This week, we celebrate a major milestone... 20 years of the podcast! The first episode of The Accidental Creative launched in December 2005. While this is episode 88 of the re-branded version, Daily Creative, this is something like episode 1,398 of the podcast.

We take a reflective journey back to where it all began, unpacking the origin story of the show and the creative work that continues to shape everything we do.

Todd shares the challenges of being a young creative director attempting to help a team thrive under relentless pressure, while also confronting his own ambitions and the ever-present risk of burnout. He digs into the early days of creative community-building (over coffee in Cincinnati), the revelation that healthy, productive creativity was possible, and the pivotal experiments that inspired him to share our ideas through the newly emerging medium of podcasting.

We revisit the genesis of “The Accidental Creative,” recounting the surprise of discovering a growing audience, and how the podcast became a launching pad—not just for a community, but for books, company invitations, and interviews with creativity legends.

Todd also breaks down crucial moments behind his most influential books, including how a single candid conversation with a publisher unlocked the process for Die Empty, and why Louder Than Words remains a favorite despite modest sales. Through it all, Todd highlights the non-obvious lessons that define a creative career: trusting the work, letting your audience find you, and embracing friction as an ally rather than an obstacle.

To the listeners, supporters, and creative pros who have joined us week after week—thank you. Here’s to the past 20 years, and the decades to come.

Five Key Learnings from This Episode:

1. Success Is Layered, Not Linear: The “big deal”—whether it’s a book contract or viral moment—is only the true starting line. Real creative progress builds in stages and unexpected iterations.
2. Experimentation Unlocks Opportunity: Sharing what we were learning (even when unsure or new) was the secret to resonance and growth. Community comes from honest experimentation.
3. Outside Perspective Is Essential: Creative pros often get stuck in their own heads. Inviting editors, mentors, or collaborators can break patterns and unlock genuine progress.
4. Let the Work Find Its Audience: Not every project will land where we expect, and that’s okay. Sometimes our work will deeply impact people we never predicted—and that’s its own success.
5. Friction Fuels Growth: Instead of removing all obstacles, thoughtful creators learn to leverage friction—slow down, synthesize, and let intuition do its work.

Get full interviews and bonus content for free! Just join the list at DailyCreativePlus.com.

Well, hey, everyone. Welcome to Daily Creative. My name is Todd Henry. This week marks a milestone. 20 years of showing up, of having conversations, of weekly insights into how to be a creative professional, how to thrive in the create on demand world, how to create under pressure, and trying to offer something that helps you do your best work every day. This is the 20th anniversary. Anniversary. This month is the 20th anniversary of this podcast.

So to mark this 20th year, I want to do something a little different. I want to tell the story of how all of this began. Sometimes it's really easy as we. As we go about our life and our career, we forget where things came from, how they emerged. We just take things as they are and we forget the story, the layers of experience that led to the place where they are now. So I want to tell the story of how this all began, how I started as a podcaster, how my books emerged into the world. Consider it kind of a short trip back to the origin of the show and in many ways, the origin of the work that I'm doing to this day. So two decades ago, in 2005, I was a young creative director.

I was trying to figure out how to keep my team healthy while still delivering great results, something I'm sure all of you probably experience as well every day. Expectations were high, deadlines were constant. There's a lot of pressure. We had a lot of talented people, ambitious people on the team. And I could feel the strain not only in my team, but also in myself, because I was also ambitious. Right. I also like to think that I have some skills that are useful, some talents that are useful. So, you know, we were ambitious, we were talented, we were under pressure.

We were trying to do great work. But I was trying to solve a problem I didn't necessarily have words for yet, but I knew it mattered. I knew that this desire to create on demand or to create under pressure, pressure was something that sort of graded against the natural flow of the creative process. So I started reaching out to other creative directors in the area. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. We'd meet over coffee, we'd talk about these challenges. We talk about what it's like to have to lead talented, ambitious, creative people. And again and again, we all came to the same resigned conclusion, which is, you know, the pressure, the stress, the creeping sense of burnout just seemed to be baked into the work.

This is what it's like to do creative work, you know, whether it's in an agency or in an organization, whatever it is, that's just the way it is. It was Just part of the deal. It's something you just had to accept if you wanted to create for a living. Like, if this. If this is what you want to do, this is what it's going to feel like. You're going to be stressed, you're going to be burned out all the time. People aren't going to understand you. There's not really anything you can do about it.

That's just the nature of doing creative work for a living. But that didn't sit right with me. I thought, wait a minute. Okay. I have seen people who seem to manage to do this in a healthy way. And, you know, I've been experimenting with some things that seem to be working for me, at least. I wonder if those could translate to a larger scale. I didn't believe that constant overload had to be the price of doing meaningful creative work.

So I wanted to find a way through the pressure, not just endure it. I started experimenting with my team. I started sharing some of these things that were working with my fellow creative directors, started building some rhythms, tried new team rituals, studied how other disciplines handled complexity, and paid closer attention to some of the invisible forces that either supported or sabotaged our creative process. And slowly, I began to discover some things that worked. And some of my peers also were reporting to me, hey, these things we were talking about, they're actually working. There were simple structures that protected our focus. Conversations actually made teams healthier instead of just more efficient. And I didn't know it at the time because, listen, this is just a giant experiment.

But the seeds of everything that I would later teach and write were being planted right in the middle of that struggle. So I was kind of uncovering some of these things. As we were experimenting and trying and having conversations, I was uncovering a lot of the research that formed the foundation of the work that I'm still doing to this day. So around that time, this is right around 2005, I heard about this new technology called podcasting. So I have some background in audio. I have some background in the music industry. And so I was familiar with recording and familiar with radio and some of these other things. But Apple had just launched a podcast directory inside of a piece of software called itunes, which probably many people listening have no clue even what that is.

But itunes was kind of the precursor for Apple Music. And in itunes, they had launched this podcast directory where you could go in and you could find shows to listen to. And not only that, but anybody could launch a show. Anyone could share their ideas, and there were people doing it. I Mean, it's kind of crazy. There were like people who were these experts in different fields who were just sharing ideas or they were having conversations, which, by the way, at that time we recorded over the phone, which was. Or even Skype maybe was like starting to become a thing, but anybody could share ideas. And so I thought, hey, this is perfect.

This is exactly what I want to do. I want to share some of these things that I'm thinking about that I'm working on. So I created a podcast and I called it the Accidental Creative, which was about how to design an environment that allowed for creative accidents in your life, moments of serendipity. And I recorded a few episodes and I posted them. And frankly, listen, they were bad. I mean, they were awful. Maybe at some point I will have the courage to share with you a couple of clips from those early shows, but they were. They were really, really bad.

And then, honestly, I kind of forgot about it. I posted a couple of episodes. The first one was on conceptual vers is concrete, meaning that, you know, creative work is conceptual, but we have to make it concrete for others. The second one was about fear, I think, possibly. But I recorded a few episodes, I put them out there, and frankly, again, they were bad. I forgot about the podcast. Work was busy, life was full. I had a 50 plus hour a week job, we had two kids, and we were in the process of adopting our youngest.

And on the side, my wife and I were running a nonprofit as volunteers that funded adoption. So listen, we were super busy and the show just kind of faded into the background. I just thought, okay, this will be a fun hobby. Then one day, I was checking itunes for new podcasts to listen to on my commute to work, which meant transferring them by FireWire to my iPod so I could listen in the car. By the way, we live with an embarrassment of riches today. It's just crazy. But so I was. I was checking itunes for new podcasts to listen to, and I saw a show near the top of the charts called the Accidental Creative.

And my first thought was, oh no, I stole someone else's name. I can't believe I didn't check first to make sure there wasn't already a show called the Accidental Creative. But it was my show, the Accidental Creative. And I realized somehow, some way, somehow, thousands of people were listening to my show right out of the gate. And not only that, but we were starting to get reviews. The first review was posted in early 2006, and people were saying things like, I don't know who this guy is. But, man, this stuff is really resonating. I thought, wow, this is.

This is really cool. That moment changed everything for me. Once I realized there were people listening, and I started hearing from people across the country and eventually around the world who were dealing with these same pressures that I had been trying to solve, a strange thing happened. Companies started reaching out to me and asking if I could come spend time with their teams. Hey, you speak so clearly about these things, and some of the things that you're suggesting seem to be working really well. Would you come to just talk to us, just share these ideas with us? Those invitations grew into a little side consultancy that I developed in 2006 called Accidental Creative, which over time led to more attention, led to the opportunity to be able to interview other people on the show. My first interview and episode 53 was with Stephen Nachmanovich, who wrote a book at the time called Freeplay. His book is called Freeplay, which is a book that I'd read and I just loved.

I thought, I want to invite Stephen on the show. So I invited Stephen Nachmanovich on the show. Seth Godin came on the show to talk about his book, the Dip. I did what I believe is the first ever podcast interview with Steven Pressfield. Because at the end of our interview, after we were finished recording, he asked me, todd, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. He said, what's a podcast? Right. So I think I was the first to interview Steven Pressfield about the war of art on a podcast. We had David Allen on to talk about his book Getting Things Done, which was an important part of my methodology when I was leading teams.

We had my friend Lisa Johnson on. Lisa was a person who had helped me think through some of this work early on, which was great. So, anyway, so we're doing these podcast interviews, and I'm starting to get invited to come speak to companies, and I get an email, and it was from Kim Palmer, who was the business editor of U.S. news & World Report, and she was writing an article on creativity in the marketplace and said, I would love to make you the centered interview on this. And also, do you have any recommendations? I recommended some of my peers and my creative director peers, but they wanted to center the interview on what I was doing on the Accidental Creative, which I thought, this is great. So Kim Palmer interviewed me, and they sent a photographer out. They took some photos of me. It was kind of crazy and unexpected.

So here I am, like, I'm just, like, being interviewed about this podcast that I've created. But what happens next is even crazier. Kim Palmer was in the process of selling a book, and her agent, Melissa, happened to notice a quote in the book about me about the creative process. So Melissa checked out my work and thought, hey, there might be some potential here for a book. So I was sitting in a meeting in 2008. I was talking about a project, and an email ping popped up on my laptop. And the title of the email was Literary agent interested in a Book Project. I mean, listen, I wasn't planning.

I wasn't trying to write a book. I mean, I kind of had interest in writing a book because I loved books. But I wasn't looking for an opportunity to write a book. And here was this opportunity to do the thing I thought would be completely fun but totally out of my reach. So I connected with Melissa. I said yes. We signed an agenting arrangement. She's still my agent to this day, by the way.

And I started working on the book proposal for what became the Accidental Creative. I worked early mornings, nights, weekends for a few months on the proposal. Melissa and I went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And she mentioned the project to an editor named David Moldauer at an imprint at Penguin called Portfolio. Now, it's important to note a few things. Number one, Portfolio was a dream imprint. They published so many of the books that were already on my shelves, including, like, Seth Godin. His book Purple Cow was a big reason why I started the podcast to begin with.

So I was like, wow, to work with Portfolio would be amazing. Secondly, the publisher of Portfolio was Adrian Zakheim, who had edited some of the most influential business books of all time, including Good to Great and a much lesser known book that had a tremendous impact on me in the 1990s when I was in the music business by music manager Ken Cragan called Life is a Contact Sport. I recently repurchased this book in hardcover so I could have a copy in my library. So anyway, David at Portfolio liked the concept. We pitched him the proposal, and they pretty much immediately came back with an offer for a book deal. I practically reached through the Internet to sign the contract. So we got the book deal with. With Penguin Random.

With Penguin at the time, not even Random House. The Accidental Creative book was on its way to being born. But I always tell people that success comes in layers, and getting a book deal isn't the finish line. A lot of people think, oh, this is my goal. I want to get a book deal. But that's not the finish line. It's kind of like arriving finally Arriving at the starting line now the real work and the real race was about to begin. So we worked feverishly on the book.

I would get up at 5am and walk to my local Starbucks to write every single day. This went on for a year. Even in the winter, I. I would walk to Starbucks at 5am to write. As a matter of fact, if you look at the acknowledgments of the Accidental Creative, I included the baristas in the acknowledgment section because they were so. They were there. I would like. I would be there when they would open the store.

It was kind of crazy. We went through edits, re edits, refinement. Working with David was like walking through a refining fire. The dude is so sharp, so incredible. We remain connected to this day. He's doing incredible work in the world. But in the end, we had a good product. I was proud of the Accidental Creative book.

The book released, and right at release, I did some crazy interviews. This is in 2011. So July 7, 2011, was the release date for the Accidental Creative. I did some crazy interviews. I remember one with a shock jock out of Chicago who, right before me, as I'm sitting there listening on the phone, right, right before me was interviewing Barry Williams from the Brady Bunch about all of the unsavory stuff that was happening on the set. And he was asking all these, like, really provocative questions. I'm like, what the heck am I doing on this show? And then he immediately pivoted to me and he said, all right, now this new author is going to make me brilliant at a moment's notice. Okay? Make me brilliant.

And that was it. And so I started like into the thesis of the book that, you know, you have to prepare yourself for these moments. And he said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, but assume I've done all that stuff now. Make me brilliant. And again, I was treating this like a. Like a serious show, right? So I was like, starting to explain the concepts in the book and finally he just said, okay, I'm done. And he cut me off. And like, frankly, it was mortifying in the moment, but it taught me an important lesson, which is, first of all, don't go on unserious shows, right? But second of all, not everyone is your audience.

They're not. He was using me for a purpose, and it wasn't to get these ideas into the world. So you have to recognize not everybody's gonna be your audience. And frankly, it didn't matter. The book was a success out of the gate. It did really well Opened up a lot of doors, and it led to my second book, Die Empty, which has to date been my best selling and most widely distributed. And I'm not gonna go into full detail here, but a little backstory on this book. Die Empty, about the writing of this book.

Die Empty. I was about a month from my deadline for turning in the manuscript. Okay. Which is that's crunch time. And I'd written about 60,000 of the 70,000 that the contract requires. I was like, I was in the wheelhouse of where I needed to be. I was on pace. But I didn't feel good about the book, and I didn't feel great about its structure.

I felt like it was kind of flailing a little bit. So I was in New York for a speaking event, and I scheduled a meeting with my editor to discuss the book. And we were talking through how I felt about the state of the project. And Adrian, the publisher, walked in and he said, okay, tell me what's going on. And I explained that I have enough words, but they don't necessarily feel like the right words for this book. And I will never forget this moment, friends. He said, listen, I don't care if you hit your deadline. This book has to be good.

It has to be good. So if Die Empty, this book proposal that we purchased, that is going to be your next book, if that turns out just to be one small chapter in a much different book and it takes you months to finish that book, do whatever it takes. Just write us a good book. That was a pretty transformative moment in my life because that single conversation unlocked something in me. I was struggling because I was worried that Die Empty wouldn't match the success of the Accidental Creative. And I was playing it too safe. Honestly, I was. I was doing the exact thing I tell people not to do.

I was playing it safe. I was trying to hit a certain target. But by doing that, I wasn't writing the book I was capable of writing. And once Adrian said that my process was completely unlocked, everything became clear. And I was able to not only restructure the book in a way that made sense, but to complete it on time. I'm grateful for that moment. If you've read Die Empty, if it's impacted your life in some way, you should be grateful for that moment also, because that moment completely unlocked and restructured my perspective on that project and why it mattered. And it taught me another important lesson, which is this.

Creative pros can't get locked into their own head. We often need other people to provide perspective and to Relieve the pressure valve. We are often putting pressure on ourselves that doesn't really exist. So where are you getting locked in your own head? And how might you be able to bring somebody else into your process to help unlock some of that value that you're currently keeping under lock and key because you think it's not relevant to this project you're working on? So Die Empty, fortunately, was also a success, including, by the way, becoming the number one audiobook in the world for a few weeks, beating out Hunger Games and Divergent for the honor. That was pretty cool. It's pretty neat to see my book at the top of the audiobook list. So listen, I'm not going to go into all of my books, but I do want to call out one thing. My favorite book that I've written, Until the Brave Habit, which is, by the way, my favorite book that I've written.

But up until that point, my favorite book was my third book, Louder Than Words, and it's about how to develop an authentic voice that resonates. And ironically, because it's about developing a voice that resonates, it did not sell well. However, it's the book that I've received more emails and comments about from highly successful, even famous people saying that it's deeply impacted their work. Now, again, not every book is for every purpose. Sometimes your work is for a group you didn't anticipate. I didn't write that book for highly successful, famous people. Right. But you have to let the work find its audience, which is advice that Seth Godin gave me when I reached out to him about the flailing sales numbers after this book came out.

I'm grateful for that conversation because it's reminded me over the years that not every project that you think is for a specific group is going to be for that group. Sometimes you have to let the work find its audience. Now, it's important that you have an audience when you're writing it or when you're creating it. An audience in mind, a specific person in mind that you're creating for. But that person isn't always the person who's going to resonate the most with the work. So if you find yourself in that situation, just know sometimes it takes time for your work to find its audience. Since then, I've written several more books, Herding Tigers, which continues to be read by teams and leaders around the world. The Motivation Code, which launched in the middle of a global pandemic.

I would not recommend that Daily Creative, which is my daily reader for creative prose and the Brave Habit, which is my latest book. Each of these books began as just a seed of an idea that developed over years, and the deeper patterns emerged over time. Your best work will take time. It will take intuition. It will take synthesis. Listen, this is important. Friction is your friend. We spend so much time in our life trying to remove friction, but friction is your friend.

Slowing down, synthesizing and intuiting is what creative pros do best. So use that to your advantage. Okay? So listen, I've had so many great lessons over the course of 20 years of doing this work, but the biggest lesson for me is the importance of remaining grateful to the people who make this work possible. I am continually brought back to the reason I do my work, which is for you. For those of you who are listening right now, for those of you who have been with me, some of you have been listening. I get emails. People say, I started listening to your podcast in 2006, which is incredible that you've been listening for 20 years now, every single week. And I know the show has evolved a ton, but I'm so grateful for you.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for being engaged with my work. Thank you for buying my books. I put these podcasts out for free because I just want to be of value to you. But it's really helpful to me when you go out and you support my work by buying the books and by mentioning me to your organization, because I make most of my money teaching and training. That's what I do. So I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for supporting the work that I do.

Thank you for being with me for 20 years. Thank you so much for giving me a platform to help others be brave, focused, and brilliant every day, which is the thing that I, frankly, I live to do. It's what I'm wired for. And I'm so grateful I get a chance to do this. So 20 years of daily creative, formerly the accidental creative. But 20 years of the podcast, I couldn't be more grateful, and I hope to be doing this for another 20. I do not plan to retire. I do not plan to ever step away from this microphone or from the stages that I get invited to speak on.

So I just wanted to say thank you. If you want to reach out to me, I would love to hear from you. You can send an email to emailodhenry.com that'll come to me. I would love to hear your experiences with the show, how long you've been listening. Please leave us a rating or review. Wherever you listen to podcasts, it does help other people find the show. If you like what we talk about here, please go out and support the work by purchasing one of my books. But even if you don't, I just am appreciative that you're out there in the world trying to do great work, trying to make things happen, trying to bring yourself fully to what you do every single day.

The world needs you. They don't need a replicant of you. They don't need who you think you should be. The world needs you. Your passions, your skills and your experiences. They need you to bring what you can uniquely bring. And if you don't bring it, it will never happen. So bring who you are.

Be brave. Be focused. Be brilliant. Hi. Thanks so much for listening. We're going to get back to the regular programming on the next episode. But this is just my little celebratory 20 year storytelling around the campfire. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you want to learn more about me and my work, you can find me@toddhenry.com including my books, my speaking events, and much, much more. Until next time, friends. Be brave, focused and brilliant. We'll see you.