Your video was so fun and welcoming Brian. The walking into the frame and taking your shoes off reminded me of Mr Rogers. A totally relaxing "let's chat" vibe. Your "proof of work" here is very accessible and relational. Appreciate the "just do it" reminder.
I totally agree that writing online and communicating ideas is a great to make a living. However, building credibility takes time. I always thought I can't start writing online becase I don't know what to write about, and I better pick a good niche because I'm going to be in it for long 😅
For sure takes some time to build the credibility but at first you can just talk about the lessons you're learning through real life experiences instead of trying to position yourself as a domain expert in a specific niche. I think many people hold off on communicating because they're trying to decide on a niche but the clarity comes through the doing!
Fair point, though it's not always clear which lessons are actually worth sharing. I sometimes feel like my life is not interesting enough to write about it. But perhaps it's just procrastination :)
Vincenzo, until last December, I was absolutely certain that I had nothing worthy to share, that my life wasn't interesting enough. A wise friend convinced me to just START WRITING, and it was through this process that the stories – stories of what's turned out to be a very interesting life – began to emerge.
It bears repeating: ONLY by STARTING to write did the stories enter my awareness. Now I have about 30 essays waiting to be written. My advice to you (and you know where this is headed...): dive in and start. You may be amazed how the forward motion can bring forth more and more to write. Hang in there and good luck.
Hmmm, now I'm really getting motivated. I'm going to force myself to write bullet points for 1h every day and let's see whether I find anything worthy of publishing from that
And if you need a gentle nudge in the ribs in terms of story ideas, check this out: <<< allmystories.com >>> The story "prompts" alone are worth a visit.
Brian, great essay and video clip. A few things really stood out:
• "People don’t teach b/c they’re experts. They’re perceived as experts b/c they teach.” That's simply brilliant.
• And you mentioned that we live in an "attention economy." Not sure if you have the time to read this, but I recommend "The Attention Merchants," by Tim Wu. It goes quite a bit broader and deeper (the centuries-old history of attention getting, etc.), but it may be right up your alley.
• By the way, I'm really curious about your cycling / writing retreat in Spain. I filled out the online "interest page." No guarantees, but I'm curious about it -- could be fun. Thanks.
Your video was so fun and welcoming Brian. The walking into the frame and taking your shoes off reminded me of Mr Rogers. A totally relaxing "let's chat" vibe. Your "proof of work" here is very accessible and relational. Appreciate the "just do it" reminder.
Rick thanks so much for the kind words! I'll keep the Mr. Rodgers vibe going for future videos haha
I totally agree that writing online and communicating ideas is a great to make a living. However, building credibility takes time. I always thought I can't start writing online becase I don't know what to write about, and I better pick a good niche because I'm going to be in it for long 😅
For sure takes some time to build the credibility but at first you can just talk about the lessons you're learning through real life experiences instead of trying to position yourself as a domain expert in a specific niche. I think many people hold off on communicating because they're trying to decide on a niche but the clarity comes through the doing!
Fair point, though it's not always clear which lessons are actually worth sharing. I sometimes feel like my life is not interesting enough to write about it. But perhaps it's just procrastination :)
Vincenzo, until last December, I was absolutely certain that I had nothing worthy to share, that my life wasn't interesting enough. A wise friend convinced me to just START WRITING, and it was through this process that the stories – stories of what's turned out to be a very interesting life – began to emerge.
It bears repeating: ONLY by STARTING to write did the stories enter my awareness. Now I have about 30 essays waiting to be written. My advice to you (and you know where this is headed...): dive in and start. You may be amazed how the forward motion can bring forth more and more to write. Hang in there and good luck.
Hmmm, now I'm really getting motivated. I'm going to force myself to write bullet points for 1h every day and let's see whether I find anything worthy of publishing from that
Go for it!
And if you need a gentle nudge in the ribs in terms of story ideas, check this out: <<< allmystories.com >>> The story "prompts" alone are worth a visit.
Amazing! Thanks for the nudge Larry 😀
Brian, great essay and video clip. A few things really stood out:
• "People don’t teach b/c they’re experts. They’re perceived as experts b/c they teach.” That's simply brilliant.
• And you mentioned that we live in an "attention economy." Not sure if you have the time to read this, but I recommend "The Attention Merchants," by Tim Wu. It goes quite a bit broader and deeper (the centuries-old history of attention getting, etc.), but it may be right up your alley.
• By the way, I'm really curious about your cycling / writing retreat in Spain. I filled out the online "interest page." No guarantees, but I'm curious about it -- could be fun. Thanks.