Mode Demo Module 1

chsm

Introductory Rant

defy Direction

If you choose to make anything new in the world, there is one direction that will become more familiar than any other. You won't need to look for it, the path will always make itself clear.

This direction is down.

When you dare to make new things, you must know from the very beginning what you're getting into. It can start early with the people who are sometimes the closest to you. The parents who will look down at your decision. When you're just beginning others will tear your work down. Your ideas, no matter how good, will constantly be shot down. When you decided to start a new project you'll immediately get knocked down. Your applications will get turned down, you'll be held down by bosses and most partnerships will let you down. Galleries will ask you to take your work down, your prices will be negotiated down and if you're ever too passionate, you'll be asked to calm down. You'll always, be racing against some sort of countdown, you'll constantly feel tired and rundown, you'll be on the verge of a breakdown until eventually you come to a complete meltdown.

With all the different choices and decisions you will be given as a creative, unfortunately this one choice will too often be made for you. It will be unavoidable. It's an imposing force that will always bring you down.

And you must understand this is the high stakes of making anything great.

It's also the price few are willing to pay.

Because when you make something that's never existed, you challenge the world. You're competing against entropy. You're fighting physics. And in order to make a difference you have to be different. The world knows it, and it doesn't like change. The world senses when you're different and it will push back. Everything around you will want you to go in it's direction, and it's up to you to go a different way. To find your own path and your own direction.

You must go against everything around you that's tying to take you down.

Your work is to continue anyway. To keep making. To trust with commitment, and in time you can create momentum.

Because this is your work.

And you must never put it down.

Version / building In Public

Changelog:
Adding Resources For Each Section
Replacing Placeholder Images
Correcting Spelling Grammar
Debuging For Mobile
Editing Layouts

Module / 1.1

Your Talent

Where did it come from?

This gift that you have to take nothing and turn it into something?

Maybe you can follow it back through your family. An uncle who painted. A grandmother who could draw almost anything. A mom or dad, someone in your family who had the desire to make things. Just like you have. Or maybe it came out of nowhere, and it was given to you for a reason you'll never know. Whatever it is, you have it.

Do you remember the first time someone saw it?

When someone stopped and looked at what you were making and also saw that you had it. Maybe the asked if they could just watch you work. Watch you sing, watch you play. Was there ever a time people around you just listened. Do you remember a time someone even point blank aske how you did it, because for them it was impossible.

Then, what about the time that you noticed it.

Do you remember when you realized you could do something others couldn't. At the time you might not have been sure how you even did it, you just know that you could run and, not everyone could.

But of all those times, there is a time that's might be more special than all of them. It was the time you really started to fall in love with your work.

Do you remember the first time that you forgot?

When you forgot about everything else around you and you sole focus was on what you were working on. When time would fly and the stress of life would fade away. When you were so wrapped up in finishing you piece you missed dinner, forgot to text someone back, and forgot about every worry in the world. It was when you discovered how making things can be medicine. It's actually recharging, even healing. It's like a friend, that just set's with you as you spend time together. Sometimes it's been your only friend and over time it has become your best friend.

Because it has always been there for you.

There is something like this for anyone who chooses to makes things. We were made in the image of our Creator, and when we do the same, it fills us in a way almost nothing else can. It is the unexplainable process of taking nothing and turning it into something. To move the dusty into some form of beauty, it goes against the universal law of disorder. It reverses decay, it reverses degradation, and it reverses everything from going down.

Class / Mode Demo

Coach / A.T.

Modules / 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

tmng

Module / 1.2

Your Time

What's even crazier is the timing of it all.

It was not too long ago people had very few options. No matter how talented they were, they had to make a living and do anything it took to get by. Food and shelter were the only priority and everything that wasn't had to come second. Or it never came at all. The importance of the basics like food was more important than anything, so you had to farm, work in a factory, or do whatever it took to put food on the table. Stuff our dads would always say.

This was a time when the focus was on agricultural things. And it was this way even thousands of years before it. We've just recently moved on from the industrial era and now we're in something it seems we're still trying to figure out. It will take a little time before we'll know what to call it. Whatever we decide, it's safe to say we're living in an unprecedented time.

Especially for you as a creative.

Because you are living in a time that highly values creativity and aesthetics. Things that really weren't given the same chance as they have today. Just a few hundred years ago, they didn't need Lamborghini to build sports cars, they just needed it to make better tractors. Of course there have been periods and explosions of beautiful things throughout time but there is clearly a premium on anyone who can do it today. Society has moved past basic and is ready to go further.

It's happening everywhere and across every industry. Things made with intention, care, beauty, and authenticity and especially meaning, they rise above everything else. We will see this only increase at the same rate or greater with the rise of everything artificial. People want real, and they want you to make something that really moves them. I think we can only expect it will continue.

Even brands are proliferating at a rate we've never seen. There are insane brands popping up every day. And anything designed well is being searched for and sought after like never before. It's even become a serious competitive advantage. Companies that never had creative departments before are now adding them at the top and equipping them with authority because they're seeing real returns on their investment. It's hitting the bottom line hard. Especially if you don't have it.

Creativity is no longer optional, it has become essential.

Even look at what's happened across the music industry over the last few decades. In the 90s, if you wanted to make music you had to have access to a studio with hundreds of dollars for a few hours of recording time. Or you needed a label with some serious backing. The barriers to entry were too much for most artists. But now? Producers are recording albums out of their bedrooms and publishing them the same night. All they need is some software and a mic. They're writing and recording songs for little to nothing and seeing them hit the top of playlists.

What about what's happening in fashion today. Designers are also building brands with almost no capital and only a Pinterest board. They pick up some basic skills to sew and learn just enough of Clo3D to prototype and they're off to piecing together their first capsule. This is pushing the industry into new categories and audiences because what was once unobtainable or too expensive allows for luxury brands to reach totally new customers. They can pre-release, build hype, and begin to offset their risk by selling before it hits the rack.

It's a boom of possibilities.

I'm not sure anyone really saw it coming but generations of tools are at your fingertips that have never been before.

The timing is so rare.

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Module / 1.3

Your Travels

Yes you have taken some incredible photos, but maybe it's been more about where your photography has taken you.

Maybe you've traveled all over the world. Italy, Cuba, London, France, New York, Ethiopia. Places you never thought you'd see, because you wanted to catch that one scene or picture. But that process has also allowed for you to go on new journeys.

That's also such a beautiful thing to point out because more than specific locations on a map, it's given you a specific place in the world. It's highly unusual for things to do both. It's opened new doors, created new opportunities and brought new people and friendships into your life. It's given you both an identity in the world and allowed you to be seen and recognized by it too.

It's just insane how it's able to give us so much.

It's important to think about.

For people with your ability it's more than something you do, it's really more that it's something in you.

It's how others see you. Your devotion, your commitment and your calling even. What you give up so much of yourself to build what you love. Yes it requires something, sometimes a lot of things, sometimes more than you were prepared for, but you also know it has given you so much more in return but it's important to know that it can actually giving you so much more.

If you've made it this far as a creative, and this far in this first chapter, then you must understand that your work is not finished yet. This is not as far as you can go, it has the ability to take you even farther. There is another level you work can reach and it can open up new opportunities and new purpose.

My hope is that this class can help get you there.

I believe in you, and I believe it will.

If you're ready, let's begin to unpack, Mode Demo.

SECTION 1 POSSIBILITY

In this section we'll begin to unpack the patterns. Starting by looking back so we can begin to see forward. Remember thinking: How strange that the world leaves its fingerprints on us in identical ways.

That was the first time I really saw the pattern.

It started with a little scuff.

A small, rough scratch across the toe of my left boot, so small it almost disappeared when the light shifted or running my thumb over it. The boots were new so I wasn't excited about it.

Then, a few days later, I noticed another pair of boots I wore had the same scuff, on same spot, on the same left foot. I checked my closet and they all had it. Different pair, same mark. Then, I saw it everywhere. So many other people had a scuff on their left boot.

Let’s uncover it.

Where were you?
Take out a piece of paper. Or open a blank document. Whatever works for you.

Now write down every single time you've been pushed down. Every rejection, every no, every person who told you it wouldn't work. The galleries that passed, the clients who disappeared, the family members who didn't understand. Write down the breakdowns, the meltdowns, the moments you almost gave up.

Get it all out there.

Because what you're actually looking at is not the failures you're looking back at ever time you refused to stay down. Every single one of these moments is proof that you kept going. That you built momentum even when the world was pulling you in the opposite direction.

Look at how much you've already defied.

Then ask yourself, what's one thing you want more?
Range Compression
This one's simple but it might be the most important thing you do today.

Close your eyes. Go back to that moment. The first time you completely lost yourself in your work. When hours disappeared and nothing else mattered. When you forgot to eat, forgot to check your phone, forgot about every worry that was weighing you down.

Remember how that felt.

Now write about it. Not what you were making, but how it made you feel. What did it do for you. How did it change you. Because that feeling, that's where your passion comes from. That's what you're using every single time you create something new.

You can feel that again. You can feel it tomorrow if you want to.

If only you make the time for it.
Take a moment.
Make a list of everywhere your work has taken you.

Not just the physical places. Yes, write down the cities, the countries, the studios and stages. But also write down the other places. The opportunities that opened up. The people who came into your life because of what you made. The version of yourself you became because you kept creating.

Write down how others see you now because of your work. The identity it's given you. The recognition. The friendships. The moments that never would have happened if you hadn't been brave enough to make something.

Look at everything it's already done for you.

Now imagine what it could do next. Because your work isn't finished giving back to you yet. There's another level waiting. And the only way to get there is to keep going.

Let's keep going.