Description

As creators, we often spend a lot of time thinking about why we create. Making money, serving people, gaining notoriety, etc, are all reasons why we might create for our businesses. But what do we do with the ideas that aren’t driven by making money or serving others?

Sometimes, creating is about doing what gives you joy. The metric for success doesn’t always equate to making money; it can be solely to bring joy to yourself and others. 

In today’s episode, we explore several creators whose products seem to be driven by this desire. 

Main Takeaways

• Art is what you feel called and inspired to make regardless of whether or not someone else is paying attention to it. 
• Selling out is an emotionally rigged term. Often, when people are called a ‘sellout’ it’s because they’ve focused only on making things for money and not necessarily joy, pride, or quality. 
• The ideal outcome for a creator is when creating can exist at the overlap of joy and making money. 
• As a creator, there’s a downstream effect that happens when you put your work into the world; you can’t put business metrics around that. 
• Brand is the story that people tell themselves about your business.

Creators of the Day 

• Trent Palmer
• Brad Dowdy

Resources of the Day

• Monopoly Deal Card Game
• The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 40 Years by Yvon Chouinard

Thought of the Day

Links

• Twenty Bits I Learned About Design, Business, and Community by Dan Cederholm 
• Craft + Commerce Conference
• Obi - A Smart Laser Toy for Cats
• Studio Neat
• The Clear Habit Journal
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• I Am a Blogger: 17 Stories About Earning a Living Online
• Sean McCabe
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
• Chase Reeves
• What Fizzlers Did in 2015

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