The Ant and the Grasshopper – A Different Perspective

Remember the old fable about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant worked hard all summer, storing food for the winter, while the grasshopper frittered away his time playing. When winter came, the grasshopper went hungry. The moral: hard work over idle play.

We’re artists. Often, our best work comes from what appears to others as not working. Idle hands doesn’t mean an idle mind. Cogitation time is as necessary to creativity as water and sunlight are to crops. My best revelations typically drop into my brain unexpectedly, while walking, driving, or just sitting staring into space.

Creativity is elusive. To do the work, we must know when to push ourselves, and when to rest, release, and reconnect. The unseen and imperceivable processing is what makes those a-ha moments possible.

So while we might appear to others as the grasshopper, our inner ant is busy storing up inspiration for the future. It’s all part of the creative process.

Lots Going On…

Big thanks to Bruce Wawrzyniak of Now Hear This Entertainment for inviting me to speak at the Florida Podcasters Association meeting in Tampa. It’s an amazing and diverse group of people who are truly dedicated to investing themselves fully into their programming and their communities.

We had great conversations around promoting your content, understanding the relationship between you and your audience, and gaining a better perspective on relationships with sponsors. I learn so much from speaking with other motivated creators.

Did a short hop from there to Orlando for the Infocomm show. Saw some interesting new tech, caught up with old friends, and had some really productive meetings while managing to mostly stay out of the sticky heat.

Spent plenty of quality time with my dear friend Barney Jameson and the team from The Inside Story. (And there’s definitely an inside story behind that, which we’ll be talking about very soon…)

Back home and planning a number of livestream events for AES and Artist Brain Collective, in L.A., Las Vegas, and beyond. It’s gonna be a busy summer.