Chris Martin wants to inspire you to take a step back to move forward on the work you really want to do.

He’s a self-described curiosity builder as the founder of Chris Martin Studios a media production company, and host of the Getting Work To Work podcast and the Beyond Your Imagination Podcast.

Lot of great lessons in our conversation including:

The various on and off ramps he has taken over the past 15 years along his solopreneur journey.
How validation holds us back.
How he used his own podcast as a case study to launch his new venture helping others start their own podcasts.
How to find clients by being more human.
His most important lesson: why you sometimes need to take a step back to move forward.

Wake up time: Around 6:00 am
Core work activities + habits: 1) Outreach. 2) Content creation. 3) Client work.
Ideal work environment: Often before noon for creative work with afternoons reserved for meetings and client work.
Regains focus by: Knowing that he just has to get it done or sometimes just taking some time to rest.
90-day goal: Simplifying what he does to its core to figure out how to enjoy what he does and thrive.

“At the core, I am a producer. I make things and I help other people make things.”

“When you have exposure to a lot of different things, you have an opportunity to explore and hopefully fail without too much repercussion.”

“Creativity, for me, is the synthesis of many things into one.”

“The longer I’m in this, the more I realize the things that I don’t know.”

Want to work for yourself, but struggling to find an idea? Chris had these thoughts on starting to prime your idea pump:

1) If you’re waiting for an idea, it probably won’t just come to you.

2) Sometimes, you just have to take things that come your way and an idea can form around those opportunities.

3) Think about the things that people are asking of you and go with that.

Thanks for listening! Enjoy this episode?