Common Shapes

Creative Ideation Portal Day 3: Art as Service

• Cody Cook-Parrott • Season 4 • Episode 26

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Today we complete our mini series going over the free Creative Ideation Portal - a guide to help you vision your projects and share them with the world.

Tune in to days one and two first. Then join me for today’s conversation about why the world needs your art and how to share it (even if you feel scared).

If you’re listening when this comes out, join me and Amelia Hruby at the FREE COMMON SHAPES PARTY on Saturday, September 20th (aka tomorrow!). RSVP here.

Mentioned in the episode:

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Thanks to Softer Sounds, Saltbreaker, and Jess Herrera for their help making this podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please send it to a friend, leave a 5-star rating & review, and download the Creative Ideation Portal.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Common Shapes, a podcast about practices and systems for creative work. I'm your host, Cody Cook Parrott, and we're here for day three of the Creative Ideation Portal. I'm so happy to be sharing this system of creation and documentation and magic and I don't even know it's transformation. It's a very special download that I received and put out into the world and today is all about you putting your creations and downloads into the world. So day three Art of Service. If you are listening to this live, you have listened to day one and two and today is day three and tomorrow we are hosting We Equals Me and Amelia Hruby of Off the Grid podcast. We are hosting a Common Shapes welcome back party on Zoom and we will be going through the Creative Ideation Portal in the Zoom and giving away really cool prizes and doing a Q and A. And it's totally free.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:01:25]:
You can register at the link in the show notes and the link to register is also linked in the Creative Ideation Portal as well as@codycookparrot.com on the homepage. So we hope to see you there again totally free. It's going to be so much fun. And if you're listening to the recording, feel free to go back and listen to days one and two if you haven't already and make sure that you download the Creative Ideation Portal, which is also in the show notes or@codycookparrot.com click through to podcast and you'll find it there. Day 3 Art as Service so today is the final day in the portal and it's all about sharing your work with the world. Even if you feel scared, maybe especially if you feel scared. So I do not believe that we will ever suddenly feel ready enough to share our work with the world. I think that is sort of a myth.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:02:26]:
I think people often ask me, or maybe even, maybe even people don't ask me. They just assume that I have like an extreme amount of confidence sending my newsletter every Monday to tens of thousands of people. And it just does not work that way for me. I don't necessarily feel scared, but I feel. I don't feel like an extreme amount of confidence. I definitely am like, here we go. Like, there I go again. But I do it anyways.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:02:58]:
Like, I think being scared and doing it anyways is the foundation of my practice in many, in many ways. I've been thinking a lot about the word risky this year. Like I am risking it. Like I am risking discomfort and being misunderstood and not being liked and it feels better. It feels better than staying small and not not being risky. So I invite you to be a little bit risky in sharing your work. So you know, there may be this layer underneath of like feeling shy or afraid. People won't like it or unsure if it's like truly ready to be public.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:03:40]:
But I think the only way to push through this is to like practice releasing what you make into the world. So the world needs your online class, your book, your quilt, your art, your painting, your symphony, your all of it. It just the world needs it. So today is about trusting that what you make will find the right people. Using Marketing as a Creative Practice and hitting Send. I want you to open up the document from yesterday, the service of this project. So yesterday you did some free writing for about 10 minutes and above your free WR, I want you to create four sections. Who is this for? Marketing is creative practice, the work in the world, and a spell for hitting send.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:04:33]:
I just got chills. I just got chills for you. Okay, so who is this for and how is it of service? So we're getting back to our timer. We're getting back to our seven minute timer from the beginning, from day one. And I want you to write about who this project is for, including how does it serve you in your pract. So for the project, I'm running through the portal right now thinking about creating an evergreen course. I might write about how an evergreen class serves working parents who can't come to my classes live and feel pressure to show up on camera and just want the information to come directly to them. It also releases pressure for me to be showing up live.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:05:17]:
So take some time to write about how this project could be of Service. You could redistribute 5 to 10% of the profits to a mutual aid fund you'd like to champion a talk series that goes with the project where you showcase your coolest friends, have scholarships, etc. So that's more of like service in a generosity, mutual aid that kind of way. I want to remind you there's many ways for a project to be of service. So exploring, reciprocity, generosity, mutual aid, just literally the fact that making art sparks joy in people is of service, I truly believe. So set the timer for seven minutes, open up the document, the service of this project and take some time to write. Who is this for? How is it of service? All right, step three, Marketing as a creative practice. So building an email list is the first thing you should do.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:06:24]:
Let me say it again, 100 million times in a row. Building an email list is the first thing you should do. And I don't care where you do it, I don't care if you do it on flodesk, mailchimp, substack, button down, ghost mailer, light, beehive, anywhere. I don't care if you make a Google spreadsheet. I don't care if you write it on a napkin. You need to start an email list. Go back to episode, I don't know, four maybe Art of the newsletter. Art of the Art of newsletters.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:07:08]:
You need an email list. Promise me right now, cross your little fingers. Unless you're driving, keep your hands on 10 and two, cross your pinkies together and pretend you're pinky promising me that you're going to make an email list. Okay, so building an email list is the first thing you should do. So I have a two fold email list process. I use Flodesk for email marketing and I use button down for my weekly newsletter. You could also try a free service like Mailerlite or Mailchimp is free for under 2000 subscribers. So many options.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:07:43]:
There's so many options. So make a list of different topics and themes from the project that you could use in marketing. Whether that is a social media post, a newsletter, email marketing, a lead magnet, a postcard, a brochure, or anything else you like to look at and think about. Remember that marketing can be just as creative as making the project itself and should be seen as an extension of your practice. Just take some time making a list of topics and themes from the project that you could use in marketing. Ideas that stem from the project itself. So if I was teaching a class, I might think of like the different themes that I'm going to go over in the class and then write those out. And then I would be like, oh, those are great podcast episodes.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:08:37]:
Oh, those are great Instagram posts, so those are great topics for my newsletter, etc. Etc. Step 4 the work in the world. Back to our 7 minute timer. I want you to set a timer for seven minutes and write about how it would feel to have this work in the world. Write both honestly about the parts that are scary, but really spend some time visioning the beauty of this dream coming true. So I might write about having more free time to spend with my partner. The fun of recording a class, reaching more students, getting creative with slide decks.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:09:15]:
Like I think I've always been sort of shy about like I have to teach live. That's the only way to create an impact where I'm like, what if I actually could Reach more students. Like, what if I actually could create a bigger impact with certain evergreen courses? Like, what would that look like? So 7 minutes write about how it would feel to have this work in the world. So when I was writing about my book I, I was really picturing like picking up my book at a bookstore and like what it would feel, especially changing my name, like how it would feel to see my new name on a book cover and how beautiful that would feel. So spend seven minutes writing out like how it would feel to have this work in the world. And then our last step of the Creative Ideation Portal is step five, a spell for hitting send. So this is an important step not to skip. This is your time to write a spell or a ritual to support you regulating your nervous system and putting your beautiful creations out into the world.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:10:28]:
So an example spell is open up your newsletter template or a blank document, light a candle and ask your spiritual committee to come in and support. Pick a theme from your project and write about it. Drink your favorite tea. While you do it, take a deep breath, thank your spirit team, thank yourself and hit send so it can be this simple or much more elaborate. This is an example of hitting send on the marketing side of things. So if I was crafting a spell for day that my book comes out or that I launch a class, I might have it be more of like a gratitude spell or how I might spend the day in the bath or taking it easy. You can also use this space to write out your own mantras or affirmations about why your work is important to have in the world. It's important because you are important now keep going.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:11:22]:
Do this for all the other projects on your original list. Keep visioning and creating and organizing the work. The Creative Ideation portal is yours to send these projects through each step and really taking the time to set these 7 minute timers to really take the time to make the list to write out the themes to send them all through. Now I want to say a few things in terms of just furthering support because I think it's easy to get stuck and I don't want you to get stuck. So I am available for creative advising sessions. We can do one hour sessions or two hour deep dive sessions. You can go to CodyCookParrot.com and click advising. I love to go deeper.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:12:24]:
I love to take what you've gone through in the portal and spend an hour or two hours with you over zoom and like mash it all up and find out what's really in there. So if you're interested in going deeper, I would love to see what you brought through the Creative Ideation Portal and make it happen together. The next class I'm teaching live is on October 4 from 12 to 3. It's called the Long Arc. So the class is about building consistency in your practice over time, mostly so that, like, giving up doesn't feel so bad and so that you can finally finish these projects that have been haunting you. So if that sounds of interest, I would love to have you. It's just one day, 12 to 3, October 4, and there's a few other practices, projects, classes on the agenda for the fall. You can find them all@codycookparrot.com, but that is what is coming up and I'd love to have you.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:13:31]:
So again, if you're Listening live tomorrow, September 20th, me and Amelia are hosting the Common Shapes Welcome Back party. That's Amelia Hruby of Off the Grid, my personal favorite podcast. We're going to be having a lot of fun. We're going to go through the Creative Ideation Portal, which if you haven't downloaded, you can in the show notes. You can register for our zoom in the show notes or at codycookparrot.com where you can also find the Creative Ideation Portal if you haven't downloaded it yet. Thank you to everyone who makes this podcast possible. Softer Sound Studio for production, Saltbreaker for our music. Jess Herrera for podcast art.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:14:16]:
If you loved this episode, text it to a friend. Share it on social media, hyperlink it in your newsletter. Give us a review on Apple Podcasts. It means so much to me to read the reviews, rate us on Spotify. You can even write comments on Spotify now. It's so cute. Tell me what you worked on. Tell me what you ran through the Creative Ideation Portal.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:14:39]:
Thank you for listening to Common Shapes. It's incredibly meaningful. I'll be back on the mic next week. Wednesday Season four Going strong. We've got some great guests this season. I can't wait to bring them to you. It is a gift. It is a pleasure.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:14:55]:
Thank you for listening to Common Shapes.