Matt Ruby on How Confidence Can Make You More Creative

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "How Is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  Ruby speaks to the instinctual skills he uses to twist jokes on stage and take the audience on a journey.  For Ruby, the confidence that comes with having more control on stage allows him to ultimately perform at higher levels for his audience. 

Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He produces a video comic strip at Vooza.com, co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and writes a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University. 

Matt Ruby on How to Improve Comedy Writing Over Time

In Chapter 15 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "How Are You Improving How You Write Comedy?"  Ruby shares how he is improving how he writes by getting tighter or more precise in his words.  He adds he has developed a better filter for what is appropriate.  Additionally, he notes how he is able to take material in new directions, a development he calls going from "A to C" instead of "A to B." 

Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and manages a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you improving how you write comedy?

Matt Ruby: I think I’m getting tighter, like in the amount of words that I use, which helps, like the shortest distance between 2 points is a good idea in comedy or in any writing. I think also what do I wanna talk about knowing that. Sort of like knowing what to throw out or what’s just not gonna fit in with the other stuff that I do. You know, just sort of this filter of knowing what’s appropriate or not. I don’t know, when I was starting out, I think a lot of times, like, I would go from A to B with a punch line and I’m getting better at going from A to C, like A to B is just like: oh, yeah, yeah, that’s funny-ish and that’s exactly where people would expect it to go. Whereas A to C is like: oh, I thought it was going in that direction, but I didn’t realize it would go that far, or that twist or that thing. And kind of giving that extra spice or, you know, like a little bit more of like—to me that’s the difference between like a good joke and a great joke is like when it’s like: oh, there’s a little twist that you know you didn’t see coming and it was funny all along the way and then there’s something else on top of that that’s even better, and then that’s I think when you get something delightful.

Erik Michielsen: Could you give me an example of a couple of pieces in a routine that you might use, you know, A to B versus A to C?

Matt: Okay, so I have a joke about how girls will drop the boyfriend bomb on me, and how fast it comes, and so I’ll be like, you know, when I’m talking to a girl, I’ll be like, “Hey, how’re you doing?” And she’ll be like, “My boyfriend says I’m fine.” And that’s A to B, you know. Like that’s fine, it’s funny, it gets a laugh. And then, you know, what I’ve added on to that is like, “Okay, can I get a foot-long chicken teriyaki, please? It’s a really judgmental Quizno’s we got here.” That to me is the C, or the taking it and giving it a twist of like that one extra line that’s, okay, it was a perfectly fine joke, but now to me that’s a more interesting or intriguing, or another layer to it that as opposed to just like a quick in and out sort of like meat and potatoes joke.

Simon Sinek on How to Strengthen Your Creative Skills

In Chapter 13 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  The more Sinek practices his creative skills, the stronger his toolbox gets.  He focuses on amplifying on his strengths and hiring out his weaknesses to both broaden and sharpen skills.  As a lover of creative people, Sinek looks to try new things such as modern dance choreography and painting to get perspective on creative process.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  How is your creative toolbox changing?

Simon Sinek:  I’m adding to it. Right? I mean, you know, I don’t think I’ve thrown anything away. I may use some things less than I used to. But the more I learn and the more I get to practice more importantly, the more tools I’m adding to that toolbox. What’s also great is some of the tools change size, in other words, there are some tools that I really like and I’m really good with, and so I use those tools because they’re very helpful to me, and there are other tools that I’ve learned that I’m really no good with and so they’re there if I need them, you know, I’ve never understood the idea of working on your weaknesses, you know, we’re always told in our performance reviews, here are your weaknesses and these are the things you need to work on to get to the next level, I’ve never understood that, the whole idea is to work in our strengths, amplify our strengths, and we, you know, hire our weaknesses or—this is the value of a team, right? What’s the point of having a team if you have to be—if you have to improve on your weaknesses?

The whole idea is we have you on our team because you’re really good at this. You know? And we found somebody else who’s really good at this, which you’re really bad at. You guys are a team. This is the value of a team. And so I think in our workplace, our companies do us a great disservice by telling us that we have to fix our weaknesses or improve upon our weaknesses to get to the next level, they should be encouraging us and giving the tool to amplify our strengths to get to the next level, that’s what they want us for, right? Otherwise, here are your strengths and here are your weaknesses, now you’re even. Wouldn’t you wanna be this? You need to be aware of your weaknesses but we need to amplify those strengths.

Erik Michielsen:  What are a couple of examples of like the creative tools that have brought that out?

Simon Sinek:  I’m a lover of creative people. And so any sort of expression of how you see the world in a—with different terminology is fascinating to me. And so even though I myself am a photographer so I have that visual aspect, I’m a huge fan of modern dance and spend a lot of time sort of with dancers and in the dance world and have, you know, tried my hand at choreography just to see, you know? I’m not good. But it—I like the idea of trying it, you know? And so for me it’s about perspective, which is when I—when you hang out with dancers and you sort of learn to dance a little bit or you learn to choreograph a little bit, or you learn to paint a little bit, you know? I’m not a painter but I painted a painting recently, you know? If you—it’s like chaos theory. Everything’s connected, right? It’s like we conveniently divide up our lives, like here’s my personal life, here’s my professional life, I’m—here’s my social life, I’m looking to find balance. It’s just you. And all the same things apply. And so if you’re good here, you can apply what you learn here to there. And so when you learn how things interconnect and people interconnect, and how human relationships work, and presence, I mean you wanna learn about presence? Take a dance class. You learn all about how to present yourself and be forwards. Take an acting class, learn how to, you know, present your speech. People say, Simon, how did you learn this? It’s like—I’m exposed to all of this. So the tools I’ve learned have just mainly been different perspectives on how other people use their creative talents to see the world in it. If I can get little pieces of those, they help me in many, many different ways.

Using Design Passion to Make the World Better - Ross Floate

In Chapter 13 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "What is the Source of Your Passion for Design?"  Floate defines design as more of a problem solving-based than an aesthetics-based discipline.  After establishing his career, Floate finds his work is less about the technical elements of design and more about problem solving as it relates to communication and process efficiency that creates .  Ross Floate is a principal at Melbourne, Australia-based Floate Design Partners.  Experienced in branding, design and both online and offline publishing, Floate and his team provide marketing services to clients seeking to better communicate business and culture goals via image, messaging, and story. He is a graduate of RMIT University.

How to Increase Company Creative Capability - Richard Moross

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2012 interview, London entrepreneur and Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "How Is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  Moross evolves his company creative toolbox by continually bringing on new hires with different skills.  He shares the story of hiring Dan Rubin after he built a product called Instagoodies using the Moo.com API.  Moross connects hiring creative talent with furthering organizational product and innovation needs that occur in technology-driven markets such as personal identity management.  Moross is founder and CEO of Moo.com and a leader in the London startup scene.  Before starting Moo.com, an award-winning online print business, Moross was a strategist at Imagination, the world's largest independent design company.  He graduated from the University of Sussex, where he majored in philosophy and politics.

Jon Kolko on How Learning Facilitation Skills Advances Career

In Chapter 11 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How is Your Creative Toolbox Changing?"  Kolko notes how his creative toolbox progressively includes "grown up" tools.  He notes these are more about talking and less about making, for example facilitation tools and those that help drive large organizational and strategic change.  He contrasts this to the design or maker skills so fundamental to his early career experiences. 

Jon Kolko is the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How is your creative toolbox changing?

Jon Kolko: My creative toolbox is starting to have much more grownup tools in it, which usually mean things that are about talking and not things about making. And it's weird that that is true. And so, the examples that I'm thinking of are facilitation tools and tools that help drive large organizational and strategic change as opposed to tools for making things look a certain way, act a certain way, feel a certain way. This strategy, design thinking, whatever catchy name you want to use for it, has always sort of rubbed me a little bit the wrong way because I’d always felt like it wasn’t enough without the making. And so, I think I still believe that. But I'm becoming okay with using a designerly way of working to convince people of things, to get people to see my perspective, to drive an argument. And that will be the way that design plays out in policy and in law. I mean, design is going to be embedded in all of these external disciplines or fields and that’s how it's going to work. There will still be artifacts but that’s not the endgame, they’re a means to an end and I think the toolbox that I have is widened to include those. Before, frankly, I didn’t give them the time and day. I thought they were sort of fake. I still have that same concern that without making an artifact, and I'm using artifact loosely, even digital or a service is an artifact to me but without making something. You're not doing design work. You're doing something else and it's probably just argument. But I'm becoming more comfortable integrating those issues of argument a rhetoric into the toolkit that I have.

How to Improve How You Learn - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 10 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Are You Improving How You Learn?"  Stallings embraces tools such as his Amazon Kindle and blogs to manage the complexity of new information and knowledge sources.  He finds references in the back of books extremely useful researching and hyperlinking to reference material, especially in an all digital environment.  This helps him understand the formulating evidence, information and theory behind what he reads.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Research Skills for Problem Solving Careers - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 20 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What is the Role of Research in the Problem Solving Process?"  Stallings notes two ways research plays into the process.  The first is researching to understand the problem itself and the various perspectives on that problem.  This helps him gain ownership of or personalize the problem.  The second is researching to learn how other people have thought about the problem in the past.  This gives Stallings references points.  Over time, Stallings improves his research skills by keeping reference materials close at hand.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Courtney Spence on How Aspirations Change As Career Matures

In Chapter 4 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Are Your Aspirations Change As Your Experience Grows?"  After 12 years building a program, she finds an urgency to do more to tell the stories of progress that will educate students, life non-profits, and transform communities in need.  Through the process, she builds confidence, reaffirms her conviction to her cause, and gathers experiences and skills to elevate organizational aims further.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your aspirations changing as your experience grows?

Courtney Spence: My aspirations are changing drastically. And I think what has happened for me is the blinders were lifted a bit and I recognized that when – as we start to really cultivate, you know, our vision and what we believe in and as I was alluding to earlier like being able to articulate not what we do but what we believe in made me realize that we could be doing so much more. And when we really believe that we wanna change the dialogue from problems to progress, when we really believe that the greatest contribution that the millennial generation can give right now is through media and communications and we believe and know that there are non-profits and causes who desperately need their stories told, and we live in a society that needs to hear those stories, then all of a sudden, we realized we got a big job to go do.

I love the program that we have run to date, but, man, we gotta do more. And there is an urgency to that drive, and there’s this real knowledge that we have something to give the world that the world needs. And there’s no ego in that, it’s just we have a concept and we’ve been in this space and we’ve done a lot of the hard work and really kept our head down when we did that work, and all of a sudden, it’s like I looked up and I was like, but, you know, there are so many more stories that need to be told, there are so many more students that wanna get involved in this kind of work, there are so many 20-something and 30-something individuals that wanna give their time and their talents, and they just don’t necessarily have that outlet or know how, so as I am maturing as an individual, I think I’m also gaining more confidence in the kind of work that I can go do.

Quite honestly, when I was given an opportunity to give a TED talk, I was pretty shocked, I was like, wow, I mean, do I – what am I gonna talk about? And not to say that I’m an expert by any means, but I’ve started to recognize that I’m not 22 any longer, I’m 32, I’ve been doing this Students of the World gig for 12 years, that’s a long time. I don’t think that I really understood how long of a time that was, you know, I think in a lot of ways, I had been thinking as if I was a 23, 24-year-old that was just starting out in this endeavor but I’m not. And our organization is not, and our organization has matured. And we now stand on a foundation of a dozen years of really hard work and there is knowledge and there is understanding and there is compassion that comes from that. And so we’re gonna use that and go do something even bigger than I had dreamed we could ever do. So, it’s changing.

How to Be a More Successful Teacher

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "What Steps Have You Taken to Become a Better Teacher?"  Goswami differentiates between teaching and lecturing.  He notes what he has learned about making sure the student generates something new after absorbing and learning the concepts or lessons. 

“I think the really key piece of teaching is that the student has to generate. They have to generate something. If they’re not generating something there’s no evidence of learning and there’s no way to know that they’re learning.”

— Bijoy Goswami

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What steps have you taken to become a better teacher?

Bijoy Goswami:  So, I think there’s a lot of pieces to that puzzle and it’s… teaching is a really complex thing. A lot of the times you think oh, teaching I will just get up there and pontificate and blab on that’s really not teaching that’s lecturing, that’s entertaining, that’s not teaching.

So, I think the really key piece of teaching is that the student has to generate. They have to generate something. If they’re not generating something there’s no evidence of learning and there’s no way to know that they’re learning. They’re actually aren’t learning.

So, you know, there’s a process but you got to get them choose into concept, you gotta get them multi-model because people are depending on modalities, some wanna hear it, some wanna see it, some wanna touch it that kind of thing but ultimately they gotta generate it and they gotta take the concept and do something with it, create something new with it. If you haven’t done that third step I think that’s when you haven’t really succeeded as a teacher.

So, that’s maybe the biggest thing I've learned is if they’re just passively sitting there, you know, taking in information and they aren’t actually processing it and then not spewing it out like you told them but actually combining it to create something new, that third part is the real test of learning and teaching.

Why to Sell Clients on Your Company Culture - Mike Germano

In Chapter 11 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "How Are You Becoming Better at Selling Your Vision?"  As Germano sees his company grow, he shifts his focus from fighting to establish its brand reputation to selling the story of his company culture.  Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO, Brooklyn based social media advertising agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University.

What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder - Yoav Gonen

In Chapter 1 of 11 in his 2011 interview, education reporter Yoav Gonen answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Journalism Career?"  Gonen notes how he has become one of if not the most experienced reporter covering education news.  After writing over 1000 articles and building over 2000 contacts, he finds it easier to find stories.  Gonen finds challenge in not telling the same story twice and finding new angles to tell similar stories.  Yoav Gonen is the education reporter for the New York Post newspaper in New York City.  He earned a Masters of Journalism degree from New York University and a BA in English from the University of Michigan.

How Failure Builds Entrepreneur Backbone - Julie Hession

In Chapter 14 of 21 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, food entrepreneur Julie Hession "What Role Has Failure Played in Shaping Your Career Trajectory?"  Hession notes that while starting a specialty food store modeled after Dean and Deluca ended in failure, it provided a positive learning experience and gave her backbone to start another venture.  The experience makes her more street smart, aggressive and confident.  Julie Hession is the founder of Julie Anne's All Natural Granola Company.  Passionate about food since childhood, Hession has developed her career by food blogging, cooking contests, and starting fine food companies.  Hession earned an MBA in Marketing from Duke University and a BA from UNLV. 

How to Use Your Network to Make Big Life Decisions - Marc Ferrentino

In Chapter 2 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, cloud computing technology executive Marc Ferrentino answers "How Do You Use Your Network to Get Help Making Career and Life Decisions?"  Ferrentino speaks about career and life challenges, especially at forks in life and how networks can help.  He notes how specialization makes the network more valuable, especially around career choice, family, and financial planning.  Ferrentino is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of cloud computing at BMC Software.  Previously, he was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) at Salesforce.com.  Previous to Salesforce.com, Ferrentino worked in mobile and Internet startups and at Goldman Sachs.  He earned a BSEE in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

How CTO and VP Engineering Job Roles Compare - Marc Ferrentino

In Chapter 16 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, cloud computing technology executive Marc Ferrentino answers how a VP Engineering role compares and contrasts with a CTO role."  Ferrentino begins by detailing what each role is not.  He notes how early stage company responsibilities may require someone to do both but over time, a VP Engineering becomes more tactical where a Chief Technology Officer becomes more strategic.  Ferrentino is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of cloud computing at BMC Software.  Previously, he was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) at Salesforce.com.  Previous to Salesforce.com, Ferrentino worked in mobile and Internet startups and at Goldman Sachs.  He earned a BSEE in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

What Makes a Good Manager - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 13 of 15 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, international product manager Ramsey Pryor answers "What Makes a Good Manager?"  Pryor, who came to IBM via an acquisition, is exposed to high-caliber management skills working in the multinational IBM environment.  Pryor compares this to startup shortcomings around not technology or passion but management skills.  Pryor learns from IBM managers who excel at people management for the long-term and who prioritize and promote these skills within the organization.  Pryor is currently a product management executive at IBM focused on cloud-based communication and collaboration software.  Previously he was VP Product Marketing at Outblaze, acquired by IBM.  Pryor earned an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder - J.T. Allen

In Chapter 1 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, education entrepreneur J.T. Allen answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  He applies Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers perspective to improving at certain tasks.  He also notes that as things improve and grow, the progressive challenge is thinking ahead to the future to better position the company for growth.  J.T. Allen is the CEO and co-founder of myFootpath, a company that provides higher education online resources and call center services to help high school and adult learners choose academic programs in line with career goals.  Before myFootpath, Allen worked in strategy consulting for Ernst & Young.  He earned his BBA and graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

How Operational Excellence Creates Competitive Advantage - J.T. Allen

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, education entrepreneur J.T. Allen answers "How Has Operational Excellence Become a Competitiev Differentiator for Your Business?"  As CEO of a company that helps colleges recruit students, Allen notes that operational excellence is fundamental to competing in a crowded services market.  He shares what has been fundamental to not only satisfy customers but also doing so while scaling his business and call center.  J.T. Allen is the CEO and co-founder of myFootpath, a company that provides higher education online resources and call center services to help high school and adult learners choose academic programs in line with career goals.  Before myFootpath, Allen worked in strategy consulting for Ernst & Young.  He earned his BBA and graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.