Nerv with Ryan Williams

Scott Belsky knows the secret for making your ideas happen. And today I chat with him about his book "Making Ideas Happen," his company Behance (that sold to Adobe) and his passion for helping to empower the creative world. Scott offers insights and advice for anyone aiming to launch and executve their ideas.

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In the influencer economy we all have ideas. And every day we are all executing on our businesses ideas, while also building ourselves as businesses. Scott and I discuss how there is no such thing as "idea meritocracy" and that ideas don't happen by accident. Ideas happen by a series of forces. While big ideas happen when a team executives and sticks together.

We also dive into the importance of building a solid team and how Scott executes his ideas like the 99u conference. In the end, Scott oversee roughly 70 employees at Adobe/Behance and his team is critical to getting his ideas to happen.

In the world where everyone and anyone can launch a product, blog, podcast or new company, why do some people's ideas succeed? While others' ideas fail? We talk about Scott's advice for early idea creation. Scott advises "to make something that needs to exist." And know the difference between a feature and a business. He also suggests bootstrapping your idea "incrementally" can behoove you and your business. Rather than going to raise a bunch of investment money.

Like many in the influencer economy, Scott is mission-centric and his ideas manifest in different products, but the message is always the same. Behance, 99u and Making Ideas Happen have the same values and are all cut from the same cloth. That helps him launch many ideas in different mediums. I know it sounds obvious, but unless you see it in action it, it's easier said then executed on.

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We covered a lot of ground:

  • We talk about doers and dreamers - and how they need to collaborate with one another
  • And how doers need to kill off 97% of new ideas for companies and groups brought by dreamers
  • How you need to build the right team in order to make your ideas happen
  • How Scott launched the 99u conference and makes it happen because of his team
  • How the 99U is a conference NOT about ideas. It's about making your ideas come to life and talking about how you made your idea.
  • Why Scott thinks business school is overrated
  • How "Genius is "1% inspiration and 99% Perspiration" (A famous Thomas Edison quote) 
  • How creative people have great ideas but they look for media attention or raise outside capital too early and their idea fails.
  • The Creative Compromise
  • How we all have the ability to make our ideas happen

 

Quotes from Scott:

"Creativity is genuine interest combined with initiative."

 "When you optimize for (Press/Media) headlines, you will optimize yourself to the ground."

"You have to build something sustainable that has its own culture and spirit. That's what takes the team coming together."   

"We get too involved in ideas themselves. We are fascinated or too much in love with ideas themselves. We need to declare war against excessive creativity."

Scott on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/scottbelsky

Behance:   https://www.behance.net

99u:  http://99u.com

Direct download: ScottBelsky_Ep66.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:19pm PDT