Creativity and the Power of Mentors

What the Entrepreneur Knows & Struggling Artists Don’t

Creativity Really Does Take a Village

Creative Ideas for Romancing Your Valentine

Strangest Ways to Make Money

Going the Distance in Creativity

Indie Creative Alan Schoonmaker of Stay Young Play Poker

#IndieCreative entrepreneur Alan Schoonmaker recently published Stay Young Play Poker. Besides the thrill of winning real money, Alan shares how poker can be the key to your mental and physical health. We also talk about how he got grew as a writer and why constant learning is the true fountain of youth.
via John Chang's Sound Cloud

via Creative Entrepreneur Blog
Creative Entrepreneur

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Top 10 Lessons of a Creative Year

#IndieCreative Entrepreneur Dana Parker of Butterfly Technique

#IndieCreative entrepreneur Dana Parker was able to recover from a crippling condition where she could barely get out of bed to dance tango again. Now she's on a mission to help others reconnect with their bodies and other dancers.
via John Chang's Sound Cloud

via Creative Entrepreneur Blog
Creative Entrepreneur

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Being Grateful During the Holidays for Creatives

Creative Entrepreneur – Kyle Macdonald of One Red Paper Clip

How creative entrepreneur Kyle MacDonald followed his curiosity on journey that started with one red paper clip until he ultimately got his dream house. For more of his story - http://bit.ly/red-paper-clip-notes
via John Chang's Sound Cloud

via Creative Entrepreneur Blog
Creative Entrepreneur

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Trust the Creative Process

How Less is More in Creativity

Knowing When to Quit in Creativity

Confessions of a Creative Entrepreneur

Warning! This post is going to be a little different.

I hope by now you don't get the mistake idea that I have all the answers.

While I'm doing the best to share what I've been learning about creativity and its relation to being an entrepreneur, I'll admit that I still struggle myself with not only learning these lessons but more importantly living them.

Over the years I've helped entrepreneurs and wannabe's with everything from simply getting started to taking their first baby steps to building teams and social media and even ultimately to selling their businesses.

The only rule is that there really are no rules - or let's put it another way. What works in one set of conditions won't necessarily work - even when everything seems the same.

As much as I believe in always doing what we can to learn from "failures," sometimes you just salvage what you can out of a situation and walk away with that box of stuff.

More recently, I've been experimenting with writing / blogging and posting on social media while testing online chats like Hangouts on Air and more recently Meerkat, Periscope and now Blab.im -

Why am I doing this? With the limited success of past launches I'm working to build a deeper relation with my audience - my 1000 True Fans.

Meanwhile, on the more "creative" side of the spectrum I'm working on some fiction and interactive media including a Twine game.

It's not easy to do these things while doing freelance work and earning whatever income I can to keep food on the table. Nope, sorry - no rich spinster playing sugar momma to this creative.

Recently, I've been listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic where she shares how she did what she could to keep writing.

"I wrote my first book while I was a diner waitress. I wrote my second book while I was a diner waitress and a bartender. I wrote my third book while I was a bartender who also worked in a bookstore and who also worked as a journalist. When EAT PRAY LOVE (my fourth book) came out, I was still working at a flea market on weekends. If it wasn't for the bananas success of EAT PRAY LOVE, I would still be doing other jobs."

Gilbert implores us not to depend on our art to pay the bills - until it does.

In other words, as she puts it - “To yell at your creativity saying ‘You must earn money for me!’ is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you’re talking about all you’re doing is scaring it away, because you’re making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.”

So, while I'm saying that creative entrepreneurs need to play it safe - in fact, I've been thinking about the advice that Jim Carrey gave at that commencement speech. Like the best poker players make sure the odds are your in favor, but don't play with your rent money!

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Top Graduation Speeches for Creative Entrepreneurs

Nothing like graduation.. and in the commencement speech the mayor of your city confuses the name of your engineering college for that tech school. You know the one that airs those cheesy commercials in the middle of the day..

Yeah, to this day I don't remember anything else the mayor said but I still remember the collective groan and wave of cringes that echoed in that auditorium.

I don't know about you but these are the commencement speeches that I wish I had heard before going out into that big wide world after college..

First up, of course, is the one and only Steve Jobs addressing the Stanford graduating class of 2005 who shares his journey as a creative entrepreneur and how "you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back.."

Next is author / artist Neil Gaiman who I recently learned about from his relation to Amanda Palmer and got highlighted on Brain Pickings -

Last but not least is comedian Jim Carrey who shares the tragedy of his own father's dream that got left behind in choosing the safer route -

So, what I find the most inspiring is the advice that no one really knows anything, and you need to do what you can to practice your art - your craft. Most of all you have to be willing to fight for that right because no one else will do it for you.

Which commencement speeches have you found to be most inspiring for creative entrepreneurs? What do you wish someone had told you as you graduated?

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Creativity in a Cup.. of Coffee

Creative Entrepreneurs – Follow Your Passion vs Show Me the Money

Following our passion or chasing the money seems to be the classic dilemma of life - especially for creative entrepreneurs.

Sure, we all know those who are not only passionate about their work but also incredibly successful. So even though this four minute mile has long been broken, we seem to believe that it’s reserved for the few and fortunate to achieve “the dream.”

Yet, when we look at 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly, he basically breaks down how success is very attainable to those of us without a Lady Gaga following.

My friend August gives some good advice on how to pay attention to your passions. She recommends taking time to meditate and to write down ideas.

I’m a big fan of both of these ideas. For a long time I resisted meditation - believing this to be too “passive” or just plain waste of time. In reality it is essential to creativity.

There’s been studies that one of the key reasons why we sleep is to “empty the cup.” Our brains literally need to dump their buffers filled with stuff that accumulates throughout day. According to this video and referenced study, it’s one or the other.. operating or flushing wastes..

On the other hand Mike Rowe shares why he says we shouldn’t follow our passions - he shares how his passion was to be a tradesman, but was told by his grandfather that life would be a lot more satisfying and productive if I got myself a different kind of toolbox.

That was a tough and bitter pill to swallow, but Rowe says, “I remember a very successful septic tank cleaner who told me his secret of success. ‘I looked around to see where everyone else was headed, and then I went the opposite way,’ he said. ‘Then I got good at my work. Then I found a way to love it. Then I got rich.’”

So, how can we “turn pro” as creative entrepreneurs?

While you’re building your bridge to creative life, invest in side projects. These will often be the building blocks to your future success. Felicia Day found that different skills like craft paid off when she needed to everything from graphics for her videos to promotional flyers.

Steve Jobs discovered that his passion for calligraphy helped Apple to find its niche with desktop publishers and graphic designers.

Surround yourself with creative entrepreneurs - especially those who are just a little ahead of you on the path you want to go down.

Whether it’s the new wave of film makers like George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, or the Paris writers during the 1920s like Hemingway, you will find not only inspiration and encouragement but connections for funding or work.

Our school systems still teach the pass / fail mentality of the Industrial Age. Instead, choose to think in terms of only success and lessons. We’ve definitely talked about how fear is the death of creativity.

As Thomas A. Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work."

Your creative business is a lot like tango. When I teach a class, I point out how students often get in their own way by being afraid to try a step. Being relaxed and open to possibilities allows your creativity to flow.

So where do you stand on this debate? How you feel about this decision?

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What Does Gratitude Offer Creativity?

"Onegaishimasu." [for what we're about to receive] This Japanese expression always makes me think about AC/DC - "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You"." It's the way to invite your partner to practice with you in aikido.

We bowed respectfully to each other and began practicing the technique that Michael Gelb has just demonstrated.. although I was familiar with this waza (skill,) somehow I never saw it the same again.

Gelb had explained how the core movement was a helix & tied it to DNA - I'd learned later on that he's a management consultant specializing in helping executives think creatively..

At the time I was still working on my MBA, and ironically we ended up using his book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci as a text book in our entrepreneur class.

Some folks may think of the whole Law of Attraction thing as a bit too "woo woo".. but if we take it on the general dynamics of this, it's the difference between being attractive vs repulsive..

Just ask any boy who grew up here in the states about the story of Tom Sawyer and he'll know how Tom enticed the neighborhood kids into painting the fence for him. Instead of chasing after others to help (being repulsive) he made them curious and ultimately the task irresistible to the others.

Seems a bit fanciful? Well, for years Cellspace weekly dances has been run on volunteer efforts.. while other tango events involved paid help, individuals came together and volunteered their time to teach classes, DJ, even set up and clean.

But what about our personal lives? How does being grateful invite in MORE - more fun, more joy, more creativity?

I've shared before how Julia Cameron's Artists Way is a chance to explore and to be curious. Hidden within the DNA of her method is gratitude..

• Taking walks - appreciation and gratitude for nature
• Morning pages - 3 daily meditations on what we're grateful
• Artist's dates - enjoying what we have and again being grateful

Today I make it a daily routine to meditate. I've resisted this for a L-O-N-G time.. but finally I realized I needed to "empty the cup" - both mentally and spiritually. Only then do we have room to invite more of what we want - not only be affirming and visualizing, but with a sense of GRATITUDE.

Without gratitude we focus on the negative. We invite into our lives more of what we DON'T want that way.

Henry Ford said

whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" Thoughts are energy.

Whatever we put our energy into we get more of.. That's just a basic law of the universe - energy is neither created nor destroyed. So, when we talk about what we put our energy into, this is what we mean.

For the longest time I've known this but didn't fully appreciate the meaning. Reading this core message of Napolean Hill's classic Think & Grow Rich (get your free copy), I didn't fully appreciate the depth of its meaning.

A wise friend reminded me how "you know, John, the problem is that it's too simple. People naturally want to complicate it." He passed away a few years ago, but this friend died a rich man in my book surrounded by a thriving family and those who will always remember his generous spirit of service.

The one thing that struck me about this creative entrepreneur was how grateful he was. From the first time that I bought him a cup of coffee at Starbucks (our default meeting place) to the birthday wishes, this friend always expressed a sincere gratitude for even the smallest gesture.

When Dave started out as an entrepreneur, he would camp along the beach with his son out of the delivery van used to deliver books to stores. Although his business was just starting out, Dave was always grateful for time spent with his family, and he said that was why he went into business.

Years later, even having grown from boot strapping into operating from a warehouse and serving clients around the world, Dave said that he still appreciated those humble beginnings.

So, I suppose that's my takeaway. We may aspire to be like the rockstars of the world or indie moguls of our industry, but to live the simple life of a humble man that valued a truly rich life with freedom and passion - that's my goal as a creative entrepreneur.

Here's to you, Dave. I'm grateful for the moments we were able to share together.

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