For the first time in years, each one of our employees is critical to the business, engaged in their role, and passionate about what they do.  This didn’t come because we were lucky or stumbled onto it.  In the beginning we were just as passionate.  We had just as much hunger for growth.  We weren’t aligned though.  We didn’t know what the company was and how it could serve the masses.  We had to hone our tools and find a place in an industry where our talent could play.  Of course it ended up being in an industry that was mid-collapse and a genre that didn’t really exist.  From what I’ve read though, that couldn’t be a better scenario.

Lessons we learned along the way (and are still learning):

Be aligned with your mission:  Make sure everything you do can successfully pass through that filter.  If it doesn’t feel right, then it isn’t.  Let it go and keep the space for what does.

Love your people:  Take time to get to know them.  Learn what they love to do.  Figure out what ignites them.  Even if it’s completely unrelated to your industry, you’ll be surprised how it can wrap around the block and tap you on the shoulder.

Don’t be afraid to lead honestly:  When everyone understands what the business is going through it’s easier to invite them to join the fight.  Earlier this year we released our Profit and Loss statement from 2011 with a little narrative about the companies current state and our objectives for 2012.  We invited questions.  We have no secrets.  That does amazing things for breeding trust.

Have the tough conversations:  If something feels funky, have the conversation.  If that conversation is tough for you, try leaning on partner for support.  Chances are though, if the conversation feels scary, it probably needs to be had.  Tough conversations have led to letters or calls of resignation, but they’ve also allowed for bonds to strengthen.  Both scenarios were what was best for the company.

Engage:  Find a way to engage daily/weekly/quarterly.  For us it started with a quarterly retreat hosted by one of the team members.  We covered travel and food costs.  We talked shop, played games and just got to know one another.  The first one was sloppy because it wasn’t the right combination of people.  The second one was amazing.  This has grown to a private Facebook group for all our staff, permalancers, and freelancers.  We interact multiple times a day and it’s totally self-policing.  The quarterly retreats are slowly becoming a place to bring some of the outside staff in to play and get to know the company. The core team finds other ways to meet as often as it needs to band some heads together.

What were some of your lessons?

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This would be RTC’s first ever Cover Photo shoot.  We typically use a collection of graphics, images, and existing photos to make a cover, but Carmen’s story was different.  It was important to Carmen that her face, as it is today, be the focus of her cover.  My background is in Film/Television/Theater (in that order) and then I transitioned to film finance and eventually landed in the documentary production world.  I am no stranger to documenting someones life, especially tough and emotional stories.  However, I admittedly had some nerves on the 2.5 hour drive from Boston to Thetford. This was a BIG story and the pressure was on.

Since we were going to be shooting photos, it was a no-brainer to capture video as well.  Get me that close to a camera and NOT shoot video?  C’mon.  That’s like asking me not to eat bacon.

We got to Thetford in the early afternoon and were greeted by Carmen enjoying an afternoon ice cream cone.

(Excuse the fuzzy focus, but Ben was trying to meet Carmen and record at the same time.)

We spent the rest of that first day getting to know each other while shooting video and photos the whole time.  We set up a few pre-conceived shots which proved to be very helpful.  

It allowed us time to distill what we were going after.  Those shots from the first day, which likely won’t be used in her book, allowed us to build a closer bond with Carmen and find our way towards to that perfect picture.

We called it an early day because Carmen wears out easily, but we were excited to get started first thing the next morning.  Before we left though we were lucky enough to meet Carmen’s youngest daughter Hannah.  I’m not sure if I was reading into things, but there seemed to be an immediate sense of comfort between Hannah and these new house guests.  Her life path coupled with the fact that we were there to help her Mom navigate her journey seemed to allow for some of the normal barriers to be left at the door.

That evening Ben and I went into Hanover, had some dinner, and discussed the following day’s shoot.  I’d be lying if we didn’t also talk tech, gadgets, and gear.

The next morning after stopping for some coffee at the local Dirt Cowboy Cafe we arrived at Carmens excited to implement our newest production ideas.  

Ben quickly got to work setting up our shots and getting everything just right…

After we fully took advantage of the morning light we moved inside for the interview portion of the trip.  We started off with questions about the RTC process and how Carmen came to find us (which is a fun little story in itself, but you’ll have to wait for the edited video!).  We then moved into detailed questions about her story, her journey, and where she is headed with this new life ahead of her.

By this point it was lunch time and we were all famished.  Carmen took us to her favorite little diner in Thetford where she insisted on treating us to lunch.  I had a tuna fish salad sandwich on wheat with old school ruffles potato chips.  It reminded me of lunch at Nanu’s (my grandma).

We had to depart right after dropping Carmen off from lunch.  The ride back into Boston was spent pondering about the future.  After spending two days with Carmen and seeing the world as she lived it, one couldn’t help but re-evaluate.  I can honestly say that this trip brought me closer to Carmen the person.  I am more invested in her journey and helping her reach her highest purpose.  I suppose running a business with a distributed team might magnify the effects, but it’s trips like these that drive home how important face time with our people is.  I know it will bring value to Carmen, her story, and our team.

Until our next adventure….

David C. Cohen

VP

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So you fashion yourself a thought leader and you’ve been thinking of writing a book for years. You might even have pages and pages of writing and yet something impedes your progress. Maybe it’s the thought of a blank screen that intimidates you. Maybe you simply don’t consider yourself a writer. Maybe you just don’t have the time. But what you do have is the passion to share your wisdom. So where do you find a writer who can capture your voice and essence and bring your book to life?

Get Educated

Talk with multiple writers and writing companies to get a sense of what is available to you. Pay close attention to how they market themselves; how detail-oriented they are in their marketing is typically a direct reflection of how well they are defined as a writer/professional. Look to be inspired by their work and their references.

Your Contract

Keep your contract short and sweet and allow for either party to terminate the relationship if desired (this creates accountability on both ends of the partnership). If your contract is a work for hire, it should also specify that you own all the materials created on your behalf, from recordings and transcriptions to drafts.

You Know You Have a Winning Relationship if…

Your writer hits their deadlines each and every time. You’re inspired by their momentum. You always know what your writer is working on.

Tricks to a Great Process

Nurture yourself throughout the writing. Talk about the emotions you’re feeling while creating. Embrace your vulnerability. Treat your relationship with your writer or writing team as a marriage. Be open, be honest, be committed. Do the work. Stay involved. When the going gets tough, it will be easy to make excuses that slow down the creative process. Try your best to keep the momentum alive. Momentum is the key to higher quality and breakthrough moments. Keep a journal by your side throughout the process. If the momentum is kept up, epiphanies will strike you in the oddest places and at the strangest times. Capture them and bring them back to your writer or team to include.

Find Inspiration

While you’re writer or team are working, go live your life. Grow your business and spend time with your family. Read great books and blogs, listen to great speeches. Cultivate an environment of inspiration around yourself. Be patient with yourself and your work. When a piece of writing captures your essence, take time to celebrate.

Dive Deeper

Be courageous. When a piece of writing is upsetting you, that’s the world telling you to dive deeper, to investigate more fully, to find the lesson you have yet to unfold. Stay conscious to the process. Do NOT take sleep medication throughout this process. Dream. Dream of how the reader will experience your writing. Envision what the reader will do with what you’re sharing. Work hard for their sake, not yours.

Remain Accountable to Yourself

Tell everyone that you’re writing, but don’t show them the work in progress. Most work in progress confuses people, because it still contains the roadblocks. So protect the work, but enlist their support and ask them to hold you accountable to your dream. Accept responsibility. No one else can share your story. Commit to your reader.

In Summary

In this day and age, with so much clutter in the world and on the Internet, it is your truth that will break through and move people. Your truth in business and your truth in life. Readers don’t just want your information, they want a personal and intimate look into what guided you to your wisdom. All you have to do is find the right partner(s) to guide you to your brilliance, commit to doing the work, and then… jump.

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The stock market has been volatile for years and interest rates on savings accounts are pitiful. So why, as a culture, are we still so hesitant to invest in ourselves where the return is significant?

Over the last five years, I’ve spoken to between ten and twenty people every week who consider themselves thought leaders and have been dreaming of writing a book for years, but lack either the necessary skill or the time to do so. Prior to that I spent five years making films in LA and coaching artists of all kinds on how to best spend their money and time to move the needle forward in the career of their self expression. The five years prior to that were spent doing the same for myself as I navigated Hollywood and a successful acting career on TV. Turns out that in addition to a storyteller, I’m a researcher. I’ve amassed mountains of anecdotal data through my experience working with people’s stories.

This morning, as I was watching a riveting TED talk by Researcher/Storyteller Brene Brown, I realized the amount of insight I have gained from my experiences in both speaking with those interested in writing a book or a movie about their life or their wisdom, and in working in depth with those who chose to walk down that path.

Turns out there is a profound difference between those who think about walking the path and those who do.  And that ingredient, as it was so brilliantly highlighted in Brown’s TED talk, is worthiness.

Those who question their worthiness, find the most amazing ways to redirect our conversations.

• How much time is this going to take? I’m very busy.
• That’s a steep price tag, what’s the ROI?
• How many best sellers have you had?
• I absolutely want to head down this road… (followed by silence).

I learned the value of self investment in my early twenties as an actor.  I needed certain tools to find work: headshots, resumes, audition clothes, union fees, gas for the car, etc. My third year in LA when I finally joined the union I had my first 30k+ year from acting after investing $3 – $4k in the right tools for the job. Those were simply the rules of the business. You have to invest in yourself to be seen.

Later as an entrepreneur, I took that lesson and reinvested all our profits in Round Table for five straight years. Not every investment showed a return, in fact many of them failed if viewed from a purely financial perspective; however, view them from the perspective of the journey, and each of those investments led myself and my team to a greater understanding of our strengths and weaknesses. That clarity has immense value.

Now, as the company has grown, our self investment has catapulted to six figure levels and I can say without hesitation that I’ve never questioned the value of the transformational journey. In fact, I find that if I’m not on one, I get bored and eventually feel forced to seek the next adventure. What I do is ask myself the following four questions before I make my investment:

1. Is the team I’m paying to lead me to this next level of self-actualization capable of creating the environment I’ll need to be successful (i.e., are they talented, professional, kind, honest, and communicative)?
2. Will I be inserting myself into an uncomfortable experience that will force me to grow?
3. Does this opportunity scare the shit out of me while also exciting me?

If I answer yes to the above three questions, I’m ready for the big one:

1. Am I willing to take all the blame if I don’t achieve my goal with this investment?

This last question is so imperative. I NEVER make an investment and expect the party leading me to deliver my transformation. I have to earn it. I have to be an active participant in my own change. And if it isn’t working, I have to be willing to stop the process, step into the light and expose the problem so it can be solved or the project redirected.

And that brings us back to worthiness. Once I have vetted the team and see the potential of the investment, I have to look inward and ask the ultimate question: am I worthy? Who will I be on the other side of this journey and is that growth worthy of the investment of my time and my money? Is it more valuable to invest in this present experience and my own transformation, vs. the 1% interest I can earn in a savings account or the gamblers luck I would be subjected to in the stock market?

Funny thing is, that even in the booming years of the stock market, I always pulled out money to invest in my next great adventure. It’s the adventure that fuels me.  The knowledge that tons of accumulated experience has created little nuggets of wisdom I can claim as my own. The wisdom holds the value. Want your ROI? Look to the wisdom and ask yourself: Am I worthy?

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In our time together yesterday in person, we shared our mood boards with one another and with Carl’s team and we explained them, image by image, sometimes in depth, sometimes in a single word.

As we spoke, Carl’s group took notes, made comments, asked questions. And while I had seen David and Erin’s mood boards previously, I had yet to hear the explanations for their choices, and had not seen Katie’s mood board at all.

My own mood board centered around images of some of my favorite book covers we had produced that represented titles I was most proud of. And I included an image of Robert speaking, which is what most of our authors aspire to. And then there were some images I captured of sites that I found impressive and simple.

David’s mood board was full of images that evoked an entirely different range of emotions. Espresso being poured and beautifully captured, a fantastic Jack Daniel’s ad, a Twyla Tharpe quote, and a simple carton that depicted how to become a super hero in three easy steps. David’s descriptions were full of a combination of elegance, simplicity, and play. What struck me most about Dave’s board was the feeling it evoked of enjoying the finer things in life, and appreciated excellent craftsmanship.

Erin, who works closely with both our clients and our staff, had such a different approach to her mood board. Hers was full of rich quotes about the experience of working with our company. About the uncomfortability it will create, about the hard work, passion, and honesty required, and the value of the journey. About the difference between getting lost in the bottom line vs. looking up to see the beauty of a new landscape. Erin captured the reality of what we put clients through on the way to finding their brilliance. And she did it with her unique combination of high heels, wit, and calm.

Katie’s mood board was perhaps the most moving to me, and I think that’s because Katie is such an exceptional listener who is immersed in the words of our clients, that while I see her work constantly, I don’t often have the privilege of hearing her thoughts about our business. Katie, who has been with us for more than four years now, and who worked closely with me on defining our writing process over that time, captured in her mood board the importance of the story, and of the journey, of the vulnerability and of the reward. One particular image Katie showed was of a single leaf on a gravel road. It was battered and wind blown, and Katie revealed that it was a picture she had taken herself. The entire room felt the power of the image, maybe for different reasons, but I was struck over the head with her belief in the value of the story of that single leaf. And it epitomized how I feel about our business and how I feel so blessed by the people who I work with and their ability to care so deeply about the stories we’re asked to tell.

I cannot thank Carl and his team (Mary, Lori, Russel & Katie) for giving us the opportunity and the space to experience what amounted to a gift to me. Hearing my own team express in images and words, what our company means to them was startling, profound and overwhelming. It was the first time in the six years of our company’s existence, and my 19 years as a creative, that I felt the transfer of ownership move from myself to my team. I have cared about what we’re doing for so long and in such a deep way, and yesterday I had the rare opportunity to see that reflected back to me by loving people, by such smart people, and in ways that created value that I could never have created. They love my baby now as much as I do, and they care for it beautifully.

To say I am grateful is an understatement. I was gushing with a range of emotions. Pride. Humility. Disbelief even. As we sat around the table at dinner and shared old war stories from our theatre days, David described the moment we had in common of being in the middle of a play, and either waiting in the wings off stage or sitting outside the theatre smoking a cigarette when we used to think to ourselves, “I’m fuckin doin it.”

Ladies and gentlemen, we are. And I feel like the luckiest guy alive.

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After a quick lunch with a client who happened to be in town last week, I walked away with insight into a piece of the writing journey that isn’t always one we think to address or know to express. The emotions that come along with writing are almost always pronounced, whether with the highs or lows. But working with a team to write your book introduces a set of emotions that we sometimes don’t even recognize as emotions until after the fact.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve received an email from a client stating a “problem” that turns out to be an emotional response to the process. Perhaps the first piece of writing has just been delivered or a story just came out during an interview call that is very personal (maybe too personal for the book?). The client feels angry or anxious, and it takes an honest conversation to get to the bottom of the discontent. Face it: it’s not easy for anyone to listen to the sound of their own voice. Reading your own words on paper can feel just as piercing, like nails on a chalkboard. Do I really sound like that? Did I say that on our call? And sometimes what a client thought the book was going to be about doesn’t turn out to be what the book wants to be and facing that reality can be terrifying! Through RTC’s anti-cookiecutter organic process of writing, authors often find out their books are not at all what they thought they’d be. They’re more honest, more real, and quite frankly, better than what was imagined.

If you’re on this journey, with us or someone else, keep in mind that feeling anger, anxiety, frustration, and sadness are all natural parts of the creative process. For those of you writing books about management, leadership, business success, and the like, you’re not excluded. Work is often very closely tied to the definition of self, so when you begin to see your values written on paper, you’re going to be forced to confront them and sometimes even re-evaluate. Ultimately this leads to the epiphany that you’re after and that we want for you. Please take your time reading the first few chapters you create with us and if you feel uncomfortable with them for any reason, it’s time to discuss your concerns. Maybe the voice isn’t there, maybe the content isn’t right, maybe you’ve even decided you need to start over from a fresh perspective. We’ve been doing this long enough to know that your initial reaction is normal, and we’re here to help you understand those reactions and make the changes necessary or simply to support you in accepting the emotional depth of all you bring to the table.

Here’s to the JOY!

Emotion Portrait Credited to Jella Bella

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My day began with my own workshop where I led between thirty and forty participants to the discovery of simplicity in creativity; finding the nuggets of our work that others can easily respond to so we can amplify them.  Through words and pictures each participant articulated their clients/customer’s/community’s pain, the destination they desired, and the vehicle their company or organization used to shift their audience from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Kristi Faulkner of Womenkind (@Womenkind) described her customers’ pain as “insulted”. Another woman shared that hers were “disconnected” and she held up a simple stick figure with space between every limb that awed the group. A statue made of people represented the pain of “oppression” and another of a woman high on a chair, surrounded by joyous supporters represented the destination of “understood”.

What left the greatest impression on me from my morning session, was the sheer number of people who were coming together because they believed so deeply in solving the pain of others. Oddly, in this world, those of us with solutions, still have to fight creatively to help others move from pain to freedom, from pain to joy, from pain to empowerment. I felt surrounded by warriors who understood that storytelling was one of the greatest weapons they could yield.

After my session, I had a beautiful conversation with Donusia Lipinski, an immigration attorney with a heart of gold.  Donusia, like her name, was gentle and kind and passionate, and her desire to use storytelling to put a human face on the suffering of her customers was monumental.

From there I moved into a workshop with James Jorasch (@ScienceHouse) who taught us to use the layout of our childhood home to remember the content of a speech we were giving.  Brilliant, creative, wacky, all rolled into one. But effective as hell.

My lunchtime was spent with Patrick Ross (@on_creativity), a non-profit executive director turned travel writer (his term, not mine – I think he’s writing a kind of spiritual, literary memoir of sorts!).  We shared conversation about how we came to creativity so many years ago; him as a solo singer turned journalist and me as a choir singer turned actor. We arrived at new epiphany about how his journey as a soloist led to his unique individual voice as a writer, and where my work in the choir led to my desire to collaborate and always be part of the sound of many. I enjoyed the new insight and the self discovery we shared felt like a bond of mutual respect and admiration.

Back at the conference, I found myself swept into a conversation with Rasul Sha’ir (@Cnvrgnc) whose passion for the intersection of business, culture and technology was thrilling.  Rasul was easily the coolest attendee with his long beard, swank attire and newsboy cap, but his mind was on fire with wisdom and stories of transmedia and together we riffed for a solid hour. I still can’t tell you exactly what Rasul and his company do, but I can tell you the guy is absolutely brilliant and worth following.

The last workshop of the day that I headed into was led by the genius that is Michael Margolis (@getstoried). Michael is a story architect (a new term I’m freaking in love with) who helped us rethink how we talk about ourselves and how we write our bios.  We’re all on a hero’s journey, born to do what we’re doing, and there is a precise way to capture that story from our past and share it to help people intimately understand who we are at our core.  Loved Michael’s talk and am excited to continue to explore ways of working together.

Other fabulous people I connected with include Lynne Feingold who is like my female spiritual twin.  Same laugh, same insanity, same lust for creativity in the business world (Lynne works for the US Treasury Department making our leaders better through executive coaching, presentations and workshops, and also on her own business called SingYo that combines the art of song with the art of Yoga.) Love me some Lynne Feingold!  Just explosive with love and light.

I also spent some killer time with Steven Dahlberg (@StevenDahlberg), the director for the international Centre for Creativity and Imagination who showed me that you don’t have to be a crazy extrovert to be creative; and Lauree Ostrofsky (@simplyleap) who taught me to lead by following – a concept I had never seen and was so impressed with. She literally led an entire crowd to a restaurant without physically leading the pack. It made me so nervous, like we weren’t going to get there, but she was comfortable and calm and moved us all where we needed to go while deep in conversation.  Maybe I’m the simple one, but I swear I was watching a wizard at work!

I wish I had more time with the brilliant attorney and creative mind Ted Bilich (@TBilich) who is teaching creativity to students in law school (amazing!), the kinetic Melanie Sklarz (@DoseofCre8ivity), Sean Kelly (@SeanKellyStudio) whose work is off the charts brilliant, Debbie Weil (@debbieweil) who was so full of joy and wonderment, and Gregg Fraley (@greggfraley) whose depth of wisdom in the innovation world was palpable.

On the whole, this single day event was packed with a combination of sparks and lightning bolts.  What I especially loved was the flow of like minds and the ways in which we lit each other up and impressed one another.  I am a huge fan of all these folks I have mentioned and I encourage you to follow their work.

Special thanks again to Michelle James (@CreatvEmergence) who brought us together.  You built an event that was both beautiful and enlightening.  More than that, you are the generator of lasting relationships that will no doubt impact the world in greater ways than any of us can imagine.  To you I say Bravo.

*Top Image Mural by Diane Cline (@DayJobView)

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The most undervalued principle in the creative process is MOMENTUM.  When people discuss creativity, they typically focus on talent, deliverables, cost, and time. And each of these plays an integral role. But above all else, momentum is the propelling force that synergizes all other pieces of the puzzle and pushes them toward the end result.  Without a focus on momentum, feelings can fill the gap left behind by progress, and feelings can kill creativity.  When drama enters the process (usually looking like anger and fear), a project is often destined for the back shelf of the closet. The role of momentum is to deter the drama.

So what are ways in which you can ensure you’re using momentum to drive your own creative projects? Here are the four keys to momentum that we utilize within Round Table:

1. Frequent Communication is the fuel.
2. Structure and Short Term Deadlines increase speed.
3. Daily Accountability ensures all systems are working properly.
4. Regular Deliverables allow us to stop, freshen up, refuel, and check the map to be sure we’re headed in the right direction.

Frequent Communication. Beyond the small email communication, our goal is a minimum of legitimate two touch points per week with a client.  That might translate to two phone calls, or a phone call and an in depth email report, etc. Clients need regular communication to feel involved and to be ensured that their project is moving forward according to plan.  The value for the creative team is that we use these touch points to pull out the epiphanies the client is experiencing as they dive deeper into the creativity process. These epiphanies are the fuel of the creativity engine.

Structure and Short Term Deadlines. Most creative projects feel like getting a plane off the ground. We prefer to think that the process of creating the concept is the car trip to an airport far in the distance (the plane takes off when you launch what you’ve created!).  Setting up a structure to get to your destination is imperative.  To stay on target with your overall goal, determine when you want to arrive at your final destination and then compute the steps backwards in time to generate a structure.  Here’s a simplified example from our world:

Goal: Final Book in hand in 6 months.

Deadline: Book to printer in 5 months.

Deadline: Book for “last looks” at 4 months and 2 weeks.

Deadline: Book to formatter in 4 months.

Deadline: Book to proofreader at 3 months and 2 weeks.

Deadline: Near final draft at 3 months.

By working backwards we can see that we have three months to write this book in order to have books in hand in 6.  We can apply the exact same backwards time structure to the actual writing process to ensure we make that 3 month deadline.  Put these together and we’ve got the structure in place for a successful final delivery. Once you have the structure in place, you can focus on working to meet each of your short-term deadlines, week by week, speeding up as you continue to drive forward progress.

Daily Accountability. Think of this as your regular systems check of an aircraft.  You’ve got to make sure every cylinder is firing as it needs to so that you don’t break down and stall the system. Our first approach to regular accountability was a Google doc for our work with clients that our staff report into daily. This has allowed our directors to see where each project is at a glance and foresee any areas that need attention. (We’re setting up and testing Trello tomorrow in place of Google docs and hope to see that realized as a dynamic solution to even better internal communication and flow of projects.) In our world of book packaging and publishing, there are 10 to 12 hands that have to touch every project at different points and daily accountability fuels short term deadlines which help us to meet our goal of regular deliverables below.

Regular Deliverables. Nothing can destroy a creative project faster than a lack of deliverables. You want drama?  Fail to deliver on time or on the money. As you’ve seen above, everything has to be functioning smoothly for deliverables to be actualized and then submitted to a client. As you review your structure, determine which short term deadlines have a deliverable attached. Ideally, you want to deliver weekly at least. A client wants and needs to give regular feedback to feel that the project is their own and your team needs their feedback to recharge their batteries.  Be sure to give everyone enough opportunity to provide feedback.

Creativity is often an illusive beast and those who direct the creativity process often come across as magicians in our society.  The reality is that creativity can be systematized so that brilliance comes forth, so that magic is the result. Remove the chaos by focusing on your process and the momentum required to stimulate the magic will drive your success.

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