We recently connected with Ross Copeland and have shared our conversation below.
Ross, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Watching other creative people helps. Wandering around helps. I get bogged down with life stuff just like we all do: bills and work and commitments and errands and eating (where, what, what time, with whom… it’s a lot). Creativity is a reluctant dance partner whom I try to spin around each day. If I attempt to schedule a session with her, she doesn’t show up. I’ll think, “Ooo, I have time to be brilliant tomorrow from 2-4.” It doesn’t happen. But if I am a little more tricksy about it, it helps. For example, I’ll say something like, “I’m gonna try on every piece of clothing I have! I hope no one comes along to distract me! (wink, wink).” This is a trick that creativity falls for very often. She can’t contain her curiosity and will come out of her hiding place to investigate. I have learned to be patient when waiting for creativity to show up. I set aside some time each day (usually first thing) to sit and see if she walks by (she is a coffee fiend, like me, and many of our interactions happen next to and around the Keurig.) I never criticize her for being late or for not showing up at all. She has zero tolerance for guilt-trips. She knows that I need her more than she needs me. I set aside some time each morning, pen in hand like a kid with a butterfly net, hoping she’ll float by. I feel lucky when she does. When she doesn’t, I just lean on the hope that she will tomorrow.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a stand-up comedian. The most exciting thing about doing stand-up is seeing a silly little idea that you had morph into something that’ll create an applause break in front of an audience. Stand-up is like sitting around trying to come up with new designs for paper airplanes, like I did as a kid. I’d fold and fold and see if I could get some cool, new design. And most of the time, it wouldn’t fly, but sometimes it would and it was the best. I read once about these students from Princeton who won an airplane-making contest by crumpling a piece of paper around a rock and throwing it like a baseball. They technically broke no rules and made the paper fly further than anyone. That’s what coming up with a great joke is like: discovering an idea that is so simple, yet has been hidden from sight all this time. You write it down, give it a little glitter and glue, and then you release the thing. After you hear the laughter, you think, “I can’t believe it was right in front of me all along.”
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the willingness to keep going when it’s hard is the biggest asset. A common adage I hear is that you have to have thick skin to be a comic. I don’t know if that’s true. I think my skin is quite thin and I get my feelings hurt fairly easily. If a set doesn’t go well, I feel it intensely. While I do think it is important to have a good sense of self, to not tie your self-worth to the validation of others, to know yourself and be true to your vision, I think it’s even more important to have the willingness to keep trying despite not feeling your best or fully believing in yourself in a given moment. (And maybe deep down, that’s what believing in yourself really is? When it’s going so poorly that you’re screaming at yourself that you’re wasting your time, you find that one little voice way, way down there that whispers, “None of that is true. Try again.”) So, willingness to keep going would be the first most impactful quality in my journey. As for the second and third, I’d say write a bunch and then just say the funny parts.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I struggle with fitting everything into the day. As a creative who does not make his full-time living from creative work, I still have to find time for my day job. Sometimes it seems impossible to get everything done that I need to get done: write material, find stages to work out the material, promote/network, post online, put in my day job hours, get to the gym a couple times a week (so I don’t go completely insane), spend a bit of time with people (because I need a little insanity), and sit in traffic. It’s hard to get everything in, and I don’t even have kids. But this year my mantra has been “challenge limiting beliefs”. And one of my favorite limiting beliefs is, “I just don’t have enough time for that”. (My second favorite is, “I really need some time on the couch.”) I’ve been challenging these beliefs. It’s hard, but I’m getting better. I tell myself, “If you get this done now, you’ll feel better later.” And that’s true, but what’s also true is that I’ll feel better now, too. It’s like making myself eat broccoli instead of pizza. I’m sad for a minute before I remember that broccoli doesn’t give me heartburn. It feels good to say I’m going to do something, and then do it. I’m getting better at turning off the TV when I said I would, even after a cliffhanger. (*Note to cliffhanger writers: Don’t be so needy; you know I’ll be back, just let me get some sleep first.) Having discipline for the sake of tomorrow feels good even today. And the last thing I’ll say is… wait, I’ll tell you next time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosscopeland11/
- Website: www.rosscopeland.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ross.copeland.161
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-copeland-a1139237/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosscopeland11
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5RdWhlN7cZNPcb-C7LHqYg
