In episode 46 of the Bloggy Friends Show, I had the pleasure of chatting with Kate Volman of the amazing podcast Create for No Reason. In this post, you’ll find the show notes, transcript, and links to watch or listen to the episode.
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E46 – Blogging for No Reason With Kate Volman
Kate is a dream manager and helps organizations build dynamic cultures. She also hosts a podcast called Create for No Reason, wrote a book of journal prompts with the same title, and has an upcoming book releasing in June 2023 called Do What You Love: A Guide to Living Your Creative Life Without Leaving Your Job. Our conversation revolved around the importance of creating for oneself and not just for others, the value of blogging for personal growth and community building, and the importance of executing ideas.
Kate discussed the concept of creating for no reason and how it applies to the world of blogging. She emphasized the importance of putting one’s ideas out into the world, even if nobody reads them, as it allows one to understand more about oneself and what they find interesting. Later in the conversation, Kate talked about her coaching company, Floyd Coaching, and her creative pursuits, including her Create for no Reason podcast and her upcoming book.
Throughout the episode Kate and I encouraged creating for no reason and emphasized the joy and importance of sharing one’s ideas with the world through blogging. We highlighted the personal nature of writing and how it can lead to a better understanding of oneself. Because here’s the thing – blogging can be used in different ways, from personal journaling to intentional community building around specific topics or interests.
Blogging is an accessible and fun way to create and share content, whether it’s personal or focused on a specific topic. Anyone can start for free, and platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be used to share content without a website. Writing regularly can help crystallize our ideas and thoughts, and blogging can serve as a digital time capsule or journal.
Our conversation also emphasized the importance of starting where you are and using what you have, rather than waiting for perfection or permission. We encourage you to pursue creativity and passions for fun and fulfillment, rather than just for the purpose of starting a business. We also discussed how sharing personal experiences and vulnerabilities through blogging and other forms of content creation can foster connections with others.
Truth bomb time – there are easier ways to make money than content creation, but those who are successful as content creators work hard and are intentional about their process. What is important is honing one’s craft and building your writing muscle over time. There is a difference between doing something for fun and doing something for business, but it is possible for anyone’s passion to turn into a business.
Work on your creativity and create something every day. In this episode we also shared our personal experiences with writing and creating, including the therapeutic benefits of writing and the potential for future use of creative work. We mentioned the idea of practicing and building the creativity muscle through daily activities, such as writing a poem or exploring personal interests as well.
Overall, the conversation was a great reminder to pursue creativity and passions without the pressure of perfectionism or external validation. It highlighted the importance of sharing your creations with the world and connecting with others through vulnerability and personal experiences. It also emphasized the need to take action on ideas and explore different creative pursuits to unlock new possibilities.
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Full Episode Transcript*
[TRANSCRIPT]
[0:00:02] Welcome to the Bloggy Friends show. What’s up, my bloggy Friends famous Ashley Grant here, and I just want to welcome you to the Bloggy Friends show. We’re so excited to have you join us on this journey of sharing our knowledge and experiences with you. Whether you’re a blogger, a content creator, or just someone who’s interested in learning more about the digital world, we’ve got something for you. So grab your notebook and a pen to take some notes or just sit back and take in all the amazing information and ideas we’re about to share with you.
[0:00:46] Let’s get into it. I guess we’ll just jump and so, Kate, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you here. Thanks, Ashley. I’m excited to be here. Well, tell my blogging friends what it is that you do. So I run a coaching company called Floyd Coaching. So my team and I, we work with organizations to help them build dynamic cultures so people love coming to work. And we also certify dream managers. So we certify life coaches that go into organizations and really help their people rediscover their dreams and then hold them accountable to actually achieve those dreams. So we help people dream again.
[0:01:24] So it’s a beautiful thing. That is what I get to do for a living. And then, as you know, I also do lots of creative things. I have a podcast called a Create for no reason. Started another one for the company called Lead With Culture. I am a new author, so I have my first book that is coming out, and I’m a creative like many of your listeners. Okay, so you said Create for no reason. Let’s talk all about that. What does it mean to you to create for no reason?
[0:01:53] So Create for no Reason, I love this name for two reasons because I like the double meaning of it. It’s create for no reason just for the joy of it, right? Like, just write, sing, dance, blog, whatever you want to do just for the fun of it. But there really is a reason. The reason is because of that joy. So when we can take a little of the pressure off ourselves and just allow us to create what we feel we’re called to create, it just makes it more fun when we just do things for the fun of it, and then you just don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side. So create for no reason. Just have fun with it.
[0:02:34] If it brings you joy, it’s worth it. So how would you apply Creating for no Reason to the world of blogging? So the world of blogging is so exciting because well, first of all, it’s so fun to me that we’re still talking about blogging, right? Because when did the first blog even come out? In 2004, I think that’s what it was officially called, a blog. But people were like, web logging, like, in the 90s, yes, that’s true.
[0:03:02] Right. And then we finally create it. Came up with the name of it. So it’s writing, it’s sharing your ideas, it’s getting those things out into the world that you feel called to do. And so blogging for no reason is amazing because you’re just putting your ideas out in the world. It doesn’t even matter if nobody reads it or sees it, just the fact that if you think that these ideas are meant to be shared, are meant to be out there, do it.
[0:03:28] And again, it doesn’t even matter if nobody sees it. But the beauty of it is that you want to put it out there. It’s important to you, and someday someone might find it. Or even that we talk about the 1000 True fans that Kevin Kelly talks about. It’s like, if your people find it and resonate with it, then that’s kind of like a cool little journey. But just this idea that writing is such an interesting writing is so interesting because it’s so personal.
[0:03:58] And the more that we write, the more that we really understand about ourselves, about what we want, about what we love, about what we find interesting, and when we can just share that and put it out. And the more that we do it, the better we get. And when it comes to communication and our ideas and building community and really kind of discovering new people, the more that we write, the better we get, the better we’re able to kind of crystallize our ideas on our thoughts. And so blocking is a beautiful way to do that. And so especially for those that have been doing it for years and years, and those that do it daily or weekly, monthly, whatever it is, it’s fun to see the transition.
[0:04:39] When you go back to the blog that you started with however many years ago or weeks ago or months ago, it’s cool to see, oh, my gosh, my perspective has changed a little bit in this regard. Or maybe I still have those same passions and drive to create and write about these kinds of topics. And so it’s kind of a fun way to just keep track of our minds, our thoughts, our creative process, and share it with the world.
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[0:05:05] I love that. The way that you were describing it, it’s almost like a digital time capsule or a scrapbook. Yeah, it’s like a journal. It’s almost like a journal. And with blogging, what’s fun is people use it very differently. Right? For some people, it really is a journal. They just want to share their thoughts and ideas. And then for others, they’re a lot more intentional because they have a very clear idea of, I want to start a blog, a cooking blog, and just talk about all of the recipes that I want to share. Or I really have a love of comic books, and everything I write about is that. And they really do want to create community. So I think blogging is so interesting because you can go at it from a lot of different perspectives and how you want to do it. Is it a personal thing that people can resonate, or are you going to choose one specific topic and really go all in on it? And you want to kind of potentially build a business from it. So it’s fun. There’s so many different ways to approach it. But the one thing that we can all do is start creating. Like you could literally write a blog right now, right after you’re done listening to this, and that’s really exciting. It’s accessible to everyone.
[0:06:11] Yeah. And the fact that you can actually get started for free is kind of exciting because yes, I know that so many people, if you’re trying to do it for a business, they say you got to have a domain name and you got to have all these things. But whenever you just go with it with no pressure and you just think, okay, well, there’s all these platforms I can start on. You could even start it on Facebook or Instagram. You don’t even have to have a website at all.
[0:06:34] Yeah, I have a friend of mine, she was telling me about one of her girlfriends who unfortunately went through a very challenging time. Her husband passed away very unexpectedly, and she was dealing with the grieving process, which is obviously everyone kind of deals with it very differently, but she was sharing all this stuff on Facebook and oh my gosh, Ashley, she was just pouring her heart and soul into it. Why? Because it was just Facebook.
[0:07:01] It was just her place to share what was going on in her life to her friends. And so many people started sharing it and talking about it and saying, thank you so much. I feel like you see me. This is what I was dealing with. When maybe they had a child that passed away or their spouse or someone significant in their life. And we see this all the time, right? Like, when people are blogging about their experiences, we are all so much more similar than we are not.
[0:07:28] And so when we share those experiences and those vulnerabilities, that’s when we connect with people. And so when people start sharing this work, no matter how they do it, like you said, you could do it on Facebook or however, we start to gain some traction and we start to get excited that, oh my gosh, I thought I was alone in this thinking. I thought maybe that no one else felt this way. But we know really that that is not true, that there is somebody in the universe that has gone through or is going through exactly what you’re feeling and going through right now. And so when we connect people in that way, I mean, blogging is such a great way to do that.
[0:08:03] And for a lot of people who think about, I want to build this huge community or I want to start this business, then we automatically get scared and think, we have to be perfect, and we have to have this great platform, and we have to buy all these things, and we have to become a great writer. All of it. So we’ve kind of taken ourselves out of the game before we’ve even started, when you can literally just start writing right now, wherever you are.
[0:08:30] It’s that beautiful quote, I think, Arthur Ash, that said, start where you are, use what you can do. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. And that’s exactly what we can do, is, like, wherever you are right now, you don’t have to go buy equipment or do or buy the perfect computer or system or software or editing things. Literally, you can just start writing. Yes. Oh, God, I love that so much. And it’s interesting because I had you on the RSS.com podcast, podcasting 101 with RSS.com, and we were talking about podcasting for no reason. And I have to tell you, since that episode, you actually inspired me to just do some more stuff just for fun.
[0:09:10] And it kind of took some pressure off. And I created a bunch of social media accounts for my dogs. It’s called Pampered palm cheese. It’s so cheesy. That’s so cheesy because they’re two Pomeranian Chihuahuas, so they’re palm cheese. And just having a creative outlet that doesn’t have any pressure on it, that’s just fun. I’m enjoying creating again. So I just wanted to tell you that that you inspired me to just start playing again.
[0:09:35] And I know you have an awesome book that is officially coming out. I’m so excited for it. Tell me all about it. Yes. Well, first of all, thank you so much for sharing that. I’m so happy that you started doing that because that was really the vision behind this book that I wrote. So I’ll share. For those that are watching this book, I am in love with the COVID It is gorgeous. It’s called Do What you Love. And the subtitle is a guide to living your creative life without leaving your job. And the whole idea is exactly what Ashley was just talking about, which is do things just for the fun of it. We talk ourselves out of doing the things that we’re really passionate about, that we feel really called to do.
[0:10:13] And so I wrote this book. I share the seven myths stopping us from exploring our passions and our creativity and how to really overcome those myths. And it’s things that you have probably dealt with in the past, which is we deal with perfectionism. We deal with permission. A lot of us are waiting for permission to do something. We’re waiting for somebody to say, hey, you’re good enough. You should start a podcast, or you should go do this thing.
[0:10:38] No, we have to give ourselves permission. And so the book really talks about those ideas. And the whole goal of the book is really exactly what happened to you after our conversation, which is to inspire people to get back into their creativity and to allow themselves to explore their passions and explore their creative pursuits just for the joy of it, just to have fun. And when we do that, we will see how much it does for our business, for our relationships, for our life in general. Because when we’re exploring our creativity, all of that inspiration and all that passion just oozes into other areas of our lives and we become more fulfilled.
[0:11:19] That is a definite fact. Because, I mean, I personally, my full time job is I blog for other people. That’s what I do, basically. That’s my bread and butter. And I have these fantasies about starting all these blogs that are for me, for my own personal business that I can put my name on because I do a lot of ghostwriting. And so it gets me excited and fired up to think about it from a non pressure perspective and just have fun with it again. So I think it’s brilliant. I really do. And I hope that everybody will like everybody who’s listening to this.
[0:11:50] I know that whenever we think of blogging, we think, oh, I want to get out of my nine to five, or I want to make so much money, but you got to start with what you’re actually enjoying or you’re never going to actually go through with it. You’re not going to do anything about it. Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting. And we talked about this on the other episode, I think, which is there’s a difference between going after doing something for a business and doing something just for fun. There is. There just is right now. Can your passion turn into your business? Absolutely.
[0:12:20] We see it every day, especially today with all of these incredible creators. In fact, I had one of my favorite comedians I had on my podcast two times. The first time I talked to him in 2020 when the pandemic was just going on, it was in December. And so we were all just still kind of stuck in our houses and figuring out what the heck is going on in life. And he started creating on TikTok just for the fun of it. Now I just spoke with him again, so that was in 2020. It’s 2023. I just spoke to him last a couple of months ago, and he’s a full time content creator. Like, he has figured out a way to become full time and he loves it. It’s so much fun. He has brings him so much joy. And so we see that every day, right?
[0:13:00] Because of platforms like TikTok and blogging and podcasting and all. I mean, I have a girlfriend that her whole business is around her podcast. So those things are possible but it’s the starting. Like, it’s the actual starting that kind of gets us into that state of creation. And from there, we can kind of figure some things out. So while I do think that if you want to do something on a full time basis, yeah, you can definitely have that goal. But the first way to do it is to start.
[0:13:30] We have to start creating if you want to be a full time content creator. And then, of course, there’s tons of other businesses where you can I think a lot of people have to get their priorities straight. Like, do you want to be a content creator and create content and earn a living that way, or are you just looking to make a lot of money? Like, if you’re just looking to make a lot of money, then maybe content creation is not exactly where you want to go. Right? There are easier ways to make a lot of money, and there’s, like, affiliate marketing and selling other people’s products. There’s all these other online businesses that you could potentially do that would take you away from content creation on kind of you personally, and you could earn an income that way. You could sell on Amazon. There’s, like, gazillions of things you could do, but we have to choose what those things are that we actually want to do.
[0:14:18] And so when you look at some of the big creators that are earning a living, they are fierce about their creative process. Like, they care deeply about their work and what they’re putting out. And you look at the podcasters, like, what’s the number two podcast call her daddy. That girl is fanatical. When you hear her talk about her creative process and her process of putting out work and building community and being there and the amount of thought and energy and effort that she puts into creating, I mean, it’s very intentional.
[0:14:56] And so that inspires me when I hear people that are full time content creators, but you see the energy effort that they put into the work that they do. So I think we have to get really clear on what it is that we want to do. And on the creator side, those people, they work really hard. They love it. They love it. Yes. But they work really hard at it, which is why they build really great communities. They’re very intentional about their process.
[0:15:23] Yeah. And what’s interesting to me is nowhere in there did you say you can’t make money from whatever it is you start, but it’s just about kind of cleaning up the cobwebs and not looking at it from a profit first perspective. Instead, it’s at least get in there. That’s another thing. I had a friend of mine, I spoke to a friend of mine, and he wanted so bad to be a content creator and to earn a living doing it, but he had never done any of it. Like, he didn’t have a podcast.
[0:15:50] And then he started getting into the work. He started doing podcasting, and he was like, wow, this is a lot of work. I actually don’t even know if I want to do this. And he totally changed the direction of what he wanted to do. But in his mind, he was only seeing what was happening in the world, right? He was like, oh, all these people that are doing all these podcasts are making all this money thinking that he’s going to start a podcast and like, three weeks in, he’s going to get some huge spotify deal, right?
[0:16:15] Those are all beautiful things. And I’m not saying it can’t happen. I mean, especially with TikTok and all these crazy platforms. Like, people get picked up and they’d get discovered and their lives are changed kind of overnight. But they started. They did it. And I love this idea of the ten year overnight success, right? Because some people think, oh, it happened overnight. But no, they were honing in on their craft. Like Amy Schumer talks about it. Like, when Amy Schumer was like, she went from kind of not very well known to that one year where she was like in five movies and doing the Netflix specials and all the things well, you hear her talk about. She was going out on tour, traveling in affordable hotels all alone, getting up and doing stand up at places where they maybe had 20 people in the audience, maybe even less. Some people loved her. Some people hated her. Years and years and years of that. And then all of a sudden, people are like, oh, she just blew up out of nowhere. It was not out of nowhere.
[0:17:13] And so it’s the same thing with a lot of creators. Like, you don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and people that are honing in on their storytelling, their craft, their writing. Which goes back to your first question about why do you blog? I mean, think about if you started a blog today and you were going to blog every day. After a year, you have 365 days of muscle building. Like, you’re building your muscle of writing, and you’re continuing to do it. And you’re going to get better if you continue to write. You read great work, you look at other people’s content, and you start kind of discovering, what is it about their content that I really like? Why do people like it? What is it about them, their work, that I can kind of look at and learn from and grow from, and then you’d use that in your own practice. I mean, you’re building the skill. You’re building that creativity muscle every single day.
[0:18:01] You were just reminding me of something I haven’t thought about in years. I can’t remember what was called Project 365 or 365 Days of Creativity or whatever it was. It was some book, and it was basically a journal that was inspiring you to do something active towards one theme every single day. And I think the author was doing it with skulls, like some kind of art related to skulls. And so at the end of 365 days, he had just a catalog of art all in this one theme. And so that’s kind of what it’s reminding me of, is how, like, yeah, you’re just practicing, and if you look at this practice and playing instead of, oh, my God, there’s so much writing on this. If I fail at this, I got to stick with my job.
[0:18:41] If you look at it from more of a creative and fun perspective, you can finally play again, and that just sounds so much more refreshing. Yeah. Like, explore what interests you. I always share this story about Kurt Vonnegut and Kurt Vonnegut. It’s of this beautiful story about how there was a school that reached out to a bunch of different authors, and they wrote letters, and they wanted them to come visit.
[0:19:08] Now, Kurt Vonnegut was apparently, like, the only person that wrote back. He didn’t come visit. He was, like, in his eighty s at the time. He didn’t come back. He didn’t go visit the school, but he did write them a letter. And basically the letter was basically and you can look for it on the Internet if you want to find it, but basically, the letter was like, thank you so much for inviting me. He was so prison that they thought of him, but the idea was, this is what your homework should be. Your homework should be to go write a poem.
[0:19:36] Go write a poem. Don’t show anybody. After you write it, tear it all up and then go place it in different garbage cans throughout your area and throw it away. And he basically was talking about how that alone is create. Like, you’ve created something, you put it out into the world, and even though nobody saw it, and even though now it’s torn up into all these little pieces, you have created a piece of art that is now in the world.
[0:20:02] And I love this so much because talk about create for no reason. I mean, you wrote this poem, and now you’ve ripped it up, and it’s all over the place. But there’s something so beautiful about that. And his whole idea was to share with them. Skip to school, dance, sing, allow yourself to have fun, and create every single day. Because we are human, and we are meant to be creative. We are meant to create. And so we need to lean into our creativity. And so often, especially as we get older, and especially as we have more responsibilities and families and kids and jobs and all the things, we just let that piece of us die, when really we need that more than ever in order for us to really be fulfilled in all areas of our lives.
[0:20:47] That is so completely true. And sometimes it’s also just that we got to get it out of our minds. We got to get it out of our minds and either onto paper or into something. I do this thing I’m working on an article on it right now. I do this thing called Word Vomit Sessions where I yeah, I will literally open up a Google Doc or a Word doc, and I just type every single thing in my brain until there’s nothing else left.
[0:21:10] And just getting it out just makes me feel so much better. There’s no pressure. It’s never been seen by anybody, and it never will. Just the fact that I get all of it out of my brain is so therapeutic. And what you’re describing of the throwing it away and putting it in different garbage cans, I kind of like that idea. Like, I almost want to just delete all the pages I created. Oh, my gosh. Well, when people say that, it freaks me out because I’m like, no, my friend Tommy, he talks about that. He’s like, oh, my gosh, no.
[0:21:43] He says, there are so many journals that I’ve had, and I love seeing my old journals. And he has all these journals, and he’s like and I just threw them away. And I’m like, what? No, you have to want to look back at those. That is who you were back then. So when people say that they’re going to delete stuff, I’m like, no, don’t do it. But hey, everyone’s got their own creative process. But I think it’s so fun to create and then just have it. And even when you go back and you think, what was I thinking? Or I can’t believe I wrote that. But there’s also the potential of what was I thinking?
[0:22:18] I can’t believe I wrote that. That is brilliant. I love it, and I can do something with this. And that’s what I love so much. Even in my writing process, there was a lot of pieces that didn’t make the book because it just wasn’t the right fit. But I have a whole document of I love this, I don’t want to get rid of it, but it doesn’t make sense here. And so now I have that, and it could be maybe it is a blog post or maybe it is an article or something else that I want to write in the future. And so I just love the idea of keeping all of the work that we do because you just don’t know what you might be able to do with it in the future.
[0:22:54] Yeah, I mean, the heck, some of those excerpts could be your next book. Hey, it totally could be. After you write one book, it’s almost like I started writing the second one, and there are definitely pieces in there that I’ll be able to use. So, yeah, you get to kind of collect all of your creations that potentially use them. And some things to your point are meant for you. Like, I do believe not all of our work is meant to be shared.
[0:23:22] So much of your work could truly just be for you. I have poems written in my computer that I never plan on sharing with anyone. But actually, I never thought I would share my poetry. If you would have told me five years ago that I’m going to, A, be writing poetry and B, be sharing poetry, I would have laughed. And meanwhile, I have three poems in my book just because I thought it was fun to include them and hopefully help people, inspire other people to be like, hey, I’m not the best poet, but here’s my poem.
[0:23:52] I love that so much. And plus, if you think about it, there’s a lot of authors that I would love to see an anthology of just their unpublished thoughts, just something like that. There are so many authors coming to mind right now where I’m just like, I would love to see their rejected manuscripts, or we didn’t like it, so we didn’t include it kind of thing. I think that that would be just so fun. It needs to go somewhere.
[0:24:16] Oh, my God. I agree. I sometimes wonder about how much creativity or how many things were created that we will never see that is just novels or novellas or music or art or pieces of poetry or things that just people were not brave enough to share. But they are beautiful. And again, not everything is meant to be shared, but I find that there are so many people that create beautiful pieces of work and they just don’t share it because they are so self critical.
[0:24:55] They are dealing with perfectionism. They don’t feel like they’re enough. And those are all the things that I talk about in the book, because I even share a story. One of my friends who is an incredible poet, and he would share his poetry with me, and he’s a very unique poet. He’s a very unique writer. And I would always just I’d say, Send me a poem, and he’d send me these poems, and I would encourage him to share them because I’m like, These are so good.
[0:25:23] I don’t understand why you don’t think they’re good. And I wasn’t just saying that to him because he was my friend. I really, truly was like, what is your mind? How do you even come up with these ideas? And I asked him, I said, Can I share some of these with some of my friends? And he did. And then I told him I go, oh, my gosh. This was the feedback from my friends. Like, they love it. This is what they said. And he was a little bit more encouraged. And a couple of years later, he published his first book of poetry.
[0:25:53] And it’s an incredible book of poetry. I mean, it’s just amazing. And I’m so proud of him for putting. It out there because anybody that creates work and your listeners are bloggers. So, you know, you put out a blog, and sometimes it’s that one blog that you wrote that you’re thinking, I can’t press publish. It’s too real, it’s too raw, it’s too truthful. I mean, you just don’t know how people are going to respond. And when you put it out there in the world, you just never know what someone’s going to say about it. And I feel like it’s those articles, it’s those blogs, it’s those ideas that we put out that we get the biggest response because we are being vulnerable and we are putting ourselves out there in the world in a way that other people really see themselves.
[0:26:40] Oh, God, that sounds so awesome. Like, everything you’re saying is just making me want to play more good. And some of what you were saying kind of reminded me of I was reading I think it was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and she was talking about how she had this brilliant idea for a book, and then it was just not the right time, so she didn’t move forward with it. And then she met someone who was literally writing that book, and they had never spoken before. They’d never met. She’d never talked to them about it, but she said it’s like she put this idea out into the universe, and then because she didn’t come up with the rest of it, it moved on to the next person.
[0:27:18] And I think that’s kind of interesting. That’s right. Well, what’s cool about that is she talks about how it’s an idea and ideas are going to get made somehow, and so it’s for you, but if you don’t do anything with it, it’s going to find someone else who will do something with it. And so that’s what I love. When she shared that story, it was so interesting. I was like, did that really happen? But you know what?
[0:27:42] Rick Rubin talks about it too. Rick Rubin, and he has a new book out called The Creative Act, which is incredible. It’s such a great book, but talks similarly about the same thing, about how someone else is going to take that idea like it’s meant. That’s why when we see other people and we have an idea, how many all right, for all of you that are listening, you had this brilliant idea, right? You’re like, I have this brilliant idea and you don’t do anything with it. And then all of a sudden, like, two weeks later or two months later, you see someone else doing exactly what you said, and you’re like, hey, that was my idea, right?
[0:28:19] It’s like on Shark Tank, we’re like, I had that idea five years ago. Well, guess what? You didn’t do anything. And that is the entrepreneur that did something with it. So it’s so funny how people are always saying how, oh, I had that idea. I already thought about that? Well, it’s the person that executes. It actually happened to a friend of mine. She had this great idea for a car seat. It was for kids. It was a car seat. And basically, if you turned off your car but did not remove your kid from the car, it would sound an alarm so that you wouldn’t accidentally leave your baby in the car.
[0:28:52] And so she was talking about this. She kept telling all of us, like, oh, I need to create a prototype, blah, blah, blah. Two years later, it was a thing. It was an actual thing. It was this alarm that was synced up to your keys so that if you got so far away, it would go off. And she’s like, I should have done it. So basically what it sounds like is we should do the ideas that are in our brain. Yeah, they are meant for you.
[0:29:15] So I have this image in the book. It’s called the Passion loop. And basically what the Passion Loop is, is we have an idea, and we immediately think, I want to do that. I want to try it. And then almost as immediately, we make excuses. It’s not the right time. I’m not good enough. I don’t have the money. All of the things that we tell ourselves, and then we don’t do anything about it, right? Like, who am I to do this?
[0:29:42] And then so we forget about it. But then a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a year, whatever, however amount of time goes by, and you think about that idea again, and then you think, I want to do that. So you’re stuck in this loop of idea, I want to try it excuses. Idea, I want to try it excuses. Well, to break out of the Passion Loop, as you can imagine, what do we need to do? You need to just take action.
[0:30:08] You need to do it anyway. Like, you make the excuses, but you do it anyway. And when you do it, the cool part about getting out of the Passion Loop is it now invites you to new opportunities, new passions, meeting new people, building relationships. This is why so many times an idea that we have, it could be completely unrecognizable in the future, right? Like, you might have an idea of a podcast, but then the podcast turns into you meeting someone really cool, and you started a business together, and now you have a business, and you’re on Shark Tank. Whoa. But that never would have happened had you not had this idea of starting this podcast. And so that’s what I love about it, is that sometimes one idea is only meant to bring you to the next idea, but you can’t know that until you get started.
[0:30:53] And so every time that we have an idea that we want to put out into the world or to create, we can just play around with it and that’s what’s so great too, is when we allow ourselves to just play with it and we don’t make it. This all consuming, this is my life now. It’s more just like, hey, I just want to like, this is what I find interesting at the time. I’m just going to spend a little bit of time on it. We give ourselves a lot more grace in allowing ourselves to do that. Instead of, oh my gosh, I want to start a podcast, which means that I need to quit my job and get sponsors and have millions of listeners and all the things.
[0:31:31] And again, I’m not saying that that’s not possible. That’s 100% possible for anybody that wants to put in the work. But you got to get started, so make it easy for you to get started. Well, not only that, it’s kind of like what you said with your friend who started the podcast and then realized it was more work than they wanted. At least now he knows he got the idea. He got the idea, he tried it, realized he didn’t want to do it, and now he has the permission almost to move on to the next thing.
[0:32:00] That’s right. I mean, we don’t know what it’s easy for us to idealize what it is like in living in someone else’s situation and what they’re going through, but we just have no idea the amount of work, energy and effort. In fact, I tell my team all the time. I’m always like whenever they have an idea, I always laugh because I’m like, everything is an iceberg, right? Like, oh, we just want to do this really quick, webinar. I just want to do this really this event great.
[0:32:27] Let’s talk about it. Because everything is an iceberg. Everything is a lot more work than we think it’s going to be. It’s going to take more resources, more time, more energy, more effort, and it’s a beautiful thing. It could be a really great idea. Every idea alone in a silo is kind of a good idea, right? We can make any idea a good idea, but when it comes to the bigger picture of our strategy and our lives and what we’re doing in our business and our life and what we want to spend time on, it might not make sense at that time.
[0:32:57] And so the more that we explore and the more that you give yourself permission to explore what you’re really interested in, you’re going to really hone in on, oh, wow, I really do enjoy this, or appreciate that. Writing a book is such a big task. I thought I knew what the process was going to feel like. No, it was so different than I thought it was going to be to write this thing and to get it out into the world.
[0:33:22] And now I know. Now I have that experience and so the next time I do it, I will approach it a lot differently than I did in the beginning, for sure, but I had to go through that experience. And Amy Poehler talks about it. She shares everyone that writes a book. They’re like, it was so therapeutic and so amazing and wonderful. I loved it. She hated it. She’s like, I will never write a book again. And I love that she said that because for some and then you look at, like, Mindy Kaling. Mindy Kaling writes books, like, every other day. I feel like she has so many books out in the world and so very different perspectives.
[0:33:58] Mindy obviously really enjoys it. Amy’s like, no, I’m good. Read this one, and I’m not doing another one. And so not every creative pursuit is meant for you. That is why we get to explore all those different pieces of our creativity and what we find interesting. And it’s singing, dancing, pottery, photography, gardening. It’s all of these different things that we get to explore. Yes. And as we explore them, we get to unlock new possibilities. So when we create for no reason, when we blog for no reason, we’re unlocking the creative possibilities that are before us.
[0:34:31] Yeah. And blogging is so special, I feel, because look who’s one of the most prolific bloggers is. Seth Godin. Right. I mean, that man writes a blog every single day, and he will encourage people to write every single day. I mean, he believes that everyone has something to say every single day. And when you come from it from that perspective, which is, I have to share something every day, you are tasked with looking for interesting things to share and to say.
[0:35:03] And whether it’s through experiences that you have with people at your local coffee shop or people that you meet while walking or taking a walk down the street or whatever it is, or you read great books and you find different pieces of information that you can spark a conversation with. I mean, that’s what’s so fun about it, is that ideas are endless, and these different creative pursuits that we could potentially dig into can be found everywhere once we start exploring.
[0:35:33] Rob Walker has a beautiful book called The Art of Noticing, and it’s all about noticing your world and kind of looking. We’re so caught up in our own little world so often that we forget that there’s so much beauty in the relationships that we have and the people that we’re maybe seeing every single day, but we’re not even having conversations with. I see it on my walks in the morning. There are people that I will literally pass by every single day, and they will not look up.
[0:36:02] They will not look up. They put their head down, and they are just like, don’t talk to me. Okay, that’s fine. I am the kind of person that if you’re walking past me, good morning. How are you? And then I get into a conversation, like, there’s this cute couple that I see all the time. And I stopped them, and I was like, hey. I’m like, how long have you been married? So I had this whole conversation about how long they’ve been married, when they met. All I mean, they’ve been married for, like, 55 years.
[0:36:28] Amazing, because we can learn from people, from other people and those stories. And so for me, it’s like, I’m always looking at what am I not noticing in the world that could potentially make a really fun memory moment. Or I look at creating in the sense of you’re creating memories every single day. You’re creating these little tiny moments every day. And when you can make someone’s day by making them smile or asking them about their day, or we certify dream managers, so I always encourage people, ask people about your dream, about their dreams.
[0:37:03] What are your dreams? If you are standing in the grocery store purchasing your groceries and you ask the person behind you, hey, share with me what are you most excited about in your life right now? Or what’s one of your dreams? They might look at you like you’re crazy, because that does happen sometimes when I do that, but oftentimes they’re like, where did that come from? No one’s asked me that, ever.
[0:37:25] And you have this beautiful moment with that person, and we get to create those things in life, too. And that is part of creating for no reason. There’s no reason for me to have a conversation with somebody that’s standing in line with me other than the fact that you’re creating something between the two of you, and it’s just beautiful experience and could turn into something even more. Yeah. And every single time you miss those opportunities, you’re missing opportunities.
[0:37:49] That’s right. You just don’t know. You don’t know if you speak to the person in line behind you that they have maybe if you’re single, that you might talk to that person and they have somebody that would be in or that you could potentially meet and be in a relationship with and like, oh, my gosh, how did all that happen? Those are the stories that are so incredible when we hear right? Like, I met this random person, and then I somehow got and then I discovered this other person, and then it led me to this job opportunity, and then it led me to this whole like, your whole life can change simply by reaching out to different people and having different conversations and noticing the things around you.
[0:38:29] It’s beautiful. Yeah. Dr. Rick Wilbur. He taught intro to mass communications at USF. He changed my life. He’s why I became a journalist instead of a teacher, as I had intended. And one of the things he said on one of our first classes is he looked around the room and he goes, so some of you are going to end up being best friends. Some of you are going to end up being the worst enemies, and some of you are going to get married. And it was just like, we all looked at and we’re like, but it’s a good point. Like, you never know what reaching out or creating will create that’s right? Oh, my gosh, so did anybody get married?
[0:39:08] I did end up finding my husband at that school, but it wasn’t from that class. But it’s wild because you never know who you’re going to meet or run into or never know. Yeah, it’s like, you and I, we met at a blogging conference, and we stayed in touch, and now we’re creating this podcast episode together. I know. And I was waiting. That was like, what, like 20 years ago? I don’t even know. I think it was in 2006, maybe 2007.
[0:39:38] But it’s been a hot minute. Yeah, it was a really long time. I was like, Ashley, what the heck? She’s, like, reaching out to? I was like, this is so cool. But that’s the cool thing, too, is what I find so awesome. And going back to blogging, what’s so cool is someone could be reading your blog post and resonating so much with you, and you could totally change their life and never know it and never, ever know it. And that is one of the coolest things. And then maybe one day they’ll tell you. Maybe you’ll never know, but somebody’s going to reach out to you at some point, be like, I found your blog three years ago, and I love it.
[0:40:18] That is the thing any creator we love that, right? If you create anything and put it out into the world, when someone says, you were speaking directly to me or, oh, my gosh, this really resonated with me, thank you so much for writing this or saying this or sharing this. And that’s what’s so beautiful, is that you’re really impacting other people more than you know when you’re sharing your ideas and putting them out into the world. And not only are you helping with that in that regard, but you’re helping them to potentially share their own work because they’re saying, well, if this person can do it, why can’t I do it? If this person is being vulnerable, why can’t I do it? And you’re kind of pushing them to do those same things because we all can get in the state of being nervous to share something, but when we do, we oftentimes see a lot of really great benefit from it, even if we don’t get feedback.
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[0:41:11] Just this idea that it could potentially be helping someone somewhere who might have stumbled upon it is a really cool idea. Absolutely. And that’s actually why I reached out to you, because I was following your newsletter for a while, and I was just like, all right, I got to have her on the podcast. That made me so excited and happy because I send out that newsletter every week, and sometimes I get people that respond back and say something, and sometimes they don’t. But I was just at an event last weekend and there was this woman and she said, I look forward to your Sunday emails. And I’m like you do?
[0:41:49] Oh my God. And it’s so awesome because I’m thinking, I had not even known she was on I didn’t know she was even reading them. And so I’m like, oh. And so you think about it, all of those people that are reading your work that they just don’t say anything. Your listeners, we’re all creators, so we know the impact it has. So I always tell people if I read their work, I’m like, you’re amazing. I love this article. I love this episode. I want to do that for them because I know that I appreciate that. But for most people, they don’t realize I don’t think that they realize if you’re not a creator yourself, you don’t really realize the importance and the impact that it has on the person that’s creating the work.
[0:42:30] When you share what you really enjoyed about it, why it made an impact in your life. And so I think that’s something for anyone to just encourage people to let people know if their work inspires you or impacts you in some way. Because even like, the big time creators, it’s fun. It’s a fun, feel good thing when someone says, wow, I really appreciated this about your work. Yeah, because when we’re in the thick of it, we forget that people are actually listening or watching.
[0:42:59] Totally. So if people want to get more of what you’re sharing, where can we find you online? So you can go to KateVolman.com. That is kind of the quickest way to get to everything. And that newsletter that we talked about, you can sign up over there. You can also go to Massive Optimism.com for that newsletter. And of course, I would love for people to support the book. Do what you love. It is officially out on June 1. It’s in presale right now on Amazon. So if you go to Amazon and you just type in Kate Bowman and you can buy the book and I hope that you love it.
[0:43:34] I think it’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait to read it. I’ve already got it, bookmarked and all the things, and I hope that everyone does check it out. And if nothing else, at least sign up for Kate’s newsletter because everything that she shares, if you’re a creative or if you’re even considering creating, you need to learn all about how to create for no reason. So Kate, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate your time.
[0:43:54] Thanks, Ashley. Always a pleasure. And thank you for doing all the work that you’re doing and helping creators to do podcasting and blogging and sharing their ideas in the world. All my blogger friends, I hope you enjoyed all the insights our guests had to share with you to get the show notes for this and all episodes, go over to Famousashleygrant.com podcast. And until next time, may your page please be high and your bounce rate below.
*This transcript was automatically generated by Deciphr. Please ignore any typos, grammatical errors, or any other issues. I run this blog and podcast and alone, and don’t always have time to hand check the transcripts. Thank you in advance for you understanding.
