Hi friends! I’ve been a little quiet on the “blog post” front of late as I’ve been wrapping up commitments related to the book launch and preparing for the upcoming season at Accidental Creative. (Fortunately Matt, Mindy, and a host of brilliant guest posters have been raising the bar for what constitutes a “post” around here…)
A few fun and exciting things (designed to help you unlock your brilliant ideas!) that we’ve been working on have just catapulted into the world. First, ever since the launch of The Accidental Creative (two months ago!) we’ve had requests from teams and small groups wanting something that they can use to study the book together. Because my initial idea – hopping a plane and flying in to lead every study group personally – wouldn’t scale, we decided to create something that we’re calling Study Packs. There are two kinds of Study Packs:
The Personal Study Pack contains a copy of The Accidental Creative, a 20 page Study Guide that contains questions, prompts and additional insights to help you apply the principles in the book, and (wait for it!) a Cover Bands Don’t Change The World decal.
The Group Study Pack includes multiple copies of The Accidental Creative, Study Guide, and decal, and also includes a Group DVD with ten segments to help kick off discussion about the book, as well as tips for leaders about how to host a successful study group.
I’m really excited about these and think they’ll help groups have more focused, effective conversations about how to do better work, sustainably.
Which leads me to the second announcement: the re-launch of AC Engage. I’ve been asking subscribers over the past year about what would make an AC community really great, and the consistent theme is more interaction. That’s why we’re re-launching AC Engage to be centered around (mostly) weekly live webinars covering issues and stimulating topics relevant to creatives. I’ll be covering tactical things like taking better notes, curating a stimulus queue, and establishing your “Big 3″, as well as mindset things like squashing fear, setting better goals and identifying your core passions. We’ll also be featuring interviews with members of the AC Collective and other AC community members and heroes. (Of course, if you can’t make it you’ll have access to audio and video of the events, as well as the AC audio/video archives!) I’m THRILLED to be spending time each week with the AC Engage community, and I hope that you will join us and help make it great! If you want to take the principles in the book to the next level, this will be the way to do it.
Finally, one of the best ways to develop the mindset of a creative pro is to surround yourself with things that remind you of why you strive to do great work (even when it seems that no one is watching.) A member of the AC book street team, the incredible Melissa Monette, has created a few computer desktops to serve as a reminder to stay out of your comfort zone (The desktop can be seen at the top of this post). Enjoy!
Download here: 2560×1600 - 1280×1024 - 800×600.
OK – that’s all and I’m officially “back”. Thanks so much for being a part of the AC community, and if there’s anything that I/we can do to be of help, please don’t hesitate to ask!
