4 Steps To Avoid Having A Generic Career
First let me say that someone has to be generic. Lots of things need to get done and not everyone can be a superstar. But what if you want more? What if you want to rise to a higher level in your career? I am sure you have seen lots of perfectly fine people, producing content, shooting video, writing on blogs, doing tutorials, entertaining with their craft such as audio, video, graphics, design, film, web or other types of media art.
They are good. They are not bad enough to be discounted and yet not entirely compelling enough to be followed. They are just kind of there.
Here are some ideas I have to take your career higher. To avoid being generic:
1. Convey the passion
It really does not matter what you do, it only matters that you get others excited about what you do. If you are doing something you really are passionate about it’s important to get that feeling out on a weekly basis to everyone you can. We’ve all been pitched by people who are completely competent and spell things out logically, but there is no juice to it. And we’ve also heard people who are immersed in what they are doing and can’t wait to tell the world about it. The more you get your feelings and passion out there, the more people will sit up and take notice. Opportunities come not usually from being skilled in your industry, they come from first impressions and the fact that you can engage and entrance people. Confidence about your craft, passion about your industry, mix in some ego and shake vigorously.
2. Market the difference
You could be a web designer, photographer, graphic designer, marketing person, video producer or anyone creative. When you enter an industry you are entering a very large mass of people doing the same. But what is your twist? What is the hook? How are you different than your peers and competition? Try to find out what that difference is and market it. You need to figure out what separates you from the pack. Once you can nail that down, start getting it out there. Because potential clients and people becoming aware of you may be looking at a lot of people offering the same. Help them choose.
3. Get the word out
This could be a blog, a podcast, press releases, interviews, networking, email newsletter, whatever you need to do, get the word out on a regular basis about what you are doing. Don’t worry about the style, don’t try to craft everything you introduce to perfection, just get stuff out there. Show you are busy, show you are active, show you are everywhere. Keep people thinking of you. Keep them coming back. Often the most successful people are not the most talented, they are the people hustling. They seem to be everywhere, their projects and work flow out on a regular basic for the world to see. Keep the tides moving.
4. Find your voice
Look at anyone you admire. This could be an international person, star, business person. It could be a local mentor, associate, friend. What is it about them? What do they have that others do not? Perhaps they have a large following, they have been very successful in their business. What is their secret? Often it just boils down to the fact that they searched and found something they love to do or something they were good at. The first 3 steps here all are some part of it, but the core is finding your voice. It is sometimes what we would rather be doing. Start to shift to that. Move towards what you really want to do. You don’t have to be amazingly skilled in it, chances are you may not be (yet), but start to shift to your true calling. If you try enough things and take chances, you’ll eventually hit on some things you really are passionate about. Once you enter that realm, you can do the above steps, it will be easy to convey the passion, you will love telling the world about it and you’ll have a thing or two that should set you apart from the rest doing something similar. Keep in mind your voice changes over time, the career you have now is fine, but it may be time to move on. You may be on the tail end and it may be time for a new calling. Always continue to explore. Also once you find your voice, speak your mind. Let your opinions and thoughts come through. It sets you apart and people will feel more connected if they find you have something original or unique to say.
What about you? Are any of these steps now in your current career? Are they worth incorporating?
Media Artist Secrets TV Now In iTunes
It’s official, Media Artist Secrets TV is now available in iTunes. Each episode features a topic devoted to developing your creative career. The show started as an audio podcast and won the Best Business Podcast award at the Podcast Expo a few years back in California. In fact the audio podcast is still in iTunes, you can get that right here. The new video version will be shorter ciips running about 5 minutes and although it is geared toward creative professionals, such as graphic designers, musicians, artists, actors, web developers, social media experts and other artists working with all forms of media, the show’s concepts can be applied by anyone who is running a business. The topics are designed to really get you thinking about where you are headed, as well as expand your reach, audience, skills and success.
The show will also be available on Facebook, YouTube and many other video sites, but if you want to get the latest episodes and download them, then click the link below. And if you enjoy the show, please leave a review on iTunes.
Since this is a group project, I want your input on topic ideas, guest suggestions and anything I can do to make the show better as we progress.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the support. Lots of great stuff planned for the show including special guests..it’s gonna be a fun ride!
Creative Career Surfing – Are You Catching The Big Waves?
I like to surf. I like to look for big waves. Career big waves.
To be successful you always have to keep an eye out for the next big wave. Plus be able to ride it. There are basically two ways to run your creative career.
There are those that ride the waves. When the waves tend to be not as big, they look to other beaches. They move there.
Often they find that this new beach, or rather this new market, is just starting to get popular. Waves are getting bigger and bigger each day. This is a good place to be.
Then there are those who never leave the same beach, who stay with their same services, their same marketplace. When the waves die down, they stand there. Up to their knees in still waters. They look backward and think about the big waves from the past. They worry and stress about the future, they anticipate waves will be smaller from now on. They think, well that is just how it goes.
They don’t even notice the others who have moved to new beaches, enjoying new emerging markets, who are fluid and mobile with their skills, career and talents. Still they continue to stay at the same beach.
Your career has to shift and move, you have to move to new markets, keep an eye on what is next and work to anticipate it. If your current scenario is not working, move to a new beach. It may be similar to your old beach, just bigger waves. Keep looking off into the distance, keep looking for upcoming options.
I like to surf. I like to look for big waves. Career big waves.
I have practically done this my whole career. But my focus is on bigger waves on other beaches I have yet to explore. And I usually can catch them.
Am I the best surfer? Not really. So what’s my secret?
Always be looking.
And have great binoculars.
Hitting The Road – Driving Your Company Like A Virtual Vehicle
What is the difference between a new growing company and a company that is stagnant or experiencing cutbacks? One is moving and the other is stationary. This could be a small one person operation or it could be a large enterprise. It does not matter the size, it only matters if there is velocity there. Imagine your company as a moving vehicle, with the goal to constantly travel and meet new people and clients. You could almost think of this as a political campaign, logging hundreds of (virtual) miles with the goal to expand your audience and reach.
I often talk on the blog about promotion and marketing, spreading the word. Creative artists and business people may not be wired to move rapidly forward while sharing the story of their craft, but you do owe it to your audience. You have a duty to make sure everyone knows what you do and how you do it. Once you start to think of your empire as a traveling show as opposed to hanging a sign for a stationary for-hire service, you start to expand your thinking as well. You begin to see the future charged with possibilities. Extending your reach in all kinds of new and exciting ways.
How you move is up to you. You could network, virtual and in-person, speak at local and national events, write an advice column, post videos of what you do on the web, start a fan group, organize a street team, there are almost limitless possibilities of not only where you can take your brand but also how you can get there.
Momentum is the primary ingredient. As is steering. A company moving is a company that is flexible enough to steer into new areas. The core talent and services are still there, but the road traveled presents new niches and paths of opportunities. Things you find exploring you would never discover if you were stationary.
How has your business moved this week? Did you extend your reach, present to a new group, break in to a new demographic, develop a new product or service that was a bit out of your normal scope?
Are you sitting around anxiously waiting for the phone to ring or are you hitting the road and bringing the show to a new audience on a weekly basis? There are so many avenues of communication these days, especially with the web, that there is little excuse not to explore new ways to reach large audiences.
So how far are you moving this week?
Media Artist Secrets TV #3 – 4 Creative Career Steps
On this episode of Media Artist Secrets TV we discuss the 4 Creative Career Steps. You can look at the original blog post this is based on right here.
The 4 steps are Hours, Talent, Ideas and Who.
You can also watch the show in HD on YouTube or in HD on Facebook (podcast version coming soon)
This show is all about the business of being creative, advancing your creative career and ramping up your empire. Each episode will feature creative career development advice and inspiration, cool guests, new thoughts and ideas. Join the conversation by leaving a comment, let me know what you think.
Thanks for checking it out. 
http://www.FranklinMcMahon.com / http://www.fmstudio.com
http://www.Facebook.com/FranklinMcMahon
http://www.Twitter.com/FranklinMcMahon
Which of the 4 steps are you at right now? What step do you want to be on?
Can You Specialize In The Nearly Impossible For Your Clients?
Your career success often hinges on what you are offering. Can the client do it themselves, but it is just easier to have you do it? Or is it a service that the client could (almost) never figure out on their own, unless they went through months of training and research?
The more you match up a service with a client correctly, the more successful you will be. Move from pawn to knight, specialize in the nearly impossible for your clients, not just the inconvenient.
Let’s take photography for an example. A client needs pictures of a building or an event. You offer photography services, you can do this job. The client could snap some pictures, it would be quick, but it’s just not convenient for them. Since it is just grabbing some shots, they could have someone in their office do it, in fact they could have any number of local photographers do it. You would do a great job, but it is hard to have any kind of leverage against others in this scenario. If you charge the going rate, they may come back and say, well we can just grab the shots this time, but we’ll keep you in mind.
Along the way you discover that what they really want is to create an on-line photo gallery for their company, that is constantly updated. They also would like the pictures to look professional and be updated with regular events. Oh and they want them to come up randomly, so a different one appears each time someone visits the website.
You discover all this as you talk more and more with them. You investigate and find out what the bigger picture (so to speak) is and how you can offer a solution. You have a friend who is a web guy, so he can do the back-end coding for the slideshow, you subcontract him to do it for you. You also work out a monthly agreement with the company to shoot a certain amount of images per month. You also promote to them your Photoshop skills, you will tweak and sharpen the images so they not only look fantastic and professional, but they are highly optimized for fast web delivery. You also work out a method where you upload the pictures via a server to the client, supplying them with web optimized versions as well as print versions, that they can use for their brochures and newsletters.
Through constant communication and talks with the client, you have gotten a grasp of the bigger project and taken a lot of the burden off the client to make the process happen. You moved from a pawn, who is utilized but not very valuable and quickly sacrificed, to a rook or a knight, who is pivotal to the bigger strategy, and who must be held on to longer for on-going success.
I love chess metaphors.
Start to think about expanding your scope, offering products and services that branch off in directions you enjoy. Move from being a small circular bush, with just a few services, to a large expanding tree, with a combination of client solutions.
Instead of focusing on a small group of services that can be found anywhere, with little to differentiate you, start to package up solutions that do more and more of what the client needs. You begin doing what is a huge task for them, instead of just saving them a bit of inconvenience.
It’s one thing to hope a client calls you, as they survey a sea of other candidates doing the same thing. It’s another matter entirely where they have to call you, you are the person who can make it happen, solve their problems and offer a range of services and solutions that the others cannot.
Can you offer services others cannot? Can you expand what you offer?
How valuable now are you to your clients and potential clients?
4 Expert Tips From 4 Career Development Gurus
How do I sum up the wisdom of four talented career development gurus in one blog post? Impossible! But I will certainly try. This past week here on the blog I mentioned these four individuals, Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen, so I thought it was time for a recap on these people who made a huge impact, and still do, on my career. Below are four of the bigger concepts these guys cover:
Anthony Robbins: Consistent Focus, Repetition and Immediate Actions
Tony always says that “repetition is the mother of skill”, which means the more and more you do something, the better you get at it. Doing is the key, the more you actually put something into practice, the better and better you become. He will be the first person to tell you that all the self development in the world will do nothing until you actually start putting the methods to use. Focus is important as well, whatever you focus on consistently, starts to come to fruition. A lot of people spread their focus too wide or it’s constantly changing. He also talks about immediate actions. Once you set a plan in place, you must take a step or two immediately towards the goal. No delay. You cannot plan to work on it next week, the first steps must happen right away to create momentum.
Stephen Covey: Find Your Voice and Inspire Others To Find Theirs
He wrote the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and the quote above is actually the 8th Habit, from the book of the same name. Find what you truly love to do, find what your career path should be. This takes lots of soul-searching and exploring, and it often takes making a move, but it must be done. The next step is to inspire others, help them find out what they want to do. Help can be in many forms. The more you help others with their dreams, the more you will see your own dreams come to fruition. He also talks about sharpening the saw, keeping your skills top notch as well as focusing on what matter most to you, not urgent items pushed on you by others.
Tim Ferriss: Get Rid of the Clutter, Get Help and Focus on the Important
Tim says in his book the 4-Hour Work Week that when you work 9 to 5 for years (or decades) and then branch off on your own, you still retain all the same methods, even if they don’t work. You still get up and work at 9am (even though nighttime may be your most productive) and you still work within the 8 hour (and more) grid. Conform your new business to you, not to dated office methods. Use virtual assistants and delegate your workflow of mundane items. Stop taking in info from the web all day, go on an info-fast, most of that info is quickly dated and not relevant to your empire. Most importantly, don’t work 8 hours just doing busy work if you don’t have work, scale back and focus on what matters.
David Allen: Get Things Done by Collecting All Your Info, Sorting, Reviewing and Doing
David Allen created GTD (Getting Things Done) and it’s a great system that actually can be explained fairly briefly. Find a system, electronic or paper, to collect all your thoughts, ideas, tasks, goals and projects. All of them must be captured/collected or else your mind will keep thinking about them. Next is to process them, stuff that can be done in 2 minutes, just do them, things that need to be scheduled for a certain time or location, track them. Work through these 5 steps: Collect, Process, Organize, Review and Do. Put items into these 6 areas of focus: Current Actions, Current Projects, Areas of Responsibility, Yearly Goals, 5 Year Vision and Life Goals.
Saying the above items are the tip of the iceberg is an understatement. Google them all, read what they have to say, get their books and products. Check out their blogs. Even if you just start with one, most anything by any of these four will be highly enlightening and will definitely help you ramp up your career to where you want it to be.
Google: Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen
Websites: Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen
Of course these are my interpretations of my favorites, do you have any favorite methods? Or favorite authors?
Media Artist Secrets TV #2 – Creative Career and Being Shameless
Franklin McMahon Show #2 – Creative Career And Being Shameless..this episode is about being OK with being shameless, not being humble and ramping up your creative career by being confident.
Are you shameless? Leave a comment!
You can also watch the show in HD on YouTube or on Facebook (podcast version coming soon)
This show is all about the business of being creative, advancing your creative career and ramping up your empire.
Each episode will feature creative career development advice and inspiration, cool guests, new thoughts and ideas. Join the conversation by leaving a comment, let me know what you think.
I will also be looking for guests to interview in the coming weeks, if you are interested, please leave a comment with your links. The show will be a work in progress, but I plan on making it informative and fun.
Thanks for checking it out.
http://www.FranklinMcMahon.com
http://www.fmstudio.com
http://www.Facebook.com/FranklinMcMahon
http://www.Twitter.com/FranklinMcMahon
Are You Promoting Your Worst Skills In Your Creative Career?
I’ve been talking to people about this a lot lately, it’s worth discussing here. I always recommend that if you have a lack of talent in a particular area, you should get help, either someone to help you or hire someone to do it for you. I’ll give you an example. You have a product or service you want to sell, you have worked hard to make it really compelling, because it is your specialty. Of course you need to have a website and make sure you come up in search results. But doing SEO and web design is not exactly your talent. You are not a designer. So rather than get someone who knows what they are doing, you design the website yourself. It’s OK, design is not good, it does not function too well, but hey at least it’s something up there.
You’ve just displayed your lack of talent in an area and displayed it for the world to see. You are using this to try to promote your real passion and real talent. You then try to figure out why the results are not what you expected.
Say you have great ideas, you want to star in your own show, it could be a video show on the web, a podcast, a weekly presentation. You have the talent, drive and ideas to really light up a program. But producing costs money, so you handle the production yourself. You get an old camcorder, so-so microphone, attempt to edit, etc. You are not too good at it, but it’s good enough. Once again you are promoting and displaying what you are not good at for the world to see, in an effort to get people interested in what you are really good at or passionate about.
You do this project after project. You rinse. You repeat.
Now I am all about learning, don’t get me wrong. Getting into new areas and developing new talents is great. This is not what this is about. It is about having a genuine talent and then completely surrounding it with a subpar presentation. The problem is most of the audience will stop at the presentation. If something is not well produced, not pleasing graphically, hard to get into or seems more amateur, people will immediately judge it as less then important. And this is the kiss of death as you launch anything. It could produce a path of project after project not going anywhere. You’ll get hearty thumbs up from your friends, but the real audience that matters may quickly turn away.
You are trying unbelievably hard at something you are not good at and getting little to no results.
What also happens is when you struggle with the presentation, you’ll get a bigger sense of accomplishment when you are done, because it will be quite an achievement for you. Because it is so tough and took so long. This however will not thrill the masses. Ironically what you have spent hours and sleepless nights over will seem amateurish to a savvy audience, they will think you whipped it up in a few minutes. Why? Because it is not what you are good at.
The solution is remarkably easy though, so have faith! Get others involved who have the talents you lack. It’s no secret to surround yourself with others who are more talented then you to make anything a success. A lot of people do the opposite though, surround themselves with people less talented. Volunteers with free time. Think of your career like a boat. A ton of people without skills you direct will make the boat heavy and likely to sink. A large crew of talented boaters will make your project, I mean your boat, go faster and run efficiently.
Vanity stops us from getting people on board more talented than us because we feel threatened. We want to be the top dog. Huge mistake.
Really start to think about getting some great people to help you produce. Whatever you are doing, get a person who is an excellent delivery person. You have the talent and skills and message, but get great people to help you bring it to fruition, bring it to the masses.
And also get creative on how you collaborate with these people. It is not all about money, although I always recommend hiring people to help you grow your empire because it just helps it grow faster. It can be about someone volunteering or working out a trade or anything really, just getting that talented person on your team.
Look at your current projects. Look at the part you are least good at, the part you always struggle with and are least happy with. Or the part you have never started, because you lacked the talent. The part just sitting there for months and years. How can you get someone to work on that part while you focus on the areas you really excel at?
How can you grow your empire faster by working with others who have the skills you lack?
Who Is Your Inspiration?
When building your career, having inspiration is something that could not be more pivotal. Having momentum, goals and plans of course will keep us pushing forward. But having inspiration, keeps us pushing upwards.
The lack of inspiration on a weekly or daily basis has a domino effect, if we are not pushing upward, striving to hit that next level, we sometimes are sliding backward. We may be busy with work and projects, but we are staying stagnant on the same level.
Inspiration can come in many forms. Success often occurs through patterns, modeling and habits. If you look to someone for inspiration, you start to model some of what you do after them, you see clear patterns that have worked for these people and you pick up on their habits.
Some look to others for guidance and occasional inspiration and some become intensive students, almost obsessively, reading, watching and listening to everything a person produces, while taking lots and lots of notes.
In our work week we often are slammed with projects, pulled in numerous directions and can feel drained. After work we just want to relax, leaving little time or energy to actually look for some inspiring material. Or it could be the opposite, work has been slow, clients are few. But instead of learning new habits and gaining more and more inspiration, you may be just learning some new tools or doing some networking or looking for work.
Being immersed in inspiration is like working out. Except instead of exercising your body you are flexing and working out your mind. Charging it with possibilities. And like working out, you need to dive into inspiration weekly or daily. Make time for it, because it is vitally important.
Once you really start to become a student of others who have succeeded, you start to realize that you can accomplish a lot of these same goals as well.
As for me, my inspiration pool is pretty vast and deep. Off the top of my head I have followed, and continue to follow, Stephen R. Covey (8th Habit), Anthony Robbins, Timothy Ferriss (4-Hour Work Week) and David Allen (Getting Things Done). Pick up practically anything by these fab four and you will get mountains of inspiration, great tools and fantastic habits. Start with a Google and YouTube search.
A lot of people love the web and find they get a lot of inspiration from it. My advice is to unplug from the web, find a good author and read their current book or listen to their audiobook with pad in hand. Off the web and at a place you can relax and not get distracted, a place to absorb and learn.
I also have a lot of people in my personal and professional life who I gain a lot of inspiration from. Being around them is always a good thing.
Think of people in your life who you feel inspire you, and grab a coffee with them this week. Keep the inspiration in your life growing. Constantly look for books and materials that will keep you inspired and thinking about possibilities. The more you have, the higher you will reach. Make time daily or weekly for this inspiration, work out your mind and really start to flex it. If you have no time for inspiration then you may have no time to grow, personally and professionally.
So my question to you is…who is your inspiration?
Planting Creative Career Seeds – How Does Your Garden Grow?
Success does not happen overnight. Even people who seemingly have just come on the scene with a lot of fanfare have often been working for years, day after day, pushing towards their goals on the path to achievement. When I launch a new project for myself or for a client, I know that a lot of what I am doing is gardening, planting seeds for future abundance. I used to want things quickly, I would look for immediate results. Then I started to think long term. I saw that often when the project or goal was stretched into the future, I could put a lot more into it, hence the greater chance of success.
A good example of this is exercise, people want to be in shape in a week. They make a commitment on Monday, work out a day or two, struggle to eat right and then jump on the scale at the end of the week. Sometimes they have lost a little or actually gained weight. Oh my that has got to sting! But then they give up. Done.
It’s important to realize that a delay of your goal and outcome is not a denial, actually not doing it is a denial. A delay of the payoff is often needed. Once you add time you have much more chances for success.
A lot of people ask me, where do I come up with the ideas for this blog and my show? Most of the time it involves note taking during reading and listening. Also when thoughts pop into my head. As I learn, I jot stuff down, all the time. Now the idea may not be immediately applied. But it plants a seed. A technique that I can think about, save to reflect on, share with others down the road or implement when it is more appropriate. As such I have amassed a large collection of ideas and career development advice, a pretty fertile garden of thoughts that I can pick from. Quite different from zoning out at a blank page and wracking my brain trying to come up with an idea, concept or method that I want to share with my audience or help out a friend or client with.
Delaying the payoff is not bad, as long as you are working toward it. A truly abundant garden of prosperity comes from careful planting, care, weeding out what is not needed, attention and focus. If everything was quickly and easily achieved, everyone would be super successful, have a huge audience, be amazingly wealthy and swimming in abundance.
We talked about Starting Monday, the problem there was delaying the start. This concept here is to delay the end, don’t rush toward it, nurture and build. Think big but think long term. Like anything that grows, the more you put into it, the bigger it will get.
I mentioned blogging earlier, I have to say I have had several blogs over the years. I would get all fired up and blog several days in a row, then get busy and not blog for a week or two. Lose my audience, blog again, work to get them back. See interest, see it drop, lather, rinse, repeat. I realized that making a commitment to blog weekly, several days a week, was consistently steady and kept things building and growing just as I wanted it.
I also realized that in the past if I was not planting, growing and harvesting I was letting myself down, starting from scratch all the time and most importantly letting my audience down. If you are in tune with these concepts I am talking about weekly, you know that building an audience is one of our key concepts, bringing our craft to the masses.
Also remember that when it is cloudy and rainy, that is when lots of things you have planted in the past can begin to really grow. You may be seeing some green ($$) more often than you anticipated if lots of things are growing over time.
OK I think I have overdone the gardening references…
This is a process that takes refinement and one I have learned over the years. I will tell you it does take practice. Planting seeds for future success. Now if I could just get good at actual gardening (like the real kind, with leaves and plants) that would be nice as well.
Are you looking for quick results? Or are you working (planting) systematically towards your goals and plans, putting the time into it that will give you the results you want to get out of it?
Do you have a creative career green thumb?
No More Starting Monday – Don’t Delay Success
Want to know a goal that is almost certainly one that will not be achieved? It is one that is delayed. One that is rescheduled. We all have done it (my story in a minute…) starting Monday I will start doing this, starting next week, at the beginning of the month, when the new year starts, etc. Whenever you make a clear goal, you need to take action immediately and achieve even a small part of it. If you don’t, if you schedule it for the future, you are assigning less importance to it. Also when you make the goal you are typically excited to begin it, so why would you schedule it a week from now when your enthusiasm may be considerably less?
Most goals that are tough to achieve come out of desperation, not inspiration. For example, if you are doing a bad habit on a consistent basis (eating unhealthy, watching too much TV, zoning on the web all day, putting off projects, etc) you stand up to correct it usually out of sheer desperation. You have had it. You have broken your own rules and cannot take it anymore. You finally and definitively make a bold statement to put a stop to it!
Just not immediately, let’s say…hmmm…next week? Don’t let yourself off that easy. Start today. Start when the energy and focus is there. You don’t have to accomplish the entire goal, just take a step or two towards it. You’ll feel much better. When next week rolls around, you won’t have to recapture the fire of when you hatched the goal from last week, you’ll be several steps into accomplishing it. The momentum will already be there.
It’s all about immediate action. It’s taking a small part of the goal and working towards it. You may have tons of to-do lists. A fantastic idea, goal or new habit comes up and you write it down. A week later you review it and it’s just not as compelling. If the goal is really worth it, start immediately on it. If not, the goal will keep kicking around, week after week, month after month. You know the ideas I am talking about, the ones that have haunted you for months that you are not doing.
One recent goal I had was to start a video show, a video version of this blog. I can’t say it was recent though, because I seem to have been thinking of it for so long. I got wrapped up in what camera I was going to use, which mic, what video format, etc. Everything except taking the step to actually start it. To actually shoot it. I would plan to shoot it “next week”, then kept moving it. Last week I just shot one, it came out good, it will get better. But the important part is that it is now rolling. Finally! What goal, idea or habit do you want to do next? Is it scheduled for next week? Next Monday? Can you start on it today?
Media Artist Secrets TV #1 – We Teach What We Need To Learn
I have always wanted to do a video version of my Media Artist Secrets podcast. This new video show will cover a lot of the ideas and concepts from the blog but also branch off into new directions. The show will feature creative career development and inspiration, cool guests, new thoughts and ideas. Join the conversation by leaving a comment, let me know what you think.
Franklin McMahon Show – Episode 1 – We Teach What We Need To Learn
I will also be looking for guests to interview in the coming weeks, if you are interested, leave a comment with your links. The show will be a work in progress, but I will work to make it informative and fun.
Thanks for checking it out.
You can also watch the show in HD on Facebook or YouTube
FranklinMcMahon.com
Franklin McMahon Studio
http://www.Facebook.com/FranklinMcMahon
http://www.Twitter.com/FranklinMcMahon
Get Nervous
It’s totally OK to be a little on edge. You may go through phases where you are very stressed and worried about every aspect of your creative career. On the other side, you may have times where everything is going just perfect. Completely calm and flowing excellent. These two ends of the spectrum do have their long term drawbacks however.
If you are completely stressed and worried all the time it can signal a few things. The main item is there needs to be changes that perhaps you are not making. Maybe you want more clients, but rather than focus on marketing, you loose yourself in busy work. Checking the web, chatting online, working on projects that are not on the path to your goals, anything you can do to take your mind off the real issues.
Or perhaps you have too much work, you are taking on an enormous amount yourself and not getting help. You are focused on deadlines and being overwhelmed, rather than the quality of the projects.
On the other side, things could be going great. Everything is in place, all systems are working fine. Your empire is sailing along, clients are happy, work is being produced. It sounds all well and good until boredom sets in.
You start to become apathetic because the challenges are not as great, the momentum you had is just not there anymore. You are doing the same thing as you did last year and feel like you will be doing the same thing next year.
Stressed out and overworked is not good. And often things going fine with no changes, challenges or momentum is not good either.
The middle ground is getting a little nervous. Just a touch of things not being completely perfect, an edge of uncertainty that keeps things spicy. It’s a delicate balance to be in the middle, but it’s often not a bad place to be. You are succeeding and confidently enjoying your success, but you have an eye towards what happens next, what will be the next big challenge, little slices of unknown that are mixed in to keep things interesting.
You will strive to have your empire working perfect but there will always be things that crop up, some of these items will be in your control and some will not be. But it’s OK to be in the middle ground, it’s a mix of accomplishment and challenge. That friction has launched many successful creative enterprises. Losing that friction could be running on an empty tank in either direction, stressed or serene.
Creative artists sometimes tend to hit the extremes. You may be overworked and totally slammed with clients and productions, stuff is being accomplished but the process is scattered, somewhat disorganized and not very satisfying. Or you may be smoothly coasting, not a lot of pressure but also pretty much flatlining without preparation or planning for the future. No ramping up.
Get nervous. Get more in the middle. Strike a balance between solid productive work with an eye towards advancing in the future. Media artists who are in the zone love what they do, embrace their market and the people they work with. They get a lot of satisfaction and look forward to new challenges. And they are growing. They are not stressed with work they don’t enjoy and they are not overly worried about scarcity or what may happen next. They have balance.
Where are you? Stressed? Flatlining? Nervous? Balanced?
