As a creative entrepreneur, you've got LOTS of ideas. How do you keep track of them all? Can they even be managed? How do you decide which ideas to pursue, and which ones to table for later (or even give away to someone else)?
You're in luck because this week I'm sharing some useful tools and resources to help you organize your ideas and get clear on what you're going to move on now, and what can wait. You'll be able to end the distractions and stay focused!
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Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
[Note: This is an excerpt from my book, Creative Freedom: How To Own Your Dreams Without Selling Your Soul, that's coming out later this year. If you haven't already, take the quiz to determine your creative type. Be sure to get on the notification list to stay up to date on the book's release date!]
One of the conversations I have pretty regularly with people is around what it means to be a creative entrepreneur. Contrary to what you might think, it has nothing to do with what or how you create. Everyone is creative in some way. EVERYONE. The indicator, then is whether or not you choose to be an entrepreneur around your Great Work.
Not all creatives are entrepreneurs, and that’s okay. Elizabeth Gilbert wasn’t a creative entrepreneur when she wrote “Eat, Pray, Love” and her work impacted millions around the world. She also made some pretty good money, I’d be willing to bet, or she’d never have quit her day job. But you don't have to make good money to be a creative entrepreneur - in fact, you might not make any money when you start.
So how do you know for sure? Here are five signs that you’re not a creative entrepreneur:
For the purposes of this book, if you create as a hobbyist, or for side income and don’t ever plan to make it your primary source of income, you’re not a creative entrepreneur. It doesn’t matter if your Great Work is sculpture, business analysis, architecture, or video game walk-throughs on YouTube. The type of creativity you express has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a creative entrepreneur. It’s your intention around that creation that matters.
As a creative, you can create for yourself and not care what anyone else thinks about your work. As a creative entrepreneur, you have to listen to your audience and respond to their changing needs. That doesn’t mean you can’t create for yourself and your own enjoyment, but it does mean you have to have clarity around what elements of your Great Work will respond to the fluctuations of the market. Jim Henson did a lot of commercial work to have the money he needed to be able to make movies like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. He had his own “shrine to the almighty dollar” as a reminder that you can’t make art unless you have the money to do so. Money is freedom for a creative. It gives you the ability to do what you want without having to bear the criticism of others.
Are you creating for a specific audience? Did you establish a legal structure for your business? Are you reporting income and paying taxes? Are you actively marketing your Great Work in the world? If so, then you’re probably a creative entrepreneur, even if you’re just getting started in “jobby” mode (a hobby disguised as a business). If your aim is to make this a going concern, and you’re focused on growing your company as a business owner, you’re most likely a creative entrepreneur. You might not have a profitable business yet, but you’ve got the creative entrepreneur spirit that is needed to grow.
Thomas Edison devoted himself entirely to business. According to author and archivist, Leonard DeGraaf, Edison “vowed he would not invent a technology that didn’t have an apparent market; that he wasn’t just going to invent things for the sake of inventing them but… to be able to sell them.”
Edison himself is quoted as saying “All my life, I’ve been a commercial inventor. I have never dabbled in anything that was not useful.”
Edison was very clearly a creative entrepreneur. If you are actively trying to serve a particular market, sharing your gifts with them, and making sales offers to them, you are also a creative entrepreneur.
Income and expenses. Cash flow. Profit. Do you have your finger on the pulse of what your business is actually doing? Chaotics struggle with this sometimes, because they have an aversion to numbers and structures in general.
In her autobiography, Put On Your Crown, Queen Latifah tells how, due to a clerical error that went unchecked, all her money was out of whack. She was scrambling to pay bills not because anyone was intentionally trying to screw her, but because she stuck her head in the sand and didn’t pay any attention to the numbers.
Latifah then revealed a secret she learned from an episode of Oprah: “always sign the checks.” This was a simple way for her to keep a finger on the pulse of her business.
By reviewing your numbers consistently - even if they’re not where you want them to be - you keep yourself in the know. And knowledge is power.
This is another sign of creating a jobby for yourself, by the way. Each of the type can suffer from this issue for different reasons. Chaotics don’t trust that other people will rise to their (impossibly) high standards. Fusions are so used to doing everything themselves that it feels painful to slow down long enough to get or train help. Linears will micromanage deadlines and budgets, which tends to drive people away.
At some point, if you’re growing a business, you’ll have to ask for and accept help from others who may not do things exactly the way you would. Like when I ask my son to clean his room, it may not be clean the way I would do it, but it meets my criteria for a clean room. If I don’t want to be stuck doing all the cleaning, I have to be willing to let go of the trivial things - like how he folds his socks. So long as the clean clothes fit in the dresser, I’m happy.
That doesn’t mean compromising on what really matters, but chances are good you’re worrying about more than you need to at this early stage in your business growth. Nobody expects a young business to deliver at the same level as a fortune 500 company. Use that to your advantage to surprise and delight your audience - but don’t let it keep you from delivering at all because you’re too mired in doing ALL THE THINGS!
To be clear, EVERYONE is creative in some way. It could be the way you solve a problem or spot patterns, it could be the way you dress up a gift bag with ribbons or paint. The fact that you use your imagination to see or bring something to life that wasn’t there before makes you a creator and therefore a creative.
Entrepreneurs are especially adept at seeing a need and creating something to fill it, but not all creatives are entrepreneurs. The dictionary definition of “entrepreneur” is someone who takes on a “greater than normal financial risk” to organize or operate a business.
Many creatives I know don’t want more risk, they want stability. They’re freaked out by the notion of the starving artist. Like Gilbert, they’re content to rely on their day job and dabble in their creative work during their hobby time. If that’s you, then you don’t need this book.
On the other hand, if you’re ready to make a transition plan from the day job, if you’re already knee-deep in your creative work and need some clarity and direction to make it a profitable and sustainable business, then you’re in the right place.
I developed the Creative Freedom Entrepreneur Type Spectrum to give creative entrepreneurs the clarity they need about how to best set up and run their business - in a way that works with their unique quirks and traits. You’ll get clear on how to use the ninja skills of your specific type to make your business more productive and profitable, and how to clear up your blind spots so you don’t end up stuck like I was, doing things that will only make you miserable.
Does it take longer or more effort to build a business doing something you love? That depends on you. But my experience and that of my clients shows that it’s worth it. You’re building a long-term asset instead of looking for short-term “low-hanging fruit”. And it’s often easier because your efforts are bolstered by the fact that you’re doing something you love, instead of something you dread.
Here's the replay from my Facebook Live on the topic:
Creative Freedom Live
Predictable Success by Les McKeown
First things first:
I'm THRILLED to announce that the Creative Freedom Entrepreneur Types made their public debut this week over at Charlie Gilkey's Productive Flourishing blog. If you're a creative and you're not familiar with Charlie's work, I highly recommend checking him out.
My guest post is an excerpt from my book, detailing the 3 different types of creative entrepreneurs, along with the process I used to get clear on my target market (which is what started me on this research journey in the first place). Please take a moment to stop in and leave a comment or share the post. The more creatives that we can reach with this message, the better the world will be. I truly believe that.
Also, my accountability partner, Winnie, just posted my interview for her podcast, where we dive into the nature of assessments in general, and why self-awareness is a powerful tool in building your business. The Let's Talk Tech Show takes the mystery out of all the tech-y tools, platforms, apps, and software that solo-preneurs deal with as they grow their business. If you're a Chaotic creative - or otherwise feel overwhelmed by the tech stuff, Winnie's show is a great place to get some basic understanding in plain English.
Okay, on to this week's episode...
I've known Mike Michalowicz for years now. First as a fan of his work, then as a member of his book launch team, then as an editor of his last book, and one of the first certified Profit First business coaches in the world. Now, I think it's safe to say we're friends. And he's an interesting dude. Like me, he's a guinea pig for all the methods he teaches. As a Linear Cusp creative, he's great at creating and implementing systems, but he's got just enough Fusion in him to make it fun and easy to learn what he teaches. Mike's new book, "Surge: Time the Marketplace, Ride the Wave of Consumer Demand, and Become Your Industry's Big Kahuna," is the next installment of his guinea pig adventures. Using surfing as his framework, SURGE is actually an acronym for the steps you need to take to find and ride your own wave of business success.
Does it work? Watch the episode, then read on:
If you read the book, you'll see plenty of case studies supporting Mike's process - including examples from his own business. As I mentioned in the video, I was a smidge disappointed about the lack of specifics around the "cool kids" strategy, until I realized I did it myself, without really trying.
I've been doing the research on the Creative Freedom Entrepreneur Type spectrum for about 18 months. Interviewing creatives from around the world, analyzing the data, and testing theories. Back in April, Charlie posted on Facebook saying he didn't resonate with particular a social media platforms. I said that it made perfect sense to me because his creative entrepreneur type wasn't a good fit for those platforms. That got him (and a few others) curious, so I explained a little about the research I was doing. Charlie was intrigued enough to have an email convo with me that led to this week's guest post on his blog (and with a little luck, an interview on his podcast later this year).
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity - which typically looks like work! (Tweet this)
Charlie has a solid track record in the realm of creative entrepreneurship. He's one of the "cool kids" in the marketplace. But I had no idea how to get on his radar until HE said something where I had an opening.
There are a couple of things that you need to understand:
This was an organic way to "reach the cool kids" - and it worked. Will it continue to work? Well, I have a few more "cool kids" to check out before I can let you know!
"You can't win if you don't play."
Mom used this sentence to justify a lot of behavior when I was a kid: learning to ride a bike, auditioning for plays, joining the cross country team (I took 11th place in the city meet). And yes, mom played the lottery. She had a winning streak where, with a little help from technology and lottery dream books, she won several days each week for a few weeks. Naturally, those words rang through my head every time I was faced with a risk-reward decision.
Until this week.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have already heard about how I found this lottery ticket on the ground while I was on a field trip with my kid. I thought it was trash (LITTERBUGS! ARGH!), so I picked it up to throw away when we got to the car.
But when I saw it was a lottery ticket, I figured I'd check the numbers when I got home, just in case.
I won the BIG money, honey! TWO WHOLE DOLLARS! WOO HOO!!
Every morning, I sit down to do The PEACE System (a process I created to help clear my head and prioritize my day). Because field trips can be stressful - particularly with a special needs kid - I made a point of setting the intention to look for miracles.
Frankly, a well-behaved child would have qualified as a miracle in my book. I certainly wasn't expecting free money to fall at my feet. But hey, I'll take it!
I asked for (and was looking for) a miracle, and I got it. And the kid behaved, too!
You've probably heard stories about people who say "I won the lottery and it changed my life." Never did I think I'd be one of those people, since I don't play the lottery.
But winning those two bucks most certainly changed my life. If you want to test out your luck as well, you can go to sites like 바카라 사이트, for example.
"You can't play if you don't win" is a double-edged sword. In a way, I did "play" because I picked up the ticket and cashed it in. But in a way I didn't play, because I didn't actually buy the ticket. It wasn't even given to me (in the traditional sense). And the person that dropped the ticket probably thought it was a "loser" because they played $10 and "only" won $2. They lost money on the deal.
But from my perspective, I was $2 richer!
The last 18 months have been arduous and hard for me on a lot of fronts. At some point, I probably faced down some depression, though I was never clinically diagnosed. I've done a LOT of questioning my worth, my value, and why I'm really on this planet in the first place.
Two dollars won't even buy me a soda at my local restaurant, let alone pay my rent, but it was a sign. A clear sign that miracles are there if we are looking for them. I know that sounds kind of mystical and metaphysical, but it's true. I found that money because I was looking for it.
Well, I was looking for a miracle, and I chose to see this "win" as a miracle.
You have to have your eyes open and show up.
You have to be willing to go for what matters to you - even if it seems unreasonable. Even if it seems impossible. If it's in your heart to have it, you have to be courageous enough to show up for it. And keep showing up consistently.
In that respect, Mom was right: you can't win if you don't play.
But she was also wrong. I won without playing "the game" (by society's rules, at least). That little lottery ticket opened a Pandora's box of questions about the "teaching" that's been passed down through my family for generations. The "lessons" and "stories" that, in a previous era, had to be true for survival no longer serve the person I'm becoming in this era of creative entrepreneurship.
In the past, if you didn't "play by the rules", you wouldn't be taken seriously, and you probably wouldn't even get a foot in the door, let alone win. There were gatekeepers, expectations, and unwritten "rules" that were foisted on you by your industry, society and "the world". These rules were designed to keep certain people out, and to protect the survival of others. You had to play their way, or you simply couldn't play.
Now, you have a lot more latitude to define success on your own terms and not just survive, but thrive. You can create your own career, doing what you love, and make good money doing it - without selling your soul. That's the entire premise of how I help my clients!
Those old stories that once served to protect, inspire, and motivate me, had been holding me back from the life and career I was meant to have. I couldn't see that until I won the lottery.
What thoughts, beliefs, and stories do you hold as true, that might actually be limiting your success without you even realizing it? Untangling those beliefs and thought patterns can be tough, but the rewards far outweigh the risks.
But here's the other thing that rattled my brain. I won $2. Winning anything was contingent upon someone else. Somebody else played the game, bought the ticket, left it on the ground. At least three other people walked right past the ticket before I picked it up. In short, I had no control over the outcome. All I could do was be in the right place at the time of the miracle.
Miracles are awesome, and they can feel magical. But they are, in many ways, unpredictable - even if you're looking for them. You don't know when they'll arrive, or in what form, and sometimes it's hard to know if it even is a miracle until well after the fact. Sometimes the worst thing that ever happened to you is actually a blessing in disguise... a miracle you won't see until years later.
In life, we can wait for others to open doors for us, or we can make a plan and get sh*t done. (Tweet This)
Waiting around for miracles is the snail's path to success. Can it happen? Sure! I just won the lottery, for crying out loud! But, I only won $2, because that's all the ticket was worth. Someone else got to dictate the terms of my success. I could only win what they played and paid for.
I don't want someone else to dictate how successful I can be. I don't want someone else to have that much influence over my success journey. I mean, I won't turn away blessings when they show up - even the $2 variety - and I'm not going out of my way to play the lottery, either.
I know I can't control everything - and some might say that control, like safety, is an illusion. But if I set an intention and follow it with consistent action, I'm going to move the ball further down the field more often than the guy standing around, waiting for a winning lottery ticket to fall at his feet.
Will there be setbacks? Most likely. As we all know, the so-called "overnight success" stories usually involve a lot more preparation and hardship than we realize. As Thomas Edison famously said, "opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
I'm no stranger to hard work, although I'd like to be. 🙂
There were other gems of discovery that I'm still unpacking, and I'm sure you could tease out a few lessons of your own from this story, but ultimately, while I welcome all the miracles and blessings coming my way, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and wait for them. I'm going to keep showing up, sharing my Great Work, and defining success on my terms. Not my mom's terms, or the terms of my ancestors, or even the terms of my fans and clients.
My game is the only game that matters for me. It's a game I'm happy to play, and one I can't lose, because I make the rules.
Catch the previous posts here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
Welcome to Day 5 of the Creative Freedom Challenge!
Today's topic is dangerous, and muy importante. As a coach and trainer myself, it's a bit sacrilegious for me to suggest that spending mucho dinero on some guru's "blueprint" or training program is a bad idea. I mean, I offer my own programs and services to help creative entrepreneurs build profitable businesses, so why would I put my own business in jeopardy by saying something like this?
For one, I make a point of telling my clients that no one approach will work for everyone, and that my programs are built on frameworks - customizeable elements that you can modify based on who you are and what really matters to you.
For another, not everyone needs a coach, a program, or a blueprint. Period. Sometimes you're already on the right path, you just need more time to get where you're headed. Confucius said "it does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop."
Blueprints have their place. But they're not the be-all, end all of your business building efforts.
Around 1920 in my hometown, General Motors established a house-building division to provide housing for all the new factory workers coming to live and work there. The Modern Housing Corporation built homes across industrial America using a handful of designs. In my old neighborhood, there were just three different house plans on my street - but every house was as unique as the owner that lived in it.
This is where architects begin. But they can only take you so far. And it completely lacks in any personality until you put your fingerprint on the design. Sure, you'll know exactly how to build a house that has a certain structure, but then what? The blueprint doesn't tell you anything about the neighborhood the house is being built in, the furniture or paint that will decorate it, or the people that will live in it once it's complete.
If you've ever lived in a house that just didn't work for you, you understand this problem intimately!
If you're further along than "just starting out", you probably don't need a blueprint. What's more, in business, more often than not, a blueprint only helps with a skill set - it shows you a particular way to do something related to building your business... like how to do a webinar, how to build a mailing list, or how to grow an audience.
All those things are great, but you need to also understand how they work together in YOUR unique situation. Depending on the Great Work that you do, you'll need a strategy to implement several tactics. Should you send a weekly email, or will you need to use video? Do you need a large audience, or do you prefer something more intimate? What about social media? And joint ventures, and blogging, and....
...you get the picture.
In my decades in the online world (I built one of the first e-commerce websites back in the 1990's!), I've learned how to do LOTS and LOTS of things. I've learned and used LOTS of different tactics, strategies, platforms, and tools to support and grow my businesses. But deciding which ones to use (and how much, and when) are like the interior design of a home. I had to figure out what worked for me.
You'll have to do the same for yourself.
Yes. I said HAVE to. If you want to stop being a best-kept secret (or worse, a commodity), you need to "decorate" with your own flair. You need to find what works for who you are, who you serve, and how you want to show up in the world.
But that doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds.
Inventory Your Tools & Skills
Think about all the tools & skills you need to to your Great Work and bring it to the world. Start building a list and make special note of the ones that you enjoy.
Bookkeeping, design, email marketing, webinars, craft shows... whatever it is, just start building a list. Me? I love performing, but I don't always like rehearsing. Both are important to bring my Great Work into the world, but performing gets a special "hell yeah" from me.
It could be you like working in-person vs. online, mid afternoon vs. evenings, or that you couldn't live without your email list or bridge line. Maybe you like twitter over facebook, bookkeeping over customer service, or the phone over Skype. Maybe you really haven't figured out what makes your heart sing, but you have an inkling that some things are working better for you than others.
You might have also tapped into some less tangible resources. One of the first students in the Creative Freedom Apprenticeship listed "positivity" as one of her resources. You might find that you can't live without positive people, or a sense of freedom. These less tangible resources are just as important as your physical tools of the trade - sometimes more so.
The point of this list is to give you more clarity (Yay! Clarity!). This is the short list of what works for who you are and what you're up to right now. And yes, that list is bound to change over time because YOU change over time. Don't get married to it, and don't start making sweeping changes because of it. For now, the awareness is enough.
But what about the tools and resources that aren't a good fit?
Here's where I want you to start thinking beyond yourself.
It's also incredibly smart and a great way to encourage greatness in others. Don't believe me?
POP QUIZ: Without Googling, can you tell me the name of Leonardo da Vinci's teacher?
Most people, if they're not travelling in art circles, can't tell you a thing about Verrocchio. If they do know him, he's most often referred to as "da Vinci's teacher"
It's like when the teachers at my son's elementary school knew me as "Forest's mom." For them, my identity didn't exist beyond their knowledge of my kid. It didn't matter that I was a musician with multiple albums to my credit, or that I've helped clients double or triple their income, launch best-selling books, and create entirely new revenue streams for their businesses (plus reduce the amount of time they need to spend managing things).
Nope. I was just "Forest's mom" to them.
Verrocchio was a master in his own right: sculptor, painter, goldsmith. People paid hefty sums to have their children study with him.
Verrocchio's method was simple: he'd start a project and leave it to his apprentice to finish it up. In that way, the apprentice learned how to paint, sculpt, or smith exactly the way Verrocchio did.
With so many Verrocchio clones out there, competition would drive prices down. So rather than compete on price, Verrocchio kept his students employed in his own studios. Verrocchio's students were able to make a decent living by replicating Verrocchio's style. Essentially, his students became his clones... for a fraction of Verrocchio's rate.
Verrocchio made a great living teaching and paying other artists to paint, sculpt, and smith the same way he did. He was able to leverage his time and money well enough to have multiple studios in Europe.
There's nothing wrong with following a blueprint. Blueprints can be very important. They do what they're designed to do, that's why people use them. Verrocchio's "blueprint" was a model for making a living creating art other people would pay for. It worked, which is why so many people paid him to teach his craft to their children. All they had to do was follow "the master's blueprint" and they were practically guaranteed a job in Verrocchio's studio for life.
This dude could not be contained! Sure, he learned the Verrocchio "blueprint", but he didn't limit himself to being just a painter or a sculptor.He learned the principles behind Verrocchio's teaching, then applied them in his own way. His unique gift was in seeing the world through fresh eyes.
daVinci's sketch books are filled with drawings and concepts that would have made Verrocchio roll over in his grave. "A flying machine? Che Idiota!"
da Vinci's ideas didn't fit the blueprint, but they represented who da Vinci wanted to be in the world.
So Leonardo da Vinci broke out of Verrocchio's mold and forged his own path outside the studio.
There's a time and a place for a blueprint. But at some point, the student becomes the master and must forge their own path. Just as you need to become the master of your own work, there are "students" of your Great Work, too. You might call them fans or clients, but they're all wanting to experience what you have to offer.
You don't have to do it all on your own, either. Verrocchio had plenty of apprentices in his studios. But you don't have to "clone" yourself to get great help.
Which is where Edison comes in.
Another great inventor, Edison spent every waking minute working on his projects. He was passionate and deeply committed. His wife would sometimes give him a hard time about sleeping at the laboratory. But if he hadn't put in all those hours (and nearly 1000 failed attempts to sustain electric light), we might not have many of the technological advances we take for granted today.
Film, music, and even the Internet owe much to Mr. Edison.
Yet, even with all the hours Thomas Edison put into his Great Work, he knew he couldn't do it all himself.
In fact, many of his greatest inventions were possible because of the team of scientists and inventors that worked with him.
Collaboration and Creation
This is the core of creative entrepreneurship. When you're able to trust your team to co-create and collaborate with you, you get more than just Verrocchio's brand of "discounted copies". You get lasting relationships, you make progress faster, and you can leverage your time in meaningful ways.
Edison didn't just leave his Great Work to his cloned minions. He leveraged his time by bringing in smart, savvy people (like Tesla) so that he could do the things that only Edison could. Edison understood the value of a team, but unlike Verrocchio, he also understood that when great minds come together, a greater mind is created. There's power in collaboration - when you bring together brilliant minds to handle and even improve upon the work you're doing. He didn't always agree with those minds (which is why Tesla left), but he created space for collaboration.
Edison had a vision to illuminate the entire Eastern seaboard and eventually the entire country.
Remember the Artisan trap? If Edison didn't have a team, he'd have spent all his time making and installing lightbulbs instead of focusing on how to market and sell his vision of electricity in every home across the country. In fact, if he had stayed the course, we'd be running on DC power, instead of the more efficient AC power developed by one Tesla. Because Edison was willing to let his collaborators explore other ideas, Tesla eventually left Edison, and took his AC ideas where they had a better chance of implementation.
While Edison is credited on 1093 patents in his lifetime, it didn't happen without the collaborative team working in his lab in Menlo Park. Edison fostered an environment of creative collaboration.
For some creative entrepreneurs, that sounds scary. "What if someone steals my ideas?" Yeah. It happens, but not nearly as often as you think.
Look, you can't play all the instruments in the band. You need to be willing to ask for and accept help appropriately. Sure, your piano player might move on to a new group, but without his help now, your band won't be playing anywhere.
Be willing to ask for (and accept) help in bringing your Great Work to your right audience. As the African proverb says "If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together." It's worth noting that sometimes, when you work together, you can go farther faster.
If you're ready to jump into the Creative Freedom Apprenticeship, click here to learn more and get registered. Our next session begins soon!
January's over, and I'm about 5% of the way toward my BHAG of recording 300 songs in 2013. That's 21 songs toward my ultimate goal of 300. Only 279 to go!
Anyone else would say "Holy crap! you've recorded that many songs!?! That's Awesome!"
Me? I have to remind myself to not be all "meh" about it.
Because I want to be at 300 - like, yesterday.
This is where it gets hard, and why so many people fall off the "new year resolutions" band wagon by the end of January. The novelty of the project has worn off. There's only so many times you can share what you're doing with people. And since I'm in earliest stages of the project, it's not like I have a huge catalog of music to point to so that I can say "Hey! Look how awesome I am!"
All that comes later - as we near completion of the project. After the hard work of DOING the work is complete (or at least much farther along). It's one of the downsides of living in an instant gratification economy.
I chose to record 300 songs because it's a point of deliberate practice for me. There are so many songs in the world, and this will broaden my musical horizons both as a composer and as a performer. Frankly, it's been way too long since I've spent focused time working on my music (8+ years, to be more precise), and it's a necessary effort for my development as an artist. Sites like fiddlersguide.com would definitely incredibly beneficial for my musical growth.
It can be lonely, grueling, thankless, grunt work as you go along. No one celebrates your do-overs.
I'm pretty sure Thomas Edison wasn't saying "Hoo-ah! That's attempt number 907 for an incandescent bulb that didn't work! Guys, this is freaking AWESOME!"
No, I'm pretty sure it was more like this:
"Attempt 907 didn't work. Let's get on with number 908."
And on life went in Menlo Park. No celebration, no fist-bumping, no toasting the talents of the insanely brilliant team working to make electric light possible.
Just doing the work. Until that 1,000th attempt (or thereabouts) when light was finally stable and constant.
No, I'm pretty sure before the sustained light brought raucous celebration, there were grumbles about quitting, wives that wondered what their husbands were doing all day in that lab (and if they were ever coming home for dinner), and a lot of head scratching as they were working through their problem.
Just the daily grind of trying to create awesome.
We don't often celebrate the process of creating awesome, just the awesome itself, once it's been created.
And it can be pretty lonely when your awesome creation takes time.
I try to remind myself that I have all year, and that I'm actually right on track to achieve my goal. I celebrate my "small wins", and then I come out of my studio and back into "the world".
It's here that I'm struck with the overwhelming loneliness that comes with doing great work.
I'm not complaining (much), really. It's more of an observation that I've seen a lot of creatives go through. We put our heads down, impassioned by the task of our great work, and then time flies. We're "left behind" in other areas because we're so intensely focused on what matters most in the moment.
Watching friends chatting on facebook about some song or another that I haven't heard yet because my head's been down, working on this project.
I was blessed to have my friend Jen Harris join me in the studio to record "Edelweiss". It was such a breath of fresh air in Michigan's wonky January weather to have another pair of ears in the room listening, singing, and suggesting our way through the song.
It was a creative revival for me that lasted just long enough to get a lot of joy, and hardly any frustration. My studio's a nice place for folks to visit, but I don't want them living there, if you know what I mean. Jen came in to rehearse on Friday, and we finished up on Saturday. Smooth like buttahh!
Then, something fascinating happened. Not only was I reinvigorated, but there was a positive "disturbance in the force" so to speak. People were talking about the work we did together, and that got other people excited about coming into the studio later this year.
Gone was the old ho-hum of recording songs. Suddenly, there was a freshness to the work I'd already done, as well as the work I was setting out to do. No longer was I feeling "meh" about anything. I'm wondering if Jen kind of planned it that way. She's a pretty smart cookie, I gotta say, so I wouldn't put it past her.
When we put our heads down and get focused, it can be easy to lose sight of everything around us. It's easier still to get mired in the daily grind of the creative process. The countless rehearsals, the re-touching, the practice sessions ad infinitum, ad nauseum, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...
We forget how important deliberate practice is, and how we need to bring ourselves to it fully.
Even when no one else is watching, when no one else is celebrating, when no one else seems to care an iota.
Because when all the practice is done, and it's time to perform, they ARE watching, and talking, and loving what you've done.
You've just got to put the work in first.