The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

Reignite Your Passion: A Creativity Boost for Entrepreneurs With Evan Cholfin

• Jennifer Ann Johnson • Season 3 • Episode 9

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Feeling stuck in your creative journey? You’re not alone.

In this episode of The Confident Entrepreneur podcast, industry leader Evan Cholfin shares ten actionable tips to reignite your passion and supercharge your creativity. From stepping outside your comfort zone to building a daily creative habit, Evan explores strategies that fuel artistic and professional growth.

Learn how to seek valuable feedback, embrace rejection as a stepping stone to success, and unlock your full creative potential. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, artist, or innovator, this episode is packed with insights to help you stay inspired and move forward with confidence.

Tune in now and spark your creativity! Don’t forget to subscribe and share your thoughts!

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Jennifer Johnson:

Have you ever felt stuck in a creative rut, desperately searching for that spark of inspiration? Whether you're an entrepreneur or an artist, or just somebody that is looking to inject more creativity into your daily life, you're in the right place. In today's episode, we're diving in to the 10 tips to boost your creativity, and I welcome into the studio today Evan Cholfin. Evan is the CEO and founder of Luxhammer. He creates and produces unforgettable film and TV and branded entertainment that helps brands make powerful and lasting connections with their audiences, reaching over a billion people and that is a billion with a B. That's pretty impressive.

Jennifer Johnson:

He has spent the last two decades developing, packaging, selling and producing film and TV. Evan has worked on beloved projects, including the Academy Award-winning nominated films the Irishman, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Moneyball, as well as the Emmy-winning series the Night Of on HBO. An avid genre fan, his most recent projects include film and TV adaptations of Sega video games, where he partnered with top-tier filmmakers. Evan has been featured in over 3,000 publications, including Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, yahoo Finance and Adweek. Welcome Evan.

Evan Cholfin:

Thank you, that's an amazing introduction, I appreciate it.

Jennifer Johnson:

You are an amazing individual. I mean all of that. That is so much. Where did you get started?

Jennifer Johnson:

Where did?

Jennifer Johnson:

all of this begin.

Evan Cholfin:

Well, with my dad's video camera, my Legos and I made stop motion movies when I was five years old.

Jennifer Johnson:

Wow and all of that leads. It led you to where you are today.

Evan Cholfin:

That's right, that's right, and here I am.

Jennifer Johnson:

And here you are. Well, that's pretty impressive. I have seen the Irishman. I have not seen the girl with the dragon tattoo, but I have seen Moneyball Very cool. So I want to talk with you today about specifically 10 things that people can do, 10 tips that people can utilize to be more creative. On an everyday basis. We're needing to be creative in many different aspects of our lives, and sometimes our creative juices are just gone. We've worked ourselves into a tither and we're like I can't create anything. I don't know where to begin. So I thought it would be amazing to have you share with our audience 10 tips that you suggest to them that they can use to be more creative, Because obviously you're very creative.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, absolutely I'm happy to share. The first one I always tell people is keep your day job. I say that because it's really important to keep a base. You know, whenever you're being creative, it's important to have that level where you don't have to worry, you don't have to struggle so much, you can just build from there. You know, and everybody, even the most successful creative people, all have their day jobs.

Evan Cholfin:

I tell my management clients that the great documentarian Errol Morris, who has won Oscars for the Thin Blue Line and the Fog War, that his day job is directing KFC commercials. So it goes hand in hand that you know it's a good idea. The second thing that I like to say is to step outside your comfort zone. Don't be afraid to try something new. You know, it's when you step outside your comfort zone that's when you really grow. And when I was tasked this was a little while back, when I was a creative director for a campaign for Japan Airlines we had to really think outside the box to come up with an idea to attract business travelers, to really raise awareness about the airline, which they had said that they had zero awareness outside of Japan.

Jennifer Johnson:

And.

Evan Cholfin:

I came up with an idea and I knew I wanted to create this global artwork, and I didn't know exactly how. So I did a bunch of research and I came across this artist named Yasan, who is a GPS artist, and this was totally new to me. So a GPS artist is someone. What he did, I'll explain it by how he did it. He traveled all across before our campaign by foot, by train, by bus, however. He could tracked his GPS data. Foot by train, by bus, however.

Evan Cholfin:

He could tracked his gps data, uploaded it to google maps and it spelled out the words marry me across all of japan oh my gosh, that's how he proposed his girlfriend at the time that is crazy yeah, and he put everyone else who proposed anything to anyone to shame.

Jennifer Johnson:

I would think so. That is crazy. But you know, not outside the box, right?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, exactly, so fortunately she said yes.

Jennifer Johnson:

That wasn't all for us.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, it cut to a couple of years later and we were able to give him an opportunity to travel, to break the world record that he set 14 times over by traveling to 19 cities across six continents, and he would fly to each spot and meet people in each city and they would basically push the button on his iPhone and it would activate the next leg of his journey and, as he flew, it tracked the GPS data and so he not only met all of these people, but they helped him to create this global artwork and it spelled out the word, literally spelled out the word peace, and so the campaign peace on earth that he created, and we um, you know it was something that we were, uh, told you know this, this is a crazy idea, you know, there's so many things that could go wrong and it was certainly a challenge, but we pushed through and definitely stepped outside our comfort zone to create something, and we were very happy with the result.

Jennifer Johnson:

Well, I think it's so apropos because a lot of business owners are afraid to do that. They're afraid just because no one's tried this before, that if they try it and it doesn't work, they're going to look like a failure and then, you know, everybody's going to think less of me. We get in our own head and in our own way, whereas if we just embraced it and went, screw it If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I've learned something from it. Failure is never final, it's always. You're learning something from it. I call it hiccuping. You had a hiccup, but you learned from it, right?

Evan Cholfin:

Absolutely. And then the client got about 3,000 images and 3,000 hours worth of footage and we were able to give them this uh, cut it down to a five minute highlight reel and a card holiday card that people could send out during the holidays.

Jennifer Johnson:

So that's cool yeah, it was.

Evan Cholfin:

It was something that I'm still very proud of um A lot of hours.

Jennifer Johnson:

You had to convince into a pair shot.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, our documentary team that followed Yasson did an incredible job, and shout out to Mark Apicella for doing an incredible job directing that. They went around the world with Yasson. And the next tip would be be curious, you know any, I like to say combining two disparate ideas really as many ideas into one is really the basis of creativity. And so exploring the world, you know that could be through books, by travel. So exploring the world, you know that could be through books. I think that helps you see things through a different lens and allows you to expand your mind and be more creative.

Jennifer Johnson:

And it's that always be learning mentality, because there's so much that can be learned in the everyday, mundane things that are happening or happening around you and if you're not paying attention, they'll pass you by and there are great opportunities that you could potentially use for something, but we have to be aware of them.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, absolutely. And then I would say the next one is really important, I think, for people is making a creative habit time and space to each day, work on whatever creative thing that you're working on. So that could be getting up early in the morning, taking half hour or an hour, whatever it is, and working on that thing, whatever it is that you're trying to be creative with, when you have no distractions, when you can really concentrate on it. And what's great about it is it's like exercise and it's hard at first sometimes, but as you do it, it's like exercising that muscle and you get better and better at it and then the more that you do it, the more creative you actually become. So it's important to give yourself that time and that space to do it.

Jennifer Johnson:

I'm curious for you what do you find is your most creative time during the day?

Evan Cholfin:

For me, it's definitely right when I, right after I wake up, I think it's a time when I've woken up from dreams and I might still have a dream or an idea that I'm coming off of. You know, especially when it comes to writing or when coming up with an idea and I want to just get it down on the page. It's really helpful to just do it then and there's no distractions at all, which is great before I start getting phone calls and all the things that come with life.

Jennifer Johnson:

Do you keep that pad of note or that notepad by your desk with, or by your bedside with a pen? So if you wake up.

Evan Cholfin:

I don't do that, but I do. I do take a lot of notes on my phone. My phone is is is my notepad.

Jennifer Johnson:

I'm old school, I pen and paper.

Evan Cholfin:

I type faster than I write now, so it helps me.

Jennifer Johnson:

You know, I totally agree with that. You know you have to find the time during the day that works for you to really you know when your creative juices are flowing. Do you see every day, do you feel like every day you do that, or is it just when you feel like it?

Evan Cholfin:

I mean, it kind of goes to the habit of yeah, I try to adhere to the creative habit and try to do something creative each day when I'm working, especially when I'm working on a project, it's really important that I do that. Or if I'm writing, working on a column, you know I might, you know, get up early and work on that. So it just depends.

Jennifer Johnson:

Okay, well, that's awesome.

Evan Cholfin:

That was that was.

Jennifer Johnson:

That was. That was tip number four. I can't wait to hear.

Evan Cholfin:

I can't wait to hear five rolling through, so number five.

Evan Cholfin:

I say, find your key. So it's really. You know, creativity obviously can be really challenging, and finding your key it's really about forcing yourself to open up areas of your mind that might be locked away. So when you get stuck, it allows you to to get unstuck. So it's really about finding your reason why. So if you're telling a story, for example, or you're writing a script, or you're working on a project or you're you have a company, you have to have your reason why, and that reason why is the single thing that keeps you going and finding that thing is so important to unlock and it will tell you every decision that you have to make throughout the entire process.

Evan Cholfin:

It will guide you. I think it's key. It's your key.

Jennifer Johnson:

I love that because it really helps you understand. Oh, it's the unlocking of that proverbial why, why am I doing all of this?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah.

Jennifer Johnson:

Do you have any tips for that, like how you find your why?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, that's a really good question. I think everybody kind of comes to their own why, through who they are as a person and what their, what their uh morals are, what their uh message is, what, what they're trying to say, what they're trying to do in the world, um, you know it, it can come from uh so many different places, but it really tends to be something internal that drives that person and gives you know. If it's a company, for example, you know you, you it has to be that thing that gets you to wake up in the morning and be excited about working for you know, if you're an entrepreneur, you know it's hard to be an entrepreneur, but it gets you excited to work on what you do, so it has to come from something internal, I think.

Jennifer Johnson:

What ignites you essentially the fire in? The belly what makes you feel that feeling Exactly. Yeah Well, I love the analogy of finding your key. That's great, that's awesome.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, the next one. It relates to writing, but it also, I think, relates to any kind of projects that you might be working on. I call it writing the vomit draft.

Jennifer Johnson:

And so the idea. Vomit draft.

Evan Cholfin:

Yes.

Jennifer Johnson:

Okay, so the idea is yeah.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah. So the idea is to yeah, yeah, it's the idea to get it all out on the page, because what we tend to do is our analytical mind loves to just immediately filter and start to analyze anything that we're working on. So you have to let your creative side get it out all unfiltered and raw and finish it unfiltered and raw before you start analyzing it, before you start breaking it down. That's all for the second draft to create first, and then do your analysis and actually go through and think critically and assess it.

Jennifer Johnson:

And that's honestly such great advice for anything. Like you said, it doesn't have to just pertain to writing, because how many times do we as entrepreneurs have an idea right and we sit here and analyze it, and analyze it until we analyze ourselves out of doing whatever that is? And if we just put it on paper and then come back to it, maybe there's going to be something else in there that speaks to us that we didn't see before, or that we go oh yeah, that that still wasn't a good idea.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, exactly, and it can allow you to explore like you're saying new possibilities that you may not have thought of, which is the whole point of creativity.

Jennifer Johnson:

But it just gets it out there. It gets it out of your body, your head. You're just like I need to get this on paper. I have felt that myself, and I feel so much better when it's actually on paper, not on my phone, but on paper, yeah, absolutely yeah, and then it's really important, of course, to get creative feedback.

Evan Cholfin:

So you know we don't live in a vacuum unless you're in space. Getting feedback is essential from people that are close to you, people that you work with, tend to be helpful. Getting that outside perspective help you to catch things you may have missed, things that might be bumping or not working for them, and there's testing in the marketplace. There's different ways to have you know peer review, you know, but getting that feedback is also really essential because it just makes what you do stronger.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right? Have you ever? Or how do you feel about getting feedback from people that are not in your industry or not one of your peers? Is it beneficial?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, it definitely can be, because sometimes, when people are not in my field in particular, like I work with clients all the time where they don't do exactly what I do, but they might, you know, have a feeling about something, or they might they might have an opinion about something. It actually he it gives a clue about what. There might be something around what they're commenting on that needs to be fixed, and oftentimes there's. You know, if there's something bumping for them, then oh, maybe we should take a look at it, because there might be something that maybe it's not the exact thing they're talking about, but there could be something around it.

Evan Cholfin:

And then some people are just really astute, because the truth is that we live in a world where so many people consume media that you know it's pretty amazing how people notice you know stuff and are very media savvy.

Jennifer Johnson:

It's funny that you say that because my daughter, who's in college, I was filming a bunch of stuff on my phone one day and she saw me doing it and she's like what are you doing? And I told her that's cringy, like that's what people did a year ago, whatever it was I was doing. And I'm like really, because she watches TikTok and Instagram and she consumes a lot of stuff on YouTube and everywhere, so she's up on what's going on right now, whereas apparently I'm not.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Johnson:

Everybody has it on their phones and you know they go to bed with us at night. They wake up with it, so that makes sense.

Evan Cholfin:

Yep, it's easy to be cringy.

Jennifer Johnson:

Apparently. I am Watch for more cringy videos coming soon. That's right, I might have to send them over to you and you can tell me it could be like yeah.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, so along those lines it's always. It's always good to have uh to find mentors and mentees.

Jennifer Johnson:

And.

Evan Cholfin:

I can't stress enough how important it is to find not just one mentor, but many, and mentors can be not. You know, we always have a stereotypical older person who's been in the field a long time, who's done the thing, but the truth is done the thing. But the truth is they could be younger or they could be your peer, and you know, your kids can actually mentor you in things that you may not know about. It's amazing how much you can learn from other people. So it's always good to have lots of people who can uh to quote unquote mentor you and um, you know, I think the best mentorships are the ones where you set a goal and you, yeah, you set that goal and you actually achieve it, and then you tell your mentor hey, I actually achieved that goal. Because then it makes them feel like they did something, that that, that you've actually, um, accomplished something.

Evan Cholfin:

And because that's really what most mentors are in it for. They're not in it for anything else other than wow, I actually gave some advice and helped. That's exciting to them, so also obviously having mentees is really important because you're sharpening and honing your craft and anything that you do and you're passing it along to the next generation, which is good.

Jennifer Johnson:

And I love the whole mentee mentor thing because you know you give out what you're going to get back as well and you know that's so important. But also you know, like you mentioned, having a mentor that maybe is that untraditional mentor, maybe someone younger than you are is very beneficial. I have a few in my life that I have learned a lot from, because we can be stuck in our I don't want to say stuck in our ways, but we can be stuck in a rut with. This is how I've always done it. But then somebody younger or newer in your industry comes in and is like well, this is a solution that we found and it's worked better for us and it kind of oh wow, yeah, you're right, you know it helps. So it doesn't matter age or anything like that, it's just who you find that you align with and who understands you, and you know it has to be a good relationship to really play off of each other. But mentees and mentors are very important.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, definitely. And then the next one. I'd like to say that rejections cost nothing and really you know when you're getting your work out there. You could be turned on a thousand times before you get that one yes and I know personally I have, and I think that's the truth is that one yes is what really matters and so it's okay to get those rejections.

Evan Cholfin:

Um, and of course you know, sometimes it does sting and you know, but you, you know you go through those, but then you learn that you know it's not that big of a deal, it's okay. You know not, not everyone. You don't need everyone to say yes, um, and whatever you're doing, you just need, uh, you know that that one really important one, you know it's. It's funny Back when, uh, uh, I'm thinking about the Irishman and it took nearly a decade to get made.

Evan Cholfin:

And that was a gangster movie with Martin Scorsese directing. Right after he did the Departed, had Robert De Niro, al Pacino, joe Pesci attached written by Steve Zalian right after he did American Gangster and all Academy Award winners and sat on the shelf of Paramount until Netflix picked it up and it's amazing that it took that long. But that's you know, just acknowledging those, uh, those rejections and let that fuel you to continue on. I think is really important.

Jennifer Johnson:

Is that how you deal with rejection?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, yeah, I think I think that you know you take, you take each one and kind of let that feel you and that that makes or let it roll off off your back. It depends on what it is. You know, some are no big deal at all and some things are kind of like oh wow, I really spent a lot of time on that, but you, you just kind of lick your wounds a little bit and then let it feel you for your next opportunity with the mentality that well that wasn't for me or it wasn't for me at the time.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, sometimes it's interesting when you think about in retrospect. You think about timing can also be really important too, and sometimes the timing does play a big factor in in terms of your success and sometimes, I think most of the time, it has very little to do with you and a lot to do with luck. I think I think it was actually Scorsese, speaking of that said that he owes 80% of his career to luck. So that's, you know, pretty incredible filmmaker 100%.

Jennifer Johnson:

Had a lot of good luck. Had a lot of good luck.

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, and then the last one that I wanted to share is that they want you to succeed, and you know if you're presenting any kind of creative work or idea, and someone's granted you that opportunity.

Evan Cholfin:

Just remember that they want it to be the best pitch they've ever heard. They want it to be the thing they take to their boss, or the green light in the room. They want it to be something that is going to be the next sliced bread. They, they, because it's just going to make them look good too. And so when you go in with that, that kind of approach, then there you don't look at them as you're not. You're not scared going in because they're on your side.

Jennifer Johnson:

It brings that scare factor down a little bit at 10%. Because you sometimes walk into a room and you have to present something and you're like, oh my gosh, these are all really like you know in your world A-listers, right, and you can freak yourself out and freak yourself out of a job or position or whatever it is because you're just like scared. But if you look at it that way, that helps reframe it a little bit.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah exactly, and that's useful in any anything that people do, whether it's regular life or business. It's a very useful information, very useful tip, for sure. Well, thank you. Yes, I have loved all of these, these thoughts, these, these 10 tips that you've shared with us today have, I think, are going to be very, very useful to our listeners, because they're going to. There's nuggets in here, there's gold nuggets sprinkled throughout this entire podcast. Is there anything that we haven't touched on today that you would love our listeners to know?

Evan Cholfin:

Yeah, I mean, the important thing is, you know, if you're an entrepreneur thing is, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, if you are building a business to, really the biggest thing is to not give up, to believe in yourself and to believe that what you're doing is something that's going to change the world. And it's you know. Being an entrepreneur myself, you know there's days where you just don't want to get out of bed and and it's OK. You know, give yourself some grace. I think it's really important to do that and also know that you will have those days where you'll win, will have those days where you'll win, and so please, you know, give yourself a grace and a space to to, to grieve, but also that know that there's better days.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah, I love that grace and space. That's wonderful. Well, evan, if our listeners would like to get in touch with you, how can they do so?

Evan Cholfin:

Sure, they can just go to Luxhammercom.

Jennifer Johnson:

I have all my contact info on there or they can follow me at Luxhammer LLC on Instagram Wonderful. Thank you so much, Evan, for being on our episode today.

Evan Cholfin:

I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

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