Ep 43 Creativity: Understanding and breaking through creative slumps

In this episode of The Crazy One, Stephen Gates tackles the challenge of creative slumps—those frustrating times when ideas seem out of reach, and inspiration feels lost. Discover the different types of creative slumps, why they happen, and proven techniques to help you break free and get your creativity flowing again. Tune in for practical strategies to overcome blocks, reignite your passion, and get back on track with powerful ideas.

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Stephen Gates : 0:00

What's going on everybody, and welcome to the 43rd episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is the show where we talk about creativity, leadership design, and all kinds of things that matter to creative people. And so as summer truly begins to descend on New York City, it's a little warm in the home studio today, what we're going to push through that, because I really want to talk about something that I think goes along with a lot of the shows that we've been doing lately around emotion. We did a show on happiness, we did one on insecurity. And today I want to talk about something that really kind of dovetails into all of that. And that's slumps. Because the reality is, is that we all get them. Trust me, I talked to so many of my peers all the time, and that we really struggled to overcome this. It's something that we have to fight through. It's something that we all have to fight through, because it's just part of the creative process. And it's something that we all deal with. I mean, this show came out of the fact that this past Wednesday night, and in incredibly talented, one of the most talented people who I know somebody who absolutely has more energy than I've ever known, texted me and he's like, Hey, man, I just love it. If we could really catch up and talk, he's like, you know what I've been struggling he has, I feel like I'm in a slump, but I'm just not sure what to do about it, you know, can we spend a little bit time and talk about it. And that's the thing is that this is a guy who travels all over the world with an incredible company helping all kinds of different industries, different companies. And it's like I said, he is somebody that I look to for advice, somebody that I look to. And so one of the things I want you to think about, and one of the things that honestly, I hope that you get out of this show, is that no matter what your experience is, no matter the size of the brand, you work on the size of the team that you work on. We've all got the same problems and I get a bunch of emails I hear from a bunch of people that are always like, Man, it's so great to hear that somebody who works at your level or somebody with your level experience or whatever they think I've done that you struggle with The same stuff that we do. And it's great to be able to hear that it makes me feel so much better about myself. But that's the thing is this creative condition that we all are working with, there is something incredibly unifying very much alike. And all of this no matter what the size or the scale that we all really share in something like that. And that's why I said it's just because a lot of what I do a lot of what these shows are, some of them are things where I think like, you know what, yeah, that's, that's something that we need to talk about as an industry. But a ton of it is also coming out of stuff that I'm struggling with things that are going on. In my career, in my job in my life, whenever I see things or see examples and think, man, I've heard other people talk about that. We should talk about that. This is one of those were just from Wednesday to Sunday, put this whole thing together because that conversation that really happened in my friend really made me realize that this is something that we need to talk about, but like I said, it also really wants me to make sure that You guys know that nobody's crazy, nobody's different, that we're all struggling with the same thing. And that the main problem is, it's just none of us are willing to talk about it. Let's talk about what we're going to do today. So today, once again, big fan of doing things in threes, let's look at kind of what are the three things that surround creative slumps? And I think part of that is just one is just looking at what are the different types from there and taking a look at why do they happen? And then the last one, and I think this is the most important one is how do you break them? How do you get through them? And this is some of the things that I've done. This is some of the things and talking to other people that they've done that work for them. And there's a myriad of different things. And so that's what we're going to cover today, like I said is we're going to dig in a little bit more about what exactly is going on with these sort of slumps that we all get into. We're going to start with just looking at well what are the different types are there because the reality is is that and the struggle is going to continue to be Is that everybody's creative process is different. The way that you connect the dots, the way that you are creative is unique to you. And the reason why it's unique to you is because it's based on your experience, the things that have gone really well the things that you struggled with your life experiences, your emotional makeup, tons and tons of different stuff really affects the way that you see the world. It's why you can find so many different people that can see the same topic so vastly differently. Creativity is sort of an extension of that. And so that's gonna be the challenge is that here again, and I've said this on so many other shows, there's not gonna be a magic bullet. So this is just gonna be a guidepost for you to go through and try to identify where are you struggling with and how can you sort this apart for you, but the two slumps that they usually fall into the two places where I find most of the time that I have conversations around this are the first one is that it is a creative slump, meaning that these are the ones that affect your inspiration, your ideation, the execution of your creativity. How do you actually bring ideas to life? And as we've talked about in the past, there's been the evolution of just being the executioner. And then you get into leadership slumps and that these are the slumps where you know what you just feel like you aren't leading or driving your team, with new ideas with new processes with new tools. Because the creative slump is very much about you as an individual, your work, your contribution, it's very introspective. Leadership, slumps are different than a lot of cases, I think they're probably significantly more challenging. Because it's getting a group of people to do something, it's affecting a group of people. And that's a real challenge, because in a lot of ways, the creative ones are and this may sound weird, I think they're a lot easier. I can control me I can control what I do the inputs and the outputs into my process. Other people, I can suggest I can tell them what I think they should do, how much they actually do it, that variable really leads to a whole different host of reasons for how successful you're going to be. But those are generally the two that I think we're going to work with today. Because I think those are the two biggest ones that I hear about, like I said, are the creative ones. So these are the ones that affect your process. And leadership ones. These are the ones where as you're trying to lead creative people, you're just getting stuck there. Let's move on and actually start to talk a little bit about why do these slumps actually happen? Again, we're gonna revisit some themes that we've talked about in other shows. And the first one here is going to be self awareness. One of the biggest reasons why think slumps happen is because people don't necessarily realize that they're in a slump. And I've been the victim of this. This is something that I struggled with for a long time where I wasn't actually self aware enough to actually realize that I was in a slump or to be able to articulate it that way. And this has been true of my work. It's been true my leadership, I mean, hell, they're called places even true. Life I wasn't necessarily really completely aware of how unhappy I was with a job or with something else, until I had left and looked back and then went, Oh my god, I this is why I was in such a bad mood or this is why I was so unhappy. All that I knew was that I just, I wasn't happy. Work wasn't coming as easily as it used to. But I didn't necessarily realize that I was in a slump, because it had happened gradually over time that a lot of little things kept adding up. There wasn't some big calamitous event. And I think that's the challenge with slumps is that a lot of times, you just slowly end up there. It's not like all of a sudden, some day there's some big event, some catastrophic marker and you go, Oh, that was the reason my work was great. But after that one day, then everything went downhill. It's this gradual just numbness that comes with change that comes with things that just happen differently. And we've talked before about that link between your emotional state and your level of creativity. This, again is why I think these two are so interlinked is because slumps do well then connect to happiness. If you're not in a good mood, if you're not looking forward to going to work, if you're don't feel like you're really in the zone, then that's the beginning of a slump. And it took me a while to see this. And it's why I do shows about emotions. It's why I do shows like this, which is talking about stuff that I don't see a whole lot of other people talking about. Because a lot of it comes back to self awareness, and to understand how all this stuff affects your creativity. But that's the other reason why I think people don't talk about it because there's not a magic bullet. You can't make a T shirt with a saying on it. At the end of it. There's not a catchy line you can put on a poster there's there's a lot of things that really require you to be introspective. And this is why as I've led teams as I've managed people, you will see some people who really step up to this who embrace it and really understand the challenge and they will succeed. You see others who just Like, oh, this is super easy. I'm there's nothing big here. And they aren't really going to be honest with themselves. They don't have that self awareness. And then they really struggle, as we kind of like try to get a bit more specific because you know it for me, it's letting me off the hook a little bit too much just to go, hey, look, you know, it's your it's your process. It's your problem, you figure it out. I think that in general, there are three different things that I think lead to creative slumps. All of these link back to what we talked about in the episode on the role of happiness and creativity, or part of it is that you do need to understand what do you need to be happy? And how important each of these things are to you in your process? Like, what do you need to be successful? What do you need to stay inspired? And there's going to be kind of an undercurrent of all of that in these three things. Now, the first one and this is the one that I'll see a lot and again, I think this is one of those gradual change sort of things is that it comes out of honestly getting stale. By getting stale, I mean that as a creative, you're doing the same thing over and over again. And in a lot of cases, I think this is incredibly understandable. because creativity is a double edged sword. On the one hand, when you break through, when you find your voice, when you find something that you find is powerful or has an effect, it is natural to then want to hold on to that and to keep doing it to keep having success. That's just natural because creativity is an anxiety ridden profession. We are given a problem with an unknown solution that we then have to create something out of nothing. That is anxiety filling, that is something that makes people nervous, it is something you have to learn to embrace how to be happy sort of being unhappy or, or just being okay with that uncertainty. Here's the thing is that if you hold on to that success to that single way of doing things that single process Our execution or whatever it is, if you hold on to that for too long, then you're going to slowly go into a slump. Because the reality is, is that as creatives we thrive on the new we thrive on growth, we've five on finding that new solution, that new breakthrough, that new challenge, that just the rote repetition of one thing over and over again. Well, that's what gets people to quit teams. That's what gets people to move on, or it gets them personally very, very frustrated, because they don't feel like they're growing. We aren't getting that endorphin hit of doing something new. It's a double edged sword. It's a push and pull because on the one hand, it's comforting. It is good to know that I do something that is successful, and you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You don't just want to every time say Okay, look, I'm just gonna start completely fresh. Very, very few people do I know who are able to be able to have that sort of creative process. So how do I hold on to some of it, but at the same point, How do I push myself? How do I push my work? How am I somehow dissatisfied, to keep myself moving forward. And here again, that's a very tedious emotional balance. Because if all of a sudden I'm unhappy all the time, then the insecurity takes over the frustration takes over, then all of a sudden, I'm not happy, I may be doing kind of more of this good work, but maybe it's being too disruptive. But that's one of the reasons why is just because you've stayed in one place too long, you haven't really challenged yourself into long. The next one is then probably a little bit of a derivative of that. And what I'll see is that I'll see people who get a little bit too isolated in their work or in their process. And here again, I think that it is an understandable reason why this happens. Because as we said before, your creative process is personal. So it's understandable why it might be something that actually might start to work against you if you get too caught up in it. You know, I've been with a lot of creatives who get really tired introverted too wrapped up into themselves to just into their own way of thinking and up into their own head. And they become very, very isolated, they become something where they want to work on something, they want to craft it until it is perfect until they really feel like it's okay. And for some people that takes way too long, or again, they fall into that double edged sword, where they stay very introverted, because they found success with that. And they don't want to be uncomfortable, because change makes you uncomfortable. But here again, after a while that isolation starts to work against them. Because the reality is, and this is, at least in my experience, and with all of this stuff. Look, I'm an audience of one. I'm not beginning to say that I'm the be all and end all for the answer on this stuff. But for me, whenever I look at my book, whenever I look at my work, the stuff that has been done most successful, hugely, hugely embraces the fact that creativity at its best, is a team sport, that it is something that we need to do as a group. I need other opinions. I need people Who can push me forward, I need those other sort of things. Because if I become too isolated if I become just that solo practitioner, my work doesn't evolve my frustration grows that I am to cut off that I'm just simply trying to do this through this happenstance of trying to find things. And that the isolation really doesn't work terribly well. For me. I think it works great. If you're a fine artist, if you're doing things like that, you know, in that case, it probably works great. But for those of us who do commercial work, those of us who are doing more commercial design and more commercial creativity, it's something that's different and the team really can help you with that. The third one comes from here again, and this is a bit of a slant on what I said before about self awareness. Because I think with all of these with all three of these, they are portions of your self awareness. Are you self aware enough to understand if you're doing things over and over again, are you self aware enough to know if you're getting too isolated, but the last one is are you self aware enough to generate Understand your process, and to understand what do you need partially to be happy. But also, do you know what you need to inspire yourself? Because here's the challenge. As you become more experienced as you become more seasoned in the industry, as you do more work, you're gonna find that you become less inspired by other people. This is something that I went through. And it's a challenge because very early on in your career, you're mimicking other people, you're saying, hey, look, I'm really inspired by person x. I want to really make my career like them, I want to act like them, I want to create like them, I don't work that looks like them. Well, then you go along and you start to find more of your own voice. Maybe your voice is a little bit different. Maybe you feel like all of a sudden your work is as good as person or maybe even a little bit better. So now, they aren't quite the inspiration that they were before because you found your own way of doing things and that now you don't hold them in such kind of odd esteem as what you did before. That What's gonna happen. But the challenge then becomes as those people start to fall away as you become more of your own person, this means you now have a much greater responsibility for your own inspiration. And that this is where you really can find a real challenge because a lot of creatives don't understand their creative process, and then they don't understand what they need to get inspired. For me, I very much understand that I may be motivated by other creative directors by other heads of design, but things like that, I rarely am inspired by them. What I'm inspired by are street artists. I'm inspired by chefs, I'm inspired by tattoo artists, I'm inspired by a whole host of other things that are connected to my industry that I can draw from, but they're not a direct correlation to that. And that's what I need to stay inspired. But I understand that I need to feed that engine. I need to do those things. To keep myself happy. I need to be able to feed into that to be able to keep myself All fresh and to try to keep myself moving forward. And I've talked about this in the past. It's why I wrote a blog for 12 years. It's why I started doing a podcast because for me part of the progress as a leader, part of the progress, as somebody who likes to think about what goes on in this industry, is to give away those ideas, because it forces me very, very clearly forces me into moving forward into continuing to push to have new ideas, I can't sit on what I did before, because whenever I give it away, whenever I talk about it, I can't come back and do another show about that can't write an article about that. Can't go to my team and talk about something if they know because they listen to this to that. That's something I've revisited before. So it forces me to continue to move forward and continue to evolve. So for me, that's a forcing mechanism that I use. And there's a bunch of other stuff that I'll do to try to stay inspired to try to keep me thinking and working and looking and sometimes it is working. Sometimes it's knowing that I shouldn't be working but there's a whole host of those Things that I'll do that really helps me line up and to keep me really inspired and moving forward. And so I think that's probably is actually a good transition point to actually go through and to start to talk about what are some of the things that you do? What are some of the things that you can think about or things that you can try to try to break out of your slump or to try to keep yourself inspired or to understand your process, because I think that there's a lot of these things that can do that. Because breaking out of a slump, I think is a lot like getting in it. I don't know that there's gonna be one thing that you're gonna do one podcast, you're gonna listen to one article, you're going to read one thing, you're going to see one person, you're going to talk to that all of a sudden, you know, again, the heavens are gonna pardon it's gonna rain, champagne and puppies and everything is going to be incredible. And you go, Oh, my God, I'm back on track. It's not the way the human brain works. It's going to be a process of working it back of starting to get back on that horse of getting out of the rut that you've been in to start to get back on that path and then Once you're up on top of that, to continue to stay hungry and flexible, and think about the different ways you can do things, you don't again, start to slowly slide back down into because that's the thing that I think wears a lot of creatives out is it's the highs and the lows, the lows of being in that rut, the frustration that comes with that, then you get the exuberance that just endorphin rush to kind of like starting to find your way back starting to find better ideas, get back on that horse, man, that is awesome. But then, man, it's starting to trail off again, and my ideas aren't as good and I'm getting more frustrated and then banging them back back in the rut and over and over and over. It's not sustainable. And I think that that's one of the things that I try to think about is in my process in my way of doing things. What am I doing that is sustainable? Think about it, like being on a diet, right? It's not that different because if you lose weight, it's not about saying, Look, I'm going to skip the cheeseburger for lunch today. What it's about is what are the small changes that I can make that are sustainable, that I can continue to do overtime that will help me lose weight. Again, it's not a fad diet, it's not doing things for two days, that doesn't fix the problem makes you feel better for two days and you feel like crap, because you went back in the diet didn't work. So this is like a diet for your brain, what are the sustainable changes that you can make? And I think that these are, let's see what they're eight total of these things that I do to try to really make sure that I'm going through and I'm not just kind of like binge dieting for my brain. The first one for me, and we talked about this already a little bit, is to look at how can I evolve or purge my process? There's a bunch of different things that I think you can go on about this. I think, on the purge side of it, the purge side, I think can actually be a little bit more about your space or your process or, again, this could be about the physical place where you sit, your desk, your studio, whatever that is, or it could be more mental about your process where what I want to look around and I want to say look, what is old, what is excess, what are the things that I can get rid of and Bring in something new. don't discount and underestimate the effect of a physical space can have on you. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a second, because there's a whole one of these that I have about just your space. But don't underestimate the power of what you actually surround yourself with on your creativity. But from a process standpoint, I am constantly looking at how I can change things up. How can I simplify them? How can I evolve them? What is it that I'm doing so that I can keep my work moving forward and not get stuck in that slump? Are there parts of my process that I'm like, man that is really working? Well, I don't want to mess with that. But then maybe there are other parts of it. Maybe there are the ways that I started ideation, maybe there are ways that I work with my team. Maybe there are ways that, you know, I need to be more introverted extroverted, different things like that, that I'm constantly tinkering with. But that's the part of it for me is that no part of my process is sacred. None of it came down on two stone tablets from a mountain. And then I can go through and actually change it up. I can work on it, I can evolve it. And that's the question. Rotation that I set for myself is to continue to get better to never just simply settle and say, Okay, look, I've really got it dialed in, I'm perfect. I don't need to work on anything. Here again can be a little bit of a double edged sword so you don't become some insecure, neurotic creative, who's constantly never happy, again, whole episode on that and go listen to but that's the thing is how do I find a healthy balance in that? Now the next to really go with people, and specifically about bringing in outside people into my process. And I think that I really try to seek out two very distinct groups to help me keep my perspective to help me get out of a slump to help me look at the way I do things. Now, the first one is to how do I find a group of people who changed my perspective, because I like I said before, I find a huge amount of inspiration in talking to people who are in other industries, but people who we still share the Creative condition, the creative process. So for me, these are people like photographers and chefs and tattoo artists and toy makers and all kinds of different things. But what we can do with that is that we have a shared bond around the creative process, we have a shared bond in the process. But the output of that the approach is so different. That again, if I'm talking to a tattoo artist, this is somebody who is creating art that you get one shot at, whenever you put a line into somebody's skin, you can't go oops, and go back and erase it. So the output of that the process of that the mentality of that, very, very different. And so those are the people that I want to find those are the people that I want to seek out and surround myself with and have lunch with on a regular basis and reach out to and talk to, because for me, they give me a different perspective. And I find a huge amount of inspiration and insight in those conversations, because whenever you're talking to them, maybe we have the same problem. Maybe They're struggling to get out of a slump. But because the output is different, it lets me see things differently. I'm not blinded by just simply talking to somebody that does exactly the same thing that I do. Because sometimes you can rationalize too much you can identify too much. So again, I want somebody where there is a shared core of creativity. But I want them to do something slightly different. I want to seek these people out and regularly engage with them, so that I can use this as a touch base, and just a way to be able to talk through what I'm going through and get their perspective on it. The other group of people, that I'll do things with the other group of people that I want to seek out, those actually are the ones who have a similar job to what I do. Because like I said before, creativity can be isolating. And in a lot of cases, it can be hard. It can be uncomfortable, it can feel like you're taking a risk to go through and actually share something who does a job that's similar to yours. But I find that one of the best things that I can do is to call up up here, call up somebody who does something similar to me, go grab lunch, grab dinner, grab a drink, and just really talk through what it is that we're both dealing with. Because the thing that I found time and time again, is that I will talk to heads of designs of other big companies of other small companies. And then as we will kind of get through the pleasantries we get through the small talk. And as we then start to talk about what is our day to day, like, what are the struggles that we're having with building a team with building belief with working with creative process with working with clients, or management or politics or silo, all this stuff that comes with being a creative inside out of an organization? The thing that inevitably happens is you go, Oh, my God, I have that happening to me too. And here's what I did about it. Or I have that happening. And I haven't figured that out. But after 45 minutes or so, all of a sudden, inevitably, somebody will say, you know what, I thought I was crazy. I thought I was alone. I didn't know that anybody else had that problem. I've been around My brain about that. And I'm just as guilty of it. And I think a lot of people are where you just you somehow you enjoy the challenge, you enjoy the isolation a little bit too much. And it's only in that moment, this cathartic moment, whenever you can actually then go out and when you can talk to somebody and share the struggle that you're having. Do you know that you're not alone. And I referenced this in the beginning of the show, as we talked about the creative condition, as we talked about how everybody isn't as unique, everybody isn't as isolated as they want to believe. This is true at all levels. This is true of all roles, and then a lot of cases finding somebody who does something similar to you, to have that conversation to have that perspective to feel like you aren't alone in this. And a lot of times it requires you to find somebody who works at another company. Because inherently people will feel like well, if I talk to another designer where I work, if I talk to another copywriter, well, maybe they're going to tell my boss maybe they're going to tell somebody that I'm not happy. Maybe you know, this isn't going to go very well for me, but if it's with somebody who's a friend, somebody that's to appear and they work at another company. There's a catharsis that comes with that, because you don't feel like you're risking that you don't feel like maybe you're putting your career, your reputation or things like that in jeopardy. Maybe the way you would if it was somebody at your own company. So I, it's something like I said to this day, I lunch with a very good, you know, old friend of mine who runs a group very similar in size to mine. And I think the 45 minute lunch turned into over two hours at the end of which we said, you know, that it felt more like a therapy group or something, but how great it was for us to have this conversation. Because we've both felt so much more sane from it, the next few are going to be a little bit more tangible. The next few are going to be a few things that I've done that I find really help kind of clear my head or will kind of break me out of a slump and do things like that. Now, the first one for me is to try out different tool sets, different ways of working. Because one of the things that we said before is that, you know, if you like your process, then it's one of those things where you tend to have a certain set of tools set up Applications a certain way of doing things that you've done for a really long time. Now let's use an example. Me creating the show. Now I've done this show for a really, what has it been about a year 43 episodes, so not a insignificant amount of time. Whenever I started doing this show, I did everything in Evernote, because that's where I live. That's where I took notes. That was the easiest place for me to do it. And we started there. And after a little bit, I realized that it was great for some of the initial ideation. But whenever I actually did this show, it wasn't really working. For me, it was hard for me to actually record it and sound convincing as a storyteller. So I evolved, and then it was I started in Evernote, but then I would essentially build decks like I was gonna be on stage in Keynote. They'd be simple, no visuals, but then I can sort of page through them as I went through. And that worked for a while. But then again, I kind of felt like you know, I'm starting to get into a little bit of a slump in the show. I'm not quite as motivated as I used to be. Maybe I need to change up the toolset there. And sorry. Recently, I discovered a new tool that has revolutionized the way I've done this show. I've been more productive in the past three weeks, and I haven't in the past year, because again, I changed up the tool and there's a new one that I use called Milla note, m i l A and o te, which is basically like a mix of post it notes in Evernote. So it's the same sort of idea, but it lets me work differently, that it lets me be able to kind of block out the show more quickly. It lets me go through ideas more quickly. I'm much more inspired. I work much more freely. It's been a real, real great evolution for me. But it was that evolution in the tool that helped me think more quickly helped me think more clearly. So here again, don't be afraid to mix some of those things up and look if you always have to design in sketch everyday or if you always know that's gonna end up in a Word document. Think about you know, what are you doing in the inspiration phase? Are you sketching? Are you writing things down? Are you doing mood boards? Are there other things you could be doing along that process that may be useful? Couldn't mix it up a little bit more to be able to help you kind of see things a little bit differently. And to be able to just do something a little bit different and make it feel a little bit more fresh. The other one that I'll do, and this is very much based out of a lot of years of working with creative teams that I know that one of the things that is a fantastic motivator for creatives is panic. And sometimes I need to induce panic in myself, because creativity, a lot of times is born out of pressure, and the ability that I have to get something done, you can probably think about this, how many times have you had a month or three months or something to do a project, and you didn't really buckle down, you didn't really get creative until that last week, or maybe those last couple of days before the deadline. So one of the things that I'll do is then to force that panic for lack of a better way of saying it by setting a deadline. To be able to say I'm going to get my portfolio site done. I'm going to get this project done. I'm going to get the next podcast done by this particular date or this particular time. No matter what. And if I don't do it, there's going to be some repercussion. Not going out to dinner, not buying myself a new video game not going to that movie, like there's got to be some consequence to it. And this is the hard part because you have to hold yourself accountable to it. And it's easy to let yourself off the hook to say, you know what, I missed the deadline, but there's no real consequences. Nobody knew I was gonna launch the site. Nobody knew what show I was going to do. So it's okay. But here again, slumps are made of those little compromises. slumps are made of all those little reasons why it's you just rather do the easier thing than the hard thing. Think about that about setting a deadline and forcing yourself into panicking a little bit because like I said, a lot of times, that's a great way to actually really empower creativity. The next one we touched on just a little bit already. And that was to look at how can you empower the space that you work in? Okay said Don't underestimate the power that that can have. Whenever I record this show whenever I work from home I have a room in my house that is my studio, very, very deliberately set up to be creative filled with the things that I love very much a lot of stuff you don't find in the rest of the house. Very design oriented, very oriented just to me because what it does is whenever I walk through the door, my studio, it very much puts me really in the creative mindset that whenever I come in here I come in to create I come into work, it is not a room I hang out in there is not a TV in here. It's not a room, I just come in to fart around. Whenever I'm in here. I'm here to work. So it clearly sets the stage it sets my mind the moment I come through that door subconsciously, that I'm here to do something. I'm here to create, here to work on a design. I'm here to record a podcast, I'm here to do something that is going to be creative, and that's what this space is for. But I'm also going a little bit step further because I understand my process. I understand the way that my brain works. I've actually organized my studio to mirror my brain. And what that means is that half of my office is for visual inspiration. The other part is for the logic and the thinking behind the inspiration. So the half that is for the visual inspiration, this is a series of kind of credit rails where I can be able to kind of pull visual source, I can pull different materials and I can basically make a mood board that I can put up and be able to look at and start to work on for the various projects that I'm working on. The part that's about the logic and the thinking, because at the end of the day, I absolutely understand that great design is a visual expression of great thinking. And then if I don't have that foundation, no matter how pretty I make it, look, it's not going to work. And what I do is that the other half is a whiteboard. And it's a whiteboard where I can write out the problem, I can write out the thinking I can evolve the logic and the base and the approach underneath all of the things that I'm doing. And for me, this is really something that works really well. Because from my process, each side of my brain feeds off the other. I start with the foundation of the thinking I write out the problem. And then once those ideas start flowing, I really try to embrace that try to find the areas of options tunity what are the insights? How can I map those out? How can I create some how might we statements I can start brainstorming against, but at a certain point naturally, that's going to start to trail off. And so whenever that side starts to slow down, then I can switch. And I can work on the visual side. And I can start to build that up. And I can start to think and try to figure out conceptually, where a visual separate visual directions I can start to invest in and explore and whenever that starts to slow down, then I can go back to the thinking it says ping ponging back and forth between the two, letting each side feed the other, that the thinking feeds the visual, the visual, then feeds back to the thinking in the back and forth between those is where I'll oftentimes start to really find interesting insights or to find unique directions start to find things that maybe you weren't playing. And it's the same point it also gives me the ability to walk away from it all. spend a day or two not looking at it, then come back in and look at it with fresh eyes, but to have my brain all up on the wall, because there's something for me about the physicality of it, the fact that it is out in the open that I can interact with it that I find incredibly useful. Firing that I really find, it makes it so much easier for me to work. So for me, I've empowered my physical space to help my process to understand that that's what it is that I do. And, and because of that, it really helps me with my ideas. Now, the last two are going to be much more about again, how do you load up the machine? How do you kind of care for the instrument, because if we were singers, if we were performers, you would talk about your voices, your instrument as needing to care for his name to do these sorts of things that really take care of it, because that's the thing that drives the engine. That's the thing that makes you money. I don't think creative thinking about our gift about creativity that way, that it's something that needs to be cared for that it's something that needs to be focused on and fed and really kind of pruned and thought about. So one of the things that I'll do, which really helped me stay inspired, are to do what I call mental health days or inspiration days. Because I think sometimes the best ideas come from when you step away, you focus on something else. You let your stew on the problem that you have, and just let it run for a little bit. But I think it's also really important to go out and to find inspiration to find energy to find other things that help fuel you to fill you up to keep you going. So a lot of cases when I'm stressed, or if I'm in a slump, I'll take a day. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to go out and take a break, and I want to go out and get inspired. Maybe it's going to Museum, maybe it's having lunch at a great restaurant, maybe it's going shopping at some new interesting retail experiences. Maybe it's out going looking at street art, maybe it's going in talking to a friend of mine that's in a different industry, maybe it's all of these things. But it's the recognition that at regular intervals, I need to care for my instrument. I need to keep myself inspired. I need to keep myself fueled up and that this is a real part of the process because I have to protect my creativity. Because the bottom line is nobody else is going to at no point Have I ever worked for a company that said you know what? Creativity is really important and we know that you're stressed. You know what? Why don't you take a day off And go get inspired. Very, very few companies do that. I think you know, most famously, people will talk about Google and 20% time, where they will let their employees spend 20% of their time working on things that inspire them that can help the company. But those are blindingly rare. Just understand that you need that you need that time, you need the time to refill your process to refill what it is that you're doing to keep yourself motivated. And so much of this is going to come back to the last point. We did a whole episode on it. And it's happiness. And the reason why I did an entire episode on this because it plays a huge part in what we do. Because one of the biggest ways to avoid a creative slump is to actually understand what do you need to be happy. And for me, this is understanding that I know I'm not going to get everything I need to be happy from a job. I'm not going to stay inspired just from my job. I'm gonna get 60 to 70% of what I need to be happy for my job. And let's be clear when I say that number is that 60 to 70%. That's when I love my job. That's whenever it's going really, really well. That's whenever I feel like we're really making an impact, and we're really doing something great. Maybe even 70 75%. That's not awesome. Because that means a quarter of my life, maybe up to half of the time, I'm not going to need, I'm not going to get what I need just from a job. You need to understand that. Maybe your percentage, your percentage, not maybe your percentage will be different. Maybe you absolutely love it. It is everything you live in, breathe, the sun rises and sets just for your job, and it gives you 100% of what you need. Most Great, most people I find that's not the case. But you know what, everybody's going to be different. We're not here to judge it just the way it is. But this is my thing is that this is why I do other things to stay inspired, because I really struggle if I'm one dimensional. Whenever I take those personality tests, it comes back and says that I'm a big picture person. If I'm not working on big picture things, I get bored. That's not the thing. I'm not the person who's phenomenal in being just in little details all the time. So what do I do? I speak, do podcasts, do street art projects, do all this other stuff to try to help supplement that. But that's the thing is that I know what I need to be happy. I know what I need to do to keep myself inspired to try to stay out of those slumps. And like I said, just because I know all this stuff, doesn't mean it still doesn't happen. Trust me, I'm not going around all the time in this just state of euphoria, loving everything that's going on. I'm just as susceptible to it as everybody else. In some ways, I'd actually say that it probably actually makes it worse on me because now I'm very aware that I understand everything in theory, but I'm just sort of sucking at it in actual practice. This is the thing is that how you get through your slump is going to be unique, because like we said before, your process, your leadership style, what you need is going to be unique. So in many cases, I think what it comes down to your willingness, your ability to figure out what works for you. What's gonna keep you inspired? What's going to keep you happy? What's gonna keep you dissatisfied, and moving forward? Are you somebody that can do it on your own? Can you self power your process? Can you self power yourself into that constant evolution? Or do you need other people? Do you need a strong boss? Do you need a compatriot? Do you need somebody who you can talk to whether it's somebody at work or your wife or a friend or somebody else? Who's going to keep pushing you forward on that? Are you able to continue to do this to grow to stay inspired to continue to evolve your creativity? Because for so many of us, that's the thing. We're not going to be happy on what we did yesterday. This is why when I look at my book, all I see is the mistakes. I see the places where tech could have done something better or I should have had a better idea where if only the client would have bought on it or bought off on something it would have made all the difference. It's hard for us to step back and Just take credit for the success. We are wired to try to find the better to try to find the new to try to find the different. It's often though embracing that, that comfort is the enemy of greatness that that thought really resonates for a reason. Because for so many of us, the human condition means that we want to be comfortable. We want to understand what it is that we're doing. But it fights with the creative condition that wants something new, that wants evolution that wants growth that wants something different. But the problem is, is that that hunger doesn't come with answers. It doesn't come with an easy way to be able to say, you know what, I need to do something different. What the hell is that? I need to evolve my process. How the hell do I do that? I want to be doing better work. What the hell should it be? And this is where the personal challenge comes into this is because we get the insecurity, we get the dissatisfaction that comes with creativity. But like I said before, and if you don't know what it is Google But like the greatest American hero who got the super suit, it was missing the manual. And that's the problem is for each one of us, the manual is going to be different, the manual is going to be unique. And it comes from work and reflection, a lot of those other things, that that's what's going to make your process great. That's what's going to keep you out of that slump. And so I think for all of these things, whether is a creative slump with your work, whether it is a leadership slump, I think in both cases, a lot of these things hold true a lot of these techniques hold true, what you are applying it to maybe different, like I said, is weird as it may sound, I feel like the creative ones, the personal ones, are probably a little bit easier because you can control those. The leadership ones can be a little bit more taxing, they can be much harder, because I think that's the thing that very few of us want to admit to or at least when I met you publicly is that in many cases, leadership is lonely. Leadership is hard, because you have to be the one that is the positive face for the team. You have to be the one who is motivated. You have to Be the one that is coming up with new ideas and to push them forward. But then that's the challenge is that as a leader, if you aren't doing that for yourself, if you aren't keeping yourself inspired, how the hell are you gonna inspire Anybody else? How are you going to push them forward? So again, you've got to care for your instrument, you've got to spend time for your process for your team's process, to continue to look at this and invest in it and understand it. Hopefully, once again, this has been helpful. If you have anything more you want to talk about. If you have any questions, if there are things you love things that you hate it, the best way to keep the conversation going is the Facebook page. Go to Facebook type in The Crazy One podcast, and like that page? Because every day I've got people who are asking me questions, we're sharing thoughts. I'm sharing articles and things that I'm finding it's where the community is getting built up around all this stuff. So I would highly encourage you to go participate in that. If you found any of this show useful. You wrote any notes you found anything that was good about it. Please do me the favor iTunes hovered over to your favorite podcast platform and leave a review it makes a real difference and brings more people into the show. If you want to find out more about the podcast if you want to find some related articles if you want to get the show notes for this show, go to podcast Stephen Gates comm Stephen has s t e e p h e n comm whenever the show goes up, I put up some really extensive show notes you can always go check those out. As always the boys down illegal want me to remind you that all of us here are my own. They do not represent any of my current or former employers. These are just my own thoughts. And finally, I say it every time because I mean it every time but thank you for your time. I know that time is truly the only real luxury that any of us have it I'm always incredibly humbled that you want to spend any of it with me. Go out there, figure out your process, break down some walls, make yourself uncomfortable and as always, and until next time. Stay crazy.