A.I.
What Ableton taught us about AI and the future of coding
In 2001, Ableton turned bedroom producers into festival headliners. Now vibe coding is doing the same for software. The parallels run deeper than you'd think.
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
Best of...
The Creative Technologist comeback
How a misunderstood role from the digital agency era is becoming essential for the AI age
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.
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?
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
Hobby. Job. Career. Vocation.
A 'self-help' video that everyone should take 9 minutes to watch.
Now
Now - Oct 26, 2023
What I’m working on right now
1. Building Wavetable - a creative studio and media company blending education and
Creative Business
The Monopoly on Narrative
This quote by Bryce Roberts on entrepreneurship and narratives stopped me in my tracks:
“In the same regards that VCs
Independent Paths
The new Mom-and-pop store
“Mom-and-pop” businesses are typically small, family-owned, independent. They’ve gone in and out of fashion (mainly out). But I reckon
Storytelling
I want to believe your pitch. But I can’t.
The story of the SXSW shuffle
I’m in the middle of evaluating 200 proposals for SXSW. One theme is
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
"The ups and downs of entrepreneurship"
Can someone please ban this phrase?
“Ups and downs” is about as descriptive as saying New York is a place
Independent Paths
Overcoming Inertia
A lot of people are struggling in their work right now. Most don’t want to talk about it. But
Creative Business
Picture of you
Is it really possible that the person who portrays the formidable Logan Roy can lose sight of his skills, his focus, his purpose? Even his identity? Turns out, it is.
Entrepreneurial Endeavours
The thing about self doubt
Do you have self-doubt? I do, every time I post here. In fact, I reckon self-doubt is one of the
Portfolio Career
The keynote speaking grapevine
Notes on format innovation, how to get an agent, and experience design
A lot of people want to do more
How-To Guides
Two types of vouch
How do you discover talent, build connections, and develop trusted partnerships? You could spray and pray, but more likely you
Culture & Insights
DJ JD
One Saturday morning, a nightclub promoter received a demo tape in the mail. It
didn't seem unusual at
Writing
The writer's Secret Service
There’s been a lot of anticipation about a new movie featuring a certain Mr.
Bond.
But Bond’s original
Creative Business
The alternative advisory board
This felt pretty scary to email to a handful of people the other day: a request
for their time, expertise,
Two types of podcast
A secret skill set lives inside a second world.
Battle Scars
The ugly stuff is part of the package
Why the edit can't - and shouldn't - save you.
Creative Business
The Slight Blue Flame
I love this bit from musician Hayden Thorpe (formerly of Wild Beasts) answering
fans' questions:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do you
Future Of Work
The Mailroom 2.0
Working in the mailroom is often seen as being at the bottom of the ladder. But
as CEO of my