? HOLDING YOURSELF AND OTHERS BACK ??

((This article grew out of a reply to a post with a similar thesis by Jeff Reynolds))

Humans, by their beautifully flawed nature, are Messed Up.

So Their Motives are a Mess

So Their Culture is a Mess

So Their Communication is a Mess

So their Relationships are a Mess

So their Businesses are a Mess.

Studying the Psychology of Design and Storytelling for 20+ years. . .

This is a soapbox I've been on for some time. You can only show up for your Supporters (Students, Clients, Customers, Investors) as deeply as you've shown up for yourself.

I am an advocate for Fair Labor Practices, and the humbling of humanity.?

You’ve heard me say there is only one relationship: Respect through Kindness.

(In the USA), The LICENCE to have a “business” is about $100. Similar to birthing children, there is no test to see if you are a well adjusted human, or have any sense in managing a household, or have any sense of who wants to hold them and who doesn't.?

The Government, for the most part, doesn’t care how you run your Business, how you treat people, or even if it succeeds. So long as it adds to the GDP and the entity pays its taxes.

Just because someone decided (one day) to be a boss, a job creator, someone that outsources their needs: doesn’t mean they haven’t been misunderstood, hurt, or misled in their own lives.

We often have baggage and useless frameworks we need to sit down as we age.

Ignorance and Pain only beget more of that. Many never had manners or learned to speak authentically.

Communication is often the root of misunderstanding.?

And I get it.

It’s hard, already muddy.?

Emotional Intelligence is an art, a muscle, one must want to hone.

It’s why I give a care for Authenticity, about speaking up for your real needs/wants.

About building (they are built) Relationships around Communication for the get-go.

This game, Entrepreneurship: is about Connection, Communication, and Change. Coin is actually Secondary.

Though if you say the word “Business”, I’ll ask you how it makes money, as THAT’s what they do. While gross, it doesn’t matter HOW.

Look at it this way. What can you talk people into? From there, we’d hope your motives are pure and you can actually deliver on a Product that solves a Problem.

But understand, there are some who have coin because all they do is promote themselves or other’s ideas/products. Sales-people, they understand the highest Art is connecting people and receiving compensation for that Connection.

Being more than a cog in someone else’s plan takes determination.

It can be hard, and we shouldn’t have to claw for respect.

We want to be out there doing our best work, not dealing with human-children and their baggage.

Should we be allowed to speak to these incidents when they happen so often, to so many of us, every day?

My Creative Foundation builds Meaningful Interactive Multimedia Promotions.?

But I’ve had a few ‘dark nights of the soul’ deciding if I even wanted to build this company. I knew, if I did, ~I~ needed to change too.

There was much I needed to learn and relearn, about Design, Content, Psychology, Communication.

Research that’s been my sole focus for 3 years.

While I am equal parts Artist and Engineer, I learned early on that Function should come before Form, Substance before Style. I have no interest in assisting vapid minds, forging hollow ideas.

100% of the Clients we had at our last company were maladjusted humans who figured out how they could make some coin, but languished as they never built a Personality, and never REALLY built a Business (they had an expensive hobby).

When their lack of procedure, pattern, or personality failed them (because the world changes every day), they could not see the fault was within them, within their lack of ego and understanding.

They think the same procedures that helped them dig this hole, are the same that will get them out.

This is only true of ONE Discipline, the Humility to keep Learning, and Growing.

Often they lack the will, or no one ever told them, we are to be Lifelong Learners.?

To work on themselves, to go inward, they need to WANT to adapt.

Their POV reinforces their lack of success, as you’ll find they don't have concrete aims or goals. Just “make money”.

So they are stuck being Armchair Entrepreneurs: TV Dinners and Nick at Night.

As you decided to be an Entrepreneur, the job you give yourself should afford you the lifestyle you say you want, and the change you envision for the world.

Seeing common patterns of pestilence within people,? meant I either stop being an Entrepreneur myself (for fear of trading more psychological paint with low quality minds),? or I begin to master practices of Facilitation and Procedure that afford armor against Ignorance.

?[“Do not attribute to malice, what could easily be found in Ignorance”].

It’s why, while studying to build our Creative Agency,? I decided to fold in the Discipline of [Creative] Coaching.?

We focus on Facilitation before Strategy, before Production.?

This acts as a Filter (all initiatives need this),?

to show us the motives of the mind we’re meeting with.?

It also allows us to address some of these mental, foundational, issues early on.

How can I claim I’m helping people, how can I make meaningful media, if I’m connecting their constituents to a corrupt core?

How can I serve and guide if I am not willing to point out pitfalls and potholes?

How can we be different, DO different, if we won’t learn or act differently?

When we ARE a good fit, when our Students are, “HELL YES!”, I CAN do my best work.

I’m not picking on Entrepreneurs.?

I’m picking on small-minds who refuse to adapt.?I used to be one too.

Like I see my mom’s side of the family. They cling to outmoded thinking.?

They are old because they say they are, and now they sit in front of the TV waiting for death.

You are what you feed your head.

That’s an extreme example (but true, and close to me).

While I AM an Absurdist, and a Reductionist, it’s all the same root cause.

We all have an expiration date, and are meant to Stay Curious.

Never settle, never be boring. Always be helping your fellow human.

You are your Brand. Your BRAND is your Story.

This should excite you as you get to be deliberate in building, refining, deciding on what sort of Character people want to think of you and your Work as.

Who are you known for being? How do Others see you?

I want you to know, I have baggage and imperfections too. We all do.

The chips in the lens of your perception are part of your journey.

Largely they are what help make you an Artist and Visionary.

There is no Normal. We all have warped perspective.?

Though some flaws DO need to be buffed out.

You get to TALK about them, as they are genuinely a part of your Story.

They help us relate to you, and you get to set down the mindsets that are not helpful.

Adding Facilitation to our Practice has led to constant Refinement.?

Now when we Converse with our Clients we both come away having grown for the better in our Understanding.

It takes humility, courage, and skill to want to step out from under the traditional model of Employment and Labor and “make your own way”.?

It’s that same courage and exploration that will help you actually build your Character as you decide who you want to be.

I want to give you Clarity in your Choices, and guide you to Insights that make these Patterns of Production, Interactive and Fun!

We’re here to celebrate you!

We’re not a Startup, we’re a “Keep Going”.?

Here to learn more every day!

Who are you becoming?

Let’s Collaborate and Grow Together!

Let's show the world how frelling COOL we are for having existed!