Read time: 5 minutes

Welcome to The Ascend Archives Tuesday Tale, a weekly newsletter where I share a story about a transformation, revelation, or change in thinking that has helped improve an aspect of my life.

Am I creative?

I never viewed myself as a creative person.

I thought creativity was only for people in the arts: painters, designers, musicians, and singers. I’ve always been a math and numbers guy, the opposite of creative. But then I read the Pathless Path by Paul Millerd.

Paul believes that we are all creative. He wrote that navigating corporate politics, deciding on an emoji, hosting a party or planning a trip are all forms of creativity.

So I looked up the definition: relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas.

Well this newsletter is me sharing original ideas, so I guess I am creative. Then it hit me, I’m not just creative, but I am a creator. I’ve been hearing about this term The Creator Economy:

The modern economic landscape where creators leverage digital platforms and technology to produce and distribute content that promotes products and services directly to their audience.

While I’m not promoting any products or services right now, I am doing the rest of that definition. Maybe one day I will leverage this platform to make money.

Nathan Barry (who I wrote about last week), works with thousands of creators through his company ConvertKit. He has a 3-step framework for creators to be successful:

1. Teach everything you know

2. Work in public

3. Create every day

While I don’t believe I’m teaching, I have been sharing my experiences. So I figured why not try out this work in public thing. Working in public means sharing what I’m working on even if it’s still in the early stages and even if it fails. Just documenting the journey can be powerful.

I’m going to walk through the first steps I took to pursue one of my recent business ideas.

Coming up with the idea

On April 2, I came across this guy Daniel Priestley on Ali Abdaal’s podcast. 6+ hours of podcasts later, I learned his entire backstory. He built several multi-million dollar businesses and wrote books about the key frameworks that led to his success.

Daniel believes it’s important to be passionate about the business you pursue. If you are struggling to figure out your passion, he recommended thinking back to the types of things you’ve always done being a kid.

I did this exercise and a common theme surfaced: I’m always planning events and bringing people together.

It started at 12 years old when I planned a basketball tournament to raise money for charity as part of my Bar Mitzvah project. It continued in high school planning events for the Student Government. Then in college, I would always plan spring break or weekend trips. At my first job, I organized fundraising events. Now I’m the guy organizing annual golf and adventure trips.

Ok great, but how do I turn this into a business?

Daniel goes on to talk about how entrepreneurs are like scientists at the beginning. Everything is an experiment. This got me thinking about cool trips I could plan. Then I remembered Shaan Puri from the My First Million podcast talk about a weekend trip he planned for 20 entrepreneurs where they all stayed together in an Airbnb in Raleigh, played basketball and hung out. Maybe I could experiment with creating a business that plans those types of events.

Starting to experiment

Daniel believes the best way to experiment is to send a survey (he calls it a scorecard) to potential customers and gather feedback on the idea.

I paid $39 for Daniel’s software ScoreApp which helps create a landing page, organize the questions, and analyze the data (My survey looked cool, but I realize now I could’ve used a free Google Form).

I started thinking through the type of event, the purpose, and the target audience. After 4 drafts with feedback from a few friends, I sent the landing page below to ~25 people in my network and asked them to help me test the idea.

The questions were designed to determine:

1. What do they value in a weekend retreat (quality of other people, a memorable experience, level of food/accommodations)

2. What activities they are interested in (basketball, surfing, yoga, hiking, etc.)

3. What type of people they would want to meet and what they would want to walk away with

18 people filled out the survey and I got mixed results:

• 25% of people wanted to sign up right away

• 25% of people were too busy with life to participate

• The rest thought it was an interesting idea but would want to learn more

• People mostly valued the quality of people in attendance

• There were some concerns

  • Would it be worth their time/money?

  • Would people would actually come without knowing anyone?

I learned that people want to build relationships and create lasting memories. But the key is getting the right people there who share common values and can bring a unique perspective to the group. This type of event is not for everyone.

My next experiment

There was enough positive feedback to take it to the next step. The key is continuing to run small, inexpensive experiments. I don’t want to sink tons of time and money into launching a business without confirming the demand for it.

Here are my next steps:

1. Determine the pillars/values of this community (This will help me make sure I get the right people). My initial thoughts on values are:

   1. Vulnerability to open up

   2. Care about health/wellness/physical activity

   3. Curiosity to explore different perspectives

   4. Willingness to share lessons and knowledge

2. Put together an agenda, research logistics, and get a cost estimate for the weekend

3. Send invitations to select people based on the refined details

This first event would be an experiment in itself. I would plan everything and offer it at cost to everyone who attends. My goal would be to prove the concept and throw an incredible event that people leave with 10x the value they paid for it. Even if it flops business wise, I will at least have met cool people and had a fun weekend.

Here are a few thoughts on the bigger vision for this idea but there’s no reason to start building this out until I confirm the demand. Then I will build the supply.

The 1-3 Year Vision

• Create an online community centered around SPACE that helps people get space in their daily lives, connect with other like-minded people, and ask the deeper questions of themselves

• In-person retreats would allow people to get physical space away from the day-to-day

• The community would include resources, lessons, and challenges that teach people how to incorporate the pillars of SPACE into their lives

• I’d host Q&A sessions and bring in experts to share best practices

Final Thoughts

Please reach out if this idea of creating SPACE resonates with you!

Over the past 2 years, I have created space through big trips to Patagonia, New Zealand, and Australia, but also by just going on more walks outside in the middle of the day. I have found it has been a game changer in allowing me to think more clearly and reflect on my business, my relationships, my health, and more. It’s been beneficial to have a mix of alone time and collaboration with other like-minded people.

I’m excited about continuing to explore this idea and help others take advantage of it as well.

Thank you for reading! As always please reply and let me know what resonated, what didn’t, or what you question. I love chatting about this stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew