Penguin Latte
Stoking the flames of creator culture
A few days ago, my podcast surpassed 600 downloads. I started on July 25, 2020. I've had so much fun hosting this show.
Podcasting is still incredibly underutilized and underleveraged. I know so many brilliant people who would make for fantastic podcast guests. I'm also considering starting an online course/workshop teaching people all I've learned about podcasting. How to hold a conversation, do research, find guests, listen better, and keep it fun and insightful for everyone who tunes in.
You don't need to have big name guests on your podcast to have a great show. But you do need to make your guest feel at home. Make your guest feel as if they've known you your entire life. Serve them tea! Set the table! Lean in and listen their stories. You'll learn so much.
I've also made a lot of mistakes, which I'll share in a separate post.
Listen to my conversations with the world's most creative people at:
I've started a personal brand consulting service. This is the first business I've started.
I'm offering help to writers, bloggers, podcasters, digital authors, coaches, developers - people who consider themselves to be creative.If you want the longer pitch, you can find it here.
I started this three weeks ago. I put a Calendly link in my Twitter bio and set up the aforementioned landing page on my blog. Three weeks went by...and I heard nothing. Nobody responded.
Until I woke up last Wednesday morning with an email from a career coach asking to talk with me. Zero to one, right?
And just this morning, I woke up with an email from a copywriter asking for my services.
What am I feeling?
Well, I don't know, exactly. A mix of excitement and uncertainty.
I keep reading these emails to check if I'm not dreaming.
I have no idea what's going to happen next. But I'm going to do my best to deliver what I've promised to deliver.
I wish there was a book for stuck creatives. A book that would tell me how to start getting out of my own way, so that I can get back to writing this bloody blog post. So I can get back my life my painting all these still life salmons that I love painting.
I wish I could buy this kind of book off of Gumroad or something by visiting https://gumroad.com/l/GczMr
Started making my own trailers for The Penguin Latte Podcast. I'm having an absolute blast doing this, and people seem to like em. So, I thought, what the hell? Guess I'll make trailers for each interview I've recorded so far.
Here's one of them. It's from my interview with Cullin McGrath of the Writer's Bloc Community (which I'm a part of.)
Incredibly humbled by the 5 people who've decided that my writings are worth their attention. Small numbers mean a huge amount to me. And I think that it's silly to get discouraged if you have only 5 or 6 followers. Quit looking at bigger numbers. Quit discouraging yourself. Be proud of your roots. Keep going!
Been on a roll with getting guests on the show. I've also made a trailer for the podcast which you can watch here:
Slowly rebranding this podcast into "A Weekly Look at The Pursuit of Creative Excellence" - I want to interview writers, illustrators, graphic designers, comedians, programmers, any kind of creative entrepreneurs. A few big names here and there would be nice, but ultimately I want to inspire my listeners to pick up the pen, or keyboard, and start doing work that feels like play. I've had an absolute blast recording these episodes and I'm stoked to share them all with you!
Got up to 70 downloads of the podcast. I've got two very exciting episodes of the podcast that I cannot wait to publish. I'm transforming this podcast into a platform that creatives can use to share their messages with other creatives. I've interviewed two newsletter writer friends of mine to talk about the creative process. I had an absolute blast recording these episodes and I can't wait until they go live! I'd make this a daily podcast if I could.
Here's to more.
My first (very short) book went live today on Amazon. It's called "But I Have No Original Ideas - The Book for Stuck Creatives." I actually forgot that the book was releasing today, so I hastily made some twitter and instagram posts about it. I have no idea what's going to happen with this book. We'll see.
I've positioned this book as a way to help creative people realize that it's all in their heads. That impostor syndrome can be beaten. That having original ideas is overrated. I wrote this book because I know what it's like to be there - to have so many ideas but nothing to show for it. To obsessed with information consumption but lacking in flow-states.
Here's the link to buy the book:
https://penguinlatte.blog/2020/07/29/thebook/
Enjoy.
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Ok, what if I have tons of ideas, really tons? And some of them look pretty brilliant to me but...
- I don't want to work on them or
- I start working on them and lose interest quickly.
What would you suggest to someone like me?
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That is a great question, I'm seriously glad you asked that. Yeah, I struggle with that myself. And so does my girlfriend, actually. We were just talking about this a week ago. The whole "I start ideas that I love but I can't finish them" problem.
Short answer: I don't know.
Long answer: But I'll do my best to figure this out, because I want to figure this out for myself, as well.Last night I started a piece of content based on my love of Jungian psychology and a show called Avatar the Last Airbender. I was going to talk to the camera about how a scene from this show was expressing ideas that Carl Jung wrote about in Depth Psychology. And I was going to tie in some Taoist philosophy. What I ended up doing was write about it on the newsletter. In my mind, the idea for this video was great. But while I was making it, it wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as I had imagined.
That's because I don't have the equipment, or the skills, to make good video content. Making written content is different, and I find it much easier (though incredibly challenging) than making video content. I'm still figuring this out as I go.
So perhaps the ideas need to take a different form? But I'm not so sure. You might have the form already, but I don't know much about your work. So, assuming that you have the form and the idea, what could be stopping you? Maybe it's what Seth Godin talks about: The Dip. That weird area where you feel like you're not getting anywhere, even though you're working on something you love. It might take something like grit and more discipline to keep going on those ideas.
It's a scary place to be, too. As I write this, I have ideas for some kind of coaching service I want to provide to stuck creatives. But the more I work on the landing page for this, the more obstacles I start to face. Pricing, wording, structure, who it's for, etc. The challenge with having ideas is that they can lead to dead ends. So I'll use my example as a case study. While I'm working on this creative coaching service, I confront mini-ideas about all the subsets of this larger goal of making money as an online coach. Perhaps going through The Dip means pushing through these mini obstacles along the path to fulfilling a larger goal. Seems to me like it all comes down to breaking big goals into smaller chunks.
I think that the goal (or the idea, whichever you choose) is what focuses you. It humbles you. It shows you that big things are made up of small things. Small things, over time, create big things. You know, the one step -> thousand step journey sort of thing.
If you're determined enough to push past those resistances you face when working on your ideas, you're ahead of so many people. You're not alone in this. I'm struggling with it myself. I hope this has helped in some way. Let me know what you think, I'd love to keep this conversation going. It's important.
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Thanks for your comprehensive response, I really appreciate it!
I think that the goal (or the idea, whichever you choose) is what focuses you. It humbles you. It shows you that big things are made up of small things. Small things, over time, create big things. You know, the one step -> thousand step journey sort of thing.
I totally agree on it. But I finally figure out the source of the problem (at least for me, but I think it maybe for you and others too). The problem is -->
- the goal != idea and
- the goal may be achieved in multiple ways <------
Look, 14 years ago I decided to immigrate. There was only one legal way to do it. So, I spent a lot of time, effort, and money to make my dream reality. I was really focused on that goal and did everything for it and I succeeded. I remember several times when I did something I didn't like a lot but just remembered my goal and moved on. So, now, I have another goal - "to create a great software product and make it a business". Sounds so simple, huh?
But there are so many ways to do it! I can create a product based on the idea #2, #6, #17, #33, and so on. I understand clearly that it will be too much for one life to try all of them, so I'm trying to find a good one. But I always find myself in the same trap: I lose interest. OMG. I don't lose interest in my goal but just in a way how I would achieve it. What to do next?
(I also admit that the interest may be my enemy. But I have no idea what to do with it.)
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"I understand clearly that it will be too much for one life to try all of them, so I'm trying to find a good one." That's such a great point, dude! (that's my Californian accent showing, you might not be a Dude for all I know :P) I've been thinking about that with my content work, too. That's killer. Life is too short to try everything. Maybe picking one or two things and making those things the best things possible is the answer. Hard to say.
Also, props to you for fulfilling your dream of immigrating. Those kinds of stories always move me. That must have been difficult.
Hm. You don't lose interest in the goal. That's something. I haven't lost interest in my goals of creating assets that build wealth while I sleep. But how? How to provide free gifts to my audience, gifts that are better than everyone else's paid content? How to create assets that people need to pay for, assets that are worth paying for? Exclusive content and access to me, working with them one on one? (Vague examples as I'm in the process of working these things out.)
Perhaps we just need to treat our projects like groundhog day - we find the things we want to work on that we literally cannot wait to get back to work on. I'll never forget what Matt Mullenweg, CEO of WordPress, said on the Tim Ferriss show about a project he was working on: "Just talking about it makes me want to get back to work." Even typing that to you makes me want to press forward with my entrepreneurial goals, face the fears, doubts, and insecurities in my head.
So, losing interest could be a good indicator that you're getting closer to the method that interests you. it could be that the problems that you're trying to tackle aren't the right problems.
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Hey!
Thanks for your warm words!Hm. You don't lose interest in the goal.
Not at all. Moreover, I can't sleep well for a long time because I can't stop thinking. Those short days/nights when I think I found something (false alarms yet) I can sleep better but then everything starts again :(
I haven't lost interest in my goals of creating assets that build wealth while I sleep. But how? How to provide free gifts to my audience, gifts that are better than everyone else's paid content? How to create assets that people need to pay for, assets that are worth paying for?
Yeah, they are big questions.
Perhaps we just need to treat our projects like groundhog day - we find the things we want to work on that we literally cannot wait to get back to work on.
Totally agree. Matt Mullenweg was obsessed with the idea of WP - an engine allowing anyone to create a blog in minutes. But you know what? He was in a different situation than us. When he started he didn't have real competitors. Now, what kills me all the time is the number of solutions. I can find a solution, literally speaking, for any problem. Paid or free, any. And it kills my desire to keep working on something even if I have an interest in it.
I also feel stronger when I'm typing this response, but, man, it's so hard to stick to something. And the problem is not only with crazy amount of competitors. Something wrong is inside. Believe it or not, but 3 years ago I had a paid coach to help me with the same problem but with no result. Everything is getting even worse.
And from what I see the only weapon we have now is our passion for the idea. Because without it, it's just impossible to stand against the hordes of competitors.
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I feel you with those last two paragraphs.
Whenever I feel truly stuck, totally surrounded in darkness, I remember my favorite content creator of all time: John Daub - here's one of his newest videos about life in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-e8K1AtqiQ
You can tell how happy he is to be doing this kind of work, in every single video. Is it difficult? Of course. Is he the only person vlogging about life in Japan? Nope. But he makes it work. He wants to be doing it. He's built his own little empire. His own community of true fans. He's been making these videos for more than seven years.
Now, how do you find work like that? That's our question, right? I think the answer is somewhere in what we've been writing about. I don't believe that there isn't a space with no competition. Everyone's figuring out ways to make content about literally everything. I want to make content about what it's like to be a content creator. What's my unique take on that?
Nobody can make content based around you. Matt Mullenweg has sort of embedded himself into WordPress. John Daub's work is so popular because he's embedded himself into the work. But what about a piece of software code? Is it possible to do it with that? I think so.
Again, immensely difficult, but the challenge is the reward.
I'm tired and I need to stop typing. My thinking is getting foggy. Hope this helps you. Still open to conversation though, I'm definitely interested in what you come up with as you work through these problems.
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I agree with any word you wrote. It's exactly what I think - the passion for what you are doing can overcome and eventually beat any amount of competitors. And this is a problem - I just stupidly can't find what I would stick to. I love to code and self-develop but I hate writing about it. So, any writing/blogging/books are not for me.
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Today, I got my first pre-order for my e-book on Kindle. She's been a follower of my blog for the last couple of months. One true fan out of the sacred 1,000.
The book is called But I Have No Original Ideas - The Book for Stuck Creatives. I collected six of my blog posts and wrote 14 short, original pieces of writing for this book. Each chapter is very short. You could read the whole book in 20 minutes. But I wrote each chapter to get to the point as quickly as I could, so that the reader can see that it pays to get create things no matter how "unoriginal" or how crappy their ideas are. This is the first time that I've asked for money for my writing. I can't help but feel like I could have made this much longer, but this is all a practice to me. Let's see how this goes. Writing this has inspired me to write the next one. I know I can push myself to do more.
Here's the link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DTRQ7WG
Starting to do more with my podcast. Having guests on to talk about their creative process. The first episode is with my high school friend Nathan Rogers, who co-owns a parkour gym called Freedom In Motion. I've got some other guests that I'd like to have on as well. Sending messages in bottles.
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