Brené Brown On Sweaty Creatives, The Perspiration From Fear And Dealing With Critics.

Over the years, since I saw her original TED Talk, I've tried to take Brown's advice to heart. 

There is nothing more frightening than the moment we expose our ideas to the world. In this presentation at the 99U Conference, author and vulnerability researcher Brené Brown shows us how to deal with the critics and our own self-doubt by refusing to “armor up” and shut ourselves off. “Not caring what people think,” she says, “is its own kind of hustle.”

Instead we must “reserve a seat” for the critics and our own self-doubt. “Tell them, I see you, I hear you, but I’m going to do this anyway.”  

A manifesto for creative professionals

Paul Jarvis verbalizes some truths about creative work:

We are amplifiers. Clients need to bring their skilled craft to the table for any project to succeed.

We work on trust. Clients pay us because they trust in what we do and the skills we possess.

We'd rather be challenged with innovation than model any project after one that already exists.

Every project must be useful and good for the world.

We work for our client's clients, so we sometimes side with them.

We only work on projects where we believe our clients can succeed. Their success is our mission.

We don't work with committees or teams; we work with leaders and decision makers. Art and creativity goes to committees to die horribly.

We go all-in on every project. Our clients must as well.

Merlin Mann's Advice For People That Want To Make Things Happen

The Great Discontent delivers another revealing interview, this time with Merlin Mann: 

What advice would you give to a young person starting out?

Well. Whether I’ve met you or not—young person—my observation is that you are probably not as screwed up as you think you are. And even if you are screwed up, it’s time to start acting like you’re not.

Give yourself a little bit of a break and let yourself have some dignity. Hold your head up and act as though you’re capable of something better than what you have. There is so much negative self-talk that we do to keep ourselves feeling terrible about everything. Sometimes it can be helpful hearing a dork like me talk about this, but sometimes it can be helpful to talk about it with your friends and discover what horizons are out there that you may not even be aware of.

It’s about having a strange combination of high expectations for yourself, but for the things you’re capable of doing. It’s kind of unreasonable for you have high expectations about things that you have no business even trying, for example: “I’m mad at myself because I tried to run a marathon today and it didn’t work out.” There’s no reason to think that you would be able to do something that other people have spent years preparing for. It’s not realistic, yet you beat yourself up about it, so then you feel incapable of doing other things.

Go a little easier on yourself, and in so doing, be prepared to make and do things that might seem silly at first. Just keep moving: don’t ruminate and stare at the wall. Don’t just play with your phone: go out and produce something.

Also, take a walk and get out of the house. Just un-pot yourself a little bit. Put yourself into a different environment where you don’t have to be the person who feels bad about themselves.

I am a fan of Merlin's work. To me, he feels like the crazy uncle at the family get together that is being silly and funny until you realize he has hit you in the gut with facts and truth, about how you work, and how you fit in a world that for the most part doesn't know how to be productive. I listen to his podcast Back To Work and frequently go back to his essay Better for inspiration. 

20 Creativity Quotes Beautifully Illustrated From Ogilvy & Mather

20 Quotes to Kick You into Creative from #CannesLions / #OgilvyCannes from Ogilvy & Mather

And Answers

I've always had a fascination with questions and answers. The how and why of asking questions and answering them. Lately this fascination has been rekindled because I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the processes of collaborative communication. 

You already know each other, you are clients or service providers, freelancers, interns, co-workers, you know each other. You've been working together for a while and have found the routines of how you share information.

It is at this stage that we begin to answer the wrong questions. Or more precisely answering most questions wrongly. 

We think we know how the other person works, and how the other person thinks, so we begin to answer collaborative questions with what we think they want to hear, or what we think is the answer to a better question. Collaborative confusion ensues. 

I am reminded of a great scene from an episode of The West Wing. I forget the episode's plot but despite paraphrasing it many times remember the scene vividly. 

The White House Press Secretary is being prepared for a deposition by White House Council. After a few hours of going back and forth the lawyer casually asks the Press Secretary "can you tell me the time?" 

She replies, "It's 2:35."

He becomes, well, angry. Sternly he tells her, "stop that, stop doing that. I asked you, 'can you tell me the time?' and the answer is yes. Stop answering the question you think you heard, answer the question I asked."

That's it. 

Stop answering the wrong questions. 
Stop answering the question you thought you heard. 
Stop answering the question you think they should have asked.
Stop answering the question with too much information and not enough answer.
Stop answering the question undecidedly. 
Stop answering the question by pivoting the subject and saying something else you want to share. (Technique used most frequently during political debates.)
Stop answering the question in a way that hides the fact you don't know the answer. (Just say I don't know. Let me figure it out.)
Stop answering the question by providing more questions so you can buy yourself more time. (Just say I'm not done. I need more time.)
Stop answering the question without providing a solution. 

Can you tell me the time?

Answer the situation, the problem, the question they asked.