Ep 129: Why Your Best Ideas Disappear

(And How to Capture Them)

SUMMARY

You're in the shower when brilliance strikes. A perfect solution to that client problem you've been wrestling with suddenly appears crystal clear. But by the time you dry off and get dressed? Gone. Vanished into the creative ether.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. As creatives, we experience these moments of insight constantly—during client calls, while driving, right before sleep, in the middle of a workout. But without a system to capture them, these brilliant ideas become nothing more than wasted creative energy.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Choose ONE capture system and commit to it completely – Multiple capture locations guarantee your ideas will be lost. Pick one place that goes with you everywhere, whether that's Apple Notes, a physical Field Notes journal, or a voice recorder app.

• ⚡️ Give Future You the context needed to act – Don't just write "client portal idea." Write "Automated onboarding sequence that sends welcome video and checklist from day one." Future You won't remember the context without your help.

• ⚡️ Schedule a weekly 15-minute review to process ideas – Set the same time on the same day every week to review captured ideas using the four-question filter: New for now, new for later, add to existing now, or add to existing later.

NOTABLE QUOTES

💬 "Your best creative ideas aren't lost because you're not smart enough to remember them. They're lost because you haven't given future you a fighting chance to find them."

💬 "Write ideas like you're leaving notes for a team member who needs to execute it without asking any questions."

💬 "Don't let your idea capture system become a museum of ideas. Use it as a filtration system and put those ideas where they belong."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ The Future You Method

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Your best creative ideas aren't lost because you're not smart enough to remember them. No, they're lost because you haven't given future you a fighting chance to find them. Let's get into it.

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity through systems and processes. This is a podcast for all creatives—designers, photographers, writers, all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency.

I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process consultant, and I help creatives and agencies know themselves, their process, and their teams so that they can create with efficiency as they scale together. I would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review this episode. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit the thumbs up button as well. Check out dustinpead.com/free for all sorts of free resources I have for you. And you can follow and chat with me on social media at Dustin Pead. That's D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D.

The Scattered System Disaster

All right, so let's talk about this scenario, right? You're in the shower and a brilliant solution appears, right? But by the time you dry off, it's gone. It vanishes. Maybe you were in the middle of a client call and an idea strikes. The call continues, the idea evaporates. Maybe it's while you're driving—you can't write it down, so you just say, "I'll remember this," but you don't, right? Right before falling asleep, there were breakthrough moments that are lost during the morning fog. Maybe it's during exercise when the endorphins are flowing and ideas are flowing, and then later—nothing.

This is a scattered system disaster. I want to talk about some ways that you can collect ideas so that you have them when you need them. This is what Todd Henry calls being an "accidental creative"—being brilliant at a moment's notice because you have collected ideas.

Some creatives decide that they're going to write them down so that they don't forget, right? And so what they do is they might create an ideas Slack thread that they're never going to find again. Maybe they email themselves, but those end up going down and down further in your inbox. Maybe you have different random notebooks or sticky notes or napkins—all things that you can't find. Or maybe you have voice memos that you never actually transcribe.

Look, this fails because Future You has multiple six, seven, eight, nine, ten places sometimes to have to go find those ideas and ultimately ends up giving up. Thus the idea is gone.

The Solution: One Capture System

But listen, brilliant ideas don't have to become wasted creative energy. So I want to suggest something to us today, and I talk to all my clients about this: have ONE capture system for your ideas. One capture system that goes with you everywhere. If it doesn't go with you everywhere, it's not your system.

So you can choose your one place. Maybe it's your iPhone Notes app—it's always in your pocket. Maybe it's a digital notepad on your phone like Notion or Evernote. Maybe it's a physical Field Notes journal. I did this for many, many years so I wouldn't be attached to a screen, and I would carry around the little Field Notes. Field Notes are those little notebooks that are about the size of your hand. You can carry them around in your pocket. I loved it because when I put my hands in my pocket, I would feel it there and I'd be like, "Oh yeah, I brought this around to write down some ideas. Maybe I should think about what ideas I have right now," and then I would pull it out and have it.

You can use the voice recorder app for when you're driving or exercising, but if that's the place, that needs to be THE place. The key to success here is to pick one place and commit. No exceptions. If you're going to do the voice recorder thing, do the voice recorder thing. If you're going to do the Field Notes thing, do the Field Notes thing.

And the reason that this is important is because if you don't have one place, like we talked about earlier, you have all these different places to go back and find. Where did I put that idea?

The Future You Framework

I love Seinfeld—the show, I love Seinfeld the comedian. I used to watch that show religiously all the time, and there was an episode where he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down this concept or a punchline to a joke or whatever. And the next day he woke up and he's like, "I don't know what this means. Is this anything? I have no context as to what this means."

And so that's where the Future You framework is applied. When you capture an idea, if you leave out the context of that idea, then you're setting yourself up for failure.

So if you have an idea about a client portal, don't just write "client portal idea." Write: "Hey, client portal idea looks like this—it's an automated onboarding sequence that sends a welcome video and checklist from day one." You go, "Oh, well, that's an idea I can get around." But if you just had an idea written somewhere on a voice memo somewhere that said "client portal idea," you'd be like, "I have no idea what the context is."

The Future You framework or methodology that we talk about is specifically designed for context because you're not expected to remember the context of all these things. You remember little bits and pieces. You remember "client portal idea," but later you want to know what that idea actually was, fully fleshed out. And so you give Future You enough details to act on it without having to reconstruct your thinking.

It's the same principle that applies to our project task methodology, where we have a clear verb, specific outcome, and all of the necessary context.

The Weekly Review Process

All right, so now we've got our ideas in one place. What do we do with that one place? What I suggest is a weekly review. Now you can do a daily review if you'd like. If you're in a high-idea environment where you constantly need to be pumping out ideas, you can do that. I found for me and most creators that I know that doing that daily gets exhausting because there's a lot of things to start and not a lot of things to finish. And there's really no time to marinate on the idea.

We have ideas as creatives—sometimes we just need to sit on them for a little while and kind of marinate through those ideas and kind of stew on it. Maybe we add a little bit more context as we begin to stew on it. But I like the weekly review because it gives us time to marinate on it, but not so much time like a monthly one where we begin to really kind of lose passion for that idea. It's not that we're losing context for the idea—we're losing passion for the ideas, usually if we wait longer than a week to review those ideas.

So I like to have the same time, the same day, every single week. Usually for me, it's Friday afternoons where I'm going through and I'm looking back at the week of all the ideas that I wrote down in my one spot. For me, it's my Remarkable notepad that I use, the digital notepad that I use. I write all my ideas down in that. And so every Friday afternoon, I go through and I look at that.

The Four-Question Filter

And when I do that, when you review these ideas, I want to give you four questions to filter through each idea. Because you need to—when you're looking at these ideas weekly—you need to ask yourself the question, "Well, what do I do with this idea now?"

And there are four questions that I want you to filter through each idea that you wrote down, and the four areas are this:

1. It's either a new idea for now

2. It's a new idea for later

3. It's add something to an existing idea now

4. Or it's add something to an existing idea later

And then as time goes on, you may look at that and you go, "You know what? That's actually just creating more work. We really don't need that." Or "That actually belongs a little bit more with this other idea"—you're adding something, adding to an existing idea.

So new for now doesn't need immediate action? Then you move it to your task list immediately. New for later? Maybe this is a future project. You're going to create a project placeholder in Asana or wherever you create project placeholders, and you're going to go, "That's where this is going to go and I'm going to come back to it." And put a date on it, obviously, so that you remember to come back to it.

Thirdly, maybe it's adding to something new now. Maybe you're adding to a new idea and you're going to add it right now. Does this enhance a current project? We've all had that—you get halfway through a project and we go, "Man, you know what would make this project great? You know what will really take this to the next level?" That's this category. You're adding to something. You're adding to an existing idea and/or existing project that already exists.

And the fourth category is you're adding something later. Still, you're adding to it. Does this fit maybe a planned future initiative? And so you add a note to that future project going like, "Hey, I had an idea for later that we might do something, and when we do, it's going to be like this."

And so your one place is to be the place that you capture the ideas and you review the ideas, but then after that you send the ideas where they belong. You send the ideas where they belong.

What Now? Your Action Steps

So what do we do with this now? It's a pretty short episode, but I wanted to get it out there for you. What do we do?

First thing you do is choose one place for these notes today. Don't research this out the yin yang, right? Just pick something that you already have access to. Because if it's a new—if it's too far of a reach of a new thing that you have to incorporate, a new tool that you have to incorporate—you won't do it. Resistance will set in and you'll go, "You know, it's just out of arm's reach, and so I can't really get to it, so I'm not going to use it."

So make sure you have one place to decide that's within reach of you already, within your grasp, within your world, within your realm already, so you don't have to create a new habit around this. It's something that's going to be super easy and natural for you to do.

Number two, set up your weekly review—literally 15 minutes every, the same time on the same day, every single week. Go ahead and create it on your calendar. Open your calendar right now and create that recurring 15-minute block every single week when you know that you're going to have the time and the mental energy to review those ideas.

Thirdly, now it's time to build the habit. Now we have the tools that are in our midst. We've scheduled the thing to happen. We have the tool, we have the time and date and the place, and we're just going to show up. So now we have to start building the habit.

So in the first couple of weeks, maybe the habit is that you just need to capture the ideas. Just work on building a habit of writing those ideas down wherever you decided to write them down or verbally speak them into. After a couple of weeks of doing that, then you can start to go, "Okay, now I'm going to work in this weekly review that's on my calendar, and I'm going to really start to get this flow going."

And as you do that, track your wins when you're looking through it like, "Man, I had that idea. I came back and revisited it. I added it to the thing, and the project was so much better because we actually followed through on an idea."

Imagine that, creative. Imagine you actually follow through on some of your ideas. Doesn't that sound amazing? I want that for you so, so badly.

Fourth, make sure when you're writing these ideas down, make sure that you're giving Future You the context that it needs. Write ideas like you're leaving notes for a team member who needs to execute it without asking any questions. And we've talked about this multiple times in the Future You methodology shows that we've done, so you can go back and listen to those things. But essentially it boils down to, like I said, writing ideas like you're leaving notes for a team member who needs to execute without being able to ask any questions. What's wrong? That is Future You context.

And then lastly, get your ideas into action. Use the four-question filter every single week. Don't let your idea capture system become a museum of ideas. Don't let it become a museum of ideas. Take it, use it as a filtration system, and put those ideas where they belong and get them into action today.

Resources to Help You

So a couple of things you can find on my website to help you with this is the Future You methodology framework. It's dustinpead.com/free. You can find that there. You can also find the DO versus DUE framework for scheduling those weekly reviews and what to do with your ideas afterwards.

Check out Field Notes—it's a great option for analog. Apple Notes, Notion, Evernote (if that's still a thing, I'm not sure—I used to use Evernote like crazy back in the day). There are some great digital options, and of course Asana or any other type of project management system to be able to move your ideas into completion.

Your Ideas Deserve Better

Listen, creative, your ideas aren't the problem. It's not that you don't have good ideas or have enough ideas. It's your system for capturing those ideas. And Future You and your future business and your future team deserve better than the scattered sticky notes and the voice memos that you've lost.

So choose one place today. Schedule the weekly review and start treating your ideas like the valuable assets that they are. So stop by dustinpead.com for the Future You framework and methodology. Click on the free resources section and find other tools to help you as well.

Next Episode Preview

Next week, we're going to be talking about one of the most underutilized leadership tools in creative business—the effective one-on-one meeting. I'm going to share the exact talk that I taught at the Solk Conference this year, this October. Actually, as this episode releases this Thursday, October the 9th, I will be at the Solk Conference in Nashville giving the talk on how creative leaders can have effective one-on-ones with their team.

So if you've ever wondered what to talk about in a one-on-one meeting or you feel like they're a waste of time, next week's episode is going to change everything for you. I cannot wait to talk to you then, next time on Creativity Made Easy podcast. Have a great week.

Ep 128: The Priority Framework

How to Decide What Actually Deserves Your Creative Attention

SUMMARY

Your to-do list might be the biggest creativity killer in your business and you don't even realize it. Most task management systems are designed like grocery lists—just a random collection of stuff to check off. But creative work doesn't work that way.

In this episode, I'm sharing why traditional task management fails creative brains and introducing you to the Priority Framework—a simple method that will transform how you decide what actually deserves your attention.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Not everything deserves equal attention: When everything feels equally important, nothing is important. The Priority Framework combines the Focus Funnel and Eisenhower Matrix to ruthlessly filter what truly matters.

• ⚡️ Creative work isn't linear: Unlike traditional task management systems that assume linear progress, creative work ebbs and flows. Your task management system needs to account for this reality.

• ⚡️ Protect your creative energy like the finite resource it is: Schedule high-impact creative work during your peak hours and eliminate decision fatigue by knowing exactly what deserves your focus.

NOTABLE QUOTES

💬 "When everything feels equally important, then nothing is important. When everything is at the same status, there's no differentiator of what you actually need to do next."

💬 "By delegating it and ensuring that it gets done, you are helping actually see that thing through. Whereas if you hold on to it and it never gets done, then you're not the hero anymore. You're the villain."

💬 "Your creativity is your most valuable asset along with your time. Stop treating those things like they're unlimited and start protecting them like the finite resources they really are."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ The Priority Framework

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey creatives, you know how I'm always talking about creative systems that work? Well, that actually includes your money too. If you're still shoving receipts in a shoe box and hoping for the best come tax time, we need to talk about the Core Group. They're Profit First certified accountants who actually understand the creative hustle. No judgment, just clarity. They help you build financial systems that create margin in your business instead of stress, and this is coming from me. I'm a loyal Core Group subscriber, so check them out at coregroupus.com. That's C-O-R-E-G-R-O-U-P-U-S dot com. Check out the Core Group today.

Your to-do list might be the biggest creativity killer in your business and you don't even realize it. So today I'm sharing why traditional task management fails creative brains and introducing you to a simple method that will transform how you decide what actually deserves your attention. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Well, everyone, welcome back to Creativity Made Easy. This is the podcast for creative professionals and agencies who want to scale their business without sacrificing their sanity. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, and I help creative professionals and agencies know themselves, their process and their team so that they can move from chaos to clarity in their systems and processes. Whether you're a freelancer, agency owner or leading a creative team, this show is about building systems that free your creativity instead of constraining it. Let's dive in here.

Here's the problem that I see consistently time after time, no matter how big the agency or how early into the startup phase a freelancer may be: creative work requires deep focus and mental energy. But most to-do lists are designed like grocery lists. They're just a random collection of stuff to check off, right? And checking off feels really, really good. And we need that system to propel us moving forward. But this approach is actually killing your creativity and keeping you stuck in reactive mode.

So let's talk about first define this: creative brain versus traditional task management, right? The key difference here is that creative work isn't linear like most task management systems assume that it is. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes it goes forward, sometimes it goes back, sometimes it repeats, right? It doesn't just go from start to finish. So how do you know what's most important?

We often feel overwhelmed by this and we sit down and we look at our to-do list, if we have a to-do list even, or even if it's just a to-do list that's in our head of all the things that we need to get done and it's not actually down on paper, which is a totally separate problem. But when we have this sense of overwhelm, everything feels equally important. When everything equally feels important, then nothing is important. When everything is at the same status, there's no differentiator of what do I actually need to do next.

And so what ends up happening is you, your team, your project managers, whoever you have with you, or just you, just you and yourself—you begin to get decision fatigue because you're constantly choosing what you need to work on while worrying about what you're not working on. And then there's this context switching between creative and administrative tasks. What mindset do I need to be in?

So what I want to share with you today is what I've been dubbing the Priority Method or the Priority Framework, because not everything on your list deserves the same level of attention. And most things that ended up there might not even deserve your attention at all.

So I want to just kind of walk you through what I've put together in this Priority Method or Priority Framework. And it's a combination of two things that we've talked about on this show a lot. We've talked about the Focus Funnel, which is not original to me and has been around for many, many years. And the Eisenhower Matrix, where we decide what's urgent and important or neither. Right? And that also not from me. It's obviously called the Eisenhower Matrix for reasons because President Eisenhower created this and that's how he decided what he would put his focus on.

But I like to combine these two aspects of the Focus Funnel and the Eisenhower Matrix, and what I do with my clients in our coaching and as we're working and building systems together and understanding what we need to put our attention to, we combine these efforts and say let's take the Focus Funnel. We're going to put everything through that and we'll talk about that. And then on the other side of it, then we're going to talk about when it comes out the other side, is it actually urgent and important. And if not, maybe we put it back through the Focus Funnel again. So you see again, creative work, not linear, it kind of cycles around.

So let me walk you through this real quick if you've never heard of these things before. So the Focus Funnel starts, obviously, it's a funnel shape. So it starts big at the top and narrows down at the bottom. And so you can see here on your screen, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see that everything that's on your task list goes into this funnel.

Now I'll pause right there for a second and say, how do I not even know what to put in the funnel? That's great. Understanding that is a huge deal. So first thing I tell everyone to do is to mind dump or brain dump everything, every single task gets out of your head and onto paper or digital lists somewhere. And what you're going to do is you're not going to think about it. You're just going to go, if it's something in my head that I feel like I need to be doing or I need to get done today, this week, this month, this year, whatever, then I'm going to jot it down and I'm going to keep writing until my brain is completely empty of everything that I feel like I need to do, all the pressures of what I need to get done.

And now we're gonna put it through the Focus Funnel. So you can see at the top of the Focus Funnel, it says tasks go in here, right? So tasks go in there. And the first thing we're gonna ask is, does this really need to be done at all? That's the eliminate phase. Does it need to be done at all? Is it not just you or someone else on your team, just in general? Is this actually going to move the needle forward in what we need to do right now? Or is it just busy work that's distracting us? If it is, eliminate it.

If it passes the test of, actually, it does need to be done right now, and you want to get real ruthless with this. And if you need to bring in outside help like ourselves at Chief Creative Consultants or anyone else on your team or a friend or a mentor and just kind of have that second brain to say, does this need to happen? Does this need to be done at all? So if it passes that test, then you move on to the automate question, right?

So if it can't be eliminated, that's not a problem. Can it be automated? And this is where we talk about systems, right? Are we scheduling automatic tools? There's so many resources at our disposal here in 2025 where we can automate so many things digitally or we can automate it by building a system and the system keeps us from having to think about it over and over again, which burns up mental energy. So can it be automated? Can it be systematized? Can it be scheduled?

If the answer is yes, then great. Then you know exactly what to do with that task next. If it can't, and you're like, no, this is like a phone call that I need to make, or this is like something where it's a little bit more—there's no way I can build a system around this. I would venture to say that you probably still could, but let's just say for the sake of this podcast episode and the Focus Funnel that you've gone through the automate section and you say, you know what, I can't automate it, so it's going to continue through. We've already determined that it needs to be done. We've already determined that it can't be automated.

So the third section in the Focus Funnel is can it be delegated? Can someone else do this? Someone else on your team, some other agency, some third-party app or situation that you can hire or delegate to and say, hey, this needs to get done and it can't be automated, can you do this for me? Can someone else do it? Does it have to be you?

And the struggle I see with creative entrepreneurs and agencies all the time is they always, even in a team of 10 to 20 people, everyone thinks it has to be me that does this. It has to be—I have to be the hero of this project. You don't. You don't have to. In fact, by delegating it and ensuring that it gets done, you are helping actually see that thing through. Whereas if you hold on to it and it never gets done, then you're not the hero anymore. Right? You're the villain. You're the one that stopped the progress from happening.

So can it be eliminated? No, we have to do it. Can it be automated? No, someone has to do this. Can it be delegated? If yes, delegate it. If not, you can see at the bottom of the Focus Funnel here, this is where it ends up going. Okay, well, it can't be eliminated. Can't be automated. And it can't be delegated. That means I have to do it. Okay, so now the question becomes now or later, right? Can we procrastinate this on purpose until it really matters? Or do we need to concentrate? So is it procrastinate or concentrate? Concentrate meaning it must be done and only I can do it and you do it right then as soon as possible, right?

So most people end right here. I like to take the things that come out of the bottom of the Focus Funnel and I like to put them onto the Eisenhower Matrix. And we've talked about this many times before. There's the four categories. There's urgent and important, there's urgent but not important, there's important but not urgent, and then there's neither important nor urgent.

Now, if it's neither important nor urgent, that means if you're using this Priority Method that I use combining the Focus Funnel and the Eisenhower Matrix, if once you get through everything on the Focus Funnel and then you look at what's left and you ruthlessly categorize what's left, if anything ends up in the not urgent or important category, that means you missed something in the eliminate phase, right? So you need to go back and go, hey, this actually just needs to be eliminated because it's not urgent and it's not important. It's not going to move the needle forward. And yeah, I thought it was. And yeah, I thought I had to do it. And I thought we couldn't automate it. But you know what? At the end of the day, like it just doesn't need to get done.

The Eisenhower Matrix in this case, whether you use it at the beginning, like before you use the Focus Funnel or after you use the Focus Funnel, it doesn't matter either way. These are both running double filters. And the reason we double filter this whole process is because we as humans need that second act of accountability and creatives love to hang on to things. And we have this huge amount of pride that we accomplished it. Like I said, that we're the heroes.

But we have this double filter system where it's hey, we're gonna use the Eisenhower Matrix first and then we're gonna put it through the Focus Funnel. I particularly like to go through the Focus Funnel first because I feel like it's a little easier to kind of quickly categorize things as gravity takes it from the top to the bottom. And then when we get to the bottom then we can look and say is it urgent, is it important, is it urgent and important or is it neither urgent nor important?

So we've gotten to the bottom of the Focus Funnel now. We're looking at the Eisenhower Matrix and we say you know what, everything that came out of the bottom of the Focus Funnel is gonna go into one of these four boxes. Again, if you're watching on YouTube, you see it on your screen now. One of these four boxes, all right?

So if it ends up being, like most things that come out of that list, you're gonna think that it's probably urgent and important or one of the other. This is—you have to get really ruthless. Which one of these things deserves the top 20% or less of the echelon of all the things that are on your plate? Urgent meaning like this has to get done as soon as possible or else, right? And be realistic about the or else. Don't imagine the or else. Be very realistic about the or else. And then important—is this really going to move the needle, right? So timing and weight. Is it important? Is the weight of it? Is it urgent? That's the timing of it.

So if it meets both of those categories, then it goes into your urgent and important category. And now you don't have to choose between now and later. You know that those are the things that you have to do today or this week.

Now, if it ends up just in the urgent category, but not in the important category, this is where I advise you and my clients to go back through and go, okay, but maybe we missed something here. If it's urgent, but not super important, to me, that means it probably could get delegated, right? And we missed that when we went through the Focus Funnel in the first pass of this Priority Method.

So if it's just urgent, but not important, then I think that's something that we could delegate. Same thing as if it's important but not urgent. I would say this category, if it's important, not urgent, would be something that you have—actually, you know what? I have time to build a system or to figure out a way to automate this because it is important. It does need to get done. It doesn't need to get done right now. But what I can do right now is delegate creating the system to automate the thing later. Right? Like you see how all the parts start to work together.

So those are what fall into the urgent category. Urgent means you should probably just delegate it. Right. If it's not of super importance, but it does kind of need to happen soon, I would say delegate that. If it's in the important category, but not urgent, then I would say, yeah, you could probably delegate it. But more importantly, what I would look at is can you automate it? Can you automate it? And then lastly, obviously, if it's neither important nor urgent, like I said earlier, that just means that we missed it at the top of the funnel and it needs to be totally eliminated.

So what do we do with all this information? Let me just kind of walk you through everything one last time. So number one, you're going to mind dump everything. You're going to get every task out of your head and onto paper or some kind of digital capture.

Secondly, you're going to run it through the Focus Funnel. You're going to ask all these questions in order. Can it be eliminated, automated or delegated? And you're going to take everything that came out of the bottom of the Focus Funnel and you're going to chart it out on the Eisenhower Matrix.

Now I know this seems like it's taking a ton of time, but really once you get in the flow of doing this, it should take less than 10 minutes, right? We're running through the Focus Funnel. We're asking can it be eliminated, automated, delegated. If it comes out the bottom of it, then that means you feel like in that moment that it should be used. And now we're going to take that batch of things. We're going to plop it onto the paper. I love, honestly, I love to print out the Eisenhower Matrix because I can see it and I can start to kind of hand write the things in on all four of the quadrants.

We're going to go through the Eisenhower Matrix. We're going to run things back through the Focus Funnel if we really need to. But at the end of that 10 minutes or less, you're going to be able to understand where you need to protect your creative energy, which is the next part of our what now—protect your creative energy, meaning you can schedule the high impact creative work during your peak hours. We've talked about this many times on the show before, so I won't go back into it now, maybe for another, we'll revisit it in a future episode.

But then you're gonna review and adjust. At the end of the week, see what worked, see what didn't. See what things you're like, you know what, I thought I needed to be the one to do it, but actually we could delegate it. Or you know what, I thought this was urgent and important. It turns out it was only urgent, not super important. And so we learn from that every single week, every single day, every single time you go through this Priority Method, you learn more and more about it.

So I have this Priority Method for you on the website. If you go to dustinpead.com/free, you can download this Priority Method framework from me. You can also grab the Time and Energy Audit, which is from Dan Martell. I just created a little bit better spreadsheet to use it. Also, my DO versus DUE framework is on there as well. It stops allowing the fake urgency to drive your schedule. So you can get all of those at dustinpead.com/free.

Listen, your creativity is your most valuable asset along with your time, right? So stop treating those things like they're unlimited and start protecting it like the finite resource it really is. The Priority Framework isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters most and giving your best creative energy to the work that actually moves your business forward.

Remember, a shorter intentional list that you actually complete beats a long list that overwhelms you every single time.

If you want to dive deeper into the systems that protect your creative energy, go to dustinpead.com and connect with me there on the connect page or the contact page. You can also find me on social media at Dustin Pead. Your future creative self, well, thank you for reaching out. Trust us. We'd love to work with you.

Next week, we're going to dive into why your best ideas disappear and how to capture them. And I can't wait to share that with you on next week's episode of Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 127: Take The Leap

Why Now Is Always The Right Time For Creative Growth

SUMMARY

Sometimes the most profound truths come from the simplest statements. Last night, I heard something that stopped me in my tracks and challenged everything I thought I knew about timing in creative business. Author John T. Edge shared a truth that every creative professional needs to hear: "Every time I took a chance, a leap that scared me in my career, it was always the right thing to do."

This statement hit me like a lightning bolt because it perfectly captures what I see holding back so many talented creatives and agencies every single day.

The "Perfect Timing" Myth That's Killing Your Growth

Here's what I hear constantly from creative professionals: "I just need to get a few things in line first." Sound familiar? Whether it's waiting for more sales, recovering from team expansion, or organizing existing processes, there's always something that needs to happen "first" before taking the leap into better systems, new opportunities, or necessary changes.

But here's the reality check: if you're waiting for everything to be perfect, you'll be waiting forever.

When my wife and I found out we were having our first child almost 15 years ago, I didn't feel ready. Honestly? I still don't feel ready. I still feel like a kid myself trying to figure out what to do with my life. But waiting for perfect readiness would have meant missing out on one of life's greatest adventures.

Why Fear Is Your Creativity's Biggest Enemy

Fear will crush creativity and destroy businesses faster than any other force you'll face. It's not the market conditions, the competition, or even lack of resources—it's the fear that keeps you paralyzed in your current situation instead of moving toward growth.

I experienced this firsthand when I changed careers in 2023 to start Chief Creative Consultants. I had no idea what I was doing, no guarantee anyone would see value in what I offered, and no clear path to paying the bills. It was terrifying. But looking back, I wish I had taken that leap sooner.

The Backwards Thinking That Keeps You Stuck

Here's where I see creative businesses getting it completely backwards: they think they need to have all their systems perfect before they can handle growth. They say things like, "We need more sales first, then we'll work on our processes."

This is like saying you need to be stronger before you start exercising. Your systems ARE what enable you to handle growth efficiently. Without them, more sales just means more chaos—more of the same problems you're already dealing with, just amplified.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Fear-based timing is never perfect timing - If you're waiting for all conditions to be ideal before making necessary changes, you're letting fear make your decisions instead of wisdom.

• ⚡️ Systems enable growth, not the other way around - Don't wait until you have more clients to implement better processes. Implement better processes so you can effectively serve more clients.

• ⚡️ The leap you're avoiding is probably the one you need to take - That scary decision you keep postponing? It's likely the exact step that will unlock your next level of creative and business success.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Fear will crush creativity and crush businesses and crush families more than any other thing that will come up against you."

• 💬 "Now is the only time. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Yes, be wise about what you do today, but make the most of the day."

• 💬 "The world needs what you have to create. And we all want to benefit and enjoy what you have to create as well."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ House of Smoke, John T Edge

• ⚡️ dustinpead.com/contact

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

You know what I've learned after years of helping creatives build better systems? The one area even the most organized creatives still wing it? Their money. And I get it. You don't start your business to become an accountant or a bookkeeper, right? You started it to create amazing work. But here's the reality. Financial chaos will kill your creativity faster than any other kind of overwhelm. And that's why I love what the core group does.

They're not your typical accountants. They only work with creatives like us and they understand that you need systems that work with your brain, not against it. Their profit first approach flips everything you think you know about business finances. Instead of paying everyone else first and hoping that there's something left for you, you pay yourself first and build your business around that. They've got three service levels depending on where you're at in your journey from basic tax support, all the way up to full CFO partnership, which is what I use and it's amazing. Stop letting money stress, steal your creative energy. Check out coregroupus.com and finally get the financial systems your creative business deserves.

Last night I heard something that stopped me in my tracks and I knew I had to share it with you today. Sometimes the most profound truths come from the simplest statements and this one's going to challenge everything you think you know about timing in your creative business. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Well, everybody, welcome back to Creativity Made Easy. This is a podcast for all creatives who are struggling to actually get the work done that they want to get done. My name is Dustin Pead. I'm a creative coach and consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their team so that they can create with efficiency together.

This episode today is going to be a little bit different. I know last week, if you're a listener of the podcast I talked about what today's episode was going to be about and we are going to do that. That's going to be probably next week or maybe even the week after. But I really just felt like I wanted to kind of share a little bit of raw process out loud with y'all. If you know me, I'm an Enneagram Four and sometimes I just need to do that. In fact, there's a lot of things going on in my life right now that I would love to be able to share with you. But there's one in particular that I really want to share with you last night.

I went to the Atlanta History Museum to see one of my favorite authors, John T. Edge, talk about his new book right here. His new book is called House of Smoke. It's a memoir. It's a southerner goes searching for home. John T Edge is the co-producer and host of a show on the SEC network, which is owned by ESPN. The show is called True South and it's a beautifully cinematic and well-crafted storytelling 30 minute per episode type of show.

He does focus a lot on food because he's been a food writer in the past and still is a food writer. But just beautiful, beautifully told stories. And so if you want looking for something to be inspired, go look at True South. Look that up on whatever cable network or cable provider you have. There may be some stuff on YouTube as well, but True South is amazing. So he was there last night at the Atlanta History Museum talking about this book. Francis Lamb was actually interviewing him, who's a James Beard award winning food author as well.

And during the night he said so John said so many profound things last night, but there's one that he said in particular that I wanted to share with you today because it's what I really wanted to get into with today's episode. He said this he says every time I took a chance, a leap that scared me in his career, it was always the right thing to do.

When he took a leap, he took a chance, even if it scared him, it was always the right thing to do. Now I'm not saying do something every day that scares you. Maybe that's a great motivational poster. But my immediate reaction was, yeah, if I look back to anything in my life, when I moved away from the home that I grew up, born and raised in, to go, you know, several hundred miles away to pursue a career that I felt so passionate about and just kind of leaving behind everything that I knew and having to make friends all over again and set up community and things like that. That was super scary in the leap, but that leap set a trajectory for my entire life and career.

And then if I fast forward to 2023, when I changed careers and I started this business, Chief Creative Consultants, it was a giant leap. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how we were going to pay the bills. I had no idea if anyone would even see value in this. And now we're a thriving business and we're bringing on team members. And it's just incredible to see, frankly, how God has pulled all this together. And so I wanted to just kind of share with you about like, I think sometimes we just wait for everything to be perfect timing. There's a lot of creatives and creative agencies that I speak with and their number one kind of response to me when I start sharing here's what we do at Chief Creative Consultants and here's how we help is I just got to get a few things in line first. I just got to get a few things in line first. We just got to have more sales. I've just got to rebound from bringing on these team members. I just have to, I have to, I have to first.

It reminds me of when I found out that we were gonna have our first child. And in that moment, I didn't feel ready. And I'll be honest with you, going on almost 15 years later since we had our first child, I still don't feel ready. I still would go, wait, we gotta get some things right first before we can have a kid. Like we still have stuff to figure out. We're still kids ourselves. I was just sharing with a friend recently about how mentally I still feel like I'm fresh out of high school trying to figure out what to do with my life in a lot of ways. But this idea of just taking a risk and understanding that the fear that is in front of you is stopping the progression of the life that you could have. And I don't think it's any different when it comes to our creative businesses and agencies or even the solo thing that you're doing.

I think what might be holding you back right now is that you're scared to take a leap and fear friends will crush creativity and crush businesses and crush families more than any other thing that will come up against you. And so I just wanted to share with you in a few minutes today that we're not saying to be reckless, right? We're not saying to make unwise decisions, but when you wait...

I was just having this conversation with my aunt who lives back in Virginia. And we were catching up on life and what she's got going on and what I have going on and how our family's doing and her family's doing. And what I realized is that, and I tell people all the time, when I stepped out and changed careers in 2023, like I wish I had, I tell people all the time, man, I wish I would done it sooner. Now I will say, in the consulting world, like it's hard to be able to say let me consult you on something if you don't have experience and so I firmly believe that God was building up my experience over the 20 years of ministry before he had me do this thing that we're doing now. And I was scared to death and I wish I'd had done it sooner.

I just want to encourage you friends, creatives. Whether it's a business decision you need to make or it's a creative direction that you need to take or it's a new skill that you need to learn that you're afraid to learn or it's a conversation that you need to have that you don't want to have. I promise you that having that conversation, doing the hard thing, taking the leap will pay off in the long run. I do think in the immediate as well, you're going to feel some immediate relief, right? It's like the hard conversation that you keep avoiding when you are finally able to have that conversation. It may not be immediately resolved, but you feel better for getting it out. I talking to one of my clients just yesterday and he was having some frustrations and he was sharing with me and I said, is there anything I can do? And he said, honestly, it just feels good to get it out.

And that might be the first step is to just say out loud what it is that you're afraid of, that you need to do now than later. And so I'm not saying creative processes and systems are the answer for you right now. But if you're sitting there wondering, and this is not a sales pitch by any means, this is genuine me coming to you and saying, I care about what you're creating in this world and the world needs what you have to create. And I would love for you to stop making excuses about why now isn't the right time. Now is the only time. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. And yes, be wise about what you do today, but make the most of the day. And sometimes, making most of the day means I need to take this leap.

And so my challenge to you listeners today is what leap are you avoiding? What leap do you feel like you need to take right now that it's super scary, but you can't seem to shake that that's what that's the leap you need to make? Is it bringing help in to help tighten up your systems before you have the sales. I struggle with people that say they have to have all the things together before they work on the systems because I'm like, your systems, they have it backwards, right? Your systems are the things that help you do the things that you need to do. Hey, I need more sales. Well, what's gonna happen when you get more sales? It's just gonna be more chaos than it is right now. It's not gonna be any different. It's just gonna be a lot more of it.

Which you might be I would welcome a lot more of it, yeah financially you probably would but mentally and physically and emotionally you probably wouldn't. And so maybe this is a little bit of a sales pitch. Maybe it's not. I don't know. I just felt like when I heard that quote last night for John T, I thought that is a message for creatives. And that is a message that I want to share on this podcast. And most weeks I have a pretty tight kind of not really a script, but have a pretty tight kind of outline of like, here's what I want to walk you through today.

I know we went raw a couple of weeks ago with the episode in which I had PJ on and we were walking through some clunky processes. But I really just want this podcast at the end of the day to be helpful. I want it to be encouraging. And if it's helpful or encouraging for you, then I'm going to keep doing it I'm to keep pressing on. And I'm so very thankful for people like the core group who have come alongside and say, I see what you're doing. I believe in what you're doing. And we're going to sponsor your podcast. So when you hear the ads at the beginning of this podcast, just know that these are people that believe in you as creatives enough to be able to support businesses like mine because businesses like mine are here for you. We're here for your creativity, for your art to be released into the world in a big way that is hard to do alone.

And none of us at the end of the day, I think really want to be alone. There might be some introverts that go, no, no, no, I really love being alone. But when it when it all shakes out, like we want someone to walk through this thing with us. And I'm recording some client testimonials now, and I'm sure you'll see those on different things over the over the coming months as we start to drip those out. But I really just want to walk alongside you. So if you're a creative business, an agency, an agency owner who's listening to this right now. I just want to walk alongside you so that what you have in your heart to create, we can create it and we can create it with more efficiency and we can create it in a way that doesn't burn you out and doesn't leave you stressed out at 11 p.m. at night trying to figure out how you're going to finish projects. I want to help you finish what you started.

Let me help you. But most of all, just take the leap. If it's with me, if it's with someone else, if it's any other endeavor at all, whatever is stopping you right now, now is the time to take the leap. So I know it's super clunky and a little bit kind of all over the place, but I just wanted to when I heard it last night and I'm listening to John T. who is such an incredible storyteller, such a poet with his words. I just thought I need to share this and I had it on my calendar to record another podcast episode for you today and I thought today's the day.

So I wanted to share with you this idea of taking the leap. So I'm committed to taking the fearful leaps, right? And I encourage you creatives, I encourage you artists to do the same. Take the leap. Whatever is in front of you that you're scared to jump into with wisdom. But take the leap. Take the leap. The world needs what you have to offer. And we all want to see what you have to create. And we all want to benefit and enjoy what you have to create as well. In the words of my good friend and client, Darren Cooper, go out and create your art. Take the leap.

I don't know what next week's episode is going to be. Maybe it'll be more like this one. Honestly, I'd love to hear your feedback. If you made it to the end of this episode, just let me know. You sometimes I create these podcasts and I send them out there and I'll get a little thing kind of six weeks down the road. Oh, hey, that podcast episode, you know, but if this kind of raw conversation is helpful or encouraging to you, let me know. We're definitely going to get back into the practical takeaway elements of how to use, you know, processes and systems and your creativity to, you know, create with efficiency. We're always going to do that. But, you know, I've done some things like the front porch conversation and things like things like that. I just be curious to know, is this type of format for the podcast? Is this something that you like?

Is it annoying? Is it too clunky or is it helpful? And I hope it's I hope it's a genuine reflection of my heart and what I'm trying to build this business on as we grow together, as we all grow together. I'm growing and I want to help you grow, too. So, yeah, that's it for this week. I would love for you to tune in next week to the podcast. We're going to drop these every single Thursday. Again, thank you to the core group for sponsoring this episode. So very thankful for them and I'm thankful for you listeners and watchers and I would love to hear your feedback. Drop me a line. You can go to dustinpead.com and contact me there. You can go to Instagram. I think maybe LinkedIn handle is the same, but it's at dustinpead. P E A D. You can reach out to me. D P at dustinpead.com is my straight email. I would love to hear from you as well, but until next time, get out there, take the leap and create your art today. Talk to you next week.

Ep 126: There’s A Process For That

13 Essential Systems Every Creative Business Needs

SUMMARY

Most creative professionals are drowning in chaos because they're trying to wing it in areas where successful agencies have bulletproof systems. The difference between agencies that scale smoothly and those that burn out their founders isn't creativity—it's having documented, repeatable processes for everything they do on a regular basis.

You don't have a talent problem or a creativity problem. You have a process problem.

Why Creative Businesses Need Systems

According to Harvard Business Review, companies with well-documented processes are 67% more likely to successfully scale their business. The creative industry is not exempt from this—it's just been slower to adopt it because we feel like systems constrain us. But they don't. They free us to have more time and mental energy to be more creative.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Start with your biggest pain point: Where do you find yourself repeatedly answering the same questions or fixing the same problems? That's your first process to document.

• ⚡️ Use the "next person test": Could someone else follow your documented process and get the same result? If not, it needs more detail.

• ⚡️ Build in small batches: Don't try to systemize everything at once. Pick one or two areas and build, test, refine, then move to the next.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "The difference between agencies that scale smoothly and those that burn out their founders isn't creativity. It's having documented repeatable processes for everything they do on a regular basis."

• 💬 "Systems don't constrain creativity—they free us to have more time and mental energy to be more creative."

• 💬 "When you and your team know exactly how to onboard a client, manage revisions and deliver projects, then you can focus your mental energy on doing great creative work instead of figuring out logistics."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ dustinpead.com/free

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey creatives, you know how I'm always talking about creative systems that work? Well, that actually includes your money too. If you're still shoving receipts in a shoe box and hoping for the best come tax time, we need to talk about The Core Group. They're profit-first certified accountants who actually understand the creative hustle. No judgment, just clarity. They help you build financial systems that create margin in your business instead of stress. And this is coming from me—I'm a loyal Core Group subscriber. So check them out at coregroupus.com. That's C-O-R-E G-R-O-U-P-U-S dot com. Check out The Core Group today.

Most creative professionals are drowning in chaos because they're trying to wing it in areas where successful agencies have bulletproof systems. Today, we're exploring the specific processes that separate thriving creative businesses from those that are constantly fighting fires. And I'll show you exactly where to start building your own. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to scale their business without sacrificing their sanity. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their processes and their team so that they can move from chaos to clarity. Whether you're a freelancer, agency owner or leading a creative team, this show is about building systems that free your creativity instead of constraining them. So let's dive in.

I've had countless discovery calls with talented creative professionals over the years, and there's a pattern that I see again and again. They are incredibly gifted people who can create amazing work, but every day feels like they're having to reinvent the wheel. Client onboarding is different every time, project kickoffs are chaotic, and their teams are constantly asking, "What's the process for this?" And their response is usually some version of, "Just figure it out, I guess."

Here's what I've learned: The difference between agencies that scale smoothly and those that burn out their founders isn't creativity. It's having documented repeatable processes for everything they do on a regular basis. You don't have a talent problem or creativity problem. You have a process problem.

Today I want to walk through several key areas where every creative business needs processes and I'll give you some starting points for each one. So let's dive in.

Let's start from the very top of onboarding a client. A client onboarding process is super important because first impressions set the tone for everything. Your process should feel personal but be completely systematized because you want it to be able to fire off without using your brain energy just for client onboarding. From contract signing all the way to the project kickoff needs to be a documented process that you use every single time.

Next one: a project briefing and kickoff process. This is where scope creep gets prevented or invited in. Clear expectations, roles, deliverables defined up front. You can use the DO versus DUE framework. When you brief properly, you can set realistic DO dates before the client's DUE dates. This is an opportunity to lay out all the logistics and having a process for this is super important. My clients and I recently have been using an AI process for project briefing that I would love to share with you if you hop on a call with me.

Next one: a client journey process or a client journey defined. A lot of creatives lose their clients at about the 80% mark. They're really good at starting and they get a lot of really good energy all the way through until about the 80% mark of the project or the life of the client. Then it starts to fall off really quickly—their energy and their deliverables. Understanding each next step in your client journey, knowing where it's going next is going to be super important. Every touchpoint to take them from just a one-time client to a loyal advocate.

You're going to identify where clients typically get confused or frustrated or have the most questions. Those are opportunities for you to checkpoint in with them every step of the way. So build the processes to address those friction points.

Part of that client journey is client onboarding like we talked about, but the other part of the client journey is offboarding. Are we asking for feedback? Are we asking for a referral? What is it that we're asking of the client at the end of our journey together? A lot of you hope that there is no offboarding process because you don't want to be offboarded. But having a really solid offboarding process increases the likelihood that that client returns and that that client refers you to other potential clients as well. How you end matters just as much as how you begin. File handovers, final invoicing, relationship maintenance, getting feedback, referral processes—all that stuff. Setting up the potential for more business from that client is super important. That's why you need a client offboarding process.

The 4D creative process is a big one too. Now you don't have to use these 4Ds, but somewhere along the journey of how you actually create needs to involve these four. I'm not going to go super deep into it because I've done several episodes and blog posts about it before. But the 4D creative process is basically saying every creative process needs to have a moment that you define the problem, that you dream about solutions, that you design those potential solutions, and then you develop the actual solution to your problem. Every creative process needs to have those four parts, whether you name them something differently or not.

It gives structure to the inherently massive creative journey. When you're like, "I got all these ideas and I don't know where to go next," that means you're in the dream phase. The next thing you need to do is to design. You're like, "I've got the design and just don't know what to do next." What you need to do next is actually put in the work. And this is where the grunt work comes in. That's the development part. Each phase has specific deliverables internally for your team and approval points along the way. Having that defined process will keep you moving from start to finish.

Next thing you need is not only a content creation process, but a review process. All of us as creatives, we're creating some kind of content. We're creating audio content, video content, visual design content, whether it be for us internally, for our business, and most importantly, for our clients. But who creates what and when do they create it and how do they create it? And what are the review cycles to get clear feedback? What are your protocols centered around? "Hey, this is going to be our first draft, then we're going to review it." What does that review look like? How long does it take? Who's involved in it before a first draft ever reaches the client?

So content creation process, but more importantly, a content review process. The next one is a part of that as well for feedback and revisions. Think about Pixar and how they would get together and they would poke holes and ask questions throughout their process of writing a story. They call it their brain trust meetings. So how feedback gets collected, how it gets consolidated and how it gets implemented are super important things to have consistency throughout.

If you have a team under you, even if they're just contractors, if you don't have a system for this, you're going to burn them out because they're going to get super frustrated that it's different every single time and they can't anticipate your needs. Every creative wants to be able to anticipate the needs of who they're working for, whether it be their boss or their client. This prevents the whole "death by a thousand cuts" revision cycle where we're just constantly, constantly editing. We don't know when to finish painting. This feedback and revision process will help you understand—you, your team, your clients—it'll help everyone understand fully when is this process done. Paint "done" for your projects and how you get to done matters most.

Let's talk creative asset management. This is file structure. It could be digital assets, it could be physical assets, but having a straight file structure with the way that you name your things, you name your files, your naming conventions that everyone follows will make it easier for you to find the file that you're looking for when you're looking for it. It'll make it easier for you to upload to the correct place, make it easier for you to find where to download. Having version control and backup systems are super important. So what does that look like for you?

You may be thinking, "Well, I just kind of throw it up there and hope that I remember the way that I named it or hope that I can find it when I need to." You're wasting brain energy when you're doing that. Whether it be a digital asset like file types and things like that, or it be physical assets—maybe you're a video agency and you have all sorts of equipment that comes in and out of your office or your basement or your garage or your studio space constantly—having some type of inventory of how those things are going in and out. Who has them? When does the proper maintenance need to be done on those things so they don't break down on you in the middle of a shoot? Do we have SD cards on this shoot or do we not? Little things like that go a long way. So having a creative asset management system in place is huge.

Next is team and I would also add client communication protocols. When are we using email versus text versus Slack versus a project management tool? How are we communicating? What are our meeting cadences and how do we actually set an agenda for that? We don't have to have this full-on documented agenda for every meeting, but there needs to at least be three or four bullet points sent in a Slack message where people know they can go and go, "Ah, this is what I know we're going to be talking about." You can add it even to the calendar notes section of that meeting.

When do we email a client or when do we email internally? When do we use Slack? When do we use text messages? For example, I always tell my team we use Slack for business and we use text messages for personal things. So if I text you a business-related question, you are more than welcome to haze me for sending you that and remind me to send the message on Slack and not on text because it's work-related. But if someone sends a message in Asana or Monday or whatever tool you might be using, how do you know to check there? Understanding when and where and how to check those communication pieces is going to be vital not only for your team, but for your client as well.

Next up, let's talk about project management. This is where I see creatives get the most stuck. They get super excited about the project. They dive headfirst in. They get all the way through probably the first three phases of define, dream and design. And now it's time to develop. And we don't know what's supposed to be what. We don't know where things are happening, when things are actually supposed to be DUE versus DO. So you need a consistent approach regardless of the project size.

Some people are like, "Oh, this is just a quick little thing." You need to have a consistent approach because if you start scaling back off that approach, you lose consistency. You lose consistency, you begin to lose excellence. You lose excellence, you start to lose clients, which means you start to lose money. So we all want to get better at our project management process. Status updates, milestone tracking, resource allocation, the integration between tools and team workflows—all super important things to remember.

Next up, since we're talking about our teams here as well, how about performance review process? How often are you regularly getting with your team or if you just have contractors or even volunteers? How often are you getting with them regularly to give feedback cycles, not just to give them feedback, but to get feedback from them as well? We're not talking about just annual reviews here. If the only time you have a one-on-one with someone that you lead, whether it be a paid team member, a paid contractor, or a volunteer, if you're only doing that annually, you're missing out. You're missing consistency. You're missing the opportunity to be able to grow throughout the year instead of just every January.

Clear expectations should be a part of it. And what are the growth pathways for both sides? How can we grow as a business? How can you grow as a part of this team? Documenting that protects both you and the team so that if things work out, you can celebrate it. And if things don't work out, you can point back to it and say, "See, we talked about this. This is why we have to move on to another situation."

Speaking about our talent and people that we work with, how do you acquire talent? How do you hire? How do you bring on new contractors? How do you decide who to work with and who you don't? There needs to be a systematic approach to finding and not just finding, but also integrating great people. Do you have an onboarding process for a team or for a contractor?

You've sent messages out there: "Hey, we're looking for an editor. We need a junior copywriter. We need a production assistant." Whatever the case is, you put it out there. But how do you know that you're onboarding them and you're setting them up for success? Because those first 90 days for any position—volunteer, paid contractor, doesn't matter—are super important. So what's the process for onboarding them, setting them up for success? Because when you set them up for success, you set your business up for success as well.

I would highly encourage you if you're like, "Well, I don't have a ton of money to do that," look for apprenticeship programs in your area for you to be able to help develop talent, but also get some really affordable labor as a part of that as well. It's a win for everybody. They're getting experience. You're getting the help that you need at a fraction of the cost.

Let's talk invoice and payment collection. This is definitely more of a financial process and I'm more in the operations. But if we don't have a process for this, then how do you know you're gonna get paid on time? We all get to the end of the month and there's a reward. We all get to the end of the money and there's more month left.

Creating some automated systems are really huge. How you can automatically send out the invoicing and payment collection would be a great thing. I know many people are already using that, but just make sure that they're consistent and that they're being updated regularly as much as possible. Clear payment terms. Make sure you have your sequences to have follow-up processes. How long are you going to give them to pay? Are you going to charge late fees or not? All of that needs to be up front, because if you talk about it up front and you set those processes in place for invoice and payment collection, then you can avoid all those awkward money conversations with clients in the future.

You also need to have systems in place for your marketing strategy and lead generation. Now, I'm not the expert when it comes to these systems, but you do need to have a systematic approach and you need to build the process and then trust the process for every single one of these things. So content creation, relationship building, networking, referral systems—all of that will help you get predictable pipeline instead of the feast or famine cycles that you may be stuck in. We can help build those systems for you alongside some really good sales coaching and we can make sure we set that up for you.

Speaking of sales, another one that I make sure that all my clients have in place is some type of offer development or package offerings. You need to be able to clearly say, "This is our standardized service offerings that are not only profitable, but scalable." So when you have a discovery call with me and you ask me, "What does it look like to work with you?" then I'll tell you, "We have four service packages. There's a coaching package and then there's three different consulting packages where we help implement these processes and systems with you." Each one has a price point and it's very easy to identify throughout the way. That keeps the clear scope being defined between client and business relationship, which is going to prevent the dreaded scope creep. When you have these offers and packages easily defined, it makes it even easier to delegate and train your team members on them because they're so defined.

So that's a quick run through of a bunch of different things that I always recommend any clients that we work with—some of the processes that they need to have at their disposal. Let me just tell you this: According to the Harvard Business Review, companies with well-documented processes are 67%—that's two-thirds—more likely to successfully scale their business. The creative industry is not exempt from this. It's just been slower to adopt it because we feel like systems constrain us, but they don't. They free us to have more time and more mental energy to be more creative.

What now? I gave you a lot of different processes and systems to consider, but let me just give you a few next steps that you could take.

Number one: Start documenting what you're already doing really well. If you're like, "You know what, we have a really tight system for this and we do the same thing over and over again," start documenting that. And if you wonder why, it's so that you can develop more team members and more people easier without having to take your time to show them that process over and over and over again. You create a Loom video. You have a simple process document that you say, "Here's how we do it. Let me know if you have any questions." And that's a lot less time on you or your team to have to train that person.

Something else to consider is to identify your biggest pain point. Where do you find yourself repeatedly answering the same questions or fixing the same problems day after day, week after week? That's the first process that you need to figure out and start documenting, because these are things that always happen. If it always happens, there should be a system and there should be a process for that.

Use the next person test. Could someone else follow your documented process and get the same result? If not, it needs to be more detailed in the steps.

Another way is to build in small batches. Don't try to systemize everything at once that we talked about in this episode today. Pick one or two areas that we talked about today and start building that process. When you build it, test it and then refine it and then move on to the next one.

And lastly, get your team involved. If you have a team—again, volunteer, contractor, paid, it doesn't matter—get the team involved. The people doing the work often have the best insights into what the process should be. So be sure to include them in the development of those processes.

I want to remind you, you can get all sorts of free tools for these processes on my website, dustinpead.com/free. The DO versus DUE framework is up there. We have time and energy audit kits on there. Client onboarding, Future You framework—all these things at dustinpead.com/free.

Here's the thing about processes: They're not about constraining creativity. They're about creating space for it. When you and your team know exactly how to onboard a client, manage revisions and deliver projects, then you can start focusing your mental energy on doing great creative work instead of figuring out all these logistics.

I've seen agency owners reduce their stress levels dramatically and increase their team's productivity by more than 30% just by implementing a handful of key processes. More importantly, their clients start commenting on how smooth and professional everything feels, which means more referrals and more business.

Listen, you don't have to build everything at once. Start with one process that would make your life easier this week. Go ahead, document it, test it, refine it, and then build the next one. If you want help identifying which processes to build first or you want to see how other creative teams have systemized their operations, go to dustinpead.com and connect with me also on social media at Dustin Pead. You can book a free call with me and I can talk with you about what you're feeling right now.

Remember, there's a process for that. You just have to build it.

Next week, we'll be back tackling episode 127: "Why Your To-Do List Is Sabotaging Your Creativity." I'll show you how traditional task management fails creative professionals and introduce you once again to our favorite friend, the Focus Funnel, a framework for deciding what actually deserves your attention versus what's just noise. So if you're constantly overwhelmed by your to-do list and can't seem to make real progress on what matters most, that episode's going to be for you. It's going to change how you think about task management forever. Cannot wait to be back with you on that episode.

Y'all have an amazing week ahead. Talk to you next time on Creativity Made Easy.

Ep 125: AI Assisted Weekly Preview

How AI Can Transform Your Weekly Planning Process: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Claude-Powered Productivity

SUMMARY

Planning your week shouldn't feel like another task on your endless to-do list. Yet for most creative professionals, the Sunday scramble to organize the upcoming week often creates more stress than clarity. What if there was a way to streamline this entire process while actually making it more comprehensive and insightful?

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on something I rarely show publicly: my messy, evolving, but surprisingly effective AI-assisted weekly planning process. Joined by PJ Towle from 43 Creative, we walk through exactly how I use Claude AI to transform scattered calendar items and Asana tasks into a structured, actionable weekly preview.

The Current State of Creative Planning

Most creative professionals I work with fall into one of two camps: they're either drowning in multiple planning systems that don't talk to each other, or they're flying by the seat of their pants with no real system at all. Both approaches lead to the same result – feeling reactive instead of proactive, constantly fighting fires instead of making strategic progress.

The traditional approach to weekly planning often involves:

• Scattered information across multiple platforms

• Time-consuming manual compilation

• Inconsistent formatting and structure

• Missing context about travel, weather, or personal priorities

• No integration of business goals with daily tasks

Before you worry that I'm advocating for robots to take over your creative process, let me be clear: AI isn't replacing human creativity and thinking. Instead, it's handling the administrative overhead that prevents us from accessing that creativity in the first place.

The goal isn't to let AI make decisions for us, but to let it handle the compilation, formatting, and cross-referencing that normally eats up valuable mental energy. This frees us to focus on the strategic thinking and creative problem-solving that actually moves our businesses forward.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Project Knowledge is Everything: The success of AI-assisted planning depends entirely on the context you provide. Claude's project knowledge feature allows you to build a comprehensive understanding of your business, values, goals, and preferences that carry across all weekly planning sessions.

• ⚡️ Cross-Platform Integration Creates Clarity: By connecting Google Calendar, Asana tasks, weather forecasts, and business goals in one unified view, you eliminate the mental overhead of switching between systems and potentially missing important connections.

• ⚡️ Iteration Beats Perfection: The most valuable systems aren't born perfectly – they evolve through practice and honest experimentation. Don't wait until you have it all figured out to start incorporating AI tools into your workflow.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Innovation doesn't happen in isolation and the best systems aren't born perfectly. They evolve through practice, feedback and honest experimentation."

• 💬 "I fancy myself as a curator. I love to curate pieces from this thing and this thing and this thing. And then I kind of put all those curated pieces together."

• 💬 "Whatever you use though, just make sure it works for you and make sure it feels natural to you. Don't make it if there's any kind of hurdle or a new habit that you have to learn – the less of those that you can incorporate, the easier it's going to be for you to actually repeat use and success over and over again."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ Claude.ai

• ⚡️ ASANA

• ⚡️ reMarkable 2

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Okay, real talk. How many of you have amazing systems for your creative work, but your finances are still a hot mess? That used to be me too, until I found the Core Group. They're accountants who actually get creatives and they help you build financial systems that create breathing room instead of panic attacks. Using their profit first methodology means that you pay yourself first. Crazy, right? Go check them out at coregroupus.com.

Sometimes the most valuable content comes from showing the messy imperfect reality of how we actually work instead of the polished version we think we should present. So today I'm pulling back the curtain on my AI assisted weekly planning process with one of my clients, PJ Tao. It's clunky, it's evolving, and it's already changing how we approach productivity. Let's get into it.

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to scale their business without sacrificing their sanity. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, founder of Chief Creative Consultants, where I help creative teams move from chaos to clarity through systems that actually work. If you're new here, this show is all about practical strategies, real frameworks and honest conversations about what it takes to build a sustainable creative business. No fluff, no theory, just actionable insights that you can implement today.

Now here's the thing about today's episode. It's different from our usual format. Instead of a polished presentation of a perfectly refined system, I'm doing something I rarely do. I'm showing you something while it's still rough around the edges. I've been experimenting with AI to help streamline my weekly planning process for a while now. And honestly, it's been a game changer even in its current imperfect state. But rather than waiting until I have it all figured out, I wanted to bring you into the process now because I think there's real value in seeing how we can start integrating these tools into our workflow today with mess and all.

PJ Tao, founder of 43 Creative and one of my clients, joined me to walk through exactly how I'm currently using AI to prepare for my weekly preview sessions. You'll hear us navigate through the process in real time and you'll probably catch some of the places where I'm still trying to figure it out and I would love your feedback and insight on that. But that's exactly the point. Innovation doesn't happen in isolation and the best systems aren't born perfectly. They evolve through practice, feedback and honest experimentation.

So today you're getting a behind the scenes look at that evolution in action. Whether you're AI curious, AI skeptical or somewhere in between, I think you'll find value in seeing how these tools can enhance rather than replace the human creativity and thinking that makes our work so meaningful. All right, let's dive into this very real and very unpolished conversation about the future of creative productivity.

All right, PJ, welcome to the podcast again. Glad to have you back, bud.

You make it sound like I'm on here so often that you're back again.

No, maybe I can't. I think it's second time. I think it's your third. OK, I'll trust you. It's the second in the creativity made easy when I did have you on way back when I was doing any Graham stuff, didn't I? Did I have you over that?

Oh man, I've slept a few times and not enough since then to be able to tell you whether or not you did or not. I don't know. It doesn't matter.

Anyway, by now you all know why we're here. You saw it in the intro. We're going to walk through this really clunky process that I have for doing my weekly preview, just to give you a little backstory on the whole, what is a weekly preview thing? We'll start there. So, for a few years, I don't know, 2022 to probably 2024, I was a pretty avid user of the full focus planner and I still promote it. I still love it. I have family members and close friends and clients that use it. But it was just one more thing for me to carry around. I was already carrying around my laptop bag and everything else. And then I switched over to using a remarkable pad, which we'll talk about here in a little bit.

And so I wanted to have a way to be able to use it. But the full focus planner includes this thing at the beginning of every week. It has you walk through your week to plan out the week. Right. So like you're making the plan of what's going to happen before it actually happens so that you have a plan when you get into there. And obviously we talk a lot on this show about having a lot of margin. And so we plan in that margin as well. But yes. So it's a lot of things that we're going to walk through today and a lot of things that you're going to see on the screen as we share with you are centered around or their foundations are in Michael Hyatt's full focus planner.

So there's nothing, there's really nothing that we're doing today that is, you know, intellectual property. Proprietary or anything like that. I fancy myself as a curator. I love to curate pieces from this thing and this thing and this thing. And then I kind of put all those curated pieces together, which you could argue there's nothing new under the sun anyway, and that's how things are always done. But I digress.

So yeah, so we're going to show you all that today, but I thought we would start by introducing kind of the players, if you will, and the software and the different tools that we're going to be using. And I've got PJ here because we've been talking for a while in our coaching sessions on our weekly calls. We've been talking for a while about this weekly preview and how I do it. And we have some other friends that do something similar. And we're like, man, we just need to hop on a call and let's walk through this. So PJ is getting a two for today. He's getting to be a guest on a podcast and he's getting to see how I do this weekly preview. And he may have some insights on how I could do it better because he's super smart.

Thank you. Thank you. Let me introduce the players real quick. I mentioned at the beginning that I use a remarkable tablet now. So I use a remarkable tablet and remarkable. It's not like an iPad where it has email and text and apps and all these different things, right? Like this is designed to basically just act as a digital paper notebook. And there's multiple notebooks that can be used in it. There's all sorts of ones. I think Amazon Kindle has their own version of it. I think Google Chrome may have their own version of it. There's all sorts of different versions of it. I like the remarkable for the, I'm a clean simplistic when it comes to the technology. It's why I'm a Mac user.

And so I like the simplicity of this right here. Only integrations really is I can, I think it, can add stuff to my Google Drive or Dropbox and I can send notes via email from here, but I can't like check my email. That email can't be replied to. Like I love the restriction that it has on it because that's what it limits. Like this is the tool that I use for that. So I take notes on this all the time during coaching sessions. I will screen share with this because you can screen share digitally, you know, kind of John Madden playbook my way through it and draw things out. But yeah, this is an everyday carry for me. I use it every day. So and so what I'm going to do today is I'm going to produce this new weekly preview, which I used to do in the full focus planner. I'm going to produce it digitally and add it to my remarkable and I'll show you how we do all that.

So I'll start screen sharing and introduce the other players as well. So this is Claude. This is my good friend Claude, PJ and I both good friends with Claude. My son actually even drew a, drew like a robot like version of him the other day and named it Claude. I've found myself starting to refer to Claude with pronouns. Yeah. Like, Hey, I was talking with Claude the other day and he said that he said, and my wife always has to pause me like, wait, you're still talking about Claude AI, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't actually know someone named Claude named Claude. Yeah. That's a good way. Like how many people know someone named Claude?

Right. So I think that's always a good way. Like if you're going to, if you want to humanize it and give it a human name, that's a good way to do that. I think so. Anyway, this is Claude Claude is an AI tool, much like, chat GPT or Gemini, I think is one. There's all sorts of different AI tools out there. Yeah, so and I'm sure there's I'm not I'm sure I'm not using the proper terminology for what Claude really is. But what I like about Claude is that instead of just dumping a bunch of stuff into chats and kind of using it like Google, which is kind of what I use chat GPT for now, then I can build these projects in here.

And inside of these projects, I can give it specific instructions and I can give it specific project knowledge so that it knows what to give me. And we'll walk through all that as well. The other tool that we'll talk about today or the other player in this equation that we'll talk about today as well is Asana. This is my Asana right now for today and the next seven days is kind of how we, me and PJ both have ours organized pretty much the same way.

So you've heard me talk about Asana at length on this podcast. I'm not going to go into it, but it's a project management software. This is where all of our DO and DUE dates live. So we know when we wake up and we look at the thing, it tells us, here's what we need to do today. We need to reach out. We need to call. We need to run through. We need to check. We need to write, record, write, write, write a lot of writing today.

So yeah, that's, that's Asana. We did remarkable. We did Claude. I the only other thing I'm missing is there's some Google integration in Claude that it'll pull from. I have my Google calendar synced up to this, so you'll see me say at the beginning of this prompt, hey, referencing my Google calendar. Sorry, I don't know how to get this thing to stop telling me all the way. It's Grammarly is all the ways that it wants you to write better. Grammarly is like. I love it and hate it at the same time. Grammarly is probably going to want to force itself into this conversation several times today, but it's not a part of this. Right.

So yeah, so I thought what we would do PJ is just, I would just start walking you through kind of hear the things that I've put in the instructions. Here's the things that I put in my project knowledge. Here's the things in my weekly preview. And then we'll start populating it so that we can see it in real time. So I'm actually going to do my weekly preview for next week. We're recording this on Thursday, September the fourth, and I'm going to do this for the following week in which I'm, you'll see, I'm actually going to be up with PJ and Indianapolis area. So, so we'll start with the instructions.

So if you click on here, you know, you can, these are the specific project instructions you can give it, right? So I just said, Hey, create my weekly plan for each week, pull my calendar items for the upcoming week from your Google calendar integration. And I'll provide a list of my tasks broken up by day and category. We'll talk about that more in a second. Analyze the data and create a structured weekly plan following theme days and deep work preferences as outlined in the project documentation. That's the stuff over here that we talked about. Include relevant inspirational quotes. I love this because I love to learn from the leaders and heroes of our past and present.

And so include inspirational quotes from Winston Churchill, who I love and have a giant picture of over here. You've probably seen him in past episodes. Teddy Roosevelt, other leaders on themes of life, leadership, creativity process throughout the plan, included weather forecast for each day. This is a nice little tip. That's a good idea. I took from my, took from my friend, took from my friend and colleague Blake Bayer, and then provide thought provoking questions that align with my business plan for some of today's leading voices and small business growth. So those are my instructions, that I have for it. So now we'll walk through these six things that I have in here.

They're not really in particularly order to how they have it laid out, but we'll just talk about it. So this right here, I won't click on it because it's long and boring, but this one right here is a, is a Google doc that I have of a, kind of a running document of a business plan that I have for my business. It has all the stuff in there. Like this is what I'm going after. This is my target. This is my marketing. This is all the stuff that I'm kind of thinking, planning in and around my business. Then I have my personal values.

I include these in here because I want to again, I think there's some things that I ask for, but I want it to understand like these are Dustin's core personal values and I kind of break them down. Mine are courage, authenticity, resilience, excellence, faith, understanding and leadership. It spells out the word careful or another word for intentional. So, yeah, daily values integration. Each daily plan should include a specific challenge or reflection tied to one of these values. So I tried to include that as much as possible.

Let's see what else we got. The weekly preview format. So this is the format in which I want it to give it back to me when I'm done. I have theme days. I talk about the output format. I'm not going to get too much into it here, but it's got the quotes on there. Key notifications, calendar items. There are some things on here. I wonder if it's in this one or not, PJ, but there was one I think might even have been you that told me one time about telling AI what you don't want as much as what you do want.

Right, right. Be a critical thinker. Think for yourself. Push back on me. Don't just give me positive reinforcement for the things that I'm saying and that I'm asking. Yeah. And then humanize the writing. That's the other one I use a lot. Yeah, I love it. I need to that one to mine. So this is only include tasks explicitly listed in provided task lists. No suggestion or additional tasks, because it'll see it and it'll be like, oh, I see what you're doing here and here's 18 other things you can do. No, that's interesting. Yeah.

No timing of tasks. I don't let it tell me when to do the tasks. I only want the calendar items should have time blocks on it. And then group the tasks by business, client or project. So we talk about clear headers, weather formats, quotes from Churchill, things like that. Inspirational for my goals.

Speaking of goals, the next thing I have on here are my goals, which I simplified several months ago to just two things of being physically and financially fit. So are getting healthy financially and physically healthier. So I have that in here that I have not a priority, but I'm trying to read 50 books too. And then about me is this is as you can tell is a is a AI generated thing.

I basically told Claude when I was setting up this project, Hey, interview me so that so that you can know as much as you can about me and I can attach this to all my projects. So this about me one is pretty much in every single project. It goes through my name, where I live, what time zone I'm in. I speak English only. Here's my professional background. Like here's the here's basically my tech stack that I use. Here's my project context, it goes to communication preferences, like it goes through all these different things. It was really great. So I copied it and pasted it and I use it in every single one of these.

So if you want to add project knowledge and I'll talk about this last one here too, if you want to add project knowledge, you just click on this plus sign. You can upload a PDF or something like that from your device or image or whatever you want, which I have right here. You can click add, add text context. And that's what these are right here. If you see where it says text in the bottom. Or you can link a Google Doc. And I love that, PJ, because as I update this Google Doc, it's being it updates in the project. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't have to worry about like, oh, I got to go change that project knowledge.

So these things right here, my personal values, my goals about me, the weekly. These are things that when I'm going to do it in a text, I'm going to add text context. It's going to be the stuff that's like, hey, this is probably not going to change. Like this is, know, but if it's going to change and it's going to fluctuate over time, then I will, I will put it on a Google doc and then I will add the Google doc. Right. And then this last one here, I don't know if it'll show you or not. Yeah. I just uploaded my brand promises, which for my business. it's just a little bit more business context that may or may not be included in the business plan. I couldn't remember if it's redundant, it's redundant, but I'd rather make sure it's there.

Yeah. So one thing I'm not seeing though, from your stuff is like, I don't see your due versus due. Yeah, that's interesting framework that's there. And I'm also not seeing the future you framework. So those are those are two of your resources that when I build my project, project knowledge for for 43 creative projects, I always put those two in there. Yeah. And then just even reference, you know, build things out for with Dustin's do versus do and future you context, because then it's easy to copy into Asana. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. So if my goal is to copy into a sauna, I 100 % use that. Okay. Okay. My goal, my goal here is not to copy into a sauna. I'm taking from a sauna. Okay. Okay. I'm not putting into a sauna. So for me, my, this is going to go into my remarkable. It's basically going to be on paper, right? Like I can print these if you wanted to, if you didn't have a remarkable, you could print this out every week if you wanted to. So yeah.

Good call though. I was anything that any project that I have in here, like PJ said, if I'm putting something into Asana, like if I needed to, hey, read this project overview meeting that I had with PJ, pull out all the stuff, remember the DO and the future me and all that, I'll put that in the project knowledge 100%. But I just haven't found it. I haven't found a need for it here yet. Got it. Maybe it'll help, I don't know. But I haven't seen a need for it yet.

What I do here is then I pretty much use the same prompt every time. Right. So I say, reference my Google calendars because it has the Google calendar integration, which you can do down here in your settings. You can link it to your Google calendar. Hey, reference my Google calendars and my Asana tasks below. Now I'll pause there for a second. I copy and paste my Asana tasks. And now some of you may be going, wait, Claude has Asana integration. You're right. It does. I have yet to figure out a way for it to actually work right.

So if you have it, if you have a way for it to work right, let me know. Because when I ask it to reference it, it pulls some stuff and then it will pull things from different time periods, like things that I did months ago, or things are things that I don't need to do until like three weeks from now. I'll only get some of the stuff, I won't get all this stuff. And so there's a lot of conversations of me having back and forth with it going like, hey, you missed this, you missed this. And it's like, oh, you're right. I missed this, you know.

And this is like for me, it's a lot more, it is a little bit more tedious to do the way that I'm about to do, but it it's more accurate than what I'm finding in their son integration right now. But again, if you or anyone who's listening to this knows anything more about this, I'm all ears for the Asana integration, but I will copy and paste my tasks over and I'll show you how I do that here in a second.

Referencing the Google calendars and the assign tasks below prepare my weekly preview for, and then I put the dates in because of what I've found in AI land is they don't always understand the dates. Even this morning I was using it for something else and it goes tune in or like check back in on Tuesday. You know this and, and, was it four or five days from now on Tuesday, December the 9th. And I'm like, that's not, that's not four or five days from now. No, it's September, bro.

Is December 9th Tuesday? That's what I want to maybe. I don't even know. Probably not. So then I have to go, Hey, dummy, it's today's date is which makes Tuesday yada yada. And it's like, Oh yeah, sorry. I don't know what I was thinking there. It can be a real stoner sometimes. I've always thought about it like a toddler who's just trying to, no, I shouldn't say that I've thought about it that way. I heard somebody say AI is like a toddler always trying to please you. Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

So then I'll give it the date, take Monday, September the 8th through Friday, September 12th. Full focus preview. Again, this is dismissed. Full focus will, you know, preview the weekends as well. I rarely used the weekend ones because I associated it with work and on the weekends I was trying to disconnect from that. So again, I do my weekly preview Monday through Friday. That's my work week.

So, hey, use the weekly preview format right here. And and and steps to achieve my annual goals for the week. I don't know what in steps means. Maybe I've mistyped something. Oh, and steps and steps to achieve my annual goals for the week. Ask clarifying questions if you need to. This one's a big one. I love this one. I also have a few items on other calendars that you may not see. I should say may not not cannot. that you may not see. So be sure to ask me about those as well. Because I have, you're like me, you have a bunch of different calendars. I have my work calendar, then I have another personal calendar, then we have a family calendar. There's all these different calendars, both of my businesses, they each have their own calendar. Right. So I just want to be uber sure that it's got everything.

So I will just like with everything with AI, we will cross reference this to make sure it's accurate, which I know is a little bit of a pain right now. But it's a needed step so that we don't miss certain pieces. Now let me ask you a question right here. Why not add this prompt minus the dates to your project knowledge and just say, Hey Claude, run my weekly preview prompts. Refer, you know, refer to the weekly preview prompt for these dates. Let's give it a shot. Let's add context and we'll say weekly preview prompt. I'll slide it in right here and we'll say.

What would I say? Like I would do like prepare my weekly preview for Monday through Friday and then in brackets put insert dates or something like that. And they threw Friday. Insert dates. Like that, because then now I think you could just go. This is what I've done a few times with some client deliverable work is build the prompt there and then just say run this prompt SOP for XYZ thing. Here's the little bit of information that you need and go and then it would kick it all out. So maybe maybe we just saved you even a few more minutes. Maybe I'm into it.

So yeah, run my weekly preview for Monday, September 8 to Friday, September 12 2025. Those are the right dates, right? Yeah, that's okay. Cool. So then what I do from there, nerd moment, but if you shift, if you do a soft returns of a hard return shift, enter, you just hit enter right here, it's going to submit it. And it's going to be like, all right, you said you're going to provide me with some tasks. Where are those dummy? Now, now who's the dummy? So I shift enter there to, to go down a couple of lines there just for my mental clarity. then what I do next, PJ, is I go over here to my Asana.

And well, first I will say, Hey, let's, let's do Monday. So I'll say here's Monday. Sorry. I will all caps do Monday. And then first thing I will do is CCC tasks, which is my business chief creative consultant. And then I'll do a colon and I'll do it like this, because if I just were to copy this stuff here, It doesn't know what project it's associated with. So I'm giving it that information as well. Got it. So let's see if I look at here's Monday. So I'm going to say Monday. Those are 1898 ones. Here's some chief creative ones. So I'll go chief creatives from here to here. So I will hold down shift and I will command C copy those things, go back over here, hit paste.

Drop it down with another soft return and just check and make sure that's looks like it's everything for Monday. That's chief creative. But then I also have 1898 stuff. So then I'll say 1898 tasks. I'll switch back over here. I'll go to 1898 tasks, click on those things, copy them, go over here, paste them just like that. Pretty much all the way, all the way down. Let's see. What do I have? That's pretty much everything for Monday. So then I'll go, All caps Tuesday.

Anything you see so far that's cool. So then I'll go Tuesday. Tuesday is typically more of a culture based day for me. That's my other business. It's going to be a little light next week because I have a lot of meetings and I'm traveling. So my task list looks a little light for next week. A little lighter than normal. You might look at it be like, that's a lot of stuff, but it's actually not. Yeah. So let me get down to Tuesday. So I do have a looks like I have one cheap creative. I'll come back to that one, but here's some, culture based stuff. I don't mind adding that personal one in there. Doesn't bother me. That's Tuesday stops right there. So then I'll go back over here. I'll put that in here. Now, as I'm doing this, I'm self editing as well. Yeah. So for example, I know because I know my calendar, I know off the top of my head that next week, this coaching meeting with Caleb Wright is actually gonna be on Friday and it's gonna be on the calendar. So if it's a meeting, I typically, I like to have my meetings in Asana, but I don't necessarily add them into my weekly preview because it's already gonna be on my calendar portion. So it's our, and you'll see that when we do this here. So if it's a meeting like that, I'll take that off. I'll take this one off again because it's gonna be on my calendar.

That one isn't necessarily, do remind myself to take a solo walk for 15 minutes twice a week. It's just for mental clarity and to get away from my desk and do all that stuff. I will be driving that day. So I'm probably not gonna do that. So then I'll go down here and go, okay, yeah, now we're good. Now we're looking at Wednesday. Again, I've got some culture-based stuff. So I'll go down to where the culture-based stuff ends. I'll copy and paste that.

We'll go down here to Wednesday. That's how I remember how to spell it. Yeah. Wednesday. I forgot up here to include this one on chief creative for Tuesday. So Tuesday was actually TCB task. And then if I go down to here and say CCC task is when I will be editing this episode, apparently.

So yeah, there's all that good to go. Good to go get down and make sure I covered there. All my bases for Wednesday real quick. You didn't do your culture base yet. Didn't do culture base for Wednesday. I'm sorry. I meant CCC. You did culture base. You didn't do. Yeah. Yeah. So my bad. So here's chief creative there there. And is it just two of them? Yep. Just two of them. So I'm going to over here and say CCC tasks.

You need to put that back up at the top as well for Wednesday and go TCB tasks. This is the not this is like the like the least exciting portion of this episode. If you need to watch it on double time, I trust you're doing it right. September 11th is Thursday. These are they've got one forty three thing in here, which is PJ. I know that guy. Yep. So then I'll say Thursday. Forty. It doesn't like it when I do the colon. So I'll just say 43 creative. really hurts. That really hurts my four. I know I'm with you. It hurts me too. I hate not doing it, but every time it's like 40 and then it hard returns three creative. that what it does? It takes the colon as a hard return again. It can be a real stoner sometimes. So there's that task. And then I'll say down here, I've probably got CCC tasks that I need to add as well.

That's a TCB one, so I'll come back to that. Here, here. I'll dump those there, and then I'll say TCB task. There was one there. Right there. Quality manual for one of our clients. I'll pop that in right there. So then I'll just double check and make sure I have everything. I don't have anything for Friday because again, as you saw, I try to keep my Fridays.

I don't know if we covered that or not, but in my preview stuff up here, I said, I don't like to schedule, I've been not scheduling tasks on Fridays. I use, I've been using it as my like catch all day, but I also use, typically have a ton of client meetings on Fridays as well, whether it's coaching, it's usually coaching meetings. And so one of the things my VA helped me realize is like, hey, you don't get stuff done on Fridays. And I'm like, hey, shut up. Just because you're right doesn't mean you have to say it out loud. Right, right. So I'm like, you're right. So we decided we don't put any tasks on Fridays anymore. So yeah, everything in here looks right to me. And then from here, I will go ahead and submit it, see what it does. So now you're going to have to tell me if this runs as well with us using that prompt that we put in the knowledge. Yeah, I will. I'll let you know.

I fully expect to have to give it some things. So here it says it's creating weekly preview, pull on the calendar data, and then it's going to provide some clarifying questions. So you can see what it's doing. I have put the weather forecast in for up here. You're right. Normally I would, I'm honestly, man, I'm afraid of like what it might do to this be like, wait, which is it? I'm so confused. I'm so confused, but you're right. I definitely should have done that. That's a good catch. See already it's going. See you're traveling to Andy September 9th through the 14th several important meeting schedule throughout the week. So here's some questions that it's giving me. So travel details. So when I answer questions on Claude, I love how it gives me numbers. So I will literally just number it and answer it that way. So it says travel details. I see you Mark, Dustin and Andy from September 9th to 14th. Are you staying in Indy for the entire week? Will you be commuting back and forth? This affects how I structure your task planning. Great question Claude.

We'll be driving up on Tuesday afternoon, staying the night in Nashville, Tennessee before continuing the drive on. I'll fix all these spelling things. I know it's driving you nuts on Wednesday. I hate typing in front of people. I'm not judging you and I appreciate it. Everybody else is. All right.

So additional calendars, do you have any other important meetings or commitments on a separate calendar? I should be aware of this particular week. I'm going to say no, you should be able to see most things, but we can double check at the end. Three, priority focus, given your travel schedule and the mix of discovery calls, coaching sessions and business meetings, are there any particular tasks or projects you want to prioritize this week?

I'm going to say, no, let's focus on these things because that's why I'm going. So I'm going to say, no, let's focus on those. And then for TCB tasks and several TCB tasks, particularly around the various projects, should these take priority over other tasks given the client deliverables? No, I will be with them on Thursday morning. Let's see how this goes.

So far as it's operating the same way that it did when you would put the whole prompt in. It's riveting content right now. We'll just be here watching, watching AI process. Yeah, this is great. This is a hundred percent what I do. So it'll spit out this to me. And so this is what I copy into my first page of, of my remarkable, which I'll show you how I get all this onto my tablet here in a second. But yeah, it's doing calendar, it's doing tasks. I'll show you how I change those into check marks when I put them into my remarkable.

Got my travel plans in here. That's pretty cool. Yep. I am wondering now if the weather is for it. I may even ask it like, is the weather for where I'm at? you read? Did you recognize that I'm going to be in Indianapolis? Yeah, I might even start typing that problem at that prompt in here. So is the weather forecast appropriate for the locations I will be in this week. Man, trying to spell appropriate on a podcast. So yeah, here goes. It says I created this thing for you. Travel schedule, theme days, weather, and it's everything looks super right to me right here. And I'll show you what I'm doing. I'm going to do this one thing here on this about the weather and then let it tighten that up. And then I'll show you how I get it into remarkable. Great.

See what it does. Oh yeah. I see that there. Well, you know, just do what I was told. Yeah, probably. You're absolutely right. I made an error. Yup. Look at it. Here it goes. So it's updating my way. That's a good call. I like that a lot.

Now know if you're going to get rained on or yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, don't know how to pack, but yeah, you can see it's updating the weather here. I'll be in Carrollton on Monday. It's doing the weather up here. It's getting the little things, a couple of things out of whack, but I just let it do its thing while it's doing his thing. It's got Wednesday now before, but it's, it's fixing it.

Yeah, you can got Churchill quotes in here. Yeah, I love that idea. Yeah, the quotes are fun. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt. Let's just sit on that for a second. Yeah, no kidding. Indy on Friday. Gonna be beautiful. 79 degrees, mostly sunny, 10 % chance of rain. I love it. So now I've got all that.

Before I take this into Remarkable, I'm going to show you one more thing that I do with Claude. And I need to get a better written prompt for this, but I usually just kind of wing it week to week. But I also add in here, create a document with my calendar schedule for the week. And this is a one way that I double check my calendar to make sure it's right for the week to provide to my family so they know what and where I'm up to.

This is again a quick way. My wife likes to me to provide this to her or not so that she can go and keep tabs on me. But it's like, Hey, now I know when I can interrupt and when it's not a good time to interrupt because I do work out of the house. Right. Yeah. So right now I'm downstairs in our basement studio space, the family's upstairs. She has this and then boom, I've also started copying the same thing and emailing it over to my VA so that she has a good notice as well. I love the little, little emoji sometimes in the first one here. It's super fun.

So here's another question. If you get that prompt worked out, can you add that to your weekly preview? Yeah. Prompt in the deliverables. And then it would kick out two or three artifacts for you at once. Yep. Probably good. Probably good. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to double check with my calendar to make sure that everything actually lines up with what we're saying now. There's some red stuff on here. I'm getting real vulnerable here. There's some red stuff on here that would be more like family oriented stuff. But essentially I'm going to go through here and go, all right, do we have podcast discovery call weekly check-in? I got a dentist appointment going on here at the same time that I have a meeting with Coop. So I've got to let him know that's not happening. And then I have a, I have back to back dentist appointments on Monday afternoon. I've got glutton for punishment.

So let's go up here and go yet podcast recording discovery call weekly checking with Lou is there. Yep. It's there. That's there two o'clock to three 30, but I think I'm actually one o'clock to three 30. So I'll have to change that. I'll say dentist appointment on Monday. I will do all this in one prompt as well. And his appointment on Monday is actually from 1 PM to 3 30 PM. And y'all can see my terrible spelling cause I'm not a great person. All right. So that has nothing to do with your character. Dustin. Discovery coffee that I'm having TCB weekly pulse and then the phone call on Tuesday. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Wednesday? Extended meetup with Darren. Yup. That all looks right. I know my, I know my calendar there. Thursday coaching call Mitch. Okay. So it's not getting some TCB stuff. This is what I was talking about earlier about it, not catching some things. So here are some TCB meetings during the week as well. Now I know some people that will provide screenshots of their calendar and put it on there. I have yet to figure out how to make that work because maybe the maybe the answer is to blow it up big on my big monitor. But I feel like it usually cuts off information that I want to know. Like it'll cut off the end of somebody's name or it'll cut off the location or things like that. But I mean, maybe I'll just try it here and say, here's the screenshot.

Of when some, culture based things are. Cause usually if it's culture based, I have TCB written on it. So then I'll go back over here to it I say, screenshot as well. I'll say, see the attached screen shot with TCB items or with TCB in the appointment title.

So then I'll add right here. I'll upload a file to my desktop and look at my, the screenshots that I have up in here. There it is right there. Boom. I'll do that. And it might say, Hey, I also picked up on some other things. That's I was kind of nervous about. Maybe I should have like unchecked those, those calendars, their calendars. Yeah. So it could only see mine. But again, we told you upfront folks, this is a raw episode. That's part of it. It's learning episode. a learning episode. I'm learning. You need to watch me learn. That's what all this is. Yeah.

Okay, so while that does its thing on adding those additional items, have you tried uploading a CSV of your exported Asana tasks? I think I did one time and it still didn't give me what I wanted, but it may be worth revisiting. Because I think when you do the CSV, doesn't it include the project as a Yeah, I know what the issue was. I was having trouble figuring out how to export only a period of time as opposed to everything as opposed to everything. So like right now when I do an export of my Asana, it exports everything, which is a long. Yeah. So I was having a hard time, which I guess you could probably go there and then go, OK, and now we're just going to edit out that thing. But I feel like by the time I do all that, I can copy and paste just as quick. Major updates, Dennis appointment, Wednesday lunch, Thursday, three back to back coaching sessions that should be Friday not Thursday.

That's what I was nervous about. Thursday is now accurately shown. Overlapping meetings. Thursday reality check. It's like, hey, the are actually on Friday, September 12th, not Thursday.

No, probably my guess is that it's probably only updating this calendar, which means I'm going to have to tell it now. Go back in and add all these correct times into my week. Oh, it looks like it might be doing that, actually. No, no, it's not. No, it is. Yeah, this is my weekly preview that's working on right now. Yeah, because there's the second artifact. Yeah, weekly preview and then now he's now fixing the family schedule. Nice. For everything for the correction, now updated both documents accurately show. Perfect. Let me just double check that Thursday morning. It still didn't catch my Thursday morning. Right here. Because you singled out TCB maybe. Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right.

So one more, please add this to my Thursday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. at Verus Engineering.

All right, well, let it do that thing. Yeah. So a little clunky here on the calendar side of things. But while it's booting up, I'll show or while it's doing that, I'll show you over here. So here's that's my text worksheet. Let me see that. To cut that out, I was gonna say and cut and edit out. Whereas what I was looking at. So remarkable has a desktop app. So I open up my remarkable desktop app.

And already PJ is like, I see how you do it. So Weekly Planner is a folder that I have. And inside of the folder, I do a new notebook for every week. You can see all my weeks in here. So then I'll go up here. I'll create a notebook and I will name it the dates. I'll say September 8th through 12th, 2025. Boom. Now I have a blank slate of a notebook of September 8th, 20th through the 12th.

So now I will go back over here. Yes, it's done doing my thing. Now I'll click on weekly preview and I'll start copying. Now I could just copy this whole thing and break it up. But again, I'll show you, like to do it on different pages. So I'm selecting that I'm copying it. I'm going over here and I'm pasting it there. Now I want to do a new page. Cause I like my weekly pre like my kind of big overarching theme for the week to be on one. Let me go big here to be on one. And then I will add pages from there. So I'm to go up here. I'm to add a page. going to go close the calendar now. I'm going to go back over here to I'm going to grab everything from Monday all the way down until until the break. I copy that. I'm to go over here and I'm going to paste that in. So there's all my stuff from there. And I will do this for every day of the week. And then I'll show you my final format and then we're done and open for any additional questions.

Pop that there. New page. Go down here and grab Wednesday. I know this is taking like 45 minutes, this typically showing me which is going to take longer. Yeah, this typically will only take me about 15 to 20 minutes. So there's Thursday. I'll go there, go here, there, and it will give me a Friday, but I don't necessarily. I mean, I guess I've got stuff for meetings there, so I can probably should take it. So there's a Friday right here. paste it right there. Now it gave me some additional stuff here with my weekly. It says weekend preparation and goal alignment. But I will take all of this stuff here. Goals, small business growth insights, things like that. I will copy all of those things and I will actually add them to my first page. So I'll go back to the first page. Come on. There it is. I go back to the first page, enter a few times.

And I'll paste those things right there. So my first page, when I open up on my actual remarkable tablet and I opened this up on my tablet, this will be my first page and I'll see everything here. My key rocks. Here's some goal stuff to remember. Here's some reading goals stuff to remember. I can get more specific if I wanted to look pack current book for travel reading. Great call. Small business growth insights for each day. I could put those on the days if I wanted to. I might even, But then I go down here. And so what I'll do is I'll do a quick formatting thing because PJ and I both are, what do you want to say challenged in this way? Um, visually stimulated visual. Yeah. Like we have to have certain hierarchies there. So you can see there's different options for me here. So I do, these types of things. If it's a header, I change it to a header. leave the title up there. Now these are actual tasks. So I'll highlight these, sorry, my peers lagging a little bit. I'll highlight these and I'll change them over to check boxes. So now that just does that straight in remarkable. Yep. I see. see. Yep. So I'll make that check box as well. I'll make this here. I'm not going to, I'm not going to do every single day, but you guys get the picture of what I'm doing here. So there's that just like that. So now

Each of my days will look like this. When I open up my remarkable, it'll look, it'll show me this weekly preview. Got all that right there. I go over here. Now I've got Monday. Here's my weather. Here's my quote from Winston Churchill. My personal value focus of the day is courage. Take one bold action today that moves your business forward, even if it feels uncomfortable. Here's my calendar for the day. It's gross. Very few tasks because it's calendar heavy. My whole week will be calendar heavy. So it'll be task light. which we talked about on my most recent blog post, calendar, calendar task optimization. So I think that's everything. A lot of things I learned here. And hopefully it wasn't too clunky for you. And hopefully there's some little bits and pieces there that you can take and make your process. But really at the end of the day, what we say always PJ is like this process is for like whatever works for you. Right? use Claude, remarkable Asana. You could use a legal pad and iPhone and chat.

I don't care what you use. Whatever you use though, like just make sure it works for you and make sure it feels natural to you. Don't make it if there's any kind of hurdle or a new habit that you have to learn the less of those that you can incorporate, the easier it's going to be for you to actually repeat use and success over and over again. Any final words of encouragement to our listeners? No, I think the big takeaway

At least on my front is the quotes. The quotes are great. No, actually it was it was a couple of the other things in the project knowledge. So I'm a I'm an I've iPhone, iPad, GoodNotes user. So I would probably do this exact same process, but then have it format for a Google Doc that then I can open into GoodNotes and then be able to check off through that rather than using the remarkable piece. But I think that the other stuff with it, though, is in that all in that project knowledge piece where I loved the about me section. That that's a great one that I'm going to add today for sure. Yeah, and then and then working out some of those. It makes you really feel seen. Yeah, right. I, I, Claude knows me. So is me. So so get off my back about Claude. You don't know me like Claude does.

Funny story, a friend of ours, their eighth grade daughter asked me to fill out some questions about video editing and marketing, like using video and marketing. And so I was like, she sent me the questions and I just straight dropped them into Claude and said, you know, everything about my business and what I do answer these questions. And I started reading them out loud to my wife and she was like, oh my gosh, that sounds exactly like you had to do some, do some proofing, do some tweaking and some editing. yeah, so I'm like, it knows me. It's great.

But I love the I love the additional pieces to that in the project knowledge. I think that those were the big takeaways for me of what'll what'll push me forward with the yeah. Yeah, project knowledge is just like any other person that you're talking to. They have to have the context of what you're talking about. You can't just walk up to somebody and go, give me this. And they go, wait, what's the context here? You know, it's the same thing like, right, you need to be able to get whether you're using chat or Claude or Jim and I or whatever you're using, like you need to be able to give it the appropriate context. And so I just, I rather have it. I like Claude because I don't have to give it that context over and over again. can kind of, it's all built in there. So chat does do that now too. You can do project builds the same very similarly to what you can do in Claude. I do find that chat is just better for research and Claude Claude creates the content, writes the content in more of an authentic voice that way. Yeah.

For sure, for sure. All right, well, we'll wrap up the episode here. Next week, we're gonna be back with another episode of Creativity Made Easy. We're gonna talk about, there's a process for that. You know how people always used to say when Apple first came out, there's an app for that? We're gonna talk about next week how there's a process for that. You got a problem? There's a process for that. And we're gonna talk all about that next week on Creativity Made Easy. You can find out more about Chief Creative Consultants at DustinPead.com. That's P-E-A-D. You can find out more about 43creative.com. Any of your marketing or branding needs, go check PJ out at 43, spell it out, 43creative.com. PJ, thanks for being here, bud. Thanks, man. Thanks for the lessons. All right, we'll see you guys next week. Have a great week.

Ep 124: From Bottleneck to Business Leader

How Creative Entrepreneurs Can Fire Themselves from Daily Operations with Madi Waggoner of Building Remote Co

SUMMARY

Are you drowning in the day-to-day operations of what was supposed to be your dream business? If you can't take a vacation, delegate meaningful work, or step away without everything falling apart, you've become the biggest obstacle to your own growth.

In this episode, I sit down with Madi Waggoner, founder of Building Remote, to explore how creative professionals can transition from being stuck in daily operations to leading with vision. Madi has helped over 50 entrepreneurs fire themselves from their businesses, and her insights will transform how you think about delegation, team building, and sustainable growth.

The Reality Check Every Creative Entrepreneur Needs

Most creative professionals start their businesses to have freedom and do what they love. But somewhere along the way, they become trapped. They're answering every email, jumping on every project, and saying "I'll handle that" to everything that comes up.

Sound familiar? You're not alone.

Madi shared a powerful observation from her work with tech startups: "When I sit in on client team meetings, I often hear the founder say, 'Oh, I'll handle that, I'll handle that, I'll handle that.' We have to change that mindset of you are not the one who is actively always taking things on."

The LIFT Framework: Your Path to Freedom

Madi's proven LIFT framework addresses four critical areas every growing business needs:

L - Leader

This isn't just about management skills—it's about fundamentally shifting your mindset from doer to delegator. The solopreneur-to-CEO shift requires changing how you think about yourself and your role in the business.

I - Infrastructure

You need systems that work without you. This includes clear mission, vision, and values that serve as decision-making tools for your team, plus the operational systems that keep everything running smoothly.

F - Fuel

This encompasses everything that drives your business forward—marketing, sales, client delivery, and the experience you create for your customers.

T - Team

Building a team that can execute your vision requires intentional hiring, onboarding, and ongoing development processes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️Stop Being the Default Solution: Every time you say "I'll handle that," you're reinforcing your role as the bottleneck. Instead, ask "Who on my team can take this on?"

• ⚡️ Delegate with Structure: Effective delegation isn't just handing off tasks. Get buy-in, provide context, set checkpoints, and coach through the process to ensure quality results.

• ⚡️ Involve Your Team in Creating Systems: Don't write all your SOPs yourself. Record a quick Loom video explaining the process and have your team member create the written documentation. They'll be more invested in using something they helped create.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "If you want to have strong team members, you have to start the hiring process off well. Don't just say, 'Oh, I need help. I need an assistant.' You need to be more strategic in how you're actually breaking out what you need to hand off to this person."

• 💬 "When you're working in a remote environment, we have to be intentional. You can't build culture remotely the same as you can in the office—you have to be intentional about it."

• 💬 "Building a business that can run without you isn't about working less. It's about working on the right things."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ BuildingRemote.co

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Okay, real talk. How many of you have amazing systems for your creative work, but your finances are still a hot mess, right? That used to be me too, until I found the Core Group. They're accountants who actually get creatives and they help you build financial systems that create breathing room instead of panic attacks. Using their profit first methodology means that you pay yourself first. Crazy, right? Go check them out at coregroupus.com.

Creative professionals often become the biggest obstacle to their own business growth. Trapped in daily operations when they should be leading with vision. And today we're exploring how to fire yourself from the day to day with systems expert, Madi Waggoner. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for professional creatives who want to scale their business with efficiency. I'm your host, creative process coach and consultant, Dustin Pead, and I'm here to help you go from chaos to clarity in your creative business. Whether you're a solo creative, just starting to build systems or you're leading a creative team that's ready to scale, this show will give you the frameworks, tools and strategies you need to create your best work while building a sustainable business. So let's dive in.

A few weeks ago, I had one of those networking calls that reminded me why I love what I do. I was talking with Madi Waggoner from buildingremote.co. Within a few minutes, we both realized that we were solving the same core problem from different angles. And so she helps entrepreneurs fire themselves from their daily operations so that they can focus on what they love and actually take time off. Man, it's awesome. I help creators build systems that eliminate chaos and create sustainable growth.

So the light bulb moment was this, the most creative professionals that I work with have become the bottleneck in their own business. They can't take a vacation, they can't delegate meaningful work, and they're drowning in the day-to-day operations of what was supposed to be their dream business. So if that sounds familiar, today's conversation is gonna change that. So let's get to the interview right now that I had with Madi Waggoner.

All right, Madi, welcome to the Creativity Made Easy podcast. I'm so happy to have you here.

Thanks, Dustin, for having me on. I'm so excited for our conversation today.

Yeah, as we already said in the intro, Madi owns her own business, Building Remote. And we met a couple of months ago and now have some similar circles. But Madi, why don't you start by sharing with our viewers and listeners, tell us about Building Remote and what led you to focus on helping entrepreneurs fire themselves from their daily operations.

I love it. Yeah. So I work with founders and their teams primarily, and it started out by when I worked in tech startups, I worked directly with these founders and noticed how difficult it was for them to be able to take time off. And by working with them directly, I was able to help streamline operations, including with customers and internal team members and creating things like SOPs, standard operating procedures, to help them be able to get things out of their head and pass the work off to other people so that they could actually take time off.

And the first startup I worked in, actually, I was there for a few years. And we did so well with this process that that founder was actually able to take a full month fully disconnected with maybe two check-ins during that entire time, which is kind of unheard of in tech startups, especially at that stage. And I loved getting to make that work possible. And especially as I've become a parent, and had other things happen in my personal life and seen how things have happened in my clients' personal lives. I've loved being able to give them that time back to not just spend in their business, but also on the personal parts of their lives as well.

Yeah. We talk a lot on this podcast about margin and I love that you're talking about giving them back their time. And when you do that, you work through these four pillars with your clients. Can you kind of walk us through what those four pillars are and why is that structure so important for professionals in general?

Yeah, so it's my LIFT framework, L-I-F-T. It's leader, infrastructure, fuel and team. And the leader one is first there because we have to first work on mindset and how the leader acts in terms of how they delegate, in terms of how they communicate, in terms of even how they think about themselves. Infrastructure is more about the systems, the tools, the meeting cadences, the communication that we have in place.

Fuel is actually fairly detailed in the number of pieces that it encompasses. Some of it is marketing, some of it is sales, other things around customer and client delivery and the experience that we deliver. I don't actually solve for marketing and sales, but I want to call that out when I work with clients. And I have referral partners who I can connect them to in the case that they're really glaring issues that need someone's specific help. And then the last one, T is team.

And team is all about, we have the right people in place? What's our hiring process, our off-boarding process, which most people don't think about, and how are we working together as a team? And there's a lot of other things within that as well that a lot of people honestly don't consider when they start hiring and building up the number of people that are working with them. And so covering all of these different pieces, the reason why I have it structured this way is it's LIFT. A rising tide lifts all boats in the same way we have to address all of these issues if we're going to have a successful business.

Yeah, I love it. Let's walk through a couple of those for a second. Let's focus in on leadership for a second, cause my clients and the people that I talk to in the creative industry, a lot of them are moving from what I call from maker to manager. Right. And so they're going from being the doer to the leader. So what does that look like when you're working with these leaders of organizations? How do you get them to transition to make that transition from maker to manager or from doer to leader?

Yeah, I call it the solopreneur to CEO shift. And it's really about when you're starting your business, like you said, you are the doer. You're the one who's literally doing everything. You're responding to emails. You're the one doing the work you're delivering. You're the one getting on calls. And when we start making the shift, we have to stop just jumping into everything. One of the things that I like to call out in, I'll sit in on client team meetings, for example, this is one of the core things I like to do. And when the team is talking about something, I often hear the founder say, oh, I'll handle that, I'll handle that, I'll handle that. I say, we have to change that mindset of you are not the one who is actively always taking things on. It is looking for someone on your team who can take it. So instead of saying it like that, I work with the founder and their team to help normalize the shift of the founder is not the one who should be taking everything on. Either you should be volunteering or the founder should be saying, who can take this on? And that's one of the first shifts that we have to make in how are we actively taking work off of our plates and also not adding it to our plate.

So when they're going through that transition of changing, not, you know, how can I take this on? But, but who can I not how, but who, right? When they're doing that transition, I imagine there's a lot of anxiety in them about losing a little bit of quality control. How do you help kind of guide them through that and see that differently?

Yeah, I was actually just working with a client on this recently and walking them through the process I recommend. So a lot of times when people think about delegation, it's I'm just going to write a message to someone on my team and they're going to handle it. But the problem is that they're likely going to handle it differently than you would, especially if they're new to your team. So what I recommend is that when you delegate, you start off with a very specific process.

So first of all, you try and get buy-in. Are they even interested in doing this? In some cases, if it's a growth area for them, if they haven't done this work before, if you have a conversation around, hey, I want to look for someone to take this on, I thought you'd be a great fit. But I want to understand, is this something that you even are interested in? Most of the time, they are. I rarely hear like, oh no, I don't want to touch that. But it's good for you to know upfront because if they're not interested at all, you might not get the best work out of them. So that's the first step.

And then when you're actively delegating, I actually recommend that you use a couple of different types of templates that I have. It's making sure that you share context with them around who is this for? Why are we doing this? What are the parameters that you expect for completing this work for it to be high quality? What's the timeline? And then any other context around, you know, I've had a conversation with this person, here's some more information that you should know, etc, etc, to make sure that whoever you're handing it off to has the information that you do. So have all of that organized in that way.

And then after you do that, I recommend that you have checkpoints. So the first time you hand work off to someone like this, you ask them to go do the first step. Maybe that's writing an outline. Maybe that's doing a wireframe, like if they're designing a website, for example. Anything that is the first step that you can check with them and meet with them and say, walk me through your thought process, because you want to first understand how they made their decisions to get them to where they are, and then coach them. And then if they made any kind of missteps or they're going along the wrong direction, you can then help shift them back onto the right path. And you just keep doing that through the process. And then by the time you get to the end, you're going to have a much higher quality result. And they're going to understand how you think about your process in this particular instance.

I love it. I love that you're thinking through the, we always talk to my clients about the focus funnel, right? Like, Hey, we're going to go through and we're going to automate, eliminate or delegate some things. And I think leaders need to understand that. Let's get into the infrastructure just a little bit. So we talked about, need to have this delegation system, this delegation process down pat. What are some other systems that need to be in place before a founder can successfully step back from those daily operations?

Yeah, one that is somewhat related still to leader is actually getting really clear on mission, vision and values. And I explicitly like to focus on values because it's a decision making tool. So for example, I used to work for one startup and they focused very heavily on this value of respect your audience. And it wasn't just thinking about like marketing material where you're sending it out to an audience, but it's thinking about the individual person who is going to be using or responding to whatever you send to them. And in some cases, that can be your future self. And so we want to respect who that is and make sure we're very, very clear. So it's things like that that help your team to be able to make decisions on your behalf. And you have to get that out of your head in order for that to happen.

So there are a number of different pieces that's more communication and information sharing. So SOPs can be a part of this. And one thing I recommend is that when you're starting to try and distance yourself from that day-to-day work and be able to take vacation, you want to involve your team in creating those resources. So I don't actually recommend that founders write out standard operating procedures. I recommend that they create something like a loom video or even a voice note, depending on what the task is and give that to the team member and ask them to create the written material because then you're delegating, you're moving that off from your plate so you don't have to do the work, but you're also creating buy-in for that person because it's something that they created. It's their resource.

So they're more interested in than using it and encouraging their team members to use it as well. Because what I've seen with some clients, I was consulting with someone recently on this, they were creating all the SOPs and having a hard time getting their team to use it. I said, well, they don't have to buy in. So we have to psychologically change it so that they're more interested in that.

So that's some of the informational infrastructure. Some of the other pieces that are more like team related are, are you doing team meetings? Are you doing one-on-ones with your team? Are you doing what a lot of like agile companies, like software companies use retrospectives. So that's after a task or a project or an event that you run, have questions, have a little meeting and have asked some questions that go through what went well, what didn't go well, and what should we do differently next time so that you're systematically capturing this information so that you can continue to iterate and make things better.

One-on-ones are really important because if you're not doing these one-on-one times with your team, especially if you're a remote organization, you're missing out on some really key information and connection points. And all this is really important towards this whole business of everybody rowing together in the same direction. And then some other more like tactical tool oriented systems kind of varies between different companies, but some basic ones are a project management tool. I personally really appreciate Asana as we've talked about. Others are like ClickUp. Another one that I've heard good things about is Motion, which actually puts tasks onto individuals calendars, which can be helpful. So that's one part of the infrastructure. Other communication tools like Slack. I'm a big believer in Slack. I do not like Microsoft Teams. It's not designed for strong remote communication.

And then the other thing that I won't dive too deeply into is automations and how you use your different tools to deliver information and material to clients. For example, a lot of people don't think about the experience that they're creating for their clients when they onboard them. I have signed into multiple communities and joined different programs and I'm always disappointed when they haven't put thought into that onboarding because it can make or break trust in that experience, especially if you're investing time or money into it. So all of that is infrastructure related.

Yeah, I love it. You started to dive into a little bit of the, or a lot of it honestly, of the team aspect. Let's break into the team a little bit and how do we help owners build teams? So we talk about one-on-ones are super important, right? But good leaders are good team builders naturally. They should be anyway. So what can leaders or business owners or founders do to build a team that can really execute their vision without that constant oversight, especially in a remote environment?

Yeah. So I've hired over 50 roles for clients. And what I've found when they start working with me, when they've tried hiring before, is they're not starting out on the right foot. And if you want to have strong team members, you have to start the hiring process off well. And part of that is getting extremely clear on exactly what you need. Don't just say, Oh, I need help. I need an assistant. No, you need to be more strategic in how you're actually breaking out what you need to hand off to this person.

So a quick way that for you to do this is to just sit down and brain dump essentially, what do I like doing? What do I not like doing? What do I procrastinate on is a big one. And what am I not good at? Anything that isn't in your zone of genius, you should consider handing off to this person. Now, with that being said, not everything can go on that job description because you can't ask one person to do the jobs of 10 people. So you have to be realistic about that. But all of that clarity then feeds into a job description that you post. And that job description should not just be a replica of that list, but it should actually be designed in a way to help attract the right candidates.

So for me, I want driven people when I hire. So I structure the job description in a way to be attractive to that kind of person. For me personally, I also am big on like career development. So I list that in benefits when I'm hiring for roles for me of, we will have conversations with you about your growth plan and where you want to go. I do not care if this is a contract 1099 role. I still do this. That kind of thing can help show people who I am.

And something else that I'm starting to play around with is using voice and video on job descriptions as well. Because so often job descriptions are just written, but we live in a world, especially these days, where when you're working remotely, we do a lot of that through video and voice. So if we can bring in some of that personality, do you see the difference of how much more intentional this is just even at this point? We haven't even gotten to applications yet.

And so after that is applications that help to filter out the wrong applicants and bring in the right ones and keep them going through the process. Same with interviews. And when you're going through this entire process, you have to, again, think about the candidate experience, because if they don't have a good experience, if they're strong people, they have other options. They're not going to keep bothering spending time with you or prepping for interviews.

And so going through that whole process, that will help you to bring in the right people. And then once you have them on your team, a lot of it, again, is intentionality. When you're working in a remote environment, we have to be intentional. I've heard so many arguments about, you can't build culture remotely the same as you can in the office. My argument is you can't build it lazy like you can in the office. You have to be intentional.

So when we bring on new team members, I always encourage a really strong onboarding process. So that starts off with a kickoff call with their manager. You do check-in calls during the first week. You give them action items. So it's a win for them and a win for you in the first week. And then you keep going through that process, kind of backing off a little bit as you go over the next month, two months, depending on the role. And through all of that, we are building and establishing that this is how we do things. I want your opinion. I'm going to ask you questions through these conversations around, what are you seeing that is broken or is confusing? I want to know that from the get-go. So we're building that trust.

And also through all of that, if we're doing the onboarding process intentionally and the hiring process intentionally, they will have learned already about how we operate here because we will have shared that through the process, just kind of in the different things we do, but also actively proactively sharing the mission, vision, values, the examples, loom videos that we might want them to turn into SOPs at the beginning. They get all of that from the get-go.

And it creates this really solid foundation so that as we start adding in other pieces, like doing retrospectives on a project, when you ask at that point after doing all this work, what didn't go well with this, they feel more comfortable, like they can own up to mistakes they personally made and say, I did this, this is what happened. This is how we can adjust this going forward so it's stronger. And that all of those steps help to feed into a strong team that not only allow you to delegate to them, but will be more proactive in taking things off of your plate.

Yeah, that's a great four minute clip on how to build successful teams. I love it so much. So we cross paths originally and started having conversations because we solve similar problems from different angles and different clients. Can you talk to me about how like partnerships fit into scaling businesses as businesses and founders are trying to grow their business.

Yeah. It's funny because I've worked or had conversations with a number of different consultants who are clearly very good at the work they do, but we all are going to be experts in some areas and not able to touch others and referral partnerships and partnerships in general can be so beneficial for our credibility by saying, I don't do this, but I have this partner here who you can work with who's fantastic in this area. Here, I'll make an introduction to you. That can make the other person on the other end of the call or if you're in person meeting, understand that you have things together. You are their guide. You will walk them through what needs to happen. You will connect them to the right people. And the more that you can build strong networks like that, the easier it is for you to scale because it builds trust with your clients. And then you can have these referral partnerships between yourself and other people who can send you work. And that all of that feeds into being able to scale because you can't do everything yourself, whether it's lead generation, whether it's completing work and having the right people in your network, in your team that you know and build relationships with just helps you to be able to accelerate your results that much faster.

Yeah. I've got two more questions for you. And this next one's personal. This is just for me. No one else is listening. If someone right now recognizes that they're the bottleneck in their business, who has two thumbs and is the bottleneck, right? What's the very first step they should take.

So I always say that you should first celebrate that you're self-aware enough in order to recognize that because I personally, right? Exactly. Celebrate it. I personally cannot work with founders unless they're at that point. I can try and have conversations with them, but they will not be ready to work with me until they recognize that they're part of the problem. And so once you see that, we can start addressing, where are the areas that this is breaking down? What are the small things we can start doing? And I do really start with small quick wins. Starting with team meetings, like I mentioned, that's just one shift. We bring the team in so they can call you out, especially if you've already developed some of that trust. Then it's easier for your team to be like, oh, hold on, you're not supposed to do that. Madi said so.

And I teach them how to do that. So if I start hearing you pick up, say, Oh, I'm gonna I'll take care of this. I say, Ah, we're not gonna do that. One of your team members needs to handle that. And then the other thing too, is that oftentimes, if you've developed yourself as the bottleneck, we have to start changing your team's perspective of how exactly they handle problems. So if they're used to coming to you and saying, Hey, I found this problem, what do we do? And you normally give them the answer.

One really quick, easy win to start changing this for all of you is to instead turn the question back on them and say, well, what would you do? How would you approach this? Go do a little bit of research or create an outline or whatever you want to do to address this, and then come back to me and then we can talk about it. That can throw people off guard at first, but if you just keep repeating it and you say, this is how we're trying to change things, I'm trying to enable you and I'm trying to get myself out from being a bottleneck, so this is what I'm going to start doing, it starts to change their behavior without you really having to do much except ask a question. And that can make a huge difference towards shifting that for all of you.

I love it so much. Well, where can people learn more about building remote and potentially working with you?

Yeah. So I'm active on LinkedIn. You can look for Madi Waggoner and I'll pop up and then otherwise buildingremote.co. There's no M at the end. Some people miss that. So buildingremote.co.

I love it. Madi, thanks so much for your time. I know this information is going to be invaluable to our audience and I'm gonna go back and listen to it and recommend everybody listen to this at least twice. Maybe half speak because there's a lot of really good information, but thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for having me on Dustin.

So here are a few things that you need to do to start freeing yourself up from being the bottleneck in your business. First, just like she had me do, celebrate the awareness, right? If you recognize the problem, you're already ahead of most founders.

Secondly, audit your delegation habits this week. Start paying attention to how often you say, I'll handle that in meetings or conversations. Madi's right when we do this unconsciously and every time you catch yourself volunteering to take something on pause and ask who on my team could handle this instead.

Third, implement the question flip immediately. I love this and can't wait to use it. The next time someone brings you a problem don't give them the answer ask them what would you do or how would you approach this. Yes it might feel uncomfortable at first but you're training both yourself and your team to think differently about problem solving.

Fourth, start small with your very own LIFT framework assessment. Look at Madi's four pillars, leader, infrastructure, fuel, and team. I love how simple that is. Pick one that feels like your biggest gap right now and identify just one small improvement that you can make this month. Don't try to fix everything at once.

And lastly, involve your team in creating your systems. Instead of writing all those SOPs yourself, just record a quick loom video. We talk about that tool on here all the time and explain the process and have your team member turn it into written documentation or visual representation, whatever it is that you may need. And they'll be more invested in using something that they actually helped create.

Remember, building a business that can run without you isn't about working less. It's about working on the right things. And you can find more resources for scaling your creative business at dustinpead.com slash free. I'll have links in the show description to where you can find Madi and her business and on LinkedIn as well.

But the truth is this, that your creative business will only scale as far as your systems allow it to. If you're still the bottleneck, you're not just limiting your business growth, you're limiting your ability to do your best creative work. Take Madi's advice seriously and start with one small step toward delegation. Document everything and remember that firing yourself from daily operations doesn't mean losing control. It means getting the freedom to focus on what only you can do.

If today's conversation resonated with you at all, head over to dustinpead.com, download free frameworks and follow us on at Dustin Pead on social media. Most importantly, pick one thing from today's action list and implement it this week. I would love to work with you as well. If you'd like to do that, you can follow me or find me at dustinpead.com. Click on the contact button and hop on my calendar for a free 30 minute strategy session. I cannot wait to be back with you next week on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 123: The Renewal Ritual Every Creative Needs

A Systematic Approach to Preventing Creative Burnout

SUMMARY

Picture this: you're going through the motions, checking boxes, but the spark that made you fall in love with your creative work feels like a distant memory. What if I told you there's a systematic way to get that fire back and prevent burnout before it happens?

As creative professionals, we often treat renewal as a luxury we'll get to "someday" rather than the necessity it truly is. But after experiencing my own creative drought and finding a way back through systematic renewal practices, I've learned that protecting our creativity isn't just about taking breaks—it's about building intentional systems that fuel our long-term creative success.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Renewal must be proactive, not reactive - Schedule these practices in advance, not just when you feel burned out. Like budgeting for gas money each month, build renewal into your quarterly rhythm.

• ⚡️ Cross-medium consumption sparks innovation - Consuming creativity outside your medium creates fresh perspectives and prevents tunnel vision. The most unexpected inspiration often comes from the least likely places.

• ⚡️ Team culture benefits from individual renewal - When leaders model systematic renewal, it creates a culture of creative curiosity that benefits the entire organization and improves long-term creative output.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "You don't have time not to do this. The cost of burnout, both to your creativity and your business, is far greater than the investment of systematic renewal."

• 💬 "Observation without the pressure to produce allows for pure inspiration."

• 💬 "Your creativity is your most valuable asset as a creative professional. Protect it, nurture it, and watch how it transforms not just your work, but your entire approach to your creative business."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - Essential reading on creative renewal

• ⚡️Guide to Effective One-on-Ones for team leaders at dustinpead.com/free

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Picture this: you're going through the motions, checking boxes, but the spark that made you fall in love with your creative work feels like a distant memory. What if I told you there's a systematic way to get that fire back and prevent burnout before it happens? Let's get into it.

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to scale their business without sacrificing their creative vision. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative coach and consultant, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their process and their team so that they can move from chaos to clarity. Whether you're a designer, writer, photographer, any kind of creative professional, you're in the right place. This show is about building systems and processes that free your creativity instead of constraining it. So grab your coffee, open your notes app and let's dive into today's episode.

Episode one hundred and twenty three, the one, two, three episode. And we're going to give you the one, two, three of the renewal ritual that every creative needs. So let's dive into it.

It's summer 2017. After 10 years in full time church ministry, I was running on empty. I knew something had to change. So I looked to something that I had never done before: a six week sabbatical, six weeks to completely step away, reset and reconnect with my calling. And I'll be honest, the first week was brutal. I felt guilty for not working. I was anxious about what was piling up, waiting for me and frankly, a little lost without the constant demands of my time.

But something happened in about week three. The fog started lifting. And by week six, I had the clearest vision for my work that I had in years. I came back refreshed, refocused and more creative than I had been in a decade. That sabbatical taught me something crucial: that renewal isn't a luxury for creative professionals. It's a necessity and it can't be something we do only when we're burned out. It has to be scheduled, systematic, planned and most importantly, protected.

So today I want to share with you two types of renewals that I believe every creative professional needs, whether you're a solopreneur or just starting out or leading a team of creatives.

Let's get into the warning signs that you cannot ignore. Listen, hear me when I say this: burnout doesn't happen overnight. It sends warning signals that most creatives ignore until it's too late. Don't just go through the motions. We get in this mode where we go through the motions and what I call "going through the motion syndrome." It's not like an official term, it's just kind of like where you add syndrome to the end of something because it's what you feel like you're doing.

So you may feel like you're just going through the motions when you're more concerned about getting tasks done than bringing in your creative perspective to projects. It's productive work versus meaningful creative contribution. And listen, we talk about getting things done on this podcast all the time. But if it's at the cost of your health, of your mental capacity, of your creative energy, then we need to fix that. And the way we do it is with these two types of renewals that we're going to talk about today.

Another warning sign that we start to see is that our quality starts to slide back a little bit. There's subpar work that doesn't match our usual standards. There's a lack of innovation or creative problem solving. And then our clients or our fellow teammates, they start noticing the difference.

Another warning sign is emotional indicators. Are there more bad days than good days, more bad moods than good moods throughout the week? Are you being snappy with your teammates or your clients? Are you dreading projects that used to excite you? Are you feeling disconnected from your original vision, your original why that you got into this business in the first place?

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, which is a book that I love—it's one that I highly recommend. If you go to the resources page on my website dustinpead.com, I have a bunch of books that I think are just cornerstone, pivotal, must reads for any creative professional and The Artist's Way is one of them. In the book she calls these warning signs "creative drought" and she emphasizes that waiting until you're completely depleted or completely empty is like waiting until your car is out of gas to find a gas station. We don't do that. We're more proactive. We see the warning signs. We see the needle fading down. If you're like some people, I can't resonate with this, but you wait until the gas light comes on. That drives me crazy, but whatever, at least it's one last final warning sign that you need to get gas before you run out. And we can't ignore these warning signs.

So let's talk about the first type of renewal and it is the renewal day. Renewal days are all about stepping back to remember why you do what you do and getting clarity on creative direction. So what makes a true renewal day? Activities that give you renewed vision for your creative profession. Things like journaling to process and clarify your thoughts, reading books that inspire your creative vision. I like to go on like nature hikes or any kind of physical activity on my renewal days. They can create space for that reflection. It can remove you from the screen or from the sketch pad enough to allow your brain space to think about what it needs to think about. And you'll start to see some breakthrough come through that. And so through prayer, meditation, other practices that can center you, these things make up a really great renewal day.

And I like to plan these quarterly at minimum. I plan them in advance, not just when I feel burned out. We're looking at the warning signs. We don't wait till the gas tank is empty, like Julia Cameron says. We're planning these out in advance. We have gas money in our monthly budget every month we use that for gas, so you have these renewal days in your quarterly budget if you will, so use them. Plan these in advance not just when you feel burnout. Prep your team and your clients for these protected days. Block off the whole day. If you use a calendar system where people can add themselves to your calendar, make sure you block off that whole day. Let everybody know well in advance that that day you're not going to be available. You'll pick things back up the following day.

I like to take mine on Fridays, make it like an early refresh into the weekend. Recently, I had a client take one of these renewal days and they came back with some clear directives on what to stop, what to start and what to continue. And I love that because that clarity refreshed their entire team and the ripple effect of their renewal made a big impact on their team culture. So renewal days are away from the work. They're away from your typical grind.

I will typically, in fact, as of this recording later this week, I'm taking my quarterly renewal day. I'm going to go to a creative gathering here in Atlanta called Creative Mornings that morning. Then I'm going to have lunch with a friend and then I'm going to go that afternoon to the local spa and get a massage and just try to detox my body and my brain as much as possible before enjoying pizza night with my family where we watch a movie and eat pizza every Friday night together. That's one type of renewal day.

The other type of renewal day that I need you to take is called the creative fuel day. And this is where we're doing things that specifically fill our creative tank. We talk all the time about we can't give out what we aren't filled up with. So creative fuel days are about consuming creativity. I recommend doing it in a different medium than your own to inspire fresh perspectives of your own work.

So writers maybe go visit art galleries, not read more books. Designers should maybe attend some concerts, not browse Dribbble or Pinterest or any other design inspiration sites, things like that. Photographers, maybe go to the theater. Don't study other photography. Staying in your medium creates tunnel vision. And in order to be more creative, you need to widen that vision out. And so there's reasons why we get inspired in the least likely places. It's because it triggers something in our brain to go, "now that gives me an idea for back over here to center of what I was working on, of how I could be more creative for this project."

On these days, it's super important: be an observer, if at all possible, not a participant. There's a difference between consuming creativity and creating. You can have days where you're just creating for creatives, for creating sake. Those are great things to do. I highly recommend doing that. Most weekends, I would recommend you do that. But these days are about, these creative fuel days is meant for you to consume. It's you're fueling yourself up. So you need to practice the observation without the pressure to produce because ultimately that makes for pure inspiration later. I'm going to say that again: observation without the pressure to produce allows for pure inspiration. Process what you observe through your creative lens.

So in preparation for these days, you plan them just like you plan the renewal day, your creative fuel day. You plan them as well. You research and you select experiences intentionally. You can go alone or you can go with others. Both have benefits and maybe I might suggest that you alternate between those. So if you're doing four of these a year, if you're doing them quarterly, then maybe on the first and third instance, you're going to go do them alone. But on the second and fourth instance, you're going to bring some other friends or some other creatives along with you. These new perspectives will start to show up in projects a week later and immediately you can come back from these days and you can start to share inspiration with your team, with your clients, with whoever's around you in your corner because it's going to begin to build a culture of creative curiosity within your business. And that is the win of these creative fuel days.

We talk about the observation thing all the time, but we want to build a culture of creative curiosity within your business. That will make you more creative and that will give you the fuel that you need to play the long game without burning out.

All right. So the application of these renewal practices looks different depending on your role, but the principles remain the same. So for solopreneurs, they're different and for team leaders, they're different. So for solopreneurs, build the habit early. Don't wait until you have a team. Start with half days. If a full day feels impossible, start with a half day. Hey, I'm going to work in the morning and then I'm going to take the afternoon off for my renewal day or my creative fuel day. Or opposite. I'm going to do it in the morning. Then I'm going to come back refreshed and face the work. So start with half days. If you need to set boundaries with your clients around that renewal time and be clear with them about that, this is time that you're not available, but you're doing it to protect yourself from burnout and to make yourself more creative in the long run that will help serve them better.

For team leaders, this is about modeling. Lead by example, your team watches how you handle renewal. So create team policies that protect renewal time, not just for you, but for your team as well and make it safe for people to actually disconnect. Don't tell them you should disconnect, but when they come back, go, "man, thank God you're back because all of this stuff happened." Don't do that. You need to be proactive about that so that when they come back, they're excited to be back into the fold, just like you would be after one of these renewal days.

Listen, renewal days and creative fuel days, they fail if they're reactive. I'll say it again. Renewal days and creative fuel days, they fail when they're reactive, not proactive. So clear your schedule way before you go, not after. Set up systems and gain margin. So work doesn't pile up. That's what we talk about here all the time on this podcast. That's what my business Chief Creative Consultants is all about is setting up systems so that you can gain margin so that work doesn't pile up. So think through communication strategies for clients and stakeholders. What do you need to communicate before and after so that you can set yourself up for success? Be proactive about this.

So what now? What can we do? Here's exactly what you need to do to implement these renewal practices in your life. Number one, just start thinking about all of the burnout that you're thinking through right now. Think through all the warning signs that I mentioned and honestly assess where you are. Rate yourself on a scale of one to 10 for your energy, your creativity, for your enthusiasm, for your work and start to notice your scores. And start to notice how are you actually feeling? This is a great reason to be journaling every day because you can see it in black and white.

Number two, schedule your next renewal day or creative fuel day within the next 30 days. Go ahead and look at it. Block a full day in your calendar if you can right now. If you can only do a half day, then block a half day in your schedule right now. Pause this podcast. Block it out. If a full day feels impossible, again, you can start with a half day, but prepare your team and your clients in advance. Let them know this is a time that you will be unavailable so that you can be available for them in the long haul.

I would say another thing you need to do immediately is to start keeping a note of renewal activities or fuel activities. So I keep a note on my phone that anytime I hear something like, "man, that would make for a really good activity on my renewal day" or "that would make a really good thing to go consume on a creative fuel day," I will jot that down on my phone so that when those next ones come up, I'm not sitting there going like, "I don't know what to do. I know I planned this thing. Dustin said I needed to put it on my schedule. So I did and let all my clients know, but I don't really know what I'm supposed to do." But if you start creating that list of activities that renew your vision and fuel your creativity, then you'll have that at your disposal as that day grows nearer. So it might be books that inspire you, places that you think about or that help you think. Activities that center you. Having this list ready makes planning these days easier.

And lastly, if you lead a team, introduce this concept in your next team meeting. Share the warning signs, explain the two types of renewal and start the conversation about how to support each other in this practice.

Again, for setting yourself up for creative longevity, I cannot recommend enough The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It is essential reading on creative renewal and how to avoid artistic drought. I also have a guide on my website. If you need to guide your team through these practices, you can check out my guide to effective one on ones for team leaders, for anyone who's wanting to take their teams through these renewal conversations. Reminder, you can get all sorts of free resources, frameworks, tools at my website, dustinpead.com/free. So check that out.

Listen, I know what you're thinking. "I don't have time for renewal days. I'm too busy." But here's the truth. You don't have time not to do this. The cost of burnout, both to your creativity and your business is greater, far greater than the investment of systematic renewal. Your creativity is your most valuable asset as a creative professional. So protect it, nurture it, and watch how it transforms not just your work, but your entire approach to your creative business.

Next week, we're back with a very special episode. I have a guest that's going to join us to talk about how to go from bottleneck to business leader within your creative business. It's going to be an amazing episode. Don't miss it next week on the Creativity Made Easy podcast. Have an amazing week.

Ep 122: More Tasks Than Time to Complete

The Focus Funnel

SUMMARY

When you start producing systematically, you quickly discover just how much work it actually takes and you suddenly start to feel overwhelmed by an endless task list. Here's what happens to almost every creative professional I work with: they implement better systems and processes, set up project management tools, and then suddenly become completely overwhelmed—not because the systems aren't working, but because they're working too well, revealing everything they actually need to do for the first time, and the real problem isn't time shortage but decision shortage, because creative work naturally expands to fill available time and without boundaries, every opportunity becomes an obligation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Decision Shortage Over Time Shortage: Most creatives don't have a time management problem—they have a decision-making problem. All tasks aren't equal, and energy matters more than time blocks.

• ⚡️ The 15-20% Rule: When using the Eisenhower Matrix, only 15-20% of your tasks should actually be urgent AND important. If more items fall here, you haven't been ruthless enough in your categorization.

• ⚡️ Strategic Elimination Builds Creative Focus: Regular practice of eliminate, automate, delegate, and strategic procrastination doesn't just manage tasks better—it reclaims your creative energy for work that truly matters.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Without boundaries, every opportunity becomes an obligation."

• 💬 "Most creatives don't have a time shortage problem. They have a decision shortage problem."

• 💬 "You're never going to have enough time for everything, but you can have enough time for the right things."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Focus Funnel Action Guide - Free download with step-by-step framework

• ⚡️ DO vs DUE Framework - Create margin for strategic work

• ⚡️ "The Four-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss - Original focus funnel concept

• ⚡️ "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown - Master class in doing fewer things better

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

When you start producing systematically, you quickly discover just how much work it actually takes and you suddenly start to feel overwhelmed by an endless task list. Today we're solving the I've got more tasks than time problem with a simple but powerful decision making framework that will help you transform how you approach your workload. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to scale their business with systems and processes that actually work. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their processes and their team so that they can move from chaos to clarity in their business, whether you're a freelancer, agency owner or leading a creative team in an apartment.

This show is designed to give you practical frameworks that create margin in your work and freedom in your life. Let's dive in.

Here's what happens to almost every client I work with. They come to me saying they need better systems, better processes, something to help them get organized, because it's just chaos and madness. And so the first thing we do is we implement the DO versus DUE framework, and we set up their project management system. And then suddenly, boom. They are completely overwhelmed, not because the systems aren't working, but because they're working too well.

For the first time, they can see everything that they actually need to do. And all of these projects floating around in their head, all of these someday ideas, all of those client requests that got buried in an email, it's all there in front of them staring at them from their task list.

I had one client tell me, "Dustin, I thought I had a time management problem. Turns out I have way too many tasks problem." They weren't wrong. When creatives start being systematic, when you start being systematic about capturing and organizing your work, you often discover that you've been trying to drink from a fire hose. And that's where the chaos comes from.

But here's the thing. There's this overwhelming moment when you see things in black and white for the first time. It's actually a breakthrough moment because now instead of the tasks controlling you, you can start making intentional decisions about what deserves your time and creative energy.

You see, most creatives don't have a time shortage. We all have the same amount of time. So why do some produce more quality work with the same amount of time that we have? It's because creatives don't have a time shortage problem. They have a decision shortage problem.

There's this illusion that we always have a full plate when we think our plate is full when it's actually not full. It's overflowing. Creative work naturally expands over time and fills all of your available time. Think about if you're a homeowner and you ever used there's a product called Great Stuff. It's a great name and it's this foam spray that you spray to fill in different gaps. Maybe it's a leak around your window or whatever. But something is leaking, something is wrong and there's a gap where there shouldn't be a gap and so you spray this Great Stuff and it expands to fill that time.

Creative work is just like Great Stuff. It is great stuff. We love doing it, but creative work will naturally expand to fill any available time that it can because without boundaries every opportunity becomes an obligation. Let me say that again. Without boundaries every opportunity becomes an obligation.

And this is why traditional time management fails creative professionals all the time. Time management assumes that all tasks are equal and we know that they're not. Creative work doesn't fit neatly into time blocks. There's ebbs and flows that we have to make room for. And it's actually our energy that matters more than time. And so we end up in this decision fatigue cycle. There's too many choices and that leads to poor choices. We get paralyzed by all the decisions and that creates procrastination. Hey, if I can't figure out what to do next, then I just won't do anything and we shut down. And that overwhelm leads to reactionary instead of proactive, and proactive is where the strategic work really starts to hit the road.

So let me talk you through kind of a three-step approach when it comes to being overwhelmed. When you're overwhelmed you need this systematic approach and it's simple as this: number one brain dump, number two categorize, number three act. Let's walk through these real quick.

Step one, brain dump everything. I will often walk new coaching or consulting clients through this all the time. We sit down with a legal pad away from our computers and away from our phones and we will just start to write down every little floating task that is bouncing around in between your ears onto paper. Write it down on the paper and we're not organizing them. We're just capturing everything that causes any kind of mental tension. Any big projects, small tasks, ideas, concerns, worries, hopes, dreams, whatever it is, we're writing them all down because what that does is it immediately relieves the cloudiness and the mental pressure.

Psychologists know this. That's why they tell you in order to process through certain things in your life, you need to write them down because you need to get them out of your head because what happens in your head is it spirals and it doesn't go anywhere and it's just spiraling and spiraling and what happens when it spirals is it's building energy and it's building tension and there's no release, there's no relief from it whatsoever. So step one is we're gonna brain dump everything.

Step two, I talk about this all the time. Jim Kwik on his podcast for mentalists and brain energy, he talks about this all the time as well, but you need to be ruthless and use the Eisenhower matrix categorizing. Eisenhower matrix categorizing, which we know is the four quadrants. Things are, everything that we dumped on that sheet of paper, we know that it's either urgent and important, or it's just urgent and not important, or it's important but it's not super urgent. And in the fourth category, it's neither important nor urgent.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to take time and we're going to be ruthless about each item that's on that legal pad or on that notepad. And we're going to begin to place them in one of those four quadrants, one of those four boxes. And we're going to be honest about what is truly urgent and what feels urgent. Just because it feels urgent doesn't mean it is urgent. Be honest about what's truly important and what's busy work because most overwhelm that we experience, it comes from treating everything as urgent and important.

And I always tell my clients this, that when you're using the Eisenhower matrix, really only about 15 to 20% of the things that you dumped out on that sheet of paper in step one, really only about 15 to 20% of those things should actually end up in the urgent and important category. If there's more than that, then you have not been ruthless enough. If there's less than that, then maybe you were too ruthless and you need to kind of reprioritize some things. But usually it's the fact that we think everything is urgent and important. And we know that when everything is urgent and important, nothing is urgent and important.

And step three is act on it. Now, how do we know how to act? What is the action for each one of these quadrants? Here's how I break it down. Listen, if it's urgent and important then you need to do it ASAP, but you need to plan better next time. Do it ASAP but plan better next time that it comes around again, and what I mean by ASAP is hey this is kind of your big three or your big frogs of the day or of the week or of the month or however long you're planning it out. These things need to happen and you need to be the one to do it before anything else.

If it's in the quadrant of urgent, but not important, can you automate it? Can you delegate it? Same thing with important, but not urgent. If it's important, but not urgent, can you automate it? And can you delegate it? If it's in one of those either or categories and then listen, if it's not important or urgent, then it means one of two things. It means it's really not needed at all and you need to eliminate it. Or finally, maybe it is needed, but it's just not for right now, then you can procrastinate it. It's okay to procrastinate as long as you give it a date later in time or you give it a place where you can go back and revisit it over and over.

According to the research from the Productivity Institute, knowledge workers spend 41% percent of their time on discretionary activities that could be handled by others or eliminated entirely. So you've brain dumped onto that and now you're looking at that giant list of things. According to statistics about 41 percent of the things that are on that list could either be eliminated entirely or delegated to someone else. So think about that for a minute when you're going through this step one you're going to brain dump step two you're going to use the Eisenhower matrix and step three use the focus funnel so that you know how to act on it.

Now once you've tried this a time or two, it's time to turn this into a habit. Make the whole Eisenhower matrix and focus funnel, I like to use those in tandem. We brain dump and we use the Eisenhower matrix of urgent and important. And then we use that focus funnel. The focus funnel is where we decide whether we need to act on it or we need to delegate, eliminate, automate or procrastinate. And it comes back around to us doing it again later. Make this a habit.

Maybe it's weekly, maybe it's monthly, maybe it's quarterly. For me, I do this about once a month right now because after about a month's worth of creative work, my brain starts to feel that cloudiness again. And whenever I feel that cloudiness coming on, it's probably because there's too much up here and I have not released it. And so what I'll do is I'll write it down. I'll put things through the Eisenhower matrix and then I'll use the focus funnel to determine where it goes.

So whether you do it weekly or monthly or quarterly, whatever it is, just schedule 30 minutes in your block of time. Whether it could be every Friday, could be the last Friday of every month, first Friday of every month, whatever. Schedule 30 minutes for the focus funnel review. So you've gotten to the point where you've dumped it, you've gone through the Eisenhower matrix. So now you see those things in the Eisenhower matrix, schedule 30 minutes to just go through those things and go, okay, that needs to be eliminated. That can easily be automated. I know somebody who can help me automate that. This one can be easily delegated. This one is procrastinated. I can come back and do that later, whatever the case may be.

And when you do this review, you're not going to just look at what's currently kind of built up until now. You're going to look ahead a little bit at the upcoming week, the upcoming month, the upcoming quarter with this fresh perspective and you're going to question everything that made it onto your task list.

This is where the default to no policy comes in. Every new request that enters your brain, every new idea that pops in. Maybe we should, maybe we should, maybe we should is immediately met with a no until proven otherwise and proven otherwise just means that you're going to ask yourself if I say yes to this that means I'm going to have to say no to something else. Every yes is saying no to something else. So what is it that if me saying yes to this, what am I saying no to? That's the default no policy.

And over time, you'll start to build this elimination muscle. You'll start to whittle down. You'll start to notice things quicker. In the beginning, it might take some time to brain dump to Eisenhower matrix to focus funnel. It's OK if it takes time. It's a new habit. But as you begin to build that elimination muscle, you'll start to quickly identify those obvious time wasters. You'll start to really question the we've always done it this way activities and start to go, well, why have we always done it that way? And is there a better way to do that? You'll start to eliminate even before you have to try to optimize something, which is an incredible, incredible superpower for creatives.

Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that owners who regularly practice this elimination tactic, they are 25% more effective and report significant lower stress levels. And I know that's what we all want.

So what do we do with this now? How do we implement this whole focus funnel situation starting today? What's easy is one, two, three that I mentioned earlier. Number one, right now do a 15 minute brain dump. Get every task, project, idea, concern out of your head and on to paper. Don't organize it. Just capture everything that is creating mental tension for you.

Step two, you're going to take that list and you're going to ruthlessly categorize each item into one of the four Eisenhower quadrants. Urgent, important, urgent and important, urgent but not important, important but not urgent, and neither urgent or important. Be honest about what's truly urgent versus what just feels urgent and what's truly important versus what's just busy work.

And step three, we're gonna apply the focus funnel actions. We're gonna handle important and urgent items immediately. We're gonna automate some urgent but not important things or delegate. We're gonna delegate or automate the things that are important but not urgent or urgent but not important. And we're gonna eliminate or consciously on purpose procrastinate everything else that does not fall into the other boxes.

And lastly, as this begins to take habit right now that you've done this for the first time today or this week, schedule a weekly time or a monthly time or a quarterly time to go through this. I would suggest in the beginning that you schedule it for 15 minutes every week, every Friday. I say Friday because by Friday you've built up all of the things in your head or whatever the end of your work week is. If the end of your work week is Thursday, then do it on Thursdays, but in your work week because you don't want to carry all of that mental tension into the weekend and then begin your next week, your next work week with all of that stuff stored up. You want to begin your week fresh and organized and emptied of the last week's problems and worries. So if it's Friday just call it a focus funnel Friday and have that 15 to 30 minute session with yourself and if you need other people around bring other people into it to help think through the things. Really this is about you here, not about your team. Because when you do this well, then you can lead your team well as well.

Now this focus funnel concept was originally introduced by author Tim Ferriss in his massively successful book, The Four Hour Workweek. So I highly suggest you pick that up. Another one that I read last year, complete master class in doing fewer things better is called Essentialism. That's by Greg McKeown. I hope I'm saying his last name right. So definitely check that out. I also have a full focus funnel action guide that you can download available to you for free at dustinpead.com slash free. So go and check that out.

Listen, the truth is that you're never going to have enough time for everything, but you can have enough time for the right things. And the focus funnel isn't about cramming more into your schedule. It's about creating space for work that matters. When you regularly eliminate, automate, delegate, and strategically procrastinate, you're not just managing tasks better. You're reclaiming your creative focus.

So start with one thing. Pick the most obvious task that you can eliminate and delete it right now. Do you feel that? Do you feel what clarity feels like? So get into that this week. Start this method right away as soon as possible. At the end of your work week go ahead and do these steps that we talked about today.

For more frameworks like this and more free resources you can find at dustinpead.com slash free. You can follow me on social media at dustinpead. Remember creativity doesn't have to be chaotic. It can be systematically excellent though.

Next week we're going to talk about something that every creative professional needs but most ignore until it's too late. This is the renewal ritual that every creative needs. Burnout isn't just about working too much. It's about systematically renewing your creative energy. And I'll share some specific practices that keep top creative professionals energized and inspired even during their busiest seasons. Don't miss it. Talk to you next time on Creativity Made Easy podcast. Have a great week.

Ep 121: Leading Without Crushing Creativity

The 80-20 Principle That Transforms Creative Teams

SUMMARY

Most creative professionals think they need more freedom when what they actually need is better structure. Not more structure, better structure. And there's a big difference between the two.

As creative leaders, we often face a paradox: how do we provide the structure our teams need to be productive while preserving the creative freedom that drives innovation? The answer lies in understanding the 80-20 creative structure principle that can transform how you lead creative teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Structure Creates Creative Freedom: 80% structured work builds the margin and resources needed for meaningful 20% creative exploration time.

• ⚡️ Constraints Spark Innovation: Clear boundaries and defined problems force innovative solutions and eliminate creative paralysis from unlimited options.

• ⚡️ Relationship-First Leadership: Caring about the person behind the creativity, not just project outcomes, unlocks higher creative performance and team engagement.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Intention creates the conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge."

• 💬 "Professional creatives don't wait to feel inspired. They go get inspired, and the 'go get' is the intentional part."

• 💬 "Your creatives don't need more freedom. They need better intentionality that serves their creative process."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️The Creatives Guide to Effective 1:1's - Free download

• ⚡️ DO vs DUE Framework - Create margin for creativity

• ⚡️ "The Accidental Creative" by Todd Henry - Essential reading for creative leaders

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Most creative professionals think that they need more freedom when what they actually need is better structure. Not more structure, better structure. And there's a big difference between the two. Today we're going to explore the 80-20 principle that transforms how you lead creative teams and why putting creatives in a box actually unleashes their best work. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to take their business or their teams from chaos to clarity. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, founder of Chief Creative Consultants, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can move from chaos to clarity. If you're tired of the feast or famine cycle and ready to build a creative business that works as hard as you do, you're in the right place.

Listen, let me tell you, I love structure. I think structure is intentional and I like to be very intentional with my time because time is the one asset that we cannot get more of. It's here and then gone. I believe that structure makes us more creative and we're going to talk about that, but it can be taken too far and often squash our creative flow.

So I've come up with this principle to make room for creative adventure and spontaneity. Most things in life revolve around some type of an 80-20 rule. Every time we talk about something, it's really more about the balance. And the balance usually is not 50-50. The balance is usually somewhere 80-20. And that's no different in today's episode.

The 80-20 creative structure principle. 80% of your creative work should be highly structured and 20% built for flexibility and immediate inspiration. I just actually restructured my week to match this. What I was noticing about a hundred percent of my creativity being structured was that I would get to the end of the week and I felt like I had no room to really be creative.

And so what I've done recently is I've changed up my Fridays to have no tasks on my plate. Now I know not everybody has that luxury, but maybe you can move towards it as much as you can or pick a different day of the week. I have no scheduled tasks for Friday now. I have calendar items, but I have no scheduled tasks for Friday.

And there's a couple of reasons for this. One, I want to be able to have margin at the end of the week to be able to catch up on some things that I maybe didn't have time for because things happen. But I also want to have the flexibility to go create something at the end of the week because I want to end the week on a creative high. And so I think it's super important for all of us to understand this balance of this 80% structure, 20% freedom as much as I am practicing it as well.

And I want to say too that I think a lot of creative teams get this backwards. Most of them spend 80% of their time chasing inspiration. I just have to create the right environment. I have to have the right amount of sleep. I have to have the right amount of caffeine. I have to have the right music playing at the right temperature and the right candle burning and all these different things to chase inspiration. And they only get about 20% of their time structured. And that is a mistake because they're waiting for a perfect moment instead of creating some type of consistent output. They're mistaking chaos for creativity and structure for constraint.

Now there's power in structured creativity. This is where I talk about in the intro about being inside the box. 80% of structured work creates predictable progress and deliverables. Structure actually builds the financial and time margin needed for true creative exploration. You need to be able to afford the time and the money to explore those things. So I'm going to keep my week structured Monday through Thursday and Friday is going to be a lot less structured as much as possible.

Structure also provides the foundation that makes 20% flexible time actually valuable. It's not just sitting around twiddling your fingers, but you've done what you need to do and now you can create something truly unique and valuable.

So here's how to implement the 80-20 split. Structure your processes, deadlines, and communication rhythms, whatever that works for you. For me, it's Monday through Thursday. It could be from 9 to 2 is going to be super structured, and then from 2 to 5 is going to be a little bit different, whatever the case may be. But structure that with your processes, structure it with your deadlines and your communications.

Because if you don't structure it, let me just say this for a second. I know you're hearing like too much structure, too much structure. Structure is nothing but intentionality. That's all it is. It's I'm being intentional to choose what I'm going to do with the one asset that I can't get more of which is time. I'm gonna make every moment count. I'm gonna make every moment count towards the thing that I want to create instead of just like if a hundred percent or if it was vice versa where 80% of your time was open to creating the right environment in the moment, you're going to get to your end of your week and you're only going to have a 20% success rate at the most because that's the part that was actually structured.

And so I think if we can build in these intentionalities, let's replace the word structure with intention. If we can build our week intentionally, then we can protect certain time blocks for exploration and inspiration and we can actually be more creative by using the 80% structure to fund the 20% inspirational flow time.

This is why we talk a lot about the DO versus DUE framework because it creates that margin that makes this 80-20 split possible and it does that by eliminating the last-minute rushes that consume creative exploration time. If you build this 80-20 intention into your work or your team or your department or your agency, but you're constantly waiting until things are DUE to get them done, then you're not gonna have that. It's gonna eat up that 20% that you built that you work so hard for.

So download the DO versus DUE framework on dustinpead.com slash free. Look at all the stuff out there that I have about it. We talk about it pretty regularly on this podcast.

Let's talk for a second about building inspiration instead of just sitting around waiting for it. I think there's a myth that we think that inspiration hits. It doesn't just hit. Inspiration builds through consistent creative habits and a structured practice. This whole idea of I'm just waiting to feel inspired, it actually kills creativity and it kills any chance of getting anything done.

The most successful artists and creatives in the world don't wait to feel inspired. They go get inspired and the go get is the intentional part. And that's the difference between being motivated and being disciplined in your creative work. We need both. We need both motivation and we need discipline. But professional creatives, they show up regardless of how they feel and they're willing to put in the work.

So inspiration is actually a byproduct of the habits that you create, the intentional habits that you create. Consistent creative practice trains your brain to generate ideas at a moment's notice. Structure creates the condition where inspiration is likely to emerge. Let me say that again and replace the s-word. Intention creates conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge. Maybe that's all you needed to hear today. Intention creates the conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge.

Regular creative work builds creative confidence and flow state. I believe Todd Henry said it best in his entire work of his first book, The Accidental Creative. And his research shows that structure actually enables rather than inhibits creative breakthroughs because it's intentional. You're intentionally feeding your creativity. You're nurturing it. You're giving it what it needs so that when it's time to be creative, you can be creative. You don't have to wait for inspiration to hit.

I want to be clear. Putting creatives in a box does give them clarity. It gives them clarity. I know you can't see anything when I'm in a box. But I'll tell you what you can see. You can see the boundaries. You know exactly where to push the limit. Without boundaries, you can't push boundaries. And all creativity is pushing those boundaries. Giving them the box gives them clarity to be creative with purpose rather than with confusion.

There's a paradox here of creative freedom. Unlimited options, no box often leads to creative paralysis. We've talked about this before. It can handicap your creativity. Clear boundaries force innovative solutions within defined parameters. Different constraints can actually spark your creativity by eliminating all of the irrelevant possibilities. If anything is possible, then I don't know where to even go with this. But if you give me, it's like great improv, they'll give you a scenario. You're walking into a grocery store, great, and walking into a grocery store and now I can take that and be creative with it.

That's why improv exists and that's why improv is one of the most creative forms of art that exists because you can take one simple idea. That one simple idea is a box and now you're off to the races with it.

So create empowering constraints and you can do this by defining the problem clearly. We talk about this all the time about painting done from Brené Brown, but define the problem clearly before asking for creative solutions. If you don't know what problem you're out there trying to solve then you can't solve it the best way.

So set specific parameters while leaving methodology open. It's not how we're gonna solve it, it's just what we're trying to solve. If you know that, then you can provide context and purpose for every creative project that you have.

Now I do want to say there is such thing as helpful creative boxes and limiting boxes. And this is where we have to be careful as leaders. A helpful creative box is clear objectives, it's a defined target audience who are we speaking to, and there are specific outcomes that we want to see on the other side of it.

Now a limiting creative box is filled with micromanagement. It's every little step of execution. There's no room for creative process. So don't limit creatives. Give them clear objectives, defined audience and specific outcomes. Constrain focus constraints on the what while freeing up the how. That's how leaders lead creatives the best way.

I think we'd be remiss if we don't talk about the relational aspect when we're really when we're leading creatives. Effective creative leadership comes from caring about the person more than the project, especially since creatives are driven more by emotions and feelings than your average other leader or business profession. Traditional management fails here with creative professionals because creatives are more invested in their work.

Now I'm not saying this is always the most healthy but you need to understand where they're at in order to kind of lead them towards what might be best. Their identity is often tied to their creative output again not necessarily healthy but understanding where they are will help you lead them and creatives standard performance metrics don't capture the creative value that they bring.

If someone walks in the room and you immediately feel more creative because they're there, that's some value that can't be tracked from regular standard performance metrics. And so you need to understand that. You need to understand that by building a relationship with them first.

There's power in this relationship first leadership. It's not about the outcome. It's not about the project. It's about the person. It's shepherding the heart of the creative. That's what we love to do at Chief Creative Consultants. We are all about shepherding the heart of the creative person through building these structures, building these intentions around their creativity so they can unleash their best work.

So understand what motivates them. Get to know them on an individual level. Recognize creative work as a personal expression not just deliverables and build trust by doing that you will build trust. Build trust that allows for creative vulnerability. The more vulnerable a creative can be the more creative a creative can be every single time.

So make sure you're having one-on-ones with your creatives. Not just quarterly progress reports on evaluating every little thing that they do, but make it about what they're feeling and what they're going through. Ask them about creative challenges, not just their project status. Understand their process and honor it as much as you possibly can. There's always somewhere to meet in the middle. Focus on removing obstacles so they can present their best creative work.

What are some things that we're doing with our systems and processes or with our communication or with our culture or with our leadership that are creating obstacles for their best creative work? Now understand that sometimes they don't know what's best for their creative work so take it with a grain of salt and understand that what they're giving you is a little piece of themselves. That's addressing those emotional aspects of creative feedback and the iterations that they bring every single time.

There's been much research on creative motivation that shows that autonomy, mastery, and purpose, that's what drives creative performance more than any other traditional incentives. So focus on autonomy, focus on them mastering their skills and focus on the purpose behind what they're doing.

I do have a guide on my website, dustinpead.com slash free. It's called the creative guide, the creatives guide to effective one-on-ones. You can download that. I'll be speaking on that topic this fall at the salt conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

So let's get into what now, what do we do? First thing you need to do is you need to map out what's your current state of this 80-20 split. How much time is your team spending on structured work versus creative exploration? Give them time to explore. Most teams need to flip this ratio to become more productive and more creative.

Number two, create daily creative habits. Establish a non-negotiable creative practices for your team, even if it's just for 15 minutes. Do not wait for inspiration to hit. Build the creative habits now that create inspiration later.

Thirdly, define your creative constraints for your project, for your audience, for your team, whatever it looks like. Start asking what those constraints are so that you can give better solutions every single time.

And lastly, schedule relationship building one on ones. Ask each team member what would help you do your most creative work this week? Find out what they're struggling with, what's going on in their lives. Focus on the person, not just the project status.

I want to remind you a couple of feature resources that we talked about in this episode. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is essential. It's on my website as one of my essential readings. If you go to the resources and tools section there as well. I also have the DO versus DUE framework and the creative guides, the creatives guide to effective one-on-ones available at dustinpead.com slash free. There's many other things there as well that can help you build intentionality without crushing creativity.

Remember, creativity isn't about having unlimited freedom. It's about having clear purpose with defined boundaries. When you build the right structure, you build the right intentionality, and you provide meaningful constraints and lead them through relationship rather than just through project management, then you can create conditions where creativity naturally flourishes. Your creatives don't need more freedom. They need better intentionality that serves their creative process.

If you're ready to transform how you lead creative teams and build systems that actually enhance creativity, visit dustinpead.com to learn more about our consulting services or connect with me on social media at dustinpead. I'd love to hear from you on how you're implementing the 80-20 principle in your creative work.

Next week, we're tackling the number one complaint I hear from creative professionals. It's this, I have more tasks than time to complete them. And we're going to dive into all of that through the focus funnel and systematic approach to eliminate, automate, delegate strategic procrastination to reclaim your creative energy for the work that actually matters. If you're drowning in your task list, the next episode will give you the roadmap back that you need to create your best work. I cannot wait to talk to you all about that. Until next time on the creativity made easy podcast, have an amazing week.

Ep 120: The Beauty of Completing

Why Completion Is Your Most Undervalued Creative Superpower

SUMMARY

When you actually finish something—really, truly complete it—your brain rewards you with a hit of dopamine that doesn't just feel good. It literally rewires your brain to want to finish the next thing too. Yet most creative professionals are sitting on project management systems filled with work that's 80-85% complete, creating a constant mental drain that's quietly sabotaging their confidence and business growth. According to research by Dr. Michael Frank from Brown University, your brain's reward system is more activated by achievement than by starting new work, but most creatives never tap into this powerful system because we're trained to see endless possibilities for improvement. The biggest barrier is confusing completion with perfection—completion means the work serves its intended purpose, while perfection keeps you in an endless revision cycle that prevents you from ever crossing the finish line.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Key Takeaway 1: Create completion rituals and celebrations. You repeat what gets celebrated, and celebration reinforces the neural pathways of finishing.

• ⚡️ Key Takeaway 2: Define "done" before you start. Paint a vivid picture of what completion looks like using all your senses—what it will look, feel, sound, and even taste like when finished.

• ⚡️ Key Takeaway 3: Implement a two-week completion sprint. Focus solely on taking existing projects across the finish line without starting anything new or making major revisions.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 Notable Quote: "Completion is not about perfection. It's about purpose, and when your work serves its intended purpose, you're done."

• 💬 Notable Quote: "Creative professionals who experience the most growth and satisfaction are those who have mastered the art of completing."

• 💬 Notable Quote: "Don't let the pursuit of perfection rob you of the beauty of completing."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Jon Acuff's books "Start" and "Finish"

• ⚡️ The Future You Method

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for professional creatives who want to scale their business with systems and processes that actually work. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can move from chaos to clarity. Whether you're a solo creative feeling overwhelmed by endless projects or leading a team that struggles to get things across the finish line, this show will give you the tools to create with efficiency as you scale together.

If you're new here, make sure to grab my free resource library at dustinpead.com slash free. You'll find all of the frameworks, templates, methods and tools to help you optimize your creative process. Absolutely free. Go to dustinpead.com slash free to download. You can also follow me online for daily tips and advice at dustinpead.com, Instagram, LinkedIn, all those types of things.

I want you to imagine this for a second with me. You're looking at your project management system, whether it's Asana or a whiteboard, a notebook, post-its, doesn't matter. And you see a familiar pattern start to come up. Project after project is sitting right around that 80, 85% completion mark. The website just needs one final review, the brand identity that's missing the style guide, the campaign waiting for final documentation. It's all good work and all almost done. All stuck.

Now picture the feeling when you look at that board. There's this low level anxiety isn't there? There's a mental weight of all of these things that you need to finish. You might even find yourself avoiding opening that project management system because seeing all of those incomplete tasks feels really overwhelming.

But here's what's fascinating. Imagine that if instead of starting something new, you spent the next two weeks just finishing those 80% complete projects, not perfecting them, not adding new features, just crossing them off as done. I've seen this transformation happen over and over again and there's something almost magical about what happens next. That energy shift, that momentum, that confidence that comes from actually finishing what you start. That's the beauty of completing we're going to explore today.

Now listen, I'm no brain doctor or psychologist or anything like that, but I have studied these mental trends when it comes to completing work for creatives. Your brain is literally wired to reward completion, but most creatives never tap into this powerful system. There's a dopamine cycle. Dopamine is the chemical released throughout your brain and your body that's associated with task completion. And it's more powerful than the dopamine hit of starting something new. Let that sink in for a second. That finishing something is more powerful to your brain than starting something new.

According to research published in Science Magazine back in 2020 by Dr. Michael Frank from Brown University and colleagues, dopamine release from task completion creates a reinforcement loop that motivates continued effort with the brain's reward system being more activated by achievement than by the anticipation of starting new work.

So this begs us to kind of compare. Let's compare starting versus completing and I will just say this right off the gate. I love most, I really love all of Jon Acuff's books, J-O-N-A-C-U-F-F. And he has two very distinct books. One book is called Start and the other one is called Finish. And I recommend all creatives read them both. But today we're gonna focus on the finishing side.

So let's talk about starting versus completing. Starting gives you a small hit of dopamine but completion gives you a lasting pathway in the neurological science. Each completion makes the next completion easier neurologically, just like doing reps at the gym. Each rep makes the next rep easier. Incomplete tasks create open loops that drain your cognitive energy. Open loops drain your cognitive energy because you're constantly having to think about what needs to happen in order to get this done, checked off, completed and out of my life and it weighs on you. It weighs on your mind, it weighs on your emotions and it can ultimately weigh on you physically as well.

Creatives often struggle with completion more than any other profession because we're trained to see the endless possibilities for improvement, right? That's why we're called in. That's why people pick up the phone and call the creatives. They want endless possibilities. They want to explore something new. They need to think creatively. Creative work doesn't have natural stopping points like other types of work. We have to understand when done is done. Also there's a fear that completion means that we can't make it better. Hey, it's out there now, it's done and we can't make it better. But what you need to understand is that next time you can make it better and there's always a next time.

I want to talk about the difference between completion versus perfection because a lot of creators that I run into, the reason they struggle with completion is because they're after the elusive perfection. And completion just means that the work serves its intended purpose. That's it. Whatever it was at the very beginning. And we always talk about on this show, we talk about clear priorities and objectives and scope from the very beginning. What is it that what's the problem that we're trying to solve here? Completion means that we just solved the problem. We saw we did what the project was intended to do. Where on the flip side, perfection is the enemy of completion because we're constantly seeking something that cannot be obtained. Perfection cannot be obtained no matter what we do. And so we're constantly trying and trying more and more and more and we're never taking it to completion because perfection is never there.

So I want to talk about there's some hidden costs that comes with not completing things with incompletion. Every unfinished project is quietly sabotaging your creative confidence and business growth. And here's why. There's a psychological weight that comes from incomplete work. Unfinished projects create mental background noise. It's constant, you need to finish, you need to finish. There's no closed loop. And so it's constant mental background noise, which is causing psychological weight. There's constantly remembering what needs to be finished will drain your energy. Starting new feels easier than facing incomplete projects and then Jon Acuff will talk about that in his book Start as well. It feels exciting. It's new. It's fresh. It's a brand new adventure. It's a whole new it's a blank canvas, right? All these wonderful things like springtime brings to us. But the real work happens in the winter when we complete things and things come to an end and a rest.

So let's recognize the patterns that often plague us as creatives here when it comes to completing things. Incomplete work delays payment and cash flow. And that's what we're all after, right? We're all out here trying to earn a living with our creative work, whether it's within an organization as a part of a creative team, whether it's a full on agency that we're a part of or that we own, whatever it is, incomplete work doesn't get paid. Simple as that. Consistently delivering work that feels almost done can also cost you your reputation or your brand.

If you're like, yeah, I got this to the 80% mark and I just mailed in the rest because I really needed to check it off, right? That's not completion, right? That's giving up and good creators don't give up. They trade up, right? And completion creates scope creep because clients request constantly just one more thing. And if it feels incomplete, they're gonna ask for something. So complete the work, complete the work. You can complete the work and maybe you just need to tell yourself that today.

For your team and complete work from leadership creates team permission to not finish, right? So if it's constantly incomplete, it trickles down to the rest of your team. They go, look, our culture here is just to not finish things. And they might not say that out loud, but that's internally what they're going to get to the 80% mark. And they're going to say, okay, we got to 80%. It's close enough. What else we got? What else is new that we can start? Because they're looking for that lower dopamine hit and they're looking for, they're just out there repeating what they see from leadership. And it creates this frustrating cycle when team members can't move forward on dependent tasks, right? You or someone else on the team has said, hey, in order to get this completely done, we need sign off on it or we need this person to take it to the finish line, right? Or we need this person to get back with us with the right edit so that we can take it to the finish line. Provide your team with what they need because completion creates team momentum and confidence and that's what we're out here looking for.

There's research that was done by Dr. BJ Fogg at Stanford and it shows that completion behaviors once established create a cascade effect, a bit of a catalyst. People who complete small tasks are significantly more likely to complete larger, more complex tasks if you're a believer in Jesus like I am then you know that if you're faithful in little things You can be faithful in the big things and it's no different here that proverb reigns true for us each and every day and so don't focus on completing the larger ones if completing is hard for you or for your team pick three to five really small tasks this week and just focus on getting those small tasks done. Don't look at the large rock. Just look at the small pebble and conquer that one at a time. And the next thing you know, you'll be completing larger and larger tasks with a much less motivation and a much less energy effort.

All right, let's talk about what it takes to actually complete some things. Completion isn't just about willpower. It's about designing systems that make finishing feel inevitable. One thing I always like to do before we start anything, whether it's a client or an internal project, or even a project for myself. came up with the idea in the shower. I'm sitting on my desk and now it's time to kind of lay out the project, right? The very first thing I do, I take from Brené Brown and that is paint done before you start, right? Paint what done looks like before I ever start. Hey, when this thing is done, what does that look like? What does it feel like? What's the interaction look like? What does the feeling from my team going to have? What is the client going to think?

Think through all the senses, right? If it's something that you can taste, what's that gonna taste like? What's it gonna smell like? What's it gonna feel like? What's it gonna look like? What's it gonna sound like? Go through all those things and really paint a vivid picture of what done feels like before you start because creating that completion criteria at the project kickoff is of its most vital importance. it keeps you from, it keeps you resisting the urge at the end of the project to add just one more thing, right? Because there's one more things always come up.

So let me introduce you to this, what I call loosely the 85% rule for a creative work. Like I said earlier, most creative work is functionally complete at 85%. So we talked about the beginning of this podcast that a lot of your stuff is sitting at 80% done. Maybe it's already done. Maybe the last 15, 20% of the tasks that you have on there aren't super necessary or there's something that an admin can take care of, right? So send that off to them. So here's how you can identify that final 15% is actually worth the time investment. Do those tasks that are left sitting there, do they actually improve the project directly? Do they actually directly serve the project's core purpose and objective like we talked about? Does it actually finish painting done for you? Or is it just an extra little thing that's just gonna cause more work in the long run?

Will the client or the end user actually notice this change? If you're like, yeah, but I'll know it's there and they won't know it's there. That's not a good enough reason. Does the project move from functional to exceptional in a measurable way and a measurable way? Super important. If what you're going to do to take it across the finish line doesn't take it from just functional to exceptional and you can't measure it and it's not worth doing. And lastly, ask yourself, is this extra 10, 15, 20%? Is it addressing real feedback or is it just internal perfectionism starting to creep in?

Building completion rituals and celebrations matter as well. It's important to mark completion moments. You repeat what gets celebrated. So celebrate it. Celebration reinforces those neural pathways of finishing. So create team completion celebrations that build the culture that you want towards your goals. You want a culture of completion? Then celebrate when things get completed no matter how big or no matter how small. That's why if you use Asana like I do, I know many other project management softwares do the same, but when I check stuff off, you often get a flying unicorn that shoots across the screen. And there's something about a flying unicorn that just makes you feel like you did it and it's going up and to the right just like exponential growth, right? And it's very intentional from Asana, the people that put that in there because they know it's just a little celebration of you completing a small little task. It's going to reinforce you wanting to do it over and over again. So build those celebrations in with yourself and with your team.

We have to talk about this as well before we wrap up. have to break the endless revision cycle. It's so frustrating to me to talk to so many creatives who don't understand when enough is enough and they keep editing and keep editing and keep editing and keep editing. And look, I know we have some standards in our brain that are next to impossible to meet and we have some things. But can I just tell you that if you had five projects over the year and project one is only about as only ends up about 80% as good as what you originally hoped. I'm willing to bet you that project 2 is probably going to end up about 81 or 82% as good as you hoped. And then project number 3 might end up closer to 85% as good as you hoped. And so as you get closer and closer to project 5 and near the end of the year, you're going to get closer to what you actually wanted. And I know that's super frustrating, but you need to understand that completion, actually finishing those projects, will get you closer and closer to your ideal done.

Industry expert design thinking pioneer, Tim Brown from IDEO. He talks about this satisficing term, right? It's finding solutions that are good enough to meet the need rather than continuously and endlessly optimizing, right? This mindset shift is crucial for us creative professionals. You have to know when to be satisfied. So satisfying stops you from endlessly editing and reiterating over and over again. And I know we often like to blame the clients or the boss or whatever for the constant reiterations, but we're really the chief of all centers when it comes to this. We're really the ones that are going like, yeah, but I think I can make it better. Um, and there's a balance, I think too, I want to say this before we wrap up, there's a balance between giving up at the end and just checking it off and calling it done right. Because you just tired of looking at a task versus actually completing it where you have that complete satisfaction, the satisficing that Tim Brown talks about. So strive for that. I think that's what we need to do in our creative work this week.

So what now? Let's start experiencing this beauty of completing, right? So the first thing you should consider is some type of a review of your completion, right? What does the completion rate look like for you or your team or your department? Look at those projects that are currently in progress and start looking, marking the percentage of completion that each one is at. If there's anything sitting at 80% or higher, these are opportunities for you to get those quick wins. Take it across the finish line and celebrate when you do.

Number two, define done or paint done for the active projects. If you haven't painted done for them already, take a moment, pause, write two to three clear criteria that define what complete looks like. Right? What is the and then you ask yourself what is the project need to be accomplished and when will you know that it's done?

Third thing, implement a two week completion sprint. Hey, you know what? For the next two weeks, all we're going to do is take projects to the finish lines. No new projects, no major revisions, just finishing what's already great. We're going to take it across the finish line. And then once you do that, I want you to think about how are you going to celebrate? What is celebrating your you're done celebrating your completion look like for you, your team, your department, your agency, whatever. What does celebrating that look like? Everybody's unique. So think get creative. This is an opportunity for you to create something. You want to create something new. This is an opportunity to create something new, create a new celebration of what happens when you finished things off.

So check out Jon Acuff's books start and his book obviously finished. Don't forget to grab any free resources from my free resource library at dustinpead.com slash free. I've got a couple new things that I've been putting up there, the future you methodology, and then some other ones that I can't wait to talk to you about super soon. They're going to be popping up there soon. So if you haven't visited dustinpead.com slash free in a while, go ahead and head on over there today to grab some free stuff for you and your team.

So here's what I want you to remember. Completion is not about perfection. It's about purpose and when your work serves its intended purpose, you're done. Everything beyond that is a choice. It's not a requirement. Creative professionals and agencies that I work with who experience the most growth and satisfaction are those who have mastered the art of completing. They finish strong, they celebrate their wins, and they use that momentum to fuel their next project. They've discovered that completion is actually more creative than the endless revisions.

So if you're ready to transform your creative process and build systems that create sustainable success, I'd love to help. Visit DustinPead.com to learn about how we can work together. Go to the contact page, hop on my calendar for a free strategy session of how we can do this. Follow me at DustinPead, P-E-A-D on social media for daily insights on scaling your creative business with clarity. Remember, your creative work deserves to be finished celebrated and shared with the world. Don't let the pursuit of perfection rob you of the beauty of completing.

Next week, we're tackling one of the biggest challenges creative leaders face, leading without crushing creativity. We're gonna explore how to provide structure that your team needs to thrive while protecting the creative freedom that makes great work possible to begin with. I can't wait to talk with you all about that next time on Creativity Made Easy. Have an amazing week.

Ep 119: Staying Healthy with Morning Pages

Transform Your Creative Mind

SUMMARY

As creative professionals, we often find ourselves battling the chaos in our minds—scattered thoughts, creative blocks, and the constant pressure to produce on demand. What if I told you there's a simple 10-minute morning practice that could revolutionize your creative process and mental clarity?

In this latest episode of Creativity Made Easy, I share a transformative concept from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" that has personally guided me for years: morning pages.

What Are Morning Pages?

Morning pages are a simple yet powerful practice: write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts first thing in the morning, ideally within the first 5-10 minutes of waking up. No editing, no judgment—just raw, unfiltered thoughts flowing onto paper.

Why Morning Pages Work for Creatives

The magic happens because you're most connected to your subconscious mind in those early morning moments. This practice allows you to:

• Clear mental clutter before starting your creative work

• Identify subconscious thoughts that might be limiting your creativity

• Retrain neural pathways toward more positive thinking patterns

• Enhance self-awareness about what's really going on in your mind

My Personal Morning Pages Framework

Here's how I structure my morning pages for maximum impact:

Step 1: Write Your Personal Mission Statement

I start every session by writing down my life's mission—not my business mission, but my personal purpose. This practice ingrains it into my neural pathways and keeps me aligned with my core purpose.

Step 2: List Your Core Values

Next, I write out my personal values—the principles that guide me whether I'm in a professional role, as a husband, father, or leader. These values travel with me everywhere.

Step 3: Free-Flow Writing

Then I simply start writing whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it's a prayer, sometimes it's concerns, sometimes it's creative ideas. The key is to keep the pen moving, even if you have to write "I don't know what to write" until something flows.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Start with 5-10 minutes: You don't need hours—just dedicate the first few minutes of your day to this practice.

• ⚡️ Keep the pen moving: Even when you don't know what to write, continue writing. The breakthrough often comes after pushing through the initial resistance.

• ⚡️ Observe without judgment: Use your morning pages to identify subconscious thoughts and patterns, then consciously work to retrain unhelpful thinking.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "When I get it all out, then I can observe it in black and white for what it is... it's good to get it out and retrain those neurological pathways."

• 💬 "You're the most connected scientifically to your subconscious in the morning, so you write these things out and you're able to look at them and go, 'that's not at all what I think, but it's in my subconscious.'"

• 💬 "I promise over time, you'll start to see a difference. You'll start to notice things, be more observant, and definitely start to be more creative."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️The Mental Health Crisis Every Business Owner Faces | Coaching With Content Ep. 006

• ⚡️"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron - The foundational book that introduces morning pages and other creative recovery practices

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Creativity Made Easy Front Porch Edition. It's full-fledged summertime here, so if you hear screaming kids and lawnmowers in the background, that's just summertime in West Georgia. So I'm sorry, I'm going to keep this brief. I got a lot of feedback after the last kind of front porch edition and people seemed to really like it. So I thought maybe once a month or so, once every four or five weeks, I would drop another one of these kind of short front porch episodes.

If you're watching on YouTube, then you can see that I'm actually sitting on my front porch. If you're not and you're just listening to this audio podcast, you might be wondering why it sounds a little bit different, why you're hearing screaming kids and birds chirping and lawnmowers. I'm not sure if you can hear all that or not right now, but if you can, that's why.

I recently did a podcast episode with a friend of mine and a client of mine, Darren Cooper of 1898 Creative, in which we talked about the mental health struggles of business owners. And since I speak to professional creatives here on this podcast and everything that I do at Chief Creative Consultants, I wanted to share with you one concept from that episode that I've carried with me for many, many years now that I think could help any creative.

This concept comes from a book by Julia Cameron written many years ago called The Artist's Way. It's a fantastic book for any creative to really kind of walk through the rhythm and the grind and the emotions that come along with being a create-on-demand profession. But in that book, she famously talks about this practice called morning pages.

Every morning what she recommends, hopefully in the first five or ten minutes of you waking up, she says, I want you to grab a pen and paper or if you're like me, you can use a digital version here. I use my remarkable. And I want you to just start writing for about three pages worth. So on my remarkable, if I have to swipe up twice then that means I'm on the third page and there's three pages. It could be three post-it notes, it could be three pages of your Field Notes guide. It doesn't matter, but the point is to kind of get your free subconscious thoughts flowing.

The mental health benefit that I have seen from this more than anything is you start to kind of write out of that subconscious and you begin to understand what's really going on in your mind. And it's good to do it in the morning because that's when you're the most connected scientifically to your subconscious. And so you write these things out and then you're able to look at them and go, that's not at all what I think, but it's in my subconscious. So I need to retrain my thoughts and retrain my thoughts and what I'm thinking and what I'm believing about myself and the world around me and the situations.

So a couple of ways I use morning pages every day. First thing I do is I write down my mission statement. Like what is my life's mission? Not my business's mission, not my churches or organizations mission or any of that stuff. What is my personal mission in life? And this is a practice that I went through about a year or so ago. I'm happy to walk you through it. I've learned it from many people along the way as well. And I just write that once and it's out because I want it to be ingrained in my neurological parts of my brain. I want it to be ingrained into those neuro pathways.

Second thing I write is kind of what are my personal values? These are the things that doesn't matter what position you put me in. If you're in a professional position or a position as a husband or a father or a leader or volunteer, whatever it is, these values will go with me every single place that I walk in. And then I just start writing out. Usually for me, it's a prayer or something, but I will just start writing. Here's what I'm thinking.

And I'll tell you what, the first few times you do this and even still to this day, there may be some moments where you go, I don't know what to write. And I would literally write, I don't know what to write. And I'll just keep writing, I'll keep the pen moving no matter what. If I need to count while I'm writing, whatever it is, to get it all out. When I get it all out, then I can observe it in black and white for what it is. And I can go, number one, it's good to get it out. Number two, it's good to observe it and retrain those neurological pathways.

If you missed the episode, I've posted it on my feed a few times and I'll drop it in the show notes for this as well, but it was an episode that I did with my friend and client, Darren Cooper. He has a new podcast out called Coaching with Content and he has me on there a lot to talk about it since I'm a coaching consultant. And so we talk a lot about stuff, but this episode was just super different, super raw and honest. We're getting a lot of really good feedback from it and I would love to share it with you.

And I just kind of want to hop on here for the front porch sessions of Creativity Made Easy and share this with you. But you can follow me along at Dustin Pead. I'll drop links there as well at Dustin Pead, P-E-A-D, Instagram, LinkedIn, where else? Facebook, YouTube, places like that. So yeah, you can find me there. You go to DustinPead.com slash free to pick up any resources, but check out Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and start morning pages. Start that five to ten minute ritual or rhythm every single morning when you first wake up. And I promise over time, you'll start to see a difference. You'll start to notice things. You'll start to be more observant and you'll definitely start to be more creative.

I'll be back with regular content. I've got some really important episodes coming up that I'm super pumped about and I can't wait to share with you next time on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 118: KYSS (Keep Your Systems Simple)

Why Complex Systems Kill Creative Momentum

SUMMARY

The most powerful systems in your creative business aren't the complex ones with 17 steps and five different apps. They're the ones that you can explain to someone in under two minutes and implement tomorrow.

If you're proudly running what you call "comprehensive project management systems" that involve seven different apps, a 23-step onboarding process, and a flow chart that looks like a busy subway map, this episode is for you. While each component may have solved a specific problem over the years, chances are half your team is using workarounds and the other half is avoiding projects altogether because the system feels too overwhelming.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ The KYSS Principle: Keep Your Systems Simple - if it's not simple, it won't be sustainable

• ⚡️ The Two-Minute Rule: Any system that takes longer than two minutes to explain is too complex for consistent adoption

• ⚡️ User Satisfaction > System Sophistication: Focus on what your team will actually use, not what has the most features

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "If it's not simple, it won't be sustainable."

• 💬 "Consistency creates confidence - you can use that in any aspect of your life or creative process."

• 💬 "Your systems should serve your creativity, not complicate it."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️DO vs DUE Framework - Transform deadline-driven chaos into proactive work planning

• ⚡️Free Templates & Tools - Supporting resources for all frameworks

• ⚡️Books mentioned: "The Laws of Simplicity" by John Maeda, "Getting Things Done" by David Allen

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

The most powerful systems in your creative business aren't the complex ones with 17 steps and five different apps. They're the ones that you can explain to someone in under two minutes and implement tomorrow. Let's get into it.

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, videographers, all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical and actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coaching consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams to create with efficiency as they scale together.

I'd love for you to subscribe, rate, review wherever you're listening or watching this podcast episode. We have new episodes that drop every single Thursday and some additional content released in between. If you're interested in any of the free resources that I mentioned in any of my episodes, you can go to dustinpead.com slash free. That's D-U-S-T-I-N P-E-A-D.com slash free. And you can follow me on social media channels at Dustin Pead. All right, let's dive into today's episode.

I want to start by asking you this and ask yourself, am I describing you? Is this you? Do you proudly own what you may refer to as some comprehensive project management systems? Do they involve seven different apps and a 23 step onboarding process and a flow chart that looks like a busy subway map for a major city? Has each component solved a specific problem that you've encountered over the years?

I'm willing to bet that half your team is using their own workarounds and the other half is avoiding projects altogether because the system feels too overwhelming to even navigate. You may have forgotten along the way the most important rule of systems. If it's not simple, it won't be sustainable.

So today I want to introduce you to what I call the KISS principle. No, not keep it simple, stupid. The KYSS. Keep your systems simple and replace your subway map with three core processes that every team member could explain and implement. Your project completion rate could probably increase by about 40 percent after you do this and you won't be working weekends to catch up on administrative tasks. So let's dive into the simplicity imperative.

Listen, complex systems don't fail because they're wrong. They fail because they're unusable. So let's break down the psychology of system adoption. People need to understand before they can implement. There's this cognitive load that increases resistance to adoption. You need to simplify systems that get used because complex systems get abandoned and that comes with some costs, right?

It comes with training time, multiplies with each additional step. Error rates increase exponentially with system complexity. You have maintenance that becomes a full time job just to maintain the systems. And this is why creative professionals resist complicated systems. Their creative minds prefer intuitive workflows, things they don't have to think too hardly about. Administrative burden kills creative momentum. Nobody wants to constantly be having to fix the system to use the system because complex systems feels like barriers to creative expression.

And this directly connects to our do versus due framework that the best systems create margin, not additional work. You can see more about that on dustinpead.com slash free. As productivity expert David Allen notes in his famous book, Getting Things Done, the best organizational system is the one you'll actually use consistently, not the one with the most features. This is why Apple has become so popular amongst creatives is because their systems are so simple to use. Anybody could figure it out. It's completely intuitive.

So let me share with you what I think are the four pillars of simple systems. They must include these four aspects. They must be explainable, memorable, repeatable, and scalable. All right, so let's start with explainable. This is what I implement, the two minute rule. If you can't explain your system in two minutes or less, it's way too complex.

Every team member should be able to teach it to somebody else. You should be able to hand it down the line. And the visual aids that you create should enhance it by simplifying it, not complicating the explanation. So that's number one, explainable.

Number two needs to be memorable. Sticky systems stick around. Simple as that. Sticky systems stick around. Use acronyms, alliteration, or memorable phrases like I use with the do versus due framework. Sounds like I'm saying the same thing, so you're immediately intrigued. It's not, it's D-O versus D-U-E, and I can explain that whole system in under 30 seconds. I've practiced it many, many times.

Another part to make it memorable is to connect new processes to existing habits. And you can do this by creating visuals or verbal hooks that make systems unforgettable. So we got explainable, memorable.

The third one is to make it repeatable. Consistency creates confidence. I'm gonna say that again. Consistency creates confidence. You can use that in any aspect of your life or any aspect of your creative process that repeatable processes and systems. It's consistency that creates confidence. It's the same process with the same outcome every single time and so if you can eliminate decision fatigue by standardizing common scenarios then you're gonna create consistency every single time. And with that, you're going to build in checkpoints that ensure quality without adding additional complexity.

So we've got explainable, memorable, repeatable. And the last one is make it scalable. Growth just because your business grows, which we all want, it shouldn't break your system. So you need to design for your future team size, not just for your current capacity. Keep that in mind. You always want to be designing your systems to be just about one notch larger than what you currently are and every time you notch up you need to readjust the system, keeping it simple. We'll talk about readjusting systems here in a little bit, but keeping them flexible enough to adapt but stable enough to rely on. Your systems should be able to be taught to new team members without extensive training.

So let's talk about this simplification process. Simplifying existing systems requires strategic subtraction, not addition. Creatives love to add things. We can do this, and we could do this, and we could do this, and what if this, and what if this. And next thing you know, you've got a 23 step process system with the subway map that we talked about at the beginning of this.

So I want to encourage you to audit your current systems. There's three ways I want you to do that, three steps really. Number one, I want you to list every tool, app, and process that you currently use. And I'm going pause right there for a second and say, if there are some that didn't make that list, but you know those processes exist somewhere, they're probably unnecessary. So clean out your SOP folder and get rid of it.

So first, list every tool, app and process currently in use. Secondly, I want you to identify overlap and redundancy and unused components. Where is this creating unnecessary friction? And lastly, I want you to measure the actual use versus the intended use. How is it actually being used and how was it intended to be used? Sometimes the best part of a system is right at the top to explain in one sentence, two max of what the intended usage should be.

So as you're going through your current systems with that audit, what would happen if you eliminated the least used components? If there's components as you're going through it, you're like, we kind of do steps one and two, but we don't really do steps three and four, but we definitely finish off with step five. Well, then three and four probably need to go away or be re looked at again, right?

So you need to create that system success criteria. And again, the way we do that is defining what success looks like before we build. We always begin with the end in mind. You want to measure the adoption rates, not the feature counts. How many people are actually adopting this system and using it? And you also want to consider user satisfaction over system sophistication. I'm say that again. User satisfaction is greater than system sophistication.

Again, this is where Apple separates themselves. You can tell I'm an Apple loyalist. That's where they separate themselves from Microsoft because they are more interested in user satisfaction, whereas Microsoft tends to be all about the system sophistication and what all it can do.

As design legend John Maeda explains in his book, The Laws of Simplicity, the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. Knowing what to subtract is often more valuable than knowing what to add. What makes a great creative professional is a great editor. Knowing what to subtract away, what to leave on the cutting room floor, not to continually add more things in. We know it when we see it when we drive by a coffee shop and they're advertising how they now sell pizza. That's not good, right? We're like, hey, how about you get really good at coffee and not worry about selling pizza? I use that analogy all the time. And if you've heard this podcast before, you probably heard that analogy before. So I'm sorry. It sticks out my mind because I saw it once and I can never get rid of it.

Now let's talk about how to implement these simple processes without overwhelm. The transition to simpler systems should be simple too. Right. It shouldn't be overwhelming to take your processes from complex to simple. So let's talk about a gradual rollout here. We're going to implement one system at a time, not everything at once. You can roll out and cast some vision for a week or two. Then you can allow two or three weeks for adoption before you even add in the next component. You need to get team buy-in through early wins not through comprehensive overhauls.

And the way you do that, I love to do this in all my teams, is to promote adoption champions. This is somebody who is like super optimistic about everything. Once you know that you have the system the way that you want it and you've tested it against your skeptics, now it's time to promote the adoption champion. This is someone who's gonna embrace new processes naturally and let them be champions. Let them teach others rather than mandating the stuff from the top down. Let it come out horizontally sometimes, not vertically. And celebrate those early adopters. That'll create positive momentum.

Another aspect I want you to consider is to build in some feedback loops. No system is perfect. Every system has its flaws and it can always be getting better. But that doesn't mean we have to iterate so much that we don't understand what the system is anymore. So just build in some regular check-ins probably during that first month you want to look at like some weekly check-ins of the implementation during the beginning phases, right?

You want to create easy ways for team to suggest improvements maybe there's a comment section on your SOPs or if you're using a Google Doc that can drop a comment in there if you're using internal communications like teams or slack or whatever you can send that stuff right over create a channel dedicated to the new system and be willing to adjust based on that real world usage in your mind when you were simplifying the process, you're like, yeah, this is really all it needs. This would be great. But when the rubber hits the road, that might even still be too complex. And so you need to understand that your team members may come back and say, hey, look, the way we're actually using the system, we could probably even cut out another 20 percent of this to make it even more memorable, more explainable, more repeatable and more scalable.

So what are we going to do now? Well, how do we take this and run with it? Number one, I want you to conduct a system inventory this week. List every tool and app and process that your team currently uses, parentheses, or doesn't use, right? Identify which ones haven't been used in the last 30 days, right? Again, that's what I'm talking about. Maybe they're ones that exist that don't need to exist. And then want you to calculate the actual cost, the time and the money of maintaining each system component. Super, super important.

Number two. I want you to apply that two minute explanation test, right? You're going to pick your most important workflow process and you're going to time yourself explaining it to someone who's unfamiliar with your business. And if it takes you longer than two minutes, you need to identify what can be simplified or eliminated.

Number three, create your essential functions list. I want you to write down the five core functions that your system absolutely must perform every single time. And I want you to compare that list, get real ruthless and compare that list with your current system capabilities. And in that eliminate or consolidate anything that doesn't directly support those essentials.

Number four, choose one system to simplify this quarter, right? Start with the system that frustrates your team the most and apply the explainable, memorable, repeatable and scalable criteria. Test that simplified vision for a week or two before making any permanent changes. And make sure you communicate that this is a beta phase. This is a time for us to be testing it.

So many times leaders will unroll these process changes and their team, because they weren't communicated, will assume that this is the way it's gonna be now. If you can be ultra clear that, we're not settling here, we're just testing this. You need to reiterate that over and over again so that their expectations are clear.

And lastly, number five, establish some simplification standards. This is the criteria for evaluating all of your future systems. Require every new tool or process to pass this KISS test, the KYSS, keep your systems simple test. Make simplicity a core value for your team's operating principle.

Remember, you can find the templates and tools that support any of these processes at dustinpead.com slash free. I want to point out a couple of books that we mentioned in today's episode, the laws of simplicity by John Maeda, getting things done by David Allen. You can also check out my do versus due the DO versus DUE framework online at dustinpead.com.

So in conclusion, the most successful creative professionals that I work with, they're not the ones with the most sophisticated systems. They're the ones with the most sustainable systems. And sustainable systems are by definition simple systems. Remember, your systems should serve your creativity, not complicate it. When you keep your systems simple, you create space for what matters most. Doing your best creative work serving your clients with excellence start with just one system this week apply the kiss principle the KYSS Principle make it explainable memorable repeatable and scalable your future self and your entire team will thank you.

Next week in episode 119 we're diving into the beauty of completing. We're exploring how the simple act of finishing tasks and projects on time with margin creates a powerful dopamine cycle that propels your creative work forward. We're gonna look at why completion is often more valuable than perfection, and I'll share some ideas for building momentum through strategic finishing. If you've ever struggled with project completion or you find yourself constantly starting new things before finishing current ones, this episode will give you the tools that you need to break the cycle and discover the incredible freedom that comes from true completion.

Again, for more practical frameworks and free resources to help you move from creative chaos to sustainable clarity, visit dustinpead.com and follow me at dustinpead on social media. Get out there and create with clarity this week. We'll talk to you next time on Creativity Made Easy.

Ep 117: Mid-Year Review

How Creative Pros Can Reset Goals & Reclaim Focus

SUMMARY

Just like a football coach makes strategic adjustments at halftime, successful creative entrepreneurs know that mid-year is the perfect time to evaluate what's working and pivot from what isn't. We're officially past the halfway point of 2025, and if you're like most creative professionals, you've been so focused on staying busy that you haven't stopped to ask the crucial question: Are the systems and strategies you put in place six months ago still serving you today?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Scope creep becomes normalized over time when expectations aren't clearly defined upfront, slowly eroding your profitability and margin.

• ⚡️ Regular audits of where your time and energy go are essential for maintaining sustainable profitability in creative businesses.

• ⚡️ Strategic focus beats scattered effort every time—especially in the creative industry where attention is your most valuable resource.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Don't you want to wake up on Monday morning and go, 'I am ready today for some unexpected opportunities to come our way. And I'm ready today for some creative breakthrough.' The only way that you'll be ready for that is if you reclaim your margin."

• 💬 "Many of us have goals that we had at the beginning of the year, but sometimes halftime adjustments require shifting goals with the new knowledge that you've gained during the first half of the year. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

• 💬 "The goal of the halftime assessment is not to judge yourself for what didn't go perfectly in the first half. It's about being strategic and intentional with the time and energy that you have now left in the year moving forward."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt

• ⚡️The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry

• ⚡️Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Just like a football coach makes strategic adjustments at halftime, successful creative entrepreneurs know that mid-year is the perfect time to evaluate what's working and pivot from what isn't. Today we're diving into how to conduct a strategic business review that sets you up for a powerful second half of the year. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant. And I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can create with efficiency as they scale together.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, wherever you're listening, I would love for you to subscribe, rate and review. It just helps get this content out further to those like yourself who can benefit from it. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm so glad that you're here. I would love for you to hit the like button, subscribe and ring the bell. All three of those buttons again will help get this content out further to those like you and will help keep you in the know when new content is dropped like this every single week.

Also want to direct you to dustinpead.com slash free for any of my resources that I mentioned in this podcast episode, as well as some other books and assets that I've curated over time that I think are valuable for all creative pros. Lastly, you can follow me on social media at dustinpead D-U-S-T-I-N P-E-A-D. I'm on most of the big ones, not necessarily on TikTok, but on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. Yeah, YouTube, all that stuff.

So let's dive into today's topic. Listen, most creative professionals, they're so focused on staying busy because busy is money, right? And serving clients that they never stop to ask the crucial question. Are the systems and strategies that I've put in place six months ago at the beginning of this year, are they still serving me today? Your business, if I could just speak frankly for you for a second, your business is not the same in July as it was in January. Your team, whether it be just yourself or others, you've learned some things and you've grown. Your clients have evolved. The market has shifted.

And yet we often keep running the same plays over and over and over again from our January playbook. And today we're going to walk through how to conduct your own halftime assessment and make some strategic adjustments that will set you up for a powerful second half. And I want to start with what is what I refer to and what most people would refer to in this situation as the reality check. So what's actually happening versus what you think is happening?

Most creative professionals are making decisions based on feelings and assumptions rather than the actual data about their business performance. Look, being busy, yes, it can equate money, but it doesn't always equate being productive or even being profitable, right? And so there's a difference between activity and achievement.

So what I walk through with my clients in this situation is we use the Eisenhower matrix, which is how you determine what's the most urgent and important work. And so I do this at least once a month, or I brain dump, or I pull from my project management system, all the tasks that are on our plate, or all the projects really that are on our plate, not necessarily the tasks, but the projects, I'll pull them, dump them all out, and I'll get real ruthless about going through this. I've talked about this many times in this podcast before. But I'll get real ruthless going through that list and say, yes, that's urgent, but it's really not super important right now. I would love to get that done, but it's really not important right now. Or you might look at some things, they're like, wow, that's super important, but it doesn't need to happen right now. We will do it, but it doesn't need to happen right now. And some things you'll look at and you'll like, why are we even considering doing this? Why is this on our plate? This is just sidetracking us and taking us down a path that we don't need to go. And those are neither urgent or important. And then lastly, you'll identify what truly is your urgent, most urgent and most important work. And usually if you've done your list right, that's going to equate to about 20 percent of the projects that you have at any given time.

I love pastor leader, Craig Groeschel gives this advice and I use this probably monthly, quarterly somewhere in there every so often to I'll pull up in my remarkable and I'll ask myself, where am I right now? Right now. What are my, how many projects do I have? How many clients do I have? What does my revenue stream look like? What are my processes and systems look like? All that stuff. What's my client satisfaction rates? All things that I'm working on building into a dashboard for our business that we can be able to pull those things in a moment's notice. But I really take some time to think through where am I right now? And the second thing he asked is, okay, well, where do you want to go? And then you can begin to see where you're at now and where you want to go. And you can see there's a difference there, right? There's a mathematical difference, right? I want three clients, but I only have two clients. I want this much revenue, but I only have this much revenue. I want this much project success rate, but I'm only at this percentage right now. And so the third question you asked yourself is what's blocking your progress? Now this is where you may need a coach like me to come in and help really kind of look at this from a different angle and what's blocking your process. Sometimes it's systems and processes, right? Sometimes it's sales. Sometimes it's confidence. Sometimes it's actual creativity and innovation. It could be a myriad of things. It could be your team. It could be bringing on the wrong type of client. It could be offering the wrong type of service. There's so many different things that could be blocking your progress. So where am I now? Where do I want to go? And what's blocking my progress? And then he says, you tackle the problem, right? You tackle that what's blocking my progress. You go after that to solve that problem and then you start all over and then month or three months later you go where am I now? Where do I want to go? And what's blocking the progress? I do that very often and I've walked several of my clients through that as well to be able to analytically be able to see where we're at and where we need to go and what's blocking us from getting there.

There are some common blind spots like we talked about before but I want to just call them out individually here. Scope creep is a real thing. It's a real thing for all business owners, but it's even more so, I think, a problematic real thing for creative professionals. And what happens over time is that scope creep becomes normalized. And if you're not familiar with what scope creep is, I've talked about it many times on this podcast before, but I'll just summarize. Essentially, client comes to you and says, I want this project done. And you say, OK, this is the price it's going to cost to get done. They say, great, let's get on to on with it. But over time, they start to add more and more to the project because you weren't clear and they weren't clear in the beginning about those expectations. And so the scope of the project begins to creep upward. That's why they call it scope creep.

Another blind spot that you'll hit often is different team members maybe operating below capacity. You might be thinking, I don't want to bother that team member right now. They have enough on their plate. But have you really stopped and asked if they do have enough on their plate?

Another blind spot is revenue streams. They might look good on paper, but they're draining you of your resources. Oh man, this client's gonna give me this much money to do this, sign me up. But then you look at your resources and you go, why am I draining my resources? Because you said yes to the wrong revenue stream. And sometimes we need to step back and do the urgent and important, the Eisenhower matrix. Sometimes we need to go through those questions that Craig Groeschel offers us. And other times we just need to audit where our time and our energy is going. This is a concept from Dan Martell. And I have a free template for the time and energy audit to get honest about where you're investing your most valuable resources. So go over dustinpead.com slash free, up the free time and energy audit. I have a little video there explaining how I use it as well.

Michael Hyatt teaches us in his book, your best year ever, which I read every single December as I get ready to prepare. Cause it's a small book. As I get ready to prepare for the new year, his book best year ever. He teaches us about the importance of regular reviews and course corrections rather than waiting until December to evaluate progress. Look, December or the new year only comes around once a year. Let's say you're in business for 20 years. Can you, are you really going to limit your course corrections and your evals to only 20 times in the life of your business? I don't think that's a good call. I think you need to be doing it regularly, at least quarterly, if not monthly, I would be reviewing some of these things.

So let's talk about how to reclaim your margin a bit because the stuff that happens from January to June slowly over time eats away at some margin that you may have built up. Your project management and deadline approach that worked in January, it might be creating some unnecessary stress and missed opportunities by the time we're here in July. There are project timelines and client expectations that may have shifted since January. Client relationships may have evolved in different comfort levels. There's team skills that may have developed or changed your capacity for to be able to hand things off. There's different market demands that require different turnaround times. All of this is stuff that you need to take into consideration.

So in order to reclaim your margin, I offer the do versus due framework, the DO versus the DUE framework. And I want you to review your current project portfolio and build a plan to reclaim your margin for the second half. And you're going to do this by building in summer and holiday considerations. Yes, summer is only halfway over. So you can still plan for those summer and holiday considerations. Summer, yes, now. Holiday at the end of the year. You're going to think about what's going to happen when November comes and we have Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's all within a span of about five and a half weeks or so. What are we going to do then? Having a plan before that happens will allow you to maintain the margin that you've built up throughout the year. You need to plan for that team time off and the reduced capacity during those holidays and during those times where you know someone may be out or a client may be gone, need to plan ahead, be proactive about those things. Create proactive timelines that account for your year-end rush. Fourth quarter is a great time for business owners because there's a lot of people that are looking to spend surplus money that they have that they need to get done or get a jumpstart on projects for the new year during the holidays. And so there's a great time there, but you have to be proactive about those timelines to account for that year-end rush. And lastly, I would say as you're working through the year, every single year, you should be taking notes for your 12 month outlook moving forward. And I talk about this on my website and past podcast episodes as well. The 12 month outlook is basically saying, are the things, what are the rhythms that happen in and around my business every single year? And when do they happen? When you can identify those, then you can begin to plan and preparation for those before they come up.

Todd Henry, who I love, I keep many of his books on my desk every single day. But he talks about in his kind of cornerstone book, The Accidental Creative, he talks about the importance of creating margin for unexpected opportunities and creative breakthrough. So reclaim that margin for unexpected opportunities and creative breakthrough. Don't you strive, don't you wanna wake up on Monday morning and go, I am ready today for some unexpected opportunities to come our way. And I'm ready today for some creative breakthrough. The only way that you'll be ready for that is if you reclaim your margin.

We talked a little bit earlier about team development, but there's also system evolution that happens over time. Systems that were working for you back in January may not be working for you now in July. The team's capabilities or capacity that you had in January may be different, positive or negative than what you now have here in July. So your organizational structure needs to evolve along with them. Start with your team members and how we can evaluate their growth and new capabilities. So your team has developed new skills, right? What are those new skills? Write those things down. You should be having regular one on ones with your team anyway. So be asking those questions. What new skills have you picked up? What responsibilities that they have taken on need to be delegated or redistributed. This is really good for the Eisenhower matrix You can sit down in your one-on-one and you can dump all the projects that they have on their plate and you as their leader can say these are the things that are most urgent and important to us as an organization and there may be some non-urgent non-important things on there that need to be eliminated. There may be some urgent but not important things that need to be delegated. There may be some important but not urgent things that might just need to be procrastinated or redistributed a little bit. You want to look at optimizing all of these things with team based on real usage data, the teams and systems. What systems are your team actually using and how are they using it? What does that look like for them? Again, in your one-on-ones, you should be regularly asking which tools and processes that are actually being used and ask them for their feedback on it. Always be creating, right, ABC, but always be improving as well. And in those moments and in those conversations, and if you haven't had a one-on-one yet with your team member this year, I urge you as soon as this episode is over to stop and do that and ask them these questions. Find out where the friction exists in your workflows, because in your mind, all the connected pieces may work perfectly, but when the rubber hits the road, it may actually cause more harm than good.

And something that we're doing right now with all of our clients is we're looking, how can we simplify our processes even more? We start with simple processes, but over time they become complex, right? So it's important over time to go, let's simplify back, simplify back, simplify back. You have to constantly be re simplifying your processes and systems. One great way to do this is using the future you note taking methodology. I use this to document knowledge and context for as we're transferring from one project to the next. And so what information gaps have emerged over the past six months that you need to let your future self know about when you pick up that project? Again, there's been multiple recent episodes on the future you methodology, so I won't get too into that. But that's something that you can apply as you begin to take notes for your future self. This will allow you to create some sustainable handoff processes for the second half. Is there something that you're doing or another team member is doing that needs to be handed off using the future you methodology, which is a note taking methodology for your future self to remember the current context will help as you hand those things off. And you can say, here's all the context I have for this project and I need you to take it to the finish line.

You also need to review your client relationships. How have your client relationships deepened? How have they strengthened? Are there been new service opportunities that have emerged that you've discovered through working with your clients? Are there pricing or scope conversations that need to happen? Right? Is there pricing changes that are now possible? Are there scope changes that are now possible? All of these things we need to be reviewing on a regular basis. And Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. That's a mouthful. They discuss in their book rework, which is fantastic. They talk about the importance of regularly questioning and optimizing business systems rather than just accepting how things are done, right? Constantly we go, well, it's just the way we've done it. That's just the way we do it around here. It doesn't have to be that way. You can rework those things just like they tell us in the book and you can optimize your business systems for maximum efficiency as often as you review them.

I want to speak to this point lastly, before we close today about pivoting your second half planning. Many of us have goals that we had at the beginning of the year, but sometimes halftime adjustments require shifting goals with the new knowledge that you've gained during the first half of the year. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think you're a different person this month than you were in January of this year. Your business is different this month than it was in January of this year. You've learned a lot of things, maybe some hard lessons that you've had to learn, but also maybe some really amazing things that you've picked up along the way.

So because of that, maybe it's time to revisit those goals at the beginning of the year. I do this quarterly and I revisit my goals every quarter. But if you haven't and at the end of Q1, we're now at the beginning of Q3 and it's a perfect time to revisit those goals where you said back in January, I want to do this. And again, I'll urge you to simplify, simplify, simplify. If you had 10 goals for this quarter for Q3 at the beginning of the year, I would urge you, maybe you look at what the most important two or three are. What's the most urgent and important two or three goals that you can reset your mind on for the second half of the year.

So I want to give you a few action steps so that you can conduct your own halftime assessment with your creative business. Number one, the most important reclaim your margin and how you do this is you can identify where you can create margin in your current project timeline. So look at your current project timeline, look at your pipelines, look at your production pipelines and start to ask yourself some real critical critical questions and start to build in those buffers for the busy seasons that are coming ahead. Number two, you need to conduct team capability interviews. Just spend 30 minutes with each team member and ask them what's working well, what's frustrating, what would you like to learn or to take on? And you'll be surprised of the opportunities that emerge. Lastly, you need to create your second half focus. Choose those two to three areas where the small adjustments could create significant momentum and then build just a short window, a 30, 60 or 90 day action plan around those things that you can refocus your goals from the beginning of the year of what is most urgent and important.

A few resources I mentioned throughout this. I want to call out again, Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt, the Accidental Creative by Todd Henry, all of these will be in the show notes for you to click the links on as well. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Some different frameworks that I mentioned on here, the time and energy audit, the do versus due framework, the future you framework, all available at dustinpead.com slash free. So go pick those up and start implementing them today.

If there's one thing I need you to remember before you end this episode is I need you to remember that the goal of the halftime assessment is not to judge yourself for what didn't go perfectly in the first half. It's about being strategic and intentional with the time and energy that you have now left in the year moving forward. The past is the past. You can't change it, but you can adjust moving forward. Your January self made decisions with the information that they had available then, but your July self has six more months experience than your January self. Six more months of knowledge, six more months of relationship capital to work with. So the creative professionals who thrive, they're the ones who regularly pause to assess and adjust. So pause, assess, adjust. Pause, assess, adjust. I want you to remember that this week. They're not afraid to pivot when they discover a better path. They're willing to eliminate the good things that make room for great things. Trade in the good for the great.

For more frameworks or resources to help you scale your creative business with systems that actually work, visit dustinpead.com and click on the free resources button. Connect with me on social media at dustinpead. I'd love to hear about what adjustments you're making for a strong second half. Next week, we're going to tackle something that trips up almost every creative professional I work with. Kiss productivity. Keep it simple, stupid, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about how to keep your systems simple. KYSS. See how I did there? Changed the I to Y. KYSS productivity. Keep your systems simple. How can we simplify, simplify, simplify? Something that we talked about in today's episode earlier. We're going to explore the most elaborate productivity systems, how they often fail, and how to build sustainable workflows that actually stick. I'll share simple frameworks that help creative teams eliminate overwhelm without sacrificing results, and we'll get into all that next week. But if you ever felt like you spend more time managing your productivity system than actually being productive, that episode is going to be for you. So I cannot wait to spend that time with you next week.

Get out there and create something amazing today. Can't wait to talk to you next time. Creativity Made Easy podcast.

Ep 116: Consider

The #1 Brain Hack Creative Professionals Can't Operate Without

SUMMARY

There's one simple brain hack that separates creative professionals who thrive from those who constantly feel behind and overwhelmed. Today we're diving into the Future You note-taking methodology—the most powerful productivity shift you can make to eliminate context switching and create seamless creative flow.

Picture this: It's 3 PM on a Tuesday, and you're staring at a task in your project management system that says "finish the Johnson proposal." You click on it, looking for any notes about what that actually means, and find nothing. No context, no details about where you left off, no indication of what "finish" actually means.

Sound familiar? This scenario plays out countless times for creative professionals who haven't discovered what I call the Future You methodology.

Here's a staggering statistic: Most creative professionals lose 23 minutes every time they have to figure out where they left off on a project. That's the same amount of time it takes to fully refocus after an interruption. For creatives, every vague task becomes a productivity killer.

Your brain isn't designed for modern creative work. We evolved for immediate, context-rich activities, but creative work requires jumping between multiple projects and contexts constantly. Without clear documentation, each transition becomes a mental reset.

Core Principle: Treat Future You Like a Stranger

The breakthrough comes when you start treating your future self like a completely different person—someone who needs detailed instructions, context, and clear next steps. Assume they have zero context and no retention between work sessions.

The Three Essential Elements: What, Why, Where

Every task needs three types of information:

1. WHAT - Clear, specific action required

• Start with action verbs: review, create, finalize, research

• Include specific deliverables or outcomes

• Define what "done" looks like

2. WHY - Context for decisions and direction

• Why is this task happening?

• What decisions led to this point?

• How does this fit into the bigger picture?

3. WHERE - Current status and next logical steps

• Where are we at right now?

• What are the next logical steps?

• What files or resources are needed?

The Handoff Test

Your task documentation should pass this simple test:

• Can someone else pick this up and make progress?

• Are all necessary context clues included?

• Are the next steps obvious and actionable?

⚡️ Key Takeaways

⚡️ Each well-documented task saves 10-20 minutes of context recovery time - If you document just 6 tasks per day properly, you'll save a full hour of productive time.

⚡️ Context switching is costing you creative energy - Every moment spent figuring out what you meant in a vague task is a moment stolen from your creative potential.

⚡️ Future You methodology creates compounding productivity gains - The extra 10-20 seconds you spend documenting now pays dividends every time you return to that task.

💬 Notable Quotes

💬 "Every vague task for you or your team is a productivity killer."

💬 "I need you to paint done for me. I need you to close your eyes and paint a picture with your words of what done looks like."

💬 "Future You methodology isn't just a better task management hack—it's about respecting your creative energy and using it for what matters most."

What You Can Do Now

1. Conduct a Task Audit

Review your current project management system. Click through your tasks and see if descriptions are blank or vague. If they are, Future You will thank you for fixing them.

2. Implement the Three-Part Structure

For every new task, include:

• What: The action needed

• Why: The context and reasoning

• Where: Current status and next steps

3. Create Context Templates

Develop standard templates for common creative tasks like revisions, client feedback integration, and team handoffs.

4. Use Meeting Recordings for Context

Record meetings and use AI tools to extract tasks with full context. This ensures nothing gets lost in translation from discussion to implementation.

Resources

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

The Future You methodology transforms how you handle creative work by eliminating the mental archaeology that kills productivity. When you stop wasting mental energy on context recovery, you free yourself to focus on the creative work that only you can do.

Ready to implement systems that actually work? Visit dustinpead.com for more resources and follow @dustinpead for daily insights on creative systems and processes.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals looking to scale their business with systems and processes that actually work. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, and I help creative teams move from chaos to clarity so that they can focus on what they do best—creating amazing work. Whether you're a designer, agency owner, creative director, or leading an in-house team, this show is designed to give you practical frameworks and actionable strategies that you can implement today. We're not here to talk theory. We're here to help you build systems that free your creativity and scale your impact.

I want to start with this story. Picture this: It's three o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday and you're staring at your task in your project management system that says "finish the Johnson proposal"—whatever that's supposed to mean. So you click on it, look in the description for any notes at all as to what that means, and nothing. There's no context whatsoever. No details about where you left off to even begin to finish it. There's no indication of what "finish" actually means. And so you end up spending the next 20 minutes trying to remember what you were thinking when you wrote that task. You start digging through emails and basically doing detective work on your own brain.

Does this sound familiar to you? This is the exact scenario that has played out in my life dozens of times before I discovered what I now call the Future You methodology. It came to me one day when I was thinking about the joke where someone's like, "That's not a today you problem, that's a future you problem." That's why you make poor health decisions or maybe do things that you shouldn't do because you think, "Oh, that's a future me problem." And one day it hit me—yeah, it is a future me problem, but I can set up future me for success.

I realized that I was constantly setting up my future self for failure. And the way I was doing that was by assuming that I was actually gonna remember the context that my present self had crystal clear in mind. When you get to the point where you're like, "I gotta stop, I gotta go, somebody came in and interrupted me, and now I gotta do this other thing"—you had all the context in that moment, but when you go back later to finish it or to continue another part of the project, you forget it.

So the breakthrough came for me when I started treating my future self like a completely different person—someone who needed detailed instructions, context, and clear next steps. And once I made that shift, everything changed. No more context switching, no more mental archaeology, no more detective work, no more starting every work session by trying to figure out what past me was thinking.

Listen to this staggering statistic: Most creative professionals lose 23 minutes every time they have to figure out where they left off on a project. Twenty-three minutes—the same 23 minutes that it takes to fully refocus after an interruption. For creatives, this includes unclear tasks. Every vague task becomes a productivity killer. I'm going to say that again: Every vague task for you or your team is a productivity killer.

Your brain isn't designed for modern creative work. Our brains evolved for immediate, context-rich activities, but modern creative work requires jumping between multiple projects and contexts. We can't have the onboarding call with the client for a video project and then jump right into all the pre-production work and then jump right into the actual production onset stuff and then jump right into post-production editing and then jump right into revisions—there just aren't enough hours in the day for that. So there's constant context switching, even if it's just from one day to the next.

What I'm getting at here is that without some clear documentation, each transition becomes a mental reset. The creative professional's dilemma is documentation—we move fast and we assume that we're gonna remember the details, but there's so much creative energy going on in our brains at all times that we end up wasting that creative energy on administration instead of creation because we're trying to dig through our emails and trying to figure out what this project was supposed to be again. We turn in something that was totally off topic because we didn't set future us up for success.

Teams suffer when handoffs lack context. We don't have the same person doing the onboarding as the project kickoff as the pre-production research as the onset production as the post-production. We typically don't have the same people doing that. And so when we're handing things off from one part of the process to the next, we're losing context everywhere. There are context leaks all throughout.

That's why I've been working on this framework of the Future You methodology. And it connects directly with our DO versus DUE framework because when tasks lack proper context, we can't accurately estimate the time that's needed, and that throws off our entire margin calculation.

Let's get into this Future You principle. You need to think like your future self is essentially a stranger. That stranger needs detailed instructions on where to pick up where you left off. You need to treat future you like a totally different person. Assume they have zero context. Assume they have no retention or memory between work sessions.

Now, this doesn't mean you have to build out a full-level report. I'll show you here in just a few minutes—I showed you on the most recent couple episodes ago as well—a screenshot that I've been using often. You just need a simple two or three sentence description as to what the task is and the simple context. The context could be the bigger picture of the project and where this fits in, or the context could be where it's coming from—where that task is being handed off from—and where it's going handed off to next. Where does this fit in the piece of the puzzle?

You need to include decision-making context, not just outcomes. Provide the same level of detail that you would give a teammate—you're just the teammate, but tomorrow or next week or next month or next quarter or next year. Sometimes we even say, "I want to do this in our business every quarter, every year." I'm so guilty of this. My team will tell you—I'll say, "I want to do this in our business every quarter, every month, every year." And unless we write down the context in that task that we put into our Asana, when that next month, quarter, year comes up and we see a task that says "wellness retreat," we're like, "What is a wellness retreat? What am I supposed to do with that?" But when we're looking at the context and the future us context, we go, "Ah, yes, I remember we said we wanted to do this and this is exactly what it was that we said we're going to do."

There are three types of information that future you is going to need every single time: the what, the why, and the where.

What: Clear, specific action required. This is the description of the task. What is it that I'm actually supposed to be doing right now? I don't know what "finish Johnson proposal" even means. Who's Johnson? What's he got going on? My mind's been in a thousand different places since the last time we talked about the Johnson proposal.

Why: This is really where I love to put the future you context, or what I call "future me context" in the task description. That's the context for the decision that was made and the direction we're going. It's kind of both sides. If you're standing in the middle of the train track, where is the train coming from and where is the train going next?

That leads us to our last part, which is where: the current status and the next logical steps. Where are we at right here on this deal and what are the next logical steps to get us down the road?

What you'll start to see is this compounding effect of this good documentation or what I call the Future You note-taking methodology. I call it a methodology—it's not really a framework, it's just a method. But each well-documented task will ultimately end up saving you 10 to 20 minutes. So if you take the extra 10 to 20 seconds as you're finishing up one task before you move on to the next thing or before you move on to the end of your day, take the extra 10 to 20 seconds, write down a quick description of what's going to happen next, where it's coming from, why it's happening, and boom—you're off. You can take your hands off of it and you can relax because future you is gonna handle it the way they need to.

It's gonna reduce decision fatigue all throughout the day. You can imagine if each documented task saves you 10 to 20 minutes—let's say it only saves you 10 minutes, and let's say you have six tasks in a day to complete. Now, if you're like me, six would be great—I usually have more like 12 to 13—but if you had six tasks a day to complete, and if it was well documented with this Future You methodology, and it saves you 10 minutes each, that saves you a full hour on your day. A full hour.

It's gonna create momentum moving forward instead of friction. It's gonna allow you to delegate better and to collaborate better because you're gonna have freedom of mind. You're going to feel like you have a little bit more of that green zone that Carey Nieuwhof talks about in "At Your Best."

Now we all know the productivity expert David Allen—his book "Getting Things Done" features that whole methodology of next actions. But the Future You methodology takes it just a little bit further by ensuring that those actions actually have full context. It's not about just knowing what the next step is—that's 100% true, you do need to know what the next step is—but you need the context for that next step and the step after that and the step after that as you go down your work-back schedule in your task management system.

We're going to break down a task here just like we always talk about. We're going to start the task with a clear action verb: review, create, finalize, research, finish, continue if it has to be broken up into multiple parts. Then you're going to include specific deliverables or outcomes. What is the handoff at the end here? Is this a PDF? Am I just trying to get it to this status before it moves on to the next person or the next phase of the project that I'm not going to touch right now?

Define what "done" looks like. I use this all the time. Brené Brown talks about this in one of her books where she talks about "paint done for me." I will often say in a meeting, "I need you to paint done for me. I need you to close your eyes and paint a picture with your words of what done looks like here with this project, this task, this vision." When you think of what this looks like done, paint done for me. So define what done looks like for your future self.

And then obviously adding current status and the context notes—those future me notes—all of that comes together to create the perfect Future You methodology.

So you're sitting there, wrapping up a task or a project or a meeting. A lot of this happens in meetings. You want to capture the decisions that were made, yes, the tasks that are gonna have to go along with it, and the reasoning for those tasks. You want to include any relevant file locations or access information. How many times have you spent five to 10 minutes at the start of a project searching for where the file is? In most project management software these days, you can attach the file to it. So one of the things we work on at Chief Creative is that we constantly say, if it's gonna involve me referencing something or I'm gonna need a file to work with, why not just grab the link to that file—because it's probably in Dropbox or Google Drive or something—throw that link right into the task so that when I sit down to do that, everything I need is there. I got the full future me context, I know exactly what's happening, and I have all the files right at my fingertips.

If the task is dependent or there are certain items that you're waiting on, you can notate that as well so that when you get there, you know, "Ah, yes, I needed to follow up with Bill about this before I hand it off to Julie because that's how this thing is gonna go. I remember that now."

So when you got all that down, you need to do what we call the handoff test. The handoff test is simple: Can someone else pick this up and make progress on it? Could you call someone else from another department who has no idea what you do or why you do it, and could they look at that and go, "I think I could figure that out. I think I understand what you're saying here." That's how you know you got it good. And it needs to be concise and simple as possible so your brain doesn't have to read too much and take all that time doing that as well.

The second thing is: are all necessary context clues included within that task? That's the meat—the context is the meat of the Future You methodology. And then lastly: are the next steps obvious? "Obvious" is a big word here. I don't have to think about the next steps. It's super clear. It's obvious. Anyone would know. And are those next steps actionable? Going back to the verbs—is it a review, create, finalize, research, whatever it is—is it actionable or is it just an idea?

Having these things move from one part to the next will ensure success with your task and future self every single time.

Here's a few ways we see this play out all the time. At a project level, Future You methodology includes creative briefs that can include decision context, design iterations with notes and reasoning of why those choices were made, client feedback integration with different action implications, and status updates that tell the story, not just the facts of how you got to where you got to.

Then on team handoff protocols, there's stuff like designer to developer handoffs, account manager to creative team briefings, revision cycles with clear next steps, and client presentation prep with background information.

And then maybe you're just sitting there in your creative process and you're trying to integrate this concept, this Future You methodology. With concept development, you can document reasoning: Why did I choose this concept? Iteration cycles, you can use clear progression logic: How did I get there? Again, as much context as we can give, the better every single time for Future You.

Basecamp, which I'm not a huge fan of, but a lot of people use it—that project management system emphasizes context-rich communication. Context-rich communication aligns with what we're talking about when we talk about the Future You methodology principles: context-rich communication. Always think about context for Future You.

So what can we do now? I want to give you a few things that you can start doing immediately this week to implement this Future You methodology.

Number one: we always talk about a task audit or a project audit, or what Pixar would call a postmortem. We've done this thing, let's look back on it. Audit the tasks that are in our current project management system. Click on them, click around a little bit. See if there's anything in the description at all. If the descriptions are blank, you got a little bit more work to do. I promise you that future you is gonna thank you for it.

Number two: implement the three-part task structure where we talked about the what, which is the action; the why, which is the context; and the where, which is the current status and next steps. So enter what, why, and where. If you click on one of those and it's blank, just go: what is this, why is it, and where is it gonna go? Where is it coming from? Where is it gonna go? Where is it at right now?

Third thing: create context templates. Now, I'm not trying to template out every single thing, but if this is a real struggle for you, then maybe a template will help. So you can develop a standard template for common creative tasks like revisions.

If you're like me, I'm just gonna be straight up honest with you—I think I posted this on my blog earlier this week and kind of walked you through how, so I won't regurgitate too much here, but I will tell you what I do for Future You methodology the most is I record all my meetings—not because I'm trying to catch somebody saying something they shouldn't be saying. I'm recording my meeting for future me and I'm recording my meetings for future us and my team to know the context of everything.

So what I'm doing after those meetings is my team and I are taking the transcripts. We are running those through an AI program that we use called Claude, and we've got Claude programmed to know these are the things that we're looking for. I want you to build out the tasks that are our responsibility, the tasks that are someone else's responsibility with timelines and with this Future You context. And it always gives us the what, the why, and the where every single time. So we just take that stuff, put it right into Asana, forget about it, come back—we have the full context immediately. We pick up where we moved on.

I am still working on the Future You documentation templates, but I do want to tell you that as they come available, they're going to be at dustinpead.com/free. I might even put up a Google doc there temporarily just so that you can see, but you can go download this whole Future You documentation template. You can find that at dustinpead.com/free. As soon as I get it up there, I promise if it's not there when you listen to this, it'll be up there very shortly. And I'm sure I'll send an email out about it as well. So if you want to hop on our email list, go over to dustinpead.com/newsletter and hop on that email list.

Just a couple of shout-outs here: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, "Deep Work" by Cal Newport. Our Future You note-taking methodology—I'm working on building out some templates and things like that to go along with this, but at least you'll have something documented, some kind of notes to be able to have as you start to implement this with yourself and your team.

Listen, the Future You methodology isn't just a better task management hack. It's about respecting your creative energy and using it for what matters most. When you stop wasting mental energy on context recovery, you're going to free yourself up to focus on the creative work that only you can do. And that's why we're here.

So remember, every moment spent figuring out what you meant in a vague task is a moment stolen from your creative potential. And future you deserves much better than that. And your clients deserve the focused and energized creative professional that results from implementing this methodology.

So start today with just one project. Document everything like you're handing it off to a stranger and watch how this simple shift transforms not just your productivity, but the quality of your overall creative output.

I want to remind you: visit dustinpead.com for more resources and follow me at @dustinpead on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, places like that for daily insights on creative systems and processes.

Next week we're addressing the question that I hear most often from creative professionals: "I'm overwhelmed. What do I do?" We're going to break down the anatomy of what overwhelm is and why traditional time management advice constantly fails us creatives. We're gonna give you a step-by-step walkthrough for getting back to clarity when everything feels like it's urgent. We're gonna stretch that out and we're gonna strip that back a little bit.

So if you're drowning in deadlines, if you're struggling to prioritize or feeling like you're always behind no matter how hard you work, that episode's gonna be for you. We're gonna give you the tools that you need to breathe again and take back control of your creative practice.

I want to thank you so much for spending time with me today. Now go create something amazing with systems that actually work. We'll talk to you next time.

Ep 115: The Sustainable Studio

How to Balance Client Work and Internal Projects Without Burning Out

SUMMARY

Here's a question that keeps most creative entrepreneurs awake at night: How do you find time to work on your business when you're drowning in your business? If you've ever felt trapped in an endless cycle of client delivery with no time for strategic growth, this episode is your roadmap to freedom.

In this episode of Creativity Made Easy, we're solving the sustainable studio challenge—creating systems that protect time for the internal projects that actually fuel your growth without sacrificing client work or your sanity.

The Hidden Cost of Working Only "In" Your Business

Most creative businesses default to working in their business rather than on it. The difference? Working in your business means day-to-day operations—designing, shooting, editing, client delivery. Working on your business means strategy, development, and growth initiatives.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Key Takeaway #1: The sustainable equation for creative businesses is 80% working in the business and 20% working on it—but you must actively protect that 20%.

  ⚡️ Key Takeaway #2: Internal projects aren't overhead—they're investments that compound into better systems, stronger offerings, and sustainable creative practices.

  ⚡️ Key Takeaway #3: Building a 15% capacity buffer into all projects creates the temporal margin necessary for strategic business development.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Sustainable businesses prioritize stability and intentional growth over rapid scaling that burns out teams and compromises quality." —Paul Jarvis, Company of One

  💬 "Your calendar becomes the ceiling of your business."

  💬 "Most sustainable creative businesses aren't the ones that work the hardest—they're the ones that work the smartest."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Time & Energy Audit Template - Track where your time actually goes versus where value is created

• ⚡️DO vs DUE Framework - Transform deadline-driven chaos into proactive work planning

• ⚡️Company of One by Paul Jarvis - Essential reading on sustainable business growth

• ⚡️Time Tracking Tools: Harvest or Toggl (both offer free plans)

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Here's a question that keeps most creative entrepreneurs awake at night. How do you find time to work on your business when you're drowning in your business? Today, we're solving the sustainable studio challenge, creating systems that protect time for the internal projects that actually fuel your growth without sacrificing client work or your sanity.

Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency.

I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant. I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams to create with efficiency as they scale together. If you are new to the podcast, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. I would love for you, if you're listening on an audio podcast platform, to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. That helps get this content out further to those like yourself who can benefit from it.

If you're interested in grabbing any of the free resources that I mentioned on these episodes or on my social media, you can grab those at DustinPead.com slash free. That's D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D.com slash free for all sorts of free resources built just for you. And speaking of social media, I'm dropping some daily insights there. You can follow me mostly on Instagram, but you can also find me on Facebook and LinkedIn as well at Dustin Pead. Again, that's D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D.

All right, let's get into today's show talking about working on the business versus in the business. And first, let's start about defining the difference between the two. Working in the business is kind of like what we do on a day-to-day basis, right? It's client delivery, it's operations. If you're a designer, it's designing. If you're a photographer, it's shooting and editing, right? Like it's these types of things. But working on your business, right, is the strategy or the development or the growth of your business. And most creative businesses default to working in their business.

And there are some fatal long term costs to only working in your business. The first one is that client demands will continue to trump strategy. Now creatives often build businesses for passion or skill, not necessarily for structure. But when client work rolls in, it feels urgent and tangible, right? The money's here. Right now we got to go. So strategic planning doesn't. And so the result is that you get stuck in a loop of constant delivery. You push off the big picture work until things slow down. It's just a busy season right now. If you're saying that to yourself, then you're getting caught in what is known as the client demands trumping the strategy.

Secondly, your identity can become tied to your output. This is especially true for us as creative people, that designers, writers, filmmakers, and creatives, that we often see our value in what we produce. And so what you need to do is you need to shift from maker, right, on the ground level, to builder, right? It sounds like the same, but it's different. And when you do that, you feel like you're abandoning your craft. But actually what's happening is you're evolving it. Right? So just shift the phrase, I'm a maker to I'm a builder. Right? Because I'm not only am I building the creative output that I'm doing, whether it be photography or books or films or whatever it is. Right. But I'm not just making those. I'm building those and I'm building the industry and I'm building my business along with it. It's just a little bit of a verb change or verbal change there that will help you long term.

Another reason you might default to working in the business than ever working on the business is there's a complete lack of systems. Now we talk about this on the show all the time that without systems or standard processes, you become the bottleneck, right? So everything flows through you. And so you spend your time putting out fires rather than building fireproof systems.

Another reason we work in versus on is team dependence is underdeveloped, right? You hesitate to delegate because training someone feels like more work than just doing it ourselves. I hear this all the time. I talk to creatives. It's just faster if I do it. It is in that moment. 100%. You are right. It is faster if you do it, but long term, having the team underdeveloped will cost you. It will cost you the precious time that you enjoy working on some of the things that you were like working on.

In that same vein, you think that maybe nobody can match your quality. And to the most extent, you may be right, but you can also build a team and surround yourself with people that are actually better than you in certain areas. Maybe you're really great at on-set work, and you need some people who are really good at the post-production work, or vice versa, right? The mindset of thinking that no one can match your quality is gonna keep you stuck in every part of the operation, in the admin, in the client relations, in the sales, in the pre-production, the production, the post-production, all of it, right? It's gonna keep you stuck in every part of the situation. So develop your team.

There's a long-term cost here of neglecting to work on the business. And number one is burnout. Number one is burnout. If you're creative, you've experienced this before, it's the feeling that you never rise above the work. And because of it, you burn out and you begin to grow to resent what you once loved.

Second cost is plateaued growth, right? You can't scale what entirely depends on you in your hands, right? Revenue is going to flatten out. It's not going to continue to go up into the left and opportunities are going to stall. Your calendar becomes the ceiling of your business.

Thirdly, the long-term costs of not working on your business is inconsistent client experience, right? Because you don't have the systems and the team aligned, then every project feels like you're starting from scratch. And that inconsistency can hurt your reputation and referrals, which we know are a huge lifeblood in our industry.

Fourthly, there's no exit strategy, right? Businesses that only work when the founder works, they have no long term value. That means no sale, no succession and no passive income.

So how do we make the shift? Let's talk about what working on the business means. First thing, it means defining, right? First defining scalable processes. What does that look like for you and your business? It means delegating. Secondly, without losing quality, it means creating space for vision and innovation. And it means building a business that serves you, that doesn't enslave you. It serves you, doesn't enslave you.

A great way to start this is to use the time and energy audit. It'll help you identify how much time that you're currently spending in each category. It's been said by many business professionals who are very successful at working both in and on that the sustainable equation here is that you should be spending about 80% working, especially if you're just a solopreneur, right? 80% in the work and 20% on the work. Use that as a starting target. Now as the business grows, those are going to shift a little bit and you're going to work less in and you're going to work more on as you begin to delegate and lead those strategies with your brilliance in mind.

Working on rarely has external deadlines, which means it gets pushed aside unless you create artificial DUE dates for the internal DO work. So do not push it aside. Plan the work and work the plan.

So now we know why it's important and we know what we're talking about here about the difference between in and on. So let's get into how do we do this. Let's talk about some first thing we need to do is we need to build some margin into the business model because without it we won't have the time right to be able to work on it as much as we now know that we need to.

So first you need to understand that margin is not just financial it's also time bound as well. It's temporal right. It's creative and strategic all of those things have margin built into it. So you need to price the client work to include some business development time so consider the 15% rule building a 15% capacity buffer into all of your project timelines and project budgets.

In the construction industry, they call these things contingencies, right? They usually build a 10% contingency and that's usually just financial but what I'm suggesting here as well is that with this 15% buffer that I'm asking you to build in is not just in the financial part of it as well, because revisions and whatnot are going to come and that we didn't expect, right? But also to build it into the timeline, the project timelines as well.

Another thing you need to do to build margin is you need to create some sacred time blocks that are protected from client demands. For example, one way that I do this in my business is I take the first Thursday of every month and I do nothing but work on the business. Now there are other times throughout the month where I have set aside as well to work on the business, but as far as like solely dedicated, we do not book meetings or any type of development of any other kind of for clients. For me personally, my team can still work on it, but for me personally, I take that first Thursday of every single month to block that time away from client demands so that I can work on the business and it pays off. Trust me.

And Paul Jarvis is a book company of one great book. He talks about how sustainable businesses, they prioritize stability and intentional growth over rapid scaling that burns out teams and compromises quality. I'm going to say that again. Sustainable businesses. That's what you want to be. They prioritize stability. Number one, and they prioritize intentional growth. and they prioritize those things over rapid scaling, that eventually is gonna burn out your team and compromises the quality.

So let's talk about some time management systems that can protect these internal projects. Number one, finding time does not work, right? You can't find time. You have to make time. Now I know you say, I can't create time. I'm not asking you to create time. I'm asking you to make, carve out, to think about yourself as a woodworker who carves into the big block of wood to make something beautiful. You're not trying to find it because it's not just magically going to appear, you have to do the work to carve it out, to make time to do this.

There's freedom and power in recurring calendar blocks for internal work, just as I said earlier. For me, it's the first Thursday. I don't know why it's Thursday. It's just the way my calendar naturally falls. I still have maybe Friday, I guess, to be able to kind of wrap up some stuff into the week. So Thursdays work for me. But first Thursday of every single month, I am working on the business. I know exactly when it's coming. It's blocked off every single time. It's actually put on my calendar so that nothing else can be added to it.

Secondly, you can try batch processing, which is grouping similar internal tasks for efficiency. We've talked about this before. You might need to have like, every second Monday from nine to 11 a.m. is going to be financial time and we're going to go over the financials. We're going to do the things that we need to do there, right? Working on the business, whatever it is, batch processing does help.

You can use the future you methodology that I talk about a lot. And what this helps you do is it will help you document internal project progress so that momentum isn't lost, right? So you have a set of time to work on the business, you're done with it, or the time is up and you have to go back to working in the business for the rest of the day or the week or the month or whatever it is, right? But when you pick that back up again, you don't want to lose that momentum. So the future you methodology, which we're going to talk about here in just a few weeks on even more detail on this podcast allows you to be able to document those types of things so that you can pick up where you left off without wasting too much time.

Another thing to help is to create internal deadlines. These internal deadlines need to be just as sacred as client deadlines. And I know we often go, well, let's just move this because it's more on the business and I'm the client here, right, in this scenario. So it doesn't really apply to me. But listen, it does matter. It does matter. Make time for the business just as much because if you don't feed that engine, then eventually it's going to die. So internal deadlines need to be just as sacred as client deadline.

Here's an idea that I often use and walk my clients through as well as to use some internal projects as client offering incubators. Here's what I mean by that. Whatever you're working on internally today, working on the business that can become tomorrow's service offerings. So ask your clients as you're developing, hey, I'm working on something like this. I would love your feedback on something like that. Would that help you? Would that benefit you? It's an incubator for client offerings.

And while you're doing that, you can create case studies from the internal work so that when you do launch it, you can attract those similar types of client projects. It allows you beta testing time, like a lot of we hear about in the tech space. It doesn't have to be just for the tech space. When you're working on internal projects, you can test out some new frameworks and tools internally before you fully implement it into ongoing clients. Maybe you have a client who's been with you since the beginning and they know that you test things on them and you give them discounted prices because you test things on them or whatever. Go ahead and test out and be upfront with them. Say, hey, look, this is something I'm working on. I'm testing this so it may be clunky. Just want to give you that caveat, this is not our normal way of doing things. This is kind of an in development mode right now. You're seeing the car go down the assembly line. And I would like your feedback on how that is coming together and how you're interacting with it.

Lastly, I want to talk about ROI, which we know means the return on investment. I want to talk about the ROI for non-client work. And here's why the traditional kind of ROI measurement is going to fall short when you start looking at internal projects. Number one, it usually only measures financial return. So you're going to miss all the growth of efficiency, team morale, or clarity in your systems. Number two, traditional ROI ignores long-term strategic value, like scalability, or positioning in the industry or market, or your brand alignment.

Thirdly, traditional ROI can't quantify creative benefits like innovation or speed or quality. Those are intangible, but they're very real. We feel them every single day. Fourthly, traditional ROI overlooks the cost savings, right? It gives you what your traditional ROI talks about what's coming in as the return, right? But you miss sometimes what it's saving you. It's saving you time, fewer errors and reduced burnout. Those are very real things. And lastly, traditional ROI misses the culture and the brand trust, right? The internal work strengthens what actually fuels your growth. You can feel it and your team can feel it around you.

So there are three types of internal project ROIs I want to close talking about today. Number one is direct revenue, right? That's the traditional. Hey, I worked on it, now we have new services and improved efficiency, thus we are making more money. That's the one traditional type of ROI. Secondly, but more importantly, I would say is the strategic value. The time that you spent on team development and process improvement, very important ROI to pay attention to. And then lastly, is this what we call, business owners call creative capital. That's what we're talking about. Innovation and market advantage. Competitive advantages. Those are three types of areas in which your internal projects can create ROI for you. Direct revenue, strategic value, and creative capital.

So what now? I want to give you three actions to build in sustainable internal project capacity. First way is this. Audit your current on versus in ratio. Track your time for one week and calculate what percentage goes into client work versus business development, not admin, not, I've got to track some receipts, but actual business development. Most creatives are going to be shocked when they look at that number, at the imbalance of how much they're working in versus on.

Secondly, I want you to block some sacred time. Schedule one day a month, one day a quarter, one day a week, one hour a week, whatever it is. and focus solely on internal projects. Mark it as business development and treat it like your most important client meeting. Do not cancel it. Do not punt it to next week because then you'll punt it to the following week and you'll never get it done.

Last thing I want you to do is I want you to work on creating internal project pipelines. I want you to list five internal projects right now that you think would move your business forward. And I want you to prioritize that list and start assigning realistic timelines. We all know here we do that with the do versus due framework.

Before we close, I want to remind you some resources that we mentioned in this episode. The Company of One Book by Paul Jarvis, pick that up for sure. The do versus due framework is available on my website, dustinpead.com slash free. There are lots of time tracking tools out there to help you, like Harvest or Toggle. You can do free plans with them to help you actually see what you're spending your time on. And then after you see what you're spending your time on, you can fill out the time and energy audit. I have a free template of that. It's a Dan Martell concept that I built a template for. So you can pick up that free template on my website as well. DustinPead.com slash free.

Listen, most sustainable creative businesses, they aren't the ones that work the hardest. They're the ones that work the smartest. And by protecting your time for internal projects, you're not just maintaining your business, you're evolving it. Every hour that you invest in working on your business compounds over time into better systems, stronger offerings, and ultimately a more sustainable creative practice.

If you're ready to build margin into your business model, go to dustinpead.com for free resources that I mentioned in this episode, as well as grab a spot on my calendar. I would love to give you a free discovery call where we can just kind of talk about the things that you're working on and how we can help build that margin so that you can spend more time working on your business.

You can follow me at Dustin Pead on social media for weekly insights on building sustainable creative practices. Next week, we're going to talk about systems that set you free, how processes create creative independence as we get closer to the 249th birthday of our great country. Can't wait to talk to you then on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 114: Mind to Market

Streamlining the Journey from Concept to Completion

SUMMARY

The graveyard of great creative ideas isn't filled with bad concepts. It's filled with brilliant ideas that got stuck somewhere between that initial spark and the final delivery. If you're a creative professional struggling to turn your inspiration into results, you're not alone—and more importantly, there's a clear path forward.

In this episode of Creativity Made Easy, we're building a highway from your mind to the market, eliminating the bottlenecks that kill momentum and creating sustaining systems that turn inspiration into results.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Map Your Creative Pipeline: Document every step of your last three projects to identify where ideas consistently get stuck and momentum dies.

• ⚡️ Implement Decision Deadlines: Set specific dates when key decisions must be made, regardless of whether you feel ready—feelings can be elusive and hinder momentum.

• ⚡️ Perfect Your Handoffs: Create standard templates that preserve context and creative intent when passing work between team members to prevent the loss of momentum.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Your processes and your systems should serve your creativity, not limit it."

  💬 "The distance between your brilliant ideas and successful execution doesn't have to be measured in months or compromised by committees."

  💬 "When you spin in cycles of indecision, it costs you and your team momentum, morale, and market opportunity."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ 4D Creative Process - Get the complete framework for defining, dreaming, designing, and developing your creative projects

• ⚡️ Sprint by Jake Knapp - Learn the five-day framework that takes you from complex problem to tested solution

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

The graveyard of great creative ideas isn't filled with bad concepts. It's filled with brilliant ideas that got stuck somewhere between that initial spark and the final delivery. Today we're building a highway from your mind to the market, eliminating the bottlenecks that kill momentum and create sustaining systems that turn inspiration into results. Let's get into it.

Welcome to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, and all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical and actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams to create with efficiency as they scale together.

Before we get into today's episode, I want to invite you to subscribe, rate, and review wherever you're listening to this podcast. That just helps get this content out even further to those like yourself who can benefit from it. And while you're at it, share it with someone else that you feel like could benefit from hearing this content. I would greatly appreciate that share. If you're watching on YouTube, the thumbs up to like it. It does the same thing, helps get the content out further.

Subscribe and ring the bell so you're notified every time we drop new content, which is at least every single Thursday when this podcast comes out. I want to remind you, can go to dustinpead.com slash free. That's D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D.com slash free for any of my free resources, templates at your disposal built specifically with you in mind. Go download those for yourself today. And lastly, you can follow me on social media, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, all those places at Dustin PEAD, D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D. All right, let's get into today's episode.

Maybe you're like me in this, but I feel like I have probably close to a hundred amazing ideas every single day. Yet when it comes time to execute on them, I've learned over time and I know myself enough and I know my process well enough to execute on them consistently every single time. That's why I say at the top of the show, I help creatives know themselves first and then their process and then their team so that you can execute consistently every single time.

So in order to do that, the first thing you need to do is you need to map out your creative pipeline. There's a hidden journey from concept, hey, I have this idea to completion where creatives never seem to map that journey. And so because they don't map that journey, they get lost in navigation. They get lost in understanding what it's gonna take to get them to the destination at the end, right?

Thomas Edison said it brilliantly. We talk about it on here all the time, that genius, right? Someone who reaches the end is considered a genius. A genius is only 1% inspiration, 1% idea, but it's 99% perspiration. It's putting in the work to go from that concept, to go from that idea to completion. And the first step is you have to map it out.

Now experts say there's about seven critical stages of going from concept to completion. First, it's the inspiration, right? Hey, this would be neat. And then there's a concept around that idea. Like, this is what I think it could look like. And then they get into the development of it, right? And then they get into the approval. Is this working? Is it not? Is it a review, right? And then after that, they get into the production mode. Now we're going to actually produce the thing that we developed out and designed in our mind. And then they deliver it, and then they review it. And it's a cycle over and over over again.

I simplified that with my 4D creative process that I've adapted from all sorts of creative processes over the years. My four Ds are first to define it, right? We don't know how to solve the problem until we know what problem we're trying to solve. And that's what we're doing out here with all of our creativity, all of our art is trying to solve some sort of problem, right? So what is the problem? Define it is the first D.

The second D is to dream about it. What could be possible to solve this problem, right? What could potentially solve this, what could potentially be the fix here, right? And then the third D is to design it, right? This is where we're the blueprints, if you will, of how we feel like we're gonna actually take some of those ideas that we came up in the dream phase and design them and put them to work. And maybe some things that work within our budget and our time constraint. And now we have a fully packaged design of how we're gonna do this.

And then lastly, it's the work. The fourth D is develop. This is where we put all the defining, all the dreaming, all the designing to work. This is the 99%, right? Just develop part of the 4D creative process.

But look, you have to audit your own current pipeline for bottlenecks and dead zones. Where in the process, where in the process from concept to completion are you getting lost? Where are you getting stuck? Where does it feel like every time I get here, just don't get any further or when I do get through it, finally, it's not as good as I hoped it would be in the beginning. Those are the bottlenecks. Those are your dead zones. You need to identify those as often as possible.

There's a difference between necessary steps and bureaucratic bloat, right? We're not trying to overcomplicate here. Your processes and your systems should serve your creativity, not limited. Say it again, your processes and your systems should serve your creativity, not limit it.

So try this out. This week, walk through the 4D creative process. How do we define things? How do we dream about things? How do we design things? And lastly, how do we develop things? And adopt that for your team and what works best for you. Redo the language. Every creative process is different because every creative is different. The bulk idea of defining the problem, dreaming about what could be, designing the solution, and then developing the solution is pretty much the same across the board. I've just simplified it over the years.

All right, so we've identified those bottlenecks from concept to completion. So let's work on eliminating those bottlenecks, right? And some of the most common bottlenecks are there's decision paralysis, right, in the concept development. And when we start talking about the design phase, we get decision, well, it could be this, it could be that, it could be, it could be, it could be. We get so we tend to over edit and over complicate. So what happens is we get decision paralysis and we stop right there and it kills it, right?

There's also approval delays, right? The bureaucratic approval, right? I'm waiting on this person because they didn't understand that this was part of the process. And this person over here, they're not getting back to me because we didn't set up clear communication guidelines from the get-go. And that will delay the project and ultimately kill the momentum.

Thirdly, there's resource allocation confusion. Well, I thought we had this much time and this much money to be able to do this. But in fact, we have a whole lot more or we have a whole lot less or a different or it's coming from a different place that we didn't understand about or this person is going to be involved. Not these people, right? All that confusion is not the clarity that you need to go from chaos to clarity, right? To go from concept to completion.

Fourthly, communication gaps between team members, right? Maybe there's some breakdown in communication. Oh, I didn't notate this properly for them when we were doing the handoff process, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. I didn't understand their motives. I questioned their authority over this project. All these different things are things that can bottleneck the concept to completion process.

And lastly, quality control. Quality control can become a gridlock if you're not careful. And we're going to talk about how to use it in the right way here in just a little bit. But you need to identify where do the ideas go to die in our process? At what point does it fall off the cliff? Where is the biggest speed bump for you and your team each time you create, right?

You can use different tools for this, different journaling tools throughout the process, the time and energy audit from Dan Martell that we use all the time here to find what the biggest time sucks are, the biggest drains of the time and energy. And you'll start to kind of identify that cliff when it's out of your brain and out of the feeling around the team and on a whiteboard or on a black and white piece of paper, on a computer screen where you can say, ah, yes, I see it right there. It dips right there. That's the point that we need to work on.

Listen, sometimes you need to block out everything else and just sprint, just sprint from concept to completion. It's the whole create quickly thing that I've talked about here on this show before and a lot of me and my creative partners, we use this concept a lot when we can say, I'm gonna set aside a half a day or a day or a week to just focus on this one thing and I'm gonna sprint towards it. Now, I will say, make this an exception, monthly, quarterly, not the rule. Don't make it the, this is how we do things all the time because if you're constantly sprinting, then you're gonna burn yourself out and your team.

But in this concept of sprint, I want to introduce you to the sprint method developed by Jake Knapp at Google Ventures, right? It's a five day framework that takes you from a complex problem that define, right, what the problem is to the tested solution, right? The solution has been tested, has proven in one week. It's in five day sprint.

So on Monday, they map out the challenge. What are we trying to solve here, right? It's been a whole day identifying what the problem is they're trying to solve. On Tuesday, they sketch out possible solutions. This would be my dream phase, right? They spent a whole day sketching out different possible solutions from all different angles.

On Wednesday, they decide which the strongest one is, right? That's probably the first half of my design part is to take all those things and refine down to what actually is gonna work the strongest. The other half of my design part they do on Thursday. That's where you prototype, right? And you kind of understand what, start to kind of put the pieces together of all the ideas that you've done so far. And then on Friday, you test it with real users.

It's fast, it's structured, and incredibly effective. And what makes it powerful for creative teams is that it replaces the endless debate with action. There's no time for overthinking because you're sprinting, right, towards the action. And what we can learn from this is we can learn clarity. We can learn clarity through the concept to completion. We can go, you know what, that's not necessary to junk up the process right here. What we need is clarity and doing these sprints occasionally will unlock that for you.

So imagine applying this to your next big initiative. What could you unlock in just five days as you sprint towards the finish line? Again, the exception, not the rule, because you don't want to burn yourself out or your team.

Next, I want to talk about decision making. There's a cost associated with creative indecision, the people that over edit, the people that can't make a decision and lead the team or lead the project forward. The cost is momentum, team morale, and market opportunity. When you spin in cycles, the downward spiral of indecision, costs you and your team momentum, it costs everybody morale. They're like, man, we had such a good thing going and now I know if we can ever finish it, right? That's a culture killer. And market opportunity. Other people are gonna pass you by while you're sitting there overthinking. So don't overthink, just create.

In order to do that, there's a couple things I need you to think about. Number one, build some decision trees around common creative choices to help the project not stall out. So you've identified where the project stalls. Now, are there some easy decision trees? If you don't know what a decision tree is, it's basically just a visual graphic or a graph that says, is such and such true, yes or no? If it's yes, here's what you do. If it's no, here's what you do. And you follow that all the way down into completion. So build those easy decision trees for the common creative choices to help the project not stall out.

These could be things like frequently asked questions. What questions do your team constantly come to you and ask? Build a decision tree for it. There are questions that you answer from your team and your client. About 80% of the questions that you answer from your team and from your client are pretty much the same questions every single time. So why don't you notate those down so you can go, here's the answers to the questions that you're probably gonna have. Let's go ahead and get that out of the way right up front so that you understand clearly what we're doing. That's how you prevent the project from stalling out.

And occasionally you just need to adopt the good enough to keep moving standard, right? This kills the perfection paralysis. Perfection will paralyze you and your team. And lastly, create a clear decision making authority at each stage. At each stage, so the define, the dream, the design, the develop, who is the ultimate authority at each stage? Who is making that final decision? Let their voice be the loudest and call it out to keep the project moving from concept to completion.

You can do this when you're using my do versus due framework, the DO versus DUE framework. You can set those decision deadlines that will create forward momentum. These decision deadlines will go, okay, I know this is coming, so we're gonna go, go, go, go, go. And then you get to it, and when you get to those deadlines, it doesn't stop there. It propels you further down the process to go from concept to completion.

So three things to consider when you need to make decisions. Number one, does it solve the client's core problem? Go back to the why, go back to the define. What is the problem that we're trying to solve here? Why are we doing this?

Number two, is it feasible within our constraints? This is kind of that design mode, right? Like what are we doing here? Is what we're doing feasible? Is it within the budget? Is within our timelines? Is it our talent? Is it within our people that we have available to us, our contractors, our team members, right?

And number three, does it maintain our creative standards? Is how we're gonna do this, does it maintain our creative standards because you don't want to sacrifice creative standards. And so many creative professionals do this. They get in a time crunch. They go, I had the concept, I had the momentum, and then I hit a dip and I gotta deliver it. I gotta deliver it. It's D-U-E, right? I gotta deliver it. So we sacrifice on our creative standards, right?

Don't do that. When you can implement this decision framework and you can implement understanding what parts are bottlenecking, you can start thinking about anticipating those so that you can so that you can maintain your creative standards all the way from concept to completion.

Now, earlier I talked about how we were going to talk about handoffs, right? There's certain parts of the process where it hands off from this team to this team, to this team member, to this team member, from client to creative team, from creative team back to client to creative director to art director, like there's all these different people that are involved, right? There's all these handoffs.

We know from watching sports and football that a lot of error happens in handoff, right? That's why when you watch a quarterback and a running back so closely, you can see how much intention there is and how much careful approach there is to handing the ball off from quarterback to the running back. It's because there's the handoff crisis. This is where context and this is where games get lost and momentum dies, right? We don't get the first down. We don't get the touchdown. We don't get the victory because we didn't pay attention to the handoff, right?

And so the handoff is where context get lost and momentum dies for creative projects. You need to go back to the beginning and utilize creative briefs, not just with your client, but for internal team transitions as well. And we covered this several episodes ago when we talked about briefings. But essentially what we're saying is that you need to be able to clearly identify to your team members along the way. This is what we're doing. Remind them every step of the way. This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing. Right? That's the context that they need in order to preserve that creativity throughout the entire pipeline from concept to completion.

Future you, which I talk about often, about notating things to say future you up for success for the context of what you're doing when you get to it again, right? Future you is also future us. So understanding what does my team member need to know when I hand this off to them so that they can pick it up and run it and run with it all the way into the end zone, right?

Lastly, build feedback loops that improve rather than derail ideas and I think the best time for feedback loops is after a project, not during the project. They can be on one-on-ones, they can be in a team gathering, but don't stall your momentum by going, you know what, how does everybody feel this is going right in the middle of a project? Now, write it down so that you have real-time notes as to what's actually going on so that when you do have those feedback loops at the end, you do have those evaluation times to sit down one-on-one or in a team after a project.

You can look at it and go, hey, at this point, I wrote down this note. This is how I was feeling. This is what I was facing. This was the dilemma. How can we fix this so that next time we don't do it again? That is the mark of a great team and seamless handoff systems.

Before we wrap up, I do want to talk about quality control. Now, quality control can accelerate or it can delay, but what we're going to focus on is quality assurance that happens throughout the process. Last episode, we talked about checklists and that's exactly what we're talking about here. Building in these quality checkpoints that don't slow down production.

You need to implement those feedback systems that improve ideas rather than just catching errors, right? Notate that stuff down, save it for afterwards, fix it, move it on, right? And train team members to self-quality control using your clear standards.

Now, side note, if you don't have clear standards for what you're looking for from your team and what you're going to deliver to your client, then just stop listening to this episode right now. Go take a journal out into the middle of nowhere away from your screen and just write down what is it at the end of the day that are the standards for us that we want to hit every single time and then communicate those over and over and over again to your team. And when you're sick of hearing yourself saying it, that's when they're start to understand it. So just keep saying it, keep communicating those standards every step of the way.

You can use templates, just like we talked about last week, to create project journey maps for your team that will include the quality touch points at each stage. So we talked about identifying the concept to completion, what that map looks like. When we hand off from one section to the next or one team member to the next, in that process, in that map, we're also going to say this is the quality it needs to be at before we move on. This is the quality, this is the quality, this is the standard, this is the standard every step of the way.

So what do we do now? I'm going to give you five immediate actions to streamline your concept to completion pipeline. We already said all these already, I'm just going to review them for you.

Number one, map your current journey. Just take a couple of hours documenting every step of the last three projects that took you from the initial concept to final delivery. This is not identifying your ideal journey. This is mapping your current journey. Because then number two, what you're going to do is you're going to identify your biggest bottleneck from the mapping exercise. Number one, you're going to pick one stage where projects consistently get stuck and you're going to tackle that first before anything else.

Next, number three, you're going to create decision deadlines. For your next project, I want you to set specific dates when key decisions must be made regardless of whether you feel like it's ready or not, right? Those feelings can be elusive and they can be false and they can hinder your momentum from concept to completion.

Number four, build a handoff template. Create a standard, again, going back to the templates from last week, create a standard document template that preserves context and creative intent when you're passing the work between team members. Remember, it's not just about future you. It's about future us as well.

And then lastly, implement a weekly review of your pipeline. Just schedule 15, 10, 20, 30, not very long minutes every single Friday to review what's moving through your pipeline and what's getting stuck and where it's getting stuck at.

I want to remind you of the resources that I talked about in this episode. There's a book called Sprint by Jake Knapp. That's K-N-A-P-P with Google Ventures and talks about their sprint process. I also mentioned the 4D creative process. That is available at dustinpead.com slash free so that you can begin to implement that with you and your team immediately.

Listen, the distance between your brilliant ideas and successful execution doesn't have to be measured in months, compromised by many committees with the right pipeline, your creative work can move from mind, your mind, to the market with momentum intact and quality preserved.

If you're ready to build your own concept to completion highway, head to dustinpead.com for the free resources or get on my calendar for a free coaching session. I would love to coach you through this process specifically for you and your team. Hop on my calendar at dustinpead.com, click on the Let's Chat button.

Reminder to follow me at Dustin Pead on all social media for daily insights and to keep your creative pipeline flowing.

Next week I have a very special guest, Blaine Hogan. Director Blaine Hogan is going to be in the house to talk about an article that he wrote called Execution is Everything. Oh, speak to my heart, Blaine. I can't wait to talk to you. I can't wait to share that conversation with you next week on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 113: The Power of Templates

How to Create Reusable Assets Without Losing Your Creative Edge

SUMMARY

Most creative professionals fear that using templates will make their work look cookie-cutter and generic. But what if I told you that the most innovative agencies actually rely on templates to free up their creative energy for what matters most? Today, we're exploring how to build reusable systems that save time while amplifying your unique creative voice.

The Template Mindset Shift: From Constraint to Creative Freedom

The biggest misconception about templates is that they're creative constraints. In reality, they're creative enablers. The key is understanding the difference between process templates and creative templates.

Templates eliminate decision fatigue around mundane tasks—like client onboarding or meeting structures—so you can focus your mental energy on the actual creative work. Your clients will start commenting on how much more polished and professional your process feels because you have templated results every single time.

Process Templates vs. Creative Templates: What Should You Standardize?

You're not going to use the same look and feel creatively for every single project, but you might use the same flow in which you conduct the project. The work itself—what the client sees at the end—should remain custom. But how you do the work and how you go about getting the right information should be templated.

Use my DO vs DUE Framework to identify opportunities to create margin. Where in your process are you spending too much mental energy doing the same thing over and over again? Things like:

• Sending invoices

• Writing contracts

• Organizing files

• Communicating with clients

These repetitive tasks are perfect candidates for templates.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Key Takeaway #1: Templates eliminate decision fatigue around mundane tasks, freeing up mental energy for actual creative work and impressing clients with consistent professionalism.

  ⚡️ Key Takeaway #2: The 80-20 rule applies to templates—standardize 80% of your processes so you can innovate on the 20% that has the biggest impact on your business.

  ⚡️ Key Takeaway #3: Templates should be living documents that evolve quarterly, with clear version control and team feedback to ensure they remain effective and current.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "If brain surgeons and pilots that we trust our lives with are using checklists, even they understand the power of checklists to produce excellent results every single time."

• 💬 "You want to standardize 80% so that you can innovate on the 20% because we know that 20% of what we do has 80% of the impact on our business."

• 💬 "Let the questions be templated. Let the answers be custom every single time.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️ Book: "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande

• ⚡️ Free Tools: DO vs DUE Framework, Future You note-taking methodology, Time and Energy audit template - all available at dustinpead.com/free

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Most creative professionals fear that using templates will make their work look cookie cutter and generic. What if I told you that the most innovative agencies actually rely on templates to free up their creative energy for what matters most? Today, we're exploring how to build reusable systems that save time while amplifying your unique creative voice. Let's get into it.

Welcome back everyone to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, all creative entrepreneurs seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, Creative process coach and consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams to create with efficiency as they scale together.

Before we get into today's show, I would love to invite you to subscribe, rate and review on YouTube. If you're watching, you can hit the like button, the thumbs up, subscribe and ring the bell. Any audio podcast platform that you're listening to—a subscription, rating or review of any kind helps get this content out further to those like yourself who could benefit from it.

I also want to remind you, I have a ton of free resources for you at dustinpead.com slash free. That's D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D.com slash free. Go download as many as you like. They're completely free. My heart is to help you as a creative professional be the most efficient you can be so that the world can see what you're creating. Lastly, you can find me on social media at DustinPead—D-U-S-T-I-N-P-E-A-D. You can follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, all those places.

So that's all the business stuff. Let's get into the power of templates, creating reusable assets without losing originality. Listen, I know many of you may have already checked out. You're like, templates, ugh, boring. Same stuff over and over and over again. But what we're trying to do here is free up your mental energy. Templates eliminate decision fatigue. It's often around the mundane stuff, like the way that we onboard a client or the way that we conduct our meetings so that we get the same information every single time.

It's not even about controlling your creative process. It's about freeing up your creative process. Templates can take you from chaos to clarity, and your clients, I can promise you, are going to start commenting on how much more polished and professional that your process feels more than anyone else because you have templated results every single time, a templated formula for how you carry things out every single time.

So first, let's get into this template mindset shift. They're not creative constraints. They're creative enablers. The difference between process templates and creative templates—you need to understand those. What I'm talking about mostly here is process templates. You're not going to use the same look and feel creatively for every single project, but you might use the same flow in which you conduct the project.

First, we're going to storyboard things out. Second, we're going to put together a mood board. And then we're going to have our team, our brain trust, kind of get centered around the whole idea of what it looks like to dream this thing through. And then we're going to kind of evaluate what is actually possible. And then we're going to, and then we're going to, and then we're going to. And it's that same process over and over again that gives you those results.

So how do you identify what should be templated versus what should remain custom? I believe the work itself at the end of the day, what the client sees, should remain custom but how we do the work and how we go about getting the right information to maximize the work, to onboard the clients, to give them what they want, to deliver, to get the feedback—all the things that we talk about in this show should be templated.

It gets as simple sometimes as using a simple template like my DO versus DUE framework—the DO versus D.U.E.—and you can use that framework to identify opportunities to create margin. Where in that process and when you work from the DUE date all the way back to when you're actually going to start doing it, where in that process should it be like, hey, I'm spending too much mental energy doing the same thing over and over and over again. It's just I have to write—I have to send the invoice the same way. I have to send the contract the same way. I have to send files the same way. I have to organize our files the same way. I have to communicate with our clients the same way over and over and over again. So use templates as much as possible to create that margin for yourself.

There's an amazing book that nerds like me love to reference called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. And if I butchered that name, I'm so very sorry. But this book suggests that even surgeons use checklists, not because they don't know how to operate. It's because consistent processes prevent errors. Let me say that again. Consistent processes prevent errors. And the book says it frees mental bandwidth for complex problem solving.

So if brain surgeons and pilots, like we've talked before, are using checklists—checklists are templates, right? They're using checklists to make sure that we did this, we did this, we did this. Nothing gets missed when you use templates and checklists. Even brain surgeons and pilots that we trust our lives with when we're dangling from, you know, floating in the air in the clouds from one town to the next, even they understand the power of checklists to be able to produce excellent results every single time.

When you land in that city on the plane and you thank God that you're there, it's because that pilot had a checklist and he made sure every single thing was hit with precision the same way he did it a thousand times before that. And that's how you got there safely. And trust me, if you have to have the unfortunate circumstance where you have to have brain surgery, you definitely want that brain surgeon to be using a checklist. You don't want to leave anything to chance.

So if we're doing it there, why do we think it's not important for us to do it in our creative systems and processes? It is important. And believe me when I say this is not a constraint. This is a freedom that allows you more mental energy to think about the actual custom part of your creativity for your clients.

So we've mentioned some different ways that you can use templates already, just kind of loosely mentioned them. But let's identify some high value template opportunities in your workflow. Let's first start with client onboarding sequences. The way that you onboard your clients is a lot of—sets the tone for how they are going to work with you and how you're going to work with them. And to be able to set that tone off right and to impress right off the gate and go, wow, we really have our stuff together. We are very professional and we get stuff done and we get it done to the standards that you have for us. Those client onboarding sequences to be able to do the same thing every single time with excellence are highly invaluable.

Project kickoff materials—all right, we got them on board. Now we're gonna have a kickoff meeting to talk about what the project is. The way that you do that kickoff, the way that you do project kickoffs, whether with the client or internally with your team, sets the tone every single time. This is how it's gonna go and it makes sure that you have the information that you need.

Speaking of information, creative briefs and discovery processes. Again, great to have templates. Here's a checklist of questions that we ask every single time. When I was in ministry, we had what we called a series briefing questionnaire. This was—you go to a modern church today, you often hear a series of talks or messages or sermons centered around one type of category or theme. And so those are often referred to in the church world as a message series or collections of talks.

So what we would do is we would sit down way in the beginning, 12 weeks or so out before. We would sit down with those who were gonna be leading us through on staff. We would sit down with those and say, okay, here's the same questions we're gonna ask of every single series that we get into. Every time we sit down to have a briefing about this project, this vision that you have, we're gonna ask the same questions every single time because it's gonna get us the results, it's going to get us the answers to the questions that we so desperately need in order to communicate and to execute this project with excellence.

Status reports, progress updates, all those things sound super boring, but I promise you, those are those communication pieces that we've talked about before on this show. Those status reports and progress updates are going to be huge, and you don't want to have to rewrite them every single time. So make a template for it. It's super easy. You can automate your CRM to give you those updates. We've done it with many clients before. It's super, super easy.

Invoicing and contract structures. We talked about this before as well. Do you really want to have to write invoices and proposals and contracts and estimates and all these things? Do you really want to write those from scratch every single time? No, that takes way too much time. You could be using that time to be creative. Let's protect creative time by using these templates in all different areas from the client onboarding process all the way through the invoicing process. Again, it's about freeing up the creative work that you really want to do. It's about freeing up that mental energy and that time.

The 80-20 rule applies for templates as well. You want to standardize 80% so that you can innovate on the 20% because we know as entrepreneurs, as business leaders, as creative professionals, we know that 20% of what we do has 80% of the impact on our business. On the other 80%, let's not focus our creative energy on that. Let's use templates to standardize those things so that they can produce the same results consistently every single time so that we can focus in on that 20%, the 80-20 rule.

I've talked about my Future You methodology note taking methodology before on this podcast and it's one that I use in my coaching with our consulting clients all the time about setting up future you for success and templates are that. They are messages to your future self on this is how it needs to be done again. So you don't need to remember how it was once done before. You can always be refining those templates. But it saves you the mental energy from having to remember how did we do this last time. Take really good notes for future you. Use that Future You note taking methodology with your templates every single time.

So really when we get down to the practicals, let's walk through just an example of what a discovery template would look like to allow you to maintain structure while allowing for specific customization for your client. You're gonna ask the same things, the who, what, when, where, how, and why as much as possible. You're going to look for vision, but you're in that it's the answers that are going to give you the customization. It's not the question. The questions will remain the same. Again, you might tweak those throughout the life. And it's always kind of a working document to ask better questions. But it's the answers that are going to give you the customization. Let the questions be templated. Let the answers be custom every single time.

So you're walking through a discovery process with them. You're understanding why is this project so important? What problem are they trying to solve? When you're asking how, is there any particular communication methods or anything like that that we can do for you that would really help you feel like you're winning throughout this process while we do what we do? So you got the why, the what, you got the how. How about the who? Who's involved in this? If you don't ask those questions, then when it comes time to get feedback, you'll be wondering who even needs to get the feedback.

So then you got the when and the where. So when does this need to be done? When is this DUE to you? We use our DO versus DUE or the DO versus DUE framework to work backwards there. When, when do you need this by, when are you actually going to use this? Let's get a little bit of margin in there about when we're going to get it to you, a little bit of margin in there about when we're going to see revisions, when those time markers are. And lastly, it's the where. Where do these things need to be sent? Where is this going to be used? Where is the target market for this campaign? Where is the target market for this project? Where do these files need to be saved? Where are these things being published? All of these where questions.

So you're going to ask the same questions throughout the discovery process. Same type of questions. You can get as nuanced as you need to in order to get the proper feedback that you need to win with your clients every single time. It's the answers that are going to allow for client-specific customization. And don't give them the answers. The client will know the end result of what they want. You focus on how to get them there. And you focus on what you're going to deliver. But really, don't tell them this is what they need. You want to deliver what they need, not tell them what they need every single time. Now, if they ask you, then be ready to open it up for sure. But the client-specific customization comes from their answers, not your answers.

All right. As I said before, templates aren't just set it and forget it. They need evolution over time. They're working documents. They're wet cement. So quarterly, if you have an operations person, and if this would be something that they would do, this is something that we do with our clients—we have reminders that go off quarterly where we're going to audit all of our templates to improve those templates and improve those opportunities every single time. So every quarter, every three months, we're going to take a pause and just overhaul, edit, audit. Are these templates working? Are we using them to their full advantage? Do we need to change any of questions? You can do them more often. You can do them in real time. But at the very least, you want to quarterly audit those to identify improvement opportunities.

You want to make sure that you're gathering feedback from team members who are actually using the templates. Hey, are these templates helpful? Is there anything in there weird or confusing? Is there anything in the verbiage that doesn't sound like us, is not sound on brand? And then use version control for template libraries, which is the latest version of this. I love to use when it comes to version, instead of version one V1, V2, V3, I love to use just the simple six digit date formula. So today when I'm recording this is Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025. So I would sit there and I would mark the end of that. If I'm updating a template, I would mark the end of it 06-03-25. So when I look at it, I know, oh, this was last updated. On the file name, not even yes in the document, but on the file name at the very end, I'm going to put, oh, this template was last updated on June 3, 2025.

So let's break this down for a second. Imagine that if you started with just three core templates, just three, whether it be onboarding, discovery, delivery, invoicing, whatever. Just three templates. And over time, you were able to evolve that to, let's say, 20 specialized versions. You would then reduce the project setup time by 70% while improving client satisfaction scores. Just with three templates, you're able to improve that much. So why would you not want to do that? Use templates to increase client satisfaction and increase your efficiency every single time.

And lastly, when it comes to using templates, listen, clients understand and value professionalism. They value thoroughness. Positioning templates is a way to say, look, we have proven methods here. We don't take shortcuts. This is the way we do it. We are thorough. We are professional. And because of that, it sets clear expectations from the jump for you to be able to say, oh, I know exactly what we're getting here. And it reduces scope creep in the end because you're asking the questions that you need to ask now. And you're setting the standard out the gate with the templates, whether it's at the beginning of the project or the end of the project, the middle of the project, wherever you're using the templates, these standardized processes can actually justify how much work you're putting into it. And then you can charge more. So it justifies premium pricing. Look, look at how much work we're putting into this. But, you know, behind the scenes that these are just templated process because you have proven methods. You have proven methodologies that you can use for your thoroughness and your effectiveness every single time.

So what do we do now? I want to give you five immediate starting points to implement templates in your creativity right away. First of all, audit your repetitive tasks. Now, the way that I do this and the way that I lead this through all of my coaching and consulting clients as we use Dan Martell's time and energy audit. I created my own template for that. You can find it at dustinpead.com slash free. You can download that template and you're going to spend one, at least one week tracking every single task that you do. And as you do that, you're going to start to see repeat tasks come up over and over again. And because it's an energy audit as well, you're going to see which ones are draining you of your energy. And I bet it's the same stuff that you have to do over and over again. So that's a great place to start of how to implement systems and identifying where you need to implement templates.

Then start with just one high impact template. Choose your most time consuming. So you've done the time and energy audit. Which is the most time consuming recurring process? Is it client onboarding? Is it project briefs? Is it email communication? What is it? And then create your first template this week.

Now, when you're doing that for every template, you need to identify at least three to five places where customization could happen, and mark those areas clearly so that you can remember to personalize them. There's nothing worse than sending something out that was made from a template where it has a bracket that says insert name here. That's embarrassing. So make sure you, if you need to highlight it digitally or physically, whatever it takes, you need to bold it, italicize it, draw arrows to it, whatever it takes, make sure that you're personalizing those things before you send off a template. It's just that. It's a template. It's not what's meant to be used. It's something that you create from.

And then over time, number four, create a template library. You can set up a shared folder for your team on Google Drive or Dropbox, whatever you use. You can have those clear naming conventions and the version control like we talked about earlier with the six digit dates on the end.

And then lastly, schedule template reviews. Put quarterly, just a quick two hour block on your calendar. So once every three months, you're going to take just two hours to look at all your templates and how you can improve those existing templates based on what you learned over the last three months.

All right, let's talk about some featured resources here as we close today's episode. There's the book that I mentioned earlier, the nerd book, but it's again, super, super helpful for everybody in all walks of life. And no matter what profession you're in, it's called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. That's A-T-U-L, G-A-W-A-N-D-E. Also, I've mentioned many of my frameworks here, the DO vs. DUE framework, the Future You note taking methodology, the Time and Energy audit template that I have for you, all available at dustinpead.com slash free. And you can use content management systems for template capabilities like Notion or Airtable or Asana or Google or Dropbox, whatever it is, use those to your advantage.

I want to remind you, templates are not about limiting your creativity. They're about amplifying it by removing friction from everything that's not creative. If it's not creative, use templates for it every single time. Use the standardized. Standardize the predictable. When you do that, you create space for the remarkable. Again, I'm say it again. When you standardize the predictable, you create space for the remarkable.

If you want to dive deeper into building systems that free up your creativity, go to dustinpead.com. Click on the Let's Chat button. I would love to have a free coaching session with you on anything that I've talked about in any of these podcast episodes.

Next time on the show, we're going to talk about mind to market, how to streamline the journey from concept to completion. This is where a lot of creatives get held up and we're gonna map out how you can move ideas efficiently from that first spark, that first idea through the execution into final delivery without losing momentum or quality along the way. That's next time on the Creativity Made Easy podcast. Keep creating the world needs what you're doing. You are valuable. Cannot wait to talk to you next time on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Ep 112: Culture By Design

Building Teams That Support Your Creative Process

SUMMARY

What if the reason your talented, creative team keeps missing deadlines and producing inconsistent work isn't a talent problem at all? It's actually a culture problem that you can design and fix. In this episode, culture expert Blake Behr and host Dustin Pead break down how to build a culture that becomes your creative team's operating system, turning chaos into clarity and supporting your best work.

Blake Behr, co-owner of The Culture Base and author of "Uncultured," shares his journey from experiencing toxic work environments to building thriving organizational cultures. Through his work in construction—an industry with 70% annual turnover—Blake's company achieved just 4% turnover by focusing on three key areas: appreciation, growth opportunities, and culture with communication.

This conversation reveals why structure doesn't kill creativity but amplifies it, how to hire beyond talent for character and process-minded individuals, and the crucial balance between autonomy and consistency that allows creative teams to thrive.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Culture is Your Operating System: Culture isn't ping pong tables and perks—it's the foundational environment that sets the table for everything else. Like a garden, it requires intentional design of soil conditions, location, water sources, and variables that enable growth, development, and connection.

• ⚡️ Structure Amplifies Creativity: The myth that structure kills creativity is backwards. Structure doesn't eliminate creativity—it amplifies it by creating consistent conditions for excellence. Just as organic food requires more intentionality and effort than conventional farming, organic creativity demands structured environments to flourish.

• ⚡️ Hire Character Over Talent: When building creative teams, look beyond talent to find people who can articulate their creative process. If someone can't explain how they solved a complex problem, they likely can't repeat that success. Focus on core values alignment, work ethic, and process-oriented thinking rather than just skills and qualifications.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Structure doesn't kill creativity. It amplifies it by creating consistent conditions for excellence." - Blake Behr

• 💬 "If you can't articulate the process, you can't repeat the process. And what we want is repeated success over and over again." - Dustin Pead

• 💬 "Innovation can be about your processes, your rituals, the way you create things. Follow the 70-20-10 rule: 70% of innovation on what you already do, 20% on adjacent ideas, and 10% on pure invention." - Blake Behr

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Featured Book: "Uncultured" by Blake Behr - The key to preventing your team from self-destructing

• ⚡️ The Culture Base: theculturebase.com - Organizational culture consulting

• ⚡️ The Culture Base Podcast: Available on all podcast platforms and YouTube

• ⚡️ Free Resources: dustinpead.com/free - Tools for creative efficiency and scaling

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

What if I told you that the reason your talented creative team keeps missing deadlines and producing inconsistent work isn't a talent problem at all? It's actually a culture problem that you can actually design and fix. Today, culture expert Blake Behr and I are going to break down how to build a culture that becomes your creative team's operating system, turning chaos into clarity and supporting your best work.

Let's get into it. Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, and all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams that they can create with efficiency as they scale together.

Before we get into today's episode, I want to invite you to subscribe, rate and review wherever you might be listening to this podcast. Or if you're watching on YouTube, we're so glad that you're here and we would love for you to hit thumbs up button. That's the like button and subscribe and ring the bell so you're notified every time new content on this channel is dropped. I'm working on some new additional content for this channel besides just the weekly podcast. So definitely want to get in there and check that out while you can.

You can find any free resources that I offer at dustinpead.com slash free. It's loaded with resources for you and your team to create with efficiency as you scale together. That's dustinpead.com slash free. Lastly, you can find me on social media at dustinpead. That's D U S T I N P E A D.

All right, today's focus is intentional culture design that supports the creative process and drives results. My guest today, Blake Behr, is the co-owner of The Culture Base with me and author of the book Uncultured. So as we get into this, I want you to ask yourself, have you ever worked somewhere with really talented people but really chaotic results due to the lack of clarity on your processes. So today's episode, we're going to talk about creating culture as your creative teams operating system. Let's get into it.

Welcome back to the show. Long time friend, supporter, partner. Some may say deep lover. No, I'm just kidding. That might be. Sure. Yeah, it is. It is 2025 partner can mean whatever you want it to mean. Blake Behr in the house, author of uncultured. We're going to talk a little bit about this today. The key to prevent your team from self-destructing. A lot of things that we talk about right here on this podcast, Blake, we're talking about going from chaos to clarity and Blake also partner with me, the business kind, with our organization called The Culture Base. We're going to get into that in just a second. But before we do, Blake, I'd love to know just kind of share your background for those that are newer to the show that might not have been around to see your pretty face before. What got you in? What led you to focus so much on organizational culture?

Yeah, nobody just says I want to focus on stuff like that until you've experienced the other side of it. Right. So I think I think that my path led to this point when I experienced hyper extreme other side of this. Right. Like what it looked like to have horrible organizational structure, what it was like to never want to go into work. And so, you know, I'm I've been a lot of things in life. My path is not a linear path. It is very back and forth. Like, hey, I'm going to be a pastor. And then you met me for more than two minutes. Know that was a good choice that that didn't happen. And then I went into roofing. And then it was just like, hey, all my friends are on meth, so I should probably go do something else. And then I went, was like, oh, I actually got a pastor gig. And maybe I should have a trade as well. And went into electrical. And then I went to go for business finance, decided I didn't want to do any of that kind of stuff. And now, a couple of years go by and I start running someone else's company for them.

And was doing it for three to four years and just realized I can never make those final cultural decisions that impacted people, impacted strategy, impacted direction. That I could only do it up to a certain point. And I finally had someone come to me and just said, you know, I know you think that going and trying to fix this thing is going to be the easier solution. However, I'm telling you, just go in and starting your own business doing this and building it how you want to will be infinitely easier, which it was easier than trying to fix something. It wasn't easy. I don't want to make it sound like that, but.

So we basically said, hey, let's start this business that focuses on the three areas that why people leave business and why people leave a company. And those three areas are appreciation, the ability to grow or perceived ability to grow, and then culture and communication. So we focused only on those areas. In an industry where there's 70% turnover a year, we're 4%. In an industry where the average age is 48 to 52, ours is 26.

I'm not trying to flex those things outside of saying culture has been the whole focus. We're in construction. We don't have the ping pong table or dartboard or Margarita Fridays. We don't have that. We have to build our culture in such a way that we find the right people and we develop the right people and the right people stay. We, that's been that part. Now I'm going into other businesses and doing a lot of other things and AI robotics and things that I never thought I would be in because when you start focusing on the right people and start focusing on creating organizations in the right way, it doesn't matter what you do. You get to go and play in a lot of different sandboxes.

I think that's great for me because as you heard my story is a story of extremes. Well, it's also a story of being a generalist, you know, and even though I can specialize in things, I really find joy in getting to play in a lot of things, but mainly how do you meet psychology, which feels like it only has one area of the world. Like, oh, go be a therapist, go be a psychologist, but it's not true. Like how do you take theoretical psychology and understanding and people and all these other very extreme variables and put them into business, the place that we spend a third, if not more of our life. So.

Yeah, man, you said a couple of things in there that I want to hit on. One, since we're talking to creative professionals on this podcast, you talk about the ability to innovate and it opens up when you set the foundation of that good culture, it opens up the door for us to be able to do so many more things that we didn't think were possible, which we could spend a whole episode on limiting beliefs. And maybe I'd love to have you back to talk about that. But speaking specifically about with culture base, with the culture base, what we basically do is we come in and we set up culture as your operating system, right? Like it's, Hey, at the end of the day, you don't function without good culture and good communication and what that clarity brings. And that's clarity and processes. It's clarity and vision. It's clarity in how you hire and fire. It's all across the board. It's not just ping pong tables. And you talked about that as well. So talk to me Blake for a little bit about the difference of culture as an operating system versus just ping pong tables and how can that affect the creative professionals that are watching and listening?

Yeah. So culture as an operating system, think it is. So first, before we move on, culture needs to be defined. We need to be using the same words. If I say the word God, everyone has a different perspective. If I say the word family, everyone has a different perspective. There are definable aspects of culture. And if I gave a one word, definer of culture, it's environment. That's, that's all it is. If I, if I had to simplify all culture into one thing, it's environment. I, in in my book, take it to a different point to say that it's the environment for growth, for development and for connection, right? Like that's, those are the things we're looking for growth of the person, the individual, the ability to have a vision and connect to that vision and do it meaningfully with the people you want to be doing it with.

Those types of things are what a lot of our culture is like setting the table for whatever it is that we do that brings brilliance to the world. So culture as an operating system is foundational, right? It is setting the table for everything else. It is making sure you'll, if you heard me say, talk about culture before, I can't not talk about the idea that culture is like a garden. It's the ability to go in and set the variables for growth. Like that's what it is. It is going in, making sure the soil is clear and clean, making sure there's not a ton of rocks, making sure it's locationally and geographically in a place that's going to get some sun. Where's your water source? Where are all these other aspects that have to be there for your business, your garden to work and so, or your creativity.

Because 100% for the creative professional, your creativity has to be turned on and off in certain aspects. So variables need to be set up for stuff like that. And that's not easy. There's this idea that this kind of structure, that this kind of culture setting, it isn't real unless it's novel or new or like you're going to lose the creative aspect of it all. I, know, Dustin, you and I have talked about this before that structure versus creativity mentality. Like do you bring in structure and creativity at such a level? And, um, and we make them opponents, but they're not like they're two sides to the same coin.

And so like structure doesn't kill creativity. It amplifies it by creating consistent conditions for this excellence. Right. And so one more time for the kids in the back. Say that again. Structure doesn't kill creativity. It amplifies it by creating consistent conditions for excellence. And so when you have this and this is like, think about this too. If you do nothing, if you want the organic creativity to just flow in, um, like what organ, like if you did nothing to a garden, is anything produced? Yes. We need, we need to are produced.

I don't know why we think that the things that are beautiful in life just naturally will happen with no tension or any structure having to be had. That's not true. Think about, I don't just wake up and get a good body. You know what I mean? My body doesn't naturally just all of a sudden get fit. But creativity is definitely, no, that's not true. You have to put in effort. My brain doesn't naturally just get smart. I have to put into it. My, I mean the weeds naturally come, the fat naturally comes. It, yes, it takes me putting shit into my body, but like at the same time, organic creativity, actually, if you want to get really good organic, like let's just, I'm going to stay in this food concept. Organic food more or less expensive? More expensive. Way more expensive. Why?

Because a lot more intentionality and effort has to go into having creative or having organic food. You want the shortcut? Get pesticides. I think a lot of times we want a pesticide lifestyle that turns into organic creativity. And that's just not real or true. What you're going to get is you're going to get shit food. You want organic food. You want organic creativity. You have to set the environment to do so, which requires a lot of consistency and requires a lot of work effort, but it's worth it when you get the good stuff.

Yeah. So let's talk about that work. Let's talk about that effort next. What are some, some practical rituals or rhythms or tactics from uncultured in the culture base, uh, that creative teams can start implementing immediately to set this fertile soil?

Yeah, I just, so I, I use, like I was saying, I use a lot of AI. Get a lot of quotes on my daily like stuff. One of them hit today that just like it's by Simon Sinek, fan girl over him, of course. Oh yeah. We know, we know him well on this show. He says, dream big, start small, but most of all start. And I think that there is an aspect that any of your rituals, if they don't happen with just starting something, just beginning and Dustin, you and I have talked a ton about this on air, off air period, just about like so much creativity is tripwire, right? Like it isn't something that you just produce out of the front cortex of your brain. A lot of it's out of the back part of your brain and the subconscious that we have. And a lot of it is tripwire from other things. Right. And so creativity and innovation, a lot of times it just needs first off consistency. Needs creating really shitty stuff. When I wrote my book, the thing, my one rule was begin, write 500 words and I don't care if 499 of them are the word poop. And like, I just type that the same over, over, over, just getting things moving and then all of a sudden it happens, right? But it requires that starting. The pain of regret way outweighs the pain of discipline. And when you can just get into that process and start doing these things, you're going to start creating really good stuff that took a discipline to get there. I love that our greatest things in life take discipline because it makes it rewarding. If it didn't, what we would create wouldn't even really be that rewarding.

And so I think that's one aspect. The other that we've talked about quite a bit is like I love innovation, but it's really easy to turn innovation into invention in our minds. And so innovation can be about your processes. It can be about your rituals. It can be about the way you create things. It can be whatever. But we've I've had to really force myself to follow that 70-20-10 rule when it comes to innovation, which is 70 percent of your innovation really needs to be on thesis for what you do in your common work. Right. Like we can benefit what we're already doing if you focus those areas and your creativity on 70% of what you're already doing. Make it better. Make it better. Exactly. How do you adapt? How do you adjust? Like, and we don't always love that because it looks like process and looks like it's wearing overalls, right? And so it's a little challenging.

Yeah, I love it. That's why I do what I do. Exactly. So the next part is 20% that's adjacent to that. Something similar. It's inline, but it could help you lead to a new idea, a new breakthrough in what you're already doing. So this is like a adjacent thesis. And then 10% of it invention, right? Like this is the, what do I wanna create that is outside of my realm that I promise that 10% that you spend your time on actually will help the 70 and the 20. Like it's weird how it happens, but that kind of like time where you're focusing energy effort, that 70-20-10 rule and just beginning is more powerful than just waiting for inspiration. Like just way more powerful.

Yeah. And I think what we're saying here too, taking this practical step towards building the right culture for your creative team, for the team that surrounds you focused on innovation is really is like what gets reinforced gets repeated, right? So you're talking about taking that 70% of your innovation and reinforcing back into what you're already doing. And so I think it's important for us to understand the difference between just innovating or just creating for creative sake. Like that's their space for that, right? Like that's your 20 and your 10 really. But to really get down to it and put in the work for the processes and systems that support the creativity that you want to do. You can't go do the 20% and the 10% without the foundation of that 70% in your innovation, right?

Let's switch gears a little bit as we're talking about culture and creative teams. You know, lot of the creative professionals that I've talked to that they don't know when to hire or who to hire or how to hire. And they're afraid of making the wrong decision because it's their money and at risk. You know, these are business owners or solopreneurs and they're just like, I don't want to waste my money on somebody that's not going to work out. So let's talk about some hiring processes here? How do we identify people who are both creative and at least process adjacent minded during our hiring focus?

Yeah. So if I'm, if I'm talking to people right now who are having to hire for their own team, is that what you're saying? Like it's that, Yeah. I just hired a virtual assistant. So what, what would I be looking for in that? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So this is like my favorite part of everything, which is the weirdest thing for a business owner to be like, I love hiring. Um, but it's almost like, if you look at it, look, not like I need to fix a problem, but I need to invest in a future. Um, hiring becomes really exciting. And so when you start thinking about investment for future, you you've got to look at your own future and say, what, what do I value? Where do I want to go? What do I want to create? And so your values matter. Uh, how hard you're gonna work matters. The type of needs for your weaknesses matter. And so I don't think you can even touch this part of process until you've spent time in that part of process. Okay, so until you know, don't go higher, it's a waste of your time. Okay, it's a waste of your time, it's a waste of their time. And you're not going to, you're gonna all of a sudden come to fixed mindsets that people suck and nobody wants to work hard. That's bullshit.

Like a 4% turnover rate in construction. Guys, people do care about purpose. They do want to do something meaningful. So you've got to find the right ones. And are they all sitting at home waiting for your call? They're not. OK, so you've got to find them in the right places, but you've got to identify the right people you need to go look in those right places. So you can't not have core values. And I'm not trying to be like every other consultant who comes in and it's like, have you thought about your values? But like you really need to because you don't know what kind of people you want to work with. You get to choose. When have you ever got to choose who you get to work with? Yeah. Like one of the greatest joys in life is getting to do business with my friends. Like seriously, I love it.

I love being around people who love being around me and who can handle me. And then I love going and doing business together and going in because what business is, is creating. Like we get to be in a creative world and we get to go create and innovate and come up with new ideas and try to say, um, like, like I love looking for the right enemy, which is a little sub tangent here. Um, and my biggest enemy is the way it's always been done. I love fighting against the way it's always been done. Yeah. Yeah. And so guess what? I look for people who also hate the way it's always been done. And if they don't hate the way it's always been done, then I don't know if they're my people. Now, again, I don't I'm not saying I don't care about legacy and how things were created. But if it's a well, this is just the way we've done it and we've never tried anything new. That's that's that fixed mindset. Yeah, So now.

You figure those things out. And this is this is hard because a lot of times in creative world, you're looking for maybe subcontractors to be on your team. You're looking maybe W2. I don't know. But. It's hard to not focus on talent first. But talent is not effort. It's just something someone has. OK, so it's like if they had a really cool hat, would you hire them for the cool hat or would you hire them because of the person under the hat?

There's some people that I know that may actually hire for the cool hat. I'm not going to hire and I respect that. You can do whatever you want. OK, especially if you own like Catworld or something. Yeah. So but what I'm saying is talent's important. But the person under the talent or who holds the talent or holds that tool, that's what you want to know about. And if you are a grinder and you want to grind and go. Like, hey, we're just slant for the next three years. We just slam and we're busting out. We're working 50 hour weeks together. We're side by side and we're ready for this journey. You need to look for people who are ready for the journey. Yeah. Okay. And this is that whole, I don't know if it was Kevin Durant or some other person who said that, and it might even been Kobe that said, um, hard work trumps talent when talent fails to work hard. And so you want to find people who are hard workers, who are the right character, who in times of grinding know how to grind. But then like in a creative world, maybe you're looking for people who are looking for more like, how do you get through? I don't know. Like, what's your creative process? Like, how do you solve a problem nobody else could figure out? You're asking interview questions to like excavate that mentality. And when you can say like, hey, nobody else could solve through this problem. You solved it. What was your process?

And if they can't articulate their process, then maybe in the interview go, Oh, so you got lucky then then see what they say after. Can't articulate the process, you can't repeat the process. That's exactly right. And what we want is repeated success over and over again. So we talked about moving beyond the talent to hire and you kind of threw some things out there just now of like, here's what to look for. Ask them about their creative process.

As we wrap up this conversation on hiring, before we wrap up the show, what else do we need to be looking for when we're hiring beyond talent?

So definitely core values if you're looking beyond talent. You're looking, so real heavy process oriented people, if you are in an industry that needs people who can live in weeds, you need to find people who can live in the weeds. If you need people who can stay above the clouds, you need to look for that. So you've gotta almost break out your job description, understand.

And this is where people tend to fail is they look for the qualifications of somebody, right? The talents of somebody who fits this role and not necessarily the type of person or character of a person who actually fits this role. And I think there is, and I'm guilty of that. Like there are times that I have a need that I'm trying to fix a need, but if I'm trying, like I said earlier, to invest in a future, then what I need to do is find who is the right person who can.

Like maybe they don't have all the qualifications, but they can mold into the qualifications and then take this role and transform it to another level later. That's what you got to look for. So I think, I think you've got to look at job descriptions different and you got to look more at people who fit that kind of role. Yeah. And I love what you said too, about being in the weeds or in the clouds. And what came to me in that moment is it's really about the altitude of the, of the person that you're looking for. And there's nothing wrong with the person that lives in the weeds because you need those people to go back to the garden analogy. You need those people to cultivate that soil at the ground level, but then you also need the people in the clouds, right, at that altitude to provide the rain to kind of go, hey, here's some fresh ideas. Here's some fresh wind, right, coming from the clouds. And so I don't think there's anything wrong. I think people think that there's somehow less important if they're a weeds altitude versus a clouds altitude. And we need the balance of both. But I think what you said is so important is what do you need the most in that season? Do you need a cloud altitude or do you need the ground level altitude and go find that type of person, not the type of talent necessarily type of person and ingrained in who they are as a person, because that's what you'll be able to grow and develop and cultivate, right?

Let's wrap up this conversation today talking about the balance between autonomy and consistency. A lot of the people listening to this show are creative leaders. They're leaders of their businesses. They're leaders of their creative teams. And they're constantly challenging. Most of my clients that I talk to, have to coach on how to delegate. Right? And so it's a lot of that. And how much are you willing to give up? And at what level can you give autonomy? Can you talk a little bit about the, how to give creative autonomy while maintaining consistency.

Hmm. Yeah. This is another one where it's like, these aren't opposites. Two sides of the same coin kind of mentality. Like I heavily believe that.

Let me think of a right way to ask this question.

Do you want to trust the people who work for you? Yeah, for sure. Do you think anybody doesn't want to trust the people that work for them? I don't. I don't think so. When we overstandardize every aspect and overprocess every aspect of everything we do, there's an aspect of that that says I don't trust. There is an aspect that says I want to make sure we standardize certain things.

But when you standardize when bathroom breaks happen, we're starting to not trust. And so, and the further someone grows in your organization and on your team, the more autonomy you should be able to give them. And the less clear you should have to be. And I know that's going to sound so contrary to everything else, but I do believe part of the brilliance that they're bringing to the team is what they can create in the autonomy.

And when you overstandardize everything and overprocess everything, what's important? I don't know what's truly important when you overstandardize everything. There are aspects of our business and aspects of our creativity that are permission to play. No chance anyone's coming in here and being like this or doing it this way. But if you don't and if you hold to that, but you hold to that on everything, nobody's gonna know what's actually true, okay? So there is a lack of trust that happens. And when you have a lack of trust, you will have a lack of innovation. You will not get innovation without trust because people will protect what they value at that point because they don't feel trusted to bring, it's like show and tell, but the teacher's like only showing what they have and not letting the kids participate and basically making fun of everyone else's stuff that they have. Who wants to show Intel at that point? You've lost that. You've lost that when you, the teacher said, this is the only thing you can bring to show Intel. Okay. You've lost creativity. So there is guard rail mentality versus straight jacket mentality. And I think that you've got to find that balance.

Yeah. There's still autonomy between the guard rails. Yes. There's no autonomy in a straight jacket. That's exactly right. And Autonomy is saying also, I care about personality. I care about the personality you bring to this. Here is how we're getting there. Or here is the direction, the vision. Here are the things you can't. I'm going to say you can't do because there are cants. And it's important to clearly identify those. And then you say, now go create. And you're like, here's point A, here's point B. How are you going to do it and create the best vehicle to do it? And everyone's creating these cars. And then some dude creates a plane that gets there and you're like, I didn't even think about that. That's fantastic. Okay. That's personality and innovation you want to have received because you had one vision of what it was and now you've got 20 visions. Right. Which goes back to the hiring conversation that we were just having. We hired for your weakness, right? We hired for what your greatest need is. You have the one part covered. So why would you stifle the, what you just brought in because you needed them to think differently and act differently and perform differently than you in that matter.

Man, so good. So good. Let's wrap up today by just if there's one thing that you want creative business owners to remember from our conversation today, what would that be?

Innovative teams take effort. I that would be it. You can't, you can't happen and accidentally upon greatness, but it takes a lot of effort and that effort requires consistency. I love it. I love it. That's what it's all about. Um, real quick before we go, can you tell us about the book again? One more time for those who are watching here. Is right here. The book is uncultured on screen there for you. Uncultured Blake Behr's book, the key to prevent your team from self-destructing. Is available on Amazon. Tell us about that book and the main premise and the target audience.

Yeah. So the target audience is anybody who has a team, you know, and more specifically in businesses, but it dives into like why businesses fall apart. That seemingly seemed like they had all the successful pieces, but then kind of fall apart because of a lack of understanding on culture and what actually gets greatness out of people. So teaches you how to create, fix, build, and maintain a thriving culture in your business and to do it scalably, right? Like you can't just be like, I go from zero to the perfect culture and you got to give yourself some forgiveness and some growth, growing pains. And again, it's, it's heavy in consistency, heavy in mindset and heavy and just doing the thing over and over so that you build something great.

Yeah. And the book is really kind of the, the, the genesis of our business, the culture base, right? And it was kind of born out of our working relationship in the years past. Uh, and what we do at the culture base is like I said, kind of born out of this book and everything that we've been talking about on this podcast today is what we do at the culture base. So if you're in need of helping any of these categories, reach us, reach out to us at the culture base. That's BAS. The culture base dot com. We also Blake and I co-host a podcast over there as well. It comes out a couple of times a month called Get Ready For This. The culture based podcast. I know it's the most creative. It's the most creative title ever. We just took our business name and added podcast to the end of it. No one's ever done that before. We're turning down interviews all the time about how we named it. And I'm just kidding.

Go check that out everywhere where you can listen. It's on YouTube You can search on YouTube for the culture base or the culture base podcast and you'll find them Blake I'm so glad you're with me today, man. I really appreciate your time and I look forward to having you back. We're definitely need to talk about that limiting belief What will make that happen soon, too? Cool. Thanks for having me man. You bet

What an incredible episode we had for you today. Like I said in the interview, you can find out more about us at the culture based dot com. If you're interested in any part of the conversation that we had today, you can also subscribe and listen to that podcast, the culture based podcast. Can Google us on or find us on YouTube and anywhere where audio podcasts are available. I to remind you that you can pick up Blake's book uncultured on Amazon.

Definite must read for any of you that are watching or listening to this podcast on a regular basis. Next week, we're going to talk about the power of templates. And I know that sounds super boring, but listen, we're going to be able to create some reusable assets without losing without losing originality and creativity. So I want to remind you that creativity thrives with the right structure support.

And if you need help with that, I would love to come in and help you with that, whether it's as simple as one on one coaching or it's more complex and to consulting with us at Chief Creative Consultants. I would love to talk with you about that. Go to DustinPead.com. That's P E A D and click on the let's chat button. So keep thriving. Keep doing what you're doing. Don't quit. The world needs you and your creativity. I cannot wait to talk with you next week on Creativity Made Easy podcast.

Ep 111: The Feedback Loop

Structuring Revision Processes That Don't Derail Projects

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xx4oSvpcVs&w=200&h=113]

SUMMARY

The average creative project goes through nine rounds of revisions, with each round decreasing creative quality by 15% and increasing timeline risk by 30%. If you've ever found yourself stuck in endless revision cycles with clients who can't seem to make final decisions, this episode is for you. Host Dustin Pead dives deep into the psychology behind feedback, introduces the revolutionary feedback funnel method, and shares practical strategies to structure revision processes that elevate your work instead of derailing your projects. Learn how to establish healthy boundaries, implement effective feedback systems, and guide clients toward their original vision while protecting your creative integrity and project timeline.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ The Feedback Funnel Method: Structure feedback in three strategic stages - concept (the why), structure (the what), and details (the how). This prevents backwards feedback that starts with minor details and works up to major conceptual changes, saving time and maintaining creative quality.

• ⚡️ The 3:1 Feedback Ratio: Psychology research shows that effective feedback requires three positive comments for every one negative critique. This ratio activates reward circuits in the brain rather than triggering defensive stress responses, leading to better client reception and collaboration.

• ⚡️ The Goldilocks Principle of Revisions: "Just right is better than perfect." Implement revision limits and understand that diminishing returns begin after the second revision round. Establish windmill dates and change order processes to prevent scope creep while maintaining client relationships.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Your clients don't know when enough is enough and that's why they hired you." - Dustin Pead

• 💬 "Just right is better than perfect. There's no such thing as the perfect project, but you can get it just right." - Dustin Pead

• 💬 "Feedback always feels personal, even when it's not. That's because we're passionate about our work and your client is passionate about their work." - Dustin Pead

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Featured Book: Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

• ⚡️Free Resources: DustinPead.com/free

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

Did you know the average creative project goes through nine rounds of revisions and with each round decreasing creative quality by 15% every round and increasing the timeline risk by 30%? Today we're going to dive into how to structure feedback loops that elevate your work without derailing your projects. Let's get into it. Taking creatives from chaos to clarity.

Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers, all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical, actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative coach and consultant. And I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can create with efficiency as they scale together.

Before we get into today's episode, I want to invite you to subscribe, rate, and review wherever you're listening on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. Or if you're joining us on YouTube, go ahead and hit the thumbs up. That's the like button. Subscribe and ring the bell if you haven't already. That way you'll be notified every time new content just like this drops every single week.

Also want to mention that you can find all my free resources at DustinPead.com slash free. That's DustinPead.com slash free. And lastly, you can follow me on social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, all those places, Facebook as well at DustinPead. All right, let's get into today's episode.

Today we're talking about the feedback loop and how to structure revision processes that don't derail the project. So we've all been there before, right? It's the client that has requested endless rounds of revisions. And what that has taught me over the years about feedback systems is this. It's very simple. It's going to sound very narcissistic and a little bit too elementary, but I need you to just hear me when I tell you the truth is that your clients don't know when enough is enough and that's why they hired you. Your clients, they don't know when enough is enough and that's why they hired you.

We need external feedback. That's what we're talking about here today is how to have the feedback with the client. This is not the internal Pixar creative ink type of feedback. Today we're talking external feedback when working with your clients to deliver their original vision to life.

So let's first talk about the psychology behind feedback and creative feedback, right? There's always an emotional component. And I know this because I'm a very emotional being Enneagram four it doesn't take anything for me to cry. I cried watching a movie just this week, but listen, feedback always feels personal, even when it's not. And that's because we're passionate about our work. Your client is passionate about their work and you are passionate about your work and thus we all feel connected to it personally.

Psychological safety also plays a huge role in feedback. We're going to talk a lot about that today, but psychological safety creates an environment where team members can give and receive critique without it feeling like a personal attack. Wouldn't that be nice? If you've ever been in a moment where you received some feedback on a project and it felt like a personal attack or you gave feedback on a project and it felt like a personal attack. This is important because creative work, like we said, is deeply personal with creators, us creators. We have significant emotional investment in what we create. And just like your clients, they also have significant emotional and financial investment in what they're asking you to create for them.

So what I'm asking you to do right off the gate when we talk about the psychological perspective of these feedback loops is to take a stakeholder perspective. And here's what I mean by that. Clients often lack the specialized vocabulary to precisely decide the creative elements that they're looking for, right? There's a gap between what clients can envision and what they can actually verbalize. There's emotional reactions involved to creative work because it precedes all logical articulation and it makes feedback feel really challenging. So many clients, they struggle to distinguish between their personal preferences and their strategic needs. And that's where you come in with the stakeholders perspective.

And the stakeholders perspective is understanding the end goal here. It's removing all the emotion from the table, it's removing all the personal preferences from the table. And at the end of the day, the stakeholder just wants success for the actual project, for the end for both companies, right? For their company. So what you're going to do is you're going to enter into this feedback loop, not with a personal perspective, but with a stakeholder perspective.

Listen, without a structured feedback loop, clients, they're going to default, right? They're going to default to vague unhelpful feedback. Have you ever heard this before? Just make it pop. I just want it to pop, right? Just make it super creative. Well that's, that's really subjective. We don't really know what that means. What's creative to me might not be creative to you. What makes it pop to me may not make it pop to you. It's going back to those briefings that we talked about just a few episodes ago, understanding what the literal vision is, painting it, being able to see colors and textures and type fonts and motions that resonate with them and their vision ahead of time, obviously is going to create a much better feedback loop as you move forward.

There's an abstract nature to creative concepts that makes them difficult to describe before they exist. Imagine we talk about Thomas Edison quite a bit on this podcast. Imagine Thomas Edison trying to describe the light bulb before it exists, right? It's like a little fire inside of a glass case that you can turn on and off with a flick of a switch. What's a switch? I don't know. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's all, it's really abstract, right? And so it's difficult to understand. But as many questions as you can ask upfront and as many clarifying questions you can ask in the feedback loop, the better off you'll be.

So let's talk about the science of effective feedback. There's actually neuroscience studies that have been conducted. The neuroscience of criticism versus constructive guidance reveals that a fundamental brain difference is actually in place, right? Criticism triggers the brain's threat response system, right? That activates the amygdala and releases stress hormones that inhibit learning and creative thinking while constructive guidance that focuses on growth opportunities activates the reward circuits. Right? So we've gone from the threat response system when you're receiving feedback, it activates the amygdala immediately releases the stress hormones, right? It's a threat system. It's a, there's feedback coming at me. Someone's coming at me. And so it's an immediate negative reaction and that releases dopamine eventually that enhances cognitive function.

And so what we want to do is we want to focus on growth and guidance, not tearing down. So we're working on building up and not tearing down because you're immediately going to get two different types of interaction as soon as you do that. What the neuroscience shows us about this criticism, right, is that we come and we, if we come to the client and we say, this isn't working, then their immediate guard goes up and they're immediately stress hormones involved and it's all defense. But if you come to them and say, you know what, I feel like this could work better if, right, then it goes up and not down, thus releasing dopamine and enhances their cognitive function and their reception to new ideas.

Also timing. Timing is everything on feedback, right? We don't want to let it linger too long, but we don't want it to be so immediate that it's off the cuff. So immediate off the cuff is usually what I struggle with. That's where I need to kind of stop, collect my thoughts thoroughly and put together a more rational, well thought out critique or feedback, right? Whereas other people may take so long to put that together that the other party involved assumes everything is great. And so there's got to be a good balance there of knowing, I always recommend at least 12 to 24 hours on some of these things. It's just kind of the sleep on it rule, right?

And then you also, when you're giving this feedback, the ratio used to be, we used to call it the Oreo feedback, right? Where you would say, you'd give a compliment or something positive, you'd put the negative in the middle, and then you would conclude it with something positive as well. It kind of a two to one right to wrong ratio. Hey, this is right, this part is wrong, but again, this part is right as well. So now in society, psychologists have told us that, sociologists have told us that the right ratio now is actually three positives to one negative. So think about that. Every time you give one piece of negative feedback, you're going to have to have it equal in that moment, not later, in that moment, three pieces of positive feedback as well in order for them to properly receive it. Think about that next time you're engaging in feedback with your client.

All right. So we talked about why feedback is important and the psychology behind it. Now let's talk about how do we actually structure effective feedback process as well. It's going to sound like a broken record here, but it all goes back to that briefing. It's expectation management from the very beginning. When you have that creative briefing, say this is how it's going to go. This is how we're going to do feedback. And this is how we're going to understand when the project is actually done and we're done with revisions, which we're going to talk more about here in a second.

Also creating feedback guidelines for the client in that briefing, right? Again, we're saying, here's how we're going to do feedback. Here's how we're going to move forward. Here's what the round of revisions are going to look like. Here's what the timeline is going to look like. You set up all that stuff in the beginning. It's a lot less conflict feeling there towards the end when you're having to make final revisions to get it done. And speaking of revisions, you also want to establish those revision limits from the get go in writing in the contract. How many rounds of revisions are you willing to give at this price and be very clear and upfront about that, not just in writing, but verbally during the briefing as well.

So let's talk about this feedback funnel method, right? It's a strategic versus tactical feedback, right? We're separating the big picture from the details, that's kind of the first thing you need to understand is the feedback funnel is going to separate the big picture from the details. And the feedback funnel is three stages. Number one, it's in the concept, right? Feedback in the concept will save you from struggles later on throughout the project. So understanding what it is that we're setting out to do to begin with, it's painting it, it's getting that good project brief, that's going to create the most effective feedback for you.

Step two, or the second stage in the feedback funnel approach is structure. How are we going to structure this thing? How is it going to look in the end? It's more of the what. It's less of the why and more of the what. The structure is going to be how we're getting there in the end. And then the third stage of the feedback approach is the details. This is where it starts to get muddy. But the more clear you can be with it, the better. So we're going to have feedback at concept.

We're going to have feedback and the structure of it. We've kind of to use the 4D process, right? We've already dreamed about what it's going to be, the concept now and the structure. We are designing what we want it to be. We took the concept, we took the dream and we narrowed it down into the design. That's the structure of what we're going to be. And then the details is the development phase, right? What is, what's going to happen when and next and how is it all going to flow? Pre-production, production, post-production, all those things, right? We're rounds of revisions. That's the detail. So those are the three areas in which you want to have feedback. You want to have feedback at the concept, or if you're using the 4D creative process, you want to have feedback at the dream phase. How does everyone feel about where we're headed in our brainstorm here, or where we're headed in our definition of what this thing is going to be? It's the why. And then in the design phase, that's the structure. Now we're narrowing it down to what it's actually going to be. How are we feeling about this? Getting feedback there. And then lastly, getting feedback on the details. Because if the first two are right, then the details are going to be minor details and not major details.

Listen, this funnel, this feedback funnel method, feedback at the concept, feedback at the structure, feedback at the details, it's going to prevent feedback that works backwards. You're not starting at the details and then moving to the structure and the concept. You're starting at the concept and then the structure and then the details because each step will get you closer and closer to that final vision that you wanted from the beginning.

So how do we do this? You can create feedback templates that can guide specific responses. You definitely want to consolidate those feedback systems as much as possible. One channel, one to and from, whatever the communication path is. It could be a simple form. We're going to talk about some technology here in just a second, but you want to be able to use one system and one source and ask the same questions every single time so that you can track changes and control the variation of versions as it goes further and further into revisions and the final part of the project.

All right, we talked about how we're going to mention some different tools and technology for feedback and we're going to talk here specifically visual feedback. So we're talking specifically here for the visual artists, some audio artists as well may be able to use a few of these, but visually speaking, it's the markup tools, right? Those are going to give you the most contextual feedback when they can circle something and say it's this font right here that I don't like. It's this color over here. It's this texture over here. It's this photo that we used, things like that. So Adobe, Canva, Figma, all the ones that are out there, everything out there now has the ability for collaborative design feedback. Now, this is not saying that you're going to give them design control. You're inviting them into the feedback process, not the design process. That's yours, not the creative process. That's yours, but you're going to invite them into the feedback so that you can closely align to the original vision.

If you're into video, if you create video for your clients, Frame.io or other platforms like it is really great for them to be able to pinpoint the exact millisecond of what they're talking about, comment on it, and then it'll show up in your editing software for you to be able to go exactly to the point, see the client's revision right there, and execute it to perfection because it's in the exact right moment. It's clarifying, right? At the end of the day, we're using these tools to clarify exactly what it is that we want, the contextual feedback. We don't want to be confused about what they're talking about in the feedback. So create and grab those tools and technology for visual feedback.

All right, the last thing I want to talk about today, because when we talk about feedback, we talk about equally, we talk about revision. So let's talk about how do we manage the revision process, right? We want the Goldilocks principle of revision. Just right is better than perfect. I need you to hear that creative. Just right is better than perfect. And maybe you need your client to hear that as well. Just right, the Goldilocks principle, is better than perfect. And what I mean by that is that nothing is going to be perfect. There's no such thing as the perfect project. You may think you created the perfect project at one point. I got news for you. You didn't.

Your client doesn't have the perfect pitch. They don't have the perfect vision. They don't have the perfect concept. At the end of the day, there's no such thing as perfection. It's a lie. But you can get it just right. We nailed it. We nailed that vision. There's going to be flaws in it. There's going to be little dings and mistakes that are going to come along the way. My father-in-law, who was a craftsman for many years, he would just call those humble spots. That's just a humble spot to keep you humble, to know that it's not perfect. And every time I do a project, I can clearly point out from across the room, there's the humble spot. But just right is better than perfect.

So what I need you to be aware of here in this revision process is beware of the diminishing returns after two revisions. Now, I know many of you go, well, really it's going to take three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine revisions. It's true. But after the first two, you're going to start to see diminishing returns. You're going to have to understand from the get-go the cost benefit of those multiple revisions. After the second revision, the time and the energy that it takes for you to complete those revisions is going to cost you more and more in the long run. And on the bottom line, and we're talking finances here, we're not talking time. It's going to cost you, yes, it's going to cost you time, but it's going to cost you more and more and more. Or it's going to cost the client more and more and more because in your contract you said I'm going to give you these revisions but after that it's going to cost more.

So you need to understand that the just right is better than perfect. The Goldilocks principle is a win for all those involved. So going back to setting those healthy boundaries from the beginning you implement revision limits. You do this without alienating your clients. You don't want to say listen now you're going to get two and no more. That's a little bit too hard headed. You can say, hey, in this price, we've laid out time for two revisions. If there's more revisions that have to happen, which we typically don't find, we typically hope that we get it right in the first couple of revisions. But if we need to go further, then that will be an additional charge. And here's what that will look like. You can use in the construction world, they call it a change order. Use the change order approach, right? That's going to prevent scope creep to say, hey, listen, we talked about this a few episodes ago. Hey, listen, back when we went to the beginning of this project and we kind of laid out that concept that we talked about and the feedback. When we nailed that and we nailed the structure of it all, we seemed like we were on the right spot. But now that we're in the details, it feels like we're not really getting it. So where did we miss it along the way? That will help prevent scope creep. And you can guide your clients back to the original vision of the project. And if you're really unsure how to do that, just you can use some different AI scripts to be able to professionally push back when you need to push back, but do it with grace and do it with kindness and it will always be well received.

So when it comes and that final review has finally arrived, you're going back to the beginning and saying, look, we've identified and predetermined the decision maker. This is the person who has the final say. They have the final say. Who is that person? Now it's time to bring them in for that very purpose to finish the project with the final review.

You also need to use a single point of contact. This is going to streamline communication. Whenever you're getting feedback from three or four different people on their team, all coming at you from all different directions, that's not healthy feedback. You're going to say, look, y'all can have multiple voices in the feedback. I just need y'all to get together on the feedback on your time and then come back and give me one single, this is the feedback that we decided as a team that we're going to go with. And that's just healthy communication at the front. Also at the front, we want to implement what I refer to as a windmill date, a windmill date. And what I mean by this, if you ever watch Back to the Future, part three, they were in the Old West and they reached the point on these tracks past the windmill. Once you get past the windmill, there's no turning back. We're going to proceed with the mission to get back to 1985.

So set a windmill date for preventing last minute changes. Say, look, I know this is really important to you to have it done by June 1st. So our windmill date is going to be May 15th. After May 15th, there's going to be little to no changes whatsoever so that we can deliver it to you when you said you wanted it to begin with.

So what do we do now? First thing we're going to do is we're going to implement a feedback funnel on your next project, the concept, the structure, and the details. If you don't already have a client feedback guide template, create one for you and your team. I'm happy to help you with that on your also if you need to audit your current revision process is your revision process way too complicated and we made it way too simple for you and today's episode go ahead and take a look at that set clear revision limits in your next proposal start at the beginning but most of all just choose one feedback tool to master this month and make one little difference if it's a windmill date if it's a single point of contact if it's the feedback funnel.

If it's feedback guide templates, if it's auditing or your revision process, whatever it is, just choose one of those to master this month. Don't overwhelm yourself or your team trying to get the perfect feedback. There is a book out there that I want to point out by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen called Thanks for the Feedback. Highly recommend that book to check out. But in conclusion, don't overwhelm yourself or your team. Just try one tactic to create better feedback loops.

A reminder, you can get all my free resources available on my website at dustinpead.com slash free. If you'd love to work together, I'd love to work together too. So go to dustinpead.com and click on the let's chat button. We'll get a free discovery call on your calendar for us to be able to see if it's a good fit for both of us and how I can help you in your particular growth areas from the inside out in your creative endeavors.

Next episode cannot wait. Going to have a special guest on here from one of my other organizations that I'm heavily involved in and part owner of, the Culture Base. Blake Baer is going to be here. We're going to talk about culture by design and how to build teams that can support your creative process. That's next time on the Creativity Made Easy podcast. Talk to you then.

Ep 110: Meeting Minimalism

Communication Frameworks That Save Time

SUMMARY

The average creative professional spends 23 hours per week in meetings. Yet research shows that over 70% of those meetings actively prevent your best creative work from happening. As creative entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves trapped in an endless cycle of meetings that drain our energy, disrupt our creative flow, and ultimately hinder our productivity. In this episode, we dive into the concept of meeting minimalism and explore practical frameworks to help you reclaim your time and boost your creative output.

When we think about meetings, we immediately recognize the visible costs – the time blocked on our calendars. However, there are hidden costs that often go unnoticed. Context switching can take up to 25 minutes before we regain deep focus. Creative flow disruption breaks our ability to produce our best work. Decision fatigue drains the energy needed for making creative choices. And let's not forget the financial impact – calculating the hourly rates of everyone involved can be eye-opening. Perhaps most significant is the opportunity cost – what creative work isn't getting done while you're sitting in that unnecessary meeting?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ⚡️ Create a Note-First Culture: Write things down before requesting face time. Documentation-first approaches eliminate unnecessary impromptu meetings and help you determine if an issue can wait for a scheduled meeting or be handled asynchronously.

• ⚡️ Implement the Meeting Decision Tree: Before scheduling a meeting, ask four critical questions: Is immediate two-way interaction required? Does this require multiple perspectives simultaneously? Is complex emotion involved that text cannot convey? Is this a relationship-building moment? If you answer "no" to all four, use an alternative communication method.

• ⚡️ Use the Right Communication Tool for the Job: Status updates can often be handled through Slack messages, project management software updates, or Loom videos instead of live meetings. Create a decision matrix for your team to determine when to use chat, email, video messages, or actual meetings.

NOTABLE QUOTES

• 💬 "Not only do you have the calendar visible cost of that meeting, but you have preparation time and then follow-up time as well."

• 💬 "On average, it takes a person 25+ minutes to regain deep focus when they have to switch context."

• 💬 "Establish the feedback criteria even before you review the work, right? So that we understand this is what it is. We're not coming in here with different criteria."

EPISODE RESOURCES

• ⚡️Book Recommendation: "Read This Before Our Next Meeting" by Al Pittampalli

• ⚡️Free Download: Creative Meeting Success Framework

• ⚡️ EOS Level 10 Meetings: Learn the Identify, Discuss, Solve (IDS) method

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⚡️ Schedule a FREE Coaching Call here.

TRANSCRIPT

The average creative professional spends 23 hours per week in meetings. Yet research shows that over 70% of those meetings actively prevent your best creative work from happening. Today, we're going to dive into meeting minimalism and how it can change the game for you and your team. Let's get into it. Taking creatives from chaos to clarity.

Welcome to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast where we transform creative chaos into clarity. This is a podcast for all creatives, designers, photographers, writers and all creative entrepreneurs who are seeking practical and actionable strategies to grow their creative business through efficiency. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, and I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams to create with efficiency as they scale together.

I'm so very excited to be with you on this episode, episode 110 of the Creativity Made Easy podcast. We wouldn't have gotten this far without you. And so thank you for listening. While you're listening, I would love for you to subscribe, rate, review on whatever platform you're listening or watching on. Listen on all podcast platforms and you can watch on YouTube. Just search creativity made easy on YouTube and my channel will pop up and while you're there subscribe rate and review there as well.

I want to direct you to some amazing free resources that I have on my website. You can go to Dustin Pead dot com slash free that's D-U-S-T-I-N P-E-A-D dot com slash free for all sorts of free resources, including the ones that I may mention in this episode. Lastly, before we get into today, I want to remind you, you can follow me on social media at Dustin Pead - follow along a little bit of behind the scenes action there and anything that we have coming up to promote or just some really great conversation centered around creative production. All right, let's get into today's episode.

I do have a confession to make. I really love meetings and it's because I'm an extrovert. It's because I like to be around people as much as I can. I get that energy, but here's what I don't love. I don't love meetings without purpose. I don't love meetings without an agenda. I don't love meetings without a set amount of time, without a goal in mind for that meeting. And so today we're going to talk about this meeting minimalism and some different frameworks that I have, communication frameworks that can save you time from these endless amounts of meetings that are taken away from your creative production.

All right, let's talk about what the true cost of meetings in creative businesses are, right? There's the visible costs, right? You can look at your time on your calendar. And you can see, look, it's taking up time. Not only is it taking up time when the meeting is actually happening, but it's taking up preparation time so that I can actually be prepared for that meeting and be ready to discuss whatever it is that we're hopefully know what we're going to be talking about, right? There's also the follow-up time after that meeting. It's the meeting after the meeting in which you have to go follow up and, on the things that you talked about in there, maybe there was decisions made that you need to follow up on, or if it's a, wasn't such a great meeting, maybe you need to go get clarity on what just happened in that meeting, right?

So not only do you have the calendar visible cost of that meeting, but you have preparation time and then follow up time as well. There's also some hidden costs that I want to talk about here for a moment. And the first one is this, and we've talked about this many times on the show before, but it's this idea of context switching, context switching meaning that our brains have to go from focused on one item to now being focused on another item and it takes our brains a moment to catch up to the context in which the new thing is happening for us to really realize it's where we talk a lot about the future you note taking methodology that I talk about on this podcast all the time is where we get into that context and we can we can quickly remember what it was that we're supposed to be doing in that it's that future you note taking methodology.

But in this world of meetings, there's a hidden cost here of context switching and on average, right? It takes a person 25 plus minutes to regain deep focus when they have to switch context. So imagine that an average of 25 minutes, there's a hidden cost layer of you switching from one thing to the next for your mind to be able to get context. And you'll notice this. Sometimes you'll be sitting in a meeting and it'll take you almost 25 to 30 minutes usually before you feel like, okay, now I understand what's going on here and now I can start to contribute to the overall success of the topic in which we're talking about.

There's another hidden cost too, and it's very real. And you might feel it more than it is hidden, but it's creative flow disruption, right? Meetings break up that flow state that we've talked about in previous episodes that help us produce our best creative work. And let's be honest with these meetings, another hidden costs, again, it might not be super hidden. It might be really on the forefront of your conscious, right? But it's decision fatigue, right? Too many meetings can drain our decision-making energy. And that energy is needed for creativity. It's needed for our creative choices.

Some other hidden costs associated with meetings, obviously there's financial impact, right? You can calculate the actual dollar cost of a meeting. Who all is in the meeting, what their team hourly rates are, how long that, you know, multiplied to how long that meeting is. So, just for simplicity sake, let's say you had a team of five and they're all in that meeting and everybody in that meeting makes $10 an hour. Then that meeting is costing you $50 for one hour. So obviously numbers are a lot bigger than that. $10 an hour. My son makes that at his job at 14 years old. But you get what I'm saying, right? You have to understand the financial impact that you're spending on that meeting. Is it actually worth it?

And another hidden cost that I want to talk about before we wrap up to here is opportunity costs. And what I mean is what creative work isn't getting done while you're in that meeting, what opportunities to advance the current projects and what opportunities to create new to create new connections or new project opportunities. What what of those are being lost because you were in a meeting instead?

And so there's lots of upfront, very visible costs. We talked about calendar time during the meeting, before the meeting, after the meeting. But then there's the hidden costs, context switching, creative flow, decision fatigue, financial impact, how much is the meeting actually costing you to have, and then the opportunity costs as well.

All right, let's get into some communication strategies that can help minimize all of these meetings that we find ourselves in every single week. The first thing is this is be a note first culture or a documentation first culture. You need to write things down before requesting FaceTime. And here's what I mean by this is like, Oh, I totally meant to ask Ted about this one thing. I'm going to pop over in Ted's office real quick and ask him about this thing and see if he has a moment to talk about this. See if he has quote unquote five minutes, right? To talk about this, which he talked about in last week's episode. Let's if he has five minutes to talk about this.

But if you just pause for a second before you get up from your desk and walk over to Ted's office and you write down what it is that you actually need to talk to him about or what the question is, you will begin to observe it for what it is and know, you know what? That actually would be better served in a meeting that we already have set up. Maybe it's a one-on-one, maybe it's a departmental meeting, maybe it's an L10 leadership meeting if you're doing the EOS model. That'll be better served to bring up in that case. I'm just going to hold that for now. I'm going to stay focused on what I'm doing right now. I'm not going to disrupt Ted from what he's doing right now. We don't need an impromptu meeting for this. So document first or note first or writing down first, creating that culture among you and your team goes a long way.

Another opportunity here is progress updates. Some, some meetings don't need to be meetings. All right. We talked about this before and we're going to talk about this later on in this episode as well. Some meetings just need to be an email or a Slack message, right? If it's a progress update, structure your daily and weekly updates to eliminate these status meetings, right? And I love status meetings. One of my favorite meetings that I talk about all the time is what I call the maps meeting. It's a meeting about project status, right? And what, but what we're really talking about here is not just what's the status, but where we're going. And that's why I like to call it the maps meeting because hey, where are we going next? Where do we need to shift next? It's a little bit of an editorial style meeting.

But if it's simply just, hey, this is where we're at on these projects, then we're a simple Slack message away. I do like to hold a short, less than 15 minute meeting at the beginning of the week just to say, here's what's ahead this week. I've already sent you this. Everybody already knows what's on their schedule for this week, knows what's expected of them this week. Are there any questions that are worth being asked with all of us here. If not, we'll take it offline. Have a great day. Check in when you need to check in, that kind of thing, right?

So progress updates, get in the habit of using those digitally, whether it be an email or a Slack message, whatever it is, structure those into your daily and weekly updates so that you can eliminate status meetings. And there's a few tools here that I want to recommend for you. Obviously, any type of project updates or status tracking can be done in your project management software. For us, that's Asana. Also, knowledge of how to do certain things. Maybe we don't need a meeting for that, but you can easily have those things documented in your Google Docs or your Notion, whatever you use for all of your company-wide SOPs and structures. And then lastly, Loom videos. So huge. I talk about this all the time. You can get a free Loom account. You can have a video that goes up to five minutes for free. And you can shoot a quick explanation instead of five, instead of live walkthroughs over and over and over again. You can shoot that one video once, send it to your team and go, hey, I know you're probably gonna forget this later, but just hang on to that link, save it somewhere where you can reference it when you need to relearn it or remember the steps for this over and over and over.

So use your project management system for updates and statuses. Use your Google Docs, your Notion for knowledge management, and use Loom videos to explain things instead of having constant live walkthroughs. Listen, last thing I want to share with you about these communication tactics, and I'm not going to go super deep into it because I've already done this on a few episodes ago. It might even have been last week's episode when we talked about the creative brief mastery. But written creative briefs, these detailed briefs, are going to eliminate these constant clarification meetings, right? If you have something that you can go back to each and every time to realign yourself or your team around what the project is supposed to be about, because you did a really good job at your creative brief document, then it will eliminate needs for all of these clarification meetings over and over and over again. So go back and listen to last week's episode on the creative brief mastery for that.

Now let's talk about when we need to meet versus using some of these alternative communications, because there are actually times when a meeting is helpful, right? And we've talked before about, like, I have on my website the five ways to make every creative meeting successful. It's the Creative Meeting Success Framework. You can go to dustinpead.com slash free and download that now. And a lot of the things I'm going talk about here are included in that as well.

You need to have what's referred to often as like a meeting decision tree or a meeting decision flow chart, right? Number one, ask yourself, is immediate two-way interaction required? Or can I just send this out and whenever they get to it, they can respond? How immediate is this two-way interaction for the meeting? And if it's a super immediate, then you know you need to have a meeting. And if it's not, be honest, maybe it can wait and you can wait for return communication back.

Number two, does this require, does this issue, right, or does this meeting require multiple perspectives all at the same time? Really get ruthless about this. Does your meeting, does this issue that you're working on, does it require multiple perspectives all at the same time simultaneously? If it's a brainstorm, then obviously yes, you're gonna need to have that kind of energy in the room. Or if it's a go off, work on this, come back and reconvene, then you can talk about that there. But ask yourself, does this problem require multiple perspectives simultaneously?

Third question to ask yourself when deciding if you need to have a meeting. Is complex emotion involved that text cannot convey? This is where a lot of leaders mess up by canceling meetings across the board is because they think I can just read the text and understand I can read the email, I can read the Slack message, I can read the Teams message, whatever it is, I can read that and understand exactly what's going on. We don't need a meeting for this. But if there's complex emotion involved, something that's being shifted or added or taken away, we're still dealing with people here. If there's complex emotion involved, that a text just can't convey, then yeah, it's time for a meeting.

And then number four, this is my favorite one as an Enneagram four, is this meeting a relationship building moment? Now, not just social time, but deep relationship building moment, a moment to build trust, a moment to develop each other in a one-on-one or a team department environment. Is this meeting a relationship building moment and if the answer is yes to any of these if is immediate two-way communication or immediate two-way interaction required if you can answer yes to that meeting does this require multiple perspectives at the same time if you answer yes have the meeting is this art is complex emotion involved that text can't convey if the answer is yes have a meeting and lastly is there is this a relationship building moment or opportunity if the answer is yes.

Again, be ruthless with these yeses, right? Don't just say yes to everything because you want the meeting. But if you can say yes to any one of these four, then the meeting is valid. With that, let's equally talk about some meeting alternatives. If we don't necessarily need to have a meeting, if you answered no to those four things, then what can we do? All right, so first thing, create a decision matrix for different communication methods, right? Like, hey, is this something that's going to be really more complex and detailed? Then I'm going to If that's the case, then the matrix is telling me that I need to send an email with attachments and yada, yada, yada. Hey, if this is just a quick question, can I put it on Teams or Slack and schedule it for later? What does that look like? What are the parameters for when it's just a quick question versus it needs a meeting? That's going to be different for you and every organization. Ask yourself when you should use, again, like chat versus email or video message versus a meeting, a loom video versus an in-person meeting.

Have those decisions. And if it doesn't fit the criteria of a meeting, then use the alternative that it does fit. And lastly, respectfully decline unnecessary meetings. And I say respectfully because you don't want to come across as a jerk that just says no to all meetings. But you need to learn how to do it with grace and understanding and communicate why that this meeting at this particular time with this agenda just isn't necessary for you to be in. And that will begin to set boundaries with you and your team and your clients that will go a long way.

The whole this should be an email test, right? What does that mean? This should be an We always say this meeting should just be an email. We love texting each other while we're in meetings. We're not the one running the meeting, and we're just saying this whole meeting could just be an email. So what are three questions to ask before you even schedule that meeting to avoid the, should be an email, messages going on in your meeting while you're trying to run it.

Number one, is this primarily one way information sharing? Is it just information sharing that's coming from one to all or one to the other? Then it could be an email or Slack message or Teams message. Number two, can decisions be made without real FaceTime discussion? If you, if that other person has the autonomy and they need to make the decision, you can say, Hey, here's the issue. I trust you to make the decision. Keep me posted. Bam. A meeting does not need to happen. It's an email. It's a Slack message. It's a Teams message. And then number three, can we achieve the same outcome in less than half of the time with some digital or written communication? So going back to the other alternatives in the meeting, can we achieve the same outcome with those alternatives? Then we can with half the time. If we can, then it doesn't need to be a meeting. It can be written or digital communication.

So we've also all been there. We've been in a meeting where like, yeah, we've run through the decision matrix. We've asked all the right questions. This does need to be a meeting, but God help us. This meeting is terrible. So let's talk about how to run some efficient creative reviews and feedback sessions. These are the types of meetings that we find ourselves in as creatives quite a bit. And so there's this focus feedbacks methodology that we need to talk about.

And the focus feedback is this. Number one, set clear objectives for the meeting or for the review, for the feedback. What are we trying to accomplish here? Every meeting should have that right at the beginning. One person leading the meeting should say, is what we're trying to accomplish in this meeting. So that everybody knows when that happens or else otherwise it becomes what's known as a marathon meeting. And no one really knows when it's over because we don't know what the objective for the meeting was to begin with.

Number two, establish the criteria before the meeting, right? Establish the feedback criteria even before you review the work, right? So that we understand this is what it is. We're not coming in here with different criteria. We're saying, hey, this is the criteria in which we're reviewing this. This is the criteria in which we're providing feedback on. And that's what this time is for. All other ideas, those are for other times. For now, this is what we're using. And then you can also use time boxing techniques right so like a 10 minute review rule so hey we're gonna set a timer right now We're gonna talk about this for 10 minutes and when the timer is over we've talked about it enough. And if the problem still isn't solved get better at leading that discussion. Learn from it and move on have another separate private conversation if you need to but be ruthless about those time boxing techniques.

Again, we talked about ways to accomplish the same thing without actually having a meeting. And so let's use this whole review feedback kind of topic in the same light here. So a way to avoid it is to set up some collaborative tools for feedback. Asana, Frame, Google Docs, Loom videos, all these different things will allow you to get that feedback digitally without having to have a verbal conversation about it in a digital or in-person meeting.

Create those feedback templates that streamline responses. Hey, what are the five things that we're looking for every time we review this type of work? Those are the five questions. Those are the five areas. We're going to have them be multiple choice or ranked or whatever. And that way the feedback is streamlined and consistent every single time. And it leaves little room for these rabbit trail conversations that happen in a meeting all the time. You can do that outside of a meeting to enhance your review process.

And the last thing is to use video annotations for detailed visual feedback. Again, this is where Loom coming in handy. Someone sends you a design, you need to review it, open up the design on your computer, start a Loom video, it's got yourself in the bottom corner of it. You can talk through, use your mouse to point at different things, go, like what you did here, I like the texture here, what I'd like to see is something different in this region right here. And you're able to verbally give those annotations and reviews and feedback on the Loom video with some visual feedback rather than take less than five minutes to do that rather than having an hour long meeting about this one design that needs to be reviewed.

The last thing I want to mention here on how to have effective meetings is we talked a lot earlier about the EOS. If you don't know what that is, it's the Entrepreneur Operating System. It was developed by a guy named Gene, Geno, is it Geno Whitman? Geno Whitman? Geno Whitman, I think is his name. Incredible. lot of people use that type of methodology and he has in there all sorts of different types of meetings, but one that is extremely streamlined that we use a lot in my businesses is the level 10 meeting or the L 10 meeting. And this is, uh, has a segmented agenda with very strict time boxes. We're going to spend five minutes kind of warming up to the topic. Then we're going to talk about some major kind of upper level issues and then we're going to spend the bulk of our time.

Called the IDS method the bulk of our discussion the bulk of this meeting is going to be around IDs which is identify Discuss and solve we're gonna identify the problem We're gonna discuss the problem and then when it's all said and done guess what we're actually gonna solve the problem So level 10 meetings EOS check them out use the IDS method every single time identify the problem discuss the problem solve the problem.

All right, in closing, so what do we do now? We have these meetings that are taking up way too much of our time. They're unorganized when we have them. It's just a complete time cycle. Most of them should be in email. So what do we do? I want to give you some options. I don't want you to do all of these. I just want you to pick one over the next quarter, month, and try these things out.

Number one, conduct a communication audit to evaluate your current meeting culture. This could be an easy survey monkey or Google, Google form survey that you send out to everybody on your team and say, Hey, look, just rate how you think these meetings are. Do you think we have too many meetings or not enough meetings or our meetings productive or not productive? Are they too long or are they too short? Ask those questions to get some feedback.

Another option, create a two week experiment where you're going to implement meeting minimalism as a trial. Just say, Hey, you know what, for the next week, we're going to be our next two weeks. We're going to be extremely ruthless about saying no to unnecessary meetings and just try it and see how it goes. Obviously do with respect, do with grace and kindness and be upfront about that communication. Don't just shut them down and say, we're trying something. Trust us. No one buys that. Be upfront about how we're going to do this over the next couple of weeks to try that out.

A third option. This is a big option, but it's a really big, it's, it's a really worthwhile option is to get some team buy-in, get everybody on board with new communication frameworks. I know this is going to say like, are you telling me to have a meetings to have less meetings? Maybe, or maybe you should shoot an email out there. Hey, everybody, we want to get better about the way that we communicate and we want to get better about how often we have meetings and the quality of those meetings. So we'd love to get some ideas from you on how we can improve that. Right. Send it out there, get some buy-in with the team.

Number four, track certain metrics around your current communication strategy. Measure the impact on productivity and creative output. Are the meetings that you're having, are they increasing productivity and creative output or are they decreasing? Why or why not? And lastly, if you want to start with a gradual implementation plan with one team or project before you expand it out to your entire.

I want to leave you with a few resources before we wrap up this episode. There's a great book by Al Pitamampali. I hope I'm saying his name right. It's P-I-T-T-A-M-P-A-L-L-I. Al, we love you, but I don't know how to say your last name. Google that. Check it out. This book. Read this before our next meeting. Fantastic book. A lot of things that we talked about here in that book as well. do have that template for you on dustinpead.com slash meetings is the creative meeting success framework. Go download that. There's pre-meeting strategies in there, meeting structure, feedback systems, templates, follow-up formulas, all of that in there. Also check out the L10 meetings, the level 10 meetings from EOS to identify, discuss, and solve problems in your meeting more efficiently.

I want to remind you all resources can be found at dustinpead.com. Would love for you to follow me at Dustin Pead on social media for more content just like this. cannot wait to be with you for our next episode. We do have some very fun special guests coming up that I cannot wait to talk to you about. We'll catch you next time on Creativity Made Easy podcast. Have a great week.