CREATIVE FOCUS: REAL RESULTS

I always felt like I was very limited. I felt I had a finite number of stories I could tell on stage. It felt like there’d be a little bit of light shining on my creativity for a brief moment, and then it was gone.

Since writing my book and this second iteration of the class, I feel like I have infinite ideas — and they’re not all limited to the subjects I thought my stories had to be about.

That’s been really exciting. It’s just this abundance. And it’s ever-present.

I had been working on a musical for several years, but I’d also gone through a lot of personal upheaval. I was a little afraid of it, because it is this huge project, and I want it to be seen really widely, and I want it to be really good. And that’s such a high bar.

I felt a little stalled. I needed a kick in the butt.

But after the One Goal module, I thought, wait a minute, I’ve invested all this time in this huge project which is, to my mind, hugely socially significant and important. And it’s almost done.

So, it’s kind of poised to leap now, and that’s really scary and exciting.

My brain’s exploding right now. But yeah, it’s going to be good. I’m really excited about going to New York.

I actually sat down every morning and wrote, before anything else. Before mail. I paid myself first, even if it was just for 25 minutes. That’s a huge win for me. Focus on becoming the kind of person who writes first thing every morning. Then I can build from there.

I look back and I realize that my god, I was working so differently six months ago. There are things I do and tools I have that make every day really, really much better. And that turns into a good week, and that turns into a good six week sprint, and that eventually turns into a finished film.

What you will find out, like I did, is that you can read about this as much as you like. But not before you’re actually in a workshop, doing the assignments each week, having Jessica to lead all of this—that’s where you’re going to see your life being transformed. So if you’re on the fence, I would say don’t think about it, just join. And you can thank me three months from now if you take my advice.

I’m finally working on my dream project, and I’m getting paid to do it.

When I finished my previous project and set out to choose what to do next, I could have just repeated the same mistakes I’ve always made before I joined the Creative Focus Workshop.

I could have tried to hold onto every opportunity that came my way out of fear, and end up only finishing the safest projects with the best pay but the lowest creative rewards.

Instead, I merged a prestigious paid offer with my dream project that’s been on the backburner for years.

For the first time in my adult life, I feel like I’m consciously making my own day-to-day choices. The buzz I usually feel from participating in a week of comic workshops is what I now wake up to every day.

I finished a huge quilt started 30+ years ago . I’ve competed 18+ open loop small quilts and have refined my studio space into a functional process based arrangement where all the things I use regularly are to hand.

I’m proud of what I’ve done. It’s a slow process and I’ve been distracted off the finishing path / starting new stuff but am back on it again, which is actually quite liberating. So, more finishes to come.

My One Goal project, Stepworks—”a creative playground for rhythmic storytelling”—has launched!

Before the Creative Focus Workshop, It had been 15 years since my own content was in the driver’s seat, and I wanted to find that voice again. I don’t have a problem coming up with ideas, but figuring out which ones to focus on is tough.

The focus I found by committing to a single goal, and the energy I got from pursuing the thing I actually wanted to do instead of servicing the idea debt, was tremendously helpful in making the progress I’ve made.

I came out of the workshop feeling like I wasn’t as far off from where I needed to be as I thought, I just needed some tools and encouragement to focus and push ahead.

I got a lot out of the Creative Focus Workshop this summer—Thank you!

The funny thing is that the exercise that set me free is the Capacity Audit. Looking at all of my responsibilities (day job, getting some exercise, being with my grandkid…) I immediately came to the conclusion that my capacity is 0.

Somehow, that set me free.

Instead of being hard on myself for not creating, I started to feel very proud when I etched out even a few minutes. It’s really made a big difference.

I’ve been drawing and painting almost daily ever since.

What I love most about your approach, why it SINGS amongst such noise, is you are the first person I’ve seen to address the ways in which TIME is not the only resources to be managed when it comes to productivity and output of creative work.

Too often it felt like there were only two camps to choose from:

1. Zen, minimalism, focus on life, moment to moment, don’t plan, go with the flow.
2. HUSTLE FREAKING HARDER YOU LAZY $@&*$^

You have created space for a better, truer, more integrated option. One that recognizes actual real life and actual human limitations.

By the end of the week, I was writing my book like crazy. Just writing, writing, writing—without even planning to. So, thank you. I can’t say enough what a breath of fresh air you are in this space.

I do performance management consulting, but it’s really hard to apply some of the things you know you can help other people with to yourself, because it’s a facilitative process. And I needed a facilitator.

I felt absolutely overwhelmed, and I had too many ideas to really get focused in on what I needed to do, and no way to consistently sort them. And I felt guilty all the time, I felt like I never deserved a break. And it felt like I was never gonna be able to grow out of it.

At first it got worse. I’ll be honest. All of a sudden I had to face what I was doing with my time. Was that ever a shock! And there was a little truth-telling that went into why I was putting in 16-hour days. And there was a little truth-telling into why I felt so out of control and overwhelmed and had no focus.

But now, I have given myself a promotion. It’s amazing how much my firm has grown and how much clarity I’ve gotten around what I do. I’m able to go and sell projects now that I would never have even attempted to follow up on as a result of what I have learned.

For the first time in a decade of tech job insanity, it really helped me begin to protect and prioritize creative priorities. It got me back on the path to writing regularly for myself.

I hadn’t fully recognized that my creative work is worth dedicating my time to professionally as well as creatively.

Now I’m protecting more time for writing this project as well as updating how I prioritize other things in my life. This helps me counteract my willingness to sacrifice personal goals: these are all now career goals, just with pragmatic consideration for how much income each drives.

This has disentangled me from my tendency to try to find elliptical ways to squeeze in many more projects at once.