Creator's Block
108 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 13 ratingsThe podcast for marketing creatives about doing the work, big ideas, and agency life. Hosted by Marcella Jalbert and Justine Timoteo of IMPACT Branding and Design.
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Episodes
The farewell episode
February 25, 2020 15:00 - 34 minutes - 46.9 MBCreator’s Block comes to you this week with a heavy heart. It’s with all the best intentions that we have decided to take a break from producing the podcast. We have loved sharing this experience with you and being able to share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you, but right now it’s time for a change. So what better way to send off CB than with the originator, the queen of content herself, Liz Moorehead. Listen in as we look back at some of our favorite memories and learning e...
The power of sharing personal stories
February 07, 2020 17:52 - 24 minutes - 33.8 MBMy friend and colleague recently published an article that shared her deeply personal story about experiencing a miscarriage. I was moved. I had goosebumps the entire time I was reading, teared up when she mentioned what it felt like first learning she lost the baby and outwardly shook my head at learning how so many baby-planning apps and websites seemed blind to such a large demographic of women. I personally have not experienced what my friend has. And yet, I was still able to conne...
Why emotional design is so important
January 20, 2020 23:25 - 25 minutes - 34.5 MBEven though I've talked about the importance of reading in past episodes, the practice hasn't always been perfect. I find my days are filled with with more meetings than I anticipate each week and can truly only dive into a book over the weekends. What I've been doing instead, though, is filling the cracks of my days with words. When I find I have 15 minutes in between calls or meetings, I grab a nearby book or pull up Medium articles to find a topic that peaks my interest. The latest ...
Down with New Years Resolutions, Rethinking Goal-Setting
January 06, 2020 22:50 - 28 minutes - 38.8 MBNew year, new me mantra. That’s right. This year it’s just the same old me. I’m not doing my usual New Years' resolutions and here’s why. 2019 was a rough year for me. I had a lot on my plate and even more pressure that I put on myself. It was hard and most importantly it didn’t help my personal growth. So, this year I’ve decided to give myself a well-deserved break. Not a break in the sense of a gap year or not challenging myself, but a break in being so hard on myself. The first ...
How do we measure success in our careers?
December 20, 2019 22:14 - 30 minutes - 41.8 MBI feel like I blinked and 2019 is already over. Wasn't I just celebrating getting engaged and enjoying a trip to Mexico? Certainly feels like it... As we're all entering a new decade, it hit me that I'm also entering the second decade of my career. That is crazy to me! The last 10 years have flown by, but have also seemed to linger forever. As a bright-eyed 22 year old, I had so many big goals of everything I wanted to accomplish in the first 10 years of working. For instance, I want...
The Anti-Productivity Mindset: How Doing Less is Doing More
December 10, 2019 14:38 - 37 minutes - 52 MBWith the impending holiday and the time away from the office that may require I know I am not alone in saying I am feeling stressed out, under water, and *pause for dramatic effect* burnt out. Every morning I wake up and will myself to be as productive as possible just to make it through the day, but turns out this may just be part of the problem. Professor Christine Seifert writes, “A productivity mindset is … problematic when the relentless quest for it results in burnout. Studies sho...
How to Take Client Feedback Like a Pro
November 27, 2019 15:27 - 30 minutes - 41.7 MBMarcella and I have found ourselves in the endless round of design revisions on a recent project. I, acting as a project manager, have fallen short in getting to the root of what the client truly needs. And because of that, Marcella has spent weeks trying to get one particular element "just right." It got me thinking... what could I have done from the start to ensure I knew exactly what to relay to Marcella to update? I found a recent article that dives into this very topic where the ...
Why We Should Play at Work
November 12, 2019 14:31 - 42 minutes - 58.1 MBWe've covered a lot of different ways on how to re-ignite the creativity flame or find inspiration when the well seems to be dry, but this seems to be one way we have yet to discover. The answer is simple: PLAY! Designer, Drory Ben-Menachem, was inspired to bring the idea of playing into his routine after watching his young child grow and explore through play. His article "Why We Should Play at Work: Embracing play in our creative field can make us happier and more productive" talks ab...
To Become More Efficient, Ask Better Questions
October 30, 2019 14:23 - 26 minutes - 36.8 MBAt the beginning of October, I created a goal for myself to have more time available for me to read and research business-related articles and books. Why? Because leaders are readers. It should come as no surprise then that I learned this in a book called Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't by Vern Harnish. In it, he talks about how Larry Page, the former CEO of Google, "was asked how he learned to run a company, he responded 'I read a lot.'" And how Marc...
The Biggest Misconception of Client/Agency Relationships
September 27, 2019 23:25 - 27 minutes - 38.2 MBHere at IMPACT, we produce a lot of content (and I mean A LOT) so I can't always consume every single thing we do. But the one thing I absolutely cannot miss each week is The Latest. The Latest is our hand-curated marketing-insights newsletter where I know I'm going to get a hit list of the top topics our IMPACTers and marketing community have been discussing throughout the week. So when I saw "Agency Outsourcing Is Broken" as the start of the subject line in one of the newsletters last ...
Are Designers Ruining the World?
September 16, 2019 21:48 - 27 minutes - 37.3 MBCan you imagine your life without a car? For most of us, it seems impossible. Of course there are large cities with quality public transportation systems, but I'm sure the 85% of Americans that commute to work by car probably couldn't imagine it being different. This wasn't always the case, though. When the first "vehicle powered by a gas engine" was patented in 1886, there wasn't the vast majority of people who would claim the invention to be a necessity. In fact, this often is the ...
How To Really Win The Afternoon… or Not.
September 05, 2019 18:35 - 21 minutes - 29.2 MBI’m back from vacation at the beach and feeling super relaxed and well rested… she said through clenched jaw. It’s the week after a vacation and LDW and I feel anything but relaxed (I’m sure many of you can relate). Work is quickly piling up and I’m struggling to barely keep my head above water. Under the weight of the impending doom I turned to Medium, as I often do, to see a shining beacon of hope “How To Really Win The Afternoon”. As I started reading, I quickly realized this was not ...
The Biggest Mistakes You’re Still Making on Your Website
August 20, 2019 17:26 - 34 minutes - 47.2 MBWe’ve talked about purposeful website design before, but there is more to a great website than just a functional design. There are many strategic components that go into a great website that are simple yet efficient changes anyone can implement. Getting out of your own head, and thinking like your user is always a great place to start. What do they want from my website? What is the next logical step for them? How is my content speaking to their problems? How are they finding m...
Are Voice Assistants the Next Frontier or the Start of Armageddon?
August 05, 2019 15:52 - 32 minutes - 45.2 MBMy dad is retiring from his job of nearly 32 years. As my brother, mother and I sat around brainstorming ideas on what to get him as a congratulations present, we kept circling back to the Amazon Echo and its accessories. Now, my dad has a serious love/hate relationship with Alexa. He loves that he can ask her to play pretty much any song at drop of a hat, but hates when she doesn't understand what he says and some of her other limitations. He doesn't just use the voice interface en...
10 Bad Habits of Unsuccessful People
July 22, 2019 21:52 - 44 minutes - 60.6 MBWhen looking to improve ourselves, we often focus on the good habits we should strive to have to build or own success. But, sometimes it can be tricky to really outline what that looks like. This article by Darius Foroux makes that a little easier by looking at what things we should actually avoid to be more successful. When I started reading his list I was looking at it from a career perspective, but part of what this helped me realize is that it’s not just about shaping your career. ...
How to Survive a Company Restructure at Your Agency
July 09, 2019 13:45 - 31 minutes - 43.2 MBIn the nearly three years I've been at IMPACT, I've experienced four different company structures. The latest iteration just launched last week where we moved individuals into teams based on their roles, with the intention to allow for a better learning environment and career advancements. Personally, I'm excited for this restructure but I'm not naive in thinking it will go perfect and smoothly over the next several weeks (even months). As agencies continue to grow, company restructur...
How Minimalism Fosters Productivity
June 11, 2019 13:46 - 36 minutes - 50.8 MBAs we all know Monday’s typically go one of two ways for me. Either I’m super productive or riding leading the struggle bus. Today, with a much overdue blog post and a growing list of tasks at hand found myself unfortunately in the latter scenario. So, I did what I always do when I’m in a rut… turn to medium for help. Being attracted to all things Minimalist, I found myself on an article by Jennifer Chan, entitled “How Minimalism Fosters Productivity”. When I clicked in I expect a ...
Avoiding Empty Promise Purgatory - When Good Intentions are Not Enough
May 24, 2019 22:45 - 26 minutes - 35.7 MBI can't even begin to tell you how often I've seen -- or been stuck in -- "Empty Promise Purgatory" as a marketer. Let me know if this sounds familiar. You and your boss come up with a killer marketing strategy and seem completely aligned in what you need to do in order to get it done and see the leads roll in. At some point in the strategizing though, she or he says they need final approval on items -- and I mean any item. It could be something as small as the color of CTA buttons or as...
Progress Over Perfection, How Striving For Perfection Hurts the Creative Process
May 14, 2019 13:29 - 42 minutes - 58.5 MBThe word "perfect" may not mean much to some people, but for those like me (a perfectionist to the core) it can be paralyzing. I have struggled most of my life with striving for perfection in many ways. When it comes to my work as a designer we often use the term "pixel perfect", but striving for perfection can actually stunt achievement and growth. In an article I recently read by Thomas Oppong, he describes perfection as "an endless productivity loop." It can actually hinder the crea...
Agency Tough Love: When It's Time to Break Up with a Client
April 16, 2019 17:44 - 44 minutes - 61.3 MBOver the past several months, IMPACT has fully embraced the They Ask, You Answer model and all client-facing employees have been educating clients on the practice because, frankly, it works. Ultimately, it boils down to producing content that answers your prospects and customers questions. To help our clients succeed, we've grown our consulting side of services to empower clients to improve their marketing and sales alignment and rely less on outsourcing work to a marketing agency. Be...
The Life Changing Magic of Brain Dumping
March 18, 2019 21:09 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MBMany of you have probably figured out by now that the goings on inside my head are generally utter chaos. This is part of what makes me the complete organizational/neat freak (read: control freak) that I am. Growing up (especially through my college years) I started to become acutely aware of how much I was being distracted by my own thoughts. It wasn’t Facebook, TV, or video games that was drawing me away from my responsibilities. In fact, it was fears, thoughts, and anxieties about my o...
What is “Hustle Culture” and How Do We Break It?
March 05, 2019 17:19 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MBI’ve heard it over and over again that 2019 is the year of self care, which I honestly think is great. More people need to make their own well being a priority. I’ll say it again for the people in the back: more people need to make their own well being a priority. To some people (read: me) self care means face masks, bubble baths, and a glass of malbec. To others it means spending more quality time with your family, friends, or pets. But one thing seems universal: the need to spend les...
Exploring the Toxic Myth of Fearless… Anything
February 19, 2019 19:46 - 34 minutes - 47 MBLast week our VP of Sales, Brie Rangel wrote an awesome article called “The Toxic Myth of "Fearless" Leadership”. (Which, if you haven’t read it yet, you totally should. In it she talks about the pressure to appear “fearless” in the face of stress, change, and adversity, particularly in a role of leadership. Brie writes, “...leaders are often expected to present an air of fearlessness. We’re supposed to show no signs of weakness or worry. Basically, we’re supposed to be robots. But tha...
What Makes You an Invaluable Teammate
February 05, 2019 19:34 - 30 minutes - 42.4 MBHere at IMPACT, we work in an agile system -- inspired pretty heavily on Spotify's model -- and have gone through some cross-team restructuring over the past year. Because of this, a lot of IMPACT employees have questioned exactly how their performance is being judged and measured. IMPACT Founder and CEO Bob Ruffolo provided context to help give a little more guidance: "My advice: Be the person on your team that your teammates say 'don’t take them off my team, we don’t want to lose them!...
Receiving Feedback: How to Separate Appreciation, Coaching and Evaluation
January 21, 2019 23:10 - 33 minutes - 46.4 MBLast week, I enjoyed a couple days in the Connecticut office to immerse myself in an all-day training about World-Class Communication -- led by the one and only Marcus Sheridan. Every concept covered was so enlightening to me but one that particularly stood out was all about feedback. Marcus referenced one of my favorite books I read in 2018, Radical Candor, and challenged me by asking whether or not I ask for feedback from my team. I sat a little more upright and proudly responded "yes...
New Year, New Resolutions
January 07, 2019 23:02 - 53 minutes - 73.3 MBHappy New Year, everyone! It’s no surprise at this point that I have been doing a boatload of work on myself over the last year and I intend to keep going with this. I’ve been building out a library of books and workbooks all designed to get to the best version of myself. I have never been huge on new year’s resolutions, but this year it feels different. I have a different skill set now and am better equipped to figure out how to forge a path and manifest my goals. So, for the first time...
18 Lessons We Learned in 2018
December 21, 2018 01:44 - 42 minutes - 58.5 MBThe end of the year always tends to be a time for some self reflection; a time when we look at what we’ve accomplished or learned over the last year. So, Justine and I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the 18 lessons we learned in 2018! Join us for our final episode of the year as we count down the hard (and not so hard) lessons we've learned through the last 525,600 minutes. Justine’s Lessons Learned in 2018 Communicating effectively with colleagues and clients The...
How and When to Say No
December 11, 2018 00:13 - 33 minutes - 46.1 MBThe holiday season is in full swing, full of cheerful music, delicious food, shopping adventures and of course... chaotic schedules. Over the past several years, I've deemed the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas as the "Christmas Chaos." I love this season but also struggle to keep a level head as my days seem to get more and more busy leading up to the Christmas holiday. As much as I'm looking forward to taking two weeks off and enjoying several days in Cancun, I can't help ...
Blurred Lines: Art vs. Design
December 03, 2018 22:17 - 21 minutes - 29.7 MBThe conversation of creativity vs. function is not a new one in the design world, but today as I was browsing medium I stumbled across an article on the subject that really ruffled my feathers (to put it lightly). Boris Müller, a Professor of Interaction Design at FH Potsdam, published a BOLD article that poses the question “Why Do All Websites Look the Same?” and even suggests that “The internet suffers from a lack of imagination”. Which, WOW… fatalist outlook much? Müller postures tha...
Why I Choose to Work Remote
November 28, 2018 22:17 - 34 minutes - 46.9 MBThis morning I read an article from Jason Zimdars, a designer at basecamp, about why he actually works from home. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t about productivity at all, but rather about the practical reasons that we can sometimes take for granted. Jason talks about the ways it allows him to spend more time with his kids and how those moments can be looked at as happy distractions and it got me thinking about the real reasons I’ve been working from home as well. Most of you know that I work...
Do You Really Want That Promotion?
November 12, 2018 23:08 - 32 minutes - 44.6 MBWith IMPACT growing and changing so quickly comes many new roles and opportunities for advancements, changes, and promotions. Which of course makes many of us here wonder are we ready for a new role? Is this the career path I want? If I don’t put myself up for consideration will it reflect poorly on me? I have personally struggled with this as a designer. I know that moving up in the ranks as a designer means you may not be as hands on as you would like. You may be spending less time phy...
How to Have Tough but Effective Conversations with Clients
November 06, 2018 14:37 - 51 minutes - 70.5 MBI'm sure we've all been there before -- you presented an amazing idea to your client, agreed on next steps and then while in the midst of the project, get news that something needs to change or an item wasn't approved by the right person, sending your project into a tailspin. How do you communicate they don't have the budget to redo the work? Will the account be at risk if the client doesn't take the news well? Tough conversations like these can be the most stressful part your job. After...
The Paradox of Originality
October 30, 2018 15:28 - 40 minutes - 56.2 MBThe designers have been having lots of brainstorm meetings lately where we basically all hop on a call and look at a ton of different websites. The purpose of this being to find things we like or think are cool and new to incorporate into our own designs. I know what you’re thinking, “You just STEAL from other website designs?!”. Not quite, we take these things and try to improve them in some way. This is a common practice among designers and creatives alike. We’re always on the hunt...
Creator’s Block Book Club: You Are a Badass
October 23, 2018 10:00 - 46 minutes - 63.7 MBI recently took Friday off for a personal mental health day to reset and recharge. The past few months have been some of the most rewarding and challenging I've experienced in my career so far as I adjusted to my new role as Account Supervisor. I entered a new world of management that I wasn't previously familiar with. Though I've accomplished a lot over these months, it certainly hasn't been easy and over the past few weeks I started to feel like I wasn't doing my job well enough. Self-...
Working with Introverts, Extroverts, and Ambiverts
October 15, 2018 22:02 - 36 minutes - 49.9 MBAs many of you may know, Marcella and I love to talk about our varying yet similar personalities -- how can we both be Aries and yet so different?! -- so it should come as no surprise that I wanted to dive in deeper with her to see where she felt she fell on the personality spectrum. Were we introverts, extroverts or ambiverts? What do the personality types even mean? And how do they relate to our work productivity? After doing research and taking way too many online personality tests, w...
What is a work family? And should I have one?
October 04, 2018 13:44 - 41 minutes - 57 MBSo we’ve talked about how to balance your personal life and your professional life and make them work like yin and yang, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that I really started to think about one of the most important parts of making that work… my work family. Not to get into great detail here, but I have been feeling not quite right lately. I’ve been having trouble focusing and getting my head right, beyond the usual 3pm blues. From the get go I immediately went to a couple of my clos...
Time Management and Holding Yourself Accountable
September 25, 2018 13:08 - 38 minutes - 52.2 MBWe discussed some of our favorite (and not so favorite) productivity hacks in a previous episode, but one thing we didn't expound on is why being productive and time management is so important. Of course the obvious answer is to be able to accomplish your week's tasks, but it can actually run much deeper and effects more than just yourself. Are you managing your time effectively enough for your team's and client's success? What happens if your management falls short? To help us dive in...
How to Keep Your Creative Spark When You Work Remotely
September 18, 2018 13:27 - 46 minutes - 63.8 MBRecently, I’ve been dealing with some personal matters that have taken up more time in my professional life. It's weeks like these that make me appreciative of the fact that I work remote. Knowing I can flex my work schedule -- to a certain degree -- in order to best fit what's happening in my life is something I don't take for granted. I'll be honest though, I was hesitant and nervous when IMPACT first approached me about working remotely full time. I loved working in an office, brai...
Owning and Sharing Your Failures
September 11, 2018 15:54 - 52 minutes - 72.4 MBAs some of you may already know, I'm a struggling perfectionist when it comes to work. I always want to do tasks perfectly, the first time, every time -- but, as we all know, that's not realistic. Failing, whether at work or in my personal life, used to be something that crippled me. Over time, though, I learned to appreciate my failures -- every single one of them. Whether I messed up with a small task or failed on a larger scale, I gained more insight and direction from those mist...
The Best and Worst Productivity Hacks
September 04, 2018 13:00 - 37 minutes - 52.1 MBI’ve actually been struggling through this week after getting back from vacation. I returned with a glowing tan and equally glowing optimism, but I quickly found myself in a productivity slump. I was easily distracted and it seemed like every day I had more and more external forces pulling me away from the work that I really, really needed to get done. Feeling fully over-extended and realizing I couldn’t keep going at the rate that I was going, I turned to the internet to fill me with it...
The Curse of Comparison
August 28, 2018 13:13 - 48 minutes - 67.2 MBOver the past week, I've enjoyed stalking Marcella's Instagram posts to live vicariously through her while she enjoyed a week beach vacation. Though I'm always happy for my friends and coworkers when I see their vacation posts, I can't help but feel that ping of jealousy knowing I have a week of work ahead of me when they have a week of lounging and relaxation. This got me thinking: how often am I comparing my life to others? Do I live too much in a negative state, diminishing my life mo...
How to Speak to Your Manager and Really Have Your Voice Be Heard
August 21, 2018 10:30 - 40 minutes - 55.2 MBHave you ever had a challenging week only to realize later that the conversations and obstacles you faced pushed you to do and be better? This was one of those weeks for me. I've had some tough conversations with team members both on and off my POD, and while it's never fun to have challenging discussions, I know we’re growing because of it. I’ve mentioned on past episodes before but I recently moved into a managerial role as Account Supervisor, managing a team of 6 Account Executives....
Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Actually Doing Professional Development
August 14, 2018 13:00 - 29 minutes - 40.8 MBAs I write this, we’re exactly one day after the wrap of IMPACT Live 2018. It’s been a crazy couple days and I honestly feel like I could sleep for 48 hours and still be tired. However, one of my favorite parts of IMPACT Live is that I basically have no choice but to unplug from work and actually focus on some professional development (PD). One of the great things about our culture at IMPACT is we are encouraged to work on our own professional development, especially through events. ...
Pros & Cons of Templated Work
August 07, 2018 13:58 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBRecording this week's episode with Marcella was extra special because we were able to record it together, in person! As a remote employee at IMPACT, I only get to come to Connecticut and see my fellow IMPACTers a few times a year. The annual August trip has easily turned into my favorite because it's IMPACT Live week. (For those of you who don't know, IMPACT hosts a two-day event where marketing and sales leaders come together to learn, collaborate, and make valuable connections.) Th...
"The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" by Mark Manson
July 31, 2018 13:02 - 33 minutes - 45.3 MBFor decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoile...
How to Avoid a Supernova Sized Burnout
July 24, 2018 13:36 - 42 minutes - 59 MBAll work and no play makes marketers and creatives dull guys and gals, right? Well, actually, it's a lot more than that. This week, Justine & Marcella unpack how to avoid burning out at work, when everything gets to be too much.
It’s OK to Not Know Your Passion
July 16, 2018 22:24 - 35 minutes - 48.2 MBThe past couple months have been very exciting for me at IMPACT as I transitioned to a new role of Account Supervisor. In addition to being the point person for a select few clients, I now manage a team of six Account Executives. Without even realizing it, this new role and added responsibility has been something I've been working towards for a while now, all stemming to what I consider my passion in my career: helping people. Though "helping people" is a super generic passion to cla...
The Effect of Stress & Anxiety (Re-Release)
July 03, 2018 14:46 - 1 hour - 99.8 MBThe previous version of this episode was corrupted, and we sincerely apologize for that. This is a big week for Creator's Block. In fact, it's quite a milestone for myself and the podcast. In a couple of weeks, Creator's Block will return (on July 17, to be precise), just in time to celebrate its second anniversary. But I will not be returning with it, as Marcella's co-host. While it's bittersweet for me to leave the podcast I founded two years ago over lunch with Jessie-Lee, I'm exc...
Is Work Life Balance Even Possible?
June 19, 2018 14:59 - 51 minutes - 70.4 MBAh, work-life balance. It's kind of like parenting and finding true love -- everyone has an opinion about it. "There's no such thing as work-life balance, only work-life blend." "There's no such thing as work-life balance, only LIFE!" "You can only spend X number of hours a day doing work, without ruining your personal life." "If you're not committing X number of hours to work, is it even worth doing or being passionate about?" The sheer number of opinions about work-life balance ...
The Lie of Not Having Enough Time
June 12, 2018 15:22 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MBI don’t know how it happened, but I sneezed and somehow we’re now weeks away from the end of yet another quarter -- and not just any quarter. The second quarter. Which means we’re almost halfway through the entire year. WHAT?! While I’d love to say that I’ve got all my ducks in a row, and all of my plans to "crush my goals" or whatever are going along swimmingly, I would be lying. Here’s the thing though. Now that the finish line is in sight, I’ve noticed a lot of people saying, “I d...