The Right Questions with James Victore

From The Archives: Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt in Marketing Your Creative Work 02.07.2026 31min

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching Have you ever felt that gnawing discomfort when you're trying to market your own work? You're not alone. Drawing from George Orwell's disdain for advertising, this episode of "The Right Questions" tackles why marketing can feel so daunting and how we can overcome that fear. Through personal anecdotes and the journey with my book "Feck Perfuction," you'll...

From The Archives: Transforming limitations, Turning I Can't To I Can 25.06.2026 26min

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching What if the limitations you believe define you are actually your greatest opportunities for success? On this episode of "The Right Questions," we explore how external influences shape our fears and self-doubts from an early age. Through captivating metaphors and real-life scenarios, we uncover how to challenge and reject these limiting beliefs, driving you to ...

From The Archives: From Day Job to Creative Fulfillment 18.06.2026 34min

You can have a thousand good ideas and still feel stuck if you don’t trust yourself enough to finish one. I’m James Victore, and this week I answer a listener question from Dan that hits a nerve for almost every creative: why do we start personal projects with fire and then quietly abandon them? This is fresh from the archives, where we bring back episodes from the past and let them shine once again. Enjoy! Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all ...

Episode 86: Two Type Nerds Geeking Out. Charles Nix 11.06.2026 1t

Most people think creativity is about talent and inspiration. We don’t. Creativity shows up as obsession, rebellion, and a strangely tuned attention to tiny details and Charles Nix is the perfect guide for that. Charles grew up with a real offset printing press in his basement, went on to teach typography for decades (including leading communication design at Parsons), and now serves as Senior Executive Creative Director at Monotype. Two type nerds, one deep rabbit hole. Like this? Joi...

Episode 85: AI Q&A Part Two 04.06.2026 22min

AI is starting to feel less like a tool and more like a demand: adapt right now, train on prompts, and don’t ask too many questions. We push back hard on that pressure, starting with the incentives behind the hype. When the business model is shaky, the marketing gets louder, and when the infrastructure is built on data extraction, “data centers” start to look a lot like surveillance centers. That reality matters for creatives, educators, and anyone trying to protect their attention and...

Episode 84: AI ain't your friend. A Q+A 28.05.2026 18min

AI can write a decent paragraph, mock up a concept, and spin infinite ad variants in seconds. The scarier question is what it does to us when we start believing the machine more than we believe ourselves. I’m coming off a live “AI and You” webinar with a packed Q&A, and I’m taking the biggest questions into the studio to answer them with more honesty than a corporate slide deck will ever allow. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work deliv...

Episode 83: The Process Is All We Have 21.05.2026 51min

You can work 12 hours a day and still feel like you did “nothing” except survive. That’s where we start: the grind language, the imaginary race, and the habit of powering through exhaustion like it’s a virtue. We talk candidly about burnout, creative stress, and why building a beautiful life takes a different mindset than simply forcing more output. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered straight to your inbox. Follow me on Instagram...

Episode 82: On Public Speaking 14.05.2026 19min

Stage fright isn’t a personality trait, it’s a habit of self-protection and it can be unlearned. After coming back from a talk in Dusseldorf, Germany, I’m sharing the public speaking tips that keep me excited instead of terrified, even when I’m nervous. If you’re a designer, artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur who wants better presentation skills without turning into a polished robot, this is a practical reset. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcas...

Episode 81: Heather Crank & Understanding Creativity In A World Of AI 07.05.2026 47min

AI is speeding up creative work while quietly testing something deeper: our confidence, our craft, and our ability to think for ourselves. I sit down with my dear friend Heather Crank, a designer and generative AI designer who translates complex tech shifts into human creative insight, and we get honest about what it feels like to make art in an AI-shaped world. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered straight to your inbox. Fol...

Episode 80: AI Is Here 23.04.2026 8min

AI’s growing presence isn’t the result of perfection or widespread readiness—it’s the outcome of rapid integration into nearly every aspect of modern life. This shift raises a difficult question for creatives: when a tool can generate endless concepts on demand, does it provide meaningful leverage, or does it risk diluting what gives creative work its value? There’s a tension between efficiency and originality, where “time-saving” can quietly become “taste-erasing” as starting points,...

Episode 79: Jon Acuff 16.04.2026 58min

I talk with Jon Acuff about the questions that shape a life, from childhood “weirdness” and stage instincts to the hard parts of being a public voice. We dig into humor, mindset, perfectionism, productivity, and what “enough” looks like when you want to keep growing without burning down your relationships. Check out Jon's Pod: https://jonacuff.com/podcast Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered straight to your inbox. Follow me on Ins...

Episode 78: The Luxury of Losing Everything 09.04.2026 33min

Oh Shit Susie Batiz went from surviving abuse, depression, and bankruptcy to building Poo-Pourri into a cultural icon and a massive business built on a deceptively simple idea: make the bathroom smell better. The part that grabbed us, though, isn’t the product story. It’s how she learned to trust her intuition when life stripped everything else away, and how that “luxury of losing everything” became the reset that finally felt like freedom. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to ...

Episode 77: A Coaching Call 02.04.2026 1t 5min

We’re pulling back the curtain and letting you hear a real coaching call with a client who’s doing the brave part: building something new while the old voice in his head keeps asking, “Who do you think you are?” That tension is the heartbeat of creative work. We talk about the moment self-doubt shows up, why asking for help is harder than it sounds, and how to sort true guidance from the noise of too many opinions. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all ...

Episode 76: On Divorce 26.03.2026 23min

A relationship doesn’t usually explode. More often, it drifts. One missed conversation turns into a habit, the habit turns into distance, and suddenly two people who once felt like a team are living like roommates. I’m revisiting the lessons I pulled out of my own divorce because the communication gap between men and women feels louder than ever, and I don’t want anyone repeating my mistakes just because they’re common. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all...

Episode 75: Designing Dignity In New York City Probation Offices 19.03.2026 20min

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching They stepped out of the elevator, looked around the newly redesigned probation office, and quietly backed up as if they were in the wrong building. That one detail says more about the power of design than a thousand trend reports, and it’s where this story begins. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered st...

Episode 74: Oliver Jeffers 12.03.2026 47min

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching Curiosity can feel like a compass and a dare, and Oliver Jeffers follows both. We sit down with the artist and author behind Here We Are, Lost and Found, and a body of fine art that blends warmth, wit, and precise simplicity. From a childhood in Belfast during the Troubles to late nights in Brooklyn studios, Oliver shares how pictures became a second lan...

Episode 73: On Typeface 05.03.2026 21min

I'm working on a typeface and I want to talk about it with you. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered straight to your inbox. Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

Episode 72: Lisa Congdon, Curiosity Over Fear 26.02.2026 50min

Joy isn’t a mood; it’s a decision you make when the world gives you every reason not to. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with artist, author, cyclist, and activist Lisa Congdon—a creator known for bold color, generous language, and the courage to be clear. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my other work delivered straight to your inbox. Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

Episode 71: Welcome To The Resistance 19.02.2026 16min

Ever notice how the first targets in a crackdown are painters, poets, designers, and musicians? We unpack why creativity terrifies the powerful and how images, jokes, and typography can loosen the grip of official narratives. From Plato’s plan to expel poets to Osip Mandelstam’s lethal epigram about Stalin, we follow the thread of art’s subversive power and the real risks makers take when they refuse to look away. Like this? Join us on Substack and subscribe to get the podcast and all my ot...

Episode 70: Fear Kills Play 12.02.2026 6min

If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching A single line in a museum—“My kid could do that”—can sound like a verdict on art and creativity. We turn that line on its head and ask the better question: if your kid tried, why won’t you? From a thirty-second drawing exercise that dissolves a room of suits into laughter to the quiet ways fear sneaks into our choices, we trace how rules, judgment, and c...