by Jenna | Jun 1, 2011 | Writing Articles
I had the pleasure of attending Andrea J. Lee's Wealthy Thought Leader event via simulcast over the weekend.
Many of the talks were right up my alley, focusing on creativity, innovation, and getting your message to the world.
Here are a few highlights you'll enjoy. It's a bit jam-packed with power thoughts, but I know you'll find just the right bits that will inspire you.
Nurture Your Creativity
One of the brilliant speakers was Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and three other books. Michael emphasized how important it is for us to nurture our creativity.
He mentioned, "the more creative you perceive yourself to be, the more creative you will be."
Love that.
Some of my other favorite takeaways from his talk:
- "An artist's job is to break the rules, to look at what is and to say, 'What if?'"
- "What's more important to you: Approval? Or results?" Your desire to be liked can kill your creativity.
- Articulate first what it is that you want to do, then recofigure what already exists. That's innovation. (This reminds me of my recent article about pants and trains.)
- Michael also talked about failing spectacularly and seeing it not as a failure but rather as evidence of moving closer and closer to his dreams.
Push Your Creative Edge
Another favorite speaker of mine was Michael Bungay Stainer, who seems to fully embody the very essence of creativity. Michael is known on Twitter as Box of Crayons, and is the author of Do More Great Work* and Get Unstuck and Get Going.*
Stainer was full of brilliance in the realm of innovation and pushing your creative edge.
He pointed out:
- The danger of focusing only on the TABO ("True and Bleedingly Obvious") and instead aiming for making it cool, extraordinary, or truly exceptional. We must be willing to be thought leaders and to be different (no matter how scary that is).
- The difference between being scared and scarred, and how our wounds are great sources of strength, wisdom, and stories waiting to be told. (I know you've heard me say, "You teach what you are here to learn.")
- "When all is said and done, there's a lot more said than done." Or as Sonia Choquette would say, "Too much talking!"
- And a long time favorite of mine from Ernest Hemingway, "The first draft of anything is SHIT."
- He gave us a number of tools to play with to push the envelope with our projects, like:
- How can you cut out 90%? (Think audience, content, size, price, packaging, etc.)
- How can increase the impact by 100 times? (Think increasing numbers of products, increasing the audience, increasing the distribution.)
- Break the rules -- list out 7 rules that apply to your idea. Pick one, and think of 5 ways you can break it.
- Using criteria to select which projects to focus on: What's easiest? What's the fun thing to do? Which will have the most impact? What do you want to do?
Failure is Not What It Seems
I also loved hearing from photographer and relationship healer Jesh de Rox talk about art, creativity, innovation, and failing:
- "An artist is someone who doesn't wait for someone else's permission to make decisions that belong to them."
- "An innovator is an artist who embraces business or a business person who embraces art."
- "We are not good at telling whether or not something is a failure." He made a number of powerful points about why and how failure is NOT what it seems and how it can be such an incredible gift, including:
- "Easy wins make crummy stories."
- "Failing gives you an opportunity to find out who loves you."
- "Taking failure personally is crippling."
- "ANYTHING that happens to you can be a reason to stop or a reason to continue." You have a choice. "Our heroes seem to be the ones who consistently choose the latter."
Brilliant.
*affiliate link
by Jenna | May 18, 2011 | Writing Articles
You Think You Have Nothing New to Say?
A big obstacle I hear my clients talk about is fearing that they’ll have nothing new to say on their subject.
“Julia Cameron already wrote The Artist’s Way, what could I possibly have to say about creative recovery that is new or different?” (Except that Steven Pressfield and so many others have too.)
“Anne McCaffrey already wrote the best books about dragons, I can’t possibly approach it from a fresh perspective.” (Except that Patrick Rothfuss, Christopher Paolini, and Naomi Novik have kicked some serious dragon ass lately.)
This is what I say to my clients:
“You have a specific audience that will only hear this message from you. They may have heard it 100 times before, but they will not hear it in exactly this way until YOU are the one that says it to them.
“Plus, you have your own unique perspective and take on what it is that you are sharing. Your work is a magical amalgamation of everything you have learned, with a twist that is just your own, pulled together in a way that only you can do. That makes your voice worth hearing.”
“And besides,” I add, “if you don’t say it (or write it or share it), your audience will never receive it. They are waiting to hear it from you.”
The Missing Piece
Today I found the perfect add-on antidote to this fear from French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix (noted in the sidebar of the Artist’s Way no less):
“What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”
My heart said, “YES! That’s it!”
There IS a missing piece here, and this touches it.
Somehow you know there is more to say on your subject, and that is why you are drawn to it. So rather than doubting that you have important words to add to the conversation, just do it.
Lend your voice to the conversation.
Speak your mind.
Share your thoughts.
Good grief, I’m writing an ebook about creative blocks. Aren’t there enough of those already?
Apparently not, or I would not be drawn to write one.
Choosing A Niche
We know that choosing a specific niche is a more powerful way to position yourself in a market and therefore attract more clients and be more successful.
And yet choosing a niche is often triggers this very obstacle: “So-and-so is already ‘The’ Coach/Consultant/Expert/Writer/? on this topic, how can I possibly add more?” etc. etc.
The solution?
Pants.
And trains.
Read on…
The Wonderful World of Pants
Someone shared a funny perspective on pants with me:
Just because one person once-upon-a-time made pants, that didn’t deter the second person from coming along and having a go at making their own kind of pants. She added, “I’m just the second pants maker.”
There are so many different kinds of pants, why would we ever think we couldn’t make our own contribution to the marketplace? In the case of pants, we could aim to fit other body types, to try another style, to specialize in particular kind of pants (dress, maternity, casual, work, jeans, dress jeans), etc.
Taken a step farther, one could have thought that Levi’s had cornered the market on jeans back-when, and for a while they did. But then pretty soon someone thought they could take another crack at it.
It goes to show you that there is always room to innovate, to do better, and to ‘say’ more.
The Ultra Specific British Train Niche
Similarly, I’ve been recently exposed to a new perspective on niche in the ultra specific case of British train series for kids.
My 3-1/2 year old loves the trains, shows, and characters from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Through the course of exploring around, we somehow happened upon another British train series, Chuggington, that is also great fun.
How audacious for someone to take a stab at a new British train franchise with the huge success of Thomas already! Who knew the world would need (or want) two British train series for kids?
So Why Not You, Too?
So when you think about your specific expertise and lending your voice to the topic you’re most passionate about, can you find the courage to be innovative and step out with your fresh perspective and voice, trusting that you’ll have something new to say, no matter who else might “already” be doing it?
by Jenna | Apr 20, 2011 | Science Fiction, Writing Articles
I was reminded of a novel I read called Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi.
The book is a fun, lighthearted romp about a film agent who ends up being the P.R. guy for a group of ugly aliens wanting to be accepted by the earthlings despite their extremely off-putting appearance and odor. A highly entertaining read and clever story, to say the least.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Beyond the unusual plot line, what particularly endeared me to the book was that it was Scalzi's very first novel and one he wrote as a "practice" novel just so he could say that he had done it (and to impress his classmates at his 10 year high school reunion :) ).
Here's what he has to say about it on his website (where, by the way, you can read the whole novel):
"In sitting down to write the novel, I decided to make it easy on myself. I decided first that I wasn't going to try to write something near and dear to my heart, just a fun story. That way, if I screwed it up (which was a real possibility), it wasn't like I was screwing up the One Story That Mattered To Me. I decided also that the goal of writing the novel was the actual writing of it -- not the selling of it, which is usually the goal of a novelist. I didn't want to worry about whether it was good enough to sell; I just wanted to have the experience of writing a story over the length of a novel, and see what I thought about it. Not every writer is a novelist; I wanted to see if I was.
"Making these two decisions freed me from a lot of the usual angst and pain that comes from writing a first novel. This was in all respects a 'practice' novel -- a setting for me to play with the form to see what worked, and what didn't, and what I'd need to do to make the next novel worth selling."
The genius of this was that it freed him from the zeitgeist of perfectionism (a trap many of us, including me, know only too well) and allowed him to loosen up, have some fun, and get into action with Doing The Writing.
He made some attempts at selling it, but wasn't able to, so he ended up posting it online for donations from people if they liked it on a kind of "shareware" basis. (Love that!) He was later invited to do a limited edition hardcover release of the book in 2005 and then in paperback in 2008.
Build Your Confidence
Magically, he says, "...between the writing of this novel and the publication of [my second novel], five other books slipped out of my brain, due in some measure to my confidence that I could write book-length works, be they fiction or non-fiction."
Love that, too.
Isn't it fascinating how simply Doing The Writing (or Doing The Work) helps us to build the confidence we think we need "before" we can do it "for real." This clever guy found a way to do both at once.
(On a similar note, funny how this often comes up for entrepreneurs, coaches, and artists around having enough "credibility" to do what we want to do. So often I hear people talking about getting "certified" first, taking one more training, getting the "right" website designed, or crafting the "right" progam. I make those mistakes too -- my coach just busted me on this very thing this very morning, hello!)
So.
There is nothing like finding small ways to get started to help build your confidence around new skills.
For instance, I took a screenwriting class last summer and then signed myself up for a short screenplay writing competition to put my skills to the test. And my first script came in 3rd place in my group! My two subsequent scripts did not "score" in quite the same way, but simply the act of creating all of them gave me a sense of confidence and comfort around putting the pieces together to make a plausible script.
Since I have never written any fiction before this, I was so pleased with gaining the sense of, "Oh, yes, I can do this!" Even if I have more to learn (there's always more), I'm off to a good start.
Reminds me of what someone told me was one of my lessons to learn in life: "With creativity comes confidence."
by Jenna | Mar 8, 2011 | Reflections
Yesterday I went to an art store on an Artist’s Way-style Artist Date.
I found myself in tears over a 28″ x something stretched canvas that made me remember how much I’ve always wanted to try oil painting. I walked away from it quickly and then turned to go back to see what else there was to “see.”
I remembered my old boyfriend who was a “real” artist (Julia Cameron says shadow artists like to hang out with real artists and project their creativity onto their partners. Um. Here!).
I remembered how he had painted a picture of the girl he was cheating on me with and tried to pretend that it was just a gift for a friend.
On a similar piece of canvas.
I remembered how he had made me a painting a long time before I and I hadn’t liked it and didn’t know what to do about it. He never did give it to me, and I never did know how to handle it.
Double ouch.
And then the tears spiked again over a beautiful “artist’s marker pad” that was a perfect vehicle for the diagrams I’ve been wanting to do. (I brought it home.)
As I walked through the aisles of the art store, I was reminded of all the delicious art tools I already own, but that have been untouched for so long.
I wondered why I stopped doing the watercolors that delighted me so much once upon a time. Did I stop simply because I stopped traveling overseas so often? Had I lost the connection because I’d given up urban design work? Did it just start to feel too much like work?
All around the store I found reminders of my past creative endeavors (fabric dyeing, rug making, drafting and tracing, portfolios, yummy art supply containers) and so many possible future adventures. I thought about how I couldn’t afford to buy all the supplies so there was no point in learning a new craft.
But I also considered how much I love learning the tools of my craft — whatever it is — designing, drafting, drawing, coaching, website making — I am such the perpetual student. A true renaissance soul (or “scanner”). And how I wished I could just simply be a perpetual student (oh, wait a minute, I kind of already am) with a patron who wanted to sponsor all my wild ideas and wonderful projects (well, not so much that part, at least not yet).
Whilst all this transpired, I continued a conversation I’ve been having with myself for the past few days.
If I love what I do, will I love it ALL the time?
Will it ALWAYS feel easy and like I can’t wait to leap out of bed in the morning?
My screenwriting teacher often spoke of the pain of writing, the loneliness of it. That it would feel like swimming in a vast sea, just trying to get to the next “tent pole” in a script as if it were a buoy you could grab hold of to save you from drowning.
There are days when writing feels like a wretched chore. When it feels like I’ll never (ever) succeed at it, that my work will never be any good, and my ideas are not clever or brilliant enough.
But if they are my ideas, are they not enough? Isn’t it enough to write what I’ve been given, unleash my creativity as far as I can and hope for the best?
I look for where my fear comes up biggest and loudest, and go there. Is that always going to feel easy and flowing and delightful? I doubt it.
At the same time, there are days when writing feels like the most precious gift I’ve ever experienced.
A freedom to put words on the page and become one with them in the most amazing discovery of story and flow and ideas and energy that I’ve ever seen.
I figure there are good days and there are hard days.
by Jenna | Jan 25, 2011 | Writing Articles
I’ve had this post title in mind for about 6 or 7 years, inspired by a conversation then with a long-time favorite colleague. Now is apparently just the right time to share it. :)
At the time, we were wrestling with the concepts of being unscheduled and unstructured to stay in the intuitive flow and to follow the energy of what was coming up. We were also talking about not wanting to feel limited by “defining” a niche. My friend didn’t want to be tied down by “focus and structure and goals.” As she said it, an “Oh My!” popped involuntarily from my mouth, à la The Wizard of Oz. We both laughed.
Structure Can Feel Like Death
To an intuitive, right-brained, creative genius, setting up schedules and picking goals can feel like a death-knell.
And yet so can not being paid well for your creative work. Or not getting the clients you want or feeling the satisfaction of seeing the project through ALL THE WAY to completion.
As a Big Dreamer and also a Big Doer, I love to Get Stuff Done.
But isn’t it funny how our Big Dreams can take a back seat to managing the minutiae of life? It’s all too easy for me to get swept up into catch-up work and meeting other people’s needs (School of Service, watch out) before meeting my own.
That’s where focus, structure, and goals can be quite handy.
Tools to Go
Here are a few of concepts that help me tremendously:
- Recognize when you’re procrastinating on the big stuff by taking care of the little stuff, and nip that in the bud.
- Put the “hard thing” first in the day and the rest will be downhill from there.
- Get clear on what your Big Dream is, commit to it, and make it a priority (see number 2).
- Block out specific chunks of time in your calendar to DO the Big Dream. I just made space in my calendar for my Big Writing projects. So far, going okay — a few temper tantrums and some conscious choices, but all good.
- Avoid multitasking (I still struggle with this one — it’s so easy for me to try to do multiple things at once but I know it doesn’t really work).
- If you can’t do the BIG thing for as long as you had planned, just do a LITTLE bit of it to keep the energy moving forward (Thanks, Miriam!)
- Stay accountable. Get a partner or join a group or participate in my weekly accountability group (see below) to help keep the commitment to yourself.
