Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I am a really lucky person. As a young child, my parents hauled my brother and I through airports, mountains, resorts, unknown cities and through backwood forests whenever they had a chance. It’s a rare gift, because it makes you unafraid of the world. Too often, I meet people who only discovered their wanderlust after making their way overseas during a study abroad trip in college. For me, studying abroad was no big thing - I was a veteran of being in unusual places by my twenties.
Earlier this month, I was reminded of my great fortune when my two dear friends joined me on an adventure to Las Coloradas, Mexico. I didn’t think twice about renting a car in Mexico. Or driving three hours to a remote part of the country. Or using my rusty Spanish to figure out if it was a safe region or not. My friends didn’t even tell me until we were on our way back that they were a little bit afraid of this decision, which I appreciated. The fact is: Nothing will make you feel more confident about your decision than people keeping their reservations to themselves.
But here’s the thing: It was totally worth it.
Going to Las Colaradas is not for the faint of heart. It requires driving through some fairly remote areas of Mexico. There are entire hour stretches with no gas stations, no rest stops, no nothing. It’s a challenge, to be sure. And with that, there is very limited cell reception.
So you don’t want to get lost. But you also don’t want to miss the opportunity to see something so perfect.
And that’s what really brings me to my point. If you’re a creative, you spend so much time inundating yourself with inspiration. My first step on any new client or any new project is to start a search of visual inspiration. I scour Vimeo. I play video after video on YouTube. I scroll through photos and graphics on Pinterest for hours. I put endless visual ideas into my mind. I let them swirl around and eventually, I start creating myself.
All these visual ideas are right there, at my finger tips. That constant access to the beautiful, creative work of others is a double edged resource, though. It’s a delicate balance between being inspired and falling into feelings of inadequacy. And once those feelings of not quite being good enough or not being able to reach the bar set in, it’s next to impossible to push them out.
Until you get your damn smartphone off the grid.
And you see something so amazing that no image on Pinterest can compare to - that no video can compete with - that no script can overwhelm you. And that’s why these adventures are ultimately worth it. Not just because you get to see something amazing, but you get to FEEL the beauty of something without judgement of yourself or the person that created it. Instead, you experience beauty exactly as it is - right in front of you.
The next time you find yourself creatively exhausted, go see something beautiful. And ideally do it without any hope of cell phone service.
I started a creative company. One would think I spend most days being CREATIVE! Go ahead: Imagine confetti and balloons wafting around the word. For my sake. Can you see them? Good. Me too. Now imagine all the balloons popping at once and the confetti getting stuck to your face. Yeah, that’s how I feel about spreadsheets.
Over the last three years, I’ve watched other companies like mine startup and fail. I’ve also seen others startup and succeed far beyond Mighteor. And I’ve seen lots of companies do something kind of in-between the two. Over time, I tried to watch carefully at what made the companies that failed, well, fail. Because avoiding their destiny is key to our future.
What I noticed again and again was that many companies failed to build a structure and promise around their creativity - and as a result - their business failed to grow. They loved their equipment and tech and beers on Fridays - but they didn’t see how the really boring tasks of balancing budgets and doing proper legal led to meaningful outcomes.
Structured creativity says that fanciful doodles and spreadsheets can coexist.
And so this has become my ethos as a creative, as a CEO and as a leader. In fact, it’s on the second page of our Mighteor company handbook: “While we are a creative company, we are still a business. Our creativity is how we make our money, but without structure and management - it is impossible for us to do our job well, deliver product on time and consistently produce at a high level. Creatives get a bad rap. In all areas of creative work, the people that do it are often stereotyped as inconsistent, unprofessional and difficult to work with. At Mighteor, we must always strive to be the opposite of this stereotype.”
My stringent worship of structure does not come easily to me. It’s a forced skill I find tiresome at best and, at its worst, makes me not want to do the work at all. But when I’m in my darkest corners of resentment for my own self-imposed point of view on how we do business - I occasionally see just how magical it can be.
Creativity is not a math equation. There are not right answers. There are not wrong answers. There are many paths that can lead to artistic and strategic success. And while the spreadsheets help us keep track of budgets and how much we can spend on locations and talent - it doesn’t tell us where to shoot or who to cast. There is freedom to having a clear picture of what the resources will allow us to dream up. And I appreciate how much opportunity that provides each project to adapt and grow.
Creativity is not nearly as random as people may suggest, either. Every new client with my company goes through a creative briefing, a process where we ask all kinds of questions about their company, their video, their aesthetic preferences. We take a metaphorical microscope and assess their strategy or vision. Part of the creative process is coming to a place of shared goals and objectives. If we know what we need to achieve with our creativity, we can be all the more brilliant.
And constraints are actually your best friend. When I think about the client projects I love most - I always come back to the projects where the sky wasn’t the limit, but rather, where limits were everywhere. In fact, the limit was something like 6 inches above the baseboards for a few of these projects. And yet, again and again, we found a way to make a vision come to life. We used a skate park in the suburbs instead of the city - or we got the wardrobe from Target. When you stop focusing on just how BIG YOU CAN BE and instead focus in on just how effectively you can creatively stretch - you find new limits.
However, those same constraints can make things scary. Add the risk and the money and well, suddenly we’re making video by checklist. As a client, it’s really important not to lose sight of the gray areas where creatives need to live and work. The mind has a remarkable ability to stretch and adapt. Part of our jobs as creatives is to develop a vision so compelling and vacuous in how it draws you in - that the viewer can’t help but watch. So often, when projects go wrong, it’s because our clients lose faith in the viewers ability to stretch. When we treat viewers like they need to be spoon-fed, we immediately lose their trust. And there is no amount of money or resources you can throw at that. You must be willing as a creative and as a client to take the risk of allowing the viewer to explore the gray space with you.
I call it Structured Creativity. On my best days, I call it Magic. Whatever you call it, if it works, embrace it. At least, it does for me.
But here’s the thing: like any good thing that works (like Starbucks, Instagram filters and kisses) it can be killed. And it’s not by the things you would expect. It’s not by being bold. Or by getting too excited. It’s not by being risky. Or by being willing to try new things. Creative magic is killed by fear.
Fear that it won’t work.
Fear that people won’t like it.
Fear that the client won’t be happy.
Fear that we can’t technically pull it off.
Fear that we don’t know what platform it belongs on.
Fear that it’s too risky.
Fear that we won’t have planned enough.
For all the years I’ve been doing this work in one capacity or another - I have met hundreds of people pursuing creative passions and if you ask each of them why their project failed, why their painting didn’t sell, why they never finished the screenplay - not one will tell you that fear killed their project. But the number of times someone has told me they ran out of money or ran out of time or just ran out of whatever was inside them - well - nearly 100% will say because there wasn’t enough of something.
But if you ask me, the hard truth most creatives won’t say out loud is that fear killed them.
Fear of rejection.
Fear of failure.
Fear of mediocrity.
And there won’t be a spreadsheet to point to that outlines said fear. Or explains it’s existence. Or how to overcome it.
Here’s my point: As creatives we must learn to control two things - our process AND our fear. Our process is possibility. It makes it humanly achievable to take our creative dreams and turn them into creative realities. If we can control that, we can actually break down our beautiful brains into something tangible - an actual, finished product.
And then we must learn how to control our fear. The fear that the process won’t be enough. The fear that we won’t make the client happy. The fear that we will fail to deliver. And in turn, we must ask our clients and creative collaborators to not bring fear into the birthing of ideas that we are trying to bring to the table. No successful creative project was ever formed out of fear. And no creative person can possibly sustain a career formed on a foundation of fear. Let me say that again in all caps just to make it very clear: NO CREATIVE PERSON CAN POSSIBLY SUSTAIN A CAREER FORMED ON A FOUNDATION OF FEAR.
I could type for hours on the topic of how fear destroys so much more than just our creativity - but I’ll leave you with this final thought about the power of structured creativity when we choose to be fearless: When you stop worrying about failing and start working toward succeeding, what will you have left to be afraid of?
We could all use extra jolts of creativity. Especially in the mornings. Enter Tess O’Connor (@Tess_OConnor), the fearless host of Creative Mornings Minneapolis.
Creative Mornings is a (free!) monthly breakfast/lecture/discussion to jumpstart your creative mind. Find a chapter in your city here. As the host of the Minneapolis chapter, O'Connor rallies the Twin Cities creative economy to roll out of bed and into inspiration.
But where does she find her own creativity, and how does she find the energy to herd Mpls’ creative cats into a collective community? Read on for your morning dose of coffee, creativity, and O’Connor.
Q: How did you discover your passion for enriching the creative energy of Minneapolis?
A: When I first came to the Minneapolis for art school I spent much of my early years stressed out about how good all the other creatives here were. The whole “everyone was the top of their high school art classes” was very apparent. The idea of competing against these other creatives in design competitions was exhausting. Instead my energy and inspiration came from ideating and collaborating with them.
I subconsciously see the potential in other people and want to help them make their ideas shine. That’s a trait that’s followed me all these years. Because the Twin Cities is such a design and creative hub of the midwest there’s a bit of a gap between those with name recognition and those who are making an impact unnoticed. And we’re all caught in the middle without a map or a compass to help us navigate it. The creative community is hungry for authenticity and peer support. Portfolio lectures from the cream of the crop are great, but let’s have a transparent conversation about the lessons learned that created that work and all those moments they weren’t sure they were going to succeed.
Being supportive makes so much more sense than being competitive. That’s why when I discovered a friend of mine, Karl Knolle, was starting the local CreativeMornings chapter I knew this was something that I wanted to be a part of. A year and a half later we’re going strong and I’m humbled to find myself running this chapter with such an awesome team and community.
Q: Where do you find inspiration in life?
A: This is always a hard question for me because I see how everything influences so many different aspects of my life. I’ll try to pick a few of the best, but I know I’ll be missing some.
My CreativeMornings/Minneapolis volunteers and organizers. They’re really what makes our chapter amazing. I don’t think they have any idea how much they impact me every time we put on an event. Leadership doesn’t mean I have controll, it means I’m leaning heavily on those around me to help them thrive.
My husband. Everyone needs a devilish redhead in their life.
My friends who are awesome enough to embrace sports like log rolling and winter camping. I know it sounds crazy but I LOVE it! Some of my most inspired moments have come to me from hearing the ice boom underneath my tent on a -20F night, or competing against friends on a log when I thought I’d never be competitive in sports again.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: Dr. Who of course! We’ll have to try a drink from every time and every planet. Best bar crawl ever! Then, maybe he can drop me off to hang out with Ron Swanson. He’s my spirit animal.
What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Stop worrying about doing the right thing. As long as you make a decision based on who you are and not the people around you things will turn out fine. It’s ok to make mistakes. You’ll become better for it and maybe even enjoy it if you let yourself.
Also, you’re about to meet your future husband. You have no idea what awesome adventure are around the bend!
Q: What’s the title of your memoir?
A: Roll with it: learning life by continuously falling.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
