Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Today is all about the way of the creator and this episode was inspired just by my own study, which we are going to talk about why you should take up a study of what your natural curiosity is, because I really think that that's a huge piece of being a creator, which we're going to talk about more today is just being a good student. Not like school student, but researching, following your curiosity, allowing ideas and resources and mentors and books and courses and just information to be part of your normal life, but not in the way that's like always consuming. I like to use the word “research” because it's not just passively consuming, it's metabolizing it.
We're going to talk about metabolizing ideas as part of being a creator and this episode was inspired because I was just thinking when you look out into the world, most people are broke, are struggling, are unhealthy, don't have great relationships and are just generally unhappy and they just accept it.
And this makes me really sad because I think I live in a really interesting bubble of the internet where I'm happy, I have good relationships and I know many of you can relate, right? Where we just think differently. And if you're listening to this and you're not like what I identify as a creator, but you want to be, you might notice like maybe you've gone on your own journey where you used to struggle, but now you don't, you used to be unhappy, but you went on a journey and now you're happy, right?
Maybe you learned, maybe you read books, maybe you've got coaching or therapy or something and now you're on a different path. And when I think about this, I remember learning about this in one of my classes, like my physics class I think. It was a concept called entropy. And entropy is a tendency towards chaos or disorder.
And if you think about it, like without conscious awareness, like if I drop a bag, chaos ensues, right? If I drop a bag of groceries, it becomes a mess all over the table. If I let my kids play by themselves in my living room, I will come out and find chaos and disorder. And so that's how the world works, right?
Entropy is just natural, where things move towards chaos. And I like to think of consciousness being the opposite of that, right? Consciousness, when applied and focused, is a tendency to order. And so I think of consciousness as the opposite of entropy. So when we think of being a creator, it means using conscious awareness to create instead of just accepting the tendency towards chaos.
So that's, to me, what we do as creators. And in fact, most people who have started a one person business, a coaching business, a design business, a writing business, whatever, they made this jump, right? There was chaos in their life, there was entropy, something was a problem, they solved it for themselves, and then they started solving it for other people, and that is how they started their business.
For sure that is how I started my business. And that's the way of a creator turning chaos into conscious creation. And so I want to share some of my thoughts about this and how you can be a creator, how you can turn your chaotic environment into ordered environment, how you can turn your struggles into something powerful and useful and valuable for other people.
That is what I see in the creator space, the micro business space, the one person business space, the coaching industry, the knowledge industry, if you identify as a knowledge worker, this is the kind of stuff that we're going to be talking about because people turn their struggle into a profitable business. It's not overnight, right? They struggle. They solve the problem for themselves. They identify how they did it. They break that down into a product or a service, and then they turn around and sell it to people like them or like how they used to be.
For me, that was exactly how I ran my coaching business. And in many ways, I still do, right? I'm solving people's problems that I used to have, and that's how we turn our ideas into more wealth, more freedom, and a higher quality of life. And so the first thing that I want to talk about is the difference between the status quo and a conscious choice.
The status quo, I went to high school, and it was assumed everyone would go to college, at least get a bachelor's degree, maybe a master's degree, maybe beyond. And that's how they would be successful and that is the status quo, but the way of the creator means that there has to be new possibilities. There has to be conscious choice. One of the ways that Rich Litvin describes this that I like is the default future versus the creative future.
Default future is what your parents wanted for you. Default future is what the school wanted for you. Default future is what most people accept as their future and they don't really question it. Versus created future is really an internal journey to decide what do I want? What do I picture for myself? And the metaphor that I want to use here is imagine a coloring book, versus a blank sheet of paper. The default future is like someone handing you a coloring sheet. So it already has the shape, it already has the outline, it already has a predictable outcome, right? Maybe it's a picture of a kitty. And you can color the kitty, like white or brown or gray or rainbow or whatever, but the outline is still a kitty and it already was pre programmed.
That's how I see a default future. You can choose to be a doctor or you can choose to be a teacher or you can choose to be a police officer. There's so many already pre programmed ideas, whereas the way of the creator, which is a booming industry and a new industry, was like being handed a blank sheet of paper where there wasn't a script. There wasn't an ideal outcome. You got to choose what colors, what shapes, what scene you made on the sheet.
So as an example, when I was in college, I was a psychology major, graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology, thinking I was going to go on to be a therapist. When I dropped out of my master's program, I felt like I had turned in the coloring sheet, you know, like they had handed me this coloring sheet of what I could do with this degree. But when I found the coaching industry, it was like, here's a blank sheet of paper. What do you want to put on it?
And it feels confronting because that is not how most of the world works. That is not how I was taught as a 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 year old. Right. It was definitely like brand new ways of thinking about myself and my future.
And so it requires some intelligence. It requires some self reflection. It requires you to be self aware. Just by choosing to even contemplate this blank sheet of paper, you have to confront yourself and your beliefs and the skills and your desires. And this is why self education or self development is so important if you choose to do something off script, off the default path.
One of the things that I think is really important if you choose to be a creator, if you identify as a creator, is to be asking questions relentlessly. Why do people do it that way? When did we accept is that the only way? Is that something that I even want to do? Is that something that resonates for me? Is that something that fits with my lifestyle? Is that something that fits with my season of life?
Asking frequent, powerful questions. And it's not that you have to be anti anything or negative. It's just really questioning where did this come from. Like, why have we decided that going to college is the best for everyone.
Do I agree with that? No, I don't think it's the best for everyone. Is it the best for some people? Sure. But I think this way of the creator is this new career path, this new ability to serve people, to make an impact, to make an income online, by sharing your voice, sharing your words, sharing your skills in the internet world, in the internet marketplace, is a valid way to make a living, is a valid way to live your purpose.
But that's a created future because there's no way you could see this coming. When I was 12, there's no way I knew I would have an internet business one day. I didn't. And so it is a blank slate of paper, right? Like where I get to design it. And the only way I got here was by asking questions, like is there another way to do this?
At the time when I started my business, it was like, is there another way for me to make money as a stay-at-home mom? And that question, open up possibilities I didn't even know were possible. I think the question opens up to the potentialities that we didn't know existed because other people didn't know they existed.
My teacher didn't know it existed. My mom didn't know it existed. My dad didn't know it existed. It was never taught to me. And so I had to use questions to start seeking out my own answers, which is what opened the door to explore new ideas and new ways of being, new ways of doing business, new ways of providing for my family.
And so I think the beginning of being a creator means questioning and also combining ideas. So I mentioned I was a psychology major. It's not like being a coach, being a life coach, being a business mentor, sometimes I have to think of myself as like a philosopher, kind of, where I'm just thinking about ideas and sharing them.
It's not like it had no ground in psychology. It's not like psychology was useless, but the combination of ideas is where my one person business really came to life. Psychology, spirituality, mastery, entrepreneurship, coaching, mindset. All of these combinations are what make me, me. And I get to bring that unique consciousness to the marketplace and get rewarded for it by adding value. That's the creator's life. I think it's so important to challenge the status quo, not from a place of negativity, just curiosity. Because it'll open the door to possibilities and potentialities you didn't even know existed.
The second thing I wanted to talk about was a quote from Joe Dispenza. And he says, your personality becomes your personal reality. I love that quote. Because I think so many of us, we're just like, I'm shy, I'm not creative, I'm, you know, whatever. I am blank and we share our personality as if it's just written in stone and therefore it becomes our personal reality. And I think what's so great about what Joe Dispenza teaches, Dr. Joe, is that you can change how you be in the world.
You are not destined to what you did in high school, thank goodness. You are not destined to be shy private, forever. I know a lot of the skills that I have today I didn't have when I was 17 and thank goodness I didn't stop there and that's why I love self development because it's not just set in stone who you are. You can grow. You can expand. And if you don't believe that, that's where I would start; is that you can even study neuroplasticity, study change, study behavior change, study epigenetics, study transformation, like transformational psychology, whatever you want to study, start believing that you don't have to stay who you are.
I think being fluid, being open minded, being able to take on new ideas about yourself is an essential skill if you want to be a creator, if you want to be an online entrepreneur, because this wasn't taught to us. So if you believe that your personality is set in stone, business won't be for you. And part of our work is to uncover how we could change and mold ourselves into someone new and to someone we want to be in order to create what we want to create. That was an essential part of my journey as an entrepreneur.
Next, skills and conscious awareness or how you build in the 3D. I love conscious awareness even more than I like beliefs. It's just becoming more aware of ideas and possibilities for us as real, not just for someone else. But I also think skills are an essential part of being a creator. I did not have online business skills. So at the beginning, it wasn't because I didn't believe I could do it, it was because I didn't have the skills.
Belief is part of finding skills and cultivating skills, because I have to believe that at some point I can have that skill. But at the end of the day, I work with coaches, I think specifically coaches struggle with this. They have this thought that their belief is what's holding them back when in reality they are just lacking skills.
It has nothing to do with their belief in themselves, has everything to do with they haven't learned copywriting, email marketing, creating content, holding attention, having powerful conversations, enrolling clients, sales, persuasion, skills that are required to build a business and they keep working on their belief without growing their skills.
And it makes me sad because you can believe 100% in yourself and in your ability to make something happen. But without the skills, you can't actually build something. And so I think the way of the creator means you are always cultivating skills that help you transcend into the next level.
And this is true of an artist as much as it is a coach. This is true of a writer just as it is a designer or a website builder or I'm trying to think like a VA, whatever one person business you can think of, you need skills. And so for me, the skills at the beginning of my business were more basic and the skills that I'm learning now are a little bit more advanced, but it's still skill building.
The way of the creator to me is the eternal student. And that includes expanding your mind and your beliefs, but also expanding your skillset or your skill stack is another way I like to think of it. And this message isn't taught enough, especially in the coaching circles that I am a part of.
I think that's because we teach and sell thought work and belief work. While that is so important. I totally believe in cultivating faith, believing new possibilities, believing specific thoughts that empower you and keep you going, there is an element of skills. This came up a lot in the integral coach training that I just had because there were so many ahas that people who took that program from me, they're like, “Oh my gosh, it's not a belief thing. I believe. I'm just lacking a skill.” And it's like this aha moment that people have. And it's like, yeah, and skills you can learn for a large majority for free on the internet.
I like to pay for skill building because I think I'm more focused and I take it more seriously. And I developed a skill quicker than if I just like consume on YouTube, but I've learned a ton of things for free on YouTube in podcasts, on free trainings, even on social media sometimes I learn things. And that combination of increasing my conscious awareness of things in growing my belief and increasing my skills is what gets me to the next level, it is not belief alone.
And so if you've worked on your belief, if you've worked on your worthiness and your thoughts and what you see yourself as, and you know, your self concept. That's important, but I would also ask, have you developed skills? Have you studied copywriting, messaging, offer creation, persuasion, sales, all those kinds of things as well? Because I think it's the combination that makes the most powerful entrepreneurs. It's not just belief. It's belief with skill sets. That is the way of a creator.
My next thought is that you can't be a victim and a creator at the same time. And I know that this is a little spicy. So I wanted to give some nuance. That doesn't mean that there aren't actual victims in the world. There are. You can be a victim of so many things. And then you get a choice. And you have a choice for most of my audience, this is what I'm going to speak to. You can be a victim of the economy or you can create in the economy or for the economy.
You can be a victim of changing algorithm, or you can create in a way where the algorithm becomes irrelevant. You can create relationships that you have control of. You can share content that people want to share. You can put yourself in rooms where you're talking to people in real life, so that you don't have to wait for the algorithm to work for you. That's an example that I use a lot.
You can be a victim of a saturated marketplace, or you can add so much value and learn the skills of persuasion, holding attention, sales, etcetera, so that it doesn't matter. I refuse to be a victim to my business, to the marketplace that I find myself in, to the niche I've chosen, to the way that I serve, like I am a creator. And so creators don't stop creating. They're innovative. They are creative. They see solutions. They don't let a problem be the roadblock that ends their career. They start to imagine and test new ideas so they can create what they want. They don't take no for an answer.
And what's interesting about being a victim, I know that that's extreme language, but I think it's powerful to see when I am being a victim, I feel like crap. I feel like nothing's working. When I find myself saying something like, I don't know what else to do, I've tried everything. I know I'm in victim mode and victim mode has never helped me grow my business. Creator mode, receptive mode, humble mode, coachable mode, always creates results eventually.
And so when I find myself in victim mode, I feel shut down, I feel stuck, I feel frustrated, I feel almost like a little kid where I'm like complaining about something. But being a creator means I have to take full responsibility for my results. And it's not for everyone. I heard this, I can't remember where, but the idea is everyone can, but not everyone will. And that's what I see here, everyone can be a creator, but not everyone will. My hope is that if you're listening to this kind of episode, you want to be a creator. And so just notice when you're a victim and choose a new way of seeing things, a new perspective, a new approach.
I really recommend if you have an online business, never say I've tried everything. It just completely shuts you down. In my opinion, the way of the creator is that there's endless opportunities, endless solutions, if I have the eyes to see in the ears to hear them. And that's part of being a knowledge worker is that if you're stuck, read something. If you're stuck, get support. If you're stuck, pay for someone to guide you through whatever you're stuck in. Because I guarantee there are other people who are stuck where you were and transcended it and can help you. I know for me I've done that many times.
And like I said, I know that's a little spicy language to use the word victim. I don't mean it like in a true victim sense where people are hurt by other people, or victimized by other people. I mean, you think you're a victim, but you're not. That's what I mean. The creator prioritizes adding value to others. By curating information that they love learning about and then distributing it after they've considered it for themselves, after they've applied it to themselves.
One of my favorite things about this work is that I get paid to be a student. And not a student like school, a student in the game of life where I'm following my own curiosity. I’m reading books that I find valuable and interesting. And then I'm metabolizing the information, condensing it into my own words, using my own language and experience and stories to then distribute it to other people. I get paid to curate knowledge and it's the best.
This doesn't mean I have to invent ideas, it means I read 5, 10 books about something, condense it, and I really like the word metabolize it, digest it. And then I turn it into something new. Metabolize means taking something and turning it into energy. And so when I think of metabolizing the information that I'm reading in books about entrepreneurship, about business, about mindset, about spirituality, and I'm metabolizing it in my own brain, I'm spending time thinking about it and contemplating it.
I'm working to understand it. And then I synthesize it in my own way for my clients. That is literally my job description as a creator because I'm not inventing anything at this point. I'm curating it and explaining it in a brand new way. That is consciousness. Consciousness is different facets of the same thing.
And so I don't have to invent the one person business or the coaching industry. I get to share my perspective, which is my consciousness. My own unique perspective literally is my consciousness, how I see the world, my unique take, my stories. And then I get to distribute that in the world and I get paid for it. And you can too.
The next thing that I think is really important to talk about for the Way of the Creator is the Law of Increase, because so many people think that they're just destined to fail, and I'm like, not if you pay attention to nature. So if you pay attention to nature, if I plant one apple tree, right? One seed turns into one apple tree.
That one apple tree will produce thousands of apples over the course of that tree's life. Thousands. That is the law of increase. Now, there are principles that make that tree produce an increase. Principles like get sunlight, get the right amount of water, be in soil that's fertile. But you can to yourself.
Are you in an environment that is fertile? Are you nurturing your business tree, your creator tree? Or are you blocking nutrients? Are you in an environment that is like intellectually stimulating? Are you in an environment where you're learning and growing and expanding in your belief and skills? Are you constantly growing yourself so that you can produce according to the law of increase? I know for me in business, this looks like being really mindful of who I share my stuff with. By stuff, I mean my dreams and my ideas. I was actually talking to a client in the Matrix this week about beliefs are like a little plant.
If you have an idea or like a vision is like a little plant. Let's say you have a vision for a seven figure business one day that you are financially free, you're making a huge impact, you live life on your terms and you see this compelling idea in your mind. But it's new. You have to think of that vision like a little plant that's in a tiny pot.
And if you show that tiny plant of that vision, that tiny vision, well it's not a tiny vision, it's a big vision, but tiny in belief, right? It's new to you. And you show it to someone who doesn't believe, they will squash that plant so fast and they will kill it. And so I think part of our work is to be mindful of who we share our big visions with and I choose to share them with people who will nurture them, like the sunlight and the fertile soil that it needs to grow.
I don't just share my ideas with everyone, because if it's tender, if it's new, it's easily killed. And I want to grow it into a huge oak tree where nothing can stop it. And I have beliefs like that and I have visions like that. Now, I feel like I'm always in the middle of big oak tree belief while I'm also holding a little plant that I'm trying to nurture because expansion never ends.
And so to me, the law of increase requires you to be mindful of what stage you're at in your belief of a vision. And that might mean not telling your friends, not telling your family, not telling your partner. Not because you don't trust them or you don't love them. It's because when they think they're helping you by saying, that's not possible, don't get your hopes up, you know, don't scam people, don't be scammed. What they don't realize that they're doing is squashing your vision. And so I like to share my visions with people who are already doing what I want to do, or people who I really trust, that they see what I'm capable of and they want to nurture the belief with me.
Because once you get it, the law of increase takes care of itself, right? When you plant seeds on social media and you do the principles, right? You're sharing value. You're increasing your skills in writing, and speaking, and persuading, and marketing, and adding value, and holding attention, and delivering amazing service or products to people that you want to help. The law of increase will take care of itself.
This happens with word of mouth renewals or referrals, where people share your content without you asking them to. Your client tells their friend about you. Your student shares you on social media and you get five new students, right? Law of increase will work in your favor if you stay in the game long enough.
If I plant an apple seed and then it freezes in two weeks, I'm not going to be able to experience the law of increase. I have to stay with that apple tree until it becomes the kind of tree that can produce an increase. Your business is the same. You have to stay with it until it can produce the way that you want it to. If you cut it off too soon, you won't get to see the law of increase. And so part of the game is staying in it.
The next thing that I wanted to share is, you get to curate knowledge and metabolize it, which we've already mentioned, and you can share it in your own way, but you have to distribute it and you have to promote yourself. So it's not just enough to metabolize the information that you're learning. You also have to distribute it and this is where I think growth turns into contribution. The thing that we have to do to keep growing is to contribute. And this looks in the online space like distribution and the art of self promotion.
There's no way to grow your business without it. You have to have a place for people to pay you and you have to talk about your products and services online. So you have to distribute value and promote what you have to offer in the marketplace. You're learning, you're reading books, you're taking courses, you're listening to podcasts, you're listening to one right now. You're getting coaches, you're learning from mentors and teachers that you admire.
That's the collecting. You're gathering ideas. Then you spend time metabolizing it. I like to metabolize it through writing, through teaching, through super thinking, right? I think about ideas and I try to share them my own way.
This is my version of that right now. I'm trying to understand how I've learned these ideas and distribute it to you now. And then the art of self promotion that would look like, hey, join the matrix. Hey, sign up for one on one with me. You've heard me share those calls to action. That's a promotion.
And if you want to make money as a creator, that is essential. The way of the creator you can't avoid distributing value and promoting yourself. You can try and there's business models. I know there's people who do this word of mouth and that's still true, they're still distributing value and promoting themselves by inviting people to work with them. I think the internet provides rocket fuel for this, you can do this at a massive scale with one post. I can share one post or create one podcast and impact hundreds and thousands of people. And so I think it's useful to see social media and online media in general, distribution channels as an essential part of your one person business.
That can look a lot of different ways. I have clients who are on LinkedIn. I have clients who use Instagram like me. I have clients who use email lists and podcasts, or Facebook. I don't think it matters, but you're distributing value and you're promoting yourself. Now there's a ratio for this. I think distributing value has to, in my opinion, 80 to 20, or 90 to 10, or 9 to 1, where you're adding value nine times the amount of asking.
That feels good to me. I know that there's lots of different ways. Gary Vee has this line that's like, what is it called? Jab, Jab, right hook or something like that. It's like, add value, add value, ask. Alex Hormosey says give, give, give, give, give, give, and then get, where you don't even have to ask.
I think that's for next level brands. In my opinion, if you're a one person business, you have to have places where you promote at some point, a place where you ask. Now I have some clients who, they are disordered and that they're promoting too much and not distributing enough value.
And you know that this is you if you are selling and not signing clients, you probably haven't added enough value to your audience. And so you might focus on distributing value and turning the faucet down on self promotion for a while. There's a happy medium. There's like this place, this sweet spot for a solopreneur where you're distributing value and then you make an ask and you promote yourself and you get results.
That is what I want for all of you. And unfortunately and fortunately, the way you get there is by experimentation through mentorship, through learning skills, through increasing your belief, by getting eyeballs on your business other than your own and by learning from people ahead of you. I really think that's how you figure out how your ratio and the way that it looks for your unique business of distribution and promotion work.
It's a necessity. You can't skip it. Not if you want to be a creator that gets paid or that makes a living off of being a creator. You have to learn how to distribute value and promote yourself in a way that gets results. And this is just what I want to leave you with. We've talked about a lot of things.
The creator shapes reality like clay in their hands. There are principles that always work, but the creator understands that methods and tactics are hers to discover and experiment with until she creates what she wants. The creator plays with iteration, trial and error, and delights in the process of learning and becoming and creating, because it never ends.
I know the phase of business that I'm in right now, I used to dream about and now I have bigger dreams, right? Like expansion is forever. And so the way of the creator is a commitment for life. I really hope I sold you on that idea, because this was the career path I wish I knew about when I was 10, when I was 15.
I couldn't articulate what I wanted to do. It's because it didn't exist, but now it does. I get to make money being me. I love learning. I love sharing value. I love talking to people and helping them change their lives. I love combining ideas. I love researching. I love expanding my mind and I love expanding other people's minds.
I love sharing about what I know and so this is the perfect career path for me. I have a feeling it's the perfect career path for you if you're drawn to a podcast like this. I hope this serves you, if it does, share it with a friend. Shameless plug. Share this podcast with a friend if it feels aligned with you. I really appreciate it. It does a ton for me as a creator, as a podcaster. And so, thank you for sharing it if you do. I hope this served you. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.
