Getting Through the Creative Red Zone With My Podcast
Photo by Riley McCullough on Unsplash
I recently finished reading Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkey (coming out Sept 24th). The book is all about how to actually reach the finish line of your creative projects. I thought the book was full of useful advice. One of my favorite ideas from the book was the concept of the creative red zone. If you're not familiar with the term "red zone", it's a term from football where one team gets very close to scoring. It's tough to score in the red zone because the opponent's defense gets more intense. The idea of the creative red zone is that the closer you get to the end of a project the harder it is to actually finish.
I resonated with this concept because I feel like I'm in the creative red zone with my podcast. I currently have seven interviews recorded with two more scheduled. I've edited and created notes for my recorded interviews. Right now I'm recording intros for the podcast based on my guest bios. Once I've finished that the episodes will be ready for you to listen to!
In line with the creative red zone - It feels more difficult to work on the podcast now than it did at the beginning. I've come farther than I thought I could, but there's still a decent chunk of progress to be made before I can say I'm done. Now that I am closer to release I feel more pressure because I have to actually deliver on what my vision is. That's what being in the creative red zone feels like.
How am I pushing through the creative red zone? It comes down to making whatever progress I can one day at a time. I've had to lean on my principle of No Zero Days a lot recently. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a cold last week so I wasn't able to record as much as I wanted. Despite that, I was still able to write scripts and research music for the podcast. As long as i can make some progress every day I will reach my goal.
How does Charlie recommend getting through the red zone in his book? One of his ideas is to focus on getting to good enough. In other words, don't try to be perfect because nothing will ever be perfect. Instead, get your project to a point where you can be proud of it. Another idea he brings up is that you have a right to your actions, but not to your action's faults. The way I interpret that is: I can't guarantee my podcast will be a success. Maybe it will come out and be a flop. But I can take steps to make my podcast as good as I can get it and put my podcast in a position where it can succeed. As long as I do that I can rest happy with the result.
Have you ever felt that you were in a creative red zone? How did you push through it? Feel free to email me and let me know.