Lessons
Class Introduction
06:09 2What is your idea?
05:02 3Why Is This Idea A Good One?
09:23 4Where Did This Idea Come From?
13:04 5Who Will Benefit From Your Idea?
08:23 6Who Would Support Your Idea?
12:13 7Profile Your Audience
11:44 8Create A Killer Elevator Pitch
07:05Lesson Info
What is your idea?
So what's your idea? I, again, I don't know necessarily who all I'm talking to. And I don't know what ideas you have, and you may have seven, (laughs) you know, that you don't know which is the best one. So I'm going to just assume a lot of things. So I'm going to assume that you come from a creative background, this isn't your first big idea. I'm gonna assume that you're fairly serious about it, otherwise you wouldn't have tuned in to something like this, because you already have an idea that, hey man, this thing has legs, like I think I can do this. I'm going to also assume that you're early in the idea, because the way I've sort of structured these lessons is the idea of going from broad to specific. Like the journey of having an idea, the journey of like, I don't know, how should I express this, should it be a book, should it be an alley full of street art, like what should I do with this nugget of an idea that I have? So I'm gonna make that assumption as well, if you're further al...
ong, then you're just gonna have to be patient or skip ahead (laughs). So assuming that we're in the beginning stages, right, this is the time for what ifs. And, you know, your idea is new, you have an idea, let's say, for a story about you want kids to eat more nutritious foods, right. But you don't know yet if that's going to be a whole series of animated stories, you don't know if that's gonna be a book, maybe you've already talked to a friend who's a children's book illustrator and you're like, yeah my friend Jeff's gonna draw all the pictures, we've got it all figured out. Try not to jump too far into specifics yet, for the purposes of this. Let's try and, even if you've already gone that far, for the purposes of this lesson, let's put ourselves in that place where you are, you know, you've got that new idea and it's like super-intoxicating and now you're riding high on that enthusiasm. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about what are the expressions of your idea? The reason I use that term is, there's a big difference between the idea itself and the expression of that idea. So when you hear me talk about the expression of that idea, that means its final form. Is this gonna be a film script, you know, or a screenplay, is this going to be a public art project, that's the expression of the idea. So I think one of the biggest things, you're gonna have to sit down with yourself and ask, why are you doing this? They always talk about the, you know, business people are like, identify the four Ws. And journalists too, what is the why, the what, the where, and the when. Why is the big one, why is the question you should always ask, all the time, whenever you're doing any of this stuff. I mean, it might seem really obvious to you, when you have like a big idea in the shower and you're like, oh my god, this is so awesome! Like everyone's gonna love it, and then you tell your significant other and they're like, (laughs) why would you want to do that? Don't be offended by that idea, you know, don't be offended by that question, it is such an important question. You need to be asking yourself, what, why, why for you, do you want to do this. I mean, there might be a really great question, a great, sorry, idea that you have, that you know has applications in the real world, it would solve hunger, you know, designs for good, those kinds of ideas. I mean, you know that it's got like a really obvious application that would save lives. But you also kinda have to start with yourself. Why are you doing it? It's gonna help you, you know, it's gonna help you center yourself as you go through this plan. So as we go through the class, again, I just want to sort of prepare you early on for structure and tone and my approach to teaching, I'm gonna be prompting you to jot down notes. Now I'm not gonna tell you how to do it, I don't have sort of a preconceived format in mind. But what I'm trying to get you to, again, my assumption, dear reader, is that you guys are creatives, and that you're not really into business plans. Otherwise, instead of watching this video on CreativeLive, you would probably have gone to the bookstore and bought like a super-heavy tome on business planning, which maybe you're gonna do anyway. Awesome, and this is augmenting that. But I want you to just have this loose, unstructured, I'm gonna say business plan with air quotes, a plan that you've sketched out on paper somehow. That's what I wanna walk you through. So in this class, we're gonna start, and I'll give you these prompts. I'll say, I want you to jot down notes about why you're doing this, for example. So if you're watching this later, you can pause the video and actually do it in real time. Otherwise, I'd just like you to maybe write down reminders, if you're watching this live or if you're here with us today, I would like you to just write down reminders like, oh, you know, I should write down why I'm doing this. So get ready for me to be giving you those little assignments. You can choose if you're gonna do them or not.
Ratings and Reviews
Zu
I really liked Stacey's way of speaking, her voice and energy! Thank you and congratulations making your projects real and good luck with your future ones!
Emmanuelle Halliday
Real useful tips and all around class, be it reminders or new to you. Example: Focus on authenticity, ways of thanking your patrons and different levels of sponsorship (basic but I had totally overlooked it!). I guess I related even more to Stacey as I stem from the perspective of a French graphic artist who doesn't even dare to dream of convincing the underpriviledged town council where I teach that street art murals are the way to rise above those conditions. Thanks Stacey. B.A.D. and Proud, Paris Area, France.