Author: Andrew Zahn

I'm a son, husband, dad, business owner, actor and good sleeper/eater. On this blog, I pave a highway for creative growth by providing food, water, and shelter for those wishing to live, work, and play with creative zest.

The Plate Spinning Artist

As creatives, we lead project-driven lives. We are the plate-spinners. The task-jugglers. The multiple-hat-wearers.

plate-spinning

Currently I’m…

  • Writing a new book with two other friends. I’d say we’re about 63.2% done. (more on that in the months to come!)
  • Launching two social media campaigns for my day job.
  • Learning to be a father…we’re due in about six weeks!
  • Maintaining social media content for one client (with weekly blogging).
  • Posting this blog post.

Lot’s of spinning plates, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably similar as a creative.

We love to see projects through to completion and get frustrated when we hover too long in one place without moving forward. We want we need momentum.

To help us move forward with our projects, I’ve stolen borrowed this stellar list from Robert D. Smith. Continue reading “The Plate Spinning Artist”

The Truth About Comedy

I get wildly inspired when I see a brilliant comic perform.

Some of my favorites are Brian Regan, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan and  Ellen Degeneres–they perform observational humor and do so without the spicy language of many of their colleagues and that takes great skill.

When I watch them perform, I think of how brillant the writing is and often start to picture myself writing and performing just like them. The conversation I have with myself goes something like this:

(Andrew, a mid-thirties dad-to-be, sitting in his family room, watching Jim Gaffigan perform his ‘Mr. Universe’ piece on Netflix)

JIM: (on TV): Has your mother ever made anything as good as a McDonald’s fry? Not even close. We lie to ourselves when we eat at McDonald’s fries. Oh, they are so thin, they couldn’t be fattening. You ever eat too many McDonald’s fries? Of course not. There is never enough of them. There’s always that moment when you’re eating McDonald’s fries really. What happened? Where did they go? Then you search, scrunching for the fry crumbs. Oh that’ just a piece of paper from the straw, but it was touching the fry so…

ANDREW: (On couch) I could do that. I live. I think. I write. I perform. That guy makes a ton of money just talking about McDonalds and hot pockets.

(immediately inspired, Andrew picks up his computer and beings writing.) Continue reading “The Truth About Comedy”

The Difference Between an Artist and a Non-Artist

Earlier this week I met with a successful businessman. He’s built a virtual empire and I’m sure he’s earned enough money to live comfortably for a very long time.

The meeting was beneficial for both of us but it was interesting how I felt after meeting with him, and I found a few questions swirling around in my mind:

  • Why did that meeting feel so hurried?
  • What is the difference between him and me?
  • How do artists fit into a business culture? 

I came to a conclusion that was much bigger than a silly little business meeting… Continue reading “The Difference Between an Artist and a Non-Artist”

10 Brand Spanking New Idioms

As I was driving home from my day job (I’m a PR Manager for a home improvement company) I had an epiphany involving candy and the old idiom “the best things in life aren’t things.” Such sage advice was pouring forth from my muse that I had to do something with my newfound wisdom.

What do we do with new idioms and epiphanies in the digital age? We tweet ’em…

Screenshot_1_4_13_6_46_AM

It’s true. Can’t really argue with that. Perhaps non-candy lovers might argue with it…but I’ll never understand why someone wouldn’t love candy. Never.

It got me to thinking of a few more new idioms that have potential to change the world. And by “change the world” I mean “maybe make you smile.” (Add your own in the comments below and I’ll tweet it out this weekend!)

1. It takes two to tango, but one person can look ridiculous too.

2. Actions speak louder than words, but then nobody gets to hear you yell.

3. Clothes don’t make the man unless she’s a woman dressed up like a man, then they kinda do. (Tweet that)

4. One man’s trash is another man’s Craigslist. Continue reading “10 Brand Spanking New Idioms”

Living In Awe

Coffee.

Laughter.

The won’t-let-go-of-you hug.

Favorite things.

As I sit in the quiet of this morning, sharing my heart with a tiny, blinking cursor on a screen in a tiny, beautiful home before anyone else gets up, I am in awe. The rise and fall of my breath and warmth all around reminds me that I have everything I need…and more. Every single need met.

Miraculous.

It’s refreshing and astounding how taking one moment at the beginning of the day causes gratitude and thankfulness to well up and spill into the rest of the day. Just by listing those three things at the top of this post, my mind and heart get emboldened, realizing I’m cared for by God and have nothing to worry about. Continue reading “Living In Awe”

The Dichotomy of Focus

As creatives, we’re tasked with the privilege of seeing our creative projects evolve in three basic stages: getting the initial idea, implementing the idea into our medium and then producing the finished work.

Along this path is the dichotomy of focus.

  • We must be open to change, but not get too distracted.
  • We embrace playfulness, yet need to be responsible.
  • We often create in solitude, but we need community and connection.
TodaysArt 2005 - Nederlands Dans Theater
Maurice via Compfight

The dichotomy of focus reminds me of ballet. As many of my acting gigs involved choreography, I wanted to learn the basics of movement, so I signed up for ballet classes.

The teacher would say seemingly incongruent instructions to help us learn the physical and mental demands of the artform.

Elongate. Tuck.

Push. Pull.

Relax. Tighten.

Such a dichotomy of terms that it seemed the teacher was schizophrenic, yet when she demonstrated we saw exactly what she meant.

What ballet taught me to do in all of my creative work was to enjoy several disciplines at once. As the term “focus” implies being intent on only one thing, it’s too narrow a word for our type of work.

I enjoy embracing the whole of the process rather than just a part.

How about you? How do you strike the balance?

6.5 Ideas For You to Steal

Steal these ideas…consider them yours.

But before I share these multi-million dollar (or these “fall-flat-on-your-face-and-don’t-tell-anyone-you-got-the-idea-from-me”) ideas, here’s why I’m sharing…

  • I have a list of too many and by sharing them, I’ve narrowed down my list. So thank you.
  • I need to see if I’ve done anything on my ‘ideas’ list.
  • Sharing is better than hoarding.
  • You only get to keep what you give away. Marinate on that one.

So here goes. Continue reading “6.5 Ideas For You to Steal”

How Happiness Happens

I’ve been pondering happiness a lot over the past few weeks. It could be for a number of reasons that happiness has come to mind…

  • We’re a few months away from having our first child! Happy.
  • I just changed jobs at work to a position that is more in line with who I am and what I love. Happy.
  • I published a book on Amazon* and am working on a second with two fellow writers. Happy.

I was so interested in happiness that I watched this documentary, aptly called “Happy”.* It chronicles the lives of a cross-section of people and cultures and finds several common denominators among them relating to happiness.

It’s worth your time.

Money and Happiness

Even a smile is an act of charity
Farrukh via Compfight

The documentary found that there is a threshold to money creating happiness…and it’s a surprisingly low threshold.  

Above and beyond meeting basic needs (food, water, shelter), happiness levels for the whole of life don’t generally increase with a higher income.

Although Forbes reported that money could buy happiness, it’s findings were directed toward happiness in vocation, not for all of life in general.

Simply put: money can buy happiness, but only while you’re at work.

Conclusion: since the majority of our time is not spent at work, money doesn’t buy happiness. Continue reading “How Happiness Happens”

Big Pretentious Words are Big and Pretentious

Confession: I sometimes like to appear smarter than I really am. Rather than using colloquial language, I’ll toss in some three, four, and five syllable words to dazzle. I kinda just did it with the word ‘colloquial.’ Guilty.

Have you ever used “big words” just to impress someone?

Words like these…

  • Pretentious. Even using the word ‘pretentious’ is, in itself, pretentious.
  • Colloquial. See above. I used it a few sentences ago to make myself appear shiningly brilliant.
  • Nebulous. I’ll toss this one into a sentence when describing concepts and ideas that aren’t specific. As in: “I like the direction of this project Fran, it’s just a bit nebulous at present.” Just saying the word ‘nebulous’ raises my IQ. I’m sure of it.
  • Any Medical Terminology Picked Up from WebMD. As in “yeah, it was a post-roital laceration on my dorsal vertex.” Of course, peons who haven’t read WebMD feel their intelligence quotent drop with each and every syllable of our verbiage. Continue reading “Big Pretentious Words are Big and Pretentious”