Jonathan Fields: Creating for Impact, or Love?

U2 dropped their second surprise EP in six weeks, on Good Friday. Dark, confusing times make great art. I won’t go nuts on just how personal, profound and gorgeous the Easter Lily EP is. However, the opening track has The Edge singing lead vocals.

I played Song for Hal for my daughter Frankie last night. We were both a little gobsmacked. The line that really gets me?

“Did you know he is close to God, who makes his old friends laugh?”

We can chase our Divinity through India, or in endless hours of meditation. If we’re lucky to be Irish, maybe we can meet our old friends at the pub. A surprise benefit of recording new podcast episodes has been catching up with old friends. We’re mostly sober podcasters who show up wearing headphones, in really clean audio.

And oh, how we love to laugh. 😆

Today, we go deep into why it’s so important to create things. My good (young) friend, Jonathan Fields reminds us why rolling up our sleeves and getting dirty— making, creating, cooking, and building— is more important than ever in the age of AI.

And I have to say, the last minute of our interview made me LMFAO. So I had to edit Jonathan’s advice “Just be a freak” down to a 1-minute Commencement Speech. This is the advice we all should have been given on our last day of school.

Hell Yeah You Will is excited to share this 32-min deep-dive with Good Life Project™ Founder and podcast host (100 mm + downloads), award-winning author and creator of the SparkType™ assessment, and all-around Mensch: Jonathan Fields. Do we create for impact, or for the love of creating?

About Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields is a dad, husband, award-winning author of six books, co-executive producer and host of the Good Life Project® podcast (100M+ listens), and founder and CEO of Spark Endeavors, where he developed the Sparketype® Assessment — used by over one million people to reconnect with purpose, possibility, and joy.

He writes the Awake at the Wheel newsletter on Substack and is a lifelong maker of everything from businesses and books to acoustic guitars, paintings, metalwork, and tables.

His recent TEDx talk, “Why Craft Matters Now More Than Ever,” reframes the stakes of what he’s always been doing. He put it this way: “I’m a father, a husband, a maker and a man who cares deeply about, loves and admires those closest to him and is humbled and grateful for the opportunity to create, to connect and to serve.” That sentence is the key to this conversation. It’s not about entrepreneurship. It’s about what making things does to a person — and what it gives back to the people they love.

Listen now on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Or, wherever else

Listen, Share, and Leave a Review

* Listen to the episode above, or wherever else 🎧 (32:06)

* The 1-min show trailer is here 🎧

* Subscribe and Leave us a Review:Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Or, wherever you listen

* Share it with someone who could use reminders to keep going.

Connect with Jonathan and his work:

* Here on Substack: Awake at the Wheel, with Jonathan Fields

* His latest book SPARKED and the free 10-min SparkType™ assessment

* Watch the TED Talk: Why Craft Matters Now, More than Ever (11:20)

* Main speaking site, etc: jonathanfields.com

* Award-Winning Good Life Project™ Podcast

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