Tim Noxsinz on Enabling Others, Seeking What You Want, and Reaching Your Full Potential - Cracking Creativity Episode 37

Tim Noxsinz aka Timitude is the creator of CreativeMondays.net and co-host of the Middle of Nowhere Show. In this episode, Tim talks about enabling others, seeking what you want, and reaching your potential.

Here are three things you can learn from Tim:

How to Empower Others

Although Tim is a writer and co-host of a podcast show, he believes his greatest strength is enabling others. Through his work on Timitude, Creative Mondays and the Middle of Nowhere Show, he is able to give people a platform to express themselves in an empowering way.

Here are Tim’s four keys to empowering others: connecting, creativity, catalysts, and challenging. Connecting creates value through the connections you have. Creativity happens through his Creative Mondays platform. He is a catalyst of change through the Middle of Nowhere Show, and he challenges others through consulting.

Stop Waiting for Good Things to Happen

Tim believes people spend too much time waiting for good things to happen to them instead of seeking them out. If you wait for good things to happen to you, you could wait your entire life.

That is why he likes to give people the belief that they can change the world. We often undervalue our ability to make a significant impact. If you truly want to make a difference, you need to believe in yourself first, then you must go out and seek it.

You can achieve your goals if you are intentional about it. Stop playing in the small pond of life. Go out and make a big splash in the ocean.

How to Reach Your Potential

Everyone has the potential to achieve something great in life. We are more powerful than we believe. Don’t let anyone tell you you are not good enough.

Tim believes it starts with believing in yourself. In order to go from where you are to where you want to be, you must first embrace the man in the mirror.

Then you must be willing to test and learn from your mistakes. Mistakes in life are inevitable. It’s what you do after making those mistakes that really matters.

Don’t take failure as a reflection of who you are. They are a part of becoming a more complete person.

If you are able to do these things, you can achieve your full potential.

Shownotes

about Tim
- met through Janice
- commonality among all his endeavors is enablement
- enabling potential and people to reach their best
- his gift is writing
- always felt he could offer his unique voice
- if you’re a painter and you’re not painting, you’re misaligned with your core purpose
- Timitude.com helped him align with his purpose and build a community
  - dedicated a day a week to creativity which became Creative Mondays
Tim’s upbringing
- played a big role in his creativity
- parents gave him a lot of leeway to do what he wanted
- story about his dad telling him “I always knew you could do it”
  - gave him confidence in what he was doing
- everything flows out of who we are
first creative project
- Timitude – living with attitude
living life of attitude
- used to write poetry, but was afraid what other people would say
- Timitude being different from who he is because he gives himself the freedom to say what he wants

“It’s really to feel free to express that which comes to you or to be authentic to your creative voice.”

“Whatever comes, just let it be, and put it out there.”

writing on Timitude
- started out being a way to express his own thoughts
- began allowing others to voice their opinions
- allows people to write who have a message to inspire the world
- Camille, co-host on my episode of the Middle of Nowhere Show, is a contributor

“Others who want to express themselves have a message, and it’s all about inspiration via authentic self-expression.”

why people are afraid to express themselves
- separating yourself from what you have to say

“Sometimes there’s a difference between that which you want to say and who you are… but if you have a voice that can speak something, and it’s not really tied to your values… then it gives you more scope and really a sense of letting go of self judgement.”

connecting with people in USA while based in S. Africa
- technology has flattened the world
- The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
- his mission is to know one person from every city around the world
- Creative Mondays as a platform to promote creatives
- being connected to people who are physically far away
choosing Janice as a coach
- reached out via LinkedIn
- woman was offering complimentary sessions
  - he reached out to her, and she said he didn’t need coaching
- Janice, on the other hand, was engaging, she listened, and understood him

“I think there’s something about when someone creates accountability around a thought or an idea that you share because immediately it ceases to be one idea. It becomes a hundred because it’s multiplied.”

starting the Middle of Nowhere Show
- show is about connection and conversation
- asked “What if we just allowed the world to listen in on our conversation?”
- they feel safe talking about things without judgement
lessons he’s learned from his projects
- the power of partnership and collaboration is an incredible force
- Janice had a previous show on BlogTalk Radio
- wanted to partner with her
- good things happen through partnership
- creating accountability through sharing
- don’t keep stuff to yourself
- “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.” – Les Brown
about Twitter #CreativeMondays
- #CreativeMondays evolved into a question
- original intention was to create a space where people could be creative and express themselves
- #CreativeMondays is not unique to his project
- the idea is to give back to the community
choosing the feature of the week
- featured on Creative Mondays
- chooses through intuition
- industrialist turned gardener
- has a diversity of talent
- most people think of creativity as art, but it’s not true, everyone uses it
- don’t look as creatives through a narrow lens
ways Tim enables others
- a lot comes through coaching
- thinks everyone should consider it
- writing and helping others just started as an idea
- Timitude’s Writer’s Family
  - offers coaching to unlock their potential
- 4 keys to enable others
  - connecting people – creating value through connections
  - creativity – through Creative Mondays
  - catalysts – enabling change (Middle of Nowhere)
  - challenging others – consulting

“I think coaching is a very very important component that I realized… coaching, as I see it, allows you to get clear, it helps you to be clear on what your intentions are, what your vision is, and what your values are, and what you really want, to be clear on that. Clarity’s power, it helps you be able to act on the thoughts and ideas that you have.”

discussions he’s had on Middle of Nowhere Show
- likes when the contrast is not obvious, when there are shades of grey conversations
- conversation that allows for reflection, that are nuanced and fine ways of thinking
- Living Boldly episode with Dianne Paradise who is a cancer survivor
  - admired her practical way of looking at life
- finding things you love because you don’t grow tired of them as quickly
finding people to bring on to the show
- initially looked at people they knew that aligned with showing up and inspiring others
- exhausted it quickly
- people from Creative Mondays started appearing
- creative parties with multiple people, see what they have to say
- used themes, which allowed them to bring specific people to talk about a particular topic
merging of Middle of Nowhere Show and Creative Mondays
- offering value to different communities
- converging them
Tim’s writing
- less of a writer and more of an enabler for others
- did an experiment where he wrote every day for 6 months
- using his platform to enable others
- wrote dissertation of 20,000 words in a few months
- tool for helping others and to express his thoughts and ideas
surprising interactions from introducing people
- the value of bringing together people who collaborate
- went to a book event and gathered people together
  - by the end of a two day workshop, they had a sense of common identity
  - connecting and creating a lot of value
  - one of the writers is founding a non-profit – writing 2 books and holding an event
  - has created partnerships, and had people reach out to each other
- great seeing people interact, engage, and use all the gifts they have

“Maybe I’m not too keen on writing for example. You write, then you send it out, then you’re not so sure what else to do, but when you engage somebody, and then you see how they grow, and you see what they are doing, it’s like wow, this is amazing.”

waiting for stuff to happen vs. seeking things out for yourself
- is careful of labeling people
- give people sense of belief, confidence, and the ability to change the world
- playing small is not a gift to the world
- challenge people to reach their own potential

“Why play small when you can play big?… go out there and really make a big splash in the ocean, because that’s who you are really born to be.”

how to go from the bottom to reaching their potential
- look at the man in the mirror and embrace him(or her)
- allow yourself to be
- it takes someone to start the conversation
- you can’t know until you put it out there
- testing, learning from it, and moving forward
- not taking mistakes to heart or reflections on who you are
- my Ebook
- it takes commitment and pushing the dial
- using Evernote to capture moments of inspiration

“It starts with self-belief. Looking at the mirror and realizing you are the one who’s the answer. You are the one that the world is looking for. You are the expression that others are actually crying and dying for. ”

“It’s taking responsibility, believing in yourself and going out there and engaging in the world, because that’s the only way you know.”

“If you create despite inspiration, inspiration will jump on the bandwagon anyways. But if you wait on it, it’s very erratic sometimes.”

creating habits
- writing everyday, even between breaks
- perception of writers sitting at a typewriter
- loves the blank canvas

“Everything is a canvas to create.”

morning routine
- gives himself the ability to be
- take things as they came
- writing thoughts whenever they come (in the morning, on the bus, on planes)
- walking routine and getting ideas while walking
- create for the sake of creating
- engaging more in thought leadership
books, resources, movies, etc.
- Thinking for a Change by John Maxwell – ways of thinking
- Brené Brown’s talk at Global Leadership Summit
- Ken Robinson TED Talk
- my podcast showing the creativity of ordinary people
- Marketing Your Art the Right Way
- talk about photography
  - re-living memories through photos
  - snapshot of the moment
creative people
- TED speaker Sarah Jones
- friend in real estate – transforming empty spaces into beautiful spaces of architecture
  - visualize and see different possibilities
  - big picture thinking and ability to see details
  - the possibilities that exist beyond our areas of strength
definition of creativity
- creativity is freedom
- each of us has the power to be creative, the only difference is are you practicing it?

“It’s all about the power to be, and I think deep within the human spirit, among the deepest aspirations is that of freedom… giving yourself permission to be and allowing yourself to create that which comes to your imagination.”

“In each one of us is that ability to be creative. To come up with something out of nothing or out of different contrasting and conjoined bits and pieces, come up with something totally different .”

being more creative
- believe in yourself
- creating often and consistently
- expose yourself to ideas in every sphere
- you can only connect the dots after the fact
- learn through podcasts, books, different routes, etc.
- contrast allows you to grow and see things differently