Rachel and Andy are discussing the topic of how to deal with bad behaviour from colleagues, managers and even clients.

It's a topic that has been frequently asked in our Asking For A Friend events and so we've brought the learnings and discussions into our latest episode.

Our hosts discuss the excellent advice shared on questions like:

• How do I approach a manager who has been taking credit for my work?
• How can I change the toxic culture in an organisation?
• How do I deal with a micro-manager?
• How do I deal with clients who are being a bully?

We reference excellent advice and opinion from:

• Regina Stroombergen (Thinkerbell)
• Tarra Van Amerongen (Atlassian)
• Tara Hurster (The T.A.R.A. Clinic)
• Nicky Bryson (Brand Momentum)
• Sharon Draper (Psychologist)
• Jess Lilley (The Open Arms)
• Martine Beaumont (Select Wellness)
• Dr Aileen Alegado (Mindset Consulting)

Thanks to our supporter, Streamtime – Project management software for happier, healthier creative businesses. Also to our editor Linley Lai and Community Manager Fong Yu. And to our friends at Paper Moose, who were very kind to share their studio and resources!

Andy and Rachel are back with the still, rather awkward question – How is your mental health?

We delve into questions like, how should we talk about mental health at work, as a leader, as a colleague?

How do we bring up a subject that can sometimes lead to fear of judgement?

Well, fear not, the stigma relating to mental health is improving by the day and we share advice on all of these questions and more by referencing some fantastic Asking For A Friend episodes.

How do I let my team know that I'm stressed or not coping?

How do I deal with a manager that has no empathy?

How do I build up the courage to talk about my mental health with someone at work?

Thanks to Nicky Bryson, Martine Beaumont, Sharon Draper, Kristen Highett and Nick Hunter who all contributed to this episode.

Editing by Linley Lai.

Hosts, Andy Wright and Rachel Zhang.

And thanks to our sponsor Streamtime - project management software for happier, healthier creative businesses.

The final episode of our Creativity and Football mini-series rounds out with The Hallway's ECD Simon Lee. Simon has lived experience with the ups and downs of mental health, but has also been working closely with mental health charity, Gotcha4Life for the last 3 years. The result of this work is the quite excellent Boys Do Cry campaign – a clever take on The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" from 1979. It's a powerful piece bringing together 30 men from all walks of life to unite in tackling the stigma of mental health – especially relating to men.

Andy and Simon discuss the rules of masculinity, the stiff upper lip and the power and relief that comes from opening up. 

You can find out more about the campaign at: Boys Do Cry. 

Thanks to Endel.io for background music. Check them out for one month free.

Support from Streamtime always appreciated and for joining us on the fight for a healthier creative industry.

Check out what's happening at Never Not Creative and last chance to take the empathy survey.

In the 4th episode of our Creativity & Football mini-series we head to Switzerland with renowned lettering artist Stefan Kunz.

Stefan is an internet phenomenon, entrepreneur and educator who is passionate about sharing his gift to inspire others.

But his quest for excellence and always doing how best isn’t free from the challenges of struggling to get out of bed, becoming bereft of ideas on how to excel further and everything in between.

Stefan shares his coping mechanisms and how his willingness to be realistic about what his ‘best’ is on any particular day, helps him through.

Find out more about Stefan and sign up for his courses at https://stefankunz.com.

Thanks to Endel for their support… Focus, relax, and sleep through the power of sound. The Endel app creates AI-powered sounds designed to support your everyday life. Backed by science, and enjoyed by millions worldwide. Endel is powered by its patented core AI technology. It takes inputs like location, environment, and heart rate, to create the optimal personalized soundscape. This happens on the fly and allows Endel to reconnect your state with your natural circadian rhythm.

Get a free 1-month subscription for the NNC Community here 

And Streamtime… always on the mission of creating healthier creative businesses and helping create a healthier creative industry. Find out more at Streamtime.net.

It's the 3rd episode of our Creativity & Football mini-series. Craig Elimeliah is an award-winning ECD at VMLY&R in New York. A native New-Yorker he gets his football analogies from the oval shaped ball rather than the circular one. A couple of months ago, Craig wrote a brave post on Linkedin sharing his experiences with many years of mental heath ups and downs. It's not easy to suddenly go from zero to a hundred in the transparency and vulnerability stakes, but Craig has taken it in his stride and now understands his own mental health in order to pull the right levers at the right time. He's also excited by the change our industry is destined to make with a new generation of talent and leaders who won't stand for the toxicity and culture of the past that has burnt out far too many of us.

Need help with your mental health?

Find out more about Craig.

Craig's interview with David Sable for New York Festivals.

Thanks to Endel.io - the AI-powered wellness app that helps you focus, relax, and sleep better through the power of sound. Created by artists, proved by science.

And thanks to Streamtime. Project management software for healthier creative businesses.

More at Nevernotcreative.org

Dr Zac Seidler knows a thing or two about football. Whilst he's scored many a goal from all over the pitch, his ultimate goal is to reduce the staggering rate of male suicide. In this second episode of our Creativity & Football mini series (psst, yeah the one on men's mental health in the creative industry) Andy and Zac discuss everything from mental health to masculinity and the one secret that just may give men the courage to speak up.

Find out more about Zac at https://www.zacseidler.com/ and of course support the global Movember phenomenon at https://movember.com where Zac is Director of Mental Health Training. 

More from NNC at https://nevernotcreative.org 

Thanks as always to https://Streamtime.net

Welcome to a Never Not Creative podcast mini-series. Creativity and Football. We're talking to men about creativity, football and... who are we kidding? This is an essential listen. A mini-series dedicated to the topic of men's mental health in our industry. We kick-off our first episode with Pete Brennan. Co-founder of Heaps Normal, Electric & Analog and lucky for us, sharer of stories and experiences about his own journey with mental health.

We're publishing this series because its almost guaranteed that whenever we run something around mental health – we'll see max 10% of males as part of the audience. It's time to chat fellas (and everyone of course, but especially the men). The more open you are, the more honest you are and the more you realise that more than half of this world is feeling something similar, the more we can all help each other.

Thank you to Pete for sharing, talking and helping others realise it's good to talk and get to know yourself.

Find out more about Pete, Heaps Normal and Electric and Analog below.

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbrennan/?originalSubdomain=au
Heaps Normal - https://heapsnormal.com/
Electric & Analog - https://www.eanda.cc/

Thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net

Asher Oliver didn’t take the traditional ‘qualified’ pathway into the creative industry.

After graduation from university with a Business Management degree in 2009, he moved back home and encountered a huge struggle in regards to finding employment.

Like many graduates having to rely on casual work meant Asher became a waiter in an Italian restaurant, but he never gave up what had become a passion on the side for animation.

While researching opportunities, Asher came across Gary Vaynerchuk and his mantras of:

HUSTLE - HARD WORK - FOCUS - NO EXCUSES

When Asher reached out to Gary himself, opportunities appeared. The collaboration opened many doors and he now works full time at Food Fight Studios.

Thanks to Streamtime for all their support.

---

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nevernotcreative/message

Blair Enns (author of Win Without Pitching and Pricing Creativity) joins Andy to discuss the challenges that creatives have when it comes to business. How our emotional attachment to work can hinder financial success and why we shy away from the grown-up stuff. We also discuss the pro's and con's of unpaid internships and whether mental health issues are naturally more present in creatives. 

Links:
Rocket Fuel book

Win without pitching

Mentally-Healthy research

Never Not Creative

Thank to Streamtime for all their support – project management software for healthier creative businesses.

Andy and Sarah are back with another episode on a Never Not International Women’s Day talk with Tom Tapper.  

Tom is the co-founder and CEO of B-Corp certified agency, Nice and Serious. In 2008, he co-founded Nice and Serious with a clear purpose: to make creative work the world needs. Since then, he’s exclusively worked with pioneering charities and brands to make creative work that amplifies social and environmental causes. From international brands like IKEA, Unilever, Innocent and Ben & Jerrys, to pioneering charities like Greenpeace, WWF, Rainforest Alliance and Parkrun.  

Constantly aware of being in the privileged position of the white male founder of a successful branding business, Tom is interviewed by Ve on the extra efforts to ensure that Nice and Serious delivers on being a business that strives for equality.  

Listen to the full podcast ep or watch the talk at https://nniwd.nevernotcreative.org/. 

The Moral Compass - https://moralcompass.app/ 

Nice and Equal - https://niceandserious.com/journal/nice-and-equal/

More at https://nevernotcreative.org/

Big thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net/

Join Andy Wright and Sarah Nguyen in another episode to discuss two powerful talks from Never Not International Women’s Day - ‘Until your fear of me isn’t my problem’ with Tanarra Schneider, and ‘Until we flip the question’ with Andy Polaine.  

Tanarra is a Managing Director at Accenture Interactive, leading Design in the Midwest. She spills the tea about the outcomes of a system predicated on the fear of women’s success.   

Dr. Andy Polaine is a designer, educator, coach and writer who helps clients build and grow their own design and innovation capability, transform their organisations and themselves. Andy flips the question from “what should we do?” to “what should we stop doing?” and dealing with the underlying structural issues that create inequity.  

Watch their talks at https://nniwd.nevernotcreative.org/.
More at https://nevernotcreative.org/
Big thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net/

Somewhere around 2015, the first of the John genre articles arrived, trumpeting that there are more CEOs named John than women CEOs in their entirety.   In this episode, we have a well-presented talk by Jess Lilley, who focuses on this issue and talks through what we (John) can do about it. Jess is a co-founder at The Open Arms, a creative company that strives to weaponise empathy to help communities thrive.

After a near 20-year career as an award-winning writer and creative director in some of the world’s most renown ad agencies, Jess realised the culture of the ad world just wasn’t working for her (or her family). She joined forces with a couple of great people to create something a little different. Their goal is to make work with a social purpose that leaves their patch of the world a little better than they found it.

Listen to the full podcast ep or watch this talk at https://nniwd.nevernotcreative.org/.

Big thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net/

Other links:

https://theopenarms.com.au 

https://nevernotcreative.org

The Never Not Creative podcast is back after a 2 year hiatus. Joining Andy for this new season is co-host, Rachel Zhang, a digital product designer living in Sydney and with experience working across brands and agencies including Telstra, R/GA, Accenture Song and now her own design consultancy Ro&Co. This first episode of the new season focuses on Burnout. Andy and Rachel pull in some of the best advice that’s been shared by Asking For A Friend guests from over the past 3 years of events. Leaders and experts we refer to in this episode include: - Simon Lee, ECD and Co-Founder of The Hallway - Kimberlee Wells, CEO, TBWA Melbourne - Sabina Read, Psychologist - Jess Lilley, Creative Director, The Open Arms - Ash King, Psychologist - Wez Hawes, ECD, Innocean - Katie Feder, Psychotherapist Questions we cover include: - How to deal with the franticness of deadline after deadline? - Will we ever be able to protect our mental health if we can’t say no to clients? - How do I say no to myself? Listen to the full advice from our guests by clicking the links above. Watch this episode on YouTube Subscribe to the podcast on, Spotify, Apple Podcasts Follow us on Instagram Check out snippets of this episode on TikTok. And if you liked it, get in touch and share some feedback, write a review or just check out more at nevernotcreative.org. Thanks to our sponsor Streamtime. Studio management software for happier, healthier creative teams and businesses. And a big thank you to B Corp creative agency, Paper Moose who shared their space and recording equipment for this episode. Thanks also to Linley Lai who’s produced and edited this episode - nice work!

Jane Duru (Verbal Design Director, R/GA) and Sumita Maharaj (Associate Design Director, Re:) join Sarah and Andy to discuss their recent submission to Never Not International Women's Day. From having to bring a 6-pack to a meeting to get a seat at the table and a constant need to over-prove themselves Jane and Sumi share their stories and experiences from the world of advertising and design.

You can watch their talk at Never Not International Women's Day.

More at Never Not Creative.

Thanks to Streamtime.

To make meaningful change in workplaces all around the world, we need to recognise that the gender inequity in our industry and society is a cultural problem. We need to show men what they can’t see all around them - the norm. The norm that has let stereotypes rule and anyone but a privileged white male suffer. 

Join this discussion with Daniele Fiandaca and Deborah Rey-Burns. By his own admission, Daniele is the very definition of privilege - white, male, straight, middle class and privately educated. As Founder of Creative Social, he often spoke about issues facing the creative industry including the lack of gender diversity. Daniele set up the Token Man community to create a safe space for conversation and get men to improve their education and get a better understanding of the challenges women face. Daniele is Founder of Utopia, a culture change business that re-wires organisations for the Age of Creativity.   

Deborah, Founder of Propela and Curator-at-large for ReDesign Business and the Future Of_, Deborah has built a global network of moon-shooting experts that can help companies thrive. She helps events and organisations connect with the superhero thinks of today - the thought leaders and change-makers working on the bleeding edge of business and culture.   

Watch this conversation (as well as others) here: https://nniwd.nevernotcreative.org/

Other links;

🔗 https://weareutopia.co
🔗 https://weareutopia.co/towards-utopia/creative-superpowers
🔗 https://tokenman.org
🔗 https://www.propela.co.uk/

International Women’s Day 2021 has passed. But this year, we're not going back to business as usual. As far as we're concerned, it will always be Never Not International Women’s Day until all women including women of colour, women with disabilities, and queer or trans women, stop being penalised for being women.  This new season of the podcast highlights our Never Not International Women's Day initiative. A mind-changing, bias-ridding, downright mutinous loop of ideas and musings from women in the creative and associated industries everywhere that will run 24/7/365 on a loop forever, or until...we don’t need to talk about it anymore. We thought it was important to share our motivations and hopes for what this platform can become and how the world needs to change for the better for everyone.   Join us in our first discussion with those behind NNIWD - Prue Jones, a long term veteran of the creative industries, Ve Dewey, co-creator of Never Not Creative, and Andy Wright, creator of Never Not Creative and co-chair of Mentally-Healthy.   Watch here: https://nniwd.nevernotcreative.org/ As always, big thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net/

Dr Sally Fitzpatrick is a Clinical Psychologist and the Acting Program Manager, Mental Health and Research at Everymind, our partners in the Mentally-Healthy research study. In this episode she’s joined by Author and Creative, Alex Wadelton to tackle community questions about finding meaning and purpose through work, disclosing mental health challenges, taking better care of contractors and freelancers and managing expectations about working hours with your boss. 

You can also watch at https://www.nevernotcreative.org/afaf-july-2020

Asking For A Friend is a monthly event in collaboration with Youngbloods and Mentally-Healthy.org.

Victoria Davies has spent years as a leader in the advertising industry.  Now though, Victoria has swapped running some of the most successful agencies in London and New York to start an artificial intelligence business to nudge leaders into being better.
This episode is recorded in partnership with Gabberish – Creative Therapy For Creative Minds. An online magazine for our industry. Issue 21 (out on 15th December) is edited by Never Not Creative's Andy Wright and this interview forms part of an exploration into the topic of empathy.

Read more at Gabberish.com.

Find out more about Newance, artificial intelligence and how it can help us to be better leaders at Mynewance.com

Check out Nevernotcreative.org... and thanks to Streamtime.net.

After years of learning in the agency business, championing and doubling-down on a project-based model, Trevor Hubbard is on a mission to wipe out failure. The one thing standing in his way? Clarity, or lack of it. Having co-founded, and then bought outright, his agency Butchershop in California, Trevor's hit on a formula for a successful business, projects and client relationships. The Clarity Project. A concept that introduces us to the pre-mortem (over the post-mortem) and a way of looking at things to head-off failure at all costs. A methodology that so-far has proved successful at getting Butchershop through the pandemic and expansion to Europe.

https://www.joinclarityproject.com/
https://www.butchershop.co/
Get in touch with Trevor on Linkedin

Let us know what you think in the Facebook group

Thanks to Streamtime - head to Streamtime.net/HealthyBusiness to find out more about our efforts in the creative industry.

Kelly Mackenzie founded White Bear in 2014. Since then it's gone from strength to strength. No surprise really, as when we caught up with Kelly it was clear that she doesn't let much stand in her way.
We chat about the challenges that women in the creative industry can face in rising to the top and how even, for all designers, this industry can sometimes feel like an extreme sport.

Kelly's story of how they continued to grow during the pandemic is also a great case study on how to grow a community (and in turn, client base) as a way of growing stable business opportunities.

LINKS:

Interview with Kelly - https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/interview-kelly-mackenzie-white-bear-studio-diversity-design

White Bear studio - https://whitebearstudio.com/about/

Thanks to Streamtime!

Never Not Creative

We chat with Ekaterina Solomeina the founder of Future London Academy. Ekaterina challenges the traditional concept of University, a linear career path and how we learn. What happens when we move into the next phases of our career as we need to continue to learn, develop and grow? And, as we move into a quest for more diverse teams, how do we create the environments and culture to ensure that they thrive?

Plus... how do you compose yourself and not freeze when you meet Donatella Versace? And, let's go and find some new heroes tomorrow. Let us know who you're new heroes are...

Links:

Future London Academy - https://futurelondonacademy.co.uk/

Book - Skin in the game - https://www.penguin.com.au/books/skin-in-the-game-9780141982656

Creative Capes Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/4YNqDavM5A7rWJ816TVFRI

Ekaterina visits Michael Wolff's house - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XD8D--JVU 

Thanks to Streamtime - https://streamtime.net

An incredible, far-reaching episode with experts on the future and our mental health. Prue Jones, Design Director at Fjord provides a unique perspective on where to from here in 2020. Dr Zac Seidler, a psychologist and specialist in men's mental health, who also works with Movember shares practical, respectable and relevant advice.  Hear advice and opinions on what will the future of our work look like? How do we build resilience? I'm at my wit's end... where to from here? and... how much vulnerability is too much?

Watch here - https://www.nevernotcreative.org/afaf-june-2020Need help now? - https://www.mentally-healthy.org/need-help-now 

Prue Jones 

Dr Zac Seidler

Mentally-Healthy

Youngbloods

18 months on from our first study into the mental health and wellbeing of the creative, media and marketing industry, we’re back with a deeper dive. The purpose of the second study was to evaluate what’s changed since 2018 and to further understand how people cope and what can be done to improve the situation. 

This episode includes a recording of the live presentation of the results with Professor Carmel Loughland, the Director of Everymind, our research legend, Ross Tynan, Nina Nyman, co-chair of the Mentally-Healthy Change Group and of course Andy from Never Not Creative. 

You can read more here - https://www.mentally-healthy.org/resources-collection/mentally-healthy-2020

Discuss the results with the community here - https://facebook.com/groups/nevernotcreative 

Thanks to 

Need someone to talk to?
https://www.mentally-healthy.org/need-help-now

Paul Balfe is no football expert. But he is a male creative who was willing to chat to us about his mental health and his experiences with anxiety. Paul is Creative Director and Founder of Pennybridge Creative, an independent design studio at home on the Gold Coast of Australia. 

Paul shares his battle with anxiety as a result of the recent Queensland flooding and the steps he took to improve his mental wellbeing. From hypnotherapist to psychologist, Paul tried a number of different ways to tackle his challenges. 

He's gone on to curate an exhibition about creatives' relationship with their own mental health, titled, Welcome to Yourself. Find out more about the exhibition at https://www.nevernotcreative.org/welcome-to-yourself.

Thanks to Streamtime. Project management for healthier creative businesses.

When Brooke Strozdas wrote about her side hustle observations she was just letting off steam. Then bang, Twitter responded and she'd clearly hit on something that many people must have been thinking. Why all the pressure to have a side hustle? Is it becoming a mandatory? Is having a side hustle more important than the skills and passion you have for your regular job? Why are employers placing such an importance on it.

Andy reached out to Brooke (despite Brooke asking that we stop asking!) and they caught up to tackle the subject in more detail. You can read Brooke's original article here - https://blog.usejournal.com/stop-asking-me-about-my-side-hustle-a6af88b79670

Follow Brooke

and thanks to Streamtime

With guests, Jess Lilley, Creative Director of Leo Burnett and Aileen Alegado, Psychologist.

We discuss when's the right time to ask for a payrise. Is our industry ageist? And what's Survivors Guilt and how do we get over it?

Register for future Asking For A Friend events at https://www.nevernotcreative.org/asking-for-a-friend. 

Links:

https://mindsetpsychology.com.au/
https://mindsetpsychology.com.au/ebook/
https://jesslilley.com/
https://www.gabberish.com/

Andy first met Daniele Fiandaca in 2002. He was COO at (then) independent agency Profero. They were his agency and he was their client. Since leaving Profero in 2009, Daniele has gone on to co-author 3 books including 'Creative Superpowers: Equip Yourself for the Age of Creativity', become Head of Innovation at Cheil, co-founded Token Man, Brand Social, Creative Social, Culture Social and Innovation Social, hit the front page of a British tabloid, and co-founded Utopia, the culture change business. @weareutopians helps clients such as Coca-Cola European Partners, Google, Red Bull, Spotify and Universal Music build more purposeful, inclusive and entrepreneurial cultures and in 2019, they were named Inclusive Companies Consultancy of the Year.

Daniele's work is focused on how to build better work cultures. He helps people understand the value from creating more inclusive and diverse cultures in which everyone can thrive; how to create psychologically safe workplaces, and many other topics that help build belonging and joy in the workplace.

This episode was recorded in Daniele's London loft (luckily) before the pandemic and lockdown. 

Links:

🔗weareutopia.co

🔗weareutopia.co/towards-utopia/creative-superpowers

🔗tokenman.org

When we stumbled across Creative Confessions in our insta feed, we sensed an immediate familiarity. Veronica Mike and Josh Schneider are on a mission to improve the stigma surrounding mental health in the creative industry. Based in Brooklyn, New York they've been researching with creatives across the world as well as creative leaders in New York and across the USA. 

Sarah and Andy chat to Mike and Josh about their findings, stories they've heard and how we can get better about opening up about our mental health experiences. We all know that things need to change, and Mike and Josh are fighting the good fight!

Take their Creative Confessions survey (link below) and follow their work through their site.

Links:
Creative Confessions site
Creative Confessions survey
It's Friendly

This episode is a fully loaded chat with Andrew Dobbie (Founder of Made Brave) and Peter Czapp (Founder of The Wow Company).  One's a creative founder, the other's an accountant – in fact, Peter is Andrew's accountant.

In this fascinating chat, they share stories of how they and other agencies are coping right now. There's lots of advice for how to get through everything that's happening in 2020 and how to plan to come out the other side winning.

Thanks to:
The Wow Company, and this special resource hub they've put together.
Made Brave
Streamtime - this episode was taken from a Streamtime webinar.

This episode is from our April Asking For A Friend event.

We all know that “asking for a friend”is an easier way to ask a tough question. So once a month we’re going to allow anyone anywhere to “ask for a friend”, to an industry leader, and a psychologist, anonymously, and online.

Asking For A Friend is an initiative by Never Not Creative, Young Bloods Australia and Mentally-Healthy. It exists to make it easier for creatives to ask the unaskable. Wherever you are, tune in on the first Thursday of each month to get help, or just listen to the answers to your friends, colleagues and peers questions.With guests, Maria Devereux, Executive Creative Director of Colenso BBDO New Zealand and Katie Feder, Psychotherapist.

Register for next month or ask an anonymous question of your own at https://www.nevernotcreative.org/asking-for-a-friend 

Links:
https://www.katiefeder.com/
http://www.mariadevereux.com/
https://youngbloods.org.au/
https://mentally-healthy.org.au

Sean Hall has seen almost every nook and cranny of our industry. From working in one of Australia's most iconic agencies to running one of Australia's most iconic brands, he now focuses on helping as many of us as possible to improve our energy levels and mental wellbeing. Energx is Sean's business and passion and it's taken him around the country and onto the stage of TEDx to share his unique insights into what makes us tick.

Sean has also been kind enough to share his time in the Never Not Creative community and the Mentally-Healthy change group. You can find out more about Sean below as well as links to resources he recommended in this episode.

Oh, and send him an email. He'd love that!

Links:

https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register

https://www.energx.com.au/

https://instagram.com/weareenergx

sean@energx.com.au

In this episode Sarah and Andy chat to Mitch Wallis, the Founder of the Heart on My Sleeve Movement. Entwined within Mitch's story about his own Mental Health journey is solid scientific and strategic advice on how to tackle mental health at work. The difference between addressing performance and addressing mental health, and how we can all play a role in looking after ourselves and each other. Mitch is fast becoming one of the most recognisable faces in mental health in Australia and works with many businesses including creative agencies to improve their approach to a mentally healthier workplace.

If you'd like to find out more about Mitch and the Heart On My Sleeve movement, check out the links below.

Heart On My Sleeve

Mitchwallis.com

Linkedin

Instagram

PS the video on Youtube that Mitch mentioned is private to him - so we're keeping it that way. Sure you understand 😃

Other links:

Streamtime

Never Not Creative

Mentally-Healthy

NNC Insta

Drop us a line

We’re back. Season 3 kicks off with Chris Freel and Nina Nyman from Unltd. We talk all things mental health and how to do good in our industry. Perfect timing as we’ve recently launched the new Mentally-Healthy survey (got take it now - link in bio) and Nina is also the co-chair of the Mentally-Healthy Change Group with Andy.

This is a great chat about what happened behind the scenes with our work last year, but also shines a light on the great work that Unltd do helping to connect our industry with youth at risk.

Let us know what you think, and feel free to reach out to @unltdaus to find out more about the great work they do and how you might be able to get involved.

Thanks to:

@unltdaus

@streamtime

@adwrighty

(and a big congrats especially to @sarahpnguyen for the latest addition to the NNC family with baby Nguyen).

In our final episode of Season 2 and 2019, Andy and Sarah catch-up with the formidable "Monty" AKA Sarah Montague, Creative Director at ooh! Media.

With her career as a Solid Gold dancer over before it even began, Monty got into the world of advertising. 23 years later and it's still all about the words, the pictures, the gold nugget of a human insight, where you're connecting with your audience and most of all, the emotion. Emotion is a suit she wears and taps into daily.

On a personal level, she cries over spilt almond milk, would happily swap a lung for a block of Whittaker's Jelly Tip (chocolate) and has quite the penchant for squeezing herself into comically small spaces. 

Last year however, saw Monty tackle her most complex small space yet, her personal Everest, her own head. Monty shares her journey on the mental health rollercoaster of which shame had not only kept her silent for YEARS, but had also seen her run the gamut of self medicating options. A passionate advocate for bringing about change in terms of the way mental health is perceived, understood and approached - Monty shares her tips and tricks on sticking it to shame, and why medication and therapy deserve their own infomercial channel.

If anything in this episode triggers difficult memories, experiences or emotions, please consider calling the numbers below for help and advice:

Lifeline Australia - 13-11-14

Suicide Helpline (US) - 1-800-273-8255

Samaritans (UK) - 116-123

We'll be back in 2020 with a brand new season. 

Please subscribe, share, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen to it.

Links:
https://mentally-healthy.org
https://nevernotcreative.org
https://www.oohmedia.com.au/

Nasya Kamrat is the Co-Founder of FACULTY, a certified, woman-owned spatial storytelling agency. After experiences working with multi-national agencies owned by the global holding companies, Nasya decided to start something new and do completely the opposite. Nasya is joined by Chief Creative Officer, Aaron Wolfe and both chat to Andy about the positives of building a company that is diverse, equitable and different to the status quo. Nasya also shares how she's gone one step further to co-found Komuna, a co-operative of independent BIPOC, women and LGBTQ+ led agencies and leading industry knowledge brokers designed to support the world’s most intrepid brands.

Show Links:

Komuna
FACULTY
Never Not Creative

Thanks to Streamtime for their support of Never Not Creative. Go to Streamtime for project management for healthier, creative businesses.

We caught lettering artist and typographer, Craig Black as he was whizzing around Australia for his national AGDA tour. But better than that, we also invited his wife Alison to bring her expertise as a mental health nurse to our conversation about mental health and the life of a creative.

Craig has shared a lot about his personal story, "and while he's the happiest he's ever been" he's inevitably endured the ups and downs of the creative's rollercoaster along the way.

This is one of the most personal episode's we've recorded... and we're so grateful that Craig and Ali could talk with us together.

If you're an independent creative, if you're struggling with work/life balance, or if you sometimes find yourself lost and not knowing where you want to get to, give this episode a listen. And then share it with whoever else you think would benefit.

Check out Craig's work at https://craigblackdesign.com/

Thanks to Streamtime https://streamtime.net

And get involved at https://nevernotcreative.org and https://mentally-healthy.org

Sarah and Andy catch up with Shruti Rai about designing for the edge cases and how to embrace audiences and use cases that we might not be comfortable with. Diversity becomes a major theme of our conversation and inevitably, the benefits that a more diverse team can bring to the perspective and solutions for a project.

Shruti is an experience designer that counts R/GA on her resumé among many other globally renowned brands and businesses.

Having recently become a mother, we also discuss our industry's ability to create the conditions for parents to continue their career along with topics like flexible working and the benefits of diversity in the workplace.

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Never Not Creative
Shruti Rai
Mentally-Healthy.org
Streamtime
Sarah Nguyen
Andy Wright

This episode, Andy is in Tasmania for Foundry Live.

Foundry Live is a conference  by Foundry Creative School in Tasmania. Every few months they invite industry leaders to speak to their students and local businesses.

At the end of September, Andy attended alongside Todd Henderson, Director of architecture firm, Cumulus; Chi Ryan, Experience Strategy Director at pwc and Marcel Jacobs, Design Lead at Mentally Friendly.

Given the audience at the event, this episode is especially good for those of you looking to get a break in the industry. But even if you're looking to create a good first impression or network for a new role, there's some great advice in this one.

You can find out more about Todd, Chi and Marcel at the Foundry Live event page.

Thanks to Matt Leach and Ali Kerr for collaborating on this one and giving us permission to share with the NNC community.

FOLLOW:

@myfoundrylife
@adwrighty
@sarahpnguyen
@nvrnotcreative

Thanks to:
@streamtime

Professor David Alais is a psychologist and neuroscientist at The University of Sydney. Sarah and Andy caught up with David to understand better how the creative mind works, and how we can do a better job of looking after it.

David's research focuses on how we perceive the world through our senses, how we interpret and create our reality, and how we deal with ambiguity and imagine solutions.

This episode covers everything from mindfulness to mindlessness and how being productive with your creativity doesn't mean chaining yourself to your mac for hours on end.

Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends 🙏

Links:
https://www.bodhipaksa.com/

https://mentally-healthy.org

https://nevernotcreative.org

This episode is packed full of advice on running a business as a creative – get your notebooks out! Andy and Sarah caught up with Emily Cohen, creative business consultant and author of Brutally Honest.

We discussed the challenges facing creative businesses, changing models, how to deal with clients, and how to get serious about business. Emily shared why it's good to be transparent with your employees, friends with your competition, how the next generation of creatives are much more business savvy than their predecessors, and that honesty is definitely the best policy.

This is one of our most practical episodes yet, jam-packed with advice for creatives of all levels to help work better with clients and create more profitable businesses.

You can find Emily's book at https://emilycohen.com/brutally-honest/ - get the credit card out and make an investment in your future business :-)

FOLLOW

Emily at @emilyruthcohen
@adwrighty
@sarahpnguyen
@streamtime

Andy and Sarah caught up with Chris Doyle who last year started an initiative called This Is Not University. TINU is a mentoring program that Chris started to help bridge the gap between education and career as he realised that he didn’t have the time / money to be able to commit to hiring interns. Almost a year in and Chris joins us with Wilson Leung, the first participant in the program and now full time employee of Christopher Doyle & Co.

We discuss Chris’ goals for the programme Wilson’s experience and what we can do to make interning in general, a more structured and positive experience.

You can find out more about This Is Not University here: https://thisisnotuniversity.com 

Socials:
@cd_and_co
@waishunwilson
@sarahpnguyen
@adwrighty

Our industry is nothing without the people who make it. So, what do we do to make sure they're thriving? How are we helping them grow?
In this episode, Andy and Sarah catch up with Manon Pietra, People and Culture Director at PHD Media.

We discuss how to talk about and develop job satisfaction, the minimum standards of a mentally healthy workplace that you should expect from your employer and what we can all do to help look after each other.

If you enjoy this episode and would like to keep talking about it - jump over to our Facebook group or hit us up on Instagram @nvrnotcreative.

Thanks to Streamtime who without their support, none of this would be possible. Check out Streamtime.net to manage projects and your creative business, better.

Australian Design Radio and Never Not Creative hosts Matt Leach and Andy Wright found themselves in Brisbane together at The Design Conference. Therefore, it was a no-brainer to combine mics and interview the founders of Ustwo, Sinx and Mills about the ups and downs of running a business and what it's like to do all of that as best mates.

You can follow Ustwo and Mills at @ustwo or @millsustwo - thanks to the guys for such a great chat!

Thanks to @Streamtime for making a lot of what we do happen.

Subscribe to the show on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever else you get your podcasts by searching for Never Not Creative. And, of course if you don't subscribe to the excellent ADR just search for them at Australian Design Radio.

After a month of high quality events in the creative industry, Sarah and Andy unpack how important it is to get out to find inspiration, community and spend some time on your own self-development. Sarah attended Rare by Google, Semi-Permanent and The Design Conference (TDC), while Andy was also a co-host of TDC. We discuss the great job these events are doing, why it's important to take the time to attend and what we've learnt in the last month. This is also a great insight into the content and lessons from these events, so well worth listening if you're considering a ticket for next year!

Please review the show on itunes or wherever you're listening to this. We'll be back in a fortnight.

Links: https://www.rare-syd.com/

https://www.thedesignconference.com.au/

https://www.semipermanent.com/

https://nevernotcreative.org

This episode was sparked by a tweet. On the 2nd April, Andy tweeted, "Sometimes it feels like we really don't want to create a better industry. When you look at what we do to the people trying to start out or get ahead it's simply baffling..." It was followed by a series of examples and stories that people had shared through the Never Not Creative community. Quite a few of you chipped in with thoughts and opinions, and some of the active participants of the conversation agreed to get together and discuss some of the issues.

So, joining Andy and Sarah in this episode are Jim Antonopoulos from Tank, Ngaio Parr from Make Nice, and previous guest, Gabby Lord.

We discuss everything from the role of leadership to basic human instincts. It's a great conversation across New York, Melbourne and Sydney. That meant the audio can be a little annoying at times (sorry for that). Please stick with it though as the conversation is important!

Link to the original tweet: https://twitter.com/adwrighty/status/1112849344577777666

Have your own thoughts? Jump into the Never Not Creative Facebook group or reignite the Twitter thread!

In our latest episode, Ve Dewey interviews James Routledge, the co-founder of Sanctus. After starting Sanctus, a coaching business to help improve mental wellbeing in workplaces, James has gone on to author the Penguin Business Book, Mental Health at Work. He's always very transparent and honest in his own challenges and shares how practice was the key to opening up and helping people realise that we're all capable of talking about our mental health.

Links:

More about James and Sanctus.

James' book, Mental Health at Work.

Thanks to Streamtime, project management for healthier creative businesses.

Big questions in this episode. Is the lack of diversity in the creative industry holding us back? Can we be more creative as a result? What's it like to be a person of colour in our industry?

Jane and G work in a Sydney creative agency. Both people of colour from London, they're certainly a minority in the Australian creative industry. What has their experience been so far? How can we help more people get into our industry?

We discuss everything from quotas to education and family expectations. It's a great episode about an important (too often ignored) topic. Feel free to continue the conversation in our Facebook group of tweet / insta us at @nvrnotcreative.

Thanks to @Streamtime as always! and co-host @sarahpnguyen

Notes: Here's the website referenced towards the end of the episode: http://www.thecolourofpower.com/ 

Find G at @iamghettosmurf (Twitter) and thisis.g (insta) Find Jane at @flightsofashion (Twitter and insta)

Maggie Tang (ex Frost, Houston Group and current Head of Brand at Ableton), and Christian Hewitt ex R/GA, part of InVision's Design Leadership Forum and current Head of Design at Streamtime) join Andy and Sarah to discuss what it's like to make the decision to go in-house as a creative. Will you compromise your creativity? Do you get bored working on one brand? Are the hours and your mental health better? And, why are more and more people crossing the line?

If you like the discussion and think others would benefit please share with your networks on social media and tag @nvrnotcreative. Got feedback or more questions? Just hit us up on insta or twitter or send us an email at hello@nevernotcreative.org.

This episode Andy and Sarah discuss a recent Never Not Creative event –  The Future Of Internships. Should they or shouldn't they be paid? How do we make sure that internships aren't just accessible to those who can afford them? What stories exist around unpaid internships? What's the law? Why is our industry breaking it? What's the role of education in improving this situation?

Included on the panel at the event were: Beau Penton, host of The Design Kids, Sydney Bianca Jarvis, Graphic Designer Rhiannon Tuntevski, Industry Partnerships at UTS Lara Blumber, Career Coach at General Assembly.

Please review, share and rate us on your podcast platform. Also don't forget to vote for Streamtime at The Webbys. http://bit.ly/stwebby

We catch up with Katy Cowan, the founder of Creative Boom. The online magazine for the creative industry that supports and provides resources for anyone working (or thinking of) in the creative industry. Katy shares stories of freedom, growing a side project, and finding the balance of doing what you love AND helping others. Is growing business the goal, or should we focus on growing ourselves and managing our mental health? Oh, and is a mid-life crisis actually a thing? Check out Creative Boom and creativeboom.com.

Please share with friends and leave us a review wherever you're listening to this. We love to feel special! Back in 2 weeks!