June 27, 2012 57 Comments

Steven Pressfield – NEARLY Exclusive Interview

Steven Pressfield and Chris Brogan

Holy cats! I got a nearly exclusive interview with Steven Pressfield, author of about a dozen books, but in this case, Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work (amazon affiliate link). This is all Jacq‘s fault, because she said she was all excited about Turning Pro, and that I should drop what I was reading and read it. And of course, it was awesome. And so I begged Pressfield for an interview. The thing is, he doesn’t really want to talk about Turning Pro. We could talk about his other fiction books all day, and he’d be excited. But, he’s not really into talking about Turning Pro, or his other incredible work, The War of Art.

That said, Steven was willing to spend a few minutes with me, and this is what we talked about (spanning why he doesn’t do interviews, doesn’t want the money to keynote, and why he thinks that mainstream publishing is still the way to go most times). Authors will love Pressfield’s thoughts, but business people of all stripes will learn from this interview. (Oh, and it’s nearly exclusive because Jonathan Fields is the other guy Pressfield wants to talk with. Why? Because Fields is awesome.)

Steven Pressfield on Why The Work Must Stand Alone, and More

Can’t see the video? Click Here

It was such an honor to be able to talk with Steven about his work. If you want to learn more from his amazing blog, go to StevenPressfield.com, and if you want your own copy of Turning Pro, click here.

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  • http://owengreaves.com/ owengreaves

    Hey Chris,

    Great interview, it even caused me to buy the book : ) Thanks for what you do.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Thanks, man. I appreciate you, Owen.

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    Being such a big fan of his work, I actually really appreciated seeing him on camera so I could hear his actual voice (not just what comes through the print voice).

    While I don’t totally agree with his apprehension to get on stage to talk, I can understand why he would choose it. To him, a book is a definitive beginning, middle, and end that carries the message in itself. To talk about it (at least from his perspective) undercuts it rather than adds to it. But, that’s just my interpretation of what I think he’s trying to say.

    I love his closing thought, that the artists journey is towards his/her own authenticity. We don’t necessarily know the next 10 steps, but we do know the next… and (in a sense) that’s all that matters.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I’m going to crack the nut on getting him on a stage. : )

      • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

        Just tell him “that’s what a pro would do”… face the fear :)

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    BTW, are you on a swiss ball, Chris? I wish my chair had that much bounce!

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I am. Sad isn’t it?

      • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

        Not really. I would do that more if my desk wouldn’t bump up against it. It definitely helped my back when I was able to use it. I’m still looking into other solutions.

      • http://twitter.com/CharlieGilkey Charlie Gilkey

        Nothing to be sad about, Chris. The bouncing motion increases creativity and physical energy, which is why we all have them in our office. Great job snagging this interview; you definitely had to bring your A-game for it.

  • http://thinkitcreative.com/ Patrick Gant

    Congrats on this interview, Chris. I like that Steven sticks to his convictions about letting the work speak for itself (reminds me of the answer that Cormac McCarthy has given for much of his career when turning down interviews).

    I noted with great interesting what Pressfield says about one of the big advantages of choosing mainstream publishing: access to a great editor. That doesn’t get talked about enough anymore. Granted, a writer can still get this via the self-publishing route but they have to do the legwork and be ready to make the full investment out-of-pocket to improve their product. With a publishing house, that’s all part of the package. Like so many things today, your choice here depends on how much control (plus the risk and reward) you want to keep for yourself.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I asked that question for a reason, Patrick, the one about mainstream. That “access to a great editor?” I’m working on solving that one with @sanderssays .

      • http://thinkitcreative.com/ Patrick Gant

        Just had a look at what Tim’s doing with Net Minds. Wow. That’s going to be an excellent resource.

        • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

          Can’t speak much on that YET. : )

  • Tom Bentley

    Wow, Pressfield is so dang balanced and graceful about his work and life—how did he become such a Zen master? He must slice a giant samurai sword through telephone books for an hour a day to focus…

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Wild, eh?

  • dianebrogan

    Congratulations to both of you for the exceptionally great interview. I read Turning Pro and it is an excellent book. I understand what Steven Pressfield meant when he said there is an intimacy between the author and the reader. Turning Pro is a very personal book. I highly recommend it.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Thank you!

    • Sheila Gregory

      That author/reader intimacy stuff strikes a chord with me too & reminds me of Atwood.

  • http://clintonskakun.com/ Clinton Skakun

    I love how his main message is: JUST DO IT!

    I wrote a post the other week explaining how all this “other stuff” like spending too much time social networking or going to workshops and reading more books, blogs, watching videos etc are just diversions from the real work. It’s funny because just after I came to that conclusion I heard of Going Pro.

    Great interview! Just heard of this guy and you had an interview with him. Pretty awesome I must say.

    Clinton

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Truly, Clinton. I’m doing “other stuff” right now, that I should have said no to. Dumb me.

  • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

    Good for you Chris – and great interview. I mentioned Turning Pro a couple weeks ago on my site and his publicist Callie graciously reached out to me, which was cool. So, I asked for an interview and … well, that resulted in another gracious response!

    I’m on my second read and I’m sure it won’t me my last, because we all get stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again from time to time. :)

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Very cool, Jeff that you wrote it up. It’s such a great book, right? I love that we have a lot of similar passions. I like you, Jeff. : )

      • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

        Great book indeed – his best, in my opinion. And yes we do have some similar interests. Thx to your link to Jacq I signed up for ganapatea. While a little rusty, I used to know my vedic chants pretty well, so I’m really interested to learn more. :)

    • Callie Oettinger

      Love that you keep picking up the Dylan, Jeff! ;)

      Nice interview, Chris!

      • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

        ha ha, Callie maybe I am stuck – in the 70′s! It so happens I just downloaded that album a couple months ago – slowly replacing my vinyl collection. :)

  • http://2012prophecy.net DM I.M.Cango

    What an ass. next.

  • http://EricLWalker.com/ Eric Walker

    Chris, that didn’t look super easy. Pressfield isn’t just another duck that swims by. You did a nice job of tailoring your questions for him. As for his books, I first discovered Do The Work from Godin, and followed Pressfield’s blog then just today (ironically) I purchased War Of Art. I think it’s really cool you got this interview.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Thanks. It was tricky. Not that I wasn’t prepared, but he forced me to bring my A game. : )

  • http://www.turndogmillionaire.com/ Turndog Millionaire

    so good

    I have yet to read any Steven Pressfield, but The War Of Art and Turning Pro are both on my to read list. I keep hearing great things.

    This has made me want to push these books to the top of my list. A very down to earth guy who stands by his values. This is quite rare these days and very inspirational.

    And you hit it spot on.If something is good enough, you shouldn’t need to market it or sell it per se. Now, we all know this doesn’t happen for most of us. But Steven is one of these who can get away with this now, and fair play to him for standing by his values

    Matthew (Turndog Millionaire)

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Hi Matthew. You said you want to. Did you? : )

      • http://www.turndogmillionaire.com/ Turndog Millionaire

        It’s a tough one, but War of Art is my next non-fic book :)

        It’s a start

        Matthew (Turndog Millionaire)

  • http://propertyagents.co/real-estate-lead-generation-course Muhammad Ayaz

    Great interview and learned quiet a few new things from the video and Its been worth following your blog, its allows me to learn always new things from the post. Thanks for sharing and also congrats for the interview.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Well thanks!

  • Mary Ulrich

    I haven’t read any of his fiction books, which one would you recommend to begin.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      The Legend of Bagger Vance is fairly popular. : )

      • Mary Ulrich

        I love that movie–plus my husband is an avid golfer, so I gave it to him one Christmas. Definitely will have to check out his books.

  • Mary Mavis

    Hey Chris,

    Can’t play the video on my computer or my Ipad. When I click the arrow, it opens a new tab.
    Seems like others have been able to view…just wanted to alert you.

    Mary

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Hi Mary- worked fine on my iPad. It’s a pure youtube video. The problem is, you’re clicking the GRAPHIC at the top of the post and not the video at the bottom of the post.

  • http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow

    I’m a late comer to Steven Pressfield’s non-fiction work, I discovered them last year. I took what I learned from “Do the work” and restructured how I work, I am now 10 times more productive. I know have all his stuff on audio :)

    But I’m a bigger fan of his stories which I first read back in 1995, my dog is named after one of the characters in the Last of the Amazons.

    Get him on stage Chris, he has to face his fear as Rick says. I’d fly to the US to hear him speak live.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Love it, Sarah. I’ll work on it.

  • http://raulcolon.net/ Raul Colon

    Will be watching the interview during the day. Interesting enough that last night I finished reading How to be Black and since @mark_hayward handed me a copy of The War of Art that is the next book I will start reading!

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Very cool!

  • coachbillhart

    Well done Chris. Not the easiest interview in the world for sure. I’ve been interviewing for 17 years, and the tough ones are often the best because we have to dig deeper. Loved “Do the Work”, and I’ve now queued up “Turning Pro”.

    (off topic): Q: what are you using to create your split screen video? (and great audio BTW – often overlooked).

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I use Call Recorder for Skype (Mac). And thanks, Bill. Very kind of you.

      • coachbillhart

        My pleasure bud.

        Last tech Q – USB lav or shotgun mic?

        • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

          I used a USB mic called the Blue Yeti ( http://hbway.com/yeti ) <– affiliate link.

  • http://www.boydjane.ca/ Jane Boyd

    Great interview and a tough one to do. I love how you managed to talk about the book without talking about the book. Turning Pro is the very best book I have read in a long time. It spoke to me in ways I have yet to understand. I am already applying it and, like you, encouraging others to read it. It is a gift of wisdom plus so much more.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      That took a bit of work, but I found a few angles in.

  • http://twitter.com/jryanryder Jane Ryan Ryder

    That was a great interview – a ‘proper’ conversation – actually said a lot about you as well as Steven. You have one of the most open and genuine styles I have seen – Tks for sharing

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Very kind, Jane. Thank you. : ) We had a good time together, it seemed to me.

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  • http://jackiedotson.wordpress.com/ JackieDotson

    What a great interview! I know I read Turning Pro a couple of weeks ago and it was a giant slap on the face on each page! It was definitely what I needed to hear, not only because I am not “doing the work” the way I could be, but I also because I have developed an aversion to all the “noise” going on around me. Chris that was a fabulous interview! I would love to see him speak, but hey, he knows he doesn’t want to do it, and he doesn’t “have to”. Nice to see someone enjoying the fruits of just doing the work.

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  • http://mattiasgronborg.com/ Mattias Gronborg

    I like the outcome of the last question, when Steven talks about the muse. How that muse takes the artist to the next assignment. It seems like it was not an easy-peasy interview. Good work Chris! : )

  • Byron Friday

    Chris, thanks for the video interview. I just purchased the audio book.

    I cracked up when when Steven made the ghetto reference to self publishing.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/izaacenciso Izaac Darío Enciso Castillo

    Hello everyone.. can someone share a link where I can find the Turning Pro Audio Book by S. Pressfield? I’ve read some of you have it but iTunes store does not have it…. Thank you.