Defining Fun and Fake Fun

Since launching this show in September 2015, the podcasting landscape has grown and changed tremendously. What was once a niche sandbox of independent producers pursuing passion projects has blossomed into an abundant field where it seems as though every major media property, celebrity, side hustler, and business owner decided to throw their hat (mic?) into the audio arena.

Since I’m not nearly ambitious or prolific enough to share three hundred lessons learned in honor of today’s major milestone, or even thirty, I thought I’d boil it down to my top three creative lessons learned in seven years of creating content in a constantly changing space.

This crossover episode originally aired on the Pivot podcast on November 13, 2022.

Before going any further, thank you from the bottom of my heart—this show wouldn’t be nearly what it is without you here listening and sharing with friends. Thank you for listening these last seven years, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the years ahead bring us!

🌟3 Key Takeaways:

1. Challenging myself to do a daily creative bootcamp for three months has made the production (and idea generation) process easier ever since.
2. Delegating is a game-changer, such as investing in a full-service production team—even before I was 100% ready. It truly helped me shift from sporadic, overwhelmed output to energized, consistent creativity.
3. Success is anything over a small handful of listeners: staying focused on the intrinsic rewards, the “autotelic” joy of podcasting, no matter the metrics, has kept the creative fires burning brighter.
4. Bonus: Most of all, have fun! When things get too hard, pause: there’s a mantra I repeat to myself often, “Let it be easy, let it be fun.” Or as my friend Leanne asks, “How can I fall in love with this again?”

📘Books: 

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, Life After College 
• The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All by Julie Clow
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins 
• Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin

🔗Resources:

• Free Time Operations Dashboard
• Podcast Production: One Stone Creative
• Podcast Recording: Riverside.fm
• Audio and Video Editing Software: Descript
• Jim Collins: The Flywheel Concept
• Creative Coach: Jay Acunzo

🎧Related Podcast Episodes:

• 223: Stepping up Systems—How I Shifted to Daily Podcasting
• 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin
• 276: Behind the Free Time Pivot
• 100: Ten Lessons Learned in 3+ Years of Podcasting
• 291: Free Time Crossover – Protect Your Idea Factory, Build a Creative Flywheel, and Go Behind-the-Scenes of Book Publishing with Todd Henry
• 213: Flex Your Flywheel (for Solopreneurs) and 212: Virtuous Circles in Pivot Portfolio Planning
• 292: True Fun vs Fake Fun with Catherine Price
• 304: Through the Crux—Pivoting from Acting to Entrepreneurship with Ryan Devlin
• Free Time: 077: Happy Launch Day! Antonio Neves Guest Hosts (Part 1) and 079: Behind the Launch with Antonio Neves (Part 2)

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