Establishing a beachhead (how to start new creative projects)

When you begin a new creative project it’s like stepping into outer space. There’s nothing to stand on and no references. You have to establish the beachhead and the jumping-off point.

You have to float in a state of creativity where nothing is right or wrong and nothing is heading forward or backward.

All ideas are on the table and you never know what will become the spark and the jumping-off point.

I call this very first session of work on any new project the “SPARK” session. It’s where I find the voice of the artwork and begin to develop the general direction I think it will go. This is establishing the beachhead and preparing to build out ideas you see in that initial “SPARK” session of work.

I like to block out two hours and swim through the free-flowing creative mode of exploring ideas, sketching, thinking about ideas, playing with words, and just building something out of nothing.

The creative battle. The creative panic.

Doing creative things feels, to me, like pulling something out of nothing. Where once nothing was, there is now because I created it.

It’s a very fun pursuit when there are no stakes. But creativity becomes scary and difficult when you must be creative on command. “The client wants a new advertisement campaign, go figure it out.” That’s scary.

However, it comes with the territory. It’s part of being creative. It’s why we must learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It stops us from entering a doom cycle of freaking out because we can’t come up with an idea and the more we melt down, the harder it is to come up with a good idea.

I set aside two-hour blocks whenever I begin a new creative project. That two-hour block is the fight. I am vigorously and desperately smashing ideas together until I start to see something form.

I sacrifice the two hours for this endeavor. This way if nothing good is coming out, it doesn’t matter and I don’t panic. I can simply schedule another two-hour block after I recover from this effort.

Stuff always comes together. You always see rough outlines of concepts and vague ideas to chase and develop your design or photo around. You just have to remain as calm as possible and soak yourself in that block of creative battle.

It will come. It always does. Just take the time and do the work.

It doesn’t matter if it’s “free” (Don’t waste people’s time!)

I’m a creative teacher, but the essence of my work is to be a “content creator.” I strongly dislike that title because I view most “content” as inherently bad and detrimental to the lives of others.

“Content” feeds the dopamine lizard in our brain and makes it nearly impossible to gain deep satisfaction from doing the slow and difficult things that matter.

We become so addicted to the momentary comfort and instant gratification of “content” that we lose the ability to be bored and to be creative and even to be deeply productive.

Anyway, I’m thoroughly convinced that nobody cares about your work before they see it.

They don’t care about your Facebook page, Instagram feed, your photography hobby, your motion graphics, or your design portfolio. Not even your mother or your best friend. People don’t have the time to care, they have stuff they’re busy with.

It is with this mindset that I set out to create the YouTube videos that I make. Why should people care about my videos? It’s up to me to make them care.

I need to tighten up my message. Keep it simple. Keep it direct. Keep it loose and fun, but not waste time. I need to make the videos entertaining and informative.

Lastly, my videos must be easy to understand. They have to be something worth your time and something that has a little extra “je ne said quoi” that you just have to see to understand.

Every viewer of my videos gives me his most precious asset, time. In return, I feel obliged to give him something of value. It doesn’t matter that my videos are “free,” they require him to spend a little piece of his life, so I want to make each one of them worthwhile.

When it comes to gaining the attention of potential viewers, my philosophy is simple. Like the legendary American actor, Steve Martin says, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

What keeps us confined

“One cannot always tell what it is that keeps us shut in, confines us. seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: […] Is it for long, is it forever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magical force.” –Vincent van Gogh

Creativity is courage

A few years ago I read Nassim Taleb’s book, “Antifragile” and he makes a funny and interesting remark in which he says that if someone has gray hair in their beard, he doesn’t ask them to explain themself. The assumption is that with your age comes great wisdom that a younger person simply does not yet possess.

I generally apply this principle to any person in a field where I see they have great success. I wouldn’t ask Warren Buffet to explain the “why” behind his investment proposal, for instance. His body of work stands for itself.

Noted French artist, Henri Matisse would be someone who, based on their body of work alone, I would listen carefully when they spoke about creating art and creativity itself. His body of work dictates that I listen without asking “why?”

Matisse has a fantastic quote that applies to anyone willing to get into the arena and share their work. He says, “Another word for creativity is courage.”

Without one, the other is probably useless, dangerous, or just the depressing self-realization that you will never fulfill your potential. Seek to be uncomfortable and learn to build courage.

Many small and fast steps

Makes lots of small, fast steps. Don’t work on projects like they’re massive lumbering objects. What I mean is that we shouldn’t look at any task or job as one massive whole that needs to be finished at once. Break every project and every task down into small steps and make many small steps quickly.

Fast, small steps toward progress are agile and efficient. If you mess something up, you catch it before the day is over. If you engross yourself in something massive without delivering work rapidly and in small increments, you may spend weeks working on something only to find out that it wasn’t what the client wanted.

Work is also less overwhelming when it’s broken into small bite-sized pieces. Imagine climbing a ladder that is missing every other rung? It’s hard. But when every step is in place, you can make many small steps to get to the top.

There is lots of time

There is a lot of time in time. 20 minutes is a lot of time if you use it well.

The concept of “deep work” is one that helps a person to focus so intently during periods of work, that they spend far fewer hours having to work.

That sounds nice. Work intensely and without distraction for a few hours each day and be free to do what you like for the rest of the time.

Deep work for 20 minutes is equivalent to several hours of distracted work time. Instead of working for 12 hours a day while being distracted, you could work for four hours a day and get twice as much done.

Kill distractions to work deeply. Literally, NO distractions or anything that takes cognitive “bandwidth” away from the important task you’re working on.

When you practice working deeply, it becomes easier to work deeply.

As you work deeply, you get much more done in less time. This frees you up to get even more done, or to take things a little easier all through your life.

You also realize just how much time you have. Twenty minutes is a lot of time. Two hours is enough time to get done the same amount as your average distracted worker can in eight hours.

The “good” threshold hasn’t changed

The threshold for being good hasn’t changed. The ability for anyone to publish a book, a blog, or a YouTube channel full of videos is open to all. Everyone today has the type of access to share with the world that major media outlets once held sole possession of.

Over-saturation is not why you or I fail to gain traction. We fail to gain traction because we’re not good enough and we’re not changing where it’s important to change and adjust.

Again, the threshold of what is good enough to be successful has not changed. People have always failed at producing radio, music, movies, TV shows, etc… it’s because the ideas or the execution wasn’t good enough. That’s still the case today.

Shortcuts are overrated (and ineffective)

People want a shortcut to success. Low risk, low effort, but high reward. At least we want the route that has as little risk as possible and the highest guarantee of success in the end. It’s understandable. Who doesn’t want to be guaranteed to succeed?

The problem is that if we operate on this principle alone, we will never achieve our greatest potential. We will never venture it all the gain the world. We will operate in constant fear that we might lose it all.

It also leads people to operate by “proven checklists.” There is this idea that if we tick all the right boxes, we’re going to succeed. It doesn’t work that way. The more people that check all the “right” boxes, the less valuable it is to be a box-checker.

Hard things are hard, and you can’t just tick off checklists to be special and achieve great things or build that great business.

Don’t avoid the hard work. Don’t look for “hacks.” Do develop skills. Develop a mindset to deliver rare and valuable goods or services. Deliver them in a manner that is both rare and valuable (in terms of how you treat your customers) and you will elevate far above box-checkers, hackers, and all those who wander while looking for the next great shortcut.

Passion or practice?

Passion grows as you get better at the things you do. You get better at doing those things by spending time deliberately practicing.

You get better and you get more passionate about what you do by focusing on straining yourself physically or cognitively until it is uncomfortable.

As you get more passionate, you will tolerate more of the discomfort of stretching yourself to get better and better. As you get better, your passion will grow.

So which comes first, passion or the practice that you later find out you’re passionate about? That is the difficult question.

Have the courage to commit

I’ve always been a guy who makes commitments and figures it out later. It starts exciting, then I get stressed out and hate myself for committing, but then I get the job finished and delivered and it feels great.

To jump in and fully commit is not as comfortable as saying “no” and not worrying about leaving my comfort zone. But there’s also no personal or professional growth in that either.

It’s as simple as two little things:

1.) You don’t need to have every little detail worked out to start the work. Just commit 100% and get going.

2.) Those who win aren’t the brightest and most intelligent people. The ones who win are those who dare to commit, to produce, and to publish their work.

Note: By "publishing" I mean, any way of showing your work. It can mean painting a wall that the client will see in a few hours. It can mean sending that sales report to the bosses. It can mean uploading that YouTube video for the world to see. We all have to create and publish.

A waitress “publishes” her work when she infuses her service with expertise, personality, promptness, and care for the diner. We all publish our work in one way or another.

The circle of courage goes round and round

Courage comes to those who do things. The guy who runs into the burning building or the guy who stops the active shooter are both courageous. But the guy who stops and thinks about how scary this act of courage might be will stop himself before he starts. Because courage comes by doing, not by thinking about doing.

It takes a little courage to start, but the more we do, the more courageous we become.

One of my favorite quotes is by Alrik Koudenburg, he’s a creative director from the Netherlands. He says, “To be outstanding - get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

That takes courage. We gain courage by doing. And as we gain courage, it becomes easier to do.

Be hard on yourself

Most people have no idea that whatever you’re upset about is even happening. People forget your mistakes. It’s usually you that remembers them. They grow into boogeymen in our minds and they foster destructive little children that wreak havoc on your life and your work.

Be hard on yourself in demanding effort and good intentions.

Be easy on yourself regarding your mistakes or when you mess stuff up.

People love the good you bring and will forgive the bad you carry. Just make sure you have some good that you bring to the table. Also, never stop working on cleaning up the bad stuff that can be improved.

Planning can wait, action cannot

I’m not just a procrastinator, I’m a horrendous procrastinator. Frankly, the only redeeming quality that has come of my procrastination is my recognition of it. I’m constantly working to break myself of this productivity-killing snake. I think I’m getting better, but I’m not quite there yet.

My chief problem is that I regard the moment “now” as something best used by planning the work I’ll do in the future. (Instead of getting started!)

After spending a bunch of time planning, I feel like I’ve done some good work and it’s time for a break. Bit by bit the days are wasted away and I only do 1/10th of what I am capable of doing. All this planning and not much work being done. Fun.

The “now” is best used by taking action. Start the work and do the planning as you go along. Spending time planning can inhibit the whole project, but getting started almost never hurts.

When I get started, I learn about the things I need to plan for. I leave the theoretical world and enter the real world. I start pedaling the bike and I can then begin steering.

The biggest change for me has been to take each moment “now” as an opportunity “to do” instead of “to plan.” Planning can wait, action cannot.

Learn by teaching

I have had to conquer this inner desire to keep methods and secrets to myself. The truth is, there’s no secret to designing a great brochure or taking a beautiful photo.

Light, retouching, colors, and composition are free to everyone.

What I’ve found is that the things I am not willing to share always rot away inside of me and I naturally evolve into a different artist. Those “trade secrets” that I held so firmly end up being worthless to me in the end.

Art is simple, but there is an intuition you must have and a feel you acquire making art over time. This happens as you create new work (create lots of new work!) It is art, not science. There is no textbook you can read and become a great photographer. You become a great photographer by taking pictures.

If you’re good at what you do, the thing that makes you special is not able to be shared. But the knowledge and techniques you used to become such an artist are shareable.

When you share your secrets, skills, and knowledge with others, you re-learn those things yourself and you get better as well. I've seen it in my own life dozens of times. When I share what I know, I learn on a deeper level and really understand the material.

Learn, teach, and then learn from what you taught. Then teach that new stuff. The cycle goes on and on.

Searching for a push

I’ve been writing a bunch about critics and “haters” in my last few blog posts. It’s because I’m working on organizing those thoughts in my head and solidifying them as a habitual process for myself. When I write about things, they seem to stick with me better than just thinking about them without writing them down.

We all probably have two different primary motivations for doing what we do. A positive motivation (e.g. I want to make money to provide a good life for my kids) and a negative motivation (e.g. I was doubted by my English teacher in 5th grade, I’ll show him exactly how successful I can become!)

Objectively the "positive motivation" is more important for your life. Hate, etc… is like taking a poison pill and waiting for it to kill you.

But the negative motivation is often the one that fills us with a fire that will do far more to push us forward than any positive motivation ever could.

Great winners are great winners, not because they love to win, but because they hate to lose. They are motivated to take extreme measures to find success.

What negative motivation can you find to cause yourself to hate losing with a hatred far greater than any joy of succeeding?

I have the people who doubted me and abandoned me that fill my mind anytime I start to give up or have doubts. I can succeed and I WILL succeed because these people will be forced to see me thriving and happy with an ultra-successful business.

I want them to be forced to see my success and how wrong they were and live with that forever. It is dark and dirty, but it’s an explosive motivator and I intend on taking advantage of it.

The wrong metrics hurt me

I’ve been running a YouTube channel as a business for about seven years, but for the past three years, I have not been prioritizing my channel. I suffered from some significant burnout which led me to lose confidence in the work I was producing, and ultimately lose the “muscle memory” I had developed for working hard on that kind of knowledge work.

I’ve since learned that I believe I was focusing on the wrong metrics and that led to me burning out and losing a bit of the passion I once had for this channel.

I was so worried about criticism and bad comments. It was a way of imposture syndrome validated by random internet strangers who would make comments that made me question if I was any good at what I did. It was all a weird game because, in my heart of hearts, I know that it was just a YouTube video. It shouldn’t be that complicated.

Having bad comments means people have decided to watch your videos. Therefore having a couple of bad comments is a good problem to have. Views that nobody watches don’t get hate–they don’t get anything!

The new metric I am concentrating on is the number of hours I am focused and deeply working on new videos. It’s the only important metric at this moment for my channel.

The more time I invest in deeply working on new videos, the more videos I will create and the better they will be. Therefore these videos will gain more views. More views from people who love what you make and come back for more is the number that matters.

The bad comments can just be used as some valuable insight on things I can correct, but they no longer will be a way of causing doubt to creep into my head. Unsatisfied customers are inevitable, but companies don’t shutter because a few folks complain. These viewers aren’t even paying, so there will be some haters and critics, but I will press on and continue adding viewers despite the clamor.

Hate is a good thing

Maybe not good abstractly considered, but it is an indicator of good things.

When you start doing things differently and you get any kind of success or attention, you’re going to get criticism and negative comments. It comes with the attention.

But it’s better to stink and be seen than not to be seen at all.

Attention will help almost any business you have and as you gain traction, you will gain detractors and haters. It just happens. Take it as a sign that you’re moving in a good direction.

If you can persist through the hate or criticism, they’ll probably move on to someone who is easier to pick on. The internet does seem to have an endless supply of trolls, but your persistence is more powerful.

If you’re not sharing your work or putting your most vulnerable pieces out there because you’re afraid of criticism, you’re probably holding yourself back.

Hate comes with success, so no matter how uncomfortable it is, don’t forget that if you weren’t in the arena performing, the critics in the stands wouldn’t even know to criticize you. It’s a good problem to have.

For myself, I try to suppress any envy I feel toward other successful people. I think about all the good stuff I have and find contentment in that. Life is really good. Then I study them and see what seems to work. How can I implement that into my life or business?

Personal deadlines vs. professional deadlines

Personal and professional deadlines are useful tools. If we don’t do our work, all deadlines turn into frightening fiends that choke us with stress and fear.

We know about the professional deadline. The paper is due tomorrow at 6pm. That project needs to be delivered next Tuesday by lunch time, etc…

These are useful tools to keep us sharply focused on the project we’ve started. But there is a way to avoid the choking and terrible final rush that comes with a deadline.

I’m a bit of a procrastinator and most people I know are, too. I am envious of the boring stability that responsible people have. I hate the thought of being so predictable, but I crave the stability that it seems to bring.

This is why I’ve introduced the idea of personal deadlines to myself. I take any professional deadline and I give myself one less day, or week, depending on the length of the project. Fore example, the project that is due next Tuesday is personally due next Monday. The key is to stick to your personal deadline like it’s gospel.

This has allowed me to complete high-pressure tasks and jobs with far less stress. I target the personal deadline and am able to coast for the final day or week before the professional deadline arrives.

At first it’s hard to convince yourself that you absolutely must abide by the personal deadline, but after you do it a few times, you will love the flexibility and freedom it affords you. You won’t be pulling those all-nighters and freaking out while you’re wracked with stress and heart palpitations because you have no clue how you’re going to deliver by the real deadline. It’s a game-changer.

“Luck”

It’s not luck. It’s never luck. Seriously, it’s never luck. There is a reason you were where you were when that thing did or didn’t happen.

Luck is not what brings an opportunity and luck is not what makes it stick and turn into success.

Opportunity comes to all of us, but it must find us working hard and willing to overcome the fear of a new thing.

We must strengthen ourselves to run past our fears quickly and courageously. That is the way to build a successful business, life, and legacy. You don’t need luck, you need the courage to do what needs to be done.