Day 10 of taking myself to Creative Camp.

We’re on the road and Camp HQ is officially in the Here & Now.

I’m a creative director trying to take my creative practice with me so I built a camp instead of a content strategy. You’re invited to join me!

This week I’m on a business trip in Vancouver and Portland to support my client and dear friend Lisa Robbin Young’s keynote speaker reel and brand reinvention, so I’m geared up with a creative knapsack full of goodies and googly eyes, a travel spinner, and the two prompts I pulled before I left.

Today’s random prompt is:

Wait! This looks familiar…

It was right about “I’m already on the plane” o’clock when I realized my 8-year-old co-counselor had snuck the “PERFORM” prompt from Day 6 BACK into the jar. Yup. That’s my kid.

Is she a secret genius because, uh, it’s prettyyyy perfect that I’d pull the PERFORM prompt while I’m here supporting a PERFORMANCE.

But this isn’t my only Creative Camp chaos for the day. Right as I’m rarin’ up to give my travel spinner its inaugural run, I realize I’ve left it in the prop cart, which is now tucked in all cozy in Lisa’s car for the night.

This is the part of camp where despite all my best efforts to create a spinner I can take anywhere, I STILL have to surrender to spinning remotely. Is that the “Ironic” Alanis Morrisette was singing about? (I feel like she was misused the word…)

A true blue, Lisa comes through and spins for me remotely.Perform.
Water.
Share.

OK NOW WE’RE TALKING!!!

If Rule #1 is “Use what you have” look at what we have heeeere.

Floor to ceiling panoramic views of the Columbia River and, even better, a door that opens straight into the Vancouver waterfront.

You want water? I got water!

But wait, what does Creative Camp want me to do exactly? Perform? On the water? For who?!?

Wish I could turn this water into wine after a long day of work, ya know what I mean? Ba dum bum chhhh 😅

Wait!

The point of Creative Camp is to have fun in the here and now, to create for play not just for pay, and the easier, the better.

So it’s time to let loose and find the YES AND! inside a prompt that kinda makes me want to say NO, THANK YOU I’M TIRED…

I focus on “using what I have,” which is a full day of creative inspiration from our first day filming. I don’t have to look far to find examples of the word PERFORM right in front of me.

And! Lisa gifted me a set of Creative Affirmation cards when I first landed in Portland, so I decide to take the card with me to the waterfront to find out what the process wants to show me.

I pull SUPPORT. There’s my YES AND!

Because it was Lisa herself who kept reminding our crew all day that behind every incredible performance is a network of invisible support: a dream team of folks making the vision come to life.

Behind the scenes of our shoot, Lisa was energizing and empowering each person we encountered throughout the day.

She supported us and it helped us support her.

Damn. That’s a different way to arrive at performance.

Funny, I started Creative Camp because I was so busy supporting others in bringing their ideas to life, I wanted to give my own ideas space, too.

But it’s not either/or: supporting others VS. supporting my own work.

What looks like solo performance is almost always a collective creative act.

And supporting someone else’s creativity can feed our own.

Yes, I know I’m verging on CHEESYYYY keynote speaker territory. It’s gettin’ gooey in here!

When we SHARE the work, creativity FLOWS, and the business PERFORMS.

Lisa would NOT have that. Send that bullshit downriver.

The truth is simpler:

Support is part of the creative work.

We’re not meant to bring every idea to life alone. And helping someone else bring their vision to life doesn’t take us away from our own creativity. Sometimes it feeds it.

So I take the SUPPORT card down to the waterfront and perform it like an invocation – for Lisa, for the team, for myself, and for anyone trying to bring something into the world.

The prompt said PERFORM. But the lesson was SUPPORT. 🥹

Welcome to camp.