Show My Work – Page 3 – MEGHAN FERRIN

“The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home.”

October 23, 2019September 19, 2019 by Meghan Ferrin

At some point this summer I read a Tim Ferriss transcript where he was talking to a coach about training the weakest arc of a movement to build strength.

While I was searching for the interview – which of course I didn’t bookmark, I’m getting better about it! – I found this article on mental toughness. In it, former men’s gymnastics national team coach Christopher Sommer talks about breaking through frustration and committing to a long-term goal.

I love this:

The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home.
A blue collar work ethic married to indomitable will. It is literally that simple. Nothing interferes. Nothing can sway you from your purpose. Once the decision is made, simply refuse to budge.
Refuse to compromise.
And accept that quality long-term results require quality long-term focus. No emotion. No drama. No beating yourself up over small bumps in the road. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.
Coach Christopher Sommer, talking to Tim Ferriss. Read the full article here.

I’ll be honest:

One of the biggest things I struggle with is the consistency necessary to get to the result I want, particularly with my own projects.

It’s easy to show up for my clients, for other people, but when it comes to showing up for myself…

I’m not awesome at committing to a personal goal and then showing up every single day to get my shit done, rain or shine.

I get overwhelmed easily by the road ahead, by everything I haven’t done up to this point to set myself up for success.

I get stuck in the planning phase and don’t take action.

And when I do take action, I get frustrated easily when I don’t IMMEDIATELY get the results I want. I beat myself up. I lose motivation. I decide to do more research instead of showing up to do the work.

And then I give up because it’s easier than failing …and pretend like that’s not failure.

But I’m trying to learn. To be kinder to myself. To set the goal but love the process.

To show up every day and do the work.

How about you? What helps you stay motivated and take action when you get overwhelmed?

[IMAGE: A photo I took of my campfire while camping in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. I had just upgraded to a Nikon D7100 and oh boy was she fun to play with on that trip.]

Clunky Branding and Indecision

October 23, 2019September 18, 2019 by Meghan Ferrin

Last night I posted this to Instagram because I’m making some changes in my format there.

It explains some of my thought process right now, though, so it seems like a good idea to share it here as well.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve doodled several variations of this index card — my little monster robot that reads INDECISION, KILLER OF WORLDS — trying to decide what to do with my Instagram.

Well, my Instagram and several other areas of my life, particularly professionally.

I’m the kind of woman who tends throw herself head first into a creative project, then eventually I move on to focus on something else for awhile.

I never abandon anything completely… I tend to cycle from one creative project to the next and back again, often by season. But I lose interest in doing a lot of one thing for awhile and move on until I get excited about it again.

Something interesting has happened since I switched my Instagram “brand” to be entirely linocut, though…

I’ve stopped doing anything else.

And because it feels like too much of a departure, when I’m not really feeling the block printing process — and it is a process, a messy one! — I end up not doing ANYTHING because I start feeling bad about not doing the thing I’m “supposed” to be doing.

Oh, did I mention I’m a marketing consultant and I help businesses brand themselves and build sales funnels for a living?

So even though I spend my days building authentic brands for my clients, I find myself NOT being authentic here because I’m never quite sure what to do with this account… an account that started entirely personal and has now become a sea of block printed baby clothes.

So here we are.

I made a decision last week that I am going to start showing my work — both creatively and professionally — as a way to build a more conscious, flexible, authentic online presence.

That means some changes are going to be happening on my grid. I’m going to allow myself to post things that aren’t linocut… though I promise, this isn’t the end of the adorable baby clothes.

But I’m going to try to share more organically about my creative process, my work, what I’m reading, listening to and doing on this feed.

It’s cool if you aren’t here for this… feel free to unfollow my lame, oversharing butt. But I look forward to connecting with all of you in a new, awesome way. ?

Sweater Weather and Showing Your Work

October 23, 2019September 17, 2019 by Meghan Ferrin

We didn’t have much of a summer in the PNW this year. I’ve been missing Austin a bit, then I remember:

In Austin, Texas there is no such thing as a summer where you only have maybe 10 days where it gets over 90 degrees.

I owe that town (and the people in it) a visit… when it’s cooler.

Speaking of people in Austin, over the last few weeks I have been reading Austin Kleon’s books on art, writing and creativity. They’re pretty awesome, if I do say so myself (and I do).

I started with “Show Your Work”, which I plucked from a library shelf because I liked the title and the small square size.

Then I immediately checked out “Steal Like an Artist” and “Keep Going” because I have no chill… and bought the “Steal Like an Artist Journal”.

This year has been one of change, and one of the things I’ve realized is just how bad I have been at showing my work. Especially professionally.

Over the last 10+ years I’ve built dozens of websites, funnels, sales pages. Split test thousands of headlines. Sent millions of emails and newsletters. Written more copy than I can possibly remember. Created heaps of social media posts. Designed stacks of graphics, logos, banners, brand identities…

And yet all my public portfolio has in it is a handful of posts from nearly three years ago.

Today is the day I start to change that.

It’s time to show my work.

[IMAGE: Woodblock print in black on thrifted baby sweater vest. Carved and hand printed by me a couple weekends ago.]