Josh Allred's Blog

Draw a picture of where you are currently at: physical, mental, spiritual, social, economic, family/relationship, career. Use symbols, text, pictures, collages – whatever your imagination draws up.

Now draw a second picture on a separate sheet of paper of where you want to be.

Hang them on the wall next to each other.

You have just drawn a comic.

Scott McCloud, in his brilliant book called Understanding Comics, explains why comics are a powerful medium: you have two images that can be seen side by side. The magic of comics is that all of the action takes place in the space between the two images. We can’t see it, we have to imagine it.

Now look at the two pictures you drew again. Look at the space in between. See the contrasts between the pictures. What is the person on the right doing that the person on the left should be doing?

We can’t see the action to get us from here, to there, to Heaven knows where. But we can imagine it.

It’s funny listening to people talk about the weather.

When it is summer it is too hot or there is too much inversion.
And when it is fall of course the trees are too dead or there are too many storms.
When it is winter it is too cold and there is too much snow.

People seem to look forward to the magical time of spring, that it is one of the best times of the year.

Then the 72 degrees day with blue skies comes someone complains that their allergies acting up too much.

Too many of us stop on the line.

But the line is imaginary. It’s made up. It’s all invented.

We fear that if we go outside the line we will be marked, docked, or deducted.

When we are finished and we have kept within the boundaries that others have set, we wait for recognition followed by more instructions. There is no growth. And then we wonder why we weren’t picked for that promotion.

What did we do wrong? Why didn’t we get picked?

We didn’t pick ourselves to draw outside the lines.

We don’t realize how far past the line we can go. The lines were placed by someone else. (That’s the way it has always been and that’s the way it’s always going to be.)

But we don’t have to stop on the line. We don’t need to turn around when we see it. We can follow through. Think outside the page.

Assume that you have the authority to go past the line until someone else says you can’t.

When you’re out of good ideas, start working with the bad ideas.

Bad ideas are great.

You have just found out how this tweet, or email, or blog post doesn’t work.

Go through enough bad ideas, a good one will finally show up (and it will be what you least expected).

But you have to be okay with being laughed at.

There will always be that one person that deliberately goes out of their way to show us why something isn’t good enough.

Them: This is stupid. You know you can’t make it as a blogger. I am just being realistic. I am trying to help.

Us: Thank you. Now I have to get back to work.

Shaving your head and tattooing your hair is certainly a way to be noticed. But there is little trust in doing this. Only a few members of the tattoo community will find it appealing. Most of us will not remember this.

We can find other ways to express ourselves so that we can be remembered.

How about the time when Rage Against the Machine was “accidentally” booked in Spanish Fork, Utah? Back in 1996, this was a big deal – it’s still weird enough to think about today. People remember this: that’s why you can still find comments online about the anniversary to this day.

There is a giant misconception of weird enough: are you trying to get us to notice or are you trying to be remembered?

Weird enough to be noticed is easy (tattooing your hair). Weird enough to be remembered is much harder (Rage concerts in a small town full of ranchers).

There is a strong rhetoric from those in power (executives, management, parents) that fear the next generation will be ruined by social media.

We’ve heard it before: “They are addicted to playing on their smart phones. It’s ruining them. They can’t look at each other in the eye. I am sure glad I had my childhood where we got to play outside without these distractions.”

Ten years ago, social media platforms were brand new. The world had never seen it before. Human beings had a new tool and weren’t sure what the purpose was or how to use it correctly. So like all new tools you get excited, play with it, exhaust it until it is no longer new. Social media is wearing off its “newness.”

We now have defined the purpose: it’s a tool to bring us closer together. When we are closer together we are more likely to solve interesting problems.

But we fear what we don’t understand. People will always use tools for the wrong purpose (watching cat videos). However, those in power that have more of their life behind them than in front of them can help us. They can teach us to search for more meaningful experiences but they will need to embrace social media for all the good it brings, not just the bad.

As more and more people globally adopt social media in their lives we will continue to see this shift for better content, design, and purpose that will ultimately lead us to stronger bonds – which is what we are looking for. We ALL want the same thing.

In 1946, Tote’m Stores changed their store hours to 7:00 am to 11:00 pm. It was bold, remarkable, and unprecedented at the time; so much so that the franchise changed their name to 7-Eleven.

In 1969, 7-Eleven expanded their services to the current 24 hour schedule.

That was then. This is now.

Do you know what makes the 58,000 7-Eleven stores remarkable today? Not much at all.

When you have an emergency bread shortage at home, it doesn’t matter anymore what convenient store we choose: 7-Eleven, Circle K, 76, Quik Trip, Mobil, Citgo, Speedway, Valero…because they are all the same, convenient and cheap. None of these places are remarkable.

7-eleven might have won the race to the bottom with cheap prices at convenient hours and location. You are not going to beat 7-Eleven to the bottom, so don’t even try. Instead race for the top – the game is wide open.

It is very difficult for an Artist to gain trust and attention. It is even more difficult to re-gain trust and attention when an Artist betrays his audience (selling out). You may never get it back when you become a cog in the machine. Some of us may find it in our hearts to forgive but most of us, now more than ever, shift to the critic (their old stuff is better than their new stuff)

As an Artist, the silver lining is: we need to give more trust and attention than we gain. When an Artist generously gives something to her audience, the audience turns around and gives us something back. Because all of us want to be noticed. And when we are noticing each other and give someone an opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves, the circle grows.

Too many Artists become hardened when everyone in the audience doesn’t love their work. It is hard to loosen your grip when the instinct is to tighten up. A second chance needs to be given (the goal is not for everyone to love it, just someone). With the new rules of the new game, the only choice is to leap first and trust that your audience is paying attention to catch you when you fall.

Some of us are compelled to be humble while others humble themselves.

When you are compelled to be humble, it usually means you have painted yourself into a corner. You have no way out without help. You may need to seek forgiveness (sometimes in ourselves). Restitution will have to be made – which I suspect is why we wait so long to begin with.

However, when we learn to humble ourselves from the beginning we create open space. We have options, direction, and guidance available.

The difference is that the person compelled into humility has usually exhausted all options before doing the hard thing (restitution, forgiveness, recompense). Those who humble themselves are willing to do the hard thing first.

So why not just try the hard thing first?

There are a plethora of reasons, the primary being our self-image. We don’t believe we can pay the price of doing the hard thing while at the same time don’t feel worthy for the peace that follows. In other words, the shame is too great to bear.

And you may be right when you think all the gifts you have come from you. But when you realize that your gifts don’t come from you but come from a higher place (in ancient Greece they were called Muses, Christians call them Angels, some call it inspiration) maybe you can draw strength from a deeper well.

Choices and circumstance might have compelled you to be humble at some point but humility comes when you realize the gifts you have are just borrowed – you don’t have the strength to do this on your own.