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I want my readers or audience to know how good I am and respect my talent

Stiletto

All Tools
STILETTO@2x

The Context

Stiletto heels concentrate a large amount of force into a small area. Mathematically, they have an area of about one sixteenth of a square inch per foot. But at the moment when only the heel rests on the ground, each foot exerts pressure of fifteen hundred psi. That’s greater than that under the foot of an elephant. Stiletto heels, then, become the definitive symbol of compression. They remind us that our body of work doesn’t fully serve us if we can’t concentrate it into a tight little package.

The Tool

two color

Stiletto

STILETTO -- Compressing your portfolio of talents into a tight little package that demonstrates the full firepower of your creative arsenal.

Part of our job as artists is creating stiletto moments, in which we demonstrate all of our skills at once. That’s what makes our work stick. Because once we show people our accumulated record, not just bits and pieces; once we demonstrate the firepower of our creative arsenal, not just the weapon we’re currently firing; and once we help people taste the full scope of our artistic power, not just the project of the moment, the world will know the depth of our creation. It is the task for which all else is but preparation. Psychologists call this unconscious competence, which is a task that can be performed easily and without warning. When the right light goes on, you snap right into flow state and seize the live moment. When you play so often you do not have to think about it, that leaves you free to perform, and performances are what sells ideas to new audiences.

Scott's Take

Scott's Take

Despite spending five years building my own media production studio, honing my skills as a video editor and delivering hundreds of hours of material on camera, the inevitable moment finally came to close down shop. My whole video training endeavor was simply too expensive and too labor intensive for my one man business to sustain. Considering how few of clients actually paid me money to create video training products for them, the squeeze simply wasn’t worth the juice. But that project never felt like a failure to me. Because something told me that, those new skills were guaranteed to be useful in my career down the road. The video project afforded me the opportunity practice working on both sides of the camera enough times that it would become second nature for me in the future.

The Rest

Lesson learned, whatever success you achieve with your current, trust that you are building skills that will later be used to your advantage to set yourself apart. Trust that your muscle memory will give you a path toward genuine creation through simple recreation. And when it’s showtime, you’ll be in the best possible position to deliver. What skill has now become second nature to you?

The Benefits

Seize the live moment and rest in the center point of quiet competence
Perform your creativity in a way that sells your ideas to new audiences
Create unforgettable moments that persuades clients to rehire you in the future
Execute your work without the need for excessive preparation or editing

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