Hi Reader,
it’s still the good ol’ Creative Coffee ☕️, but in a new outfit that reflects the changes I’ll be making. In the past half a year, we talked a lot about overcoming burnout and returning to creating.
Now I’m excited to switch gears to the future of creative work and explore ways to future-proofing our careers.
Because it’s very much related and here is why… 🤔
⏮️ Before the pandemic, the world was in the handcuffs of the hustle culture. Being busy was a badge of honor and we became workaholics.
⏸️ Then the whole world got turned upside down during the pandemic. Many people started to realize just how burned out they were from their careers and began to wonder how to introduce more balance to their lives.
⏭️ After the pandemic, we got hit by the recession, budget cuts, and rapid technological progress thanks to AI.
Many creators, marketers, and other professionals started to worry whether their work will just get replaced by the next hot AI tool which brings me to a question:
Is your career future-proofed?
If your answer is “I don’t know” then keep on reading, I’ve done the research for you.
According to various reports, the best way to future-proof your career no matter what you do is to double down on learning skills that are hard to replace by AI. Let’s break some of them down.
💆🏻♀️ Adaptability – the ability to observe what’s going on around you with curiosity and be open to continuously experimenting with new ideas that would help you adapt to the new situation. Also to work with the discomfort of the unknown, acknowledge it’s your brain’s fear response, and be able to look at that critically knowing that in the past you’ve handled changes, you can handle any future changes as well.
🗣️ Communication – both in person and online. The art of storytelling, persuasion, and rhetoric. Making genuine and deep connections with people and making a positive impact on their lives. One of the top soft skills that will continue to be in demand and that translates in all parts of our lives, not just work.
🧠 Critical Thinking – being able to work with the information you are consuming, compare different resources, and judge the trustworthiness of the source of the information. With the rise of AI, disinformation has become ever more sophisticated and difficult to spot. Sharpening your critical thinking skills is becoming a necessity.
👩🏻💻 Entrepreneurship – the ability to create products people find valuable and that solve their problem. Also marketing and sales skills, customer care, leadership and delegation. Entrepreneurship is on the rise, whether as a side hustle or a full-time endeavour. People just no longer believe in job security and are starting to rely on themselves.
🧪 Experimentation – schools punish us for making mistakes, which makes sense in a job environment. But as an entrepreneur, you need to always be experimenting. And in a market that’s rapidly changing, what used to work won’t work for long. So experimentation is about survival because only those who adapt can thrive. Essentially, this skill is built by learning to get out of our own way when we overthink everything and need to have it perfect. Perfectionism is a form of procrastination fuelled by fear. Small experiments increase our tolerance for “danger” and we dare to do more.
🧬 Human Behavior & Psychology – if you learn how to understand people, it will open up the world to you. You’ll get better at all the skills under the entrepreneurship and communication umbrellas. And you’ll learn information that will help you work on your mental health, stress management, and resilience.
💪🏻 Resilience & Patience – yes, I do count these as skills, because they are learned through practice. Resilience is built by exposing yourself to uncomfortable situations that are outside of your comfort zone. And patience is built by learning to detach yourself from a need for immediate gratification. Practice delayed gratification and you’ll start to see bigger results.
🤖 Tech skills – no, I don’t mean coding. I mean learning to leverage online tools and AI as “employees” of your creative business. How? Automate and digitalize your processes (with AI Agents or Zapier/IFTTT). Take a look at what are the “time suckers” in your biz and research tools that can help you with that. Learn how to properly write prompts for ChatGPT and treat it as your entry-level employee, where you let them help you but you also need to check what they do.
Resources for learning these skills
If you prefer comprehensive courses:
Coursera
Skillshare (get a free month with my affiliate link at no extra cost to you)
Udemy
If you prefer creator-educator content:
Entrepreneurship advice by Daniel Priestly
Online biz, marketing, and sales tips by Pat Flynn
Creator biz advice by The Futur
More creator biz advice by Jay Clouse
AI tool report (learn about AI in 5 minutes a day)
Psychology by Corey Wilks
And of course, I'll be your source of educative content as well. 😊
I hope you enjoyed this first newsletter in a series about the future of creative work. Please hit reply to let me know what you thought!
