Finding Uncommon Inspiration w/ Brandi Sea

Brandi Sea: 00:00:04

Start with words.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:05

Don't, don't try starting with ideas.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:08

If you try starting with an idea without a concept and without a plan, you're

Brandi Sea: 00:00:12

just going, you are going to continue to experience more imposter syndrome.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:17

Imposter syndrome never goes away.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:19

Let's just start.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:19

There never goes away.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:21

But if you work at having a way to fight off the fact that you have an

Brandi Sea: 00:00:28

idea, um, Fixes that like, if, if designers could learn one thing, even

Brandi Sea: 00:00:35

in this process, it would be how to create concepts using a word map,

Brandi Sea: 00:00:39

because that will absolutely changed the rest of everything that you do.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:45

And then understanding how to insert the uncommon inspiration and stop, you

Brandi Sea: 00:00:50

know, just searching where everyone else's searching is like, if I could

Brandi Sea: 00:00:53

teach the entire design world two things, it would be those two things.

George - WIP: 00:01:00

Welcome to Works in Process.

George - WIP: 00:01:02

The podcast where I asked the hows and whys behind creative work.

George - WIP: 00:01:06

Take a ride with me designer and educator, George Garrastegui as I

George - WIP: 00:01:09

learned from my guests, there's not one way to being a creative, but an

George - WIP: 00:01:12

endless possibilities feel by passion, determination, and of course, process.

George - WIP: 00:01:20

And that was today's guest.

George - WIP: 00:01:21

Brandi Sea, Brandi is an award winning designer, educator and creative leader.

George - WIP: 00:01:27

She's been recognized for her poster design work, including judges choice

George - WIP: 00:01:30

at the 2016 Adobe creative jam.

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In 2017, she was also awarded a prestigious Albuquerque 30 award

George - WIP: 00:01:37

from the American advertising Federation, which celebrates the

George - WIP: 00:01:40

30 greatest ideas of the year.

George - WIP: 00:01:43

Brandi has also work as an adjunct professor at an Alma mater

George - WIP: 00:01:45

Southwest university of visual arts teaching advance design concepts.

George - WIP: 00:01:50

She began her design career in 2001 and is actively involved

George - WIP: 00:01:53

in her local design community.

George - WIP: 00:01:55

Brandi uses her 20 years of experience to help fellow creatives map out a

George - WIP: 00:01:59

plan to discover uncommon inspiration and produce more captivating design

George - WIP: 00:02:03

concepts to create standout work through her podcast design Speaks her online

George - WIP: 00:02:09

course, her YouTube channel and blog.

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Brandi works to empower designers with the tools they need to stay inspired

George - WIP: 00:02:15

and create the work that gets noticed.

George - WIP: 00:02:17

Today, I want to learn more about our ability to see inspiration and unusual

George - WIP: 00:02:20

things and how she developed the strategic process and approach for designers

George - WIP: 00:02:25

who look to strengthen their creative confidence so they can present design

George - WIP: 00:02:28

work that gets approved the first time.

George - WIP: 00:02:32

Now let's get into our convo.

George - WIP: 00:02:35

Hey, Brandi, welcome to the Works in Process podcast.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:38

Hey, thank you for having me.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:40

I'm super excited to be here.

George - WIP: 00:02:42

No, no, thank you.

George - WIP: 00:02:43

Glad to finally get you on the show.

George - WIP: 00:02:45

I know it's been a minute.

George - WIP: 00:02:46

We were trying to figure out how to connect and it's

George - WIP: 00:02:47

great to finally get you on.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:49

I know.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:49

You'd think we would be less busy when we're doing so many things, you know, not

Brandi Sea: 00:02:52

in person, but I think it's the opposite.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:54

So it happens.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:55

I'm glad that we finally connected.

George - WIP: 00:02:57

Definitely so glad.

George - WIP: 00:02:58

So before we get started, let's break the ice each episode, I'd like to

George - WIP: 00:03:02

start with a rapid Q and a session.

George - WIP: 00:03:04

Are you ready?

Brandi Sea: 00:03:05

Oh, I love this kind of stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:06

I'm so ready.

George - WIP: 00:03:08

Awesome.

George - WIP: 00:03:09

Coffee or tea,

Brandi Sea: 00:03:11

Oh, coffee.

George - WIP: 00:03:13

eggs, or cereal.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:15

Are we talking breakfast or any time?

Brandi Sea: 00:03:18

Eggs.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:18

I guess I like cereal because it's easy, but I like eggs if

Brandi Sea: 00:03:23

I, if I don't have to cook them.

George - WIP: 00:03:26

Building brands or consulting them

Brandi Sea: 00:03:29

Ooh, consulting.

George - WIP: 00:03:34

analog or digital

Brandi Sea: 00:03:36

Yeah, these are hard analog.

George - WIP: 00:03:39

strategizing or podcasting.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:43

I don't see how those are related, but let's go strategizing.

George - WIP: 00:03:47

Okay, cool.

George - WIP: 00:03:49

And now some quick word association.

George - WIP: 00:03:50

So the first thing you hear of when you, first thing you think of, when

George - WIP: 00:03:53

you hear these words, creativity,

Brandi Sea: 00:03:56

Strategy,

George - WIP: 00:03:59

determination.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:00

perseverance

George - WIP: 00:04:03

Business,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:04

pleasure,

George - WIP: 00:04:06

Failure

Brandi Sea: 00:04:07

learning

George - WIP: 00:04:10

community,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:11

Love

George - WIP: 00:04:14

education,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:15

variety,

George - WIP: 00:04:18

mistakes,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:20

a lot

George - WIP: 00:04:23

skills,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:25

analog

George - WIP: 00:04:27

history,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:29

research,

George - WIP: 00:04:31

opportunity,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:33

travel

George - WIP: 00:04:35

accessibility,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:37

fairness.

George - WIP: 00:04:39

future,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:40

design,

George - WIP: 00:04:42

and last but not least process.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:45

Crucial.

George - WIP: 00:04:47

Nice.

George - WIP: 00:04:48

Nice.

George - WIP: 00:04:48

I like just doing this because it's kind of throws people off a little

George - WIP: 00:04:51

bit and they don't really focus too much on what you're going to

Brandi Sea: 00:04:53

so great.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:54

Some of those surprised me.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:55

I was like, I don't know.

George - WIP: 00:04:58

I know,

George - WIP: 00:04:58

sometimes when you get to that, you're like really, I never thought about

Brandi Sea: 00:05:00

Yeah, no.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:02

I said as they came out of my mouth, though, they all make sense for how

Brandi Sea: 00:05:05

I think so works out well, and I'm going to have some Not-tea right now,

George - WIP: 00:05:10

Some Not-tea um, so as we continue,

George - WIP: 00:05:14

I want to get a little bit into what I call your origin story.

George - WIP: 00:05:17

Right.

George - WIP: 00:05:17

And find a little bit of how you've been introduced to art and design.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:20

how I became a superhero.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:21

You mean?

George - WIP: 00:05:22

Well, Okay.

George - WIP: 00:05:23

That maybe that's the bigger question.

George - WIP: 00:05:25

How you became a superhero in art and design, but were, where did you grow up

George - WIP: 00:05:28

and where you creative or artsy as a kid?

Brandi Sea: 00:05:30

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:31

So I I'm born and bred in New Mexico, which for those of you who are not

Brandi Sea: 00:05:37

great at geography is not Mexico.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:41

And we are a part of the United States.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:43

Um, I grew up around Santa Fe, which is the capital, um, in a Hispanic family.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:49

And I have always been artsy creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:53

My dad's a avid collector of art of all sorts, and he's, he's got

Brandi Sea: 00:05:58

his own construction, um, design build construction company.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:02

And so I always saw him, you know, working with plans and creating things.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:06

And I have always loved to draw to paint.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:10

Um, I mean every kid loves to color, I think, but I really was

Brandi Sea: 00:06:14

fostered in that by my parents to kind of pursue creative things.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:18

So.

George - WIP: 00:06:21

Awesome.

George - WIP: 00:06:22

Awesome.

George - WIP: 00:06:22

Um, so do you think your family or school played a larger role in you

George - WIP: 00:06:27

becoming a designer or were you saying.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:30

Oh, becoming the designer.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:31

So my family was very, very supportive in my endeavors.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:36

So they always wanted to steer me in whatever direction I

Brandi Sea: 00:06:39

was, you know, leaning towards.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:42

So they definitely supported my career in every possible way,

Brandi Sea: 00:06:47

but I did go to design school.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:49

So.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:51

I think it's probably a healthy mix of both.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:53

My parents supported my creative, my creativity from the time that I was

Brandi Sea: 00:06:57

like three years old and didn't want to wear a match socks because I thought

Brandi Sea: 00:07:00

it was more fun to do mismatch to, you know, high school where I was doing

Brandi Sea: 00:07:06

art classes and all of that stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:08

So, yeah, I think it was probably a pretty good mix of both.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:11

I knew I wanted to be a designer since I was 10 years old.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:14

My dad took me with him to work and he just happened to be remodeling, um, on

Brandi Sea: 00:07:19

some floors underneath a design studio that was on the second floor, took me

Brandi Sea: 00:07:22

up to meet those owners just for fun.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:24

And I saw them making business cards.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:27

That's like, that's a ten-year-old you don't really know what that is.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:31

So at 10 years old, I decided I wanted to be a business card maker.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:35

Like that's what I thought it was.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:37

And I would like go home.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:38

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:38

I would go home and like cut out pieces of.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:41

In the shape of like business cards and like make that.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:43

So I'm very blessed that I have always kind of known what

Brandi Sea: 00:07:49

I want to do and I'm doing it

George - WIP: 00:07:52

So what was your first creative job and

George - WIP: 00:07:54

how did you stumble into it

Brandi Sea: 00:07:56

my first creative job.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:58

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:58

So I wouldn't say I stumbled into it.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:01

Um, I'm, I've been involved with AIG for a long time.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:04

When I was in college, I was a junior in college and they AIG, I have a

Brandi Sea: 00:08:09

student group that I became part of.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:12

And through that they had a mentorship program where they would

Brandi Sea: 00:08:16

insert designers that were going to school and to sort of like an

Brandi Sea: 00:08:19

internship with a design firm locally.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:23

So I started doing that my junior year, uh, with a design firm

Brandi Sea: 00:08:28

called bad dog design in Santa Fe.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:30

And after a few months, you know, I guess the school was amazing and I was

Brandi Sea: 00:08:35

learning really well, but I stopped being an intern and she actually hired me my

Brandi Sea: 00:08:39

senior year of design school as though I was, she was like, you don't need to

Brandi Sea: 00:08:44

be sorting like Pantone, swatch books.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:46

You should, you know, come in these meetings, help me strategize,

Brandi Sea: 00:08:50

like help me do some design work.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:51

So I wouldn't say I stumbled.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:53

I think I worked super hard to do that, but it was something that I don't think

Brandi Sea: 00:08:59

that I would have been here without that experience with a designer in the field.

George - WIP: 00:09:05

And then when did you consider yourself a creative?

Brandi Sea: 00:09:11

Oh, Hmm.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:13

Probably always.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:14

Um, I would say I wouldn't, I wouldn't have considered myself a

Brandi Sea: 00:09:17

creative professional until like I actually graduated, even though

Brandi Sea: 00:09:22

I had been doing paid client work since I started in college.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:28

I don't think that, you know, the imposter syndrome is super real when

Brandi Sea: 00:09:32

you're, I mean, it's still real, right.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:34

Let's be honest.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:35

But especially when you're in school, You're like, well, I'm not really a

Brandi Sea: 00:09:40

professional yet, even though someone's paying me to do this, I have a process,

Brandi Sea: 00:09:43

like I'm doing this stuff, but I don't have my degree or I don't have

Brandi Sea: 00:09:47

a job or someone isn't like actively telling me you are a professional.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:51

So I would say I've always called myself creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:54

I've always felt like I am a creative, but creative professional.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:57

Probably not until after I graduated from college.

George - WIP: 00:10:01

So that's the distinction you kind of put onto it, right.

George - WIP: 00:10:03

Creative versus creative professional.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:06

Because I think everybody's creative everybody in their own way.

George - WIP: 00:10:09

Agreed.

George - WIP: 00:10:10

And I think people, I think that's where I did the delineation.

George - WIP: 00:10:12

Right,

George - WIP: 00:10:13

Like not being creative, but becoming a creative, um, awesome.

George - WIP: 00:10:17

Awesome.

George - WIP: 00:10:17

Thank you for that quick intro to, Brandi where you started in, you know,

George - WIP: 00:10:22

not old Mexico, but in New Mexico.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:24

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:26

So many people.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:27

Do you speak English?

Brandi Sea: 00:10:28

Did you grow up speaking English?

Brandi Sea: 00:10:30

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:30

It's the United States of America.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:32

Yep.

George - WIP: 00:10:33

Right, So I followed Design Speaks the podcast actually,

George - WIP: 00:10:37

before I knew who was behind the voice...

Brandi Sea: 00:10:38

Oh my gosh.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:39

I didn't know that.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:40

That's amazing.

George - WIP: 00:10:42

it's interesting to kind of see, how we've had certain

George - WIP: 00:10:44

connections being part of the AIGA and, then being realizing like,

George - WIP: 00:10:48

wait, is that the same Brandi?

George - WIP: 00:10:50

That's part of this, that's actually that.

George - WIP: 00:10:51

And I'm like, Oh crap.

George - WIP: 00:10:52

It's all the same person.

George - WIP: 00:10:54

So can you just give us a really quick intro to like, how'd you

George - WIP: 00:10:57

get started with the podcast.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:59

Oh man.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:00

-Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:00

Buckle up because it's more than just podcasts.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:03

So in 2015, I was being really frustrated in my design career by some bad actors.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:12

Let's just say in the design biz, locally that I knew were

Brandi Sea: 00:11:16

ripping off other people's work.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:18

And they were getting paid and getting lots of clients, but they

Brandi Sea: 00:11:21

were doing really sketchy stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:22

And I was just getting really frustrated because at the time I felt like those

Brandi Sea: 00:11:26

kinds of people were taking my business.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:28

I know now that's not the kind of business I want to begin with, but

Brandi Sea: 00:11:31

then it was still just like, oh, why are these people getting work?

Brandi Sea: 00:11:35

They're not doing things right.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:36

And there came a point where I decided, instead of just complaining, what

Brandi Sea: 00:11:43

if I just do something about it?

Brandi Sea: 00:11:44

Like maybe I can take the high ground and perhaps this person or these people,

Brandi Sea: 00:11:49

maybe they don't really actually know.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:52

I'm going to try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:54

Maybe they don't know that it's not okay to get a thing off Google and like sorta

Brandi Sea: 00:11:58

like twist it and make it your own.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:01

Um, so I thought, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm going to do a blog.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:04

I'm going to start a blog and like start writing about these frustrations, but in

Brandi Sea: 00:12:08

a productive, like constructive criticism sort of way to help, maybe the people

Brandi Sea: 00:12:14

understand in the world that do these kinds of things, how to be better and how

Brandi Sea: 00:12:18

to do things better and how to have better processes around these kinds of things.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:22

From there, I was asked if I would be willing to do a YouTube channel.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:28

They're like, I love your blog.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:30

I love your design tips.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:31

It would be so cool if you did a YouTube channel.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:33

And I was like, I don't know.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:35

I don't know about that.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:36

And my husband's a video producer and he was like, we can do it super easy.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:40

Like we'll just set it up and record a whole bunch in a day.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:42

And like, they don't have to be long.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:43

It'll just be really easy.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:45

So from there I started doing the same thing.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:48

Quick design tips.

Brandi Sea: 00:12:49

They called it design tip Tuesdays, and just three to five, maybe seven minute

Brandi Sea: 00:12:54

videos on YouTube where I'm doing the same thing, taking the frustrations that I

Brandi Sea: 00:12:58

have with the design industry or designers that I really want to help them be better.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:02

I want to help them grow to do things, you know, have some

Brandi Sea: 00:13:07

design ethics around what they do.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:09

And from there I realized that being on camera was fun, but it's different when

Brandi Sea: 00:13:17

there's someone sitting in front of you.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:19

So I talked with my sister and asked her if she would be willing

Brandi Sea: 00:13:25

to do a podcast with me and act as the non-designer who comes and

Brandi Sea: 00:13:32

asks questions maybe about things.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:34

So the podcast was kind of an answer to my frustration with.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:38

Clients and the world at large, that don't understand slash don't value what we do

Brandi Sea: 00:13:44

maybe, because they don't understand.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:46

So again, taking these frustrations that I have and trying to give the world

Brandi Sea: 00:13:51

benefit of the doubt that like, maybe they just say XYZ or ask these things because

Brandi Sea: 00:13:56

they don't know, they don't understand.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:59

So I want to help show them how design speaks in the world, what

Brandi Sea: 00:14:04

it tells us, why it's important.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:06

You know, we encounter it from the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close

Brandi Sea: 00:14:11

our eyes every day, something is designed.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:13

So that is where that started is her bringing these questions about, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:14:19

why does design cost so much and all of that stuff and it sort of evolved.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:22

So that was in 2017.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:23

It's actually five years this month, which is crazy.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:28

And, It sort of evolves because she started learning things.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:32

She became a member of a creative team herself, and she was no longer like the

Brandi Sea: 00:14:37

non-designer non-creative professional.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:39

And so it sort of morphed into something new.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:41

Um, she left in at the end of 2019 and I got a new co-host.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:46

And so the target audience for me has shifted from being, for kind of

Brandi Sea: 00:14:52

the world at large people that don't understand to being very targeted to

Brandi Sea: 00:14:57

solo designers or designers that work on smaller design teams that need

Brandi Sea: 00:15:02

support, that need advice that need better processes that need better ways

Brandi Sea: 00:15:07

to ask questions and things like that.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:08

So currently I am in the process of, and this is actually the first time I've

Brandi Sea: 00:15:15

said this live anywhere, so it's okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:17

We're going to just tell the world now I'm still going to be doing the podcast,

Brandi Sea: 00:15:21

but I'm going to be starting video first.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:23

So I'm going to be doing YouTube.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:26

Designed speaks first and then taking that and turning that into the audio podcast.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:30

So I'm going to be back in front of people talking just like, I am like this to the

Brandi Sea: 00:15:35

world on video more and sort of having the podcast to be a companion to that.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:40

So hope that answers your question.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:42

I knew it was going to be a long answer cause it wasn't just, I woke up today

Brandi Sea: 00:15:46

and said, I want to start a podcast.

Brandi Sea: 00:15:47

It was definitely a progression of things.

George - WIP: 00:15:51

No.

George - WIP: 00:15:51

And the progression I think is, is, is real.

George - WIP: 00:15:53

And it's interesting how you, you know, the impetus was the frustration, right?

George - WIP: 00:15:57

In your local design community and feeling like you had something to

George - WIP: 00:16:01

say, and, a blog is different ? Like you can be a writer and you can

George - WIP: 00:16:05

position yourself with words, but then putting yourself in front of a camera.

George - WIP: 00:16:09

And then shifting that to a YouTube channel is very different.

George - WIP: 00:16:11

Right?

George - WIP: 00:16:12

You do have a script, you are still doing that, but maybe the idea of being

George - WIP: 00:16:16

in front is not everybody's forte.

George - WIP: 00:16:19

Right.

George - WIP: 00:16:20

Was that a big challenge for you?

George - WIP: 00:16:21

Was that something that came naturally shifting from the blog because

George - WIP: 00:16:25

you had something to say, but then now being in front of people in

George - WIP: 00:16:29

a way where like, how do I look?

George - WIP: 00:16:31

How do I sound?

George - WIP: 00:16:31

How do I, you know, for me, I talk with my hands, Right.

George - WIP: 00:16:34

So it's a definite thing.

George - WIP: 00:16:35

You have to be careful, you know, you hold coffee, so you don't move...

Brandi Sea: 00:16:39

No, honestly go watch all of my old YouTube channels.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:41

My husband told me you need to hold something.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:44

Cause he's, he's a video producer.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:46

And I was, I was always holding like a pen or something and I'm like doing this or,

Brandi Sea: 00:16:50

you know, Hispanic talk with their hands.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:52

And so I'm just like crazy.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:54

And he was like, here, you have your coffee, hold your coffee.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:57

And so I would just hold my coffee all the time.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:59

So, um, yeah, getting, getting comfortable.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:02

I think that the hardest thing for me, I don't really love reading scripts.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:10

I don't like exactly word for word, knowing what I'm going to say.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:14

I'm not ever going, you know, I've presented a lot.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:16

I've done some keynote speaking.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:17

Now at this point, I've spoken in front of groups of people.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:22

And I realized that in order for me to be very comfortable, I need to just

Brandi Sea: 00:17:27

have an idea of what I'm going to say.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:30

And then I can let my own voice out and let me out.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:32

And it always works out way better.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:35

That way.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:36

In the beginning, I was basically taking things that I wrote

Brandi Sea: 00:17:41

trying to memorize them and then getting in front of the camera.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:44

Cause it was only like three or five minutes.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:46

Like I can do three to five minutes, but the like your literal voice sounds.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:52

different When you are trying to read and process and talk.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:57

So I don't even think still that I have that completely down.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:01

I've definitely gotten a lot better at it.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:03

And that's something that I'm going to be exploring in this new iteration,

Brandi Sea: 00:18:06

getting back to Youtube more regularly in conjunction with the podcast,

Brandi Sea: 00:18:10

because I have a lot of written content.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:13

I have hundreds and hundreds of posts of all kinds and things I've

Brandi Sea: 00:18:19

written that I've never talked about.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:21

So I'm going to be using the things that I wrote as a sort of script

Brandi Sea: 00:18:25

to be in front of the camera.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:27

But I think that Instagram and Tik-tok have really boosted my confidence even

Brandi Sea: 00:18:34

more than just being on YouTube for all these years, because it feels less formal.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:39

Right.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:40

And I can just show up.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:41

So I think now is the perfect time for me to try and do that.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:47

You know, it just takes practice and I was not comfortable.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:51

My voice was, I can't even watch them.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:54

My voice is super flat and I just, I'm just holding my coffee

Brandi Sea: 00:18:57

cup and I just look really stiff.

Brandi Sea: 00:19:00

So I had good things to say, but I think that hopefully I've upped

Brandi Sea: 00:19:04

my, my confidence level on that.

George - WIP: 00:19:08

oh yeah.

George - WIP: 00:19:08

Delivery is such a hard thing to, to consider and when you're thinking about

George - WIP: 00:19:11

that, and that's why I was wondering the shift between written comments.

George - WIP: 00:19:15

You know, to, um, visual content compared to then shifting to a podcast, which

George - WIP: 00:19:21

is it's different because they're just healing, hearing your voice or the

George - WIP: 00:19:24

inflections and things are different compared to hearing your voice,

George - WIP: 00:19:27

but then seeing what you look like.

George - WIP: 00:19:29

Right.

George - WIP: 00:19:29

And, and doing all those things and, and noticing all the

George - WIP: 00:19:32

idiosyncrasies that you do on video.

George - WIP: 00:19:34

And you're like, oh my God.

George - WIP: 00:19:35

Right?

George - WIP: 00:19:35

Like I moved my hands, I do this, I look to the side.

George - WIP: 00:19:38

Right.

George - WIP: 00:19:38

And you start to start to scrutinize yourself a lot.

George - WIP: 00:19:41

So when you start to see all the different variations and, you know,

George - WIP: 00:19:44

it's, it's not easy to do that.

George - WIP: 00:19:45

And I, and I think, know, one of the reasons know, I haven't done really a

George - WIP: 00:19:49

video version is because of all of that.

George - WIP: 00:19:51

Right.

George - WIP: 00:19:51

And I think it's because of the practice that you have to say.

George - WIP: 00:19:54

right, and I think the intention is right.

George - WIP: 00:19:55

To have like an outline to kind of keep you honest, but then, know,

George - WIP: 00:19:59

if you're, if you're to scripted..

George - WIP: 00:20:01

know, You're you're to figuring out, like, if I said the wrong word, do I stop?

George - WIP: 00:20:05

Do I do this, do it.

George - WIP: 00:20:06

And you know, that's, that's part of the, the, the practice of doing

George - WIP: 00:20:09

it live and not caring so much.

George - WIP: 00:20:11

And I like to hear that, know, you said that like TikTok has

George - WIP: 00:20:14

made it less formal for you.

George - WIP: 00:20:16

Right.

George - WIP: 00:20:16

And the idea that you're not really so focused on perfection, let's

George - WIP: 00:20:19

say, and just really getting the content out is really the point...

Brandi Sea: 00:20:23

Yeah.

George - WIP: 00:20:23

which I think is important.

George - WIP: 00:20:24

Right?

George - WIP: 00:20:24

Because social media sometimes allows us to like, create this,

George - WIP: 00:20:27

false person of who we are.

George - WIP: 00:20:29

And it's, it's nice that you're saying, well, actually social media is allowing

George - WIP: 00:20:32

us to be just like, just be who I am...

Brandi Sea: 00:20:33

Yeah, for me, it's definitely done the opposite.

Brandi Sea: 00:20:35

And I think that, that, honestly, that did start with the podcast because in

Brandi Sea: 00:20:39

the beginning we were really doing a lot of high-end high level editing,

Brandi Sea: 00:20:45

where we're taking out all the ums, all the Oz, all the like silences, all

Brandi Sea: 00:20:50

the likes, because I say like a lot, you're going to notice that it just is.

Brandi Sea: 00:20:53

And I think over, over the years, my husband was like, we need to just talk.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:00

You need to probably just practice trying not to say.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:04

Um, and ah, and really think before you speak so that we don't have to do so much

Brandi Sea: 00:21:08

editing and you're a professional speaker.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:12

It's good to practice trying not to say those things anyways

Brandi Sea: 00:21:16

and not use editing as a crutch.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:18

So that was very much for me, like a challenge to get better at speaking,

Brandi Sea: 00:21:22

get better at thinking through how I'm going to say things without coming

Brandi Sea: 00:21:26

an online and realizing that even if you are silent instead of saying,

Brandi Sea: 00:21:29

um, or like it's way better overall.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:33

And people get to hear you, they get to see the authentic you, and then it

Brandi Sea: 00:21:39

doesn't sound like you're reading from a script because if it's overly edited

Brandi Sea: 00:21:41

too, sometimes I think that it does sound like someone's just reading from

Brandi Sea: 00:21:45

a thing and you get discouraged maybe as a fellow content creator going, man,

Brandi Sea: 00:21:50

they, they like have this down, not realizing that they are probably almost

Brandi Sea: 00:21:56

100% editing out anything awkward or weird or uncomfortable about the things.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:02

So I think that getting that in the podcast and then having the whole Tik

Brandi Sea: 00:22:08

Tok stories on Instagram and now reels and things like that from my brain

Brandi Sea: 00:22:14

and in conjunction has been very much.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:17

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:18

I know I can do this.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:19

This is how I talk.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:20

This is just how I am.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:21

I'm goofy.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:22

I'm quirky.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:23

I'm weird.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:24

Loud and bold.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:25

And sometimes I say things, people don't like, but that's just what I, what I do.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:29

And I've never, ever been one to overly curate on Instagram.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:34

I've I do like to curate my feet a little bit.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:36

Cause I like color and I like rainbow and I liked the way that looks, but that's not

Brandi Sea: 00:22:40

to give a false perception of anything.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:42

That's literally, because that's what I like.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:44

So I think that, yes, it has done the opposite for me.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:47

I'm not really worried about any kind of perfection, if anything, it's less.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:51

So, because if everyone's doing the perfection thing, right.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:55

That was really big a while back.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:56

I'm like, I'm not going to do that because I want to be against what

Brandi Sea: 00:22:59

everybody else is doing, which is also another part of my personality.

George - WIP: 00:23:04

right.

George - WIP: 00:23:04

It's almost like editing is like the Photoshopping

George - WIP: 00:23:07

of, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:23:08

100%.

Brandi Sea: 00:23:09

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:23:10

Let's fix all of this and make it sound like you're a fantastic

Brandi Sea: 00:23:13

speaker and they hire you to speak and you can't do it live.

George - WIP: 00:23:17

Right.

George - WIP: 00:23:17

And, and I think the practice is a big deal.

George - WIP: 00:23:19

And you know, both of us as educators, I think one of the things that I, I try to

George - WIP: 00:23:23

instill in my students is the fact that, to be more comfortable with presenting

George - WIP: 00:23:28

the content and right as content creators, as we're talking as we're

George - WIP: 00:23:30

guest speakers and things like that is to actually know the content though, right?

George - WIP: 00:23:34

Like, you know, if you don't know the content, it is going to come

George - WIP: 00:23:37

out in the way you present the information, because it's going to

George - WIP: 00:23:40

sound like you need to practice.

George - WIP: 00:23:42

It's going to sound like you're unsure.

George - WIP: 00:23:43

It's gonna sound like you're not willing to take that, that risk.

George - WIP: 00:23:46

And the fact that, like you mentioned, having the ability to take a pause instead

George - WIP: 00:23:51

of the ums likes and all of those things is really, you know, owning that you may

George - WIP: 00:23:57

need time to think you may need time to reflect and, or you may need time to.

George - WIP: 00:24:02

Figure out what you said and maybe make an edit on the fly, but it's a

George - WIP: 00:24:05

definite different thing than saying, well, I'm going to stop and we'll cut

George - WIP: 00:24:10

it and post and, and all of this stuff.

George - WIP: 00:24:12

So I think owning the content, right.

George - WIP: 00:24:14

And you're talking about, you have all of this stuff that is gonna, that you've

George - WIP: 00:24:18

written in blogs and stuff like that.

George - WIP: 00:24:20

They just haven't really come out.

George - WIP: 00:24:22

So using that as a big, you know, a stepping stone, right?

George - WIP: 00:24:25

You already have that.

George - WIP: 00:24:26

So it's part of you, it's already in you.

George - WIP: 00:24:28

So it's not like you have to practice that.

George - WIP: 00:24:30

And I think that's a big thing that, you know, listeners should understand is

George - WIP: 00:24:33

the fact that I think one of the reasons that people are tapped for speaking

George - WIP: 00:24:39

engagements and stuff like that is because of their perspective and points of views.

George - WIP: 00:24:42

And it seems like that's now going to shift a little bit into, you

George - WIP: 00:24:47

know, how that's shifting from just an auditory format to, you know,

George - WIP: 00:24:51

um, consider the video first, right?

George - WIP: 00:24:54

Like we're websites were like mobile first, and then

George - WIP: 00:24:56

you worry about the desktop.

George - WIP: 00:24:58

You're going to do video first and then worry about the podcast.

George - WIP: 00:25:01

interesting.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:01

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:01

That's going to be, we'll see it, it is a TBD.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:04

I'm starting to plan the episodes for this next season, so we'll see how that goes.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:08

But yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:09

Going back to what you were saying.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:12

Understanding why basically knowing your reasons, so understanding

Brandi Sea: 00:25:17

why you do what you do when you present makes presenting anything.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:22

Whether it's a project or I don't know, whatever the thing may be a

Brandi Sea: 00:25:26

cake to somebody that's like a baking expert, like knowing why you did

Brandi Sea: 00:25:30

something, it takes the stress away.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:32

If you already know why you did something, you shouldn't matter why people are asking

Brandi Sea: 00:25:37

you because you have an answer for them.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:39

That's why I really love, especially anytime I get to do speaking

Brandi Sea: 00:25:42

engagements and they have a Q and a session, I'm all about that because

Brandi Sea: 00:25:46

I love answering people's questions.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:49

And that's where you get to establish, like, if there's anybody

Brandi Sea: 00:25:52

out there that like, wants to.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:54

Um, educator of any kind or a voice, you know, that is recognizable and

Brandi Sea: 00:26:00

an influencer, a design influencer, you have to be prepared for people

Brandi Sea: 00:26:04

to ask you why about everything.

Brandi Sea: 00:26:07

And when you can answer why without having to look at notes, without having

Brandi Sea: 00:26:11

to do any of that stuff, that's when you start to establish your credibility.

Brandi Sea: 00:26:15

And that's when people want to hire you because they go, oh, this person

Brandi Sea: 00:26:18

knows what they're talking about.

Brandi Sea: 00:26:19

They didn't have to go back through some, you know, some old

Brandi Sea: 00:26:21

book from a professor, you know?

Brandi Sea: 00:26:23

So stuff like that is really valuable, knowing your reasons.

George - WIP: 00:26:27

I totally agree.

George - WIP: 00:26:28

Right.

George - WIP: 00:26:28

I think it's just a great way for us to be considered , experts or, or versions

George - WIP: 00:26:34

of ourselves that really understand brands or design or society or culture.

George - WIP: 00:26:39

Right.

George - WIP: 00:26:40

Where we don't have to look back to, you know, our notes or research

George - WIP: 00:26:44

the book or things like that.

George - WIP: 00:26:46

So I think, you know, part of it is just the practice to get there.

George - WIP: 00:26:49

The, do it more often, is, is really what gets us there.

George - WIP: 00:26:52

Right?

George - WIP: 00:26:53

And, and so as you're doing this right, you said about five years,

George - WIP: 00:26:57

know, definitely it seems like a nice shift for you to have to start

George - WIP: 00:27:01

thinking about this new approach.

George - WIP: 00:27:05

And know, as we, we think about the podcast and, and you know, when you

George - WIP: 00:27:09

said it's not just a podcast, right?

George - WIP: 00:27:11

It's like a whole entire like ecosystem for you.

George - WIP: 00:27:13

There's a blog, there's a podcast, there's an approach you're doing

George - WIP: 00:27:17

TikTok and reels and videos and, you know, changing from long form short

George - WIP: 00:27:22

form and all of this stuff like that.

George - WIP: 00:27:23

Right.

George - WIP: 00:27:24

When did you figure out you had this knack for like cultivating ideas?

Brandi Sea: 00:27:31

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:33

That's interesting that you ask it that way.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:34

I, I am a creative director and that has always been

Brandi Sea: 00:27:40

something that I have had in me.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:43

I've always, I've always had the ability to think bigger to my personality.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:49

I don't know what you know about the Enneagram.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:50

I know some people feel weird about it.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:52

I'm an Enneagram three, which just helped me understand me better, ultimately,

Brandi Sea: 00:27:57

because I am, I am an overachiever.

Brandi Sea: 00:27:59

I always want to do more.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:00

In high school.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:01

I played three sports and was captain of two teams and was just

Brandi Sea: 00:28:08

involved in all sorts of stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:09

And I like to think big and have good ideas and have my hands in lots of things.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:15

So in that I think that.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:20

When I became a business owner of my own thing, which was in 2012, the, it was

Brandi Sea: 00:28:26

overwhelming at the thing, the amount of things I needed to do, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:28:30

before, when you're an art director or creative director in a, in a more

Brandi Sea: 00:28:34

like office place, they bring you the stuff you, you have like a manager that

Brandi Sea: 00:28:39

brings you clients or a project manager or marketing director or whatever.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:43

And then as the art or creative director, you direct the people that work under you.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:47

So that was like my experience.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:50

And then that's something I still love to do.

Brandi Sea: 00:28:52

But when you, when I took it home and was opening up my own business, all of

Brandi Sea: 00:28:58

a sudden, there's all sorts of things to do that are very overwhelming,

Brandi Sea: 00:29:01

all the boring businessy stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:03

But then I realized I can do what I want.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:06

I can do whatever I want with this.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:09

And as these different opportunities, right over the years have come from blogs

Brandi Sea: 00:29:14

and YouTube and podcasting and Instagram.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:18

I was, I was on Instagram since the beginning, just posting weird filters

Brandi Sea: 00:29:22

on my daughter's shoes or something because I was very artistic then in

Brandi Sea: 00:29:26

whatever year, that was 2007 or eight.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:28

And I think that I don't have a problem coming up with ideas and

Brandi Sea: 00:29:36

figuring out a more things I can do.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:38

My problem comes from reigning it in.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:42

I have, I have.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:43

So like I have an Evernote full of ideas of things that I want

Brandi Sea: 00:29:48

to do with this business or things that I hope I can achieve.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:52

I'm in the process of writing a book.

Brandi Sea: 00:29:54

And so there's just a lot that I know is just in my personality.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:00

That's just the.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:02

Person that I am.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:03

I, I like to cultivate ideas for myself, but I really love to help other people

Brandi Sea: 00:30:07

cultivate their ideas and build them up to be able to do things that like

Brandi Sea: 00:30:12

they did not even know were possible.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:14

And so that's really, that's really, I think my, why is helping people to

Brandi Sea: 00:30:19

understand how to harness and take control of that creativity, not just be

Brandi Sea: 00:30:24

like, oh, I'm a creative, but I also do design and I know that's creative, but I

Brandi Sea: 00:30:28

can't really control when I'm creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:30

I just sort of when I'm feeling and I'm feeling it and you know, I don't

Brandi Sea: 00:30:36

like that idea because I, I know that we are required as design professionals

Brandi Sea: 00:30:41

with clients, with deadlines.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:43

We don't have that freedom.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:44

Like we really don't to kind of free flow and, oh, well, you know, client

Brandi Sea: 00:30:49

today, I just wasn't feeling creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:53

Um, so we're going to have to push off that deadline like another week.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:56

See if I can like drink some coffee, maybe go for a walk it's in fresh air.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:00

Cause I'm just really not feeling inspired, like, sorry.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:04

That does not work.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:05

Whether you're working for yourself or you're working for an agency

Brandi Sea: 00:31:08

or you're working in house.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:10

The real world of creative professionals is that we still have deadlines.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:14

I've had to do it for me and understanding how to do that for

Brandi Sea: 00:31:16

myself has helped me understand how to help other people do the same.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:20

And I know that I don't even know if I answered your question.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:22

I get off.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:23

Hopefully that answered your question about creativity.

George - WIP: 00:31:28

I mean, you know, we're talking about cultivating ideas and it

George - WIP: 00:31:30

looks like you, you, you have endless opportunities to cultivate ideas.

George - WIP: 00:31:34

And what you talked about is the reigning it in, right.

George - WIP: 00:31:37

The editing process, the honing, the honing it down.

George - WIP: 00:31:39

And I think that's really at the heart of what your strategic process is.

George - WIP: 00:31:45

Right.

George - WIP: 00:31:46

And so can you tell us a little bit about what this is the strategic process and how

George - WIP: 00:31:50

it's helped you reign it in, as you said,

Brandi Sea: 00:31:53

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:54

So the strategic process is what I call is basically my name for the

Brandi Sea: 00:32:00

creative process that I have the design.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:03

I would rather call it like a design process.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:06

I think the creative process is a bit broad and could be applied to any, you

Brandi Sea: 00:32:10

know, illustrator or fine artist, painter photographer, but a design process that

Brandi Sea: 00:32:17

strategic is just really different.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:20

And I think that when I ask people about their design, their processes, a lot of

Brandi Sea: 00:32:25

these steps, you know, will be similar.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:29

The process that I have, I basically developed for myself over the years

Brandi Sea: 00:32:33

that like now I'm trying to teach people is something that is a very

Brandi Sea: 00:32:40

structured step by step, by step process, to being the most creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:46

And I know that like, for people that don't understand how this works, it sounds

Brandi Sea: 00:32:50

really how can you have a step-by-step process for being more creative?

Brandi Sea: 00:32:55

If a lot of people feel like if you're putting me in a box, you're limiting my

Brandi Sea: 00:32:59

creativity and I want to like get out.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:03

I want to think outside of the box and what this process does for me, what it has

Brandi Sea: 00:33:10

always done for me is it creates the box.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:14

I don't know about you, but when I say this to people, usually

Brandi Sea: 00:33:18

they go, oh yeah, you're right.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:19

If I were to just tell you, you know what, I need a house, build

Brandi Sea: 00:33:24

me a house or let's go cake build.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:28

Like Napoleon dynamite.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:29

He's going to, you know, Pedro is going to build her a cake or something.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:33

Just build me a cake and you go, okay, what kind of cake?

Brandi Sea: 00:33:38

Just fill me a cake, have fun.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:40

Do what, do what you want.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:43

Okay, cool.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:45

I'm going to go sit and stare at the aisle of things that I need to buy.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:51

And I don't know what cake to get.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:54

I don't know what to put on it.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:56

I don't know what to put inside it.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:57

I don't know what shape you want.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:58

Like, there's just so many options.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:59

If I told you then, okay, I need a cake.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:03

It's going to be for a 16th birthday.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:06

I was really hoping it could be some sort of fruit you could decide on the fruit,

Brandi Sea: 00:34:11

but it needs to be a, probably needs to be pink and gold with some like black

Brandi Sea: 00:34:16

accents, um, for a 16 year old's birthday party, it needs to feed about 30 people.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:22

All of a sudden now.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:24

You probably already, even though I don't know if you're a baker or not, you

Brandi Sea: 00:34:27

probably already have like a picture and some ideas of what's going into this.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:32

And that's what this process does.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:34

It creates a box that you can work inside.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:37

So now, you know what the sides are, you know, the size, you know, the

Brandi Sea: 00:34:41

colors, you know, the fillings and the ingredients and the theme, which is the

Brandi Sea: 00:34:46

concept, you know, all of those things.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:50

And even if you and I, and 10 other designers had those same parameters,

Brandi Sea: 00:34:54

every single one of those cakes is going to be different because

Brandi Sea: 00:34:57

we are all different people.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:59

And that's what this process does.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:00

And I really, the reason that I came up with this process while I was using

Brandi Sea: 00:35:04

this process all through college, I sort of learned the, the start of this is

Brandi Sea: 00:35:09

the design brief, which I think a lot of people have variations on the design

Brandi Sea: 00:35:13

brief, but there are certain questions that I always start with in this.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:18

Mainly like, what are some adjectives that you would use to describe your brand?

Brandi Sea: 00:35:23

What are some things that you would like your customer, your dream customer

Brandi Sea: 00:35:26

to think about crafting a color story after you learn all this stuff, a

Brandi Sea: 00:35:31

target audience story, understanding on a deep level, who they are, not

Brandi Sea: 00:35:35

just demographics, psychographics, like the dumb bullet point marketing

Brandi Sea: 00:35:39

stuff, but like understanding the person because there is a real human

Brandi Sea: 00:35:43

on the side of every design that is someone you're trying to speak to.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:48

All of those things in the creative brief were something

Brandi Sea: 00:35:50

that I learned about in college.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:52

But the thing that really is the linchpin of this process that I use is that I

Brandi Sea: 00:35:59

use a word map method to find a concept, the guiding concept for all of the

Brandi Sea: 00:36:06

variations of the design, from the word.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:10

Besides the concept, then you use the concepts to help you find your

Brandi Sea: 00:36:13

typefaces, your colors, your images, and graphics, all of those things.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:19

Before you ever start touching the computer, does that to design before

Brandi Sea: 00:36:24

you sketch, before you do anything.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:26

And then this thread of uncommon inspiration goes through the

Brandi Sea: 00:36:31

entire process from the word map to researching brainstorming.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:35

Um, there's a step for sleep, which is like a crucial, crucial element to this.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:40

But for you, after you do your research and your style reference hunting, I don't

Brandi Sea: 00:36:48

call it inspiration because I feel like that's a completely separate element.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:52

Um, sleeping on that and not looking at those references and then waking up

Brandi Sea: 00:36:57

and sketching allows your brain to work them into your very own gray matter so

Brandi Sea: 00:37:04

that you can then sketch from your own.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:07

And not just look at something here in sketch or open up Pinterest

Brandi Sea: 00:37:12

and go, I really like that.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:13

I'm just going to change this font and then I'm going to

Brandi Sea: 00:37:15

take, you know, use that idea.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:17

That's not inspiration.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:18

That's still just like taking someone else's ideas and altering it.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:22

So after sleeping and sketching, then the rest of it is, is very, very common.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:27

It's narrowing your options, right?

Brandi Sea: 00:37:29

Executing your design, presenting it to the client.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:32

All of that stuff is pretty standard.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:34

But the first three, four ish steps, maybe even five up through sketching.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:40

Cause there's a lot of designers that don't sketch anymore.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:43

All of these things are something that makes this process really

Brandi Sea: 00:37:47

special and any person that has ever tried it has been helped by it.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:54

And there was a point where I realized that this is really, really

Brandi Sea: 00:37:57

unique for me to use it, but my nature of wanting to educate and

Brandi Sea: 00:38:03

share and help designers be better.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:06

Made me not want to keep it to myself.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:08

So I've been sharing that for years to help other designers.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:13

Like, I don't want it to be my secret sauce.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:15

Like I want to give it to everybody and help them, you know, learn this

Brandi Sea: 00:38:20

thing so that they can stop being frustrated because creativity is so hard.

George - WIP: 00:38:25

I mean, first off, can I applaud you for, you know, bringing

George - WIP: 00:38:30

in Napolean Dynamite, vote for Pedro.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:31

Yeah,

George - WIP: 00:38:33

'cause I think, you know, I, I literally, I think

George - WIP: 00:38:36

we watched the movie a couple of

Brandi Sea: 00:38:38

same.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:39

Yep.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:39

I just showed it to my 12 year old nephew and he was all about it.

George - WIP: 00:38:44

yeah.

George - WIP: 00:38:44

Um, but what I'm hearing also is obviously, you know, um, designing

George - WIP: 00:38:49

for yourself for designing, what are parameters creates a heavy burden on

George - WIP: 00:38:53

the creative to kind of figure out where to start, where to figure out how

George - WIP: 00:38:57

to adjust and, and what you're doing with your, your mind map method, right?

George - WIP: 00:39:02

Is like you said, you're creating the box.

George - WIP: 00:39:04

You're creating the, the rules, the where, like, how far can I go?

George - WIP: 00:39:08

It's within my own confines.

George - WIP: 00:39:10

Cause you figured that out.

George - WIP: 00:39:11

And then you can maybe decide that maybe I need to adjust the box

George - WIP: 00:39:15

because now I want to take it.

George - WIP: 00:39:16

a little bit further, but at least you have a place to start.

George - WIP: 00:39:19

And I think that's one of the biggest things that I notice is one figuring.

George - WIP: 00:39:25

A place to start with all the ambiguity that comes from either clients or really,

George - WIP: 00:39:29

Especially when we're doing our own work.

George - WIP: 00:39:32

And we're like, we want to be able to do something because we don't really

George - WIP: 00:39:35

have the right, because we don't really have, we kind of say, I want to do this,

George - WIP: 00:39:40

but we don't really put it in the same lens that we would do a creative brief

George - WIP: 00:39:44

for a client because we know there's goals and metrics and objectives.

George - WIP: 00:39:48

And when we do it for ourselves, we don't necessarily think of those goals, metrics,

George - WIP: 00:39:52

and objectives, but there are, and I think this allows us a way to start the

George - WIP: 00:39:58

conversation, especially with ourselves.

George - WIP: 00:40:00

Like you said, especially hard for ourselves to say,

George - WIP: 00:40:02

what do I want to achieve?

George - WIP: 00:40:04

Right.

George - WIP: 00:40:04

And as you ended your, your, your conversation really quickly, it was

George - WIP: 00:40:08

like, you knew this wasn't something that you wanted to keep inside.

George - WIP: 00:40:13

Right.

George - WIP: 00:40:13

And so why do you think it was important for you to help other creatives, you know,

George - WIP: 00:40:18

with figuring out this and who are those.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:22

Yeah, I think it really all goes back to my original

Brandi Sea: 00:40:28

goal when I started the blog.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:29

Yes.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:29

That was frustration with bad designers, in my opinion, doing things poorly.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:36

But my goal in those, in all of the things, all of the content I've created

Brandi Sea: 00:40:41

over the past seven years has been to help designers be better and to stand

Brandi Sea: 00:40:48

out and to use their voice and to not use other people's work as a crutch

Brandi Sea: 00:40:53

to start trying to create their own because you're never, you know, You're

Brandi Sea: 00:40:59

never going to be able to do something different if you're following everybody,

Brandi Sea: 00:41:04

that's doing everything the same.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:06

And so I think that that's, that's been the heart of it is I want to

Brandi Sea: 00:41:12

help designers be better and be able to, you know, creativity is hard.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:20

Why are we making it harder on ourselves by, by thinking that like, if I just

Brandi Sea: 00:41:25

sit here long enough, I'm going to be hit by a bolt of inspiration.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:32

And then I'm going to, you know, create the best work I've ever created and

Brandi Sea: 00:41:37

the client's going to be blown away.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:39

And I'm just going to have a thing, make a thing on the computer, present it.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:43

And you know, all the stars will align and everything will be fantastic.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:48

It just that's the way we act.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:50

And that is why people think that what creative professionals, primarily

Brandi Sea: 00:41:56

graphic designers do is like open up Photoshop and hit the magic design button.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:02

And all of a sudden, there it is.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:05

And,

George - WIP: 00:42:07

Wait, wait, you don't have that button.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:09

oh man, you know what I do, but I'm keeping it to myself.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:12

So I'm just telling people that it doesn't exist.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:17

I think that it's like, yeah, we are all creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:20

Right?

Brandi Sea: 00:42:20

Like we talked about everyone's creative.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:22

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:22

So now we've shifted into creative professionals, but we're still acting

Brandi Sea: 00:42:26

like we did at five years old where we can just sit in front of, on a, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:42:32

at our little desk with crayons and make whatever we want and expect our mom to go.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:36

This is going to be the greatest thing ever.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:41

I'm saving it for the rest of my life.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:44

I'm sorry.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:45

That's not how it works.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:47

And in order, you know, it's all about practice.

Brandi Sea: 00:42:49

It's all about cultivating a process where you can sit down and know that in the next

Brandi Sea: 00:42:57

30 minutes with this method that I have, like, I can create a concept from there.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:04

I'm going to find colors and graphics and the typeface

Brandi Sea: 00:43:08

category that I want to research.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:11

And now I know that when I sit down, I can create something because I'm

Brandi Sea: 00:43:15

going to start by creating a word map.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:17

Then I'm going to create a concept then I'm going to have, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:43:20

and it just is like this waterfall effect that happens naturally.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:25

I don't have to sit here with a blank piece of paper and try and

Brandi Sea: 00:43:29

think of an idea because that's where, that's where the wall is for

Brandi Sea: 00:43:33

people is, you know, and that's why brain even brainstorming sessions.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:36

I'm not really for brainstorming sessions.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:39

Unless you have a clear, a clear idea of what you're trying to do.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:44

You're just throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:47

And while it may be a fun brain exercise in a group to, you know,

Brandi Sea: 00:43:52

just kinda shoot the breeze and talk about options and things.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:58

I still think, and know from experience that when you start from this place and

Brandi Sea: 00:44:02

have a concept and some parameters first, then do the brainstorming with the team.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:06

Then you go, okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:08

Our concept is, I don't know, shiny unicorns.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:15

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:15

Well now we know we're working with shiny unicorns.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:18

Now, what can we do with that?

Brandi Sea: 00:44:19

As opposed to, okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:20

Folks, we need an ad campaign for a 10 to 15 year old girls.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:26

Give me something.

George - WIP: 00:44:29

right, right.

George - WIP: 00:44:32

All right.

George - WIP: 00:44:33

We need to be focused right.

George - WIP: 00:44:34

Instead of ambiguous.

George - WIP: 00:44:35

And I think this, um, one of the things that I'm hearing also is the idea that,

George - WIP: 00:44:39

you know, some of the processes that we use are still art processes, not design

George - WIP: 00:44:45

processes.

George - WIP: 00:44:45

Right.

George - WIP: 00:44:46

And, you know, Right.

George - WIP: 00:44:48

As we all grow up, we, you know, we're, we're sitting in front of our desks.

George - WIP: 00:44:51

We have crayons, that's art, right?

George - WIP: 00:44:53

That's there's no intention.

George - WIP: 00:44:55

It's just to get something out of your head and put it on paper.

George - WIP: 00:44:58

Right.

George - WIP: 00:44:58

But when you're looking at design there's purpose, there's intention that.

George - WIP: 00:45:03

I think one of the things that when you were talking, I was reminded

George - WIP: 00:45:06

of when I was in art school, one of the most daunting things was

George - WIP: 00:45:09

having that literal blank canvas.

George - WIP: 00:45:10

Right.

George - WIP: 00:45:11

It was a brand new, you open it from the plastic.

George - WIP: 00:45:13

And it was like, I don't want to do anything to mess this white canvas up

Brandi Sea: 00:45:17

dont want to touch it because they're afraid that

Brandi Sea: 00:45:19

even one line that's wrong.

Brandi Sea: 00:45:20

I'm going to have to erase it.

Brandi Sea: 00:45:22

Then I'm, it's ruined.

George - WIP: 00:45:23

she was like, the first thing you need to do is get

George - WIP: 00:45:26

the dirty water from, your your can and put it all over your canvas.

George - WIP: 00:45:31

So you don't think of that as a perfect thing anymore that you cannot mess up.

George - WIP: 00:45:36

And once you do that, it changes your mindset to be like, oh,

George - WIP: 00:45:39

I can put a mark on that.

George - WIP: 00:45:41

So I think it's really important that you brought some of those things up.

George - WIP: 00:45:44

And do you think this, this process that you're uncovering, that you figured

George - WIP: 00:45:48

out, um, changes if you work for a large or a small client or even yourself

Brandi Sea: 00:45:53

No that like there there's and I know I'm biased because it's my

Brandi Sea: 00:45:58

thing, but there is literally no one, no group, no client, no project, anything

Brandi Sea: 00:46:08

that needs a concept this works for.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:12

So if you are a screenwriter or a, you know, a movie producer or an author,

Brandi Sea: 00:46:19

obviously this works for authors.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:21

Cause it's a, it's a literary method.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:22

Like I, I took a literary method because I love literature.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:25

I love English and I have figured out a way to use it,

Brandi Sea: 00:46:28

to create creative concepts.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:31

And so this is not just for design or designers.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:37

That is my world.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:38

That is who I know and love.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:39

And that is what I, I know, but I have, I have had other people ask if this

Brandi Sea: 00:46:44

would work for them and various other creative professions and it does work.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:48

So to answer your question, if you use it for yourself, treat yourself like

Brandi Sea: 00:46:54

a client and you are then the client and it works for a personal project.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:58

It works great for a personal project because often those

Brandi Sea: 00:47:02

are the ones we don't know.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:03

Right.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:03

I just want to make something.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:05

Um, and I use it all the time for my own personal projects.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:08

If you have, if you are in a position where you are just like me

Brandi Sea: 00:47:14

and you're working by yourself for clients, it really works for that

Brandi Sea: 00:47:19

too, because you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of a lot of times.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:23

Um, you are.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:25

Having to try and figure out stuff on your own.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:28

It also works with teams because the word map method is incredible to do

Brandi Sea: 00:47:33

with teams where you're trying to come up with a concept as a group.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:37

And then you come up with that concept and those parameters together, it also

Brandi Sea: 00:47:41

works for agencies like, so the size of the project, the size of the agency or

Brandi Sea: 00:47:49

the creative practice, like it doesn't matter because it's about having a

Brandi Sea: 00:47:54

thing that creates those parameters.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:56

So you're trying, you're not starting with an idea.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:00

It helps you craft a plan so that you can figure out your ideas.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:04

And everybody needs that every, every organization that does creative work

Brandi Sea: 00:48:09

as a business needs a way to set up those parameters on a lot of people

Brandi Sea: 00:48:14

go from the brief to the ideas or the brief to the sketches or the brief

Brandi Sea: 00:48:19

to the computer or the brief to the marketing plan and what this process.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:25

Is instead of trying to bridge that gap, like instead of there being this gap where

Brandi Sea: 00:48:29

you jump from the brief over into starting the creative work or starting the , you

Brandi Sea: 00:48:37

create a bridge with this word mat method.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:40

That gives you a way to get from here to there, where you're not just making

Brandi Sea: 00:48:45

these random creative brain leaps from one thing to the other, hoping it makes sense.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:50

You are using a strategic plan that says, now I have a concept

Brandi Sea: 00:48:56

that gives me the parameters.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:57

I need to cultivate those ideas and those, those things even better.

George - WIP: 00:49:03

And so, you know, with this, right, your ability to share, your,

George - WIP: 00:49:07

your methodology and and have a course that helps, know, people think about

George - WIP: 00:49:12

their own strategic strategic process.

George - WIP: 00:49:14

, if there was one thing, what, one thing do you want creatives to take away from

George - WIP: 00:49:19

being empowered by your strategic process?

Brandi Sea: 00:49:23

Start with words.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:25

Don't, don't try starting with ideas.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:27

Um, well, if you try starting with an idea without a concept

Brandi Sea: 00:49:30

and without a plan, you're just going, you are going to continue to

Brandi Sea: 00:49:35

experience more imposter syndrome.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:37

Imposter syndrome never goes away.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:39

Let's just start there and it never goes away.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:41

But if you work at having a way to fight off the fact that you have an

Brandi Sea: 00:49:48

idea, um, this fixes that like if, if designers could learn one thing,

Brandi Sea: 00:49:54

even in this process, it would be how to create concepts using a word map.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:59

Because that will absolutely changed the rest of everything that

Brandi Sea: 00:50:04

you do, and then understanding.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:06

And that's a whole other topic, how to insert the uncommon, inspiration and

Brandi Sea: 00:50:10

stop, you know, just searching where everyone else's searching is like, if I

Brandi Sea: 00:50:14

could teach the entire design world two things, it would be those two things.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:20

And my process like the pro the strategic process is not meant

Brandi Sea: 00:50:23

to replace anybody's process.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:25

I'm not going here.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:27

Mine's better forget everything, you know, and just plug this into yours.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:32

It's a, here's all the way this entire thing works.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:36

These two things will be crucial if you insert them into your own process.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:41

And the rest of this is bonus ways, you know, different ways of thinking

Brandi Sea: 00:50:45

about research, different ways of how to present to your clients, but

Brandi Sea: 00:50:48

things that they're already doing, that maybe they can just improve

George - WIP: 00:50:51

So powerful, right?

George - WIP: 00:50:52

I mean, you update, I asked you for one, you gave me two,

Brandi Sea: 00:50:54

Sorry.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:55

I can't, it's like, for me, it's like they, they work in tandem with each

Brandi Sea: 00:50:59

other because the reason that the word map method works so well is because

Brandi Sea: 00:51:05

every single persons are different because our brains are all different.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:09

So those word maps, if, like I said before, with like the other example, if

Brandi Sea: 00:51:13

we're all working on the cake, right, they're all going to look different.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:17

And the same goes for this word map.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:19

I've done this in workshops with two dozen people where I give them

Brandi Sea: 00:51:23

the start, you know, all the things they need to start the word map.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:27

And every person comes up with a different concept and therefore, a

Brandi Sea: 00:51:32

different design, even though the, the starting parameters are the same because

Brandi Sea: 00:51:38

everybody's brains work different and make those connections in different ways.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:42

In that word map.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:43

And so that's the beautiful thing about how that plays into our experiences,

Brandi Sea: 00:51:48

our creative voices, and takes that once you take that and work in your own

Brandi Sea: 00:51:53

uncommon, inspiration, understanding what you, what you see in the world

Brandi Sea: 00:51:57

that inspires you, capturing those things, and then being able to access

Brandi Sea: 00:52:01

those, like when you need them for your projects, instead of just getting on

Brandi Sea: 00:52:05

Pinterest or be hands and going, I'm designing a cake for a 16 year old girl

Brandi Sea: 00:52:10

help, like basically is what we do.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:12

And then it's like, oh, I like that one.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:14

I'm going to do something like that.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:16

And this takes that out of the equation and it puts you and your voice front

Brandi Sea: 00:52:21

and center to solve your client's problem to appeal to their audience.

George - WIP: 00:52:26

I love that.

George - WIP: 00:52:27

I love the idea that we're not looking at other things to be

George - WIP: 00:52:30

inspired by or to potentially steal, you know, and not on purpose.

George - WIP: 00:52:35

But obviously when you look at inspiration, sometimes it

George - WIP: 00:52:37

just creeps into your brain.

George - WIP: 00:52:38

And you're trying to empower us to be more of us being the person that's

George - WIP: 00:52:43

really, um, dictating and understanding the needs and using our own voice first.

George - WIP: 00:52:48

And that's a really powerful I, that I think know, our listeners

George - WIP: 00:52:51

should really understand.

George - WIP: 00:52:53

So as we start to, you know, finish off our conversation, I just have some

George - WIP: 00:52:55

final questions that I want to get into and learn some more insight from you.

George - WIP: 00:53:00

So as a designer, podcast, or educator and business owner, what is something new

George - WIP: 00:53:06

that you'd like to explore creative-wise?

Brandi Sea: 00:53:09

Yeah, man I actually have a list of things that

Brandi Sea: 00:53:12

I want to learn this year.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:13

One of them is NFTs, which is probably something that a lot of creatives

Brandi Sea: 00:53:17

are trying to understand right now.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:20

I really want to, I haven't worked with Premiere, Premiere Pro like

Brandi Sea: 00:53:25

editing videos since I was in college, even though that's, you

Brandi Sea: 00:53:29

know, that's my husband's thing.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:30

And he usually edits my videos for me, but I really want to be able to

Brandi Sea: 00:53:35

do that on my own if I decide to.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:36

So if, um, if he's not able to do it, cause he's at work and I just

Brandi Sea: 00:53:40

want to throw together a quick video.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:42

I want to relearn, I guess, the Premier Pro stuff so that I can

Brandi Sea: 00:53:48

be a little more self-sufficient on the pro side of video editing.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:52

I can edit just pine on it, on tech, talk on the little apps I

Brandi Sea: 00:53:55

have on my phone, but I really wanted to learn some more of that.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:59

And I really want to get better at copywriting.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:03

That's something that I'm, I've never been great at.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:06

I can run.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:07

I'm writing a book.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:08

I know how to write things, but copywriting for marketing and business

Brandi Sea: 00:54:13

purposes is kind of a whole other level and a different approach.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:17

So I think that I know how to strategize.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:21

I know how to direct creative and things, and then understanding how to use that

Brandi Sea: 00:54:25

in a, in a more copywriting sort of sense, or that those are like the top

Brandi Sea: 00:54:28

three things that are on my list for really getting better at right now.

George - WIP: 00:54:32

awesome.

George - WIP: 00:54:32

As a creative, what are you still inspired by?

Brandi Sea: 00:54:38

Why are you giving me softballs?

Brandi Sea: 00:54:40

Um, I am inspired by this is gonna sound goofball, but if people

Brandi Sea: 00:54:45

follow me, they know this is true.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:47

I'm inspired by everything I have.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:50

This is the other thing when it comes to the, this is what uncommon inspiration is.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:54

Uncommon.

Brandi Sea: 00:54:55

Inspiration is finding and seeing inspiration in everything and everywhere.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:00

Even over the pandemic.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:03

I am.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:03

I'm a high risk person, so I wasn't really able to go anywhere

Brandi Sea: 00:55:07

for almost a full year, just having to stay in my neighborhood.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:10

And thank goodness.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:11

I have a nice house that I was holed up in, but that really

Brandi Sea: 00:55:16

challenged how I find inspiration everywhere, whether it's movies.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:22

And I see a color palette that I really appreciate if it's, if I'm out for a walk

Brandi Sea: 00:55:28

and I see shadows that are creating an interesting pattern, I capture those and

Brandi Sea: 00:55:32

I can save that for later when I travel.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:35

So I guess the one, one thing that I love the most is travel, but in that

Brandi Sea: 00:55:42

there's, there's really no difference between that and using those same

Brandi Sea: 00:55:46

methods of like awareness when I'm traveling and using that at home.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:51

So if I go downtown to my own downtown, which compared to New York, where

Brandi Sea: 00:55:55

I've been as a completely different downtown, but switching on your

Brandi Sea: 00:55:59

awareness goggles and being ready to receive inspiration everywhere.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:06

So that's the other thing where the whole finding a concept and having

Brandi Sea: 00:56:11

those parameters really is impactful.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:15

And your design ideating is that if I have a concept and I know my colors and

Brandi Sea: 00:56:24

I know sort of the kind of graphics I'm looking for, I can then if I have the

Brandi Sea: 00:56:29

opportunity, take a pause, go visit.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:32

Or I've, I've definitely gone on trips while I'm like at

Brandi Sea: 00:56:35

that point on a client project.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:37

So I've got my parameters all set, and then it's like, okay, taking a break.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:42

I'm going on a vacation for the weekend.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:44

I have now tuned in.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:46

My awareness Perceptor to bought concept those colors, those sort

Brandi Sea: 00:56:53

of graphics and images and patterns and textures and things that I

Brandi Sea: 00:56:57

need to be on the lookout for.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:59

So now I can go out into the world and go, oh, I don't know what was it?

Brandi Sea: 00:57:02

Shiny unicorns or something.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:04

I'm looking for shiny things.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:06

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:07

I'm going to take pictures of reflections on water.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:10

I'm going to take pictures of maybe how the sun bounces off these windows

Brandi Sea: 00:57:15

in this high rise, apartment building.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:17

So to answer your question, I find inspiration literally everywhere.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:21

I could look around in any given space and tell you what I find inspiring and why.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:28

And that is really the key is not just feeling inspired, but knowing why it

Brandi Sea: 00:57:33

inspires you thinking about how you can use it later and capturing it.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:37

So you have your own little inspiration library that you can access.

George - WIP: 00:57:41

I think one of the big things I just heard, right.

George - WIP: 00:57:43

Is that the, the being able to receive inspiration, right.

George - WIP: 00:57:47

I think being aware that there is inspiration all around us and two

George - WIP: 00:57:52

things, one, just noticing that your surroundings are there to inspire you...

George - WIP: 00:57:57

but then also being very strategic and knowing that if you have something

George - WIP: 00:58:02

that you're working on, you have.

George - WIP: 00:58:05

Something to go to, to look out for those things, right?

George - WIP: 00:58:08

So there's almost like two things going on.

George - WIP: 00:58:10

One being, just allowing yourself to, to take in the world and not be

George - WIP: 00:58:14

so focused on just like our phones or this, or, you know, all the crap

George - WIP: 00:58:18

that's happening in the world, but actually being inspired by all this.

George - WIP: 00:58:21

But then also saying, if you are working on a client project or your

George - WIP: 00:58:24

own work now, actually going out and looking for the things that will make

George - WIP: 00:58:29

it, you know, beneficial for you.

George - WIP: 00:58:31

So it's no longer just computer-based, which I think is so, which is so

George - WIP: 00:58:35

empowering because I think we're, we're so used to saying, well, how can I use

George - WIP: 00:58:38

the outside influence to gain inspiration?

George - WIP: 00:58:41

And you're giving us the tools, right?

George - WIP: 00:58:43

You're just letting us say that you Understand you see it but

George - WIP: 00:58:47

you have to now understand it.

George - WIP: 00:58:48

Right.

George - WIP: 00:58:49

That's like thing...

Brandi Sea: 00:58:50

Understand it and then use it because a lot, I think, I think,

Brandi Sea: 00:58:55

again, going back to the, we are, we often think because we are artistic

Brandi Sea: 00:58:59

that we, we fall back on these art based methods that don't help us.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:05

And then we get frustrated because we go, oh, well, oh, I'm feeling really stuck.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:10

Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:10

I'm just going to go for a walk, clear my head.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:13

Okay, great.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:14

Um, you're probably still going to be stuck when you

Brandi Sea: 00:59:16

come back because that's great.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:19

You got some fresh air and maybe, you know, sometimes clearing our head that

Brandi Sea: 00:59:24

way does like bring some sort of clarity.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:27

But how often do you come back and just feel a little

Brandi Sea: 00:59:30

bit better about being stuck?

Brandi Sea: 00:59:33

You're just like, oh man, that felt good.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:37

Talk to some friends around the water cooler, like, alright, I feel

Brandi Sea: 00:59:41

like I can tackle this being stuck thing a little better now, but you

Brandi Sea: 00:59:45

don't have any way to get unstuck.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:47

You're still just stuck.

George - WIP: 00:59:49

Right.

George - WIP: 00:59:49

So dealing, dealing with that right now, the conversely of what you considered

George - WIP: 00:59:53

a soft ball with the inspiration is what do you still struggle with?

Brandi Sea: 00:59:58

I think that I struggle with my time more than anything.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:03

So what I have found is beneficial and this, this is something that I tell people

Brandi Sea: 01:00:08

all the time and the process is the reason that this strategic process works so well.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:13

And the reason that it, I think has something that I have needed

Brandi Sea: 01:00:17

over the years is each step you can put time parameters on.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:23

And or so in the research phase, because I, depending on if I'm searching for

Brandi Sea: 01:00:27

style references or looking up like an era or something like that, if I'm

Brandi Sea: 01:00:30

searching for style references, I often go through my own photos of things that

Brandi Sea: 01:00:34

I've taken and also use some lovely books that I have here on my bookshelf.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:39

And even that I set parameters of, I'm only going to look at five books.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:43

I'm like, choose them very specifically for whatever the

Brandi Sea: 01:00:46

project is that I'm working on.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:48

And then I'm going to stop because otherwise I can look at all because

Brandi Sea: 01:00:51

of the tendency to find inspiration everywhere and finding things

Brandi Sea: 01:00:55

interesting about, just about anything.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:58

Setting time parameters has been really key.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:01

And that is probably where I struggle the most.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:02

So I use everything from the Pomodoro timer, depending on the projects...

Brandi Sea: 01:01:08

to I have set playlists for each step in the process.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:13

So there's a, there's a playlist for working on.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:17

You know, figuring out the design brief after I have the conversation

Brandi Sea: 01:01:21

with the, with the client, like making sure all my things are filled in,

Brandi Sea: 01:01:24

I have a playlist for the word map, which is like an hour and six minutes.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:29

If I'm not done with the word map in an hour and six

Brandi Sea: 01:01:32

minutes, which is a long time.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:34

And I usually don't need that much time.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:36

I stop.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:37

So usually the time stuff is, is not great.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:41

I need like an assistant to tell me, like, time's up, stop working.

George - WIP: 01:01:48

I love the idea though, of setting playlists, where it's

George - WIP: 01:01:50

like you using, you know, one part of your brain, but also, you know,

George - WIP: 01:01:54

figuring out a time or within that.

George - WIP: 01:01:56

But also not just having this like weird ambiguous, like clock ticking down and

George - WIP: 01:02:01

having that like pressure of time versus like at least still enjoying yourself and

George - WIP: 01:02:06

saying, Hey, when it's over, then that's my, you know, time to spending on it.

George - WIP: 01:02:09

That's a great technique.

George - WIP: 01:02:10

I really think that that can empower a lot of people to kind of utilize music

George - WIP: 01:02:14

as a way as a timing method versus just, you know, oh, here's another little

George - WIP: 01:02:19

app that I need to get on my computer or set a timer on my phone with this

George - WIP: 01:02:22

really annoying, you know, um, alarm.

George - WIP: 01:02:25

And I think that's a great way to adjust.

Brandi Sea: 01:02:27

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 01:02:28

Well, I've written a lot and talked a lot about how do you use it to

Brandi Sea: 01:02:31

hack your brain, because not only is it something that you can use,

Brandi Sea: 01:02:35

music is a huge part of my process.

Brandi Sea: 01:02:37

Um, it's sort of like the, the underlying contributor to, to the

Brandi Sea: 01:02:42

process is it can act like Pavlov's dog.

Brandi Sea: 01:02:48

When I turn on, when I start the playlist for the word map, my

Brandi Sea: 01:02:54

brain immediately shifts into we're using words for things right now.

Brandi Sea: 01:02:58

And all of that music is strictly.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:02

Um, instrumental.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:04

So that the words you're hearing, aren't impacting what

Brandi Sea: 01:03:06

you're working out on the page.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:08

So for the word map, I have this certain playlist that is this,

Brandi Sea: 01:03:11

as soon as I turn that on, I know that's what I'm working on.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:15

So it also eliminates the trying to get into the zone and like trying,

Brandi Sea: 01:03:19

which is something that's also super hard for creatives is like

Brandi Sea: 01:03:21

getting into that creative space.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:24

And if you have a playlist that, you know, works that, you know, inspires

Brandi Sea: 01:03:28

you, that, you know, you know, triggers something, use that thing.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:32

So then when all the way, you know, I have all these different playlist.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:34

So by the time I'm actually designing and creating something on the

Brandi Sea: 01:03:38

computer, it's time to do that.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:40

The playlist that I have, there is very upbeat it's songs that I know well that

Brandi Sea: 01:03:46

I don't feel the need to try to listen to the lyrics to, but there are lyrics.

Brandi Sea: 01:03:50

And as soon as I hit play on all each and every one of these playlist

Brandi Sea: 01:03:55

that I have set up for these steps in the process, very strategically.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:00

My brain knows what it's working on and it knows what it's supposed to be doing.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:04

So not only is it a good timekeeping thing, but it's also a really

Brandi Sea: 01:04:08

great brain hack to just like, okay, brain, this is what you're

Brandi Sea: 01:04:12

supposed to be doing right now.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:13

Let's do this,

George - WIP: 01:04:14

Love it love it.

George - WIP: 01:04:15

That's a great brain hack.

George - WIP: 01:04:17

And so one last question.

George - WIP: 01:04:21

What advice would you give a younger Brandi entering the industry?

Brandi Sea: 01:04:26

uh, younger Brandi.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:27

Ooh, no one's ever asked me that asked me when I would tell young designers,

Brandi Sea: 01:04:32

oh boy, what would I tell young me?

Brandi Sea: 01:04:36

I would tell young me that it doesn't have to be perfect before you share it.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:47

What, whatever it is that is definitely still, that's a struggle that I've

Brandi Sea: 01:04:52

gotten a lot better at sort of that we talked about before, but.

Brandi Sea: 01:04:56

Even right now, as we sit here, I'm sitting on three completely finished

Brandi Sea: 01:05:00

design projects that I've been wanting to share with people on Instagram or

Brandi Sea: 01:05:05

wherever and thinking, how am I going to share that what's going to be best?

Brandi Sea: 01:05:10

Like, should I talk about it on YouTube channel?

Brandi Sea: 01:05:12

Should I put it on a, on a real or a slideshow?

Brandi Sea: 01:05:15

Like, even though I'm not worried about the work being perfect, there's still

Brandi Sea: 01:05:21

a level of like, just do something, just share it, just say something.

Brandi Sea: 01:05:26

And so I would tell young Brandi, it doesn't have to be perfect to share it.

George - WIP: 01:05:32

Agreed.

George - WIP: 01:05:32

Agreed.

George - WIP: 01:05:33

I think the, the, the perfection thing does get a lot of designers and

George - WIP: 01:05:37

especially when you're putting stuff on social, because that aspect of social

George - WIP: 01:05:41

as a place where everything looks polished and we get so caught up in that.

George - WIP: 01:05:45

And I think what we do, you know, what you're doing with process and mind maps

George - WIP: 01:05:49

and what I'm doing with talking about, you know, the, the reasons behind the stuff

George - WIP: 01:05:53

that we do, you know, is to get into those conversations and those uncomfortable

George - WIP: 01:05:58

moments that we all know happens and elevate those more often than just the

George - WIP: 01:06:05

perfect, finished beautiful thing that we see because too much of that means that

George - WIP: 01:06:10

people are focusing on that goal and not really focusing on producing great work.

George - WIP: 01:06:16

And I think there's a big difference in between those.

George - WIP: 01:06:19

So though that is definitely something that.

George - WIP: 01:06:23

Affects all of us, right.

George - WIP: 01:06:24

Just like imposter syndrome.

George - WIP: 01:06:26

Um, that is amazing.

Brandi Sea: 01:06:28

Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 01:06:28

I always tell people it's not practice makes perfect it's practice makes

Brandi Sea: 01:06:32

progress because perfection just isn't even a thing that exists.

Brandi Sea: 01:06:37

So there's, there's that,

George - WIP: 01:06:40

So lastly, where can our listeners find out more about you

George - WIP: 01:06:44

Design Speaks podcast or the strategic.

Brandi Sea: 01:06:47

uh, yeah, you can basically find all of my stuff

Brandi Sea: 01:06:50

at BrandiSea.com and it's Brandi with Sea like the body of water.

Brandi Sea: 01:06:56

S E A if you just search Brandi, see, you can find all of my stuff, connect

Brandi Sea: 01:07:00

with me on basically any social thing.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:03

I'm I primarily do a lot on Instagram and TikTok, but I do

Brandi Sea: 01:07:08

interact a lot on LinkedIn as well.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:12

My course is linked on my website.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:15

It should be linked in the bio of my Instagram account.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:18

And the podcast is called Design Speaks podcast and is available

Brandi Sea: 01:07:23

anywhere you like to get your podcasts.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:25

So I think that's everything my YouTube channel is Brandi Sea, so again, if you

Brandi Sea: 01:07:30

just search me on almost any platform within reason, you'll probably find me

George - WIP: 01:07:37

Definitely.

George - WIP: 01:07:37

Right.

George - WIP: 01:07:38

And when I was doing research for this, right, when you look, you just

George - WIP: 01:07:40

type in Brandi Sea that's all you get you just to get Brandi's information

George - WIP: 01:07:43

and the podcast and everything.

Brandi Sea: 01:07:44

Because there's only one me.

George - WIP: 01:07:46

Exactly.

George - WIP: 01:07:46

So you're doing a lot of a great job in controlling that, that content.

George - WIP: 01:07:49

And, you know, once again, thank you so much for, for taking the

George - WIP: 01:07:53

time to chat and really, you know, shed light on how this process

George - WIP: 01:07:58

really unlocks people's creativity.

George - WIP: 01:08:00

And, You know, I can't wait to see more how you're shifting the

George - WIP: 01:08:05

podcast from, you know, strictly auditory to, you know, video first.

George - WIP: 01:08:09

And what

Brandi Sea: 01:08:10

You heard it here.

Brandi Sea: 01:08:11

First folks.

George - WIP: 01:08:12

Yes!

George - WIP: 01:08:13

You heard it here first and we'll, hopefully we'll get this episode out

George - WIP: 01:08:16

by the time it's actually going live.

George - WIP: 01:08:18

So, you know, to kind of be a great kismet moment, but I will continue

George - WIP: 01:08:21

to follow your journey and support you in your creative community.

George - WIP: 01:08:25

Overall, Thank you so much again, for being on this episode.

George - WIP: 01:08:29

This has been works in process.

Brandi Sea: 01:08:32

Thank you for having me.

George - WIP: 01:08:39

I'd like to thank my guests, Brandy Sea, I can't wait to find out

George - WIP: 01:08:42

what's in store for the podcast and it's transition to a more visual content.

George - WIP: 01:08:46

If you want to learn more about the links, the people and the organizations

George - WIP: 01:08:49

mentioned in our conversation, please check out the show notes of your podcast

George - WIP: 01:08:52

player or visit our website wip.show.

George - WIP: 01:08:57

The Works in Process podcast is created by me, George Garrastegui Jr.

George - WIP: 01:09:01

And the content and transcriptions have been reviewed by Or Szyflinger.

George - WIP: 01:09:06

You can find Works in Process on all media platforms, such as

George - WIP: 01:09:08

Apple, Spotify, Google, and more.

George - WIP: 01:09:11

And if you liked the episode, feel free to give us a rating on

George - WIP: 01:09:13

apple podcasts, it really helps.

George - WIP: 01:09:16

I appreciate you taking the journey with me and I hope

George - WIP: 01:09:18

you enjoyed this conversation.

George - WIP: 01:09:20

Until next time.

George - WIP: 01:09:21

Remember, it's not always about what you create, but how you create it.