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Problem #14: Building a Brain Trust
170 Plays1 month ago
This week, Kristian and Tracy talk about the benefits of surrounding yourself with people who can support you in realizing your creative vision, a brain trust. Brain trusts can provide creative support, but they can also provide emotional support, and even financial support when considering the outlay and risks associated with creating and marketing games for publication. We try to provide ideas of how to cultivate this inner circle for yourself, even if you're just starting out and are all by yourself.
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Transcript
Introduction to RPG Development Challenges
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Designing Problems RPG podcast, where we explore RPG development and all the intentional and unintentional problems we create along the way. I'm Christian Serrano. And I'm Tracy Sizemore. We're your hosts for this collaborative effort. And this week, we're going to talk about problem number 14, building the brain trust.
What is a Brain Trust?
00:00:42
Speaker
That feels uncharacteristically positive, collaborative effort compared to our usual intros. But I think that's good. Uncharacteristically not a self. What's the word?
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, like self, I don't know, flagellating or something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, but but i think I think it's very appropriate and for what we're talking about here because you know what what we're talking about is support, right? Getting that that positive support from the people we trust, whether it's soliciting ideas or yeah um or just, you know are are we doing the right thing here? you know Or just feeling like you know this is a worthwhile endeavor, right?
00:01:25
Speaker
um And we're going to get into all of this. um But you i the the the term brain trust came up, though I think, in Savage & Blues. right Yeah, well, well when we we yeah we certainly talked about it, right? But um my my first introduction to the term was through Shane and his recommendation of a book called Creativity Inc., which is about how Pixar got started, how Pixar developed into what it is, and their process of creativity and mutual collaboration.
00:02:01
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. Okay. And so I would highly recommend that book. It's very, very good. The Audible book for it is also extremely good. ah The reader is really good. And um yeah it not only sort of introduces the concept of the brain trust and what it does and what it's not supposed to do and how they how they used it.
00:02:22
Speaker
But also it's just a fascinating story that involves Steve Jobs and a lot of sort of high power players in the creation and formation of Pixar. And ah it's it's a fascinating story. It just is. Nice. So I would highly recommend it as a supplement to this. and Like maybe maybe like ah our our podcast is like a supplement to it, but I would highly recommend it. Right. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I didn't realize that. that ah that that's where where that came from for you and then from Shane and then from the book. you know Yeah, and Shane, he tri he tries to emulate that that's philosophy where he's got people around him that help him create what he's creating. Doing this in a vacuum is very, very difficult.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah.
Creative Support and Building Trust
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah. So let's I guess let's start off with, um you know, i we're going to talk about three kind of maybe four ish types of support. Right. um And, you know, the first obvious one I think is is creative support.
00:03:26
Speaker
yeah right and and what tell tell I guess tell us a little bit about what you mean by that. When you say when you think of creative support, what do we what are we doing with that? like you know is is it Is it having people help you create or is it just people supporting you create or or something in between or both? or I think it's both.
00:03:44
Speaker
um and It depends. you know for For some of us, we're we we start out working together with somebody you know to do something together. right For some of us, it's our brainchild, it's our thing, it's it's the buck stops here. right There are advantages and disadvantages to each.
00:04:02
Speaker
If you're collaborating with someone on ah something and you need both of those people's input on on that thing, if one of them falters or one of them is not quite as invested as the other, then it becomes harder to accomplish that thing. yeah you know and if If it's just you, then ah then it's you don't have to rely on anybody else to move forward.
00:04:28
Speaker
but It is all just you and there is nobody else. I mean, when it comes to making the final decisions about things, right you know? And so there's advantages and disadvantages to each. And what I mean by creative support, I think, is having not only if if you have a collaborator, then that's creative support, but also if you have people who are able to support you in creative ways, in in giving you ideas about how to shape things or how to solve problems or all those kinds of things. That's what I mean by creative support.
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I think the idea of surrounding yourself with with people who are better than you, or and I don't know if it's necessarily better, but more maybe more experienced, we'll say. Yes. Right? um I think that's a crucial one, because that's something that I know has helped me, yeah and you know talking to to various people. like you know, when I see Keith at a con, you know, he and I will exchange, Oh, what are you working on? And and that kind of thing. and And I'll, you know, we'll share things that we're, you know, struggling with or, or, you know, looking at, at doing and bounce ideas off of each other. Um, and for those who don't know, Keith is, is referencing Keith Baker, the original creator of Everon. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. And, um, yeah, thanks for filling that gap. And, um, you know, and then like Clinton, Jody, you know, they're in my, in my, um,
00:05:55
Speaker
everyone
Filtering Feedback Effectively
00:05:56
Speaker
campaign, my Savage everyone campaign with, with Jen, of course. And sometimes we'll stop and we'll talk about things we're working on, you know, before we get started on the game and share ideas or, or we'll just like message each other. Hey, you know, can I run this by you? And, um, and, and, and and I've even had an opportunity where at, um, like at GameHoleCon, I you know met Shane finally once and, and, and, and got to talk to him about, you know, things I was thinking about doing and that Jen and I were considering doing. and And he gave some really good advice based on his experience. And and it was, it's so...
00:06:30
Speaker
it it It emboldens, I think, you're youre you're um your drive because you feel, one, you feel confident about some of the choices you made. Or if you if you realize some of the choices you made or are making aren't the greatest, now you're like, oh, now I have some new direction and some new way to think about this that is exciting as well. So I think it does a lot in terms of fueling you.
00:06:54
Speaker
right And like getting you um getting those creative juices flowing, thinking about things from different perspectives and so on, um or giving you ideas on how to reconsider an approach maybe that you're taking to something. and i And I think that goes a long way because we can't design like we're an island, like we're sitting on an island.
00:07:13
Speaker
it's it's It's really, really hard. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's not just hard. It's, it's a little dangerous because you don't, you don't have that external perspective when you're, when you're in it, you, um, you know, can't, you don't see the forest or the trees kind of thing, you know? And, uh, you know, you I, I, I saw this before familiarity breeds blind spots. And so sometimes it helps to run those things by other people to to change just get, you know, challenging your assumptions and things like that, that you're making. So.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah. and i i like Like you say, you know having if if you can find them, and this is tricky because when you're first starting out, you don't necessarily know anybody, right? yeah A lot of people don't. Some people do, but but a lot of people don't.
00:08:01
Speaker
You're sitting there on your own island trying to figure out how to do this. And so, of course, the natural first step for somebody like that is to go and read online and to research stuff and or read books or whatever about how to do this or or you know whatever they can find.
00:08:20
Speaker
or and then maybe go to forums or go to, nowadays, it's not forums, it's social media, it's it's it's discord servers, places where people who do this hang out together yeah so that they can engage and and and get some feedback from some other people. The trick, of course, is that as you're starting out, you're you're kind of taking in all comers as far as who are who who is more experienced than you, right? Who knows more than you? Anybody out there, like they'll just give you advice.
00:08:57
Speaker
you know yeah it it it's it There's no shortage of people who will tell you what to do. Right? Whether they know what to do or not. And this is this is speaking to the trust part of the brain trust. It is. It is. And so at some point, and if you can do it earlier than later, finding those people that you begin to trust, that you begin to respect,
00:09:24
Speaker
is a very important part of forming your brain trust because like I say, anybody and everybody will have opinions and that doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about or if they do, it may not mean they have any idea how you need to be talked to or what you're trying to do, right? So it's it's all about like forming the right people around you um not just going into a ah random forum and then listening to what anybody everywhere has to say. right It's really tricky. Even if it is like an online community, let's say of of other designers and creators,
00:10:01
Speaker
um And maybe they are people that you trust. it's It's okay to still filter even then. Oh, for sure. you know because Because maybe there is a vision that you have oh yeah you know that maybe they're not quite getting. it Or we've talked about in the past, like you've gone through all the different iterations and versions and things like that.
00:10:19
Speaker
You know, and and you've landed at this point for a reason. And so sometimes when you when you get that, oh, I think you should do it this way. And it's like, no, there's a reason why I did this. And that's okay. oh yeah um the Just because they're part of your brain trust doesn't mean what they say is scripture necessarily. Right. No. no and And part of that, having that brain trust is to have people around you who know this, yes who understand right that it is your vision. It's not their vision.
00:10:48
Speaker
You're not writing for them, you're writing for you, or you're writing for a particular you know ah audience.
Emotional Support in Creativity
00:10:57
Speaker
right and it It doesn't necessarily mean that they have to understand everything about what you're doing, but um as long as they know that,
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah. You're in pretty good shape, right? Especially if you respect them and respect their opinions. They may still have very, very, very valuable advice for you. Right. Right. Yeah. But but the key thing being that they support your vision as well. Yes. so there's you know that's I think that's ah that's a critical component. and um And and that that kind of dovetails a little bit into the the emotional aspect of it, the emotional support in terms of um you know what what you're attempting to do and them being able to, even if they might not agree with your approach or whatever, still being able to say, okay, I see what your vision is.
00:11:46
Speaker
you know, here's, I think this might work to help you get there kind of a thing, right? And that's, that's a great thing to have to do. What if this, what if this, what if this, you know, did you consider, you know, that kind of thing? Or even just, well, I'm not sure that works. I don't know how it doesn't.
00:12:04
Speaker
I don't know why it doesn't work. yeah I'm not sure it works. And you know do you think it works? and And then you start to think differently about that thing. right And then all of a sudden you're thinking of a solution that they can't think of. yeah But the fact that you are it's called to your attention helps you figure it out. right And that's part of it is that patience, that emotional support, that willingness to listen and of people who sort of believe in you and your process and your success, yeah right? If they trust and respect you, that helps a lot too, because if they don't, they're just gonna they're just going to like loud speaker at you, all kinds of crazy advice that may or may not be helpful.
00:12:51
Speaker
Right. Sometimes you just need the rubber duck. Yeah. Right. That's true. I mean, yeah this this drives some people crazy. I think we've talked about this before, where ah Boof is an extraordinarily helpful sounding board for me, yeah even though she i I rarely am asking her for an an opinion or advice, or i but even if ah even if she gives it to me, I rarely take it. Right?
00:13:19
Speaker
but That's not the point. The point is she's listening to me. I'm saying it out loud, and in the process of saying it out loud, I'm realizing these are the problems that I'm running up against. Yeah. Isn't that weird? It is. it's you're just like I'll do that with Jen. I'll just start prattling off a ah design problem or any problem in my life.
00:13:38
Speaker
And then she just sits there and she's just like, uh-huh, uh-huh. And by the end of it, I'm like coming to my own conclusion. She's like, well, i'm I'm really glad I could help you. Yeah. But the thing is, it's so helpful. yes It's better than a rubber ducky. You have somebody in the flesh who cares about you, who's listening to you, and then you're watching their face as you're explaining these things and you're you're you're getting feedback, whether they realize it or not.
00:14:05
Speaker
And all of a sudden you're like, yeah, that was, that's
Forming Supportive Communities
00:14:07
Speaker
kind of a stupid idea. I think now that I say it out loud to a human, being I need to go back to the drawing board and then I'm going, okay, great. I'm glad we, I'm good talk. Good. You know, it's, it's true, but it's so valuable. yeah You'd be surprised if you haven't, if you don't have somebody like that. Yeah.
00:14:31
Speaker
And really all you need is somebody who cares about you. Yeah, and and and I think that helps too whenever we we're facing challenges, right? Whether it's challenges through design or challenges in the process that are internal or external. Sometimes we have things that we're struggling with externally. you know Maybe it's, I don't know, we're having issues with art direction or you know whatever it might be or or anything really. And just having somebody that you can go to
00:15:02
Speaker
and just say, Oh God, I'm dealing with this and this and that. I don't know what to do, blah, blah, blah. And they might just have some sound advice, you know, like, Oh, you know, maybe if you ask this or say this or whatever, um, or maybe if you take this approach, you know, whatever it might be. And then, and, um, you know, that can help because it's not, you're not taking on that burden of, you know, stressing about it and so on by yourself and in in a box by yourself. You're, yeah you know, yep so I think, I think there's a lot of value to that as well.
00:15:31
Speaker
So yeah, there's the there's the the creative support, which we kind of talked about, right? And then we're sort of in the depths of emotional support. And and there's it's it's different, but the same in in a way. because it Later in the process, and i think we I think we talked about this before too, later in the process, you're going to widen your net yeah to people who don't care about you. yeah know yeah Eventually you're going to get feedback from people who are strangers. And that's fine. It's an inevitable part of the process. It's going to happen. But earlier on, when it's a more vulnerable idea and you're trying to to work through it, those people who care about you
00:16:13
Speaker
And especially people who care about you and are more experienced at this than you are invaluable. Yeah. And that's, that's hard to find. I can't give it to you. I don't know. I was just going to say, yeah. Cause it, we're talking about this, i you know, I don't want to take for granted, you know, the people in my life that I have yeah right that i've met over time, you know, and it's, and I know for a lot of people, um, I'm lucky, you're lucky, right? we're We're lucky to have these people in our lives and not everybody has that. And so it is hard.
00:16:42
Speaker
Um, like, like everything else in the design, it's hard to build that brain trust to build those people, you know, or that collection of people that you can go to for this kind of stuff. Um, and there are, I know there are people who they're not surrounded by other designers and creators in the RPG industry. They're not, they don't have the opportunities to meet people at cons and things like that. And those are great ways to do it, by the way.
00:17:07
Speaker
those are great ways to do it. Yes. And if you really want to, if you really want to. Um, but I think there are spaces online. Um, there's some, there's a great community on the disc, the unofficial Savage world's discord server, for example, that with all the swag and these people interact there. Um, we have our own, we have our own discord that, that is building up and it's, I'm really impressed with that. By the way, like sometimes I'm just like beside myself listening to or watching these conversations. I'm like, Yeah, there's some really smart people on Discord server. Yeah, like I'm so glad we we have that. and um and And I've even had people that I've interacted with um directly, like in in DMs and such, you know where we're talking about ideas, they're sharing something with me, then they want feedback, and I share something with them. and
00:17:56
Speaker
you know or I give feedback and things like that. And and I think that is super cool. like Being able to do that, um it's it's it's pretty awesome. um So there are ways, it's not easy, but there are ways to build that brain trust from scratch if if you don't have that readily available. It took me it took me years.
00:18:16
Speaker
yeah you know and oh Yeah. Partly I got lucky because I grew up with Daryl. And Daryl had been working on this forever and ever. He was better at this than when, way better at this than me than when I got into writing for RPGs. And so I had him as ah as a mentor and it and it was built in because I'd grown up with him. And then through Daryl, I got to know Shane and a bunch of others who I go to when i need when I need creative advice, when I need emotional support, when I need to be picked up, when I'm flat on the floor, and when i can when i can somebody I can go to to express my excitement about things that are happening. yeah you know Who will understand? yeah it's it it It took a while.
Navigating Feedback Dynamics
00:19:05
Speaker
It took a while.
00:19:06
Speaker
Coincidentally, there was there was a Reddit, a summer thread on a subreddit, I think it was RPG Design, um that Clayton had shared with me, actually. and And it was just kind of an interesting sort of, you know I guess, observational exercise. What it was, it was somebody wanting to do wanting to get play testers for their game. And they put up a post, they they did a, well, it was a pretty bad pitch, objectively,
00:19:36
Speaker
people were giving all sorts of feedback about it and so on, like, well, well this doesn't tell me anything about it or blah, blah, blah. And, you know, and they were saying, do this, you know, they were giving a lot of good advice on what to do and and how to like better sell the game and things like that. And then he followed up with a second post saying, this is everything I learned from you all.
00:19:57
Speaker
And it was really, really like crystal clear self-awareness of what he could do better and what he's looking to improve. And I thought that was a key example. It was perfect of of somebody who doesn't necessarily have these people in his circle, but went online to a community that is about RPG design.
00:20:18
Speaker
yeah got that feedback from strangers yeah and was able to reflect on that feedback and then grow from there. And I think that is a really cool way to start and um because in that interaction, you might start establishing personal connections with others, right? You put yourself out there, you you see the feedback you're getting, you know, there's some people who are just going to talk shit and then there's some people who are going to be like giving you really good critique and, and you know,
00:20:48
Speaker
good food for thought. And those are the people you want to look for. Yeah. You know, those are the people that you want to gravitate toward and say, Hey, do you mind if I share something else with you? Can I get your feedback on this? I really liked what you said about that. And then you start building those relationships.
00:21:02
Speaker
ye As somebody who is um on both sides of it, you know as somebody who can give feedback to others and receive feedback from others, um it's it's it's tricky as the feedback giver for me, because I don't want to be the person who just sort of like
00:21:27
Speaker
goes off on somebody's thing when they when they ask for feedback or they they tell tell us about their setting or whatever they're doing. I don't want to go unsolicited or I don't want to give them feedback they don't want or even though I probably have things that are valuable.
00:21:48
Speaker
if they're not in the position to hear it or yeah you know what if I'm not kind about delivering it or or whatever, they could be really sensitive about it. it There's all kinds. I'm really self-conscious about giving that feedback unless I'm explicitly asked for it. yes And I generally want to do it privately.
00:22:09
Speaker
I think those are really good points. One, being explicitly asked for it. Two, if somebody is asking for it, make sure you have something specific that they're asking for. If they just blanket like, hey, can I get feedback on this? Okay, well, what do you want to know? Do you want to know about the writing style? Do you want to know about, do you want me to help you flesh this idea out further? Do you want me to just edit the text? What are you looking for?
00:22:34
Speaker
you know And as somebody who's giving that feedback, you can ask those questions. Do you want layout feedback or not? It's okay if you don't. Do you want grammar feedback or whatever? Yeah. Once you find out what they do want from you, when you're giving that feedback, don't die on any hills. Just open it up as, hey, have you considered this? Or I'm curious how this might interact with that.
00:22:59
Speaker
you know There's ways to approach it without saying, this is dumb. this is or this is really You need a lot of work here. and you know Open it up for for engagement and discussion. and and I try to do that because that's what I want from other people. yeah you know i want I want a conversation. I want somebody to question why I did a certain thing.
00:23:19
Speaker
Um, and then I might defend it and, you know, very easily, or I might be like, Hey, yeah, you know what? I don't, uh, that's just kind of what I defaulted to, you know, tell me why I might want to do a different approach, you know, and opens up a dialogue there.
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think if for me, the kind of personality I am, I want to engage with you from a ah place of respect. Yes. if if If I think something doesn't work, I'm not going to say this is dumb or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to more like ask about that. Yeah. tell me Tell me the goal of why you went this approach, then say, for example, doing this thing. Or I'll try to illustrate what what I find troublesome about it by asking a particular question. right What does this mean? How does this interact with that? or
00:24:11
Speaker
yeah yeah assuming that there's an answer, right? Assuming they thought about it. And yeah if they haven't, then they've they've, we've exposed something without, without embarrassing them. Exactly. And if there is an answer, then you're like, Oh, okay. Like I've had times where I'm like, Oh yeah, I didn't think of that. Okay. That makes sense. Okay. So if there is an answer and if it's later on and I'm just, this, this is a right not useful piece of feedback, but if there is an answer and I'm not understanding it, then maybe there's a different piece of feedback there. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Rather than this is dumb.
00:24:42
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah, no, absolutely. And and I think the other the other um the other type of support, I think, when we have people in our lives that, um like, you've got Boof, I've got Jen, right?
00:24:58
Speaker
Having somebody who can afford us the time and space to work on these things, I think is important. It's skin it's really hard to do if you have somebody who's not supporting you in in your endeavor, because you know if it's like the you have other things that are demanding your time. like I would not be able to do this if my kids were significantly younger.
00:25:18
Speaker
e Like when they were younger, i they all my time was was on them, right? Now they're teenagers, they're more self-sufficient. They kind of just don't want to hang around me anymore.
Financial and Partner Support
00:25:29
Speaker
So, you know, I'm just like, all right, I'll just go to my studio and go do work. um But kidding aside though, it's, it's you know, even having a partner who respects and understands what you're trying to do and gives you the time and the space to work on that. You don't want to abuse that. Of course you want to still spend time with them and you know, reciprocation reciprocate the relationship and and the dynamics there. You don't want to just sponge off of, you know, all that. Um, but, um, but I think that's, you know, And I i feel like talking about it's kind of weird because it's not something you can just go get. You just hope you have. And yeah and you know that's a very personal thing. but um But I do think it goes a long way when you have... you know and And maybe that's a conversation to have. Like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. How do you feel about me spending extra time on that? know it Something you know they that you'd be comfortable with. you know
00:26:28
Speaker
Right, right. it's not That delves into relationships in general. But tom related to that is the whole financial support thing. yeah So that's that's our third in our in our major triumvirate here, which is... creative, emotional, financial support. And the financial support for somebody who is doing this on their own or as as a first time thing, who's not already built the business you know that sustains them somehow, and you obviously are going to have to need some kind of financial support. Could be a small project.
00:27:09
Speaker
Could be a large project. Could be could could be where you're you know you're getting a a little bit of black and white art or you're playing for stock art or whatever. Or it could be a big thing like Concluster where you're paying thousands and thousands in color art and and you've you've committed. you know You're taking risks. And part of that financial support is having a partner, if you have a spouse or whatever who is sharing in their your financial burdens, that they are on board.
00:27:37
Speaker
yes you know like in whatever capacity you are doing this. And it's hard if they're not. It's hard if they say, okay, you can do this, but I expect a return on my investment. yeah and that That puts a lot of pressure on you and makes it a lot harder. Versus unconditional, right? like yeah I want to do this because I want to support you.
00:28:02
Speaker
yeah It's a gift. and and There's a continuum there, right? and you know and i'm on I'm lucky because Boof is very much, I want this to happen even if it costs us lots of money.
00:28:19
Speaker
yeah And I am trying to make sure that it doesn't cost us lots of money. I mean, initially outlay it, with it does, but yeah I wanted to get a return on that money. and But at the same time, I'm like, well, I'm making choices that mean that I think that's the only choice to make is that I have to i have to make it for me.
00:28:42
Speaker
rather than make it to make money. Because otherwise, why am I going to do it? Right. I mean, it's like, jeez, I could I can make a whole lot more money doing CAD work. Yeah. Don't don't don't count the hours and how much you're earning per hour on this. endeavor Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. That's that's true that's tough. I know that Brandon is a little bit more counting his shekels kind of person yeah you know who we've had on the show before. He's he's very much wants to create a business out of this and he's making decisions about that about that.
00:29:12
Speaker
that mean he's not always working on the super passionate thing. Right. He's doing the thing that's going to draw on the audience and, but not necessarily the thing that is like really, you know, the highest priority in his heart. Right, right. yeah He's sort of, um, it's not that he doesn't feel passion for it, but he's using less passionate projects to fund more passionate projects. And me, uh,
00:29:38
Speaker
I don't have interest in doing that because I could make more money doing something else. so I'm going to just do my passionate project and and hope that I succeed.
Marketing Creative Projects
00:29:50
Speaker
That's all I can do. yeah so The point is the booth is it' very supportive and I'm i'm the one who's who's trying to make sure that we don't take a complete bath on it.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah. Right. so But there are others out there and and maybe you, listener, are one of these where you don't have a spouse who's as supportive as that. And maybe you can't afford to do a lot of the things you you would like to do, but that's about gauging what you what risks, what level of risks you're willing to take and what what outlay you're willing to put forward yeah in order to get this done. it's just It's best. Everybody's on board from the beginning.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah. If you can. Yeah. And you know it's it's interesting because um because we're not really, and right as of right now, just full disclosure, we're not really in a position where we're able to like dump in a bunch of money into this. And that's why we're we're taking the approach of using smaller projects to fund larger projects right as we go forward.
00:30:52
Speaker
Um, but the idea is that like we're, you know, whatever, whatever revenue we earn, that just goes into that business account. We don't touch it. Like it just sits, it just goes right in there and it stays in there and we we don't use it for anything. We don't use it for traveling to cons. We don't use it for anything like that. It's like, this is strictly for production in the future, you know? And so yeah that's a perfectly legit way to do it. yeah start Start small, build your, cause we're not smart. in my way. Yeah. We're not delusional that we're going to make this a business. Like this is just something we're doing because we enjoy doing it. And, um, you know, there are people who do like, you know, Keith and and and Keith Baker and Janelle's have together studios. They, that's a, that's a thing they do together. That's their business and that's what they do. And he, Keith does all sorts of design stuff, not just for RPGs, but other stuff as well. And that's, that's his life.
00:31:46
Speaker
Um, I would love to get to that point at some point in my life, but right now, you know, I got, I need insurance and I got to feed kids. yes You know, those are, those are a little bit higher priority, but I think, you know, I think you're right in terms of, you know, if, if you are in a partnership with the person is is doing design with you or just supporting you in your design efforts, um, you know, having that.
00:32:13
Speaker
having somebody who can can invest with you or at least ah you know understand and appreciate what you're investing in, that is pretty crucial. yeah That's pretty important. And also understanding that sometimes There's hidden costs in these projects and yeah emotional costs and you know not just financial costs, but you know mental health costs. you know like There's that, but there's also hidden rewards here. It's not just financial reward. No, intrinsic sometimes we're chasing it's Sometimes we're chasing more intangible rewards yeah you know like accomplishment or or getting it out there and sharing it with people or
00:32:58
Speaker
um you know what whatever it is is, education, right? I mean, there's there's so much more to these endeavors than just making money off of them. to, to kind of try to button up what we're talking about here is with the, with the, with the support with, you know, whether it's a partner or whatever is having people who just understand what it is you're trying to do, who agree with what you're trying to do and who encourage what you're trying to do. Right. Whether it's through, you know, creative collaboration, emotional support, financial support, and so on. Now there's, there's a, there's a piece to this though that we haven't gotten to.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and that's, you know, once, once we've created the thing, we have to figure out how are we going to market this? How do we sell this? Right. And, and, you know, part of that is that there's financial component to that. Right.
00:33:54
Speaker
um, and time and energy because you gotta, you gotta take the time to post and share and yeah whatever, reach out to your, whatever audience you might have so far. But like you're, you're getting close to that phase of let's, let's go back to the marketing thing. You're getting close to that with, with, uh, the crowd friendings coming up in the near future. It's very, very soon at this point, we're looking at about a month away, uh, assuming everything goes well.
Building a Reliable Brain Trust
00:34:21
Speaker
So for that, just, just for the crowdfunding alone, let alone once you've made it and it's out there, what is your, what are some of the challenges that you're having in terms of well not marketing aspect? Um, I need, I'm, it's, ah it's exhausting. You know, it's, it's, it's less money spending at this point. Now it's more like, you know, I've got to find ways and avenues to get it out in front of people and in front of the right people. Right. And so I've got.
00:34:51
Speaker
an actual play that i've I've got set up coming up, hopefully. I mean, that's what they the the plan is. um I've got videos that I'm releasing. i've got I think I'm going to be going on to the Noam Stu podcast um relatively soon, but I haven't heard from them yet. The plan was to do it maybe in February. so um I'll reach out and do all that and you know and and then i'm I've just got to hype it up and keep it in people's minds for this for this next month and to let them know that it's here and coming and it's actually coming and yeah no more just on clusters out there, but now is the time to act. you know thats That's emotionally draining. It's physically draining.
00:35:40
Speaker
Are those channels, do you consider those channels that you're you're tapping into as part of a brain trust type of thing in terms of trusted avenues? okay yeah im i'm certainly going I'm going to people that that um I've known for a while to get access to these things. you know The actual play will be Lolligaggers Adventures in Lolligagging which I've done some stuff for and they are really great and they know Savage Worlds and I love the way they play so I wanted them to do it.
00:36:15
Speaker
the No Stew podcast, I know somebody who does it. yeah And I've known her for years and she's great and i I love her. And so I reached out to her and asked and she's like, she put me in touch with some people. great And so I'm using what I have, what I know.
00:36:32
Speaker
you know And when I'm reaching out beyond what I know, that gets even more draining. yeah Because i just don't I just don't know how well that'll work or how they'll respond or all this other stuff. you know and And I'm the type of person who's not a very good self-hyper.
00:36:53
Speaker
And and that's the that's kind of expected because you're there you're stepping outside of that trust, that brain trust. yeah right There's a circle, you're you're stepping out of it it it. It does take a lot more energy. And so that's to be expected. right like you know when it's When it's people we know, it's easier, it's more comfortable. But once we have to reach out to, are they going to even bother? Are they going to give me the time of the day? you know Am I selling it well enough? you know like And I should be doing that. I should be doing more of that, but it's it's very hard to do. yeah And and but um it is what it is. yeah It is what it is. I'm not going to... I have to be like like like we've talked about. I have to be cognizant of my mental health here. And I have to be careful to make sure that I'm not putting laying too much pressure on myself.
00:37:40
Speaker
Right. Right. I'm doing reasonable amounts according to people that I trust who are marketers themselves are saying you're doing all the right things. The only thing you need to do more of is make sure that it's in people's you know awareness yeah on a regular basis and that's that I'm not doing enough of.
00:38:00
Speaker
But just putting those those social media posts together and putting all that copy together and all that stuff, it's it's it's hard to do on a daily basis. It's really hard. It's much, much more fun to work on the actual thing. But the thing is, the actual thing is almost done. All I have left is to let people know about it.
00:38:21
Speaker
you know yeah anyway Yeah. I don't know if this is useful to anybody, but ah we wanted to come up with some strategies for people to build that brain trust because it does take time. It takes effort to find people around you who are both supportive of you and knowledgeable enough to help you.
00:38:39
Speaker
And whether you realize it or not, it is important to have a lot of people try to, you know, they try to do it all. And like I said, in in an Island by themselves, is it's way harder. It's a lot riskier. Uh, you know, you invest a lot of time and energy and emotion, and then once you put it out there, you haven't gotten any feedback and it's going to sting a lot more when you do get that feedback and it's not what you're expecting to hear. Yeah.
Conclusion and Community Invitation
00:39:06
Speaker
So you have to not underappreciate or undervalue a brain trust. However you can build it, build it. Yeah. Well, thank you for listening to the Designing Problems podcast. We want this to be more than a podcast. We want it to be a community. If you'd like to engage directly with us, share your creative triumphs, your roadblocks, or simply interact with a cool group of supportive people, we have our own Discord server. Please come by, join the discussion, and share some inspiration. Until next time, keep designing your problems, because you're bound to solve a few along the way.