Ep. 229-GUEST: HOW to become MORE CREATIVE?🥒GRAPHIC DESIGN MONSTER!🥒DESIGN PICKLE-2.23 Million Designs Delivered-FOUNDER: Russ Perry - 🤔

0:08Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwetelson. Let's do this, not that.

0:39we are back for do this not that podcast and we have a super duper awesome human being here today who is here all right listen we got russ perry he is the ceo and founder of design pickle now you probably know design pickle but if you don't it is the world's largest subscription creative service on the planet. The guy has crushed it. They've designed over 2 million different designs that they've delivered. They've been on the Inc. 5000 list for like the last zillion years. The guy is a creativity-like machine. He also has a great podcast, which we'll get into. But Russ, welcome to the podcast.

1:18Jay, I'm super stoked to be here, man. Thank you for having me. Nice. All right, before we get into creative stuff and design and stuff you could apply to your life. How did you wind up design pickle leading the charge on this whole thing? How did Russ become Russ? Well, um, that's a long story that probably would, you know, require some parental advisory warnings. Uh, but I, I think the thing that I always go back to is I just loved solving problems as a kid. And for me, solving problems sometimes got me into trouble because I thought rules were stupid. But like many of us, creatives, entrepreneurs, whoever it might be, that is how it goes.

2:01We see things differently. We want to improve. And so as I went to school, got a degree, did all the normal things that you're taught to do, I had an incredible job at Apple early on in the retail launch that they were launching stores. And it was a kush, amazing job. I was fortunate enough to work for that brand when they launched not only the iPod, which hopefully people still remember that, the iPhone, the iPad. I mean, it was like banger after banger. And I got like a front row seat to what branding and marketing was. However, at my heart, I'm a nerd. I love technology. I love really geeky stuff.

2:49So I sort of mashed up my love for that and my love for marketing and what I learned. Launched an agency early on, but focused on B2B technology agencies. And we did branding and stuff for them. I totally failed. It did not work. And it did not work because I was young. I didn't know how to run a business. I didn't even know what like a P &L was. But over that, I gained some really valuable lessons. And the biggest one was that, you know, systems and process really matter and actually are really lacking in design and creativity. And I took that lesson and applied it to a new business model, a wild idea that I had one night where I said to myself, I wonder if you could just have a subscription service to work with a graphic designer.

3:39You pay one flat rate. It doesn't change. You sign up like you sign up for Netflix and you just get whatever it is you need to get done. And that was in 2014. That idea came, uh, launch design pickle, just cause it was a domain that was available the name. And I love pickles and, um, we're knocking on 10 years, Jay. It's been 10 years since I've done that. And like you said, we're the biggest, we're the best. We help thousands and thousands of businesses get graphic design and it's still that same core thing dependable reliable easy to work with fun brand um and and and to this day that problem solving piece of me is is what i love the most and i continue to put into my business and my life in many other ways so that's an amazing story and it's inspiring also because it's like okay you failed and i think that people get nervous about failing sometimes and you turn it into success.

4:37And I heard you say something before getting, get into the topic of the day, which is this idea of applied creativity. I was watching you on a video and you said something that I was curious about. You said this idea of piggyback design, and there's really no original ideas and you should get comfortable with that. And it's almost like the idea of your business where it wasn't an original idea, but really it's a design services business. What does that mean? What is piggyback design? And how does that, how should we think about that with our creativity and our design? You know, it's so funny, Jay.

5:09That's a term that I kind of made up related to the branding process. You're the first person ever to apply it to like a larger business container, but it's exactly the same. And let me explain what it is. Piggyback design. There's a kid's game, you know, or, you know, play, I want to do piggyback. I do it with my young girls. They jump on my back and I carry them around. You use someone else to get through, move around. And the term originated inside of the branding process when people would be like, well, I want to create something. I don't know what. And I would say, well, go find some creativity.

5:46Find a brand you like. It doesn't have to be in your industry. It doesn't have to be in your space. You just think this is where it's at. And you use that brand and piggyback off of it to build yours. So for me, that has always been a tactic for creation because nothing's original out there. I mean, maybe with the exception of like extreme, you know, quantum physics and biosciences where you're making metals out of whatever things you're creating. But like reality is everything is a better version of what's been done before. and with design pickle, like you said, and I, I never thought of that.

6:26It was just a, a piece of what it's like to work with a full-time person. You get to work with the same person, a piece of what it's like to have a subscription service, same price every month, a piece of what it's like to work with a freelancers or a team. You could like scale it up or down if you need it, you don't, you know, and I took all of these parts of the way people used to get creativity and I put it together under one roof. So yeah, it's essentially that, but using it in a business context. I love using it because you don't have to always be the most original. Really what matters is how do you execute?

7:04And when you're starting from zero, it's often very hard to go from zero to even 50 % or 80%. But if you start at 50%, because you put a couple things together, it's much better than to go from 50 % to 80 % or 90%. And you don't have to have that pressure of doing it all from nothing. I think that's so great and so important for people to hear. Because I think, you know, I love Shark Tank. I think it's a great show. But in some ways, it's screwed up all of our minds. Everybody thinks you have to create this brand new thing in a brand new market. And that's not really how it goes. It's very similar to what you did.

7:39You looked at an inefficient market, the design space. You say, there's got to be a better way to do this thing. And you piggybacked onto it and you created this awesome thing. And here we are, Design Pickles is crushing it. And I think it's important for when they're iterating and thinking about their ideas that they understand that. So let's take it even a step further, though. Now, outside of the world of design in your business, you talk a lot about this idea of applied creativity in life and everything. Like, what is this? What are we talking about? So, quick antidote to get there. Over my career, I've been in the creative space, either as a kid and taking art classes.

8:20I studied industrial design. I worked for creative companies and had agencies. And there's this term that I hear that drives me up the wall. I'm not creative. I'm not creative. And I just thought that was so crazy because creativity has been often bucketed into a very narrow, small bucket of visual design. So when you say, oh, I'm not creative, most people or many people think about, well, can I draw? Can I paint? Can I do these things? Can I make music or whatever? But to me, creativity is just another word for problem solving. and sometimes creativity the problem is i want to express myself and i want to express myself in a unique way but it's also what what is it what is it that i want to create to accomplish a goal and do that in a in an original way and over the years i discovered that like creativity is no different than any other skill it's it's it's learned and it's then i got down this path one day and I was like, well, how do you be more creative and particularly in your business?

9:29Because I think many businesses would say they're not creative or they're boring, quote unquote. And a lot of that comes down to the leaders themselves and who's driving the ideas and who's driving the strategy. So, you know, people hire agencies and they hire creative directors and all this stuff. And that's great. But I've discovered like, if I am being more creative in other areas of my life, as a father, as a parent, as a romantic partner, as a friend with myself, just doing things that are creative, I actually build that muscle really in a safe container. You know, if I do something weird and creative with my kids, it's a little different than if I do something weird and creative with my sale to marketing funnel.

10:18you know if you you do something weird and creative with your sales to market buckle it doesn't work you're going to be in trouble but if you're like hey kids we're going to go check out this thing or do this project and it doesn't work everyone has a fun time and no one gets hurt usually no one gets hurt um but the idea the idea then is like how do you how do you safely practice creativity and build that muscle so that when it's time to be creative and built in your business you're more confident and that's what applied creativity is it's like applying creative principles of being creative, doing out-of-the-box stuff, challenging yourself outside of business so that you can then do that confidently inside your business.

10:59And I've been doing it for years. I find that it's a thing that I'm proactively seeking and trying to always build that muscle and make myself more creative, but through the act of practice like any other skill that people can learn. so okay what does this mean practical terms does that mean like you go out with your kids like all right kids get all the leaves around that around the house let's build an igloo out of leaves like like how do you actually do applied creativity uh in let me show you i'm so glad you asked here's my current project right now what is this is called this is called the sabbath box so what i did it's a you know if you're religious you know the sabbath is a sunday you're supposed to rest um one day i was like you know what what if i locked up all the electronics in the house phones ipads computers remote controls what would happen well my kids have a lot of that's what would happen a lot of enemies you would think and so i bought this on amazon you know you could easily smash it but my kids are younger so they're they're okay um and we did it and it was incredible about 10 minutes after the grumbling and the complaining because i put my phone in there i mean everything went in here um we just started hanging out and they asked if we can play some games and my two youngest who are uh nine and twelve sometimes don't get along both girls who are at each other they started playing together we walked to the restaurant nearby i had no phone i just had a wallet and we just did it and hung we did it for about eight hours at the end of the day uh we checked i checked in with them we i i unlocked it and they got them at the end of the day i selfishly also wanted to check my phone um they said the best part of their day was sabbath box wow and so i'm i'm i run little experiments you know i i um do creative art projects that I'm terrible at because it's just fun.

13:06I think it's different for everybody, right? And it's how do you break the pattern? How do you do something that's not been done, but doesn't have to be crazy, right? It could simply be how you have your day planned. It could be the activities you do. For me, creativity often comes in trying to be creative in music, in art. I suck in both those areas, but it is flexing that muscle. So it's not about one way. It's really what's the thing that would be different than the normal approach to your Saturday afternoon or date night or whatever it is that you're looking at trying to apply it towards. I think that's awesome.

13:58And I also think it's important for people to be intentional about making it part of their lives. And it could also be, you know, for me, like when I started this podcast, it's very, it's like being on a hamster wheel. It's tough, but it forces me to research and learn and explore things and try to come up with new formats. And my little version of, you know, creativity that's out of my comfort zone. And I think for everybody, I think, right, it's important to be like, I'm not just gonna do this once, and I'll do it again, six months. It's something that you're trying to do ongoing as part of your life outside of work.

14:32Is it like intentional like that? You have something every week, month, or whatever you're trying to do? so the answer is yes but um i try to do something every quarter so i operate my life in 90 day timelines and every 90 days i try to do one thing that pushes me with my health my body so that could be like a physical challenge i'm going to do some winter hiking in december um with my family So that's more often a trip, an experience, somewhere, a new restaurant or simply a museum we haven't been to. Or it could be more than that, right? Like a trip out of town together. In my relationships with other family and partners.

15:24And then in my business. And the business one usually is strategic. I'm not just like winging it and trying to think of random things. but it is about it is about trying something that could if successful help the business so my podcast jar of genius is that project right now it is a out of the box different you know non-direct to the funnel project that like probably you i i am invested in for the long term to create every week and to push something out there. But in the past, it has been public speaking, or it's been writing a book, or it's been other things. So three or four things every 90 days, and some roll into the next and some are easy, some take a lot of work.

16:14But I find that's a healthy balance. And you may not do it all. There might be something that just you can't do, but generally you do one or two, which is better than most people who do nothing. And they're on their own hamster wheel doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, and not growing creatively and not growing their experiences that can help them with whatever challenges they're facing. I love that. I think I need to incorporate this 90 day thing. I don't know if I'm going to get the box and put my 17, 18 year olds phones in there because they might actually find a knife and and hurt me but i do love it i have a question though before we wrap up i have a question so you have uh you know you have your kids you have your daughters right and they come home and they they draw something and now they show it to you and you're like the founder of design pickle like this really giant design company and if they show it to you are you like oh my god that's amazing or are you like listen your your texture here is terrible your color patterns are horrible like like do you put on your design like chief officer hat i mean what happens there um so do i crush their create no i you know i am i am you might be super shocked to hear this but my curls are actually really creative uh surprise um i actually just this morning yesterday was my youngest birthday she turned nine and uh and and her she's so funny and weird her favorite animal not just fish her favorite animal of all time is an angler fish which is like the fish with the light that hangs out and it has the crazy teeth and eats other fish which is like how did you even i know and like she loved that she wanted to stuff animal and i saw a painting she did of it and it was awesome i i do like put put the container of their age and skills around their artwork so i'm not comparing them to professionals that i work with um but i think it's super important to encourage encourage anyone where they're at and you know my oldest was in in in uh orchestra and did cello was she gonna go to juilliard and be a broadway cellist no but But it was her thing and she loved it.

18:33And it created an identity and a sense of confidence for her that I don't think she would have had otherwise. And now she's at university and doing amazing. So I think as a parent, you have to adjust your bar of measurement. But I think it's just about getting those at-bats. And that's what's the best thing you can do, whether they succeed or not. But I tried to do a creative project not too long ago with my two youngest. It was a very technical crafting project. And it was a total disaster. And everyone was upset and frustrated. So not everything goes well with this strategy, by the way. Just spoiler alert.

19:16Just like if you try to lock your kids' phones up, they would probably smash your car window or something. Yeah. Well, here's the most important thing, everybody. Listen. uh follow and connect with russ okay russ perry on linkedin but send him your doodles your sketches your artwork yes because he will give you critiques back on how good or bad it is and you know usually positive reinforcement but he loves it so send those to him fantastic podcast we're going to put this all in the show notes and definitely design pickle.com check them out russ what what did i forget how should people get involved in your world yeah i mean look we've covered a lot but there's three places I love sending people.

20:01First is going to be actually my newsletter. It's called Unlid, kind of a nod to a pickle jar, just rustperry.substack.com. I write there a few times a month. It's really about these experiments. It's about what I'm doing. You can read about it. Eventually, I'll write about the Sabbath box. That's an active experiment. And then, yeah, if you are someone who is looking to bring on a fractional designer and work with an incredible software platform to help you and your teams create more at a flat fixed rate design pickle.com is the best and uh through those you can find me i'm russ perry on every media social handle so that's that's easy too but love i every day i post and talk about applied creativity on those channels um i'm always posting about why experiments and adventures and lessons of design pickle so one of those things will get you there love it and i'm not telling you everybody excellent in person to connect with and follow.

20:58So check it all out. We'll put it all in the show notes and check out Jar of Genius, the podcast. And Russ, appreciate you being here, man. Appreciate it too, Jay. Good luck with your Sabbath box and your kids. Thank you. All right, later. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. and hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me.

21:44Guruevents.com. Check it out.