Even though most of my work appears on paper or the screens, one of the most fulfilling parts of working with ideas is the chance to share and discuss them with groups of people.

I’ve spoken at institutions like the University of Toronto, for organizations like CUTC and YENYR, and led workshops for companies like Shopify and Flipp.

My work has been featured at outlets like Fast Company, The Fader, and The Globe and Mail.

My speaking topics:

Redefining Creative Commitment

Conventional creative advice suggests that you must dedicate yourself fully to your craft if you want to succeed. There seems to be no shortage of advice from people who took a leap of faith and made it to the other side. But what happens to the majority of people who leap and don’t make it? Is such a high risk gamble really the best path?

In this speech, I explore my career as a first-generation creative. I share how my own high expectations of my writing career not only didn’t help me, it nearly stopped me from writing altogether. I unpack my experiences with going all-in on my writing, redefining what it meant to take writing seriously, and the experience of walking a new path for myself.

During this speech, you will learn how to think about crafting your own path, one where your commitments don’t require you to give more than you can, and one that accommodates the other questions that life is asking you.

Speech audio below (video coming soon):

Performed at CreativeMornings. Here’s what some attendees had to say:

“As a current creative student starting my career, this was incredibly reassuring and inspiring!” 

Alexandra R.

“I had the great opportunity to go to this [month’s CreativeMornings] and learn about what creative commitment really is through Herbert Lui. The energy of the event was insane.”

Haqeeqat Singh Mangat

An Introduction to Creative Doing

Life happens. People make changes in their vocation, education, and creative pursuits. They face the challenges of creative blocks, confusion and discouragement, and skill gaps or deterioration.

This speech provides a flexible framework to work with the chaos of life, and actionable tactics to create greater consistency, momentum, and to learn faster.

It is based on my book Creative Doing, as well as a series of articles that have been featured at The Next Web, Forge, and Fast Company, and read by over 300,000 people.

Here are some other outlets that have featured my work:

• “Why I Wrote a Book About Creativity,” at Human Parts
• Creative Doing, at Ideas Into Action
• “Finding Your Voice,” at Interintellect
• Creative Doing, at Infinite Loops
• “How to Take Creative Action,” at Every

High Output Creativity

“The chances are that in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor,” says poet W.H. Auden. This is an insight that we often forget about creative success; that when people attempt to make more hits, they also make more misses.

This speech aims to provoke thought on how to improve the creative process, by weaving together insights from the academic field of historiometry, artists in all fields, the changing landscape of technology, to show artists, freelancers, and entrepreneurs how they can improve their individual and team productivity amidst perpetual distraction and disruption.

Here is an outlet that has featured the ideas from this speech:

• “Why Quantity Leads to Quality,” at The Futur

What other people have said:

“Herbert has written one of the finest and most useful books on Creativity I have ever devoured. I was so enamoured, I invited him to speak to my McGill University MBA class. He was insightful, engaging and an upbeat presence…qualities that make him not just a notable speaking presence, but a pretty fine human being.”

Andy Nulman, Co-founder and CEO at Just For Laughs

Herbert Lui is an inspiring, multifaceted creative, who is able to provide direction and reassurance to all who seek to live a life of “doing.”  For those who find value in living a life in the arts, while also maintaining a presence in the corporate world, Lui shares valuable strategies of how creativity is an inherent component to all of life, and can be strengthened by giving attention to all sides of ourselves. Herbert Lui presents a valuable vision of how we can cultivate balance, joy, and meaning in all of our endeavors.

Jacqueline Jones LaMon, Author of What Water Knows