Building a Creative Guild
Podcast Episode 9 - Keith Dow and Tyler Carroll
High Impact Segment 12:05 - 20:37
The entire landscape of social interaction has changed in the last 100 years. Your social circle consisted of your neighbors, who you went to church with, and anyone whom you could write a letter to. Today, you’re only a few clicks from connecting with the 4.6 billion people in the world that have an internet connection. Knowing our finite time available begs the question, who should we spend our time with? This isn’t a question people consider often enough.
The important distinction in that question is the word should as opposed to want. The people we want to be around are the people who make us comfortable; high school / college friends, colleagues - the ones we have shared experiences with. This isn’t bad, but if left unchecked, paves the way to you becoming the same group of friends ending up at the same bar on the same night of the week. Every week. For years.
One of the biggest realizations I’ve had in my life is drawing the parallel between who I hang out with and my personal outcomes. You’re familiar with the phrase ‘you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with’? If you take an honest look at your closest friends, you’ll realize that you’re on whatever trajectory they’re on, good or bad.
People end up on a bad trajectory because they don’t understand or know their goals. If you were challenged with building a skyscraper, who would you go to for help? You wouldn’t want someone who builds cars would you? No, you’d want someone who wants to build a skyscraper or has done it before. When you don’t know your goals, you end up around people who aren’t building what you are or aren’t building anything at all.
Keith and Tyler set a great example for how this works. They identified their common goal of distributing their own writing content and have used that as fuel to hold one another accountable and eventually turned their writing project into a business. That only happens in a constructive, give and take relationship centered around common objectives. One of my favorite lines from them:
“Find creative people and surround yourself with creative people regularly.”
Creativity is the heart and soul of writing so that’s what they need to stay ahead, but this goes beyond just creativity. You need people in your life that are raising the bar for your personal and professional development.
• Are your conversations with friends talking about what went down at the bar last weekend or are they around how to be a better spouse?
• Are you talking about the latest relationship drama or starting a business so you can escape the job you hate?
I want to foster the type of community that is committed to growth. Growth requires being around other people ready to be uncomfortable and learn to better serve the logos. If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
Stay up.