Listen to Your Heart

Last week my co-founder Michael wrote an article about finding your big idea, and this week I‘m going to expand on that concept. I had a conversation with someone recently about the future of Radically Different, and what that might look like. So far, the best fitting category for what we want out of our business is that of a Media Production Company. We want to be able to produce high quality audio, visual, and written content driven by authenticity, and a media production company offers us the tools and the connections to do all of these things.

In Michael’s article he wrote about the process of an idea growing from a seed of thought into a fully fleshed out tree, rooted in reality. I think that’s a great way to look at it, and can offer a framework for connecting the ‘medium ideas’ under a broader canopy while ensuring they remain rooted in the ground, or at least connected to the tree.

So is Radically Different a ‘medium’ idea or a big one? I think that Radically Different the media production company is a medium idea. A tool for turning our ideas, and those of the people we want to support, into reality in a way that is sustainable and retains authenticity.

When put like that I’m not so sure that media production, specifically, is the heart of this idea. In his dispatch last week Michael brought up the idea of a physical art space. The kind of place that has a handful of permanent practice spaces for musicians, an additional couple of rooms to serve us audio recording studios, multi-purpose art spaces, and a venue area that allows for live shows and gallery showings. A space that can work to remove barriers to production for creators while connecting independent artists in the community to the programs and patrons that can support them.

So the thought that has been rattling around in my head over the past week since that conversation is that the most effective way to create the maximum amount of positive value for the largest number of creators and communities is to launch a foundation. A foundation with a goal of teaching creators the lateral leadership skills they need to organize and produce whatever they can imagine, in a way that creates opportunities for meaningful work within their communities.

By helping creators develop the skills they need to be self-sustainable in production, and by working to foster a collaborative mindset between creators and their communities, I believe that a model can be established that helps bridge the gap between government programs and the authentic creators that they are meant to support.

With the future of work holding dramatic changes in ways that we aren’t yet able to predict, I believe that the importance of authentic creativity will only continue to rise. Building a foundation with the goal of developing self-sustaining creators that have a desire to create opportunities for those around them certainly sounds like the type of thing that would be at the ‘heart’ of an idea.

So what’s at the heart of your big idea?

C