Creative Business
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it.
Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Creative Business
Lessons from starting things that worked, flopped, and taught more than any MBA. The messy reality of building creative ventures - decisions, mindsets, and the bits nobody warns you about.
I've started things that worked, things that flopped, and things that taught me more than any MBA could. These pieces are about the messy reality of building creative ventures - the decisions, the mindsets, and the bits nobody warns you about.
Start Here
The essential reads on creative business
Best of...
Making it in America: What international founders & creatives actually need to know
The cultural paradoxes, identity costs, and hidden rules nobody explains
Future Of Work
Two Pilates studios - and the great capability divide
One teaches craft, one delivers product. In an AI-driven world, the gap between human expertise and scalable systems is widening fast.
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Creative Business
Weaving Threads: The Great Compression of Mid-Career
Early career is all about loose threads. But mid-career? That’s when the weaving really gets tricky…
Best of...
Shakepeare & Co's Proustian Questions
In Paris, there's a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company (hey, who said the Brits and French don’t get along?). Next door is Bob's Cafe. Together, they do something wonderful.
How-To Guides
Practical playbooks for building your business
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
How-To Guides
What I've learned from evaluating 1000+ SXSW proposals
Every year, I find myself deep in proposal evaluation mode. Fortune 100 CEOs, ambitious VPs, indie strategists, even actors and
Future Of Work
An antidote to AI tinnitus
Sam Altman says agency and adaptability will be extremely valuable. But what does cultivating them actually look like?
Creative Business
Lemon automation: How Chick-fil-A processes 20% of America's lemons... and what it means for your career
The unexpected career insights hidden in a chicken restaurant's remarkable lemon-squeezing operation
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Creative Business
Two ways to define 'Good Enough'
Ever found yourself endlessly tweaking a project, chasing that elusive perfection? Yeah, me too. But here's a thought.
Battle Scars
Hard-won lessons from entrepreneurial endeavours
Building something creative?
Join Groove Theory for weekly insights on learning, creativity, and building things that matter.
All Posts
Everything on creative business and entrepreneurship
Creative Business
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it.
Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Best of...
Making it in America: What international founders & creatives actually need to know
The cultural paradoxes, identity costs, and hidden rules nobody explains
Future Of Work
Two Pilates studios - and the great capability divide
One teaches craft, one delivers product. In an AI-driven world, the gap between human expertise and scalable systems is widening fast.
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Creative Business
Weaving Threads: The Great Compression of Mid-Career
Early career is all about loose threads. But mid-career? That’s when the weaving really gets tricky…
Best of...
Shakepeare & Co's Proustian Questions
In Paris, there's a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company (hey, who said the Brits and French don’t get along?). Next door is Bob's Cafe. Together, they do something wonderful.
Mindsets & Growth
The Shadow Brief
Carl Jung said every person has a shadow - the other version of themselves, shouting in silence. Turns out, every
Best of...
7 ways to improve a conference speaking proposal
I’ve just finished evaluating proposals for SXSW 2025. Here are 7 things that separate the standouts from the rest.
Best of...
5 Founder Types
Which one are you?
Best of...
Carl Cox's timeless creative career advice
Two simple tips for a successful long-term career, courtesy of a one-of-a-kind artist & entertainer
Creative Business
Damon Albarn's preset genius
All killer, no filler. From 1981.
The Tension
Two types of con game
The first type of con game is part of our lexicon. This confidence game involves
a trickster building up the
Learning, Education & Growth
The Educator in Residence
Why a different type of EIR could be your firm’s new secret weapon
In 1989, the Hollywood talent agency
Coaching
What the music industry’s people need next
As the music industry’s resurgence continues, its people need support now more
than ever. There’s opportunity to further
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
Employee of the Month
It’s really easy to let our inner critic run riot.
The negative self-talk, the comparison trap, that nagging feeling
Portfolio Career
Lowercase skills
You may be familiar with concepts like T-shaped or I-shaped people to help
simplify the way we think about skillsets
Battle Scars
When you’re not killing it
This post by well-known DJ and producer Tiga
[https://facebook.com/officialtiga/photos/a.72416460836.108308.57755305836/10155334073875837/?type=3]
Stage Left
7 lessons from the story of CAA
A few months ago, James Andrew Miller released his new book telling the tale of
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one