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The Unmistakable Creative Podcast
Jeff Leisawitz | The Magical Impact of Storytelling
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Join Jeff Leisawitz as he delves into the power of creativity and introspection, exploring how asking better questions can enhance personal and artistic growth. In this episode, Jeff discusses the significance of understanding one's motivations and actions through self-reflection, offering insights into how this awareness can foster deeper artistic expression and personal development.
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Use the code UNMISTAKABLE at the link here to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: https://incogni.com/unmistakableJoin us for our Life of Purpose series this month as we revisit some of our most impactful episodes. Dive deep into expert insights and practical strategies on health, performance, and community, helping you achieve personal and professional fulfillment.
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Jim Kwik: Unlocking Limitless Learning and Why Your Brain is Not Fixed
01:13:41|Jim Kwik, brain performance expert and author of Limitless, reveals how a childhood brain injury transformed him from the kid with the broken brain into one of the world leading authorities on accelerated learning and memory. Drawing from his immigrant parents sacrifices and his own journey through learning disabilities, Jim breaks down the three forces that limit us mindset, motivation, and methods. He explains why risk-taking capacity gets drilled out of us with age, how reframing victimhood into gifts unlocked his superpower, and why comparison through social media creates digital depression. This conversation explores neuroplasticity, energy management, and how to align daily actions with core values to escape the box of limiting beliefs.Vanessa Van Edwards: From Student Council Nerd to Decoding Human Behavior
53:33|Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral researcher and author, traces her expertise in human behavior back to being a highly neurotic student council nerd with few friends in high school. That discomfort zone became her comfort zone—teaching, conferences, and analyzing how people communicate. Van Edwards breaks down nonverbal communication patterns, micro-expressions, charisma signals, and what research reveals about likability versus respect. She explains how to read rooms, why authenticity beats performance in social settings, and the science behind first impressions. Her work transforms awkward interactions into learnable skills by treating social dynamics as data rather than mystery.Tiago Forte: Building a Second Brain After Five Schools Taught Him to Be a Chameleon
56:07|Tiago Forte, creator of the Second Brain methodology, shares how attending five different schools in five consecutive years obliterated his social circles and forced him to become a chameleon—crossing between student government, cross country, French club, and chess nerds. This adaptability became the foundation for his work on knowledge management and building systems that work across contexts. Forte explains the CODE method for organizing information, why traditional note-taking fails, how to capture and connect ideas across projects, and why your brain is for having ideas, not storing them. His system helps knowledge workers think better by externalizing memory into a trusted digital system.Susan Magsamen: Your Brain on Art and the Neuroscience of Creativity
46:56|Susan Magsamen, author of Your Brain on Art, explores creativity through neuroscience rather than philosophy or technique. Born to working-class parents who never attended college—her father worked his way up from nurseries to insurance executive—Magsamen learned management and relentless work ethic early. She explains how art and creative engagement physically change brain structure, why aesthetic experiences matter for wellbeing beyond productivity, and what neuroscience reveals about how humans process creative work. Her research-backed approach bridges the gap between artistic practice and biological reality, showing that creativity isn't mystical—it's measurable, trainable, and essential for cognitive health.Robin Dellabough: From Supporting Others' Creativity to Claiming Your Own
01:13:08|Robin Dellabough, writer and editor, shares her unconventional journey from growing up in a bohemian Greenwich Village household to spending decades supporting other people's creativity. Raised by beatnik parents who gave her the confidence to try anything, she hitchhiked Europe at 17, lived in a Hawaiian treehouse, worked as a theater stage manager, and ghostwrote books—all while her own creative voice remained underground. Dellabough explains the pattern of talented people who facilitate others' success while neglecting their own work, how she eventually claimed her creative life through poetry and writing, and why direct feedback without sugarcoating serves creative growth better than false encouragement.Rob Bloom: How Stuttering Forced Creative Problem-Solving and Authenticity
51:02|Rob Bloom, creative director for Universal theme parks, shares his journey living with a stutter that shaped his entire life and career. He reveals how hiding his stutter for 30 years meant ordering food he didn't want, watching movies he didn't choose, and avoiding authentic self-expression. Paradoxically, stuttering forced him to become creative early—making videos for school presentations instead of speaking. Bloom explains the three coping strategies for stutterers (openly stuttering, blocking, or hiding), why hiding leads to inauthenticity, and how he eventually embraced his stutter. His story demonstrates how perceived limitations can become creative advantages and why vulnerability is essential for genuine connection.Rich Karlgaard: Why Late Bloomers Win in a Culture Obsessed with Early Achievement
01:02:18|Rich Karlgaard, author of Late Bloomers, dismantles the toxic narrative that success must come early. Drawing from his father's reinvention in his 30s and his own struggles after college, he explains why our obsession with early achievement is detrimental to people who develop at different paces. Karlgaard analyzes the college admissions scandal as a symptom of parental pressure, explores how comparison culture on platforms like Medium fuels inadequacy, and offers a research-backed case for why patience and diverse developmental timelines produce more fulfilled, successful individuals. He argues that being fired, struggling, and blooming late often leads to greater work than following the traditional fast-track path.Rebecca Beltran: Redefining Intimacy Through Sex-Positive Courtesanship
51:09|Rebecca Beltran shares her unconventional journey from polyamory to becoming a courtesan, challenging cultural stigma around sex work and intimacy. She reveals that her work is primarily about connection and being truly seen—not just physical encounters. Rebecca explains how religious Puritanism shapes American attitudes toward sexuality, why younger men in their 20s and 30s are now seeking her services post-Me Too movement, and how open communication about desire can shift sex from something dangerous to something empowering. She also discusses navigating relationships with partners outside her work and why pleasure rooted in fulfillment matters more than hedonistic thrills.Jenny Blake: Free Time, Time-to-Revenue Ratios, and Rejecting the "Time Is Money" Myth
01:04:41|Jenny Blake, author of "Free Time," reveals how her father—an architect who gives ruthless editorial feedback with his "WKIYB" abbreviation (we know it’s your book)—taught her to eliminate unnecessary qualifiers and strengthen her writing. Drawing from her experience creating a paid family newsletter at age 11 with 50 subscribers, Blake has always been entrepreneurial, guided by her mother’s lesson: "you should always know how to support yourself." As the breadwinner in her marriage who rejects traditional domestic roles, Blake challenges societal pressures on both men and women around earning and gender expectations. She introduces the "time-to-revenue ratio"—a missing P&L metric that measures how much time it takes to generate revenue—arguing that revenue, ease, and joy aren’t mutually exclusive. Blake dismantles Benjamin Franklin’s "time is money" myth, explaining that business owners aren’t rewarded for butt-in-seat time and that working less actually requires more sophistication through systems, automation, and delegation. Her three-part framework—align, design, assign—helps entrepreneurs optimize what’s now, not just navigate what’s next.