Creativity

These narratives keep you from doing anything with your work. You tell yourself the work has to be good before anyone sees it. Being creative got filed under “things I do if I have extra time,” and there is never extra time. You compare your rough draft to everyone else’s edited highlight reel. It’s safer to not really try, because a half-effort that fails tells you nothing, but a full effort might. You tell yourself there’s so many others doing it that you’ll just be lost in the crowd. You tell yourself “It will never pay the bills.” You say, “I could do X better if only I had Y” — maybe a better camera or more light. You are waiting for X to happen, for the perfect time.

None of these are solved by more willpower or simply working harder.

A creativity coach isn’t a teacher. We aren’t here to teach you the craft or skills. We aren’t here to work with you on your art, whatever form it may take. We are here to help you ask the questions to figure out what you’re really trying to say with it. We help you understand how to win the battle against your insecurities and doubts so that you actually get to work creating.

You get better not by chasing perfection, but by chasing quantity and collecting meaningful feedback along the way. Iteration, repetition, helps you improve. We help you decide if you are creating the art you want to make versus the art you think there’s a market for. If you can focus on creating for an ideal audience, rather than trying to appeal to everyone, you can make your message stronger, deeper. Trying to appeal to everyone leads to work that is too diluted to appeal to anyone. You need to figure out what you’re trying to say, and who you’re trying to say it to.

Then of course is the hard reality that the creativity itself doesn’t often put food on the table. The business of creativity is intimidating because that’s real work, and work that you might never have learned how to do. Creative work itself is often discounted by others for the effort, skill, and years of foundational work required to be able to create high quality work, because they can't see it. The mindset that potential clients often have, that, “Anyone can pick up a camera and take a great photo,” is a barrier to getting a client to actually pay living rates for the work a photographer does. This is just as true in any creative field.

Creative coaching has two core pieces: how can we help you to win the inner battle and actually create the art that you want to be creating, to say what you really want to be saying; and how do we help you to do this while still being able to keep a place to live and food on the table. Both of these are foundational to enabling you to have success and to be the artist that you want to be.

Stoic wisdom holds that only the work is ours, its outcome and reception are out of our hands. We can help you understand the work you need to do in order to become financially successful as a creative. We can help you determine the outcomes that mean something to you from your creative work. What is the difference in importance to you about satisfaction with what you have created, and the way in which the world reacts to what you have created?

Who tends to come here? Writers with a manuscript that’s been “almost done” for two years. Artists who are trying to find their style, their voice. Anyone trying to find a way to take their creative passion and find a way to turn it into something they can do full-time, rather than just in the margins of their life.

What are the things you’re telling yourself about why you aren’t pursuing your creativity?