The Best Are Always Creative with Jason Mehl & Award-Winning Photographer, Thorsten Overgaard

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode.

Of Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm talking today on the subject of creativity. And I brought back my good friend and traveling Laika, ambassador, Ambassador, teacher, trainer, video maker, writer, author, producer, Thorsten Overgaard. Hey, Thorsten.

Hey there, Larry. And Jason also today as our secret.

Guest spot yet and again, Jason Mel is joining us today. It's a privilege to have both of these guys on because they're the perfect people to talk about creativity. So, so welcome Jason.

Thank you.

Thanks, Larry.

And Jason is an award winning sculptor and he's got works in parks around Denver. He's. What was the award that you won with the Washington.

Oh, so that one I was chosen. I think I know the one you're talking about. I was recently chosen to design the world's largest neurodegenerative research award. So that foundation is called the Rainwater for Ice.

Okay. And so he, you know, like the Oscars, they have their award they give. So he was selected for that. He's got sculptures in Hong Kong and places. You travel a lot, Thorsten. So yeah.

Anyway, awards are nice to have. It's good to have some recognition. Somebody give you a clap on the shoulder and say that it's not all.

Bet what you're doing every now.

And every now and then it's nice to have somebody give you the pat on the back. Even more important when they buy it, you know, and so.

Exactly.

And just to let everybody know, we're in Aspen today. Jason's over here from Denver to help me set up my new art studio out by the airport. And you said you were at Mont Blanc?

Yeah, Mont Blanc. I mean at the actual Mont Blanc hotel in the Mont Blanc mountain. So it doesn't get more Mont Blanc than that. Yeah.

You'Re pure white right now. So to get the subject on the table, I'm just gonna put these things on the table, some thoughts I've had about it, and then get you both to weigh in on the. The whole idea about the subject is creativity, originality and design. And the thing that people need to think about, you know, as we talked about, because, you know, I've interviewed you on the podcast before. The podcast is all about winning. And in the real world where everybody's against you. And if you don't want to be average and ordinary, you got to. You come up with something that you're excited about. But then, you know, you got to fight through all the resistance and everything. But to do it's important for people to know this is not, you know, you're not going to excel and start your own business and do something great with your life just by reading a textbook and following the formulas in the textbook. You've got to be creative. You got to make something new and so creative. The best people are always creative. They're making something new and they're making something that excites them and extends from that. And it's not. It. It's. You're starting with something and then you're saying, well, how about if we did this? Or how about if I did that? And you're expanding the idea. So talk about you like, first thing I want people to know, originality and creativity is not coming down from the mountain with a lightning bolt that you're coming up with something no one in the history of the universe is. That's not like anything you know before. You don't have to be a genius. You might evolve into what appears to be other people a genius, but you don't have to start off with a miracle fully formed idea. You just got to get started with something excites you. And it's your creativity and your work that really allows that to turn into something special. And that's what the creativity is, you coming up with what you think is the next step. So that's kind of getting the subject on the table. And a quote is, even Picasso said, everything starts with something.

That's right. I actually, when you invited me to this podcast a while ago, I started writing down what is creativity? Like, what is it? You know what I mean? I've had people say, oh, you're like the most creative person I ever met. Like when I did advertising. And then I thought, what is it? And it's kind of like you have. The definition of competence is observe, decide, and execute. And that's in a way almost creativity. And you could say that's almost free podcast. Because one thing is observe that how many people do actually look. That's the fundamental thing that you have to look at something. And then the interesting thing is why there's some people, they look at something. Well, there's some people that don't look at anything because they're looking at the television or something else. So they don't actually looking at reality. But then you have some people that look at something and then they get ideas from it. They get ideas, we should improve this? Or why didn't nobody do this? And so on. And then some people, they just leave it by that idea or that impulse that somebody should do something about this, and they think, I'm going to do it later, somebody else is going to do it, or somebody probably did it. And then you have other people. And then that's when you get from creativity into being entrepreneur, is that you decide to do something about it, and you decide what to do, and then you execute and you have people where it took them, like, you know, 20 years to build a company and bring an idea out that started with, that they observed something needs to be done about this. So that's, in a way, how I see that's close. I got definition of creativity.

Yeah. And, you know, I like that organization. And that's probably. We're going to do hopefully three episodes here. And that's kind of the theme. It's a way of describing the theme that I kind of thought of that in my mind is the first. And what we're doing right now was just observing the idea of creativity and sharing how important that is. If you want become elite, build your own thing, do something special. Creativity is how you climb that staircase. And so, Jason, you want to weigh in on, you know, then we're going to get into.

I wanted to ask.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I actually wanted to ask Jason a question, because if we say, okay, creativity starts with observing. So I wonder, Jason, if you can remember at some point you must have observed somebody doing sculptures or doing something, you thought, wow, I want to do that. Like, it must start with observation. Like, how else do you get into sculptures? When I didn't get into it. So you must have seen something else.

So a lot of mine actually came from the observation of, like, eroded stone formations and patterns out in nature. Whenever I was wandering around as a child, I would just stare at something and, like, stare at the way that the rock eroded and think about how it happened. Then I connected the dots. Later I started seeing public art and realizing that these abstract sculptures that I saw as a kid were someone being inspired by the same inspiration that I had and that there was a channel for that inspiration. I didn't just have to stare at a cool stone. I could then use that language myself. But I also think one of the things that really feeds creativity in general in any part of your life is new knowledge. So as soon as you start seeing the world in a different way you understand something that you didn't understand before, that's automatically a catalyst for creativity and.

Just his way of background. And Jason does more than observe rocks. He's a mountain climber from his youth up through the present. So when he says he was looking at the rock, he was like face to face and he was looking to see which one of these rocks could I trust?

Yeah, it's good. You have it. You have each, you have each side of the spectrum. Because I actually, we were just talking about rocks today. We drove through the mountains, like, and I actually, I wouldn't say I'm afraid of rocks, but I really have respect for rocks because if you hit a rock with a car or a foot, it really hurts, you know, and it's like, it's really heavy, heavy, heavy material. Like, and also like just the whole idea of I saw a sculpture on a movie, some old classic movie, the way they work with stone, it's just like, it's beyond me how it can even be. I mean. Yeah, it's beyond me how you would get into that. It's like it's too much work.

Yeah. And it's like Jason just said, if you challenge the rock, the rock wins, you know, But David, like Michelangelo, you know, gets. Carves the David out of this rejected piece of marble at age 24 or something. I mean, you know, and the thing is, we'll get into that. A lot of this is you're, you're tapping into your. People talk about meditation, soul, this, that, the other.

When you.

Creativity, God is the real creator. And when you tap in, you start tapping into your own creativity. You're tapping into the divine, the unexplained, the. You know, you can't explain where these things come from, but they come from somewhere, you know, but giving yourself the freedom to do that allows you to turn on the valve of excitement that can come into your life because it's the unexpected. And so you gotta give yourself the freedom to do that. But some people hold back because they think it's, you know, they're gonna create a whole lot of work for themselves. But the thing is, when you're pursuing something you're excited about, you don't notice the work because we. There's a whole lot of work that goes into a vacation. You know, you want to take the family on a vacation. It could be a nightmare of planning and execution and everything. But, you know, we're going, let me just say, Disney World, you know, you're going to take a five year old to Disney World nightmare. And. But it's fun, you know, that's what they're having. Fun and excited. But you're gonna do a lot of walking. And so in life you can't. Unless you're gonna be sitting on your couch all your life, you kind of gonna have to get out of the door. And if you're gonna get out the door and you have to work doing something, you might as well do something that excites you. And Stephen King, I got this quote from Stephen King says, amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, and the rest of us just get up and go to work. And there's a guy, Olafur Eliason, you know him, he's a tech. Yeah, he's from your part of the country and of the world. And he said, the harder I. Cause people look at him and say, it's amazing what you come up with. He said, where does this inspiration come from? He says, the harder I work, the more inspiration I have. And so jump in on that.

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to whiteellawinning.com webinar Now I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Yeah, I think, I mean, there's also one. Apart from this observed decide and execute, there's also, I think there's no doubt that we come from. You could say we're born with different ambition level or different powers. And so you could say that's why you decide. I mean, you could decide, I'm just going to drive a bus through one Everest or Mont Blanc. And it's nice, it's nice, view every day. I'm going to do that my whole life. Or you have this ambition. No, I want to make something grand or something, you know. Know. And I think that's part of. Also like you, I like to talk about Tinas because you look around, what should you do in life? You know, and then you look at rocks or you look at business, you look at something else and then somehow something you feel attracted to and you feel, wow, I can do something with this. And you would say some people, if you don't look, you don't find that thing. But if you look, then you're going to find something that makes sense for you. And I think the main thing is that you find that you would say you go on with an activity that you think is fun and something that appeals to you, even if there's no explanation, if there's no guarantee that you're going to make money on it or make a career, you just say, no, I want to do this thing because it's fun. And that's often. I mean, that's in my case and in many other cases, that's what leads to that. You find, you could say a gold mine. You find something that's easy to do. Life is one long holiday, and you just make money on not really working, but just do something that you think is fun.

So people know about writing in a stream of consciousness, just writing your thoughts down. But creativity can be living that way too. Sometimes allowing yourself to make a decision without having a plan first. And you don't want to do this with everything. You don't want to be driving on your way to work and just suddenly turn right and exit the wrong exit. But allowing yourself, when appropriate, to just make a decision without having a complete plan that can open up a doorway to creativity.

Well, I think that we're having a workshop with you to help you get your next book out, your ebook, because I'm certainly not going to write a book. I'm certainly not going to write a book about creativity. I'm through with writing books. But when you get it out there, I'll be sure to let everybody know about it. We'll probably have another podcast about it.

It's coming.

It's coming. Yeah. The ball's already rolling. And the thing is that observe. I wanted to say this about observing. Like, what does that mean, observe? And I talked to a lady yesterday who most people go, they work in the Fortune 500 companies and corporations, and it burns them out. And she came out after about 15 years of doing this, more excited than ever. And the reason was because I talked to her about that, and she said the reason was she knew eventually she wanted to do her own thing. And so she got jobs, got companies, got situations that had a product that she was excited about, learning about it, meeting the people involved, seeing how they thought, seeing what processes. And so she moved through the corporate world, where most people move to the corporate world, and it just sucks the life out of them. And at the end of it, they have no inspiration. They're just dead. They're beat down by it. Whereas she went through the process and was energized because she only let herself get pulled towards things that excited her. And so the thing is, observing. My cousin told me growing up, he said, follow your natural curiosity. Everybody's interested in different things. But if you observe what terms you want, what did you notice? What person did you notice, what phrase, what ideas? You know, like comedians carry around a book, you know, a notepad. And when somebody has a phrase, or even writers, you know, like, you know, I talked to you about doing a podcast on creativity. Immediately, boom, you're starting to think about creativity. That's a subject. Well, that's what comedians do about writing jokes. You know, it's a funny situation, and they'll write that down, and then they'll expand on, eventually got a joke, you know, and so musicians, all of those things. It's like, what do you respond to? What. What. What can get you turned on and your motor running inside? That's really what you should be observing, don't you think?

Yeah, but that's the natural thing. And you could say that is. Again, if you. If you think about teenagers, teenagers are their parents and everybody around me so concerned about how they should make a career in life. And. And I think that anybody, but especially teenagers, that you have to choose direction. Life is like, you should go with what interests you. So if you want to play guitar, then get a guitar. If you want to write it, right? If you want to go travel, then go travel. And instead, you see often that parents, well, you could say that's all over the world, but you have parents that if you have enough money, then you send your kids to one school after the other, you know, And I mean, some. Some kids in Asia and other places, I mean, they go to universities, and then you get out. I don't know. When you get out, when you're 35 and you have all these degrees and you're dead, you know, it's like working in corporate for most of them. Of course, there's some where it's like, no, I want to be at campus. That's my call. I want to walk around and read all the books and talk to all the old professors and then make something out of that. But for us, it's just. They don't know why they're going there. It's just getting prepared for. It's like a safety net. And you will meet doctors and lawyers, and they hate their life, but that's what they did. Somehow they ended up there. And they actually dream about just traveling the world with A camera, doing their own company or have a hotel or a restaurant or something like that. And that's what you should do. You should do it early on, just save all that time and get on with it, you know? And I mean, that's. Yeah, it's just. I think. I think literally, it's very simple that if you really want something, you can make it work. And you can say, Even you make $20 a day, you can make it work with that, because it really interested you to be able to do that. And then it's going to grow from there. And of course, if it's going to grow, it's also depending on your ambition level, how much horsepower you have and your ability to observe, because you have to be a businessman, a businesswoman, and have the ambition, though I want to make money on this and then grow it from there. But else you could say you could be happy making $20 a day doing art or walk around the mountains. What do I know? You know, bicycle.

Well, the thing is, when you follow that, that will take you places that you wouldn't go other ways. And it probably places you want to be at. And, you know, relationships, you get. You pursue relationships that opens up new worlds and probably new worlds that you want to be in because, you know, you're fascinated. You know, that person you met was like a door into that world, you know, and so following things, you're interested or whatever. But Jason, I don't know, we've never talked about it, but, you know, he spent time in, what, South Korea, Taiwan, whatever.

Well, all over Southeast Asia. And also I lived in Korea, and then I traveled around India and a lot of other places. So.

Yeah, and what. What pulled you? What was interesting about that? That pulled you there. And how did that change you?

So what's interesting to me is embracing organic growth. So if an opportunity comes up and you don't know what will happen, but it seems interesting, pursue it. You can always change your mind and go back and try a different route, but pursue it. And there's something about not knowing the outcome that inspires every part of life. And it's not just creativity in the sense of making art, it's creativity and living. Because if this is our chance to experience as much as we can, take in those experiences, and that can help you in other parts of your life, business, whatever your passion is, it can help you pursue that.

Yeah, they're like Jim Carrey, you know, he's reached all the success you can as an actor and a lot of money, and so he's a painter now, you know, he's got a big studio. And he was talking with Jerry Seinfeld and he's. He gave Jerry Seinfeld the first tour of his studio that he'd given to anybody other than somebody who worked for.

Him as an assistant.

And he made this statement, he said, he had a big grin on his face and he said, I can come in here, spend an hour or two, and I've created something that never existed before.

Exactly.

And that's really the whole idea of creativity that never existed before. And it brings excitement into your life. And so I want to wrap up this part about this, this first thing about talking about just observing and thinking about creativity. And what the takeaway I want people to get is like, this is a big deal and you do it all your life anyway, but why not focus on it a little bit more and give yourself the freedom to be creative and challenge yourself to be that. Because that's what's going to open you up to things that are more exciting to you. And the things that you're more excited about are the things you're more likely to be great at. You know what I'm saying? You can't be great at things you don't really care about. And so this is why. It's a key, it's a door, it's a path to you reaching a level of greatness, of achievement, enjoyment, satisfaction in life, even if the money may be $20 an hour, but the satisfaction of what you're doing, the people you're doing it with, and everything could be so valuable that, you know, the money part doesn't matter. And for most of us we're wearing sweatpants and T shirts and we're not worrying about designer clothes that much and so don't have a lot of expenses and everything. But what do you have a final word on the observation part? And we'll wrap this, this, this one up. Thorsten?

Yeah, I was just thinking, because you could say it is really an issue that a lot of people don't observe. And you could say, especially now we have devices we look at all the time and they beep at us and we shouldn't look at them. And you could say one way to train to observe is simply just leave the phone home and just go take a walk. You know, take a 20 minute walk or 60 minute walk in any direction. And that interesting thing is you can observe that sudden you have a choice. You can go right or left or straight. So now you have to decide which one of them. So you just choose the one that appeals the most to you because there is no right or wrong. And then you go left and maybe score something. You're going to see something. And that's. I mean, I would say that's her poetic, but is something people don't really do. And it might inspire you to write or to go home and paint your house, whatever. Like, it's. It's very interesting. That's the. That's the power of. Of being a person, is that you get an input from observing something. You could even not just be reading a book, you know, but you go on and look at stuff and you get inspired to do something. And that's. That's amazing. That's something you can't get on Facebook or Instagram or television. So that's something that's just take out 20 minutes or 60 minutes. Take a walk, put away the phone, and you don't have to go shopping or something. You just like wasting time, basically. But you won't be wasting it. You can observe.

Jason, do you want to weigh in on that?

Yeah. So. And part of observing, too, is you never know which seed will grow, so plant many. So if you see something that's of interest, pursue it always. Even if it seems like the route may not take you to an ultimate goal. So say you're trying to build wealth, and that's your goal for your family. And it seems like some other pursuit would lead you astray. You never know what things will feed back in in the future. So don't avoid something that you're interested in just because you don't think it's taking you down a certain path, because it might. It might actually help lead you.

Yeah, part of the process is you're exploding preconceived, limiting preconceived ideas that either you came up with or someone told you or you read in a book. It's like you're not some kind of. You're not supposed to do that or it's not supposed to be that way. Part of expanding your life is exploding those creativity. Like, you're not supposed to be driving to Istanbul, you know, from France.

Exactly. But. But you could say, like, yeah, we talk about awards and review. You could say, if you don't have to tell anybody, what, that you're going to take a walk and waste an hour, you're going to do this. But if you tell them and they say that's a waste of time or that's a bad idea, you're on the right track because nobody else did it before, you know, nobody else would. So that's the right thing to do. That's just go, go ahead, you know.

There you go. Thanks so much for those comments.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.