In the near future we’ll have all kinds of cool links to guests and books and stuff. This week, it’s an intro to the updated dual-host format. We love you.

Becoming A Household Name is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Monet was nearly blind when he painted his most iconic works. Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. Joe Biden lost several presidential bids. Donald Trump filed bankruptcy.

No one who has achieved greatness ever did so without massive work, constant failure, and weighty self-doubt.

My guest on today’s episode is Barbara Rudlaff, a first-class artist, a gifted art teacher, and one of my parents.

You can find her work on Instagram and on her website. She teaches at Naropa University.

Wanna read my work?

Find it here. I write lots of fiction, mostly magic-laced (speculative). Luke and Lyle live at the center of my cornerstone series, The Luke In Time Mysteries.

Today, I want to discuss a kind of apostrophe I've heard referred to as The Solomon Principle.

If you're not familiar with apostrophe, it is a rhetorical device of addressing an imaginary audience.

The Solomon Principle is a form of apostrophe that arises from seeking wisdom above all else, and with this practice, you today, begin a dialogue with you fifty years from today. For my youngest listeners, you could even imagine yourself sixty or seventy years from today.

Your goal is to imagine who you will be near the end of your life, when the majority of your accomplishments are behind you, the lion's share of your failures and mistakes are overcome, and all you have left is to share what you've learned with anyone willing to listen.

At the same time, you--who you are today--must embody the role of keen listener, seeker of wisdom, humble student.

Something I find exciting about this practice is that by its very structure, it enables you to overcome the obstacles inherent in taking advice.

Becoming A Household Name is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.