Rik Leaf's Blog, page 2

Valuable Video Storytelling Solutions For Research Organizations

Tell Stories Through Videos That Educate & Inspire

You know how it can be hard as researchers to explain what you do and why it’s important? Discover how your team can use the power in your pockets to tell stories through videos that can educate and inspire action.

Research That Organizations Can’t Afford To Ignore

According to a recent study, people retain 95% of a message when that message is consumed via video versus just 10% when the message is read. Analysts predict that by 2019 80% of online content consumed will be video.

Video is the way people are choosing to access content, and it’s proving to be the most effective way of engaging and educating viewers. The potential for video storytelling to make a huge impact can’t be ignored by any research organization serious about connecting their message to their target audience. Learning to tell your story through video is in your best interest.

What you’re doing matters

and your work deserves it

Respecting Your Research Like a Rock Star

Maybe you’re thinking, ‘I don’t have time for telling stories. I’m a thought-leader working on ground-breaking research.’ And while it’s true that the work you’re doing is valuable and your time is precious, consider the band U2.

In an interview describing how they became and remained the biggest band in the world for two decades, U2 described their approach to creating their music and to the business of promoting their music.

Throughout the years, many artists have considered commercial success to be a sign of ‘selling out.’ U2 believed that their music was valuable. And that it deserved the same level of passion when it came to the business of promoting, delivering and marketing that music. For them it wasn’t ‘selling out,’ it was ‘buying in’ to the belief that what they were doing mattered and that their creative work deserved it.

If a rock band believes this strongly in the value of what they do, shouldn’t a research organization? The value of the work your organization is doing deserves your investment in connecting that work to the people who will benefit from understanding it. Be the U2 of the research community.

Learning to tell your story through

video is in your best interest

What Makes You Angry?

Years ago the National Film Board of Canada put me in contact with an award-winning producer to start pre-production on a documentary. In our first meeting on the first day, the director put me in front of the camera, hit record, looked up and asked, ‘so what made you angry?’

He’d learned over the years that often it’s anger and frustration with the way things are, that initially motivates people to start to take action. That question launched me into a 20-minute rant and ultimately led to hosting a TV series exploring the theme. (that was the day I discovered outrage and frustration are emotions not limited to traffic jams)

I bring this up to admit that frustration has once again inspired me. I find it maddening to watch corporations leverage the power of video storytelling to sell candies, soda pop, video games and cigarettes, while research organizations and thought-leaders consider telling their story a distraction from the real work.

Strategic video storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging and educating an audience. It is an effective way to establish your voice as a trusted authority. People are tired of ads and don’t trust commercials and are increasingly looking for a personal connection they trust.

92 % of consumers trust recommendations from other people – even someone they don’t know – over brand content
70% of consumers reported online customer reviews as the second most trusted source
47% of U.S. readers consult blogs for finding new trends and ideas
35% of U.S. readers look to blogs for discovering new products AdWeek

Video storytelling provides valuable solutions for research organizations. It is the best way to put a face to a voice and establish your identity to your ideas. Learning to tell your story through video is in your best interest.

A Creative Solution to a Common Problem

If you are a thought-leader, a researcher or conference presenter, video storytelling is an effective way to,

Bring focus to what you do and explain why it’s important
Increase the level of meaningful connection with your clients
Develop a catalogue of high-quality media for your presentations
Provide analytics for funders and future projects & proposals

Imagine the difference it could make if your team learned to use the power of technology they are already carrying around in their pockets, to create interesting and informative video stories. Imagine a catalogue of powerful digital content that your communications director can leverage through all social media networks. That your presenters would have access to any time, anywhere.

A Powerful Story Creates a Personal Experience

A powerful story is a personal experience. Learning to be a great storyteller involves,

Creating a strong storytelling identity
Developing a template to guide your team and creative decisions
Creating a content strategy
Utilizing analytics to measure success

Each year I lead Digital Media Storytelling Training sessions for dozens of organizations developing strategies and skills development for producing high-performing digital media content. Providing valuable video storytelling solutions for research organizations is a passion. I know it can be hard for researchers to explain what they do and why it’s important and I’ve learned that I can help.

Imagine the difference it would make if you could use the power of the tech in your pocket to educate your audience. To inspire action. To establish your identity and develop trust with clients, industry professionals, funders and government partners. Your work deserves it…and so do you.

 

CLICK HERE to schedule a FREE consultation and discover how I can help you develop high-performing creative content that will engage your audience.

 

Hi, my name is Rik. I’m a Storytelling Strategist for the Digital Age  – Specializing in training, consulting and inspirational keynote presentations. Over the last 20 years, I’ve been part of high-performing production teams for Metallica, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain, Rent, Beauty & the Beast and Whose Line is it Anyway? I produce CDs, TV shows, short films, video travel series, podcasts and Indigenous theatre presentations.

 

The post Valuable Video Storytelling Solutions For Research Organizations appeared first on Creative Content Solutions.

What is a Creative Content Strategist (& Why Do I Need One?)

What does a Creative Content Strategist Do? 

A few years ago my wife and I decided to sell our house and use the money from the sale to fund a year of traveling around the world with our two kids. We initially tried to sell our house by ourselves through Com Free. We did our own staging and marketing as best we could. I spent my weekends organizing open houses. After a month of no traffic and no offers, we listed with a realtor. The first day, the first couple he closed the sale.

Why Wouldn’t You Hire

The Best Person For The Job?

When I told someone the story they were incredulous that I’d tried to sell the house myself. “If your amazing family adventure hinged on selling the house so you had the budget to travel, why wouldn’t you hire the best possible person for the job?” It was a great question (that made me feel stupid at the time) and it is the same reason that you need a creative content strategist.

Why You Need A Creative Content Specialist

Is your message is important? Do you need to connect that message with your target audience? It honestly doesn’t matter if it’s research or results from a study or survey, info about a product launch or an industry pivot. Whatever it is, if it’s important enough for you to spend the time and energy to say, then you want to have the best possible person on the job to help you say it in the most engaging and impactful way. And that is why you need a digital content specialist.

A Creative Content Specialist will,

Bring laser focus to your organization’s brand identify
Develop a consistent storytelling style that’s unique to your organization
Create an online media distribution strategy 

The Best Way for Your

Content To Be Discovered

A Creative Content Specialist understands the online cultural landscape where your type of content is being created and consumed. They will know what people are searching for and how they’re searching for it. That’s why they know the best way to create and share your content for it to be discovered.

This is vital information when you want to connect your information for maximum impact. When your content is presented through the ideal digital media, and it’s in the right online cultural space where your audience is already consuming content, that’s where dynamic connections are made. Our realtor new his stuff. He knew how to price our house. How to present it and was able to connect our house with the people looking for homes in our area in our price range. And most importantly of all, he knew how to close the sale. He was worth every penny we paid, and that’s how you will feel.

In the same way, that realtor knew his message and market, a Creative Content Specialist knows how to,

Create interesting video titles that will capture the attention of your audience
Select and create thumbnails that will generate high click-through rates
Use analytics to evaluate and improve the level of meaningful connection between you and your clients
Manage a fast turnaround production process where your goals are reached within your deadlines

As a Creative Content Strategist, it’s exciting to work with organizations and help them tell their story in a powerfully engaging way. It’s transformative to identify the creative talents and abilities of each team member and utilize them in telling a big story. Each organization is different because the individuals are different. Telling a powerful story is a personal experience. It involves creating a strong storytelling identity. Developing a template to guide creative decisions. Producing Evergreen content and the pillar posts for an online digital multimedia strategy. Understanding analytics shows the value of the creative content and a way of evaluating the ability of the content to create meaningful connections with your clients

If your story is worth being told, then it’s worth being told by the best possible person for the job.

 

CLICK HERE to schedule a FREE consultation and let’s discover how I can help you develop high-performing creative content that will engage your audience.

Rik Leaf is a Creative Content Strategist – Specializing in Multimedia Brand Storytelling. Over the last 20 years, he has been part of high-performing production teams for Metallica, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain, Rent, Beauty & the Beast and Whose Line is it Anyway? Rik has produced CDs, TV shows, short films, video travel series, podcasts and Indigenous theatre presentations.

As a Keynote Speaker, Rik specializes in multimedia presentations on creativity, innovation, leading creative teams and brand storytelling. He is the author of, Four Homeless Millionaires – How One Family Found Riches By Leaving Everything Behind.

 

The post What is a Creative Content Strategist (& Why Do I Need One?) appeared first on Creative Content Solutions.

The Surprising Truth About Creative Content Most People Get Wrong

The Surprising Content Hack Most People Get Wrong

Content is King. At least it can be if you manage to marry the right message with the right medium. The surprising truth about producing creative content that most people get wrong is that they only focus on one of two key elements.

Content is king when it’s exactly what someone is looking for. When you’ve got the solution to the problem, the value of your content can compensate for almost everything from low production values to lack of budget. But the greatest content in the world won’t blow anyone’s mind if they never find it, see it, read it or watch it. You need to have great content but you also need to make a connection. 

Content is king

when it Connects 

There are three primary ways people learn. Audio, visual, tactile. This means your audial learners will love it if your content is available in a podcast or audiobook. Your visual learners will prefer being able to watch a video, read an article, blog post or download a pdf. The tactile learners in the crowd are the ones who’d just like to download, install and start pushing buttons to figure out how it works.

A strategic approach to creating content brings a laser focus to producing high-value content and presenting that content through as many dynamic mediums as possible. We don’t buy into Kevin Costner’s, Field of Dreams idea of, ‘build it and they will come.’ Because…no they won’t. And no they don’t.  A great line from a great movie isn’t a great strategy for content creation.

Marrying the Message through the Medium

There is a surprising creative content hack that maximizes your investment by making the material available in as many different ways as possible through repurposing content. The art of repurposing your content makes a distinction between the message and the medium. We want to tell the same story in as many ways as we can, so we can connect with your target market in ways that are most meaningful to them.

For instance, if we create a video we can detach the audio from the video and repurpose it by using it in a podcast. Or if we write an article or blog post, we can narrate that article to create an instructional video with animations, or use it as a podcast. Repurposing is the art of taking the same content and maximizing the level of connection through the intentional use of as many mediums as possible. This increases the return on your investment for every piece of content you create.

Cue Judgy McJudgerson Stage Left

There is a reason we’ve all heard the expression, ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover’…because we DO! We all do. We’re busy, impatient, stressed and under time restraints, so we make snap decisions. Most of us live in a ‘No’ posture. Our default position when presented with thousands of marketing messages a day is, NO. So assume your target audience is going to judge your content by the cover. And by the cover, I mean the medium. If they like audio books and you’re asking them to read an article, they’ll judge your content on the way it’s presented to them. If your content doesn’t connect, it can’t be king, no matter how relevant it is.

The flipside is exciting and inspiring. When you manage to marry the message and the medium the connection is powerful. It can stop someone in their tracks, and change the course of the conversation. They get engaged and excited and that emotional response is the transformative moment we’re looking for. That’s when content is king. It takes strategy, and structure and a system that supports you and your team, but the potential is phenomenal. 

Connecting Content

Through Storytelling

Here’s What You Need To Do To Make Your Content King

As a creative content strategist I’ll let you in on an industry secret…this comes down to storytelling. You might be a Realtor wanting to showcase the value of a community or property. Or maybe you’re in the medical profession and want to educate your audience on the benefits of training, exercise or diet. Or perhaps you’re a researcher with technical data you need to translate into an easy-to-understand Call To Action so your target audience can understand the info and what you want them to do.

Whatever your industry is, the most effective way to connect your content with your audience is through storytelling. Because everyone loves a great story. The most effective strategic storytellers recognize that some people will connect through audio stories, some through visual storytelling while others want a tactile experience. Strategic content creation incorporates all three to connect the information simultaneously in as many ways as possible to engage as many people as possible.

Is This Exciting or Overwhelming?

Investing in strategic content creation brings focus to the story you’re trying to tell, and maximizes your ability to connect your message in a powerful, consumer-centered way. It not only brings focus to your story, but to your team as well. Even a small team of 2-3 people are going to have different skills, strengths, and abilities they can bring to the project, and they’d love to if someone will just show them how. Because everyone loves to play to their strengths. That’s where we’re most confident and where we excel.

Strategic content creation involves empowering each team member to play to their strength. To recognize the value of the unique contributions their skill set allows them to make, and how their piece fits with others on the team. A recent study discovered that an average organization forfeits 1 million dollars in potential each year. So the question is, how much creative storytelling potential are you leaving on the table? And how much is that costing you? Creative Capital is the most valuable asset you have as an individual and organization.

Strategic Content Creation & The Art of Brand Storytelling

Investing in strategic content creation is a professional development opportunity that establishes strategies and systems for a creative culture that will produce content that educates, empowers and entertains your target audience. It maximizes the value of everything your team produces, every article, blog post, interview, video or conference presentation. It brings focus and clarity, it compounds the return on investment by repurposing each piece of content into as many mediums as possible to maximize the avenues of connection. Content is king when it connects and creates a meaningful conversation.

CLICK HERE to schedule a FREE consultation and discover how I could help you and your organization.

Rik Leaf is a Creative Content Strategist – Specializing in Multimedia Brand Storytelling. Over the last 20 years, he has been part of high-performing production teams for Metallica, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain, Rent, Beauty & the Beast and Whose Line is it Anyway? Rik has produced CDs, TV shows, short films, video travel series, podcasts and Indigenous theatre presentations.

As a Keynote Speaker, Rik specializes in multimedia presentations on creativity, innovation, leading creative teams and brand storytelling. He is the author of, Four Homeless Millionaires – How One Family Found Riches By Leaving Everything Behind.

 

The post The Surprising Truth About Creative Content Most People Get Wrong appeared first on Creative Leadership.

Secret Strategies You Need to Know to Tell Successful Stories

Strategies For Successful Digital Brand Storytelling

Years ago I discovered there were secret strategies you need to know to tell successful stories. I produced an event with a Member of Parliament. I’d drafted an initiative that proposed using culture to engage the emerging electorate. We lived in an economically challenged area of Winnipeg, Manitoba that didn’t have any art galleries or coffee shops with poetry slams or pubs with open mic nights. After some spirited conversations, the MP offered to host a house concert at her home and I volunteered to perform. It all went swimmingly until the first people started to show up, and they were all elderly folks…very elderly, like wheelchairs and oxygen tanks. As a young musician and performer, the elderly always terrified me. My irreverent sense of humor and open-throated style of singing at the top of my lungs seemed destined to offend. I always imagined the grey-haired members of my audience were silently judging me behind their kind, knowing smiles.

Internally I freaked out and decided that the best course of action would be to explain, even over explain each song before I played it. I figured that even if they didn’t like the style of music, at least they might appreciate the story behind it. So that’s what I did, I explained every single song all night long, but generally speaking the night was a great success and evolved into the Artist Next Door TV series, which I ended up hosting for three years.

But the day after I got a phone call from Bob, a neighbor who had been at the show. Bob invited me to come down to his place cause he had someone to tell me. When I arrived we sat down and he said, “Rik, a preacher doesn’t trust his audience to make the necessary connections…a storyteller does. Be a storyteller.” That conversation changed everything for me as a presenter, performer, and producer and inspired the secret strategies you need to know to tell successful stories and digital brand storytelling. 

Strategies for Successful Digital Brand Storytelling

Recently I had the opportunity to be part of a project for Chevrolet Canada called, The Most Roadtrippable Town in Canada. The company chose 12 families from across the country. They also lent each family a brand new Equinox for a weekend. Finally, they provided a budget for expenses and activities and created an itinerary with the starting point being the city each family lived in and a destination city that would act as the finish line.

Families were required to create some original content to be shared on social media…specifically Instagram, but posts were encouraged on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit and any other networks participants had. There was a content calendar with dates to share stories, along with some really general suggestions on what to say and how to say it. After our road trip, each family had a week to produce a 60-second highlight reel that Chevrolet Canada uploaded to their YouTube channel, followed by a two week voting period where a view = a vote. The three families with the most votes at the end of the two week period would go on to a final round where judges would pick one family to win a free Chevy Equinox.

 

The Power of Customers Producing Creative Content

Chevrolet understands the power of their customers producing creative content that features their product. People love stories…no one loves commercials. So the campaign was a smart move and using strategic creative content is something I encourage every organization to consider.

As a strategic content creator, this was a dream contract. It was a simple story about families, having fun, traveling in a fun and funky vehicle, seeing and experiencing different regions of Canada. Telling a story in 60-seconds is a real challenge. Every second counts and I wasn’t content to just put a montage of photos and video clips together over some music. Because that’s boring and barely even a story. (in my humble opinion)

I wrote an article called, A 1-Minute Story Direction Ended Up Being More Challenging Than I Thought detailing the storytelling decisions that I made to produce our 60-second highlight reel you can read HERE. But I wanted to share the process of the other storytelling elements that went into this project.

The first secret strategy you need to know to tell successful stories is…trust the value of telling a story! None of these video clips or memes were intended to feel like a commercial. Because no one likes commercials…literally, NO ONE. No one has ever been thankful that they had to wait 5 seconds before they could ‘skip ad’ and watch a youtube video. No one has ever wanted their TV show be interrupted every 11 minutes or that they had to sit in the movie theatre through 8 minutes of commercials before the trailers even start. To go back to Bob for a second…commercials are preaching…be a storyteller. 

The contest lasted for 14 days, so I created 14 short videos so that each day I had new content to share. All from the same overall ‘family road trip’ story, but funny scenes, sometimes the scenes were from the vehicle, but other times they were just places that the car took us. The car doesn’t need to be in every shot to be part of the story.

Fighting with the GPS and getting turned around in circles.

Kids eating in the car all the time.

As a professional songwriter, I wrote and recorded a little ditty.

As a slam poet, I wrote and performed a short Equinox slam.

Sarcastic things the kids said and the family banter in idle moments.

Matrix-Dragonball Z-inspired dodgeball.

These are all elements familiar to anyone who travels, especially families.

The secret to successful digital brand storytelling is the same for telling any great story. Identifying the tone of each story. For these videos, I wanted the mood to be light, positive and carefree with lots of laughter, because that’s the vibe I know Chevrolet wants families to associate with their car so they’re inspired to pursue their own adventure.

We took lots of photos and I used a number of them to engage my own audience to caption them and come up with memes. It was fun, engaging storytelling that invited participation of our audience. 

The secret strategies you need to know to tell successful stories, particularly digital brand storytelling, is to first and foremost focus on telling a story with an emotional center. Give your story a heart. Give it a personality. A sense of humor and some dialogue. Think about the stories you love, the books, movies, videos, the memes, the jokes and trust in yourself and your team to tell a story you’d be interested in reading or watching.

Questions? Comments. Let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

The post Secret Strategies You Need to Know to Tell Successful Stories appeared first on Creative Leadership.

Living A Creative Life & Doing More Than You Dreamed Possible

When You’re Not Willing To Wait Until You Win The Lottery

We all have things we’d love to do, places we’d love to see, experiences we’d love to have, maybe jobs we’d love to work at or passions we’d love to pursue…a lot of people call them dreams. But they use the word ‘dreams’ in a way that means fantasy, naivete, being unrealistic or irresponsible. They often qualify their dreams by saying something like, ‘when I win the lottery, then I’ll do blah, blah, blah…’

It’s weird if you think about it. We identify the thing we are passionate about. The thing that really motivates us and gets us excited preoccupies us in our idle moments and keeps us awake at night…and yet, we dismiss all of that as being unrealistic or irresponsible.

Think about that!

OK…but honestly, I kind of get it. It’s easier to have a dream that you can talk about and never actually do anything about, because if you don’t try you can’t fail…right!?

If you don’t try you never have to actually sacrifice anything or invest your time, money and energy, you can just talk about it. And talking can be fun, and it can be super validating to have friends and family comment on how cool your dream sounds and how awesome it would be and how ‘some day you got to do that!’

The Truth About The Big Obstacle 

Remember Jack Nicholson in the movie, A Few Good Men, when he screamed “you can’t handle the truth!” well…the truth is, if the scenario I just described describes you, then you are the biggest obstacle to making your dream a reality.

And I want to tell you why that’s a pretty awesome thing.Cause I think you can handle the truth. It just might not be comfortable at first, but it’s like they say, the truth will set you free.

Here’s why that’s awesome. If you are the big obstacle, then you are in the perfect position to become the big opportunity. Because you are more capable than you give yourself credit for. You have talents, gifts, and abilities that are unique to you. You have a wealth of experiences, good and bad, a lifetime of successes and failures that inform your perspective on the world. (You can get a sneak peek at what I’ve been working on for the last few months HERE)

Being creative and learning to make your dream a reality, means viewing all of these abilities and experiences in a new way that creates a solution for the problem you need to solve. You don’t have to come up with a solution that works for everyone else. In fact, your solution doesn’t have to work for ANYONE else. It just needs to work for you.

For example. Let’s say you want to travel, but you can’t afford it. Well maybe you need to ask yourself, is it that you can’t afford it, or does it mean that you’ll have to get creative and figure out ways that you can afford it.

My wife and I wanted to spend a year traveling around the world with our two kids, who were 9 and 13 years old at the time. We were living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the time and our first house was a fixer-upper that we’d bought cheap and renovated over the years. So we sold our house and spent a bunch of the money we made on the sale to fund our trip. You can read about all of our hilarious adventures in FOUR HOMELESS MILLIONAIRES – How One Family Found Riches By Leaving Everything Behind. But even so, we had to get really creative. And I’d like to take a moment and dive into the nitty-gritty and give you some actual numbers and specifics because I don’t just talk the creative talk – I walk it, cause that’s what it takes to make a dream a reality.

Diving Down Deep Into The Nitty-Gritty

Two of the biggest costs, when you’re traveling, are food and accommodations. For instance, if we’d eaten in restaurants for each meal every day for the year we traveled even a conservative estimate would be,

Breakfast $10 Lunch $15 Dinner $25 = $50 ea x 4 people = $200.00 day

$200 x 30 days = $6000.00 month x 12 months = $72,000 a year.

That’s ridiculous! Not to mention being impossible to afford.

We bought 95% of our food in grocery stores and ate simply. Usually for around $30.00 a day. (Our kids still call it the world trip meal) It was usually a baguette, cheese, olives, sandwich meat, fruits, crackers, juice, wine. But we ate that simple meal on beaches, mountain tops, parks and in bunk-beds in hostels around the world. Instead of $6K a month our budget was around $900.00

Even coffee – Zara and I both love coffee, but it didn’t take any time at all to realize that $3.50 a cup x 2 of us, meant $7.00 a day for us to each just have one cup…and we need at least twice that. So basically $15 a day meant we’d spend $450.00 a month or $5,500 for the year just on coffee. So we got a Bodum that fit in our backpack, and bought great dark roast beans along the way and spent $15 a week, or $60 for the month.

Hotels for a family of 4 easily run $175-200.00 a night in most places around the world. That’s another $6,00.00 a month and x 12 months for another $72,000.00 for the year. Again…totally unrealistic for our budget.

So how did we do it? Well, to begin with, we hit up every friend and family member we could find around the world, sometimes choosing what country we’d visit or where we would go depending on if we knew someone there. We stayed with an old friend of Zara’s in Hawaii for two weeks. We jumped in on a cousin’s wedding plans in Malaysia and wrangled two weeks for free in an apartment no one was using. We stayed with relatives in Australia and friends all over Europe. We were in Italy for over 2 weeks and between staying with relatives and house-sitting for a friend of a friend, we ended up paying for a hostel for one night…the night before we hiked Cinque Terre.

We signed up for a hospitality network called Servas, an organization based out of the United Nations that connects travelers with hosts around the world. You should check it out… the arrangement lets you stay with a host for 2 days for free, and they feed you dinner!  We used Servas in Australia and all over New Zealand, not only did we save thousands of dollars in food and accommodations, in the process we made some amazing new friends that we’ve been able to host when they came to visit us in Canada.

You can see how practical the process of making a dream a reality actually is. Instead of…

$72,000 for hotels + $72,000 for meals + $5,500 for coffee = $150,000 (not even including airfare, car rentals, activities, etc.)

We paid…

$10,000 for hotels + $10,800 for meals + $720 for coffee    = $21,520

That’s how we did it, but that doesn’t mean that’s how you have to do it. I know a family where the husband was a teacher who took a 20% deferred salary so he could take off the 5th year from teaching. On his year off from teaching, he got a job with an airline, so they could get airfare for the family rate. His teaching salary kept paying the bills, and the money he was making at the airline funded their vacations and their trip budget. That’s how they did it.

Another family I met renovated their basement into a suite, rented it out for a couple years and saved the money. Then the year they traveled they moved their stuff into the basement and rented the upstairs out. The rental covered all their monthly expenses and the money they’d saved up from renting the basement funded their travel adventures. That’s how they did it.

Now it’s one thing to say that you just need to see things differently and that alone will magically open the doors and all your wildest dreams will come true. But that’s not the story I’m telling OR the solution I’m selling. Making your dream your reality will take hard work. It’ll keep you up in the middle of the night, and it will definitely cut into the time you have for bingeing Netflix. But it is so worth it…because it’s YOUR DREAM!

The Game-Changing Power of a Creative Community

The one thing that has made all the difference in the world for me to be my most creative and capable self, has been being part of a creative community. A community of people who are gifted differently, who come from different backgrounds and cultures and experiences, because this diversity is what helps us see problems in new ways, from new perspectives. From my personal (and ongoing) experience,  this type of mentorship and peer-to-peer support is a game-changing experience.

So I have been working on creating an online framework that can allow other people, like you, to have access not just to me and the resources I have accumulated over the years, (which I’m not going to lie, are pretty frigging extensive) but to the inspiring and empowering people I know, whose stories and adventures continue to inspire and teach me week after week.

I get excited when people tell me about the creative solutions they came up with to common problems that we all face. I want to share these stories, these creative ideas, and innovation with you, and then help you figure out how you can do the same.

So this online community I’ve been working on is almost ready to launch. I’m just working out the last few details and making sure everything is good to go. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in being part of, you can pre-register HERE.

If you’re interested in being part of a community like this and are curious about how it might change your life in big or small ways, I’d like to ask you to think about the Top 3 things you’d love to do…if you won the lottery.

Behind The Scenes Stories & Songs of a Nation

An Educator’s Guide To The Stories & Songs of a Nation

This behind the scenes look at the stories and songs of a nation is a culmination of the biggest project I’ve ever been part of. Over a two year period, I traveled thousands of miles across Canada, writing, recording and performing songs with thousands of First Nations, French and English students. This project is the result of hundreds of hours spent talking with students, writing, playing, rehearsing, performing, recording and editing the songs and videos from these experiences. This is a behind the scenes look at the process involved and I know will be a rich resource for educators across the country and around the world. 

I’ve chosen to feature 20 songs that have transformed classrooms in schools across the country. They are listed in alphabetical order to make it as convenient as possible to scroll through. There are links to videos if you and your students would like to see live performances from the creative projects in each of the schools represented.

Awesome Song was written with a school in Winnipeg, MB. I asked the students to tell me about their class. As a joke, one student shouted, “we’re awesome!”

They all started laughing when I wrote it down on the whiteboard, thinking I was joking. But when I asked them to explain why they were so awesome…that’s when they really got into it and ideas for the verse came together very quickly.

My favourite lyric came as I was trying to think of a word that rhymed with cupcakes. This project was happening in the middle of winter, so ice skates jumped to my mind. As I jotted that down I called over my shoulder and asked them to think of a fast animal. Because it was winter I was thinking of winter animals like polar bears or snow foxes and laughed out loud when a student called out, “a peregrine falcon.”

He thought I was laughing at his suggestion and said really seriously, “Dude…a peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet. It goes over 350 km an hour when it dives!”

“I’m not doubting you,” I laughed, “I just know that if you gave me a week to come up with something I’d never think of peregrine falcon.” It was obviously meant to be because when I grabbed my guitar and sang the line the syllables fit perfectly with the meter of the song.

The Actions have played a huge part in making The Awesome Song a national hit. We point to our chest with our thumbs in a really awesome way when we sing, “I’m awesome.” Then we point to others in our class in a super dramatic (awesome way) when we sing, “you’re awesome” and we throw our arms as high and wide as we can when we sing, “we’re awesome” when we’re together.

Best Day Ever came out of a session with a group of Kindergarten/Grade 1 students in the Northwest Territories. Which is definitely the youngest ages of students I’ve ever written a song with.

I made a list of their favourite activities as they called out things like playing games with their sisters and brothers, break dancing and hunting. I took their laundry list of activities and put it together into this song.

On a return visit to this school, a year later, we had the time to make THIS VIDEO to go with our song. One of my favourite memories of working on this song was the day I was really encouraging the students to shout out the line, ‘Best Day Ever!’ There was one little girl standing with her fingers in her ears, (because it was so loud) but still shouting the phrase at the top of her lungs because she was so into it.

Buddy Bench – Maybe you’ve heard of the buddy bench before, I’d hadn’t before I arrived at this school in northern B.C. The students explained that there was a special bench on the playground that you could go sit on if you didn’t have anyone to play with at recess or lunch. They told me it was everyone’s job to keep an eye on the buddy bench, and if they saw someone sitting on it, they needed to run over and invite them to come and play.

About a year after posting the video on youtube, I got a call from a school in Massachusetts. They were putting in their first buddy bench and were going to have a big ceremony. They’d been searching YouTube for a Buddy Bench song and loved this one I’d written with the students in Fort St John.

They asked me to send the lyrics and chords so they could learn how to play it. It was a fun story to be able to share with the school in northern B.C. when I went back the next year. It’s one of the things I love most about creativity and songwriting, you never know where it will go. We write a song in our little corner of the world and suddenly there are students singing it in other countries.

Captain Fluffy Beard (The Disrespectful Pirate) OK, this was a pretty funny session. I walked into a room with kindergarten and grade 1 students and asked them what they’d like to write a song about. They yelled, “PIRATES!”

As they squealed and shrieked with glee, their teachers managed to say, “well actually…we wanted to write a song about respect.”

I kept a smile on my face, but inside I was starting to freak out, cause I just couldn’t imagine how I could write a song about pirates and respect that would make the students and the teachers happy.

Well, not only did we manage to pull it off…but Captain Fluffy Beard has gone on to become a hit song in schools across Canada. And I’m sure will be with your little swarthy swashbucklers as well.

Change The World (Change le Monde) came together at the last minute. It was the third year in a row that I’d been booked for a one-week Artist in Residence at this French Immersion school. I called the principal on Thursday, just to confirm everything was good to go for the following Monday morning when I was scheduled to start.

The two previous years I had taught slam poetry. But when I asked if they were interested in doing the same thing the principal responded, “oh…I don’t know, what else do you do?”

When I told her about the songwriting project she got really excited and asked if I would be able to incorporate all 360 students in the school. Without thinking about what I was saying, I blurted, “sure, no problem!” Luckily it all turned out.

The school had a huge banner in the hallway that said, “if you change your mindset you can change your world.” That giant poster sparked our conversation about what each student could do to change their world.

I produce multimedia videos during these songwriting sessions, to document the creative process of working together creatively, and to provide as many different ways as possible for students to be involved. Some of us like acting, some are good at art and it’s important to create a win-win environment for everyone.

So we covered one wall in the hallway where students could write iMessages. Like…i feel safe here, i love my school and other positive messages. Some classes made big art projects and others acted out scenes on the playground.

We recorded the performance in the gym on Friday featuring all 360 students. It was deafeningly loud…I’m serious, like AC/DC kind of loud! This remains a really popular song to sing. The call and response lyrics make it easy for students to learn and sing-a-long. It’s also a great reminder for students what a difference their words and attitude can make each day.

Christmas Town is the best Christmas song I’ve ever written. (It’s also the only Christmas song I’ve ever written!)

This class of Grade 1& 2 students were so excited to write a Christmas song, it was absolutely amazing. They had so many great ideas I could hardly write fast enough to get them all down.

We wrote and recorded Christmas Town during the week in November that I was in their school. Their principal told me that they performed this song for the school Christmas program in December a few weeks later…and apparently, they also wrote a couple more verses after I left!

There is a moment captured in the video where a group of girls get up and start walking away from the group right as the song was starting to come together. Thinking I was losing their interest and focus I called out, “where are you guys going?”

“To make the actions!” they responded, already moving on to other important creative matters.

Écoutez Notre Histoire was the song I wrote with the French Immersion school in northern B.C. the year after we wrote Change the World. I don’t speak French, which gives me a great opportunity to learn from the students. I need them to help me write or translate lyrics into French.

Students in the Grade 6 class were fantastic. We were talking about finding our voice so we could share our story with the world…and they started muttering at the back of the room. When I asked what was going on, a few of them came running up and they wrote Écoutez Notre Histoire on the whiteboard…translating the line I’d written, ‘Listen to our Story.’

We ended up developing the bridge part where the Grade 6 students really took over the call and response part and lead the rest of the school, joining me at the front of the gym on Friday when we started recording.

There was a great moment right as we started to record our performance in the gym on Friday afternoon. I got the idea for all the students to punch the sky with their little fists as they yelled, “Hey!” It took our performance to a whole new level of elementary school rock and roll captured wonderfully in the video.

The Opportunity of a Lifetime (You Don’t Want To Miss)

When Life-Changing Decisions Provide The Opportunity of a Lifetime

I woke up on life support with a monstrous beast-of-a-breathing tube jammed down my throat. That meant talking was out of the question. A cast on my arm and splints on broken fingers made writing impossible, but I eventually discovered I’d been airlifted to the hospital after a car accident…the jury was still out on whether I’d ever walk again. I was 20 years old and my life as I knew it was over.

“I had no choice…

I had to reinvent myself”

Sometimes you have to make life-changing decisions, and sometimes life makes them for you. Moving forward meant I had to reinvent myself as I navigated a year in hospital and rehab. At some point, someone brought me a keyboard and I started writing songs as a way of processing the emotional journey I was on. At the time it didn’t seem like it had anything to do with the big decisions I was facing, but it ended up having a life-changing effect.

What making music in a hospital room taught me is that the true value of being creative isn’t about becoming cool, rich or famous or making it big on a reality TV show…it’s about seeing yourself and your potential in a new way. About seeing the world with new eyes when the old ways no longer work. If you are in a situation right now where you are trying to reinvent yourself, either professionally or personally, I would encourage you to invest the time and effort to explore your creative talents, gifts, and abilities. As Marcel Proust said, “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”  

“Creativity provides an opportunity

to connect with other people”

Two years after my accident I moved to the west coast of Canada and became part of a community of recording artists. The first night I was invited up on stage to perform one of my songs the place went nuts. People were dancing and singing and we were all caught up in a magical moment of connection. That night I experienced firsthand how creativity can provide a powerful connection with other people.

Creativity has been the key that’s opened to door to touring war-torn countries with the United Nations and the Foreign Affairs Department of Canada. It’s allowed me to produce TV shows, CDs, tour the world with my family (and spend less doing it than if we’d just stayed home!) For over a decade I’ve had the opportunity to be part of Tribe of One, a national collective of indigenous artists fusing First Nations, Metis, settler, French & English cultures through music, dance, painting and slam poetry.  

This type of life-changing experience is what I hope students will encounter when I walk into a school. This is what I hope the artists, actors, and writers will experience when I’m on set and what I hope the musicians, singers, and engineers will experience when I’m in the recording studio. Working together creatively is exhilarating. It is life changing and something I hope you have an opportunity to experience personally as well. 

Last year I was finishing up a week-long residency at an elementary school in northern, B.C. At the final performance, there was a little guy seriously losing his nut, singing at the top of his lungs and dancing like he was at his first AC/DC concert. WATCH HERE. He wasn’t losing his nut because I was playing a song on an acoustic guitar…it was because he was singing the song HE wrote, along with everyone else in his school. He was experiencing the same level of connection that I did that night so many years ago where everyone started dancing and running around. This type of experience transforms school culture. 

“Finding your voice is key 

to sharing your story”

We all need opportunities to see ourselves with new eyes. Discovering your creative talents, gifts, and abilities provide you with the ability to face the challenges in your life with confidence. It is an experience that changes EVERYTHING. One of my most hated things in the world is hearing people write themselves off with trite, pithy sayings like, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ Seriously…don’t curse your potential and capacity to be greater than your experiences so far…you are capable of more than you could ever imagine. 

Recently I spent a week producing a project with 350 students. We worked together to write, record and perform an original song. The teachers were hoping for a School Anthem that they could use for years to come that celebrated the values of the school…values represented through the ARTS. Accept, Respect, Together, Safety. 

Over the course of five days, I worked with all the students in the school. Two classes at a time would come to the common area each day where we would write and rehearse and brainstorm for all the ways we could tell their story. Some students created visual art, others made posters, some acted out scenes. I feature as many styles and types of storytelling as possible to showcase the different skill sets of the students.

“It’s one thing to say we celebrate diversity

but do we know why it’s worth celebrating?”

It was a fantastic week. Some sessions had Big Buddies and Little Buddies working together. The younger students were able to ask their older peers, what they did when they were scared at school or didn’t know how to play on the playground.

After creating storyboards and scripts, and choosing locations, we spent Wednesday and Thursday filming as well as rehearsing the new song. On Friday afternoon we all met in the gym where we performed our song and recorded it. Every element of my creative projects reinforces the value of diversity. For example, I have three video cameras that I ask three adult volunteers to operate, along with my mobile recording studio capturing the audio.

We played the song three times, filming and recording it each time. This provides me with 9 different camera angles to choose as I edit the video, along with 3 separate audio recordings. All the post-production on the video happens after I’m done working with the students. When it’s finished, it is uploaded to YouTube and Facebook, providing a really easy way for students to share with their families. 

Creative projects provide the opportunity of a lifetime…because it’s not just about discovering what we are good at individually, it’s also an opportunity to discover how we connect and fit with those around us. It’s one thing to say we celebrate diversity…but do we know why it’s worth celebrating? Experience it firsthand, and I guarantee it will change your life. 

Creative collaboration also lets us recognize firsthand how our weaknesses provide opportunities to work with others who are gifted differently. It puts our unique talents and abilities into context. We’re not the best at everything and we’re not supposed to be.  It’s not a competition, and when we experience that, we can truly appreciate those around us, because their success doesn’t come at our expense. We all win together!

If you’d like students in your school to have this type of opportunity, CONTACT ME, and definitely join the Creative Resources email list for ideas and inspiration. 

 

Hi, my name is Rik Leaf. I love everything I get to do as a Recording Artist, Producer, Slam Poet, and Writer. But I particularly enjoy producing Creative Development workshops and online training courses for students that help them discover the unique opportunities their talents, interests, and abilities can provide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the Value of Finding Your Voice (& Telling Your Story)

 

PROJECT: Somewhere You Need To Know – High School Multimedia Storytelling Grade 7-12  

LOCATION: Tumbler Ridge is a small town in northern British Columbia, Canada

GOAL: Produce a student-lead video that celebrates what makes their community so unique 

PROCESS: Our sessions started with creating a vision for the project and brainstorming with all the classes searching for possible stories. This process helps students see their community with new eyes. We’re not obligated to include everything we come up with, at the beginning we want to create a swirl of energetic ideas that catch everyone up in the excitement. 

Being a remote northern community located in the mountains is what makes life in Tumbler Ridge so unique. Bears walk through town, most people hunt and fish and take quads mudbogging (and apparently often get stuck and run over). On day one we’re just writing it all down and using our conversations as a way to discover the story we want to tell. 

DAY TWO: There were a handful of students who played guitar and brought their instruments to the next session as we started writing music and lyrics for our song. The inspiration for the lyrics came from one moment as we talked about how people often refer to small towns like Tumbler as being, ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and that sparked a conversation…if Tumbler is the middle of nowhere…where is the center of somewhere? Vancouver? London? New York? And who gets to say?

recognizing the value of finding

our voice to tell our story

We created storyboards and shot lists, and students who wanted to be on camera, acting or speaking were able to volunteer.  Part of learning to tell a story is recognizing the value of finding our voice to tell our story. It’s up to us…no one can do it for us. 

FILMING & RECORDING: Multimedia projects like this really require a free-wheeling documentary style approach. You always want to have a camera handy to capture a great moment. And my goal is to represent as many students as possible, in as many ways as possible, celebrating their diversity and unique talents and abilities.

Over the next few days, we filmed our scenes. One group invited me to their Outdoor Ed class where they learn to build shelters, survive in the wilderness and cook moose smokies over portable fire pits made out of washing machine drums welded to lawnmowers. 

Another class took me on a hike where just 17 minutes from the front door we arrived at Flatbed Falls. We had multiple cans of bear spray with us because the wildlife is actually that close. (as indicated by the number of people who put up their hands when asked if they’d met a bear walking around town!) 

Creativity provides its own invitation to participate. As we were talking about bears in the community one girl volunteered to put on the school bear mascot costume. Another girl jumped in and volunteered to put on a cheerleading outfit and cheer for the bear. When I actually came around the corner to fill our scene there were a handful of girls in cheerleading outfits.

everyone involved recognizes how their piece

is special and fits with those around them

Other students aren’t so comfortable with being in front of the camera, but they have equally important stories to contribute to the video, and the art is finding ways to include them that they are comfortable with. Like the three art students who didn’t want to say anything on camera but were happy to draw while the camera filmed them. Speeding up the footage in post production was a fun and interesting way to include their stories, and combining those visuals while we listened to one student rap and another sing the school song in the student lounge made for some really interesting segments.   

The same was true about including the guys at the skatepark, and the class that spent every recess playing a game called, Ga-Ga Ball, the girl with a horse, the students pretending their school had a Camo Crew and the group from Career Education who made their own go-carts and the community that came out to support them on race day.

END RESULT: This project was created over the course of one week. It’s a celebration of a very creative and talented community of visual artists, musicians, rappers, Career Ed welders and Go Cart racers, actors, skaters that all make Tumbler Ridge somewhere you need to know about.

Working on a project like this lets everyone involved recognize how their piece is special and fits with all those around them who are gifted differently. Sharing the finished video online lets the rest of the community share in the celebration. This video from a small northern community has been viewed over 8K times!

Somewhere You Need To Know 

So much to see

So much to do

I want to show you

The middle of nowhere

Is actually somewhere

You need to know about

What you don’t know

About our world

You need to now

Cause it’s beautiful

If your school or community would like this opportunity, CLICK HERE.

(And if you’ve never been to Tumbler Ridge…GO THERE NOW!

Why You Need To Be Creative (There’s No Such Thing As Failure)

The Search For A Safe Place To Get It Wrong

It all happened so fast. I never had a chance to say the one thing that could have helped.

It was Friday afternoon. I’d been in the school for a week working with 350 students writing six original songs with six different groups. All of our creative sessions and conversations had led up to this moment on Friday afternoon where each group was presenting their song.

The gym was packed with parents and families along with all the students. Each group was taking turns coming up on stage with me to perform their song and then teach it to the rest of the school.

Don’t mess this up for us!

As one group filed on stage, a young student turned to me and said, “don’t mess this up for us.” It was such a precocious thing to say, it struck me as really funny, so I leaned into my mic and told the audience what he’d said. Everyone laughed.

We performed the song, and at the end, as the audience was applauding and cheering and this group started filing off the stage, this same student turned and said, “you messed up!”

And then he was gone along with the rest of his class. The moment happened so fast it was over before I even had a chance to say the one thing that could have helped. I wish I could have crouched a bit lower, looked him in the eyes and said with absolute sincerity, “who cares.”

Can You Handle The Truth? 

I don’t mean to be flippant or careless with my words because the truth is…lots of people care. According to a recent survey for Linkagoal’s Fear Factor Index, out of 1,083 respondents 1 in 3 Americans were afraid of failure (31%) more than spiders (30%) being home alone (9%) or even the paranormal (15%) Only horror films outranked fear of failure, but only by 1%. Out of those surveyed, (49%) admitted that fear of failure was the biggest roadblock to either not achieving their goals at all or discouraging them from revisiting them. 

I’ve spent 20 years working in the music, TV/Film industry, and I’ve seen the fear of failure or even making a mistake kill creativity. Maybe this student was right and I’d misplayed a chord or fumbled a phrase. But seriously…who cares. Making a mistake is not failure, getting it wrong on the way the getting it right is not failure. Being perfect wasn’t the point of the week, and certainly isn’t the goal of life. And none of the teachers, parents or other students were focused on our mistakes…they were caught up in sharing the creative moment. 

Over 350 students had just experienced an amazingly creative week writing, creating and performing six original songs in five days. That would be daunting to do with 350 seasoned and experienced professional songwriters! I love to tell students in our first session on Monday, that in a few days, we’re all going to get up on stage and perform a song…a song that doesn’t exist yet, cause we haven’t written it! I find this statement sets the expectation for the hair-straight-back white-knuckle-hold-on-for-dear-life creative experience we are about to have. CLICK HERE

The Value Of A Creative Experience

Let me ask you a question, given an option between, a) sitting passively in your seat listening to someone talk about creativity, or b) having an opportunity to actually be creative, in an environment that played to your strengths, and allowed you to choose your comfort level, which would you choose? For me, it would be a no-brainer. But that’s because my experience with being creative in studios, on stage, and on set has been overwhelmingly positive. There are some things you need to learn by doing. A lot of schools talk about the value of diversity and how it’s a strength and not a weakness, but it is incredibly powerful when students can actually experience this. That’s of inviting students into a creative environment where they can experience it firsthand. Because creativity is fun, exciting, terrifying, enlightening and empowering at the same time.

We all need a safe place to get it wrong

What that little dude on stage didn’t know is that when you’re being creative there is no such thing as failure…there are just opportunities to learn. You’re not perfect. You’re never going to be. Neither is anyone around you, not your boss, coworkers, employees, spouse, children, teacher or students. If we take that ridiculous expectation out of the equation we have space to explore our creative potential and not worry if we get it wrong in the process. If you want something you’ve never had before you have to do something you’ve never done before. And no one has ever done anything perfectly the first time…we all need a safe place to get it wrong.

Walt Disney was fired from an early newspaper job for lack of imagination. Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times. Einstein was described as ‘mentally slow’ on his school record. John Grisham, J.K. Rowling, and JRR Tolkien were all rejected dozens of times before their books were published. 

Times Of Change Can Be Scary

Times of change can be scary; particularly when your bottom line is on the line, and let’s be honest, in times like these everyone’s bottom line is on the line.

In a recent article, Robert M. Goldman MD, Ph.D., DO, FAASP describes this time in history as the 4th Industrial Revolution which he terms, The Exponential Age, and predicts the disruptive effects of exponential technologies on virtually everything.

So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture, and jobs.

Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.

  In the US, young lawyers already don’t get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses.

 S olar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. The price for solar will drop so much that all coal companies will be out of business by 2025.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All major shoe companies started 3D printing shoes. Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large number of spare parts they used to have in the past.

Business Opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: “in the future, do you think we will have that?” and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner? And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st century.

 You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (said the cat)

We are living in a time of unprecedented change where we will thrive or struggle to survive based on our ability to adapt. You’re not an old dog, you can absolutely learn to adapt and change and use all your creative talents and abilities to thrive and succeed.

This is something I know about through personal experience. The last two decades have required constant change. 20 years ago as a professional musician, I would go into the studio, produce an album and then go on tour and generate revenue through selling CDs and tickets. Suddenly everyone was downloading music for free and professional quality recording software was available with every new computer. This created a massive shift in how people perceived the value of music.

Change pulled the rug out from under me with one hand

and opened a door for me with the other

In just a couple years, none of the record companies I worked with were still in business. None of the distribution companies existed. None of the promoters I worked with were in business and none of the venues I’d played at booked live original music. The old way of making a living as a musician changed. It wasn’t impossible to make a living as a musician, it was just impossible to keep doing it the way it had been done up to that point. So I needed to learn how to approach my career and my skill set in a completely different way.

Interestingly, at the same time high-quality video cameras and editing software became so affordable, independent producers like me were able to produce TV shows and films outside of the traditional entertainment system. New avenues of broadcasting and distribution opened up and it totally changed the television and film industries. Change pulled the rug out from under me with one hand and opened a door for me with the other.

Your creative potential is bigger than any industry used to define it

Creativity is a very personal AND professional subject. Your creative potential is bigger than any industry used to define it. Understanding how to develop and apply your unique abilities is what will empower you, or your students, to face the future with confidence rather than fear.

This Is Your Journey of Discovery

If you’re experiencing the disruptive effects of change in your life, you need an environment and people in your life that nurture and support your creative development. That’s why I produce residencies in schools and created an online creative community. If you’re interested in learning more, CLICK HERE.

Life is a journey of discovery…discovering the ways your unique gifts, talents, and abilities can empower you to face the challenges of an uncertain future. And while it can be scary at times, as we take creative risks and try something for the first time, fear of failure should not be the thing that shuts half of us down. 

I never had the chance to tell that young student the one thing that could have helped…so I’m telling you. Don’t be too proud to have a humble beginning. Every journey involves taking a risk. It takes courage. You have everything you need to get everything you want. If you need someone who understands the creative journey and can provide the support and encouragement you need, contact me and let me know.

 

Hi, my name is Rik Leaf. I love everything I get to do as a recording artist, producer, slam poet, and writer. But I particularly enjoy producing creative development workshops and online training courses for students that help them discover the unique opportunities their talents, interests, and abilities can provide.

The post Why You Need To Be Creative (There’s No Such Thing As Failure) appeared first on Creative Resources That Transform Schools.

In Creativity There Is No Such Thing As Failure

The Search For A Safe Place To Get It Wrong

It all happened so fast. I never had a chance to say the one thing that could have helped.

It was Friday afternoon. I’d been in the school for a week working with 350 students writing six original songs with six different groups. All of our creative sessions and conversations had led up to this moment on Friday afternoon where each group was presenting their song.

The gym was packed with parents and families along with all the students. Each group was taking turns coming up on stage with me to perform their song and then teach it to the rest of the school.

Don’t mess this up for us!

As one group filed on stage, a young student turned to me and said, “don’t mess this up for us.” It was such a precocious thing to say, it struck me as really funny, so I leaned into my mic and told the audience what he’d said. Everyone laughed.

We performed the song, and at the end, as the audience were applauding and cheering and this group started filing off the stage, this same student turned and said, “you messed up!”

And then he was gone along with the rest of his class. The moment happened so fast it was over before I even had a chance to say the one thing that could have helped. I wish I could have crouched a bit lower, looked him in the eyes and said with absolute sincerity, “who cares.”

I’ve spent 20 years working in the music, TV/Film industry, and I’ve seen the fear of making a mistake kill creativity. Maybe this student was right and I’d misplayed a chord or fumbled a phrase. (To be honest, it’s almost inevitable in those moments of creative chaos) But seriously…who cares. Being perfect wasn’t the point of the week, and certainly isn’t the goal of my life.

Over 350 individuals had just experienced an amazingly creative week writing, creating and performing six original songs in five days. That would be daunting to do with 350 seasoned and experienced professional songwriters! I love to tell groups in our first session on Monday, and in a few days, we’re all going to get up on stage and perform a song…a song that doesn’t exist yet, cause we haven’t written it! I find this statement sets the expectation for the hair-straight-back white-knuckle-hold-on-for-dear-life creative experience we are about to have.

I love to tell groups in the first session on Monday, that in a few days, we’re all going to get up on stage on Friday afternoon and perform a song…a song that doesn’t exist yet, cause we haven’t written it! I find this statement sets the expectation for the hair-straight-back white-knuckle-hold-on-for-dear-life creative experience we are about to have.

What Would You Say To An Immersive Creative Experience

Let me ask you a question, given an option between, a) sitting in a chair and listening to someone talk about creativity, or b) having an opportunity to actually be creative, which would you choose? It’s a no-brainer right. There are some things you need to learn by doing. A lot of schools, companies, and just people, in general, like to talk about the value of diversity and how it’s a strength and not a weakness and how this helps us create safe and supportive environments. But I’d much rather invite you into an immersive creative environment where you can experience it firsthand. Because creativity is fun, exciting, terrifying, enlightening and empowering at the same time.

We all need a safe place to get it wrong

What that little dude on stage didn’t know is that when you’re being creative there is no such thing as failure…there are just opportunities to learn. You’re not perfect. You’re never going to be. Neither is anyone around you, not your boss, coworkers, employees, spouse, children, teacher or students. If we take that ridiculous expectation out of the equation we have space to explore our creative potential and not worry if we get it wrong in the process. If you want something you’ve never had before you have to do something you’ve never done before. And no one has ever done anything perfectly the first time…we all need a safe place to get it wrong.

Times Of Change Can Be Scary

Times of change can be scary; particularly when your bottom line is on the line, and let’s be honest, in times like these everyone’s bottom line is on the line.

In a recent article, Robert M. Goldman MD, Ph.D., DO, FAASP describes this time in history as the 4th Industrial Revolution which he terms, The Exponential Age, and predicts the disruptive effects of exponential technologies on virtually everything.

So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture, and jobs.

Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.

  In the US, young lawyers already don’t get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses.

 S olar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. The price for solar will drop so much that all coal companies will be out of business by 2025.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All major shoe companies started 3D printing shoes. Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large number of spare parts they used to have in the past.

Business Opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: “in the future, do you think we will have that?” and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner? And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st century.

 You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (said the cat)

You and I are living in a time of unprecedented change where we will thrive or struggle to survive based on our ability to adapt. You’re not an old dog, you can absolutely learn to adapt and change and use all your creative talents and abilities to thrive and succeed.

This is something I know about through personal experience. The last two decades have required constant change. 20 years ago as a professional musician, I would go into the studio, produce an album and then go on tour and generate revenue through selling CDs and tickets. Suddenly downloading music for free was possible and professional quality recording software was available with every new computer. This created a massive shift in how people perceived the value of live music.

Change pulled the rug out from under me with one hand

and opened a door for me with the other

In just a couple years, none of the record companies I had deals with existed. None of the distribution companies existed. None of the promoters I worked with were in business and none of the venues I’d played at booked live original music. The old way of making a living as a musician changed. It wasn’t impossible to make a living as a musician, it was just impossible to keep doing it the way it had been done up to that point. So I needed to learn how to approach my career and my skill set in a completely different way.

Interestingly, at the same time high-quality video cameras and editing software became so affordable, independent producers like me were able to actually produce TV shows and films outside of the traditional entertainment system. New avenues of broadcasting and distribution opened up and it totally changed the television and film industries. Change pulled the rug out from under me with one hand and opened a door for me with the other.

Your creative potential is bigger than any industry used to define it

So for me, creativity has always been a very personal AND professional subject. Your creative potential is bigger than any industry used to define it. Understanding how to develop and apply your unique abilities is what will empower you to face the future with confidence rather than fear.

This Is Your Journey of Discovery

If you’re experiencing the disruptive effects of change in your life, you need an environment and people in your life that nurture and support your creative development. That’s why I created the Academy of Creative Development. It’s an online community that offers ongoing support, education and creative capacity building resources to members. If you’re interested in learning more you can email me at info@rikleaf.com

Life is a journey of discovery…discovering the ways your unique gifts, talents, and abilities can empower you to face the challenges of an uncertain future. Weaknesses are opportunities to see how we need each other, and how our differences let us work together.

I never had the chance to tell that young student the one thing that could have helped…so I’m telling you. Don’t be too proud to have a humble beginning. Every journey involves taking a risk. It takes courage. You have everything you need to get everything you want. If you need someone who understands the creative journey and can provide the support and encouragement you need, contact me and let me know.

 

Hi, my name is Rik Leaf. I love everything I get to do as a recording artist, producer, slam poet, and writer. But I particularly enjoy producing creative development workshops and online training courses for people navigating times of change in their life. I love empowering and encouraging people by helping them discover the unique opportunities their talents, interests, and abilities can provide.

 

 

 

 

 

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