 Think we are live. Whenever you are, wherever you are, thank you for joining this LinkedIn Live. First, I wanna make this section as interactive as possible. So let me know where you're tuning in from, an emoji, the name of the city or name of the country, I would really appreciate it that we are actually talking to peeps. So I would love to introduce today's topic. Today's topic is how to channel your creativity. And yet again, it's a ask me anything. So drop any questions that you might have in the comments below and I promise we'll try and get to most of them. All right, so today you're speaking with me and Lilibef or Lily, but I will bring her on in a second. So I want to introduce myself. I'm Chris, the founder of UX Playbook. But before that, I was a computer science dropout, term business graduate, term product designer and eventually quit my head of design job in 2020. And now I spend most of my time helping designers navigate a fuzzy UX career and turning it into focus. But that's enough about me. So today I'm joined by Lili, a lead designer, educator and founder of Soul Doodles. So let's get her out and say hello. Hello. Hello. How are you doing? Do you want to introduce yourself and tell the audience about yourself? Of course, of course. Thank you so much for having me here. It's so amazing that we're connecting from Vietnam and also New York. I just love how technology can help us to meet together. So that is so cool. Yeah, for the ones who are connecting and I see people from London and different places. I am from Colombia from Bogota originally. I moved to the US about nine years ago and I moved to the US to learn English because I didn't speak any English before and the way that I arrived was actually as an au pair. And for the people who hasn't know how what is an au pair is basically a nanny who comes and help a family. So yeah, my background is in communications and journalism, but I switch into design first as a visual designer, then as a UX UI designer and now as a lead product designer. But yeah, I'm just super happy. And as you were saying, I do education with memorizing as well, which is an amazing book come to learn UX UI. And I am the founder of Sol Durals which is basically a platform that I created to inspire adults to create art because I feel that we all need to do that and we need to connect with our inner child. That's amazing. So just a quick tangent from me and this is also why I really wanted to speak to you Lily is because you said we all have to, or you believe that we all have to connect with our inner child. I actually had this handle for years and it was a semi-grown kid and I made a video about this and it's the same kind of concept, right? Keeping that inner child alive and never being fully grown but never being fully a kid. So really love that and would love to dive into that in a few seconds. But I just wanna tell the audience how this session is gonna go. Typical to all the other sessions if you've listened to them or tuned in, first we discuss a topic of how to channel your creativity then the second part is address any questions from the audience. So let me get my animation buttons here. Drop any questions below. Where did I press it? I did not press it. I did press it. I didn't press it. Okay, anyway. So drop any questions as we talk because maybe it'll trigger some creative thoughts whatever it is. Yes, let's make this a conversation just between me and you but also the audience as well. So let me introduce what we're about to talk about and let me set this up. So we often ask ourselves how do I overcome creative blocks as designers or how do I become more creative and can creativity fundamentally be learned? So these are some of the questions that I have in my head and I really wanna go to Lily and let's talk about them. So let's dive into how to channel your creativity. So the first question, why do you think creativity matters, Lily? That is a great question to start the conversation. Creativity matters because if we are not creative we are start to feel a little bit stuck. We cannot let our ideas go out and we actually don't express what we actually have internally. And when we suffer of creative block that is connected with that is basically you just have this feeling that you don't actually say what you want and you connect with what you are supposed to say. And also in design, creativity is super important because whatever you create it has to come from the back of your brain but also understand a lot of things. So when you are blocked and you are not having those ideas as a designer just makes it very, very complicated. And also as a human being if you're not creating and if you're not doing anything with your hands or just exposing yourself to touch something or to do all then just feel like life is very systematic. You're just doing the same thing over and over and over but when you are taking a moment to create you take a moment to breathe, to be calm and to connect with what really matters to you. So in my case for me creativity is when I go around the Central Park take photos of the flowers when I take a moment to do all when I take a moment to maybe to a good meal. So creativity comes from different areas and places it doesn't have to be just the perfect masterpiece of an amazing illustration. Creativity comes from different places and I think like we all as human beings are creators and it's very important for us to connect with that because something that I was mentioning before in another podcast is when you get all the only thing that you want to do is actually go back to that craft and be creative after knowing how to work for multiple hours. Yeah, so this one I get a lot where and I also believe and echo your same sentiment around creativity. There's one thing that I often get in workshops which is like usually they're with like non designers or like people in the product team maybe some engineers or something like that and they're like, I'm not creative. So what do you say to people that tell you they're not creative but you have a belief that, hey, everybody's creative, right? Like what do you say to someone? Because I had this conversation the other day about this exact topic. Really interested in what you think about this. Yeah, it's funny that you asked this because I had also another conversation in another podcast and then she was mentioning it and saying like, I don't feel like I can create and her husband was saying, well, your handwriting is amazing. So it doesn't have to be a creation of a perfect piece as I was mentioning before. Creativity comes into literally finding an outfit every morning and feeling good and matching colors and having fun. Like creativity is about what can you create that somebody created but you make it better and it makes you feel better. So like for me, everyone creates and everyone can create because if you make a nice meal and you put together an old meal with blueberries at the top and you make it beautiful, that is gratuity in there. That you are letting your soul in something amazing that is not gray and it's not boring. So for engineers that always say that they can not create I always told them that it's not the case and we used to have our retros that I built in Fit Jam and as an icebreaker activity, I will make them to do all their perfect character, their favorite character of childhood and then they will do it with the market and they will have so much fun. They're doing sometimes we're amazing. So then when everyone say like they can not create, I think like it's a big lie because we, when we're in school, when we're little, we all do it all. We all create, we all have to play with crayons, we play it all, everyone. And it's kind of like going back again to that craft and taking a time to be in the funds that is what I always like try to say. And even to myself and just start doing little things. But yeah, I think like everyone is created just in the fact of if you're making an amazing meal, if you went outside and saw an amazing building and you took a photo of that because you're fairly spread by the shadows, by the colors, like from that is where you start thinking, oh, my mind is coming out of the box. It's thinking about it in different things that it's not as aesthetic. Yeah, and great point you mentioned that it's not just aesthetics because I think there's a stereotype around creativity, you see it, maybe it's art, maybe it's music, maybe it's dance, whatever the stereotype of creativity is, or I believe there is some, but when someone told or said to me, I'm not creative like you, and I was like, well, okay, fine. You're not creative like me, but you are creative. So for me, mind actually like, if you solve any sort of problem, you are inherently creative because maybe it's a problem that's new to you, maybe you have to connect the dots backwards based on your experience. Anything can be creative, like if you say our scientists creative, for me, they're probably one of the most creative individuals to figure out, right? Like mathematicians, right? Like some areas like astronauts, some areas where you're like, oh, that's not your typical painter, artist, graffiti person, but really they have to be creative in the circumstances they put themselves in, whether it's like a creative problem or how to test something really interesting. So yeah, I also echo you, like creativity is everywhere and for folks that are not working in, with a bunch of designers and have to work outside the organization, it's like really our job as designers is to help folks come to this sort of creative process, right? Something that we're quite good at and kind of give them that confidence of saying like, oh, you can actually do this if you go through this process. So the other question I had as we're talking about this process, and I'm gonna jump around a bit here, but do you think creativity can be learned, practiced, and what is your thoughts around this sort of process? Like if someone wasn't creative, day one, what could we do to help them? Yeah, I think you can improve your creativity, which you connected pretty well with your comment of like solving a problem to making something better, I would say creativity is that. So if you want to start creating more in your daily day, it's kind of like going to the gym or having a habit of like drinking water every day. So start just small, I had interviewed a lot of creators, illustrators, artists in the past four years, and one of the tips that they always say is just start small and kind of like the Nike commercial, just do it, can be as simple as doodling, can be as simple as taking your phone and start taking photos around, can be as simple as maybe going into a workshop and learning how to cook, just different activities that will connect you to be out of the box of only thinking about your work, only thinking about your family. It's kind of like a way for you to connect with your own self and figuring out what you really would love to do in your time, when you have time out of work. So I will say start small in Sol Durals because that was one of the things that I launched since the beginning. We give this creative challenge where people basically have a photo or have an idea that you can imitate because that is something like you need to have a sort of inspiration. Like first I need to see like what can I do especially when I started. And then it has been amazing just to see how a person interpret that in their own style and then they just do it and have fun. So the short response will be start a little creating mood boards in Pinterest and just connect with that and start thinking, okay, so if somebody creates something like this, what can I create that is going to be amazing and kind of like making it better? And you are going to start seeing that the more you create, the more you're going to continue, open up your soul to connect with that in your child and to have time to do those little things that make you happy. So starting from little just Durals or just I will say experimenting. I think that that will be really a really good advice to how to start from the beginning and don't pressure. There are some people who wants to just like jump and start creating and wanted to create the master piece but there is no such a thing. When I start illustrating and trying to connect with my inner child, I was living in Sweden at the time and I just start doing watercolors. And what I did was literally find a photo in Pinterest that make me excited. And I think that that is the secret. You have to find something that make you inspired like excited. And I started just watercolor and then I thought, well, I want to go in digital. So then I start looking at different illustrators. Pablo Stalin is one of my favorite. He's my friend. And he's absolutely incredible with his way of thinking. And I just started seeing his work and I was like, oh my God, I can do something like this too. So kind of like getting inspired by other people it will help you. And that was the whole reason why I actually created Soldiers because during my period of like illustrating from watercolor into digital and then moving on into like procreate and an iPad, there were times that I didn't know what to create. And I literally have to ask my friends, give me an idea of like what should I create there because I'm running out of ideas. But you will find that the more you create and the more you start practicing, the better you're going to be. And also from there, because it's out of work can come something that maybe is completely changing your career in the future, which is the most amazing thing. Because at work, majority of people just feel very frustrated and sad because they're solving problems of our people but they're not solving problems of their own self. So I feel like creativity is also that space for you to connect with you, to figure out what you like. And I think like life is too short just to continue doing what you don't like. So if your work sucks because sometimes happen and you want to have a time to be creative and to connect with that inner child and to have a moment just to breathe and be happy, I will encourage you just to start dueling and just scribble. Yeah, so start small, find someone you like and just get creative and then the practice automatically kind of breeds more creativity. Yeah, I'll go challenge the 38 day challenge. The book of the habits, now I don't remember the name of the whole title. He talks about creating habits and it's by small. So you just create the habit. Okay, this week I'm going to do all something and I'm going to do it very little and it doesn't matter, I don't have to share it in LinkedIn, I don't have to share it on Instagram but maybe you can share it with your mom and dad and you just say, hey, today I'm going to do it all. This is what I'm trying to do I'm trying to connect with my creativity but I guarantee you that is going to help you so much and you're going to start feeling really good. Yeah, and I think there's like for most of the folks listening, they're probably designers, right? So you do this thing called design and you create for a living. So why can't you use the same types of concepts for your personal life? And there's a bunch of tools that we use already like if you look at the design sprint, right? The crazy eights for example and it's literally just brainstorming eight different things in eight minutes. You can do that with problems, you can do that with how to organize your wardrobe, you can do that with where to go on holiday, you could do that with everything. So it could be starting from doodles, it could be a bunch of different ways. So take what you do at work and see if you can apply the same sort of mental model of creating to give you a passion or something. Crazy eights is really cool because maybe as topic, let's say I am Colombian and in that crazy eights I say, okay, what are some specific things that as a Colombian we do that I want to start illustrating and it's going to connect with my audience. So then just start thinking, okay, well, we eat empanadas with arepas, we also go to the river to cook in a huge, you know, pal, you know, an eating soup in the river. Those are specific things about Colombia with different ideas. You start like thinking, wow, so if I want to start sharing this with other people in my doodles, in my little things, I'm just going to start doing like, like simple, you get photos and just start sketching and you're going to see that it's going to be very, like, oh my God, I didn't think about that. You know, like for you, what is like Vietnam looks like in a Sunday? So then just start like doodle-ing and start seeing, okay, Vietnam, you can definitely see everyone sitting in those small chairs, eating their fall, you know, it's super tropical, the flowers are everywhere. So just start like creating little things and you're like, oh yes, that is actually inspiration for me and I can create something like that. Mm-hmm, quick tangent from me again because I'm full of them. I actually met Pablo, I think once in Mexico, we went for a bike ride after he did a lecture to a university that we taught at and that was pretty cool. So yeah, but he's amazing, prolific. Just want to give a shout out to Pablo Stanley. Yeah. Probably not watching, but just say, we appreciate you dude and you are retiring. Yeah, that's amazing. To be honest, he has been my inspiration as a Latino and that is something that I want to encourage everyone here, if you want to be creative, find that illustrator, find that photographer, find that UX UI designer that inspire you to be even better than the person, you know? Pablo has been my inspiration as that Latino who has been in tech, who creates multiple roads, who launch plugins in film, who launch like AI plugins, everything. And it's so amazing to see that because it's also representation and I think we need that as well everywhere. So yeah, the inspiration comes from other people and instead of comparing is more what does Pablo do that works for him, that can work for me and I can make a bed and I can give my own, you know, my own soul and my own thinking in something that I'm interested. Yeah, absolutely. And question around here is like, is that how soul doodles came to be? And can you tell us more about this initiative? Yeah, absolutely. So as I was mentioning before, I started just drilling and creating watercolors when I was living in Sweden, trying to figure out my life. And when I came back, I started thinking that it would be really nice just to give people more advice in how to create since I was an amateur and we always are going to feel like that the imposter syndrome always come. I thought that will be amazing just to have a place where I could interview people, where I could give a challenge every week and where I can share stories from others that could inspire others to create. So I launched soul doodles, actually it's going to be four years ago. It's a non-profit, but I believe that even if one person doodles with my soul doodles challenge and they feel happy, I am just very, very happy because of that because they're connecting with their inner child and the community is growing. We have a Discord channel and yeah, we'll just continue doing our challenges. We have the podcast. I have an amazing volunteers that are doing a lot of amazing things for soul doodles. But yeah, it's a community. So if you are interested in how to create and how to connect with your inner child, join soul doodles is free. And you will have more community and people supporting you. Every week we have this challenge, as I was saying, where you can see everyone's point of view, which is amazing. And I believe you're going to feel very inspired. That's awesome. That sounds like a really cool initiative. And I think I need to get back into doodles for my soul because I also did, I wanted to challenge myself because I really love drawing as a kid. Yes. Yeah, like cartoon kind of posters on the back of my wall like me drawing them. So yeah, exactly. I still love it. I still prefer like writing on posters with like a thick marker just because it gives me that sense of like drawing. And it's really nice. I want to sort of divert this conversation a bit towards another thing that you mentioned you do. So like, okay, so you have soul doodles. Obviously you have your nine to five. We can talk about that later. But, and then you have also you're a mentor or a teacher for memorizing. Is that also part of your creative expression or how do you think about that? That is so cool that you asked me that question as a creative expression. For me, and as I was mentioned before, it's more a way of inspiring others, especially Latinas doing tech because the percentage of Latinas in tech, at least in the US is very little. So for me, when I started in San Francisco, it was very difficult. Like I have to be an Annie to pay for my school and different problems that can happen during those switching transition careers. But I do find a lot of organizations where I was able to get mentoring and like helping others. And every time I will ask somebody like if they could help me with my portfolio or just giving feedback, they did it. So it's a way for me to get back to the community. I also love to teach. I feel rewarded, like reward. Every time I got the opportunity to be in front of people and I'm helping them to learn something new. For me as a Colombian, something that my parents and I don't know if it was the same for you. The last is like education is the most important thing that you can have in life. So if I can continue helping people to connect with their inner child, learn something new and help them to find what they want to do in life that is going to make them fulfill is what matters the most. So yeah, I started teaching in memorizing a couple of years ago with Sander which is also an amazing human being that I absolutely love to very darling friend of mine. And he, yeah, he saw I guess my skills of like I think you can be a really good teacher come join the team. I was one of the five first teachers in memorizing and I had been teaching for over a hundred people and more in the past years. And also tends to add like fit jam environment to give a workshop. And just like everything just like comes after you start something little. I never imagined when I was in San Francisco trying to be a visual designer first where I will be right now. I still feel like I continue growing and I continue learning as a designer and as a human being. But it's very refreshing to be that little person that is putting a little seed in our people and they're just growing to be better. Yeah, that's awesome. So I mean, you do so many different things, right? What does creativity look like outside of the three things that we just mentioned like your nine to five memorizing and soul doodles or is it all in one kind of giant creative bubble? Like how do you think about creativity outside of maybe some more professional things you do? Yeah, for me, just a duro in my tablet is where I get super happy taking a walk and taking a photo of a shadow that inspire me that is where creativity comes. Traveling, it's always like super inspiring for me. I love to learn about different cultures. We were just discussing about Vietnam and how amazing it is and how different it is. But at the same time, it's super cool. So yeah, I think like in those cases, I feel like more creative and it makes me connect with what I love. Also, creativity doesn't have to come in something that you do manually and crafting. I love cycling personally. For me, it's my therapy and I think it's like when you connect with those little things that matters to you. So if I go into a bike ride in the morning, I just get the most amazing energy in my body that I cannot explain. So like that sense of like, okay, what am I going to look in my bicycle? Drive, you know, like listen to music being inspired. Like that is another source of inspiration for you to be creative and to be honest, like creativity is just literally being out of this computer, being out of like thinking about many problems and like many negative thoughts that we get for imposter syndrome and for being overwhelmed and like being chock for work and life in general and having a time just for you to connect and enjoy what you have and be happy with what you have. When I hear you talk, it seems to me that you're really in tune with how you feel and what makes you happy. And I think that that kind of is evident from like, oh, I'm just going to do things that make me happy and just so happens they are creative or it could be the other way around where I create because I'm happy and I'm happy because I create like, it's quite interesting. So there's a lot of folks out there, I think that I've spoken to and they're like, well, I don't really know what I like. And like, apart from the watching movies and stuff, but like they really don't know what they like, right? Or that they kind of spend their time just doing things because they do it versus like focusing in on the thing that makes them a happy part. What is your thoughts like, what do you usually tell people whether you're like, okay, creating makes you happy or if you're happy, you'll create more like, what's that conversation like? So if they don't know what to do and where to start, and yeah, it's very interesting. More developers always say the same thing, but there are little things that I think they know what they like. I will say though, that it's very important to be out of this computer. And we are digital designers and we're building tech and all of these amazing things, but this computer, as much as bring us together, like as right now and a lot of people listen to me and that is amazing and that is what I love about technology, it separates us from the reality and the people that I have close to me and my family because we're constantly in there. So I feel like that separation of like, being out of the computer and trying to do little things that matters to you are going to be important. If you know where to start and you feel like I'm not creative at all, I don't know what I like, I just would like to work, help me, you can literally just start connecting with those little things that you were doing when you were little. There were maybe things that you love to do with your friends that you enjoy, that maybe you love hiking, maybe you love cooking. Those hobbies are amazing and those hobbies are so important, especially the older I get, the more I think like when I will be a 90-year-old year old, I want to do something that makes me happy and makes me excited every day. So yeah, just go back to those little things that you used to when you were little because that is what is going to bring the joy that you need to have in your life. So for me, I remember cycling with my brother and I absolutely love it. And until this day, I'm going to be 33 in a month. I love to cycle so much. I remember do rolling, I wanted to be a fashion designer and I remember to really my dolls and having fun creating them. That is something that I still do until today and I feel happy. So there are little things that you did as a kid. Even if it was the rise your mom made and you want to create it, just do that. That is a way of being creative and connecting with those things. Also, join communities, join different activities and then you will find the passion and you will see maybe you can try a yoga class and then from there you start feeling like yoga is your call. Who knows? So just try and play something that we have as a human being is kind of like the playground and we have these in Fidma files sometimes where you just literally have different ideas, different inspiration. So create that exploration, that playground and listen to people feeling inspired by them. If you want to listen to many artists and their stories and stuff, Sol Duros is there for your podcast. But yeah, Chris, I will say that will be my advice just connecting with that little things that you just told me. I used to love when I was a kid that I love to do roll. So now I want to encourage you and challenge you to maybe start doing what you see in Vietnam that is absolutely amazing. The architecture, you know, the way everything is layout in Cochimin, like I remember the paths and the trees, the shadows. There is something like different that I don't see in New York that I saw in Vietnam that you can start expressing with your Duros. Yeah, like even with my notes, there's like, I always just, I can't help myself but like, you know, just make it different. Like just kind of my hand and pen just moves on the notes. So it's quite interesting. Okay, let's move to our second sort of segment where we address audience questions and I always forget to do this, right? I have made this silly intro video that I didn't play. So let's separate the segments with the intro video in the middle of the event. So let's do that. Okay, let me try and play this real quick. Of everyday people. It sounds right, boy. All right, that was the intro. Better late than never, as they say. So let's go to our first question. Before that, actually, we have someone that knows you from Memorize Lee and Sally loves your style and your passion for a So Doodle. So just a quick shout out from Sally. Thank you for joining. We really appreciate you joining. I appreciate the comment and the love. I appreciate it. Thank you. That's cool. Okay, so our first question and I'm just going to run down the list and hopefully bring it on. Okay, here. How can we increase our creativity? Are there any specific habits or rituals that boost your creativity? Yeah, how does it work behind the scenes? What do you do to boost your creativity or habits or rituals? Yeah, I have to say I am very positive, but there are days that I feel terrible and I feel very sad and I am a human being so it's not like everything is magic. But I will say it's starting with your exercise and this is going to sound like very trendy Instagram reels and stuff. But literally, waking up with a way for you to move your body is going to give you a lot of good energy. When we just wake up and go immediately to a computer, somehow in our brain it doesn't work for me and it doesn't work for other people. So if you can just move, even dancing or something, I think it will help you to first feel a little bit more free and then to start increasing creativity is just to start looking at things in a different way. Not just like, okay, I'm just walking and then the city looks the same. It's more, wow, there was a monument in this specific corner. What did the artist about it? And if you don't like to walk outside the streets or your city doesn't look as excited because sometimes can happen but I believe not, like nature impresses us so much, you can just start playing little things, playing with little things, do rolling, listen to music, like maybe dressing up different, like try different people that you will feel inspired to something specific that you are curious to learn or you're curious to grow. And I think like from that, you will start feeling a little bit more like, oh, I want to create something for myself and I want to start looking a little bit different. I want to start having a different perspective. That makes sense. And I think for me personally, what helps is like, curating your information diet, right? Yes. Because inputs leads to outputs. So probably the easiest way and there's a question about laziness, which we'll get to, but I'm really lazy, right? I always try to find the shortcut, but... Everyone is super lazy. Right, exactly. Yeah, when you think about what is the smallest action you can change or a little habit that you can change, the quickest is your information diet, right? So follow and what sort of content you consume. And if you do want to be more creative, spread those topics out, right? Follow, rabbit hole down this path, this path. If you consume one type of content, it's kind of like you're shaping your brain as you know the brain is elastic. So if you have a lot of different sort of things that you kind of interested in or follow or watch or read or consume, then hopefully that can breed some different things because two ideas from different worlds could connect in very specific ways. Just depends if you know about these two worlds. If you just know about one world, the ideas will never connect at all, right? So I like to do that because exactly, maybe I consume too much content, not sure, but that helps as well. Yeah, I love that tip, Tom. Okay, so another one. This one is very interesting. So let me read it out. What if you have a creative ideas but can't implement them? Because of your laziness, aka me, and when it comes to creativity, you are not able to generate an idea after a certain stage because you're lazy. Any ideas on how to prevent this? Yeah, and I'm going to say the same thing. You have to feel inspired by what you're doing. You have to find people, books, just as you were saying, that is going to boost that. You also just have to do it. If you don't do it and you don't force yourself, like the five-minute rule or the 20-minute focus is very important. And even if you take a break in the middle, it's okay. But I think the part of jumping out of the laziness, which is basically procrastination, is going to help you to feel better. And you can start tracking, like, okay, today I do roll a house, whatever. And then you start marking the check mark with the post-it notes. It feels somehow amazing. So yeah, I would say creating those little things that you need to do and start crashing. And one day maybe you feel like you are totally in, and you feel inspired, and you feel like you are creating something, but there is other days that you definitely don't feel like doing anything. But I will say that practice and try little things every day are important, even though you feel lazy. Like today I didn't woke up at 6 a.m., which is what I usually do. I woke up at 7.30 and I was like, I need to go for a bike ride, even if it's not 6 a.m. And I did it and it feel amazing. So like sometimes we just have to literally force ourselves to little things to make us go into the right direction. Like I could have the idea of soldier roles for many years. I could have the idea of being entrepreneur for many years, but if I didn't apply to my masters, if I didn't try to teach or talk to people or connect to people, then I wouldn't be where I am right now. So those little steps one by one, what I did in San Francisco, like New York, it's going to renew to where you are. It doesn't have to be the master piece, but those little steps will bring you where you have to be. And yes, I'm lazy, of course. Like I am not productive all the time, but when you have those moments of productivity, that is going to shape what you have. So don't feel like you have to create, create, create every single hour because that is not the reality. Nobody can do that. Yeah, there's a small anecdote that I believe is pretty famous in the tech world now, or at least in the 2000s, where Bill Gates says, if I want something hard done, I'll go to a lazy person because they'll figure out the shortest path to get that thing done, right? So use that lazy as your superpower. Like sometimes it is what Lily said, like taking a break and not forcing it, and maybe things will come up, right? But lazy people I think are some of the most creative because they are very creative of the way to be lazy and get the job done as Bill Gates says. Anyway, let's move on. And I'm not celebrating laziness. I'm just merely saying it happens to everybody. Okay, cool. Yeah, you're just being empathetic. Everyone does it. Everyone doesn't feel the best of themself. And sometimes procrastination comes and that also connects with imposter syndrome too, connects with how is everything at your home? You know, how is everything with your relationships with the people that you have around? How is everything with your own dreams and where you wanna go to? So like everything connects and if something is unbalanced, unfortunately things are going to go in that way. Every year I always promote creating a vision board. I have been creating a vision board since I was 15 years old for a class from university. And that vision board I divided in personal, professional, financial, spiritual. And the reason why is because those four things in our life are super important. If one part of that specific part of your body is like sold is off, it's pretty hard because you're going to start thinking in the other things. You're going to start thinking, wow, you know, my personal life is a little bit off at the moment, I feel sad. And it's going to unbalance the other things. Like it's going to unbalance your work, it's going to unbalance your relationship, it's going to maybe bring a lot of stress in your financial stuff too. So like considering that if laziness is one of the things think about what is in those four different parts of my life, financial, spiritual, professional and personal that is off and then from there you can get a little bit more of like insights. I have a selfish question for me just real quick, which is sometimes in order to achieve a goal we have to sacrifice one of these pillars that you mentioned, whatever pillars are. Is that okay? Should I be neglecting my health? Because I have been and because obviously everything is you have a finite amount of time, right? So based on what you want to focus on, you kind of like say, okay, this is the thing for X amount of time. So what advice would you give to me that someone that's not cycling in the mornings and really kind of leaving the health thing on the sidelines at the moment? I know it's bad. I would say that is our priority number one. We are very little in this world. Like, so we're so fragile. Every time I think about my life is like a little egg. If it goes on the floor it will crack and that's it. So like being okay with your mental health and being okay with your physical activities, eating well, having you and your body and your soul as your priority is going to give you a space for you to be the better person outside and to be, yeah. It's just with your own self, you know? And there are some times that I don't go to the gym and I feel terrible. And the reason why is because like in your body you need to take care of it, especially because it's our home, you know? It's literally our body is our home. That's why creativity is important. That's why connecting with our soul is important. That's why being with friends, seeing them into the eyes, talking about your feelings is important. Going to therapy is important because yeah, it just start putting, it's kind of like a halter trash in your own salt. And I just imagine, you know, if I am at home, I want my home to be clean, minimalist, simple. I don't want my home to be full of dark black, huge plastic bags, you know? So I will see any of that. I don't know if that makes, if that will make you reflect, are you doing more, please? Yeah, it definitely does. And I like the analogy of like, you know, get your house in order, right? Because if your house isn't in order, you really can't do anything. And I think it's like the stage of the inner child in me, yet again comes to play because when you're a kid or when you're young, you feel like you're invincible. You fall down, you get back up. But as you're older, you're like, ah, that really hurts for longer, you know? So that is a good wake-up call for me. But yeah, that was a, you answered my question. So thank you for doing that. I remember the house, you're like, okay, I want my house to be amazing. So how can Chris's house can be there? Okay, next question. What does it take to be creative at refining the design process? Because besides theory, everybody is pretty much doing the same thing. Any thoughts on this topic? I think one of the good ways that you can be a little more creative in design is by taking up time to listen to what your colleagues are thinking to. And there is a lot of brainstorming and connecting what they think, what is their vision. I love the part of collaborating because as designers sometimes, and it has been happened to me, you kind of like get married with your ideas and that is the worst possible thing that you can do. And I have learned that in the past year or so. So like listen to your team members and brainstorm is the same thing that we were saying like the crazy age. What is the developer thinking? What is the PM thinking? What is a stakeholder thinking? Because from there, you can start feeling a little bit more empowered with your design decisions and also being creative too with the solution. I have so much to say about this, Lily-Veth. Okay, so the first thing I have to say is that, are you sure that everybody is doing the same thing? Because I don't think they are, okay? Different industries, different people, different seniorities, different problems. So I'm gonna kind of reframe the question because I don't believe like half of it is true. And it is more like, okay, so let's focus on the bit that this person probably wanted to focus on was like, how do you refine the design process? And I think Lily-Veth is key here where she says empathize with other folks problem and figure out what to improve. And also, like if you treat the process like a design problem, you will start to do things that Lily sort of proposed, right? Cause like every company is different. Every team is different. Every sort of software and component is kind of different. So how would you refine that process? You might figure out some frameworks you could use to let's just say like service blueprint, right? To map out the whole design process and everybody involved. And then you could be like, okay, well, what's waste and what's not, right? Or how do you make it more effective? And we also need to understand where does this design theory come from and how is it popularized? So with the design thinking sort of methodology, it's actually more of a business framework. How, why do I say that, right? Like IDO sort of like popularized it, but really it's the framework that gets brought into the boardroom and says like, this is how design is. Look how flashy it is. It's so easy. You empathize and then you test, right? But like it's more of a framework to market the work we do as a designer and make it palatable and simple for maybe some business executives. But does it work in real life? Should you do that on your portfolio? A linear happy path? No, like it's not like that. If you work in this field, you know that it's super messy and usually you're like going loops, going backwards, going forwards, going in the middle. And that process that you've defined that works for you won't work in other situation, right? Yeah. I will say they're part of designs, especially now with design systems that the UI part is going to, of course, going to kind of like start looking the same because they're partners that have been built, you know, and you just have to follow the rules. But for the design perspective of like being creative, absorbing the problems, I will say that every business is very different. Before I was in logistics, it was super different. I'm very complicated, very complicated. But if you work in a different, in a different, like e-commerce platforms, maybe one of the things that you want to improve are information architecture, if it's a new, you know, it's a new product that you want to focus or launch. So then the users can find where they have to find. So based in their needs of the business and the user and with the ideas of every single person in your team, you can be creative and come into something that is good and the beautiful part of design, which is basically the same thing as life, if you can always create something and if it doesn't work, you just move on and improve. Exactly. Okay, thank you for the question, Mohammed. Okay, next one. How to convince conservative stakeholders to buy your brilliant idea generally ahead of the time ideas that are only out of the box. Wait, sorry, I'm messing this up. Generally ahead of the time ideas that only out of the box bosses can understand. Yeah, that is so hard. I will say, Timima, something that I learned in my past experience is understanding really well the business goals and the problem of what they're looking for is going to help you a lot. If you don't understand that, it's going to be a pain for you to try to advocate for your idea because you're probably not advocating for what it matters to them. So it's kind of like saying, I have an idea that I think is working as a designer, but if you don't connect that with what they actually want to listen and what they're looking for, then they're going to literally just shut you down, which is the worst as a designer to feel like an imposter and to feel like your ideas are not valuable. So yeah, pay attention to that as more questions, I will say, and try to advocate for your ideas in a space where other people relate with that. So if I have an idea and my BM is supporting that, then it's going to be amazing for you because you have somebody in the team that it's advocating for the same thing and it's not just your only designer. This is my idea, which I think is going to be amazing. The reality is going to be like, just bad. The business say something very different and that it can be very draining. I felt it so much and it brings a lot of impostercy and it wishes the worst, especially as a woman, just start feeling like, oh, maybe I'm not smart enough. This guy is telling me this, like why, but the reality is like, just talk, listen and listen to small little things that they say and think because that is going to give you good insights for that. Yeah, I like that. Especially with the have people that you've already kind of spoke to about the ideas before presenting it to them because maybe you might catch some feedback that you didn't think about or you didn't know how to present. I mean, the perfect person which should be your partner in this is like the product manager, right? If you're presenting to the CEO, the product manager probably has a good sense of what they care about and why this project even exists. A few things for me to add to what Lily said. The first one, Jeff White talks about this all the time which is compelling storytelling, like how you present the idea is really important, right? And that is also for the portfolio and case studies. Absolutely. If you have a story of people getting excited, then they're just not going to listen to you, sadly. And if you feel stressed too and you don't feel confident, it's going to be very hard. But I just hate this part so much because if you have stakeholders that have been pushing you to the limit where you don't feel confident anymore, what am I supposed to do as a human being? How can it feel safe in an environment that I feel that my ideas are not going to be listened? And so, it's like a little bit of there. Sorry that I interrupted you. Well, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, no, I mean, when they've been a repeat offender of like crashing your confidence, it's really hard to be confident, right? Yeah, absolutely. Maybe co-presenting or maybe recording a video, something where you just don't have to face them like one-on-one, I don't know what it is, right? Some ideas around there, but going back to that storytelling thing, how you start is really important because that setup will basically, like any YouTube video out there, any content you see, really the first bit will hook you down this, what we call slippery slope in copywriting. So they're like, oh, okay, I want to listen more. So if it's stakeholders, and let's just assume it's a product manager or a CEO or someone that cares about business, what I learned in pitching to VCs, which I didn't get funding for, but what I learned from that of this, yeah, for this sort of 10 week of like, work with VCs, try to get funding incubator type thing, is that you have to make the problem worth it, right? You have to make the problem painful and you have to realize, or you have to put them in the shoes of this painful problem and then also the potential payoff, right? Because that's what they care about, right? It's like, here is this problem, let's just say like, you want to fix something, well, this one's easy in terms of an A example, but like a conversion thing, like I want to fix the shopping page because we could potentially lose X amount of dollars or like imagine if you try to buy something and the people just drop off, right? So that's the easy example of like, if it can be directly correlated to money, but also the impact could also be emotional. It also could be brand loyalty. It could also be sucky customer experience, whatever that thing is, but you have to make that problem real. And also you should mention the impacts or the trickle down effects of that problem as well. And then the other thing that people don't talk about a lot is like, okay, I have this brilliant idea, but I need to present to the stakeholders. Okay, well, you should take it to yourself and actually say, how do I make this idea real and how do I back it with some data? How do I be proactive in proving that it could be good, right? So you can shop this around and do like desk interviews or gorilla testing, literally in the office, speak to five users that fit the bill or anything that could prove it to be true or help you with the argument because I think if you're presenting raw ideas, they could be opinions, right? So how do you then give it some more credibility through some of the tools in your toolbox? Let's just say, right? Conducted five usability tests with, you know, five engineers, right? Cause you're building a, you know, a dev tool or something. And they, and this is the feedback they got, like whatever it is, right? So try to put some weight on that and say with your case studies and portfolios and stuff like that too, yeah. Yeah, you couldn't say it better, having everyone. And that's what I was saying, like kind of like having the team buying in and giving you support and giving insights that is going to help you so much, yeah. Absolutely. So let's go to our last question. This is a long one, hopefully it doesn't cut it off. When I have an idea, but the leader slash customer doesn't like it, I am forced to think of another idea. However, I keep feeling that my new ideas cannot be better than my old one. At that time, my mind feels like a mess. How can I solve this problem? I think that was what I was saying that sometimes I'm married with my first idea. I don't know how to work with that first idea sometimes. And it's what is happening right now and it happens to a lot of people. And it happens to me multiple times because I think like that was the one that I thought was going to be amazing. I think like something that you can do is just start, when I feel stuck, I always bounce ideas with my team members. It's just the easy way for me to get their perspective and moving on instead of just like myself, like breaking my head in my desk, like how can I do? Also, what you were just saying, Chris, with the crazy A's, it can help you to have a perspective, taking a time after the meeting where you feel very frustrated when you felt like your idea was the best and like nobody listened to you and like what am I supposed to do? I think it's great, just like go outside, have a brief, think about other things and you will find out that maybe, yeah, they were right. Also paying attention to what they say and the reason why not, is going to give a lot of insights in maybe you can continue to still have your first idea but improve it and like shape it a little bit more. If you still think that that idea was the best, do you have something else to say, Chris? I have a story instead. Okay, the next part. No advice here, but yeah, a series of it. So when I was working on UX Playbook, it was, you know, a little bit at a time. And then, so the second product was UX Management Playbook. I probably spent two, three months on it and then the next product, I spent like two weeks on it and it ended up being our best selling product, right? Something from like two to three months to two weeks, right? So like both ideas are okay but actually I let the market tell me or the designers tell me, which one do you like better? Which one is more of your appetite? Which one fits, right? So it's really hard not to love your own idea because I think you have to work on it, right? You have to be excited. You have to be like, oh yeah, let's work on this idea. So that's completely normal but also there's this thing called a sunken cost fallacy, right? Where it's like, because you spend so much time on it, you feel like you have to see it through and sometimes it's just better just to let it go, right? Because you're like, like folks in investments and stuff, they're like, oh, but I already put so much money in it. I've got to put more and it's like, actually you don't. But it's really hard to separate that mental thing, like thing of like emotional attachment versus like objective judgment. So how can you get objective judgment? Is what I was like, kind of like, like found through this process of like launching. And I was like, oh, okay. So then I just launched quicker. So I launched literally a product a month for the next four months just to see what would happen because I'm not so invested that I can't give it up but I'm quick enough to catch the next idea or to gain momentum. So there's probably a nugget in there somewhere I don't know what it is. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no. I love the answer to all of this attaching the emotion that that was what I was saying, like unexplosions are coming. I love this little thing. I think the heart also comes. Yes. Let me try and do it with mine. Is there, ah, no. It's just coming from soldiers, what can I tell? But anyway, yeah, like separating from the idea, like nugget, marry with the first idea and bounce it and test it is basically what you're saying from there you're going to get a lot of insights though. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, okay, that's enough of that Q&A guys. Thank you so much for submitting your questions. We really enjoyed answering them. So before we go, Lily, we've also enjoyed your insights and the stuff you're doing with Soul Doodles is also amazing. And it seems like you've inspired a lot of people in memorizing in Soul Doodles and in other parts of life. So we really appreciate that. Yeah, that's really cool. So where could folks find out more about your projects? Like anything you want to tell the folks out there? Yeah, absolutely. First, I wanted to say thank you everyone who stick around for a whole entire hour. I really hope everything we shared, it was mindful and it helped you to be better, to connect with that inner child, to be more creative. It's not an easy path, but you can do it. Everyone can do it. And you can find me in Lily with those dinners. You can find me in Soul Doodles dash orc on Instagram and also you can find me in our website like soldorolls.org. We have a Discord channel. Please join us if you want to create every day, join our creative challenge too. And yeah, there's more upcoming cool things that are going to happen for Soul Doodles in config. We're going to start having an event too. So hopefully I can meet some of you in real life in San Francisco. But yeah, join our community is free and the expectation and the mission is just to continue inspiring you to create more. So I can wait to see everyone there. And thank you, Chris, for having me here too. Absolutely, that's really cool. Okay, so for the folks going to config, look out for Soul Doodles. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Okay, so we're going to say bye to you for a little bit and I'll just want to do some housekeeping to finish up the event. Of course. Thank you everyone. Hasta luego, gracias. Amazing. Thank you guys for tuning in again. So before we sign off just some housekeeping from my side, we have a event coming up which is all centered around the job sprint that's happening on the 29th of April, I believe. So first launch event. So hopefully you guys tune in and I'll share some more later. And if you want to get notified by these events we do twice a month, then check out that link, a quick scan or you can find it somewhere on my LinkedIn. So I'm going to be calling these events the design of everyday people. And if you know the book, then you know why I named these events. And if you're interested in jumping on this live with me and we can shoot the, then feel free to shoot me a video. So I'm going to say bye and thank you again, Lilibef. Let's bring her back on to say bye and play that outro intro video again. Thank you, Lilibef. It's been amazing. Thank you. Bye, bye. Bye, bye. Bye. Cue the video.