18 | Stuart Thompson - The One Step Back That Changes Everything

What are you still doing out of comfort, long after it stopped giving back enough?

Charles Achampong sits down with his friend Stuart Thompson, who spent 15 years in corporate marketing at a major Toronto newspaper before leaving to become a working artist and co-run Create Art Studio with his spouse. It is a conversation about comfort, identity, and the long gap between knowing something is off and finally doing something about it.

They get into why Stuart stayed so long, the discomfort of calling himself an artist, the class he hated teaching that forced a rethink, and why he now makes students answer their own question first: how does it make you feel? The thread running through it all is the power of a good pause and a better question.

If you keep telling yourself you should change but find reasons not to, this one is for you. Listen now.

• [01:13] The dads event where two strangers became close friends, and what it says about making space
• [06:37] At a dinner party, a stranger asks what you do. The answer that took him years to say out loud
• [09:43] 15 years at the Globe and Mail, and the moment the effort stopped being reciprocated
• [12:43] The real reason he waited so long to leave, and it is not what you think
• [15:37] Going into business with your spouse when it was always her baby, how they split it
• [19:26] The adult class he hated teaching, and what going home angry finally revealed
• [22:44] Why asking the right question matters more than ever in the age of easy answers
• [26:50] What his daughters notice now that they never saw when he was at the office
• [35:31] Healthy arrogance: how to believe you are good without bragging about it
• [44:29] The longevity claim about making one piece of art a month that stopped him cold

• Create Art Studio
• Studio Thompson
• The Globe and Mail

Stuart Thompson is a Toronto-based artist, art instructor, and co-owner of Create Art Studio on the Danforth, which he runs with his spouse Jen. After 15 years in advertising and marketing at The Globe and Mail, he left corporate life to paint, teach, and lead creative workshops for groups large and small, from small studio classes to corporate team events. His work sells under Studio Thompson, and he teaches a hands-off, question-first style built on stepping back, trusting your gut, and figuring it out for yourself.

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When We Pause is an original production hosted by Charles Achampong. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.