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Mark McGuinness

Creating a Job that Doesn’t Exist with Aileen Bennett

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This week’s guest on the 21st Century Creative Podcast is Aileen Bennett, Roving Creative Director and Idea Thinker Upper.

In today’s interview, we tackle a question that many creative people struggle with – what do you do when you look at the jobs on offer, and none of them seem the right fit? Not even the self-employed ones, like consultant or freelance designer?

Should you try to fit in, like a square peg in a round hole? Or should you do what Aileen did, and create a job that doesn’t exist?

I’m delighted to introduce you to Aileen and her work in this episode, she’s a delightfully creative thinker and maker, and a great example of how being yourself can help your business thrive as well as sparking your imagination.

You can get more inspiration from Aileen on her Creating Clever blog and Aileen’s Notebook on Instagram.

Take Aileen’s Creative Challenge (and win a limited edition print)

Every week, at the end of the show, I ask my guest to set you a Creative Challenge – something practical you can do that will help you put the ideas from the show into action.

Here’s how you can take part – and maybe win the prize of a print of Aileen’s drawing of Brooklyn, NYC, and its inspiring text.

1. Listen to the interview part of the show, either in the player above or on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform.

2. Here’s the challenge, in Aileen’s words:

Think of a job that doesn’t exist. Combine two or three or more of your skills and create a job title, and a brief job description, of the job that would be perfect for you – without worrying whether anyone already does it, or whether anyone would ever pay you to do it.

3. Leave a comment below this post with the description of your ideal job.

You have until midnight United States Pacific time on Friday 4th August 2017 to complete the challenge and leave your comment.

4. Once the challenge has finished, I will pick 3 winners at random from the comments, who will receive the prize of a copy of Aileen’s print.

5. Over the weekend I will send a bonus recording with my feedback on your comments and what we can all learn from the challenge. I’ll be looking through the comments for common patterns, whether that’s ways a lot of you get stuck, or great solutions you’re finding to the challenge. I’ll also be sharing reflections from my own perspective.

6. As usual the feedback recording will NOT be released on iTunes or anywhere else the show is syndicated. It will only be available via the 21st Century Creative mailing list – click here to join the list (and get a free Creative Career course).

One last thing…

If you’re enjoying the show it would be a huge help to me if you would take a moment to subscribe to The 21st Century Creative in iTunes.

And if you’d like to leave a brief review in iTunes, that would be even more helpful.

The more people who subscribe and review the show, the more visible the show will be in the iTunes store, and the more creators I can help with it.

This is particularly important in the first few weeks of a podcast – so if you enjoy the show, and you’d like to support it, taking a few moments to subscribe and/or review will give the podcast the best chance of success.

Thank you!

Mark McGuinness is a poet, a coach for creative professionals, and the host of The 21st Century Creative Podcast.

Categories: 21C Creative Entrepreneurship Creative Thinking Success The Lateral Action Blog
Mark McGuinness: <em><strong>Mark McGuinness</strong> is a an award-winning <a href="http://www.markmcguinness.com">poet</a>, a <a href="https://lateralaction.com/coaching">coach for creatives</a>, and the host of <a href="https://lateralaction.com/21stcenturycreative">The 21st Century Creative Podcast</a>.</em>

View Comments (24)

  • I came up with Internal Page Creator. This is how I connect to the world. Using sensory tools like words and facial expressions, I reach into your internal processes. On that page we experience love, we share ideas, and that fuels my creations. I like contextualizing that on two levels. There is the world where I physically express myself, and then a world where I fictionally express myself.

  • job title: a renaissance faerie

    fine art photographer
    a magic anna pavlova ballerina
    a kate bush faerie singer
    a mary oliver kind of poet
    editor of the faerie tales of violette
    film creator
    &
    stylist

    such a wonderful brilliant & fun challenge this was:)))

  • My title would be
    Systems Simplification Engineer

    I would take an overly complicated design for a system (example would be feedwater - to feed water to a system and take out and stop water going into) and question, question, question how to keep the safety features IN but get the extra stuff OUT. This would work for almost anything.

  • This really made me think about how to pull my many-faceted skills into 'a job'... "Finder, Creator and Sharer of Life's Treasures"
    I think that covers development consultancy, creating art including photography, writing about life and places and even creating fiction. Sounds pretty corny, but it'll do for now :)

  • Job Title: Facilitator of Run/Swim/Sketch/Write experiential workshops
    I hold workshops that help people de-stress and start their day in a fabulous creative way. The participants jog along the beach, swim in the ocean, then sit on the sand dunes to silently sketch a found object like a shell and finish up by writing what they see/feel/hear/smell.
    Exercise, nature, creativity, focus and mindfulness all packaged together : )

  • Thank you for the podcast and this interview. I haven't listened to the other episodes yet, but will go back to them now. One of the questions on my mind during this interview was how Aileen started out communicating with potential clients about her skills and what she could do to help them. I'd love to hear more ideas about that.

    My title: Human-centered Design Strategist. The work: applying empathy and humanity to organizational and project challenges; helping organizations and businesses create better products and services for their customers and clients; bringing a human-centered mindset to tricky challenges and improving how things get done.

  • Job title: Traveling Self-Care Expert

    The Traveling Self-Care Expert has your back for whatever you need to nourish yourself in body, mind, and soul.

    Are you burnt out and need a restorative vacation away from all demands and stresses? She can book that for you, and even come with you as a personal guide and translator if you would like.

    Does your body ache at the end of the day and you don't even know why? She can set you up with the best bodywork or other healing modalities to see that you feel you absolute best all day, every day.

    Maybe there's just something missing, something unnameable or hard to pin down. The Traveling Self-Care Expert can work with you to name it and actually address this unmet need so that you can live a completely satisfied and fulfilling life.

  • Thanks everyone, I really enjoyed reading these! The Creative Challenge is now closed for this week - and this season!

  • You certainly got some pretty cool suggestions.
    Darn it that I missed our deadline, I was hoping to put in a bid as director of marketing and paddle-surf without portfolio.

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