OK. I’m getting serious about the Simplicity thing.

Here are 3 great quotes that are rolling around in my head, and are taking up more space there:

“A place for everything and everything in its place” – Various possible attributions

“Make space for the important by eliminating the unnecessary” – Leo Babauta

“The idea is not to deny yourself the things that you want, but to free yourself from the things you don’t want” – Elaine St. James

Do you have favorite Simplicity quotes?

photo by Bright Tal

I mentioned a while back that I am a serial “piler”. I have been thinking for a while about decluttering and focusing on simplicity. I actually chose “Simplify” as one of my words for this year Read about that here.

So, in an effort to simplify and reorganize my life…here is what I accomplished today:

1. Went thru t-shirt drawers (3). Took out all shirts that I won’t wear because 1. Old 2. Silly Design. I stuck basically with mostly solid colors and my fave. superhero shirts (cCome on– I can’t be completely grown up).

2. Cleared one desk studio. Cleared the extra desk that has been accumulating books for over 6 months. I moved the books back to my shelves in the garage. The desk is completely clear, and I am deciding if we need it in the studio any longer, or if we can sell it.

2. Cleared my workspace desk. Took Leo’s advice, put all things on the floor (funny, my mom did this when I was a kid and I actually cleaned stuff up. I stopped doing this as an adult.)

3. Purged Rss Feeds. Another tip from Leo…Went from 177 to 75. I Will go back through and see if there are more to go.

4. Emptying Gmail. Starting with 6 months back and purging. Trying to get all my email in one spot, and away from several accounts. This will be a time consuming project…and I don’t expect to get it all done right away. **update: I just began using Gmail for my email last year to host my email…surprisingly, I was only about up to 10% of my capacity…now I am down to 5%, but I don’t think I need to spend much time here yet. **

Ps – I wish the picture was actually of my desk, but it’s not. It’s actually Laure Wayffe‘s Desk. And her picture. I am jealous.

I really love reading about John Wooden. And his Leadership style and Practices as a coach.

Here is a great quote from Wooden:

“I wanted those under my supervision to be motivated…to strive to be their best because I believed in them rather than from any fear of punishment.”

photo by I Dream in Infrared

Creativity starts with the way we think and the way we subsequently act in our day to day lives. The more we practice creativity in everything we do, the more we reinforce the idea that we are creative and then the easier it becomes to have new ideas and see things in new ways. – Dan Goodwin

photo by Vilseskogen

You must once and for all give up being worried about successes and failures, Don’t let that concern you. It’s Your duty to go on working steadily day by day, quite quietly, to be prepared for mistakes, which are inevitable, and for failures.

- Anton Chekov quoted in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle (amazon link)

photo by athena

FYI – BarCamp Nashville is just around the corner – its October 17th – and it is a great way to meet people in and around Nashville – who love digital and Technological Stuff!  From the BarCamp Nashville website:

BarCamp is Nashville’s free “un”-conference for the digital and technical community. The BarCamp format was brought to Nashville by Marcus Whitney and Dave Delaney in 2007. It’s free to attend — thanks to our generous sponsors — and the un-conference format encourages community learning: attendees are also encouraged to sign up to present a session. (Did we mention it’s free?)

Head to Barcampnashville.com to get the 411 and sign up!!

Rodney Saulsberry is coming to Nashville – and joining Joe Loesch for a one day voiceover workshop at the Actor’s School.

Here is more info on the day:

Rodney Saulsberry, celebrity voice-over artist and author of the new best selling book, YOU CAN BANK ON YOUR VOICE, is holding an exciting one day voice-over workshop in Nashville with cohort Joe Loesch! This one day intensive workshop is an excellent opportunity for the beginner and seasoned professional actor. Rodney will share his expertise in auditioning, script interpretation, breathing and microphone techniques that will help you win jobs and be successful in the competitive voice-over industry.

This is your chance to learn from one of the most sought after voice talents in the country, a working pro! Not only is he the voice of the Zatarain’s Jazzman, Twix, Check N’ Go, Pine Sol and Toyota Camry commercial campaigns, you can also hear him on promos and movie trailers. His movie trailer credits include How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Friday and Dumb & Dumberer. The voice of Joe Robbie Robertson on the Spider-Man cartoon series resides in Agoura, California and is very excited to teach this workshop with Joe Loesch.

Joe Loesch, voice of several animated characters for the Disney channel, plus dozens of national, regional and local commercials, will share valuable production information, from recording your own auditions on your pc…sharing the mic…what happens to your voice recording after you’ve left the studio? He’ll have his ProTools system on hand to make certain everyone gets some mic time. Learn from this award winning audiobook author/producer what it takes to break into the world of audiobooks. His voice can be heard on dozens of audiobooks. He produced audiobooks for Harper Collins, Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Readio Theatre, Oasis Audio and Toy Box Productions, to name a few. Joe’s production of “The Complete Audio Bible” for Topics Entertainment has sold well over a million copies. Originally from Los Angles, Joe now calls Nashville home.

Workshop Highlights:

•Get time on the microphone with professional direction.
•Focus on commercial, promo, trailer, animation and narration copy.
•Discuss voice prompts, radio imaging, vocal exercises and (ADR) looping.
•Get unique marketing strategies and home-studio tutorials.
•Microphone and voice-over techniques.
•Discuss demos, agents, unions, money, and the business of VO.
•Learn how to compete for work all over the world

For more info about the day click here for the link on the Actor’s School Website

I just wrapped up a big audio project for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (This post isn’t about THAT – but if you would like to hear the audiocast – you can go here to listen).

While I was producing-editing-voicing-writing the piece, I was surprised at what my mind was doing.

How it Happened

Here’s a little about my set up. My studio serves 2 purposes. One is for Voiceover, and the other is Art – in which I dabble (authors note: if you count all the books in the studio it could be 3 – ‘Library’). It’s a rather small room, so everything… overlaps.

I spent several weeks on the above project and many hours in front of the computer. Early on during a break, or a mix down, I noticed a canvas sitting next to my desk. I figured, I could ‘mess’ a bit, while the computer was churning away making my edits complete.

So over the course of a couple weeks and many edits, I ended up with a full on painting while I was putting together this radio show.

This piece (the Beginning of Magic) is paper, acrylic, paint pen and fabric on canvas.

Creativity Download

While I was concentrating on the audio, my mind was dissatisfied just doing that. It wanted to be doing more. For these couple weeks, the extra creativity came out in the form of a painting.

Last weekend, we celebrated my parents 40th anniversary. I was in charge of sound. This weekend was my son’s 4th birthday. My wife and I made a cake. We were inspired by Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes. (Watch out Buddy and Duff!)

Ideas kept coming into my head. How to grow my business,writing ideas, podcast ideas – you name it. My brain seems to be on constant download right now.

Its interesting – to me – how my brain has gone into overload with ideas. Now its up to me to take Action on them!

What about you?

What happens to you when you get going creatively? Does your brain churn out tons of ideas, or does it only focus on the project at hand…I’d love to hear what happens with other creative types!!

photo by me (stu gray)

Ultimately, I believe each of us is here to grow by learning how to share our unique gifts in a way that helps others. – Colleen Wainwright

Not too long ago, Bob Souer recommended that I check out Colleen Wainwright’s newsletter. (you should too)(and catch her podcasts with Tracy Pattin)

The Communicatrix (as she is called) helps creatively-minded peeps. After reading her newsletter – The quote above jumped out at me.
My mind jumped to Thomas the Tank Engine.

A weird leap? Perhaps.

What I remembered was that, “Thomas is a ‘Really Useful Engine”. (ok, that may be lost on you if you don’t have a 4 year old, but I do.)

What does Being Useful look like?

Using your God given talents to help others. Using all of your experiences to solve real world problems. Figuring out where you rock, then using those rockstar qualities to fix broken things.

We can’t be useful if we just sit on our… gifts and talents. What good is that?

My faith comes into play here…If you read the first chapter in the big Black book that sits on your coffee table -the Bible- it talks about God creating the world. Light, Dark, Water, Earth, Sky, Sun, Moon, Stars, Animals, Man, Woman.

But He wasn’t done. There was alot of other stuff that needed to be created. Like the pencil sharpener, and chocolate covered raisins. The man and the woman had to do some creating themselves. (Sure, it may have been a couple years before the Snuggie and the Pet Rock, but still.)

We have the ‘useful creative’ spirit inside of us.

Questions:

1. Where are you gifted/talented?

2. Where have you been used to help, or serve, or create, in the past?

3. What would you like to create, to help make happen in the future?

4. What skillz do you need to gain to make those things happen?

5. Are your dreams bigger than you?
(*hint*, if they are only about you, that’s not useful, in the ‘big picture’)

Are you a really useful engine? I think you are.

photo by thomas.merton

Today was a great day in the Gray household. We celebrated the 40th anniversary of Arnold and Paula Gray – My Mom and Dad.
Together with members from both sides of my family, we came together in the Lake of the Ozarks for Mom and Dad to renew their vows.

Not only did Mom and Dad renew their commitment to one another, My grandparents (on my Mom’s Side) renewed their vows as well…63 years there!

What a terrific way to spend the week, and the weekend, with family – celebrating two marriages and couples that have poured themselves into my life.

I am a thankful guy to have these relationships to look to as inspirations for my own marriage!

Congratulations to you Mom and Dad Gray – and Grandma and Grandpa Davis!