On Creativity and Fear, The Conjoined Twins of Creation

 I just listened to “The Source of Creativity” episode on NPR’s TED Radio Hour which covered ideas about where creativity comes from, why we all have it and how we find it.It takes courage to be vulnerable and say “This is me and I made this.” Especially if you created something that you put a lot of yourself into.I challenged myself this past year to do just that. Create something – from idea conception to final result and push it out into the world. No external obstacles, no managers or committees to answer to, no one instruct on what I should do and how I should do it. This is me and I made this.I listened to many business and entrepreneurship podcasts from other people who created something – a product or a business, including Seth Godin’s Startup School, Mixergy, Startup and I learned a lot from all of the stories of trials and tribulations of people who put themselves out there like that. The main thing I learned is just f#$%^@g do it. Get out of your own head, remove the idea that you have to strive to a level of perfection that doesn’t exist and just do it. Stop talking about doing it and just try it.Watch my favorite motivational 1 min video.And of course there were all the negative thoughts that come along with being vulnerable like that. What should I create? What if it sucks? What if people call me a fraud? What if it just gets ignored completely? What if I’m wrong?But as Ken Robinson says “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.”I decided to treat this project as an experiment; an experiment in creation. And if it flops, at least I would have learned through the process.I started narrowing down my options. I didn’t want to create a physical product because I know nothing about that and it seemed to be a very expensive experiment to conduct. Instead, I opted to create a knowledge product, based on things I know – no need to recreate the wheel for my beta experiment. I decided on creating an online course about Marketing since I’ve been a marketing professional for almost a decade. But Marketing is a pretty broad term so I needed to narrow it down even further. I was seeing a lot of websites that looked pretty but really didn’t have any substance or optimized for getting customers. And I heard from talented designers and developers that were telling me that they knew how to design a site or develop the site, but they didn’t know much about the strategy side of creating a website. So, I thought I could help with that and I created an online course on website strategy called: “How to Create a Website That Doesn’t Suck.”The challenge was to ship it – to put it out into the world before I talk myself out of it, even if it wasn’t perfect because as the maxim attributed to Sheryl Sandburg goes “Done is better than perfect.”I didn’t want to give in to the fear, I wanted to learn and I wanted to try.This is why I was really struck by Elizabeth Gilbert’s view on how creativity and fear are intertwined.“I think what stops people from doing [creative work] is always exactly the same thing, which is fear. What I've discovered over the years is not that you have to be fearless because I don't believe in fearlessness and I don't advise it.I think the only truly fearless people that I've ever met were full blown psychopaths or really reckless 3 year olds and I don't think we want to aspire to be either of those things.I think instead what you have to do is recognize that fear and creativity are conjoined twins. And what I see people doing in their lives is they're so afraid of their fear, that they end up trying to kill it and when they kill it they also kill their creativity because creativity is going into the uncertain and the uncertain is always scary.So what I've had to figure out how to do over the years is to create a mental construct in which I make a lot of space to coexist with fear.To just say to it: "Hey fear listen, creativity and I, your conjoined twin sister, are about to go on a road trip. I understand you'll be joining us, because you always do, but you don’t get to decide anything about this journey that we’re going on. But you can come and I know that you’ll be in the back seat in panic, but mommy's driving and we're going anyway. And you just take it along with you and that seems to work for me.The rest of the time for me it’s just been about showing up every day for the work. And I find that what actually happens is that you begin the work just from a place of diligence and discipline and then if you’re lucky through that process you’ll have moments where inspiration will come in and meet you.”Gilbert’s approach to fear and creativity really struck a chord with me. Don’t try to be fearless, instead, accept the fear as an integral part of the creative process and don’t give into it.And the results of my experiment? I’m putting the final touches on my course to be released before the end of the year, as I promised myself.

I was also honored to present my talk at WordCamp this year, a global conference for WordPress designers, developers and users and I received great feedback from the attendees. It was a great opportunity to test-run my course and learn from all the wonderful creative people who attended. I am very happy to be part of the WordCamp community.
What is fear stopping you from creating?

How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes)

Thank you to everyone who came out to my talk at WordCamp Montreal 2015 - How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas, and Wireframes).I appreciated all of the feedback and questions I got from all of you.Many of you asked about the presentation slides. Here they are:

How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck (Using S.M.A.R.T Objectives, Personas and Wireframes) from Dana Salman

If you are interested in getting a special promo code for my online course on How to Create a Website That Doesn't Suck drop me a line: danasalman1 [at] gmail[dot]com

The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work - by CopyBlogger [Infographic]

Great summary of Landing Page Elements by CopyBlogger

Like this infographic? Get landing page advice that works from Copyblogger.

The 5 Dimensions of Great Product according to Jeff Weiner

Jeff Weiner CEO of LinkedIn talks about the 5 dimensions of great product on This Week in Startups

I just watched This Week in Startups interview with Jeff Weiner CEO of LinkedIn. Jeff Weiner talks about the future of LinkedIn and the 5 dimensions of great product. I learned a lot from the talk and created a quick infographic of the key points made about great products, but I do recommend you watch the whole interview with your team. Enjoy!

Lessons from Amy Poehler's Yes Please

I've been learning a lot about entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and passion projects this past year. I'm fascinated by the subject and I'm learning a lot from successful men and women from different backgrounds.

I recently finished Amy Poehler's autobiography "Yes Please" (read by her on Audible which added to the awesomeness) and I absolutely loved it! The book is heartfelt, smart and funny - a true reflection of what I imagine Amy Poehler is like in real life.

This was my favourite part of the book that really left a lasting impression on me: "What do we do? How do we move forward when we’re tired and afraid? What do we do when the voice in our head is yelling THAT WE ARE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT! How do we drag ourselves through the muck when our brain is telling us you are dumb and you will never finish and no one cares and it’s time you stop.

Well, the first thing we do is we take our brain out and we put it in a drawer. Stick it somewhere and let it tantrum until it wears itself out. You may still hear the brain and all the shitty things it’s saying to you, but it will be muffled. And just the fact that it’s not in your head anymore will make things seem clearer.

And then, you just do it. You just dig in and write it. You use your body you lean over the computer and stretch and pace. You write, and then cook something. And write some more.You put your hand on your heart and feel it beating and decide if what you wrote feels true.

You do it. Because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing. This is what I know.
Writing the book is about writing the book.

So here we go you and me. Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it's not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready."

This really resonated with me because I have a tendency to get in my own head and psyche myself out of doing things either through thinking this won't work, or there are others who are doing a far better job than I could, or the chances of success are so minuscule that it's better to just not waste my time. I just say to myself, just shut up and do it and you will either succeed or learn for the next one. "Writing the book is about writing the book." Working on that post or project is about working on that post or project. Just start it and finish it, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done.

Another thing I loved about this book is Amy's (yes, we're on a first name basis) resilience and optimism. She shares the start of her career and how she made it in comedy, a field that is still to this day a male-dominated field. She always looks for the positive side through successes and failures. It is no wonder that everyone loves working with her, and that is a big plus no matter which field you're in. She says, “Almost every job I have gotten was due to someone knowing my work or seeing me in something else.”

Seth Myers (who has a guest chapter in the book) talks about how Amy was in labour and he was supposed to do SNL Weekend Update by himself for the first time, and she still managed to text him encouragement. She is a great example that you don't have to be an asshole to be successful and being kind is a good way to work.

Amy also didn't sugar coat any of her stories about drug use, heartbreak and failure. She takes responsibility for her mistakes and apologizes for them. Like the chapter she talks about a crass SNL skit about Hurricane Mary which was a movie based on a true story about a girl with cerebral palsy. Amy admits that she didn't know it was about a real person, but she still was too ashamed to face the girl's parents and she only apologized 5 years later.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend the audio version, she's just fantastic. We need more women like Amy Poehler in the spotlight.