Tea with McNair

• relative creativity

CREATIVITY IS CONTAGIOUS. 

PASS IT ON.
  

        ~ Albert Einstein

 

Drawing by McNair. Mustache & bowtie are interchangable.

• summit: nashville

I have been to the Summit all week. Like all summits it was a peak experience. This is the three day workshop Ken Davis put together in response to hundreds of speakers attending his Dynamic Commujnicators Workshop who requested a nuts-and-bolts workshop on the business side of speaking and performing.

Covering every aspect from developing your ASSETS (talents, skills, experience) into PRODUCTS (what you "sell": talks, presentations, programs), findng your MARKETS (who will buy what you 're offering), and creating effective RESOURCES (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.)

Much of the workshop was engagingly taught—tag-team style—by Ken Davis and Danny de Armas. The collective wisdom and expereince of these two men is more than worth the cost of the event. They are a wide-open fire hydrant of information, guiding all of us to a myriad of effective tools to expand our business.

[ Even though my current sketchbook still has a couple dozen blank pages, I decided to take a brand new sketchbook for "note taking." I will scan and post some of the pages in the coming days. For now, here's a favorite quote from the Summit, below, right.]

Ken Davis is one of those life-long-learners, never settling for the status quo. He had invited some of the very best presenters available: Michael Hyatt (CEO, Thomas Nelson Publishing) to discuss the ever-changing world of book publishing. He was clear, candid, and practical. Randy Elrod is a connecter and major domo of the re-cre:ate conference. He gave strong, enthusiastic, and experienced coaching on developing and maximizing our presence on the World Wide Web. [Clue: start by creating your own home base/hub www.(your name).com. and your Twitter account is, ideally, some form of your real name so potential clients CAN FIND YOU. Everything else is linked to hub site.]

Julie Baumgardner of First Things First, is a columnist, speaker, and event planner. She spoke from here long experience as someone who plans and creates conferences of all sizes and has heard and hired a wide array of speakers for her events. Her insights on PR, presenting ourselves to potential clients, and developing our market (audience) was one of the most valuable presentations in a week that was wall-to-wall priceless.

Batting clean up, was one of the most popular corporate speaker-author-humorists in the country Andy Andrew's manager, Robert Smith, who is a witty, engaging and inspiring speaker in his own rite. As a surprise bonus, Andy Andrews came along and their presentation-in-dialogue was both entertaining and informative—a full, rich, fountain of information that was right on point.

Every night of the three long days I was filled with a rush of ideas and strategies I could not wait to impliment—some I have already pushed the start button on and others I will need to enlist a small army of partners and experts to impliment.

Needless to say, but I will, this was an exceptionally valuable week for me. I recommend this event to ANYONE and everyone for whom standing in front of an audience is part of your professional pursuits. I spent the week with comedians, a nutritionist, speakers, a painter-preformance artist, magicians, and even three folks who came all the way from New Zealand for the Summit. ( I was also fortunate to share my Recapturing Your Creative Spirt presentation, Tuesday evening. Speaking to speakers is a a grand opportunity.)

For info on next year's Professional Communicators Summit, visit KenDavis.com. And...if you have not, yet, attended Ken's Dynamic Communicators Workshop (aka "DCW",) get there!

• can't live without it!

 

"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."

Cecil B. DeMille [Above, wearing glasses: on the set of "The Tem Commandments," 1955, with Anne Baxter and Yul Brynner.] So many of the films DeMille directed are as creatively powerful today as when they were made fifty years ago...and more! He directed his last film in 1958!  Double you dose of the creativity drug today! Part the waters, face your enemies (your fears), tackle the roadblocks to your personal creativity by just doing, starting, taking a few more steps on any project. Any earnest attempt is progress. And THAT is creativity.

• b creative

 
One of the most "actively creative" individuals I have ever met is the delight-full and indefatigable  Michele Beschen. She makes Martha Stewart look like a fuddy-duudy.

Michele has web sites (plural), TV shows (plaural), and projects (legion!)

To says she's crafty doesn't even scratch the outer crust of her universe. You might catch her repurposing old furniture into a brilliant resoration and functional accent piece—she probably invented "shabby chique," but she was too busy at the time to give it a cute name and write a coffee table book about it. An hour later she be out in her Iowa garden, hands in the dirt, for an episode of her inspiring b•organ-ic show for PBS. Next she makeing jewelry or throwing paint on an old drop cloth "just because."  What a grand reason to be creative: just because!

Her primary website is the perfectly titled Courage to Create. Michele is one of those rare individuals who while everyone else is sitting around think about the idea she has already started.

I was aware of and a fan of Michele before we met at a wild gathering of actively creative folks in the San Francisco Bay area a couple years ago.  I was there to introduce the keynote speaker—my great friend SARK (Susan Kennedy), author, artist, inspirerer of millions. Michele was the other headliner for the weekend and what a treat to hear and meet her. (see photo: Michele is the smaller object on the right.)

Rather than me yammering on about my favorite Michele Beschen stuff...please visit her sites, poke around, watch all her videos—short, informative—get inspried...go create! Make the next few days the kind of weekend that all the other "kids" will be enveaous of on Monday morning when someone asks, "How was your weekend."

Life is not a contest, but that doesn't mean it can't be a great story! So...what's your story?

•     •     •     •     •

UPDATE...my new play, I,WITNESS: I delivered v3.0 of the script yesterday! The first rehearsal is tomorrow night (Sat., 9 Oct.) Colorado Christian University is so excited about the project that they have already announced adding TWO more performances (total of six, for now)—before any publicity has been created. If you live along Colorado's "Front Range" please plan to see I,WITNESS, April 7-10, 2011. (Evening performances at 7:30 PM, matinees at 2:30...subject to change.)

Watch this space for updates. We will be creating a free DVD preview video for churches and other Denver area clubs and organizations. CCU is in Lakewood, CO, a  Denver suburb.

• assume this

‎ Assume Brilliance

(Apply to the next 10,000 people you meet, repeat.) It will change your world. How life works is more in your court than you realize.