We know who our anticipated audience is. We have answered most of our questions to the best of our ability. We’ve begun our branding and we’ve begun to create a buzz. All of these are ongoing processes that will continue through the journey, but now we begin to develop and refine.
We’ve developed an idea and considered how we will deliver our creation to have the maximum value for our audience. It is now time to begin to create the actual finished product. This of course will vary depending on what it is you’re creating, but I do have a few overarching tips.
1. Start with what you have. Remember we’re looking for low risk, high reward solutions. Do as much as you can with the resources that are already before you. There is some truth to the adage that you have to spend money to make money but I prefer to make money and then spend it. This keeps debt to a minimum and makes the inevitable failures bearable.
2. Whoa! What do you mean inevitable failures? Get used to this fact, the only people who never fail are the people who never try anything new. Some of the things you try in the process of trying to create a better life will not succeed. There is always trial and error in any creation. This is why keeping costs under control is so vital, especially early in the process. Fear keeps us from creating and holds us back. Fear is exacerbated by the more we have to lose, so early in the process is the wrong time to push a ton of money into the project. This is the time to design and redesign, to write a lot to share and to test. Remember Edison failed between a thousand and ten thousand times (depending on which source you read) before he made a working lightbulb. I’m pretty glad he didn’t quit. Failure is inevitable in any creative endeavor. Failure isn’t fatal… unless you give up… or even worse, let failure keep you from trying again.
3. Test, test, test: You may have thought yesterday’s post about telling the world was vastly premature. This is why it isn’t. Your following already has some interest in what you’re doing, maybe even expertise. If this is the case, they are the perfect people to share the process with (and you thought I was just writing an ebook.). Floating your ideas out to them early in the process is a great way to test their validity. I can almost hear the objection. What if they steal your idea? They might, that’s part of the reason we keep the process short, 48 days. It would be hard for someone to beat you to the punch. Secondly, while they could possibly take your idea and run with it, they might also share your post with a couple thousand of their “closest” friends. I think it’s worth the gamble.
What I am doing: In the case of Create a Better Life, my first delivery vehicle is a day long seminar. Realizing the fact that so many people have a false belief in their lack of creativity, the first thing I want to do is approach that belief and try to get the audience to discount it. The first format for the day looks something like this.
Session 1: You are creative… (30 minutes)
Speed drill: A three minute creativity drill to get their juices flowing (15 minutes with sharing time)
Session 2: What’s Your problem? Most of creativity is problem solving, identifying the problem helps to identify the goal (30 minutes)
Break (15 minutes)
Session 3: Hands on project Taken from my product Creativity Blasters. Participants will team up to solve a creative problem further helping them to embrace their creativity and see the power of building a team. (1 hour, 45 min. to create, 15 min. to share)
Session 4: What you really need is an idea. Identifying the goal and helping people to see that the solution to their problem starts with an idea. (30 minutes)
Lunch break/networking time (1 hour)
Speed drill: A three minute creativity drill to get their juices flowing after lunch (15 minutes with sharing time)
Session 5: Next steps: Looking at the steps to bring an idea to reality. (30 minutes)
Session 6: Guided creation: for the rest of the day, people work out their ideas, trying to develop the next steps toward bringing it to reality. This session will include critiques and one on one time. The day finishes with a coaching offer, time for the resource table, etc.
So what do you think? Would a day like this help someone to Create a Better Life?
AMOKArts 