Discover Your Creative Type

Empathy map: a simple exercise to grow creatively and professionally with Marcelo Tas

It doesn't matter what your specialty is: we all have creative prejudices that, if we don’t know about them, can block development of our projects, as they distance us from objectivity.

For Marcelo Tas (@marcelo_tas)–journalist, scriptwriter, actor, TV presenter and director–knowing your creative inclinations is fundamental to understanding your audience and communicating with them in the best way. Here, he shares a practical and simple exercise that will help you to find it.

This exercise is ideal for communication projects that need to identify their audience. It is also useful for getting to know yourself as a professional.

The first thing you have to do is divide a board into sections, physically (on a wall, on a table) or digitally. It will contain the information you have about yourself, based on questions that you will answer as accurately as possible. Below we share the questions and a few of Marcelo’s answers:

- Who am I?

The answers have to be very precise and should reveal as much information about how you show yourself to the world, everything that represents you: circumstances, characteristics, passions, etc.

“I’m a man, I am a father, I am a communicator, I am Brazilian...”

- What do I need to do in my life?

These needs can be related to your personal and professional development: everything that is important to you.

“I need to make TV shows, teach classes, lead teams, give conferences, speak on the radio, take care of my garden…”

- What do I see and say?

Objective things from your everyday life, what you see and what comes out of your mouth day-to-day. This stage will help you better understand how the environment in which you live is composed of all your routines.

"What I see: colleagues at work, the news, my social networks... The words I use most often are 'discernment' and 'the present'... ”

- What do I do?

What we do is often different from what we say, so it is very important to cover the whole spectrum of our actions by going into this question. Concentrate on acts and think very carefully about which acts you participate in most during your daily routine.

"I often attend meetings, go out cycling, see my friends, participate in events, write TV and radio scripts, interact on my social networks..."

- What do I hear?

This category will help you visualize the external factors that you pay attention to and let influence you. It's not about selecting only people you admire or consider great, but those who actively inspire you and truly listen to your inner discourses.

"My friends, music, family members, my meditation teacher, the books I read, and I watch movies and interviews by Stanley Kubrick”

Finally, you will have to complete the last two categories that will help you get to know yourself better and thus determine your creative inclinations:

- Pains

Everything you struggle with, the bumps in the road you encounter every day.
"Time management, availability, fear of the unforeseen or unplanned, distance from loved ones..."

- Delights

These are all the elements of your professional and personal life that help you and that you are enthusiastic about you.

"Surprise at the unknown, sensory pleasures, discovering new things..."

Practical use

The empathy and creative inclinations map will give you a mind map that will facilitate communication and understanding of the other when building your project. Try to do yours, be sincere and know your tendencies before meeting any audience.

If you want to learn more about how to attract audiences and use criticism as a creative tool, we recommend that you sign up for the course Creative and Efficient Project Communication and Marcelo Tas will guide you along the path to self-awareness, helping you study your audiences and convert your ideas into achievable and successful projects.

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