169: Courage and Crickets

Note: For the fullest experience, I recommend listening to the podcast, as the audio version always contains additional comments and tangents not found in the blog post version.

On Sunday, a young woman named Ania mentioned me in her Story on Instagram.

She was inspired by a video I made on my IGTV channel, which had a huge impact on her and how she approached her art.

I was so touched that she mentioned me that I not only thanked her in a direct message, but I shared her Story on MY Instagram Story (Instagram makes this one-click easy to do from the private message thread!)

This led to a lengthy private chat conversation, culminating in my inviting her to be on the podcast.

It’s a purely selfish move on my part, because she has a story about how I have totally transformed her relationship to her art. So of course I want to share that, right?

But it’s also a huge thing for her, because she’s really scared to guest podcasts, yet it’s something she’s been wanting to do, so it’s a big growth move, pushing outside her comfort zone. That’s something I’m able to give her, while getting something that I really want, too.

Which is, of course, the definition of a win-win!

Anyway, ALL of this came about because Ania had the courage to share, and to tag me.

If she had never shared, had never tagged me, I would never have known that my work had any impact on her whatsoever, and I certainly would not have invited her on the podcast.

For me, inviting her on my podcast is not that big of a deal — I mean, it seemed like the logical next step. But for her, it was pretty huge. She certainly did not see that coming, out of the blue!

And it ALL happened because she took a risk. She shared her work. She had the courage to put herself out there.

The Two Essential Steps of the Creative Process

The first step is to CREATE. This is obviously essential.

But if we stop there, it’s almost as bad as if we’d never created at all.

Don’t forget, creating is really a TWO-STEP process. Creating without sharing is missing something essential.

Share your work. Even if it scares you. Perhaps especially if it scares you. You never know where it might lead.

It won’t lead anywhere if you never share it. But it might lead somewhere really amazing if you do.

But then again…

My big fear is that I’ll throw a party and nobody will come.

This has happened to me.

Not necessarily with parties, but certainly with business-related things.

I’ve put an offer out into the world, and gotten the virtual equivalent of crickets in response. More than once.

It really sucks.

But what are you gonna do, just stop putting offers out into the world?

Every time, there is a moment I do think, yeah, I’m not doing THIS again. But then I take a breath. And I realize that actually, I will.

Because when I’ve had some time to get over the sting, I realize that the problem is not that I suck, or that the thing that I created sucks. There’s something that clearly didn’t work, and my job is to figure that out, and solve the problem.

It’s a creative challenge, and if there’s one thing I like, it’s a creative challenge.

So I always get back up, dust myself off, and start all over again.

Fear

But that’s not to say I do it without trepidation.

Oh, no. I have a lot of trepidation.

Pretty soon I’m going to open the doors to my Creative Sandbox Community again, with the “relaunch” (for lack of a better term) of a program I ran a few years ago called the Great ClutterBust.

Clear your clutter, change your life, make space to create, and get a full year of feminine support, friendship, and creative rejuvenation in the Creative Sandbox Community, my lab for women’s leadership through creative expression.

The women already inside the Creative Sandbox are amazing.

Just the other day, Angi said on a call, “I’m gaining so much just sharing with such wonderful women, and I can’t imagine not being in this group.”

Carla, one of the members who hosts our monthly creative challenges, recently wrote:

I’ve struggled with depression for over 30 years, and this daily practice has been the most effective “treatment”…26 days and counting. Hooray for the power of TINY and DAILY!

Leslie, another one of our creative challenge hosts, wrote:

The Creative Sandbox Community has helped me tremendously with accountability to help me get moving and keep going on my chosen work, with sharing daily (or at least frequent) creativity prompts to get the ideas moving, and with emotional support during a difficult time. I am immensely enjoying getting to know women from all over the world who share my love of art, writing, and all things creative. The resources, both human and informative, are priceless.

And yet, I don’t know if I’ll be able to effectively communicate the wonderfulness of the Sandbox to women who aren’t already experiencing it. I’m scared that when I open the doors it will be the equivalent of throwing a party and nobody showing up.

Of Crickets

Meanwhile, I decided not long ago to hold my very first Creative Sandbox Playday — an in-person co-working retreat, where people come together to work on creative stuff (art, writing, crafts) in community.

It’s basically like the “day camp version” of my Creative Sandbox Retreat, which I’ve been running for coming up on 6 years now. Where the retreat is 5 days and 4 nights, the playday is a half day.

And it’s only $25!

But again, I’m really afraid nobody’s going to show up.

And how sad and depressing it would be to rent a big room and sit in it from 10am to 2:30pm all by myself…

But I definitely won’t get anybody to show up if I don’t put myself out there. If I don’t make the offer.

If I don’t share my work.

So that’s what I’m doing. Making the offer. Sharing my work.

Because this is what creatives do. We make the offer. We create, and we share.

And sometimes, people invite us on their podcasts out of the blue.

And if it doesn’t turn out the way we want, we learn from that experience, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again.

Where are you stuck sharing? What are you going to share next? What could you use some help with?

Something Cool

Creativity with page folding! This satisfies my paper, lettering, and animation passions all at once. (If nothing appears below, click here to watch a 42-second video in a new window.)

Creativity with page folding from r/oddlysatisfying

Enjoy!

 

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Now go get creating!

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