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Free Preview: Make a Mighty Ugly Creature

Now we're going to talk about the things we're starting up feeling that so good at the things that were feeling that's a steady about the things that are making us really uncomfortable remember that as we go on and talk about all of those things, these euro qualities never, ever go away, they are in you, they will remain in you, you may discover more of them, I'm sure that you will. Those are not going to be eroded as we start to talk about the things that are harder, so keep it in mind if you need to rip it out, put it on the table, go home, put it up on your bathroom mirror, whatever it is that you need to do, but just keep that in mind as we go forward, so we're going to switch into what I call the ugly voice, which a lot of other people call the inner critic I'm just really fixated on ugliness. I used the word a lot, but that's the voice in the back of your mind, do you hear it? You probably heard it a lot when you were writing down things that you were good at because it was sayin...

g, no, you're not you're totally lying to yourself, who do you think you are? You actually suck it public speaking, you can't sing, you never could people die in emergencies all the time who do you think you are to save them? Your food is terrible your ideas really not so great that's that voice in your mind it has the counterpoint to everything that you try when you're sitting at home in your leg I want to try this limiting pattern the ugly voice says don't even bother right when you're thinking of a new product to develop for your business you're ugly voice says nobody will ever want that why do you think you're the one who should develop that why would anybody want to talk to you about their problems which I say out of personal experience who are you to come talk about ugliness is if you're some kind of person that people want to share their innermost fears with this is what the ugly voice does it's there all the time it's probably been there since your brain started learning to understand language I made that up but I'm not a scientist this is not science I totally made that up but we're going to start thinking about that at the next exercise that we're going to d'oh is making an ugly creature and I want to talk a little bit about the ugly voice before we do that so that's what the craft supplies were about that's what everybody at home that's what you were asked to gather craft supplies ford is we're going to do some actual straight up down home arts and crafts here today but we're gonna make something ugly and before we do that I want you to think about that ugly voice I want you to start to listen to it usually what we do is ignore it that's how we get up out of bed every morning that's how we got dressed and get out here today is we ignore the voice that's like city sitting in their chattin starts chatting right before you wake up in the morning about how you know maybe don't even wear those boots you plan to wear today because they're going to be uncomfortable on people going to judge you they're not going to be fashionable or blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah that's that guy and you ignore it because it's usually wrong and it's really not helpful and you need to get up and get dressed and get showered and get out in the morning we're going to sort of think about what it actually says, so I mean as I'm talking about this started, listen for it it's usually way, way in the back of your mind because that's where you shove it so that you can get on with your life but we're going to listen to what it says today because we need to know what it says we're going we're going to listen because we can't tell it to actually be quiet unless we know what it's saying first, so we're going to listen, we're gonna listen, we're going to know what it says, take a look at the supplies in front of you and people at home if you have not yet gathered your supplies, this is a good time to do it, because in a couple of minutes, we're going to start to make stuff. So think about does anyone want to share? So my ugly voice this morning in my hotel room where I had been planning what I was going toe, where today my ugly voices like high school, my voice was like that purple dress? I don't even know what you were thinking is the on ly dress I had there was nothing, I'm not at home there's, no club it of other stuff, which, like, thank goodness, because I probably would have ended up getting up at five in the morning and like tossing my whole wardrobe around, but my ugly voice was like, I don't know what you're thinking with that is like cameras, light and life. So that's one thing that my voice was saying, my ugly voice was also saying, who do you think you are, that's, what my only boy says a lot, how dare you! Who do you think you are? Why are you up there? Anybody could be up there doing this. Why is it you? Why do you have the audacity to think that you could be talking to people about this instead of sitting there learning from someone else? And the answer is happenstance thing as much as anything else, right? And so that's what I woke up with this morning um we're going to make something ugly. We're gonna make something really ugly. We're not making cute, ugly things. There's a lot of cute ugly out there, right? Like, you know what I mean by cute, ugly like he would ugly are like dolls that or maybe a little bit dismembered, you know, really adorable zombies that's not what we're making today. What we're going to make today is something that is really ugly. There are craft supplies here and for people in studio there's also this been the folks a creative life were awesome, and they took my advice and started saving things from the recycling bin last week before we came in here today. So you're welcome people in studio to take from here. If you're a home, go to your recycling bin, take stuff out but not really terribly smell your sticky because that's really growth but take stuff out take out old egg cartons doodads find you know, ben paper clips and whatever gather things around. You want cem glue gun if you have it because they're great for instant gratification for gluing, sewing, needle and thread if you want it here in studio, we have things like pipe cleaners and there's. Extra glue sticks for the glue guns. Well, everybody, please plug in your glue guns. You're like that will just make sure that those air on, um, we'll take a couple of minutes to warm up and be careful because they're going to be hot. So this is going to be, like, a little bit like kid, like arts and crafts. I bet that most of you who do make products for a living are not making them out of pipe cleaners and glue gun. So there is an aspect of this that is intentionally kind of like being kids again. So take a couple of minutes to think about what ugly is to you. So again, not cute, ugly. The goal here is not to make a doll that your niece or nephew would be like, but it said your needs to know if you'd be like that's horrifying. Um, and I want you to think about listening to your ugly voice while you do that. Because I bet like, have you set out to do that recently? It's ok, if you have, like, make something intentionally very, very no good. The whole point is that I assume that you really, really have something you ever do on the goal of it is to do several things today one is we're going to use that creature, this it has to be a creature. I forgot to say that that's the one constraint I can't just tell you make anything ugly because then I would be being mean and you would have no idea what that means. We're going to get ugly creature again creature is up to your own interpretation, a creature that is very, very ugly that you make ugly on purpose, right? Not oh, I'm just going to toss this together and hope it ends up ugly intentionality is a part of it. None of us goes into developing a new product or service for our business, thinking about how we might tossem things together by happenstance and hope it turns out great we're simply having a different goal today than we ever have, and that is to make something awful hideous, terrifying, scary, ugly as ugly as you possibly can have any questions before we begin this is like I'm going to make one too, because I find that I always learn something new while you're making something ugly, please start together. You're welcome to come to the bin here if you're in studio and grab some rather some nifty treasures in there of like tinfoil, I think bubble wrap and shiny things we have some time for this, but we don't have a ton of time, so don't you're a perfectionist is going to have to let go to make the ugly thing and it is ok one if you find this to be the most awesome, liberating thing you've ever done and it is ok to find this the most painful, awful thing you have ever done and it is ok to be somewhere in the middle, all I ask is that you do it anyway, however hard it might be and go, uh, listen to what your ugly voice says as you make decisions, as your mind is saying, how can I make this even uglier? What is your ugly voice saying? So, cam, I'm going to make one alongside you what he likes about, but I just wanted tio let everybody know at home again. If you are just joining us, we're going to be watching as everybody is making these, but we also encourage you to download right now both the workbook that we're working through that's free for everybody that's watching as well is that supply list, but you don't need the supply list fully to engage with us right now just like you said go and grab we'll take a look and see with some of the things that I'm here if you don't have a glue gun just go go grab some glue close a stapler anything shut up to danielle here one of our production assistants who literally went through our recycling here and pulled a lot of these things out eso really who can use anything that you have laying around so let's get to it let's do it let's do it I'm gonna go grab some something from the bin tio dio yeah, you can totally do it. Yeah. Oh, those are ugly oh, yeah, I just came from my own good, but I brought some stuff from home and it was like a never ending oh, awesome. Dig through some inspiration people have the hardest time with and they start to do this depends there several things I have found that people have oh, thank you can have a super hard time uh, letting go of perfectionism. Yeah, right. So so many people who are in creative business it's kind of like the perfect you're like the overlord of everything you get to make sure that everything is exactly in this spot everything looks exactly as it should look and to make something ugly is to go against everything that you spend like one hundred fifty percent of your energy on all the time your protection and I'm not just one correction no, I've never been really expect totally like I'm the person who as senator I'm like I'm so not ripping back that mistake I'm completely comfortable with the fact that I made that mistake which can be actually liability right? People like a look at that hole in your sweater and I'm like that sounds so freeing three so free I think I stopped meeting projects because I was like, you know, I keep making these mistakes and it's that the hardest thing is actually for me is pushing through making mistakes when you're a perfectionist yeah, because you expect that you should be able to do it perfectly yes from the get go right that's ridiculous what is perfect and ugly? This is part of why I think this is part of what like the diabolical mrs ha ha what is perfect ugly? I don't even know I have struggled a lot blow itself out like it's not just, you know well there's that there's that I can't I'm not even going to start to cope alone that once I start I'm ok not being a perfectionist but there are loads of things that I never ever started because I decided that there was no there's no point there was now looks like a body e oh super long when I try to not hold us right close to my mind yeah I know is that I think it's super crinkly oh no, this should not even be this oh, I know what I'm gonna do hope that folks at home are doing this well feed you put on crazy music on uh I feel like I almost turned into bob ross just now happy little agree creatures here we go here we go on like twist tie so we're going to talk later about I know you said you had a name before your ugly creature yes we're going to talk later about that I have always I named my ugly creatures yes, we are going to talk about that on going to talk about stories. We'll talk a lot about stories today too in the fictional and nonfictional since sam this's not e I wanted it to work ok, they were just going to adapt adapt under I didn't look in the glue gun I don't know how long that stokes yeah seems tio gooding using did you get a campus a kid? I totally went to campus a kid so did I did you and look you in fact something I'm good at being camp counselor me teo yeah, totally like I was a camp counselor till I was twenty five nice my first job out of college was being a camp photographer right on and I had a little dark room and everything I taught kids howto make howto make cameras pinhole cameras out of milk cartons that's amazing wow that is super fun I love camp me teo I love camp my husband's had the other day the summer camp I went to when I was a kid the overnight camp they're having a fiftieth anniversaries like union in the summer but way back in new york state and my husband was like sometimes I feel like you've spent your whole life just trying to get back there I think we should go really cure so why don't I know take your your son that take my son there and you can see where I learned about voting and had my first kiss and although it was uglier than it was it was sweet and bigger you know chased and innocent as it should have been young um I'm totally overthinking this I think the thing is to not overthink it right it's hard it depends it totally depends what I love about this exercise is that people have very different experiences of it depending on sort of uh what really but they find ugly right? And so for a lot of people it's not it's not necessarily the way you talk about process and product focused making right and so for some people having an ugly product in the end is what's ugly but for a lot of people it's the process of it so it's like especially for people like people here today who are really really skilled craftspeople right suddenly ugly can be in the form of a really terrible workmanship right on but you don't want to do what you don't want to do is you look at it you know I can I can do better than this this doesn't seem right to me and then I don't know we like to talk here it creative live a lot about trying to fail so fail with purpose is a quote from one of our instructors I remember yeah so well totally right I mean the whole point is that if you are not that we're failing for making a good ugly doll right? Well this's the whole point of it we're going to talk about right what is failure and what is success and how can that change depending on what our goal is and how are we gonna let's just anybody want to say that you know he's got his head just like twist tied together it's just boozing he's just losing weight ok, I think this is a pretty color you don't want to, you know color it's hard color but what I like about this tuesday that like whenever I make and ugly creature I have to revisit my own taste things what do you mean by like like I agree with you like that color is just pretty can I make it ugly in some way like I just like that I like that color I'm sure people they're just as many people would think that color is really gross but I like it can I combine it with something that would make it ugly or is it just um I gonna like anything with that color in it because I already like it so is your thinking than tio change your perception of what is ugly embrace your perception of what is ugly what do you find that people are doing well there I feel that way by default we run away from things that are ugly we if we're making something on we see it sort of veering toward ugly way like about face and we go in the other direction on dso and we do it instinctively we don't necessarily consciously but because we do it we never actually go their way don't get to experience what we think is really ugly we just run away from it all the time and because we run away from it all the time we get a really great sense of what we think is beautiful which is great and that is in fact what we want to market its products that we want to make is that we want to deliver but where it's almost like we're cutting ourselves off at the knees the cars are on defending and go if we allow ourselves to go all the way to ugly, then we'll know what it is we're running from and we'll be able to perhaps not have to constantly about face and run in the other direction, but just course, correct a little and go around it so my feet one of my favorite terms, of course correct, I didn't even know that I know you didn't know, because again, for those perfectionists out there who might not one to like me don't want to start something if I don't know how I'm going to get there every step of the way from a to z on, so I don't even go from a to b but realizing that life is like you're going one direction, something happens, you see some ugly got of course correct exactly love it, but don't run if you run in the opposite direction, then you never get to where you were going to go to begin with true it's it's uh, hard concept is we see what folks are doing over there. Yeah, e I want to come through and I'm going to take my with me I've got a whole concept going on here, but I don't know might need to be a bit of a magpie as I go through are you guys doing now you've been motoring who very have bread like are those dollar signs and yeah because I tried to have it relate of things that I was let's think about this has something to do with this awesome and are you hearing that voice on like what it's doing and what it's saying to you as your is it different it and when you're making other stuff I guess it's things that I had different points throughout the day or throughout my life but never that I'm focusing on at once and we'll doing this kind of bringing them all up I'm down keep track it's good I'm glad it's bringing it up that support it surprises me every time it looks look at this guy what I love about this exercise is that it's like engineering with pipe cleaners people make do you think he's ugly yeah yeah you name well I don't know what we think it is really hard to make you know is your ugly was speaking to you well my ugly wife isn't really that much about like creating things that's more like what they deal with what I make no like my big thing is like I feel like I'm inconveniencing people and I'm like look what I mean it's hard trying to make something like big and flashy so that people will look anyway yeah so then isn't that wouldn't that be something perfect? I don't know many nice because nearing done look it yet and we're out of glue no, no you're totally not oh god, we have another one hundred blue blue way there's more here I'll turn the car around I think there's a couple more in there to hear you guys do it oh determine cyclops a common theme has to watch there were that's always looking ahead to nose you're really creatures nose was it's I know that there is a wind I guess I actually have had a really hard time trying to make something ugly I'm like a pretty bad perfectionist I understand e I just want to thank you for fighting all these creative people to work with somebody doesn't work creatively with hands good yeah you're the one who's out of your element hey that's great you've got the chilling moment practice of vulnerability, right? Yeah. That's right that's right, but what do you think it's ugly I do, I do and it definitely speaks toe uh uh what's familiar about that voice good and it's you're hearing it as you go. Is it? Yeah. You work on other self shagan is the voice saying things that are different than when you work on other stuff because you know what it actually showed up on is it's like a little kid voice which is a little bit of a different it's like a it's, a little kid vulnerability or a little kid you know fear yeah yeah I'm getting it wrong yeah yeah absolutely and you know like who do you think you are and we're just waiting waiting for the other shoe to drop yeah yeah yeah yeah what what next yeah yeah yeah one of the things I loved and I've been thinking about this recently about like the harry potter books where those times when harry potter was convinced he'd done something egregious and he was going to get kicked out of words or whatever was going to happen and then like why is double door would come to be like actually kid, you done good we're like what? But I found it so relatable because there's a child those times when I would like you'll iwas daring or just got myself into a hole that was so deep and I could only figure out how to dig myself out in a particular way and I was convinced the whole universe would implode and then you were told like may maybe some better choices here but overall good job like good job I thought I was going to be, you know, like banished from the whole universe and you weren't it's like the fear of what might be is far worse than the reality of whatever might be yeah well that's right like that there's your crisis management there right? Like yes, I just like have fun finding myself like really hard to make my both super even for my like this one is longer than the other side leader like it's supposed to be ugly yeah, I'm seeing so many creatures I think you're beautiful look at that. So you intentionally made the back different from the front no actually put the cleaners and, uh you gave it like an exo skeleton. This is what I love about this is like the engineering with I'm having fun are you good and is there a is it a different kind of challenge than usual? Are you finding it the same kind of challenges when he makes a jewelry um it's more fun that forgetting the pressure's off yeah, what about you? Oh yeah that when there is no pressure and doing anything that it's good yeah it's it's really fun good and easy get get good good I'm glad awesome ok bring that to wrap up pretty soon you o ur going good I knew that you know that you would go look at you you used the last turn around the rocks madam ish I see that that's inspired by base it was really difficult because at first I was trying to be perfect with the blue and I realized so I closed my eyes I didio to not be so symmetrical ever it's difficult, it's hard, isn't it have legs and you think, he's, uh, think it's, ugly it's a. He she is he, she it is, it is ugly, and how about you? This is awful good, really awful, but you're doing it, which is great, and we'll talk about it, uh, he's, ok, he could look at that structural integrity. You got him just months. It's. Awesome, it's, awesome. Ok, good, good.