Category: Creator Confidential
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Long & McQuade
Over a decade ago, my friends and I released the first episode of Prologue with a recording artist named Ryan Lewis. We drove from Toronto to Montreal, went backstage to Osheaga, recorded the interview, slept, and left early the next morning. That kicked off a series of other interviews with artists like Ty Dolla $ign,…
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The infinite game of blogging: 1,000 posts later
On February 14, 2022, I started playing a game. I could win by writing a blog post every day for 100 days. Before the game, writing had felt like a chore on good days and torturous on bad days. I struggled to find my way out of the mindset of “content creation.” I started the…
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A podcast’s marketing foundation
Some websites estimate that there are six million different podcasts on Spotify. If you’re making one of these podcasts, one of the key challenges is to find people who will like your podcast, and make sure they can easily access your podcast’s latest episode. When Hamza and I first started working on our podcast, New…
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Disappointment and writing
Michael Lopp wrote a simple post about what you can expect your writing to do for you. The one that caught my attention was, “45% will do much worse than you expect when published.” That is a high percentage, but it sounds right. Writing—and all sorts of creative endeavors, really—means becoming very familiar with disappointment.…
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Creative success will not fill the hole in your heart
Tara Brach writes in Radical Acceptance, “Even when we are engaged in activities that are meaningful to us, that are creatively and spiritually gratifying, they can be “co-opted” and used to satisfy the unmet needs of the wanting self.” This resonated with me. In July 2022, I wrote, “When you instrumentalize creativity—that is to say,…
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Free coffee
The other day, I ordered a coffee at a restaurant. I sipped it slowly for 15–20 minutes, and then I asked for the bill. I waited a few minutes, and caught the manager’s eye. He said, “Sorry for the delay—don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.” The saying goes, “There is no such thing…
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The minimum
Whatever your job is, there is a good chance you can get away with doing the minimum. You can fall into a pattern of slipping on deadlines, asking for more time, and not staying on top of a project. It’s less than a regular effort; it’s the minimum. If you add just enough value to…
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Easy, boring, and obvious
When an idea or task is boring, obvious, and easy to you, you might want to dismiss it. It feels low effort, or even effortless. But just because it comes naturally to you, doesn’t mean it does for everyone else. You may have stumbled into your core strengths—a zone of genius that other people want…
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Feedback vs. validation
Imagine you bump into someone you idolize. You muster up the courage to introduce yourself and talk a bit about your work. They offer to have a look and give you feedback. You accept. You were hoping they would love it, but they only offer critical comments. It’s not in a mean spirit, but the…
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Negative capability
A few months ago, I’d set a deadline for myself to finish a new book by Halloween. I’m working as hard and consistently as I can on the book, but that deadline is not going to happen. I could have shipped the incomplete manuscript as it is, Virgil Abloh style, but I decided against that.…