13 For ‘13: Thirteen Books That Can Change Your Life in 2013 (If You Actually Read Them)

Todd Cherches on January 14, 2013

Every year it’s the same thing. We start out the New Year filled with good intentions, high hopes, and a formidable list of life-changing resolutions. And for an indomitable few, those resolutions result in positive changes and personal growth. But for the rest of us, life tends to get in the way.

Before we know it, January is over and February flies by (it’s such a short month!). Then the spring holidays come along. Then it’s summer, and… well, you know the rest. That pledge to “start tomorrow” just leads to the eventual realization that today is yesterday’s tomorrow. So, what can we do about it?

We can start today. For real. Right now.

What we need to do is go from “resolutions” to “real solutions.” And one real-life solution that really works, is easy to do, and can kick-start us into action, is to start reading. And my recommendation is to start your New Year’s reading with any one of the 13 inspirational and motivational books on this list. Read More →

Community Profile | Jeremy Goren: Marketing Gun, Director of You Will Make A Difference

Ryan Galloway on October 11, 2012

To kick off our Community Profile series, we caught up with Jeremy Goren, a longtime Gun who’s made a daring foray into theater direction. In his professional life, Jeremy was a market research specialist for a number of big-name Wall Street firms. But before we get into the interview, here’s the skinny on his directorial debut:

Drawing on material as diverse as Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, medieval pageant plays, ’90s suburbia, My So-Called Life, and the performers’ own stories, You Will Make a Difference explores our current moment – career, love, babies and success. An ensemble leads its audience through various spaces on several floors of the beautiful West Park Presbyterian Church. Formed over an atypical, six-month process, this collaboratively devised performance invites the audience on a journey to discover where they really are. The communal ending of You Will Make a Difference includes a small, shared meal, along with music and a hoedown or some other happening, to create an experience unlike any other. Artist/chef Anne Apparu will also create full meals as part of extended performances on October 20th and November 11th. Tickets and further information are available here. Read More →

Why It Takes Moxie To Be In Digital

Sheryl Victor Levy on September 19, 2012

I recently spoke at Moxie Camp, a women’s leadership conference and I can say — and I think many of my digital colleagues would agree — it takes moxie to be in Digital. A lot of it. When I think of having moxie, it’s about having the courage to go into uncharted territory; being comfortable with having to say, “Let me get back to you on that,” and having serious get-up-and-go. Dictionary.com’s definitions for “moxie” are: “vigor; verve; pep; courage and aggressiveness; nerve, skill; know-how.”

Yep. That’s what I’m saying.

You’re paid to be an expert in “All Things D.” From digital strategy to CRM; from social media to product development. It’s a broad term, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

I can speak from personal experience as someone who works in an agency setting, but Ferris Bueller said it best (I paraphrase, obviously): “Digital moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Read More →

The Results of Our #6wordCV Contest Are In…

The Hired Guns on September 18, 2012

In case you missed it, The Guns launched a search for the best #6wordCV yesterday. We got a lot of really great submissions — some serious, some not so serious — from our Twitter network. It was a tough call, but Larry Smith, inventor of the Six-Word Memoir Project and the brilliant mind behind tomorrow’s What’s Your Story? class, has spoken.

Congratulations, @vdlr. Your #6wordCV took first prize:

“Digital storyteller igniting innovation, strategy, analytics.”

In Larry’s own words, “the specificity of it, as well as the art of what person can do for their clients” was the clincher. In addition to having something to lord over all her friends for eternity, she also wins free admission to Larry’s class tomorrow night. Read More →

Larry Smith: On Tomorrow’s Class, Knowing Yourself, and Keeping it Simple

The Hired Guns on September 18, 2012

We sat down with Larry Smith, our coach for tomorrow’s What’s Your Story? course, to talk about work, life, and presenting it all in just six words.

What is a Six-Word Memoir®?
Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. As the legend goes, he wrote: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” In November 2006, at the online storytelling community I founded called SMITH Magazine, we gave the six-word story a personal twist, calling it a “Six-Word Memoir.” (And partnering with a little-know company called Twitter for what was supposed to be just a one-month contest to win an iPod). The idea is as simple as it sounds: tell the story of your life in exactly six words. Those six words can be an attempt to sum up your whole life — think of it as the title of your autobiography or epitaph on your tombstone, as Mario Batali did when he wrote, “Brought it to a boil often” — or one aspect of your personal life (“According to Facebook we broke up”) or professional life (“I tell amazing stories in PowerPoint”).

How does it help professionals refine their personal brand?
The parameters of just six words help you get to the essence of who you are and what you do best. Ever notice that the higher up you get on the ladder, the shorter your emails and meetings can be? Being brief, precise and very much in tight control of your own personal story is a boon for anyone in any part of their life — from your online dating profile to your resume. Read More →

Six-word CVs, Four New Classes, and One Chance to Win.

The Hired Guns on September 14, 2012

As impossible as it may seem, summer’s already over. It’s time to put away the board shorts and flip flops and start thinking seriously about honing your professional skills. But unlike your kids, your fall schedule has something to look forward to. This fall, The Hired Guns Academy offers four distinct courses to help you take the next step in your career.

First off is What’s Your Story? Master the Art of the Elevator Pitch and Harness the Power of Short-Storytelling. On Wednesday, September 19, Larry Smith, founder of SMITH magazine and author of It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, helps you hone your “elevator pitch” and teaches you how to make it “flex” depending on the audience you’re speaking to and the stage of your career you’re in, so people remember your name and what you do best. Sign up here.

But wait – there’s more (yes, we just went there.) We want you to take a crack at crafting your own six-word CV. Make them funny, make them heart-wrenching, make them suit-and-tie serious — just make sure they sell you in just six words. Tweet them @TheHiredGuns using #6wordCV, email them to us at hired.guns.editorial@gmail.com, or just leave them in the comments below. The best six-word CV, as determined by our eminently qualified and highly vetted panel of celebrity judges, wins free admission to Larry’s September 19 class. We’ll share the best submissions on our blog, but only the best six words will win. Read More →

THG @SXSW: Get a Creativity Tune-Up

Noah Scalin on March 2, 2012

In the days leading up to SXSW Interactive, we’ve been looking at the Hired Guns and Hired Guns pals who will be there. Up today: artist Noah Scalin:

Unstuck: Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing
Friday, March 9, 3:30
Book signing: 4:05
Presenter: Noah Scalin

Your Twesume
(your resume in 140 characters or less):
Artist, designer, activist, and author of 365: A daily creativity journal and Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work, & in your Studio. I made a skull a day for a year and it changed my life!

Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
I wanted a chance to share my story with the terrific range of folks that SXSW attracts; and of course I love having the excuse to visit Austin again! Read More →

The Leadership Journey: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words, and Hours of Discussion

Todd Cherches on January 13, 2012

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that leadership is not a destination . . . but a journey. I’m not exactly sure who “they” are, but regardless of who said what, there’s something moving and memorable about the power of a beautiful, colorful visual image like this one — and a simple, thought-provoking metaphor.

In my leadership workshops, as well as in the NYU graduate course I teach on “Transformational Leadership and Team Building,” we spend almost an hour discussing — and pretty much an entire semester referring back to — the single, powerful metaphor that we refer to as “The Leadership Journey.” “An hour on one simple picture? How can that be?” you might be wondering. Read More →

De Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”: A Powerful Visual Thinking Method That Will Forever Change the Way You Think

Todd Cherches on November 21, 2011

Of all the different management, leadership, communication, innovation, and thinking tools, tips and techniques that I’ve learned over the years, nothing has affected me more, or has had more practical applications, than Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats” model.

De Bono, the guru of “thinking about thinking,” originated this framework that I now use, either consciously or unconsciously, literally every single day. It’s one of the best examples of how we can use visual and metaphorical thinking and communicating to solve real-world challenges. Read More →

Bullet Points: Keeping “Venturesome Consumers” on Your Side

The Hired Guns on October 26, 2011

Kelly Eggers has eight rules for networking effectively. The most important might be the last: follow up with your new contacts. “[Get] in touch — within 24 hours — to say you enjoyed meeting them.” [FINS]
Hired Guns pal Scott Belsky, the creator of Behance, on how to harness your online creativity. [Moo]
Still mulling over a Halloween costume? In an effort that Hired Guns blogger Noah Scalin would likely approve of, artist James Kuhn has spent every day this year turning his face into something . . . else. A few samples: Black Swan. Cowboy Clown. Head of Lettuce. [The Hairpin]
From last spring, but still good: why companies like Dropbox have early adopters and America’s other “venturesome consumers” to thank for being able to get off the ground. [The New Yorker]

Get Out! Ditch Your Desk, and Find Inspiration in the Unfamiliar

Noah Scalin on October 25, 2011

The least creative place you can be is most likely where you’re sitting right now.

Like many people, I spend the majority of my workday in one room, sitting in front of a computer. And while my office may be on the more creative end of the spectrum — filled with all manner of interesting objects — it’s still the least inspiring place I find myself on a regular basis.

Workspaces are places of familiarity, but if you’re looking for inspiration, you actually need the exact opposite: an influx of the unknown and a sprinkling of the completely random. And there’s no better way to finding these experiences than just simply getting out of your environment.

For a year, Skull-A-Day, my daily art project, was my excuse to spend part of every day away from my desk. Sometimes it was just going to another part of my office to make something by hand, but very often it required me to get out of the building entirely and spend a some time really paying attention to the world around me. Read More →

To Stay Creative, Let “Preciousness” Go

Noah Scalin on September 26, 2011

Next Monday, October 3, Noah Scalin will teach a Hired Guns Academy class on ways to stay creatively productive.

Are you a perfectionist like me? If you aren’t, I can almost guarantee your company or boss would like you to be one. This is a shame, because perfectionism is probably the biggest roadblock to innovation that you will ever encounter. In fact, letting go of perfectionism, or as I like to call it, preciousness, is the key to unlocking your creative potential.

Over the years we’ve been taught that it’s unacceptable to try out new things that could potentially fail because they will:
A. Waste Time
B. Waste Money
C. Get You Fired
D. All of The Above

So we’ve gotten into the habit of working safely within our comfort zones in order to avoid creating anything that’s less than perfect. This is fine for just getting by, but terrible for moving forward. Read More →

Check Out What The Hired Guns Academy Has in Store for Fall

The Hired Guns on September 22, 2011

Summer’s over — it’s time to hit the books.

We have a full roster of classes planned for the fall semester at The Hired Guns Academy. Take a glance at the list below and choose the ones you need to get inspired; learn new, highly marketable skills; or shake up your career and take it in a new direction:

Monday, October 3
Get “Unstuck”: How to Get (And Keep) Your Creativity Flowing
Noah Scalin, the author of Unstuck and 365: A Daily Creativity Journal, will show you how you can keep your creativity going fast and furious.

Thursday, October 27
What’s Your Story? Master the Art of the Elevator Pitch and Harness the Power of Short-Storytelling
Larry Smith, of Smith Magazine and Six-Word Memoirs fame, reveals how telling your story in a concentrated, well thought-out burst can help you stand out from your (much more tongue-tied) peers. You’ll never ever need to break out in a sweat when someone asks you, “So, what do you do?” again.

Wednesday, November 9
Digital Reinvention for Journalists: Transfer the Skills You Already Have to a Career in Digital
Charlie Rogers, who has launched many a publication and website, gives guidance on the traditional skills that translate most easily into digital—as well as the new skills you’ll need to turn yourself into Journalist 2.0 (or 3.0).

Wednesday, November 30
Nail That Presentation! Adding Strength to Your Professional Talks, Appearances, and Job Interviews
This high-energy class by the speech and presentation master Joel Schwartzberg is what you need to make your speeches, presentations, and interviews of all sorts be the powerful, persuasive tools they should be.

Wednesday, December 7
Get Your Blog On: Increase Your Visibility Through Online Publishing
Blogging veteran Bill Brazell gives the lowdown on what it takes to make a new blog succeed rather than flounder.

Getting Unstuck and Keeping Your Creativity Flowing

Noah Scalin on September 21, 2011

On Monday, October 3, Noah Scalin will teach a Hired Guns Academy class on ways to stay creatively productive.

“In every creative person’s life, we arrive occasionally at a place where creativity stops flowing. For a while we’re happily riding a creative wave and then out of the blue—nothing. For a terrifying few hours (or days, or weeks), we think the next idea will never come. We become afraid that our ideas are not good enough and probably never really were good enough. At worst, some of us just give up completely.”–designer Peleg Top from the preface to my book, Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing

Does that sound familiar? It’s definitely a place I have found myself many times over the course of my 17 years as a creative professional. And while I always managed to find the way back to my creative path eventually, it took the unusual commitment of making a skull every day for a year to finally figure out some practical (and reproducible), ways for generating creative energy at a moment’s notice.

Since I can’t put you in a time machine and have you do your own yearlong project, I’ve created the Get Unstuck class as the next best thing. We’ll cover The Big Seven, a set of basic tools for stretching your creative muscles, which I learned during my own creative journey. And then we’ll put those tools into practice, with a hands-on exercise that will get your creative fires stoked and give you some experiences that you can apply to your own work right away.

There’s no need to wait for the muse of inspiration to show up once you learn to turn on your own creative tap. And this is the class that will give you the tools to you get (and keep) your creativity flowing.

To register for “How to Get (And Keep) Your Creativity Flowing,” click here.

The Hired Guns Book Club: Any Questions for The Accidental Creative?

The Hired Guns on September 12, 2011

Just a reminder that over the next few days, Todd Henry, the author of The Accidental Creative, will be happy to take any questions you may have about his book or about creativity in general.

You can post questions and comments for him on Twitter, in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.

If you’re just joining us, here’s where to get up to speed:

Announcing The Hired Guns Book Club: The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 1 of The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 2 of The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 3 of The Accidental Creative

In the News: Diane Vadino’s Intricate Paper Works Take Over Bendel’s

The Hired Guns on September 8, 2011

Today, the artist, novelist, and Hired Gun Diane Vadino will be showing and selling her art as part of the Hester Street Fair’s takeover of Bendel’s, at 5th Avenue and 56th Street. All told, this Fashion’s Night Out event will cover an entire floor of the classic haute-NYC department store.

To sweeten the pot, Diane will be making free “mini-neighborhood maps” — letter-sized cut-paper versions of your nabe, with your home address at the center. Here’s a sample of her work: a detail from her intricate, hand-cut map of Brooklyn neighborhoods:

The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 3 of The Accidental Creative

Allison Hemming on September 5, 2011

Welcome to part 3 of The Hired Guns book club, which covers chapters 8 through 10 of Todd Henry’s The Accidental Creative. This week’s section is about helping you keep hitting your “creative rhythm” by showing you how to tie together the practices that were covered earlier.

(Just joining us? Head to our introductory post about the book.)

In the video below, Todd talks about the use of “checkpoints”—periodic check-ins you schedule with yourself to ensure that all the practices you started are still working. It’s also a time to see if there are any new practices you need to add to your routine. Hint: it’s not about deciding whether or not to take on a new organization system you’ve happened to hear about—it’s about thinking about all the new projects on the horizon and figuring out to make sure you have enough time and energy to accomplish everything that’s important, in your personal as well as professional life.

After you check out Todd’s video, you can post questions for him on Twitter, in the comments below, or on our Facebook page. He’ll be checking in from time to time, and he’d love to hear what you have to say!

Next week, on Monday, September 12, Todd will wrap up the book club by answering any questions you may have, and also talk about ways to extend the lessons in his book.

Previously:
Announcing The Hired Guns Book Club: The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 1 of The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 2 of The Accidental Creative

Also by Todd:
“Be a Laser, Not a Lighthouse” & Other Creative Leadership Essentials
The Accidental Creative: Are You Taking Ground or Just Maintaining It?
“Every Hero Needs a Bad Guy”: Who Are You Fighting Against?

The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 2 of The Accidental Creative

Allison Hemming on August 29, 2011

Welcome to part 2 of the group read for The Accidental Creative. Hope you had a chance to get through chapters 4 through 7 during all the Irene drama, and that you remained safe and dry.

(If you’re new to the book club, first check out our intro post to see what we’re covering.)

For part 2, Todd moves into ways to deal with the “assassins of creativity” he covered in part 1. Step one: defining your job so that you’re working on what’s mission-critical, not what just seems most important or urgent.

Building relationships are also important—despite the stereotype, most creative people need a strong, vibrant network to get their work done. Also discussed: ways to keep up your energy (you may have to prune what you do!), paying attention to what feeds your creative process, and reasons that “efficiency” shouldn’t be the main deciding factor in what you decide to do next.

So please check out the video below, and post questions for Todd on Twitter, in the comments below, or on our Facebook page. He’ll be checking in from time to time.

We’re also interested in finding out what “assassins” you’ve encountered at work, and how you’ve dealt with them.

Next week, in a Labor Day post, Todd will be covering chapters 8-10, which have more ways to keep your creative rhythm going—including using “checkpoints” to keep everything moving smoothly. He will also show you how to put together all that you’ve learned—and give some direction on where to go from here.

Previously:
Announcing The Hired Guns Book Club: The Accidental Creative
The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 1 of The Accidental Creative

The Hired Guns Book Club: Part 1 of The Accidental Creative

Allison Hemming on August 22, 2011

Howdy—welcome to the party. We’re here for part 1 of The Hired Guns’ group read of The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant At A Moment’s Notice.

(Late joining us? Check out the summary of how our book club will work and what we’ll cover each week.)

If you haven’t bought the book yet, go grab it. This week we’ll be reading chapters 1-3, which are focused on how to stay prolific, healthy, and sustainably brilliant. As Todd points out, you can’t count on inspiration striking in the nick of time—you have to prepare for it. And that’s where his straight-shooting advice comes in!

This week, Todd made a special video just for us where he discusses the reasons that getting creative work done in the modern workplace can be so difficult. The “assassins of creativity” include fear (of so many things!), poorly decided-on objectives, and way-too-complicated business processes. All these things can make it difficult if not impossible to stick to doing what’s truly important.

Watch his video below, and then start reading the book from the intro through the first three chapters. Then stop and wait for the rest of us! Post any questions for Todd, on Twitter, in the comments below, or on our Facebook page. He’ll be chiming in with his responses. Read More →

Meet Our Blogger: Noah Scalin

Noah Scalin on August 18, 2011

As the man behind the Skull-A-Day Project and 365: A Daily Creativity Journal, Noah Scalin knows about inspiration, and on Monday, October 3, Noah will teach a class for The Hired Guns Academy on something he knows a lot about: getting your creativity unstuck. Here’s a bit more about him:

The Stats:

Hometown:
Richmond, Virginia

Current ‘hood:
Richmond, Virginia (after 10 years in NYC)

College/Grad School:
New York University

Current Job:
Owner, Another Limited Rebellion, a socially conscious design and consulting firm.

Where do you plan to take your column this year?
I plan on teaching the skills I’ve learned about generating creative energy and providing the inspiration people need to commit to real creative change in their lives.

What do you hope to accomplish with your Hired Gun posts?
Have more people making more things more often. This will make them more successful, and more important, more happy. Read More →

Make Something: Five Inspiring Ways to Spend a Year

Noah Scalin on August 17, 2011

When I started giving talks about my Skull-A-Day project, I quickly realized that people weren’t just interested in seeing the skulls I made, they were inspired by my experiences and the things I learned about creative inspiration. So I decided to create a way to help more people have the daily project experience, and more important, get past their excuses for not starting projects themselves (i.e. I don’t know what to make, I don’t know how to start, I don’t know what a blog is, etc.).

Thus was born my book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal. At the start of the book I said that I wanted to hear from people who took on the daily creative challenge. The response has been overwhelming and amazing. Almost immediately after the book was published I started getting a constant stream of people sharing what they were doing and sending responses to my two-question interview: 1. Why did you decide to do this project? 2. How has doing a yearlong, daily project affected your life?

The answers to the second question have been the most moving for me, and I thought you’d find them inspiring as well. In no particular order, here are a few cool recent projects with the answers their creators gave:

A Heart A Day

Phoebe Berg

“I’m surprised to find that over the course of these 12 days it has become easier and easier to come up with ideas. The first day was such a struggle, kicking around ideas all day, but yesterday, the idea just came to me. Just image what day 100 will be like! But the really wonderful effect of this daily project is the feeling of accomplishment I have every day, because I created something, however simple, and put it out in the world.” Read More →

Announcing The Hired Guns Book Club: The Accidental Creative

Allison Hemming on August 16, 2011

Today we’re going to test a big idea that I hope will become a staple within our community: The Hired Guns Book Club. We’ve been wanting to try this for a long time. And now that we finally have a growing blog to support it, the time is now. It might seem plain crazy to launch a book club at the end of the summer, but I actually think it’s the perfect time. Fall is almost here, which means that the next few weeks give you precious time to get “inside your head” and go into the end of the year with the wind at your back. Now is the time to organize, prioritize, and create processes for success.

We can think of no better author to kick things off than Todd Henry, who will lead a virtual book club to discuss his new book, The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice. We believe in this book and Todd’s premise that “anyone can improve his ability to generate good ideas consistently if willing to be a little more purposeful in how to approach the creative process.” We’ve been a fan of Todd Henry’s podcasts for years, and it’s high time he wrote a book that’s guaranteed to enhance readers’ careers.

So who’s an accidental creative? It’s anyone who needs to solve problems, develop strategies, and come up with ideas—that covers everyone from “true” creatives to business people who need to do mind-bending work to keep their company and products innovative. That said, this book is especially helpful to any creative classer who is feeling burnout coming over them. We say, get familiar with the ideas now, before you REALLY need them!

Here’s how The Hired Guns Book Club is going to go down: Read More →

Make Something Every Day. And Change Your Life.

Noah Scalin on July 20, 2011

Noah Scalin is the creator of the Skull-a-Day project. He’s also the author of 365: A Daily Creativity Journal and part of Another Limited Rebellion, a socially conscious design firm. In this new series for The Hired Guns, Noah talks about what he learned from making his projects and how its lessons can be broadened to help everyone get their creative side back on track.

On June 4th, 2007, I started a blog, posted a small orange paper skull on it, and wrote, “I’m making a skull a day for a year.” The entire process took less than twenty minutes; the hardest part was probably coming up with the name: Skull-A-Day. By the time the year was over, I had developed an international following, with tens of thousands of fans visiting the site every week, gotten a book deal, and begun to do workshops on creativity for corporations and universities. Not bad, considering that none of those things were goals of the project… initially.

Most days, my biggest goal was to just get through the day having completed a unique piece of art, however I could manage it. There were days that I finished mere seconds before the midnight deadline (this was imposed by the fans of the site); there were days that I spent nine hours working on the project (a bit of a jump from the initial twenty minutes); and there were days that I found myself doing things that I would have been previously embarrassed to try (yes, that was me with my hand in the trashcan on the corner of Broadway and 10th). But there was never a day when I didn’t make something. Read More →

“Be a Laser, Not a Lighthouse” & Other Creative Leadership Essentials

Todd Henry on June 22, 2011

Todd Henry runs The Accidental Creative, a speaking and consulting firm that helps teams do their best work consistently, not haphazardly. His book of the same name, about “how to be brilliant at a moment’s notice,” will be published this July by Portfolio. A slightly different version of this post ran on Todd’s Accidental Creative website.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to hop a plane to St. Louis to spend some time with a great group of creatives wrestling through organizational growth and how to establish new systems to deal with it. After a morning session with the large group, I had the chance to spend about 90 minutes (before hopping a return flight) with a handful of the team’s leaders. We discussed the essentials of creative leadership, and I was asked to distill down what I’ve experienced about great creative leaders as fodder for discussion.

Here are the five principles that I believe all leaders of creative teams must live by if they want thriving teams.

1. Be a laser, not a lighthouse.

Many leaders are so concerned about safety that they spend much of their time talking about what not to do versus what to do. They operate more like a lighthouse than a laser. A lighthouse can only tell you where not to go, but can’t provide any kind of precise direction or alternative. Creative teams need precise, focused direction. Like a laser. A laser is an offensive tool, not a defensive one. (Unless you’re Han Solo in the cantina. Apparently, Greedo shot first.)

Your team needs you to tell them what to do, not what not to do. Be a laser, not a lighthouse.

The Accidental Creative: Are You Taking Ground or Just Maintaining It?

Todd Henry on June 9, 2011

In 2005, military strategist Thomas Barnett took the stage at the TED Conference to share insights on the state of the US Military. In his talk he said that there are two primary functions of the military: to take ground, then to maintain that ground once it’s been taken. Barnett argued that it is quite challenging for the same force to accomplish both tasks well because they each require unique skills and practices. You don’t want your advance “Leviathan” force to have to oscillate between taking new ground and administrating a system, yet that’s frequently what’s required.

As creatives, we are primarily wired to take ground. We are the Leviathan force. We love to invent things, to develop elegant solutions, to design and fabricate worlds. But those of us who work in an organizational setting or with clients know that this passion for taking ground often comes into conflict with the need of our manager or client to ensure that we’re protecting the ground that’s already been taken. In other words, they want us to be creative, but to be practical all at once. Read More →

“Every Hero Needs a Bad Guy”: Who Are You Fighting Against?

Todd Henry on May 19, 2011

My two sons are obsessed with superheroes. They asked for something very specific for their birthdays–two action figures. One is a superhero and one is “bad guy,” as they called him. Curious, my wife asked our oldest son why he wanted those two particular action figures instead of two superheroes, to which he quickly responded, “Mommy…every superhero needs a bad guy to fight.”

Word of profundity often come out of nowhere in our house. As I sat to write later that day, my son’s words echoed through my mind. Every hero needs a bad guy… I thought about purpose, uniqueness, brilliance, and the importance of doing meaningful work.

It’s easy to identify what you’re “for.” For example, I know that my mission is to bring freedom to creatives; to unleash them so that they can do brilliant work. I like to consider myself an arms dealer for the creative revolution.

But I had difficulty identifying my “bad guy.” I know what I’m fighting for, but what am I fighting against? I tried to think about the times when I’ve been emotionally moved in my work. It’s usually when I encounter a creative who is in a season of incredible productivity, someone who’s doing work beyond their expectations and is thoroughly thriving both personally and professionally.

On the flip side, I’m also moved when I first encounter someone who is living in a kind of self-imposed prison. Though the bars are obvious to those around them, they continue to live in mediocrity. I grieve their loss of freedom. In the end, I think apathy is my bad guy. My arch-nemesis. My Lex Luthor.

As a creative, it’s important to know what you’re fighting for, but it’s also important to know what you’re fighting against. This is the yang to your yin. We need two points of reference in order to navigate properly. Otherwise, we can never be certain what direction we’re truly headed in.

What are you fighting for? What’s the “why” behind the work you do? But equally as important, what are you fighting against? This is a critical question for any creative, brand, or leader to answer.

Creative work is a series of small, everyday battles. It’s an assault on the beachhead of apathy. Know your enemy, kick some butt, and take some ground.

Gunsworthy

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1. Be a laser, not a lighthouse.

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