As a “creative” and “adult” (heavy on the air quotes), it’s so important to find time to grow and expand your thinking. I’m really trying to do better with professional development and nurturing creativity, so I’m getting into the habit of continuously practicing this. (Shoutout To Amanda Seales)
In 2019, I went to a conference called Creative Works and I went again this year! At this point, I’m calling it Creative Camp because it’s a moment where I can (hopefully) log off and just not work. Overall, I did learn a bit but now I’m wondering if I’m past the point of desiring inspiration and into the space of honing in on improving my skillset? At what point, do we need people to constantly inspire us to actually do the work? Am I completely over the conference and empowerment brunch scene? Are the influencers speaking on stages really tiring me out? I’ll share my thoughts on the state of conferences/speakers/life in another post but for nowwwwww, let’s get into a recap of my favorite moments from Creative Camp.
“Find some time to do something”
Boredom, Tyler the Creator
Day 1
Spoiler Alert… I had the chance to chat with Alicia, Mary Kate, and Mia right after Mary Kate’s talk so my opinions are biaseddddd. The moments in between the conference are truly the moments that matter the most. You’ll forget the speaker presentations (unless you took notes) but the connection you made are the ones you won’t forget.
Alicia Coleman: Build Your Own Rainbow Road
Alicia Coleman is a DJ and Art Director at Sesame Street. She shared how during the pandemic she started DJ’ing by gaining tools and support from friends/community members. When people talk about the power of community, I’m 90% certain that they’re talking about Alicia’s journey into DJ’ing.
Overall, her session really focused on finding/creating your Rainbow Road (i.e. your passions) and following it. You truly never know where they’ll take you! I’m learning more and working through developing my passion, so her session reminded me that the journey is in creating your passion and something that needs to be worked at daily.
My version of joy is all mine, and it’s on me to figure it out.
Alicia Coleman
Mary Kate McDevitt: Roll With It.. and Then Some More
Mary Kate’s presentation was really epic in the sense that her deck built upon itself. I find that these are so cool because I can really keep up with them. “Roll With It” became “Roll With It, Gain Momentum” and then “Roll With It, Gain Momentum, Crash and Burn Out.” Kind of like how you can pick up on a song’s chorus after hearing it once because it’s consistent and you know where it’ll be placed? If I ever give a talk for anything, I plan on using this format. (writing now so that I can remember later).
On to her actual talk, haha. She shared a small collection of work and how she gained the client, while injecting quick phrases and learning points throughout. Maybe I’m burnt out and this resonated a lot with me, but she talked about things that she did during her “Roll With It, Gain Momentum, Crash and Burn Out” era. I’ll leave you with these 🙂
- Not taking time for yourself.
- Working inconsistent hours.
- Ignoring personal relationships.
- Not doing personal work.
- Letting social media dictate your value.
Day 2
Paulette Perhach: Locus of Control
I left her session with ten steps that I can take to start my own adventure. I love it when people give me the TLDR because it reminds me of church sermons haha (some of you will catch this on the way home). Sometimes I feel that I listen to people speak and get lost in their stories, ultimately losing the takeaway.
Her session also has me wondering if I have an affinity to hearing writers explain their thinking and reasoning? In 2019, my favorite session at Creative Works was Tina Essmaker‘s. I still reference my notes from her session on creativity and wish I could’ve afforded her workshop To. This. Day.
Back to Paulette. She listed 10 lessons that she learned from offroading and how it applies to your creative life. The one that stuck out to me the most was “Just Start The Car.” It’s so easy to talk about what you want to do (and frankly I’m kind of tired with it), so if you’re reading this let’s all agree to start the damn car and go for it. (Thx in advance).
Just Start The Car: Whatever the car is, whatever your thing is. Just start doing it. “You get better at the thing by doing the thing.” PREACH PAULETTE PREACH!
I will also admit that I printed out a cute car that I’ll eventually get one day and taped it to my wall with ” Just Start the Car Dammit” over it. Photo below of the file if anyone wants it.
Procrastination who? Imposter Syndrome where? (don’t mind me, I’m just hyping myself up)
Ken Barber’s Lettering Workshop
I’m going to hold on sharing more about this when I have more images and progress on my lettering. I think it’s kind of wack to tell you that I took a lettering workshop and show off my sloppy skills from that day. I really like process, learning about process, and observing details so I’ll show off my hobby later. Give me a few months to get better, and then we can have a full discussion about this.
In the meantime, if you take nothing from Day 2 consider going to a workshop. One of THE most frustrating things for me is having ideas and not having enough knowledge to execute or relate the idea to someone else with the expertise to make it happen. This is why education, workshops, etc. are important. (Not sure if it’s possible), but if you can’t afford the conference go to a workshop and invest in yourself that way. You can still meet people, get 1:1 time with a speaker, and really hone in your skills.
Day 3
Before I write about these two, I’m just going to leave you with these screenshots of my notes. I think that hands down these speakers were the best to me, since I even color coded my notes. Y’all, I added color.
Taamrat Amaize of Collins:Drive the Inevitable
Being super transparent here, I literally work at an ad agency. I work with strategists all doggone day man. Give. Me. A. Break. Yet, I think this session has the most photos/videos in my phone. HA. Talk about expectations right?
Case studies done well. I love them. I live for them. Explain it all to me please! Thank you Taamrat.
Collins is an ad agency based in New York. Taamrat is their Head of Strategy and she shared some of the details behind the brief and work they completed for Equinox’s New Years Campaign. Out of respect for their work, I won’t share too many details as I think some of the thinking is confidential and proprietary. So I’ll leave you with a list of questions/ thoughts that I have. But I will say that if Taamrat speaks anywhere else, google her, listen. You’ll learn so much.
- Who are you for? Who are your people? Figure out your true audience.
- What are you against? Again everything is not for everyone, you can’t be everything to everyone. Pick a side.
- What do you believe? This will help you relate to your audience.
A brand is a promise performed consistently over time.
Taamrat Amaize
Josh Emrich: Prodigy Problem
Sit down because I might actually write a lot on this session. Sorry in advance, but if you’ve made it this far I truly appreciate you and I promise this is the end.
I felt so seen, so understood, so related to in this session. Josh began by explaining the differences between a polymath and specialist (ie. prodigy) and later shared benefits of being the former. I’ve felt that my success, my achievements, etc. have gone under the radar for so long because I wasn’t a “prodigy”, a specialist, or a _____ under _____. There’s so much darn pressure on being great at a young age, and every year we notice this when the annual lists come out highlighting great people for completing work by a certain age. Josh pointed out that by adopting a polymath mindset, you’re avoiding limiting identities, becoming an expert in learning, and developing your analogically reasoning skills.
One polymath is more likely to have repeated success than a team of specialists from one domain.
Josh Emrich
Okay, so Josh has validated my need for acceptance. But how tf do I embrace this?
- Stack your skills.
- Know when to quit and know when to stick.
- Cultivate self efficacy.
- Learn to walk through the doors that are open now.
- Understand that failure is necessary for the creative process.
How do you know when to quit?
- When you’re bored and no longer curious
- The opportunity Costs? Sunk Costs
- Save Your Grit for something else
- Know when to repot (like a plant)
How do you know when to stick to something?
- You’re curious.
- There’s room to grow.
- When self doubt kicks in. (I thought Jesus would come back before I heard this.)
But let’s think through #3 a little more. Self doubt might be the key to exploration and growth. There’s a certain drive that kicks in when you feel that you know nothing and have everything to prove. By reframing my doubt as an opportunity to grow, you treat things differently. Josh mentioned “finding new ways to fail” and there’s a certain sense of risk and growth that comes with that.
TL DR:
Find new ways to fail and start the car dammit.
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