ICP 023 Charlie Gilkey on Delivering Epic Experiences with Creative Giants (Part One)

Why writing or blogging about your art might be a bad idea…

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ICP 023 Charlie Gilkey on Delivering Epic Experiences with Creative Giants (Part One)

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In this episode you’ll learn:

Your first step towards effective marketing
Charlie’s four power tips to boost your creative productivity
The challenges for many Mompreneurs and ambitious women
Why you must start finishing

Charlie Gilkey is a coach, a speaker, a strategist and forward-thinker who writes with great wisdom and has taught many artists and entrepreneurs how to master their business. With deep experience in the army as a logistics office, and as an academic having studied philosophy, Charlie has a knack of interpreting complex systems and processes into simple strategies, models and prose.

In this episode of Inspirational Creatives, the first of a two-part series with Charlie, the real challenges of being a successful creative entrepreneur are explored. Covering topics, not limited to, socialisation, shipping and finding purpose, you’ll hear about what BBQs can teach you about marketing and why writing about your art might not be your best idea yet.

Find Part 2 here.

“Flourishing is what we’re out to do…the pinnacle of human development.” – Charlie Gilkey

Items mentioned in this episode (quick access):

Creative beginnings

[0:00:42] Rob introduces Charlie.

[0:01:29] Charlie shares some of his background. Being in the army. Academia.

[0:02:11] Charlie talks about when he was young and how he didn’t think he was creative.

[0:02:22] Charlie talks about his brother, a phenomenal illustrator and musician. Growing up under his brother’s shadow.

Problem solving

[0:02:42] Practical pursuits. Maths, science and engineering.

[0:03:40] Becoming a philosopher in college. Reading and writing volumes.

[0:03:50] Waking up one day and realising “I’m good at that…” It wasn’t until Charlie was deep into the foundations of Productive Flourishing that he acknowledged the type of creativity that he had that was useful.

[0:04:21] Charlie talks about taking an idea and creating a frame-work or road-map as it’s own type of art.

“There are things that you are good at but you don’t know you are good at… and you don’t value them so you don’t really pay attention to them.” – Charlie Gilkey

Productive Flourishing

[0:04:35] Rob asks Charlie about the time he came up with the idea for Productive Flourishing.

[0:04:49] Charlie mentions Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits and David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

[0:05:20] Flourishing being the pinnacle of human development.

[0:05:40] Using one’s skills and expertise and using them in some purposeful way to thrive..

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others…” – Mahatma Gandhi

[0:06:05] Rob asks Charlie what steps can people take to find their own purpose.

[0:06:11] Looking for capital ‘P’ purpose. Looking for little ‘p’ purpose.

[0:06:40] It’s not actually the thing you create, more the act of creating. Other times to be of use to people. Positive changes in life.

P for purpose

[0:06:50] How to free yourself from the pressure of purpose.

[0:08:00] Rob asks Charlie if we over complicate things.

[0:08:12] Creative people have this love / hate relationship with simplicity. Chasing simplicity. If something is too simple we reject it.

[0:08:30] Myths around creativity, results and profundity.

[0:08:43] Steven Pressfield War of Art is mentioned. Effortless art.

[0:08:55] The more you operate from the intuitive not thinking space, the more powerful your work is. The duality that creatives have to live with.

“If you’re making progress everyday and you’re doing the things that … make you come alive… what the hell else do you need?” – Charlie Gilkey

Flow

[0:09:19] Seth Godin’s “mundane prolificness.” Ships so much. Being really good at his art. High success rate.

[0:01][0:09] Why peak performing creatives have continual ‘prolificness’ that allow their true success to bubble up to the top.

“The artist will always remember the stuff that was crap.” – Charlie Gilkey

[0:10:45] Negativity bias. Why when you’re not shipping, your negativity bias weighs so much on you…

[0:11:10] Continual detachment. Sinking into the pocket of your talents. Charlie talks about your signature voice.

[0:11:46] Rob asks Charlie for his top tips on how to ship frequently.

[0:12:19] Charlie talks about looking at his Creative Giants back-list. “Those people that finished, started.”

“Good enough and done is better than perfect and pending…” – Charlie Gilkey

Four power tips to boost your productivity

[0:12:47] Honouring your own creative methods.

[0:13:37] Why going with the thing that you’re naturally good at will give you momentum. Part of flourishing is mastery. Why it’s a lot harder to master something you’re not good at.

Why writing is unnatural

[0:13:53] We live in a heavily literate society. Bias towards smart people writing.

[0:14:35] Why honouring your muse and your methods will help you get stuff out of the door.

[0:15:10] Working with clients that are application developers.

[0:15:29] “You deliver an experience…”

Delivering an experience

[0:15:37] Why writing about your art may not be the best idea.

[0:16:20] Why your art is like the BBQ marketing method. Open the windows and the product sells itself. Starting that relationship. Continually experiencing your art.

[0:16:57] The first step in a marketing process. Why you sales are going to be so much harder.

[0:17:20] Rob ask Charlie where confidence to show up comes from.

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture…” – Elvis Costello

Fear of rejection and accepting mediocrity

[0:17:40] The two true reasons people can’t face rejection: the easy story and the true story.

[0:17:45] Why artists are in fear of creating something strange, weird or remarkable.

[0:18:28] Most of the excuses you told yourself are false. Charlie stresses why you have to take responsibility for personal choices.

“If you want people to experience your art…show them your art…don’t tell them about your art.” – Charlie Gilkey

Mompreneurs

[0:19:30] Success. When women become successful creatives it alters relationships and family dynamics. Socialisation challenges for ambitious women.

[0:20:53] Women have a different conversation in their personal relationships. Mom guilt. Your mother and grandmother did not live in the world that you live in.

[0:21:40] Masculine provider impulse. Taking creative risks.

[0:22:10] Asking which bit of our identity and value set is being tugged at. Rejection.

Values, identity and the super version of you

[0:22:53] Soft side concept: mind, heart, brain. Informs. Commands.

[0:23:22] Not having the capability. Needing tool after tool after tool.

[0:23:39] Hard side concept: muscles, bones. Plans. Strategies. Tools.

“That’s the thing about creativity…you have to be functionally delusional” – Charlie Gilkey

What Subway sandwich artists know about creativity and productivity

[0:24:35] The reason creativity is so hard.

[0:25:19] White board thinking. Starting over.

[0:25:23] Rob asks Charlie about a time he dealt with rejection.

“You have to believe that you are that one person, out of hundred, that’s actually going to make a go of it.” – Charlie Gilkey

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