The Graffiti Machine
Self-Improvement
About
Our goal is to uplift the graffiti culture by sharing personal development information from a graffiti writer's perspective; improve the culture by helping writers improve themselves.
Episodes
- 164: There's Only One Level of Commitment
I did an interview with a guy named Marcus Anderson some years back and he said something that stuck with me: "There's only one level of commitment. Total." That's a pretty powerful way of looking at things. We can only commit to so many t…
- 162: Action Is the Best Stress Reliever I Know
Taking action is the best stress reliever I know of. Sometimes I wake up with a feeling like time isn't just ticking away, it's slamming away. Like the arms of a giant clock; every second the giant arm slams into place with a thunderous so…
- 161 - An Ounce of Discipline vs. a Ton of Regret
I heard this quote in a Jim Rohn audiobook this morning and it hit me pretty hard: "An ounce of discipline weighs less than a ton of regret." On one hand, I write a list of tasks to accomplish and I knock them out. I do this seven days a w…
- 160 - Weird Shit I've Seen: Ghost Stories
I've seen a lot of weird supernatural shit since I was a little kid. This is a departure from the normal stuff we talk about here, but I wanted to document it and figured some people might like hearing these stories.
- 159: One Day, You'll Miss Them
I have a little ritual in the morning. After I walk my dog while carrying a kettlebell, I make a cup of coffee and read while drinking it. A lot of times, my dog interrupts the reading session. She's still hyped up from the walk and gets e…
- 158: Your Compass is Resistance
In the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, he talks about how we feel the strongest resistance when the task is the most meaningful to our soul's evolution. This shows up as different things like procrastination, fear, doubt, and excuses. Thi…
- 157: Motivation isn't the starting point.
We all can find ourselves in a rut from time to time, lacking motivation and having difficulty getting things done. When this happens to me, I try to remember the best way to find motivation is to make progress. While motivation might pop…
- 156 - Don't Take Criticism From Someone You Wouldn't Ask for Advice
I saw a quote today that felt like it would be helpful for people. It said, "don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't ask for advice". In recent years, criticism doesn't really bother me, but when I first got serious about posting co…
- 155: Foot to the floor!
I saw this video the other day. It was a race car driver saying "I'm just gonna put my foot on the floor and I'm not lifting until I see god or the checkered flag". It got me thinking about this kind of all in mentality that can be really…
- 154 - Do we have more time than we think?
A couple months ago, I woke up with this crazy feeling and thought 'I'm running out of time!'. I must have had some crazy dream or something. The thoughts were about running out of time to accomplish my goals and things of that nature. At…
- 153 - Stop Scrolling and Get Your S**t Done
Lately I've been paying closer attention to what gives me energy and what drains it. The biggest thief? My phone. In this episode, I break down how scrolling kills momentum, what I've been doing to snap out of it, and a simple trick to get…
- 152 - Prioritize and Execute
We use the term 'Prioritize and Execute' at the shop all the time. It's from Jocko's Laws of Combat. Find the priority and execute. Once complete, there's a new priority. Then you handle that. This is the antidote for overwhelm. It's easy…
- 151 - Living for Today, Learning from Yesterday, Building for Tomorrow
I was thinking about some concepts that are seemingly at odds with each other, but they aren't. We're only alive today. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow hasn't happened. Living in the present is all there is, but does that mean you can't learn…
- 150: From Thinking to Doing to Being
Most people think personality traits—like confidence, patience, or staying calm under pressure—are things you're either born with or not. But the truth is, you don't have to stay the way you are if you don't want to. First, you think about…
- 149: Momentum Beats Motivation
Being able to build and keep momentum has been huge for me. We all go through phases—on track, off track, fired up, burnt out. That's life. The hard part is getting back on track when you're off. That's where building momentum comes in. Fo…
- 148: Energy Theft
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about energy management—specifically, what feeds our energy and what drains it. How many times have you had a bad interaction with someone, only to stew over it for hours, days, or even longer? Social media…
- 147: What's it going to take?
I read the quote 'What's it going to take?' in the book Market Outrageously. It was talking about actually looking deep at a goal and trying to get to the bottom of what it would take to accomplish. Even seemingly impossible goals are wort…
- 146: This Is Where Most People Quit
I heard Alex Hormozi say this, and it stuck with me. When things get hard, most people give up. The idea of consistently getting better in all areas of life is not the norm in society. And in some ways, that's fine—if you're happy with whe…
- 145: The Mental Weight of Procrastination
We all have those small tasks we avoid—paperwork piling up, a cluttered office, or something simple that feels like a hassle. For me, those things build up in my mind and start to weigh on me. But when I finally take care of them, there's…
- 144: The Craftsman Mindset – A Better Way to Work
In this episode, we explore the Craftsman Mindset from Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You . This idea flips the script on "following your passion" and emphasizes mastering skills as the key to meaningful work. I share a powerful d…
- 114: 10 Years of Machine
January of 2025 marks 10 years of the current version of Machine—I say current only because I started Machine in 2002 as a motion graphics business then transitioned into what we have now in 2015. It's been quite a ride so far, but it stil…
- 143 - The Rebuild
With the new year and new goals, I thought about the habits that changed my life for the better and put them together as a program. It's 8 weeks of the following daily habits: • 10 Minutes of Meditation • 10 Pages of Reading • 30 Minutes o…
- 142 - Generate Momentum
When I'm having trouble creating, I use this technique and it works every time. Just start. Sometimes you'll have to force yourself to do it—make anything without worry, just to get moving forward. The longer you go, the more momentum you…
- 141 - The Law of Rhythm
The law of rhythm reveals that life's cycles—whether good or bad—are part of a natural, repeating flow. With this perspective, we can find comfort in the lows, knowing they'll rise, and prepare in the highs, knowing they'll shift. It's a t…
- 140 - It'll Never Be Easier
Think it was easier when you were younger? Yeah, maybe. But here's the shift: it's never going to be easier than it is right now. Whether you're 20, 51, or somewhere in between, today is your best shot to make a move. In this episode, I di…
- 139 - Make the Work the Goal
I've been thinking about big goals. They often take a long time and you can work day in and day out, but it takes time to see results. It can be discouraging. Say you want to lose 20 lbs, you may not start seeing results for weeks. One way…
- 138 - Detach
It can easy to get overwhelmed with the details of a situation and find ourselves a bit stuck. Sometimes we have a very narrow view when focusing on specifics that we fail to see the big picture. One of the lessons I've learned from Jocko…
- 137 - Good
Jocko Willink has this thing where he says "good" when presented with any issue. It's about finding the good in every situation. It can seem nearly impossible at times, especially when the situation is really bad. However, it's often possi…
- 136 - Nothing Lasts
It may sound negative to think about things being temporary, but I find it makes me appreciate things much more. If our pets, loved ones, belongings, our lives were not temporary, it would be easy to be complacent. Let's get the most out o…
- 135 - Why not you?
In the age of social media and endless highlight reels we have access to, it's easy to think, "I wish I had that" or "I wish I could do that," etc. From a lecture by Jim Rohn, he asked a very powerful question, "Why not you?" Think about i…
- 134 - Effort Over Outcome
This episode dives into the concept of doing the work for its own sake, drawing inspiration from Steven Pressfield's The War of Art . It emphasizes the importance of showing up every day and committing fully to the task at hand, regardless…
- 133 - Resolve
I got the guy's name wrong in the video, it's Jim Rohn. I saw a clip of his video that talked about resolve defined as keeping the promise to yourself to never quit. It got me thinking about a bunch of different things along these lines.
- 132 - Earn Your Keep
Running a graffiti supply business, I frequently get asked for free products in exchange for exposure. The problem? 99.9% of the time, the person asking hasn't put in the work to make the exchange mutually beneficial. They haven't built a…
- 131 - Scarcity Mindset
If hearing about other people's wins makes us feel bad about our own position, it could be a sign of a scarcity mindset. There seems to be something in us that, when we see others winning, we feel like it may take away from us. This mindse…
- 130 - Never Give Up?
Most have probably seen that illustration of the guy walking away from digging, with diamonds just inches away. He gave up just before hitting it big. The idea of pushing forward versus quitting can be complicated. "Never give up" is not a…
- 129 - Low Frequency Moments
Sometimes, it may feel like the way we feel at any given time defines who we are. Statements like "I'm an anxious person" or "I'm a stressed-out guy" do not capture our whole reality. Instead of thinking of ourselves as these things, we sh…
- 128 - One more shot!
Sometimes it takes just one more effort for everything to change. Many people have experienced struggles, only to have one moment, meeting, phone call, or social media post transform their lives. With this in mind, the more attempts you ma…
- 127: Massive Action
I've been super stressed out over the last month or so. Business is weird and there are a great deal more complexities than I'm used to. This started to lead to a bit of paralysis on my part. I was working all day, but not really getting m…
- 126 - Addictive Thought Patterns
I've been thinking about how our thought patterns can become addicting. Just like a thermostat keeps your house at a set temperature, your brain can maintain a baseline of negative thoughts if that's what it's used to. Can we reprogram our…
- 125: I Might Be Wrong
An interesting section of the book How to Win Friends and Influence People discusses the value of being comfortable with the possibility of being wrong. Even if you 'know' you're right, starting a sentence with "I may be wrong, but this is…
- 124: Should we add graffiti interviews?
I'm going to start doing interviews with graffiti writers and have a question for you. Would you like to see/hear this kind of content on this show, or would you prefer it just stays the way it is? Right now, what I'm thinking is, I'll sta…
- 123: Focus
There's a part of your brain called the reticular activating system (RAS). It acts as a sort of filter. If you think about something a lot, the RAS will show you more of it. For example, if you want to buy a certain car, you might start se…
- 122 Done is Better Than Perfect
It's easy to put so much pressure on ourselves when trying to get something perfect. Sometimes the desire to get something exactly right can lead to not finishing at all. Sometimes striving for finished is better than striving for perfecti…
- 121 - Darkness Flees From Light
If we want things to get better, whether that is in our community, family, or even the world, it starts with improving ourselves. It may not seem like making ourselves better will help anything, but you never know who's watching. No matter…
- 120 - Master the Mundane
How to you treat the mundane tasks in your life? It's often easy to half-ass the basic tasks that seem meaningless, but how does that look to those around you? How does it look to your own subconscious? There are lots of phrases that talk…
- 119: Celebrate Their Wins
Something I've been trying to change about my mindset is when I hear about someone else's success when it's greater than what I've accomplished, I often allow that to make me feel bad about my own success. On the flip side, when I hear abo…
- 118 - The Good Old Days
On my way to the shop yesterday, I was thinking about the 'good old days'. It was sparked when I did a style of graffiti that I hadn't done in close to 30 years. The 70+ comments on the piece on Instagram got me thinking about things like…
- 117 - In Search of a Stress Free Life
I wanted to share a quote from the book Thick Face Black Heart on page 141. This chapter talks about if we had the ability to remove all negative experiences from our lives, it would not make us stress free or happy. "The absence of negati…
- 116 - The Time Will Pass Anyway
Something I need to remind myself of regularly is that the time is going to pass one way or the other. What I mean by this is, the timeline is ticking away whether or not we do what we need to do. For example, if we want to get in better s…
- 115 - Sharpen Your Axe
Most have probably heard the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." or some variation of it. There's also a version of the concept in the book 7 Habit…