Todd Henry once saw what he called the “perfect T-shirt” at a Disney World giftshop.

The tee was a four-panel cartoon depicting “how to draw Darth Vader.” The first three panels showed crude doodles, with instructions to start with the head and body, add a cape, then draw the face, gloves and boots. The fourth panel – a detailed, realistic drawing of the Star Wars villain – directed would-be artists simply to “add details and some shading.”

Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative, shared tips for cultivating creativity at skucon 2025 in Las Vegas.

In any kind of creative endeavor, the author of The Accidental Creative said, “The real work happens between panels three and four.”

During the opening session of skucon 2025 – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, Jan. 12 – Henry shared insights on how to keep the creative well filled and produce a brilliant work at a moment’s notice.

“Every single day, through every decision we make, we’re building our delta – our body of work,” he said. “Does that body of work represent me? Is it the sum of my greatest accomplishments or my greatest compromises?”

The 3 ‘Assassins’ of Creativity

Henry first outlined what he characterized as the three assassins of creativity: dissonance, fear and expectation escalation. Dissonance is the gap between the what and the why of actions and often leads to problems like pointless complexity.

“Talented, ambitious people need to understand the connection between what they’re being asked to do and why it matters,” he added.

Fear, the second assassin, turns the innocuous into something terrifying. Henry pointed to research where people were asked if they could walk across a plank on the ground, then given the same question about a plank raised hundreds of feet into the sky – a prospect that altered most people’s answer from yes to a resounding no. The only thing that’s changed, he said, are the “perceived consequences of failure.”

“Many of us in our creative work go through our days artificially escalating planks,” Henry noted.

The third assassin, expectation escalation, is all about ratcheting up expectations until “everything has to be the best thing we’ve ever done,” a prospect that can leave you creatively paralyzed.

Henry also offered five necessities for spurring creative work: finding time for deep focus without the distractions of “pings” like email and social media notifications; forming relationships with people who challenge us and take us out of our comfort zone; getting strategic about managing time to ensure you have enough energy for creative work; seeking out stimuli that inspires, rather than “snacking on creative junk food every day”; and putting in the hours to become an expert in your industry and develop the “earned hunch” of intuition.

There may be pushback to incorporating some of these strategies into your workday because they’re not efficient, he cautioned.

“The creative process is remarkably inefficient, but it wastes nothing,” Henry said. “Don’t fear inefficiency. Fear ineffectiveness.”

Other highlights from the daylong promo industry conference produced by commonsku – a Toronto-headquartered provider of business and sales software for promo – included:

• Kyla Scanlon, author of In This Economy: How Money and Markets Really Work, shared her thoughts on the economy in 2025 and how erosions in public trust and questions about physical infrastructure play into it.

At the end of 2024, she said, the U.S. economy was fairly strong, but there’s a difference between the “data economy” of the stock market and GDP and the “lived economy.” For sure, 2025 is certain to bring uncertainty. The key question, she added, is: “How do we adapt quickly enough to thrive in a world where the rules are still being written?”

• Ben Higgins, who rose to reality TV fame by starring in season 20 of ABC’s The Bachelor, talked about his motivation for launching Generous Coffee in 2017, a for-profit company that donates 100% of its profits to nonprofits.

Being a part of the Bachelor universe gave Higgins an incredible platform. At first, he said, he used it to “chase fame” and try to create a personal brand. But when that left him feeling hollow and unsatisfied, he decided to pivot and use his platform to better the world.

Generous Coffee, which can create custom branded packaging and sells its coffee into promo, has donated $230,000 to 30 nonprofits since it started. He encouraged attendees to use their own platforms mindfully as well: “You’ve got a lot of influence. Think about ways to be generous.”