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Chris Martin Studios

Getting Work To Work

In this thing called life, we undoubtedly face endless questions: How do I write a funny joke? Am I funny? Where is Chris? What is the meaning of life? Here to help us find some answers to those questions and to talk about his latest audio projects—Reflections – Where is Chris? and The Meaning of Life—is the funnyman himself, gough. We dive right into our typical podcasting shenanigans filled with laughter, inappropriate phrases, and the answer to yet another question: Who has the wettest mouth in Australia? We also talk about important things like oranges, human nature, two-line zingers, trusting your audio producer, how gough rehearses his actors to get great performances, and how he keeps his creativity fresh. If you’ve ever wondered where the line between drama and comedy is, gough even has an answer for that, too.

Show Links

Beernuts Productions • 

The Meaning of Life

Reflections – Where is Chris?
 • 

All of Quentin Tarantino’s Filmic Foot Fetish Moments

Crocodile Dundee (1986)

America’s Got Talent

9 Common Types of Oranges—And The Best Way To Use Each

Recording Room

Pulitzer Prizes

Zambia

Zambian kwacha

Still Life (2013)

Memento Explanation by Christopher Nolan – True Genius – Must Watch

The Muppets

The Happytime Murders (2018)

One Battle After Another (2025)

Breaking Bad (TV Series 2008–2013)

Big Mouth (TV Series 2017–2025)

“Big mouth Theme Song” by Charles Bradley

Human Resources (TV Series 2022–2023)

Mating Season (TV Series 2026–)

 • Episode Photo from Envato Elements: 
Fresh ripe oranges as background, top view

“Reflections” with gough (GWTW906)

As listeners of this show know, I love asking my guests what they are endlessly curiosity about, but what I rarely take the time to consider is that we could overload our curiosity. What do we do when this happens? Today’s guest provides several insights into forming our personal answer to that question. Micah Kassell is a graphic designer, drummer, and a deeply creative soul fascinated with curiosity, belief, and cult-like behavior. From corporate boardrooms to stages, he’s learned to approach teamwork from the perspective of the drummer, as time keeper and vibe tender. In this conversation, we explore his obsession with aspirational and motivational speech that builds fans of brands and culture. We also talk about his journey into music and graphic design, how his dad’s creativity influenced his life and career, why baseball is an imagination sport, learning to win and lose in life and business, why the trio is his favorite band and team configuration, patience, limitations, highlights and shadows, and learning to document his creativity with improvisation and communication.

Quotes:

“The longest of shadows are when the magic really happens.”

“Focus on doing really, really good and important things instead of just more things.”

Show Links

Micah Kassell

Iron Maiden – The Trooper (Official Video)

Dead Kennedys

Steely Dan

Rush

Paul’s Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition / Remastered)

A Tribe Called Quest

Bill Evans Trio

Ahmad Jamal Trio – Manhattan Reflections

Minutemen live & interviewed 1985

Ansel Adams

Pysanka

Have a good time all the time

Beabadoobee

Angine de Poitrine

Dan Harumi

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Abstract Light and Shadow on Walls and Floors

“Curiosity Overload” with Micah Kassell (GWTW905)

The best conversations not only have interesting questions, but also the necessary time and space to think and respond when answers present themselves. From “What most often brings you joy?” and “What are you endlessly curious about?” to “What is the space you need to give yourself today?” and “Why does where you are matter?”, today’s guest and I dive deep into ourselves and share what we discover. Michael Hunter is the Founding Mentor of Uncommon Teams, a Coach, Podcaster, and Author of The Resilient Tech Leader: Harness the Power of Mind, Body, Spirit, and Heart to Lead with True Balance and Joy. Beyond the questions, we explore topics such as communication and science, why AI will never replace him, the solid foundations that allow him to have fun with change, what it means to be an uncommon hero, tiny experiments, resilience, and the simplest possible process.

Quote from the Episode:

“The most heroic thing I can do is to help you get in touch with your own inner hero, so that you can go on your own hero’s journey.” – Michael Hunter

Show Links

Uncommon Teams

The Resilient Tech Leader: Harness the Power of Mind, Body, Spirit, and Heart to Lead with True Balance and Joy • by Michael Hunter

HERO Starter Kit (Adventure Kit – Cogsworth City)

Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth • by Roland Betancourt

Multiplicity (1996)

Phrenology

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb • by Al Perkins

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle • by Betty MacDonald

The Satir Change Model • by Steven M Smith

What About Bob? (1991)

Royal Hunt • by Raven Storm

 • Episode Photo from Envato Elements: 
Color geometric architecture of Egypt

“The Uncommon Hero” with Michael Hunter (GWTW904)

The longer your creative career lasts, the less written about your specific struggles. Writing and producing work for young professionals is enticing because there will always be an eager audience, hungry to succeed. They will 10x absolutely everything in order to keep up with the algorithm and crush the content calendar. The message never changes even though the audience does. But for the rest of us, time tempers all things. While your creativity continues to soar, your willingness to settle for long hours and low wages does not. You grow tired of playing the game. The message grows stale in your mouth. You still dream impossible dreams, but the truth is that you don’t need anything fancy, you just need to work on your craft. The patient reawakening has nothing to do with being the next hot commodity, it’s returning to you, practicing, focusing, and refining. Every single day. It’s not chasing popularity or relevance, it’s doing the work that resonates.

Quote from Episode

“We must train ourselves. Not to make spoons or jewelry or paintings or chairs but to be more competent, more forgiving, more patient. If we were simply training for production, there would be only engineering geared to cost-benefit analysis and not the value of Quality. But if you are truly interested in making changes in your work, if you are attempting to do work of Quality, then the work to be done is on you.” – Gary Rogowski, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction

Questions

 • Reawakening Question: Why do I keep going on?

 • Awakening Question: Why did I start?

Show Links

Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction • by Gary Rogowski

Guns N’ Roses – Patience

Perfect Days (2023)

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Rustic Metalworking Shop Interior with Forging Tools

The Patient Reawakening (GWTW903)

What’s your gift to the world? What makes you uniquely different than everybody else? Why should I choose you? Three powerful questions from today’s conversation with John Ravaris, consultant, speaker, and author of Define Value, Drive Growth: Build a Business Clients Choose and Competitors Envy. In our conversation, John unpacks these questions and more, focusing on how uniqueness creates client value. He talks about his curiosity with what people and businesses are really trying to accomplish, what sales is and is not, how his 4D Roadmap—Discover, Develop, Deploy, and Delight—reveals what makes a business unique, the difference between a customer and a client, his approach to niching and standing out, and building your reputation by saying no and not chasing the shiny object. If your business is stuck positioning itself just like its competition, then it’s time to discover just how valuable uniqueness can be.

Show Links

John Ravaris | UVP Solutions

Define Value, Drive Growth: Build a Business Clients Choose and Competitors Envy • by John Ravaris

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life • by Arthur C. Brooks

The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness • by Arthur C. Brooks

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Colorful Rock Texture with Lichen and Vegetation

“Uniquely Different” with John Ravaris (GWTW902)

Years ago, I was having coffee with a friend and he asked me if I wanted his old 3D printer. It had been awhile since I modeled anything in 3D and I couldn’t visualize the process, so I declined with a simple statement, “I need to learn to see first.” I’m shaking my head at my ignorance. Have I learned to see yet? Nope, I haven’t. I haven’t even tried. What I did was miss out on an opportunity to dive in and have fun learning something completely new. Vision doesn’t show up because we see something, it’s revealed through our experiences. It’s the combination of our senses and the understanding we earn as a result of our efforts. In today’s monologue, I’m going to dive deeper into how we can develop our creative vision by doing our work, sharing it with others, and refining it along the way.

Six areas of vision that are lost when I say something as dismissive as “I need to learn to see first”:

 1. Vision starts with imagination, but it’s much more than that.

 2. Vision is fueled by knowledge built upon research and examination.

 3. As I said in the previous monologue, “vision is the living embodiment of creative expression.”

 4. Courage is essential for turning vision into reality.

 5. I want to reiterate what I said in the previous monologue: “Don’t conform to someone else’s vision for your life.” I’m also going to add don’t conform to someone else’s vision for your work as well.

 6. Your vision is about our future.

Show Links

MasterClass

david carson design

Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World)

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Abstract Digital Light Rays Shining Outward

Your Vision, Our Future (GWTW901)

Of all the questions today’s guest asks in our conversation, the biggest of them all is this: “What does it mean to be alive?” Making his sixth appearance on the show, Christopher Butler is a designer, communicator, and deep thinker not afraid to ask tough questions and explore obscure topics. Our conversation begins with nature journaling, the joy of slowing down, observing, and modeling wonder for others. From there, we explore what it means to trust information, the role of modern propaganda and disinformation in our technical society, and the importance of having a consensus, shared reality. Ever deeper, we question purpose, meaning, and what we leave behind to the next generation. As Chris models throughout this conversation, open your mind as we go on this adventure together.

Quotes from the Episode:

“What is it that I really do? What is the thing that is indispensable that I bring to the table?”

“It’s not about what you’re good at, it’s about who you are.”

Show Links

Christopher Butler

Signals #004: What Doesn’t Compress • by Christopher Butler

Newfangled

The Scrap Exchange

Offline Magazine

Renée DiResta

Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality • by Renée DiResta

The Rights of Man • by Thomas Paine

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn • by Richard W. Hamming

What Wendell Berry Saw Coming • by Joshua Heath Scott

SmarterEveryDay

The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings From Deep Space • by Phyllis V. Schlemmer

The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth about Extraterrestrial life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt • by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince

Other Tongues Other Flesh • by George Hunt Williamson

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Abstract Dark Background with Blue, Pink, and Orange

“Information Trust & Truth” with Christopher Butler (GWTW900)

What are the things you’ve studied, explored, or even built a body of work around, but ultimately moved away from? As creative professionals, we are wanderers and explorers, constantly searching and striving for new experiences and techniques. But what do we do when we feel the call to return to past areas of study? We are different than before, so why would we even think of doing this, let alone grapple with the feelings that we’re selling out or short-changing our evolution? The creative process is like the tide, it comes in, it goes out. We stay and go. Not everyone chooses to return, but if we do, we must honor the past with who we’ve become, and have a vision for something beyond what we could ever do before. It’s not about nostalgia or taking shortcuts, it’s about transformation. That’s the creative return.

“Writing an introduction to the tenth anniversary edition of Weaveworld last year I remarked on much of the same thing: The man who’d written that book was no longer around. He’d died in me, was buried in me. We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were.” – Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three by Clive Barker

8 Reasons Why We Would Return to Earlier Forms of Creative Expression:

 1. Control

 2. Ability

 3. Patience

 4. Focus

 5. Process

 6. Evolution

 7. Revolution

 8. Vision

Show Links

Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three • by Clive Barker

CS50’s Introduction to Programming with Python

 • Episode photo from Envato Elements: 
Aerial view of hand working with spatula with acrylic paint on p

The Creative Return (GWTW899)

“Bow to the Mystery” with Sarah Bush (GWTW898)

As a curious person, I am intrigued with what it takes to build skills and get good at a craft. Sure, there’s the initial impulse, the desire to pick up a guitar, make a leather bag, or design furniture, but at some point you need to start doing the work. You pluck and strum, sew and saw, cursing and crying as you suck beyond measure. But something in you tells you to keep going. Slowly, you get better. It’s hard to say where you’ll end up, but that doesn’t stop you as you dream about new ideas and possibilities. Maybe you’ll make money, it might just be a hobby, but that doesn’t matter because you feel alive. This is the work we do in a skills-based society. But there’s an interesting conversation emerging in some corners of the internet centered around this question: How is AI de-skilling humanity and what impact will that have on society?

What’s the Point of Skills in a Skill-less Society?

 1. Skills are essential to making anything.

 2. Skills help us dream.

 3. The ability to think increases in parallel with the growth of our skills.

 4. Skills become an extension to gauge how we feel.

 5. Connection with others is a healthy byproduct of developing skills.

 6. Skills transform hopes and dreams into a shared vision for humanity.

Show Links

Shae O. Omonijo

Ai, Humanities, and the Future of Work by Shae O • .

The Great AI De-Skilling is Upon Us

39 (Or So) Lessons On The Way To 39 • by Ryan Holiday

How It’s Made

 • Episode Photo from Envato Elements: 
Close Up Macro of Colorful Interwoven Fabric

Skills for a Skill-less Society (GWTW897)

There’s a lot that holds us back as creative individuals, but today’s guest thinks one question is the death of our creativity: who cares? The work begins when you shift from asking the question to stating, “I care.” As a literary publicist, Kim Dower—also known as Kim-from-L.A.—is celebrating 40 years of putting authors on the map, booking them on shows, and getting their books in the hands of people like myself. But Kim is also a poet, “ordained” and “blessed with the gift,” as she shares in our conversation. Her latest book of poems is titled What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria. Our conversation weaves between the worlds of art and entrepreneurship, starting with the clouds and the sky, reflecting on the magnificent sounds of nature, exploring Kim’s evolving relationship with persistence, lamenting the loss of nostalgia, and documenting our obsessions throughout our lives. Not to mention, a love for words, both written and spoken, conversationally between two people on Zoom.

Show Links

Kim Dower

What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria • by Kim Dower

Kim-from-L.A.

Charles Baudelaire

The Stranger • by Charles Baudelaire

Thomas Lux

Wallace Stevens

Lunch Poems • by Frank O’Hara

Dorothy Parker

Bill Knott

Limerence

Parasocial Relationships: The Nature of Celebrity Fascinations

Friends (TV Series 1994-2004)

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles • by Steven Pressfield

Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World • by Katie Farris

A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker: 1925-2025

 • Photo by 
Chris J. Davis • on 
Unsplash

“Because I Care” with Kim Dower (GWTW877)

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