Category: Creator Confidential
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The pressure sweet spot
There are things you know you are capable of, and there are things you’re not sure about. You might have a decades-long habit of brushing your teeth, so you don’t feel pressure when someone asks you if you can brush your teeth. By contrast, the things you’re not sure about are less certain. For example,…
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“Please make some noise!”
You’ll often hear a recording artist, or their hype person, say this at a show. When people make noise, it’s easier for the artist to believe that everyone there is interested in what they’re doing, and to bring 100% to the performance. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy; the audience, in turn, is energized by the…
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Success vs. happiness
You suffer. You know you are capable of something great, and yet it feels like nobody sees that. Maybe it’s depression, or pain of another sort. It feels like there’s a hole inside of you. You think you can fill this hole by pursuing your art and achieving success. This goal gives you hope, motivation,…
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Make your business the case study
If you run a web design agency, you may find yourself too busy working on client work to spruce up your own website. If you’re a freelance writer, you’re too busy ghostwriting for clients to put pen to paper for your own thoughts. If you’re in marketing, you promote your client’s products, but you don’t…
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Constructive criticism
People who praise everything you can seem extremely supportive. They hype your work, and build up your self-image. While this energy may make you feel more confident, and can help you gather the energy to nurture an initial idea, pure praise also doesn’t help you make your work better. A statement that sounds like constructive…
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Yardsticks and patience
Ailian Gan believes that it took Seth Godin four years of blogging every day before he found his style and started writing like he does today. It’s tempting to use that as a yardstick; for me, I’m two years into blogging every day, and hopefully I’ll get there in another two. The reality is, there’s…
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The slump
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do to get out of the slump. You feel as though there is barely enough time to make the work good—let alone to escape, clear your head, reset your energy. You’re feeling scared, too. You don’t want the slump to turn into a block. You probably know the answer: keep…
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Independent vs. interdependent
When you work independently—as an entrepreneur, freelancer, or creator—in the early days, you actually could become more dependent on the people you know. For example, you could rely on the people already in your network to help you come across new opportunities, support you emotionally and hold you accountable, and tell their network about your…
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You can just do stuff, you know
Yesterday, Pharrell Williams released an album. He also turned 51. It’s on a WordPress website. It’s not available through streaming platforms. If you want, you can download all of the songs in .mp3 format with one click. It’s delightfully straightforward. He also didn’t promote it, not even on his own social media channels. Not that…
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100 times
If you’re getting started on something and think that a person’s advice is going to help you, you should reach out. If you don’t hear back from them, don’t give up yet. Instead, whatever you’re doing, try it 100 times. For example, if you’re trying to write a book, write 100 articles. (Or 100 pages,…