As the host of the creative business podcast, Creative Connections, I tell my listeners, being an entrepreneur isn’t for everybody but being creative is. I ask my entrepreneurial guests to talk me through their business journey and creative process to encourage others to embrace creativity. After leaving my corporate job in 2018 to pursue a different career, I found that creative expression was the missing piece in my life. That said, you don’t need such a significant change to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of creativity. I want to share three things I’ve learned from speaking with entrepreneurs that you can introduce into your day from the sofa/kitchen table/back garden during self-isolation.
The backdrop to this advice is to increase your creative confidence, but how you ask?
1. Gaining knowledge is critical
The difference between the creatives and non-creatives is that the creatives possess the confidence to take action. The key here isn’t the action itself – don’t worry, I’m not sharing the standard advice to ‘just start’ – but to gain confidence through increasing your knowledge. Choose your creative task, then take a step back and dedicate time to gain familiarity by observing, learning and upskilling. You can do this by making use of resources online, from cheat sheets, YouTube tutorials and online courses. There’s a world of knowledge available to you without ever leaving the house.
2. Try something new and start experimenting
When creating, we can often get distracted by the outcome of a task instead of centring on the process of creating. As I write this, I tap away at the keyboard to shift my messy ideas from my brain and onto the page, I enjoy the flow and worry about tidying it up later. Whether you want to bake or photograph for the first time, take notice of the small things. The texture of the cake mixture as you beat in the sugar, the click of the camera as you capture your first light flare – even if your bake burns or the picture blurs, you’ve enjoyed the practise and are more inclined to show up next time.
3. Make personal connections online
We are all connected online and gaining a creative network from home is easier than ever; reach out to someone via email, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter and share your admiration for their work and arrange for a chat. A couple of clicks later and you’ll have Skype or Zoom installed and are ready to connect, learn and share. Why not record your conversations to share as a podcast, or maybe type up the key takeaways to share on your blog?
Trust me that the secret to creativity is to embrace the creative process and enjoy the small progress.
For more inspiration from creative entrepreneurs and business owners, you can find my podcast through my website, rachelmatthewswriter.co.uk and on Spotify and iTunes by searching Creative Connections with Rachel Matthews.