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Week 2: Step 1: Imagine

good morning or good afternoon. Evening, wherever you are. I know we have a worldwide audience. I'm Chase Jarvis, founder and CEO of CREATIVELIVE. But also, you're hosting your guide and your, um, teacher, if you will for today's stuff. Welcome back to the creative calling Book club. Ah, I don't know about you, but, um, this is something I have been looking forward to. I want to recap just very briefly where we've come from, where we are and where we're going before we get too deep into today's programming. First, where we are, we are in week two of a six week program. The first week was last week and the program over all these six weeks Ah, we are doing a deep dive into, uh, my best selling book Creative calling In an effort to become better creators to, um, connect with who we really are as creators and to define our life to create, if you will any project but also create the masterpiece of our lives. So Session one last week we covered the intro basically a ah, a chapter in the book...

. The very right up front called Read This First and the introduction that established, um, what we were going to do over the course of the next six weeks and in the book established helps you understand the context for why creativity? Why it's important. Today we're kicking off. This is the second part of the six part series, Um, each of the next four parts today and the three weeks following will cover individual pieces of the idea framework I D. E A. These are also steps or parts in the book. The 1st 1 is imagination. The second design, The 3rd 1 um, is execute, and the 4th 1 is amplified. And if you remember, this is a creative process for any project, whether it's a presentation at work, writing a song, building a business or more importantly, I think the framework for creating your life. So right now we're focused on the eye, the imagination part, uh, I believe that imagination is something that we have largely become disconnected from as the culture and a reminder that is where we're going to spend our time today on reconnecting with that, Um, so if you think of the last three minutes of have shared as as this is orientation Ah, where we are in the process. It is really important to me. Teoh put a stake in the ground. Most of us are. I'm trying to make sense and reeling from the senseless killing of Ah, George Floyd. Um, the way that I have been processing it ah is best, I think, shared in a video that I made, um, I think we could spend, you know, are hours and days and essentially their entire lives talking about racial injustice. And I think it's a very, very important part. Um, but so as to keep focused on our topics today. If you're unfamiliar with my point of view, the point of view of creative live, there's a great video on my instagram, and you can also go to creativelive dot com slash blm where we have created a list of resource is and I would love free to check that out and please contribute to it if you have ideas. Um, both black voices that are leaders in that community that we're listening to black creators. Um, there's a whole handful of ways to get involved. Activism, petitions, etcetera. So I would invite you to go check that out. I think the take away, Um, for this community here with this class relative to current events is it's even more more, um, evidence that we need creativity now more than ever before again, creativity is not just art. Art is a small subset of creativity, and it's one that's really culturally acceptable. But I'm talking about creativity with a capital C, not just Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners and glitter. And not just writing a song and not just taking a photograph. I'm talking those air great daily ways to connect with this it this, um, one thing that defines our humanity, one thing that makes us differentiated from all the other species on the planet. But I really believe that creativity with a Capital C is my core message, the core message of the book. And, um, again, it's It's a reminder how critical it is right now in this time, because we are going to co create our future, so we might as well get good at doing at creating. I loved seeing your notes from last week. I want to say thank you to again people coming in from all over the world. Um, I am seeing your comments. Um, I have the ability to. Most people are viewing this on the class page act creativelive dot com slash ah book club if you go there. And maybe you're seeing me right now on YouTube live or on Facebook. Um, but feel free to go to creativelive dot com slash book club. Um, I'm seeing all of the comments that you are, um, beating me, if you will, from clicking the live chat on that page. I do also see in a slightly delayed manner stuff from Facebook and Twitter and and YouTube lives. So feel free to say there if that's where you're comfortable. But just know that the most engaged, um, part of the discussion for me is around the girl. And I love seeing your comments from last week. We in 10 today to go to keep it. Ah, the information. I promised to keep it between 30 and 60 minutes every week for the following six weeks or for the next six weeks. I'm going to stick to that. But we may go along in the Q and A because so many people have questions and I always find that to be super valuable not just for the person who is receiving the answer, but for me, the teacher to be able to remind myself and Teoh be able to put it back out in the world. And so if one person has a question, the chances are mean there thousands of people watching right now across all these different life streaming platforms, chances are lots of people have that question. So I want to encourage questions. I'm going to stop periodically across the next hours to answer some of those questions, and then we definitely are going to get to a big bunch at the end. So feel free to chime in. I'm seeing your, um, your names and not faces. But your words, um, questions. What not already popping up from all of the world we get? We literally have a global audience. So if you've got a second to tap in a a note of where you're coming in from, I always love to see that not required, of course, um, a couple other housekeeping things before we dive deep into our topics for today. In addition to loving seeing all your notes and comments throughout the week, um, many of, you know, that, uh, I gave out my phone number last week that weaken text with. So I'm opening it up specifically to members of this community ahead of all of the other places. I haven't made big announcements anywhere. Um, but I also enjoyed communicating with, I don't know, about 1000 or something. You know what I got to last week? Um, on last week's topics, introducing and under uncovering our our own creativity. So I'm gonna give you that number again. Right now. Up front. Here, you can text me a 2063095177 Yes, it's me. You may have Teoh Inter to activate the software that connects it to my my, um, ap me on my phone. You may have to, um, go through one round of an automated just like, is this you? And, um, I'm not actually quite sure what it feels like from the users, and but, uh, it's me typing with my thumbs. Um, so I would encourage you to do that, invite you to participate in that community. That is where I'm setting out a lot of information early on, Um and I was also inspired to see that so many of you had left reviews at Amazon for creative calling. Um, I've learned from my agent and my publisher that that is a really important factor in making sure that this material bubbles to the top. And at Amazon, Um, for people typing in entrepreneurship, creativity, building a life, creating, um, any of those things. And so if you haven't yet and you've read the book, I would mean the world to me. If you left a review at a secretive calling site on Amazon or of course, wherever you bought your book or listener watched red or whatever, that would be amazing. So I did see, um, a couple dozen of you do that and that would be amazing. I would love to have a couple 100 So if you've gotten value, haven't yet would be in the world. Um, last note before we dive into this material is we did not do any of the challenges this past week that I had promised specifically in observance of the black lives matter, movement around the senses, killing of George Floyd. And while I it was very important that we made and continue to make room for black voices. I will start to pepper some of those things in, because again, we need creativity now more than ever before. Okay, Um, thanks again. I do see all you coming in from all over the world. Um, someone says that the audio is not working. I think I'm not saying no. I'm not seeing any folks. If that's happening, please. On the tech side, um, let me know. Otherwise I'm not getting any other few pictures. One person ada, maybe you could neither join on ah, on Facebook or try the critical I've site again. Um, I just want to say Zara. Gabriella. Carol. Anna. Rid ona. Um, Diana, thank you so much for tuning in. And ah, we got Africa in the house. New York, New Jersey, Reykjavik, Iceland. Uh, Canada. All right, people are ready to dive into today's material, so I'm happy to get started. All right. Remember, what we're discussing today is the first of the four steps in the creative process. The idea process. I d e a imagination. Now, I'd like to kick it off with the reading. Um, and for those of you have the book I don't know what the Kindle addresses on us, but in the hardback it's on page 28. Some people say Fake it till you make it. Forget that. Make it till you make it. Creators create It Doesn't matter who you know, what schools you attend, what parties you're invited to or what you're wearing. Creators create action is identity. You become what you do. You don't need permission from anyone to call yourself a writer and entrepreneur. A musician, you just need to write, build a business or make music. You've got to do the verb to be the noun. I'm also skipping forward now to page 58 to add an exclamation point to that. Contrary to the popular beliefs of some very wearing artists, it's not required that you know everything about where you stand on your art to memorize responses and be prepared to defend them at a moment's notice. It's fine for your values to grow, so these, like this idea that we're going to get it perfect that, um, that we have, um, a crystal clear vision from day one. It's just fiction, okay, it's fiction, and that's one of the things that I hated about all the other books about creativity I had read or, um, specifically sort of books about how toe lead a well lived life. Also, you know, that extends to business books and to to, um, productivity books. It came from this very perfect point of view where, you know, if you went to these schools and had this mindset, then you could just decide to do a B and C, and then everything's gonna be hunky Dorie. And that's just that's not how it iss right, those of us that have done this work And I know you have tasted this, um, this is nonlinear. It's, um it's full of fits and starts, and that's okay. But what's not okay and why? You know, today's lesson is critical and why, um, honestly, one of the reasons I wrote the book is because we have largely lost our ability to imagine we have strapped it with so many constraints, trying to be perfect, trying to make everything linear and wanting to say Okay, when we start, it's gonna just be perfect from, you know, step one through step 10. That's just that's just not how it works. It's fiction. So part of imagination is thinking not just differently. Not just bigger but thinking from you. Your point of view. Part of what we covered last week was how our point of view has ultimately been shaped by so many people by parents and spouses and partners and mentors and career counselors. And everyone's got a plan for for this one precious life that we have. But what I want you to reconnect with and we talked about last week and now, as it moves into this phase of imagination, is what is it that you truly want and, you know, to go back to the reading on Page 28. This idea, that sort of pretending is the way. It's not true that that may be helpful for some people who have imposter syndrome, but there's no substitute for actually engaging your creativity. Um, part of what is fascinating to me. I don't know how many of you caught my conversation with Peter Diamandis yesterday. Um, actually, none of you would have because we didn't broadcast alive. Now that I'm thinking about it, um, it was an off live recording conversation a couple of years in the making um, but we we talked about how, um there's this belief, culturally, that creativity is some sort of an indulgence. You know, if you, um and part of the reason that this is the case is because people like I mentioned earlier, think of it as just art or as just pipe cleavers and Popsicle sticks and what we did A second graders. And now we know that that's not at all the case, right. Creativity with the capital C underpins the solution for any challenge for every problem the world will ever know. If creativity is putting new things together in useful ways to create something, that's that is what defines innovation, right? You can actually have innovation. Innovation is a word that that businesses like to throw around, that artists like to throw around with technology, for example. But what is innovation if it's not creativity applied. So so many people in our culture have thought about creativity as an indulgence, as something that's nice toe have. But if you look at any of the top performers in the world, if you look at the top 100 companies on in the NASDAQ or through virtually any lens you understand that there is a prioritization of creativity. You know, I've always questioned, like if it's an indulgent, what are you supposed to be doing instead of learning how to create use, like, supposed to be starting the stock market or something? It's always been unclear what we're supposed to be doing if we're not supposed to be working on our creativity. But now is the world Is information moving a lot faster and people understand what creativity of the Capital C is? I think there's a reconcile ing that's that's happening right now, um, that there's another standing that this isn't a waste of resource is that in fact, again, as you look around like literally, everything around you was created, right? The microphone that I'm talking at the desk that you're sitting at the phone. It's all created, So creativity is ultimately the most powerful thing on the planet, right? It's It has put everything that you know into existence, including you. So if this is true and creativity is our birthright, what is our next step to me? Is looking at this gap between where we stand right now and where we want to be and In order to fulfill that picture, we have to understand where we wanna go. If you don't know what's that saying? If you don't know where you want to go, it's gonna be hard to get there. And that is why imagination is such a key key piece of this puzzle. Now, one other thing you know, I've invoked you, dies to, um you all out there in the world to bring a notebook if you can, or to, um, bring a way to make notes in the margin or to tap out your thoughts as their arising. And I encourage you to do this part of imagining. And I want to use a little lens on my own process to try and help tell this story. Uh, but you get to open up your imagination through it's almost literally through daydreaming, and I've talked a lot about the perfect day exercise. Um, I wrote about it in the book, just like if you could define what a perfect day would look like, what would it be? And if that can integrate this idea of what your future is now, I do not know whether you're using this idea framework to create a project. Maybe you want to complete the novel that's been waiting to be completed, or it's been on the shelf for whatever you had to stop some process that you started a long time about. Maybe it's a presentation for work. Or maybe it's your life again. Creativity with the capital C. I don't know. But what I do know is that trying to understand what is possible without constraints, that is my ask of you today start to jot down what would be possible if money was not a new issue. If, um, your training was not an issue. If what your parents, your peers, your partner said to you was not an issue, what could this project be? How high could you take it? How deep could you go with it? And to me, this is ah, good place to start. And once you can unblock some of these trappings that are, we're looking, it's a part of our culture. I do do not blame yourself, but Goto work on undoing all of that programming, and the way to go toe work is truly thinking as big as you can, however big you think you can you can think, think bigger and buy bigger. It's really important that you understand. I do not mean monetarily. I do not mean, um impact. If that is, you know, if if it's you just like Look, dude, I'm tryingto like get my letter press going in my garage. It's not about changing the world, that's fine. But what I want you to do is be riel with yourself, like, what is the maximum? The maximum vision for that thing. And I believe that not many people ask us to do this. And like all things like, creativity is a process. These muscles that we develop the atrophy you remember as a kid when someone said, What do you want to do? You have your imagination ran wild with the magical world that you wanted to be or live in the, um, characters in the book that you wanted to write When you have got asked to do that in second grade and over time since this has been, you know, we are culturally programmed, which you covered a lot of last time we've lost this. So embedded in our ability to dream is are is language, and I can't overstate how important the way I like to say it is. The most important words in the world are the ones that we say toe ourself. So part of my ask of you today as you're making notes and creating the biggest vision within whatever scope you want this you know you want help from me in again, whether it's doing an individual project or when whether you trying to define your career or perhaps your life is to start to put down notes. I don't care where you put him. I don't care if it's on scraps of paper or in the margins, but you need t start activating this because it's a muscle and we need to get that muscle moving. So again, I mentioned how you talk to yourself and saying to yourself that you have the ability to achieve this dream. Even in the face of all of the Doubters and haters is a really important first step, and I wanted to give a couple examples I started, Um, again, this, I think, was written in the book. Yeah, it was, um, that before I was ever a professional, before I'd made a dollar as a photographer I had just inherited a camera was not even a professional grade camera for my grandfather after he died. Um, I knew that what I wanted to do was be a photographer, and yet I was on my way to medical school. I had just quit my soccer career, and it was ludicrous by all measures, relative to what people outside my brain thought I was going to do or wanted to do. And I needed convincing that a this was okay and B that it was possible. So I took a step, and I had printed professionally printed cards that said Chase Jarvis photographer and my phone number. I had never I didn't own a professional camera I'd never licensed or sold an image in my life. I knew that was what I wanted to do, and this was part of my beginning to dream my dream, and it seems like a very small step. But if you realize that what's possible starts with how we talk to ourselves, all of this starts to make sense. So I want to use another sort of meta example, and that is the example of the eye stage for me. and imagining what was possible with writing the book. Creative calling. Um, I had had a book agent for some time, um, and knew that I wanted to write, and over the course of about three plus years, in talking with this agent and not putting any book proposals out there in the world, to be fair, I had published a couple of books before I published Ah, the best cameras, one That's with you and IPhone Photography book and the Seattle which is a coffee table art book of people driving culture in Seattle. Um, and it was on the basis of those. And I think being a, um ah, person who's out in front of a lot of people in the creative industry that I was able to, um, connect with my my agent and his name is Steven Stephens. I was like, Hey, man, you know, we got Ah, whenever you're ready, I'm ready. And I had several fits and starts. And as someone who would still again and already again contributed to the Pulitzer Prize for Snowfall, I'd been nominated for an Emmy and I'd found and created. Cult commercials are creative success for myself, but I wasn't. It wasn't clear what I wanted to do with the book. I started making notes. I started writing and doing work in the mornings early early on and started painting a very, very wild picture of a book that could both be conceptual and practical. I looked at the creative books that I had read before, which seem to suggest that I needed to entirely change who I was, that I needed to move to France and wear a beret and smokes a cigarette and be so pure in my creativity. And it just did that didn't I didn't identify with that, and by extension, the books that I really loved were the ones that helped me in a very imperfectly way. They didn't say, If you are a perfect person and you take this thing and you do this thing in this thing in this thing, then of course, you're outcome's going to be perfect. I love books that said, You know, that were personal in nature or artists biographies or that never had a tidy bow on them that they were. They plotted a course that was messy and so in trying to combine Ah, you know what I wanted to see in a book about creativity? That it was accessible and in one that was actually practical and gave you steps to take and at the same time was a Trojan horse. Not just about a creative process, but about creating your life. Everybody, you know, I started making these notes and trying Teoh pencil this out with my peers, and most people said it was too ambitious. And to be fair, I had to refine the concept. I had to tighten it. But this imagination of what was possible only only, um, became concrete through doing work. This is again this concept that I actually is probably another core tenant to my belief as A as a creator and as a human is action over intellect. You have to start doing the work before you see the results. And most of us want to have this perfect path all planned out before we start. But we also know that just starting is, um is critical. So to continue with the story of the book, I I began to pencil out what the results of this book would be again. This is sort of starting a visual ization process. Um, what it would be like to write the book, I said, Oh, you know, I start. I started. It was a little bit of a romantic picture, but I understand that getting up a 4 30 or five in the morning when you have a job you love to do already, of course, with with, you know, my creative career and my leadership role a creative live. So I had to tell myself stories and imagine waking up really early and, you know, putting on the coffee and listening to music and writing and just making what an lamont in the Bird in the book Bird by Bird says a bunch of shitty first drafts, not even Shitty first drafts the book, but she first drafts of what I wanted the book to be. And it was on Lee through that process that I was able to start to put together the thing that this would ultimately become. And you're talking about someone who has that has been preaching this stuff for basically 25 years and is a professional creator. So if you're not, um, you know, if you don't already have those muscles. It might be even harder than it was for me. But I want to confess it was very hard, and yet it was the necessary first step. So I'm gonna invite you to take a moment and make a few notes here. Um, I'm gonna slow my roll because I'm hoping that you can, even if it's just Ah, a couple of bullet points or a couple words in the margin or in your Evernote or wherever it is that you make. Make notes. Um, give yourself three notes about what could be possible in the area of your life that you want to work, whether it's defining your career entirely or a project. And while I'm doing that, I would love to see, um, a couple a couple comments that maybe would highlight what those things are so that weaken help others who are stuck, just like, um, just like you might be, understand that it's in this taking action and making imperfecta notes that you're going to be able to create the vision for your life. Andy says I'm guilty of this. I'm stuck. Um, eight. Ah ah, Drew. Nice to see your urine. The comments here. Drew's been listening while taking notes in the book at the same time. Um, Ursula says I only have 10 minutes, but I'm trying to write a crappy first line. Nothing is too small. Awesome. It's gonna allow a couple more comments toe bounce in here. Great. So we're starting to see people say, I know that I want to change careers. I know what that career needs to be And now I'm trying to think of my next few thoughts. That's amazing. All right, What is that? Amanda. Um, just simply putting that down is a start that is moving. That is, movement on Instagram, Jenny says. I want to write a photography book. I want to do something on cookery or cooking, and I want to do this. I want to start this while my son is napping. That's starting to imagine a framework by which you can make this dream come true. Small, halting in perfect right. That's like three lines, the Jenny Potter photography wrote. And that is a step greater than what happened where, where she was when she walked into this class. And to me, this is is hard to overstate. Um, Terry's What? Ranting about Terry Now, with all the imposed free time, you want to recreate your life? That's one of the reasons that we're doing this at this time. It's not an accident. Amy wants to build an online crafting school, one small step at a time. Candice wants to pick up the camera and begin shooting something. She realizes that everything is practice and to be better, she needs to practice in order to be able to be a National Hockey League photographer. I love that, Candace. All right, we've got people wanting to build schools and want people to, you know, people wanting to become a photographer. Um, this is an important part of of the process, actually writing things down. I believe it's ah 40 42% more likely. I think that you might check me on that, but I think you're 42% more likely to, um, achieve a goal if you write it down. All right, then, Um, it is important thing that is an Asterix that I will put by this as you all are finishing this exercise and making some notes. And that is the judgment that comes along with making these notes. I wanted to tell you it's OK because I know I can see you could see it. You right there. You're judging what you're writing down and your brain's telling you it's not possible because of all of the constraints, it's like you know too much. This is what I think is what I mean when I say we've lost the ability to imagine. So do what you can to put that little voice on pause and and write down the thing that if there were no constraints, if you could design your day, if you could design your week, you could design the project. And if you could create the outcome, what would it be? Go back to my book. Example. In addition to just sitting down and starting to write and write the framework for the book and idee eight before sending it to my agent, Steve, most people's book proposals are between 102 100 pages. They include sample copy, and I sent my agent Steve when I call my eighth grade book report, and it was just a paragraph, a bunch of lists, some ideas for titles and topics that I wanted to cover links of other things that written Block Post had written over 1000 block posts on Jase Jarvis dot com slash blawg. I sent that to him as, ah halting first step almost embarrassingly so. And you know what? That we just ended up polishing that in 7 to 9 page thing, and this is very uncommon. But that was the first major step that I had, um, that that I had taken in order to actually get the book deal. That was the basis of the thing that we sent around to a couple publishers to choose them. So this thing that I was a throwaway idea or in and the month language was a shitty first draft ultimately became the thing that, you know, God creative calling off the ground. It took me a weekend, Okay, of course, the book had taken me 25 years to conceptualize, but I want to make the point. All right now, right now, there's someone whose saying maybe ah, someone who's sitting at home in their underwear in Ohio, staring at the screen, shaking their heads, saying, I've already done this three times, or this has been my like 28th false start on, you know, trying to imagine what I want for myself. It's important for you to know that no effort is ever wasted. All of those things were required for you to be where you are right now to be in this class with thousands of other people with the support group to help you get to the next step. So no effort is ever wasted. None. Everything that you've done. And this is a story you need to start telling yourself. Remember, you're talking to somebody who went 12 years out of my way down a career towards professional soccer, down a careered toward medicals, for being a doctor, down a career, toward being a PhD in philosophy. Ah, $100,000 in student debt. So I, as many of you right now, have a right to talk or to think about. That effort is wasted, but it's not. All of those things went into my ability to write the book that we're talking about right now. All of those things went into my ability to co create creative life. All of those things were necessary, so it's important to stop beating yourself up for work that you might consider sunk. It's all valuable. All right, Uh, the next I want to take a second and see if there's any questions before we go into how to learn again. These air three chapters in the book under the step. Imagine. Right. These are, um, chapter two or chapter one, which is here. Your call. Chapter two, which is walk your path and Chapter three, which is you stand out here. Your call is very much about accepting the fact that you are creative and that you and you alone should be responsible for creating the life that you want. You get one chance walk your path is about how every experience that you've had so far, which is what we're talking about right now contributes to the journey that you're on and that you are one of a kind. And on Lee, you have your shared experience. Ah, with the world. And it is in that shared experience that the best stuff exists. You felt what it felt like to be on a path, whether it was for a season or a month or your previous job or when you started as a creator. When you were 21 years old and now you're 31. You felt it before. And that's the path that we want to remind ourselves is possible for us, regardless of the headspace today. And then the last one is you stand out. It's over emphasizing that you are the key ingredient in this process. Most people right now in their writing, in the margins about this one big dream, whether it's a project or a life, you are still considering what everybody else in the world thinks. You're taught that that is considered. And I agree you cannot forge a path with anyone else. No mission is a solo mission. You're gonna eat your partner, your spouse, your kids, your boss. You're meant you're gonna need a lot of people on this journey for you. But you should not use that in dreaming. There are plenty of times during the next three phases of the process to integrate everything that is a constraint in your life. Specifically in the next phase, that will will work on next week, which is in designing the path to get to this dream. Of course, there's constraints, but right now I'm inviting you to, for once in your life, have no constraints. It's a very powerful experience, I believe, to ditch all of the country constraints. And again, this is the third chapter you stand out is about how to, even for a moment should to be unapologetically you to be selfish. It's through this selfishness just for a moment, that all of the best things from all of the best creators and entrepreneurs that I know there was a little piece of this, this personal creative plutonium that was awakened in order to do the things that you now look to that person and say, Wow, that's incredible. This was a critical step. All right, I want to go to the chat here and see if there's any questions coming in. Ursula says I love the centers in this chapter. Instead of rebelling or conforming, simply choose. Choose yourself. I should have had that. A za reading. Thank you, Ursula, for sharing it. Um, Becky wants to share that. I'm trying not to let my age 72 make me afraid to start over. Thanks for the support will back. You're welcome. Um, I, in turn, would like to use you as a fantastic example of it never being too late. Right now, there's someone whose 22 who's asking themselves, Is it too late? Is if I missed my boat, my one true calling. And so let Becky at 70 to be an example to you of reinvention of one's life is so available at any moment, any person, regardless of your circumstances, you might have a lot of responsibility. You might not have a lot of financial stability. Reinvention is possible at any moment. There is a story of ah ah woman in the book who had her first show at? I think it was 97 and a retrospective at the Whitney when she was So Becky, never too late to start. And if you haven't stumbled on that example in the book, you will and you hope hope it will energize you. Um, let's see, um, Arianna, there's a lot of people cheering you on Becky, 72 starting over. You've got another chance. You always have a chance to start a restart. It also might help add a new layer of meaning to the previous 72 year, 72 years that you've had. And if, in case anyone cares, my conversation with Peter de Monday's yesterday that will be available on the chasers like podcast and on creative life here soon we talked about his vision and his belief of what our age capacity really is. There are turtles and sharks and all kinds of different organisms on the planet that live to 102 100. Some, I think, he said. There's some turtles and or a shark that's years old like, and he was trying to understand what's the difference between them and us? And of course, there's a bunch of factors. But through, you know, exponential thought through exponential medicine, he thinks that ah, 100 is a minimum, and that's going to evolve in the next 10 years that the life span is going to shoot from, you know, in every year of medicine, we ultimately our understanding how to take, ah, some amount, extend the life by by some amount, and at at you start to understand that, then if every year goes by and we understand how we can add 1. or two or 2.5 years to the human life this is what exponential, um, an exponential curve looks like. So who knows? People that are in their teens or twenties right now might live forever, and I understand that's hard if they choose. My point in all of this is this is not some fictional thing to start over at 72 this Israel. And not only does it not matter if if, um, our life expectancy is only 85 that 72. Still, that's a great reason to start over in and of itself. But as human longevity changes, our ability to invent and reinvent ourselves over and over and over is not just a thing of science fiction movies. It's riel. Deborah says she's almost 70 and furloughed from a job she loves. And now launching into a freelance Korean writing, Let that be inspiration to you. All right, thank you for sharing. Um, I want to keep going because we've got some more material to cover. Um, again, The big exercise so far has been to make a handful of notes. That does not take any constraints into mind. It's just imagining what you want out of this experience is class and whether it's a project or what you want for your life. It's important to start writing these things down. All right, um, now part of the process. This is a little mad a thing going on right now, part of the process of learning how to do what it is we're doing, or part of how to learn any skill. There's a framework that I've developed, and that framework has been developed by looking at my own experiences and the experiences of others that I think are top performers in their field. And every time again, there was this pattern when I recognized how I learned something, and the example that I give in the book is I really learned how to put the commerce in my photography, the commercial aspect of it, by deconstructing the work of others. And that was I was extremely poor. I couldn't even afford a $3 magazine, and so I would stand at Barnes and Noble in front of the magazine rack and make all kinds of notes about what types of pictures were being published. Who was in those pictures? Where were those pictures captured? What were the characteristics of those images who were the people at this magazine go to the masthead who are making the decisions. I basically deconstructed all of the various aspects of what was working out in the world, and I started to imitate them. I started to, um, put what I was learning there into use. I start to emulate what I saw in those magazines, and if it was a location I had never been to, or a location that was better or more unique than the one that I was photographing, I learned that that was a thing. And then I started analyzing. If I was, if I was making headway toward the thing that I wanted to learn in this case, it was how to put the commerce in my photography. And certainly I found things that were working and not working. And I found that when I repeated the things that were working and ignored the things or turn turned away from the things that weren't repeating the things that were, I had an immense amount of progress. So what I came up with again this is connecting these dots some years later was a mechanism for learning called dear. If you go to page 49 in the heart back, um, dear deconstruct, emulate, analyze and repeat. Now, if you use my example, I'm using my example just because I can speak very, very authentically about it. I did not know what I was doing, but that is the value of books, right? This is mentorship. It scale if you use this forced at process, deconstruct what you think others are doing in that there are that are aspirational to you, whether those air artists or entrepreneurs whoever you look up to deconstruct what you think they're doing and look at parts of that And say what? I might not be able Teoh afford a whole team of people in order to create this gigantic art project. Or I may not be able to build a house from scratch if you the person that you look up to as an architect or a builder. But what can you do? What elements of what you deconstruct? What you perceive they're doing. Can you emulate? I also like to use the example of Maybe right now you're a programmer at Microsoft, and what you really want to do is you you this big vision that you have for yourself is, um, to own a restaurant. And you're like, Wait a minute, I'm I write code at Microsoft. How can I get to a restaurant? Well, what would you when you deconstruct the lives of professional chefs or restaurant tours? Let's just use a chef, for example. What do you see? They dio Certainly they create a lot of food, right? So what are you doing right now? You're coding and, like, Oh, I just I dream to own a restaurant someday. Well, it seems like if you want to be a chef someday, or you want to own restaurant that making food or creating food with, you know, your partner or chef. Or maybe you're the business end, it doesn't matter. But making something is the first step. And, you know, maybe it's a cafe that you want to own instead of a restaurant rather than taking out a lease. Um, you know, finding some property, taking out a loan, building out Ah ah, a $1,000,000 build out for your cafe. How about baking scones? How about starting something? Because when I deconstructed the work of the people that admire in this case, a chef. What's one of the key things they do? They make food every day. Are you making food every day? Know your programming at Microsoft every day? So how can you create time and space and your schedule to start making food? That is Step one that is deconstructing what someone else is doing emulating it. And then again, if you go through the acronym D E a analyzing the results Are your scones getting better? The more you bake, the answer ought to be Yes, maybe it's nonlinear. Maybe it's two steps forward one step back because you burn some or you try some new flavors don't quite work out. But then you look at the things that are working that are making your craft progress and you repeat those d e a. R. Every person who I, um no thinks about this. Thinks about analyzing the results of what they've done. Let's use Tim Ferriss is a great example. He is something similar to this in his writing. I think he called the dis um de S S s. I covered this in a video that we made together. It is just this is a It's a very clear that this process that that, um deconstructing the were in Tim's case, for example, he said, All right, if I want to learn to become a marathoner, I want to look at what the people who are world class marathoners are doing. And not only that, but I wanna look at marathoners who were not necessarily don't have the body shape or who are defying the odds, because they probably overcame something even more extraordinary. So Tim started to study marathon runners that weighed £ rather than just the ultra Ultra runners, and he started to see Okay, great. There are a handful of key attributes that those people are doing that I might be able to apply to my own life for my own journey. I'm inviting you to do the same thing with the people that you like and respect. Now I am aware that my cameras get a little hot here. Sorry about that. Let me turn that exposure down a little bit. It's getting brighter. Appear in the northwest. We had a rainy morning. Uh, keep going down. There we go. Hope too much we'll call that good. All right, Thank you. For those of you were telling me dear d e a r Page 49 deconstruct, Emulate what's working. Start emulate what you see and and noticed The emulate is not just sitting on the couch. The deconstructing part of sitting on the couch should not take you very long. You need to get to you need to get to the work part of it deconstructed the emulate. The e part is actually you doing the work, emulating the behaviors that you see your heroes of the people who are in your line of work or the work that you want to be doing. Emulate that work, analyze what's working for you and then repeat it paid 49. Something cool happens when you start doing this. Something cool happens when you stop thinking about a new start taking action. Start doing the emulating. Start taking the next step in your journey. And that is, I think, the tractor being it's there's this poll. The world starts feeling like it's happening for you rather than to you. This is the first sort of step towards walking the path, you know. I want you to think right now if imagining is like listening to that call, this is You know why the book is called creative calling. Because I believe that we know in our heart what we want to do. Even if we're telling us we ourselves that we don't know and ah, that we're scared that for every choice we make, we turn our back on so many others, I believe you know, and if you don't know its fine, do a lot of stuff. But for the 90% of you who do know and are pretending that you don't, when you do start to take action on that path, walk toward that calling. This is what happens. There's some force that starts to propel you and it feels incredible. This is what people have. This is the energy that comes from doing something that you were put on this planet to dio. This is the energy that you feel when you're pulling on that thread of curiosity. Maybe you don't know and you are exploring, but this is what it feels like when you uncover or you start to explore something that lights you up is it starts to feel not effortless, but it feels like that effort is is not just justified but is welcomed. Its you feel good doing the work rather than focusing on how hard the work is, which, if you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing, I guarantee that's the feeling That's the primary feeling that you're having. All right, there's another aspect as you're dreaming big that I do not want you toe over index on, but I want you to be aware of. And that is the relationship between money control over the thing that you want to make and the company you keep. I call these the Big Three and part of, um, I just I know that these things, these three things get in our way in the way of us imagining. And as we shift from imagining toe, actually executing or designing a plan to reach that vision, it's sometimes helpful to at least take a moment and think about your relationship now, in this given time right here, with each of these things, money creating creative control, control over the outcome of what you seek and the company you keep, how important is our is our each of those things for you right. How important does what? What role does money play in this thing? And you can say all money doesn't play a role. You know, again, this is the thing I feel like If any of those purist authors who have written books about creativity will throw stones at me, it's because gasp I talk about money as a part of creativity. And I do that because it is so pervasive, the connection between the two in our culture and what's possible with not just a life but making a living. It's more possible now than ever before because of the tools and the technology to actually get around the gatekeepers or remind ourselves that they don't exist. I just think it's an important exercise. So if you would, on your own time after the broadcast today, make a couple of notes about your relationship with money, you're bad at managing it. You are worried about it. Just start to understand and frame a viewpoint around money around creative control. Like, how important is it for you to reach this vision When someone challenges your vision again, you're envisioning the future where anything is possible and someone challenges go back to the architect view. You have designed this amazing house, and the person asks you to compromise. Just start to play through some of these scenarios and think about how you would react. Do not let it limit your vision. But start to get comfortable talking about these three things with yourself, not necessarily with others. The way that I want you to think about your relationship with others is in this third bucket money. Creative control in the third bucket, the company you keep be aware as you're dreaming, as you're starting to think about this, you know the actions that you want to take what's truly possible. I know right now that they're like this person in my life is gonna tell me it's not possible. This other person's gonna tell me I'm a dream or not to do with this third person's gonna Maybe it's my spouse. Maybe it's my boss. Maybe it's the person I'm currently in business with. You need to start getting really clear about how you're gonna communicate to these people. This is the scary part. Here's, I think, Ah, a worthwhile nugget. If you are sincere in defining your what you want for yourself and imagining what you want. And you have considered some of these things money, creative control and, importantly, who you spend your time with. Are you gonna spend time with people who lift you up or people who tear you down? If there are people in your life who do not support you imagining something very special for yourself, you need to start to think about having a conversation with them. For most people right now that maybe their spouse, because they're the primary provider of the family and you're worried about this? I'm here to tell you that if you thoughtfully approach and if you are doing the steps taking action rather than doing this before you start taking action on your craft loving it, making sure that people in your life know that you love doing this thing, that when it comes time to have some of these conversations and you do so from a place of love from a place of having written this stuff down and thought about it from having from a place of having done the work that that you will get so much further in your very first discussion, it may take 10 discussions. It may take 100 but hopefully the people that you love and that love you will understand if you can come at this from a position of caring of authenticity and of of truth that you will create for yourself crack that you didn't think was possible. Crack in. Wait a minute. If I approach this in this way with the company I keep, I might be able to actually play through this thing that I thought was not playing well. In fact, the more you do it, your confidence will build. And by this I mean your spouse or partner will start to understand how much it means to you. You're the haters. If there are people in your in your life that are not lifting you up, it might be time to get some not scratch that I'm not. Not in might. It's time to get a different set of friends because you have one shot. This is a key piece of imagination, is putting yourself around people, and in the mindset that this is possible and it starts. This is where some some tough choices start to happen. All right, now, I am one minute over. I said I was gonna keep it to 60 minutes. We started, Ah, minute late. So I'm going to give myself one more minute, and then we're going to go into two questions being unapologetically you. The number one thing it takes is energy, and the number two thing it takes is courage. And the way you create mo mentum inertia in both those things is through repetition unapologetically. You, you know, requires courage and confidence, and those things come through repeating this process. Repeating the message is that you have to yourself repeating the vision that you have to yourself and talking about it publicly. If you're still unsure of what you want to be, pull on the threat of curiosity. Pull on the part of it that other people always tell you you are good at this thing. What was the thing that made you weird and quirky? As a kid? I want you to look there the idea that this is going to be risk free that in having a conversation with yourself about money or with your spouse or partner about what you truly want in this one life. Of course, there are risks, there are risks that you will, that they will turn their back on you. Or that you will have to turn your back on them. So I don't want I don't want to pretend for a second that there's no risk here, but this is required as you look to others and are inspired by what they've done. They've had to cross the same threshold that I'm asking you to cross. Now, remember what I said at the beginning from the reading creators create, you know, how would you like to express your creativity? Not just the bucket list item, but every day. Start to think about that in your eye, in your imagination. What is your perfect day? Look like this is an exercise in action step. What are your current values around? Money around control of what it is that you do with your time and around the people you spend time with. And I would invite you to to turn to page 84. There's an exercise there, Um, And before you run into this thing headlong or before you quit something, I want you to ask what's the goal? I want you to ask Why am I doing what I want to get out of it. I want you to ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen if I fail? This is, uh, very, very effective exercise, because mostly it just has to do with, um, disappointing people. And there are few catastrophically unknown, manageable, unnavigable things that come out of failure. They're usually stories that we've told ourselves over time, and this is what we're trying to undo now. This is why I think this is a value of exercise. What can I do to reduce risk of failure? And most of all, is it worth it? And to the point of, is it worth it at the end of your life? Remember the number one regret of dying people? This is science. This is, um, psychological scientific studies. The number one regret is that they did not live. They're one precious life according to their values. They lived it according to others. Do not let that be you. All right, before we go to questions, um, we've trotted through a few exercises, all of which have to do with writing things down and starting to frame our imagination. What's possible for this project or for our life. And I wanted to read something in closing. Before you go to questions and that is this, it's Ah, Page 82. I'm gonna do a bit from page 82 I'm gonna augment with something from page 61 both from this section of the book from page 82. There is no reason to hide. Be bold. Take smart risks. Embrace failure like an old friend. People respect a wrong move made with confidence far more than a correct one made without conviction. If you're writing a block post improvising, seen or putting together a new and unusual service offering for your business with stakes might feel high, but they aren't. Go for it. If you fail, learn from it and move on. Be the hero of your own life. Walk your own path when obstacles arise. Go over under or around them when you lose your way. Listen for that. Calling this truth in what you've imagined for yourself today and then get back on your path because that your heart this listening to your heart will always lead you All right. That's again from page 82 in 61. So we're going to go back to the questions in the community. That part of this that I believe makes doing this together, doing this work together as a community here in the book club. The most worthwhile. Ah, all right, then. And see, where are we? I am. What's up Talking. How you doing? Um, Marcello, Nice to see you, Alan. Everyone's hollering. Um, all right, this question comes from Chase Steel Gray. What tools do you use almost daily that make my journey? Amazing. What tools do I use almost every day? Um, there are 10 habits that I personally track. Those habits are articulated very clearly in the book. Um ah, lot of them. Um, when When I hear the word tool, I do not necessarily think of technology. I think of steps. Now, the next part of our journey, the next week is in designing our path. It's in designing, um, what it is that we want. Taxi. Because right now we're just trying to get all the clutter and the noise out of the way and creative vision for ourselves. And whether we do that with a vision board or writing or daydreaming like we're putting this into action, and a lot of people think of a tool as a hard piece or a technology. I like to think of my key tools as behaviors. So we're going to next week design a set of behaviors that will help you, you know, help you achieve this goal. So most of my tools are things like meditation and mindfulness practice things like exercise and getting sleep again. I detail these great detail in the book, but we'll also talk about this next week. Um, things like journaling writing it down. You can tell I've already asked you to write a bunch of things in the margin or scribbling, then your Evernote. If you're if you're more of a digital person, that's fine. Um, I think of these as tools, these behaviors and processes, um, again, part of this learning experiences deconstructing what's working for others, emulating, analyzing, like am I getting results from exercising? Do I feel better when I exercise of Do I feel worse? Chances are you're gonna feel better. I don't know too many people who feel worse from exercising. Um, for me, that was a part of the behaviors that I needed in order to achieve the thing that I want That I don't know what it is for you. But these are things that I think about for tools. So, chase, um, I like you like your name, by the way, but, um, any, maybe a woman. I have, ah, friend whose name is Chase. That is a woman as well. So, um, or you may be they, um those are tools to me behaviors and things that support what it is that I want. We're going to dive deep into that next week. Those air. An example of a few from me from Facebook. Isabella. What's no. What if the haters are in your very own family? I knew we were gonna get this question I want You know, I'm very prepared for it because I get it a lot. And here's the tough part. You did not choose your family. You were born into this family. And the best things in my life happened after or is a process of disappointing the most. The closest people to me, the people that I loved the most. This is a very difficult thing to reconcile. I've had a lot of people walk up to me as I get off a lot of stages and say, Yeah, my my spouse, my partner, my mom, my parents. In this case, I like to steer people toward Glenn and Doyle's work untamed. Her new book, It's Amazing book. She encourages her daughters to disappoint her, which might seem crazy to you, and I want you to read her book Untamed for the Context. But we're not taught this, and this is part of what makes it so hard. And of course we love these people. But again, I just go back to the the scenario that I think should drive your thinking, which is on your deathbed and again the death beds of the you know, scientifically researched. The number one regret is that someone let their mom decide what they did for a living. Someone let their spouse talk them out of pursuing their dreams. And I'm here to tell you the hard stuff that there is a way to soft and the blow through developing really good communication skills. But there is no substitute for telling the people that you find important in your life what it is that you want to do with this one precious life. And if you can come at this from a thoughtful, balanced, centred practised, as in you're doing this thing and you know it to be true for yourself, it starts to become very, very hard for that other person in your life to ignore it. And here's the double hard news. If they still can't get over it and you feel like you are approaching it with thoughtfulness, with compassion, with clarity, with good communication skills, that's when things get hard. That's when you have to actually take action despite what they think or want for you, and that's gonna be hard. But there is no substitute, and there will always always be someone who's disappointed. Always. This was the case for me. This will be the case for you, and this is why it's so darn hard. It's so darn hard to imagine even to think when you start imagining you say this is I'm going to get judge from this person or that person, you know, again and again. Um, was it Isabella? She's worried that this is her family. Start doing your thing get really clear about what it is you want and why? What, your why? And start practicing, communicating about this stuff with compassion, with kindness, but with very, very clear direction, and you will be surprised at the results. You're not going to get there without disappointing people because they've told them store themselves stories about this and they may perceive your risk as risk to them unnecessarily. And that might be true. But what you ought to do in those situations is work together to mitigate the risk you're going to strike out on a freelance career at, you know, 45 years old and you've got a family to support. How can you downsize? How can you move out of that four bedroom house to a three bedroom apartment or a two bedroom apartment? How can you mitigate the risk? Because where I come from, in my heart, my centered place, people who truly love me, they are probably scared, and I do think about it in a partnership. It is my job to help mitigate some of their fear, but they have to come along on the journey, and if they're unwilling to do so after a number of attempts, you have to you do have to have a tough conversation. But what I found when I give people this advice and when I did this myself, remember, I'm not gonna ask you to do anything that I haven't done myself. When I do. When I have done this in the past, it created support. It created an understanding. It created a connection and authenticity with most of the people. Not all the people, but most of the people. And for some of the haters, I had to go a different direction. And for some of my family members that were unsure what I was doing when I started doing it and I started creating success for myself. What happened absolutely changed their mind. Not everybody, but most so most people wanted to come along for the ride. When I told him how serious it was for the people that were unsure when I actually started doing the thing and creating the success that you will create when you do the thing that you're supposed to do, they came on board. And yes, there was a small chunk of people in my life who didn't support what I did or I wanted to do. And you know what? I don't miss him. All right. I hope that's not too hard core. Isabella, um, from Facebook are from the Creative Life TV. Um or maybe it's a class pager. Chet, I It's Wendy B. When Devi I am so entrenched in the normality of my life, How do I get above it and convince myself I'm worth the try to try to get above it. I'm I'm going to tell you right now. I'm looking at you. Okay? I'm looking at you, Wendy B. You are worth it. Every person on this planet is worth giving effort towards becoming the thing that they want for themselves. This today is about dreaming. It's about imagination. I know most of us. That's why I sort of went on that rant and answer that question. Most of us air projecting all of the things that could go wrong. All of the roadblocks we're going to get all of the I want you If it's possible to park that on the curb for a second and just dream if you find that it keeps entering your dialogue Great. Understand that we're gonna tackle that next week primarily, but I'm telling you that you're worth it. That is what ought to define Ah, human life, right? Pursuing the things that you were put on this planet to do. And it's not linear. It's not like you figure this out on day one, and on day 100 you've reached your goal. It's going to be two steps forward and three steps back and four steps forward and one step back. That's part of the process. That's why we're learning this. Why we're developing these skills and practicing right now we're practicing imagining were practicing, going through the conversations that you're gonna have to have in order to pursue what you want for this one precious life. So, Wendy, you're worth it. And part of the thing that I want you to remember is the most important words in the world are the ones that you say to yourself. I want you to start visualizing you being in doing the thing that you want to dio the person that you want to be or become. Okay, Critical. Thank you for that. Thanks for being vulnerable. Uh, Wendy B. All right. From the creative life class page. Um, Kim, I'm being creative. I'm doing a live weekly podcast writing blondes, etcetera. But how do you grow a small audience? Here's the good news, Kim. You're doing it, You're doing it. And right now, by putting it out in the world, there's some people are gonna type in their name. Kim airs and familiarize themselves with your work. That's part of what community means. You're doing it with others in front of others on display. Now I'm and I'm saying your name Kim airs in front of I don't know how many thousands of listeners you know, 7300 people in this class. Now more people know that you are doing weekly podcast writing blog's then new before this broadcast. Now, how many people stick around after reading or seeing or watching or listening to your podcast? I don't know. That's up to you getting better at your craft, but I do know that participating in this community is a thing that matters. So I also find this is where I'm going to give you some tough love. Kim, which is people want to have an audience or build an audience faster. Then it it happens. It's totally natural. Just do yourself a favor and don't wish to skip this step. Don't wish. Don't the wish. You snap your fingers and have a large audience. Because what I found to be true for most people is that right now you have nothing to lose. Your first podcast probably sucked. Your sixth podcast is gonna be a little bit better, but not great. You're probably going to need to do 20 or 30 podcast before you find your voice in your stride and the audio mixing sounds right. And having a 1,000,000 person audience before you did any of that is probably going to keep you from doing it. So I ask you not to wish ahead of where you are, just wished to do the work. Be willing to put one step in front of another into another podcast and write another block post and tell people about what you're doing. And it's in this process that your audience will grow. But also just know that when you have a 1,000, people listening to you without having fortified and re fortified your mindset and your muscles around this activity, you start to realize Wow, Now I've got something to lose. So you have a different battle to fight. This never ends. It never ends. But it's worth it. That's what I want you to take away the audience Part will come. Remember, Um a I d e A Imagine design execute, amplify, amplify. Where is the fifth week in the class? The fourth part of the book intro is all about community and all about building that audience. And I like to think of community rather than audience. I'm gonna let you use your words, but I just like it's coming right now. You need to focus on the dreaming and the doing. It sounds like you're doing it great, but I'm promise you over time it's going to get better. And the process of getting better at your craft is in part what will build and grow your community. All right. Also from the creative calling book club class page again. Um, if you're on Facebook, this is where I think the best stuff. Is there some more materials there? Um, at creativelive dot com slash book club. Um, this one's from Margaret Carter. I may be mispronouncing Margarette. Mark, read my red T H E. Carter. Any advice on how to stay connected to your why at the same time is trying to make money? I feel like the harder I work on making money, the more I struggle to remember how, actually bring value through my art. Love this, and it's rather paradoxical. I agree. Most people, I believe, wants to monetize their thing too early, and they get themselves in this relationship of this stressful relationship with money. And it's part why I asked you to read earlier in this particular class and this particular broadcast today that I wanted you to start thinking about your relationship with a member with money was a really key thing, right? Money is. And if it sounds to me like you're probably defining success by how much money you make doing a thing, I promise you're gonna be better off by postponing the idea of earning money on Day one in favor of practicing your craft. Just think of the advice that I gave to Kim a second ago. Similar advice to you. Um, most people want to monetize on Day one. They get 100 Twitter followers, and they think, how can I monetize those 100 Twitter followers, I find that that actually undermines your macro. And so this is why I like whenever possible, um, mid to long term vision is really helpful. And it's also why I do not like, sort of going all in push all your chips on black and hope for the best. Take out that second mortgage in your house. No, I think you need to start doing this on the side. Whatever it is, Um, I think it's This is like the idea of transitioning is one of the least understood but most powerful concepts that the entrepreneurs that you respect the most have mastered. Of course, you read about Richard Branson just buying a used 7 47 to start, um, Virgin Air. But it's He had already created enough success for himself through his record label that that wasn't as bigger risk as it sounds, and he pre negotiated the ability to sell it back to Boeing at a guaranteed price if it didn't go well. So he wasn't really risking the $100 million that it takes to buy a 7 47 Let's say he was only risking you know, $85 million because that was our sorry $15 million Because he was gonna be able to sell a plane back for 85 million, Bought it for 100 tried it, didn't work, sold it back to them for 85. So there are all kinds of ways to mitigate failure as an entrepreneur. But right now I need you to think about how you can compartmentalize by working a different job or creating as much time and space for the thing that you want to be doing is possible again. All this is in the book such that you can create as free from the money constraints early on as possible. I'll give you a little story. Um, I actually found joy great joy in being aware that when I started taking pictures with my Palm Treo 0.2 megapixel Palm Treo before the IPhone and then again with IPhone one. When I started taking pictures with those cameras, those cameras that were embedded in the phone, I impart found the most joy because they weren't tied to money. And ironically, it was my passion for something that just brought me great joy to take a photograph of the camera that I always had on me that led to some of my largest. You know, creative and entrepreneurial success So define how you think about money. Define how you think about the people you keep defined creative control. Do that part the big three here in this first part of the book. And I think that will help you. Um, again, That's M. Carter. All right. Um, we've got five minutes left. I promised to teach for the 1st 60 minutes and then take 30 minutes, 25 to 30 minutes of crest of questions. And I'm doing that now. So scanning. Um okay. Marcello seems to see a an error. Sorry. If you've refreshed that, feel free to go to a different page. If you're on the creative calling book page creative calling dot com slash but club check out creativelive dot com slash tv or ah, are my YouTube or my Facebook? Because there are vibrant conversations there for some reason. Chats. Not working for you. Um all right. So Jolanta is asking about the title. The book. You must be late to the broadcast. That's no problem. Title. The book is creative calling by yours truly, it's about creating a life and a living that we love. All right, Um not see, what's a great question? Drew is flagging a point that I made earlier, which I think is a good one to amplify. And that's there's this a semester asymmetric risk reward profile, which is that's, in a sense, what Richard Branson was doing when he started Virgin Airlines. Um, that in pre negotiating the ability to return the 7 he was managing the downside. And, you know, again, this this idea of transitioning to things that air new is what I think a while, the understood. But the entrepreneurs that have done it the best, the creators, that I've done it the best there's, they don't just if I'm doing wedding photography and I want to go over to drag racing photography, they don't just draw a line in the sand. And when some wedding photographer or what a subject calls about photographing their wedding, they don't say Sorry. I don't do any more, hang up and go wait for their next drag racing client to come up. This is a terrible example, but I think it's kind of funny. The reality is you should get you take those calls, but you should be Marketing yourself is a drag racing photographer. And when these people call, you're still doing this work. But your advertising over time turns into you being able to sustain a full time job as a drag racing photographer. So again, that is making sure that the risks for transitioning or the risk for taking the chance ah, are outweighed by the long term potential gain of doing what you love having energy in abundance in your life, Um, relative to to that risk. All right. Ah, and the title of that book, Mother to daughter to disappoint her. Oh, um, I don't remember if, um, but I gave me an example of disappointing others. Oo Untamed by Glennon Doyle was a fantastic conversation. If you go to create a live in search Glennon Doyle, or if you go to the creative live dot com slash tv page, that conversation between yours truly and Glennon is recorded there. I think it's a stunning conversation in the book. Her most recent again, Number one New York Times bestselling book is called Untamed. Yeah, thanks for putting that in the Terri Pruitt. Just ah, put that in the comments there. YouTube. And maybe some folks canoe it at CLTV or on the creative live chat and at Facebook, untamed by Glenn and Oil. All right, Tula asks a great question. I'm going to do this. And one more. How to tell the difference between signature style and just repeating the same thing over and over again. Ah, stagnation or a she or tool? I'm not sure if Tula is. Ah, he she or they. So I will ignore that part and just say, being a copy paste er of one's self, especially photography, as in my photos have long been the same old, same old, not evolving or changing its not that creative or innovative. Your goal in creating a personal style is what lights you up. So if you're not photographing something that brings you a lot of energy, then you're photographing the wrong thing. You shouldn't be photographing things that don't create energy and passion and connection for you. Once you start doing that and you start to come alive, then it's your job to repeat and to be crystal clear, a recognizable, repeatable, identifiable signature is actually very powerful. It is the thing that will get you hired instead of hiring someone else. And it's true. As soon as you start to narrow what it is that you do or how you do it, you will turn your back on other people. But it's Onley in making that commitment that you will get hired by the right people, which is your gold. You should not want to appeal toe every person because in trying to build to everybody, you will ultimately end up appealing to. Nobody will be generic. You'll be vanilla. You'll be beige. You'll be right down the middle, which in creativity and innovation and entrepreneurship, that's not what people want. That is the that is the last stage of success in that in in in any phase the blow it out face, which is not the business that you're in. That is the business that Amazon is competing on price and on infant tacitly small points of distinction. That is not you as a creator, taking pictures of what it is that you love and doing so so many times that I can look at that and say, Oh my gosh, that is definitely a fill in the blank. Your name. That is next step in creating the, um, the business and or the recognition that you may seek as a creator or as an entrepreneur. All right. Um, my last question, I'll maybe I'll do a speed round here. I'm right. I want to recognize that I'm going a couple of minutes long on the questions if you need to, um, bounce. Um, I will say right now, just be sure to try and read. Ah, step to in the process. That is the design process in the book under the D. And what does that start? I'm gonna go to, like, the table of contents here. Up front. Design starts on page 95. So you're gonna need to read from 95 to 1 66 So what is that? 70 pages? Some like that. 67 pages. All right, um, for those that want to stick around for more questions, I'm going to try and move through a handful really quickly. This one's from Instagram, Jenny Potter at the moment, with current climate and many photographers and creator people not ableto work due to the pandemic. What advice would you give them to help when they're able to get back to work safely? Work on your craft? Um strategize. Um, what is it going to look like when you emerge? Imagine what you want your business to be, because probably your on a hamster wheel just making money doing the thing Now that most things are paused or were not yet in a place we could go back to work. It's a great time to do this exercise with all of your heart. Imagine the biggest vision for yourself, your business for your craft that you can possibly imagine. Design a plan to get their execute against that vision and then amplify it through this process of joining the community like you're doing right now is a great time to strategize. Okay, great time. Start making pictures in your mind. Do. Is there a way for you to polish your portfolio right now where you might not have had time because you've been on the hamster wheel of client work? Now's a great time to think about transitioning or think about redoing your portfolio. Do you have enough time and money to invest and does the investment or does your portfolio? Can you manifest it in such a way that you do not need to bring 42 people together? That maybe you can do it on your own or with one or two, You know, maybe one model, so they're safe. Social distancing. These are things that I would investigate if I was you. Good question. Thanks, Jenny. Um, let's see. Tony wants to know how to manage my own path and photography, interested in so many areas in the building in front in the building and finding your style and taking into just a few interest areas. If you do not know, I feel like you probably do know. But you're scared. That's too small a marketers to acts or two I. So I think you need to recalibrate. I believe you do know if you do not know, sample a lot of stuff. Try a bunch of things. You cannot intellectualize this. You cannot do it from the couch. You have to go out and actually do the work. And when you start doing the work because you might be in love with the concept of photographing weddings or the concept of photographing, um, celebrities you know why I can't actually photograph a celebrity? Who's the Who is someone you can photograph? Is it a local celebrity? Maybe a celebrity in your small town or the, you know, the owner of a restaurant chain or the head of the, um, you know, maybe it's a, um it's someone on the local news. Start doing that kind of work and you'll see if you actually really enjoy it. And if you do great, pull on that thread, I find that when you don't know what you have to do or what your Parliament's planet to do, the only way to understand more what that thing is is to take action, start tasting a lot of stuff. Okay, that's for Tony. And all right, um, I'm an answer. One more question here and then I'm going to wrap up. And this is from Carmen. Hi, Chase. What's the role of a mentor while working on emulation? That's the second phase of learning the second step. Rather in d e a r deconstruct, emulate, analyze and repeat. The role of a mentor while you are emulating them is nothing. They have no role. This is all on you. What you're doing when you're deconstructing is your deconstructing. What? Your mentor, Whether you have a relationship with them or not, chances are you don't right if you're really emulating the people that are where you want to be. When you're living your highest version of yourself, your biggest dream chances are you don't have a relationship with someone who's that far ahead of you that high up on the totem pole in your industry. I want you know, that's OK. I didn't have that with any of the photographers with any of the athletes that I wanted to work with. Any people in my community. I had no relationships. I was a graduate student university Washington, doing something I didn't want to do and living this fantasy in my brain. Standing in front of the newsstand, looking at outdoor sports action sports, surf snow skateboard magazines and I was taking notes. Who are these people? What are they doing? What kind of picture? Cell? And then I was trying toe emulate those people. So the role of the mentor here they probably don't even know you exist, and that's just fine. Their role is setting example by the work that they've put out in the world, whether it's burn a brown or, um, Arlen Hamilton or anyone, their role is them doing them. Your rule. Your role is looking at people who you think are doing awesome stuff in any given industry. And how can you practice the things that you see in them, such that you can taste, whether it's works or doesn't work and, more importantly, the path for you to inject you into that equation. The role of the mentor is zero. The role of you is to do all of the work right now, and that's what keeps most people from living their dreams, the ability to have to think big enough to think, to imagine, and then the ability to do the work. So that's what we're talking about. That's why this class exists. And that wraps up week to this is week to where we have covered the first step. If the 1st 1 was introduction, the first step, Step one here in Week two, is imagining what's possible and that whether it's a project or are life or whatever it is, whatever you're taking this class right now being a part of this book club. Now I am gonna cook over to my notes real quick here and just, uh, jot through a couple reminders here again. Next week's read starts on page. Already said it once. I think I said 75 95. Yep, 95. Step two. Starting on page 95 please read that about 60 or something pages. I would be grateful if you've gotten any value from the book and you're willing to leave a review of Amazon. Please help me. I would love toe, have another. I would love to have 500 reviews of the book, and I only have 250 right now. Number three. Text me. Let's be friends, right to a 63095177 That's my number. Text me, I will respond. And just as an f y I There may be something special next week for the people who are in my texting circle. Maybe something special as then. I make do something special beyond this broadcast year. If you are in my texting circle to a 63 or 95177 and I would recommend also you turn on notifications for instant, because this week we will do a couple of challenges. And the best way to know that that's happening is you turn on notifications for stories and posts. Um, feel free to invite anybody to join. I hope you've got value. Um, again, shout out in the comments. Um, if this is helpful or useful, I'm happy to take some feedback. The best way to giving that feedback is probably to text me. So another reason Teoh to be a part of my chat community? Um, yes, all that the I will confess that number is not yet open internationally to all markets. That is limitation of the technology. But new countries are coming online all the time, so feel free to try it. If not, the best you can Dio probably is to sign up for my email newsletter. Um, stay very closely tuned. Of course, creativelive. There's so many resource is there for free. Um and that is, you know, just pop your email in register and then you'll get a bunch of ah of opportunity there. Madonna says Great book up today. Clarity was huge for you. Love hearing that, um repeat the number please, Ada to a six Um, put that in the chat. If you would hope like that, Bernie already did that for me. Or yet. Bernie, um, Joyce giving a shout out. Eight A Torben Andy, keep your eyes open. Hawkin. Paleo Becky. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Um, remember the Amazon stuff? I read all of those reviews. Um, remember to chat and text and get better at imagining what's possible. Once you do this once for yourself, whatever this project is, you will unlock something massive in yourself. This is why, um, some of the entrepreneurs that you look up to some of the creators have gone on to create multiple, huge, impactful bodies of work because they freed themselves from the trapping of what others think. And they freed themselves from the constraints that historically shape this one precious life. And you can too, signing off. Thanks so much for being a part of the show today. The broadcast, this book cub, Um I'm thinking about all you all out there when you take care, be safe and until next week signing off Jaffer. Now