Drop the Mic with Mike Brown — How to Podcast and Hack Creativity So You Can Share Messages That Matter

Hey! This is episode #12 of the Ember Studios Podcast, Lessons from My Summer Presentation Circuit.

Today, Mike shares lessons that he learned while spending the summer giving presentations designed to help podcasters.

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Experimental:

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Hey! This is episode #11 of the Ember Studios Podcast, How I Publish and Share my Podcast.

Thanks for listening, I'm Mike Brown and this is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects.

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Resources from this episode:

www.answerthepublic.com

www.ubersuggest.com

www.quora.com

www.reddit.com/r/podcasting

www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

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Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Be the first to know about my next course - emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp011

Thank you very much for listening. Just as a few reminders: Go to emberstudioscreative.com/esp011 to get the full show notes. If you want to start podcasting, you can get up to two months free when you go to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn and sign up.

Also, please feel free to email me at [email protected] if there's anything I can help you with.

So don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a 5 star review, so we can keep chatting for a long, long time.

Thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world. Bye!

Hey! This is episode #10 of the Ember Studios Podcast, The Most Common Podcasting FAQs.

Thanks for listening, I'm Mike Brown and this is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects. Today we're talking about the most common questions I get asked or I see people asking about podcasting.

Are you looking to start a podcast? Then head to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn, and use our unique promo code - EMBER to get up to two months of free podcasting service with Libsyn when you sign up for a new account. Get your show on Apple, Spotify, and more. Get helpful audience-building stats and all the support you need to sound your best.

Resources:

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Be the first to know about my next course - emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp010

Thank you very much for listening. Just as a few reminders: Go to emberstudioscreative.com/esp010 to get the full show notes. If you want to start podcasting, you can get up to two months free when you go to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn and sign up.

Also, please feel free to email me at [email protected] if there's anything I can help you with.

So don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a 5 star review, so we can keep chatting for a long, long time.

Thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world. Bye!

Hey! This is episode #9 of the Ember Studios Podcast, examining data from my first 8 episodes.

Thanks for listening, I'm Mike Brown and this is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects.

Are you looking to start a podcast? Then head to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn, I'll also link it in this episode's show notes and use our unique promo code - EMBER to get up to two months of free podcasting service with Libsyn when you sign up for a new account. Get your show on Apple, Spotify, and more. Get helpful audience-building stats and all the support you need to sound your best.

They even do video. Bring your podcast to life and have your voice heard here, there, and everywhere with Libsyn. Again, follow the link in the show notes for our unique Libsyn promo code - EMBER and get podcasting.

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Resources:

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Be the first to know about my next course - emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist

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Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp009

This is episode #8 of the Ember Studios Podcast, How and Where to Find Music and Art for Your Podcast.

>>> Get your free PDF with Image Dimensions and Useful Resources

I'm Mike Brown and this is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects.

Finding and choosing music and art for your podcast can be very daunting but it's not as hard as it seems. In this podcast episode, we aim to answer a few questions. What Is Podcast Cover Art? What Size Should Podcast Artwork Be? We also cover How To Create Podcast Cover Art, How To Make Podcast Artwork, as well as many other topics.

In addition to talking about Music and Art for your podcast, I wanted to let you know about my 10-Day Podcast Planning Initiative. This is a two-week online course that will help you zero in on your podcast topic and format. One of the days is actually dedicated to the topic of this episode- Finding Art and Music! It's currently in production, but you can join the waitlist to be among the first to know when it drops! I'm planning on offering a launch discount, so getting on the waitlist is the best way to guarantee you get the best price. Head to emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist to join! If you want more information, I give a more detailed description in the episode audio.

Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if there's anything I can help you with.

Don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a 5 star review, so we can keep chatting for a long, long time.

Thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world. Bye!

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Resources Mentioned:

Get your FREE PDF with the image dimensions and links to useful resources:

https://emberstudiosllc.ck.page/d347ac341d

Canva - https://www.canva.com/

Envato Elements: - https://1.envato.market/BX9DZ0

Upwork - https://www.upwork.com/

Fiverr - https://www.fiverr.com/

ArtStation - https://www.artstation.com/

Behance - https://www.behance.net/

DeviantArt - https://www.deviantart.com/

Lore - https://www.lorepodcast.com/episodes

Leitmotif - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91IQJEzLHY4

Be the first to know about my next course - emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist

Start Your Show - www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes - www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp008

Hey! This is episode #7 of the Ember Studios Podcast, How to Request and Receive Criticism. Thanks for listening, I'm Mike Brown and this is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects. Before we jump into criticism, I wanted to talk about my 10-Day Podcast Planning Initiative! The 10-Day PPI (as I call it) is a program that will spend the next two weeks helping you zero in on your podcast format and topic.

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Be the first to know about my next course - emberstudioscreative.com/waitlist

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp007

Thank you very much for listening. Just as a few reminders: Go to emberstudioscreative.com/esp007 to get the full show notes. If you want to start podcasting, you can get up to two months free when you go to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn and sign up.

If you want to get a FREE PDF version of my book "The Pro Podcast Episode Planner," head to emberstudioscreative.com/podcast and while you're there you can check out more episodes of this show. If you'd prefer to buy a print copy, which is much cheaper than printing a year's worth of these on your own, jump over to emberstudioscreative.com/planner. That will take you to Amazon. It's 6 bucks, and it'll help you plan a year's worth of your show- plus, it will help you support this podcast.

So don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a 5 star review, so we can keep chatting for a long, long time.

Thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world. Bye!

Hey! It's episode #6 of the Ember Studios Podcast, How to Start with What You Have w/ Jeff Crooms of #CoffeeWithCrooms

Hey- thanks for listening! This is the Ember Studios Podcast, the show that helps you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related projects.

Related Links:

Check out Coffee With Crooms for yourself: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/coffeewithcrooms

Grab Jeff's Gear:

Google Pixel 6 Pro - https://amzn.to/3LvVMfj

Blue Yeti - https://amzn.to/3Lsns4B

Try the Coffee:

Fairlife Coffee Flavor - https://amzn.to/3k8LgOO

Super Coffee - https://amzn.to/3MxwFbJ

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp006

Thank you very much for listening. Just as a few reminders: Go to emberstudioscreative.com/esp006 to get the full show notes. If you want to start podcasting, you can get up to two months free when you go to emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn and sign up.

If you want to get a FREE PDF version of my book "The Pro Podcast Episode Planner," head to emberstudioscreative.com/podcast and while you're there you can check out more episodes of this show. If you'd prefer to buy a print copy, which is much cheaper than printing a year's worth of these on your own, jump over to emberstudioscreative.com/planner. That will take you to Amazon. It's 6 bucks, and it'll help you plan a year's worth of your show- plus, it will help you support this podcast.

Also, please feel free to email me at [email protected] if there's anything I can help you with.

So don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a 5 star review, so we can keep chatting for a long, long time.

Thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world. Bye!

This is The Ember Studios Podcast #5 with Mike Brown and we talk about how to trick your brain into being more creative.

How to Get Paid for What You Know - https://amzn.to/36JO5CQ

How to Get Paid for What You Know (Audible) - https://amzn.to/3kdzlza

How to Get Paid for What You Know (Kindle) - https://amzn.to/3vFr2l3

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp005

This is The Ember Studios Podcast #4 with Mike Brown and we go over The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield.

Grab The War of Art on Amazon and Audible: https://amzn.to/3uP2UND

Start Your Show: www.emberstudioscreative.com/libsyn

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Contact me at [email protected]

Full Show Notes: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp004

A.I. Generated Transcription:

Hey, it is episode number four of the Ember studios podcast, the war of art by Steven Pressfield, identifying and overcoming resistance.

Hey, before we actually get started with this, I just wanted to pop in and say, I recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago, and I've been thinking about it. I read some stuff online about the book and it is very polarizing. This book is not for everyone, the stuff I didn't like. I just kind of rolled my eyes and moved on some people aren't going to be able to do that.

There's just a lot of stuff that either isn't going to jive with you or. Maybe some of this stuff even makes you feel angry. I'm not sure. I tried to extract some of the important stuff while leaving the other stuff behind. There's a lot of religious themes and a lot of shame and guilt in this book. And if you've ever seen me live, you know, that I have an entire section of, one of my presentations dedicated to how shame and guilt are garbage and they don't want.

Yeah. So I just wanted to come out ahead and say that, listen to this show, decide if you want to read the book, but I'm going to try my hardest to get the most important stuff into this episode, so that if you're not the kind of person who this book is for that, you could still get the ideas from it without having to sift through all of the stuff that you're really not vibing with.

Yeah, that's just my little disclaimer. I'm still gonna release the episode. I still got a lot of help from the book, but I will admit maybe the execution. Isn't great, but it's a self-help book. It's a motivational book. A lot of people in that space, like to make you feel like garbage in order to do what you say you want to do.

So that's not me. So I just wanted you guys to know that that if you do pick up the book, I'm not going to do any of those parts of the book. So. Check it out. And, uh, I'll see you in the main episode. All right. So a few years ago I wrote a book on the recommendation of a content creator that I was following called the war of art by Steven Pressfield.

I got it on audio book. It is a super quick listen. I'm used to hearing things faster than normal. And so the book is less than two hours on audible. For me. I listen at 1.5 speed, which is not that bad. Once you get your. And I want it to just talk about it a little bit, because I think this book has really shaped the way I think about a lot of things in terms of creation and creativity and inspiration and stuff like that.

So before we get started, I do just want to say, I don't agree with every word in the book. There's some stuff that I just don't really buy into. Some of the stuff can be kind of polarizing, but as Graham Cochran says, if you're not offending anyone, you're not saying anything. Graham Cochrane author of how to get paid for what you know, and we to have the recording revolution and the grand Cochran show.

Great dude, follow him. But today we're talking about the war of art. You should read this book. You, you should not consider this to be a whole entire compendium of the information in this book. Again, like I said, it's less than two hours. If you listen to 1.5, meaning it's a little under three, if you listen to normally.

So you should listen to it. I would find a good price on it. I blew a whole audible credit on it. And when I found out, I mean, great content, great content. But when I found out it was only like three hours long, I was like, could have gotten something bigger for this, but yeah, very important. I don't regret it, but if you can find it for a lower price than an entire audible credit, grab it like that, I'll be including links to the audible and the Amazon version for you in the show notes to check there.

If you are interested in picking this up in a. So in this book, Steven Pressfield starts out by talking about the fears we have of becoming an outcast when we succeed. And basically he's just talking about the idea that honestly, the really true idea, that the more you become successful, the more people see your success as an affront to their complacency.

They're offended by your success because they're angry. It's not that. They're offended by your success because your success Buck's the norm. Right. So that's just how he kind of frames this entire book. And I think that's a really good framing to have as you're going into this listen or read. Right. So he also uses.

Some of the most dramatic language I've ever heard in a nonfiction book. I mean, it's flowery, it's fire and brimstone. The dude wants to get his point across and he's willing to use any words in the English language to do so. So just be prepared for that. It's interesting. So the book in general, Is about something.

He calls resistance. Now this is, I call it capital R resistance, which just to me means the idea of the resistance that he's speaking about. It's not generic, it's resistance, the idea, and he calls it the most toxic force on the planet. And he'll go on to define it in a second, but he also says a professional writer knows it's not the writing.

That's hard. It's sitting down to write. And what keeps us from sitting down is resistance. So let's break into what resistance really is. The book is separated into parts, but part one starts out with resistance, defining the enemy again, back to that dramatic language. He's not playing around. The beginning of this section talks about, he calls it resistance, his greatest hits, but he's just talking about the types of activities that most commonly elicit resistance.

I'm just going to say them out loud for you really quickly. And those are the pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, just artsy stuff. Any creative art, also the launching of any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise for profit or otherwise, any diet or health or regimen, any program of spiritual advancement, any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals by that?

I think he means working out and stuff. Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction education in any kind, any act of political, moral, or ethical code. The undertaking of any enterprise or endeavor whose aim is to help others, any acts that entails the commitment of the heart and the taking of any principle to stand in the face of adversity.

So those are the things that Steven Pressfield says will usually elicit a response from resistance. He also says resistance is never satisfied and it's nondiscriminatory it's for everyone and no amount of giving. Is enough until you give in completely resistance is infallible. And by that, what he's saying is resistance shows you where you need to go.

You don't get resistance when you're thinking about doing the easy thing, the easy thing is almost, always not the best thing for you. He says resistance is universal. It's eternal. It's fueled by fear resistance. However, Only opposes you in one direction. If you have resistance, it's only opposing you in one direction.

You can move any number of ways. Resistance is keeping you from moving up. Okay. Lateral moves. Fine. Downgrades. Fine. Resistance wants to stop you from moving up in the. And it recruits allies. Again, those people where you're talking about at the beginning, who see your successes in a front to their complacency, those people are going to make you feel like you are wrong for trying this.

One's really hard to get over either. You're going to have to let go of these people, or you're going to have to convince. It's a come along for the ride. And that doesn't mean, you know, bring them in on your business or your podcast or whatever it just means. You're going to need to convince them to just let you do your thing.

And they will seek resistance will make you choose between the instant gratification and the longterm improvement. For example, let's talk about diet. You know, when you're dieting, what you're supposed to do and you know, you want the results, but it's hard because the result is far in the future and it's a long term improvement.

The cheesecake is instant gratification, right? So you grab that cheesecake. You feel better. You're you're back on the diet tomorrow. You knew the whole time what you wanted to do, how you want it to accomplish it when you want it to accomplish it. But resistance. Got you. Had you eat that cheesecake. So in essence, resistance is just going to get in your way.

And then another big thing about resistance is that it ramps it up right before the finish line. The closer you are to finishing something the heavier, the resistance gets. And I know, I know some of you out there have, let's put this in the frame of podcasting. I know some of you have gotten. Gotten everything you needed, you sat down, you recorded an episode, you opened up an account on Libsyn, you uploaded your episode.

And when it says release date, you kinda, you kind of freeze and you just leave it in your drafts and be like, ah, I don't know if it's ready yet. Let me sleep. Great. That's resistance giving one last push at the very end, because you are so close because once you upload and distribute that episode, now you've done it and it's easier to do the next one.

And it just gets easier and easier, but resistance wants to stop you from doing it in the first place because they don't want it to be. Because resistance doesn't want it to be easier. I'm saying the word resistance a lot. I'm just trying to use the terminology that Steven Pressfield uses in his book at the very end resistance.

It's just going to push harder. Now I want to back up zoom out from the book a little bit and just talk about some real life applications of this stuff. So this morning I woke up, I knew I had some podcasts to edit and I opened up my email and. These people were not ready to send me their shows. So they didn't.

Now I'm staring down few hours of choice time, I guess you would call it. If we were in fourth grade where I could choose what I'm going to work on. Now I know that I'm going to work on my business, but I don't know what exactly I'm going to do. I have a list of things that I need to accomplish in the next four or five months that I've been chipping away at daily, but I decided, you know what, I'm going to record an episode.

That's kind of like a book report on the war. And so I get everything ready. I go to my audible account and I fired up and I'm listening to it. And about halfway through, I'm just thinking maybe I'll do this another time. I don't think I'm going to do this. And I caught myself. I'm like, this is exactly what we're reading about in this book.

Right. It's just for no reason, all of a sudden I decided I got to put a pause on this that's resistance. It's creeping in. It's saying no, no, no, this isn't going to be that good. You don't know what you're talking about. But it is. And I do, and I know that, but I let resistance get to me. Here's another one.

I have an interview later today. I kind of forgot about it. And then I remembered it by, uh, an email came through and I have an interview with a film company out in Seattle. And I haven't heard from them in a couple of days. And I woke up this morning and when I got that email, I was just like, oh. And when I realized the interview today, You know what I don't, I don't really want to do that.

It's going to be too much work. I barely have time as it is. I don't even think I'd like to gig anyway, but this is the gig I sought after. I'm not applying for jobs. I'm not looking for jobs. I'm doing fine. I saw this and I wanted to do this extra. This was something that I sought out and I said, that's the thing I want to be a part of.

And I applied. I didn't think I'd even get considered. Next thing I know they're looking for a interview. And I'm trying to cancel it. So what happened resistance happened because I'm afraid of succeeding. I'm afraid of doing well at this interview. And then what's next. I don't know. And resistance loves to take the unknown and turn it into something you don't want listening back.

It is actually, you know, I read this book a few years ago and I kind of picked it up, read it, put it down. And I said, yeah, That was all really good. I'm going to try to keep as much in my head as I can, but you know, it didn't change my life. Now let's move on. Listening back today. Amazed at how much of this stuff I subconsciously, incorporated into my everyday life.

Like so much of what I was listening back is just stuff I do now. And I'm realizing it came right from this book and it helped me reframe the way I think about working, help me reframe the way I think about entrepreneurship and creativity and inspiration. It was just really interesting to me that I could have such a lukewarm memory of something, to be honest and go back and realize it changed my life.

So the next section is talking about symptoms of resistance and he breaks them down into a few different kinds. We're going to go over a few. First one is procrastination. Now, if you're anything like me, you heard this word a lot during your public schooling. And I think Steven Pressfield nails it procrastination is just a fear of not being good enough.

Right. You're going to finish something and then you're going to look back at it and you get to judge whether it was good or not. And if you can't separate what you do from who you are, that if, what you do is not good, it's you who's that good. Right. And so that leads us to procrastinate. If you never finished, you can't be judged on it.

Oh, I'm still working on. And then what happens is you start to procrastinate all the time. And next thing you know, you got 30 things cooking, but you haven't worked on them in 18 months. And everyone's like, so what's, when's that big announcement you tease on Facebook coming. Procrastination is really hard to get past, but you just got to take advantage of a moment of strength and start.

Because again, once you start, you're good. You can keep going. Once you start starting. Another symptom of resistance is getting into trouble. He talks about how, for some people it's easier to get in trouble than to actually finish what you're supposed to do. What do I mean by getting into trouble? I mean the extreme, I mean, uh, yeah, I had that interview tomorrow, but I got a DUI last night

That's the kind of trouble we're talking about. Yeah, I know. I said I'd have the project to you by Monday morning, but Friday I ended up in the hospital with alcohol points. These things suck, but they're easier than finishing the work that you have been procrastinating on because they're not scary, you know, what's going to happen.

It's all a matter of the unknown, right? Another one is self dramatization. I can speak to this one firsthand. If there's a lot of quote, unquote drama, then everyone's so busy being enveloped in the drunk. That they're too tired to break out of that cycle. Self drama. The second, everything starts being normal.

Someone picks up the torch and creates more quote unquote drama creates more strife, whatever it is to guarantee everyone in that group, family, whatever you want to call. To guarantee they all have the excuse of being too exhausted because they're just dealing with X, Y, or Z. And when that's done, they can focus on themselves.

Right. I'm sure we all know people like this and they find other people like this and they take the load off of each other and they just pass the drama around and nobody gets anything done. And everyone gets to have an interesting day today instead of setting themselves up for financial success or something else down the road.

There's also self-medication. Now this is one part where I kind of deviate from Steven Pressfield's beliefs. And again, who am I, but also who is he? My interpretation of this is alcoholism, drug addiction, these kinds of things that help us numb ourselves of the reality of failure, because if you're failing all the time, but you don't feel anything that's easier than succeeding because then you got to you can't, you can't get drunk every night.

If you're succeeding or you won't be succeeding for very long. And so self-medication just kind of get it. It gives you a way to. With not necessarily doing what you quote unquote want to do. And at the end of the day, all of these are things that keep us from breaking the trend and breaking away from what we see when we look around.

'cause you'll learn eventually, I guess this is a good time to start it out. But I, I think a lot about, uh, evolutionary advantages because I'm a freaking weirdo. But if you think about evolution being individuals, doing something different from the. Oh, that's not something we got through evolution that flies in the face of evolution.

Evolution wants us to be in a group, wants us to stick with that group, protect to that group and never leave that group. Why? Because for millions of years, that's how we stayed safe. That's how we stayed alive long enough to finish the next step in the process. So just remember when you're bucking the system, it's hard because your body is screaming that you're doing the wrong thing.

The whole. So you're going to have to get comfortable with that, but you can do it. Resistance can be beaten. Okay. And how do you start? You don't start by going, huh? I'm going to defeat resistance and finish that giant project. I have. No, no, no, no, no. You beat resistance by getting in doing the work. You get in, you finished something small, you move on because 30 small things start to add up pretty fast.

But if you're looking at the final product and going well, got to finish that by this date, it's never happening. And that's resistance helping you fail, right. You beat resistance by getting in and you do small stuff every single day. And you might think, well, I'm a creator. What if I'm not in. And that leads us to part two of the book, which is overcoming resistance.

And it talks about the amateur versus the professional. I'm going to share a quote with you from Andrea's mom, somebody asked Andreas, do you write on a schedule or do you write when you're inspired? And he said, I write only when inspiration strikes, consequently, it strikes every day at 9:00 AM. Now what's he saying, he's saying I sit down and I write and I get it done every single day.

I don't wait around for inspiration to strike. Cause once I've decided I'm writing now it's happening. Words are just going to come out of my pen or my keyboard or whatever. It's about sitting down and starting. And then you're good to go. If you're sitting around waiting for something to pop in your head.

You're going to finish maybe two things in your whole life. I don't know if any of you have seen the Beatles documentary on Disney plus called get back. It's very good. It's about the few weeks before their final concerts and they're doing a lot of songwriting. They get in there, they have to write a whole album and they're staring down a date.

That they're doing this concert. Now. I know they had to change the date. George, quit the band, whatever, everything, everything worked out in the end, but they were still working on a deadline that they had to meet. That is another way that you can overcome resistance is by meeting deadlines, setting and meeting deadlines.

Even if they're manufactured. But they got in there. If you watch this documentary, this was when they were recording the album, let it be, they wrote, get back, let it be. They wrote dig a pony, the long and winding road. They wrote some of their best stuff because they were under pressure under a deadline.

I was watching another interview with Paul McCartney and he said, John, and I never had a dry session. We always got it. And what he's talking about is they never sat down to write a song and didn't write a song and they sat down to write a lot of songs. They didn't just wait around. Until the song came to them.

Now, again, you've probably heard some stories about Paul McCartney waking up with the melody to yesterday in his head. He only had the melody of the beginning. He finished writing that whole song. He wouldn't have done that if you waited for the rest of us hung to come to him, right. He got a little bit, he jumped on it and he made it work because that's what professionals do they know.

They're not supposed to wait for inspiration. This isn't because they're geniuses it's because they are hard workers in the book. Steven Pressfield also talks about how the amateur seeks validation, not honest critique. So when the amateur shows something to his buddy and that buddy says, uh, yeah, well, you know, chapter two, I thought this, this and this and chapter three, blah, blah, blah, the amateurs eyes glaze over.

He stopped listening. He wasn't looking for advice. The amateur hand something to. And what they say out loud is, Hey, what do you think? Do you have any suggestions? But what they're saying in their head is, Hey, tell me how great this is, please. It's true. I've been there. Validation is important, especially when you're younger.

You're like, Hey, check this out. Isn't this the greatest thing? But when you turn pro you gotta find criticism, you gotta act on that criticism. You can't let the criticism turn into resistance, but you gotta just leave by the wayside. Everyone who, you know is just going to suck up or tell you how great it is because they already know that's what you're looking for.

Right. Cause you've, you've asked them for advice before and you've kind of shrugged it off. So they know they see something like, oh, great. And hand it back to. And near the end of this part, it's just about how the professional knows they must be a student part three of this book talks about ego. Their professional knows to leave the ego because the professional knows they have to be the student, or they'll never improve.

Personally, I've only ever learned from people who are doing what I'm doing at a higher level. And I aligned myself with them and I follow them. I'm not worried about whether or not I look good or bad next to them because I'm learning everything they have to teach me. And I know I'm not as good as them.

I'm just trying to be as good as I can be with the help they can give. And when they're done, I'll find somebody else. It doesn't mean I'm dumping them at the curb, but when I've learned everything, I can roam a person I'm onto a new person. That person could be a friend. They're no longer a teacher. You have to learn to become a student.

And you could be a student of people who have done what you're doing already. Or you can be a student of your peers. This is why people talk about diversity of thought and how different people approach different things, different ways. So if you're approaching your business in one way, it might be helpful to be in a peer group or a mastermind group of five others, six others who are all doing it too, who might've done it slightly differently, and you can pick and choose what you like, and you can incorporate it into your own workflow.

And then, boom, you just got so much more than you brought to the table. Right. You share yours, you're giving a hundred percent of what you have. If five other people are giving you a hundred percent of what they have, you're getting back 500%. Right? So the math seems janky, but it's legit. Part three is called beyond resistance, the higher realm.

And I'm not going to go over it today, but it's a lot of stuff about the ego and it kind of wraps the whole book up with, if you have a calling, you're doing everyone around you, a disservice by not answering. Because somebody needs your help. And just because you're going to charge them for that help doesn't mean you're not helping somebody needs your help and the stuff that's in your head.

I don't know if you know this. We're not there yet. Nobody can get it unless you share it. It's all just your. Kind of the only stuff that you own. That's also why you have to give it away. But if you don't share what you have, your knowledge, your expertise, somebody else who needs it, isn't going to get it.

And then while two of you could be rising instead, just want to use rising. And you're not raising any faster. This is not a zero sum game. I don't believe in competition in the business or podcasting space. There's no such thing as competition there's peers, there's, uh, idols maybe, but there is no such thing as competition.

So I want to wrap up by talking about just a topic I kind of thought of as I was relistening this morning, and it's about stacking resistance and basically. As I'm reading this book, I'm realizing that resistance does have a cap. There's a cap there's only so much resistance can throw at you. And if you decide to take everything that resistance has been going at and hitting it at the same time, you're going to overload your resistance.

And then when you bust through it, you don't bust through it for one thing, you bust through it for five things. For example, here's. The real life situation for me, I'm building a podcast service business. I'm creating a content creation business. Hence this podcast, I am giving live presentations, something I've never done before all is as an arm of that business.

What else am I doing? I gave up eating meat a few months ago. I'm trying to lose weight. I'm starting to run. I'm doing all of these things at the same time and I'm having more success than when I try them individually. And that's because. I just am busting through the resistance all at once instead of five or six different times.

So I would challenge you to stack your resistances. If you've got three things that you're getting hit by just try to hit them all at the same time. Don't tackle one while you have the energy. And then once you're well, rested tackle the next one. No, no, no, no, no, no. Get up and try to tackle them all at the same time.

Thank you for listening again, I'm going to have links to this book, the print copy on Amazon and the audio book version audible, depending on the air date of this, those might be affiliate links, just so you know. So I'll get a piece of that. If you use that link, if you want to get a free PDF version of my book, the pro podcast episode planner, head to Ember studios, creative.com/podcast.

And while you're there, you can check out more episodes of this. Or if you'd prefer to buy a print copy, which is much cheaper than printing a year's worth of these on your own jump over to Ember studios, creative.com/planner. This'll take you to Amazon. Again, might be an affiliate link. It's a $6 book.

It'll help you plan your show. For a year. Okay. There's going to be an official review of that up on my YouTube channel. So just check that out. Also link in the show notes. You'll just be able to check it out, see me holding a copy, flipping through it and showing you what's in there at the end of the day, it'll also just help you support this podcast, which I will be really thankful for.

So don't forget to subscribe to the show and yeah. Five-star review so we can keep chatting for a long, long time. Thank you again. And don't wait to share your voice with the world by.

This is The Ember Studios Podcast #3 with Mike Brown and we go over 10 Productivity Tips for your Creative Workflow.

Find more at - www.emberstudioscreative.com/podcast

Contact me at [email protected]

Get your Freebies: www.emberstudioscreative.com/esp003

A.I. Generated Transcription:

Hey, it is episode three of the Ember studios podcast, 10 productivity tips for your creative workflow.

All right, thanks for listening. This is the Ember studios podcasts. The show to help you transform from confused to confident when it comes to launching and maintaining your podcast and other related creative projects. As you heard in the beginning today, we're going to be talking about productivity.

Now there's a lot of, I don't want to call it misinformation, but just like bad information out there about productivity. And it's like, whoa, wash washer, clothes, and your dishes at the same time, it's more productive now. All that stuff. We're going to be talking about specific tips you can use usually in the home studio or, you know, whatever podcast is set up, you have going on.

These will help you there, especially with the editing portion and oh, a little bit in the recording portion. Ah, yes, the people downstairs. So just started vacuuming. This is a great example of pushing through, because I thought about just not recording this and I could go play final fantasy seven remake, like I've been working on, and I would basically just be using this small inconvenience as an excuse, not to do anything.

So I'm going to keep going. You might hear some vacuuming going on, but I want to be a good example and record. Even when the conditions aren't perfect, I think is an important thing to learn that you should do anyway. So we got 10 tips coming. I'm just going to start counting through them. Tip number one is organize your files.

I can not say enough about organizing your files. Now I did not get too organized until I started editing video. Once I started editing video. All sorts of files. You need to keep organized and be able to reference whenever you want. Once I started doing that, it really made me grab a magnifying glass and look at my audio workflow.

And it's so important to organize your files, because if you're sharing files between people, do you want a nice folder structure and a well-named files that nobody's going to have any questions. If they walk up to your system and need to finish a project, for example, you end up in the hospital, you still got to get your.

Now, if you're not sharing with other people, that's fine. You, you still should organize your files, not only for your own sake, but, uh, what if your computer crashes? And this has happened to me, my dog basically reset everything disappeared. I needed to start again from nothing. But luckily, since I keep everything in the same place for each of my projects, I spent like three minutes having a fixed everything.

And that includes like my macros and my presets and everything. They're all in specific folders as well that I could just link back up and then everything went back to pre-crash, which was super awesome. So yeah. You got to organize your files. It's it takes five seconds, but it'll save you literally hours of sorting through things playing.

Oh, is this the file I want? Is that the file? Just organize your files. You'll never have another question. Tip number two is to use templates. This is a little bit of a polarizing one because I've heard a lot of people saying, well, if I use a template, it's going to sound cookie cutter. It's going to sound generic.

Everything will sound the same. And that's not really true. What you're going to get out of a template is a faster workflow and consistency in your final sound. So while you might say, it's going to sound cookie cutter, I'm over here saying people are going to know what to expect when they listened to your.

So I have a editing and a mixing template for every single show that I do. The mixing tablets are nice. You keep all the assets in the template, you get that all set up. So it's the correct volume and everything. You put all the plug-ins on the correct track. So you don't mess with them. You just put them where they need to go.

And that way, when I have to edit a show, I drag in the files and then everything's there. I just get started looking at meters, adjusting compressors, just I just get going. I don't have. At everything one by one, and then you get like the old, do I want this compressor or this compressor? You just, you just get to work.

It, it saves probably 10 to 30 minutes a show, which is awesome because that's hours a week that I'm saving by just using. They also keep you in creative mode. Right? So if you have a template, like there was a time where I was making beats every day and instead of opening it up and deciding what instrument do I want to play with today and adding it to the thing, I just had like a few instruments that I usually went for and I had them set up and they were just ready to go.

So if I had a song. I could just open up a template, get started recording and lay it down as opposed to opening it up, figuring out what I want, where how to do it, blah, blah, blah, 15, 20 minutes later. I don't even remember what I was going to record in the first place. And it's just, it just keeps you in that creative zone and you don't have to worry about that.

Reset. All the clerical stuff, you just get going and it's, it saves you so much time and it's just really convenient. So definitely use templates. Number three is learn your keyboard shortcuts. So almost, I can't think of an example of a popular program that doesn't have a robust keyboard short. System.

They probably exist. One of you knows one of them, but most of them have keyboard shortcuts and they're designed to help you move faster. So if you know the keyboard shortcuts to everything, you can fly around this timeline, the screen, you're just jumping all over the place. It's so convenient to just know, oh, well, if I do this, this and this.

The same as if I'm sifting through menus and right. Clicking on something. And just knowing that control lead, that's going to export the things that are going to file export as MP3. Just knowing the keyboard shortcuts is a huge help. And a sub tip here is if you can take all the software you use and pick one keyboard scheme and use it for all of the programs that you use that saves even more time because.

Now you don't have to think. Well, I mean, pro tools now, so the keyboard shortcut is this, or I'm in premier pro now. So the shortcut is this everything's the same across all the programs, tools. Might've been a poor example because last time I looked you couldn't define your own keyboard shortcuts. Super lame, but yeah, the software I use studio one does you can just make anything, a keyboard shortcuts that you want.

Tip number four is create your own macros. Now what this does, a macro is like a set of commands. So whereas a keyboard shortcut will execute one command. A macro will execute several. For example, I have a macro that selects everything in the timeline makes that the length of the export and then starts exporting the file, which is super awesome because that's like four different steps that I've just automated.

And I took that macro and I decided to keyboard shortcut, and then I took that keyboard shortcut, and I assigned that to a separate macro. That is just a one button. I hit just a it's M three on my. It has some macro buttons and I hit him three. Boom. My file is printing. I can go grab whatever I need to grab in the other room.

It saves, again, this doesn't sound like much but 20, 30 seconds, but over the course of a year, it's a lot of time. We're talking about hours and hours of time. You're getting back or time. You can just decompress a little bit and get yourself back in the zone that you didn't have before when you're sifting through menus.

So, yeah, you, you got to create your own macros. I love them and you should try them out. And if you're looking for suggestions, hit me up and we can talk out some processes that you do and try to figure out if we can macro them. Tip number five is batch your tasks. And if you've never worked in a retail back room, let me tell you what batching is.

Batching is when you have something that has multiple steps. And you have multiple iterations of it. And so instead of doing step a, B, C, D E a, B, C, D E a, B C, D E, you do all the step A's, then you do all the step BS, all the sepsis, you get it. And what this does is it keeps you in the zone again, all back into that flow.

So if you're doing step a, you do step a six times in a row instead of doing step a, taking an hour break by doing the other steps, then going back and starting step. Hey, again, you just keep doing it. You get into the zone where you. You're flying around. You feel like a magician and you're just nailing it because you're just, this is what I'm doing right now and you keep doing it.

So it's really awesome to batch your tasks. It just makes it so much simpler and more productive. Again, you're saving time. Like, for example, you could batch record your podcast episodes and the time you say there is just microphone setup time, right? You don't have to set up the mic six times for six different podcasts.

If you just set it up once and spend the whole day banging stuff out. That's one of my favorite ways to batch tip. Number six is what I like to call the little notebook. And when I'm working, I keep a little notebook on the desk in front of me. It's like one of those. You buy them at Walmart, they're three for a dollar.

They're like four inches by two and a half inches. They fit in your pocket. I just keep on open in front of me with a pen next to it. And whenever an idea comes into my head, that isn't what I'm working on. I write it down because I know that if I go do anything about that idea in like a Chrome browser or something, I'm going to get distracted.

I'm going to lose a lot of time. So if I put everything in the little note, It gets it out of my brain. So I'm not worried about it. And then when I'm done, I could just look through and see all the stuff I need to do. And you know what good third of the time. I'm crossing stuff out. I'm going to add that.

Wasn't that really important now that I've had a second to think about it. So if I just let myself act on every single impulse while I'm working, I'm going to do a lot of stuff that actually doesn't matter. And that's the point. My brain is like, you need to be distracted right now. So here here's that thing on Amazon, you were wondering about the other day.

Oh, you just remembered the name. No, write it down a little notebook. Look it up when you're done or don't. So the little notebook has saved me a ton of time. It kind of goes on the idea of a brain dump. I know a lot of people, the first thing they do when they wake up in the mornings, they write down everything that's on their mind.

That way it's out there. They can clear their mind and not have to worry about losing anything. This is kind of like that. I don't do that whole process. Maybe I should start, but for now I just do this for when I'm working. Number seven is scheduled. And this might sound obvious, but what I mean is schedule things that you think you're going to do without scheduling.

Right? So if you're saying I got to record a podcast, And that's it. You're done. The sentence is over. Yeah. I got to record a podcast. You're never doing it. You're never going to do it. If you say I'm going to record a podcast. Thursday, five 30 kids are at soccer. Everyone's out of the house. It's just me. I got an hour and now.

The record and edit this show. That's what I'm going to do. When you write it down on your calendar, the chances of you actually doing that, just skyrocketed because a I'm going to record a podcast on Thursday at five 30 rolls around and oh, suddenly the dishes need doing, or it's been a tough day.

Everyone's out of the house finally. And you can get playing that video game. You've been thinking about all day, but if you got the podcast on the schedule uses. You just do it, you might think, oh, maybe I could play this instead. But then in the back of your head, you're like, no, this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now.

I'll be so happy when it's finally done. I'm just going to do it. So that's one super big thing for me is scheduling time to do things. Now, since I've left my day job, that's a lot easier. I worked for eight hours during the day. So if it's during the day, it's work time. I don't think of leisure activities that I could do to replace my work time.

But if you're, you know, a weekend warrior or just you're podcasting at night, you still have your day job, which is most podcasters scheduling really helps. Now, if you have a partner, this becomes a lot easier, right? Because you have that accountability, but if you're just alone, you're a solo show. You have to schedule you're recording.

You're editing. Everything. You might even have to schedule some brainstorm time, because if you only think about your podcast while you're sitting down and record it, you might not have an idea when it comes time. So scheduling it really helps your creativity. It helps your execution. It helps everything in the process.

So just throw something in your I Cal or whatever calendar you use on your phone. Set up. Even if you just put it in and forget about it, you're going to get a oh 10 minutes from now. I'm working on the podcast for an hour. Okay. That sounds kind of fun. Let's do that. You know, so it's a very, very powerful way to make sure you get your work done.

All right. Tip number eight is a little bit more of a technical tip and that is reach for the stock stuff first. Now, without context, that sentence doesn't make sense. That barely works as a sentence. However, the context is we're talking about digital audio workstations, Daws, and they have plugins and there are auxiliary plug-ins third-party plugins that you can also buy that, you know, according to the third-party manufacturers are better.

Some of them are, some of them are not, but you're going to have a collection of different possible plugins that you can use on this project. And when it's time to start mixing your show or recording or editing your show, you're going to look at the list of four EQs that you have and you're going to go, well, which one is right for this?

This is not an uncommon problem. It's a problem by design, right? If you look at for accusing you can't figure out the one you need. Well, then what's the solution. The solution is to go out and buy a fifth one that does all the things that those four do. And then you'll always use that one. But then when you, now you have five and you're going to buy the sixth.

And once you have six, you're going to buy. The tip here is to just grab whatever plugins do the function that you need that came with your dog. So I have, I don't know, 14 different EQs in my dog. When I'm mixing, I don't, I don't audition them. I don't check which one is perfect for this. I just know I'm going for the PreSonus the stock studio.

When he Q it gets the job done every time, even more compressors. I have all sorts of compressors where you can see the numbers where you could, you just have knobs and you're kind of working blindly. Like they were back in the seventies. It just, there's so many options that if you start to look. You're getting lost.

You're leaving that flow state and you're never finishing your project. So reach for the stock stuff first just means if you think I need any cue, you grab the stock. EEQ that came with your dog. If that's not then doing the job once you've tried it, you can go on to other. But having one that you go to every time is just easy.

And then if it doesn't suit your needs, then you move on, but you don't think ahead of time about all that stuff. So that's really awesome in my opinion, to just keep you in the creative space. And of course there are things that you're doing. Plugins, they're not going to do, or there's going to be features that they don't have, or even just interfaces that aren't as intuitive as a third party plugin, but you got to start with the stock stuff first.

And then once you get into a flow, then you can figure stuff out, but you don't want to be auditioning for EQs and seven compressors on a vocal track because it doesn't matter. All you got to do is do the EEQ. You're not looking for all this tonal stuff that musicians want on a compressors, and you're not, you just need to make sure it's listable.

And yeah, just keep it simple. Tip number nine is kind of in the same realm is tip number eight and tip number nine is approach each task with a purpose. And what I mean is I've been there, right? You look at your show and you go, okay, well, I think I'm supposed to eat Q it, so I throw any cue on it. And then I go looking around, what am I supposed to take out?

And I pump everything to the top and I fish around for ugly stuff. And then I start. And this is wrong, right? This is the equivalent of a carpenter going well. I got a box of nails and a hammer might as well start hammering some stuff. I don't know why the carpenter in my little impression there was Southern.

I don't know, but that's the same thing as having a sauce. So you have to use the saw, even if you're not doing anything that needs us all. So figure out why you're doing everything before you do it. If you're listening and everything sounds fine. Maybe you don't need any cute if you're listening and nothing's peaking, the vocal sounds pretty and everything.

Maybe you don't need a compressor. You need to know the purpose of the task before you start to execute on the task. Otherwise, what you're going to do is you're going to have a thing that sounds high, an empty and weird because you're not letting the track tell you what it needs. You're telling the track what you want it to need, essentially.

And so you just have to listen. Figure out what you want. And this is hard at first. Okay. This is, this is not an easy skill. I've been at this for years. I still can't hear everything the first time I ain't got to listen to things a few times. It also depends on the room you're in and the headphones you're using some, stuff's going to jump out, but it's going to save you a ton of time.

If you let the track, tell you what it needs, because you're not going to do anything that Trek doesn't need. Right. So that's just a huge productivity thing. Wait for the truck to tell. Wait until something raises his hand and says, you have to deal with me because this is a problem until something does that.

You're good. Don't just start messing with stuff because you're supposed to, and that brings me to productivity. Tip number 10. It's probably the most obvious one, but it's throw your phone across the room. If I have my phone next to me, I'm going to check it. What if it's on silent mode now I'm going to check it.

Well, what if it's on do not disturb? No, I'm going to check it. What if I turn the power off? My phone takes about three seconds to turn on. So I'm going to check it. I need my phone across the room where I can't touch it because I'm going to check it. I still struggle with the willpower of not grabbing my phone with every thought that comes into my head or every time.

The fact that we have texts coming in all the time makes us feel like everything's urgent. If I got a text while I'm recording, almost certainly it can wait 45 minutes until I'm done. You ever check your phone? And you're like, oh, this is urgent. I got to check this. And it's like, Hey, at three o'clock, can you grab some chicken at the store?

Like, oh, I could have waited. It's 9:00 AM. Yeah, I can do that. Okay. And now you're on your phone. You're checking Instagram. And let me just check tic-tac for a second. Just put your phone across the room. If someone needs you that badly, you'll get a call. You'll know if you're worried about do not disturb.

You can put it so that certain people can get through. You do not disturb my wife. I get her calls and texts through do not disturb. Right. Because I know that can be important. I still throw my phone across the room. I just know if she's calling me, there's an issue. That's nice and easy to figure out. So keep your phone across the room.

Don't grab it. I know it's so. Tempting. I still go with the daily and personally, I just hope you're stronger than me, but throwing your phone across the room is going to. So those are our 10 productivity tips for your creative workflow today. If you like these tips and you want a printable PDF version of them, just to remind yourself, you can head on over to Ember studios, creative.com/e S P 0 0 3.

And you can find that PDF there to download as well as the show notes. For this episode, we got some new stuff going on, which I'm super excited. This episode is going out on April 14th. And I got a couple of weeks until my first live presentation for this series that I'm doing. So you're actually going to hear a lot of that stuff because I'm workshopping it with you guys and with myself, just getting it out there.

The live presentations are super awesome. I love giving. And yeah, so I'm just super excited. So thank you so much for listening. If you want to get a free PDF version of my book, the pro podcast episode planner, head to Ember studios, creative.com/podcast. And while you're there, you can check out more episodes of the.

If you'd prefer to buy a print copy of the book, which is much cheaper than printing a year's worth of these on your own. Let's just jump over to Amber studios, creative.com/planner. That'll take you to Amazon. It's six bucks. It's on prime, free shipping, and it'll help you plan a year's worth of your show.

Plus, it'll help you support this podcast. If you do that. Thank you so much. If you don't grab the free copy, actually grab the free copy. Anyway, you could get started before the book even gets. So, uh, yeah, don't forget to subscribe to this show and leave a five star review. That'll help us keep chatting for a long, long time.

And so thank you again, and don't wait to share your voice with the world by .