Conscious Creators — Make A Life Through Your Art Without Selling Your Soul

As best as you can, let your team in because when you let them in, they will see opportunities to support you that you won't even see because you've got your little blinders on.

— Trivinia Barber

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Trivinia Barber (@trivinia) — Founder of Priority VA. She is a speaker, author, and leadership consultant who helps entrepreneurs in businesses of all sizes scale growth, sharpen leadership, and build teams they can trust. She developed The Momentum Method™ so clients can achieve better synergy between their products, people and processes for greater growth & efficiency. A global, in-demand speaker, Trivinia hosts the top-ranked podcast, Diary of a Doer, and has been a featured guest on dozens of other business podcasts like The $100 MBA, Eventual Millionaire, Screw the Nine to Five, Entrepreneur on Fire, and The Daily Grind with Colin Morgan.

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

(02:43) - “Everybody wants a team until it's time to lead them”

(04:37) - What people should be doing before thinking about building a team

(05:37) - How doing personal work helped prepare her and enhance the business side

(07:16) - Examples of small things that can change things in a big way

(07:34) - Description of what a leader actually is 

(14:49) - How they help leaders figure out who they really are, so that they can hire a great team

(17:08) - Other common patterns they identify and how they help to resolve them

(20:37) - Stories of how they help to transform weaknesses into strengths

(23:34) - Things or situations that come up in the process, because of the way creators think

(25:27) - Other things you should be doing to prepare yourself to bring on an EA

(29:42) - How she makes sure the person she is working with is not a narcissist

(32:38) - How she identifies who the problem is - herself or the assistant?

(34:39) - How to create an environment of psychological safety for your team

(40:54) - Trivinia’s structure and her approach to management

(43:76) - Unexpected steps that brought the team together

(51:31) - Ways to lead the assistant to become a leader

(53:55) - Why CEO and EA relationships fall apart

(57:26) - What toxic leadership looks like

(59:38) - How she manages the balance between being vulnerable and not becoming co-dependent on her team

(1:02:35) - How to call the fight

(01:07:38) - The first step you can take to start building a team

(01:12:20) - How to set your assistant up as a gateway, instead of a gatekeeper

(01:13:41) - How to use a calendar

(01:17:10) - The three books that have made the biggest impact 

(01:18:24) - Wisdom that changed the game for her

(01:19:12) - Who Trivinia is grateful to

(01:20:18) - What it means to be a conscious creator

(01:21:08) - What she is most excited about in the next 5 years

(01:21:63) - Parting thoughts

Trigger Warning - The audio contains sensitive content that might be disturbing to some audiences.

It's not easy to be a leader on a team and it shouldn't be. It should be a burden. I think most people think it's a status, rather than the ability to change other people's lives.

— James Guldan

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with James Guldan (@jamesguldan), co-founder of Vision Tech — An agency that will give any Information Product, Coach, or eCommerce Business, their best chance at 10x growth.

They have done over a billion dollars in sales for their clients and have 10x growth on over 12 companies.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show/

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

(02:48) - Most common things that are holding creators back

(03:57) - Examples of how mindset can change the game in terms of growth

(06:09)- First thing they do with a creator who has a course and wants to grow

(11:18) - Questions they ask customer service people to get the insights that they need

(12:33) - Why some courses keep selling, without being good

(14:46) - Things they look for in a product 

(21:54) - Specifics they look for in a community

(24:19) - What surveying customers and community does for a business’s growth 

(25:55) - What happens after someone “passes” their checklist

(27:05) - What you can do, right now, to start building a community

(32:41) - Things you can do to achieve 10x growth

(35:13) - How they improve the customer journey of a client

(37:27) - How many customers you should have to start + solely focusing on the customer journey and not acquiring new ones

(40:17) - James’s thoughts on delegation

(45:28) - Overcoming a perfectionist mindset

(48:55) - 5 words that he lives by and why they are important

(51:54) - How he uses those 5 words in his business

(55:41) - His health journey and how he got better

(01:00:54) - Tools he used to get better + to a good place

(01:03:46) - How his business was running while he was going through the health journey

(01:05:22) - James's journey of finding and becoming the best version of himself

(01:11:29) - The three books that have made the biggest impact in his life

(01:12:25)- One piece of wisdom that has changed the game for him

(01:13:33) - One person he is grateful to

(01:14:32) - What it means to be a conscious creator

“Privilege is only negative if you don't use your privilege to elevate others. That's when it's negative. So for me, I express to people I have a deep privilege and a deep responsibility given my upbringing to give back.” — JeVon McCormick

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with JeVon McCormick (@JeVon McCormick), the CEO of Scribe Media, a multi-million dollar publishing company that was recently ranked the #1 Top Company Culture in America by Entrepreneur Magazine. JeVon’s experiences shaped a mindset for modern leadership that now guides his service as the CEO of a massively successful company that’s redefining the world of publishing.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

Show Notes:

(03:16) - Why Sachit is grateful for Jevon for writing the Modern Leader

(10:45) - What happened once he reclaimed his own name and went from JT to JeVon

(14:11) - How he built his mindset up after ending up in solitary confinement

(15:46) - His internal talk after being in juvenile prison at the age of 12

(19:13) - Taking what happened to him and turning it into doing good for others

(27:57) - His emotional growth and the impact it had on the business

(35:34) - How Tucker Max helped him recognize he’s a fast learner and how he teaches that to other people

(40:40) - Who helped him reach his greatest potential

(48:43) - How Scribe Media hires people while keeping diversity and representation in mind

(53:03) - The dichotomy of prioritizing people and profit

(56:56) - Culture: recruit and retain vs offer and provide

(58:66) - Culture: work for vs work with

(01:02:57) - How to find a JeVon for your company

(01:11:05) - Three most impactful books

(01:13:14) - Who he’s thankful to

(01:16:59) - What it means to be a conscious creator

(01:17:43) - What he’s most excited for in the next 5-10 years

The fundamental thing to understand is that being a creator is not a normal job. Being able to create high-quality content, talk about products in interesting ways, and influence people to take an action - that's a skill set that the vast majority of people will never be able to do.

— Justin Moore

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Justin Moore (@justinmooretfam) who is a Sponsorship Coach & the founder of @CreatorWizard, a school & community that teaches you how to find & negotiate your dream brand deals so that you stop leaving thousands on the table.

Along with his wife April, he has been a full-time creator for over 8 years and has personally made over $4M working with brands. He also ran an influencer marketing agency for over 7 years that has helped other creators earn an additional $3M.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

(01:47) - Justin’s early years buying and selling art

(08:05) - The connection between selling art and supporting creators

(08:52) - How he went from selling art to creator to sponsorship coach

(12:40) - The big mindset shift from their first paid YouTube partnership

(15:04) - His operational evolution as a creator after the first paid collaboration

(17:25) - Other mindset shifts from first paid engagement

(19:42) - Rookie mistakes that most creators make

(22:28) - Why he started sending brand deals for creators to his newsletter

(26:54) - How sponsorships should fit into a creator business

(29:54) - What they make now and their journey of growth

(32:47) - Amazon Live and what they are doing right

(35:15) - Amazon’s approach to creators and how it’s different from other platforms

(37:39) - The mindset you need before you go talk to sponsors

(43:15) - How to negotiate with brands

(50:05) - Live example: how to decide what to charge brands

(56:17) - Live Example: how to reach brands and pitch them

(01:01:30) - The first time Justin and April pitched packages to a brand

(01:07:02) - Building long-term relationships with brands

(01:11:29) - How you can reach out to brands

(01:15:29) - How to balance between being a creator x consultant for brands

(01:17:07) - Big mistakes creators should watch out for when pitching

(01:20:04) - How to think about exclusivity, paid media, and other ways you can charge brands

(01:34:09) - Building and portraying confidence as a creator

(1:37:31) - From pitching to getting paid

(1:43:55) - Other mindset shifts to fine-tune yourself

(1:46:59) - Three books that impacted his life the most

(01:47:51) - One person Justin would like to thank

(1:51:24) - His big 5-year goal and why he wants to help creators

When was the last time you'd been bored? So there's this new problem that's been created that we need to be online. It's more important, but at the same time, our time spent in the real world now has to be much more effective than it was before.”

— Robbie Bent

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with entrepreneur Robbie Bent. Robbie is the CEO and Founder of Othership which is a platform that includes physical spaces, a mobile app, a concert tour and a global community. They also run live breathwork concerts in NYC, LA, Miami and Austin. Prior to Othership, Robbie was an early employee at the Ethereum Foundation

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

(01:02) - Genesis and inspiration behind Othership

(02:34) - Robbie’s perspective on the direction of the world that is moving towards more and more time spent on screens

(05:17) - How humans operate differently in a virtual world Vs real world

(08:24) - Why he took the leap to make physical spaces instead of focusing on crypto

(18:20) - Robbie’s approach to designing spaces

(24:36) - When do they know when to stop in terms of creating the best

(27:00) - How do they apply reverse engineering during the design process

(28:37) - How to facilitate more connections in online courses and communities

(33:59) - Stories that fuel the inspiration and delight during his travels

(36:10) - Robbie's history of dealing with addiction and visiting Iran

(41:24) - What do most people don’t understand about going through addictions

(46:18) - Meditation Vs Breathwork

(52:37) - How to unleash your creativity and bring that child-like wonder back

(59:04) - How the name Othership came into the picture

(01:04:45) - Bootstrapping Vs Venture-backed

(01:14:52) - One person he is thankful to

(01:19:82) - His definition of being a conscious creator

(01:21:05) - What is he most excited about in the next 5-10 years

Most people don't understand that money is neutral. And like the amount of money you have is also your willingness to look at your money. So money has a lot to do with intimacy. Like I think most people are not good at taking care of money, but still, they want more. So it's not only about generating money. It's also about the ability to hold money. - Alisha

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with entrepreneur and business mentor Alisha Belluga (@alishabelluga). Alisha is the founder of IntuGrace. She is based in Germany and she helps business + lifestyle coaches, experts and trainers to create the business and business lifestyle of their wildest dreams with inner soul alignment and associated strategy.

In this episode, Alisha shares her journey from zero to now an 8-figure business, her mindset about money, what makes her an unstoppable creative machine, advice for creators and why she wanted to start a podcast, working with Sachit, and building a #1 business podcast together.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA

Resources Mentioned:

The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

The Manifestation Babe Podcast

Show Notes

(01:27) - Growth IntuGrace had seen in the last few years

(03:16) - What Alisha was doing before starting IntuGrace

(04:33) - What it looked like before things started to work out

(07:03) - Her early experiences in business

(08:26) - How she builds a story for a brand

(09:42) - What she was doing in business before doing IntuGrace

(12:08) - What led to her creative destruction

(13:17) - The moment she realized what deep-rooted thoughts were running her story and what happened after

(15:07) - The transition phase and what got her to the other side

(16:27) - How manifestations and other techniques helped her to change her identity

(19:07) - How she used Chinese metaphysics to remove obstacles from her life

(21:10) - Why she didn’t talked about Chinese metaphysics earlier and what changed after

(22:41) - Having two identities and how she navigated that

(24:37) - Things she thought were a weakness earlier and now are strengths

(27:43) - Going from 100K debt to 4.5 million in revenue

(31:21) - Advice for creators on how to start building business

(33:20) - Creating a story around a product - a live walkthrough

(36:30) - The elements she added to make the products more fun and better

(38:28) - Things that worked and things that didn’t work in her storytelling course

(40:27) - Alisha’s school of product development - What will she teach?

(42:00) - This episode is brought to you by CreatorsMBA

(43:33) - Example of how she structured her courses as cinema

(47:19) - Patterns she has recognized in the outside world and using to grow her business

(49:50) - Elements she uses in her products to stand out

(51:42) - How she uses points systems to create engagement

(53:06) - How to build an engaging community and the importance of a community

(56:30) - Are communities about the connections between the audience members?

(59:14) - How does it feel to create communities where people can belong

(01:00:33) - Stories of the impact that stand out

(01:02:18) - Why do creators have a hard time accepting compliments

(01:04:42) - Going from chase to the craft

(01:05:17) - What happens after when she was earning 500K

(01:07:58) - Why she was selling products for a higher price range

(01:09:22) - Insecurities and fears that lead to really good business decisions

(01:10:22) - Why she keeps building businesses from scratch

(01:11:43) - Identity shifting and how it works

(01:15:15) - Top 5 identity shifts she made that helped her to achieve so much success in business

(01:19:16) - How she jumps to the next version of herself

(01:21:44) - What are the things she subtracted to go from 1 million to the current revenue

(01:25:06) - How creators with small audiences can earn millions in revenue

(01:28:06) - Customer progression from a stranger to membership in her business

(01:32:07) - What most people misunderstand about money

(01:38:43) - Generating vs Keeping Vs Investing Money

(01:41:43) - The business and creative sides of Alisha

(01:43:09) - How to become an unstoppable creative machine

(01:49:36) - Mapping an ecosystem and the role it plays in course creation

(01:53:07) - Why she started a podcast

(01:55:27) - Her podcasting journey

(01:58:54) - In an ideal situation how will her podcast look like in 3 years

(02:00:12) - Her experience of working with Sachit

(02:03:43) - Thoughts on fame before and after the podcasting journey

(02:07:25) - What it feels like to have financial freedom

(02:09:43) - Is the growth worth it?

(02:11:18) - Her fears for the next phase of growth

(02:14:13) - Alisha's core skillset

(02:15:55) - Books and podcasts recommendations

(02:17:24) - One piece of wisdom that changed the game for her

(02:18:58) - One person she wants to thank

(02:21:13) - What it means to be a Conscious Creator

(02:22:28) - What she’s most excited about in the next 5 years

“If you shouldn't be the CEO, don't be the CEO. There's a lot of baggage that comes with being the CEO or the COO where you're like in charge of all the people or in charge of moving the business forward in a way - make sure you're really the person that should be at the helm of the company”

— Jenny Thompson

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with entrepreneur Jenny Thompson. Jenny is the founder and CEO of SafetyPIN. She is a mission-driven business leader and natural-born marketer who knows how to build and promote companies for the benefit of shareholders, employees, and customers. Her skills include strategic business development, customer acquisition and retention, win-win negotiations, marketing strategy, business "pruning," and idea-driven marketing and product development.

She spent 20 years at The Agora Companies, most as the CEO of NewMarket Health. During that time, she grew the company from $2 million to $70 million, oversaw the migration of the company’s marketing from 100% direct mail to 100% online, and was responsible for 14 brands. Jenny left NewMarket to start SafetyPIN Technologies, an innovative trust badge that incorporates criminal history and an exclusive behavioral assessment. Designed mainly for the gig and sharing economies, as well as dating apps, SafetyPIN lets you see – at a glance – if someone you met online is safe to meet offline.

She’s also the creator of the 3-Day Business Cleanse, a novel process that helps companies get “unstuck” using a review, eliminate, and rebuild philosophy. Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Thank you to Cathryn Lavery (see her episode here) for her help with background and research on this episode.

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

Resources mentioned:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell

Show Notes:

01:11 - Your toolbox as a creator to navigate conflicts

04:53 - How to navigate conflicts

08:45 - Questions to ask yourself to navigate business and your role as a leader and creator

12:49 - Lessons Jenny learned during her time at Agora

17:24 - Why customer support should be the biggest priority of a company

21:09 - Lessons to keep in mind while building a team

24:33 - How to decide whether you should be the CEO or not?

27:40 - Why you shouldn’t trust too soon

31:14 - Is paranoia a normal part of being a CEO?

33:40 - How Jenny managed her psychology during her career

37:34 - Decor vs culture: why most CEOs get culture wrong

40:59 - How to make business and life decisions using the grandmother test

43:10 - Building SafetyPIN and what’s next for Jenny

47:24 - How Jenny defines a conscious creator

Warning: This audio episode contains material that may be disturbing or traumatizing to some audience

Fear is unconscious. It's insidious. It's silent. Fear knows everything we know. It knows every book we've read and knows everything we've ever done and uses against us to keep us safe. Although you can transcend fear, you can master it, but you can't eliminate it.

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Life Coach and Best Selling Author Rhonda Britten(@rhondabritten). Rhonda is the founder and CEO of Fearless Living Institue. She is also an Emmy Award Winner and a repeat Oprah Guest. In this conversation, they discuss how fame has two sides, what is fear and tools to transcend the fear. Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

About Rhonda Britten

An Emmy-Award winner and repeat Oprah guest, Rhonda was the first Life Coach on reality television in the world on the first show of its kind, Life Doctor (Second Season the series name was changed to Help Me Rhonda). Next, Rhonda changed lives on the hit NBC reality show Starting Over and named its “most valuable player” by The New York Times and heralded as “America’s Favorite Life Coach” by TV Guide. To date, Rhonda has altered lives in over 600 episodes of reality television that aired in more than 25 countries and impacted millions worldwide.

Rhonda is a recipient of the “Smart Women of the Year” Award, “Coach of the Year,” a blog favorite at HuffingtonPost.com, speaks at TedX and for numerous corporations and organizations such as; Southwest Airlines, Blue Shield of California, Northrup Grumman, and many more.

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

Resources mentioned:

Fearless Living Training Program - Rhonda Britten

Fearless Living: Live Without Excuses and Love Without Regret - Rhonda Britten

11 Reasons Not to Become Famous by Tim Ferriss

Show Notes:

01:03 - Why Fear?

08:16 - How fear is stopping you from achieving your full potential as a creator

09:29 - The experience of winning an Emmy and going on Oprah

12:56 - The dark side of fame

16:25 - The positive side of fame

19:39 - How Rhonda re-built herself after TV

23:00 - What is Fear?

25:43 - How to know whether you’re driven by fear or not

28:09 - Is fear about the unknown and how to prepare for it

32:29 - The journey of “Who Am I”

35:17 - The burden of unrealistic expectations on yourself

37:57 - The wheel of fear - a tool to help you transcend your fears

45:18 - How fear evolves as you evolve

50:30 - Other tools to help you deal with fear

Schools are driven to give lectures and homework. But the reality is you actually learn by building stuff. The lecture is there but vaguely useful. You learn the exact amount as you spend fingers on the keyboard – writing code. If you’re not fingers on the keyboard writing code whatever you do is going to round to zero.

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with entrepreneur Austen Allred (@Austen). Austen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bloom Institute of Technology (previously Lambda School). In this conversation, they discuss how Bloom’s way of approaching education is different than traditional colleges, Income Share Agreements vs Outcome-Based Loans, the thought process behind building Bloom Tech, and where they’re headed.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

Show Notes:

01:02 - Core insights that drive Bloom

03:01 - How Bloom defines student success

05:39 - Students not paying upfront and creating skin in the game

08:11 - Student Loans vs ISA vs Outcome-based Loan models

15:32 - How hiring companies make education  free for the students

17:37 - The criteria for finding the right applicants

21:41 - Is there a reverse correlation between imposter syndrome and intelligence?

24:05 - Austen’s early background

27:23 - How Bloom helps students get disproportionate results

31:39 - Instructional design - not one curriculum for every student but one curriculum for each one

33:14 - The experiential learning and platform

40:32 - The seamless integration of admissions, school, and matchmaking

43:54 - The future of Bloom Tech and managing the quality while scaling

“Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and we perform our best. It has a huge amplification to all aspects, to performance, motivation, productivity, learning, creativity, innovation” — Steven Kotler

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning journalist  Steven Kotler (@steven_kotler). Steven is the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. In this conversation, they discuss the meaning of exponential technology, the future of content creators, how to ask the right questions, getting into the state of flow, and about his new upcoming book.

Find the show notes of the episode here - https://www.creators.show

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

Resources mentioned:

“Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think” - Peter H. Diamonds & Steven Kotler

“A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life” - Steven Kotler

“Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” - David Epstein

“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't” - Jim Collins

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change” - Stephen R. Covey - but in a negative context

Show Notes:

00:27 - What is exponential technology?

04:48 - Disruptions in the world of entertainment

15:41 - How to think about the future as a content creator

24:59 - How to get into the flow state (22 flow triggers)

30:11 - Why devotion to craft is all that matters

33:24 - Success as a compound interest function

34:56 - Steven’s framework to learn anything

40:14 - How Steven picks what to learn and write about

42:01 - How to get better at asking questions

45:43 - #1 way to win in life and career

47:08 - How he and his co-author came up with the title of his new book

50:58 - How to find your extraordinary