic collaborative groups of people.
• I do believe I have pretty awesome taste in people.
• The flow on benefits of gifting someone(s) with your trust
• Letting down my defences and trusting the room full of creatives was a massive challenge. It was shocking to me how much of a challenge that was.
• How her three years as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival continue to inform her work as an artist.

Follow:

Ali McGregor website facebook instagram

Lorelei Victorian Opera book tickets

Our mutual friend Peter describes Jen as a human stethoscope - suggesting that she's an expert at getting to the heart of a matter. As you'll hear in our conversation, she trained as an actor and made her Broadway debut in Maury Yeston's musical, Titanic. She was in the Broadway company of Wicked and toured the US as Nessarose.

Using her background in the arts, Jen also speaks to audiences in business, education and public service -encouraging creative thinking and imagination, so that people everywhere can cultivate new ideas and share them with the world.

I've been looking forward to sharing this conversation with you. In this episode we discuss how as artists we can claim more responsibility for the impact of our work, Jen offers her perspective on the state of the New York theatre industry, you can learn how to make yourself indispensable as an artist, how discovering her WHY changed everything for Jen, learn why it might be time to get new headshots and how to seek and filter feedback that you can use.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with the human stethoscope, Jen Waldman.

In this episode we discuss:

• making the move from Southern California to New York to study theatre
• “It’s really important to live in a place you love.”
• exploring the connection between creativity and serendipity
• the idea that creativity is the ability to find the link between two seemingly different things
• Jen's work as a coach at the Jen Waldman Studio in NYC and the Reboot Program
• claiming more responsibility for the impact of your work
• the theatre industry in New York is pretty busted and broken
• the myths that actors have been about what they are allowed to do or be
• how to identify the myths, deconstruct them and then seek the actual truth
• how to make yourself indispensable as an artist (even when you’re interpreting the work of others)
• Linchpin, by Seth Godin is required reading in Jen’s program
• Start With Why - Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action
• Find Your Why - This book by Simon Sinek, David Mead and Peter Docker outlines how to conduct a WHY discovery process
• how you can look at opportunities that present themselves through the filter of whether or not they reflect your why
• the impact that discovering her why had for Jen
• you don’t have to be feeling stuck to experience an “aha moment”
• Simon helped Jen realise that her core skills weren’t industry-specific
• how to think about who you do and don’t want to work with
• “As an artist it’s really important to me to understand where the science ends and where the art begins.”
• A Second Chance - a book by Cat Hoke about new starts, forgiveness, shame and the power of possibility
• “I do believe that we tend to marry our dreams and then feel a sense of obligation to pursue them even when our circumstances or desires change.”
• Let Us Not Confuse Waiting In Line With Productivity
• “You are a self identified creative.” So who gets to decide your identity and character?
• reclaim the time you might have spent waiting to be picked and invest it in innovating new ways to get your work seen by the people you want to see it
• if you want something, you must immerse yourself in the world that surrounds the thing that you want
• resumes are sunk costs on display. can we put the resumes away and put the work first?
• Sunk costs are a gift from your past self to your present self, that you can choose to either accept or reject.
• Ignore Sunk Costs (blog post) by Seth Godin
• why it may (or may not) be time to get new headshots. [Ps. Kurt Sneddon captures amazing headshots.]
• Thanks for the Feedback - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
• how to offer yourself feedback - "generating an objective eye that allows you to witness your own storytelling and your own technique so that you can identify what could change, and then change it"
• ask yourself Who is it for? What is it for? What change am I seeking to make? Sometimes the most powerful question you can answer is Who is it NOT for?
• See and Be Seen

Follow:

Jen Waldman Studio

The Long and The Short Podcast with Peter Shepherd, the Human Periscope

I first discovered Paul when I signed up for Seth Godin's altMBA program in January 2016. As its website says, the altMBA is an intensive, 4-week online workshop designed by Seth for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead. When I applied I certainly didn't think I was performing as highly as I could, and I was excited about surrounding myself with people from around the world who were all seeking to lift their game. Those four weeks transformed the way I thought about myself, the way I understood the people around me, and it allowed me to reimagine my own place in the world.

Paul was one of the coaches in that program, and I noticed that he was wise and deeply philosophical for such a young guy. I began to read the articles he posted at motivatedmastery.com and his book Connect the Dots.

He later served as the Community Manager at altMBA, finding ways to continue developing connections throughout the program's community. As the lessons and projects came to a close and the students became alumni there was a strong desire to have a way to maintain the energy and camaraderie that had grown inside the course. Paul designed ways for alumni to stay in touch, support our colleagues' work and celebrate their successes.

In September 2016 Paul joined CreativeMornings — a breakfast lecture series in over 180 cities that connects and celebrates the global creative community as their Director of Content.

This year he co-created The Observers, a curious community dedicated to photography and books.

This was the first time we'd actually spoken, and I was thrilled that we got to spend time talking about one of our favourite subjects. Paul's passion and enthusiasm for community shines throughout.

In this episode we discuss:

• What it means to surround yourself with a community that inspires you
• Seth Godin’s altMBA and CreativeMornings
• Paul’s experience of the community in Brooklyn
• How he thinks about his process of “learning in public” as he develops as a photographer
• How the power of learning with other people accelerated his proficiency as a photographer
• “You gave me the opportunity to make this photograph of you, to take that chance, to connect with you and just capture this moment, right here.”
• Edvard Munch - The Scream, and his photography
• How the right photo can help you reimagine your identity and change your narrative
• Bill Wadman - portraits and editorials. [Check out his Dreamscape Series, my favourites are Moon, Tattoo and Tree.] The portraits here are stunning.
• The beginnings of The Observers, a project where acclaimed photographers talk about the photography books that have influenced them
• Wesley Verhoeve - photographer. Curator at the International Center of Photography in New York and co-founder of The Observers website and instagram - photo books recommended by visionaries.
• [When we began The Observers] “there was nothing out there that really highlighted the power of photography books as a resource for inspiration, learning and ultimately becoming a better photographer. We love books, we believe in them and we also believe in community and learning together. Could we ties these things up in a simple and clear way?”
• Defining what success looks like before you begin a project
• Being intentional about the platforms on which you can and can’t be found
• “We were just super intention about what social platforms we were going to be on, what ultimately we wanted to grow and where we wanted to meet people.”
• The power of starting small and then growing
• Joel Meyerwitz - one of Paul’s favourite photographers
• Greg Lutze - founder of VSCO
• Tina Roth Eisenberg (Swiss Miss), founder of CreativeMornings
• Talking about The Observers “It finally took me eight years to build something the right way.”
• The benefits of collaborating with someone to build something rather than doing it yourself
• “How can we make this as simple as possible, so that because it’s simple…it’s beautiful?”
• Jeffrey Phillips - “He can capture someone’s entire being with a few simple lines.”
• How difficult it can be to commit to true simplicity and purity of purpose
• Examining your heroes’ influences and noticing the patterns, connecting the dots and exploring how you can integrate those ideas into your own work
• Wide and shallow vs narrow and deep
• What are sunk costs?
• “By starting small, intentionally, and very laser focused, you ultimately can expand in an authentic and natural way.”
• Taking the observation “Hey, this doesn’t exist” and then asking “Does a community of people who are interested in this exist?”
• “100% — I am a strong believer and evangelist for growing your newsletter list!”
• Seth Godin on Permission Marketing
• “I truly believe that out of any platform, email is direct connection.”
• On being conscious with your newsletter - the flow of it, the tone of your email, what you’re giving your readers, what you think they need on their journey and meeting them where they are
• The value of communicating with your audience via email vs social media
• Connect the Dots: Strategies and Meditations on Self Education
• The power of online communities and how valuable it can be to spend time with your online friends and  tribe in person
• “It’s like a flower growing at warp speed.”
• There’s a beauty to online communities when the environment and context is tailored to bring the right people into the room, who share world views and an attitude of wanting to open up and learn. In this context connection and trust seem to be accelerated.
• “Don’t feel shame in having an online community where you really feel like you belong. It’s worth experimenting ...

As a lapsed viola player myself, I was really curious to see what was going on with this account and the guy behind it. With a slew of engaging content on instagram and a thriving youtube channel as well, I reached out to That Viola Kid to see if we could talk. Neither being a classically trained musician or a big deal in social media is unusual on its own, but from the outside it seems an unlikely combination.

Join me as I dive deep into classical music, social media, story narratives and hip hop, with the best violist you know, That Viola Kid, aka Drew Alexander Forde.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Drew’s mum began cultivating a love for classical music in him from a very early age
• How he chose his instrument: “I was always looking for a way to express myself melodically, which is ironic, because I play the viola.”
• Training yourself to be patient and have long term goals if you wanted to have any longevity in the social media space
• “My goal is not to be the greatest violist on Planet Earth. I want to be the best violist you know.”
• Why chamber music is the entry point to invigorate a new audience for classical music
• GroupMuse - host your own chamber music house party
• When trying to discover a way to be noticed, Drew asked “How would I get somebody to come to my concert?” To answer his own question, he challenged himself to become the online “big brother” of a lot of younger kids who play music.
• How Drew’s audience has grown up alongside him. “There’s a kinship and an attachment that we’ve created.”
• Creating a network where people feel like they’re seen and heard.
• Social media is Reality TV 2.0 - where people can take a voyeuristic look into what their life might have looked like.
• Wisecrack - a youtube channel that covers the philosophy of modern media
• How we’ve changed the way we think about classical music
• Rethinking the way classical music is presented and consider the possibilities of educational, interactive performances
• Leonard Bernstein and the Young People’s Concerts single-handedly engendered and created an incredible new audience for classical music
• The art doesn’t have to change, but maybe the way we present it does.
• Duality
• How To Make Money as a Musician
• “The best part of creating your own music (especially with lyrics) is that it allows people to have an intimate conversation with you, and you with them.”
• Shape of You
• The ways artists can invest in social media
  • Creating a story narrative
  • Engage your audience by asking them questions
  • Create content that you would want to see
    • Help somebody
    • Help them learn a new skill
    • Help them feel better
    • Answer questions & problems
  • Help people understand what you do
  • Don’t worry about going viral. Focus on spreading the largest foundation you can.
  • The more content you have out there, the more likely you are there to stay
  • Do it consistently, because you never know who may discover content and when
  • You’ve got to be in the long game
• How to develop a story narrative
• “Imagine yourself as a tv show that has (hopefully) 80 seasons.”
• The similarities between a story narrative and music’s sonata form.
• The importance of building community and #playhomieplay
• Focussing on the depth of engagement with your followers can help you become platform-proof

Follow: Drew Alexander Forde instagram youtube patreon website

I got to know Tim while working with him in musicals like Kinky Boots and Mamma Mia, but most of the world knows him from his hit songs and string of successful Australian bands. He’s been a key player in The Superjesus, The Androids, Rogue Traders and is now the front man of Palace of The King.

In this episode we discuss:

• Tim’s beginnings as a classical guitarist
• Playing Kiss songs in the garage with his cousin Kevin
• His first gigs at the age of 12
• How Tim left school at 16 and began an apprenticeship as a carpenter where he was “a little kid in a grown up world”
• “I learnt if you work hard, that not only is the end result better, but essentially you get rewarded better.”
• How a crazy Spaniard taught Tim how to diffuse tense situations
• The early days when he was “the junior” and earning less than everyone else on the gig
• The asset of being the young guy in the band and the value you can bring
• “I don’t want to have a life that’s based on making money.”
• “If you’re a good person, people are more inclined to want to help you.”
• “My 16 year old self would have had a heart attack and said ‘you’re kidding me! You mean I’m going to do all that?!’”
• Facing the idea of being a heritage act
• About putting music to the side — “I’ll go down in flames before that happens.”
• How Palace of the King started when Tim was invited by three younger guys to become the singer of their band
• A year of Tuesday night residencies, and touring the country playing over 100 shows a year
• Drawing against his home loan to fund his belief in the band before it had started paying its own way
• How the paradigm of the music industry has changed over the past five years
• You have to play anywhere and everywhere and prove yourself
• "People will help you if you help yourself."
• Having to weigh up opportunities and decide whether to go with what you know or try something new.
• It’s good to be a loud, powerful rock band. But if you’re too loud on stage it’s going to sound like crap out the front.
• The experiences become songs.
• I was basically trying to fast-track the 10,000 hour rule for the (younger) guys.
• "We run ourselves like a 70s band that exists in 2018."
• Great riff-y, blues-y rock music.
• "The reality is we’re punching above our weight (for an indie band), but my ambitious, creative side makes me want to stay in the game and I ask myself 'what can I do?' to make the next record more successful."
• "A lot of older people bitch and moan about the music industry, and they’re wrong!"
• Finite and Infinite Games - James P. Carse | Amazon | .pdf
• "I’ve been in the situation where I’ve had the quick success in the past, but it actually didn’t help me long term."
• Building a relationship with [Palace of the King] fans. "I want them to trust we’re going to make a great record, they trust we’re going to play a great gig. They know we’re in it for the right reasons and they genuinely love the band."
• You have to build a fan base, a legitimate, real fan base, who will always be there for you. Otherwise you’re really wasting your time.
• "I love doing everything I do. 16 year old me would be rapt at doing a theatre show."
• Bob Lefsetz - Star/Journeyman
• "I did it. I did what I set out to do. If it’s now, it’s now...and there’s no regrets."

Discover: Palace of the King Spotify website facebook 

Follow: Tim Henwood instagram twitter