Creative Confidence with Carl Fudge
Is the story you're telling about yourself mayyyyybe limiting you?
This week on the pod, we sat down with our friend Carl Fudge, founder and CEO of Presentation Mode, a narrative and strategy design studio helping founders tell their most important stories.
You might be thinking, “that sounds like the work of a creative person.” And you would be right. Yet Carl doesn’t tend to think of himself that way. He has an MBA. His path doesn’t fit the archetype. And he’d never want to claim the label if it wasn’t deserved.
Carl built a company. He shapes ideas into vision. He solves problems in ways that require imagination, taste, and perspective. He creates. So shouldn’t that qualify him as a creative person? Of course.
Yet, so many people feel this way about themselves. Like they’re not allowed to own their creativity if they didn’t go to art school. Which, of course, is wildly untrue—not to mention, limiting.
When we said that to him, he laughed. Probably because it’s funny when the truth is so obvious to other people. In that moment, we were his mirrors. Us seeing him as a creative person helped him to see it, too.
Most of us aren’t short on evidence of our strengths. We’re just not great at accessing it. Usually because we’re too busy fixating on the one thing that didn’t land. We are notoriously inaccurate storytellers of ourselves.
Carl shared that he keeps an “encouragement box” (a Notion) of kind words, feedback, and moments where something resonated with his clients. It’s not to inflate anything, but to stay honest. To have something to return to when his internal narrative drifts.
We should all start doing this right now!
It’s an excellent tool for telling a better story about what you’re capable of. And maybe that’s the work: to get more honest. To look at the evidence, not just the doubt. And to let yourself be seen a little more clearly.