If you consider yourself to be a creative type, you probably find that it’s easy to have great ideas for things you’d love to try or projects you want to do in the future, but you struggle to actually make things happen. Even if you organize yourself and your time pretty well, the fact is everyday life has a way of creeping in from all sides and cr…

Mako’s paintings have been described as a rebellion against the speed of the internet and an antidote to time. In fact, the New York Times refers to his work as a form of “Slow Art”. Rather than using conventional paint, Mako uses various pulverized minerals, applied layer by layer to create huge finished works that can only truly be seen and appre…

Gerald Leonard has had a diverse career filled with creative pursuits and technical education. The magic happened when Gerald was able to draw a throughline from the success of small jazz ensembles to the success of tech teams and businesses. It all came down to knowing how and when to lead. When you’ve played for years or spent that time developin…

Today’s conversation with Tim Arnold explores the gray areas that organization leaders encounter when faced with questions that don’t have black and white answers. We seem to be conditioned from an early age to see life in terms of either/or, right and wrong, good and evil, especially when it comes to problem solving. And there’s nothing wrong with…

Amit Gupta is an entrepreneur, writer, and serial optimist. He’s also a personal friend of Dane’s, and in this episode, Dane and Amit discuss the past, the present, and - with Amit’s own brand of optimistic clarity - the future. Amit is, in his own words a “relatively successful entrepreneur”, though we would argue his success is more than relative…

Jaz Ampaw-Farr is no stranger to feeling like an outsider. In this podcast, Jaz shares her personal story from her earliest days as a girl who seemingly had no name, to where she is now as a wife and mother, successful businesswoman, and survivor. Jaz’s keystone message is that you need to believe that you belong. It’s a feeling that we can cultiva…

Focusmate is all about distraction-free productivity. As a creative entrepreneur, you often get pulled away from your work because of the other things you need to do to keep your business running. Taylor founded the company on the principle that working with others and being “held accountable” for your productivity leads to improved work. And it to…

Cloverleaf uses popular assessments to create a slow drip of insights that can significantly change how you approach your career. No one thinks and communicates the same way. By understanding your audience and team members on a deeper level, you can be a better manager, enterprise leader, and coach. Kirsten talks about how recognizing different peo…

Jerzy lives by his own philosophy, and that is “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.” It’s a simple, easily applicable mantra to for all of us to live by. As somewhat of a Renaissance Man in his post Olympic life, Jerzy dabbles in a lot of different areas to truly embrace his philosophy on life. His passion is infectious and you can’t …

Corbett Barr’s career spanned from helping Fortune 500 companies to becoming an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley to life-changing events in Mexico that changed his life. For Barr, pursuing a new career in the internet world is about audience-first, genuine connection, and creation. From blogging, Barr found a way to represent himself online, without …

Greg McKeown joins to discuss the idea that pursuing less actually produces more– or put simply, “Essentialism”. He outlines the framework of this philosophy with the tenets, “Explore, Eliminate, Execute”, and dives into how they can positively affect your personal, spiritual, and vocational life. Listen to the whole interview with Greg McKeown for…

The Meaning of Work Before the time of remote jobs, work was two things: the place you go, and the things you do. When working remote grew in popularity, Sam saw a need for meeting those individuals want for inspiration and community. The issue with this was that what works for some doesn't work for others. For some, a coffee shop environment is th…

Time Many entrepreneurs always find themselves plugged in with no way to disconnect. For some, they want to look at their business and say I owned this business not work for it. For others, they simply want more freedom within their work at their business. No matter which category you fall into, Trainual can help you make the best use of your time …

Mission When it comes to finding your mission as a business, it is more than just what you're delivering. It involves finding something that is bigger than what you're delivering. Your mission needs to be something that motivates people, makes them feel good about what they're doing, and realize the bigger picture of their role in your business. Fo…

Tension Between Challenge and Support Jeremie discusses with us how there is a time when you need challenge, but there is also a time when you need support. As a leader and an individual, it can be hard finding that balance point between the two. When you find it, you're able to create an intentional transfer of knowledge, wisdom, and skills. In th…

Feeling Alive Living and being alive is more than just existing. The two ways to die are not really living or by killing yourself taking too many risks. There is a balance to living in the tension point between order and chaos. When you feel alive, that is when you find freedom. Freedom is the actual experience of being alive and being untethered b…

The Start of Speaking When it comes to speaking, the only thing between you and to chance to share your voice is learning how the industry works. Grant spent a lot of time questioning and following speakers to acquire the knowledge that he then applied to his life. Do not disqualify yourself before even starting the process. There is a big misconce…

Your Story Each of us has a story to share that starts at birth and goes into this very moment. Both consciously and unconsciously, we push parts of our stories aside. We do this because we find them either uncomfortable, painful, or so overwhelming that we cannot deal with them in that moment. Andy’s background in trauma and abuse helps him to hel…

Background Josh is a full time researcher and author who started off at a big company analyzing if their online advertising was actually working. His research developed into putting together a strategy of determining what works for the company when it comes to things of the advertising nature. Josh’s job eventually changed to advising entrepreneurs…

A Narrative many can relate to Most people who read a business book are actually interested in business, making it a very segmented market. Chris wrote an inspirational business book- but in the fiction genre. Money Tree is a narrative about an individual named Jake; he has a lot of financial pressure even with a good job. Jake is a relatable chara…

Failure is a Part of the Testing Process, Keep Trying Joe Lemay is an entrepreneur who was enamored with the idea of developing an idea and finding a way to get it fully funded by potential consumers who believe he can follow through and provide that new product. Initially, he started out trying to develop and promote an app on this consumer-driven…

Change your habits and Get 1% Better Every Day Do you ever find yourself making fake deadlines only to push your endless to-do list off to the next day? You’re not alone. But, as James Clear explains, it doesn’t have to be this way. Becoming an Expert James studied biomechanics as an undergrad and business in grad school. Growing up, he played base…

We live in a world full of conflict. A friendly conversation takes an unexpected turn into an "Us v. Them” situation. And when it does, how exactly do we find a way to turn a potentially toxic trajectory around? Growing up, Jaz Ampaw-Farr endured enormous mental, physical, and sexual abuse, in addition to neglect. When she was young, she decided th…

There s nothing better than working with a creative team of people who are the best at what they do. It brings out the best in you and enables you to reach new heights you previously only dreamed of. Imagine for a moment, what might happen if you could build a company full of those kinds of people? It s likely, the growth and innovation your team e…

Many of the people who listen to Converge are creatives – freelance photographers, artists, interior designers, and others. They know that moving from the time-for-money trade that freelancing requires to the establishment of a business as an entrepreneur is not easy. If you’re reading this, you are likely one of those people. David Jay is a guy wh…

It only takes one Google search to find hundreds, maybe even thousands of people telling you to pursue an adventurous life. Many of them define that as a lifestyle that abandons the normal things of life like a career and a stable home environment in exchange for a nomadic approach to life. But what if you don t want to abandon those things, but st…

The internet is a pervasive thing, gobbling up time as well as bandwidth. Dane s guests on this episode of Converge are co-leaders of a web design team whose primary purpose is to leverage the internet for good. Taylor Jones and Eric Brown have been fast friends of Dane s ever since he first heard about their company, Whiteboard and had his initial…

Your opportunity to make it big with your creative endeavors is no longer something others are in control of. You can influence your own success tremendously – primarily through doing great work and networking at the same time. Josh Muccio is a great example of a person who did make it big by being picked up by a big company in his industry, but it…

Justin Zoradi believes with the strongest conviction that without exception, we were made for these times. That means you – and it means me. But many of us wonder how that can be true when we are saddled with self-doubt and the haunting voices of failures, abuses, and regrets from the past. Justin has a contagious and unique way of describing his b…

There are few things we humans enjoy as much as a good story. Doesn’t it make sense that brands should make use of that fact? This episode of Converge features Donald Miller, the brilliant mind behind the idea of creating a Storybrand. The insights he has gleaned from years as a writer and publisher about the power of story and the impact stories h…

Are you sacrificing your dream to make money? Does your job leave you little time to do what you love? Does time freedom seem forever out of reach? Vincent Pugliese the guest on this episode of Converge would have answered YES to all three of these questions. He was working a full time job that barely paid the bills. He desperately wanted to pursue…

Do you feel swamped with your business? Are you wearing too many hats and can t seem to focus on what is important, the things only you can do? This episode of Converge might offer a solution. Your host Dane Sanders interviews Bryan and Shannon Miles of Belay Solutions. Bryan and Shannon specialize in connecting you with the perfect Virtual Assista…

Success is a term that is used heavily in our culture. Success is the thing that everyone works to attain, some people are born into success while others stumble upon it. You may be tempted to blame your situation or your upbringing for your lack of success. In many cases, those things appear to play a role but do they determine your potential? In …

Growing a business is hard work, especially if you are a new business owner. Getting used to the idea of being your own boss and having employees of your own is challenging. But when you add in the struggle of business growth while still trying to keep up with the day to day, it can seem impossible. Husband and wife business partners Jeff and Erin …

All of us want to thrive in life. Without exception. But what it takes to truly do that is the question we seem to have the most difficult time answering. Dane s guest on this episode is the leader of an organization called, The Thrive Center for Human Development. Can you imagine what it must be like to spend your life studying what it takes for h…

Strangely ingrained in the fabric of who we are as human beings is this thing called fear. But if you look a bit more deeply you ll see that fear always flows out of a belief we re having about ourselves or something outside us. Heather Vickery is a success coach who is incredibly insightful at helping people identify and conquer the fear that hold…

It s not easy to run a profitable business. Stats prove it to be true. A very high percentage of businesses do not show a profit and Mike Michalowicz believes it s because business owners don t plan on profit first. Mike is on a mission to eliminate entrepreneurial poverty. He believes creatives and business owners work too hard bringing value into…

It s ingrained in our culture to fix things, to try to make everyone happy and see smiles on the faces of everyone around us. But life just isn t that way all the time. In fact, life can often become very dark. Kate Merrick knows that fact all too well. At 8 ½ years old her daughter Daisy passed from this life after a prolonged fight with cancer. C…

It s not every day that you get to talk at length with a world-renowned artist. Even rarer is the opportunity to speak with one who has been labeled a child prodigy. Evan Sharma didn t begin painting until he was 9 or 10 years old. He remembers seeing the Mona Lisa when his family visited the Louvre and being inspired by the fact that such a small …

NOTE: DANE’S AUDIO HAD SOME GLITCHES BUT THE CONTENT WAS TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE. Don t you love success stories? Especially the kind where the successful person bucks the conventions of the day and does something unexpected and it works? John Fox has that kind of story. He left a tenure track position in academia to develop a business designed to se…

We all know that there are certain things you can only learn through experience. And if you don t buy that, how about this one? At the very least, there are certain aspects, certain levels of depth that only come from being immersed in a topic. Haley Robison has learned that truth THROUGH experience and she s done so intentionally. She recognized a…

Are you ready to make THE difference you were put on the planet to make? Many people answer yes but quickly discover that the best of intentions are hard to carry out in light of the discouraging conversations they have with themselves. Seth Godin has written extensively about what he calls the lizard brain or monkey mind. It s that part of us that…

Effective email communication is something of an enigma. All fo us h ave full SPAM filters and still receive plenty of emails we don’t really care to see. But there are those few email sequences we receive, the ones that truly bring value, the ones that are helpful and thoughtful and kind, that we can t wait to see pop up in our inboxes. If you re …

The Pitch is an amazing podcast where investors and creatives come together via audio in a Shark Tank type atmosphere to explore possible funding and joint venture opportunities. But it s even better than that. There s a reality to the show that you don t get from its television counterpart and a lot of that happens because of the way the host – an…

Brand differentiation is not something that comes naturally when you re in a crowded space. It requires a lot of thought and literal soul-searching to discover what makes your product or service different from your competition. Jess Levin Conroy and her business, Carats and Cakes are great examples of what that looks like when done right. Jess is a…

Brand Identity is at the core of every business, especially as it resonates with the values of the leader behind the company. Krysta Masciale is the CEO and Brand Strategist of BIG DEAL BRANDING. She is best known for her honesty and practical approach to helping audiences recalibrate and take action steps towards building a compelling brand. Her w…

Relationship questions plague all of us from time to time. Whether you re married or single looking for your soul mate, this episode is for you. Rockie is the founder and Lead Coach for ClarityCoach.ca who s main focus and mission is to help all fall in love and be happy. His mission is to see all people fall in love, in their relationships, with t…

Have you ever wondered how you can find your calling? Is there really such a thing for everyone? Today s guest is Dane s friend Paige Chenault. Page started and grew a very successful event planning business that was bringing in revenue on a large scale. But as the passion turned into a job she realized that an idea that had been bouncing around in…

Medical education is not something you think of getting through an online course. There s so much detail, so much minutia – you expect that you d HAVE to sit in a classroom or do work in a lab to do it well. But Dr. Sanjay Sharma doesn t think that s necessarily true, especially in light of the methods of learning that work best for the millennial …

The business side of creativity is something many artists struggle with. Of course, there s the philosophical side of whether or not it s about the money or the art. But that s a different discussion. On this episode, we re concerned with how to go about the business side of being a creative without driving yourself crazy or making yourself feel du…