By Sergey Faldin
The podcast currently has 7 episodes available.
Adrian Drew is a full-time writer and founder of Mind Cafe Media – a media company and Medium publication with tens of thousands of followers dedicated to curating relaxed, inspiring quotes and essays about happiness. You can find Adrian on Medium.
This was the interview I waited for. And so did most of my subscribers, judging from the Q&A thread I posted in September – where most of my readers asked about Medium.
In this honest and deep interview, Adrian and I talked at length about his (at times, painful) story as a writer, what it takes to succeed in the publishing world, how to battle self-doubt, lack of motivation, what it takes to create a viral Medium publication, and so much more.
Highlighted quote:
“I never compete with other writers. I usually remind myself of a quote I once heard, ‘Escape competition through authenticity.’ I tell myself, no, don’t compete. Instead, do something original, new.”
If you’re a writer – both on Medium and beyond it, you can’t miss this one.
Mentioned in this episode:
* Book: Defining Decade
* Book: Extreme Ownership
* Mind Cafe
If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend or two. Thank you for your support!
Rowena Roberts spent 18 years using her words to give others a voice as an advertising copywriter. Now she helps people to discover and play with their own unique voice as a creative writing coach at Words Inspire.
My biggest insight from this conversation:
You can’t fake authenticity. Content is a vehicle for both ideas AND emotions. You get out what you put in.
This is why it’s impossible to use authenticity as a tactic. Readers feel when it’s fake.
Apart from that, in this wide-ranging conversation, Rowena and I talked about:
* Creativity -> how to be more creative; what is creativity; practical exercises to tap into your creative self and get “in the zone” (e.g., meditation, long walks in nature).
* Writing -> how online writing is different from traditional writing; how to write better; the top mistakes people make when they write (from Rowena’s experience of working with aspiring writers); how to be authentic in your writing; and the place of a book in today’s online world.
* Deamon -> what is a “deamon”, where the term comes from, and how to access that part of your brain that does creative work.
To illustrate each point, Rowena draws from her experience of working in advertising and teaching aspiring writers in her own business.
Honestly, this is one of the best interviews I’ve done. And I don’t say that often. To me, the quality of an interview (or any conversation) is based on the number of moments I say, “Oh, wow. I never thought of it that way.” With Rowena, it was roughly every 10 minutes.
I hope it will be the same for you.
Enjoy!
***
You can support me by sharing this podcast with a friend or two. Thank you so much.
Mentioned in this episode:
* Seth Godin
* Stephen Pressfield’s War of Art
* Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk On ‘The Inner Creative Genius’
* The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Get in touch with Rowena:
www.wordsinspire.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/wordsinspireuk
https://www.instagram.com/wordsinspireuk/
Zhenya Zerkalenkov is a freelance marketing consultant and content creator as well as the Founder of House of Creators – a company that helps digital artists build an online business around their art. In addition to House of Creators, Zhenya hosts a YouTube channel, a podcast, and writes on Medium. He lives in Germany.
What you’ll learn from this conversation:
* How to take a loan, start 7 businesses in 7 months, and fail at all of them. We start the interview talking about Zhenya’s crazy story of taking a loan from his father and starting 7 business in 7 months (spoiler: all of them failed because he wasn’t patient enough.) Zhenya learned from his mistakes and soon started a company with his wife – House of Creators – that helps digital artists monetize their art.
* Pinterest is not just furniture and tattoos. According to Zhenya, Pinterest is “the most underappreciated marketing channel” for influencers. (Yes, I also thought that Pinterest is just for furniture and design inspiration. But Zhenya changed my mind.)
* How to be on Pat Flynn’s live stream. Zhenya told a story of how he connected with Pat Flynn and appeared on his daily live stream on YouTube. (Spoiler: it’s the same tactic that got him on this podcast. Ha-ha.)
* Why being kind, caring, and providing value is the best strategy. Most people are focused on the “taking”, but Zhenya and I discussed at length how “giving” – lots of free, valuable content – is the best marketing strategy.
* It’s the people that sell, not ads. Seth Godin says, “Companies should market with people, not at them.” In my conversation with Zhenya, we go really deep on the topic of passion economy, “true fans”, how to turn your followers into die-hard fans that sell your product.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Mentioned in this episode:
* Pat Flynn’s SmartPassiveIncome blog
* Book: Superfans
* Kevin Kelly “1,000 Fans” concept (my article on this topic)
* Zhenya’s House Of Creators
Michel Strukov is an entrepreneur and online coach from Switzerland, with a mission to transform independent consultants and coaches into winners. He helps them create a strong personal brand around their business in order to regularly attract clients through social media without doing cold outreach nor waiting for months for the content to convert.
Michel is a fascinating guy. He reached out to me a few months back after reading a Medium post about “the job of the future is content creation.”
We hopped on a call and connected almost immediately. This is why, when I needed to find my first podcast guest, I reached out none other than Michel.
He said, “Of course.”
Personally, I learned a ton from this episode.
Here are some of my personal highlights:
* LinkedIn is not just a business social network. It’s way more than that. You succeed on LinkedIn the way you succeed on any other platform – by being yourself, being authentic, sharing your personal story.
* The best way to promote a company’s brand is to have employees become thought leaders in the space.
* To succeed as a blogger, you have to show up regularly. Michel has been posting 4-5 times a day since November 2019.
* The best way to make money online is to build an engaged audience in a small niche. If you have 1,000 loyal readers, you can set up a paywall and charge them $5 each = $5,000 will come your way.
* Our brains accept anything we think or say as the truth. This is why it’s essential to pay attention to what we say to ourselves. We can also re-program our brains to believe almost anything with the use of a few simple tactics. (Michel suggested listeners check out a book called “What To Say When You Talk To Yourself”)
I hope you enjoy this conversation. We start by diving deep into Michel’s story of how he became an entrepreneur, then transition slowly into the passion economy, LinkedIn, Michel’s “signature method” for content, and finally go deep into the narratives we tell ourselves.
Please let me know what you think about this first episode in the comments below!
Mentioned in this episode:
* Matthew Walker on sleep (JRE).
* Brene Brown TED talk.
* “What To Say When You Talk To Yourself” book
* “Love Yourself As If Your Life Depends On It”
* Derek Sivers x Tim Ferriss
Connect with Michel: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mstrukov
Please help me spread the word about this podcast 👇
Hi.
I am Sergey Faldin.
And this is the Honest Creative Podcast.
***
I can’t say it was easy. It was scary.
But after several months of deliberation, I finally did it. I hit “publish” on my Anchor dashboard and now my new podcast is available on eight major platforms.
But because I love you, you’ll be receiving new episode updates right here, in the comfort of your email inbox. So there’s no need to go anywhere unless you prefer to listen to it elsewhere.
Making this podcast already taught me two things about the creative process.
#1. The only way to fight procrastination is to set yourself deadlines.
This reminds me of what Tim Urban (Wait But Why) said in his famous TED talk, “We’re all procrastinators. Some of us are just worse than others.”
Unless there’s a deadline coming up, there’s no “panic monster”. The monkey mind keeps postponing the task in favor of watching whale videos on YouTube.
I told myself I should go live in the first week of September.
Was I ready? No.
But this is exactly why you need deadlines: you’re never fully ready.
#2. ‘Good enough’ is good enough.
I can’t say I am 100% happy with how the first few episodes (which you’ll hear throughout September) turned out.
But it’s “good enough”. And I trained myself to be OK with “good enough.”
Because when you reach for the stars, for perfection, what you usually end up with is nothing (or, in worse cases, s**t).
As soon as I picked a jingle that was “good enough” and recorded an intro that was “ok”, I knew I had to publish. After all, the deadline was zooming in.
“What’s the way to get projects done on time and budget?”
“Simple. As soon as you run out of time or budget, hit publish.”
So there. Enjoy the short intro. And wait for the next email with the actual first episode. (That should be tomorrow.)
Recording the episodes you’re about to listen to over the next few weeks was a thrill. It was a lot of work – preparing, shooting, editing, putting it all together.
But it didn’t feel like work.
When I look at people making money podcasting, I see how good they have it. They get to talk to amazing people, discussing interesting topics, and get paid for it. If there’s a better job, please tell me about it.
Which is to say, I am enjoying every minute of preparing these interviews for you. (I hope you like them!)
You can check out the Anchor page for this podcast – where you can see all the episodes and click on any platform you like.
And, of course, if you like what you hear – please share it with a friend or two.
We need your support.
As for me, there’s no turning back. I quit my job a few weeks back and I am in this for the long haul. Let’s just see what happens.
P.S. What do you think of the cover?
Michel Strukov is an entrepreneur and online coach from Switzerland, with a mission to transform independent consultants and coaches into winners. He helps them create a strong personal brand around their business in order to regularly attract clients through social media without doing cold outreach nor waiting for months for the content to convert.
Connect with Michel: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mstrukov
***
This podcast is an addition to my daily newsletter about content creation as a career. If you want to receive short emails about content creation from me, as well as stay tuned about this podcast, please subscribe to my newsletter here: https://honestcreative.substack.com/
Sergey's Medium blog: https://medium.com/@sergeyfaldin
Sergey's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sergey-Faldin/e/B0848RBLN9
Join the author, top Medium writer, content producer, and blogger Sergey Faldin as he meets with content creators across the globe to dissect the principles of turning content creation into a career.
This podcast was created as part of the daily newsletter/blog Sergey runs on Substack. The best way to stay tuned on this podcast – and receive daily tips, advice, lifehacks on content creation – is to subscribe. It's free.
Learn more at https://honestcreative.substack.com/
***
Sergey's Medium blog: https://medium.com/@sergeyfaldin
Sergey's books: https://www.amazon.com/Sergey-Faldin/e/B0848RBLN9
The podcast currently has 7 episodes available.