Soul Sucking

How is it that we are born creative, get a creative degree and a creative job, and yet still get sucked into jobs and careers we hate—or, at least, that don’t match our creative potential?

My job as a creative leader is to show you your full potential. I want to give you a taste of what your career could look like, feel like, how rich it is, and get you so hooked on it that you’ll never settle for less.

I’ve gotten good at it…

When I was professor at the School of Visual Arts, inevitably there would be one or two students each semester whom I had to take aside and give “The Talk.” The Talk generally went like this. “I see you. I see how the other students see you and look up to you. You are funny, smart and charming.”

Then we’d look at their work on the crit wall and I’d lovingly say, “Your work is none of that.”

WHO you are matters.

I want to see YOU in your writing, in your music and acting, storytelling—in all your creative activity.

Your opinion matters.

As ‘professionals’ we lean so heavily on the tools of type and color and placement without relying on ourselves, history and character.

We fall into the myth of ‘the way business is done’ or believing that there are ‘rules’ that need to be followed.

We lower our expectations, our labor 'makes the obvious obviouser,’ and we never commit ourselves fully to our work.

We know our potential but see no outlet or opportunity to play it out—and we feel that. It’s the feeling we call 'soul sucking.’

There’s a chapter in my book, Feck Perfuction, titled Your Work Is A Gift that reads like this

“When you begin to see your work as a gift, it changes how you think about your work. It changes why you work, what you make and even who you work for. When your work is a gift, your goal is no longer to satisfy a boss or client—or even to gain a paycheck. You now work to make yourself happy—and in turn speak directly to your audience. Because you now give them something of value—a piece of yourself.”

Who you are matters.

We need to train ourselves away from, “What do THEY want?” and toward that more beautiful refrain, “What do I have to say?” Practicing this, we can quickly craft a reputation for having an opinion and get paid for it.

(Are you wondering how to do this? How to put yourself and your opinion into your work? I am, for the first time outside of The School of Visual Arts, holding my class again on exactly that. Live, in my hometown, for four days in October. Find out more here.)

This is what I want for you and your labors cuz…I see you, funny, smart and very charming.