CHAPTER 5

Create and Innovate

But unless we are creators we are not fully alive.

What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint or clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living.

—Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

When Mike Carson was nine years old, he begged his parents to buy him a digital video camera that could add special effects like explosions and flying helicopters. He was obsessed with film and proudly produced his first video, starring his little brother, within a week of getting the camera.

Through the rest of grammar school and junior high, Mike learned everything he could about filming, special effects, and editing by watching YouTube tutorials. He even found a way to use his video skills for most of his school projects. By his early teens, he was making videos for his dad’s nonprofit organization.

In high school, he developed an affinity for music and loved discovering new artists. “I grew up listening to music in church and my parent’s music in the house. But it was fun to find my own taste.” He became a big Kanye West fan in 2004 after hearing his first album, The College Dropout. In 2008, when Mike was sixteen, he went to see Kanye live in concert and was blown away by his production and creativity.

Turning to his friend at the concert, he said, “We have to work with this guy sometime!”

Two years later, he was sitting in a studio in Australia, filming Kanye West and Jay Z during the making of their platinum album, Watch the Throne.

“To this day, that is the craziest moment I have ever had in my life,” Mike said. “I’m eighteen years old, holding a camera, watching my favorite two artists in the world make an album in front of me.”

How did he get there?

After high school, Mike enrolled in Columbia College with a major in television editing. He assumed he would follow a traditional path and get his college degree before finding a job in television.

During his freshman year he met Mike Bowen (Mike B.), a fellow Columbia College student who was working at RSVP Gallery, a local store in Chicago. The store’s owner was also Kanye West’s manager and creative director, and after learning about Mike C.’s video skills, he gave him some small creative projects to do for the store.

The Mikes, as they came to be known, started to work on the side on freelance video projects for emerging artists. One such client was Big Sean, a relatively unknown rapper at the time, signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. They made a music video for him and it caught the attention of Kanye’s team.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” said Mike C.

Since Mike C. was still in college, his parents, while excited for him, didn’t want him to make the decision to leave school without some serious thought. He finally decided that he could not pass up the opportunity, and quit school.

Over the next two years, the Mikes would work on a variety of projects, including the Kanye and Jay Z collaboration in Australia.

“We took it all in,” said Mike C. “We watched every aspect of how Kanye ran his business. I learned about music, editing, fashion, stage production, and promotion.”

In addition to his other clients, Mike C. became the creative director for Big Sean. He handled tours, album packaging, and merchandising. He produced a show in Detroit in a stadium for thirteen thousand people. He handled every part of the production: set design, video, staging, and promotion. The show was a big success.

Not yet twenty years old, the Mikes moved to Los Angeles and expanded their creative empire.

Now their hip-hop blog, Illroots, gets more than a million hits a month. In their creative business, they work with advertisers and artists to create videos and produce live events.

“I am so excited by the possibility of producing tours,” said Mike C. “I saw how Kanye treated his shows like Broadway productions. Right now, I wake up every day and learn something new. I read, watch videos, study people, experiment with different mediums, and try to be a better person every day. As much as you might think that the lifestyle of the people I have worked with is crazy, it is really not. They are focused on always growing, always moving, always pushing the edge. I want to be surrounded by people like that. I do eventually want to go back to school and complete my degree. But it won’t be in film or video, because I am learning all of that now. I want to keep living, keep creating, and keep progressing in my skills every day. Most importantly, I want to make my parents proud.”

You may think that Mike’s story is about a one-in-a-million chance of getting a big break by being discovered by someone famous.

It is not.

Mike’s story is about an eighteen-year old kid who mastered the most important skill of his era: creating innovative work that opens the door to opportunity.

The skill of creating

In the new world of work, our ability to create a powerful body of work is what will determine our ongoing employability. In order to create, you have to quickly scope, design, and ship a series of creative projects that come in many forms.

Your creative work will tell your story. And in order to tell a story, you have to get it out of your head and into the world.

As Scott Belsky, the author of Making Ideas Happen and founder of Behance and 99U, says about the future of work:

“We will ultimately live in a perpetual data-driven talent edition. Everything you create will be measured and tracked by others through comments, shares, and likes. Your work will come up on the radar of potential employers and clients, and the data will tell them if you are worth talking to or hiring.”

Every creative project must answer the following questions:

What do you want to create?

Name it. Describe it.

(A book, a job, a video, an app)

Who is it for?

Describe your audience.

(Include specific details about who you are targeting.)

Why does it need to be accomplished?

Describe the roots of the project.

(How does this fit into your body of work? Who will be affected by it? What positive outcomes will occur as the result of you completing it?)

How are you going to structure the project?

Define a model.

(Who has done something similar in the past? How was it structured? How can you customize this model and make it your own?)

When does it need to be finished?

Make a timeline. Set a deadline.

(Nothing happens without a deadline. Set a date and work backward.)

Soon enough, asking these questions will become second nature. You will think about each one for each new piece of your body of work. Creating rapidly will quickly become an unconscious skill.

Your creative process

Everyone has an opinion about the best way to accomplish creative work.

Some advocate a daily writing practice, starting first thing in the morning.

Others think you should work from 9:00 P.M. to 2:00 A.M. on your creative projects if you really want to “crush it.”

I can’t think without a clean desk.

If you need to stuff your face with Nutella while you edit videos, or like to have paper stacked twenty inches high around your computer while you code, or want to mess around on Facebook while you write, go ahead and do it.

Whatever you prefer, you must make sure your setting allows you to create consistently on a sustainable basis.

Your creative process is your own, and no one is allowed to touch it, but make sure that you know yourself and how you can best fashion an environment that supports your work.

Research the best methods and choose one that works for you. If you want to get work done, you must claim your creative process.

Scott Belsky says that in all the years he has been writing and speaking about taking action and managing a creative business, the one piece of advice that helps the most people is to “tell people about what you are working on, especially when it feels immature or you worry about someone stealing it. You get priceless feedback. If it is a bad idea, you get an amount of accountability. Tell people, ‘Here is what I am working on. It is launching in three months.’ Then you will have to sweat it out to launch in three months.”

There Are Four Parts to Your Creative Process

Part one: Enjoy the adventure of your craft

Part two: Develop a mastery mind-set

Part three: Scope, test, scope, test

Part four: Flex your creative muscles

Let’s explore each one in some depth.

Part one: Enjoy the adventure of your craft

I was pretty fearless in my teens and twenties.

I figured out how to get myself to Switzerland as an exchange student at sixteen, with little money and no contacts.

I had many adventures in college in Mexico and Colombia, often traveling alone and having some dangerous experiences, like being held up at knife point and walking home alone after a late night of salsa dancing (sorry, Mom).

I lived in Rio de Janeiro for six months by myself while I trained in the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira.

And much earlier in my life, as soon as I really got the hang of books, I loved to read stories of myths and adventures from all over the world.

I think intense devotion to your craft is a commitment to going on a hair-raising adventure.

Unfortunately, we often focus too much on the outcome of our creative projects instead of the fun, and often painful, process of bringing them to life.

As a wide-eyed first-time author who was struggling to put pen to paper, I got some great advice from the publisher of my first book:

“Write the damned book,” he said.

And now having written the damned book (two, actually), I will tell you that it was an adventure to the grandest scale of my childhood dreams. I fought demons. I interviewed kings and queens. I scaled the highest mountains of impossibility, gave up, died, and somehow came back to life in time to finish the last chapter. All while changing tiny baby diapers, managing play dates, serving clients, and dealing with economic warfare all around me.

I think craft has spirit.

In individual sessions with clients, writing on my own, or in a large room teaching a group of people, there are moments of intense and utter grace.

They come when you immerse yourself in your work and feel like you have to know how to do it better or else you will lose your quest and the king will behead you in the public square.

They come when you feel ideas rising up in your chest and you know, for certain, that they are turning into something big and powerful, as if conjured by a magic spell.

Craft is not a rote, calculated path. It is an explosive, messy, terrifying, and passionate adventure.

How can your work take you on a journey?

What dragons are to be slayed?

What myths are to be broken?

What music is meant to be danced to, until there is no separation between beat, body, and spirit?

Which battles are to be fought?

What deep, passionate love is to be made?

What inner tiger is meant to be released from its chains?

How would you feel differently about your craft if you viewed it as a noble adventure?

One of the great burdens of creative people is wondering, after looking at what they have done: “Is this all just a bunch of meaningless drivel? Do I have any idea what I am doing?”

It is also the great burden of experienced creatives.

As a little girl, I sat in the darkroom with my dad as he showed me subtle manipulations to the printing of photographs that made a huge difference in the feeling and look of the picture. I watched him smile as he found the one shot in eighty that captured just the right collection of facial expressions in a group shot.

To my dad, a craft is a noble undertaking. He takes his photography seriously. And his writing. And his work restoring the Port Costa School.

Even in the last quarter of your life, you can never consider yourself a master at the end of the journey.

Choose adventure.

When you choose the adventure of your craft, you find unexpected, beautiful, and unlikely twists and turns that you never expected.

Differentiation, as the marketing wonks like to say.

Are you on an adventure?

Who is the hero?

Who are you trying to save?

How would your work be different if you didn’t have to sound pithy or appear perfect?

Part two: Develop a mastery mind-set

Your body of work will broaden and deepen over time. Its value is determined by your commitment to continually improve your skills and deepen your ingredients.

When you focus on mastering your chosen craft, many opportunities open up for you.

In today’s world of hacks, shortcuts, and instant money-making blueprints, I think we have lost appreciation for slow-brewing mastery in our work.

Through the years, I have worked with many martial artists, cultural leaders, and business mentors who have taught me that trying to finish first in a short race is not only stressful, it also works against developing deep expertise.

Here are eleven ways to develop a mastery mind-set.

1. Learn patience

My mother-in-law has taught me that Diné people (Navajos) have ceremonies for every part of life. There are ceremonies at a baby’s first laugh, at puberty, and for the changing seasons. There are water ceremonies and lightning ceremonies and blessing ceremonies. In these sacred gatherings, conversation is slow and deliberate and unhurried. An elder can take an entire hour to share a teaching, or to bless a meal. I have watched elders see a young person squirm with impatience, then choose to talk slower and longer. They do this because they know that learning to settle down and develop patience is going to help the young develop thoughtfulness, depth, and wisdom.

2. Practice the basics

When we first learn a new skill, we dive into it with abandon, taking classes, learning from mentors, and practicing like crazy. When we reach a certain level of success, we often get lazy. True masters never stop practicing the basics. Martial artists do push-ups and sit-ups every day of their lives. Artists practice brush strokes. Writers write daily. Entrepreneurs create, market, and sell. When you don’t practice the basics, they go away.

3. Appreciate the source of your materials

In a film called Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jiro’s son walks slowly around the fish market, looking for the perfect fish for the evening meals. He has relationships with fishermen who will not sell their product to anyone but him. Great work is built with great materials, by people and partners who care as much about what they do as you care about what you do. Avoid cheap, sloppy, and poorly constructed tools and materials.

4. Deconstruct everything

Often success is random. If you started a business in 1996 like I did, you might have thought you were naturally talented. The market was flourishing. Companies were throwing huge sums of money around for training, employee perks, and expensive toys. If you do well, take the time to figure out exactly which conditions led to your success. If you have a raging failure, figure out exactly which conditions, personal and environmental, led to your downfall.

5. Set boundaries

You cannot create great work if you are in a constant state of defense. You must protect your creative work time by blocking out your schedule, turning off your phone, and closing down your e-mail. You must protect your creative energy by avoiding “life-sucking squids,” as my friend Martha Beck calls people who care only about their own edification and not about your needs or soul.

6. Make your space holy

When you respect your work, you want to create a beautiful, clean, sacred container for it. Regardless of the size, cost, or fanciness of your physical space, treat it with reverence. Pay attention to what you bring into it. Take time to clean the floor and wash the windows. Surround yourself with images of beauty and inspiration. Give gratitude to the tools that you use to do your work and to all the masters who have come before you.

7. Cultivate your voice

While you can become fluent in another language, you will never feel more anchored and at home than when you are speaking your native tongue. Explore your voice. Listen to your intuition. Write down your thoughts. Develop your ideas. Don’t get distracted by your love for someone else’s voice, which will only lead to cheap knockoffs.

8. Swallow your pride

True mastery is based on a love affair with your work. You want to take a great photograph, or write a great paragraph, or lead a transformational coaching call because you want to make the profession proud. You want to please the past masters and the art itself. If your work is criticized, or isn’t up to your own standards, don’t take it personally. If you receive lots of accolades and exposure, don’t let it get to your head. Keep your focus on honoring your profession.

9. Punch through the bag

My mixed martial arts teacher, Kelly Fiori, always tells me to “punch through the bag” when I am practicing jabs and crosses. If you just focus on hitting the target itself, your punch will be weak. Set your target a foot behind the bag, and aim to hit that. The same applies to your work. How does today’s goal relate to tomorrow’s goal, and next year’s goal? How will your choices today affect your relatives in seven generations? Always think ahead.

10. When imitated, don’t retaliate, innovate

When you are great at what you do, people are bound to imitate you. Sometimes they will try to steal your intellectual property, or students, or employees, or business model, or artistic genre. It is natural to get upset when this happens. But instead of fighting with the imitator, move on to innovate the next stage of your work. If you are doing your job well, your work is constantly improving and growing. Imitate that.

Once you begin to cultivate a mastery mind-set, life slows down and you appreciate the delicious nuances in every moment. And when you sink into that way of living, you may begin to realize that mastery is not even the end goal.

11. Think like a scientist

There’s one more critical step in developing a mastery mind-set: learning how to not take failure, or success, personally. You must learn to get comfortable with putting your work in the world and evaluating all feedback from an objective perspective.

In my work as a business coach, I am frequently asked to explain the key ingredient to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Is it a great idea? Financial backing? A charismatic founder? A bulletproof business plan? Great selling skills?

These can certainly help. But what will make or break your entrepreneurial journey is: the ability to think like a scientist.

What I mean specifically is a willingness to create a working hypothesis, test it, observe with curiosity, ask why, tweak, retest, observe, et cetera, until you are satisfied.

When you view building your body of work as a series of experiments, it is interesting, intellectually stimulating, and similar to solving a puzzle.

In contrast, when you view your creative process or journey as an epic Hollywood drama of sweeping success or crushing failure, chances are you will not last very long and will be an emotional wreck by the end.

Few people are as enthusiastic, and relentless, about testing as my friend Ramit Sethi. In a blog post, he lays out numerous examples of the power of testing your assumptions. My favorite is the best man who spent seven months perfecting a wedding toast.

Now, that is a friend you want to have.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger shares the same enthusiasm for testing when examining Web page conversion.

Who would have known that given a choice, more people would click a button that says IT’S FREE rather than SIGN UP FREE or FREE SIGN-UP. Or that changing a sign-up button color from green to red would boost conversion by 21 percent? Brian has built a thriving business, sharing tips on tiny twists and tweaks that add up to successful online commerce.

So if you find yourself thinking, “I knew I should never have approached that store with an offer to sell my spicy almonds, they rejected me!” put on your scientist hat and think instead, “How fascinating! I thought the store would be excited about selling my spicy almonds, but they were not. I wonder why.”

Part three: Scope, test, scope, test

When you set big goals, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the enormity of the task at hand. A critical part of the creative process is continually breaking down the work into manageable chunks.

Use these steps when testing your projects.

1. Look for models

The first place I send clients who are trying to do something totally new is in search of business models that are already working.

If you are a world-class tuba teacher and have always delivered your lessons in person but want to deliver all your lessons over Skype, look for evidence of someone who has used a similar tool for educational purposes. If you find a tutorial that contains technical information but not much about the business model, you may want to dig further and find music teachers who sell virtual music lessons successfully. Or you might find someone in a related subject area, like an art teacher, who sells e-books and video training programs to supplement live art lessons.

The key is to find someone who is doing business in an innovative and effective way, and to pull back the curtain so that you understand the key parts of their business model. (If you want to get lots of ideas for business models, you will love the Business Model Generation handbook).

2. Define the phases

You may not know every last thing about building a business, but with some input from experienced colleagues or business mentors and your business model research, you should be able to define the overall phases you need to go through to reach your goal.

One time, a LaidOffCamp participant I spoke to at an event wanted to create a mixture of live classes and high-quality information products for her art business. I recommended that she:

These steps may change based on your specific goals and objectives, but at least you can get clear as to what to build, in what order.

3. Choose a specific small test related to the big goal, and define the desired outcome

Once you have a sense of the major phases involved in reaching your big goal, you want to quickly look for a small test that will bring you into the real world, with real customers.

Time and time again, I see new entrepreneurs get stuck in the planning stage and think things have to be perfect in order to bring them to market. This will kill both your momentum and your spirit. To nip this momentum killer in the bud, choose one small activity that will get you moving in the real world. It should be:

Testing will give you two kinds of data.

Once you define the test, then define specific elements to measure, such as:

4. Execute your small test

When you get one very specific task to test, give it your full attention. Don’t worry about the bigger goals at this point, since they will just distract you.

You will move quickly when you choose a specific date to execute the test. So choose your date, identify your test subjects, and go do the thing. It may not be ideal. It won’t be perfect. But it’s one step forward.

5. Review results

I mentioned before how important it is to be a scientist in your entrepreneurial journey. Since you have defined your metrics from the outset, it will not be hard to measure your results versus your plan.

Once you review the results, ask yourself:

When you get in the practice of executing small tests of the pieces of your body of work, real progress happens.

A test coaching session can lead to a three-month coaching service, which leads to a busy blog and a robust mix of digital courses, live retreats, two books, and speaking engagements. I should know, that’s how I started.

Testing recipes at a law office (while still a lawyer) can lead to custom cake orders, seven retail stores, three cookbooks, and an appearance on Oprah. Just ask Warren Brown, founder of CakeLove.

Experimenting with graphic design services may lead to software application development, which leads to a family of applications, a bestselling book, a killer blog, and juicy speaking engagements. Just ask the founders of 37signals.

And creating a music video for an unknown rapper led Kanye West to hire the Mikes to tour the world with him for two years.

The process of scoping and testing continues throughout the development of your project. If you are paying attention to the results, you may end up with a different final project than you originally intended. This is fine. What really matters is that you create something you are proud of that becomes a powerful addition to your body of work.

Part four: Flex your creative muscles

Technique, speed, power

In my mixed martial arts class, my instructor, Kelly, told us exactly how we should train our kickboxing combinations.

“First, focus on technique. Do the movements very slowly so that you get a good feel for the correct movements.

“Then, when you feel confident in the technique, add speed. Do the movements quicker.

“Finally, add power. Pay attention to the force that comes through your body, and direct it to your target.

“The technique, speed, and power together is what will make you a great fighter.”

This is where we get stuck in the creative process.

When doing an activity for the first time, like writing a sales page, we have the expectation that we will get power (conversion) and speed (lots of buyers) from the initial technique.

In reality, the very first time you do it is a big accomplishment in itself. It’s a victory just to get a mediocre sales page live on the Web.

As you go through time, you improve your page by focusing on power activities—practicing persuasive writing, making clearer offers, working on fresh design, and creating compelling testimonials.

And the more you work on this, the more your speed picks up. More people buy and spread the word about your great product, which attracts more people to the page and feeds the speed of sale.

When a student in my power teaching class taught her first class, she said, “It was exhausting! I wrote a ten-page script for the first class to make sure I covered everything. When you teach a class, you make it seem so easy!”

I replied, “That is because I have taught more than one hundred classes.”

I have repeatedly worked on the technique of designing a class, have honed my power by zeroing in on specific teaching and speaking methodologies, and I have taught thousands of people. But if I had not started with my first awkward and painful class, I would never have gotten to a place of ease and comfort.

We abandon our efforts too early

There is so much focus on quick, easy marketing techniques that we forget that true, deep, authentic, meaningful, and lasting business competence comes from technique, speed, and power training.

In my recent survey to blog readers and clients, the majority of the five hundred respondents said their business goals for 2013 were to improve their marketing and sales competency. This will work only if they stop trying individual marketing techniques once, then abandoning them for the next shiny marketing-technique du jour.

Your challenge

Choose an important creative activity you completed in the last thirty days.

Step 1: Identify how well you executed the technique the first time.

Step 2: Identify the power activities that will increase your competency and improve your results the next time.

Step 3: Invest in your power activities. Get expert input. Rewrite clunky areas. Get feedback from your target audience. Read books. Watch videos. Look at case studies of successful examples.

Step 4: Do the creative activity again.

Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.

Do the creative activity again.

Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.

Repeat the entire process for the next year.

Send me a big check, because I know you will be smashing your professional results at the end of the year.

The 20X Rule

Much of my time spent coaching is egging my clients on so they finish their websites, pitch new clients, and test and try new products in the market.

The enemy of a new entrepreneur is endless planning and perfection.

After celebrating that they finally took a serious first step, I often get a slightly dejected e-mail or deflated check-in on the next coaching call.

“I sent that e-mail to two potential clients, but neither of them has gotten back to me yet.”

“I designed and launched the teleclass we talked about, but only one person signed up. And it was my sister.”

It is at this moment that I have to explain the 20X Rule.

In business, as well as in other areas of life, you have to sow twenty times more seeds than you think is realistic or necessary to make things happen.

You will set yourself up for heartbreak and mediocrity if you don’t radically adjust your expectations for the amount of outreach and connections it takes to do creative work.

What do you think would happen over the course of one year if:

Chances are you would see some radically different results.

When I first started my newsletter eight years ago, it took me two months to write one article.

Now I crack out twenty times the content in one month and don’t even break a sweat.

If you get results sooner, great.

Maybe you will have fantastic luck and with some strategic thinking will reach out to three qualified clients and book your business.

I would rather you expect to reach out to sixty and be happy it took fewer contacts than be crushed that you don’t sign up your first client the first time you reach out to them.

Building your body of work is a marathon. Train for it.

Creating will save us

The night before the Grammys in 2012, host LL Cool J was interviewed by Piers Morgan on CNN.

The interview covered a lot of ground, including how LL Cool J (born James Todd Smith) came out of a very tough childhood and created a solid family base and lots of commercial and financial success. He credits his grandmother for orienting him toward the future by repeatedly quoting, “If a task is once begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be thy labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”

Piers asked him what we needed to do as a country to “keep America great.”

His answer made me sit up in my chair.

“I think in order to keep America great, we have to keep America creative.”

I think he hit it on the head.

We love to argue. To point fingers. To debate.

That will not solve our economic problems, nor make us feel powerful.

We are made to create. We feel useful when we create. We release our “stuckness” when we create. We reinvent our lives, tell new stories, and rebuild communities when we create. We reclaim our esteem, our muse, and our hope when we create.

It is why your particular work mode does not matter. If you are creating something of value and personal meaning, does it really matter if you are self-employed, freelancing, or employed by a corporation or nonprofit?

The act of creating is what sets us free, what gives our life meaning. And it is what will put us back on our personal and collective path to greatness.

Exercise: Pocket Planner

The new world of work is a series of creative projects. What is the next thing you want to add to your body of work? Use this planner to sketch it out, and get busy creating!

What do you want to create?

Name it. Describe it.

(A book, a job, a video, an app)

Who is it for?

Describe your audience.

(Specific details about who they are)

Why does it need to get done?

Describe the roots of the project.

(How does this fit in your body of work? Who will be affected by it? What good thing will happen as the result of you completing it? )

How are you going to structure the project?

Define a model.

(Who has done something like this before? How was it structured? How can you customize this model and make it your own?)

When does it need to be done?

Set a deadline.

(Nothing happens without a deadline. Set a date, and work your project plan backward.)

Next: Create a prototype so you can test the idea in the easiest and quickest way possible, with the fewest amount of resources.