103: Chase Jarvis – 28 Ways To Be More Creative

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Ryan Hawk and Chase Jarvis discuss sustained excellence, creativity, and leadership as learnable processes. Jarvis argues that success comes from stamina, curiosity, disciplined routines, and deliberate practice—not talent alone. He emphasizes learning how to learn, protecting time through prioritization, and using daily habits like meditation and movement to compound performance and creativity.

Main Topics: Stamina as the foundation of sustained success: Jarvis says the least sexy but most essential trait behind long-term achievement is stamina: showing up consistently, grinding through years of work, and persisting beyond perceived overnight success. Learning how to learn: The conversation centers on the idea that deep focus on one passion teaches a transferable process for learning, which can then be applied across multiple disciplines and life categories. Creativity as a trainable habit: Jarvis argues creativity is not an innate trait but a habit and a way of thinking that can be developed through daily exercises, experimentation, and reframing education as creativity training. Prioritization and time management: He rejects the phrase 'busy' as a sign of importance, calling it a lack of priority. He advocates intentional scheduling, batching similar tasks, and protecting time blocks for deep work. Morning routines and strategic renewal: Jarvis describes his morning routine and 90-minute work blocks as critical performance systems. He explains that rest, breaks, and structured renewal improve output and focus. CreativeLive’s mission and model: Jarvis explains how CreativeLive helps people live their dreams by providing high-quality live online education from top experts in creativity, entrepreneurship, and related fields. Leadership through value creation and sharing: The discussion ties leadership to generosity, community-building, and sharing knowledge openly, even when others initially criticize that openness as giving away trade secrets.

Key Arguments: Sustained success is built on stamina: long-term winners keep showing up and persist through years of invisible work. Most high achievers became great at one thing first, then extracted the underlying process and applied it elsewhere. Creativity can be learned and strengthened through practice; it is a habit, not just a personality trait. People who say they are 'busy' usually mean they have not clarified their priorities. Protecting time is essential; if you do not plan your time, other people will fill it for you. Working in 90-minute blocks and using short renewal breaks aligns with natural attention and flow cycles. Morning routines—hydration, meditation, nutrition, movement, gratitude—create disproportionate gains in daily performance. Sharing knowledge and adding value builds trust, reputation, and long-term opportunity, even if competitors initially resist it.

Data Points: CreativeLive reach: Millions of people worldwide - Jarvis says the platform serves learners globally and has grown to a massive audience. Countries served: Every country in the world - He describes CreativeLive as serving learners internationally each month. Platform usage: More than 2 billion minutes consumed - Jarvis cites total minutes watched on CreativeLive. Audience size: A million people - He says he built an audience of about one million through photography content. Photography career level: Top one-half of 1% of earners - Jarvis describes the level he reached after years of work in photography. Music success example: 15x platinum - He references Macklemore’s early songs that later appeared on The Heist. Grammy wins: 5 Grammys - Jarvis notes Macklemore’s later industry success. CreativeLive exercise length: 5 minutes - The 28 to Make program sends a daily five-minute creativity exercise. Habit formation window: 28 days - Jarvis references the idea that habits form or break over 28 days. Executive survey: 1,500 CEOs - He cites a survey about hiring priorities. Top hiring trait: Creativity ranked #1 - Jarvis says creativity was the top trait CEOs wanted in Fortune 500 executives. Work block length: 90 minutes - He structures his work in 90-minute chunks to align with focus and renewal cycles. Morning water intake: 64 ounces daily - Jarvis says he aims to drink 64 ounces of water per day. Immediate morning hydration: 32 ounces - He drinks about 32 ounces right after waking. Protein intake: 30 grams - Part of his morning routine. Meditation frequency: Twice a day - Jarvis says he meditates every day, morning and later again. Podcast recommendation count: 100+ leaders - Ryan references having spoken with over a hundred notable leaders on the show.

Pivotal Quotes: "Stamina. Really? Stamina is, it's the least sexy, but in my opinion, the most real thing that everybody that I know who's achieved any degree of success has had." — Chase Jarvis: His answer to what sustained-excellence leaders have in common. "Busy is busy is a lack of priority." — Chase Jarvis: His explanation of why he dislikes people describing themselves as busy. "Creativity is a habit, it is a way of thinking, it is not a skill." — Chase Jarvis: His core framework for how creativity develops and can be trained.

Implications: Listeners should focus less on talent myths and more on repeatable systems: stamina, curiosity, priorities, daily habits, and deliberate learning. For organizations, creativity and leadership are trainable and should be built into culture, hiring, and personal development.