Category: WorkCategory: Work

During last week’s call with the amazing Meg Lewis, I retold her story about being true to who you are, and how that brings the right people into your orbit – the people you wanna work with!

Exactly. We don’t give people enough credit. There’s so much advice out there that you need to be a certain way to be successful, to win big, to niche down… advice that goes against who we actually are, which is really complicated, interesting people.

It’s so freeing to realize that I’m constantly very complicated. My career is so strange. It doesn’t make any sense. You can’t put me in a box or even explain me to anybody else. And that goes against all the advice that everyone always gives.

But we really underestimate people’s ability to be comfortable with complexity. People are totally fine with the fact that I’m unusual, and they still somehow get it. That allows me the freedom to keep being unusual and complicated. I don’t feel like I’ve wedged myself into a category I can’t get out of.

Being loudly complicated… people get it, and I’m so amazed that they do. People understand that humans are human, and now more than ever, people really want to see real human beings. That’s how you truly innovate: being somebody and doing something different than anybody else could possibly do.

Any of us could play the game and follow the formulas for success. But we’re not going to be fulfilled. We’re going to feel terrible, because we’re still performing as this other version of ourselves.

The pressure to niche down is big – we see it everywhere, pushed especially from the social media platforms. As Jaime Derringer says, “the algorithm. The feed, the platform, the notification. These are all literally designed to sort us, to puts us into categories, so it can feeds us content that confirms and deepens those categories.”

But as Meg says, “we really underestimate people’s ability to be comfortable with complexity.” We are expansive, and deep, and there are people out there that will resonate with your depth!

If you’re done performing as the bland, algorithmic-friendly version of yourself, you belong here.

In our recent “Why Every Artist Needs a Website” group call, someone asked about including your credentials (like a Phd.) on your site.

Someone with a Phd. chimed in with a bit of caution, basically saying that if you have a professional license and malpractice insurance, talk to your agent before putting your credentials on a website that isn’t directly related to your practice.

Like, include your credentials on your psychology practice website, sure. But you’d probably want to talk to your insurer before putting it on your life coach website.

This is definitely a case of “talk to a professional” when dealing with the nuances of your particular field of work.

Well, this was a bit of sunshine in my inbox recently, from photographer Gritchelle Fallesgon:

“I recently attended a Zoom gathering where singer and artist Nikki Lerner said, “Stop hoarding your creativity.” Those words really hit home and nudged me to get this out of my drafts and into your inbox.”

I set up that Zoom gathering, with two lovely people who happened to form choirs, a wonderful display of not hoarding your creativity, for sure!

But as Gritchelle mentions, this also goes for sending out a newsletter that’s been sitting in drafts for awhile, too! People signed up for your email list, and you’ve been doing cool stuff – so don’t hoard that creativity from the people who most likely want to know about it!

Meg Lewis recently posted “The Grown-Up’s Guide to Growing Down,” a permission slip to skip acting our age:

“The way out is to tap into humanity, love, joy, curiosity, and play. Just like we were all born to do. The adults want us to think doing this is nonsensical and ‘childish’. But ‘childish’ is a term created to keep us alienated from what we were all supposed to be this whole time.”

Grown ups say we need to be on every social media platform, save 10% using the code BORING for our lame Square Space site, sand off all the corners of our personality, and definitely listen to what everyone says on YouTube.

Instead, we can just never log into LinkedIn again.
We can stop playing venues that serve alcohol.
Stop chasing book publishers or record labels.

We can make the things we want, the way we wanna make ’em.

So hey, sign up to hang out with Meg and I on Thursday’s Escape Pod Zoom call, and hear how Meg is navigating her own Candy Land world and soak up the inspiration from her and others living how they wanna live!

ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS
Thursday, May 7th at 2:00pm EST
Replay available if you sign up.
Register for the Zoom call here: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

This came up in yesterday’s Break Up 💔 With Social Media call.

“I’ve had (group) calls with one other person… “but I have all these thousands of subscribers, this should be bigger,” I’ll think… but that one conversation might be the seed of something you post two months later that turns into something else.”

If four people show up for your Live stream, or 10 people read your newsletter, be present in the moment and realize you’re still building even when it doesn’t look it. I know it’s hard because I’ve been there, but we can’t always hit home runs every time we step up to the plate.

Come to our next Let’s Break Up 💔 With Social Media call with Chuck Marshall, where he’ll be talking about Why Every Artist Needs a Website.