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Tommy Boy is a ridiculous movie and it’s awesome. It has everything you want in a comedy including the legendary Chris Farley and Dan Aykroyd. Anyway, I haven’t watched it in a good long while and the other day we had a shoot in the afternoon so I turned it on in the morning and watched it on purpose to feed my creativity. Yes, you heard right: I watched Tommy Boy to feed my creativity. Let me explain.

Creativity by definition is your brain taking in new information, making a connection with old information, and forming new ideas. So if you want to have an influence on your creativity, the easiest way to do that is to control what you are putting in your brain. Those things we take in do not have to be inherently “Creative” things like playing music or painting or photography. It could also be watching a stupid movie that you like. It could be going for a run. It could be reading. Anything that you can add to your brain on purpose can serve as an input into your creative fire.
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So why add Tommy Boy?

It was easy.

One of the reasons I watched it was because I wanted to. Tommy Boy is not a challenging movie. It’s not a beautiful work of photography and acting. It’s super easy to watch and it is funny. That’s it. I mean any movie that has a scene where you get to watch a deer destroy a car from the inside out is obviously worth having on your to-watch list 😉

It was something different.

Nothing can shake up stuckness like a good dose of something different. When we do something that we wouldn’t normally do is causes a little bit of discomfort, which can cause our brain to wake up and possibly form new and interesting connections that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Watching Tommy Boy didn’t give me inspiration. It didn’t give me ideas for images to create or books to write. I didn’t ask for it to. It gave me exactly what I asked of it and that was to be a source of possible connection between new and old ideas. Practicing creativity is not about inspiration or getting inspired by stuff we do, It’s about doing things on purpose so that we can make better stuff when we have to.

Happy Tuesday folks! And Happy July! #itshotupinhere

Chris

Questions:
What unconventional things do you like to do to feed your creativity?

 

Other things I regularly use as creative inputs:

Podcasts
Music
Books
Playing Basketball or Disc Golf
Going Hiking
TV Shows

The only requirement for these things is that I do them on purpose. I’m not mindlessly watching TV (although there is a time for that and that’s ok.) I’m feeding my brain on purpose. That purpose is to feed my creativity.

 

 

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You know what’s cool about growing up? We don’t really have to know what we want to be when we grow up. We get that question a lot when we’re young and the answer for me was always superhero related. (And kinda still is) But the truth is you don’t have to know exactly what it is you want to do for the rest of your life, at the start of your life.

Now that I’m up, I’ve had it “all figured out” more times than I can count. All of those times I finally thought I had it figured out, there would come a point when I would think, “Maybe not.” Then I’d think I had it figured out again, then again maybe not. All of those times led me to what I’m doing now. I love what we do for a living and the places we get to go and the people we get to meet. I’m beyond grateful. But is this what I’ll do forever? Maybe not.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being an entrepreneur and owner it is that you kind of have to be ok with “Maybe not.” You kind of have to be ok with “this might not work.” 

We’re all lost in the wilderness and making our own path. The biggest lesson we have to learn as adults is being ok with “Maybe not.”

Ok-With-Maybe-Not

The question you might have is: Why would I start a “Maybe not?” The answer is simple: Because of the maybe part. Maybe not, but maybe yes! You see what I’m saying? I’ll always start a ‘maybe not’ because I’d rather it be a ‘maybe not’ than a just “not.” This is not easy, but being ok with “maybe not” is the first step to being ok with being in business for yourself. If you want to make stuff for a living, forever and always, get ok with “maybe not.”

Happy Friday! Go do good things 🙂

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

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Jen and I are currently binge watching Friday Night Lights. Before this we were hooked on Breaking Bad. Shows like these make me think about what makes the show binge watchable. What is it about these shows that make it easy to keep coming back for more. There are several things that go into making a show successful but I want to focus on just the two that people tell their friends about:

What’s the show about?

Is it a good story?

If I don’t like or know what the show is about and I don’t like or know the story, I won’t watch it and I probably won’t tell my friends about it. I’ll try. I really will! But without those two things in place, I will probably give up on it. It’s nothing personal, I’m sure it’s a good show but I’m going to watch something else. Something more interesting.

So let’s talk about how business is the same way. 

I want people to want to keep coming back. I want them to binge watch my show. I want them to tell their friends how good it is until they go home and put it on their watch list. How does that happen? What do people need to know in order to tell others about how awesome your “show” is?

They need to know what it’s about and they need to know the story.  Start telling them.
Whats-Your-Show-About

So TODAY answer these two questions:

What’s your show about?



Are you telling a good story?

Answer those and start telling everybody.

Clear eyes, full hearts…

Happy Thursday!

Chris

Question:

What is your show about? I’d love to hear about your business and your ideas. Let’s talk about that 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last night, I scrolled past this post from Jon Acuff on Facebook.

Jon-Acuff-Cool-Table
It made me stop and think for a minute. The cool table never goes away does it? Even when you’re a part of it, it’s still there. Even when you’re grown, it’s still there. The cool table forces smallness on the outsiders and smugness on the insiders and it’s a shame that we’re haunted by it even as adults.

I think our first reaction as adults is to want to fight back and start our own cool table. That’s a no-go, bro. Starting your own cool table is not the answer because comparison still creeps in. You feel smug and you leave people feeling left out and crappy. Comparison is a virus, but fortunately, so is awesome. Comparison breaks people down, awesome builds them up. So the only answer really is to realize the truth that nobody wanted to talk about in middle school: everybody is just as lame as you are. And that’s awesome.

The-Lame-Table

So really, we’re all just sitting at The Lame Table but nobody wants to call it that. Well I’m calling it that. Welcome to The Lame Table. You’ve been here all along.

If you think you’re cool, You’re not. You’re lame. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be awesome. It just means you’re not cooler than me and I’m not cooler than you. We’re both lame… awesome. 🙂

Start a Lame Table. Invite everybody.

Happy Tuesday!

Chris

Related thought: Stop trying to be one of the cool kids.  Be one of the You kids.

 

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My friend Chris Scott wrote a post last week on the Salesographer blog about how ridiculous it is to share your list of expenses to justify your price. For example, “I charge $X because my insurance+gear+website costs $XYZ.” Chris called bullshit. I do too.

I’d like to take it a step further though. Jen and I touch on this when we speak to people about creativity but I thought I’d share it with you guys too. Here’s this bomb for ya….

Your clients are not paying you to run a business.
They’re not paying you to buy gear or tools.
They are paying you to be creative and for the experience you give.

They are paying you based on the promise that you can show up and make the work only you can make as evident by your website/past work. So if that’s true, let’s make sure we can show up and make the work we promised we could. Let’s not worry about justifying our need to make money. Let’s worry about not sucking and making work that’s worth it.

The most important thing in this business of making stuff for a living is the stuff part. If you don’t have the stuff, you can’t sell the stuff. If we worry too much about the business and too little about making stuff we will burnout. Get good at business. Get damn good at it. (Or hire somebody who is…) Get better at making good consistent work over time and putting systems in place to help you do that.

If-we-stop-making-good-work

If we stop making good work, we stop getting work. That’s it. If it doesn’t present itself in the form of actually not getting paid anymore, it will undoubtedly present itself in the form of burnout.

Happy Monday!

Chris

P.S. If you’re a photographer and want to be better at sales, check out Salesographer and Preveal. You’re busy making awesome stuff. Let them help you with the sales part. 🙂

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