Holiday travel season is in full swing – and a new year is just coming into view. We might be wrapping up the year’s projects, but as marketing professionals, we’re also looking ahead and wondering what we can do to ensure our brand stands out in 2025.
This is also a good time to remember that brilliant ideas often pop up when you’re not actively thinking about work.
Creativity is the key to producing noteworthy content – the kind that helps you stand out in a noisy media environment. Here’s the rub: Truly fresh and innovative ideas don’t usually pop from nowhere. They’re germinated from scraps of conversation, snippets of text, and bits of seemingly unrelated information.
I like to nudge this process along by listening to interviews of creative people. I find their stories inspiring. Whenever I’m stuck, I turn to podcasters who focus on interviewing successful creators.
So, here’s my gift to you this holiday travel season: Four of my go-to podcasts for inspiration.
Actors Dax Shepard and Monica Padman interview guests in a variety of fields, including the historian Yuval Noah Harari, actor Kathryn Hahn, and Bill Lawrence, who created numerous hit shows like “Scrubs” and “Ted Lasso.”
Don’t miss episode: Actor Melissa McCarthy and her writer/actor husband, Ben Falcone. As Ben and Melissa describe their freewheeling collaboration on projects, I’m reminded how creativity is essentially a team sport, and how brilliant (and, in their case, hilarious) ideas are the result of one person building upon another’s musings.
Another pod featuring actors! Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes engage in silly banter, but also ask intelligent questions about the creative process. Comedian Mike Birbiglia, funny guys Steve Martin and Martin Short, and shock jock Howard Stern have all been guests.
Don’t-miss episode: A hands-down favorite is this interview with actor and former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who shares how he went from world-famous bodybuilder to hugely successful actor to governor of California.
If you want to get to the heart of the creative process, there’s no better guide than Terry Gross, one of the most insightful interviewers of our time. Her preparation for each interview is next-level and legendary, and the reason her questions dive well below the surface. (For a glimpse behind Terry’s process, I recommend her 2005 book: “All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists.”)
Terry and her co-host Tonya Moseley interview experts in a range of fields, from literature and film to science and politics. The show also has a deep archive going back more than 40 years, which is where you’d find one of the last interviews with children’s author Maurice Sendak.
Don’t-miss episode: Adam Driver was a U.S. Marine before turning to acting. In this 2015 interview, he talks about how he doesn’t watch clips of his work because he’s convinced it’s all bad (relatable!) and how the skills he developed in the military made him a better actor.
This pod challenges you to “think differently,” making it a good choice for this list. Adam’s TED Talk about original thinkers was viewed five million times in just five days (and is well worth watching). His guests are businesspeople, politicians, writers, restauranteurs, scientists, and more.
Don’t-miss episode: Adams speaks with restauranteurs Christina Tosi and Will Guidara. If you’ve watched Hulu’s “The Bear,” you may have noticed a key character reading Will’s book “Unreasonable Hospitality” in one scene – and putting it into play in another. I highly recommend this book for anyone in a management position. The groundbreaking idea: Service should go above and beyond and astound customers.
These pods will help you make enjoyable – and productive – use of your travel time. I hope they’ll help you make those unlikely connections that inspire your creativity.
Safe travels and happy holidays!
