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5/22/15

Staying Fresh: nickonken x MTV Breaks

Staying fresh.

Good question. I’ll be doing a podcast on that in a while in my mini series. I was interviewing Usher, and the biggest thing he said that stuck out to me was Evolve or Evaporate. You’ve gotta keep re-inventing. Look at the greats that are still relevant. He is one of them. Madonna, U2, etc. They all have re-invented over the years.

The same applies to us. I think it’s the mindset. You have to stay hungry. Devour knowledge. Strive to be the best “person” you can be. I went through a time a couple years ago, probably around the same time we bid on the cruise line job where my sales dropped significantly. It was depressing. Emotionally downward spiraling. I went to a dark place. I realized that I was putting my self worth into who and what I was shooting. I ended up taking an emotional intelligence and leadership training in LA through 2013 and 2014 that reshaped the way I saw things. Helped me to be self aware of so many things personally that I was un aware of so I can change them for the better. It helped me to regain a new vision for my life and career. From there, it was about growing as much as I can personally because when we grow personally, it fuels our art. My hashtag, #CreateYourMoments is all about the mental decision to harness the power of CHOICE to create our lives from the smallest of moments. What we create stems from who we are as a person and who we are being first and foremost. This video, is an authentic representation of where I’ve come to “BE” in my life. I’ve done a lot of internal work to get to where I’m at today.

I’m humbled that MTV chose to feature me, my life, and all the projects I’m up to in this awesome video by LGTR Productions. Life is about Creating Your Moments, for moments are the only thing we walk away with at the end of the day.

Special thanks to Tyrrell Winston for making this happen! Also special thanks to the guys at BOTU for my favorite song, HULA HOOP on the soundtrack.

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Staying fresh.

Good question. I’ll be doing a podcast on that in a while in my mini series. I was interviewing Usher, and the biggest thing he said that stuck out to me was Evolve or Evaporate. You’ve gotta keep re-inventing. Look at the greats that are still relevant. He is one of them. Madonna, U2, etc. They all have re-invented over the years.

The same applies to us. I think it’s the mindset. You have to stay hungry. Devour knowledge. Strive to be the best “person” you can be. I went through a time a couple years ago, probably around the same time we bid on the cruise line job where my sales dropped significantly. It was depressing. Emotionally downward spiraling. I went to a dark place. I realized that I was putting my self worth into who and what I was shooting. I ended up taking an emotional intelligence and leadership training in LA through 2013 and 2014 that reshaped the way I saw things. Helped me to be self aware of so many things personally that I was un aware of so I can change them for the better. It helped me to regain a new vision for my life and career. From there, it was about growing as much as I can personally because when we grow personally, it fuels our art. My hashtag, #CreateYourMoments is all about the mental decision to harness the power of CHOICE to create our lives from the smallest of moments. What we create stems from who we are as a person and who we are being first and foremost. This video, is an authentic representation of where I’ve come to “BE” in my life. I’ve done a lot of internal work to get to where I’m at today.

I’m humbled that MTV chose to feature me, my life, and all the projects I’m up to in this awesome video by LGTR Productions. Life is about Creating Your Moments, for moments are the only thing we walk away with at the end of the day.

Special thanks to Tyrrell Winston for making this happen! Also special thanks to the guys at BOTU for my favorite song, HULA HOOP on the soundtrack.

5/22/15

Staying Fresh: nickonken x MTV Breaks

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Staying fresh.

Good question. I’ll be doing a podcast on that in a while in my mini series. I was interviewing Usher, and the biggest thing he said that stuck out to me was Evolve or Evaporate. You’ve gotta keep re-inventing. Look at the greats that are still relevant. He is one of them. Madonna, U2, etc. They all have re-invented over the years.

The same applies to us. I think it’s the mindset. You have to stay hungry. Devour knowledge. Strive to be the best “person” you can be. I went through a time a couple years ago, probably around the same time we bid on the cruise line job where my sales dropped significantly. It was depressing. Emotionally downward spiraling. I went to a dark place. I realized that I was putting my self worth into who and what I was shooting. I ended up taking an emotional intelligence and leadership training in LA through 2013 and 2014 that reshaped the way I saw things. Helped me to be self aware of so many things personally that I was un aware of so I can change them for the better. It helped me to regain a new vision for my life and career. From there, it was about growing as much as I can personally because when we grow personally, it fuels our art. My hashtag, #CreateYourMoments is all about the mental decision to harness the power of CHOICE to create our lives from the smallest of moments. What we create stems from who we are as a person and who we are being first and foremost. This video, is an authentic representation of where I’ve come to “BE” in my life. I’ve done a lot of internal work to get to where I’m at today.

I’m humbled that MTV chose to feature me, my life, and all the projects I’m up to in this awesome video by LGTR Productions. Life is about Creating Your Moments, for moments are the only thing we walk away with at the end of the day.

Special thanks to Tyrrell Winston for making this happen! Also special thanks to the guys at BOTU for my favorite song, HULA HOOP on the soundtrack.

5/22/15

Staying Fresh: nickonken x MTV Breaks

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Elevated Realism portrait of Nick Cannon at ease in a light blue suit, brand photography that matches who the subject has become

Your brand photos lag behind you because you kept evolving and the images stayed frozen. Why the gap opens, how to spot it, and what closes it.

A mountain path with fixed edges, the chosen container that makes depth possible

The kung fu school had rules: locked-in weekdays, dawn starts, push-ups for lateness. A month inside taught me that constraints you choose are what make depth possible.

Out in the field making the day's work, a daily creative practice in motion

A daily creative practice is making one real thing every day, however small, to stay in a proactive state. A working definition, and how to build one that lasts.

A traveler standing clear of the crowd, one coherent identity the machines can read correctly

AI describes your brand by averaging your public record. How to codify one identity, repeat it everywhere, and get the machines to echo you back accurately.

A performer's world stripped to essentials, artistry carrying without production

I’ve photographed Justin Bieber several times and seen fame up close. His stripped-down Coachella set showed the thing I keep relearning about creative work: production amplifies, and only artistry carries.

Calm Jamaican coastline, a nervous system coming all the way down in creative burnout recovery

You recover from creative burnout by treating it as a nervous system state: build real down-cycles, read your own signals, and return to the work you love.

Mountain landscape in New Zealand, one clear thread running through a magnetic personal brand

A magnetic personal brand comes from coherence and one clear through-line. Here is how entrepreneurs build one, in order, and the trap that keeps most brands scattered.

Hiking a New Zealand mountain trail, learning at your own pace in midlife

I spent a month training kung fu in Wudang at 47, the oldest and slowest learner in the room. What being a beginner again in midlife taught me about pace, comparison, and starting anyway.

Photographer walking a snow-capped mountain ridge in New Zealand, the long practice of seeing that develops taste

You develop taste through thousands of reps of looking closely and deciding what works. A photographer’s honest answer on how taste gets built.

Silhouetted figure leaping from a sea cliff at sunset, committing to one coherent personal brand identity

You make a personal brand more coherent by naming the identity underneath it, distilling a one or two word through-line, and bringing the four layers into agreement. The full path, in order.

Nick Onken travel image, Life Intelligence essay on travel as creative input that sharpens the eye

You cannot pour from an empty well. Travel is how I refill mine. Here is why new places are creative input rather than a break from the work, and why output without input runs dry.

Nick Onken portrait, Creative Intelligence essay on the creative act versus performing one

There is a difference between making something and performing the act of making it. Here is what I learned about the creative act, content, and why the resistance is the whole game.

Nick Onken portrait, illustrating that personal brand identity is human-built with AI as the tool on top

AI can generate endless brand content, but it cannot construct the identity underneath it. Here is the real line between what AI can do for your brand and what only you can.

About the Blogger

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

NICK'S STORY