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Avoiding Project Scope Creep
Client Management 101
As a creative professional, managing clients is just as crucial to your success as honing your craft. Client management goes beyond delivering excellent work—it’s about
setting expectations
building relationships
and ensuring a smooth collaboration process.
Vacationing Well
Self Reflection
Self-reflection is the practice of looking inward and examining your thoughts, emotions, and actions. It involves asking yourself probing questions about your experiences and behaviors to gain a clearer understanding of who you are and how you operate. For creatives, this introspective process can reveal insights into what drives their passion, what blocks their creativity, and how they can better harness their unique talents.
Family Values
I get a lot of questions about our family values. How we came up with them, how we use them consistently, and why we decided they were important to have. So I thought I’d share a brief post answering those questions and maybe inspire you along the way to consider your own family values.
Top 10 Tools for COO’s
I love a good top 10 list, don’t you? I thought it would be fun to spend the next few weeks listing out some Top 10 Resources for you in the area of Creative Process. Since I get to serve as a Fractional COO (Chief Operating Officer) for a few clients, I thought I would start there. Here’s my top 10 tools for COO’s:
Future You
Most of us KNOW what we ought to do, but for whatever reason we put it off, trading it for anxiety about things out of our control. And while the future is not completely in your control, you can set up your future self for success.
The Calm Before The Storm
The storm refers to the times of sheer chaos: project overload, miscommunication, and oversights. The average percentage of stormy weather for most creatives is about nine months out of the year. In the three months of calm, we can often be misled as if we have conquered the storm, but those more experienced know this is a farce, that the storm is only in a holding pattern until it returns its wrath once more with a vengeance.
Intentional: The Word of the Year
If you’ve been reading my content for more than a few months, you know that in 2023 my phrase, stolen from a good friend of mine, was “WORK HARD. TRUST GOD.” While I have carried that mantra into 2024, the real theme of all of my goals this year is intentionality, thus my word of the year is INTENTIONAL.
Find Your People
In the Wild West of creativity, there exists a powerful force that fuels inspiration, growth, and fulfillment: connection. For us creatives, finding our people – a community of kindred spirits, collaborators, and supporters – is not just a luxury but a necessity.
The Habit of Planning
Scheduled Incubation
The truth is, our naiveté about deep work is probably just jealousy. Jealous that they were somehow able to carve out the time to make such strides on a project or vision that we wish we had the time for.
Batching Tasks
Fractional Help
The Lost Art of Completing
We don’t have a shortage of ideas, but we do have a shortage of completion. We tend to give up or move on to the latest great idea before we ever complete anything. What’s left is a pile of half-realized concepts that never see the light of day. Think of all the things you thought about, maybe even began, creating only to abandon ship before it arrives at port.
The Secret To Your Greatest Creative Success
We often think that in order to counteract this perception we must get louder, bolder, stronger; and establish our dominance as the almighty creative who doesn’t get questioned: “Don’t look behind the curtain! Fear me!”
The reality is the secret to your greatest creative success isn’t you proving or producing anything else.
Think BIG and Follow Through
Creativity is the lifeblood of innovation, and for creative professionals, thinking big and following through are crucial steps in turning imaginative ideas into reality. In a world that constantly craves fresh perspectives and novel concepts, creative individuals have the power to shape the future. Let’s explore how creatives can cultivate a mindset that encourages thinking big and the strategies to ensure those grand ideas come to fruition.
From Chaos to Clarity: Unleashing Your Creative Potential
Are you tired of juggling multiple clients and feeling overwhelmed by the demands of your creative work? After 20 years as a creative professional, let me be your guide to turning creative chaos into clarity.
I believe that creative work should thrive, not just survive. You can get there. It IS possible. You CAN experience the freedom to create at the level you know you can.
You can do it. I can help.
Increase Your Creative Output
Creatives don’t face an idea generation problem, we face an execution problem. You have some of the best ideas that many will never know about because of your weakness in execution. I can help you fix that. After 20 years as a professional creative, I’m turning my attention to the creatives who need help turning their ideas into reality.
New Year, New Opportunities
We’re a full week into the new year. What new opportunities have you already begun creating for yourself?
Often, we as creatives get stuck in a mindset that if we are faithful to creating the right environment for an opportunity to come, then it will come when the universe is ready for us to have it.
I don’t believe that. I believe opportunity comes PER what we prepare, execute, and repeat.