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

“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

If you don't have self-awareness, you think you are God and can do everything. And I'm sure many entrepreneurs have tried that and we all fail when we try to do everything because there are things I'm really good at and things I'm terrible at. And I think if you've got some awareness of that, it makes it a lot easier to hire the right people to do the things you suck at - Juliet Starrett
This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, Juliet Starrett (@julietstarrett). Juliet is the Co-founder and CEO of The Ready State. She is also the founder of the nonprofit Stand Up Kids. In this conversation, they discuss building a business as a couple, self-awareness, taking smart risks in a career, and stories from running and building businesses for more than a decade.
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:
00:51 - How Sachit and Juliet met at the Baby Bathwater Institute
04:11 - Why Juliet left her career as a lawyer and chose to be an entrepreneur
16:25 - Two strategies on navigating risky career decisions
18:40 - How Juliet and Kelly cultivate a mindset of entrepreneurship in their kids
21:24 - What most people get wrong about the 4-Hour Workweek
22:14 - Tools to become more self-aware
26:17 - Lessons from building and managing a team
30:41 - Juliet’s strengths as an entrepreneur and manager
34:35 - Lessons and stories from running a business with a spouse
40:02 - How they balance their different ambitions
41:25 - The inspiration behind the rebrand for The Ready State
48:46 - What next for The Ready State and Juliet

Look at everything with curiosity. Look at everything with an open mind. Don't take shortcuts. I think that is so important when you are building something because it's important to have that north star. Sometimes that can change but how you get there is always gonna change. — Dave Nemetz
This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor, and Angel Investor – Dave Nemetz (@davenemetz). Dave is the founder of Bleacher Report and Inverse (both acquired). In this conversation, they discuss Web 3 and its impact on media companies, building a small team as a creator, his journey of building and selling companies, and lessons from entrepreneurship.
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 Creators MBA
Resources mentioned:
Creator, meet operator - Dave Nemetz
Founder - Creator - Investor - Dave Nemetz
Show Notes:
01:03 -  Building a media company in Web3 and how it will be different
14:23 -  Web 3 and investing world
17:58 - Projects that Dave is excited about and invested in
23:13 - What inspired him to be a creator
25:01 - The insecurities that stopped him from becoming a creator earlier
27:43 - Difference being a creator vs running a big company
29:36 - Examples of creators with small teams and overview of their operations
31:11 - The steps of building a great team
33:55 - Patterns in Founders - Creators - Investors
38:56 - Start of Bleacher Report during a trip across Europe
44:30  - The pivotal decisions that made Bleacher Report successful
51:16 - How he spent his time between Bleacher and Inverse
54:22 - Tools that helped during his wandering phase
57:37 - Difference in environment and approaches during building: Bleacher Vs Inverse
67:04 - Philosophies and guiding principle of Dave's to navigate entrepreneurship
71:35 - How to be focused even after being successful
73:00 - Final thoughts