hot mess creativity
🌀 tiny ramble (a little note from me to you)
Hello my internet friend,
One of the core pillars of my “methodology” is the idea that play is the antidote to perfectionism.
(Just watched my brain want to go find some research to back this up for you. Nope, brain, I don’t need to back up every idea I have with a peer-reviewed research paper. Thanks for the suggestion though.)
Play is messy, it’s unstructured, it’s creative and it has no inherent rules. You can’t truly play wrong.
(Cut to little Joeli telling everyone how they’re playing the game WRONG. Perfectionism seems to have wormed its way in from quite a young age.)
But one thing I’ve been noticing with my clients is how conditionality creeps its way into our creative practices.
(Perfectionism is a child of conditionality.)
The painting is only worth doing if it’s “good”. The urge to turn every hobby into a side hustle so it’s a valuable use of our time. The feeling that the fruits of our creative practice must be tangible and useful — knitting socks, sewing clothes, making greeting cards.
And that has its place and it can be fun. But it’s not play.
What would it be like to allow yourself to practice what I’m calling “hot mess creativity”? Hot mess creativity has no purpose, no desired outcome, and you don’t need to be good at it. It’s scribbling on a paper, trying something and messing up and scrapping it. It’s writing bad poetry, making ugly collages, getting out the glue and glitter and making pasta art — whatever your inner child is craving!
Hot mess creativity calls for finding beauty and satisfaction in the act of creating, rather than in having produce a creation deemed worthy and valuable.
I’m kind of playing around with idea of having a Sunday virtual craft hangout to encourage us all to make time for our creative practices — and if you don’t consider yourself creative there would be some suggestions. Is that something you would be interested in? Hit reply and let me know.
📝 wanderings (what I’ve been ruminating on, but have no answers for)
Power: how much power would any one person have if collectively we stopped believing in the power of their position? what can communities do to reclaim their power? what are each of us willing to risk? Do we have the power (collectively/individually/societally) to make sure there are safe places to get abortions, to protect trans people, to not support organisations that are harming the world we want to see created? We are told that every vote matters, that one person can make a difference, but we are taught that we are inferior, we have no power, we must bow and bend to appease the patriarchal leader. How much power does any one of us have and what if it was infinite?
Whoever posted this clip to the Disney Kids YouTube channel on Jan 4 2025 understood the assignment.
Messy Human Marketing: I think AI has the potential to change the world for the better. I think tech in the hands of the right people can cause phenomenal innovations that will help the planet and give more power to underprivileged, underfunded communities. BUT I don’t think it belongs in marketing (at least not in mine). And I think particularly for those of us prone to rule-following perfectionism it makes us more robotic, more prone to dehumanising our audiences, and more likely to feel icky about selling. (You can totally disagree with me. I don’t mind.) So I’ve been thinking about ways in which I can make my marketing even more human. I’ve been playing with the guiding question of “what can’t AI do?”. So for example leaving um’s and mistakes in podcasts/videos, bringing in more of my handwriting where I can (see the header of this email), sending snail mail that’s creative and messy, and being vulnerable and open. Will this work? I don’t know. Do I even want a business if it doesn’t? At least there’s always the back up plan of living in a hut in the woods and selling feet pics and writing lesbian erotic poetry.
⚡️inspiration list (where my attention has been)
This video. This is apparently is the year I become a massive Lucy Dacus fan and I’m not at all mad about it. 45 days to go and I’m ready to make her new album my whole personality. She also gave this great interview with the following quote that made me jealous that she’s writing my marketing material better than I ever could: “You’re in charge of your life; if you blow it up, you are still alive. And if you don’t like the life that follows that, you can blow it up again. Everything you’re fearfully trying to keep together might be better if it falls away.” Ugh. It’s so perfectly true, it hurts. (Which is my favourite kind of truths by the way.)
Linocutting — Speaking of messy creativity, I recently went to a linocutting workshop and fell in love in the way that only an ADHD brain discovering its new hyper fixation can be. I’m obsessed. I’m making a ton of mistakes, my work is mid at best, and it doesn’t matter one bit. If you need a new relaxing hobby, you can pick up supplies relatively cheaply and there are a ton of YouTube videos to get you started. 10/10 would recommend.
🗝️ offerings (what I’m putting out into the world)
There’s only 5 spots left for Snail Mail if you want one! It’s completely free and signing up means you’ll get a monthly letter/art project/secret note/something from me in the post. It’s my way of building offline community and a deeper kind of connection.
Emerge is my group coaching program for people wanting to create a life they love. You get monthly calls and daily coaching via WhatsApp.
The Decision Couch is my 1:1 offer for people who feel stuck, unsure of their next step, or are craving clarity. You get a 90 minute call with me, two weeks of follow up support on Voxer, and then a 30 minute wrap-up call.
🧶 wrapping up
If you want to continue the conversation, hit reply and tell me something that made you happy this past week. I love hearing from y’all.
Talk soon,
Joeli
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P.S. If you enjoyed this or found it helpful, I would super appreciate it if you shared it with a friend. Take a picture and post on social media or forward it to someone or mention it over coffee. If you want to share a link, buttondown.com/joeli is the one to send people to.