Not that long ago, I shared a quote related to the idea that creative people need to learn to say NO:
Saying “no” has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No one guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know.
– Kevin Ashton
While the context around this quote was about guarding time by not agreeing to do things that will cause us to lose our creative development time, there’s another side of the JUST SAY NO story.
Specifically, using our creative development time super effectively and efficiently.
Which simply means that when it comes to our creative process, where we choose to spend our time WITHIN THAT OVERALL CREATIVE TIME matters.
Of course, this idea of where to spend creative development time has many facets – from using our time cautiously by not doing things that don’t have to be done, by ending perfectionism, by effectively navigating our saboteurs, all the way to outsourcing certain parts of the creative process – and outsourcing is where I want to focus today.
Although you can definitely outsource all phases of creative development, execution is where many people choose to get outside support (as opposed to idea generation or initial creative execution). They want to come up with the idea and develop it and execute it, but when it comes time to produce it (the technical part of execution), they find that it takes too much of their own time, or that they just don’t have the skills they need.
So, in support of spending your creative development time wisely – doing what you love, helping you get your ideas produced faster – here are three resources that can help you produce your ideas:
Fiverr The world’s largest marketplace for services starting at $5. At Fiverr, you can find someone to do anything from business services to get a pet caterpillar to eat your name in a leaf. FOR FIVE BUCKS per a specified quantity, finite activity or time period.
oDesk Services include everything from general business to software development. Each freelancer charges a different rate with some charging as low as $9 per hour.
Podcast Insights This very helpful article lists the bests podcast editing and production services for every budget.
The great news is that no matter what part of the creative process you do outsource, the creation is still yours. You either gave the input that led to the idea and guided its development (and it doesn’t matter if other people participated or even if you call it a team effort, it’s still yours, too), or you did everything yourself, except manufacture it with your own hands.
I love all three of these resources and, for what it’s worth, I found out about each one through a recommendation from serious and serial entrepreneurs who’ve been featured on business-, creativity- and branding-related podcasts. The shows I love right now are:
Escape from Cubicle Nation, Eventual Millionaire, Entrepreneur on Fire and Think Entrepreneurship – you can search for all of them on iTunes.
To getting our ideas PRODUCED.