A recap of episode 68 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Bob Baker where he talks about doing things that interest you, why you need to be persistent, and what separates successful artists from unsuccessful artists.
This is a replay of episode 23 with Tim Lawrence. With so many people going through adversity, it is important to remember that we can grow through even the most trying circumstances.
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Tim Lawrence is a copy editor, writer and adversity researcher. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Barclays Center, and Lincoln Center, and has copyedited for New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling authors. In this episode, Tim talks about growing through adversity, the benefits of a minimalist lifestyle, and the power of listening.
Here are three lessons you can learn from Tim:
When we grow up, we do everything we can to make life easier on ourselves. We are taught to seek comfort instead of adversity. While this may lead to an easier life, you will also stagnate.
Challenging yourself is the only way to grow as a person. It forces you to be in the moment. You become more aware of you body and mind, and grow outside of your comfort zone.
Otherwise you will be left unfulfilled and bored. Instead of running from adverse circumstances, confront them. That is the only way to grow.
One of the great revelations Tim had was the power of owning less. When he was making a lot of money, he also owned a lot of stuff, and was still unhappy. Now that he is making a lot less, he also owns less, which has made him a happier person.
What he has come to realize is that by owning less, you are able to serve people more effectively. You have less distractions and you are able to focus on what is truly important.
Instead of owning more things, he recommends saving money so you can have experiences. When you travel, you come face to face with cultures that are different from our own. And you realize that things like possessions, status, and power are valued a lot less than they are in the Western world.
Early in life, Tim discovered that listening was a very important aspect of connecting with other people. When people were going through tragedy, they would come to him because he knew how to be a good listener.
He now uses this skill to help both people who are going through adverse circumstances, and those who are trying to share their message with the world. It has been crucial in his work with successful people.
Through listening he is able to dive into other people’s worlds. He allows people to expose themselves for who they are without judgement. This had led to strong relationships that can last a lifetime.
Bob Baker has always been determined to make a living from his creative career. He started off his career by creating a music publication from scratch, with no prior experience. He didn’t let his lack of experience prevent him from achieving his goals. He just experimented with different ideas until he made it work.
Since that first publication he has expanded his interests well beyond a local music magazine. He has dabbled with writing, painting, and creating courses for aspiring artists. He even got into stand-up and improv comedy.
Bob has not let the starving artist mentality prevent him from making a career out of his creativity. In fact, he has thrived as an artist and creative.
In this episode, Bob talks about doing things that interest you, why you need to be persistent, and what separates successful artists from unsuccessful artists.
Here are three things you can learn from Bob:
Many of us have this fear of pursuing our creative careers. We are afraid that we will crash and burn, and never recover from our failures.
Bob takes a different approach to his creative interests. He doesn’t play it safe. He explores the things he thinks are fun. “I had this philosophy early on where, if something seemed liked it was fun to do, I was like, I want to take some action… I want to experience that and see what it’s like sooner rather than later. So, you know, a lot of people play it safe, or they wait til they know everything about a topic or they think everything’s perfect… before they dive into doing something. And I was just like, ‘I want to see what that’s like. That looks like fun.’ So I did that with comedy, with improv, with publishing a newspaper.”
It all started with creating his local music publication and has blossomed from there. Bob has never let his lack of experience stop him, and neither should you. “I published a local music newspaper and I had no business doing that whatsoever because I had no previous experience. Never wrote for the school paper, never really took journalism classes. You know, had just written on my own, had a passion for music. So I said I want to combine these two long standing passions, and just started publishing a local newspaper. And it was ugly. There were typos. People pointed things out. And I eventually learned just from doing and getting things out there to make it better.”
There are no guarantees that you will ever make a living from your creative career. Not everyone is cut out for it. But there is something to be said for doing something you are passionate about.
That’s why Bob believes persistence is crucial if you want to make a career out of your art. You need to pursue it regardless of the outcome. “There are no guarantees. The world does not owe you a living. So even if you are persistent and keep your nose to the grindstone for years on end, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to make it, whatever make it means to you. However, I guess what I encourage is if you’re meant to do that thing, to express yourself in that way… You should do it regardless of the outcome. You should do it for the joy of it, however, at the same time, you could be strategic in doing it and learning the things that will move you to toward that greater potential of maybe supporting yourself some day. But hopefully it’s something that even if you don’t make a living at it or you don’t reach that point, that you’ll still do it for the joy.”
Bob recommends creating goals you can work your way towards so you can see the progress you’ve made. The key is to be strategic when you move towards your goal. “Making sure that your financial needs are met first just takes the pressure off to do your art more free flowingly I guess. And I kinda like that approach. But you can still be strategic in moving toward that goal if you have one of sustaining yourself like I did. It’s just… it may not happen on your time table… and that’s where the persistence comes in I guess. Yeah, if the payoff is not there in a month or two, are you willing to stick with it? And that’s another thing… that not everyone will, which is why not everyone succeeds because all of these rare… traits have to come together to make for a successful life.”
There are always people who will find success and those who won’t. There’s a fine line between success and failure.
Bob believes one of the things that separates success from failure is seeing thing through to completion. “There are tons of people that want to write a book. There’s tons of people that have started writing books. There’s tons of people who have even finished the first draft of a manuscript of a book. But there’s a very small percentage who actually follow it through to get the darn thing published. So there’s this seeing it concept, and I don’t know what quality that is, but it’s like, when you start on a project, make a commitment to chip away at it and to see it through to completion.”
Bob also sees another trait from many creative people: the need to jump from one project to the next. But you can’t always chase the shiny new object. You need discipline. “Another thing creative people are excited about new fresh things, and that’s cool, but you also have to follow through on the things that you’ve already started that may not be as exciting as they were those early weeks that you’re working on them. And that’s just a discipline I suppose and a personal commitment to stuff.”
Another thing Bob recommends is re-framing the way you look at marketing. Artists need to stop looking at marketing as a necessary evil and approach it as something that is creative. “To me the marketing thing, the necessary evil, is all about an attitude toward it. If you re-frame and realize that all you’re doing is just sharing your work with people who are going to resonate with it, that’s not painful, you know. You just gotta do it in a more strategic way. So get on friendly terms with marketing and don’t lump a lot of things into this “business” category.”
A recap of episode 68 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Kym Dolcimascolo where she talks about creating plans, why you should know your audience, and how artists can change the world.
Kym Dolcimascolo got a degree in photography and film making but didn't follow that path once she graduated from school. Instead she became a computer engineer and worked her way up the career ladder.
After working for a while in the corporate world, she decided she had had enough. So, she set herself up to leave her corporate job and started a web design company.
This career move allowed her to work with people who embraced creativity, and eventually led her into coaching for artists and creatives.
In this episode Kym talks about creating plans, why you should know your audience, and how artists can change the world.
Here are three things you can learn from Kym:
As artists, we tend to do things on a whim. We want to live a free-spirited life. We want the freedom to choose our own destinies. But this line of thinking often hurts us instead of helping us.
We should be planning our way to success instead. Kym didn't walk away from her job immediately. She decided what steps needed to be taken and she took them. "It wasn't instant. It wasn't, you know, I walked out that day and that's the end of the story. I created a plan for myself. And the plan was, I'm going to start working on my business and I'm going to actually have my business be able to generate enough money that I can afford my cost of living. And then I literally went out and did that."
Many artists believe in the starving artist mentality so they give up on their dreams. But what they really need is a plan of action. Kym believes a plan of action can help us overcome our negative mentality. "I think that part of it is that a lot of people... don't see that if they actually plan things out, and if they actually take actions that they need to take, that the starving artist thing is just whatever it is. It's something we've bought into. It's something that everybody's told us. It's something we've bought into. It's just kind of another BS that we fall for."
One of the mistakes that artists make when trying to selling their work is not knowing who they are selling to. Instead of figuring out who wants to buy their art, they try to sell it to everyone.
Unfortunately, that strategy does not work. Kym believes it is vital for us, especially in the beginning, to focus on finding people who want our work. "There is a market that's dying for your particular work and if you don't focus on that market, at least in the beginning, then the frustration is really high, if nothing else. Obviously the frustration becomes very high and your bank account stays pretty low."
That's why Kym believes we have two choices. We either need to find the people who want the art we are already creating or we need to create art for the audience we have. "If you really want to create that kind of art, then there is a particular person that wants that. Go find those people... It's one thing or the other. Either if you really want that kind of audience, then produce the art that that audience wants or if you really want to produce this kind of art and sell it, then go find that audience."
If you an artist that wants to create for your own self expression, that is awesome, but if you want to sell your art, you need to learn the game. "There are tons of artists... [that] create for their own self-expression. They have no interest in selling their art at all... and that's fabulous, but for those artists who really do want to make a living off of it, then there is a game afoot."
One of the things that artists fail to realize is how much of an impact they can have on the world. While many artists start creating to satisfy their own creative needs, most don't realize how big of an impact they can make.
Kym believes artists can make a difference once they are ready to move to the next level. "If you really had it inside of you to alter some of the things on this planet, that we could totally do it through art, and I think a lot of artists are up to that... They move beyond the 'I just create for me,' and they... actually admit 'No, I actually want to make a difference with my art.' Right? It's not just for me.... I think that that's kind of the next level."
It all begins with thinking and knowing you can make a difference. "It's beyond I just create because I have to create. Now it's move to I can take what I create and make a statement, make a difference on the planet with it. But even those artists sometimes resist the conversation about making money off of it."
In order to get to that level, you have to change your mindset. You have to be able to produce work when you want to, not when the Muse hits you. You have to call on the Muse yourself. "I think that's one of those things too, by the way, that I see that the artists that do actually build success and continue to build success for themselves is that they really know, that they can actually sit down, and they can create, and they can produce what they need to produce, whenever that is... and it's not waiting for the moon to be in a certain phase, and them to be in a certain space, and their environment to look in a certain way. It's like, okay, I can harness this and I can pull it forward, and I can put it to work right this second because I have everything it takes to do that."
This is a replay of episode 44 with Sarah Jackson. In these trying times, it's good to remember that people like Sarah are making a huge difference in the world.
Sarah Jackson is the founder of Casa de Paz, a hospitality home for families affected by immigrant detention. She is also the founder ofVolleyball Latino, a year-round indoor volleyball league that raises money for Casa de Paz. In this episode, Sarah talks about why she started Casa de Paz and Volleyball Latino, the importance of taking small steps, and why you need to take action if you want to achieve your goals.
Here are three things you can learn from Sarah:
Sarah was working at a church when she received an email that would change her life. The email was an invitation to the pastors of her church to visit Mexico and learn about immigration. The pastors couldn’t attend, so she volunteered to go to represent the church.
Before going, Sarah had never thought of immigration or its affect on people. She just thought it would nice to take a free trip to Mexico. Little did she know, the trip would radically affect her life.
While there, she learned that there are families who want to be together but can’t be. Since her family was so important to her, she wanted to help other families be together.
From that moment on, Sarah has spent most of her energy trying to figure out how to help the families of immigrant detainees. This led to the formation of Casa de Paz and Volleyball Latino.
There are days we all feel overwhelmed. We have so many tasks on our to-do list. That giant project looms over us. Instead of panicking and worrying about everything you need to accomplish, focus on the next thing on your list.
Sarah gives the example of cleaning her house. Even though she knows exactly what she needs to do, it can be overwhelming thinking of all the things that need to be done. Instead of being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, she makes a list of everything that needs to get done.
“Even though I know in my head what needs to be done to clean the house, I still write it down.” This allows her to measure her progress. She can see that what she’s doing is making a difference. “It makes me feel better and it keeps me motivated.”
Whenever you feel like your task list is becoming overwhelming, just focus on the one thing you should work on next. This allows you to break down giant tasks into much more manageable ones, and you are also able to see the progress you are making.
We all have lofty goals, but how often do we act on them? We badly want to change the world, but we rarely ever take that chance.
We are afraid to fail. We let the enormity of the task overwhelm us. One piece of advice Sarah got was to just do something, even if it is something small. Just get started, and the path ahead will reveal itself before you.
When she first started, Sarah was intimidated and embarrassed about her idea of creating a hospitality home. Her thoughts were clouded by all the what ifs. Her fears overwhelmed her, but then she decided to just do it. She started with something small. It created momentum. “One thing led to another and now it’s it’s own apartment.”
Sarah believes you shouldn’t let your pride, your fear, or the embarrassment of being a failure “prevent you from starting something you know that you need to do.” It might not end up being the right thing for you, but you will never know until you try.
Find people who will support and respect your crazy ideas. Find someone who has done something similar and ask them for advice. You need to understand what your part is and just go after it.
A recap of episode 67 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Marcella Chamorro where she talks about letting go of your ego, getting into creative flow, and becoming more mindful.
Marcella Chamorro's creative journey hasn't been a straight line. Her career path didn't reveal itself to her until well after she graduated from college. In fact, she took multiple detours including working at a non-profit, getting her masters degree, and starting a web design business, all before finding her true calling.
She only recognized her true calling of writing, photography, and technology after running her web design business. Through these mediums she is able to help people tap into the serenity and enjoyment they crave.
In this episode, Marcella talks about letting go of your ego, getting into creative flow, and becoming more mindful.
Here are three things you can learn from Marcella:
Let go of your ego
One of the problems we face as creatives is letting our ego get in the way of creating something truly great. Often times we tie our self worth to our achievements or the amount of money we make.
Marcella believes those things fed directly into her ego. "The main thing that I had realized was that for a long time, I had been attached to my self worth, to my achievement, and to my ability to make money. And that was feeding my ego so much. Like I made this much this month or I landed X client, or whatever."
When Marcella decided to close down her web design business, she was prepared for the blow it would make on her ego. She knew she wouldn't be making any money, but she also believed it would help her peace of mind. "It was more of a blow to my ego and one that I was looking forward to. So I knew it was going to be an adjustment and I knew the area in my life where I needed the most growth... That's kinda what I felt was holding me back from peace of mind... So I decided, you know what, you think that you're cool cause you make money, how about you make no money and see how that feels."
Our egos often get in the way of being at peace with ourselves. We let it control what we do. We let it drive our ambitions and our lives. But if we are willing to let go of our egos, we open ourselves up to greater possibilities.
Getting into creative flow
One of the problems we often face as creative people is tapping into our creative flow. We know that energy, or spark of ideas, lies within us, we just don't know how to tap into it when we need it.
Marcella believes discipline is the key to tapping into that creativity. "For me it's a lot about discipline. It's a lot about repeating routines over and over, and just kind of triggering that in my brain, and say 'Oh yeah, it's time to write now,' and not having to use a ton of willpower when it's become kind of like a system... In my experience, if I plan things in advance, there's not creative flow."
Another important thing we need to get into flow is working on things that matter to us. We need to choose topics that really speak to us. We need to let it come to us and let go of our ego when creating. "I need to really be feeling a certain topic to... really get into that creative flow. So for me, it's kind of spontaneous and... it definitely has a lot to do with letting go of the ego."
Become more mindful
When you work in a creative field, your mind often wanders. Your head is filled with so many ideas that it becomes hard to concentrate. That's why it is important that you build a mindfulness practice.
A Mindfulness practice allows you to clear your head. It allows you to live in the present moment instead of always living in your head. Marcella's practices mindfulness by concentrating on her senses. "The main mindfulness practice for me are my five senses. I use my five senses to just reconnect with what is instead of what I'm thinking about. So either I'll stretch and feel my body... one of my favorite ones, just because it's so easy, is to just sit and hear everything. So really listen to all the sounds that I'm ignoring the majority of the time."
Marcella believes taking breaks helps her get back into creative flow. She believes those breaks, even if they only last ten seconds, help her get through lulls in her productivity. "I try and really check back in to my surroundings via what I'm hearing, what I'm listening to, and then I get back to work. And it could be 10 seconds, but I realized when I did that that I got through that hour of writing or that email or whatever, however long it took, and I felt kind of energized and not depleted."
Read more shownotes for episode 67 with Marcella Chamorro
A recap of episode 66 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Charlotte Eriksson where she talks about facing obstacles, knowing yourself and your fans, and the importance of knowing your why.
Charlotte Eriksson grew up in a house where athletics were emphasized. The arts weren't celebrated and you weren't supposed toe express your feelings. Her family didn't grow up listening to music, so she didn't really discover music until she was 16 years old. That's when a friend introduced her music that touched her life.
From that moment on, she knew she wanted to be a musician. She knew she wanted to spend her life creating that magical feeling for other people. And at the age of 18 Charlotte moved to London to pursue her dream. Since that moment, she has released several albums, toured all over Europe, and has published three books.
In this episode, Charlotte talks about facing obstacles, knowing yourself and your fans, and the importance of knowing your why.
Here are three things you can learn from Charlotte:
Everyone Faces Obstacles
Many of us have this false assumption about people who are successful. We think they don't encounter obstacles just because they're successful. But that's far from the truth. The reality is everyone faces obstacles and challenges along the way, no matter how successful they are.
That's why Charlotte recommends finding heroes who face obstacles and overcomes them. "A hero is not someone who sets out to achieve his dreams and achieves them with no obstacles. A hero is someone who has a dream and everything is working against him. He is running up hill, and it's tough and hard, and no one might believe in him but he makes it to the top anyways. And I'm saying that the hero stands on the top and people only see the glory of him standing up and praise him, but they don't see he had tears in his eyes and he's out of breath and clearly worn out, but he made it."
Charlotte believes these obstacles make us stronger. "It's not about achieving everything you want without any obstacles. It's about having so many obstacles, but pushing through them and learning something in a way that matters."
Know Yourself and Your Fans
A lot of artists and creatives try to build their businesses by selling their work to everyone. They believe the more people they appeal to, the easier it will be to sell their work. But that is the exact opposite of what you want to do.
If you want to build a successful business as an artist, you need to know exactly who you are appealing to. Charlotte believes that begins by knowing who you are as an artist first. Once you know that your audience will become apparent. "Just knowing what you're actually about. Knowing your story, knowing what you're about, knowing your statements, what you want people think about when they hear your name. If you know these things, it will be quite clear who these people are too."
But your work doesn't end there. In order to build and maintain a passionate fanbase, you must build deep connections with your audience. "That's also one thing why I like having really deep connections with fans, because if there are these wide but shallow audiences, they will rarely go and tell their friends that they have found the next amazing thing... but if you build something really really deep, that person will feel such a personal connection and they will go out and tell the rest of their friends too."
This is exactly how Charlotte built her audience. She started with a small and passionate fanbase and grew from there. "I think that's... the best way to start, is to just build something small but really passionate and then let it grow from there."
Know Your Why
Similar to knowing yourself is knowing your why. Knowing your why might be the most important thing you learn in your journey towards building a thriving and successful business. It is the reason you do what you do. Without your why, you lose direction, you lose focus, you stop working on the right things.
Charlotte believes it is absolutely crucial to know your why. They are the reason she does what she does. "For me, everything I'm doing is always about my why, just creating these moments for people, creating belonging, creating community of inspirations. And personally, everything I do I base on the decision of how I want to spend my day to day life. And so everything I do has to match with my values and... I think it all just goes back to knowing why you are doing what you are doing and knowing how you want to spend your life."
She credits knowing her why for keeping her on track. Without her why, she wouldn't be where she is today. "I would never have been able to get to where I am if I didn't know why I did what I did. Embarking on a mission, no matter what you are doing, creating your own business, it's tough, and it's hard, and it's a lot of work, and you will have to go places you didn't want to go, and you will not have time to be with people you might want to be with, and there's a lot of sacrifice. So if you don't have such a deep why, you know exactly why you want this, I don't think you're going to work as hard as you need to work to be able to make it."
Read more shownotes from episode 66 with Charlotte Eriksson
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."