A recap of episode 65 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Ryan Hildebrandt and myself where we talk about providing value, writing my book, and starting a TEDx event from scratch.
Something a little bit different this week. Instead of a one way interview, I had a conversation with Ryan Hildebrandt of The Maker’s Journey podcast. In it we talked about starting our podcasts, why you should provide value, writing a book, building a TEDx event from scratch, and much more.
Here are three things I learned by talking with Ryan:
If you look around at all the wonderful things people are able to accomplish, you might believe they were meant to do it. For them, things go off without a hitch. Their work sells like hot cakes. They look calm, composed, and confident all the time.
What you don’t see is how they got there. You didn’t see them struggling. You didn’t see them speak timidly about their work. You didn’t see how they doubted themselves.
We all have this mistaken belief that other people are special. Ryan believes everything starts off as an experiment. “When you create something, it’s almost always… it’s is a bit of an experiment really. You’re never really sure how it’s going to turn out.”
That’s the exact conclusion I’ve come to by interviewing and talking to a lot of people. Everything starts off as an experiment. No one really knows what they are doing when they start. The key is getting started. Find the thing you want to create and start experimenting.
One of the things that is often overlooked when we try to make something great is focusing too much on ourselves. Most of the time, we try to see how something will benefit us, but the real moments of magic happen when we put other people before ourselves.
That’s exactly what happened when Ryan decided to make a podcast. He could have been selfish and kept that knowledge to himself, but he didn’t. He chose to share the valuable lessons from other creators with his Marker’s Journey audience.
Ryan feels that when you add value to other people’s lives, wonderful and unexpected things happen. “I think when you create something that’s of value to a lot of people, opportunities come back to you, and you never really know what they’re going to be until it comes, but when you create something, you’re giving a gift. You get to provide value to a lot of different people.”
My favorite part about chatting with Ryan was when he talked about starting his TEDx event. Ryan started the event because he wanted to do something cool, but he didn’t have a plan for it.
He thought throwing the event would act as proof for his ability to manage and run something. He also believed it would help build a network of interesting and successful people.
What he realized was, you can accomplish things much bigger than yourself if you ask for help. “It kind of showed me that it’s possible to do something that’s really really big, and that’s larger than yourself if you give yourself enough time to do it, and… if you’re willing to ask people for help.”
When Ryan started preparing for the event, he was the only one on the team. Things started slowly. His grew his list, but only had a handful of volunteers. That’s when the impostor syndrome crept into his mind. Would he be able to run a successful event? What if he couldn’t get good guests?
But then things started to change. His volunteer team grew from two people after one month to fifty people after three months. He had everyone from graphic designers to speaker liasons on the team.
What Ryan realized was, in order to achieve something big, you have to find the right people to help you. “It’s very possible to do something that’s that big if you are willing to ask the right people for help, really, and keep working at it, even when you have zero volunteers and your email list is ten people.”
A recap of episode 64 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan where they talk more about why experiences are better than having things, why you should invest in yourself, and why communication is the most important skill you can learn.
Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan were both on extremely successful career paths. Matt was working for a seven-figure chiropractic business and Charine was offered a lucrative management position at her company. On the outside, everything looked great. But internally, they both felt they were living a life of complacency.
The tipping point came when they took a sabbatical to wine regions around the world. That’s when something struck Charine. She believed they could build a business around wine and travel. So they built up enough run way to quit their jobs and started their journey as the Exotic Wine Travelers.
In this episode, learn why experiences are better than having things, why you should invest in yourself, and why communication is the most important skill you can learn.
Here are three things you can learn from Matt and Charine:
One of the things people learn over time is accumulating possessions is not as fulfilling as having great experiences. While many of us start off wanting to buy fancy things to keep up with the Joneses, few of us realize that buying stuff is a never ending cycle. It is experiences that truly light us up. “When we started to step away and travel, when we started to focus on experiences, we realized stuff is all on the periphery. It’s nice, but it’s a want, not a need. Life is all about defining what you need, number one, and then what you want.”
While many of us begin to internalize that idea, we can still get stuck in the trap because we want to fit in. “It’s funny because both of us pride ourselves, we really value experience over possession all along, for the past couple of years that we’re together. But, as much as we know that intellectually, and we can relate to that thinking, we still fell into the trap of possession or consumerism. And looking at things broadly, I don’t think it’s just consumerism. It’s just that human beings, we are wired to belong. And when we’re in a group, community, or society, you want to fit in, and… all of us will be influenced by our environment and people around us.”
Charine believes you can truly discover this for yourself once you have the power to possess things. “It’s only after you have the power to possess things or when you have the power to achieve all those things, and that’s when you start asking yourself whether you really want it or not. We are lucky we got to step out of the environment that we’re in and we get a clear choice of whether we really enjoy those experiences or not.”
Charine and Matt both believe the best investment you can make is in yourself. While most people believe investing in high value stocks is the best way to become wealthy, they believe investing in yourself is far more valuable. “When you invest in yourself, it will always pay itself back and a lot of the times, it can be the best investment that you can make.”
What they found is that most people are afraid of growth. People are afraid of both the success and failure of personal growth, so they choose to do nothing instead. “It’s not that people don’t want to invest money in growing. Most people don’t want to grow. Growing is scary, it’s hard, and it’s difficult, and that’s the reason most people don’t want to do it.”
While they understand people’s aversion to growth, it’s still baffling that people choose to invest in everything but themselves. “It baffles me when people pick all sorts of investments to do, yet they don’t invest in themselves because you are the safest investment. Is there any risk at all? There’s no risk. There’s only growth.”
That’s why they are on this journey of traveling and tasting wines. They see it as an investment in personal growth.
People often wonder what skills set them apart from everyone else. Matt believes the most valuable skill you can learn is communication. “When you can communicate and articulate your ideas, you move into the top 1% of humanity. When you can actually get up and speak in front of a large group of people, you move into another top 1%. If you can speak and inspire somebody to move, you move into another top 1%. So I think that’s a skill that everybody should learn to do.”
While most creatives try to improve skills within their craft, top performing artists are ones that know how to communicate with their audience. That’s why Matt recommends improving your communication skills. “I would recommend that skill (communication) to anybody because if you can communicate and articulate your ideas, that’s when you can really get things done.”
Read more shownotes from episode 64 with Dr. Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan
A recap of episode 63 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Nicolas Cole where he talks more about why you should learn from everything you do, why you should help others, and why marketing is not your enemy.
Nicolas Cole looks like someone out of a fitness magazine, but it hasn't always been that way. When he was growing up, he was sick almost every day. By the time he was 17 years old, he weighed less than 100 pounds. He missed school a lot and didn't have many friends. So he turned to World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft became his escape from life. He played so much that he was one of the top players in the entire game. That is until he was faced with a tough decision. He could either continue to pursue his video game career on his own or receive his parents' help and go to college. He chose college.
It was at this point that Nicolas took the principles from gaming and applied them to fitness. He went from less than 100 pounds to 170 pounds by gamifying his workout routines. He also wrote about his fitness routines and his journey on Quora and became one of its top writers.
In this episode find out why you should learn from everything you do, why you should help others, and why marketing is not your enemy.
Here are three things you can learn from Nicolas:
One of the biggest lessons Nicolas learned was applying knowledge he learned from one industry and applying it to another. That's exactly what happened when he started to pursue fitness. He took the lessons from World of Warcraft and used them to become fit.
Nicolas believes this is what separates the most creative people from everyone else. "If you look at the most creative people out there, they are the people who are most open to that question. They're okay looking at every single thing, every single industry, different, the same, all over the board, and asking the question, 'What can I learn from this?'"
It's also the difference between people who are innovative and those who aren't. "True innovation is really at that intersection between almost conflicting, but somewhat parallel industries. And it's really the intersection between art and marketing."
He believes artists can benefit the most from this concept. "Even if you're an artist, it's not just about your art in your industry because your art in your industry might seem the same as it's always been done, and you'll never stand out. But if you bring it to a different space, you could be the most innovative person on the planet."
One of the things Nicolas learned was you don't have to be special to stand out. Many people have this misguided idea that those who succeed are special, but they aren't.
Nicolas points to himself as an example. "That's the whole story you want to share with people is I wasn't special. I was the farthest thing from special. And I can't tell you how many people told me that I was crazy."
Nicolas gained about eighty pounds of muscle over a few years, not because he was special, but because he was persistent and someone helped show him the way.
Nicolas believes this guidance was crucial to his journey and thinks people who get help should also pay it forward. "When you have someone do that for you, it's really important, I think, to then, you go back and you do it for the next person. And whether it's a one on one situation or whether it's just 'I'm going to take everything I learned, and I'm going to put it out, I'm going to make it accessible, and I'm going to try and reach the largest audience possible', either way, it's important for that kid to know that's it's not about being special. It's not about 'I was gifted and you're not.' It's just you make the decision that you're going to make this happen, and here, 'I've learned these lessons the hard way, I'm going to pass them on to you so you don't have to learn them the hard way. And then just follow the path that I took and you'll hit the same results.'"
Nicolas believes whether you do it yourself or get help you should give back. "It's one of those things too that, if you do have to do it yourself, it kind of gives you a different skin, but at the same time, I think it's also important to go back and help the next kid."
Artists are notorious for their resistance to marketing. Nicolas believes it isn't about being pushy. It's about getting yourself out there and fighting to be seen in this noisy world. "I think that when you're an artist... when you're creating something that is your own, from scratch, it's a very different sort of place energetically than when you're extroverted, and you're trying to get people to pay attention to it. And so I think a lot of people will see those as conflict. They see those two sides as almost working against each other. And that's why a lot of artists are not big on wanting to learn marketing or understanding how it works, but when you really step into it, and this is something I learned first hand, is that marketing is an art in itself. It is an art to get people to listen to what you have to say, especially in 2016 when there are so many social media channels, and so many ways to communicate with people. It's a very noisy world. So, getting heard through all of that, is an art."
This lesson is something he had to learn first hand. And the way that he did it, like he does everything else, is by re-framing it. "Again it goes back to the re-frame. You could be the artist that is insanely creative, but you see marketing as a burden. And you fight it and you're the victim and nobody understands, and you're super creative, and I shouldn't have to market this. Okay, that is a road, and you're fully allowed to take that road if you like, but if you re-frame it, and you realize you now have more control than ever to expand your art, and now your art isn't just what people listen to or read or see, but it's also how they get there and how they see it. And the process of after they've consumed your art,,How do they stay in touch with you? What about you learn about yourself outside of your art?... There's so much more that you can do for yourself as an artist when you see the whole thing as art. You see it all as working pieces. And you realize that when you just put a couple of pieces in play that will allow you to make money, okay, there's nothing wrong with that. But taking ownership and having the confidence to step into that challenge and realize that it's all an art. The end product is art and how people got there in the first place is art."
A recap of episode 62 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Monica Kang where she talks more about why you should think link an outsider, the importance of asking questions, and how self-awareness can improve your problem solving.
Monica Kang knew early in life that she wanted to work in international affairs. Her upbringing in two countries compelled her to understand how people related to each other, and steered her towards her role working with the government.
Monica worked for years in international affairs, and even though she loved her job, she still felt something was lacking. She saw that people weren't creatively fulfilled at their jobs and knew she wanted to help them. She knew she could fulfill that gap, so she started up Innovators Box.
In this episode learn why you should think link an outsider, the importance of asking questions, and how self-awareness can improve your problem solving.
Here are three things you can learn from Monica:
One of the things that has helped Monica build Innovators Box is the fact that she didn't have prior experience in business. Too often, when we are well versed in an industry, we have trouble thinking outside of the box.
Instead of relying on tried and true advice, Monica was able to try new and innovative ideas. "The big part of the business element that has worked the most effectively, were the creative and new approaches that I took."
That's why bringing in a fresh perspective into any industry can be helpful if you want to be different. When you don't know what's "right" and "wrong" you are able to think differently.
So, the next time you want to bring creativity into your work, try looking at industries outside of your own. That curiosity can make a world of a difference. "It's critical to be willing to learn different domains because you're going to have that naive curiosity of wanting to understand and less fear of being judged because you really don't know."
Have you ever held back a question back you were afraid of looking dumb? Do you carefully consider seeking advice because you want people to think you are smart and have it all figured out?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may want to reconsider the way you approach problems. Most successful people are not afraid to ask questions. In fact, they embrace it.
Monica believes every business starts because someone was curious and asked a question. "Essentially all businesses started because of a challenge they wanted to solve and opportunities come out of it. Innovators are people who, when they see a problem, they see a challenge... and ask questions."
Successful people are open minded and curious about the world around them. They are unafraid to ask questions. It is this trait that allows them to learn and grow. "When you start asking questions and have an open mind and you're willing to learn, you're permitting yourself to actually grow and expand your comfort zone, and always... find there is unlimited possibility."
One of the problems we all encounter is trying to disconnect from our digital lives. We are constantly bombarded with emails, text messages, and social media notifications, that it can be hard to detach ourselves from our screens.
Monica believes this has affected the way we approach problems. They have gotten in the ways of responding when something goes wrong. "Sadly, we're so used to staring at screens... and along that point, we're so used to acting and responding when something happens, and not knowing what to do when something doesn't happen, that we forget to be actually thinking through what's happening and being fully aware."
She believes that we need to take breaks and become more aware of our surroundings. Doing this will make us much more effective during challenging situations. "Notice all these details so that you are being more fully present and being aware. and when you do that more regularly, that really trickles down into everything else you do. And so when you do face challenging situations, instead of feeling like 'Ah, I don't know what to do,' you're like 'Hey, this is not great, what can I do? How do I feel about this? When do I want to tackle this?' And you start breaking it down."
What can you do to bring presence into your daily life? Try taking a walk or a five minute break, and see how your thought process improves. "Just take a silent walk and let yourself go for a bit. And I think that initial practice of pausing and giving yourself space is important. That's would recommend the next time you're feeling this. And if you're feeling this right now, I recommend taking a five minute break. It's not going to change, make a difference, you actually feeling a little more rested and more centered is going to help you make the right decisions instead of you feeling stressed. And I think that's essential even as someone who's creative... who's trying to make important decisions."
A recap of episode 61 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Kaitlyn Guay where she talks more about why creative growth is an evolution, how to find beauty and gratitude in every day life, and ways you can overcome Resistance.
Kaitlyn Guay grew up wanting to be in Broadway. She grew up in a household where she wasn’t allowed to watch TV and could only watch movies on the weekends. She grew up in a cultural bubble where she entertained herself by writing poems and song lyrics for fun.
While she wanted to be an artist and entertainer, those around her thought it would be too risky, so she became a musical teacher. This allowed her to share her passion for the arts with others. That is until a severe case of Chronic Lyme Disease forced her to change her path. Instead of letting the disease break her, she leveraged it into creating a young adult book series and jewelry line.
In this episode, learn why creative growth is an evolution, how to find beauty in gratitude in every day life, and ways you can overcome Resistance.
Here are three things you can learn from Kaitlyn:
Many people mistakenly believe that you are either born with an artistic talent or you aren’t. While some people are more talented at the beginning of their artistic journeys, that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. The difference lies in practice. “I think that so often, when you’re a musician, you get used to the concept of practicing and also playing. It’s a completely different mindset to how you approach things. You don’t say, ‘I’m going to sit down and work the piano.’ You say ‘I’m going to sit down and play the piano. I’m going to practice the piano.’ It’s this concept of an ever evolving process. You’re never there. It’s never perfect. There’s never one perfect way to do something because music is personal. It’s evocative. It’s something that means something to every single individual person.”
I would even argue that those who rely on talent alone are at a disadvantage. These people pursue something just because they know they can do it instead of doing it from a place of joy. What Kaitlyn realized is that practice helps your creativity evolve. “I think that just the idea that everything creative comes from a place of process and evolution really helped me kind of be able to transition into another creative arena … the thought of practicing and playing and doing everything from this place of joy and knowing that the more you do it, the better you’re going to get.”
One of the biggest tragedies of life is that we don’t celebrate it enough. We tend to look at all the horrible things going on around us and let them influence how we perceive the world. That is why Kaitlyn likes to focus on beauty. “I think that once you focus on the beauty, it becomes more important than the things that are so loud in our world, the ugly things that tend to get thrown in our faces. So that’s my biggest intention right now, to see beauty everywhere.”
Kaitlyn believes we can retrain ourselves to see beauty in the world. We can stop letting the stories of tragedy and negativity bring us down. “With the concept of beauty, I think that, just because something is louder and more in your face, doesn’t make it more important. And the whole concept of retraining your brain to bring… gratitude, and positivity, and beauty into the forefront. And then, like you said, yeah that will absolutely change how you view the world and in turn, how the world views you.”
She also believes our suffering is relative. When we see people go through real tragedy, but make it through the other side a stronger person, we realize our troubles aren’t so significant. “Sometimes it’s difficult when you hear someone that’s gone through something so incredibly horrible and you think… ‘How in the world can I be complaining?’ My experiences are so trivial in comparison, but I love when you get inspired by someone else. Not just because they’ve been through something so much worse than you could ever imagine, but because they have found a way to relate their survival, their tactics, into something that’s universal, that anyone can apply to their lives.”
As creatives, many of us know what it’s like to hit a wall in our work. We become stuck and can’t find a way to break through the lull. Then a voice starts to creep in our head telling us we can’t. That is the voice of what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance.
The first step is overcoming Resistance is realizing it’s there. “I have a really hard time leaving things unfinished, which can be devastating because sometimes your brain just needs to hit the refresh button for a little while, and I think that Resistance comes from not listening to yourself when that little voice in your head says ‘Okay, here’s a wall.'”
One way you can begin to overcome Resistance is just step away from your work for a while. “I’ve started to learn that when I get to that point to where there’s a voice in my head that says ‘The muse, the inspiration, it’s not working for you right now. You hit a stand still.’ I’ve learned that I need to take out a new project and put some fresh creative insight and energy into something brand new. Go there for a little while, so I’m not stopping the creative flow, I’m not throwing my hands up in the air. I’m just switching gears. I’m going into something completely different. And usually, if I do that, by the time I go back to where I was stuck, anything that felt stagnant before and frustrating, has now has got a new sense of vitality and whatever the mystical muse is, some times, most times, will find a way to reveal herself yet again.”
Sometimes we take on projects that are too big for us and our brain needs a break. In those times, we need to step back for a little bit of perspective. “I think that when you recognize that you’re creating something that’s going to be bigger than yourself, once your brain starts to get overworked, sometimes it’s best to… step away, get a little perspective… and come back when you’re not so focused… Sometimes when something is right in front of your face, is when you can’t see it and that’s why you need to take a step back.”
A recap of episode 60 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Adam James Butcher where he dives more into why you should share your work, the value of habits and routines, and why selling is crucial for your business.
A recap of episode 59. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Andrea Dantas wheres he dives more into why you should never stop learning, why you should always remember your why, and what it takes to do work that matters to you.
Andrea Dantas could have ended up poor and broke in Brazil. Her father went bankrupt when she was a child and her mother struggled to feed two kids. Her one saving grace was her love for acting.
Andrea left Brazil to study acting in Australia. While she was able to get a tourist Visa, she had trouble getting a work Visa. So her mother smuggled her money by putting it inside books she sent through the mail. While she survived on a diet of canned beans, she was still happy because she was learning and doing what she loved.
She has been able to build a successful career in acting through years of studying, performing, and working in multiple countries.
In this episode, learn why you should never stop learning, why you should always remember your why, and what it takes to do work that matters to you.
Here are three things you can learn from Andrea:
One thing Andrea made very clear is that you should never stop learning. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been practicing your craft for one year or one hundred years, you are never done learning. “You never stop learning, and if you think that you’ve got it, and a project comes along and it’s just going to kick your butt and prove to you ‘Oh my gosh, I thought I knew everything.’ Hang on a second, but that’s with everything in life I think.”
Andrea also believes your technique matters. You can’t just go through the motions. “Nothing is more important than technique until artistry comes along. It’s the only way that your art is going to come out.”
She also believes that once you’ve discovered and mastered what works for you, the possibilities are endless. “Once you find what really works for you, and you hone into that and you become a master at that, then you can do… pretty much anything.”
Some people get so caught up in trying to be rich or famous that they forget about their craft. They forget the reason they got into art in the first place. They are too caught up with their vision of the future that they forget to live in the present. “I think it’s that ability of not being married to a situation and holding on so tight to it that you don’t see the change right in front of you and also being silent and asking yourself ‘Why am I doing this in the first place? Why do I still love doing this thing?’ It’s important.”
When I asked Andrea why she loves her work, she said it came from a direct answer from the divine. “My reason for doing this is because this was a direct answer to a question I had forgot and I believe that vocation, which is the most important thing in my life, is in total alignment with the divine and I think that I’m answering a calling. And I see how it’s impacting these artists in New York because New York can be a pretty intimidating city and how they found each other and they’re making things together… It’s such a rewarding job. It’s not even a job because it’s so good.”
One thing to remember when you are going through your journey is, it’s hard to do it alone. You need to find people who are going through a journey too so you can help each other out. “Find your tribe. For an actor, for an artist, that’s so important. Find an artistic family, the family that you choose to go through this journey together, to go through this journey with, because it can be pretty lonely out there when you’re an actor.”
When we are starting out on our artistic journeys, we have grand visions of what we can accomplish. We look at those who came before us and think “I can do that too.”
While this may be true, it can also be stifling. Our expectations become unrealistic too quickly. It can stop us dead in our tracks. So, remember to stop being so hard on yourself. Just do the best you can at the moment. The rest will come to you in due time.
Just listen to what Andrea has to say. “Don’t be so hard on yourself thinking it has to be a masterpiece. Chances are, your first movie is not going to be a Martin Scorsese film. It’s not going to be that. So, I say get that idea. Put it on paper. Get people together. Go do it. Give birth to your ugly baby, and then, what do you know, you learn something. And the next one, you learn something else… We live in a day and age where there’s no reason for actors not to be working, for filmmakers not to be working because we have access to technology and things and we can be making our own stuff.”
It all begins with starting. “You have to start somewhere. Start somewhere, don’t stop and do the things you’re passionate about.”
And don’t get too caught up in the future. Live more in the now. “The future is now. No, I stopped thinking about the future a long time ago. I go as I go.”
A recap of episode 58. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Bodlar Deathbringer where he dives more into the challenges you face as an artist, the importance in marketing and networking, and why you need to confront your fears.
Bodlar Deathbringer is a visual artist living in New York City. Since early in his life, it seemed like he was destined to become an artist. His father was a visual artist and his mother was a writer. He also started creating his own paintings when he was eight years old. So it would seem odd that Bodlar went into IT work.
After years of working in the corporate world, he finally decided he had enough. He decided he would move to New York City to pursue his art career full-time. It hasn't always been easy, but Bodlar has been working as an artist ever since.
In this episode, learn about the challenges you face as an artist, the importance in marketing and networking, and why you need to confront your fears.
Here are three things you can learn from Bodlar:
No one has any illusions that life as a full-time artist is easy. Bodlar believes you must want it. ""It's hard. It's really hard, and it's perpetually terrifying. You know, you just always have to be on point. You have to hustle. You have to be self-motivated. You have to really want it."
When you are working a 9-5 job, there's a certain comfort there. But when you are working for yourself, things are different. "The reason it took me so long to get out of IT work is that you get addicted to that level of comfort of having that regular paycheck. It's very hard to look in the face of the world and say 'No, I'm going to do this other thing and go off the beaten path..."
The key is to constantly create. Bodlar creates 600-700 pieces a year, and that's without the comfort of his own studio. While most artists believe talent is enough, he believes in the power of being prolific. "In order to be a successful artist, you really have to be prolific."
As an example he brings up the fact that most famous artists are prolific creators. "Any artist you can name off the top of your head got there because they were prolific and worked and worked and worked their ass off to get there."
Another thing Bodlar believes in deeply is the importance of networking and marketing your art. People won't find you unless you put yourself out there. "As a visual artist, half of your job is marketing and networking and that people aren't going to come to you just because you painted a pretty picture. You have to go out and show it to them and find the right person to buy it. And I've always painted under the auspices of painting what I want to paint and then going to find someone who likes it, that wants to buy it."
You can't just wait for people to come to you. You have to go to them. "You have to get into the scene. You have to figure out who the important players are. Who are the important galleries? Who are the important artists? And just go to as many events as you can and network with as many people as you can."
It's all about being visible. You can't be afraid to share your work with others. "You have to be visible as an artist. You have to go out and figuratively grab people by the collar and say 'Hey look, I did this. This has merit. It's interesting, and really get in people's face about what you're doing.'"
When I asked Bodlar what separates someone who makes the leap from their 9-5 IT job from someone who doesn't he talked about overcoming our fears. If we want to live a life without regret, we have to make that scary leap. "Our life, our society, our world are typically controlled by fear and jumping off of that cliff into the abyss of art is probably one of the most terrifying experiences I've been through in my life and it still terrifies me to this day, but I finally realized that if I don't do this, If I don't take that leap, that it's going to kill me... and I don't want to be one of those people that wakes up when I'm sixty-five and realize I wasted my life doing nothing."
He believes many people never make the leap because they're afraid of discomfort. "I think people are just very afraid of discomfort. We have this evolutionary precept to where we want comfort. We want to be comfortable. We want to have abundance... We want to have all of those things, and so, it's hard to balance those things, because when you're starting out, they're very much at odds with one another."
He also has no illusions that our fears and struggles will ever go away. We just have to be willing to deal with them. "Even if I'm selling tons of work, and making tons of money, I'm still going to be worried about what's next. There's still going to be newer, bigger, struggles to tackle and I think that's one of the other things that a lot of people don't realize that no matter where you're at in life it's going to be a struggle. It's always going to be hard and that if you're afraid of it being hard, then you're never going to get anywhere. You have to be willing to say, 'Okay, this is going to be hard and then go out and do it anyway."
The first recap episode of the show. Let me know what you think of the shortened format.
If you liked this recap, check out Ginger's full episode!
Ginger Kern knew she wanted to leave her childhood home in the Midwest even when she was a young. She grew up reading books on adventure and mythology, which fueled her desire to get away.
So, when she had the opportunity to visit her family in Germany, she jumped on it. Even though she didn’t speak German and her family didn’t speak English, she was hooked on travel and living abroad. This was the beginning of her life fueled by travel, adventure, and a desire to help other people do the same.
In this episode, Ginger talks about embracing your playful side, taking rites of passage, and transforming herself and others.
Here are three things you can learn from Ginger:
Once we become adults, most of use lose our sense of playfulness. While this may be good in some situations, it absolutely prevents us from being our most creative selves.
Being playful allows us to experiment without worrying about ridicule. It allows us to be curious as we explore the world. That’s why Ginger likes to put herself in playful environments. “It is a question of how can I surround myself with the external environment that pulls from me to be playful, to be creative, to be in a space of wonderment and curiosity and experimentation. ”
She also believes we need to intentionally set aside time to be playful. “It’s the structure of ‘Okay, I’m going to actually to block out a chunk of time in my week or in my day that is for whatever comes out of my creative forays.’ It could just be two hours and you don’t have a set plan for those hours but you do something.”
When we set aside that time, we can’t judge ourselves so much. we just have to see what comes out. “And just letting it come out and allowing it to just be what it is, and not judging it until maybe later… but during the process, just let it come out.”
This minor shift in playfulness can have a massive impact on our creativity. Creativity requires an open mind, exploration, and curiosity, and play makes those things possible.
Ginger deals a lot with transformation. She has helped people overcome their doubts and has helped push them past their comfort zones. One example she gave was helping a woman who was feeling stuck creatively. Before her call with Ginger, the woman wasn’t drawing at all. But within 48 hours, she was able to reconnect with her creative expression.
But one thing Ginger emphasized was, she wouldn’t be able to be a source of strength for others if she wasn’t a source of strength for herself first. “I can only take my clients as big as I have gone myself… but really being a powerful stand for someone, that is sometimes tricky if you’re not being a stand for yourself… because it’s hypocritical. And so, helping others, if you want to use the word help… my goal is to really be a powerful stand for their power… in order to be able to do that, I have to be able to do that for myself.”
One thing Ginger noticed about her clients is, they are so eager to jump to the next level, but you can’t rush the process. “It’s always a process, right. So, there’s always expansion. There’s always that next level. And I think where some entrepreneurs might get caught up, is trying to force that next level… and what I found at least is that there’s so much to be learned just through the process of that.”
That’s why, before she can help others reach the next level, she has to reach the next level herself, and the only way she could do that was by getting support herself. “In order to effectively help, or effectively support, or effectively coach any of those things, I also have to have people pulling for me and so that does really bring me into that next level.”
One interesting observation Ginger has made about the world is, we no longer go through rites of passage. Before modern civilization took it’s hold on the world, previous generations had traditions that were passed down the line. People had to go through symbolic journeys, or rites of passage, in order to transition from one part of life to the next.
The concepts behind these stories and journeys all come up in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The archetypes found in the book spanned across all cultures and helped convey different messages and morals.
Ginger is now using travel as a rite of passage to help people deal with their own versions of these journeys from isolation to discomfort. “The rite of passage is a real tool and the way that I see it being a really effective tool… is going into a slightly scary situation of travel, where everything is unknown. You have to figure stuff out on the go. You have to deal with feelings of isolation, aloneness, uncomfortableness, discomfort… It’s such incredible work to see how someone can transform so thoroughly through travel.”
And when people come back from their trips, their hero’s journey, many come away completely transformed. “It’s beautiful, and inevitably, they come out on the other side and they’re so thrilled. They’re psyched about life because they see that they can handle it and they can take on a new challenge. They might even start seeking out new challenges and being more epic in their everyday life. That mentality, once you have it, it doesn’t leave you. It doesn’t just disappear.”
Chris Dessi was fired three times in two years, but that didn’t stop him from building a successful career. Instead of letting those setbacks get him down, he leveraged them into building his own business, writing multiple books, appearing on TV, and running his own summits. In this episode, learn about the power of a personal brand, being a taste maker, and defining success.
Here are three things you can learn from Chris:
Building a personal brand is one of the best things you can do to make a name for yourself. Once people recognize you for your thoughts and your work, it becomes easier to get your voice heard. But it’s not always easy.
If you want to build a personal brand, you have to stop taking what’s given to you. Instead, you need to look within yourself to discover what makes you unique, what differentiates you from everyone else. Chris believes we can do this by being introspective. “Building your personal brand is about becoming introspective and not a lot of people become introspective. A lot of people take what’s given to them.”
Building a personal brand is also about defining your goals. “That’s really where the personal branding starts. You need to have a definitive end goal in mind and understand that you have a voice, and then start to play with that.”
Finally, your personal brand is about exploring your curiosity. “If you do anything with fervor and interest and intellectual curiosity, people will start to come back to you and people will become part of your tribe. And if you’re interested in something that scares the hell out of you, at least learn about it.”
Once you’ve built your personal brand, and made yourself known to the world, you have the opportunity to become a tastemaker. Tastemakers are the people you look to for advice and guidance. They’re the ones we turn to when we are looking to make a decision. If you want your voice to be heard, you should aim to be a tastemaker.
Chris believes these people are the ones who make the biggest impact in the world. “It’s the tastemakers, the definitive people that are shaping society, that are shaping thought, shaping businesses, and shaping lives, we’re the ones that do, and go out there and listen to that curiosity and trust their own curiosity and trust that it will lead them to a place that will continue to help them to grow as a business person, as a creative, as a creator, as a human being.”
That’s why Chris thinks we need to stop worrying about our resumes. We need to start worrying about getting our voices heard instead. “Stop tweaking your resume, and create a blog… Don’t worry about the resume, worry about creating your own identity, and then you don’t have to worry about pandering to people to get a job, because other opportunities will come to you, because that system’s broken.”
One of my favorite parts of my conversation with Chris was hearing his definition of success. He’s not worried about bringing home the most money or having tons of fans on social media. Instead, he chooses to define success for himself.
The first thing he considers success is doing something that fulfills his curiosity. “If I am doing something that I am being true to myself, that allows me to feel excited, intellectually curious, and fulfilled, and generates revenue, that’s amazing.”
The other thing that defines his success is getting his girls onto the bus in the morning. “I think if I can stick to that, and put my daughters on the bus in the morning, follow things that allow me to continue to be intellectually curious, and things that will potentially generate revenue, I’ll be in a really good spot no matter where I end up, or what I’m doing.”
These two things may not equal success for other people, but they define what success means to Chris. In the end, that’s all that matters. We need to stop letting other people define what success means to us. We need to determine that for ourselves instead.
Puneet Sachdev worked for years in the hotel industry and with General Electric as a management consultant. He now uses that knowledge in his work as a consultant, creative philanthropist, and coach.
He is also the author of Deepa Wishes Daddy Happy Birthday, a book based on the time he’s spent with his daughter. He uses 100% of the proceeds from the book to support the education of underprivileged children. The book also began his work as a creative philanthropist.
In this episode, learn how Puneet turned his idea into reality, why you need to put yourself out there, and the importance of being present.
Here are three things you can learn from Puneet:
Many of us believe we aren’t destined for greatness, but we never take the first step. The first thing we must all do, if we want to find success, is accept the fact that we are all on a journey.
Puneet believes we all have a choice to make. We can choose to continue on the path we’ve been on, or we can choose the unbeaten path. “When you have that call to adventure. You have the choice of taking it or not.”
And once we’ve answered that call to adventure, things will begin to come together in unexpected ways. “I just feel like you step out of that path and put yourself out there, and … the clearer you get and the more you put yourself out there, serendipity is what shows you the way.”
But we can’t do it on our own. Luckily, life has a way of providing the help we need. “I feel that what happens is when you start off on your journey, when you start off saying ‘This is really important to me and I’m going to set sail on this path,’… I think somehow the teachers show up and that support network emerges at different points.”
One of the great things about creative projects is, they start off as just an idea in our heads. They are nothing more than a thought that sprouted and evolved into a something beautiful.
That’s exactly what happened to Puneet. He never considered himself a creative person. He believed only artists had the ability to be creative, but what he discovered was, everyone has the capacity to be creative. We just need the right people around us to make our ideas come to life.
So, while he is not a gifted writer or illustrator, he was still able to bring his idea to life. “I know I’m not a great, gifted, writer. I’m not taking any courses on creative writing. Nothing. It was just a desire and a passion behind it. I did that, and I used the people who have got those gifts.”
All it takes is combing that desire with action and the ability to bring the right people together. Just don’t expect it to be a quick process. “Desire, taking the action, using the people that will help me put it together. It’s a very long process, It’s much longer than I would have liked it to be.”
Puneet is a huge advocate of having a mindfulness practice. There are so many things around us that distract us from our goals. Sometimes we need to disconnect from everything and focus on ourselves. “The world that we live in is just in so much of a frenzy all the time and with technology it is very easy to get disconnected. It’s very easy to get just swayed away by whatever the most prevalent wind is… so I think practice (mindfulness) is what really helps in grounding you.”
One problem is, many people want to practice mindfulness, but they have the wrong ideas about what it is. They believe their minds have to be empty of thoughts, but that simply isn’t the case. “That’s really not the goal of it. The goal is for you to be present with yourself in this moment and time. So please get away from the notion that you should empty your mind of thoughts.”
Instead, we must aim for stillness. We must be in touch with ourselves. “[In] day to day life, the goal is stillness, being with yourself, [and] getting in touch with what your body is saying”
Sally Safadi was working at an after school program for kids between medical school and graduating . While there, she found it was difficult for children to learn in the traditional school environment after already spending eight hours in school. So she came up with different games for the kids to play to get them involved in learning.
This began her shift from studying science to studying and exploring creativity. Sally’s site, Neurons Away, is the hub for all her work including her book and card game. Each of her projects help people explore and exercise their imaginations.
In this episode learn about her various projects, the power of constraints, the benefits of trial and error, and much more.
Here are three things you can learn from Sally:
Most of us are taught to find a single answer to problems. We haven’t been give the proper tools to tackle problems with more than one possibility, which is why we struggle with empty spaces. “The way we are taught, especially through school, is to write in the lines and in the box. Color in the space.”
Instead of looking for the single answer, we need to develop the mindset to play in the empty spaces. “You have to have that specific mindset that develops to be able to do that. But most individuals haven’t really been given that opportunity.”
Sally believes the blank canvas can be used as an educational tool. She believes, that once you learn that form of expression, you can use it many aspects of your life. “Giving empty space in different areas of life, especially education, empowers an individual to be more creative in their own choices in life.”
We spend too much time worrying about whether our plans will fail or succeed instead of actually testing them out. One thing is for certain, if you don’t test your ideas, you will never know if they are going to work.
Sally likens testing ideas to planting seeds. Some will grow, and others won’t. “It’s just like these little things of trying, and trying, and trying til something catches or grows, or planting a bunch of seeds and hoping some of them take.” It is only by trying a bunch of ideas that you will be able to get one to bloom.
She also believes in listening to the feedback of your audience. That’s how she ended up with the cover for her book. Her first cover didn’t convey the message that was in book, so she tested a new one that worked much better.
She was able to leverage the opinions of her audience to create a cover that her audience liked. But you can’t listen to everything people say. You have to find the right balance.
“Seeking the opinions and constructive criticisms is really good, but people also need to create their bubble with that. I could ask a thousand people what they think about the cover, and each person… is telling me something different. So at some point, you just have to also just make your own decision and stick to it because you’re always going to find someone who has something different to say.”
Many people believe imaginations are stronger in children than they are in adults. But this is only partially true. Children may use their imaginations a lot more, but they mostly use them for play. Adults, on the other hand, use their imaginations to shape the world around us.
“Our realities are basically a moment’s expression of our collective imagination. Everything that is around us was once an idea or a thought that was applied, and directed, and grew into a tangible reality… which a lot of us fail to realize in this journey that we call life.”
Everything from our phones, to our cars, to our computers was the result of a creation from someone’s imagination. Before these things existed, someone had to dream them up. That is the power of imagination.
The problem is, many of us stop using our imaginations once we hit adulthood. If we all harnessed that power a little bit more, who knows what the world would be like.
Stop thinking play is for children. Leverage the power of your imagination to help change the world.
Catherine Orer was an award winning communications and PR expert for multinational corporations for years, but that job never felt fulfilling to her. So, when the opportunity to study at Christies in Paris opened up, she jumped on it.
While in Paris she gained hands on experience working in contemporary art galleries. After her studies, she brought this knowledge and experience back to Canada. While working at an art gallery in Montreal, many artists approached her for help. This began Catherine’s journey as The Artist Entrepreneur.
In this episode, find out why gratitude is so important, why there isn’t just one path to success, and why artists should find support.
Here are three things you can learn from Catherine:
Most people falsely believe there is only one path to success. They believe there’s a secret formula they can learn to become successful. They believe the people who’ve made it are all part of a secret club.
Catherine’s path is neither traditional or conventional. She went to school for public relations and communications and got management positions in corporations before even considering the art world. It was only when she noticed she wasn’t having fun at work that she decided to dip her toes back into the art world.
She went to Christies in Paris for training and worked at an art gallery when she got back. It was only then that she found how much help she could provide to artists. Artists came up to her hoping they could work together, and finally she relented.
Now she is working with thousands of artists in her Facebook group. She is doing one on one coaching, group coaching, and providing immense value to artists with her experience in PR and in the arts.
Catherine’s path to helping artists was not the traditional one and she believes artists should look for their own path too. “There’s not just one path to being a successful artist. Not every artist will get their retrospective at the MoMA at fifty and it’s fine. It’s not everybody’s path and it shouldn’t be. You just need to find yours, what makes you happy, and also where you can grow as an artist.”
One thing that I’ve found by speaking to many successful people is, gratitude is an essential part of their daily lives. Catherine is no exception. Leaving her corporate job was the turning point in her gratitude practice.
What she has found is, we aren’t always at our best. So the best thing to do at those times is be grateful for what you have. “We can’t always be on high, so life is what it is. You have your ups and your downs and that’s when I really started being more thankful with everything that was going on my life.”
She goes on to talk about why she has to practice gratitude every day. “If I don’t take some time to be grateful and thankful,for everything in my life, I would go crazy… At some point you just need to be like, okay, what I’m doing is enough and I’m just really thankful that I’m doing what I love, and that I have these people around me who support me.”
We all need to be thankful for what we have and embrace where we are in our journeys. “Being thankful is just being in the present. It’s just looking at what’s happening right now, and just embracing it all and opening up yourself to more abundance too.”
One of the things that artists get wrong is trying to do everything by themselves. They believe they don’t need to find support when they are struggling. They believe they have to do all the work themselves. They believe if they don’t do all the work, people look down on them.
Catherine believes you won’t find success unless you find people to support you. “My experience is that at some point, you’re going to hit a roadblock, and you’re going to want to get support.”
She even advocates finding help if it isn’t with her. “I don’t really mind if you don’t work with me. For me it’s not about working with me. It’s about finding support. So, if you find support… that’s fine, but doing it all by yourself is usually not the right way to go about it. You need to surround yourself with people who are going to support you.'”
She goes and talks about our need to connect with society. “If you want to grow, you need to be in contact with other people. We live in society, and if you want to sell your work to people, then you have to surround yourself with people. You need to network. You need to build a network around you, a support network, but also a network and following of people who are going to want to know more about you, and what you do, and how you can be of service to them, and how you can support them, and how you can communicate who you are and what you stand for.”
Jacob Sokol was climbing the corporate ladder at his job as a computer technician when he he realized there was a deep void in his life. His life was filled with the highest of highs, but also the lowest of lows. He didn’t trust his own happiness. He knew something had to change. So he took a 5 week trip to Europe. That is when he decided to embark on a quest to create his ideal life. In this episode, find out about Jacob’s beginnings, his quest to help people create their ideal lives, and also see what makes him tick.
Here are three things you can learn from Jacob:
We like to listen to the thoughts in our head. After all, they are all we know. The problem is, these thoughts often lead us astray. We let them control what we do, and how we think.
One of the biggest lessons Jacob learned on his trip to Europe was, he was not his thoughts. Although we all inherently know this, there’s a difference between hearing it and experiencing it. Jacob’s trip showed him the difference between the two.
What he discovered was, we are creatures of pattern, habit, and ritual. Since our thoughts are just patterns. if we can change our patterns, we can change ourselves.
“Suddenly I realized my thoughts are just patterns. If I can change my thoughts, that means I can change my life. And if I can change my life then I can create a life that is amazing.”
By changing his thought patterns, Jacob was able to build the life he wanted to live. He no longer had to live the role society told him to live. He was no longer trapped in the consumer cycle. He realized there was a life he could create for himself.
Too many of us believe we must be confident in order to take action. Jacob believes the opposite is true. He believes clarity comes from confidence. “It’s when we take action, then we become clear and confident. So clarity and confidence are not prerequisites, they’re actually results of action.”
The problem most of us have is, we wait for that moment when we are confident enough to take action, so we never take it. We wait and wait, and that confidence never comes.
Jacob believes confidence only comes as a result of taking action. “Confidence comes as a result of knowing you can handle something. You gotta try something a couple of times until you get better at it and competence leads to confidence… You don’t get competent unless you actually go do something and try it.”
Instead of waiting for confidence to come to us, we must be proactive and seize it for ourselves. We must be willing to fail and suck. We must do things for ourselves, and gain confidence by doing them.
One of the more interesting responses from Jacob came when I asked him how people can change the environment and people in their lives. His response surprised me with its beauty and simplicity.
“Any time someone asks how to, it’s because they don’t really understand the principle. So the principle here is… if you want it enough, you’ll figure out how to do it.”
I think he’s right. Although how-to’s can be helpful. They are just one person’s take on solving a problem. If you really want to solve a problem, you have to do it for yourself.
Jacob believes this comes from a place of instant gratification. “That’s kind of what people often times want. It’s the instant gratification of them wanting to be told what to do, instead of owning within themselves that they are a creator of life and can go out there and do and create based on what’s within them versus looking for the external to tell them.”
We need to stop looking for someone else to give us all the answers. We need to understand the principle first, and so we can figure it out for ourselves.
“If you understand the principle of something, then there’s a thousand ways you can go out there and do it.”
Miranda Aisling found her passion at a very young age. She went to college at the age of 14, and by her junior year of college, two things gave her a clear direction in life. The first was deciding to open up an art center. The second was a trip to El Salvador that changed her life. In this episode, learn about her work as an artist, community builder, and creator of Miranda’s Hearth, the first Community Art Hotel.
Here are three things you can learn from Miranda:
One of the things artists need to embrace more is the idea of experimentation. When we look up at the paintings hanging in gallery walls, we ask ourselves how someone was able to create that. What many of us don’t see is all the effort it took to get there.
Every artist goes through phases of exploration and experimentation. We start off trying to mimic our heroes. What we soon discover is, we can’t recreate a piece of art, no matter how hard we try. So we must experiment for ourselves.
Miranda believes the artists who came before can teach us the lessons they learned through experimentation. She believes after learning from the masters, we must experiment for ourselves. “I think how you find out what works is through experimentation.”
She also believes that, after experimenting and trying to mimic other people’s work, you discover yourself. “You can try and make something perfect and you can mimic it perfectly, but it’s actually in the way you can’t make it the same that you find your own voice.”
The beauty of art is, you can both learn from others and from experimentation. It is when those two worlds collide that we find what really works for us.
Miranda believes curiosity lies at the center of creativity. “Curiosity really is the root of creativity. Artists are the people that sit there and they ask, and they try to express what they find whether they can or not. Through expression they try to find the answers.”
She believes it is something that is missing from our education system. We don’t allow people to explore their curiosity. Instead we try to force people to memorize facts. “By playing to a test, we beat out curiosity, because we say, there is an answer. This is the right answer. This is what it is and if you tell me it back, you’ll be correct, and you’ll pass, and you’ll move on. But manifesting curiosity is actually really humbling.”
Instead of relying on people to give us the answers, we need to discover them for ourselves. We need to develop our own humble curiosity. We need to ask what if. We need to find our own expression. When we do, we will have found our connection to creativity.
While on her trip to El Salvador, Miranda discovered the importance of art. Her trip visiting a war torn town changed her entire perspective of what art could be. She saw the way it could bring people together after experiencing such tragedy.
The town was the site of a horrific massacre that left only one survivor. So along with Claudia Bernardi and Walls of Hope, they painted a mural with people who came back to the town. This trip is the reason Miranda does what she does and doesn’t stray off the path.
“It was at that moment that I realized how vital art is, that it’s not just million dollar pieces hanging on a museum wall behind a piece of glass. That, cliché as it sounds, it literally builds communities. It brings people back together. It brings meaning to life. And that was the moment when I realized that I didn’t want to dedicate my life to pursuing some gallery position selling artwork to the 1%. I wanted to help rebuild. I wanted to help create connection and I saw art as the vehicle. For me art has always been a vehicle. It is not a purpose in and of itself… for me art is the means, and human connection and finding meaning through life, that’s the purpose. That’s what art helps us do.”
This week is going to be a little different. Instead of interviewing another creative, I wanted to celebrate the fiftieth episode of Cracking Creativity by having someone else interview me.
I had my friend and former podcast guest, Jacques Ho, interview me. He has been a huge part of my work on this site and this podcast. Each week we meet to discuss what we are working on while also keeping each other accountable to our goals. He has a lot of insights on my work, which I thought would be great to have for this episode.
In it, I discuss the beginnings of my creative journey, why I started my blog Marketing Your Art the Right Way, my quote art collection and upcoming book, influences for my work, my podcast, and much more.
By the time you finish this episode, I hope you have a better idea of why I started this site and why I want to help all of you on your creative and artistic journeys.
Here are three things you can learn from me:
Many of us start each day without making room to do something for ourselves. We might start checking our email or social media. We might prepare for work. Or we might get ready and just head out the door. I used to be one of those people too.
Every morning I would wake up, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, get dressed, and head out the door. I would do the least amount of work possible before heading out the door to work for someone else.
It was only after listening to other people talk about their own mornings that I started to change mine too. Instead of using the beginning of the day to work for someone else, we need to work for ourselves.
We only have a certain amount of energy each day. Why don't we use our most productive hours working for ourselves? Why do we insist on giving our best hours to someone else?
Now, I begin each morning working for myself. I read the books I want to read. I write what I want to write And I create art for myself.
I'll tell you this, it has made a huge difference in my day. It has fueled my mornings. It has invigorated my passion for my work. It has changed everything.
Don't spend your most precious hours working for someone else. Use them on yourself instead.
One of the myths of creativity is that you are either born creative or you aren't creative at all. That simply isn't true.
If there's one thing I know about creativity it's that everyone has the capacity to be creative. As artists, we fall for this myth too. It's most common form is writer's block.
When we get stuck on an idea, we are stumped. We don't know what to do. We let it paralyze us. "I am a creative artist, why can't I be creative?"
The reason people think they aren't creative, or the reason so called creative people get stuck is, they haven't practiced using their creative muscle. Just like any other muscle in the body, if you don't use it, it will become weak. We must practice using our creative muscle every day if we want it grow strong.
One of my favorite methods for strengthening my creative muscle is James Altucher's ten ideas a day. Every day, I choose a topic and write ten ideas for it. In fact, it has helped me write some of my best and most successful articles.
The point of the exercise is not to come up with ten good ideas. It's to constantly practice using your creative muscle. When doing the exercise, you will come up with the first five ideas fairly quickly. It's those last five ideas that strain your brain. It's those same ideas that help make your creative muscle strong.
The next time you are feeling creative block, try coming up with ten ideas to overcome it. If you keep practicing it, you will notice yourself become more and more creative.
One of my favorite parts about working on this site and this podcast is hearing about and uncovering people's stories. We are all going through our own journeys in life. Often times we forget that other people are going through their own journeys too.
It is both an honor and a pleasure to hear about other people's projects and lives. Some of the greatest lessons in life don't come from our own experience. They come from learning from other people.
Other people have the capacity to inspire and move us the way we often can't ourselves. We are too close to ourselves to notice the things we need to change. By listening to the story of others, we can gain insights into our own faults and flaws.
That is the beauty of hosting this podcast and creating this site. My podcast has introduced me to people who are changing the world. But I would never have met many of my guests if I hadn't started this show.
One of my favorite parts of every week is when I get to jump on a call with one of my guests. Each one has an interesting and beautiful story to tell. I have made it my job as the host of Cracking Creativity to uncover the wonderful story behind each of my guests.
Too often, our connections with other people just scratch the surface. We rarely get the chance to dive deeper into other people's lives. We rarely give ourselves the chance to learn lessons from those around us. We are too busy with our own lives to care.
That is why I want to share these wonderful guests with all of you. It has been an absolute pleasure sharing the stories of my guests, and I hope they have inspired you too. Thanks for joining me for my fiftieth episode. I hope there are many more to come.
Thom Fox is a strategy consultant who helps companies with complex problems. He has created economic empowerment programs that have reached over 3 million people and has conducted 1,200 seminars, workshops and keynotes. But his story wasn’t always one filled with success.
Thom started off in a life of crime and with an addiction to angel dust. He broke into people’s homes and got arrested at the age of 14. It wasn’t until he was 19 years old that he realized he needed to make a change in his life. It was in that moment that clarity was brought into his life, and got him on the path towards success.
Here are three things you can learn from Thom:
Many people believe once you hit a snag in life, you are doomed to failure. That simply isn’t the case.
Thom started off his life as a criminal who was addicted to drugs. Yet, he still found a way to turn his life around.
Once he made the decision to change his life, he took on various customer service jobs. But the real moment of change happened when he took a job at a non-profit.
That job gave him the opportunity to learn and grow. They threw everything they could at him to see if he could figure things out. “They just kept throwing stuff at me and I looked at from that way. It was a great opportunity to just learn. I didn’t know what I was going to do with all that yet, but.. if they ask me to do this, let me understand what it means.”
It was also at this job that Thom learned to absorb information. “I guess what I learned was one of the biggest lessons is be a sponge. If anybody out there right now is trying to do something different in their lives, be a sponge and learn all that you can because you can apply that knowledge in different areas once you finally get the confidence of achieving some of those things, and then from there, it’s using your creativity to just put them in different situations.”
One day, the president of the company told Thom to become the lead of the marketing department. So Thom learned marketing on the fly, and started to do educational work for the company.
If there’s one thing we can learn from Thom, it’s that your life isn’t set for you. You can change who you are and what you do to impact other people and the world.
In 2005, Thom was working on a non-profit for college scholarships. After one of his pitches, Thom was approached by one of the directors of the board. When the director asked where Thom learned to build one of his programs, Thom told him he learned on the fly. He told him about dropping out of school and not going to college.
The director was shocked and told him he should pursue his degree. That moment convinced Thom to get his GED and pursue a degree in international business.
After graduating, Thom decided to venture out on his own. The biggest reason Thom was able to do this was because he already had good relationships. His work with the local school system and his work on a documentary allowed him to hit the ground running.
Thom’s belief is that relationships are crucial to your success. “Relationship building is probably the most important thing that I’ve seen in business… I mean the relationships that people really get to see you in your element. So I found a lot of success simply donating my time to organizations.”
When people see your involvement and passion, they are more wiling to work with you. “I fount that by serving on these boards and serving in communities and positions, people get to see what you do, and people get to see your passion for it.”
These relationships form the foundation of your reputation. They help you when you need help the most.
Thom is a huge proponent of the startup mentality. He believes it can teach you many things, even when you find failure.
Startups are often successful because the people who found them are so creative. “You don’t need a 500 person company to generate a billion dollars, you need to have people who are smart and know what they’re doing. People in that capacity are creative. You know, when your innovation takes creativity, that creativity has to come from the ability to have momentum.”
Startup founders also approach problems with an open mind and willingness to learn. “I appreciate entrepreneurs for their ability to be open minded, their ability to learn, to constantly challenge themselves, and their work ethic.”
They are also don’t let their fear of failure prevent them for continuing on. “That’s what I think I appreciate about that failure and that understanding. Just because you fail, doesn’t mean that it’s over. It just means you get to take all that stuff that you learned, and you get to do something else that’s pretty cool with it.”
That ability to learn and that ability to persevere are what make the startups mentality so special. Even if your idea fails, there is something to learn from that. We just need to be open and willing to learn and fail if we want to run a successful business.