This episode with life, business and career coach, Brian Patacca, has been one of my go-to's ever since he shared this nugget with me: Marketing is going public with your gifts and being seen for your gifts. If you build it and you tell people about it, they will come.

Grab your journal. Brian and I begin with marketing and end with dignity and respect.

Along the way, Brian reframes the entire concept of marketing around generosity and purpose:

• Be determined each day, not to leave your function unfulfilled.
• Clarity is kindness and kindness is clarity - banish the vague and wishy washy and ASK.
• Your creativity is your birthright and the world is a better place when you are doing what you are called to do.
• Effective marketing does 3 things, makes you FEEL something, makes you DO something, makes you NOTICE something.
• Don't be afraid of the word No. Hearing No frees you to focus your energy on where you'll find your Yes.

Brian is a spiritual practitioner who engages creative professionals seeking to ignite their businesses with fierce accountability, marketing innovation and soul satisfying success. He is the founder of a coaching organization and creative community with locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Now based in Los Angeles, Brian coaches nationwide in several web-based group courses including his latest programs, Agent Goals and Actor Operating System.

Get more Brian by tuning into his podcast at www.BrianBreaksCharacter.com and download his free guide to 23 stories of people growing their networks in unusual ways that you can put into practice, at supersneakyauditons.com.

I used to think sales was a dirty word, especially when it came to selling myself and my services. I know I'm not alone in this, which is why I am excited about this episode with Aleasha Bahr who shares everything you need to know about sales.

We're all in sales - whether you're selling yourself to an employer in an audition or job interview or pitching your idea to a network or for financing or trying to get your boss or team to buy into your idea.

Aleasha is a woman in a male-dominated industry who is calling out the common lies in sales - primarily, that sales is a one-size-fits-all proposition and that you have to do things that feel “weird” or "yucky" and out of alignment to close the deal.

Aleasha says embrace the Black Sheep Sales Method instead:

• Find your tribe and thrive (because if it's a fit, it's a fact)
• Ask yourself: what are better questions I could be asking?
• Put yourselves in your customer's shoes (empathy)
• Focus on what makes your customer's life better/easier
• Customize your pitch to motivate your customer
• Prioritize building relationships and you naturally sell yourself
• Try different approaches to see what works best for you
• Be mindful of reputation management

Try this action step: I am going to innovate my approach to pitching myself by innovating my approach to ______ (fill in the blank). Aleasha explains how around 25 minutes into the episode.

Learn How to Sell Like a Natural via Aleasha's Sales is NOT a Dirty Word podcast + so much more on Aleasha's website including how you can work with her.

Listen to Aleasha and me discuss How to Stand Out in a Saturated World.

Creativity is the ability to create, produce, or develop original work theories, techniques, thoughts and ways of seeing. You are creative, whether you tap into it or not, and you take your creativity wherever you go, and I think it's often overlooked how valuable creativity is as a transferable skill: the abilities you take from job to job.

Here to discuss is BAFTA-nominated television director, Ed Bazalgette, who exemplifies creativity as a transferable skill, having first found success as a musician, then editor, and now director and producer. I first met Ed when he was the lead guitarist for The Vapors, supporting their global hit, Turning Japanese, and I've been a super fan ever since. Please do yourself a favor and check out the power-pop majesty of their full albums, New Clear Days and Magnets.

Ed's directing credits include Dr. Who, Poldark, The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die, and The Witcher.

Ed opened my eyes in so many ways:

• stay humble
• there's room for more than one person's creativity on a project
• creating an environment that fosters sharing creative ideas serves the project
• leadership, communications and soft skills are essential
• never stop learning and questioning what's in service of the story
• combine a let's try it! mentality with discipline
• the ripple effect of creativity as a transferable skill because the more you put out there, the more everybody working with you takes with them to the next thing they do

Ed's currently in post-production on Marie Antoinette for PBS.

For more on creativity, listen to Maria Brito discuss how Creativity Rules the World.

For more on breaking into directing, listen to Mike Simon discuss Directing Talent.