The Creator

// The plan for the week.

I took two days off this week to focus on self development and also take part in a You Are the Media lunch club with other marketers and business owners.

The first day (Thursday) was all about the lunch club and then we spent Friday in the Foundry with Trevor Young.

I was in the room with 8 others (and Gordon Fong joined by Zoom) and pretty much all of them knew what they wanted to achieve and what they wanted to get out of the session.

I have always struggled with the thing most people call the ‘Elevator Pitch’ - that phrase that people use when they introduce themselves on a panel or on a podcast - the thing that describes who they are, what they do and who they do it for.

That’s what I wanted to get out of the day - something I could use when I have to introduce myself.

// A little history.

Firstly, It was 1987.

I was 7 or 8 years old and I was living in a small town called Lee-On-The-Solent which is somewhere between Portsmouth and Southampton. This little town has no railway station, no McDonalds and the only discernible feature is the now civilian used airfield which was once the busiest air strip during the D-Day Overlord operation.

I was a shy, timid and unassuming ginger haired lad who had serious issues expressing himself - believe it or not, I didn’t find any confidence until my first week of joining basic training in the Army and I had to own that space.

Anyway, every Thursday after school I was walked up two streets, past the Happy Shopper on the corner and past the entrance to my school to go to Cubs.

‘Cubs’ is the early year’s version of Scouts and we would earn ‘badges’ by learning our left and right, tying ropes in a certain way and identifying different plants.

Except this Thursday evening was something that the whole Cub group had been building up to for around a month - it was a pirate themed night.

Every cub had to come in fancy dress and I had been pleading with my mum to make a decent outfit - I had the image in my mind.

It was somewhere between Jack Sparrow (obviously in 1987, the Pirates of the Caribbean wasn’t out yet) and Dustin Hoffman’s Hook (again, this didn’t come out till 1991 but I’m using both images as a vision for what I could ‘see’ - give me a break?)

I could see it - I could actually see what I wanted to have created for me.

Except my Mum wasn’t the most creative parent and given that she was a single parent of two boys, she probably had a lot going on.

The actual outfit consisted of a white sheet (yep.) with the words ‘Look Out, the Pirates are coming’ written on the front and an eye patch.

I looked like a poor man’s ghost with an eye patch.

I remember distinctly lining up with the other Cubs - we had those wooden school benches and we formed two lines - the boys at the back stood on the benches and the boys at the front stood well, at the front.

I was on the back row and looking down at all the other boys dressed up with their fancy hats, their eye patches and their painted on scars I felt deflated.

No, I felt sad. I didn’t get what I wanted and I didn’t get to realise the vision that I had seen in my minds eye and at that moment I cried.

It was at that moment where I think The Creator was born.

// The Creator.

Fast forward to 2023 and Friday 1st December and I’m sat in this room with all these other people and the first exercise rolls around - we have to identify those people who matter most to our project/work and I draw a blank.

I rest back into my chair, I put my hands behind my head and I look at the ceiling.

Who am I writing for? That’s got to be the easiest question to answer given that I’ve been writing for 20 weeks?

There have been moments in the last 20 weeks when I have tried to assess who I am writing for and it always comes back to the fact that I am writing for myself - I write about things that interest me so that’s got to be right, right?

But now someone is asking me a question I haven’t thought of - who is my writing going to matter to?

Who am I creating my videos for? What about my carousels on Instagram?

And I draw a blank.

Trevor Young comes up to me and asks me who matters most when it comes to my work and I say honestly, I don’t know.

Then the room opens up to try and help me understand what’s going on.

Everyone else has their business - we’ve got someone who runs a wire and cable business, someone who is in charge of the marketing for a legal firm, someone who runs a boating company and then we’ve got a branding consultant and someone who runs the marketing for a telecoms company.

Everyone in the room has a business.

I don’t have a business - I am a creator.

I create.

// The difference.

This was the difference between me and everyone in the room.

I sat in a different world.

Mark Masters said it clearly to me (and I thank him dearly) - “The difference between you and everyone else in this room is your creativity”

And looking back, I can see that’s true.

Suddenly I could see my intentions and my aspirations align like Tetris blocks filing onto the bottom row of a game - my lines were completing in double speed.

My ‘business’ is to create content, not to run a business which needs to create content to grow.

From that moment I wanted to create the best pirate outfit from my vision, it’s always been the same.

Can you see the difference between that?

I currently work in a business (SAFI Valves) which needs to produce some form of content to grow - whether that be a podcast series, a LinkedIn Post or some form of case study (nod to Liam Toms) - everyone else in the room was there to grow a business by stepping up their content game and that’s where people could use their personal brands to elevate the efforts of their company.

That’s what I do with SAFI Valves - people within the industry know me because of who I am and the content I create - it’s how I have elevated my career over the last 10-15 years.

Outside of the valve industry, I don’t have a business and I just create content. From the small boy who wanted to be the best pirate in his cubs session all the way through to the (now) 43 year old man, I have always wanted to and probably always will see things differently.

I want to capture imaginations and be the best at capturing that imagination - because I wanted that little boy to have the best pirate outfit and I wanted to stand on that wooden bench and smile like everyone else.

// So What Now?

‘Adventurous Content’ is what I came up with in that room - adventurous content for business owners and brands.

It’s what I like doing - taking what could be perceived as mundane and making it exciting/interesting.

I get excited when it comes to creating interest around something which makes people take another look but that’s not all, it’s the creation of content in any format which makes me happy.

But…

As I’ve said since the inception of this newsletter, I want to create something around this newsletter, around my content - I wanted to find a purpose for it and slowly but surely I am beginning to work this out.

Creating content is important to me - I will always do it but I would love to do it in collaboration with others, for a bigger cause.

My content will now be within the safety rails of a very specific bowling lane. It will be geared towards those that I want to create for in the future - it opens up the possibility to create content which entertains, inspires, instructs or all three but it should attract those who also want to work with me.

The Clique won’t dramatically change because it will mean that my content will slowly become more aligned to my values and my values will become refined over time as I understand this revelation more.

What am I trying to say?

It’s difficult to put this into words but I want to continue to produce my work but with a focus on aligning everything to working with brands that inspire me like I currently do - You Are The Media and Exway Skateboards are two brands which I feel extremely affiliated with and I want to work with more.

// What does this mean for you?

Have you ever thought about your content creation efforts? What are you creating for?

Which side of the fence do you sit? Are you creating the content on your socials to grow your existing business or are you growing a business out of your content?

This was the catalyst question for me - it opened up my eyes to see which side of the fence I sit on and why I have been so confused about the direction of my content.

If it’s to create content for your business to grow, if it’s to create content to grow your personal brand or if it’s to elevate your company through some kind of thought leadership then I could help.

If it’s to create content then I want to collaborate - I want to join forces and create something together.

Over to you.

Oh, and I never did get to work on my elevator pitch - still trying to work that out.

(Thankyou to Trevor Young and Mark Masters (and the other participants in that branding session) - you’ve really helped me understand my direction.)