Lessons from Creativity: Why I made stuff in 2020

Around January this year, I decided to commit to creativity. What resulted is creating over 100+ pieces of content (podcasts, videos, animations, presentations, and graphics). It ended up becoming a beacon in this dark, scary, and oddly inspiring year. At the beginning of the year, I began to work on two creative projects. Both were podcasts, one with my son Cole called "Soda and Son." And the other with my industry friend and favorite conversationalist, Mwangi, called "Probability Matters." Throughout the year, I started to work on other smaller projects as well. If you are expecting to read something like "how I turned my passion into hard cash and made a million dollars," then stop here. I have done none of that. Many articles encouraging people to foster their creativity are internet snipe hunts guided by coveted likes and aspirational quotes. They all predictably end with promises of great riches or happiness if you buy their book or course. I am writing this to defend raw passioned creativity and the lessons that I have learned from following mine. 

Why does creativity need to be defended? Because elements of self-doubt and cowardice are within all of us. You have already experienced these in a variety of flavors today. They come in macro "voice in your head swirl" and micro "subconscious crunch" flavors. These baseline fear emotions are hard-wired in us as humans to survive. However, if they go unchecked, they can silence influential voices that are important for happiness and the overall human experience. It is so easy to put your brain on autopilot, to go with the flow. Those bitterly sweet emotions will assure you that "the box" is cozy and warm, so please sleep, eat, and stay within it. Over time, these toxic sugars will chronically poison essential areas of your brain. Homogony is the silent killer of happiness. Consider the following a passioned first-hand narrative of the benefits of leaving the comfy four walls: 

Lesson #1: Creativity isn't comfortable, and it shouldn't be: Creativity in it's most raw form is ugly and quite revealing. Just putting an idea out into the world, be it in conversation, whiteboard, PowerPoint, or notebook, can be a frightening and tiring process. Your dedication will bring a rewarding feeling of giving one of those thoughts a shot at a life outside of your head. 

Lesson #2: Jump on two: While I have never been sky diving, I distinctly recall someone telling me the benefits of a lesson they learned from "jumping on two." Jumping on two says that if you wait until one, often you won't jump at all. Taking that leap of faith commits you to a process and an idea. You get off of your ass and start doing. However, sometimes you do land flat on your face (see next lesson)

Lesson #3: You will make terrible stuff: Yes, you read that correctly; not all ideas are good ones. Even if you spend hours on something, it will now be a pile of garbage with a timesheet. Sometimes the bad ones bubble up to the surface early. Take, for example, this summer when I made a 7-minute "Wizard of Oz" themed video for a virtual conference; yes, it happened. Or the time I decided to make a 3-minute fake infomercial for data and set up a phone number at my company. In hindsight, these were bad ideas, but I dared to put them out and learn from them. 

Lesson #4: "That's exactly what I had in my head": There is that moment on each project where the hard work pays off. You see the final image, hear the broadcast, or watch the video, and BAM! you did it! The experience of transforming a raw naked idea into a beautifully clothed and fully-formed idea is fantastic. Challenging yourself and your vision will make your mind work. You soon discover that there are a lot of unused muscles. Muscles that you regularly exercise in your youth have suffered a professional job's couch potato syndrome. Knowing that "you still got it" is essential. It reminds you that you can make something from nothing. Inspiration and satisfaction are a blank sheet away.

Lesson #5: You can't trade hard work for likes: Earlier this year, I worked for roughly 9 hours on a project about mental health. I carefully created each element by hand; the message was from the heart. Accordingly, I poured myself into it. I was hoping others would see it and start conversations or be inspired. While some folks were impacted, what transpired was that it got minimal traction.

Conversely, a picture that took me 2 seconds to take and post gained significantly more traction and likes. Yes, a simple picture of me in a hoodie. One of the most popular content pieces was a horrible video of me with a blurred lens and echoing background. Be careful how much value you place in an emoji-based currency or acceptance. We are not in a meritocracy relative to the input that translated to the output. Make good content regardless of the likes, don't fish for likes because that can lead to rotten bait.

Recently a friend of mine had a beautiful quote "Making things creates energy and hope". I love that quote. Be mindful that some view that passage as "making things creates negative energy and others hope it would go away." Bad ideas and septic reactions are part of the process. Some provide these reactions out of hate others do it out of love. Don't fool yourself that you are entitled to a warm reception or positivity. You are not; buckle up for the bumpy road of creativity.

Lesson #6: You owe it to yourself to be yourself: If you can't be your true self in your work or life, there are subtle chronic erosions that occur. Your sense of self and potential happiness can start to slide down a hill. Furthermore, if we are frequently code-switching, we deprive others of opportunities to understand and develop empathy for those with a different perspective of any situation. Creativity is a beautiful tool to communicate views to others different or similar to yourself.

Lesson #7: "Work, Work, Work": Garbage In, Garbage Out is a classic business saying that will always get head nods. The same applies to your creative endeavors. If you want to help communicate your message, invest time refining your ideas, and developing your skill. The time spent learning new programs or watching tutorials will pay dividends over time. As you become polished, your strange ideas become more digestible to your audience. To quote my girl Rihanna "Work, Work, Work," don't keep putting out crap content; figure out how you can improve each week. Creativity is an ever-winding path, not a destination with a beach where you can get a tan.

Lesson #8: "TRUST THE PROCESS": As you continue to create, start to develop a creative process. Always "winging it" is a bad habit to fall into; accordingly, your content will suffer. If you are unsure what a creative process looks like, allow me to share mine: 

1. Inspiration: When an idea pops up, I write it down immediately. As it ruminates in my head, I then work to have a mind-mapping exercise. Many fantastic associations come into existence, and the idea starts to come to life. 
2. Ideation: As I work to refine my idea, I look to other areas to gather inspiration. The amount of weird internet searches for imagery is staggering. It is during this time that I start to get clarity around how the idea will look. So many strange images and feelings from your life can come up during this time. 
3. Creation: With the idea now refined, I then jump into making mode. So many people (myself included) often skip the first two steps and dive right into creating. Devoid of the first two steps, you will spend endless hours frustrated that you can't quite make it as you thought. It took me far too long to realize that I needed a more robust process. Initially, I might create a few different versions before committing to a final project.

Lesson #9: Each project is a new beginning: If your last project sucked, congratulations, you get to start over again. There is so much value in a blank page and a clean slate. Once you begin your inspiration and ideation, the failures or misses disappear as the new idea grows legs and starts walking around. Don't let those feelings of disappointment or regret get in the way of this new stumbling idea. Learn from the past and move on. Make something awesome and cheer on your idea as it begins to run wild in your head. 

Lesson #10: Spread the love: Do you ever have that experience when you notice a specific type of car, and then for the next few days, all you do is see more of those cars as you drive around? It is crazy how many things in life we walk by without noticing. My point here is that once you start to create and make things, you develop an appreciation and empathy for those treading the same path. Every designed and sometimes weird project starts to become more beautiful. With this newfound appreciation and knowledge, begin to spread the love. Take a few minutes to listen to the speech, song, video, etc. Let someone know that you admire their hard work or that you appreciate the work they put in. 

We need to lift every maker and creator's spirits so that this beautiful manifestation that is uniquely human can survive. 

If you made it to the end of this article, you are likely one of those people. Thank you for taking the time to read. Hopefully, this was helpful in some way. I would sincerely love to hear about your projects, passions, or processes. Keep making things. I will leave you with my computer wallpaper. It is my son continually reminding me to "MAKE" with child-like wonder and enthusiasm.  

Much Love, 

Kyle