The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Creative Discipline Project: How To Create The Discipline Necessary To Accomplish Your Creative Goals by Christen Rochon

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

The Creative Discipline Project: How To Create The Discipline Necessary To Accomplish Your Creative Goals by Christen Rochon Candidlychristen.com Most self-help books are created to help facilitate a solution to a problem. The Creative Discipline Project was created to help entrepreneurs and creatives of all kinds get beyond the roadblocks that prohibit accomplishing goals. Filled with interactive pages and planning guides, this book will walk readers through the following chapters that will shift your mindset and redefine productivity in your life. About the Author Christen Rochon, M.A. is a serial entrepreneur and author who engages audiences around the world with her genuine approach to leveraging the power of a well-balanced digital lifestyle. She has been recognized by Black Enterprise Magazine, honored by Verizon as Digital Trailblazer, represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics as a Samsung Global Blogger, and has been honored by WBLS/Hot 97 'Circle of Sisters' and The Michigan Chronicle's 40 Under 40 award. Throughout her 20+ year career in TV and radio, she's contributed to Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, and TV One. Now, as a TV Executive and Creative Accountability Coach, she inspires entrepreneurs and career creatives to maximize their productivity and disciplines to achieve their goals. Her inaugural book, 'The Creative Discipline Project' is a testament to her years of research, discovery and will embolden audiences to carve out best practices and disciplines for success. A proud graduate of Michigan State University, where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Advertising/Public Relations and Master's Degree in Strategic Communications – Digital Media Strategies, Christen's passions also include mentoring young creatives of color and prides herself as a keynote speaker, inspiring others through conferences and workshops across the country.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we're coming to you with another great podcast. Another one? Oh, my God. We're heading to 700 podcasts. And we're doing another one? Does it ever end? I don't know. I'm just a slave here.

They force me to do this every day, and I just come to work, and they go, you got to do a couple. There's actually two podcasts today. So anyway, guys, we certainly appreciate you tuning in to another podcast from the Chris Voss Show. So thank you for being here. We certainly appreciate you. Big hug. Go to see the video version of this. They have this new technology out called video, and you can go on the youtube.com forward slash Chris Voss, and you can subscribe to it and see

all the wonderful videos. We're going to be talking about an incredible book author today, and you're going to want to hear what she has to say, because she's going to enlighten you, brighten you, and sounds like something I should put on your shirt enlighten you brighten you and uh make you smarter what was that i said and excite you and excite you so there's a teaser she's the voice that's coming up uh and so check that out go also go to goodreads.com forward slash uh chris voss you can also go to facebook.com forward slash the chris voss show and there's a bunch of groups there linkedin as well there's a bunch of groups there as well you can check that out and this episode is brought to you by ifi audio and their new neo id s d the

neo is the new wave of digital sound listening for your desktop, music, gaming, and bleeding-edge Bluetooth, even MQA audio file decoding. We're using it in the studio right now. I've loved my experience with it so far. It just makes everything sound so much more richer and better and takes things to the next level. IFI Audio is an award-winning audio tech company with one aim in mind. To improve your music enjoyment of quality sound, eradicate noise, distortion, and hiss from your listening experience. Check out their new incredible lineup of DACs and audio enhancement devices at ifi-audio.com. So today we have a most brilliant

person on the show. I should say I'm biased because I'm friends with her on the big Facebook. And let me tell you a little bit about her and what she is doing. She is the author of the forthcoming new book that will be out on January 17th, 2021, The Creative Discipline Project, How to Create the Discipl to accomplish your creative goals. Her name is Kristen Rochon, and Kristen is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and author. She is a person who engages entrepreneurs and career creatives to maximize their productivity and develop the disciplines to achieve their goals. Highlighted by Verizon is a digital trailblazer,

she's represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics as a Samsung global blogger. She's honored by the WBLS forward slash hot 97 circle of sisters and the Michigan Chronicles 40 under 40 award. Throughout her 20 plus marketing career in TV and radio, she's contributed to Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, and TV One. Welcome to the show. How are you, Kristen? Hey, Chris. I am well. How are you today? I am doing great now that you're here, and we're laughing and we're having fun. No better way to do it, right?

There you go. So Kristen, give us your plugs for this wonderful new book you bought. And of course, where people can find you on the interwebs. For sure. So I created the creative discipline project. I've been in media for years. At one point, I quit my job to become a blogger, traveled the world, and I've been able to help other people like just really get down to the nitty gritty and create a step-by-step plan to kind of transform their ideas into actual accomplishments. So I was like, you know what, I've been doing this, helping people, helping, you know, colleagues for years. Why don't I actually just put this into a step-by-step book? So that's really why I created the creative discipline project to really talk about different step by step ways that you can have an idea, but actually transform it

into an accomplished goal. There you go. There you go. So give us some steps as to what you usually advise people in the book on how to build a great system for, you know, helping move their ideas forward? Yeah. So really, I just kind of take it from a reverse engineer. So what is the problem? What are you trying to accomplish? And then we kind of reverse engineer it and say, okay, so this is what you want to do. What's your deadline? And it's really created as a custom plan for people. So some of the chapters include, you know, setting your eye on intention, the first 30 days, individual results may vary. And then we have like the successful habits of a disciplined lifestyle. So part of the book highlights some celebrities that you know, and love, and have been very influential and very, very successful. But it also looks at the

common thread that each of them have, which is discipline. So discipline isn't a sexy thing. It's not something that people love to talk about, but it's something that's definitely required in order to reach a certain level of success. Do you find it's hard for people to discipline themselves? I mean, there's some people, you know, it's, it's hard to, you know, like when you set like New Year's resolutions and stuff. Do you think it's hard for people? I mean, but I mean, what's the what's the best way to eat an elephant one bite at a time? So it's really focused on the steps.

I know for me, like I no one loves to be disciplined. It's not something like I said, that is exciting or sexy. But when you look at it as, okay, if I make this small, tiny step, it's hard to be like, okay, here we go. You know, you're kind of like, I like to do whatever I want. It's funny you use the same phrase that I love, how do I eat an elephant one bite at a time? I mean, I've used that for business all the time or for when I don't want to do something I don't want to do. And it just seems overwhelming. And you've got five million steps to it. And you're just like, oh, this is going to be a daunting task. And you just focus

on one bite at a time you just go okay well let's just start picking away at it yeah uh one day the elephants in your in your body and you need to go on a diet again there we go or i'll use this other phrase it's a cinch by the inch it's just hard by the yard so and it's the same thing just a you know different way to put it. Definitely, definitely. So what led you to write this book during a pandemic? Okay. So it was the ultimate pivot to be quite honest. I always knew I wanted to share and help others. Honestly, writing a book wasn't my first way of doing that. I was actually supposed to open a brick and mortar event space and creative incubator here in Detroit, Michigan.

And then the pandemic hit and it was like, okay, now what? I wasn't that adventurous to actually go into opening a business during a pandemic. So I said, well, let's put everything that I wanted to share and help the creatives during the incubator into a book form. And the difference also between this book and others is that it's not just, you know, pages and pages of action items. And this is what you're supposed to do. And this is how you do it. There are also worksheets within the book that takes you from what is your goal? What is your mission statement? How do we create that goal into steps? Who are some of your stakeholders or partners that can help you with it? And then it goes by, okay, this is what your quarterly goal is. This is how

you're going to break it down into weekly action steps. So it goes a little bit more in depth than just, you know, this is the goal. This is the task. This is how you do it. I certainly like that because, you know, it gets more in depth and you can, you can really focus on what you do. And setting the big vision is really important too. How important is that to most goal setting? I mean, I'm huge on vision. I'm huge on not just having like everyone has vision boards. I live and thrive by my vision board where I feel like you're about to laugh at that. No, I I'm just giggling at vision boards. You thrive and you live in them. I do. I do. And I think it's important to see what your goal is every day.

And that way, even sometimes when you feel like you're kind of knocked off your path, you know, okay, if I'm not doing something to get me closer to what this big goal is, then I'm missing the boat. So I look at not just having the mission statement, not just having a bunch of pretty pictures, not just having the vision, but also envisioning what the process looks like. And I talk about that in the book. Like, you know what your end goal is. Say it's opening up a bakery. Do you know what that process looks like. And I talk about that in the book, like, you know, what your end goal is, say it's opening up a bakery. Do you know what that process looks like? What paperwork do you have to file?

You know, how do you get all of your recipes, you know, together implemented, like there's so many different processes that go into creating that goal or reaching that goal. And I don't think there's enough, I would probably say there's not enough focus on the processes. You focus on the vision. The vision looks pretty, pretty and glowy and amazing. But look at what the processes look like, because that helps you also identify any challenges that may come up. And the more that you look at those challenges ahead of time, you'll be better equipped to accomplish them or overcome them. So that visualization is probably really important, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. So in your book, you also talk about intention,

setting your eyes on the intention. Is that part of what you just described? It is. It is. But also intention, I think, is more of an internal thing. Like, okay, why do I want to accomplish this goal? Why do I want to launch this business? Why do I want to create this play? I really, you know, took a lot of conversations that I had with creators from my sister's a playwright, my brother is an entrepreneur, and he helps with a lot of like political activism. And I really wanted to kind of merge all of these different areas into one book that's really applicable to everything. So when you think about the intention, you also kind of think about your purpose, like, okay, what's the purpose of this?

And if you lead with your purpose and lead with your intention, then you kind of create an emotional bond and emotional attachment to accomplishing your goal, which is really important because if you have a goal to just make money, I mean, yeah, everybody would love to make money. But when you have a deeper connection, why do you want to make money? Do you want to help, you know, improve a community? Do you want to help make a better future for your kids? Like those are the emotional attachments to creating and setting that intention that really will help thrive and help push you achieve those goals. I really love that. I think you're right. I mean, people, people, you know, they throw out goals and they're like, I want to lose weight. Why do you want to lose weight? You know, they just don't

really think about it much or, you know, other than just the face of it. And so, yeah, putting yourself in, in, uh, setting yourself in the bit of that. And so, yeah, putting yourself in, in setting yourself in the bit of that emotional concrete where you're, where you're solidifying it and being like, why does this matter to me? And I think when stuff matters to you, it makes a difference. Absolutely. Like I'm the oldest of seven kids. We grew up poor in Detroit. So I kind of have like a inner burning or inner fire behind why do I want to help others and help basically teach folks the things that I wish I would have known young as I was a younger kid growing up. So, you know, like I said, my career started and I actually don't think I even shared this. So I started working in radio fresh out of college and then kind of ventured into television. But, you know, I've always loved

marketing, always loved commercials. Like before I could even talk, I was enamored with the Detroit Zoo commercials in the 80s. And even I don't know if you remember the show, Who's the Boss? Yeah. Okay, good. Because I was going to say, I hope I'm not dating myself. They're bringing it back. With Tony Danza and Judith Light. So she was an ad exec from like, and worked in an ad agency. And I was just like, oh my gosh, she creates commercials. I want to do that. So I was really inspired by a lot of television shows that show even movies like Boomerang with Eddie Murphy. And

I can't remember the other lady's name, but like shows that that really highlighted creatives in the fear in the field of advertising marketing, that kind of struck my fancy a little early on in life. So have a long career in that and just really wanted to be able to share some of the things that I've learned throughout my career in this book, hopefully to help others. That's super cool. We're both first children, first children are the smartest of all. We take like all the good stuff out of the womb and just leave whatever is left behind as leftovers. Sorry, sorry if you're not a first born, but we took all the good stuff. In your book, you talk about the power of showing up

every day. Tell us a little bit more about that and how that works. Do I have to show up? You have to show up every single day, especially if you're trying to accomplish your goals. You know, listen, my biggest thing is sometimes you just don't feel like it. And sometimes you may want to, you know, give halfway and just you don't. But you have to show up like the days that you don't fully commit and fully show up are the days that you may miss out on opportunities. And I think we all get those pep talks and those, you know, you got to show up, you got to do what you got to do. And there, but honestly, there are a lot of times where I just, especially now, especially

during a pandemic, I am the biggest, you get this today, but probably a half an hour ago, hair was in a bun. I was like, had coffee stains on my shirt. I was chasing my puppy around. Like I just wasn't into it. So I wanted to include that chapter into the book because I just want to remind people that as important as it is to have a goal

and have a vision and have these steps, it's also important to remember that you have to apply pressure and you have to apply that work ethic to those goals and to those steps each and every day. I think it's harder for people to work at home. I I've been working at home since 2004 when I got rid of my business partners and, you know, do everything myself you know, but it's still, it's hard. I mean, I'm, I'm fairly lazy when it comes down to it, but

it's hard to kick yourself in the butt sometimes and be like, whatever. And there's so much distractions at home, especially if people have family with wife and kids, you know, they're chasing around. I can't imagine what dealing with that and dealing with home life. I'd have to have like a separate, like a separate place out back or something to do the studio stuff and all that. But how hard is that for people to, to, to take that new focus in the age of coronavirus? I think it really goes back to the intention portion and to the vision portion. Like for me, for years, I've had vision boards and I've had them placed on my refrigerator and actually in my bathroom because those are two places I'm going to visit multiple times a day. So I can't miss it. And I think it's really important to kind of have that as a reminder each and every day that even though you have so much other stuff going on and the

world may end tomorrow, you still have to put forth that effort no matter what it is. So for me, it was really just kind of placing those visions in places and places that I can see what my goal is and remind myself that if I'm slipping, if I'm not doing what I need to do today, if I haven't checked off things on my checklist, then I need to get to it. I have two vision boards. One is on my refrigerator and one is in my bedroom above the bed looking up and both one says, stay the fuck out of the fridge, asshole. And the other one says, get the hell out of bed, buddy. So, you know, I wake up, I'm like, but it works that again. You know, sometimes I leave my contacts out when I sleep.

So I'm like, I can't read that off the roof. I don't know what that is. Or you sleep, you do your side sleep with your phone where you're like, what's on Twitter today? So there you go. One of the other things you talk about in the book, the first 30 days, individual results may vary. Tell us a little bit about what that chapter is about. So that chapter is really about, we've talked about the steps. We've talked about the goals.

We've talked about, you know, the vision and who your potential stakeholders are. But if you don't implement it, then you may not get the results you're looking for. So it really goes by how you kind of take your weight, take your yourself out of thinking negative thoughts. How do you figure out ways where you can kind of overcome any obstacles that may come your way? Because of course, if you said to do something, here comes good old, what is it called? Retrograde or whatever, about to tear all your plans up. So it kind of gives you a good scope of what your initial 30 days will look like

and give you some props and some ideas on how you can kind of sidestep or skirt any objections that come your way. Is it really important in those 30 days to lay down that good, that good, solid habit building, I guess, new path? Yeah. You know, they say the first step or something, it's a phrase that basically talks about, you know, when you get your, your plan together, it takes the first 30 days to actually implement it or get the habit locked in. This kind of takes that same approach, but it also looks that, yeah, you have to do things every day. You have to keep progressing and moving forward.

But in case something comes your way that may sidestep you or may interrupt your progress, these are things that you can do to kind of help you overcome those. Oh, so you help prepare people for when, you know, those, those things get you off course, or you get into the interruptions where you're like, Oh man, now I got to get back on track. Oh yeah. Like it was really a mix of this is how you accomplish your goals. This is how you kind of get out of that creative rut. There's some prompts in there and some exercises that really help you identify like some of your fears, because that really help you identify some of your fears. Because I really believe if you look at your fears and you look at them face to face, then it's a lot easier for you to kind of overcome those fears. Because guess what? You've talked about them.

You put them out there. Now you know what you need to do to beat them in the head. I tend to look at my fears. I open the fridge and look at the lasagna that's left over from the day before and go, Hmm, should I eat that or not? I don't know where that joke goes. So habits are a real important part of, of setting good goals, setting and designing a new life. One of the other chapters of the book, create, execute and repeat. Now, do I use that for people I don't like, or is that something for other than that?

It could go either way. It could go either way. You know, once we get through the different steps of the book and talk about the different ways that you can accomplish those goals and ways that you can kind of pivot from unproductivity and overcome those objections and overcome those fears, then it's time to actually set that plan in motion. And once you get into a groove that you know works for you, then just simply repeat it. And I think that was one of the biggest things for me. It's like, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Once you find out what works for you, and you had mentioned, you know, maybe it's not working from bed or maybe you have to have your own separate space in order to get some stuff done. I think once you find what works for you, then it's time to just

keep doing that thing and keep knocking out some of those goals. You've done that thing. I've seen some people, they do their videos from their car, which is always interesting to me. But yeah, I mean, you know, find what works. Creativity is pretty much what the whole scope of the book is about. What does creativity mean to you and why is it important? So to me, I mean, I honestly would not be able to wake up every morning if I wasn't able to be creative, whether it's creating a song or maybe it's writing down a poem or maybe it's, you know, sharing with a client a creative scope for their new ad campaign is.

I feel like that's something that for me, I have to live, eat and breathe daily. And I know there are other people like that. Like, for example, I had mentioned my sister. She's a playwright and she's created one woman shows and she's working on a new dynamic project herself. And it's really one of those things where if you are a creative, if you feel like you can't breathe every day, if you're not creating something, this book is for you because not every day you're going to create that amazing new project. And not every day you're going to be super inspired, but those days that you're not inspired, you have to do the work in order to get yourself back to that point of inspiration.

That's a great description of it. Being an entrepreneur, being successful, it takes creativity. And I think a lot of people approach it from like, oh, God, that's work. But for me, it's fun. I find life boring without great stories or creating something or working on a project. My whole life is like projects. And so it's fun to do those. If you're building a business, you've got to be creative. It's one of the most self-actualizing experiences you can actually do. It just brings so much more out of you when you're creative. And then you also inspire others. Honestly, I've been inspired by

bloggers that have written books. I've been inspired by bloggers that have written books. I've been inspired by sales reps that have come up with like unique ideas to help, you know, position their clients in new ways. And I feel like creativity inspires creativity. So no matter who it is, whether it's an artist or a book writer or whatever, you have to share your gifts with the world because you never know who you're inspiring. And you talk in your book about why you owe it to yourself. Tell us why that's important. I think it really goes back to that whole thought process of the purpose. Like for me, I felt like because I grew up poor, grew up in Detroit, there weren't, you know, even when I went off to college, I went to, you know, a predominantly white institution,

there weren't a lot of Black women at my college. I felt like you owe it to yourself to put whatever that is out there that you feel like you can contribute to the universe out there. And in addition to, you know, what your passion points are and the purpose and your intention in sharing and creating something, you also have to look at, you know, yourself. And that's really one of those internal things that you have to take into consideration and say, all right, I'm doing this to help others. I'm doing this to help, you know, this person or contribute to this community, but how does that help me? And I think when you identify that, it really does also contribute to you propelling and pushing out your projects and pushing out your goals and contributing to the

universe in a, in the way that only you can. What are going to be some ways people can use your book and the knowledge that's in it to apply to whatever they're trying to do? What are some examples of things that you think would be great for people that are out there going, should I buy this book and will it help me do this? Absolutely. Well, one thing is we're kind of getting to the end of 2020, beginning of 2021. That's when everyone creates these goals, these ideas. These are the things they want to accomplish. But then they get stuck because there's just an idea. It's just a picture on a vision board and there's no step-by-step process to how you can accomplish those goals. So this book really is kind of like the blueprint into

this is the goals. This is how we take that step-by-step action plan and put those things, get the feet to the ground and get moving forward. So entrepreneurs, if you have, you know, a business idea or you want to launch a clothing brand or, you know, you want to launch a social media ad agency or whatever, it kind of takes that plan to help. It also gives you a business plan kind of overview to kind of help you figure out, okay, what problem am I solving? Is this really going to be a viable business? What do I need to do? What does the process look like? But also for creatives, like I said, my sister's a playwright. I know a few other people that have

written books and had these awesome ideas, but didn't really know exactly, okay, this is an awesome idea. I kind of have an idea on how this should work, but I don't really know the intricacies as to how I can make it work. So like I said, it's really the step-by-step plan. It really is applicable to entrepreneurs, to creatives, to anyone that's starting from zero or starting from an idea and want to see that accomplished. There you go. There you go. And you've got a lot of different good stuff in the book. How to dig out of a creative rut is, I think, one of the things you talk about in there.

Absolutely. One of the biggest things for me is, okay, like I said, you're not going to be creative and inspired every single day. So what I wanted to do is kind of put some things in the book that if you're having one of those ruts, if you're just stuck, if you're not even interested in reading a self-help book, it kind of takes your mind off of the process and kind of gives you an opportunity to just a business, but you just want to kind of take your mind off what that day-to-day practice looks like. And some of the things in the book helps you with that. I mean, when I say worksheets that literally will take you from zero to hero in the creative space, it's some really good stuff in there. And then who doesn't like coloring? There are even

some pages in the book that gives you an opportunity to just like completely zone out and color. And I mean, I think that's some of the things that as creatives, we kind of need to have those breaks. And I wanted to make sure that I included that in the book. You know, that's a good thing. I've never really thought about it. Give me a little of an epiphany a moment that sometimes you're trying to force the creative like i'll do that in business i'm like we need to come on this a better idea a better way to to reshape the widget or whatever we're trying to do um and and and really sometimes i should take a break and go use that creativity to do something else and you know something maybe i'm having i've had fun or it's kind of a nice break and so that I can come back. And because sometimes you really do dry your well out with trying to just get the water out of this creative concept.

And you're just and there's nothing there sometimes. And you've got to give yourself that relief for that break. Absolutely. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I wanted to include is you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Like the thing about creativity is it's supposed to be free, free, free flowing and it's supposed to happen naturally. But sometimes you just get stuck and sometimes you need to take a break. And I think some of the prompts in the book, some of the pages, some of the worksheets help you do that. There you go. And she even teaches you how to monetize your creative talents. Absolutely. Like I come from a sales background, like I worked in radio, sales, television,

and it all really comes down to what problem are you solving? Once you identify that problem and you become that problem solver and you have the solution, then that's the easiest way that you can monetize, especially when you find the audience that desperately needs the solution that you have. I'll have to definitely read the book. I've been trying to use my creative talents like everyone else has during the coronavirus epidemic. So I'm still trying to get my onlyfans.com thing going, but everybody's doing it. I felt left out. That's the reason I was like, well, everyone's doing only fans. I see all these only fans on TikTok. I mean, I just trying to fit in really. I don't want the FOMO. I just want to

be down. I don't, you know, and then people pay for, I don't know, I'm open to that. Anyway, I'm just kidding. Three ways to secure a creative mentor is one way trapping them in a bear trap and then with luring them with some food and then kidnapping to them to put them in your basement. Is that a way to do that? Not quite, not quite, but I do share. I think one of the biggest ways is to be up front with them and kind of give a timeline. Like some of the things that I've heard some mentors say is, you know, I just like I don't feel like I have the ability or the time to kind of handhold this person for years because what they're asking, it seems like it's going to take a long time for them. So I think one of the biggest ways that you can secure a creative mentor is be very succinct with the timeline and your request. If it's, you know, you need them to overlook some things,

you need them to introduce you to someone, you need them to help you get to this particular stage or level in your career, then it's being upfront with them and giving them a timeline of how long you actually need their support or really need their time. And I think that's one of the biggest things that people, especially in the creative field, they miss out on is because they're like, hey, I just want you to be your mentor. Okay, so what does that mean? Like, what exactly are you looking for? And I think one of the biggest things is just open communication and being very honest about how that person can help. Note to self, Lee, let the mentor that I trapped out of the basement. Is that what the help I was hearing in the background? I thought I heard like, yeah, that was the, that was probably shut up already. I'm trying to be

creative. I should probably feed them. It's been a couple of days. I was going to say, have they eaten? You know, getting mentors can be challenging. One of the things I did years ago was when I got rid of my partners and, and what was my board of directors and just took over the companies as my own was I didn't have anybody bounce ideas off anymore, really. And so I created this virtual, what I call the virtual board of directors. And so I went to all my friends that were entrepreneurs and I said, look, I need a virtual board director. So I have somebody to bounce ideas off and be like, does it sound like, yeah, and whatever.

And we created this pact. All right. I helped everyone create a pact amongst ourselves where it was like hey look you can call me anytime you want you can bang with your ideas and i'll call you and you know we'll all help each other out and we were competitors so that probably helped just occurred to me that probably wouldn't work in your competitive field but uh uh but and so that's what we do and so then i had like this virtual board of directors. It was great. And the exchange was, I would listen to them when they would call and they listened to me and I didn't have to pay them anything, which is much cheaper than what you normally

have to pay a board of directors. No, that's awesome. Like, I love having a community that can give you honest feedback and really help you bounce ideas and really be like truthful. Like that's the thing with just this industry or just being an entrepreneur period is you sometimes may ask your friends and family and they'll give you that gloss over like, yeah, that's great. That's amazing. But having people that are in your industry that are invested in you as a

person and then become invested in your business is super important. You know, you bring up a good point to so many people turn to their friends, family, and people that aren't even in their business. They ask them for concepts and tips on their business. And I imagine sometimes they can be good, but a lot of times, unless these people own their own businesses or know what it's like, or have any sort of concepts, what you're doing, it's really a bad place to go to advice. Yeah. I mean, it's a challenge. And, you know, some people leverage like LinkedIn and leverage, you know, some of the social media apps to kind

of use their community. And I'm not sure, are you familiar with Clubhouse? No, I mean, I think I'm, I know the name of it, but I've never used it. So like a lot of people, a lot of my friends that are in the industry now, they've really been leaning heavily on Clubhouse to find, you know, people that are in the industry. And it really gives a full in-depth communication platform, like unlike Instagram, where you see pretty pictures and maybe some videos. This is all audio based and it allows people to really be intimate and really share like valuable knowledge. And I think that's some of the things that people can find with, I would probably say outside of the friends and family, like talking to people that are in your industry, talking to people that are accomplished in your industry and having them share some insight and things that can help you as well. There you go. I didn't realize there was a social media site that wasn't on.

Is it an app on your phone? your yeah it's called clubhouse okay and do you have to it says invite only a private beta hey chris i got you i'll send you an invite this is why you're so wonderful well i mean there's multiple reasons why you're so wonderful but this is this is one of them our friends on facebook one thing i love is your incredible style you always you always have these outfits you're wearing you're just so much style thank you if i tried to wear them though it'd probably look really weird listen let me style you i promise i will make you look fierce you'll make me look fierce i love that uh yeah i'll have to i'll have to check out this clubhouse thing. This is

pretty cool. Are you getting a kickback for this for the for on plugging the clubhouse? No, I'm not. And honestly, I was kind of a slow adopter because I'm like, Oh, God, not another platform I have to engage with because I'm naturally an introvert. And after a while, I really saw some huge value in it. So you know, you and everything you're doing, I really saw some huge value in it. So, you know, you and everything you're doing, I really believe you'll find a lot of value and, and, you know, connect with some really cool people. There you go. I'm in with the cool kids finally now. I've been searching. You are the cool kids. What are you talking about? Do I have to have an Apple phone for this? Yeah, I do. I'll use it on my iPad. There you go. So really cool stuff in the book. I think there was one other question I had for you. And I think the last topic, how at what the steps are, looking at what the daily habits

that'll kind of help get you through those steps. And then after a while, you'll actually see, okay, I have the goal, I have the daily steps, I have how those will look on a weekly basis, how those will look on a monthly basis, as well as a quarterly basis. And before you know it, you have your whole year and the goals accomplished. So it

really, like I said, one of the things in the book is it gives you those steps, but there are also ways that you can apply it depending on what your creative study is. Whether it's, you know, working as a creative, as a writer, or whether it's as a business person, the worksheets really offer opportunities for people to input those ideas and then kind of break them down and reverse engineer them accordingly. This sounds freaking awesome, guys. Anything more we should know about your book before we go out? No. So the book is going to be available everywhere in January.

So Amazon, Barnes & Noble's, Book Baby. I'm really excited. This is really a labor of love. Like I really want it to share with others and hopefully they'll be able to share this with their friends, their families, their colleagues, and make 21 2021 the best year yet. You know, you bring up a good point. I mean, we're hopefully going to have a much better year. Fingers crossed.

Don't curse it. The uh 2020 and hopefully i've been hearing that we might all have the vaccine in america by uh second quarter so hopefully it's going to be a good year and it's it's like they should do they should grab your book read it now especially when you're in quarantine looks like we'll still be in january um and then make plans for the future because uh it looks like there's going to be a future. Who knew? And I'm so proud of you. You were like one of five people who actually used the quarantine to do something good with yourself.

Listen, I ate all banana pudding and gained all the weight. It was like, okay, I got to do something other than gain weight. Because I was like, I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to write my book. I'm going to do all this stuff. It's a project. It's a process. We're all trying to cope and get through it the best way we can.

So Kristen, thanks for being on the show. We certainly appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much. I enjoyed my time with you. This is amazing. There you go. And give us your plugs or people can find you on the interwebs. Sure. So you can find me online at candidlykristin.com or the creative discipline project. Find that online on Instagram, candidlyristin creative discipline project as well and also you can download the book it's an e-version so not only just you can get a book but you can also get the e-version as well there you go we got the plugs all in there there you go so check it out

guys you can pre-order right now it's up on the amazon website and other websites as well the creative discipline project how to Create the Discipline Necessary to Accomplish Your Creative Goals by Kristen Rochon. Thanks, Kristen, for being on the show. Thanks to the audience for tuning in. Be sure to go to youtube.com forward slash Chris Voss and hit that bell notification. You can see the video version of this and all the brilliant authors on there. You can go to thecvpn.com, subscribe to online podcasts. You may be hearing this on one of the other few podcasts we have. And also goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Voss. You can follow what we're reading over there, what we're reviewing and all that good stuff. And you can also go to

facebook.com, The Chris Voss Show. Thanks for tuning in. Wear your mask, stay safe. We're hopefully going to be seeing you soon and we'll see you next time.