Tough Creative Love: The Why and How of Creative Action

By Wesley Fryer On November 13, 2012 · · Add Comment

These are my notes from Gregg Fraley‘s closing keynote, “Tough Creative Love: The Why and How of Creative Action” at the 2012 State of Creativity Forum in Oklahoma City on November 13, 2012. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Follow conference conversations today on Twitter with the hashtag #SoCF12.

You already have enough content, so I have a very simple message for you today: Take Action

Who thinks they are creative now?
– creativity is useless… without ACTION.

Creativity is the spring, innovation is bottled water
– what is your dream right now?

this is how companies are founded, films are made, how organizations grow, how songs are written, how dreams come true
– if you want your dream to come true, you have to do something about it

This is a reflective activity
– close your eyes and ‘ask your creativity’ what your dream is / what you should do

4 simple stories
– in Brazil a few years ago
– Pipoca popcorn motorcycle
– combined a mode of transportation with a way to make food

Eric Tekosky’s dream: Dirty Sue
– he and his father developed a pizza topping, took it to market
– had a problem getting it on shelves as a small operator, the company failed
– went to Hollywood as a writer
– took a job as a back-bartender (the behind the scenes bartender)
– he eventually become a real mixologist, noticed he sometimes ran out of the brine inside a jar of olives making dirty martinis
– he wondered, why doesn’t someone bottle olive juice?
– he looked for a supplier, called around 15 olive growers, almost ready to give up
– made 1 last phone call to a family business in California
– they became his supplier for “Dirty Sue”
– top three Avamazon cocktail product last year
– fail, fail, fail…. success! THis is the lesson

I procrastinated on writing my book for YEARS
– I told myself to finally get serious, so I started getting up at 5 am and writing for at least 2-3 hours
– really hard at first

Jack’s Notebook (Gregg’s book)
– I re-wrote the first chapter at least 18 times based on feedback
– I was really intimidated by the entire publishing industry
– you’re supposed to have an agent, write query letters, I didn’t know anyone in the business
– I got put into contact with someone who was a publishing agent, after I shared the first chapter and the rest of my book with him it was sold to a publisher within 6 days

Measure your efforts
– Gary Murning‘s Dream
– to be a published author
– I met Gary on Twitter, we started exchanging messages
– “If I Never” book
– he was cranking out a book a year, sometimes more frequently
– very active on social media
– I learned after I invited him to come down for a beer that Gary is a quadriplegic: He writes his books by blowing into a tube, and uses Dragon software to convert his speech
– he is making his dreams come true by sticking to it, not complaining, and doing the work

Story of Wangari Maathai and her dream
– in the end 7 billion trees were planted as a result of her action

What’s your excuse?
– If Gary and Wangari can do it, you can make your dreams come true

Verbalize now what you are thinking you’ll do as a result of attending this conference
– “Tell your neighbor your dream”

Have a framework and have real behavior, real habits that support your habits and actions
– Explore – Ideate – Take Action

1st: notebooking
– notice your ideas and write them down
– it’s dramatic how important it is to do note booking

I had an accountability partner
– we would call each other at 5 am
– it really worked and helped!

MY THOUGHT: ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS ARE KEY! THEY DEFINITELY WERE FOR ME IN COMPLETING MY DISSERTATION LAST YEAR!

Think about what is going to happen once you face the negativity that surrounds things
– have a plan B and be ready to pivot / change / adapt / move forward
– take action and don’t just take action

Write down what you are going to do TODAY to put your dream in action
– then in a week
– how do you complete?

MY THOUGHTS:
– START A WRITING SCHEDULE FOR MAPPING MEDIA TO THE CURRICULUM

Your answer can’t be “I will think about this more” it needs to be something you can measure

Closing thought
– if you do Th.e first thing on your list of action for your dream, chances are you’ll keep taking steps to move forward
– the longer you wait, the more likely you won’t ever take action

MY THOUGHT: BOY I CAN SURE RELATE TO THIS IN TERMS OF MY PHD AND DISSERTATION. ACTION IS ABSOLUTELY THE KEY. ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS ARE VITAL TOO!

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