It's that time of year again, when pumpkin spice invades your latte, kids dress up like their favorite heroes, villains, nightmares, and corporate superstars hoping for a bag full of candy, and gough, your favorite Australian filmmaker, shows up on Getting Work To Work to talk about his latest film, Trick Or Treat. Armed with the biggest budget in the history of BeernutsProductions.com, a stable of actors dishing out sketches and monologues, 27 costumes, and nature balls, gough's latest film pulls no punches against Halloween. In our conversation, we talk about the struggles he faced making the film in both casting and costumes, how he works through challenging emotions, stupid advice actors have received from their teachers that they have brought to the set, and all the hilarity fit for print and podcast.

Weaving through the design, data, stories, and statuses on social media, I witnessed the human need to be seen; the longing to be discovered. I like this word, "longing." I recently came across a book by Sue Monk Kidd called, Writing Creativity and Soul and she writes a lot about longing as a creative, a writer, woman, and a mother. What a word to sit and reflect upon: Longing. Merriam-Webster defines longing as "a strong desire especially for something unattainable." In this episode, I explore the building blocks of the soul: deep questions that take time to answer.

How far am I willing to go? How much work am I willing to do? Two powerful questions today's guest asked herself at the start of her writing journey as she considered what it meant to be a writer. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is a writer, podcaster, teacher, and publisher on the show to talk about writing, podcasting, and her latest book, Pool Fishing, a collection of stories connected by place and featuring characters who live on the fringes of society. In our conversation she shares insights into the act of writing and being a writer, the fluid nature of creativity, the challenges present in short stories, why writing dark fiction can help us make sense of the world, and rejection. We also talk about her podcast, Writers on Writing, which started as a radio show in 1998. 27 years later, it continues as a way for her to learn more about the writing process and share what she discovers with writers around the world.

I've heard this phrase way too often in the past 25 years: "If you're ignoring [enter the trending or disrupting technology], then you're already behind." While the phrase may be technically true, it does require a major assumption: equality. It assumes that every person has equal access to the technology, responds with openness and trust instead of skepticism and caution, and can actually see value through the veil of hype, fear, and propaganda. Those are big assumptions, but even bigger are the promises and the corresponding bubbles. Don't worry about what doesn't seem to be right, just go all in, because you'll be able to cash out. Or so the "logic" goes. Do you want to know what I've never heard in relation to this notion of being behind? That you're right on time. So, that's what I'm going to focus on today because not only is it an accurate statement, it is also life-giving and dream-fulfilling.

How do you push creative boundaries and embrace opportunities as they come? You solve problems and focus on the people around you. Today's guest on Getting Work To Work, Josh Simons, is no stranger to the creative business world. According to his bio, "he ran a record label, publishing function, film production company and was the lead singer of Australian indie rock band Buchanan." Now, Josh is the Chief Executive Officer of Vinyl Group, Australia's only ASX-listed music company, and founder of Vampr. In our conversation, Josh shares lessons he learned in his journey from recording studios to boardrooms. He talks about his curiosity with people and what motivates them, bands as a lens for looking at the business world, the objective nature of success, the creativity present in writing songs and leading people, why the asshole creative shouldn't be the model for success, and how to manage the emotions in your mind with sticky and transient solutions.

"Can I pick your brain?" Of course, you absolutely can. But I've noticed a lot more professionals expressing disdain for people reaching out and wanting to ask a few questions. But before I dive into a rant based upon passing comments and not a lot of data, I'm going to speak about the type of creative industry I want to be part of, one that is built upon the sharing of knowledge, not just online but person to person. Why? Because that's how we build community, a reputation, and dare I say it, a legacy. In this episode, I'm going to share eight ways we can build up others around us from newbies to the competition. Can you imagine a creative world where everyone wins? I can and this is how we do it.

Their mission may be simple—"We Tell Makers' Stories"—but hidden in every photo, interaction, page, and podcast is an unquenchable fire to build a global community. Kate and Jack Lennie are the visionaries behind We Are Makers, an independent print publication and podcast featuring makers all over the world. In our conversation, we talk about the power of storytelling and what makes a compelling story. Kate and Jack also share why they choose to produce a magazine, the ever-evolving nature of their work, how they stay strong as a couple, the visceral nature of failure when working with your hands, overcoming obstacles, the power of having a mission, and what it was like to distribute the first We Are Makers grant.

How do you get better at your craft? Sounds like a potential start to a not so funny joke, but I'm serious: How do you get better at your craft? With skills that rely upon your hands and time—like woodworking or pottery or painting—you just have to do the work, go through the process, and see what comes out the other end. Is it good or is it crap? Probably. But in the digital world, it's a little bit different (or so we tell ourselves), because we can create or buy or borrow systems that indicate when something is broken or going to lead to failure. They can also do a lot of the mundane work for us. As a programmer, you can generate an entire program in seconds of time, shifting your time burden from authorship to editor. But do you actually get better as a programmer? Maybe. Improvement comes in different ways, I guess. But the more I think about getting better at my craft, the less it has to do with what software I'm using or not using, and doing the actual work.

There is often a moment in every interview on Getting Work To Work that stops me in my tracks. In today's interview with Kimberly Lau and Linda Young, they dropped the mic twice with these two mind-blowing moments: "We have enough clothing on the planet to clothe the next six generations" and "Since we opened nine months ago, we have saved 2,500 pounds in textile waste from the landfill." In our conversation, they share the mission and purpose behind Project ReWear, a resale business that goes beyond reselling clothes by rebuilding a system through tracking and valuing donations, measuring real-time impact, and making secondhand second nature. They are finding a way to impact the planet positively for generations to come and here to show you how you can too.

What did Arthur C. Clarke have to say in 1968 about communication in the distant future? Buried in the middle of a single page in 2001: A Space Odyssey, on a trip to the moon, is an interesting description of Clarke's imagined future and our realized present. It's always uncanny when science fiction gets something right, but that's not why I'm bringing this up. Instead, I'm more curious with this question: What can we learn from it? Yes, our communication is in chaos. It's like we're all standing around in the same room shouting, saying everything, hearing nothing. So, how do we filter the noise from the signal? Well, let's go on a literary journey to the moon, and see what we can learn from Clarke's Newspad.

As much as I love imagining dystopian and doomsday scenarios of AI overtaking humanity, talking with experts about positive implementation strategies is a better use of my time (and mental health). Building upon an education in Data Science and Analytics and AI ethics, Ben Tasker currently "leads a Data & AI Academy that upskills and reskills more than 36,000 employees in the public utility sector, preparing them to be AI-ready and future-ready." In our conversation, he brings stories of real world applications of technology and AI. We also talk about how to actually upskill and reskill, why disruption isn't new but the speed of change is, blended work environments and whether we'll have AI bosses, AI as a system not a tool, practical ways to use AI, how to develop a learning plan and apply AI to it, and how AI can be used in small business.

I love this framing of the duality of our work: the art—the stuff we're supposed to do—and everything else. It gets me thinking of the backwards nature of modern life, where the label of "what we're supposed to do" is affixed to everything but our art. Things like admin, networking, content creation, marketing, management. All important things, but would they be necessary (or even possible) if we didn't have the art and continually challenge ourselves to make the art better?

What is the connection between photography and memory? What are the stories beyond the frame of our most cherished family photos? What will we wish we had known about our loved ones? Profound questions and thoughtful answers with today's guest, Stacy Bass, photographer and author of Lightkeeper: A Memoir Through the Lens of Love and Loss. Fulfilling her curiosity for behind the scenes stories, Stacy tells her own tales of writing the book, why she became a photographer, what she discovered about her parents through photographs and memories, what it's like to be the de facto family archivist, the marriage of photography and writing, and how to keep the light of our loved ones alive after they are gone.

Who will you become in 12 months time? This question stood out in my recent conversation with Georgee Darling, because change takes time, even though I want it to happen immediately. Often this question leads us to action steps we can take daily to become who we want to be—and yes, I'll share several of my own action steps in this episode—but sometimes it keeps us stuck in our imagination, living in the land of what could be. What this question is really getting at has as much to do with vision as it does action. Not just over the next 12 months, but today, tomorrow, and up until your final breath.

If there's a quote from today's interview that sums it all up, it's this: "What's the point in building a business if you're not gonna build one that you really love?" Georgie Darling is a freelance writer and coach who helps woman build businesses that lead to freedom. In our conversation, she shares her journey from the world of journalism and branded content to coaching and freelance travel writing. We talk about why you often have to leave behind what's known to reveal the future, why people who travel to Bali become coaches, what it means to edit your life, burnout, quick wins versus long-term burns of meaning and purpose, unique ways Georgie uses ChatGPT, and the role community plays in finding freedom.

I've had a hard time coming up with new podcast episodes lately. It's not that I lack things to talk about, my mind is just in a million different places. Fortunately, a minute on Threads provided me with enough kindling to get my creative blaze started. Have you ever read something so hilariously ludicrous that you just couldn't stop laughing? According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, a new tech company called Inception Point AI is going to create "a stable of AI talent to host podcasts, and eventually become broader influencers across social media, literature, and more." The cost to do all this? $1 or less per episode. But that's not what got me laughing. It was this quote from CEO Jeanine Wright: "I think that people who are still referring to all AI-generated content as AI slop are probably lazy luddites." While that technically isn't a joke—or anything to make people laugh at a comedy club—it does reveal three truths that we need to reckon with: 1) the cost of creativity; 2) who profits from it; and 3) the growing need for more critics.

Have you ever listened to a song that completely changed your life? What about hearing a sax solo so intense, you end up moving across the country and changing careers? This is but one example of the power of art and music shared by today's guest, Alex Woodard, writer, musician, observer, and storyteller. In our conversation, he shares his origin story of becoming an observational artist in the worlds of music and words. He talks about why leaving social media behind wasn't the death knell for his creative career, why he produces companion albums for his books, the role of nature in his life and work, and our work as a record of our lives. Throughout, he sprinkles powerful questions and observations that will get you thinking a little deeper about how you're living your own life.

I'm trying to reimagine a new reality. Why? Because the one we've got right now has a few problems. But instead of a lengthy preamble, laying out the problems and having a healthy rant for fifteen minutes, I'm just going to dive into some solutions. But don't worry, I'm still going to rant because this is infuriating, the problems are systematized, incentivized, and habituated, and the people who care are constantly gaslit to believe they don't have the power to affect change. But power we have, especially when we band together. It's also going to take a healthy amount of work, imagination, and resilience to overcome billions of dollars of investment in conformity that trains us daily to be distracted, compliant, quiet, and alone.

How do you know the person you just met is who they say they are? A family member just called asking uncharacteristically to be bailed out of jail, what do you do? What do you say to someone whose offer to help is too good to be true? These are the questions at the core of today's conversation with Johnathan Walton, author of the must-read book, Anatomy of a Con Artist: The 14 Red Flags to Spot Scammers, Grifters, and Thieves. In this conversation, Johnathan shares how getting scammed out of $100,000 led him to his life's work of exposing con artists and helping people who have been scammed to find justice and peace. We talk about his journey from television reporter and reality TV producer to podcast producer and con hunter, why people don't educate themselves about con artists, how technology can be used against you and what to do about it, how he developed unshakable resilience, and what we can learn about creativity from studying the inexhaustible creative work of con artists. In a world of AI and frictionless technology that can be used to craft stories and keep track of endless details, Johnathan's work will prepare you for your own life's work: protecting yourself from the scammers, grifters, and thieves.

As I was lying in bed, my friend sent me a link to a conference and said, "Not seeing you on the speaker list." I clicked to see if I recognized anyone and after scrolling through three days of talks and speakers, I recognized two names, no one else. Times—yes, they change—but so do we. It's been at least eight years since I actively participated in that particular industry—web development for the curious—and honestly, I haven't looked back, but for a handful of times. Why? Because early in my career, I was actively tracking all the changes to the industry, growing, learning, and chasing relevance. I bent to match the arc of change, and after 20 years or so, I didn't recognize myself anymore. I had changed, but also recognized that I had more work to do, not in a particular industry, but within myself. So, I left behind web development and set out on a new journey of change, one that required me to wrestle, not with code but with my self.