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 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!

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 my other work delivered straight to your inbox.

Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

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 my other work delivered straight to your inbox.

Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

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 straight to your inbox.

Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!

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 language, a shield, and a bridge—often all at once.

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!

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!

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!

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 other work delivered straight to your inbox.

Follow me on Instagram (@jamesvictore) for all my big ideas and inspiration!