DO YOU HAVE CREATIVE INDIGESTION?

CREATIVE BUSINESS HABITS

Building a business or a freelance career takes creativity. But creativity is not a garnish placed gingerly atop your activities, nor a handful of sprinkles flung at them as an afterthought.?It’s something that should run through all your daily and weekly routines – bringing life and flavour to your enterprise, and setting you apart from all the other boring vanilla competitors.??

Creativity means putting ideas at the very heart of everything you do.?So, as a business owner or freelancer, building creative habits into your daily or weekly routine is the first step.?However, there’s a caveat…

“Overloading your plate with a pile of habits won’t end well, and is likely to cause creative indigestion,” says Jodie Newman of The Business Allotment.?She lists SIX creative habits you can try, best served one at a time…

1.????Set yourself MONTHLY CHALLENGES.?Keep a notebook, and add ideas as they come to you.?At the end of the month, evaluate the ideas, create a plan and implement.?This is a fantastic momentum-builder in terms of how ideas transform into growth.

2.????Open an IDEAS BANK.?Make regular deposits as ideas come to you, banking them for future use.?Reviewing past ideas can uncover solutions to new challenges, or inspire new thinking.?There will be no end of interesting ideas accrued.

3.????Build IDEAS PIPELINES.?Siphoning purposeful ways to ensure a steady stream of ideas into your business is a great way to keep your Ideas Bank topped up.???This will enable you to deal with new challenges quickly, with the right solution.??Your Ideas Bank will soon be earning compound interest.

4.????LEARN SOMETHING NEW.??Commit to learning a new skill and reaping the creative benefits.?Just learning something not related to your business is a brilliant way of feeding ideas into your business.?It helps to develop problem solving and to encourage a mindset of curiosity, as well as serving as a reminder that there is an art to not knowing.?It will allow a fresh breeze to run through your brain.?

5.????Engage in PURPOSEFUL PROCRASTINATION.??As a creative force, procrastination can be really useful.?If you’re faced with a challenge that needs solving, and you keep putting it off, that’s not laziness.?It’s your brain telling you it needs a bit more time to consider the problem.?It gives your subconscious time to do the creative heavy lifting, and you’ll find it easier to come up with some creative solutions.?

6.????Run GERMINATION sessions.?Find a buddy, and meet regularly for focused sessions to work on your challenges, using a creative thinking framework.?

For more creative business ideas from JODIE, and the workshops she presents to help you build your business creatively, visit her website:??https://www.thebusinessallotment.co.uk/

'On The Couch'?– WEDNESDAY?@ 11am GMT

This week we chatted to Actor and Voice-Over Artist NICK FIELD, who’s found many new ways to tell stories and engage audiences, with roles in feature films, TV series, adverts, documentaries, short films and more.?

He’s always on the lookout to work with production companies, directors, designers and animators, and to help others to learn, grow and take their performances to a new level.

To catch the interview head over to our YouTube Channel:

CATCH UP!

If you missed last week’s ‘On The Couch’ chat with Children’s Author SUE PAVEY, then you can catch up on the CR38IVES YouTube channel.?

Sue talks about how her little Westie Highlands terrier CHARLIE sparked off an idea for a series of children’s books that is delighting young children around the world.

WHAT'S ON & WHEN:

RIGHT FOR THE ROLEIn this month’s episode of THE LATE BLOOMER ACTOR podcast, Actor David John Clark talks to LA Casting Director JOHN FRANK LEVEY.?

John has 35 plus years in the casting business, and is known for such iconic shows as ‘ER’, ‘The West Wing’ and ‘Shameless’.?He’s just released a book called ‘Right For the Role’.

John discusses how he finds the right actors for a show, and what actors can do to deliver a quality submission that will get them cast.?

'DRESSED WITH A SMILE'

Brigitta (NUX) Scholz Mastroianni of NUX PHOTOGRAPHY has recently persuaded several of her business clients to strip off and pose nude!?She will be exhibiting the photos at Camden Image Gallery in London from the?18th-27th of May.?Brigitta has called the exhibition?‘Dressed With A Smile’.?Admission is free, so pop in if you’re in the area!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

IN THE SPOTLIGHT?- CR38IVES Member - Actor?- KATHLEEN SHAW

KATHLEEN SHAW has numerous radio and stage plays to her credit, and also lends her talent as a soprano to the Windsor & Eton Choral Society.?She recently added tap-dancing to her list of talents, after playing ‘Rose’ in the play?‘Stepping Out’!??

Kathleen has a B.A. (Hons) in English & Classical Studies from St Mary’s University, and a post-graduate in English & Drama from King’s College in London.?She also studied TV Production, passing her course with distinction.

While working in HR, Kathleen volunteered to manage a hospital radio station in Berkshire.?Her velvety voice on Radio Wexham resulted in her being snapped up by BBC Radio Oxford, to present its popular Sunday evening music show.?

“I loved my radio show,” she says.?“I got to interview the likes of DIONNE WARWICK and MARTHA REEVES, which was wonderful!”

When Kathleen decided to take to the stage, her brilliant comic timing and talent for mastering various accents won her roles such as the posh?femme fatale?‘Lydia Dillingham in?‘Out of Sight…Out Of Murder’, the straitlaced Yorkshire single mum ‘Jan’ in?‘Ladies’ Day’, and the greedy and macabre cockney Trotty Veck in?‘A Christmas Carol’.?When she recently took on a Trinidadian accent for the part of ‘Rose’ in?‘Stepping Out’, her director was moved to exclaim: “Kathleen was born to act!”

GET?CR38IVELY?CONNECTED!

If you are a creative professional with a fantastic story, come and tell it 'On The Couch'!?We'd love to hear about what you do, and why you love doing it!?If you’d also like to lead a discussion on a topic of interest to creatives on a live CR38IVES Clubroom audio chat, then contact us.

You can follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube – and if you are a professional in any creative field, then come and join our growing private networking group!

JOIN US HERE: https://form.jotform.com/223175079793062

Here's to your continued success!