The Spark & The Art — Creativity Podcast

I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with me for another podcast called Every Speaker Has A Story. It’s a podcast made, and hosted, by Dr. Steven Vrooman. Steve is a professor Texas Lutheran University where is chair of the Department of English and Communication Studies and director of General Education. He’s also done a TEDx talk and published the Zombie Guide to Public Speaking. Steve’s a smart guy.

I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with me for another podcast called Every Speaker Has A Story. It’s a podcast made, and hosted, by Dr. Steven Vrooman. Steve is a professor Texas Lutheran University where is chair of the Department of English and Communication Studies and director of General Education. He’s also done a TEDx talk and published the Zombie Guide to Public Speaking. Steve’s a smart guy. 

Guest casts was a concept I was playing with where other people would do an insight and inspiration episode. I wasn’t sure if they were going to be a regular thing or perhaps a Patreon subscriber bonus. I asked a few people to do some as an experiment and you are going to hear two of them today. Ready? Here we go … Thanks, David, I appreciate the time you took to put together an episode. I was reminded of the interview with David B. Goldstein TheSparkAndTheArt.com/74. David Goldstein’s book is about using your personality type to be your best creative self you can be. Next up is recent guest Melissa Dinwiddie. I’ll be back on the other side to give a wrap this all up. So, here’s Melissa … My wife just finished a garden path in the front of our house. She’s been planning it for the 11 years since we moved in. Just about an hour ago she got it done. She worked on it all day just to get the project out of her way. She posted it to Facebook and said “it’s not perfectly how I envisioned it but I still like it and more importantly it’s DONE” without even listening to this episode she practiced Intentional Imperfectionism and it made her feel fantastic. Visit MelissaDinwiddie.com for more insightful episodes and a podcast. If you are a musician and are hoping to make a living with your music you should head to David’s website MusicianEtrepreneurHQ.com for great articles and a podcast and of course, sign up to find out when his new book comes out. Thanks again to David and Melissa for putting together these episodes for the show and thank you for listening. And remember: You won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark.

Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is guest casts.  Guest casts was a concept I was playing with where other people would do an insight and inspiration episode. I wasn’t sure if they were going to be a regular thing or perhaps a Patreon subscriber bonus. I asked a few people to do some as an experiment and you are going to hear two of them today.  Ready? Here we go … Thanks, David, I appreciate the time you took to put together an episode. I was reminded of the interview with David B. Goldstein TheSparkAndTheArt.com/74. David Goldstein’s book is about using your personality type to be your best creative self you can be.  Next up is recent guest Melissa Dinwiddie. I’ll be back on the other side to give a wrap this all up. So, here’s Melissa … My wife just finished a garden path in the front of our house. She’s been planning it for the 11 years since we moved in. Just about an hour ago she got it done. She worked on it all day just to get the project out of her way. She posted it to Facebook and said “it’s not perfectly how I envisioned it but I still like it and more importantly it’s DONE” without even listening to this episode she practiced Intentional Imperfectionism and it made her feel fantastic.  Visit MelissaDinwiddie.com for more insightful episodes and a podcast. If you are a musician and are hoping to make a living with your music you should head to David’s website MusicianEtrepreneurHQ.com for great articles and a podcast and of course, sign up to find out when his new book comes out.  Thanks again to David and Melissa for putting together these episodes for the show and thank you for listening. And remember: You won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark. 

Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with Crystal Salamon. Crystal is an artist who took a leap of faith a few years ago and did a print run of 2000 colouring books. The story she tells of what happened when she checked her sales the next day is filled with emotion. Before Crystal started making colouring books she started off in University to be a doctor. During pre-med she took a single art class to, as she puts it “Get it out of my system”. I think you can guess how the story goes from there. Well, you can guess the ending at least. There is more school and ‘A boy’ and teaching and finding her self. I’m sure you’ll enjoy today’s chat with Crystal Salamon Get me on twitter @sparkartpodcast or by email Tucker@thesparkandtheart.com Thanks for listening and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark.

Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with Crystal Salamon. Crystal is an artist who took a leap of faith a few years ago and did a print run of 2000 colouring books. The story she tells of what happened when she checked her sales the next day is filled with emotion.  Before Crystal started making colouring books she started off in University to be a doctor. During pre-med she took a single art class to, as she puts it “Get it out of my system”. I think you can guess how the story goes from there. Well, you can guess the ending at least. There is more school and ‘A boy’ and teaching and finding her self.   Links for this episode Website: crystalsalamon.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystalsalamonart/ Facebook interactive colouring community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/artfulcolouring/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystalsalamon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrystalSalamon Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/crystalsalamon

Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is an explanation of where the podcast is going.  This episode is 152 that means I have done about 76 interviews and 76 just Tucker episodes and I have enjoyed every one of them. But lately the fun in making the podcast has gone away.  At the end of each interview where I thank the guest for their time and their honesty and it fades out I always have a quick chat with the guest and explain when they can expect their episode to go live and other things like that. After this last interview, which you’ll hear next week, the topic moved to the podcast itself. During that conversation I started thinking about my four cores of creativity that I talked about in episode 126.  The four cores are: Curiosity, Problem Solving, Personal Expression and Habit and Ritual This podcast was born out of curiosity. How do you make a podcast? What would it be about? What’s the best way to publish it? and bunch of other questions. Then I went about solving all those problems and learning and practicing and publishing. I developed my Habits and Rituals around approaching and booking guests. Around writing, recording, editing and publishing the episodes. I had an outlet for personal expression because of the short episodes I did in the interview/just me weekly alternating format I’d created. But my curiosity has been satisfied. I know what it takes to make a podcast. I don’t necessarily know what it takes to make a highly successful podcast but that’s the other point. Anytime it came down to making a Facebook group or starting a Patreon or just the business part in general the limit of the problem solving was simply finding the tool and how to set it up. I had no more than a passing curiosity on how to use it to grow an audience. I also saw no real opportnity for self-expression in marketing and promoting the podcast. I always tried to run the interviews so that the guest got the spot light. I would make comments here and there and share from my experience but it was always about the guest. I had no desire to be a personality or guru. I knew that was the space that podcasters often put themselves in and write books and do speaking engagements etc so I explored that but it wasn’t really where I wanted to go. I may still write a book one day who knows but that’s not on the radar anytime soon now.  In my first episode I laid out the rules I gave myself for starting the podcast. 1) Alternating weekly episodes 2) Episodes come in a series This only worked for the first few episodes and I realized that this was a pretty big logistical problem and I should just book the guests in the order I could get them. But the concept was that I could just stop after a series and put the show on permanent hiatus if I discovered that podcasts weren’t for me.  Well, I’m currently still enjoying the podcast. I still have lots of guests I want to talk to and a few I’d like to reconnect with for follow up interviews. But while the podcast didn’t take up all of my free time it took up a fair chunk. Setting up the interviews and finding guests and topics took time. The interviews took about an hour to conduct. They took about an hour and 1/2 or two hours to edit the conversation and take notes plus write and record the intro/outro. Publishing it took about an hour to process the audio in Auphonic.com and put the episode in Simplecast.com and layout the page in the Squarespace site and make the forwards in Hover.com and set up some tweets in buffer and then test everything to make sure it worked.  Since I only have about 1.5 hours in an evening after kids and wife time that’s a good amount of time in the week. But what I’ve realized lately is that not only did it take up time it took up brain space. The cognitive load of all those tasks, particularity the planning guests and topics, were always just kind of spinning about in my brain. So, I’m winding down the podcast. I have one interview left in the can and that will be up next week. Then I have a plan for my last just me episode. At the end of September I’ve been invited to interview the guests at the Camp Festival, the creativity conference here in Calgary, and those will probably be published starting in October. After that … who knows. Like I mentioned earlier I do want to reconnect with a few follow up guests but there’s a couple movies a CD and a graphic novel that need to get finished first. So don’t unsubscribe just know that there will be episodes at some point they just won’t be on the mostly regular schedule I’ve been keeping.  So what am I going to be doing instead? Well, I have a couple music projects I’ve been poking at here and there and need to just have some focus. A few videos for existing music projects. There’s that gluten-free-glow-in-the-dark playdough I’ve been talking about for so long. I’ve also had to create rules for what these new projects are. I’m calling it my #ProjectPurge and I’m looking to find ways to get them live somehow so I can consider it done.  It’s a lot of projects so I’ll be able to fill up my time with it for sure. I’m excited. If you want to keep tabs on me I’ll be updating the website SongsTuckerWrote.com with all my stuff. Or you can leave your email at TheSparkAndTheArt.com and get your free little ebook at the same time and I’ll be sure to send out updates when the new projects are ready to share. I have no schedule for those yet though.  That’s it for this week. I’ll talk to you again over the next few - and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark. 

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/152 - The end is beginning

Subscribe in iTunes Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with Melissa Dinwiddie. Melissa describes herself as a Creativity Instigator and you can learn about her book and her Live Creative Now podcast at http://melissadinwiddie.com/ In today’s chat Melissa talks about her 15 year break from making art and how she came back to art because she was procrastinating while working at becoming a writer. We talk about comparing yourself to others and the gremlins in your head that tell you you aren’t good at things and how she fights against them.  Now, I’m not sure what happened during recording but it’s the weirdest technical glitch I’ve encountered so far. Using the exact same set up - equipment, software, settings everything - I sound like I huffed helium the entire episode. It’s bizarre. It’s humorous. I could have called up Melissa and asked to try again but what’s the point. It’s 80% perfect. Melissa sounds fine so here you go.  I hope you enjoy today’s episode with Melissa Dinwiddie. Do you know someone who has harmed their relationship with their talents? Perhaps sharing this episode with them will give them something they need to heal that rift and come back to it. The easiest way to share is with the short URL TheSparkAndTheArt.com/151 and the hardest way is to try and convince your local corn farmer to carve the url into their field as this years corn maze design and hope that your friend sees the picture as they are flipping through their social feed looking for something to do with the kids because summer is … what only half over? I have another 5 weeks of these brats in the house with their "I’m Bored” and “I’m Hungry” and “Why can’t I play just one more game I’ll see the sun tomorrow I promise and oh yeah could you make me a snack? I’m hungry again”  Get me on twitter @sparkartpodcast Thanks for listening and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark.   

In today’s chat Melissa talks about her 15 year break from making art and how she came back to art because she was procrastinating while working at becoming a writer.

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/150 - I've been listening to the book This is Your Brain on Music - Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. It's about the science behind what happens to your brain when you listen to music and what makes it such a powerful thing in the lives of humans.

Subscribe in iTunes Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is a talk about chunking.  I've been listening to the book This is Your Brain on Music - Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. It's about the science behind what happens to your brain when you listen to music and what makes it such a powerful thing in the lives of humans. I'm going to have to listen to it again and perhaps take notes because I wasn't quite ready for the amount of brain anatomy and neuroscience in the book.  In short there isn't just one place where music lives in the brain. It's a whole brain experience. He mentions lots of musicians and songs during the book and one in particular stood out to me for some reason. The author describes the experiments he did in the past to test how music affected the brain and would use examples like Led Zeppelin and Sting and The Police and the Beatles and other super groups. Then he mentioned (because the tests took place in the '90s) Paula Adbul's Straight up.  This one threw me a little and I had to pause the book and go listen to it. To really understand it I listened to it on repeat for my entire 1/2 hour commute to and from the office. So that's close to 20 times. And I listened critically with my songwriter understanding and listened in particular to the structure.  Now, I’m gonna talk about chunking then we'll get back to the song.  Chunking is term for breaking info into groups to make them more manageable in the brain. I use this concept in my UX work for breaking info in a website or app or form into smaller sections so a user can more easily understand the task we are asking them to do.  An example I use, and was also used in the book, is phone numbers. Remembering 7 numbers is about the limit of what a person can hold comfortably in their brain. But if we break it into chunks the three number prefix and the 4 numbers that are specific to the person you are calling. This was all I had to remember when I was growing up but then they started running out of phone numbers and had to start using the full 10 numbers including the area code. Growing up I only needed to know the area code if I was dialling long distance. But now there are three area codes in my province of Alberta alone.  Chunks allow us to break up the number because while a phone number may be 10 digits it's three chunks. 403 is the area code 867 is the prefix and 5309 is the part specific to the person I'm calling. So now I only need to remember 3 pieces of info instead of 10.  Songs have chunks too. Verse is where the story is told.  The prechorus is a part just before the chorus that ramps up the listener to let them know the chorus is about to drop.  Chorus is where the thesis statement of the song lives and everyone sings along. The bridge, or middle 8, is a section that supports the song but sounds slightly different and can change the direction of the story Even non-musician listeners can Identify the chorus and verse without issue. They may not know the name but they can tell when it's about to happen "Ooooh, I love this part coming up." So now I'm going to take my first stab at musical fair use in podcasts and play the song Straight Up by Paula Abdul and talk over it so you can hear the chunks of the song and explain some other things that are happening in the song that make it a radio-ready pop-song. Folk songs and jazz songs will have their own structure and chunks.  scratchy scratch to get your attention similar to the 'Hey There' of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer or the “Gotta Keep’em separated” of the Offsprings Keep ‘em Separated. This is the bit where they show you what you should be listening to the little melodic hook that you’ll hum later. Notice that the drums basically don’t change at all through the entire song. It’s the fun guitar flourishes and synth stuff that keep you interested.  Verse this is where she tells the story of the song This is the pre chorus a little ramp to let you know the chorus is coming.  The chorus is here. Everybody dance and sing.  Verse two - story continues more little call and response vocals to add interest. Prechorus - you ready?! The chorus is coming we’re building aaaand …. Chorus - Shake your head with your eyes closed, throw your hands in the air and sing as loud as you can to your friends on the dance floor.  This is the bridge sounds a bit different and gives a bit more of the story  Fun gibberish for the non-singers to join in on and then we break everything down so we have a place to climb back from Prechorus but this time we are breaking your expectations by adding an extra line so you don’t get bored.  Now your ready for the chorus aren’t you? Nope a little synth thing to throw you off.  Nope just the chorus but broken down. You can still sing along but we’re still building up.  Still playing the little doot doot doot from the intro of the song drum beat is still the same gotta keep something consistent while we mess with your expectations  Chorus! Dance! Everybody sing! We’re not gonna mess with you anymore this is just the chorus and we’re gonna do it 4 times. Three times at full volume then on number four we’re gonna start to fade out and you’ll only get a taste of 5 so that you’ll want to hear the song some more.  Now you can take your new knowledge and listen to other popsongs and hear the chunks.  If you are interested in learning guitar don't worry about learning the whole song from beginning to end. Learn the chunks.  Learn the Chorus first this is what everyone sings and knows anyway. Then learn a verse once you know the chords you just need to learn the lyrics to the other verses. (Chords and Lyrics are now two chunks) You got those down? Move on to the bridge. You can learn 5 or 10 songs and know only the chorus and a couple verses and you'll be the hit of the campfire and you'll learn a bunch of chords.  How does chunking work in other disciplines? Painting - Work on Colours, then on framing and composition, then on perspective or whatever order you want. Photography - framing, depth of field, lighting Writing - Work on developing a character sheet of the main character you want in your story. Just write the plot outline and work on getting a story structure down. Just write the first chapter of a novel so you can work on setting up plot and character and inciting incident. Write some short stories focusing on the conflict. You know what?  I'm not entirely sure what the the chunks would be in writing I mean do you want to write short stories, a novel, a screenplay, essays. Each one of those will have their own chunks ACT 1 2 and 3, Climax, Denouement all that good stuff.  Here's where you get to do some thinking What creative work do you currently do that you want to get better at?  Do you know the chunks your discipline has? Who can you ask that might know the different aspects of the work you want to do that might be able to help you see where you need to improve? Are you ready to take your work to someone to get critiqued knowing you are going specifically to get feedback on what to work on?  Thanks for listening and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/150 - I've been listening to the book This is Your Brain on Music - Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. It's about the science behind what happens to your brain when you listen to music and what makes it such a powerful thing in the lives of humans.

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/149 - Troy is a songwriter but as you’ll learn he does more than just write songs. Recording demos and working as a producer for other artists and more. Works well with our episode about Streams of Income. - Links for this episode - Troy Kokol - https://www.troykokol.com/ Jim Unger’s Herman - http://www.gocomics.com/herman Sylvester Stallone’s Dog - http://www.snopes.com/stallone-sold-his-dog/ Colin James - http://www.colinjames.com/ MTV Cribs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Cribs Socan - http://www.socan.ca/ Tom Cochrane - http://www.tomcochrane.com/ Tom Cochrane Life is a highway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo Finger 11 - http://www.fingereleven.com/ Finger 11 Paralyzer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJk6gZuPKRE Pickup Truck - Shane Yellowbird - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqcKbGC4T1s

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/149 - Troy is a songwriter but as you’ll learn he does more than just write songs. Recording demos and working as a producer for other artists and more. Works well with our episode about Streams of Income. - Links for this episode - Troy Kokol - https://www.troykokol.com/ Jim Unger’s Herman - http://www.gocomics.com/herman Sylvester Stallone’s Dog - http://www.snopes.com/stallone-sold-his-dog/ Colin James - http://www.colinjames.com/ MTV Cribs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Cribs Socan - http://www.socan.ca/ Tom Cochrane - http://www.tomcochrane.com/ Tom Cochrane Life is a highway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo Finger 11 - http://www.fingereleven.com/ Finger 11 Paralyzer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJk6gZuPKRE Pickup Truck - Shane Yellowbird - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqcKbGC4T1s

Subscribe in iTunes Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is an interview with Troy Kokol.  Troy is a songwriter but as you’ll learn he does more than just write songs. Recording demos and working as a producer for other artists and more. Works well with our episode about Streams of Income.  Troy also talks about how he hasn’t always been into music and actually is a published syndicated cartoonist with King Syndicates who publish comics in national newspapers.  We also talk about the success he had with a song around 2006 and how he handled it and what it did for his career.  And now, our chat with, Troy Kokol.  Did this episode make you think of anyone you know? Well like always you should totally send this episode to them. The easiest way to share is to send the short url TheSparkAndTheArt.com/149 and the hardest way is …. hmmm no hardest way came to me this week. Maybe I’ll have one next time.  Get me on Twitter @sparkartpodcast  Thanks for listening and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark.    - Links for this episode - Troy Kokol - https://www.troykokol.com/ Jim Unger’s Herman - http://www.gocomics.com/herman Sylvester Stallone’s Dog - http://www.snopes.com/stallone-sold-his-dog/ Colin James - http://www.colinjames.com/ MTV Cribs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Cribs Socan - http://www.socan.ca/ Tom Cochrane - http://www.tomcochrane.com/ Tom Cochrane Life is a highway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo Finger 11 - http://www.fingereleven.com/ Finger 11 Paralyzer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJk6gZuPKRE Pickup Truck - Shane Yellowbird - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqcKbGC4T1s

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/148 – The fact is I’d have to do all everything. My question was more or less "what should I do first?” - Links for this episode - Mark Osborne - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Osborne_(filmmaker) Kung Fu Panda - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/ The Little Prince - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754656 Bone - Comic Movie - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/mark-osborne-bone-warner-bros-kung-fu-panda-1201920047/

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/148 – The fact is I’d have to do all everything. My question was more or less "what should I do first?” - Links for this episode - Mark Osborne - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Osborne_(filmmaker) Kung Fu Panda - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/ The Little Prince - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754656 Bone - Comic Movie - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/mark-osborne-bone-warner-bros-kung-fu-panda-1201920047/

http://TheSparkAndTheArt.com/148 – The fact is I’d have to do all everything. My question was more or less "what should I do first?” - Links for this episode - Mark Osborne - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Osborne_(filmmaker) Kung Fu Panda - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/ The Little Prince - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754656 Bone - Comic Movie - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/mark-osborne-bone-warner-bros-kung-fu-panda-1201920047/

Subscribe in iTunes Hello and welcome to the The Spark & The Art creativity podcast. Thank you for subscribing to our weekly podcast, where we alternate between interviews with creative folks from all different career levels and insight and inspiration episodes. All with the intention you’ll get what you need to get your creative projects started and, more importantly, finished. I’m your host Tucker and this week is just me again and I’ve got my last update about my job search.  I really was expecting this search to take about 3 months. But things aligned the right way and I’m in on Monday. These episodes come out on Friday so that’s only the weekend away. It’s just about as perfect a job as I could hope to walk into so let’s hope my expectations and reality jive as well as I’m hoping they will. It’s still a UX role but it will have a bit more responsibility than my last job and is on a single product rather than a large collection of projects like my last role.  In my last just Tucker episode I talked about putting together a consulting product that would allow me to create my own job in case my job search wasn’t fruitful. I mentioned that I would eventually need to replace the salary I was losing at my last job and asked if I should offer video courses or in-person training or some other things.  The fact is I’d have to do all of that my question was more or less "what should I do first?” I got to thinking about this because my wife hosted an essential oils party. It’s like a Tupperware party except the subject is essential oils and their benefits as part of a natural health regiment. They smell lovely (well, most of them some were a little on the less-pleasant side of the olfactory experience) but they all had properties that would help support sleep and headaches and warts and other things that humans get wrong with them.  What made the presentation interesting was the presenter, Linda, she is a nurse at the Children’s hospital here in Calgary. A lot of what she talked about was supported by her medical training and said that while she believed strongly in the healing powers of the oils she said they are not a replacement for modern medicine, only a support for it.  I feel like I should be putting an affiliate link to an essential oils site or something but really I’m not selling the oils I’m just setting up my next point.  What made Linda interesting was the fact that while she was incredibly knowledgeable about the oils and sold them as a business this wasn’t her only stream of income. When I asked about it she said that she and her husband had 7 streams of income.  She said this was important because if any one of the streams dried for any reason then there are the other ones she could focus on.  Now, I’ve only ever had a single income. I’ve never worked for more than one company at a time but it seems to me that 7 is a lot to keep track of. But that’s between the two of them and they include nurse at the children’s hospital and essential oil resale she was also a yoga instructor and licensed massage therapist. Here husband was an author and speaker and corporate trainer.  So while they have multiple streams of income they were tied around a central theme for each of them. For Linda it was heath and wellbeing and for her husband it was … I can’t remember the topic … sales or management if I remember correctly.  I on the other hand worked at one place and when they asked me to leave that was it. I had no more income. If I had been focused on my creative work as a songwriter or children’s author/entertainer there was the possibility I could have ramped that up into a something. But I’ve been treating it like projects and hobbies so I couldn’t. I’d have to start from scratch and build from the ground up. That’s why I chose my day job skills with which to build a job I could own. I have been pen-palling with Mark Osborne the director of Kung-fu Panda and The Little Prince. (I’ve asked him a couple times to be on the show and it’s never quite worked out. So who know’s maybe one day.) Once The Little Prince was on Netflix I asked him what he was up to and he said he was writing and starting to develop art and stuff. Recently I saw an article announcing him as working on a trilogy for an adaptation of the comic Bone and I emailed to ask if that was the project he was talking about. He said it was one of them but he had 3 on the go a the moment. Three?! Is that because you like to work too much or incase one doesn’t pan out?  His response? “I have learned the very valuable lesson to never have all my eggs in one basket!” So, if you are thinking of leaving a job to start a job for yourself or expect that soon you may be asked to leave the job you currently have. Or if you are seeing a slow down in the entrepreneurial project you are in right now. It is very important of you have either already built or are currently building other streams of income into your plan.  As an entrepreneurial family friend once told my mom “Don’t try to find one way to make a million dollars. Find a million ways to make one dollar.”   - out -  If you know someone who is hoping to start their own venture I’d hope you’d share this episode with them. They may just get a nugget of info that helps them in the future. The easiest way to share is to send the short url. TheSparkAndTheArt.com/148 the hardest way is to write the url on a $20 bill and hope that your friend one day gets that bill when they visit an ATM on their way to your house to pay you what you earned from that bet about how many grapes you could fit into your mouth at one time. (You and your friend are weird by the way) Get me on twitter @sparkartpodcast or leave fun voice mail at 1-877-966-4886 like Melissa did. Even though she doesn’t know that I got it yet because as I write this I haven’t responded yet because I’m a terrible garbage person who lost their manners apparently. I’ll get to you soon I promise Melissa please don’t be mad.  Thanks for listening and remember: you won’t get the art without the work and you won’t do the work without the spark.    - Links for this episode - Mark Osborne - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Osborne_(filmmaker) Kung Fu Panda - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/ The Little Prince - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754656 Bone - Comic Movie - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/mark-osborne-bone-warner-bros-kung-fu-panda-1201920047/