Ep 48: New Opportunities
SUMMARY
Are you stuck waiting for opportunities to come your way? As creatives, we often fall into the trap of believing that if we just create the right environment, opportunities will magically appear when the universe decides we're ready. But what if I told you that's not how successful creatives build their careers?
In this episode of Creativity Made Easy, we're diving deep into a simple but powerful framework that will transform how you approach new opportunities in your creative business. Whether you're a designer, photographer, writer, or any type of creative entrepreneur, this method will help you stop waiting and start creating the opportunities you deserve.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⚡️ Opportunity is created, not waited for – Stop believing the universe will deliver opportunities when you're ready. You create opportunities through intentional preparation, execution, and repetition.
⚡️ The time to act is now – Execution requires taking action today, not tomorrow. Overthinking and waiting for the "perfect moment" will keep you stuck in creative paralysis.
⚡️ Consistency beats perfection – Building a library of consistent execution over time creates trust and confidence that leads to bigger and better opportunities.
NOTABLE QUOTES
💬 "Nothing of significance comes from a lack of preparation. If you desire new opportunities to come your way, you must prepare. There's no magic sauce. The magic is the hard work."
💬 "The time to execute is today, right now, not later today, not after you get back from lunch, not tomorrow when things may or may not be a little more clear on your calendar."
💬 "Creativity is a marathon, not a sprint. To get opportunities that you crave, you gotta show some sort of consistency if you want to play the long game."
EPISODE RESOURCES
⚡️ Learn the DO vs DUE Framework that works with any project management system
⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here
TRANSCRIPT
Creativity Made Easy Podcast - Episode 48: New Opportunities
Welcome back, everyone, to the Creativity Made Easy podcast. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative coach and consultant. So very excited to be with you today for episode 48. We're going to talk about new opportunities. We're a full week now into the new year. So what new opportunities have you already begun creating for yourself?
I think oftentimes, if we're honest as creatives, we kind of get stuck in a mindset that if we're faithful to just kind of create things in the right environment for an opportunity to come, then it will come when the universe is ready for us to have it, right? I don't really believe that. I believe that opportunity comes per, I'm going to put emphasis on that word we're gonna talk about in a second. I believe that opportunity becomes per what we prepare, execute, and repeat.
A couple of announcers before we get into today's episode. I want to remind you that I'm here to help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can create greater things together. Y'all today, when this comes out on Thursday, January 11th, we are only one week away from our online workshop, Increase Your Creative Output. It's an online workshop I'm doing January 18th, 2024 on how to use the DO versus DUE framework, the DO versus the DUE framework in any creative context, no matter what project management system you may or may not be using.
In just one short hour, I'm gonna help you transform your creative flow like never before with a simple shift in your approach. The online workshop will be available on demand after the live event to those who are registered. So register now at dustinpead.com. You should see a pop-up ad when you go there, but if you don't, you can click on the store button and register there.
If you're listening on an audio podcast platform, thank you so much for doing that. Really appreciate it. We release a new content every Thursday. Would love for you to leave a five-star review. Super helps get this content out even further. If you are watching on YouTube, I'm so glad that you're here with us as well. Would love for you to like, subscribe, ring the bell, all those types of things to be notified whenever we drop these things. Or in this case, if you were perusing YouTube, by the time this comes out, if you were perusing it last night, you saw that I decided to just go live with this recording and see if anybody hops on and says anything while I'm talking. And if they do, I will chime that in as appropriate.
Last thing, DustinPead.com for a free consultation on your creative process and work. I would love to help you or your team take their creative output to the next level. So check that out today.
All right, onto the show for today, new opportunities. I remember when I took my first full-time creative job, it was a position at a church and the entire creative department was under my purview. It was very exciting, but I was also extremely overwhelmed. I had no idea where to start.
You ever had that before where you're on the precipice of something amazing and you know you need to take the first step, but you're kind of paralyzed by the overwhelming nature of what may or may not be ahead of you. Maybe the fear of failure, it may be the weight of the project, whatever it is. You ever been there before where you're just kind of frozen in time for a second because you're not quite sure what to do first. It's kind of overwhelming, right? Kind of like taking an IKEA furniture item out of a box and going, I don't know what to do first.
Well, let me just share with you today a simple word that you can use to remember what to do when you don't know what to do. And the word is per, P-E-R. Now look at the definition for per and it says it means for each. Like if you were gonna get gas today, you would say it costs $3 and whatever cents per gallon, for every gallon it's gonna cost you that amount of money. So for each is what it means. But I love that it means for each because this is to be used for each time you feel stuck.
So for each time that you feel stuck, I want you to think of that word per. And obviously it's an acronym, right? I'm a church guy, been doing church ministry for a long time. So it's gonna be an acronym. Just gonna go ahead tell you that right now. P-E-R is what we're gonna be into.
So the first thing you need to do to get into some new opportunities or as you approach new opportunities is you need to prepare. Nothing, I believe this, nothing of significance comes from a lack of preparation. If you desire new opportunities to come your way, you must prepare. There's no magic sauce. The magic is the hard work. We always say plan the work and work the plan. So if you're going to be successful in this new opportunity, you have to prepare.
All right, the second letter in the word per is E, so P-E-R, first is prepare. The second is this, execute. Execute. Planning is certainly vital, but without action steps in the right direction, the plans are all done in vain. Execution comes from discipline, heads down, focused, intentional priorities, accountability, boundaries. You've got to get it done. The time is now, not tomorrow. I'm gonna say that again, creative. The time to execute is today, right now, not later today, not after you get back from lunch, not tomorrow when things may or may not be a little more clear on your calendar. The time to create is right now.
I love one of my partners, Blake Baer always says to create quick because you don't second guess yourself. So the time to create is now. First thing you need to do when you're approaching new opportunities is you need to prepare and then it's time to execute. P-E-R.
The R is simple. Repeat it. Repeat it. It's the rinse and repeat cycle. Consistency and repetition is key here. You can't do this once a week and expect many results. Okay? You must rinse and repeat this. Prepare, execute, prepare, execute, prepare, execute constantly. You gotta rinse and repeat daily. It's a marathon. Creativity is a marathon, not a sprint.
Okay. To get opportunities that you crave, you gotta show some sort of consistency if you want to play the long game. Once that library of trust is stocked full of execution, you're able to step back and you're able to see your results after, after all this time that you constantly prepared and executed, prepared and executed. It's going to be amazing. You're going to have so much more confidence. The results are going to come.
Listen, even if it's not the way that you originally envisioned it, I know you as well as I know myself as a creative that the way that we often envision the thing coming out hardly ever comes out that way. A lot of times it comes out better. Sometimes it comes out worse, but listen, the results are going to come. If you can put in the exit, put in this exercise every single time you have new opportunities put in front of you. If you prepare, execute, repeat, prepare, execute, repeat every single time. You will crush your creative process. It is as simple as that.
All right, so start today, prepare, execute, repeat. Listen, if you are afraid to take this journey on your own or you have got a little bit more to it than that, I'm all ears. I'm here to help. So I would ask you to reach out to me at DustinPead.com. Book a free call, let's talk, let's see how we can help you prepare, execute and repeat for what fits your culture best, all right?
So one last reminder before we wrap up today's episode, I wanna remind you one week from today in the afternoon of January 18th, we are going to have an Increase Your Creativity Output Workshop. Right, it'll be a private link sent directly to you. There is on-demand feature. Afterwards, you did register for the workshop, can register at dustinpead.com. Should be a pop-up ad that comes up. If you don't see that, just go to dustinpead.com slash store and you'll see it right there under the events section.
Let's make 2024 the year that we execute great ideas. I'm so excited to be with you in this year and this journey. Let's keep going, folks. Let's keep creating the things we need you to keep creating. Don't give up, prepare, execute, repeat. We'll talk to you next week on Creativity Made Easy.