The Leading Creative Podcast

15/03/2024

Episode 87 of The Leading Creative Podcast dropped this AM, My Conversation With Steve Welch.
Have a listen. You’ll like it.

‎Show The Leading Creative Podcast, Ep 87: My Conversation With Steve Welch - Mar 14, 2024

25/02/2024

"Organizations are never limited by their opportunity.
They are limited by their leader."

22/02/2024

Those who say, “That just might work!”
..and then it doesn’t.

They are spoken of only for a little while.

Those who say, “That’ll never work!”
..and then it does.

They are spoken of for forever.

Choose wisely the person you’ll be—the legacy you’ll leave—the way you are spoken of for generations—is depending on it.

22/02/2024

"Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems."
-Jim Collins

21/02/2024

“Don’t be afraid to fail. If everything works the first time, you’re probably just repeating what you did last time.”
-Marty Sklar

21/02/2024

Celebrate the discovery of solutions, not of problems.

If your team celebrates and congratulates its members who are finding problems, what do you think the other team members will go in search of?

What's rewarded is repeated. What's celebrated is searched and seized.

Recognize and accept problems, sure. That's just smart and completely necessary. But please, I beg, don't celebrate your new found problems.

20/02/2024

When is silence golden for the director?

1. When one of the actors is saying exactly what you would have said if you were talking.

2. When an actor’s eyes glaze over.

3. When the actors are discussing a point among themselves in a helpful way.

4. When you truly don’t know (say so).

5. When you’ve already interrupted a scene several times and they need to get some momentum going.

6. When an actor asks to try something.

7. When the actor needs a moment to think about something you’ve said.

8. When the actor is not doing what you wanted and they know it.

9. When the room spiritually needs quiet.

10. When you’ve been doing a lot of talking already.

Tips by Jon Jory

What else would you add to this list?

20/02/2024

"Having talent and education does not place you above the rest of the world.
It makes you responsible for it."

19/02/2024

Don't wait until you have an audience to do the show.

More often than not, doing the show is what brings the audience.

16/02/2024

“It’s one thing to have popularity. It’s quite another to have influence.”

15/02/2024

What would it look like to put your best brain power to the fix,
not the fear?

15/02/2024

Hardworking is not the same as productive. And productive is not the same as effective.

Fight for effective.

14/02/2024

Our audience is either going to be a little bit behind us, a little bit ahead of us, or right with us.

If they are behind, our job is to slow down and allow them to catch up.

If they are ahead, our job is to speed up and get out just in front of them.

And if they are right with us, our job is to keep them with us—adjust the ebb and flow of energy and action to keep everyone together.

The performance consistency directors and producers are looking for has more to do with adjusting to the audience than it does performing the material the same every time.

13/02/2024

I prefer to work with reasonable people who have unreasonable ideas.

09/02/2024

The one who says,
“it cannot be done“
should not interrupt the one who is
doing it.

06/02/2024

Climbing the ladder of success is fun and energizing.
But remember: the higher you go, the more you can be seen and heard.

04/02/2024

We can do the thing right or we can do the right thing.

There's a time and place for both.

Sure, we have contracts, rules, standard operating guides, and standard operating procedures. But all of those are in place for when everything is operating within the standard.

Leaders: We don't get bonus points for maintaining the rules, guidelines, and procedures in extenuating circumstances. Quite the opposite.

It's on these days, these times, these extraordinary circumstances that our leadership will be celebrated, remembered, and respected for changing the process, for bending the rules...for doing the right thing.

03/02/2024

“If you want applause, speak.
If you want results, listen.”

30/01/2024

I once had a boss who wouldn’t let me use the bathroom during work hours.

He had a timer on his desk that he used to track every minute of productivity during the day. If I needed to go, he would hit pause, making sure that the ninety seconds in the bathroom didn’t count toward the hours I owed him.

The official company policy was “flex time,” which is supposed to mean you work the hours that best fit your life but actually meant, “We flex all over your nights and weekends.” It’s hard being managed by a workaholic, because you constantly feel lazy. He’d send emails at night, text messages on the weekend, and loved launching big projects at Christmas.

He even kept a checklist to make sure you maximize your commute. There was an approved list of educational podcasts he expected you to listen to if you had to drive anywhere. It was like the state-run media in North Korea only stricter.

One year we raised the company’s revenue by 48x. Let me repeat that, because it sounds made up: we increased the revenue by a factor of 48x. Know what he said when he found out? “Should have been 50x.” We didn’t have a party to celebrate. No one cheered in the office. I asked if we could get a cake for the break room and he said, “Do you think Elon Musk is eating cake right now?“ How do you even answer a riddle like that? I trudged back to my desk and moved onto the next project.

The worst part is, I couldn’t quit. He was the only person in our small town who would hire me. I was trapped. I spent seven long years walking into the same office, waiting for him to start that timer all over again, knowing that whatever I accomplished that day wouldn’t be good enough.

Finally, it came to a breaking point. It was a cold February afternoon and I had just landed back in Nashville after a visit to Houston. The trip was stressful. In addition to the pressure of speaking at a big event, the car service broke down on the side of the interstate on the way back to the airport. I’d made the most of it, working next to an underpass and the home of vehicles whipping by at seventy miles an hour, because I didn’t want to seem like I was wasting company time. Even in the breakdown lane I was on the clock! Then I worked on the flight home and listened to a podcast in my car as I headed back to my house. The day was technically over, but I knew I should go back to work to finish up a few last things. As I pulled into the office, I said something I’d said a thousand times before: “This guy sucks. I have to quit.”

There was only one problem, one small wrinkle in my escape plan.

The bad boss in this story was me.

Soundtracks
by Jon Acuff

28/01/2024

“The future of social media isn’t influencers.
It’s educators.”

27/01/2024

Live Entertainment
IS
value added.

26/01/2024

I get more than a little nervous when influencers begin to overvalue relevance. Relevance is fleeting and a flash in the pan.

Significance, however.
Significance is what we are after.

Significance is far more lasting and a far better aim than relevance.

Simply Said: Significance is always Relevant

21/01/2024

People don't mind change as much as we think they do. Change is good. Most people actually welcome the "new and improved" that comes with change.

But with all change comes loss.

Loss of control.
Loss of familiarity.
Loss of attention.

Loss is actually what keeps people from embracing change, not change itself.

20/01/2024

“When you prohibit failure you kill innovation.”

19/01/2024

The name.
The idea.
The property.

If you're not doing anything with it, or even enough with it, don't be surprised when someone comes along and does.

18/01/2024

One of the sure signs of a professional is that they do the thing they have to do even and especially when they don't feel like doing it.

13/01/2024

Be wary of the untruth that the thing you worked on the hardest and rehearsed the longest will also be the thing your audience will appreciate and enjoy the most.

10/01/2024

The difference between a good review and a bad review—the full buy-in and enjoyment of a show or not—often comes down to the mood and emotion an audience member has before the performance even begins.

This is why we have to care about the weather, the traffic, and the current state of our community. It's not enough that we only worry about what's happening on stage after the curtain goes up. If our audience isn't mentally prepared for the story we plan to tell, all can be lost and for naught.

The show starts in the parking lot. Whatever we can steer and control, we must. Make it easy. Relieve stress. Encourage deep breaths. Guide the audience to the state of mind in which you need them to be before the usher hands them their playbill.

08/01/2024

As we head into a new year and a new work week…

A Challenge:
Every day, choose someone to break the rules for. Not any of the rules that are there for their safety, but rather, the rules that are there for our convenience.
Every day, surprise and delight someone by letting them get away with something.

29/12/2023

Your audience's energy IS your responsibility. Don't leave them behind. Bring them along.

Meet your audience where they are and bring them where you need them to be. Their energy is your responsibility.