I was always a creative I was age 11 when I first stumbled upon graphic design.
And not going to lie, out of all things, it was Minecraft that got me into it.
Lmfao.
They had their own graphic design community and at that time, I was having the blast of my life.
Creating these little shitty Minecraft graphics was the only productive thing that kept me away from playing that game for 10 hours per day.
Then that hobby faded away so I branched out into doing other forms of graphic design projects and then doing digital anime art (which bruh, is another long story).
So yes, I was that creative “type” that wanted to spill his heart out on his pictures and canvases.
But one thing I’ve always wanted to do is make some form of money through what I did.
Though, I never made that happen because I never had any foundational knowledge on marketing, human psychology, and business.
And to be honest, these things were out of the equation for me 'cause I never knew I needed to learn about these things for my artistic endeavors.
The need for creative and practical “types.” For me, my problem had always been practicality
I always executed my ideas but always leaned back to creativity and spontaneity while never ordering them into anything useful.
And that’s the struggle for the creative type.
Practicality is our shadow so we always prefer to lean into creating for the sake of creating.
And for the practical type, creativity is their shadow—rigid to the basics and preferring to stick with only “what works.”
To do well and to create real impact as a creator, there needs to be a balance of both practicality and creativity.
We need a unification:
Practicality : To rely on a foundation for the basics, fundamentals and rules.
Creativity: To make room for new discoveries, unique insights, and the unknown.
With these two together, you can create useful pieces of content and unique solutions that would shine brighter than the rest. The two compliment each other.
With them split apart:
The creative type: Will become a drunkard and create useless shit.The practical type: Would be rigid to change from “what works” and not entertain new possibilities or ideas.
Either extremes would kill your potential as a creator—and I was one of them.
And that’s why I’ll be writing to both and diving deeper to help both types so they can flourish as creatives.
So here’s an overview:
1- Practicality and creativity: Exploring their intersections.The Creative’s Process: Craft unique, creative insights and solutions.Your limitless potential: You can become a pioneer.
This will be long but worth your time.
So buckle up, we will be going deep.
Practicality I’ll start off with roasting you creatives (like myself).
Rigidity will allow the creator to be flexible.
Practicality will allow the creator to be creative.
This is order over chaos.
And if you’re a creative type that isn’t kept in order, you'll pull “new ideas” out of your ass that has no application or value to society.
Okay, but what do I mean by being practical?
It’s your ability to use foundational skills that’s useful, applicable, and will get you results.
For creators, they can be:
copywriting and marketting systems or logistics networking project management customer relationship management anything basic and actionable Okay but why care about this?
Well without the fundamentals, you’re fucked:
you don’t have the basic skills you don’t even have your foot through the door you have no room for creativity And no one would care about you, let alone pay you.
The foundation will always come first and that goes for all your content creation, skill development, and your general success.
It will give you that direction for you to move forward and to eventually entertain creativity.
Let's make this more applicable for you:
Take marketing and copywriting for example.
It is your non-negotiable history lesson on how humans psychologically behave.
That is a foundational skill that must you must use as a creator in this space for:
solving real world problems turning your creative ideas into practical use making your ideas perform well (engagement) for anyone to give a shit If you can’t influence people or cater to human psychology, you’re basically fucked.
Let alone trying to wiggle your way in with your creativity.
That’s the skill of articulation at the end of the day.
It is always something to come back to, practice, and refine. Like any other foundational skill.
Yes, this is only one example of many but this paints the picture.
If you are a beginner but you haven't taken the time to learn the basics of any skill or domain (even if it’s boring), you will not succeed.
Doesn’t matter how “good” you think your ideas are.
That’s the “shadow” of creativity:
creating for the sake of creating not making it valuable to other people sharing ideas that don't perform well That’s where you waste tons of time and energy creating but it doesn’t go anywhere.
That’s where you unify creativity with practicality.
This is order allowing for chaos.
This is rigidity allowing for flexibility.
You can only build a new building if there as an old foundation on it.
Without that foundation, there will be no building.
If something is proven to work, start with doing that and build off from there.
Then introduce your creativity, which we will be exploring for the practical type.
Creativity Hold tight.
I'll be getting a bit ranty to illustrate a point.
For many of the practical types, they fall into the trap if always sticking to “what works.”
While never entertaining different possibilities or seek for unique solutions to problems.
Yes, I know it depends on what that is.
But if your whole philosophy is to engage everything with practicality, you're in for treat.
You’ll be
cutting your imagination ignoring your curiosities rejecting your intuitions destroying your creativity Then become bored and bland as a result.
Been there done that.
Now let me draw this with the lens of a Twitter creator:
“You MUST tweet 3x/day, 1 thread/week” “You MUST engage 40x+/day” “You MUST PICK a niche” “You MUST FOLLOW specific tweet/thread structures” “You MUST create your bio and banner like this” etc. “Because it works for me and everyone, it’ll work for you.”
Yes of course it works, but let me explain.
Many beginners and practical types will narrow their perspective onto a certain piece of advice and think it’s the only thing that works and brings results.
Then never attempt to experiment if there is another “way” that might contradict their previous beliefs.
Which might be the solution to their problems that comes from exclusively abiding by basic advice.
They become “stiff.”
Then they break down and tell themselves that:
“this doesn’t resonate with me” “this actually doesn’t work.” “i’m not enjoying this” “fuck dis shit i’m out” You see what I mean?
This is what happened to me when I created content on YouTube.
I didn’t think of other possibilities except for making self improvement videos that were basic.
Why?
Because they performed the best and it’s what worked.
But it didn't work for me. Then I got bored and lost interest.
I enjoyed the speaking and scripting part, but that was it.
Then I switched to Twitter because I saw more fulfilment out of it.
If I’m still not painting the picture here, imagine IF every creator was only following the same advice.
Same bio.
Exactly, a fucking nightmare.
That is practicality’s shadow.
Strictly obeying order breeds rigidity and sameness.
That’s where you must unify practicality with creativity and become a balanced creator.
With a balance you will:
have fucking fun stand out above most think outside the box (ik it sounds cliche) create unique perspectives, ideas, or concepts take bland boring topics and make them novel And most importantly, make them applicable and useful.
That’s how you become a value creator.
You overcome the cut and dry bs of basic content while actually enjoying what you’re doing.
You couldn’t give a fuck about what other people think, care, or feel.
You write, create, play, and experiment for the sake of exploring and finding new solutions.
That is real innovation.
That is the Way of the Creative.
The Creative’s Process Now, if you want to become more creativity and forge brilliant, memorable, innovative ideas, you must have a process to fuel that.
Without one, you’ll reduce the chance of creating any new ideas that will stand out.
To explain, you are studying and researching for:
creating new concepts or ideas new products or solutions improving skills in writing newsletters graphics Or anything to create any types of content and make it seem new and applicable.
Ideally, you do this on days where you’re more chill from work (like weekends) and have time for ideating content ideas.
1- Block out 15-30m of a day:
watch vids & pods look back at your journals or life read interesting books and articles break down other people’s products look at visual inspiration (graphics or art) Anything to be inspired or need help with.
Make sure you consume things you have genuine interest in or that “turns you on.”
That’ll only make you more passionate in creating valuable content behind it.
2- Note down the most important things from what you consumed:
quotes inspiration concepts and ideas keypoints or lessons any power or visual words Don’t be the guy who eats information or inspiration like KFC.
Write it down and have it saved for later in your notes or system.
3- Use those to:
forge or merge “new” ideas or concepts come up with novel perspectives create unique products or solutions create unique visuals or branding All either for your tweets, newsletters, or your products.
For your written ideas, cater to human psychology:
write compelling, good copy ask yourself: “why” would people care about this? (pain & desire) post and see if it’s responded well by your audience or market take feedback and iterate from there Repeat.
After this, look at the feedback and see if your idea performed well.
If not, it’s likely your copy, articulation, or presentation that will take time to practice and refine.
And that’s where you iterate from there.
You're forced to have depth.
For writing new ideas, you’re forced to have depth and understanding behind what you’re writing, while writing persuasive, compelling ideas that people would care about.
And not going to lie, you’ll struggle to connect the dots and understand wtf you’re talking about.
(as I did for this newsletter).
That’s what makes what being a creative thrilling—it is a challenge that you will struggle, fail, and eventually succeed at.
And honestly, this is what makes you have fun and enjoy every second behind creating.
It's impossible to get bored.
If you forge your idea, iterate, and pull it off, you've made a piece of content that has the potential to impact many people—just ‘cos it was that good.
That’s how you establish a “different” type of authority in your space.
Become a pioneer Before I wrap up, bruhh I HAVE to end it off with this.
To illustrate this point, here’s a tweet:
Yes, yes it’s a biased opinion, sure.
But that’s where I see the potential for modern creatives and what impact they can bring to this space and to the world.
They take something old and turn it into something new.
Introducing unique, insightful, genius ideas and perspectives give room for wide-spread influence and change.
Then you become a trial blazer for others.
Now look at Dan Koe for example.
This mf had created a huge ass movement for solopreneurship.
He wasn't selling it as another means for “freedom," but for the sake of living a good life.
Doing whatever tf you want, being of value to your people, and being creatively fulfilled in the process.
Now how did he do it?
He had his own creator's philosophy and along with practical, unique ideas and solutions revolved around it—opposing most traditional business advice.
Which resonated with us.
He opened up a new door for budding entrepreneurs, creators, and self-improvers to go through.
He wasn’t necessarily a “founder,” but he sure was a trendsetter and a spearhead for us.
And he’s the reason why you’re here.
Now to direct this back to you.
I don’t care what kind of limiting shit beliefs you have.
If you’re a creator, creative, or whatever, you have the capabilities to replicate Dan Koe’s impact on everyone else.
But this isn’t Dan’s way.
It’s your way.
Now how do you do it?
I don’t know, that’s all on you to deep dive into your curiosities and find things within them to express onto the world.
And no, I don’t even fully know myself.
We need to dive into the unknown and bring upon gold from it—and then give it to the world.
And It’ll take iterations, failures, and wins along with your intuition to know what that “gold” is.
I’m writing this to leave this up in the air.
But, I know you and me are capable of this.
This is the way of the creative.
Wrapping up I apologize if there was tons of fluff in this newsletter—I had to do my best to make a good argument for what I’m talking about.
And it could be better.
But I fucking proved to myself I did it so let’s go.
I hope this deep, flavorful, ass newsletter brought you some insight and value for pursuing your journey as a creative.
And I’ll see you soon my brother.
P.S. feel free to DM for any help or feedback, I’d love to talk :)
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