My empathy statement for Unthinkable: How I keep a messy, ambitious project focused

The empathy statement is to a show (and all surrounding copy and content for the show) what the starter is for baking great dough. It’s this tiny, potent little bit, which you can dip back into again and again. It makes everything you create feel somehow connected, because it comes from the same central starting point.

Empathy statements are written to the audience directly, and they’re meant to answer a critical question that each member of an audience will implicitly ask the moment they arrive to your work: “Why is this for me?”

Recently, I announced a new, public investigation about creativity unfolding on both my newsletter (weekly, from my perspective) and Unthinkable (every other week or so, by telling others’ stories). It’s called The Next Rep, and below is the empathy statement found in my internal documentation of the show.

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You’re a creator in business, and you know your creative work can reach another level -- to resonate more deeply with others, to have greater impact on the world, or even just to feel that satisfying yet rare feeling that you just made something awesome.

But today, something about the work disappoints you. Maybe the reality doesn’t match your vision. Maybe the results aren’t there, or endless barriers get in the way -- some external, many internal. Your challenge isn’t starting so much as stagnating. You’ve shipped some things, but it didn’t work out the way you imagined. Maybe you’ve even thought about stopping. (Maybe you did.)

You know the job isn’t to “be creative.” The job is to create. But there’s this gap between what you can imagine and what you can actually ship. We all feel it. So how do we bridge that gap?

It’s time to demystify the creative process and to reclaim “creativity” from popular misinterpretations. Creativity doesn’t require the Muse to visit or lighting to strike. It doesn’t mean “big.” Creativity is just the sum total of lots of little choices, moments, and motions forward. It’s repetition plus reinvention over time. We do a thing, then do it again somehow improved.

It’s all about the reps.

So how do we bridge that gap between what we can imagine and what can create? We get to the next rep.

Building a big, thriving body of work means getting to the next rep. Arrive there consistently. Arrive there improved.

I’m Jay Acunzo, and through my show Unthinkable and my weekly newsletter, we’re going on a journey to understand what it takes to reach the next rep. What do the best in the world do? What can we learn from science, history, and the successes and failures of people just like us? Can we find any commonalities, any process at all? What can we each do when we feel stagnant — or even think about stopping — to level up our work and our impact?

When you’re driven by a creative fire to make what matters, what matters most is the next rep. How can we reach it consistently and reach it improved?

We’re going on a journey to find out.

Join us.

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